Title: Truth is Found
Rating: PG 13
Disclaimer: Any recognizable characters and or places belong to M. Knight Shamylan. No profit is being made.
A/N: This takes place about a year before the movie, Lucius is 16, Ivy, 14.
He came running down the stairs, only in the pants he had slept in. "Mother! Mother!" He was frantic, tears streaming down his face, hands waving about madly.
She came running out of the kitchen, drying her hands with a towel. "What is it Luc-?" Then she saw the stain on his pants. He had either wet the bed, or had his first wet dream, and she was willing to bet, it was not that he had wet the bed. She regained her composure, "What's wrong, Lucius?"
"What happened to me!" He gestured wildly at his wet pants. "I woke up, and this…stuff was all over me." She looked away from him, embarrassed to say what had happened.
"Go and change, Lucius. You can eat, and then you will go talk to Mr. Walker about what happened. I'm not the right person to speak to you of such things."
"Of what things? Mother, am I going to die!" He was crying again, his imagination running away with him.
"You cannot wait for this, I see. At least go change, for me? Bring your pants and bedding down."
He nodded and ran back up the stairs. While he was gathering his laundry, she readied herself for the awkward situation ahead.
He came back down the stairs, blankets in hand, and dumped them into a wicker basket by his feet. "Now will you tell me what has happened to me?"
"Sit." She waited for him to sit awkwardly in a chair across from her, and then looked at him. "You're really growing up. I saw it a year ago, when you asked me how to shave. Even though you didn't need too…"
"Mother, please!" He ached for her to stop reminiscing and tell him what had happened to him while he slept.
"I'm sorry. But you do know you matured much faster than the rest of the boys?"
"I have been told," he nodded modestly.
"I am not only speaking of the way you act, Lucius, but also how your body…reacts to certain things."
He grimaced.
"Do you wish for me to stop?"
"No." He looked away from her though, and she saw an apparent blush on his cheeks.
"You love Ivy, do you not?"
"What?" He looked at her quickly, whipping his head so that she feared it may result in whip lash.
"Nothing. But last night, you had a dream…" she trailed off, so as to let him mentally finish the sentence.
"Mother…I often have dreams."
"Lucius, I can see you do not understand."
"Obviously." He stood and pushed his chair out from under him. "Perhaps I shall go talk to Mr. Walker."
"Eat first."
"I wish to go now." He pleaded with her.
"Fine." She opened the door on a warm spring day, and watched her son, now grown out of her control, walking into the center of the town.
He knocked repeatedly on the door until Ivy opened it, smiling at him. "Lucius, how are you?" He sucked in a sharp breath, she was the person who had been in his last dream. "I am fine, thank you, Ivy. May I speak with your father?"
"He is not in at the moment, Lucius. I wish to go for a walk, though. Won't you come with me?"
Lucius fought the urge to vomit after she extended such an invitation. "I…what if your father comes back?"
"Lucius, is the reason for your call so urgent that you will not walk with a dear friend?" She extended her pale arm blindly, and smiled up at him.
"Alright." He sighed audibly, but took her arm and walked her down the steps.
"Lucius, why did you call on my father?"
"I had to ask a question. My mother could not seem to answer it."
"What was the question, Lucius?" She continued to look ahead blindly, but he could tell all of her attention was focused on him.
"I do not think it respectable to think of such things in mixed company, Ivy." He tried to respectfully avoid telling her that he wished to not share with her.
"I am your closest friend Lucius. If you cannot speak on such matters with me, I do not know with whom you may.
"Ivy, such matters concern you." Now it was her turn to be shocked.
"We are near Resting Rock, are we not?"
He smiled at her amazing knowledge of the topography. "Yes, Ivy, we are. Would you like to sit?" He directed her to the rock, where she felt around for a good place to sit. He sat next to her after letting go of her arm.
"The truth is, I am not sure I want to tell anyone, but I am scared of what happened. It has never happened to me before, and it frightens me more than I can say."
"What ever happened to scare you so?" Her face took on a look of automatic concern.
"Well," he looked away from her, knowing she could not see him did not ease the embarrassment he felt at this moment. "Last night…or this morning…I had a dream about you. It was…a very nice dream." He decided to leave out as many details as possible. "And when I awoke, there was…something sticky all over me. My mother would not tell me what had happened to cause it."
Ivy looked away now, she knew what had happened. When she was younger, and still, families would send their sons to talk to her father about such things, and she had overheard their conversations. Or eavesdropped on them.
"Yes, Lucius, I believe you ought to talk to my father about such matters."