Lick The Pavement
Chapter Fifteen: Depression and Repression
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//Just close your eyes and speak
Say what we both know is inside you
If you want I'll keep
So much bury deep
Wake up its gone
What made you fall away?//
The Closet - Vex Red
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Scott stood quietly at the door and watched his lover sitting with the other two boys. Lukka saw him and looked up, but Scott smiled and shook his head, putting a finger to his lips, and Lukka smiled and went back to the game, without giving Scott away to Lance.
Apparently, the three had lost interest in the cards and were now engaged in some random tale about... stealing cars?
"So there I was, trying to not get myself killed in this car, and I'd managed to lose all but two of these police guys when I realise that I'm running out of bloody gas..."
Scott coughed from the doorway and Lance's head whipped round.
"I thought I'd talked to you about telling that story." Scott said with a grin.
Lance shrugged.
"Yea well..."
Scott came in and sat down next to Lance in a chair, as there was no more room on the bed.
"How are you feeling Lukka?" He asked.
"Well, considering I was beaten unconscious and only just woke up... actually, not too bad." He said.
Brian was watching them banter with a slight smile on his face when Scott turned to him.
"And how are you?"
"I'm better since Devi healed me."
Scott looked puzzled and Lance filled in the blanks.
"Oh, that Devi kid apparently used the energy from the hospital to heal Bri here. Of course, he can't do anything for Lukka cause he's now unconscious, thank-you-very-much-Logan."
Scott frowned and idly played with Lance's fingers, which were in front of him on the bed. He suddenly realised what he was doing when Lance pulled his hand away sharply, and looked up to see Lukka and Brian both looking at them.
"Ummm..." He began, but Lukka waved a hand to say don't worry about it.
"It's cool. I'm not exactly attracted to the female of the species either." He said.
"My brother's gay." Brian said, amusingly deadpan.
Scott smiled, but Lance grinned and edged over to Scott, eventually just getting up and perching on Scott's knee, putting an arm around his neck to play with the now-long ends of his hair.
"You guys are very cool." Lance stated.
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Tone was ahead of Rae and Lia, talking to Bryn about how her powers were caught on live camera.
"So I had totally no idea I was a mutant, but then it jis' hit me, rite in the middle of a footie game, an' then these spiders came outta nowhere and jist attacked the stands... and then there were people runnin' an' yea... but that's how I think I got picked up... cause it was televised an' all."
Bryn was listening to her politely, occasionally asking her to repeat herself.
Lia laughed then turned to Rae.
"So... what made you decide to go for red?"
"Huh?" Lia broke Rae out of her musings.
"The hair." Lia smiled, pointing to her own. "Or rather, the streaks."
"Oh!" Rae touched her hair. "No. They're natural."
Lia made big eyes. "You're joking? You're so lucky." She pulled fingers through her own black streaked blonde tresses. "I have to keep wasting money getting mine done."
"It's pretty." Rae said, smiling.
Lia BEAMED at Rae.
"THANK you." She gushed, spontaneously hugging the slightly smaller girl.
Rae blushed and stood still as she was hugged. She'd had problems with friends in the past and they had pretty much destroyed any trust in people that she had. She found it hard to let people in, but now Lia was here, and she was practically forcing herself under Rae's barricades.
And Rae found that she couldn't stop herself letting the other girl in.
The conversation between Bryn and Tone had moved to the subject of how Tone dealt with her strange eye colour, solid black from corner to corner.
"It wasn't as much of a problem as ye may think." She was saying as she followed the tall boy. Bryn absorbed knowledge like a sponge soaks up water, and knew his way around the institute pretty well after having studied the maps, so he was leading them.
"As long as I wore me shades, I wis fine. I tole everyone who asked thit I had specially light-sensitive eyes. O'course I had tae be home schooled, cause they wouldn'a let me wear 'em indoors."
"I was also tutored from home."
"Yeh were? How come? Yer ain't visibly a mutant."
"Our family moved back and forth through Europe a lot because of my parent's occupations." He explained. "My mother is an opera singer and my father a conductor, so they are required to tour. It was easier to bring my own tutor rather than having to change schools each time. I was also taught on a more classical syllabus than the one now taught."
"Wow." Tone said. "So, how many houses have ye lived in?"
"Oh, no. We had a house in England, Germany and Italy. Otherwise we stayed in hotels, 'living out of a suitcase' as it were." He said grinning.
Bryn's totally unself-conscious tone showed that he wasn't bragging about his family's wealth, but just stating the facts.
"So, do you have any siblings sharing this wealth with yer?" Tone teased.
Bryn grinned. "There's my elder sister Bethany. She's currently working in Italy."
"How much older?"
"She's twenty eight, but her birthday's coming up in a few months. And what about your family?"
Tone snorted and waved a careless hand.
"Oh, there's me brother, Dean, also older. I stay outta his business, he stays outta mine and we get along fine."
"Oh YES!" Lia cheered behind them. They had arrived at the kitchen.
"Coming?" Tone asked Bryn as the other two girls bounded off.
"Actually, I need to find one of our hosts and ask them something. You go on ahead, I'll see you later."
Tone grinned, waved and followed her friends.
Bryn set off down the corridor, looking for Scott or Jean.
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Logan was still grumbling about Kegan's insufferable impudence and about Jean for telling Kegan to ask him for a cigarette in the first place when he walked past the large windowsill.
He stopped and backed up, seeing the older girl with the blue-lit black hair sitting there on her own, what looked like a sketch book hanging limply from her hand, her cheek resting on her hand which was- in turn- resting on her up-drawn knee.
She seemed so lost in her own world, gazing without seeing from the window, that Logan was loathe to disturb her, but also annoyed that she failed to sense his presence there.
This was the girl who Jean seemed to think he could personally train with some reasonable results, but this lack of response wasn't promising.
"Hey Streaks."
Liz was ripped out of her thoughtless trance by the sound of Logan's voice, and she reflexively turned sharply, which made her overbalance and begin to fall off the ledge, but she waved an arm widely and re-caught herself.
"Don't DO that." She snapped.
Logan raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms.
"Don't say hi?"
Liz growled. "You know what I meant."
Logan smiled.
"So, do you gotta name or do I have to keep callin' you Streaks?"
"I'm Liz Blake. And you are…?"
"You can call me Logan, or you can call me Wolverine. Either's fine."
"And you're named after a notoriously vicious carnivorous mammal because…."
Logan uncrossed his arms and directed his blades downwards, sliding them out fast. Liz jumped.
"I AM a notoriously vicious carnivorous mammal." He smirked, retracting the long sabre-like claws.
Liz stared at his hands where the extra appendages had been.
Logan spoke to break the tension.
"So, whaddaya drawing there?"
Liz instantly grabbed her drawing book and held it to her chest, glaring at Logan fiercely.
"Right, right." He said, putting his hands up calmingly. "It's an artist thing, I get it."
After a few more minutes of silence, in which Liz silently prayed that the burly man would go away and leave her to her drawing, Logan spoke up again.
"Why aren't ya with the others?"
Liz shrugged. "I didn't feel like company."
"I know how that feels." Logan agreed, and there was a fleeting sense of understanding between the two before it washed away like chalk in the rain.
"I'm gonna go back to my room now." Liz said quietly, moving off.
"See ya around then Streaks." Logan called out behind her, wondering if every other new kid that they had in this place was traumatized in some way, or if it was just that he attracted the crazy ones.
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Scott, Lance, Lukka and Brian were once again playing cards, although it had degenerated into an adrenaline pumped game of Snap.
Bryn knocked on the door, but it was open and swung back as he rapped on it.
"SNAP!" Lukka screamed, slamming his hand down on the cards a split second before Scott jumped and did the same.
"That wasn't fair!" The red eyed boy exclaimed as Lukka raked the cards towards him, giggling insanely. "He was using his hair again, he had his hands free."
"Sorry Scott." Brian, who was on Lukka's team, said, with a huge grin on his face contrary to his apology. "But you shoulda been faster."
"Hello." Lance said, and the other three looked up to see Bryn standing there, looking up from underneath his dusky light brown fringe. "We haven't been introduced properly, have we? You are?
"I'm Bryn Zeitsagen, pleased to meet you."
"Oh yeah! Well Bryn, I'm Lance. You know Scott and this is Brian and Lukka, the invalid."
Lukka smiled at Bryn, and some cards held in his hair waved lazily at him.
"I'd get up but..." he joked, indicating his bedridden state.
Bryn looked over his injuries with compassion.
"Can you not be healed?" He asked.
Lukka blinked at him.
"Well… yeeeees…. if I could, of course I would."
Bryn looked confused. "Why can't you?"
"Well, we have a noticeable lack of HEALERS for one thing." Lukka said, slightly irritated by being reminded of how long he'd have to stay in bed unable to fully move for.
"Well…" Bryn looked from Scott to Lukka. "I could heal you."
The room went silent until Scott spoke.
"How?"
"Well, my power is time manipulation, correct? I can increase the speed of your body's natural healing and you'll heal yourself. It won't be painless and you will age by how long I speed you up, but you will get out of that bed faster."
Scott looked unsure, but Lukka sat up- well, as best as he could- and nodded furiously. "Yes, yes, yes, yes, YES!"
Scott sighed.
"I dunno… it sounds kinda… dodgy."
"Oh. Let the kid do it if that's what Lukka wants Scott." He turned to Lukka. "If this turns you into an eighty-five year old man, it's your own damn fault." He scolded.
Lukka shrugged and turned to Bryn, who was looking unsure.
"Hey, ignore 'em. Speed me up!" He could hardly sit still.
Bryn sighed. "Okay then… but don't hate me if this goes wrong."
He held his hands over Lukka and concentrated on his power, pulling at the future of the bone's healing, the cuts sealing and the bruises fading, then unleashed all that potential in one go.
Lukka stiffened and bit his lip, but couldn't stop the dull moan that came from his throat as a good few months of healing hit him al at once. He felt the bones knitting, the cuts moving and the pain that was numb from painkillers flaring, then dropping down. His hair moved as if it was underwater, straining to defend the body against the pain, but being unable to.
Then, as suddenly as it had started, it was over. Lukka sank down breathing hard and Bryn swayed slightly, falling back into a chair which Scott offered him.
"You okay?" Scott asked worriedly.
Bryn nodded.
"Yes, yes. I'll be okay, I just need to rest for a few seconds." He said.
"Lukka?"
Lukka gingerly moved a leg, then an arm, and finally stood up in the bed.
"YES!" He hollered, punching the air and jumping on the bed for good measure.
He leapt off and glomped Bryn, hugging him round the neck and squeezing,
"THANK you! Man, I could KISS you!"
He leapt off to poke Brian, leaving Bryn standing there with a slight blush to his cheeks.
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Kegan was still watching over the unconscious body, but was watching with no awareness. His mind was off elsewhere, mulling over the question of why homosexuality was seen as such a threat to those moronic homophobes.
It was a question he pondered often, having been victim to physical abuse from said morons more times than he could count.
He was interrupted from his musings as the boy on the bed lifted his hand slightly, his breathing changing, speeding up, each breath a hiccup as if he were gasping for air, or maybe sobbing.
He was concerned for the pretty faced boy and called his name, hoping to wake him up and out of it.
"Devi? Dev."
There was no response, so Kegan tried gently rubbing a hand on his arm, a more soothing way to wake up than being shaken.
This DID get a reaction.
= He knew he was in that cell, back at the MSDC, even though water was running in from the ceiling, forming a pool in the middle of the floor. He sat back on his haunches and watched it with horrified fascination as it grew bigger and bigger. A shadow broke away from the wall and became hands, a body, a guard who began stripping him down. He shook hard under the man's touch, but couldn't do anything, couldn't even whimper as he was turned and pushed down onto his back. The man stood over him and grabbed his feet, another man grabbed his arms and he was lifted. The world swayed and he was being swung, back and forth and back and… he was flying, falling, his stomach flipped and he turned, cat-like in the air, only to fall face-first into the pool of water, which was suddenly a bathtub… he gripped at the porcelain sides, only caring that they were slippery… his head was being held down, he pushed back against it, he couldn't get a grip on the bathtub sides, he was running out of air… his head was pulled p and out, and he gulped for air, even as the man's hand began running down his arm, like the water streaming across his face… =
Kegan wasn't sure if it was better that Devi didn't wake up screaming. It certainly would have been less eerie. The way he did wake up was terrible in that he was so quiet, almost consciously making no noise.
How many other nightmares had he had, waking up with no one hearing him?
Devi woke with a gasp, almost silent, not even sitting up. His eyes snapped open and he panted, still sobbing, the constrictive feeling carrying over from the dream world into reality.
Kegan stood where he was visible and crouched down to Devi's level, making soothing shushing noises and stroking the skinny arm with his fingers, hands still.
"Hey, it's ok, it was just a dream. You're awake now, you're okay."
Devi, feeling itchy in the head and arms and feeling his stomach ache in nauseous rebellion of consciousness, only stared back, wide, panicked silver/amber eyes locking with jeweled aqua blue ones, projecting a sense of calmness.
Devi looked round and sat up, nonchalantly moving Kegan's hand from his arm, the feeling of the guard in his dream still haunting his nerve endings.
"I was outside…" He said fuzzily.
Kegan smiled.
"Logan found you and knocked you out to bring you back. They don't want you to run out and alert the MSDC to where we are." He said, sitting back.
Devi studied the ice-blond.
"You're Kegan yea?"
"Yup. And you're Devi."
Devi nodded.
"What were you dreaming about?" Kegan asked, his curiosity knowing no bounds, and immediately regretted his question lest the fey boy should clam up.
But he didn't. Instead his eyes darkened to steel and honey for a few seconds, but brightened once again.
"It wasn't important. Just one of the guards from the MSDC."
Kegan winced, about to ask the unasked question, but Devi continued.
"It was prolly 'cause I bit him."
Kegan grinned disbelievingly.
"You BIT him?"
"Yup."
Kegan cracked up.
"Oh man, that's brilliant." He laughed. "Who was it?"
"Uh… I dunno, Mick? Nick? The one with the hair…" He waved a hand ambiguously over his head, and Kegan had another fit of hysterics.
"Oh great, you bit Nick. The bastard so totally deserved it."
Devi grinned at Kegan, the lingering darkness of the bad dream forgotten.
Once Kegan regained his breath, he wiped his eyes and looked back at Devi.
"Okay…" his tone became more serious, but not so much that he worried Devi. "You're not gonna like this next part…"
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I have.... an idea.
Yes, me and my mate were brainstorming this fic, and now I know where it's going. I'm gonna warn you now, your characters are gonna be bastardised, but DO NOT WORRY. They will be redeemed in the end, even if it doesn't look that way at first. And it SO won't look that way at first.
Buckle in, it's gonna be a long ride.