Original: sorcerersacademy (link in profile)
Prompt: 12 - Take a Chance
Fanfiction of Sorcerer's Academy's original characters. Please feel free to leave reviews and criticisms of the writing, but direct comments about characters, prompt or original world to original author. I do not own these characters.
There was a test coming up, which was why Isaiah and Gage were sitting in Gage's bedroom, trying to study. Gage's small bedroom wasn't anything like Isaiah's opulent suite at the mansion, but the normalcy of the room was in some ways far more comforting to Isaiah. What it lacked in french doors to the balcony and ancient four poster beds, it made up for in posters of hot girls and knick-knacks Gage had collected over the years. You could tell a teenage boy lived in this room with the dirty clothes piled in the corner and junk food stashed on the shelves. There weren't any subliminal reminders for oppressive family obligations at every turn.
Isaiah should've been focusing on the textbook in front of him. He didn't need to pass to stay in Glendale - being a Necchi saw to that - but he'd still get an earful at home about disgracing the family name, so it wasn't like he had any less incentive to study than Gage. But, there was something else intruding on his thoughts.
And that something else was the shapely figure of Cybele Wilson.
That brown hair spilling past her shoulders and down her back, those eyes that made him think of drowning in a pool of hazelnut chocolate, and skin that he imagined would glow under the kiss of moonlight. He sighed longingly for the umpteenth time, wondering what it would be like to kiss the crook of that neck. Ever since the project they worked on a couple weeks ago, Isaiah hadn't been able to stop thinking of the girl.
There was so much about her that fascinated him, far beyond her ethereal looks. Cybele hadn't known about the magical world until very recently. Such a revelation must've shocked her existence to its very core. He wondered, how had she reacted when she'd first found out? With her quiet optimism behind that screen of hostility, he could imagine her standing steady in the face of such an earth-shattering change; wanting to make the best of it. There was a wild, fresh strength about her that he just couldn't look away from. She intrigued him immensely.
He sighed wistfully again, thinking about how her eyes shone with soft affection for her friends. Would that shine get brighter towards someone she had feelings for? Or would that shine darken into a more lustful, sly glance. It got his blood boiling. It wasn't like he didn't have his pick of the pack. It certainly wasn't like him to moon after a girl - especially one that seemed so ordinary at first glance. But, Cybele was strange in the way that she subtly fought against the oppression of women in their community. Others avoided the unusual girl, which only made him more curious about her.
And he could only imagine the outrage from his family if he had passed up all the matches they'd hinted at over the years to choose a freak like her. That alone made him grin gleefully. Everyone would be scandalized that a Necchi was courting a troublesome girl like her. They'd say he was wasting his time or that she'd done something untoward to get his attention, but he didn't care. In fact, all that made him relish the idea of Cybele all the more.
Isaiah was pulled from his thoughts abruptly when Gage asked, "You okay?"
"Uh, yeah. Why?" Isaiah shook his head to clear his thoughts from Cybele in vain.
"You've been making weird faces. Sighing and then grinning like an idiot. Something on your mind?" Gage queried.
Isaiah hesitated. Should he tell Gage what he was thinking of doing? Gage had a tendency to be a surprisingly good listener. Well, if he couldn't tell his best friend, then who could he tell?
Isaiah grinned sheepishly, "I'm thinking of asking someone out."
"Oh yeah? Who?" Gage blinked. Unknown to Isaiah, Gage's chest tightened a little.
"Cybele…," Isaiah sounded out the name slowly, waiting for Gage's reaction.
That knot in Gage's chest loosened and he grinned, surprising Isaiah with the response, "The weird girl? Sounds like you. When are you going for it?"
"Not sure yet," Isaiah muttered.
There was a beat of silence between the friends and then Gage questioned slowly, "Are you… nervous? Isaiah Necchi nervous that a girl will say no?" Gage started chuckling as Isaiah threw him an annoyed look.
Instead of letting anger overtake him at Gage's laughter, Isaiah snorted and shook his head, "Shut up. Like you said, she's weird. So who knows."
Gage smothered his laughter, trying to be considerate of Isaiah's clearly vulnerable feelings. It was strange to see Isaiah even mildly concerned about his dating life. Gage assured him, "Don't worry, man. What girl doesn't like you, right? She'll say yes."
"Yeah, you're right. She'll say yes," Isaiah nodded with a self-assured look on his face. Gage snorted to himself, glad that his friend's momentary self-doubt had passed so easily. Isaiah was nothing if not overly confident in himself. As Isaiah dragged his eyes back to his textbook, he asked, "So what's the test on again?"
x-x-x
It was a couple days later, when Gage took note of how Isaiah had kept checking the clock during the entire class. Once they were out in the hallway, Gage asked, "What's up?"
"I'm going to do it," Isaiah said, matter-of-factly. He didn't need to say what "it" was.
Gage nodded, almost solemnly, "Not that you need it, but good luck, man. Takes courage to ask a girl out, even when you know she's going to say yes." Gage was thinking about a dark beauty that he wish he had the balls to confess to with as much self assurance as Isaiah had. But then, he was much more likely to be turned down than Isaiah Necchi, especially if he asked someone as beautiful and popular as Lila.
Isaiah grinned at his friend and waved a quick goodbye as he made his beeline towards Cybele's favorite hangout - the library.
There she was. A stack of books were piled in front of her as she tried to read her way through years of magical knowledge so that she wouldn't be at such a disadvantage from her classmates. No doubt Lila had helped her figure out which books to read because some of those tomes were quite thick and dusty…
He cleared his throat to garner her attention. She looked up, blinking rapidly as if arising from a dark hole to see the sun again.
"Hey Isaiah. What's up?" she asked casually, a smile curving her lips. Another thing he liked about her: she talked to him like they were equals; she didn't defer to him like a servant. Maybe Cybele was right in that the magical world was missing out on something by not allowing their women to harness their own strength.
"Go out with me," he commanded; nerves making him fall back on bad habits.
A Necchi has only to command to get what he wants, his father's voice murmured in some corner of his mind.
"What?" Cybele's voice squeaked a little. Her flustered expression was even more alluring with that flush of red across her cheekbones and the thrill in her eyes. She wondered if she'd misunderstood him.
"I want to date you," Isaiah replied, grinning as he caught sight of the delighted smile she tried to hide.
Cybele was anything but a girly-girl. She didn't get gushy and stupid when a cute boy asked her out - she didn't! At least she wanted to believe that, but Isaiah's sudden proposal caught her off-guard and she couldn't help but feel warm inside at being asked out.
Those goddamn teenage hormones, Cybele blamed quickly. She'd never admit that in some ways, she was just like any other girl, magical or not.
"Well?" Isaiah prompted when she took too long to reply.
"Um, yeah. I'd like that," Cybele replied quickly, almost afraid that he'd change his mind; but then she scolded herself for thinking such weak thoughts.
Isaiah's eyes softened with warmth and her's responded in kind. He murmured, "Good. How's this Friday after classes?"
"Yeah. Yeah, that works for me," she nodded.
He nodded happily, "I'll pick you up on Friday."
Cybele watched him take his leave and couldn't help but grin stupidly at her books for the rest of the evening. Despite scolding herself repeatedly for doing it, she spent more time daydreaming about Isaiah than about the words in front of her.
Unnoticed by Isaiah or Cybele, they'd had a silent observer. As Isaiah left the library, Asher stepped partially out from behind a shelf of books to watch the sappy expression on Cybele's face. She couldn't see him, which was just as well.
His expression was pinched with even more jealousy than he'd expected to feel...