Daniel Westley lived with his sister in a decent enough apartment in the city of London. It wasn't too big and it wasn't too small. It was just right. At this time, however, he wasn't there. Instead, he was staying at a rather pricey house along the beach that cost much more than his actual dwelling with his friends, leaving his younger sister behind.
She wasn't alone, however. Gracious, no. Her brother would never dream of it. Instead, Samantha was staying with her close friend Geraldine Midford at the Midford estate. Now they lived much differently than she ever did. They had a big mansion that was centuries old, being the descendants of a long line of marquis. Samantha's father thought he had money, but these people had money. That wasn't the main difference, however. Every time she went over there, Geraldine's family would be there as well. They were warm and supporting, unlike her own. Granted, she had Daniel, whom she loved very much. Staying with him was the closest she's ever been to having a "normal" family life.
Sir Midford was always smiling when Samantha saw him and told her laughably unfunny jokes like a normal father would. His wife made sure she was comfortable and jabbed her husband in the ribs whenever he jested. The eldest brother, James, was seldom there, as he was grown with his own wife and young children. The second, Oliver, was usually present as with this particular visit. As Samantha watched two masked figures fence, she could tell which one he was, as he was the taller one. On the other hand, the short one was Geraldine. The daughter of Midford was on fire.
Geraldine used her height to her advantage, ducking down as low as she could to avoid her brother's strikes. Once she had a clear shot, she aimed for his armpit, striking him in the torso as he launched a failed attack. From where she was standing, however, it was technically a foul.
"You're supposed to stay straight in front of me, Gerry." her brother half-scolded, relaxing his stance. "That doesn't count."
"There are no rules in combat." Geraldine shot right back. "You're a soldier. You should know that. You'll get killed by sticking to just the 'rules.' If this sword were real, it would have gone right through to your heart."
"This is a fencing match, not a duel to the death."
"I know. It's a good thing. You'd be dead about six times now if it was."
"Geraldine, be nice to your brother." called Sir Midford from off to the side as he sat by the Westley girl.
"Why don't we use real swords like at Integra's?" his daughter questioned.
"You just said you'd kill me!" protested Oliver, taking off his mask.
"I would not! Good God, you're my brother. I would never!"
"You're not getting out of that one, Gerry!" Samantha stated, projecting her voice so that her friend could here her. Taking off her own mask, Geraldine walked over to her.
"I will have you know that I am a Midford. We are bound by the same code of chivalry as our forefathers and foremothers and would never raise our sword to someone who did not truly deserve it."
"Mm-hm. That's why you wanna duel your brother with a real sword?" The Westley girl was skeptical as she raised a single brow. "Because he deserves it?"
"How dare you twist my words, Westley?" her friend scoffed. "Maybe you'd like to duel me, too?"
"No. I enjoy not making a fool of myself."
"Just be that way, why don't you?" snarkily replied Geraldine, propping her fencing sabre against the wall while she took a seat on the other side of her friend. "Are you really alright with just watching?"
"Yeah. It's hard to be bored while watching people fight with swords, even if they're fake."
"Can't argue with that." Reaching up a hand, the Midfored tucked golden locks of curly hair behind her ear so that they were out of her face. They stuck to her skin from sweat and it irritated her. She always looked it regardless as to whether or not she was truly miffed, seeming to inherit her facial expressions from the Phantomhive bloodline. Despite this and her seriousness when it came to the sword, the Midford girl was usually in good spirits albeit with a somewhat dry sense of humour. Really, whenever Samantha saw her brother's demonic friend, she always thought of Geraldine.
It was the older Midford who was the more "gentle" of the siblings. The two girls watched him put away his equipment like Geraldine was supposed to before sitting down and catching his breath. Noticing this, their father piped up.
"Geraldine, go put your things away, if you're done for the day." Sir Midford instructed, causing the girl to sigh.
"Why are you on my case today? Oliver is the one who lost..."
"Because you're held to the same standard as he is and should take proper care of your equipment as a result." the man stated. "Just because you inherited talent doesn't mean you're exempt from the discipline aspects of swordsmanship."
"Yes, sir..." The girl didn't sound very sincere, but got up anyway, grabbing her practise sword and helmet as she did. While she was doing this, her brother had a question.
"What do you mean she inherited talent?" Oliver asked, arching a brow.
"The genes for natural fighters are passed through only women in our bloodline, starting from when the Phantomhives married into the family." the man informed. "Us men have to be proactive if we want to keep up."
"That's not fair..."
"Neither is patriarchy." Geraldine chimed in before turning her attention to her friend. "That reminds me, did you finish that book by that Bechdel chick?"
"The comic?" the Westley girl said, asking for clarification. Her cheeks tinted a little pink at the thought of the book once she remembered that her friend's father was sitting right next to her. "I tried, but I didn't understand a lot of her politics. That's probably just because I don't know a lot about how Americans do things, though. It was an interesting perspective on a lot of other things, anyway."
"Like lesbians?"
"Actually, yeah. I didn't really know a lot about how their lives are different from mine. I wonder if a lot of it has changed..."
"What's this about lesbians?" questioned Rupert, overhearing bits and pieces.
"It's classic feminist literature that's still referenced, dad." his daughter replied. "Relax."
"Alright..?"
"Dad, we're not together." Geraldine added, pointing to herself and then Samantha. Just because I hate men, doesn't mean I'm a lesbian."
"Shame. We're awful. She's a good catch, too." Sir Midford noted before turning back to his newspaper, catching the Westley girl off-guard while Geraldine simply rolled her eyes. Samantha could only assume that conversations like this were regular occurrence. She could understand what was going on, as Geraldine's first language was sarcasm. Part of Sir Midford was genuinely trying to be supportive, but he presented it in a way that his daughter could both understand and appreciate. "You never know, you might change your mind someday and settle down with a nice woman."
"Okay dad. Thanks."
After the Midford girl was done with practise, the girls left to go visit in Geraldine's room. As always, Samantha stared at her bookshelf, trying to decide if she wanted to borrow anything. She did on a pretty regular basis, and read most everything her friend had at least once. The girl had many books about swords.- how to make swords, how to wield swords, about different kinds of swords and combat techniques. She also had a few fiction books, but most weren't. There were one or two 'women's lit' books and book about many other miscellaneous subjects. Most were combat oriented, however.
"'Art of the Samurai; Yamamoto Tsunemoto's Hagakure'… Damn, you're hardcore..." noted Samantha. "It's a good thing you don't actually hate men."
"A lot of that book was pseudo-philosophy. I like a few men. There's my dad, my brothers, and there's Revy… The Phantomhives seem pretty alright, but I don't talk to them much, so I dunno. The last time I saw them was at their wedding."
"They're alright. You'd probably really like them, actually." The Westley nodded. "How was it, by the way?"
"What? The wedding? Like almost every other wedding, apart from the supernaturals everywhere." Geraldine replied, capturing the other's undivided attention at her careless remark.
"Wait… So you actually went inside Gehenna?"
"Yeah. It's a nice little town. It was a little scary since I'm not really used to that many Supernaturals, but Revy was there and I'm used to him."
"You have to tell me everything!" her friend insisted, startling her as she jumped onto her bed, causing her to bounce. "What did it look like? What are their customs? What kind of supernaturals were there?!"
"It was like London, but smaller." blinked the Midford. "Brighter colours on the buildings and stuff like that. A lot of men were wearing skirts, which was weird, but they usually had hooves, so it made sense."
"Where they kilts?"
"No… Just skirts."
"So in Gehennan culture, that's acceptable…." mused Samantha. "Go on."
"Uh… Well? I don't know what else. There's a lot, though. It's like one of those places that you can't explain, but have to go to yourself to understand."
"I can't, though. I'm not allowed to. I don't have HELLSING or Round Table connections..."
"Well, you do, but not the right ones." the Midford said. "Even I don't go there. I've only been once with my dad."
"Your dad can go in?" her friend questioned.
"He would never take you in there, so don't even think about it."
"Damn..." Laying back, Sam put her hands behind her head and looked up at the ceiling. There was a whole other world that few people know even exists and it's right under her nose. She wanted to know absolutely everything about it, but she couldn't. As far as HELLSING and the Round Table were concerned, she was just an ordinary school girl. The was no way in hell that they were going to give her access to a top secret location.
"Fix your skirt. I don't want to see your panties." her friend stated, causing her to move her hands. "Revy is coming over later and I don't think he wants to see them, either."
"Forget what Revy wants. I don't want him to see them, either."
"Then quit flashing people."
Sitting up, Samantha playfully slapped Geraldine's shoulder, causing her to laugh. Yes, she could laugh, despite her usually bored expression. Samantha was simply one of the few people that could make her do it. Her, Geraldine's dad, Revy, and a select few comedians had what it takes.
Eventually, the revenant turned up and was ushered upstairs. It was always surprising for the group to see each other out of uniform, but Revy was always the most shocking, with his 90's grundge flair. He always seemed to be wearing the exact same army jacket each time they saw him and he looked sitcom ready. From the way he always described his family, it seemed like he actually was. His part would of course been that of the "moody teenaged sibling".
"It's nice to have Alois out of the house." he said, sitting on the bed with the two girls. "He's always trying to help me and it's kind of annoying."
"You're upset that a family member is trying to help you?" gawked Samantha, raising a brow.
"He's always wanting me to open up to him and it's kind of getting on my nerves." the lad attempted to clarify. "He also tries to act like he's my dad sometimes and it's annoying as shit. If he were around, I would have to tell him before I came over here because telling Sebastian isn't enough, apparently."
"Sounds rough, man." Geraldine replied, despite not meaning what she said.
"He doesn't seem to get that he can't fix some things. Yeah, I have problems, but what's he gonna do about it? It's his memories that have me fucked up to begin with!"
"Sounds like you're not annoyed with him, but rather, resentful." The Westley girl pointed out. "Does his face still bother you?"
"Only always..." Revy stated while hugging his knees. "I hate having the same face as him. It feels like he's trying to 'help' me so I can be more like him. Dunno if that's true, but I don't want it."
"I highly doubt that's what he wants." Samantha said with utmost skepticism. "I understand that that's what it feels like, but-"
"...But that's totally ridiculous." Geraldine butted in, earning another swat to her arm. She ignored it, however, and kept going. "Have you considered changing your appearance if it bothers you so much?"
"That's the whole reason why I cut my hair short." scoffed the lad. "I've been needing to get another haircut lately, though… I just haven't gone yet. I've also been thinking about dyeing it, so I wanted to know what colour I'm gonna get before I go so I can get it done all at once."
"Oh! Do you have anything in mind?" excitedly asked Westley.
"I dunno… I wasn't thinking along the lines of 'normal' colours. I kinda want something a little 'out there'."
"Pink." Midford very abruptly suggested. "Or maybe a light magenta."
"What the fuck is magenta?" Revy shot back.
"It's like a pinkish purple."
"That would work very well." agreed their friend with a nod. "Blue or red might look good, too. It would bring out his eyes."
"True, true."
"You mean Alois' eyes." the revenant corrected as he rolled them behind his shades.
"No, no. They're different, they're different." Geraldine insisted. She was so adamant about the point that she said it twice. "Take off your glasses and look in a mirror."
"She's right, Revy. You've got eyes like nobody else." pointed out the other girl. "Your eyes actually stand out more than Alois' because of the black around the blue."
They were right. Revy's eyes were black where they were supposed to be white, causing any colour in the center to stand out dramatically. Yet, the lad had to look for himself, so with a heavy sigh he swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up before walking over to the mirror in his friend's room. On the way, he took off his glasses, holding them gently by the legs while he stared at his face.
Indeed, not a lot was very different from his elder brother. He was certainly younger and his hair was shorter and messier, but other than that, there wasn't much of a difference. Upon further inspection, however, Revy raised his brows in surprise. The girls were right. His eyes were very dramatically different from his counterpart's. They gave off a completely different impression, making his face look new. All of this time, however, he kept them hidden as to not raise any suspicion or seem "strange". That's all he wanted now, however. He wanted to differentiate himself from the Phantomhive. It just seemed as though he were going about it the wrong way.
He wore plain, practical clothing and did a lot to make himself invisible. If he couldn't be seen, he couldn't be mistaken for his brother, after all. Certainly, Alois was loud and proud, but not this conspicuous.
"Are you into punk, Revy?" asked Geraldine. "You want to dye your hair some crazy colour, and your eyes look pretty hardcore. The army jacket is a nice touch, too."
Slowly, the lad turned around to face his friends, still stunned at the revelation. After a long pause, he said: "I… I think Ciel's earrings are cool..."
Smiling, the two girls looked at each other before Geraldine stood. "I'm going to go get a driver ready."
"You're in for it now." Samantha said to the Macken. "Gerry hates makeovers, but she seems serious..."
A/N: I wanted more Revy. There's other stuff I need to be writing about, like the whole "there's a serial killer on the loose" thing, but I wanted to know more about Revy's hair. Sue me.
We'll get there eventually...
I'm feeling more excited about this, though. Maybe I just needed to shake things up by changing the focus? Whatever it is, it's working.
I also wanna reread KING CITY... I should do that after I post this... Yeah... That sounds like a good idea...
Until the next chapter, my duckies~!
CHARACTER SHET
Question: "Hey Ciel- what's the most embarrassing thing Integra or any of the round table have seen/caught/know about you doing? ( besides the... samples... that the lab has )" by BlazeingEcho
Ciel: "Well, the samples are embarrassing, but we also are asked to describe our sex lives to the doctors and researchers quite a bit, which isn't very fun. They want to know about demon sexuality, and we just so happen to be the only demons they know to be currently sexually active. They... know things..."
