Camera
By: AndiKaneUnderwood
AU: Fam Jam/College, Magic, Alpha/Beta/Omega, Everyone Lives
Cora Jensen: Alpha (enhanced emotion, sixth sense of knowing when her Pack is in danger), Elemental Magic, Word Smith, Rune-Mage
Jessica Davis: Alpha, Clairvoyant, Mental Magic, Summoner
Jeff Atkins: Beta, Breathe Underwater, Heat Fire, Invisibility
Hannah Baker: Beta, Empath, Mental Magic, Sleuth
Tyler Down: Beta, Enhanced Memory, Hearing, and Vision
Zack Dempsey: Beta, no powers
Ryan Shaver: Beta, no powers
Courtney Crimson: Beta, no powers
Tony Padilla: Omega, Arcane Magic,Tattooist, Psychic
Justin Foley: Omega (loyalty, his magic(1)), Illusionist, Precognition, Persuasion
Alex Standall: Omega (absolute pitch, sound to color synesthesia), Aligist, Elemental Magic, Arcane Magic
Tyler looked at everything through the lenses of the camera.
His camera was everything to him, the year book was his child and his dark room was his office.
His camera was everything to him and now, someone had taken that away from him.
Tyler's beloved camera lay in pieces on the floor and Tyler couldn't understand who'd done it or why.
Tyler threw out his Enhanced hearing with a quick spell mumbled under his breath, just so he could see if his surrogate family knew what had happened.
His sharp ears picked up signs of life in Cora's room, probably a renewal on Alex's Scent Marking.
("Why don't you just make it permanent and Mark him, Cora?" asked every single person in the family.
"It's not like that(2)," Cora would reply, then glance at Justin with a smile that was most always returned.)
There where murmurs of a test and help studying, but nothing about Tyler's camera, so the Beta boy moved on and left it alone.
Tony was out on a date, had been gone since early that morning, and Jessica was still sleeping off her early morning Panic attack brought on by a Hell of a nightmare.
Courtney was also out on a date, leaving later than Tony, but early enough not to have destroyed Tyler's camera.
Ryan was in his room, doing something on his laptop, what Tyler didn't know, but nothing about his camera was said, so Tyler left it alone.
This left Justin, Jeff, and Hannah.
Hannah was in her bedroom talking with Zach (who was visiting his monster over the weekend) on the phone, neither of them mention Tyler's precious camera in the five minutes Tyler was allowed(3), so Tyler moved along.
Jeff was away for a baseball game, and he'd been gone since the previous day, so that left him out.
Justin was apparently studying for a final in his room, but when Tyler went to look for him, he wasn't there. There were two reasons that could be. One, he'd gone out to get the groceries they needed. Or two, he was hiding.
Tyler chose to go with the first option, he didn't want to believe any of his family had destroyed his beloved camera.
Tyler sighed as he picked up the broken pieces of the camera and went back to his room.
He'd just have to hope he could save the money for a new one.
Hopefully the internship he'd applied for with the photography company went well.
13RW~13RW~13RW
The internship didn't go well.
As it turned out, in order to get the position, you had to have your own state-of-the-art camera. Tyler's had been broken.
He spent the rest of the night locked in his room, crying. Even going so far as to ignore two of the Omegas when they tried to get him to open the door.
Jessica and Cora where slightly upset and Tyler knew he'd be apologizing to Justin and Alex when he was over his camera, but at that moment, he couldn't bring himself to care about the Omegas of the Pack.
A soft knock on the door brought him out of his thoughts. "Go away." he mumbled.
"I just want to talk," replied Justin.
Tyler sighed, getting up off the bed and unlocking the door. He looked into the upset, guilty face of Justin Foley. "What?" Tyler snapped sharply.
Justin hesitated, then held out a box wrapped in paper and tied with a bow.
"What's this?" Tyler asked as he took the box.
"It's a... It's a gift." Justin's face flushed pink. "You, uh, you open them."
Tyler sighed, knowing Justin wouldn't be much more help, and simply turned his attention to the gift Justin had given him instead.
He tore off the paper and set aside the ribbon the bow had made from. Tyler paused, noticing what was on the box. "No way."
Justin's face flushed darker.
Tyler looked at Justin with excitement on his face brushing his messy curls from his eyes. "You didn't."
Justin nodded. "It's really what it says."
The gift inside the box was a camera.
"How?" Tyler breathed, tearing open the outside of the box to get to the treasure inside.
"It was supposed to be here before your interview for the internship, but there was a mix-up with the packages. It's an 'I'm sorry' gift for killing your first camera." Justin looked down, suddenly afraid.
"You broke my camera?" Tyler asked, feeling shock run through his system.
Justin never went near Tyler's camera, he hated the thing.
He didn't even take pictures on his phone, ever since Hannah's attempted suicide, he never touched anything even remotely similar to a camera.
"How?" Tyler asked, wanting- needing- to know.
"I just wanted something to eat," Justin began softly and his face flushed red, "I was starving and it was the middle of the night and Cora was staying with me."
(Justin wouldn't admit it out loud, but Tyler knew he had horrifying nightmares about his mother's neglect and her shitty boyfriends, especially Seth. When those nightmares had him waking up with Panic attacks or had him waking up screaming, it was Cora who came to his room to help him calm down. Somehow, she always knew when each of the Pack was in distress, because she was always there for them right on time.)
"I didn't want to wake her up, so I sneaked down here with the lights off. I tripped over something and fell, which miraculously didn't wake anyone up," because after everything that had happened, they were all pretty light sleepers, with exception of Jeff, he was dead to the world when he slept, "so I turned on the light and found your camera in pieces. I guess I crushed it with my body weight. I immediately picked up my laptop and started looking for a new one because I knew how much it meant to you, but I couldn't find one so I had to go out to the store. I meant to tell you, Tyler, I swear, but by the time I'd gotten back, you'd already found it and when I went to tell you the next day, you'd already gone off to your interview and it was too late." Justin glanced up through his own unruly curls and Tyler saw what looked like pure agony in his eyes.
(Omegas were often the ones that felt the most stress from the Pack, especially when one of their own was hurting. It was hardwired into them to keep the Pack safe and happy, so they often tired their damnedest to make sure the Pack was well cared for and that often meant they put the most blame on themselves and felt the most pain and stress.)
Tyler wanted to be angry, that was his camera, the one thing out of everything in the world he couldn't live without. But with Justin looking at him with those sad puppy-dog eyes, Tyler just didn't have the heart to stay angry. He smiled. Soft and small, "It's okay."
Justin's blue eyes snapped up, shock and surprise coloring his pale face. "What?"
Tyler backed up a pace and set his new camera's box on his bed, then stepped forward again and took Justin's hand. "It's okay, I promise. I'm not going to hit you. God knows you've had enough of that already. It's fine, it was an accident and I don't blame you for it. I mean, you could've told me sooner, but it's alright. Really." Tyler promised.
(If someone had told Tyler's Junior-year self that he'd be in a Pack with some of the people he'd hated in high school, he'd have laughed and told them to get lost, but if someone had told him he'd be comforting one of the jocks who'd bullied him in high school, he'd have recommended a CAT scan and a psychiatrist.)
Tyler smiled and Justin gave him a small smile back, complete with the same sad puppy-dog eyes and Tyler chuckled softly under his breath. "Now wipe the sad puppy-dog eyes off your face, I want to take some picture and I've decided you're gonna be my model."
Justin's eyes lit up like Christmas lights and Tyler's smile grew.
(Despite his aversion to taking pictures, if someone in the Pack wanted to take his picture, Justin would let them because it made them happy and that made Justin happy.)
Justin's face pinched for a second, like he was thinking, then he spoke, "You want to go to the park? I was out there earlier and it was really pretty."
Tyler nodded, "Perfect for a photo shoot," he teased.
Justin tugged at the threadbare sweatshirt he was wearing, a gift from Cora, and frowned. "Do you want me to change? This isn't exactly photo material."
Tyler shook his head. "Only if you want to. I know you like your hoodies and sweaters."
(Every person in the Pack had a thing they loved just as much as they did the rest of the Pack. For Tyler it was his camera, for Tony it was his cars. Justin loved to wear his sweaters and hoodies any time he could get away with it, and even times he technically shouldn't."
Justin thought, then nodded. "Let's go."
Tyler unboxed his camera and quickly set it up, picking up the bag he kept the camera in when he wasn't using it and setting the new object inside. He looked up as he settled the bag on his shoulder and gestured for Justin to lead the way.
Justin quickly made his way outside and after telling Cora where they were going, Tyler followed just as quickly.
They walked the short distance across the street to the park and Justin glanced at Tyler. "How am I doing this?" he inquired.
Tyler waved a hand vaguely. "Just kinda do what you'd normally do, walk around or something and I'll get the shots as they come to me."
Justin smiled and rushed for the stairs to the monkey bars. As he began climbing around, Tyler smiled at his childlike actions. Tyler wondered if Justin had ever really had an honest-to-God actual childhood, then quickly pushed that thought away when he decided the answer was no.
"You're looking great!" Tyler called as Justin moved on to the merry-go-round.
Justin waved to show that he'd heard as Tyler unpacked his camera.
He watched for a few moments, just to find inspiration, then raised the camera to his eyes.
Tyler smiled and pressed the button.
Click.
(1) So, most common type of magic is the Elemental magic, the second most common being Mental Magic. The rarest types of magic are Arcane Magic, Illusionists, and Persuasions. Justin's magical abilities are quite literally as rare as Hell freezing over because he can make people do as he asks without him actually asking. All he has to do is make eye contact (no barriers) and think it and he's got an army at his command if he wants it.
(2) Jessica was under the impression that she was a Beta until she hit 16 years old and her first Rut came in. Since then, her parents tried to teach her, but they could only do so much, since Jessica came from a family of Betas. Cora's been doing what she can, but Jessica still isn't ready to properly Mark an Omega yet, so until she is, Cora keeps a Scent Mark (same thing as a regular Mark just without the actual Mark or Bond) on Alex so other Alphas know he's not up for taking.
(3) There are rules in place for people who are Magical to stay safe and not hurt each other. When in a Pack, these rules are put in place by the Pack Alpha, in this case Cora. One of Tyler's rules is that he can use his Enhanced senses on the others, but the consequences of what he sees and hears are his own and he's never to do it more than five minutes at a time.
