Doesn't Mean We're Bound for Life (Evony)

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

The walk between rooms wasn't a particularly long one. But even indoors, it was cold, and the cold had never been a friend to Lucy. She preferred hot summers at the actual time in which summer was - which was supposed to be right now.

As her bare feet crossed through the halls she cursed herself for not actually thinking to put shoes on. Or socks for that matter.

And as she briefly thought about socks, she laughed.

Thankfully, Lucy didn't cross the path of any dorm monitors. They probably thought that in a storm like this most students had the sense not to leave their rooms. She didn't hesitate as she got to the fourth floor, save for a brief moment by the door where she found herself staring at another door. Jesus, it could have been worse. She could have found herself wedged further between the two.

Pressing on, the door was unlocked. And Lucy didn't worry about Sawyer - she knew her friend was probably out like a light already. Once she slept, she was pretty much off the radar. Leaning against the wall, she knocked twice quietly against the door before reaching for the handle and twisting it open.

As she opened the door, she realised that she didn't even know what to expect to see.

[Evony Vasiliev]

The storm outside still raged on, temperamental winds battered against the glass windows and the booming voice of thunder trumpeted like some great giant. Even when the offer had been accepted Evony still huddled beneath her desk, clutching her phone tight and wondering whether the tattooed Australian was being serious about the breach of their self imposed distance.

It wasn't like they couldn't see each other again. Lucy had given her a chance, or so Evony believed, but the thought of that girl coming here at this time spurred memories of an easier time, one that wasn't plagued with doubt.

Curling the blanket around her shivering body the porcelain skinned acrobat combed her hands through the waterfall of purple hair. She had to at least try and make herself somewhat presentable.

Another deafening CRACK of thunder forced a shrill yelp to escape her lips, the lightning that followed filling her room with a bright flash, blinding her momentarily.

Once her eyes adjusted she was met with sight of the girl at her doorway.

It took a second to recollect her senses and let her mind swallow the situation. Lucy was here, as beautiful as ever and as much as Evy wanted to ignore that fact it came stampeding into the depths of her mind. The Australian looked so serene compared to the chaos outside.

"I'm under here..." Evony whispered, slowly poking her head out from underneath the desk like a frightened child.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

It was dark and that made things difficult to see. When Lucy had first walked in she couldn't see a soul in there, and for a moment she wondered if the mere thought of her presence had scared her into the proverbial mirror world. She rocked back on a foot, idly glancing behind her as if contemplating walking right back out again. That was, until a voice captured her attention.

It was still too see her properly, but at least now she could actually see someone in the room. Lucy pressed her lips into a hardened line, trying her absolute best not to laugh at what she'd seen. Admittedly, she did laugh a little, until her eyes took in the sight of purple.

"Woah." The single word dropped from her mouth as her jaw fell open. How long had it been again?

Shaking off any surprise - or whatever else she was feeling - Lucy made her way towards the desk and sat down nearby - close enough to be within reaching distance. "Is this... Helping?" Lucy asked, raising her eyebrows.

At least she wasn't claustrophobic.

[Evony Vasiliev]

A long silence hung between both girls, only filled with the rapid torrent of rain and the distant booming of thunder. The acrobat offered the girl a modest, and embarrassed, simper as a quiet greeting of sorts. How did they usually do this?

It came as a relief when Lucy broke the silence. A nervous laugh maybe?

The quiet exclamation was lost on the violet topped thief, she wasn't entirely sure what the Australian was seeing but nothing seemed too out of the ordinary for Evony to start worrying. It was late, it was cold and very dark so having the eldest Serrano in her company felt comforting and risky at the same time.

Once the Australian breached the distance Evony found herself fumbling with the blanket and not knowing where to look. A weak smile crossed her lips and she felt her cheeks warm up, much to her dismay of course. Good thing it was too dark to properly see anything.

"It is..." The Blue Bird answered, cuddling her figure tight and giving her window a wary look just in case another flash of lightning thought to ruin her current state of 'peace'. It didn't take long before she offered the girl her blanket, well half of it anyways. It would've been rude to leave Lucy out in the cold. If she took it or not didn't really matter, but it felt like the right thing to do anyways.

"Are you sure you want me to tell you?" Evony whispered, a bit apprehensive at the thought of reliving those memories, not that the storm was already doing so already. Burdening Lucy with that rubbish would probably make things more awkward, or so the acrobat believed. "It's not pretty." Not at all.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Crossing her legs as she sat down, Lucy very briefly glanced at the half a blanket that was offered to her. She thought about it for a moment, not necessarily to the point where she weighed the pros and cons of what it would meant o take such a thing. In the end, she shook her head. "You look like you need it more than I do." The Australian replied, the corner of her mouth tugging briefly into a small grin.

She placed her hands in her pockets, believing they were safer there. At least for her own sanity they were.

Leaning forward idly, Lucy twisting her mouth at the proposition of hearing about something that wasn't pretty. "You drag people outta bed promising a story and then you don't give it up?" She asked, trying not to make light of the situation as she was. But it put herself at ease. "Okay, I wasn't bed. But still..."

Of course she wasn't. She was Lucy. She was in forests looking for mana tombs.

"You can tell me. Or not. It's up to you, not me."

[Evony Vasiliev]

Evony mustered what she hoped to be an understanding smile, knowing full well that it was on her as to whether this situation turn out awkward. The thief graciously curled the blanket back around her body, the only things visible being her head and feet. It was peculiar, not being too worried about not having the blanket accepted, in all honesty Evony wasn't that surprised. Both girls were taking a risk and the acrobat was simply thankful that the Australian was present during the midnight storm.

A sudden crack of thunder split the silence within the room and Evony naturally found herself flinch at the sound. It was embarrassing and she attempted to maintain an air of calm...even if her hands were still shaking beneath the blanket.

"I know I know." She mumbled, pursing her lips and settling the panicked buzz in the back of her mind.

It was just Lucy, what worth was there hiding secrets?

"Okay...uhh, well you know I was raised in a circus right?" A fact that still felt strange sharing with others, it seemed like something so foreign to admit to people. "We came from all parts of Europe, mainly Russia, Hungary, Yugoslavia and France. None of us owned houses, we just travelled where we could and made money where possible..." Some of which involved a bit of thievery here or there, but Evony was sure Lucy was smart enough to get that hint.

A brief flash of lightning momentarily snapped away her frustration and the thief felt her heartbeat begin to raise.

"Well...since we weren't really, how do you say...model citizens we sometimes got mixed with the wrong groups of people. Maybe we needed money, or passports or something...anything really" She explained quietly, reliving every moment of her life as in the circus. Evony was actually surprised that there wasn't any tears...she felt empty, as if she was telling another girl's story.

"There...there was this one gang in Russia. I can't remember where they came from or how they found us...but they were so rich...and dangerous, people knew not to disrespect them." Her voice grew quieter the more she spoke, as if simply mentioning the group would raise alarms and send their ghosts after her.

Evony shuddered.

A heavy silence washed over her and the porcelain skinned acrobat tentatively gazed at the tattooed beauty. She was going to be the first to know. Maybe even the only to know. Evony's eyes glazed over the blanket, the warmth had disappeared.

"It all turned to hell after they arrived..."

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy's eyes coloures with a brief sliver of concern when Evony flinched. She knew she didn't like storms, but the way she reacted in tandem with the way she opted to shroud herself in a blanket made Lucy assume it was worse than she thought.

She offered a small, wavering nod at the information that she grew up in a circus. It was weird, but so was she. And the Australian was sure she knew that already.

"Gypsy-type shit." Lucy denoted, not that she knew a whole lot about the lifestyle.

Amd they weren't... Model citizens? "Rogue Gypsies." Lucy revised quietly. It all sounded like a strange setting in a fabled video game.

Especially when gangs were involved. Lucy leaned forward a little more, pressing her hand to her own jaw out of instinct. Was this legitimate? Was she lying? Would she lie about this? Why would she bother lying about this?

"No fucking way." Lucy retorted, more for herself than anything else. "Are you serious? Gangs and... People seriously deal with shit like that?"

She never thought she'd meet someone in this sort of life.

[Evony Vasiliev]

Forgotten faces and garbled voices clashed in the reaches of Evony's conscious. The maelstrom tore up her mind and ignited the memories that were too stubborn to disappear, too malicious to even grant her the peace shr chased. Every figment of that deceased chapter in her life throbbed with splintering pain, as if simply recalling the events would conjure something tangible then and there.

But they were just memories. A terrifying recount that would only hurt as much as she allowed it.

Capturing her breath and tugging the violet strands of hair that nestled against her neck, the skinny thief kept her gaze on the girl in front of her, watching those painfully familiar lips move and that beautifully wretched voice speak.

"It happens a lot more than you know." Evony answered quietly, smiling wanly at Lucy's surprising naivety. Maybe such things were foreign to everyone else but her, no one else in this school could've dealt with the same.

"They...they came in groups. Sometimes just to visit, make 'friends' if that was possible and pester my father." Evony swallowed, thinking of Mr. Vasiliev was hard. "It started off as small things, them selling the crew drugs or weapons. Most of the time we refused, well...my father made sure we refused." The porcelain skinned girl nodded, blinking away the fog in her eyes. "He didn't like that stuff. I guess he wanted a life for his family away from everything that could potentially ruin it."

Evony spared a moment to breathe, slowly straightening her legs till her feet poked out from underneath the table.

"I guess the constant refusal must've offended the Pakhan. He had visited more than once, attended the shows and sometimes fucked the showgirls whenever he had the chance..." She shuddered, shaking her head at something foul in the back of her mind. "I don't know what I did or how he noticed me but...I guess it was my turn to show my respect." She whispered, tasting the bile on the back of her tongue. Of course he noticed her, she was the Amazing Mirror Girl, acrobatic metahuman .'extraordinaire'.Although denying that seemed enough for her sanity.

"My father wouldn't have it. He...he demanded that the Pakhan leave and never return, to never ever ask of me again." Evony felt a tremor scuttle down her spine, forcing her muscles to tense up. "...I didn't know what was happening, no one told me much and...and it may sound stupid but I wasn't afraid. Not at the time, I thought things would just pass on..."

She could feel the strain in her voice grow heavier, as if the words were beginning to get laced with the torment that leaked from her mind's archive.

"But I was so wrong..."

Evony whimpered, feeling something wet and warm trickle down her cheek. Not that it mattered, it was too dark to see much anyway...

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy simply shrugged her shoulders. Maybe she was naive. Maybe Evony's life was just as outlandish as it sounded.

She didn't say anything throughout it all. She didn't really know what she was supposed to say. Evony had been right when it came to the story - Lucy had no idea what she was getting into. If she were to really think about it, the whole thing made her life feel small. Insignificant. And in the same motion, she was thankful for that.

Glancing over, the Australian couldn't see much. At least she had more like than she did in the dark room. The conflict and pain was obvious enough that she didn't need to see her eyes or anything else.

"Okay," Lucy said slowly, as if the prior information was finally processed, "Then what?"

[Evony Vasiliev]

Evony's pale fingers clutched the woven blanket tight across her figure, as if it would shield her from the storm raging inside and outside the cluttered bedroom. Tendrils of lightning streaked across the sky, summoning low gasp to ripple of her tongue. Evony could taste her fear, it was bitter and cloying, sticking to the back of her mouth like some unshakeable sickness.

Glancing back at Lucy, the skinny thief pondered over how detailed she would go on to describe the events that occurred during that stormy night. It seemed fitting in a macabre sort of way, speaking of her terror during a storm. If it was supposed to be therapeutic she was yet to feel its benefits.

"What happened next was...it was hell." She whispered in a hollow voice, her cerulean eyes glazing over the carpeted floor.

"Our troupe had just entered Chechnya, several days after the Pakhan and his men asked for me and...and even though we were careful they still found us." Evony's hands trembled at her own voice, a strained and weak shadow of its usual self. "It was during a storm, everyone was inside to keep dry. We thought we were safe, my father...he told me I was safe and nothing would happen. But they came and...and they..." A trembling sob broke through her throat and in that moment Evony wept in silence. Now it was just her, the storm and her memories.

Seconds turned to minutes and the girl lay hidden beneath her table, wiping away the tears and attempting to regain her poise. She knew Lucy hated crying.

"P-people died that night." She uttered, her voice thick with sorrow. "There was so much blood and...and so much screaming...and the storm, it...it just continued. On and on...until I didn't know whether it was thunder or gunshots in my ear." Evony sniffled, blinking away the stinging moisture in her eyes before tentatively gazing back at the girl near her.

The acrobat was silent, unsure of what to say next. Her throat was heavy with choked sobs and her lips trembled but she remained frozen, hugging her body tight until she summoned the strength to speak. Who knows how long that took.

"...that's why I can't sleep on nights like this."

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

With the aid of the light of the moon, Lucy found herself staring at Evony again. This wasn't exactly the circumstances she wanted to find herself in - sitting beside the girl as she huddled underneath her desk for some kind of comfort. She'd hoped to find the means to be on better terms. She hoped she wouldn't lose her head and even be there in the first place. So she kept her hands firmly curled into fists, hidden away in her pockets. It was the only way to stop herself from reaching out and trailing a thumb across her cheek, siphoning through the track a tear had left.

There was a strange time amidst the story where things were silent, save for the sound of the storm outside. Lucy didn't interject. She didn't move. It felt important to be a stagnant being while Evony composed herself.

People died. Lucy very slightly nodded her head to one side. She figured that's where this was going.

Lucy was silent, too. Again, it just wasn't her place to respond. Nothing she had in her arsenal was for fixing problems. She could tear a soul to pieces with a single sentence, but building something took time and resources. Making someone feel better took a kind of effort she so rarely had available.

"I can't tell you how to feel, or any shit like that." Lucy interjected quietly, rolling her shoulders back slightly. She tried to adjust her posture, to sit a little straighter and stop leaning so close.

She fiddled with a button on her parka idly, glancing down at them to save herself in the time she had. "Be scared of the guys that do the bad shit to people." Lucy reasoned, looking up again. What she wouldn't give for a little more light; a sliver of a glance at the reformed colour of her hair. "But don't be scared of a storm."

[Evony Vasiliev]

The storm churned and grumbled outside like a great beast after it had devoured what was left of the pitch black sky. Although the thunder crackled, it was a dull shadow of what it had been earlier that night. The big grey monster had slowly shrunk behind the horizon and after several minutes of silence, Evony finally lifted her gaze towards the Australian, comforted in the growing peace.

Lucy's reasoning fell through and although the thief wanted to believe her, tried to believe her it simply couldn't happen. It felt like a barrier was blocking anything that should've made sense. It was supposed to make sense and the silent frustration that ensued burnt through her mind like a disease.

But Evony quietly nodded, offering what she hoped was a thankful smile.

Whatever happened between her and the tattooed Australian seemed like a painful reminder that things couldn't be the same as they were. The Blue Bird cradled her body, knowing full well that it would be the only solace she would give herself.

All she could hear was Lucy's breathing and her own feeble heartbeat. The two quiet sounds danced in a rhythm that soothed her, whisking her mind and memories to a place that summoned the first moments she shared with the girl.

Death and life. One after another.

"I know I'm not scared of you." She whispered, and that much she knew to be true. "Not anymore."

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy had nothing more to really say on the matter. She was - as always - coming at the situation with logic. The issue wasn't when, it was who. Or rather, it should have been. But it was the when that seemed to stand out in her mind; the attachment to an insignificant thing. "I dunno. Next time don't let yourself get cramped under a desk." She tried again, shrugging her shoulders and breathing a small laugh.

Her eyes were coloured by surprise at what was said next.

"I'm not trying to be scary." Lucy reasoned, bringing her hands together in her lap and staring at them intently. "Never was."

She wondered then if that was how people always felt. Dom never seemed to care that she was abrasive and harsh. Penny more than likely hated her for it, but then she didn't really hate her at all. Did she? "I was nicer to you than more than half the people here." Lucy explained, trying to be as nonchalant about it as she sounded. "I've never-"

A quick pause as she pursed her lips. The words were going to be as bitter as she assumed them to be. "I mean, way back... You just-" Lucy paused again, shaking her head. She didn't want to get into the why of things; "I don't share my bed with a lot of people."

At this point, she could take that however she wanted to. "Not like that."

[Evony Vasiliev]

Evony felt her limbs throb with a dull sting, her pins and needles prickling her body and forcing her to lightly squirm in her place. Although the girl had finished her story it still hung heavy in the back of her mind. Was it the wise decision to tell Lucy? What would the Australian think of her now?

The tingling underneath her skin was frustrating yet bearable and Evony tried to remain as poise as girl wrapped in a blanket underneath a table could be. Nothing about this was glamorous, far from it in fact but she had exposed herself to the point that she cared little for how pitiful she may have come across as.

She found herself tensing up at Lucy's reply.

It was probably true, what the Australian said and the little thief attempted to keep track of what was said and unsaid in the ensuing explanation. Where was Lucy taking this?

"You were good to me." Evony nodded, exhaling slowly at the thought of Lucy being anything but. Sure, she was blunt, stubborn and occasionally distant but in retrospect it all seemed justified. It was terrible to admit but the Blue Bird knew it was largely her own fault for the painful distance that wedged itself between both of them. Regardless of all the excuses she tried to tell herself, Evony knew that there was something about the tattooed Australian she couldn't let go of. It was like wishing back a phantom limb, she could feel something that she had ignored all along.

As much as the comfort of her desk kept her mind at ease, the porcelain skinned acrobat found herself slinking out of underneath it. The storm had passed and she sat in the open, cradling her blanketed figure.

"Do you regret any of it...?"

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Truthfully, Lucy didn't know where she was going. The instinct to let the mind overrun what the proverbial heart wanted to say was a new interaction for her. She preferred to run things through the usual process. Think, wonder, ponder, dissect, dwindle, rinse, and offer.

The past context of everything hurt a little more than she thought it might have. And she'd yet to realise that she inadvertently started that trend with her own statement. She didn't shift in her position when Evony slowly made her way out of her hiding spot. Rather, she continued to fiddle with the buttons on her jacket, watching the way her fingers twisted around them. Those hands that went from securely controlled beings to seemingly separate entities; wanting to reach out and touch her without hesitation.

"Don't ask me that," She replied, though the corner of her mouth twisted into an almost amused smile. How unfitting. She wanted to shout at this girl for ruining her the way she had. But she couldn't. "You... Made everything different."

Different. How the simplicity of that word plagued her every being now. "Like, you pulled me out of where I was comfortable." She wanted to say hiding, but she knew that wasn't the exact word she needed. "You brought me into this different dimension." The Australian laughed again, this time at her inability to let go of her own worldly fascination. It wouldn't be Lucy without an intergalactic reference.

But the quiet laughter dwindled.

"And then you left me there on my own." In the break, she glanced up again, searching for a reaction. Whatever reaction Evony would give her. "I'm still not sure if I like it, but I think I'm stuck here forever."