Peaceful? Anything But.
Summary: Sometimes people get agitated and almost expelled for their anger, unless their best friend calms them down. (4 separate drabbles for the Cyclone)
Based off of: You're always picking fights and I'm the one who has to use my charm and way with words to stop them from getting out of hand.
Disclaimer:: I don't own Scorpion, it's characters, or anything else related to it you get from this.
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Sylvester had just made it around the corner when he saw Megan throw the first punch. She got up and ran from him when she heard the first comment made about her brother, Walter. They were only sophomores, but she was a senior and she'd made a vow to herself at the beginning of the year to protect all of them. Especially her brother. Once the Nike-wearing boy saw her glare, he took of, ripping through the path of students conversing at lockers or replacing Algebra textbooks for European History.
Yelling out her name various times to no avail, the math whiz decided he would have to face his fear and stop her before the rude teenager had anymore blood loss. Breathing deeply, Sylvester jumped in front of Megan, narrowly avoiding her ring-clad fist, and took a firm hold on her shoulders. Quickly he pivoted her around and marched her through the crowd of wide-eyed, loudly whispering kids; luckily the fight hadn't escalated to a point of enough noise being made for a teacher to be alert.
Removing his hands from her backside when they were back by her locker he fixed her with a pointed look before she threw her hands up in exasperation.
"Look I'm sorry. I know I shouldn't have done it but he's my brother, I'd do the same thing for any of you, but Walter's all I feel like I've got." Brown eyes looking anywhere but Sylvester's, he took her face in his hands and brought her eyes to his.
"I understand how angry it can make you, but we're all equipped to deal with it by now. Chances are they were speaking of me and Toby and Happy as well, and Paige just because she's also our friend. We all know Walter but if he saw what you just did he'd absolutely kill you. We all love you, and none of us want you hurt. Next time just tell one of us or leave it be, you promise me?" His hands hadn't left her face, but he used one of them to put some of her disheveled hair back into place.
"I-uh, fine, I promise." A soft smile fell upon her face as she leaned into his side, both of them walking to their next class together.
(No one ever actually told Walter.)
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Paige didn't condone what Walter was doing, but she was also impressed (not that she'd tell him.) She'd gotten used to the tech savvy junior sorting his battles through the computer, either dropping their grades, or even sending a simple virus to someone's PC if they'd really done something particularly bad. So when he threw a mean right hook into Mark Collins' face, it took her mind a minute to process the fact that Walter O'Brien was totally beating someone up.
He'd suddenly remembered every self-defense technique his dad had ever taught him: blocking, punching, elbowing, everything. Walter didn't even want to fight the kid, but he'd been prodding since the beginning of the year, trying to weasel his way into their group forever, and they were all sick of it but Walter happened to be the one of them to finally explode. Landing another hit to the left side of Collins' unshaven face, Paige stepped up, trying desperately to separate the two teenage boys.
"Walter! Walter!" Prying the genius away by the collar of his button-up, she put her own body in-between the two boys, all three of them breathing heavily. Her hand had a firm grip on his wrist as she pulled him towards his worn-down car, but in doing so he was able to push Mark to the ground again. His back slammed into his car with a wince and she immediately started yelling at him.
"You do realize you can be expelled, right? Walter I've never seen you get physical but if you start now I swear to God." His smile was weak, but genuine.
"I'm sorry, okay? At least this kept Happy from doing it, there'd be no stopping her." He stated, chuckling low. Paige sighed and softly grabbed his hand, examining the slowly-forming bruises and tiny scrapes that covered the surface of his skilled fingers.
"Toby should have a look at your hands." She continued to stare down at her boots and she soon felt Walter's arms wrap around her back holding her there silently, kissing her hair.
"I might be getting blood on you shirt." She squealed lightly and removed his arms, spinning around and looking in the side mirror to check for stains. Once she deemed herself okay, she lifted his arm around her shoulder.
"C'mon, we have European History, your favorite." Laughing lightly she mouthed the words he'd said a thousand times before, "Science and math, and, math and science."
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"Happy, not again!" Toby groaned as he hopped up from his seat and chased his short friend down the hallway, shoving through the small mass of kids surrounding her and her unlucky match. It was too late by the time he got there, the boy was holding his nose as she held him up against a locker, yelling in his face about bruising and words and other unintelligible things that had set her off.
Toby's hands tried to pry her away, but she was a strong girl and was able to fight him off of her. Her fist once again connected to the poor-soul's jaw and split his lip before she ungracefully marched away, leaving a stunned group of gossipers behind. Toby glared at the now nearly-unconscious junior before following Happy's path to her locker. The door radiated a ringing noise as she slammed it open, collecting books and papers and thrusting them into her bag; she didn't notice the presence behind her until he shut her locker door much more quietly. Her small body was facing his in less than a second before she picked up her forgotten bag and attempted to storm away from her fedora-clad friend.
He loosely wrapped his hand around her wrist before she stopped in her tracks and spun around, her tempered eyes meeting his questioning ones. His grip fell down to her side where he intertwined their fingers but she didn't pull away and he took that as a good sign.
"You were gone before I could ask you what he said, so what did he say?" Happy looked around for a second before responding.
"He called Sly 'Rain Man.' I said the next person that said anything like that would-" She was cut off by his other hand coming up to her cheek.
"You're getting worked up, breathe." He stated calmly. Counting to ten, Happy spoke again.
"It's just, it bugs me. I get it, but I'm still going to punch whoever says it." Scoffing she leaned her head against his chest and breathed out heavily. A look of pride for her protectiveness over the youngest member of their team adorned his face. He placed his hand in her hair, smoothing it down and feeling a small bump at the back of her head.
"Did that kid get you?" Suddenly angry, he pulled away, looking up and down her figure for bruises.
"He pushed me into the locker before I could use the force to switch us, that was it, I'm fine. Now can I go home, and can you bring me any notes I miss?" Her walls were slowly growing back up, but he forced her to stay for the rest of the day, getting her to comply by kissing her on the forehead.
(She got to stay at his place that night, and he actually got her to talk, or occasionally hit, out every "Rain Man" or "Arrogant" or even the occasional "Slut" thrown her or Paige's way.)
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The Team was waiting by the van for Ralph like normal when Toby caught wind of the first comment. He looked around, whispering to Happy and Sylvester who carried the message on to Walter and Paige. Paige's head turned faster than ever as she started talking to Toby about what he'd heard.
"Just a comment about how Ralph doesn't talk much. It was nothing too bad." He reassured her, but her eyes were glued to the boy in the snapback. Finally making a move, Paige strode forward to collect her son. Sending Ralph back to the van to sit with Cabe and Sylvester, everyone else made their way over to Paige, who was sizing up the boy who looked no older than 13.
"I'd appreciate it if you didn't say anything about my son, okay?" Her tone was slightly menacing, but she wasn't the most intimidating woman on the planet.
"Listen, Lady, it was one sentence. Besides, sorry to tell you, but you're kids weird, never talks. Maybe you should teach him how to be normal instead." A coy smile played at the boy's face until he saw the 3 adults rapidly approaching the situation.
"Say something about him again, I dare you." Toby warned, starring the kid down.
"What are you gonna do? Hit me? You forget I'm a kid?" Without giving up, Toby's words only added fuel to the fire as the kid didn't give up.
"He won't, I will. Try me, Hot-stuff." The threatening words escaped Happy's mouth almost too easily, and Walter placed a hand on her arm to keep her back.
"You won't get hit or anything else if you leave Ralph alone. You don't, you can count on repeating eighth grade courtesy of me, okay? Leave Ralph alone." Walter stepped in, and something he said struck a nerve enough for the boy and his friends to walk away.
Strolling back to the car, Walter laid his hand on Paige's lower back in comfort.
"Mom, what happened?" Ralph interrogated his mother once she got back.
"Nothing, Sweetie. Just some mean kids, but you'll always have us here, okay. We love you and I love you."
"I love you too, Mom."
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Okay so I know those last 2 didn't follow the prompt exactly, but hey cut me some slack. Because we all know high schools don't do a whole lot about fighting or bullying or anything they say they do. Sorry. This is also posted on Tumblr and AO3 (as is pretty much everything else on here)