Chapter 6: Books and Secret Sadists
Aetius was sitting upon a cold log with a book in his hands, his legs were moving about while he hummed happily to himself, the young boy's eyes were glued onto the page he was reading at that moment in time. The book was one of Blanc's and she had given it to him the day after they had played together at her house, the brown haired girl informed Aetius that he had only a couple of weeks to read the book before handing it back to her, at least roughly two weeks at best, to which he agreed and promptly got to reading it. Overall the snake-eyed boy found the novel to be rather interesting, although there were some parts to it that made him confused.
For a start there was the whole romance part of the novel, which was part of the main plot. Aetius did not know much about it, aside from the whole boyfriend and girlfriend thing, but aside from that we was rather clueless as to why people would sacrifice everything for love; he barely had a concept of that as well. Another, yet less important confusion, was how short the book was. It was not completely short, but it was shorter than most of the other novels he had read in the past. It had at least around one hundred and eighty-three pages, not including the title, the index and the few pages at the end that had nothing on them. Then there was the fact that the novel had no proper book cover design to it, not only that but the name of the author was also missing, giving no clue as to who wrote it in the fist place.
Regardless of that, Aetius was enjoying it despite the occasional hiccup with the flow of the story, that and a few of the concepts of it, but it was something that he did like. If the ice blue haired boy was a novel critic then we would have given it a six and a half out of ten, though since he was a child he decided it to be a seven out of ten. If the young boy was a lot better at critiquing works of literature, and just about everything as well for that matter, he would have noticed that the novel ad in fact been written by an amateur author who was just starting to delve into the world of writing books. However, it was highly doubtful that the young boy wanted to be a professional critique person as a sort of occupation, if there was such a job.
Seven out of ten. Yeah, I think that would be a good score for this. I wonder where Blanc got this book. Did she get this from a bookshop? Maybe a friend gave it to her? Wait, she said I was her only friend. Better scratch that one then. Aetius thought over to himself as he took a short break from reading the words on the page, his interest in the mysterious author and where the young girl had found such a novel perplexed him now more than before. However, it was not going to stop him from reading the book. After all, Blanc had yet to arrive in their secret playing area.
Normally the snake-eyed boy would wait for Blanc near the park or by the cold lake, but this time she was running late, and a sense of worrying about about her was starting to dawn upon the young boy. He looked up from his book and gazed around him, yet there was no other sign of life besides him and the occasional chirpy bird that flew around the place and nested in the trees surrounding the cold lake. After a couple of more seconds of frantic glancing, Aetius sighed. "Where is Blanc? She's never late, well, not usually anyway. But she's never this late. What's happened to her? Is she hanging upside down from a tree again thanks to those bullies? Is she sick? Or maybe… maybe she's getting bored of being with me? No, no that can't be it," Aetius mumbled to himself, his young mind wandering all over the place for reasons.
Worrying about people, himself, the matters of the world or just about anything was something that Aetius was very, very good at doing; sometimes he even worried about those who would bully him, all because the ice blue haired boy thought that he was just a bother to them. Aetius was not the most usual of people around, eyes included, but he was the most caring by far, and it made some residents rather confused or annoyed at times, or both if the situation warranted it.
After reading some more of the book, which got to a really interesting part concerning the heroine's journey to find her lost love in a desolate land, Aetius began to grow ever so more concerned for Blanc's whereabouts, so much so in fact that he began to glance around him in a much more frenzied state than before. "Um, B-B-B-Blanc? Hello? Y-You there?" the boy called out as he rose from the log, yet to no avail. "Urgh. Where are you? D-Do I really have to go and look for her? I don't know if Blanc would like that, especially if she's actually okay. M-M-Might as well check."
With that finally decided, the snake-eyed boy firmly grasped his book, once he ad placed a bookmarker in it, and walked up the dirt path towards the park. The park was the first place worth checking; usually Blanc would come down from there towards the lake and straight on to their secret spot, so there was a chance for Aetius to find the young girl coming from up that way. However, once the ice blue haired boy had reached the confines of the park itself, he was quickly disappointed in the lack of a result, instead what he received were the mixed stares from adults and their children, even an old couple found the boy's presence to be less than admired.
I-I-I better leave before I cause a problem again, d-don't want those bullies to hang me upside down and say that I'm a living swing again, or try to use me for something else. Especially when Blanc isn't here, she usually beats them up if they try to get to me. The boy swiftly thought to himself before striding in a quick walk out of the park and onto the street, where, unfortunately for him, there were a lot more people. Fortunately for Aetius, and he knew this well enough, it was less likely for someone to physically bully him on the street, which was a source for relief. However, that did little to stop the verbal abuses that were spoken directly at him, from behind his back to face-to-face, which was still rather hurtful for Aetius. Nevertheless, his concern for why Blanc was late bypassed his usual instinct to keep a low profile.
Aetius walked past a group of kids, all of them were around his age and were talking amongst themselves, what they were discussing was unknown to the young boy though. One look form them caused the snake-eyed boy to make his quick walk a lot more swifter. This led him to the town centre, where he saw the politicians of the town walking in the general direction of the Council Chambers. While the young boy attempted to go around them, he caught the eye of one of the politicians, a wide, plump – or rather fat – man with black glasses upon his face, a black and grey business suit with a white shirt underneath and black pants, along with black boots. He paused his walk and glanced over at the young boy while adjusting his glasses, a curios expression appearing across his face as he patted down his grey hair.
"So that's the snake-eyed boy that my grandson has been talking about for the last month or two. Interesting. He doesn't look as dangerous as my grandson had suggested he was, but those eyes… I don't like them, not one bit," the man mumbled to himself, rubbing his chin thoughtfully as his gaze continued to be directed at the young boy. "I doubt he would get far in life looking like that, not to mention how timid and frightened he appears to be from over here. Pathetic really. However, there could still be a use for him in the future, perhaps. Then there is his father… Hmmm, later maybe, maybe, when I have some political power around here. Maybe when I become mayor of this town, or perhaps even reform it so I can become Prime Minister. We shall see."
As the overweight politician mumbled these thoughts of political power and the father of Aetius, the young boy did not notice him, not that he wanted to get his attention anyway. Instead, the ice blue haired boy was making his way towards the bookshop, knowing that it was another one of Blanc's places to go to when she was feeling a bit down, or nervous for that matter. It would normally take a few minutes at best to reach there from the Council Chambers, though with the hurried walk that Aetius was doing he would reach his chosen destination within a minute. And reach the bookshop he did. There was not a lot of people wandering it, which was fortunate for the young boy, although that was only for the outside, and Blanc was nowhere to be seen.
Better head on in and try to find Blanc. Aetisu thought to himself before heading on inside, much to his discomfort. It was easy for the young boy to head on inside if he had company, but it was much harder for him to go in as a result if Blanc was not around. While searching through the bookshop Aetius thought over how depended on the young girl he was. Huh. I'm really depended on her, aren't I? W-Well, th-that isn't a bad thing, right? Maybe. I-I-I don't know!
Unfortunately for Aetius, Blanc was nowhere to be seen within the confines of the bookshop, in fact there were not a lot of people wandering about or reading books, a mixed source of relief for the young boy. He turned around and was prepared to leave when he stopped and looked over at the cashier, who was sitting behind the reception desk. From what Aetius could see she had silver hair that was tied up in a bun, dark green eyes and a long brown jacket with a white and black traditional dress underneath; she was reading a book. She paid the snake-eyed no attention until he had actually reached the counter and rang the bell, though the young boy quickly wished that he had not even approached the cashier. The silver haired woman looked down at Aetius, appearing to be more annoyed about the fact that someone had disturbed her from the book in her hands.
"What is it? I'm busy. If you aren't buying then what do you want? Complaints? Well I'm a complaint on legs, try living like that for a while and see how you go," the silver haired woman grumbled while putting her book down on the counter.
"Um… H-H-Have you seen a g-girl around here with short brown hair, blue eyes, a doll-like face – you know, like an expression w-without any emotion in it?" Aetius asked nervously, his finger fidgeting about as he spoke to the grumpy lady before him.
"Uh… a girl with brown hair, blue eyes, a doll-like expression… Yeah. Yeah I did see someone like that not too long ago. She left a few minutes ago I think, said she forgot something back at her house and had to get it for a friend of hers. I'm guessing you must be that friend of hers," the cashier explained with barely any emotion to be heard, aside from the occasional boredom that emanated off of her. Aetius was just silently glad that it was not contagious.
"Well, th-thanks for helping. I-I-I'm off now. G-Goodbye," the snake-eyed boy said in a stuttered response before making a bit of a hurried exit out of the bookshop.
The cashier watched as the young boy left the store, mildly confused with just who he was and what he wanted with the girl, although after a couple of seconds the curiosity that she had quickly disappeared. The cashier then shrugged and got back on with her book, her memory swiftly forgetting most of what had happened beforehand. Huh. What happened just then? Did someone come in and order some book again? Guess it doesn't matter then. Time to get back on with reading this. The silver haired woman thought to herself before getting back to her book.
Meanwhile, Aetius swiftly walked out of the shop and back onto the street, where he then ran off in the direction of Blanc's house, believing that she would be there due to the silver haired cashier's words. However, upon turning a corner the young boy smacked head first into a person walking around it in his opposite direction. Aetius cried out in shock and fell back onto the ground, wondering who he had bumped into. To his surprise it was a rather peculiar woman, one that made his spine shiver in fright and his nerves have a panic attack. The woman in question had dark purple hair, blood red eyes, fair skin and a grim expression. She was wearing a violet business suit with a black collared shirt with dark purple lining underneath and a black dress reaching to her knees, which matched her boots. The strange woman was not someone that Aetius recognised, in fact she appeared to be an outsider, a foreigner of sorts.
However, she was definitely not a polite woman, as was pointed out when her words pierced through the young boy's already fragile self-esteem. "Oi, watch where you are going, kid! Actually, what the hell are you? Some sort of humanoid monster or something with serpent-like tendencies? Ew. What are you even doing up here in the cold north? Trying to freeze to death?"
"N-N-No, not r-really, I-I've been living here for quite a while now," Aetius tried to explain as he beginning to get back onto his feet, all while trying not to suffer from an immense nervous breakdown or start crying. "Also I'm n-not a-"
"It speaks? Huh. Look, just get out of my way, you snake-eyed monster, I'm busy, I'm lost and my daughter has gone walkabouts without my supervision again." And with that she was off, making it obvious that she was glad to be away from Aetius.
All the commotion between the two of them had attracted a small group of onlookers, who were both surprised to see a foreigner walking about and amused to see the ice-blue haired, snake-eyed boy getting into trouble again. Aetius looked around him to see what was going on, only to see a small crowd of people either chuckling with amusement, staring coldly at him or simply ignoring him altogether. It was just too much for him. Suddenly the young boy had a nervous break down, which was made obvious due to his limbs shaking about without control, his words becoming a mere stutter and he just appeared to be frozen on the spot. However this was only temporary, for the young boy was able to mentally gather some of his wit and energy in order to make a run for it back towards the park, not caring who was in his way or not. To this the onlookers merely shrugged their shoulders and got back to whatever they were previously doing beforehand.
As the onlookers conversed with each other about what had happened, Aetius was still running, hoping to get away from the main parts of the town and escape to the secluded areas of the park, there he would be able to sufficiently calm down before deciding what to do next in regard to Blanc and her apparent trip home to collect something that she had forgotten. After some time of running, the young boy reached a part of the forest that was connected to the park, in fact it was near the same place where the bullies had Blanc upside down from a rope. There was no sign of life though, for not even his heat-vision senses could pick up any life, nor could any human life be heard at all. Instead there was only a slight gust of wind, the rustling of the leafs, the swaying of the trees, and the chirping of the birds. It was a good place for the young boy to stop running and calm down, and that was what he did. Aetius finally stopped running and collapsed onto his knees, dropping the book onto the ground while breathing in and out heavily for air.
"Hah… hah… Th-That was just… awful. E-Even foreigners hate me. Everybody hates me. They all do," Aetius whimpered to himself as tears began to swell around the corners of his eyes, his emotions starting to surge forth like a tidal wave against a weak barrier. Eventually he could not hold it back. Tears rand down his face and dropped onto the ground as he grabbed the grass tightly while letting out a whimpered cry. "I… I can't take tall this bullying any more, I just can't!"
The young boy just could not help but cry, his tears staining his cheeks and the ground. All of the frustration, fear and other emotions that he felt most of the time came pouring out like water from a bottle, and he was unable to keep it closed any further. After a couple of minutes of non-stop crying, Aetius was interrupted from his moment of pity thanks to the voice of a young girl, only it was not Blanc. "Hello? Who's there? Is someone crying?" the young girl asked, from the sound of it the voice was somewhat away in the distance, just down the path towards the lake.
Aetius looked up towards the location of the voice, unsure as to what to do next. It was obvious that whoever heard him weep was nearby, and they sounded friendly as well, if a bit sleepy, but there were people in the town who seemed friendly on the outside as well in their tone, but not with the words they chose to speak. Why would this be any different? Only Blanc, her mother and sometimes my dad are the only ones who are nice to me. Well, dad is sometimes nice, but he can be a bit mean, especially when he comes back late and drinks that weird, smelly drink. The young boy though as he continued to look in the direction of the voice while wiping the tears away from his face.
The young girl spoke out again when she failed to get an answer, although this time she sounded a bit closer than before. "Hellooo? You out here somewhere? It's okay if you're scared, I don't bite."
Well she does sounds kinda nice, I think. Maybe I should see who she is. Aetius finally concluded as he wiped the last of his tears away and stood up, once he grabbed the book Blanc had lent to him. After that he began to slowly walk over to where he was hearing the voice, though he still opted to not speak up due to his shyness, which was winning over him again. A minute or two later the young boy arrived near the cold lake, and there he encountered most likely one of the most strangest young girl at that time.
She had fair-pale skin and violet eyes, her hair reached down the back to her upper spine with messy bangs framing her face, meanwhile her hair was in a big braid held with a pastel pink frilled ribbon. Her purple dress consisted of a loose powder blue top with a frilled neck segment and a long white section in the centre held with a white multi-piece belt with a purple piece, but most of this was covered up by a dark purple woolly jacket that reached down her arms and to her upper legs. The young girl appeared to be younger than Aetius by a few years, at least two or three at most. She was slowly walking around the area, her gaze moving here and there in an attempt to find Aetius – she had no idea who it was that was crying though.
However, once the young boy had stepped out into the open nervously, the strange girl looked over in his direction, then to his amazement she did not seem to be scared by his appearance, quite the opposite in fact. "Hey there. Were you the one that was crying and yelling just before?" she asked softly while slowly approaching him.
Aetius nodded with some heavy reluctance. "Y-Yeah, I was. Wh-Why were you even worried about it, though?"
"Well, whenever I hear someone cry and yell at the same time I get kinda worried about them. That's how I usually make friends, even with somebody called a 'tsundere', though I don't know what that means," she replied with a light-hearted yet ditzy giggle at the end. It was a stark contrast to Blanc, who had confided to Aetius that she was unable to make any friend, that and she was usually cold to everyone. The lavender haired girl noticed the surprised expression upon the young boy's face and spoke up about it. "Hmm? Is there something wrong? You're looking at me weirdly."
"Wh-Wha? Oh, s-sorry, it's just that not a lot of people treat me nicely, actually only a few others are extremely nice to me," Aetius responded, stuttering slightly as he spoke.
The young girl was rather surprised to hear this, and her expression and tone of voice indicated it. "Really? What for? You don't like like someone who's a troublemaker. Are you?"
"N-N-No! Not at all! It's just… my eyes. I was born with the eyes of a snake, literally. Just take a look already, I'm surprised that you haven't noticed it already," Aetius responded back, almost shouting it before developing into a quieter tone. "J-Just look already, then you'll find out and be disgusted as well."
The lavender haired girl walked up to Aetius with a curious gaze and stared directly at his eyes, analysing every detail that could be seen. It was rather discomforting for the snake-eyed boy. Eventually she drew back from the young boy, her expression being a mix between amazement and shock; however, that soon fell away back to her carefree smile. "Well, I guess it doesn't matter. You seem nice."
"N-N-Nice? I'm… I'm nice? Really? I am" Aetius asked again and again, amazed that this young outsider even considered him to be a nice person just from views alone. It was rare for that to happen, as it was proven with Blanc and her mother Bellona. "Th-Thanks! Not a lot of people call me that around here, they mostly just glare at me or bully me constantly."
"They bully you? That's just mean," the girl responded with dissatisfaction, clearly feeling pity and sadness for the young boy standing before her. However, the aura around her started to change. Gone was the ditzy nature and cheerfulness that was easy to see and feel around her, in came a sadistic and scary feeling that flowed around the young girl. It freaked Aetius out to his very core.
"Um… e-e-excuse me, you're s-s-starting to scare m-me," the snake-eyed boy stuttered as he slowly began to walk back away from the young girl.
Soon enough, however, the lavender haired girl calmed down and noticed how frightened Aetius appeared to be. "Huh? Oh, sorry about that, I just don't like bullies," she replied, her scary and sadistic aura disappearing. Then the lavender haired girl gasped, as if she had forgotten something important. "Oh, that's right, I didn't say my name. I'm Plutia. What's yours?"
"A-Aetius. My name is Aetius," the young, ice blue haired boy responded with a small smile while rubbing the back of his head. He was happy to meet someone else who had no sense of prejudice towards him just for his simple different appearance and meekness. "Nice to meet you, Plutia. Um, does this make us… you know, f-f-friends or something?"
Much to his surprise, though also to his relief, the lavender haired girl nodded. "Uh huh. I like having friends, like a lot," Plutia replied, giving the snake-eyed boy a bright smile that made him blush. However, this conversation only lasted shortly when Plutia suddenly remembered something important. "Oh! That's right, I just remembered that my mum is lost somewhere in town. I got to find her before she realises that I'm missing. I'll have to see you later, Aetius."
This made the young boy feel incredibly sad, but he chose to not to try to make the young girl stay for a bit longer, instead choosing to remain selfless. "Well, okay then, good luck with finding your mum. Will… will we see each other again?"
Plutia nodded enthusiastically. "Uh huh. We can meet here again tomorrow if I can; me and my mum are staying here for a few weeks for some reason. See you later, Aetius!" With that said and done, Plutia walked away while waving at the young boy, smiling at the same time.
Plutia is pretty nice, I like her so far. I wonder if she and Blanc will be friends if they meet together here with me tomorrow, or the day after that? Would be pretty cool. Aetius thought to himself with a cheerful outlook towards the future. He was soon interrupted by someone tapping his shoulder, causing him to turn around to see who it was.
It was Blanc. The young girl was carrying a bag full of books and a tired look was upon her expressionless face. "Sorry for being late, Aetius, I forgot to get a couple of books that you would like," the brown haired girl apologised, bowing slightly in a polite manner. She then noticed the cheerful expression upon the young boy's face. "Hmm? You look pretty happy; that's pretty unusual to see from you. Did something happen?"
Much to Blanc's surprise, Aetius nodded. "Sure did. I made a new friend today, just a couple of minutes ago before you arrived. Her name is Plutia, and she's staying in town for a few weeks. She wants to hang out with me tomorrow or the day after that."
However, much to the young boy's confusion, Blanc did not seem to take to the news as well as he had hoped she would a few minutes ago in his thoughts. "Plutia? A girl? Seriously? Hmm…" She then began to mumble to herself in a low and less than friendly tone, her eyes narrowing while she bit her lower lip.
"Blanc? Are you okay there? You're spacing out, plus you're making me worried here," the snake-eyed boy asked with heavy concern.
"I'm fine," Blanc responded harshly before walking off towards the hedge where the entrance to their secret sanctuary was located. Her tone of voice merely confused the young boy, which just made him all the more concerned for her. Nevertheless, he knew from past experience that to continue asking Blanc about what was bothering her would lead to an occasional whack over the head and some harsh words. With that in mind Aetius decided to calm the young girl down by reading to her and being his usual friendly self.
A/N: About time I got this over and done with, and I'm glad that I did. A few of you have been clamouring for Plutia to be introduced as a potential friend for Aetius and possibly even for Blanc as well, and that was good enough for me. I was going to introduce Plutia a bit later, but I figured that a couple of more chapters merely focusing on Aetius and Blanc would start to get a bit repetitive and boring, so this was a good opportunity to introduce everybody's favourite sadist in child form. One can only wonder how this will turn out for the next few chapters. Now then, if you have any suggestions or ideas then please do inform me about it, and have yourselves a good day if you can.