Hey guys! Today is a special chapter for it is the tenth chapter of Colours! That's right! Colours is now at the double digit mark! YYAAYY!
Beta'd version up! Thank you Tainted Tuesday! =D
And that's it! Enjoy and review!
Disclaimer: Don't own.
The school week came and went again Matthew found himself back at the club. Alfred was called in for work and was unable to join him, much to his disliking but it was what it was. The club was pretty much the same as last time though today there were two new additions to make up for the absence of Vash, Raiman and Bella. The first person was Feliks, the cross-dresser that Matthew had meet before on his walk with Gilbert. He was unaware that the other had any abilities, but apparently he could see the future in still images. The other addition was a younger and more timid boy named Ravis, who could tell the weather for up to two weeks at a time—he had told everyone that there was going to be rain at the next meeting and wouldn't let up until exactly seven fifteen.
The meeting was also longer than the one preceding it, meaning that as the discussions continued, people began to break into smaller groups and hold their own conversations. Ludwig, Feliciano and Ravis were off to one side having a discussion on European politics (which was actually Feliciano explaining why it was okay to kiss other people of the same sex in greeting, though both Ludwig and Ravis were protesting) and Yao, Lovino and Gilbert were beside them talking about various school gossip and stereotypes. This left Matthew, Feliks, Michelle, and Kaoru to gather around the back of the room and chat about when they had first developed their abilities.
"Apparently I was using my abilities since I was a little girl," Michelle decided to start, sitting at the edge of the long table and swinging her legs in glee. "My mommy said that when I was a baby she would hand me my baby bottles and I would heat them up for myself!" Michelle giggled at this. "Kind of cutting corners parenting wise, but I guess I can forgive them. Since then it's always been there. It's like a part of me now."
"I like totally didn't even know I was 'special' for the longest time," Feliks followed up, flipping his hand back before leaning forward slightly to tell his story. "It was like...two, three years ago? Well not since I got that message from Tony. He's like, totally the abilities expert or something."
Michelle and Kaoru nodded in agreement and even some people outside of the conversation turned to give a thumbs-up or a nod. Matthew titled his head in confusion. This was probably a really stupid question but...
"Um...who's Tony?"
Both Michelle and Feliks looked at him with wide eyes. Yep, definitely a stupid question.
"You don't know Tony?" Feliks turned towards the albino and yelled, "Gilbert what's, like, your deal?"
"Whatever is it I probably did it better than you!"
Feliks huffed at the other's retort before he stood from his chair. "Whatever, Matt, you need to, like, totally meet Tony!" He motioned for the Canadian to follow him as he made his way out the room. Matthew glanced at Michelle who smiled largely at him in encouragement. He got up and followed after the Polish boy, the dark haired girl and her Asian companion coming along shortly. They left the room, walked down the hallway and turned into a smaller area with a white board to the side, a few chairs and two bulky computers in the back. Feliks went up to one of the devices and pushed the power button.
"Now while this is, like, loading up," Feliks started, motioning for the younger student to come in and sit down. "I'll tell you about Tony. Now, like, Tony is totally awesome! He's the guy who told me I had an ability or whatever. And he, like, created a place for people like us to talk and get guidance and advice." The computer finished booting up and Feliks turned his attention to it. "He's like, helped a lot of people."
"He's really mysterious though," Michelle chirped in. "No one's ever seen him before, and I've heard a rumour that he's actually..." Michelle lowered her voice as if telling a secret, "an alien."
"But that's totally just a stupid rumour," Feliks said, rolling his eyes. "Everyone knows that his parents are really super computers. Ah, here we go!"
Everyone turned their attention to the computer screen to find a forum site. It didn't look any different than any other forum, from its dark back round, large banner, and usual topics one would see like 'rules and regulations' and 'introduce yourself here.' However, as Feliks continued to scroll though the topics, the more and more particular it seemed. The categories ranged from 'ability help' to 'power advances' from 'rumours' to 'stories'.
"Yeah so, like this is Tony's Forum." Feliks explained, clicking random posts as he continued. "You can meet other people, talk about your own ability and like, totally pretty much anything that comes to mind. And it's like, totally reliable to, only people with abilities and close friends are allowed to join the site."
"But how does he know that people have abilities?" Matthew asked.
"He just knows." Michelle answered. "He just sends people information about his site and the password to get in. It seems like it's at random but it's always people with abilities or someone who is tied to them closely in some way."
"Yeah, whatever, and you can totally send in a picture of someone and their name and he can tell if that person has abilities or not. It's like totally all freaky and stuff. He emailed me about his site but I deleted it 'cause I thought it was spam or something. So he actually sent me a letter in the mail. It was like, totally weird because there was no return address or anything, but that's how I found out I could see the future in still images."
"See, that's why people think he's an alien." Michelle argued. "We think he has some like...other worldly technology that we humans don't have yet."
"But, like, why would he need alien tech when his parents are totally super computers?"
Matthew ignored their ridiculous argument and focused on the computer screen. It seemed like a very shady way to do things, but it did bring people together. Right now they were on the simple topic that asked where people were from, and it seemed like no two people were from the same place and if they were they would promptly began chats to meet. Matthew couldn't believe that how spread out these people were. There were people from Norway, South Africa, Thailand, New Zealand, Brazil, Portugal and even Iraq! There were also a couple of people from Canada. Most of them he knew from the club, but a couple of them he never even heard of. Finally, curiosity got the better of him. "Can I send in my picture too?"
"Totally." Feliks answered. "You have a Facebook?"
"Yes."
"Oh my god, you should, like, totally add me!"
"Oh! Oh! Me too!"
They managed to find a picture of the Canadian off of Facebook— 'a, like, totally adorable picture too!'—and they sent it out to Tony.
"It'll take a couple of days for him to respond," Michelle informed. "It took him about four days to reply to me and about...two days to reply to Kaoru?"
Kaoru nodded, his face void of emotion.
"Oh! That reminds me!" Michelle turned her attention to the Canadian once again. "I wanted to ask you this last week. What else can you do?"
Matthew turned to the girl. "Pardon?"
"Well, seeing emotions in colours is cool and all, but everyone's ability is more than it appears! So what else can you do? Catch their bad habits? See people's true nature?"
Well now Matthew would be lying is he said he wasn't embarrassed. He found himself unable to look into the dark haired girl's eyes as he realized he didn't have an answer to her question. He still hadn't worked up the self-confidence he knew he lacked to use his ability and find out if he really could do more. Though who knows, maybe he was just a one-trick pony. Michelle saw his discomfort and something clicked in her mind.
"...You don't use your ability much, do you?"
Matthew's silence proved to be his answer. The other three people in the room turned to look at each other. Michelle stood, a smug smirk on her face. "Well." She started, adjusting her skirt. "This looks like a job for Feliciano!"
Matthew titled his head in confusion. "Feliciano?"
"Yep! Now c'mon let's go get 'em!"
She led the march back to the other room—which Matthew hesitantly followed—and dramatically re-entered it. "Feliciano!"
And lucky for Ludwig, they seemed to come at a good time. Feliciano was just about to demonstrate how wonderful it was to receive a kiss as greeting every day, before Michelle and her party burst in. And so Feliciano looked away from the blushing German with pursed lips. "Hm?"
"We need your expertise!" Michelle elaborated and instantly the Italian understood. He pulled away from the blushing German and skipped over to the others, while Michelle and Feliks practically forced Matthew to the back of the room.
"Wha-what is this about?" Matthew questioned as he was pushed into a chair. Michelle stood behind him and placed her hands on his shoulders while Feliciano pulled up a chair directly across from the Canadian.
"Now don't worry Matt!" Michelle exclaimed happily. "Feliciano here is the club's guinea pig!" Feliciano smiled and eagerly nodded if it was a compliment. "So you can use your ability on him all you want! Well, as long as it doesn't hurt him."
Matthew glanced over at Feliciano and a small squeak escaped him when the other's yellow colour snapped into his vision. Dear god, he couldn't possibly concentrate on this person long enough for his ability to work, especially with that nauseating colour of his. He made to stand but the girl pushed him back down.
"Oh c'mon! You have a perfect chance to use your abilities!" She grabbed onto his face and sharply turned it so he was facing the Italian. "So go for it!"
A part of him wanted to comply with the girl's wishes, but most of him was just trying to do what he normally did when he came across the auburn haired teenager; never make eye contact. Though Michelle proved to be stronger than she looked and refused to let go of Matthew's sho—wait... what's this?
Matthew finally looked Feliciano straight in the eye for the first time and instantly noticed something. There was more than one colour! There was still Feliciano's main colour, which was a brilliant yellow-orange, but within that colour there were dozens more. There was quite a bit of pink over there, some green there and, oh, red. Well, even Feliciano could get annoyed he supposed. Some purple, the tiniest bit of brown and...what was that? It appeared to be a small black dot but Matthew knew it was a colour. He didn't know how or why he knew but he knew. But what was it? He found himself concentrating on it, hoping for it to grow. And it did, it grew and grew until it engulfed all the other colours. And it was...
Navy Blue.
Uh-oh.
As if on cue, Feliciano burst into body wracking sobs, instantly gaining everyone's attention.
"Feliciano!" Ludwig exclaimed, standing. He snapped his head towards Michelle, his expression intense. Michelle gave a surprised squeak before hiding behind Kaoru. "What happened?"
"I-I don't know!" Michelle defended. "Matt was just, looking at him and—"
"Bastard!" Lovino yelled at the panicking Canadian. "What did you do to my brother?"
"I, muh, ah!" No! Now was not the time to panic! Now was the time to concentrate! Concentrate! Matthew quickly focused on another of Feliciano's colours and forced it expand. Red. Shit. Not what he was going for. Feliciano stood so fast and so quickly that his chair practically flew backwards, narrowly missing a shaking Ravis. The Italian glared down at Matthew murderously. His fists clutched so tight his knuckles were white.
"What the hell are you doing to me?" In an uncharacteristic fit of rage, Feliciano swooped down and grabbed Matthew's shirt collar. In a real panic now, Mathew latched onto another colour and forcefully expanded it.
...Light blue.
Light blue...
Light blue was good.
To reflect his now much calmer emotion the Italian let go of Matthew's shirt and slumped and stumbled back into another chair, blinking wide eyed at absolutely nothing. He sat there, still. Still...so still...he was so still, stiller than any human should be. His eyes wide, his breaths laboured and inerratic. He wasn't the one who did this to him...was he? Cool breeze, clear cloudless sky as if the day itself was mocking him. Rough rubble. The horrible smell of blood. He was in pain but that didn't matter. The man's hair was slowly turning red and Matthew had no idea what to do. He was...he couldn't...why wasn't anyone coming to help him, why wasn—
"—tt? Matthew!"
Matthew was jolted from his thoughts when he felt hands upon him. He screamed, shoving the girl away from him before jumping out of his seat, stumbling backwards until his back hit the wall. His eyes darted this way and that, his breathing rapid. Where was he? Who was that girl who touched him, where was...
Then, like a slap to the face, he remembered everything. He was at the club with a group of his peers, a group of people who were like him. Looking about now with clear eyes, Matthew could see that everyone was staring right back at him. All of them with a question in their eyes but all of them too bewildered or confused to speak it. They all seemed frozen in their spots, except for Kaoru who rushed to his friend's aid as soon as she hit the ground. Matthew shrunk into himself. He didn't mean to hurt the girl, she was just so close and he was just...
Michelle, who was now upright with the help of her monotone friend, was the brave soul to break the heavy silence. "Hey!" She called to the Canadian. "What the heck?"
Matthew opened his mouth to apologize but found that no words came to him. He struggled to speak, but after a few moments of silence his embarrassment grew to its peak. He rushed out the room, too preoccupied to notice Gilbert attempt to reach out and grab him before he was pulled back by another.
So Matthew ran out the building, only stopping when he reached the back of the parking lot. He was shaking violently and basically on the verge of hyperventilating. He tried to calm himself, but every time he did that, the terrible image would pop up in his mind. The still body, the growing pool of crimson around his head—no, NO! Don't even think about it!
He leaned over the railing lining the parking lot, and released a very shaky breath. He wanted to be alone, away from these people, but there was no way to do that. He couldn't drive, and even if he did didn't have a car and he had left his backpack inside, which carried money he would need for bus fare. Bottom line; he would have to go back sooner or later...but after what he just did...
He felt a hand on his shoulder once more, but didn't overreact. He had a feeling Gilbert would came and bug him sooner or later. He turned around to face the albino but was shocked when he came face to face with Kaoru instead. A dull feeling appeared in the pit of his stomach. He was...disappointed?
"Oh, Kaoru," Matt greeted, his voice shaky and quiet. He paused to try and clear his voice and collect himself, though that didn't work out quite as he hoped. "I'm sorry but I—"
And that's when the Asian did something that Matthew would forever remember. Kaoru stepped forward, and pulled Matthew into a hug.
To say that the Canadian was surprised would be a grand understatement. Of all the people to hug him, Kaoru was probably the last person he would ever even consider. He had half a mind to push him away but surprised himself when he wrapped his arms around the other, buried his head in his shoulder and wept. A part of him told himself that he should be embarrassed by what he was doing, but honestly, right now, he didn't care. Kaoru was offering him comfort, and by god he was going to take it.
Unbeknownst to the Canadian, Gilbert and Yao stood farther away, watching the scene with hardened expressions.
"He was a difficult ability, aru." Though it sounded like a simple statement, Gilbert caught what the Asian was hinting at. He shook his head.
"No. No way am I taking Matt to that psycho."
"You might have to." Yao argued, turning to look at Gilbert. "And you know that, aru."
Gilbert didn't respond, but his set jaw and crossed arms were his stubborn retort. Yao frowned, now annoyed.
"Don't let your own personal feelings affect Matthew, Gilbert."
"I know what I'm doing!" Gilbert snapped, narrowing his eyes at the other male. "I've done this shit dozens of times! He doesn't need that asshole! He has the awesome me!"
And with that, Gilbert turned and stormed back into the building, obviously done with the older man and his advice. Yao sighed before turning back to the crying Canadian. He certainly hoped Gilbert was right about this, or Matthew might end up hurting a lot of people.
Angst filled Chapter FTW?
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