The Cost of Freedom(Open!)

[Lani Hunter]

Lani was trying very hard to keep up with his studies. And by that he was mostly just trying to get through without failing all of them. He was going to be rather annoyed if the whole skipping class thing was going to make him fail. Oh well, he figured he could always get a GED but he really didn’t want to be a high school dropout. It was bad enough that he had loitered around here for an extra year. He didn’t do that to fail out anyways. In all honesty he probably would have left if his sister hadn’t come around. But he wasn’t going to travel very far anyways. No matter how his grades were he’d have to stick around because they still had ‘limited confidence in his abilities to control his power’. So he was going to stick around for some more training. He had not only gotten into his power late but he also seemed to have been late into accepting that it wasn’t going to spontaneously go away either. Oh well, with Odion’s help maybe he wouldn’t completely fail. He sighed as he closed his laptop screen. He should be more appreciative of Odion.

His stomach rumbled and he was far too lazy to make something when there was a perfectly good cafeteria catering semi-edible food to the students. That was rather unfair. Their food was actually rather good. It was just when it was the same set of things over and over again with an air of carelessness it got a little old. But either was it was about time for lunch and he had missed his morning classes, why not start the day with lunch and finish the last two classes? He smiled to himself, he was bad at this whole school thing. Maybe he shouldn’t go to community college. But then he could only imagine himself getting terribly bored if he didn’t have something to do, or rather something to complain about. And in all honesty it wasn’t that he didn’t like learning, it was just he was bad at learning they way they wanted him to learn. He always passed the tests but it was the in-between jargon like homework that was useless.

Dressing in a comfortable pair of jeans and a long sleeved shirt before putting a short sleeved tee over it, all various shades of black and gray, Lani was ready to face the world. He brushed his teeth quickly and did a quick check of the wound Odion had given him. It was far better but it was yet another scar. He paused for a moment touching the thin scar on his cheek in remembrance. It seemed like every time he tried (and failed) to play hero he left with a new scar. A new reminder that the blonde demonness was right. He was really a terrible protector. But he really didn’t know what else he was, what else he could be, if he couldn’t protect people. He wondered how much Odion would kill him if he joined the military. Or perhaps the redhead would just die of laughter. Laziness and relaxation were an act. When Lani sauntered through the halls his bag slung over his shoulder he moved as if he would be hard pressed to move faster than a mosey. But hidden in this careless mask was someone constantly examining danger and planning escapes, muscles braced for a race at a moments notice. Anyone who knew Lani well knew he was a runner and enjoyed it but anyone who had only seen him occasionally in class, usually sleep would probably be quite startled to see him move quicker than a shuffle, or in any state of concern

He grabbed a plate and loaded it with a slice of pizza and salad. Salad totally balanced out the other meal. Lani was not one of those known to eat very healthily, nor was he one to venture out of his comfort zone often. He rather liked his comfort zone and people had been trying to take him out of it far too often this year. He plopped himself down at a table by the window and dropped his bag carelessly on the ground. Last night had been a good one. A good haul, he glanced up at the mounted television to watch them discuss his recent heist, one to help out Odion’s friend Jared a little bit. ‘In and out without a trace’ and ‘nothing but shadows’ also ‘like a ghost’. Lani liked the last one the best. Sometimes he wondered if when Dr. Neville turned on the news and heard these stories if he knew it was Lani. Would he ever finally get fed up and turn him in? Lani hoped not. A new story, breaking news, came on the television. Apparently someone had been vandalized out west. Some senator was speaking on the danger of meta humans, as per usual, but unlike usual there were people supporting him. “You’ve gotta be kidding,” Lani said to no one in particular and shook his head at the crazy things being said. He scoffed in disgust. “Idiots.” He muttered darkly.

[Declyn O'Callahan]

It was funny how from the time he moved to the US until now, his grades had become altogether meaningless to him. In the beginning he was all about impressing everyone with his smarts and keeping his parents happy with his high marks, but the more that happened and the more he drank, the less he gave a shit about anything to do with school. That being said, he was still just above average, so it wasn't as though he was failing his last year. Then again, with his luck he'd be forced to take another year if he didn't start getting control of his hallucinations. All he had to do was quit drinking and actually get some sleep and maybe they'd finally go away. But was he going to try that? No, that required no alcohol.

If he was going to graduate, he had no clue where to go from there. College was always an option, but he wasn't sure if he'd stay in the US or go back to Ireland. At the rate things were going, he figured it'd be smart to go to Ireland, but that also would require him to stop drinking. Now, Declyn wasn't an alcoholic by any means, he could quit when he wanted. That was the problem though, he had no desire. He was having too much fun pissing away his liver. It gave him the escape he needed from thinking about Cam and Odion and everything else that he failed at and he was perfectly fine with that. The last thing he wanted to be doing is thinking about stuff that was only going to bring down his mood.

Having overslept most of his classes, he figured it was pointless to go to any now. It was around lunch time he thought, and even if it wasn't, he was starving. All of the alcohol had left his system and he was dehydrated and starving. After pulling on some ratty old jeans and a plaid flannel over his under-shirt, he headed out of his dorm and towards the student lounge at first, but when he realized it wasn't snack hungry, he thought screw it and headed for the cafeteria instead. It wasn't that far of a walk from the student lounge and as he entered, he instantly regretted his decision. He'd been locked up in his room for the past day and a half with no lights or sounds in his room. The sudden obnoxious roar coming from the people and the television had him wincing and he pinched the bridge of his nose as he headed towards the counter.

After snagging a drink and some food (a tray piled high of pizza), he went to sit down as far from anyone as possible. Dec spotted a table near a window and just as he was about to head for it, someone else took it. He sighed in frustration and looked around for a place that would work as well. He found nothing and instead decided he was just going to sit on the far end of the table as the other guy. The last thing he wanted to do was talk to someone when he was in this ravenous, animalistic state. He sat and turned his attention to the tv with a bit of an annoyed expression at the high set volume. They were talking about some criminal that was off robbing people of their money without any compassion for the people that he was stealing from. Real great guy he must have been. Dec shook his head and his ears twitched as the term meta human was said. His eyes traveled up and as he continued listening, he gritted his teeth. Stupid 'normal people' and their stupidity. "Bloody hell," He muttered just as the boy at the opposite end of the table spoke under his breath as well.

[Lani Hunter]

It almost made Lani cackle with glee to hear how compassionless he was. Once upon a time he would have been offended, even angered. Then he realized that was the joy of his mystery. Everyone would suspect a troublemaker. Not everyone would expect a troublemaker to also have a kind streak. Compassionless, sure, none of the people he robbed would be mortally wounded by what he took. People needed to learn that material items were worth far less than people, and people who didn’t think so, well, Lani didn’t have any compassion for them anyways. As the saying went, one had to eat to live, and some people had to steal to eat. Or in Lani’s case, steal to keep himself occupied and to make sure he was a step ahead of his old boss. He couldn’t help but still feel double crossed by Odion and his ploy. Frustration and anger had become something that had seeded deep in his heart and now Odion wasn’t answering his calls.

Lani spared a passing glance for the person who sat down next to him but watched the boy out of the corner of his eye. Something was very familiar about this guy. Lani couldn’t quite place it but he looked so familiar, yet he had knew he had never seen this person in his life, he never forgot a face. Lani shrugged it off and went back to watching the news. He glanced over as the boy spoke in seeming agreement. That was when something clicked in Lani’s mind. He looked familiar because looked like Odion. Odion had a twin. It took a quick moment to put the Irish accent and the looks together and name the boy. But the fact that Declyn hadn’t said anything to him meant that Declyn probably had heard tell of Lani but had never put a name to his face. In all honesty if Declyn didn’t look so much like Odion he would probably never have been able to pick him out of a crowd. Lani smiled a little and decided he was going to go fishing.

“How do you like that?” Lani said his eyes drifting to Declyn. Maybe Declyn didn’t know who he was and he wanted to milk that. If Declyn discovered who he was too soon this might become a shouting match. He also wanted to make sure the identity was right. “Something bad happens and their first course of action is to blame the meta humans.” Lani shook his head. “That’s almost as bad as them blaming that poor Middle Eastern man after the Boston bombing.” Sometimes Lani got really fed up with humanity. Lani’s annoyance and perhaps even anger was real as he was sitting there. He crunched on some lettuce as he looked back up at the news. The senator was apparently not done spouting his stupidity. Lani had to admit he was a little sour, it was taking up his time on the news. Well, less publicity the better, chances were people would forget about him for a while, best to do some small stuff for a while so they would think he moved on. To be a thief one had to be clever, and sometimes that meant stopping for a moment when someone was getting too close.

The senator started comparing the thief in Boston and made the point that the police were missing that they were looking for a meta human. Lani snorted, insulted, he honestly rarely used his power to steal, he still trusted his hands far more. “There you go. Let’s blame the meta humans.” He gestured at the television and stole a glance at Declyn, did he know Odion was a thief? Did he know Lani was?

[Declyn O'Callahan]

Oh if Declyn knew who he was sitting close to, he'd have thrown a fit by now. Not one to cause a scene, he probably would have just muttered obscenities under his breath directed toward the blond boy across the table. He'd never seen pictures or anything of the telekinetic, he only heard things that didn't particularly make him like the other boy very much. Sure, he had no room to talk when Odion decided he was going to throw the Cameron thing in his face, but he still didn't like the man. What reason did he have for not liking him? He didn't have a reason really, he was just looking out for his brother. And due to things he'd heard about Lani's last relationship, he was worried for his twin.

But he still had no right to base his thoughts off of things he'd heard.

The blond spoke again and Dec's eyes lifted lazily to him, "Of course they do. We're 'unnatural.'" He rolled his eyes and took a huge bite of pizza. As he chewed he continued watching the news. It was ridiculous really, all of the 'normal' people making it out like metas were the problem when they originated from humans to begin with! There were still the humans that didn't have problems with it, the ones that even reproduced with metas, but the other extreme pissed him off. What right did they have to blame metas just because they were the more evolved species of human?

The news was really starting to feed into Declyn's frustration and he shook his head, trying to tune it out. He'd had enough of this bull shit. If they wanted to keep it up, that was their choice, Dec wasn't going to give them the benefit of letting it get to him anymore. He was just going to enjoy his leaning tower of pizza and keep his mind distracted. The blond could be pissed enough for the both of them. He seemed to have quite the hot temper, huh who did that remind him of? But he still hadn't put two and two together. Lani would have an easy time keeping Dec in the dark.

[Lani Hunter]

Lani hadn’t forgotten how much it had hurt when Odion had told him that Declyn didn’t like him. Granted it hadn’t been something Lani couldn’t brush off but he had been insulted that people were judging him over what happened between him and Adrianna. He had lied and she had gotten hurt. That’s all that people knew. They didn’t see them behind closed doors when the relationship had already been crumbling though even they didn’t realize it. Looking back Lani was surprised he hadn’t seen it. The lies were starting to get between them. If anyone was at fault it was Lani, he accepted that. But he was also trying to prove Adrianna wrong by sticking around and helping her through this damaging phase of hers. Lani was beside himself with worry for his ex. Was that normal?

Lani watched Declyn. He had heard what happened between him and Cameron from Odion. He’d actually told Odion he could kill Cameron now, if he recalled correctly. That had been the most startling phone call he had ever received. When Odion decided to tell him something he didn’t beat around the bush. Perhaps Lani would have been able to talk Odion down a little bit if there hadn’t been something much more pressing that Odion had said. But the fact of the matter was he still caught glimpses of Cameron walking around, which was a good sign. At least Odion hadn’t killed the other guy yet. But when Declyn spoke he seemed unconcerned with the whole matter. “Unnatural, right. Because we have a choice in the matter.” Lani snorted more than willing to be upset enough for the both of them. He didn’t think of himself as a hothead. A thick headed individual maybe, but not hot. It was just that certain things had a tendency to ignite his anger faster than others.

“I mean,” Lani continued putting down his half eaten pizza to gesture emphatically. “If they didn’t have a scapegoat I don’t think they would function.” He reached up and pressed a finger gently against the scar he had on his temple now. “You know how much different this country would be if it were run by intelligent individuals?” Lani was more than willing to let his rant out on the unsuspecting Declyn. Lani honestly should stop watching the news all it did was get him excited and generally when that happened he just wanted to blast a whole through Congress and shake every single senator and tell them to get their shit together and stop listening to where the money is coming from. As much as Lani was enjoying ranting at the unsuspecting Declyn he needed to steer the topic away from politics or he was going to get himself into trouble. “Anyways,” Lani said with a sigh that seemed to push out the last of his frustrations. He took a bite of his pizza and having swallowed continued, “What’s the use in complaining about something we can’t change?”

[Declyn O'Callahan]

Dec wasn’t one to ask about how to feel for an ex, seeing as how he was still pretty screwed up from the break up. It was unhealthy the way he was living. He was honestly surprised he hadn’t gotten alcohol poisoning or something for his own stupidity. Drinking a lot in a short of amount of time every day, it was good that he had a strong liver. Must be the Irish blood in him. Either way, he was lucky every day that he drank that he didn’t end up in the hospital. He liked to believe it was because he was careful, but that was a lie. He wasn’t careful, he just hadn’t drank himself to death quite yet. It was only a matter of time though at the rate of which he was going.

And it was for the best that Dec didn’t hear about Lani giving permission to his twin to kill his ex. He probably would have hunted the blonde down and had a few choice words with him as well. Sure, he didn’t know everything that was going on between the two of them or what had happened with the girl, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to let some random person decide something that would affect someone he cared about. Whether it was Odion that killed Cameron or not, he’d blame Lani for it because he would rather put the blame on someone he didn’t care about. It was a good thing Declyn didn’t know that this blonde was the telekinetic he didn’t particularly like, otherwise he’d have told him to shove it and walked off by now. Reasonable or not, he didn’t want anything to do with him. “Aye, they’re a bunch of asshats as far as I’m concerned. Actin’ as if they know what it’s like,” He rolled his eyes, he’d gladly give them the hallucinations he had for an hour, see if they came out of it sane.

At this point, he had practically tuned out the ranting teen at his table. It was politics, Dec sure as hell didn’t give a damn about what the press said. It wasn’t until the last what he hoped was rhetoric question, that Declyn gave a non-committal nod. “Aye. No use in it whatsoever. I stopped caring about these bloody morons a long time ago,” Back before he gave two shits about the country and what was going on in it. Ah the days of being a young, confused teen. Ha, he still was one.

[Lani Hunter]

Lani smiled Declyn. Perhaps the most interesting thing about this whole thing was that Lani could get away with pretending not to know who he was because they had never officially met. Declyn looked a hell of a lot like Odion, but he didn’t have the same sort of confidence that Odion had. Perhaps it was the lack of the spines that did it. Though Lani had no doubt that if pushed Declyn had the potential to have all of the bite that Odion had. Lani smiled to himself. It was the parts where Odion’s walls came down and he was just Odion that were the most precious. How was it that even the passing thought brought Odion’s smiling face to mind and Lani’s heart did flips. Oh, if only the redhead knew the effect he had on Lani. Lani shook his head a little and forced himself to focus. Declyn didn’t like him, and Lani wasn’t sure that sat well with him.

Granted Declyn had gone through the ringer and probably could see Lani as the bad guy when it came between him and Adrianna, which he wasn’t about to dispute. But he loved Odion and he hated that everyone thought he was lying. Well, anyone that knew, which was apparently everyone. Well, at least there was one thing they could agree. “Absolutely, god forbid they have to walk a mile in our shoes.” Lani scoffed doing nothing to quell his already ill suppressed annoyance. “What’s your power anyways?” Lani asked partially out of curiosity and partially because it was the natural next question when powers came up in conversation around meta humans. It was like an ingrained curiosity they all seemed to have. There was also the fact that Odion had never told Lani what Declyn’s power was. He was pretty sure if Declyn returned the question he’d probably have a good idea who he was talking too. There weren’t too many telekinetics floating around here.

Lani cocked his head at Declyn interested by the misanthropic view he took. Now that certainly sounded like Odion. It was a wonder how similar the two were despite growing up in different worlds. In Lani’s opinion, he couldn’t give a rats ass about the parents that had given Odion up. But at the same time, they were reaching out to him, especially with things like the birth certificate. Lani almost wished Odion would go and at least meet them. But that wasn’t Lani’s place to say. “Alas, apathy is the double edged sword.” Lani said almost to himself. He glanced sidelong at Declyn. How mad would he be if he knew who he was? Lani really just wanted to know why Declyn hated him so much. He had done a lot to elicited anger from both Odion and Adrianna but not from a complete stranger who didn’t know him from Adam. Without knowing the full story Lani knew he was the bad guy, he didn’t even try to dispute it. But his intentions were good. Were his good intentions really going to chain him to the wrong road forever?