What will Raven do when she finds a lonely little boy wandering the streets of Jump city, with a talent as strong as her own for magic, and an emotional need that is as great as her own?
This is a song-fic based off of t.A.T.u's song 30 minutes
Ch.1 Thirty minutes
They had thought they'd finally been forgotten. Maybe they would be left alone to live out their lives. Momma had finally found a nifty house and a job she didn't mind. She had put him in a school where there were a few nice kids, and some pretty swell teachers. They had thought they were finally safe. He went to a really neat daycare center on Saturday and Sunday mornings, where the lady with the pink hair thought he was "a cool little kid." He and momma had been happy. She had started smiling again.
Out of sight
Out of mind
Out of time
To decide
But they had been wrong. "Those people" had found them, had caught up to them again. He hadn't been able to figure out why his momma had been crying that night until she had told him that "those people" were back. They would never leave them alone, they would always be there, and how was she supposed to protect him? Those people just wanted to take her back to the people she had worked for, and make her do more bad things that would hurt people. Maybe even kill people. But she didn't want to make lightning anymore. He had loved watching her make those beautiful sparks fly from her fingers until he had realized that it made her sad. And she was afraid that he could do things too. Afraid that he would have the magic just like his daddy, and those people would try and separate him and his momma. It was the first time he'd seen his momma cry since he'd given her that picture of daddy for Christmas.
Do we run?
Should I hide?
For the rest
Of my life
Can we fly?
Do I stay?
We could lose
We could fail
Could they run? No; not this time, they couldn't. Those people were too close. Surely they would be caught and killed if they tried to run. And momma had said that they couldn't hide. Those people were too smart. As powerful as momma had become, they would catch her, and then they'd both get hurt.
In the moment
It takes
To make plans
Or mistakes
But couldn't they at least try, he had asked? What else could they do? She had sat him down, looking at him with tired eyes that were such a pretty blue. They couldn't run. Those people were much too close this time. If they both stayed, then those people would most likely catch them both and hurt them. So what could they do? She had been crying too hard to answer, as she held him tight.
30 minutes, a blink of an eye
30 minutes to alter our lives
30 minutes to make up my mind
30 minutes to finally decide
30 minutes to whisper your name
30 minutes to shoulder the blame
30 minutes of bliss, thirty lies
30 minutes to finally decide
The next day had started out as normal, but he had seen in her eyes that this time was different. That this time, something was going to change that would make the whole world be wrong forever. She had dressed him in his camouflaged long sleeve shirt and blue jean overalls. She had carried him down the street to the daycare center, where the lady at the front desk had commented on what a handsome three year old he was. His momma had then started doing things different. This time, she had walked him out to the playground herself.
Carousels
In the sky
That we shape
With our eyes
He could still remember hearing the laughter in the background as one of the fathers spun the merry-go-round, making kids feel gravity pull them backwards as they hung on for dear life. The swings creaked in that rusty way that let you know someone was trying for the sky, and it had been just a little bit cold. The whole world had seemed blurry except for his momma. She had fooled herself, she had said. She had wanted so much to believe that it was over, that she had lied to both herself and him.
Under shade
Silhouettes
Casting shame
Crying rain
He had been as still as possible while she stroked his pearly grey hair that would never stay down, no matter how much she brushed it. She had told the grown-ups that it was premature graying, but he knew that wasn't the case. It was the magic in him that made his hair a funny color, just like it was the magic in his momma that made her eyes and fingers spark when she was mad. He had looked at her with sad eyes as she began to cry again. He had frowned at her when she looked at him with eyes that pleaded for him to understand what she was about to do. Could he ever forgive her? Could he see that it was the only thing she could do to save him?
Can we fly?
Do I stay?
We could lose
We could fail
Either way
Option change
Chances fail
Trains derail
Without words, he had reached up to her, for what he knew would be his last hug. He had heard that heartbreak in his momma's voice as she sobbed into his hair, and the desperation in her voice when she had looked into his large, dark violet eyes, and told him how much she loved him. He could see the fury and sorrow in her eyes, at the world that tore her from his side. He remembered how straggled her pale blonde hair had looked as she removed her pendent from around her neck, and tucked it into his pocket.
30 minutes, a blink of an eye
30 minutes to alter our lives
30 minutes to make up my mind
30 minutes to finally decide
30 minutes to whisper your name
30 minutes to shoulder the blame
30 minutes of bliss, thirty lies
30 minutes to finally decide
"Those people" had come back into their lives, and his mother, in thirty minutes, had known what she would have to do. They couldn't run, because there was nowhere to run to that those people couldn't follow. They couldn't hide anywhere that those people couldn't find them, and if those people found them, they would both surely die. The next day his mother had taken him to daycare like any other Saturday, knowing that "those people" were probably watching. She had pretended to go to work, but had slipped out the back with every intention of going to the police. She had died not fifteen minutes after she had left her baby boy alone with instructions to run and hide as soon as she had gone, knowing that it was the only way she could save him. She had been their main focus, and she knew that they wouldn't have cared anything about him if he hadn't been her child. She knew their secrets. The little boy was just an obstacle that stood in their way of getting her and either bringing her back, or silencing her forever. She had known the instant she had figured out they were so close, that the only way she could save her baby, was to die.
Two years after his mother had disappeared, that gray haired, violet eyed little boy sat under the overhang of a building in Jump city, trying desperately to keep out of the rain, and wondering what his life might have been like if "those people" had never come.
To decide, to decide.