Ara: Sakra Devanam
Add: MasterMind
Rest are up to you. Ages unmentioned unless within the one-shot, as it's been a while since I've written this and I don't feel like scuffling through his to find it.
Elsword clipped his heels together and gave his brother a sharp look. "Please? Chung's going to laugh at me if I don't come with you. He likes you." Red eyes flashed pleadingly his way, which the elder brother pointedly ignored. Instead, Add just peeled his orange.
Add rolled his eyes. "Huh. Sure." His eyes scanned sentence after sentence, although nothing was really registering in his brain. He couldn't really read when others watched him. It was unnerving. He placed a slice of orange into his mouth – oranges were literally the only fruit he loved.
"Stop being so pessimistic! It's just one party, bro. I mean, how hard can it be?" The fiery-redhead crossed his arms and gave Add a heated glare. Add decided to tune the boy out. After all, he did get incredibly annoying when it came to those conformist parties Elsword always wanted to go to.
"Go with Elesis," He waved Elsword off, flipping the page of his book. Elsword protested, but it was a dim noise in the background as Add tried to focus futilely on his book. "Just leave me alone, Els. Stop talking," He commanded when Elsword failed to stop flapping his mouth.
He muttered something incoherent under his breath, but the younger boy stalked away. Hopefully to find his older sister.
Of course, he wasn't really related to the Siegharts. He was adopted at the age of six into their family, so it was pretty much like the real thing. He and Elsword got along great, well, mostly, although his relationship with Elesis was strained. She never really did like him.
Not that Add particularly minded. She was whiny. He flipped another page, and suddenly heard footsteps coming nearer. Curious, he looked up. Elesis towered over him (She was pretty tall… You know, when he was sitting) with her hands on her hips. "Why aren't you going to the party with Elsword?" She sounded a little angry and disappointed in him. Exemplary family bonds, right here.
"Oh no, not you too," Add groaned, putting his book down.
"Oh my gosh, he put his book down! Even I couldn't make him do that! You're pretty scary, Elsa," Elsword popped his head out behind her, a mischievous glint in his eyes. Add pushed his book further down the cream-colored couch and sighed. Of course.
"I don't want to go to a party filled with 16 year-old prissies," He informed her, crossing his arms. Elesis was a whiny person, but she could be incredibly intimidating sometimes and it hurt his pride every time she managed to make him do something.
Her red eyes gleamed with unidentifiable fire. "That's not a reason to leave my brother hanging. I can't go, because I have a date with Aren today. Whether you like it or not, little man, you have to go."
Add hated it when she called him 'little man'. He was five days older than her! And a lot taller. She had guts to call him that when she was obviously the runt of the family. So he snorted. "Uh-huh. What if I tell you that you don't need to go on dates with Aren? Heck, isn't the party at his house?"
Elesis didn't even bat an eye. "But he's not hosting it. Chung is. Aren is just nice enough to lend his flat because it's big enough. Plus, the feminine creature asked for you, not for me,"
"Don't call him that," Elsword protested, "It makes him seem girly."
"Are you sure he's not?" Elesis said in synchronization with Add. She glared at him and he smirked at her. "Well, you can't make me go. Maybe if I was high. Then I'd be stupid enough." He reached for his book and made a waving motion with his hands. "Shoo."
Elesis grunted, and the joyous sound of her retreating footsteps made him a little giddy inside. Now, for the little one. "Go away, Elsword."
"Please?"
"No."
"Please?"
"No."
"Eve's gonna be there."
"…"
Crap.
Such is how the anti-social 21 year-old Add found himself in the extremely unlucky position of being in a high school party. Lovely. People were already sweating, and some people were even high.
People bumped into him in all directions and it annoyed him. They were all stinky and – holy cow – was that a clown? What the hell was a clown doing in here? He immediately regretted being born and cursed his unknown mother. What was she thinking, bringing him into this insane world? A girl with wild green hair crashed into him, obviously drunk. She flashed him a sheepishly devilish smile and twirled away, humming to herself.
People are disgusting.
This is why I don't like going out to parties, Add thought to himself, irritated. When he arrived with Elsword, his crazy younger brother disappeared into the crowds and the only people he knew was Chung and a guy named Raven. He hadn't seen both guys since the party started, but they'd be drunk or something. Ew.
He located Raven moments later, looking exasperated. The girl with unruly green hair was saying something to him, proudly showing him a glass. Luckily he didn't appear to be drunk; otherwise his reputation in Add's eyes would've gone down a lot. Chung was still nowhere to be seen and neither was Eve.
Maybe his interest in Eve was a little too high – but hey, he was a curious adult. She was interesting, he was interested. Besides, everybody looked the same to him right now. Heaps of sweaty, disgusting bodies milled around. No wonder Eve couldn't be seen. If she had an ounce of dignity, she'd have skipped out. But that meant Elsword lied, and he'd have some butt-kicking to do.
Ugh. Now what was he to do? Narrowly avoiding a thrown beer glass, he sighed. Aren was going to bitch so much when he comes home to this.
Suddenly a girl with purple hair bumped into him, her drink sloshing all over him.
His memory for the rest of the party was hazy. Add distinctly remembered drinking water out of a cup to clear his mind and thinking, Wait, this isn't water (*)
When he opened his eyes, all he saw was a mixed array of colorful rainbow lights dancing around and little footsteps. Groggily getting up, he saw a bunch of litter on the floor. Cups, food, plates, shoes, rubber clown noses, faux reindeer fur. Where did all this come from? Then he remembered Oh yeah, the party. Wait a minute!
Realization dawning over him, he leapt up from the couch he was passed out on. This was definitely Aren's apartment. Well, crap. Where was Elsword? Add curiously looked around – well, Elsword wasn't here now. That little mofo had just left without him! Scowling, he hobbled over to the kitchen just as he heard some rattling.
And at the kitchen – whoop de doo – was Aren's little sister, Ara Haan. Okay, now this was beyond awkward. He'd been classmates with Ara since 8th grade, and it had always been uncomfortable whenever they conversed. Ara was anti-social and shy (at least back then – he had no idea about her now) and he used to be arrogant and outgoing.
"Hey."
Ara jerked, and then turned around to face him, surprise evident on her face. She relaxed. "Oh. Hi." Okay, still awkward, Add decided. "Um… are you feeling any better? You were out pretty bad…" Ara asked him quietly, pushing a bag of groceries onto the counter.
"I'm fine. Where is my asshole of a brother?"
"Oh… Um… He left."
Add mentally and verbally cursed. The hell?! Ara quickly mumbled, "Well, he was pretty drunk too. He left with ah… Aisha." She tipped the bag over and food spilled out.
Okay, so his brother left him for the bratty purple-head. Yeah, gonna have to talk with Elesis about this, Add thought. Ara glanced at him for a couple seconds and then started to sort out the food. Underage drinking, too. Maybe if Elsword pleaded guilty, he wouldn't have to tell Elesis.
Ara put the veggies and fruits and other stuff into the refrigerator and then turned to face him, agitated. "Sorry. I couldn't find anybody willing to take you home…" She surveyed the mess in the living room and winced. "Nobody was willing to help pick up either…" She looked and sounded like a lost puppy.
Feeling sympathetic, he sighed and said, "I'll help. I mean, it's the least I can do for crashing at your place, right?"
Ara nervously chuckled and said, "You made most of this mess, so…"
Wait. What?
"Huh?"
"D-do you not remember? You were saying something about wisdom teeth and tolerance for idiocy," Ara said unhelpfully.
Then it came crashing back to him.
Ooooookaaayyy. That was pretty stupid of him. He could only remember bits and pieces, but he was pretty sure he'd told the purple-haired girl that she was an overgrown eggplant, and she'd agreed. "I'm never coming to another one of Chung's parties again," He promptly told Ara. Ara just nodded, moving to stash the paper bag under the sink.
And then he muttered, "Lord, please give me patience because if you give me strength I'm about to slap a bi-" He coughed, rudely cut off by himself.
"What did you say?" Ara asked hesitantly. Add snapped his head back up and muttered a denial.
And so, the next hour was spent picking up trash. Ara found a shoe in a flowerpot, and he found a Christmas hat under the couch cushion. "Aren's gonna flip if he saw this," He muttered to himself.
The girl next to him bobbed her head sheepishly. "He'd flip if he saw anything out of place," She admitted. Add had to admit this girl had guts, living with her germaphobe older brother. He shook a pillow, not even blinking when a coffee mug crashed onto the floor out of it. Ara was entertaining, he had to admit. She did reveal a lot about Aren (Which was plausible blackmail material) but most of all she was educated, unlike most girls (*coughElesiscough*)
And then the door opened, Ara in mid-shake of a cushion and him holding a slice of half-eaten pizza. Aren's eyes glazed over both of them, looking at the whole room in confusion. He immediately held the pizza away from himself and dropped it. "It wasn't mine, I swear," Add said.
Nobody spoke. Then Ara slowly shook the cushion, causing the popcorn pieces on it to drop to the floor.
And thus, Chung was banned from ever having a party at Aren's place EVER again. Can't say he was displeased, but that kid had a pretty disappointed face on when Aren told him the unfortunate news. And then Elesis had dragged himto university for the first time in like, what, three months? Yep, definitely failing at this point.
Add sighed, flopping back on his chair as Ariel said something about trash and littering. Now, if radioactive penguins existed, perhaps people would give a damn, but there aren't any disfigured penguins, unless sea elephants count. Which they probably don't, considering the major difference between the two.
Ara fidgeted next to him. She looked largely uncomfortable at the topics Ariel was getting into – which, by the way, was far off the topic of a humorous monologue – and was fiddling with her fingers. She, Add decided, was the most innocent human being he'd ever met before.
"We have to save the squirrels before we have the apocalypse," Ariel finished, waving her three-page monologue proudly in the air. One polite person – Ara – clapped uncertainly, and others just snorted. Ariel didn't seem to notice.
"Why do you clap for her? She literally jumped from the waters underneath the sewers to road kill," Add asked Ara. She ducked her head and sheepishly said, "Well… She worked hard on it."
He snorted. "Hard my a-"
"Quiet!" The teacher growled from the corner of her desk, staring sharply at him. Add held his hands up in mock defeat and she gave him the 'I'm watching you' signal. At that moment, the bell rang, and everybody scrambled up to get their stuff.
Well, look at that, he marveled as he bumped into an incredibly short girl. Turned out the purple eggplant girl is in his class. She glanced at him, and then her mouth flopped open. "You!" She accused immediately, pointing a finger at Add grandly.
"Me," He agreed. Add pushed her aside and walked into the hallway. He didn't want to hear what miss Eggplant wanted to say to him, so maybe he should keep walking – oh, no, wait. It's lunch.
Ennnngggh.
A timid tap on his shoulder, and Add jerked around. Ara stared at him with bright eyes, and was nervously holding a paper in her hands. "U-um… Can you help me with this? I'm going to the library now, and I thought… I mean, you don't have to."
He shrugged. "Meh, I'm fine with that." Anything to get away from Miss Eggplant, who was staring at him like she wanted to kill him. He'd probably want to kill the person who'd called him an eggplant, too.
When they got in, Ara went to a shady corner, nestling herself in. She flipped out her paper, and then glanced at Add. "C-can I start reading?"
"Sure," He said, waving his hand dismissively. He didn't have a report since an unintelligent carrot (Huh, seemed like he unconsciously nickname people after fruits/vegetables he hated, which is like, almost everything) dragged him here without his permission.
She started, and halfway in Add realized that he was actually listening to everything she was saying. Huh. Weird. He was, that is. Not Ara.
But that monologue Ara was reading was ridiculous. Add was doubled up with laughter by the time she finished, and he could tell she was surprised. "Now that," He wheezed, "is a comedic monologue."
She brightened. "You think so?" Then she leaned closer to him, staring intently at my face. Add leaned backwards as she came closer, incredibly confused, and then she sat back, smiling.
"What the heck was that, Miss Orange?" He asked, the nickname appearing in his mind as that happened.
She grinned shyly. "Um…
You know, you should really smile more often."
The orange part makes more sense if you remembered what happened in the beginning, or if you go back to the beginning.
*: The missing period is intentional.