And I'm back with another chapter! Yay, hooray, *pathetic little trumpet blare*.
Blah.
Disclaimer: I do not have ownership over the loverly DP.
Does anyone else love My Fair Lady with Audrey Hepburn? I do. :D
[DPOV]
Chloe and Tori screamed. Really shrill-ly. Simon and I look at each other, and abandoned the ball we were kicking around to race over to them. They both stood hugging each other and jumping up and down. While screaming- cannot forget that.
"What! What?" Simon yelled, trying to catch their attention. They pointed at Skye. We looked at him and he was... standing?
"AAAHHH!" I yelled, and gave Simon a huge man hug, lifting him off the ground. He looked confused. Peeking over my shoulder, he saw the reason for our excitement, and hugged me back.
"Congrats, bro." He whispered, and I smiled at him, putting him down.
Chloe and Tori grinned at me, then ran up, both of them hugging me. My first reaction?
OMFG I think Tori just hugged me.
Next reaction?
Ew.
Yeah. Nonetheless, I hugged her back, because this was the occasion to be hugging random strangers on the street. And this was my sister. So it was okay.
Tori released me and gave me a funny look, as if she just realized what she did. She shuddered and walked away.
Chloe looked up at me and smiled. "This is really nice, isn't it? It seems... normal."
I looked back at Skye, who had sat back down and was crawling around in the sand. He put his fist to his mouth-
"Skye. You do not eat sand!" Chloe cried, and pointed at him. Skye's fist moved away from him and was planted firmly back into the ground. I gave Chloe a questioning look. She shrugged. "Liz". I nodded in understanding.
"Didn't you say that Skye was four months or something?" Chloe asked, still staring at Skye.
"Well... it was an estimate. I don't really know how old he is." I explained, letting go of her but keeping a light grip on her hand. Chloe pulled me along and we both sat down in front of Skye. Skye looked at us and grinned his two teeth grin. Actually, I think there were two more teeth up top.
He gurbled a bit and crawled into Chloe's lap, pulling at a strand of her blond hair. She stroked his head and sighed. "Do you think we can take care of him... forever?" She whispered.
I shifted my weight so I was stretched out in the sand, arms holding me up. I took my time to answer that one. "I... I hope so. I hope we can find a way. He was given to us, and we can't just abandon him, can we?"
Chloe shook her head. "No."
Trying to lighten the mood, I lightly bumped her shoulder with mine. "Hey. You wanna do something later? Just us?"
She smiled at me. "What have you got in mind?"
"Um, I was thinking something simple. Maybe ice cream?" Whatever she wanted, I guess. Nothing too extravagant, though. We could risk her being seen.
"Sounds great. We'll get Simon and Tori to take care of Skye."
I nodded and got up, dusting off the back of my pants and reaching a hand out to her. She positioned the now sleeping Skye so his head rested on her shoulder and took my hand to get up.
There was this woman sitting on a bench who was staring at us. I just realized. I stared back at her, and where some people flinch away, she just grinned wider. Odd.
Chloe followed my eyes to see the woman, and in response, smiled and waved. The woman motioned for us to come to her, and I was about to pull Chloe back and run like hell, but Chloe rolled her eyes at me.
"She's perfectly safe. Look, she even has a stroller. Lets just see what she wants. If she is some psychopath, we then turn around and run. How does that sound?"
Without waiting for my answer, she walked over to the woman. I couldn't let her get kidnapped, so I followed her, and stood behind her.
"Hello kids. Is he yours?" The woman pointed at Skye. Chloe looked at me questioningly. Well... yeah, technically... we was under our care...
"Yes. He is. His name is Skye." Chloe answered. The woman smiled again.
"What a pretty name. I'm glad you didn't give in to abortion."
"Abortion?" Chloe shrieked and stumbled back into me. I caught her, but I was surprised too.
"I know. I'm horrified by it too. But it's life."
"No, lady, you don't under-" I tried to explain but she cut me off with a wave of her hand.
"Oh hush. I know everything just perfectly fine. Now. Here. Take some of this candy for the little angel." She dug out a bag of candy from her huge purse and handed it to Chloe. "Now run along, kids. Run along. Pleasure meeting you, and God bless!"
Needless to say, we ran like hell. The best thing to do in cases like these. When we stopped, Chloe was panting hard.
"She is a psycho. A total weirdo. What a creep." She kept on muttering these things under her breath. I just nodded.
Simon came running up to us, grinning like he won the lottery. "Guys! Dad and Lauren are taking us to the beach before we hit the road again. Hurry up! Get in the car!" And then he ran off again.
Chloe looked confused. "What? We don't even have any bathing suits."
As if Tori had heard her, she dangled a bikini in the air like it was the flag of America on the fourth of July. Chloe flushed red.
"I seriously hope that that one isn't mine." She mumbled and speed walked towards Tori. I kept along with her easily, because this was my normal pace.
Next thing we know, we're all tumbling out of the car and onto the sunny sands of the beach. The blue water sparkled in the sun and colourful umbrellas dotted the sand. Argh, my eyes. They burn. The sun was too hot.
I used my hand to shield my eyes and glanced down at Chloe. She was studying a shop front on the other side of the beach. She pointed at it and looked at me. "We're going there after to pick up some stuff." I just shrugged in response. It was some sort of baby store. Dear God...
Tori popped out of no where clutching two bags. She threw one at Simon, snatched Skye from Chloe and shoved him at Dad, then grabbed her hand and ran for the change rooms, presumably.
Simon looked into his bag and pulled out a pair swimming trunks. It was quite a few sizes too big for someone with his lean body type. Obviously mine. I grabbed it and inspected the navy blue trunks like it was poison. "Where'd you get it?" I asked Dad. Dad grinned.
"At some random store Lauren and I found after we passed the beach. We thought you guys would like to come here. Play off the... stress..." He said the last part hesitantly, and he stared at me, waiting for my reaction.
My reaction, the one he was waiting for, was to cross my arms over my chest, swimming trunks in my left fist. "I'm not gonna wear it."
"Oh come one Derek. You have to. Don't you want to swim?" Simon sighed.
"Sure. But I'm not wearing these."
"You're not getting your clothes wet. Wear these or don't go in." Dad laid down the laws with narrow eyes.
"But-"
"No buts. I can't see why you won't wear them. " But the thing was, he knew why I wouldn't, because he was eyeing my muscles on my arm. I shouldn't have worn a t-shirt.
Dad sighed and ran his free hand through his hair. "What if I say that Chloe would like it?"
Simon burst out laughing and I tried to suppress my smile. "How would you know?"
"Derek. You know ladies love guys with muscles." Simon said grinning nudged me with his elbow. I glowered at him.
"Chloe said no more girlfriend tips." I said dutifully and Dad chuckled.
"Chloe's right. I guess those set of rules only work for Simon. You probably have your own. I'm sure Simon would love to hear them sometime, right?"
"Oh yeah. Sure. The guide to how to get off with tiny blonds with brains." Simon made air quotes with his fingers.
I was going to reprimand him but a beach ball came flying for his head. At the last second, I jutted my fist out and all four of us watched as it bounce back to the owner. "Thank you!" One of the guys yelled, waving. I nodded.
"Oh Derek, you saved my life." Simon made his voice all high and squealy. Skye cooed at Simon and Simon flung around to face him. "Are you gonna be all strong and chivalrous like your daddy when you're older? Are you?" He cooed back.
Silence.
Simon looked from Dad's expression to mine and chuckled nervously. "Well, this is awkward. Excuse me while I go and change. " And he ran off.
"He's been like this ever since I've known him." I remarked, laughing. Dad grinned, laughing too.
"...So... about the whole 'daddy' thing..." he started, looking uncomfortable. My eyes widened when I realized we were about to have a very mood destroying talk, so I bailed with an "I guess I'm gonna go change after all" and dashed off in Simon's direction. I heard Dad sigh, frustrated.
After I'd changed, I headed back to the car with Simon. We didn't find them there, so we started to walk along the beach, trying to find them. When we did, we were both surprised.
Lauren was in a one piece suit, and lets just say she isn't some flabby middle aged woman. Tori was stretched out on her blanket, wearing a purple bikini, obviously showing off for the guys that were eyeing her. Dad saw us and smiled, handing Skye to Lauren and grabbing a pair of trunks, walking calmly to the change rooms.
It was so loud. All the shrieking, and laughing and screaming. I kept on getting confused with the scents and sounds, being unable to have them all register at once.
"Where's Chloe?" I asked, fighting off the urge to yell it. Just because it was loud for me, it didn't mean it was loud for everyone else. Lauren looked up and smiled while Tori grinned. "What?" I asked.
"What, what?" Tori replied. She seemed to be avoiding looking at something. Before Simon and I had a chance to turn around, we were soaked with freezing cold water, letting out cries of surprise. Once my eyes focused, I saw Chloe doubled over in laughter, a bucket sitting in the sand beside her. She was wearing a tankini- I think that's what they're called. And a pair of shorts. Good. She wasn't wearing something obnoxiously revealing like Tori.
I glowered at Lauren and Tori, who were laughing. That made them laugh harder.
Fine then. Two can play at this. I mustered up an annoyed face. "Chloe. You're going to pay for that." I said calmly.
Tori, and Simon started yelling. "Run, Chloe! Run!"
Simon grabbed my arm. "We'll hold him off for a bit!" Tori grabbed my other arm and I pretended to struggle while Chloe panicked and tripped over her own feet. She got up and started running away. I quickly pulled out of their grip and chased after her, which was easy. When I caught up with her, I grabbed her around the waist and held her in the air, her screaming and laughing.
"Put me down, Derek! Now! " She screamed. I ignored her and ran down to the water. I went a little bit in and quickly made sure it was safe. Then I dropped her in.
When she popped up, she looked very angry. Oops. She growled at me, and narrowed her eyes. "You die now." Was all she said before she jumped me. Taking me by surprise, I tumbled back and we both fell back in the water.
I came back up with Chloe over my shoulder, hitting me with her little fists, and kicking.
"Yeah, sure Chloe." I replied to her earlier threat. She hung her head.
"I admit defeat." She sighed, and very dramatically, tumbled into the water, feigning her death.
Simon and Tori swam up to us and grinned, miming splashing. I got the gist and readied myself. When Chloe returned for air, she looked at us strangely.
"What? Crabs bite your butt or something?" She asked. We then proceeded to splash her without mercy. The water beside her started splashing her too and we all stopped and stared. Chloe wiped the water off her face and smiled at the empty space beside her. "Sorry Liz. It may be a little weird if you started splashing me." she paused, then reached out to the air. "Hey, at least you got them to stop."
"Liz?" Tori cried. Chloe nodded, grinning.
"Hey, I think Aunt Lauren has a notebook in her purse, with a pencil. Why don't you guys go and talk?" She suggested. Tori grinned. "Um, Tori. Liz already kind of left. You may want to explain to Aunt Lauren why her bag is being invaded by and unseen force." Tori nodded and swam away excitedly.
Chloe smiled softly and stared into space for a bit until she gasped and was pulled under the water. Without a second thought, I dove down and found her glaring at Simon, her hair floating above her head. Simon had his hand over his mouth to try to keep from laughing, face turning red. Finally, he realized he couldn't take it anymore and swam up to the surface. I could hear him gasping for air and laughing at the same time.
Chloe and I came back up too. "Real mature, Simon. Real mature." she muttered.
"I know right?" He said cockily. Chloe smirked.
"I'll show you mature."
"And how will you do that?"
"Oh my gosh..." She whispered suddenly, staring intently at the water. "A WALRUS WEARING A BIKINI!" She screamed and swam away.
Simon panicked and looked around for the imaginary walrus. When he finally realized that there was, in fact, no walrus, he glared at Chloe.
"Real mature, Chloe!" He yelled.
"I know right?" She yelled back, grinning and running back to her aunt.
"C'mon. Lets leave all the scary walruses and eat something." I said, pushing him gently. He glared at me too, but I could see the humor in his eyes.
Tori was still talking to Liz as we ate watermelons, and hot dogs. God, I was starving. I ate seven hot dogs in total. And that was small for me.
Chloe crawled up beside me and pointed at Simon who was flirting expertly with a girl. His usual type. Tall, blond. She was flirting back.
"This is so amusing." She laughed. "Lets go embarrass him." She grabbed one of my hands in her two small ones and tried to help me up. I think she actually broke out into a sweat. Wow. I grunted and got up myself, letting Chloe lead me along. When we reached them, and Simon saw the evil grin on Chloe's face, he groaned and tried to introduce us.
"This is my brother, Derek." He jerked a thumb at me. I felt the girl give me a once over. "And this is-"
"Hi! My name is Seashell. I'm a mermaid." Chloe interjected. The girl had a WTF face on. "Yes. I turn into a human when I come out of water. Lovely, isn't it? Derek isn't a mermaid. He's a sailor. I bewitched him. But Simon here? He's the guy that cleans the poopdeck on the boat. You must be wondering, where did we all come from? I come from Mermaidia. These guys come from the land of Happily Ever Afters. Did you know that when you dream, you don't snore? I bet that's a blessing for your parents. You seem like the type to snore. And drool. I think that there's a bit of dried up drool on the corner of your mouth. "
Chloe spit on her hand and made a move to clean it up. The girl flinched, covering her mouth with her hand and tried for a smile at Simon. "Hey, Si? I'll see you later."
She ran off, and I heard her mutter to herself. "Much later."
"WAIT! Come back! I want you to meet the sea witch! She looks exactly like you!" Chloe screamed and ran after her.
Simon, I'm surprised, didn't seemed pissed. He actually seemed amused. "Wow. Hey bro? She's definitely a keeper." And then he turned around to smile dazzlingly at another unsuspecting girl. I smiled to myself. Yep, she definitely was.
"Hey! You!" I looked over my shoulder to see the guy who had thrown the ball at Simon now waving at me and holding a volleyball. "You wanna play?"
I needed to burn off some of this energy, so I accepted. I approached tentively, and the guy grinned. "Come on. We don't bite. We just needed another player and you seem perfect. You know how to play?"
I grunted and took my place at the front left side of the net. The guy on the other team served, and I easily reached out and spiked the ball back on their side. We rotated, and now I was in the middle front. The guy who had invited me grinned. "I knew you were a good pick."
So we played on and I realized at one point, that Chloe was sitting at the side cross legged in the sand where some other girls were, and cheering every time my team scored. Sure, some of the other girls were cheering for guys on my team, but Chloe was the loudest, hands down.
So, naturally, I tried to show off my volleyball skills, without making it too obvious. Now I was getting other noises of appreciation other than Chloe. Actually, she stopped cheering altogether. So when the server on my side was getting ready, I spared a glance at Chloe, who was glaring at the other girls. The girls, on the other hand, were staring at me.
We played a bit more and eventually won. They asked if I wanted to play again, but I declined.
I made my way over to Chloe, who was sitting dejectedly in the sand, when a tallish girl blocked my path. Truthfully, she looked like a bimbo.
"Hey there. Saw you play. Awesome." She said. I stepped back, because she was too near me and stared at her, then grunted in thanks.
"Do you work out? You look like you work out. I mean, awesome pecs." Okay, she was starting to freak me out.
"Hey, Redhead! Heads up!" I looked back and saw Tori blast an enormous beach ball at the girl. It hit her on her face and made her stumble back in surprise, her abnormally large sunglasses askew. I looked back at Tori and she nodded towards Chloe. I took the hint and jogged off towards her.
"Hey." I said. She looked up from her pale feet and smiled, getting up.
"Hey." She whispered. She looked back at that same group of girls, looking at us.
"How'd I do?" I asked her, smiling. Why was she so sad?
"Great. You did great. Obviously those stupid... females over there thought so too." She sighed, and looked up at me. "I knew it was going to be just a matter of time."
"What?" I was completely baffled.
"Time until everyone else started seeing you like I did." She mumbled.
"What are you talking about?" I demanded. I don't like what I don't understand.
She looked up with a conflicted look on her face. "I'm talking about those girls over there staring at you like you were ice cream on a hot day! They kept on making comments, like 'Oohs, he's so hot!' and 'I just wanna kiss him' blah blah blah. And the worst part, they have boyfriends! And... never mind. Come on, lets go check up on Skye."
And with that, she walked away. I was left there, staring at her retreating back in confusion. Me? Good looking? Hah!
Tori came up to me and smiled. "So Derek, Chloe just walked away." I nodded. She punched me on the arm, earlier expression vanishing under an annoyed one. "You don't let her get away! She's feeling jealous of those other ditz' because she thinks that they're more prettier than her, and that you'd find them more... attractive."
"You girls are so impossible!" I all but yelled, throwing my arms up in frustration.
Tori grabbed my shoulder and brought me down so we were eye level. "Listen to me, Frankenstein, and I can help you make Chloe happy again. Now, how long have you been going out?"
That was easy. "About to be five months."
"How many presents have you gotten her?"
Grr. "Only one. The silver chain to replace the one I broke."
"WHAT?" She cried and jumped away from me, staring at me in disgust.
"Hey," I said, putting my hands up, "We're not living some normal life. I don't have the money to get something huge for her."
"That is no excuse. Come on. We're going shopping. Go beg Kit for some money." She grabbed my wrist and dragged me over to him.
I've noticed that Tori has changed her overall attitude toward us. She acts like we're a family now... which we are. I used to be really disgusted by the thought. I mean, I had told Chloe that I didn't care if she walked in front of a bus. The thing is... I do care. Well, now I do. Not before. Argh. What am I turning in to?
"Dad, can I have some money?" I mumbled looking at my feet.
"What, son?" He asked, leaning in to hear better.
Tori rolled her eyes and whispered to Dad that we were going to go get a present for Chloe and that I needed money.
Dad grinned and and fished out some bills from his wallet. He pressed it into my outstretched hand with a wink and waved at us. Tori grabbed the money from me and started dragging me away again, not giving me a chance to see the quantity.
"Thanks Dad!" I called out and followed behind Tori as we trudged up the boardwalk, towards the strip of stores that Chloe had pointed out when we got here.
"Wait!" I heard Chloe yell and skidded to a stop. I turned around to see her and Simon running.
"Yeah, Chloe? We're kind of busy right now-" Tori began, but was swiftly cut off by Chloe.
"I need to go too. I need to get some stuff for Skye. Might as well do it now." Oh no.
"Okay. You have money?" Tori nodded. What? Was she crazy? How was I supposed to pick a gift if she came?
"Yeah." She opened up her fist to show at least fifty dollars in there. What the hell? Where did she get all that?
"You and Simon go get the stuff. Derek and I have some... business to attend to."
Chloe gave me an amused look, and pushed Simon towards the store that carried baby stuff without another word.
"She knows something's up." I realized.
"Of course she does. How often do I hang out with you?" Tori scoffed and continued walking, nearing a small jewelry store.
I opened my mouth to retort something back, but then I figured I didn't want to waste energy on bickering with Tori, so I just shut it.
After we had gotten the present, we trudged back to see Chloe and Simon working on their comic thingy, lying on their stomachs. Skye was lying there, asleep in front of them. Dad and Lauren were talking about some light hearted subject, what with Lauren laughing and all. I shoved the bag towards Tori, and mumbled to her to go and hide it. She nodded and stuck it in her beach bag. Where she got that, I do not know.
"Hey guys! Look, we're almost done!" Simon greeted, and pointed at the comic.
"Yeah! Tori, look! You look so nice here!" Chloe nodded, and beckoned Tori to come see. When Tori crouched over the picture and studied it for a while, she let out a small gasp no one else would have heard.
"Wow. Simon. You draw well. I look so... powerful..." She traced the picture with her finger. I sat down next to Simon and leaned over his shoulder to get a better look. It was when we were destroying the Edison Group HQ. Tori's arms were above her head fingers splayed out, and you could tell she was just throbbing with power. It was a good drawing of her.
"It depicts you perfectly, Tori. I love it. Personally, I'd like to have it framed. Think we can manage that, Simon? Draw another one, for me?" Chloe asked, grinning. I glanced at Tori and her face was full of shock.
"Y-you'd like to have it... framed?" She stuttered out.
"Of course. You look gorgeous in it. I'd like to have pictures of all of you. This will be first."
I'M SORRY! DON'T EAT ME! I know, nothing about Derek's parents, nothing about the mysterious group. I just wanted something less angst-y or something before we got into the intense shtuffs. I hope you liked it.
IMPORTANT TO ALL MORTAL INSTRUMENTS AND DARKEST POWERS FANS! :
I, myself, have been searching for an awesome story with them both and I managed to find one! It's by the author, timidvoice and completely kicks butt! Her story is Appendix C, which is the first one, and the sequel is Children of Genesis. They are both so good and I recommend that everyone go and read it. Give it a chance, I promise you, you will definitely be glad you read it. This miraculous author deserves some recognition (even if they don't know they are getting it) and I want to help motivate them to keep writing!
R&R please!
