Enneagon

Chapter 18: Encounter

TRIGGER WARNING: PEDOPHILIA

One of the POV characters is a pedophile and has nasty thoughts about an underaged character.

PROCEED WITH CAUTION

…

[Hexagon Academy, Briox]

[10.5.2065]

The door creaked, and Silverhawk found himself ever-so-rudely torn out of his thoughts. He grit his teeth and leaned back in his chair, swiftly stuffing the orange backpack out of sight. But to his surprise, it was Jayfeather who came stumbling into the classroom, and the tension melted out of Silverhawk's body, slick as butter in a pan. He had seen nothing.

Instead, he found himself leaning forward, smiling, even though the boy in question could hardly see it. Better so, in fact.

"Jayfeather," he crooned, and slowly ran his finger through a patch of dust on his desk. "Come to finish your art project, have you?" he said, and had the pleasure of watching Jayfeather stiffen in horror.

Finish was a funny word, Silverhawk couldn't help but think, as he thought of Jayfeather's mutinously blank papers in class. The boy hadn't even started, refused to, as his own small rebellion against a situation he could do nothing about. He had commendable instincts though. Even moreso considering not a single other person seemed to think anything was remotely amiss.

It was with that thought that he ran a hand over the orange backpack. Then he kicked it carelessly under his desk.

The money hadn't come in yet. No doubt Firestar was kissing up to notable Hexagon alumni that very minute, groveling for the six million in question, but it was only a matter of time. With an alumni roster as full as Hexagon's, that six million dollar hole in Firestar's pocket would be stuffed in no time. Silverhawk just had to make sure he'd be the one to deliver it.

Hawkfrost had demanded that much.

Hawkfrost, the careful planner that he was, had wanted that extra bit of insurance. And while Silverhawk didn't think that Firestar would be stupid enough to attempt to pull one over on Hawkfrost, Hawkfrost himself was paranoid: although that was understandable.

They were dealing with more money than any of them had ever had.

There was a wonderful thrill that went through Silverhawk at the idea, at the mere thought of all that money. He laid eyes on Jayfeather, feeling suddenly giddy.

Jayfeather. He was a small thing, pale, and oddly pretty in an unusual sort of way. His blue eyes were massive to the point of eeriness, the deepness of the blue shot through with milky trails of age-old scarring. If rumor served, it was these scars that served as souvenirs of the upper respiratory infection that had almost killed him as a child.

It was Jayfeather's perceived frailness that drew Silverhawk so inexplicably in. He knew, of course, that this so-called frailness was misleading. He'd seen the boy sprint on the track. And if he'd gone into the clutches of the Dark Forest in March and survived- if he had successfully slipped out of Hawkfrost's hands unscathed- then he couldn't possibly be a weakling.

Silverhawk knew just from the most basic of observations during class that Jayfeather was often overshadowed by his more impressive siblings. His brother, Lionblaze, who was the undisputed Adonis of Hexagon Academy: a pretty boy with just enough athleticism and charm to ensure that every female student foamed at the mouth on sight. His sister, Hollyleaf: insufferably smart and ever-so aware of her own intelligence. She'd probably go to Harvard one day, and if not that, then probably Yale.

Compared to his siblings, Jayfeather seemed to fall into the background. Snarky and withdrawn, he lacked Lionblaze's charisma and didn't quite measure up to Hollyleaf in terms of intelligence. He seemed content to slip into the shadows, and it was this among other things that drew Silverhawk in. Jayfeather was an enigma. A puzzle full of contradictions that Silverhawk wanted to unravel.

Jayfeather froze the second Silverhawk spoke.

It was like watching a bunny rabbit sense alarm.

And then the girl bust in, and Silverhawk barely suppressed the hot surge of anger. God fucking dammit, just as he'd gotten Jayfeather alone, that goddamned girl limped through the door with intent. She infuriated him. Pathetic as she as, teetering around on that one prosthetic leg, and constantly hovering around Jayfeather like a fly over dog shit.

He'd heard she'd lost the leg at the warehouse in March when the buildings caved in. Too bad the concrete had only hit her legs.

"Can I help you?" he asked sweetly.

Briarlight's eyes fixed on something beside his desk. Not looking at him, she absently responded, "No..."

Silverhawk looked down. With a jolt of horror, he realized what Briarlight was staring at, the unmistakle straps of the orange backpack stuck out from behind the desk and into plain sight. Briarlight looped her arm through Jayfeather's and looked up, the milky blue of her eyes fixing onto him.

There was something calculating in her expression that he didn't like. He met her gaze, and he could've sworn he could see the visible slip into mistrust and dislike. There was something dangerous here.

She couldn't know the truth, not off of just seeing the edge of an orange backpack. She didn't know of Hawkfrost. She didn't know who he was.

He repeated those things to himself like a mantra.

He kept waiting for her to open her mouth, but she didn't. Instead, she gave Jayfeather a sharp jab in the ribs with her elbow and he jumped about a mile in surprise. Then she gave Silverhawk a smile of forced politeness and guided Jayfeather out of the room.

Something in Silverhawk's stomach had gone distinctly cold.

…

"What a creep," Briarlight grumbled to Jayfeather as she hauled him down the hall.

"I can walk-" Jayfeather began to complain. Briarlight was one of his favorite people to be around because she gracefully ignored his blindness and treated him no different. So this being hauled around- being treated like an invalid, in his opinion, was especially annoying.

She gave his arm a comforting squeeze. "I know, trust me, but we have to be quick-" Just as she said it, she saw the door of an empty classroom. The door was barely ajar, and Briarlight could see the teachers' desk: not a single thing on it. Not a single binder or heap of papers or anything that indicated that anyone used it at all. It didn't seem to be a room much used by anyone.

Briarlight had just pushed the door open and pulled Jayfeather after her when there was a loud squawk from the back corner.

Two embarrassed freshman, who had been playing an enthusiastic game of tonsil hockey in the far corner, broke apart. They surfaced from their kiss with a noise not unlike a plunger being pulled out of a toilet. Jayfeather next to her wrinkled his nose.

After sharing a room with Lionblaze for years, he was probably familiar with the noise.

"Out," he said shortly. "We have dorms for a reason," he informed the two of them sarcastically as they slunk away.

Then Jayfeather closed the door, leaning against it with his arms crossed. His body looked tense, like every muscle was coiled in anticipation of danger. He reached back at the door handle, pressed down the lock button, then jiggled experimentally at it a few times. Locked.

"Okay," he said, nursing the sore spot on his ribs where she'd elbowed him. "You wanna tell me what that was about?"

"Silverhawk's desk," she muttered. "You wanna know what was under it?"

"Let me guess," he remarked sardonically. "An orange backpack."

If it hadn't been for his being blind, he would have see the way Briarlight's eyebrows shot up her forehead. "How'd you know?" she asked, a little awed.

"Because it'd be just our luck if Slimeball McGee is the one delivering the ransom. Besides, you elbowed me hard enough to dislodge a kidney, there wasn't a whole lot of things it could be."

Briarlight had to laugh at that, coming over next to Jayfeather to lean against the classroom door. "Well, excellently deducted Sherlock. Clearly those novels I got you on Valentine's haven't gone to waste." She smiled, somewhat cheekily. "Can I see?"

Jayfeather reluctantly peeled up his shirt, and sure enough, a truly spectacular bruise bloomed across ribs. Briarlight sucked in a breath and gently placed two fingers on it. He was so warm. She could swear she could feel the jump of Jayfeather's pulse under his skin. She looked up into his face and noted with pleasure that his cheeks seemed a little flushed, his unseeing eyes overbright.

She removed her fingers, finding they'd left impressions on the hot skin. Then she tucked her body into his, nestling her head into the crook of his shoulder. "I fucking hate that guy," she breathed into his ear, watching the way the fine little hairs on his skin stood up as she did. "He looks at you like Hawkfrost did."

"Fuck Hawkfrost and fuck that guy too," Jayfeather agreed, somewhat breathlessly.

His arm rose to settle around Briarlight's body like warm, wonderfully reassuring weight, his hand stroking over her shoulder.

Then he turned, cupping her face gently with the other hand. His fingers moved, found a flyaway strand of her hair, and toyed with it absently. "I'm really glad you're here. I-"

He worried at his lip and turned his face away somewhat, as though embarrassed. "-I can't imagine doing this without you."

It was like the surroundings had gone electric. There was a distinct thrill of something in the air, a premonition of something about to happen. It was as though just breathing it in made something spark in Briarlight's chest. She picture in her mind, the striking of a match before the fuse of something wonderfully explosive.

Jayfeather hesitated only another second. Then he leaned over, pressing his lips to hers, and the fuse was lit.

…

[Hexagon Academy, Briox]

[10.6.2065]

"I can't believe you two!" Hollyleaf said incredulously. "Right after you kicked those freshman out, too!"

Briarlight looked over at Jayfeather, his face turned back at her. In theory, they shared a glance. Then they both burst out laughing.

But Hollyleaf couldn't stay mad long. Rather, she interestedly propped her elbows on the breakfast table, pushed aside Cinderheart's pancakes as she did, and whispered conspiratorally across at them. "Was that the first time?"

Briarlight looked around at the the rest of the table, which was listening in with keen looks of interest. Cinderheart had recovered her breakfast plate and gave Hollyleaf a playful kick in the foot. Feeling her face grow hot, she nodded.

Lionblaze let out a caw of victory that could be heard across the Dining Hall. "Finally!" He picked up a glass of juice and raised it high above his head. "I propose a toast," he declared. "To my little brother finally having some moxie and kissing the girl already."

There was laughter around the table, with glasses being raised into the air in salute. Jayfeather moaned and buried his head in his hands. "Lionblaze, you dick, can you not- half the room is watching!"

It was true. Half the room was watching. Partially because Lionblaze had about two dozen eyes on him at all times anyway, simply for being Lionblaze. And partially, because he was now actively making a scene.

His announcement that Jayfeather had officially kissed a girl hadn't gone unnoticed. Briarlight noticed that a good few people had turned around in their chairs to get a better look at her. Given Jayfeather's reputation for being repulsed by anything even remotely romantic or sexual (a reputation that had only been bolstered by his complete lack of interest in the very pretty Half Moon), there was definitely some curiosity as to who had actually managed to capture his attention.

She resisted the urge to make like Jayfeather and bury her head in her hands too.

Then she looked up, and looked across the room at the teachers' table.

Silverhawk was looking at them, his eyes boring into her. His sleek blond hair glinted, the morning sunlight catching his sharp face. There was a positively hateful expression distorting his features.

Briarlight watched keenly as Firestar approached Silverhawk and pulled him aside, speaking in hushed tones.

Something was happening. Whatever the events of the next days would be, they were beginning to play out, and she was determined not to miss an instant.

End Chapter 18

Not me realizing in that like 200k words of the combined Hexagon AU, I have never once written a Briarfeather kiss (that I remember)

Take this humble offering lmao

Azra out!