Disclaimer: I don't own Huntik: Secrets & Seekers.
(ages: Dante-25; Zhalia-21; Sophie and Lok-16)
LOCATION: VENICE, ITALY: CASTERWILL MANSION
"Lok." Sophie impatiently shook her friend's shoulder. "Lok, wake up."
"Hmm...?" The blond boy yawned, his face still implanted among a mass of textbooks and paper. "Soph, did you say something?" He burrowed his head deeper into his homework and stayed there for a few seconds before bolting upright. "Sophie!"
She laughed and placed her hands on his shoulders. "No mission. Relax. I'm just bored." Her finger tapped his nose gently. "You've been sleeping for almost an hour now, you know."
Lok glared at her with no real anger. "Go bother Dante. Or Zhalia. Cherit, even."
"I can't. She's off on 'personal business' again," Sophie said, finger-quoting. "And who knows where Dante is. LeBlanche and Santiago say I should do some more studying but I've been reading and reading and it's summer! Not that we'd be in school otherwise, but still."
As prodigy Seekers and part of Dante's famous team, Lok and Sophie's education was put on hold, even though they were just sixteen. Officially, they were being home-schooled by Dante and Zhalia (who was just five years older than them, for goodness' sake) with LeBlanche and Santiago occasionally helping. Obviously, Lok preferred it this way and Sophie was always an independent learner, being much farther ahead than her peers, so it didn't affect her much either.
"What about me?" Lok looked offended. "I've been studying since morning. And that's just today!"
"That and sleeping," Sophie said, smiling. "If you hadn't put all of your studies to the last minute, this wouldn't have happened. Your mother was being generous letting you make it up."
Lok winced. "You say that like you mean it."
"You don't? Lok!" Sophie's hands flew to her hips and she took in a deep breath.
"I know, I know. Education is very important, blah, blah, blah..." he quickly said, hoping to cut off her lecture.
Sophie was not amused. "Let's hear what your mother thinks when she sees your grades." She tossed her hair over her shoulder and huffed softly.
"Those aren't even real," Lok said, just a tad desperately. "She won't see them anyway. I got rid of them a long time ago."
"Santiago likes to keep a record. He has a copy of all our assignments and tests. And quizzes," the girl added smugly. It was no secret that while Lok did poorly on his tests - he at least crammed for them the night before - he did...well, extremely poorly on quizzes. Once, when she asked nicely, he admitted to never coming close to passing a single one.
"You'll help me." It was more of a statement than a question but Sophie found herself nodding anyway. "Great. Thanks." He then flashed her a smile so beatific she found herself smiling too. "Let's start Monday, next week."
Sophie laughed.
LOCATION: VENICE, ITALY: DANTE'S HOUSE
"Hello?" Zhalia tapped the back of her cell phone impatiently. "Hello?" The numbers had seemed strangely familiar so she'd answered the call. Maybe she was being prank-called and the sense of familiarity was just déjà vu because she was missing Dante so much.
God, she was pathetic. They weren't even boyfriend-girlfriend dating - not even officially friends! To put it simply, she liked him and he felt the same way. They trusted each other and sometimes had the uncanny ability second-guess each other's thoughts and actions after sharing a quick glance. There was never any 'I like you. Will you be my friend?' or 'Hey. I'm hot; you're hot. Let's be hot together!' between the two of them. Zhalia thought the latter was particularly hilarious, having broken the stupid idiot's nose and of course she'd laughed - well, smirked - hysterically (Could you even smirk hysterically, she wondered briefly and dismissed it just as quickly. If it was possible, she'd done it). Then she'd played wounded and cried tears of laughter, saying the man had attempted rape. Needless to say, that was the last she'd seen of the pervert.
So, yes, Zhalia concluded, back on topic, she was hopelessly clingy and was developing stalkerish tendencies.
And that was how she'd ended up spending the night at Dante's empty house. Zhalia felt her face heat up and pressed her hands to her burning cheeks.
The phone clattered noisily as it hit the floor. Embarrassed at being caught daydreaming - no, apparently the caller had hung up on her.
Zhalia wondered if she was bored enough.
Zhalia blamed Dante's absence and Sophie and Lok's sheer stupidity and utter boringness for how she'd spent the afternoon flirting at the local police station. To her horror, she'd been there for almost an hour with little to no progress. The idiot behind her was ogling her ass (he didn't seem to realize that the shiny glass windows were reflective), and the one in front of her hadn't met her eyes once. She had to admit, it was strangely flattering... Oh well.
"Simplemind. I think you want to show me something. You know, the room-" Damn, she'd forgotten the official term. "- with all the fancy equipment. Tracking stuff, et cetera." Well, this was embarrassing. They both seemed totally confused as to what she wanted. "Forget it." And just in case her mind babbling had somehow lessened the effect: "Simplemind." She repeated the order and considered knocking them out as an extra safety precaution. In the end, Zhalia opted to tell one of them to erase all the footage from within the last two hours and then knocked them out, pouring a generous amount of alcohol on both their shirts and stuffing a can of beer in the closest one's limp hands.
Then Zhalia made a hasty retreat, face flaming.
LOCATION: CASTERWILL MANSION
"I. Am. So. Boreeed!" Lok wailed, fisting his hair and pulling at it fruitlessly.
Sophie didn't even glance his way. Her face was buried in some fantasy book she'd found a few hours ago.
Lok was tempted to just take it away, but even he knew better. He winced and rubbed his head, remembering the first and last time he had attempted that. Unfortunately for him, Sophie had been reading an ancient volume that time - meaning hardcover, thick, dusty, and smelling funny. His poor head hadn't taken her abuse very well. Sophie had apologized frantically and iced the bump for him, but there wasn't much she could've done for the concussion that resulted. She'd almost set the book on fire but turned around and whacked him instead. They had spent the rest of the day stuffing themselves with popcorn and cuddling on the couch, ignoring the movie that was most likely just on for background noise.
Popcorn. Yum. He rubbed his stomach sheepishly a second before it growled. Huh. So he could kind of predict the future. Maybe he just needed a little more practice.
Sophie will bring me food, he chanted mentally, Sophie will bring me food. Sophie will bring me food. Sophie will -
"Lok, what are you doing?" Sophie had now backed a considerable distance away from him and was now peering at him cautiously.
"Oh. Nothing." His ears burned. He considered asking her. "Are you hungry too?"
"That's it? No. Get it yourself. You're a perfectly capable boy. Go on. Shoo."
Lok gaped at her. "You don't want to bring me food?"
"You mean feed you?" Her nose wrinkled cutely. "Ew."
Ego wounded, Lok trudged to the kitchen, head hanging low.
Sophie turned back to her book.
Lok popped back in a matter of seconds, holding a chocolate-frosted cupcake up in the air. "Hey, Sophie, you know that it's almost Zhalia's birthday?"
"Is it?"
Lok smiled triumphantly; he had finally caught her attention. "Kind of. Exactly a month from tomorrow. She keeps diaries." Lok promptly slapped a hand over his mouth. "Don't tell her I know," he mumbled through his fingers. Zhalia would kill him. Not only that, she would drag out his death as long and as painfully as possible, then find a way to reincarnate him and do it again and again and again... Lok shuddered.
"Oh?" Sophie smiled evilly. "What else did it say?"
"What happens if I tell you?" Who will you tell?
"Nothing. I'll just be one really, really, really happy girl." Sophie stressed the word 'girl', smiling innocently.
"Not much." Lok still looked cautious. "It was from a long time ago. I forgot the year, but it was mostly just Zhalia complaining about how Klaus thought a promotion and some money was a good birthday present. I think she was upset because some guy broke her wrist and they didn't have time to heal it and it healed wrong so she had to rebreak and then heal it. I remember 'cause she wrote with her left hand and the letters were huge and formed all wrong. Did you know she writes backwards - mirror backwards - with her left hand? At the end, her handwriting was better but she signed with Tnalio (not backwards)."
"Really? What else did you read?"
Lok shrugged uncomfortably. "It was from a long time ago, like I said. There were other ones but that was the most recent. I think she carries one with her or hides it or something."
"What did you read? Show me." Sophie's smile was alarmingly huge.
"Stuff about being torn between the Organization and the Foundation. Stuff about her feelings." Lok gulped. "About Dante. And stuff."
"Oh. Cool." Sophie tried to keep her voice normal. "Will you show me?"
Lok bolted.
LOCATION: DANTE'S HOUSE
Zhalia lay on Dante's bed, face buried in his pillow. There was his pillow and there was her pillow. She used to have nightmares and Dante insisted on helping. She hated sleeping pills and was killing herself with caffeine so this was the solution. Hers smelled like her shampoo and his smelled like...well, him. She breathed in deeper. It was wet. God, were those tears? She touched her cheek and licked a finger. Salty.
Okay, that decided it for her. She needed a distraction. Her fingers twitched towards her phone yet again but this time she acted on the urge. She called back the mystery caller.
"Hello?"
Zhalia swore her heart stopped beating.
The man on the other line obviously heard her breathing and cleared his throat impatiently. "Ahem. I can hear you breathing, you know."
Say something, she urged herself. "Daddy?"