Enneagon
Chapter 10: 51-50
This is a heavier chapter, so I'd like to recommend reader discretion.
*WARNINGS*
For mentions of violence at schools and minor character death
Also political mumbo-jumbo. Sorry in advance haha. Thank you to the following fabulous people for their reviews:
-hollyfrost666
-Guest
-Runereader of the Nightwings
-Jaspertail
-MintyGreenEmbers
-SavvySpirit
Love you all! On with the fic!
[Hexagon Academy, Briox]
[9.21.2065]
The team was clearing out of the gym after practice when a dark-haired figure on the bleachers stood up and made her way down to the field. Cinderheart, who had been in the middle of pushing the soccer goals back into their storage room, paused to watch her move.
"Hey, Lionblaze, isn't that your sister?"
Lionblaze, who had been preoccupied with runaway soccer balls at the side of the field, turned to look too.
"Yeah, it is. Weird, she doesn't usually come to our practices, does she?"
"No, and there's a Seminar Club meeting today."
Lionblaze gaped. "She skipped a club meeting to come here? Is something up?"
"I guess we're about to find out? Look, she's coming over here."
And so she was, with her book bags slung over her shoulder and an unusually grim expression on her face. She lifted one of the protective ball nets, ducked under it, and stepped onto the field. She scanned the field for a couple seconds, spotted Lionblaze and Cinderheart, and made a beeline straight for them. "Is everything okay?", Lionblaze called to his approaching sister.
"No, I don't think so", she said, once having reached them. "I thought Ivypool was exaggerating, but having watched that? She definitely wasn't."
"What are you talking about?", Cinderheart asked, visibly puzzled.
"Your team chemistry, Cinderheart. More specifically, Echosong and Icecloud."
"Oh. That'', Cinderheart muttered, deflating. "Yeah, it's a problem. I wish we knew what to do with those two, but it's been a mess. Especially in the past few days." She groaned and rumpled up her hair, tugging at the silver ends in her frustration. "I swear, why did Bramblestar have to make them room together? Ever since they became roommates everything's only gotten worse. They're constantly at each other's throats, no matter what, and it's been driving everyone a little crazy."
"Oh, trust me, I know. Ivypool's practically at the end of her rope, that's why she asked me to come watch the practice. I think she hoped I'd have some insight on the situation."
"And?", Lionblaze asked hopefully, eyeing his sister. "Is there anything we can do?"
"Maybe not everyone, but certainly you, Lionblaze."
Lionblaze and Cinderheart exchanged glances. "What do you mean?"
"I don't think any one of us could talk to Echosong, but you might be able to get through to Icecloud", Hollyleaf said matter-of-factly.
"...since when-", Lionblaze began, only to be interrupted by Hollyleaf.
"I would have thought that would be obvious. She had a thing for you last year. And even if she's over it now, she still respects you a lot, enough to where she might actually listen to you."
"-listen to me?", Lionblaze sputtered, flailing around as Hollyleaf began to physically manhandle him in the direction of the bleachers. "Listen to what? What the hell am I supposed to tell her? Stop being a bitch, pretty please with cherries on top?" Hollyleaf shot Cinderheart a "get-a-load-of-this-bonehead" look.
"No, you moron", Hollyleaf said exasperatedly. "Talk to her. Try to understand what her issues with Echosong actually are, and then see if you can maybe diffuse the situation a bit."
"Hollyleaf", Cinderheart piped up, eyeing her boyfriend with a mixture of amusement and severe pity. "Not to generalize, but guys usually aren't great with the….emotional aspect. Don't you think having Lionblaze try to diffuse the human equivalent of a volatile explosive might be asking a bit much?"
Lionblaze, nodding vigorously, tactfully didn't address how Cinderheart designated Icecloud as an explosive.
"Under any normal circumstance, I'd agree with you. But like you said, Icecloud isn't exactly approachable at the moment. Out of all of us, Lionblaze here has the best shot at getting through to her. So-," she gave Lionblaze's bicep a hearty slap. "-go get her, tiger."
He peeled himself off of his sister with a grimace. "Please, for the love of StarClan, never say that again."
He strained his neck, catching sight of a flash of platinum blond heading out the double doors. With that, he took off down the field and toward the doors, feeling Cinderheart's sympathetic cerulean gaze boring holes into his back.
…
"Ice?"
She didn't turn to look at him, instead opting to sling her backpack firmly around both shoulders and picking up the pace. But Lionblaze wouldn't be Lionblaze if he let himself be shaken off that easily.
"Ice! Icecloud, wait, alright?"
"Lionblaze", she muttered sullenly. "Did Ivypool put you up to this?" When Lionblaze didn't respond, she sighed resignedly and began taking off her jacket. It was a nice jacket, the Team Hexagon one with the black dri-fit and the blue streaks.
"...what are you doing?", he asked, puzzled.
She thrust the wadded up jacket into his hands. "Giving you your team jacket back. You want me off the team, isn't that why you're here?"
"What-? No! Of course not. Here-," he stuffed the jacket back into her hands. "-take that back. That's not why I came to talk to you."
Icecloud went red. "Oh."
"Should we maybe go somewhere more private?", Lionblaze asked awkwardly, shifting back and forth on the balls of his feet. "This isn't really a conversation I think we should be having in the hallways."
A year ago, Icecloud knew damn well that just the thought of private one-on-one time with her unfairly attractive team captain would have reduced her to incoherent fangirl babbling. Now? She was confident she would at least be able to stay at least somewhat composed.
She cast him a look out of the corner of her eye, then veered off into an empty classroom. She seated herself on the empty teacher's desk and watched Lionblaze draw the door closed behind him.
"Lock it", she muttered. So he did.
Then, fixing him with a look strong enough to disintegrate steel, she asked, "What do you want, Lionblaze?"
He looked a little taken aback by the sharpness in her tone, but recovered quickly. "I mean...elephant in the room and all that", he said awkwardly. "You and Echosong."
"Ah", Icecloud said briskly. "I had a feeling that's what it was."
There was another painfully awkward couple of seconds before Icecloud finally spoke. "How much do you know about Echosong?", she asked, kicking her feet against the legs of the desk.
The truthful answer to this was "not much" on Lionblaze's part, and although Lionblaze didn't respond, Icecloud made a face like she already knew the answer. "Captain", she remarked rather stonily. "Have you ever heard of someone named Silversong?"
"It's...familiar", Lionblaze responded. He sat himself down on one of the student desks and began running his fingers slowly down the grooves in the wood. "Why?"
"Silversong is the name of the Brioxian Vice President. She's also Echosong's mother."
There was stunned silence.
"Echosong is the daughter of the Vice President?", Lionblaze asked, wide-eyed. "That's...wow. Just wow."
"Yes, wow", Icecloud said bitterly, jumping off the teacher's desk to begin pacing around the room like a tiger in a cage. "Her mother is the tie-breaking voice in a 50-50 Senate, and because of that? Silversong is one of the most powerful people in Briox, second only to the President himself."
When Icecloud rounded on him, she wasn't bristling with anger. Instead, she seemed to almost be deflating, the picture of bitter resignation. Her voice stuttered painfully in her throat when she spoke, "In 2058, when I was nine, Foxleap and I had an older brother. His name was Rowanwing. He was seventeen."
This was a story that Lionblaze had never heard in his life, something the twins had never once mentioned, and so he listened with bated breath as Icecloud carried on.
"My family lives in Hauserton, Briox, arguably one of the most dangerous and unsafe cities in the country. My brother was at school. Minding his own damn business and-" She became too choked up to continue, burying her face in her arms. Lionblaze leaped off his desk and scurried over. He wasn't sure whether to give her a hug or not, and finally, he carefully settled a hand reassuringly on her shoulder.
Below him, there was a gurgling sob, and Icecloud re-emerged with her mascara running down her cheeks.
"My brother was assaulted at school. That's the reason why my parents pay so damn much for us to be here, where we don't have to worry about getting stabbed like Rowanwing. He didn't even do anything wrong, he just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The bastard stabbed him in the kidney, from behind, like the damn coward he was. "
Another furious sob.
"Do you know how much a kidney transplant costs? Almost half a million fucking dollars is what!"
It was then that Lionblaze made the connection, understood what Icecloud was getting at. And even though this story was clearly important to her, he hadn't been quite able to figure out where she had intended to take the conversation.
"The healthcare deal", he murmured.
"In 2058, the Brioxian Senate was debating on passing a universal healthcare deal that would have been geared toward helping low-income families. Specifically, my family", Icecloud said coldly.
"My brother's case made national news. Everyone knew who he was, who we were, and the senators trying to pass the Deal brought us in to try to convince the opposition."
Lionblaze remembered, seeing bits and pieces of the televised Senate debate even from his home in California. And distantly? He remembered the bedraggled, teary-faced family in the stands of the Brioxian Senate.
"I stood next to my mother when she spoke on the Senate floor. She looked Vice President Silversong dead in the eye, and asked her if she was a mother. She asked the Vice President if she knew what it was like to lose a child, if she could fathom the pain of seeing your child in a hospital bed. Dying. Dying, slowly and painfully, a completely preventable death. And do you know what the Vice President said?"
Lionblaze felt a horrible sinking feeling in his stomach, because he already knew the outcome of the Senate debate in 2058.
"The Vice President said that emotions have no room in politics, that it didn't matter. And even though she didn't directly say it, she doesn't care that there are families just like mine who had to watch their children die because they couldn't afford the medical bills. The healthcare deal failed to pass in a 51-50 vote. Silversong was the deciding voice. My parents were handed a bill for over half a million dollars, and she is the reason why they had to walk away."
"Echosong's mother," Icecloud snarled. "Is the reason my brother is dead. I hold her personally accountable for not only the death of Rowanwing, but of every single person who died a preventable death just like him. And that," she stopped pacing and stalked toward the classroom door, "is the reason I cannot stand Echosong. Take me off the team if you have to. I can't put up with her any longer."
End Chapter 10
….yeah so.
Silversong is lowkey garbage and I hope people can see why Icecloud has so much beef with Echosong now (not saying her anger is entirely justified, seeing as Echosong and Silversong are different people, but still)
Azra out!