A song in the storm (Lucy)

[Evony Vasiliev]

Cold winds lashed against the windows like invisible talons, rattling the glass as if it were nothing. The winters night brought brisk winds and even brisker rain, drowning Hammel in a blanket of stinging wetness only a stormy dusk could conjure. The distant Crack! of thunder broke through the heavens like a roaring beast, occasionally lighting the rumbling grey clouds with the flashing tendrils of lightning. It was terrifying and beautiful, the very face of Zeus if he ever existed.

While some students may have watched the storm behind the safety of their dorm windows Evony couldn't bare the thought of even listening to it.

After several nights in the comfort of Luxanna's company, the Blue Bird had thought it kind to give her beloved friend some space. Unfortunately for her, the night she hoped to give herself was marred with the booming thunder and the sizzling lightning. She tried to sleep, but simply closing her eyes brought on thoughts and memories better left forgotten than revisited.

Soon enough, skinny little thief opted for the most safest place in her cramped nest of a room and huddled underneath her desk wrapped in her blankets with her headphones on as loud as possible. Even if she couldn't hear the storm she could still feel its vibrations rock the very earth.

Her phone lay limp in her trembling hands, a blank screen brightening up the darkness and staring her right in the face. A single name rested on the top of the screen, silently demanding she pay it attention during the hurricane outside.

Evony had been staring at the phone for the past few minutes, mulling over the very notion of contacting the person during the blistering chaos that rattled against her windows.

What if she was asleep? Or playing games? Or with friends? What if she didn't want to talk?

The thoughts came and went as quickly as the lightning struck outside and before the acrobat knew it, her fingers were tapping away at the screen.

[Lucy: Hey..Are you awake?]

Her thumb hit send before she could even consider the consequences.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy seemed rather oblivious to the storm. She knew it was happening, but the blaring sound through her headphones made it an irrelevant backdrop so late at night. As she stared at the screen in front of her, her eyes were stinging - she had to remind herself to blink every so often for the sake of her sight. Nothing seemed to calm the late night sleeping struggles like shooting strangers over the internet.

On the other hand, Lucy was actually comfortable in her own room. It was a strange feeling, given every inch of the place was covered in an array of memories. But it was hers, she reasoned.

Even if everything was... Neater.

Since that had happened, she couldn't be bothered displacing things in an organised disarray. She struggled to be comfortable in the deep green bedspread with the minimal spot of mud on it, and she couldn't exactly use the other cover. She needed to buy more blanket covers.

Lucy would even go so far as to occasionally put clothes away. When the piled up. But every time she did, it was a jolt to her memory. And that was a little annoying. It was like her mind didn't want her to be a little more responsible.

At any rate, her phone sat close to her hand, which up until this point had been clasped around a mouse until the light from the device snagged her attention. Usually she'd be the type to ignore it. Unfortunately for her psyche, her eyes had caught the name of the sender.

It was weird. Most of her friends were either avoiding her, or she was avoiding them. Dom was on this strange kick where he wanted to remind her he was there without actively being there, Penny was completely AWOL since she laid the smack down on the Australian's face and mouth, and Evony was...

Well... Doing what she was told, for the most part.

Lucy let the mouse go and replaced it with her phone, leaning an elbow against the desk and resting her head in her free hand.

She figured it couldn't hurt to respond anymore than the distance already did.

[Ev: I'm really tired.]

She wasn't lying. This recent project was positively kicking her ass, and it was so close to being finished. Pursing her lips and mulling over the thought, she decided on an additive;

[Ev: That's right, you don't like storms.]

[Evony Vasiliev]

Even with the large red blanket cocooning her body Evony still shivered. Her figure was curled into the foetal position and the bottom of the desk scraped against the tip of her skull, occasionally shaking with every new blast of thunder. What she hoped would quickly subside only seemed to grow more fearsome and it only forced the other storm to rage even more viciously.

Her eyes never left the phone, the cerulean glaring at the caller ID with hopes that the Australian would reply. A maelstrom of concern flooded the thief's mind, threatening to heighten the discomfort in her bones.

First it was the closet where she suffocated and now it was huddling away from a storm. Her fears seemed to spur the need for comfort and who else could give a chance at offering it? But the risk was high, very high.

But an answer came soon enough.

[Lucy: If you're tired then sleep or something]

The bluntness escaped the girl in the moment and she was left staring at her reply, cringing at the sheer audacity of the suggestion. But it had already been sent. But the subject of her fear had been brought up. Typical Lucy, straight to the point.

It came as a legitimate surprise, Evony didn't think the girl would've remembered something so minor. Regardless of how jarring the reminder seemed, the not-so-blue Blue Bird found herself smiling at the reply.

[Lucy: No...they aren't in my top 10 most favourite things.]

Which was a massive understatement. Even texting Lucy felt weird, she was so used to feeling the girl next to her, whether it was in bed or during an argument.

[Lucy: It's keeping me up.]

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy dwindled on the response for as long as she felt she could. Being told she should sleep was incredibly annoying, especially from the person in question. Didn't she know? Didn't she remember?

[Ev: I can't.]

She offered no explanation. She hoped she still didn't have to.

The Australian had always had something of a vividly precise memory. She remembered facts first and foremost. Faces second. She fought the urge to recount former favourite things that might have been on Evony's list - herself included. That would have either been funny, or incredibly cruel. But to hear it was so bad that it kept her up was confusing to say the least.

[Ev: Sleep or something]

Lucy even grinned to herself at the copy-paste method of her response. She was beginning to indulge herself in moments when she forgot how bad things were. How messy and broken.

[Ev: Are you okay?]

[Evony Vasiliev]

The thief's room momentarily lit up with a fierce white glow, the burning tendrils of lightning careening just outside her window like throbbing veins of brilliant ivory fire. Evony felt her heart hammer against her chest, filling the silent void before the next crack of thunder.

Simply waiting for a reply demanded all of her attention.

Evony knew Lucy was an insomniac of sorts, the type of girl to whittle away the early morning of the hours playing video games or drawing...neither of which the Blue Bird was particularly good at.

[Lucy: I'm too scared to sleep.]

It was as plain and simple as that. Regardless of the gigantic rift that settled between both companions, Evony couldn't bring herself to lie anymore. Whether it was because it wasn't face to face or she had finally ridden herself of any doubt, the skinny thief could not of thought of a more simple answer. It was the truth, painful and jarring...but the truth nonetheless.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

The weather outside was something the Australian was still oblivious to. Even as she drawled her headphones away from her ears and allowed the outside sounds to encompass her completely, she didn't seem overly phased by it. A storm was a storm. Though, this one was particularly loud. And annoying. And the power subsequently dipped from time to time, which jolted her computer in a weird way.

But when someone was afraid of something, it was magnified beyond that.

Too scared to sleep, huh.

It took minutes before Lucy sent anything back. She wasn't sure what was supposed to happen next. Was it that she was just a distraction from the weather outside? Or was it an excuse to be a distraction? With Evony, everything felt like it warranted further thought. A proposed explanation. Nothing felt simple.

But it never really did.

[Ev: What do you want me to do?]

[Evony Vasiliev]

It didn't take long for the acrobat to start questioning the entire situation. Was she doing the right thing? Was she annoying Lucy? Queries upon queries stacked up on top of each other and the stark honesty she gave the girl only seemed to make this impromptu texting session all the more risky.

Whilst fearing storms seemed believable when she was younger, the purple haired thief was now eighteen. She was at the peak of her youth and yet she still cowered away from the thunder and lightning. It was a cruel phobia that clung to her and no matter how hard she tried, Evony could not shake away her terror.

[Lucy: Just...stay, please. Tell me how your day was or something.]

It was petty and only a half truth but the girl wasn't going to risk plunging deeper considering the mess they were in.

"Stupid stupid girl..." She mumbled to herself, foreseeing further embarrassment in the next few minutes. Evony wanted this, she needed this and yet...it felt like she was treading on forbidden ground.

It would only take one wrong step to shatter the brittle foundation.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Even with the precautions, Lucy didn't want to take chances with any of this. She left the chair momentarily to switch everything computer-based off at the wall, ensuring its safety. Now she had nothing. Nothing but the phone nearby and the rain, wind and shattering thunder outside the window. She stared at the glass for a while - at what was behind it. She let it captivate her attention while she waited.

The message itself was... A little confusing. How could a message dissipate? How could a person be there electronically?

[Ev: I was looking for mana tombs in the Terokkar Forest.]

The Australian couldn't help but grin to herself at her own message, knowing it would go over her head but assuming might laugh at it anyway. She almost wished she had done something worthwhile; at least she'd have something to talk about.

[Ev: What I actually did is boring.]

[Ev: Why're you afraid of storms anyway?]

[Evony Vasiliev]

Evony's legs were beginning to hit the first stages of cramping, having been clutched so tight to her body for the past hour. Allowing her lower half room to move seemed minuscule but it came as a great relief, the rush of blood and the subsequent tingle just underneath her skin granting her a physical distraction during the wait for Lucy's reply.

She wasn't entirely sure how the Australian would respond, it definitely wasn't something they usually brought up in the conversations they used to have under covers.

The thief's worries were settled when the reply came, an answer which set her toes wriggling and her lips twitching into a curious little grin.

[Lucy:You do know I have no idea what that is right?]

Probably something from a game, they definitely did not have any 'mana tombs' in Tetris.

[Lucy: Boring is better than nothing.]

It was strange to say, but the girl needed the distraction, something to keep the conversation from dying or veering too far into the why she was doing this. Simply having her unsettling fear for storms queried felt odd, especially considering the great lengths both girls put up to bar anything truly meaningful after the closet incident.

Was it worth telling Lucy? Did she even have the will to share that part of herself through text?

[Lucy: Bad experiences, long story and no Terokkar forest so I don't think you'll be interested.]

[Lucy: But I hate them anyways.]

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy grinned at the response. She knew the words would go right over her head, and as always she found that amusing; she didn't respond back.

But Evony was right. Boring was better than nothing. Lucky for Lucy, she expertly flipped the conversation.

[Ev: Damn, no forests? Not sure how keen I am for an answer anymore.]

She glanced back at her computer screens, her own reflection staring back at her. She used to be watched through these surfaces, she was sure. And she had to wonder if she still was from time to time.

Was that even a bad thing?

Lucy stood up and paced the small amount of floor space she had. This... Was a bad idea.

[Ev: You can tell me in person]

[Ev: If you want]

But she was doing it anyway.

[Ev: I mean, I'm not doing anything right now. I can come see you]

[Evony Vasiliev]

A smile cracked over Evony's pale face, a momentary blissfulness washing through her veins at Lucy's reply. For those brief few seconds the Blue Bird's mind drifted into something brighter, happier and lost in warm nostalgia. It felt like what it once was, what could've been and Evony knew it wasn't in her best interest to chase it...but escaping the storm and sprinting after a fragment of hope was all she had in that moment.

But what came next was the real surprise.

Tell her in person? In person?! The prospect naturally found the girl in a state of surprise, her mouth forming a little 'o' at the simple suggestion.

Lucy was giving her an option, to be there in the flesh, just like all those months back. The girl stared long and hard at her screen, what passed could've been mere seconds or several minutes, she wasn't sure.

The girl she was several months back would've instantly jumped at the choice, ferociously cleaning her room before the Australian arrived. Now Evony felt tentative, not because it was Lucy but because of the rift that they forced between themselves. How would it end? Would she even have the guts to tell the Australian the story?

Her fingers felt limp against the screen but the thief replied, her lips firmly clamped between her teeth. Was this a mistake?

[Lucy: You can come.]

[Lucy: The door is unlocked]

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

As soon as the message had left her, Lucy was riddled with an unsure feeling. She felt ridiculously unsure of all of this. Had it not been for the setting, she wasn't sure she would have even offered. The last thing she should have been doing was mixing herself up in all this again. Then again, the same could be said for every ounce of destruction she seemed to leave in her past. She kept going back to all these people as much as they kept going back to her.

Shifting around the room slightly, Lucy took the time between everything to throw her parka on. And a beanie. She was actively getting ready to leave and she didn't even know if she should.

But she couldn't exactly stand around and do nothing while she waited. Staying still was difficult, even at the best of times. And with the final response response, she didn't message her back. She just tugged down on the beanie to cover her ears and walked out of her room.