First alpha fanfic! yay! i'm an alex fan for those of you who have not yet guessed. :D erm...tbh, i haven't read the books in ages and sadly i haven't bought them so excuse me if my alpha vocab is not correct! anyways, the fic:
The sky was a beautiful array of colour that evening; as the sun set streaks of purple, pink and yellow fell across it. All that could be heard was birdsong, soft and welcoming in the air and the flow of water rushing in a waterfall nearby, some lazy drivers drove at slow paces, allowing their music too to enter his ears. Paulo lay in a hammock, a slight breeze ruffling his hair, his dreams wondering if heaven could be any different from this.
"Rise and shine, sleeping beauty." He heard a soft voice whisper, he opened his eyes slowly and his handsome face hitched a lazy smile.
"Hello, Li." She smiled at him from behind a water gun.
"Howdy, cowboy." Another voice said and he turned his head to find Amber at the doorway, a water gun in her hands as well. He sighed; they'd cornered him.
"You wouldn't dare." He said simply and shut his eyes again.
"Wouldn't we?" He opened his eyes and jumped so violently that he fell out of the hammock. Everyone laughed as Hex towered above him.
"How'd you do that so fast?" He shouted and stood up again, but realised that one more would come his way and looked wildly around for Alex. "Where is he?" Paulo snarled, knowing his friend would surprise him from somewhere else.
"Yeah Paulo, he's on the roof." Amber said sarcastically as the boy looked up. The three spectators laughed as Paulo tried desperately to search the small confines of the veranda to find Alex.
"Is he even anywhere near here?" He finally gave up. He was about to let his guard down when Li nodded enthusiastically. Unsure of what this meant he walked to where Li stood; separated from him by the rail that lined the veranda. Paulo yelled out as Alex jumped up from behind Li and squirted water with full force into Paulo's face; a clear cue for everyone to drench the boy. Li and Alex jumped over the rail to get a better aim. Once they were fully satisfied with his soaking they stopped and shook their heads in disappointment. "Wha…what?" he said, trying to catch his breath.
"You told Lily you'd meet her at the museum," Li said with overly exaggerated sadness. Paulo's eyes widened as he remembered.
"Don't worry, Amber and I went to help out; she's not too annoyed." Hex said.
"Then what's with this punishment?" Paulo squeezed water out of his t-shirt. Alex shrugged.
"It was just funny." The usually serious look on Alex face was gone, he grinned at his friend apologetically.
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever," he slid back into the hammock, "I'm going back to sleep; I'll apologise to Lily when I see her." He shut his eyes.
"So that'll be in about two minutes." Amber said and Paulo looked at her. "There's another protest tonight." Paulo smiled; there was a wonderful sense of communal freedom whenever they protested.
Alpha force had come to Peru just over a week ago and in that time they had been trekking in the rainforest of the Amazon Basin for a week. Once they had finished they had planned on travelling back to the US to stay with Amber but they had come across the plight of the town they were in now. Abancay was a city just outside of Cusco; a place famous for its history involving the Inca empire. The economy of Peru has always been slow in development and in this city one of the main sources of income, the Inca Museum, was under threat of closure. Lily, the girl they had met here on their way to the airport, had offered them a place to stay in her home and they had asked to become involved in preventing the museum being shut down. Many of the people in this part of the city worked in or for the museum; losing their jobs means a loss of incomes for their families.
"Alright, let's get going." Alex said and put his water gun down before turning away from the group, when he noticed they had not followed he turned back. "What?" he asked in question to their sly smiles.
"Someone's a little eager." Li said and winked as she walked past him.
"Yeah, give the rest of us a chance." Paulo ran after Li.
"She'll still be there when we get there Alex," Amber smiled at him even when he still looked uncomprehending. Though he was grateful when Hex passed him and shrugged. "Come on Alex!" Amber shouted, he jumped over the rail of the veranda and down to the car.
By the time Alpha had got to the museum the first few stars had arrived in the sky. Due to the poor electrical supply to this part of town, the street lights had not turned on, all that was illuminated with electrical lights was the museum, and the people in the streets were plunged into candlelight. Alpha force had become accustomed to the way things were run here; they'd only been in the town for two days but everything had become familiar as Lily had shown them around a lot. There was the soft murmur of music from a coffee shop and everyone was sitting around, talking lazily to one another. This was probably the oddest thing about the place; alpha force were used to action and thrills on their adventures, this was the only place they had come to were the people were relaxed. Even though they were about to lose everything, there was a happiness in just being outside together.
"Hex! Amber!" They heard a voice shout and turned, "Paulo, Li," the girl said as she ticked them off. "Alex," she smiled at him and he'd become increasingly annoyed at the way his heart would jump into his throat every time she smiled at him; it made it difficult to say much.
"Hey Lily," He said with much effort. Her bright brown eyes glanced around at them all.
"A chairman from the ISOC institute is coming today," lily informed them; ISOC was the company responsible for trying to shut down the museum. "He's going to give the final verdict." They all smiled at the way she grew nervous and excited; it was odd to find a teenager who cared so much for a museum. Lily was originally from Peru, her parents were very wealthy and sent her to school in England when she was six; she was one of the only people in this city to have ever stepped outside Peru. She came back every summer and this summer she'd come across the plight of the museum. That place holds much of my heritage; I can't see it thrown away or sold to some other place. This is where it came from; it should stay here, with its people. That's what she had told Alpha force and they admired her for it.
"So what're we doing tonight?" Hex said and glanced around, many vans were arriving, and unusual thing in this part of town.
"I think the owner of the museum, Mr Aldama, is going to give a speech." She said happily, "News crews have arrived today; we made enough of a fuss." Two young children ran past in a hurry, she shouted something to them in Spanish and they stopped running, Paulo added something and they looked terrified for a moment. Lily laughed and Paulo grinned at her.
"So what're we, doing tonight?" Amber repeated Hex's question, lily looked thoughtful.
"I'm afraid there isn't much left to do, apart from serve drinks organize stuff. Sorry," she added as they looked disappointed. But that didn't mean that's all they'd been up to in the past two days; Hex had been up doing much infiltrating of ISOC's systems, Alex and Paulo had driven to their institution on the outskirts of their town and helped Lily uncover some files for her father's research. Li and Amber had helped Lily's mother organize many protests and this needed so much work that both girls were usually exhausted.
"That's fine by us!" Li and Amber said; glad to have a break from the craziness of the past two days.
Alpha force went about odd chores throughout the crowds and town, though there was not much to do and Lily insisted they rest for most of the evening. Everyone dispersed, the girls started off together but soon Li was coaxed away by a boy she had met the day before and Amber saw a jewellery store. That was odd as well; the stores stayed open as long as people were around, there were never strict rules. The boys did well for a while until Paulo found himself amongst a group of giggling girls and Hex found a business man trying to get his laptop to work. Now Alex looked around for them all in a lazy fashion; there was no need to be worried about anything or anyone here, everyone was so familiar with one another that they knew they were safe.
Alex wandered the streets and although it was the evening it was still very warm, he ran a hand through his blonde hair; knowing, but not admitting to himself, what he was looking for. He saw on the ground was a small brown bag, he rolled his eyes; there was a bin less than a meter away from it. He went to pick it up but as soon as he did he yelled out and dropped the bag. It had contained a broken bottle or something because glass had cut deep into Alex's skin. He looked around for some water to clean the wound with but noticed that something grabbed his hand. He looked down and saw Lily inspecting it; the touch of her skin on his made him blush; it was stupid and immature but he couldn't help it.
"Come here Alex." She said softly, he obliged and she and led him to a bench, they sat in silence for a few moments as lily took a small first aid kit out of her bag. He watched her as she took his had and began to clean.
"How do you know what to do?" He said, trying to make conversation, he realised the irrelevance of what he said and bit his lip. She smiled and looked at him.
"Mum, she's a nurse when she's not a house wife." She wiped the blood away. "How're you finding it here Alex?" he took a moment before answering.
"Everything here's really beautiful," he said and she laughed.
"It is isn't it?" She looked up at the sky, "even the stars have some kind of beauty that they don't have in London…" her voice trailed away and Alex looked up too; it was true, the stars twinkled in a way he'd never seen.
"What's that sound?" He'd suddenly noticed music as Lily took out a bandage to wrap around his hand. She looked around to an old woman playing a guitar to two children.
"it's a lullaby," Lily smiled and began to sing. "Mi nina, tiene sueno bendito sea, bendito sea…" her voice was carried away by the breeze so Alex leant further in to listen.
"What does it mean?" He asked and her dark skin reddened as she noticed he was nearer.
"Erm….Sounds of the night surround you. A soft breeze is blowing. Nearby the little fountain is sparkling and flowing. Hush while the cradle's swaying. Swaying and swinging. Listen and hear the song of the Nightingale singing." Alex brushed hair from her face as the wind blew it across her eyes, he leant in further-
"¡Vayamos!" They heard a voice shout, they both jumped and their heads bumped.
"Sorry!" they said in unison and an awkward silence ensued. Both wishing the ground would swallow them up.
"Er…lily?" Alex finally said, "what's everyone…where's everyone…?" Lily looked around and listened to the shouts of everyone, she engaged for a moment with conversation to a teenage boy.
"The announcement is about to be made," she said, Alex began to follow the rest of the crowd but Lilly grabbed his hand. "This ways faster," she said, dragging him in the opposite direction, "trust me."
What're we thinking? Good? Bad? I dunno…review and tell me your thoughts!