A/N: Sooooo… how you doing?

What was that? Oh, I'm a bad author and took too damn long to update? And I suck? Hey, dammit, you cannot throw virtual tomatoes at me! NOT COOL, BRO! NOT COOL!

…Fuckery aside, I know this is over a month late. For that, I apologize. Some real life stuff happened, but the next few updates will probably come faster. However, if they don't, I'll tell you what's happening now in case it takes a little while for updates to be posted:

My mom has a brain aneurysm, and is having surgery for it within the next couple of weeks. I'm not saying this for sympathy, I just want you guys to know that it just might take more time for me to update. However, within those weeks, I want to get to at least chapter 11 before I go on any sort of hiatus. With that said I don't have much planned for the next chapter, so I have a favor to ask of my lovely reviewers; in your review, give me an idea for the next chapter? Whichever one I like best I'll make the next chapter, and give that person a shout out in the next AN. I know it's not much of a compensation for my absence, but I do promise more update to come.

Soooooo, without further ado, fair winds, and enjoy the chapter!

The Past Unforgotten

•FOUR•

Rumble in the Monkey Bar Jungle

•

Aura, despite her upbringings, always had had a thing for the urbanized lifestyle. It fascinated her; like when her, her parents and aunt would take their yearly trip to San Francisco to march in Pride. Everything was so beautiful, colorful, and lively, unlike her rural hometown. She especially liked when her aunt, Agatha, would take her to Sweet Amoris where the fairy-like woman resided- their park was especially lovely, and was a wonderful mixture of the wilderness she was accustomed to and city life. It was one of the rare things that got the young girl bouncing where she stood, and she looked forward to it every fall and spring.

This day, a Saturday, was going to be particularly wonderful- or at least, she hoped. She knew Ken was nervous by the way he was pressing the tips of his pointer fingers together impatiently, a deep frown engraved on his rounded face. Normally, he loved to meet new people, even if they didn't exactly reciprocate that excitement.

Before the blonde could question the younger boy, her aunt's pink minivan came to an abrupt halt. Aura and Ken were both thrusted forward without warning, the small boy yelping in surprise when his forehead was introduced to the back of the neon pink, pleather driver side's seat. Aura quickly unfastened the belt around her torso and pulled herself slightly over the passenger's seat, just in time to witness an enraged mother and her daughter, no older than four, paralyzed in front of the car. After some polite words were exchanged, the woman drug her terrified child into the park entrance, Agatha sticking her tongue out at her as she retreated.

To this day, Auta had no fucking clue where this woman got her driver's license.

"Alrighty, kiddies- can I trust you to behave while I'm in the boutique? I'll only be gone for maybe twenty minutes, thirty, tops." Aura nodded her head, considering the alternative was standing there awkwardly while Agatha held bras up to her chest; she seriously doubted she was mentally prepared for the unbridled horror, not to mention Ken.

"Yeah, yeah. We'll be OK." She huffed as she slid out of her seat, stretching her arms above her head when her small feet touched the ground. Ken, albeit hesitantly, fallowed suit. She walked around the side of the car to greet him, bumping him with her hip once she was at his side. He was looking on at the park in trepidation, his hands tied in a sweaty knot behind him.

"Um… are you sure it's a good idea to just… l-leave us here?" He said, looking up at the much taller woman. Aura couldn't help but grimace slightly at the nearly thirty-year-old's appearance; pink victory rolls, an even brighter pink circle skirt, mint green stilettos topped with a matching cardigan. If there was one thing Agatha Zander couldn't quite seem to grasp, it would have to be the concept of coordinating wardrobe colors with the seasons. That, and maybe that nearly running over pedestrians was not OK.

"Well… you do know that accepting candy from a creepy guy with gross hair riding a rusty van is a no-no, right?" The boy gulped and nodded, taking an instinctive step closer to Aura. She untangled his hands and laced her fingers with his, giving it a reassuring squeeze. Agatha giggled at Ken's unnerved expression before she crouched in front of him and ruffled his bowl-cut hair.

"Hey, I'm kidding- this place is perfectly safe, I promise you. Parents leave their kids here all the time, and nothing ever happens. You'll be fine, I swear." He gave her a small, meek smile and nodded. Aura released a very long, very dramatic sigh and threw her hands up in the air in aggravation, her boot clad foot lightly kicking dirt at no one in particular.

"Ehhhhhhh… can we be, like, done now? I wanna go throw mulch at people!" She said with a pouty huff as she crossed her arms over her chest. Her aunt quirked a smile, her ruby red lips reviling perfectly white teeth. She tugged on Aura's spotted cheek, her small hands trying desperately to swat Agatha's prying fingers away.

"Yes, you can go now," She giggled, and with a broad smile, circled the two children into her slender arms. Aura immediately began to squirm and writhe in her grasp, only to cause the woman to hug them even tighter.

"Stop, auntie! You smell like a Victoria Secret's exploded!"

She released them, and swatted Aura on the butt as she turned around, already rearing towards the park's entrance. "I'll take that as a compliment!" She called after her, Aura already having grabbed Ken by the hand as she tugged him towards the crowded park. "You two behave, or else we're not getting hot chocolate on our way back!" Ken seemed to take more heed to the threat than Aura did, considering she spun around and made a fart noise at Agatha as she walked across the street to her appointed destination.

The eight year old blonde giggled and spun in a small pile of leaves, the air around them still containing small traces of the summer weather. It was the perfect in-between; not quite cold enough that heavy clothing was a requirement, but cool enough that you weren't sweating buckets every time you stepped outside. And Aura absolutely loved it; Ken, however, thought it to be necessary to wear a sweater, ankle-length cargo pants and a freaking windbreaker. He was her best friend, yes- but that didn't mean she couldn't think he looked like a total guber when it was appropriate.

"Ken, come on!" She said, twirling on her heels until she was facing him again and took both of his hands in her slightly smaller ones. "Nothings gonna happen!" Still, the brunette gulped, his hidden green eyes wide and his palms sweaty. Aura squeezed his hands a little tighter before she pulled him through the remainder of the park, children and parents filling it to the brim.

"You love meeting new people, Cookie Monster! What's the problem?" She said, finally, as she tugged the boy into a sitting position under a looming oak tree. Ken twitched, and nervously pointed to a group of children that looked to be about maybe one grade level older than themselves, the taller boys laughing and throwing fistfuls of mulch at each other and passerby's. The tallest one out of the bunch was a boy in a light blue polo shirt, golden blonde hair and matching eyes. Aura squinted and held a flattened palm to her brow bone, and saw that the boy was tauntingly dangling a doll above a much smaller girl's head. Even though there were several adults surrounding the playground, the situation was being paid no mind.

Looking back on it now, Aura knew it would've probably been more beneficial if she had butted out of this one. Then again, her younger self thought she was fucking Batman, so the vigilante stuff was just kind of her thing.

The freckled blonde narrowed her eyes when she saw the older boy, who she concluded was the victim's older brother, yanked on her hair aggressively, still taunting her with her doll, who she was fruitlessly trying to grab from his hands. Ken turned his head just in time to see Aura huff and cross her arms, her blue eyes never leaving the scene. She nodded to herself before attempting to stand, but Ken grabbed her wrist and pulled her back down.

"Aura- can't we just leave this one alone-"

"I am vengeance!"

"No, you're not! He's a lot bigger than you, Aura! You could get-"

"I AM THE NIGHT!" She locked eyes with Ken, her stare unwavering. As frightening as the girl could be when she was mad, Ken had grown rather accustomed to it, and managed to only flinch on the inside… and only wet himself a little.

"Aura… I just don't want to see you get hurt. Please, just this one time, can you just… not?" Her expression softened a fraction and she sighed through her nostrils. She held his gaze a while longer before she spoke.

"Ken, you know I can't stand seeing people get hurt. I'll behave, I promise."

To be frank, there was no way in hell that he was ever, ever ever going to believe that Aura was capable of behaving. As the boy would later learn, that trait wouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon.

Before he could object, the blonde reached over and poked him roughly in between his eyes. He made a surprised sound as his hand darted to the offended patch of flesh, all the while asking' why the hell she did that', saying' how much it hurt', and 'how big of a fart she was' before he opened his eyes and realized that she was nowhere to be seen.

Goddammit.

Aura, as I mentioned before, thought she was Batman, and no one, not even her bestest friend could convince her otherwise.

She darted in between chatting parents as she locked her eyes on the older boy just as he yanked the doll's arms out of their plastic sockets. The much smaller girl's eyes welled up with tears as the boy dangled the limbs just out of her reach. Aura sneered. She may have despised dolls, but she hated seeing people cry even more.

"Hey! Why do you have to be so mean to her?" She shouted, crouching by the the girl's side and putting a freckled hand on her trembling shoulder. The blonde girl looked at her in surprise, but said nothing as more tears flooded down her cheeks.

Looking at the memory now, the blonde seriously wanted to hop in a time machine and warp the fuck out of space just so she could slap her smaller self, kick Nathaniel in the nuts… brutally, and haul some serious ass out of the park, dragging Ken and herself into the safety of her Aunt's retarded neon minivan.

"What's it to you?" He said, his smirk faltering slightly. He still had the Barbie in his hand, it discarded arms and legs laying on the ground. Chagrinned, Aura realized that the boy was a lot bigger than her, and for some reason, even found herself to be intimidated.

How he turned into the panty-waist he is today, both Aura and Castiel would never know.

"She's your sister! I'm sure your parents wouldn't like to know you're being such an ass!" Speaking of parents, if her father would have heard her say that, she would've been put in time out and banned from the microwave for a month.

…She liked to put her My Little Ponies in there.

"I can do whatever I want to her, you little bitch!"

Whoever would've thunk it that Nathaniel would address a lady in such a manner.

Aura yelped when the aforementioned boy grabbed onto a sectioned of her pin straight, dirty blonde hair and pulled it relentlessly, the force having yanked her so hard she lost her balance and fell forward, catching herself before he face hit the mulch.

"Aura!" She instantly recognized it as Ken's voice as the boy rushed over and put a hand on her shoulder as she stood. She ignored the painful scrapes her hands had received from her small fall, her tiny fists balled at her sides. Noone, and I mean no one, had ever had the balls to stand up to her like that. It was infuriating and oddly endearing, but the latter was outweighed by the sheer hate she now harbored for the lanky blonde child.

Hate that would carry on until she met the boy again, nearly a decade later.

"Don't you have something better to do, Nat?"

The anger drained from her features as she looked up at the intruder in alarm. It was someone she had never seen before, not even in the times she had visited Sweet Amoris. Instantly, a fire engulfed her speckled cheeks as she took in his appearance. Shaggy, inky black hair and the most stunning grey eyes she had ever seen, and a casual, almost uncaring stance to match. He looked to be maybe a year older than her, so he was maybe nine, and yet seemed completely calm and collected.

Aura would later note that Castiel seemed to embody the saying, "With age, come immaturity." Not to mention the the two rivaling boys seemed to switch personalities.

"What do you want, Castiel?" He barked, turning around as he let the doll's mangled corpse fall to the ground. Aura felt her heart flutter in her chest as he locked eyes with her for a split second before looking back to the blonde, slightly taller boy. She almost didn't notice Ken's hand tighten around her shoulder.

"Y'know, Nat; I could easily go tell your dad. I know how mad he gets when you act up." It was unmistakably a threat, one that made Nathaniel's shoulders tense with fear. It made the now matured Aura remember the time she had hid in the boy's locker room seeking a glance at Lys's tattoo, just see a battered and bruised Nathaniel. At the time, the young girl found it to be a formidable threat, but now she realized it was an incredibly low blow.

That was Castiel's thing, she supposed.

"…Whatever." He spat after a moment, visibly shaken as he looked back one final time at his sister. It made Aura remember just why she had come over her in the first place; the girl at her side looked completely awestruck, her bright eyes wide and cheeks rosy, an expression that wasn't unlike her own.

However, her moment of love sickness ended when it finally hit her; she was unable to defend herself.

She had been ousted.

She had turned into the damsel in distress.

This… this was completely insulting.

For some reason, she found herself unable to voice her distaste as Castiel bent down and gathered the doll in his hands, seamlessly placing its limbs back into its sockets like he had down this a thousand times before. With a small smile, he knelt down in front of the girl Aura would later recognize as Amber, her small, shaky hands taking the doll from his grasp.

"Better?"

She opened her mouth to respond, but then turned her head to the side to shoot Aura and Ken a hateful glance, as if they were interrupting an extremely intimate moment.

Even as an adorable little girl, she was still a greedy little bitch.

"Much." She said as she looked back to Castiel, nodding her head vigorously with a smile. He looked almost uncomfortable at the smile she was giving him, and was visibly relieved when a much older woman approached them, calling the girl's name as she walked.

"Amber, dear, time to go!" She shouted, her hands cupped around her mouth as a makeshift megaphone. A pout formed on her lips as she opened her mouth to protest, but shut it when she looked and saw a man, presumably her father, standing by the woman with a firm hand on his wife's shoulder. Nathaniel stood next to him, his arms crossed with a foul expression on his face.

"I…T-thank you, Castiel!" She said in a hurried tone as she jolted upright, darting towards her parents with her doll hugged to her chest. Aura watched as she went, unimpressed with what little of the girl's personality she had witnessed.

"I totally had that, y'know." She couldn't help but sneer, her sleeved arms firm over her chest. Ken still stood next to her, his hand now at his side instead of her shoulder, his mouth agape. The black haired boy didn't seem to take her words to heart as he took a step towards her, a small smirk on his lips.

"It totally looked like it." Her lips twisted into a pout as she kicked mulch at him, turning her head to the side with a 'hrmmf'. She tried to keep her heart from doing that weird thing it did earlier as he laughed and ruffled her hair, laughing even harder as she slapped his hand away.

"Hey, don't make that face. You're too cute for that."

The only people to have ever called her cute were her parents and aunt; not even Ken, who complemented her whenever he had the chance. She felt her jaw drop as she looked at him with widened eyes, her cheeks pink as all anger left her expression. He smiled again and finally took notice to Ken, who was standing at a distance behind Aura. If she would have turned around, she would have seen him almost glaring at the older boy.

"Well… I hope to see you around…uh, what was your name again?" He sheepishly scratched behind his head with a lopsided grin. It was hard for her to even form intelligent thought, let alone words.

"H-her name… her name is Aura!" Ken suddenly barked from his place behind her. She was snapped out of her daze and whirled around to look at him, shocked to see his fists balled into angry knots as he locked eyes with Castiel. Even though he was trying his hardest to appear tough, he still shook slightly as he spoke.

"O…k…?" He was able to choke out, raising a questioning brow. He glanced back at Aura before he offered her one last grin.

"Well, Aura. Hope to see you around." He spun on his heel and began jogging towards a group of boys that looked to be his age, a fierce game of tag in full force. She watched him as he left, her mouth still hanging open from both the shock of his presence and Ken's sudden bravery. She stumbled as Ken grabbed ahold of her hand abruptly, surprised at his roughness as he drug her towards the exit. Usually, it was the other way around completely.

"K-Ken!" She was able to choke out as the neared the park gates. He didn't respond, but his grip on her hand loosened. She said nothing more and fallowed behind him, staring at his hand that was still firmly wrapped around her own.

She had no idea what the fuck just happened, and even as a teenager, still had no idea.