Just before noon...

Jay frowns as they all sit in tense silence. Mal growls in frustration as she snaps another pencil in her dwindling attempt to sketch. Evie titers unnecessarily as she applies yet another layer of makeup. Carlos curls tighter into himself as he pretends to read, when really he was using it as an excuse to watch the room just like he was doing. And Deez?

Deez was at the table hunched over a tablet, writing in what he guessed was greek. It was all they could do to ignore the tears that hadn't stopped pouring from her eyes since she'd shown up that morning. Ignore her tears and the occasional flames that sprouted along her arms, which was why he supposed she'd gone back to using the stones. At least she was a silent crier.

He wasn't sure what to do, or even if the right words existed, to break this tension. He swallows. He wasn't sure he'd ever experienced anything quite this strong. It had been hours since any of them talked or really even moved. It was like someone had fucking died or something.

He guessed, in a way, someone had. Deez had lost her freedom, and her right to visit the rats. Even worse, if she ever backed out, E would pay the price. It was a fucked up situation. And one that didn't seem to sit well with any of them.

Hyades looks up when she finishes writing, her eyes sliding over everyone in the room before she slides out of the chair.

Everyone in the room startles when her chair creaks, breaking the silence. He couldn't help himself, his eyes went to her just like everyone else's.

"Sorry." Hyades ducks her head, letting her hair fall in her face as she runs for the bathroom.

Jay drops his eyes. That was just great, she made one noise and then apologized. This was going to go so wonderfully. He sighs. Why did this feel so severely different? She was D, and they hadn't changed. Sure, Mal's mom was being a bitch, but why was it suddenly so hard to even talk to her? They were making it worse. Fuck. He'd never realised how shitty his gang was at emotions til this moment. Even with Harry having pointed it out several times.

"She didn't leave did she?" Mal asks after a few minutes, her eyes glaring at the door hiding the small bathroom.

"She's not that small Mal." Jay rolls his eyes. "Ain't no way she's fitting through that window. Just let her have a minute."

"A minute?" Mal scoffs, "It's been hours Jay. I didn't even know you could cry that long."

"Mal." Evie sighs, "Come on, she… She just lost half her world. Because she doesn't want me to get hurt."

Mal drops her eyes. "Well it's not our fucking fault. Not her fucking fault either.'

"No, it's not." Jay shakes his head, "But we're not helping."

"What? We're ignoring her while she has her time to sort shit out." Mal rolls her eyes.

"I don't think that works for her." Jay shrugs. He wasn't sure that's how it worked for most people. They just happened to be on the isle. Hyades was the closest to normal he knew though- Which meant she probably needed the comfort the rest of them neglected or ignored in themselves.

Carlos sighs, "It doesn't." He adds before he gasps and looks back down at his book.

"Well, you did get to know her while she was hanging out with that oaf of a Gaston." Mal rolls her eyes. "Though-" Her eyes flash. "Now that we're on the subject." She turns to Jay.

Jay meets her glare. "Got a problem Mal?"

"Who is wielding the hammer in the book club, Jay?"

"Gil." Jay shrugs.

"So you and Carlos did go behind my fucking back." She glowers.

"No Mal." Carlos speaks up, though he leaves his nose in his book, "We saw an opportunity to improve our odds of survival by combining talents. Mine, Gil's, D's, and T's. No one gang alone had the right skills."

Jay hides his smirk when that shuts her up. "It just made fucking sense, Mal. And you got your blade first, as promised, though you didn't know that deal was made. And C and E's were coming out next."

Mal runs a hand over her face as she lets out a low growl. "You should have fucking told me."

"We did, once you could see the benefit." Jay defends.

Mal scowls as she lowers her eyes back to her book, breaking another pencil in the process.

"Mal." Carlos frowns as he looks up, "Come on, we weren't doing it to be spiteful-"

"Did I fucking argue pup." Mal spits out, as she plucks up another pencil.

Carlos shakes his head as he hides his face again.

"That's what I fucking thought." Mal huffs.

Jay takes a deep breath and exhales it slowly. Apparently Deez wasn't the only one who was experiencing extreme emotions this morning. "Mal-" He starts in disapproval.

They all go quiet when the bathroom door opens again.

Hyades takes a deep breath before she walks over to Mal. "Okay. I'm done feeling. Just tell me, what's my job here? Am I still able to talk to T?"

"Do I have a choice?" Mal quips back. "Kids gonna just live up my ass til I let you anyways." She rolls her eyes."

"Yeah, you do Mal." Hyades snaps, "So just tell me what you want. If you tell me to ignore him, I will."

"Fine. Ignore him then." Mal drops her eyes back to her book. "Or don't. I would prefer the latter though, since he would literally live up my ass."

"I'm not going to gamble Evie's life trying to guess what you want Mal," Hyades wraps her arms around her waist, "so just be straight with me."

Mal lifts a brow as she looks up at D. "Talk to the fucking freak. Play your stupid games. Just don't make me look bad or get caught doing something that will make me look like shit. I don't like this shit anymore than you fucking do. But here we fucking are, cause my cunt of a mother is, you guessed it, a cunt."

"I'm not mad about being here," Hyades shakes her head, "I've always liked being here."

"I know that princess. I'm a bitch, not an idiot." Mal doesn't look up from her drawing. "I'm just not trying to make you fucking more miserable than you clearly already are- Take it or leave it. I won't offer it again."

Hyades tilts her head to the side, "I just wanted you to know I take my role in your gang seriously."

"Good. You should. I guess while we're on this subject, your little book club is disbanded. Like fuck I'm letting my mother find out about that shit after this latest stunt..."

"Okay." Hyades blinks, "So no contact with the… Others."

"Better to just rip that bandage off now. My mother's spies are gonna be on us like ravens."

"Okay. Spies are everywhere and I'm rotten to the core."

"That about sums it up. Welcome to the gang. When you're playing your game just, ya know, break some shit."

Hyades nods, "Steal it or break it, got it."

Mal nods in approval. "You don't have to like it. I know I fucking don't. Like I wanted a fucking member that didn't choose to follow me of their own accord. Please. People beg to join us, they're just not worth my time."

"Well, good thing everyone knows I begged to join you then."

Mal's pencil snaps in half. "Is that so?"

"Yep." Hyades bites her bottom lip before she continues, "You let me join because I was so nasty to the Rats, because I lied to them and spied on them for you."

"Carlos, E." Mal snaps at the two.

Jay grimaces as he holds his breath. What was she going to do now? She seemed to be all over the place. It wasn't like Mal to be so... complacent didn't seem like the right word, but he didn't know how to describe what Mal was doing. She'd never given the rest of them that type of freedom. For good reason. The only exceptions were neutral territories.

"Stay together, or with one of us or, fuck me for saying this, or with T." Mal snaps after she has their undivided attention. "This is why that bitch needs to stay out of my shit." She growls. "Fuck only knows what Atilla, Cora, and Uma are gonna respond to that piece of fucking shit pie. So you two, move only when someone whose more competent at defense is with you."

Evie raises her hand, "Does that include D?"

Mal looks Hyades over with a frown.

"I've killed people Mal," Hyades explains tonelessly as she sits in a chair at Mal's table, "I wouldn't let anyone hurt Evie or Carlos."

Jay grimaces at her tone. She sounded as emotionless as fucking T did. That was new. And very much unwelcomed. How were they going to fix this? It was clear Mal was trying her best to accommodate Hyades, but was failing miserably for her effort.

"Fair enough." Mal blinks, she turns to Evie. "There's your answer."

Evie and Carlos nod.

"Can I please just ask one thing?" Hyades whispers to Mal.

"What?" She asks just as quietly.

"I will do anything you ask, I will never damage your rep, but please-"

"I'm not going to sic you on the fucking rats- Calm down."

Hyades smiles, "That's all I ask, and thank you."

"Whatever." Mal flicks her wrist. "Now go write or something."

Hyades bites her bottom lip again as she stands, "Do you mind if I stay here?"

"No?" Mal responds with a quirked brow.

"Sleep here." Hyades explains further.

"Oh." Mal blinks, "Don't be fucking stupid. It's your hide out now too. Besides I don't want you fucking hiding from us in that fucking maze you call a house anyways."

Jay looks away, relief flooding at him at Mal's careful handling of the situation. Well, careful by Mal's standard. At least they could do one thing for Deez. Keep her out of her old man's hands as much as possible.

Hyades smiles sadly as she hides her hands behind her back, "No worries, I avoid it whenever I possibly can." She shifts, briefly glancing towards Carlos over her shoulder before she looks back to Mal.

"Good. Keep it that way." Mal huffs as she turns back to her sketchbook.

The room settles back into silence, though this time the silence was a comfortable one. The three original members share looks of awe and amazement at the interaction they witnessed, making sure not to catch said leader's eyes.


Hyades smiles when T walks in like he owned the place. Just like at the ship. She looks back down at her tablet, rushing to finish up her letter to him.

"Do you fucking mind?" Mal snaps.

"Not at all." He greets as he plops down in the seat next to Hyades.

Carlos snickers, shooting T a small smile.

"Sup T?" Hyades asks as she passes him the tablet.

"Not much." He shrugs, as he takes the tablet.

We can still hang out.

Game is go

Mal won't make me fight the rats

Book club is over

Spies everywhere

I'm staying here for now

I think I pissed Mal off by being blunt

Not allowed to go near rat territory

Evie and Carlos have to buddy up from now on

Paranoid that the other gangs will retaliate because of this

I'm assuming you saw everything...

"Huh." T frowns as he rummages through his messenger bag, before he pulls out his notebook. And starts scrawling his own glyphs across the page.

Of course I did, the after too.

That's smart, they might.

Also smart.

Lame, but understandable.

Who doesn't piss off Mal?

I'm glad. You're safer here.

No shit, when aren't they.

For fucking now it is.

Good to know, bitch ain't dumb.

Wanna go play now?

And no shit, like she was gonna be able to stop me

Told the wharf rats the truth.

They know what really happened.

They're not happy,

But won't do anything stupid either.

Hopefully.

JFC I hope not

Hyades trades the stone for the paper and starts writing again as a single flaming tear splashes over the stone.

Thank you

"No big." T shrugs as he leans back in his chair lazily. His eyes on Hyades in concern.

Jay lifts his brow, suspicious of the silence as he creeps over to the table, to read over their shoulders only to furrowed his brows. "What the fuck man."

Hyades and T turn, looking up at Jay in confusion.

"Sup?" Looks up at him.

"What the hell is that?" Jay points to the strange writing.

Carlos looks up curiously as he looks over to what T and Hyades were writing. His brow furrows at the familiar symbols he'd seen them draw in the sand for each other sometimes. Was it actually a whole language? It certainly looked like it from the scrawl on the paper and tablet.

T shrugs, "A letter."

"Yeah, I see that." Jay rolls his eyes. "What the fuck does it say?"

"Oh. That she's on her period." T deadpans, knowing now that the thing in question made Jay uncomfortable.

Hyades frowns as she looks at the stone, "No, you missed the done." She didn't need them adding that to the guilt they seemed to be caught up in.

"Oh my bad, D." T sighs. "She finished her period then."

Jay nods once before he backs up, "Cool." He rolls his eyes as he walks away. That was a lot of fucking writing for D just explaining she'd finished her period… But he wasn't willing to ask what else it said if that was the topic.

Evie stands up and runs over to D, wrapping her arms around the girl, "I had no idea you got your period! Welcome to being a woman!"

Carlos blushes as he drops his eyes.

"It sucks! You bleed all over everything, only guys know when it's coming, it makes your belly feel weird, and now I have to worry about babies."

"It doesn't sound welcoming." T deadpans, as he pushes away the tablet. "Outloud or on tablet."

Mal snorts, "You only have to worry about babies if you have sex."

T, Hyades, and Carlos all turn and look at her blankly.

"Sex?" Carlos asks in confusion.

"Yeah no, maybe in a couple of years pup." Jay snickers.

"Same princess." Mal rolls her eyes.

T looks between Hyades and Carlos before he raises his hand. "I'm old slash tall enough. What the fuck is sex?"

Mal raises an eyebrow, but shrugs, "All you Jay."

"Uh… No." Jay shakes his head, wiping his hands as he walks away. Like fuck was he talking to a girl about sex. Not even a secret girl. "It's nothing you'd be interested in T, lots of touching."

T frowns. "Oh. Ew."

"See."

"Wait… Don't I need to know?" Hyades glares at Mal, "I don't want babies."

"Here, come with me." Evie sighs, she takes Hyades by the hand and leads her to the bathroom.

"Can't I come too?" Carlos pouts.

"I mean if you want." Evie smiles, as she holds open the door, "And if Deez is okay with it?" She turns to Hyades.

Hyades shrugs, "Why not?"

"Yes. Thank you." Carlos rushes in through the opening.

"Gonna regret it man." Jay calls out with a snort.

"Yeah no kidding." Mal chuckles.

T turns to Mal, "So, she begged to join you?" He asks as he props a hand on his chin.

Mal glares, "Don't even fucking play. I know you already know what the fuck actually happened." She pitches her voice higher, "Mister Imma fuck off and follow a fucking God OV as he drags his daughter to another fucking OV."

T can't help himself. "What can I say, I find rafters comfortable."

Mal throws the pencil in her hand at T's face, "I fucking knew you were there you damn asshole tard."

T easily deflects the pencil. "How?"

"I can feel your mother damned eyes, you little fucking creep."

Jay can't help his snort.

"Huh." T frowns, "Well I can't fix that…"

"How long were you fucking there?" Mal snarls.

"I don't know- Before Senior got there for sure…"

"Until…" Mal prompts with an eyeroll.

T has the decency to look away. "Til your mom and you went to sleep."

Mal stares T down for a full minute, her eyes flaring green before T finally turns away, "I don't ever want to hear that you talked about that."

"Why would I?" T blinks. "That's your business."

"I stopped pretending to understand you and your fucking fucked up whatever a long damn time ago."

"Mal," Jay steps in, "T's pretty fucking good at keeping his mouth shut, whatever it is, is gonna stay between you two."

"Or else." Mal glares.

"Or else." T agrees, as he turns back to his notebook and starts writing in their glyphs. "Are you a map person Mal?"

"What the fuck?" Mal sits up in her chair, her face screwed up in disgust, "Who claims to be a fucking map person?"

T shrugs, as he raises his right hand, continuing to write.

Mal rolls her eyes, "Of course you are."

"Why?" Jay asks curiously. That had been too random a question to not have a point.

"Wanted to see if she wanted a map of the quadrants so she could hunt down Deez if needed, but what ev's s-"

"I'm a 'that' map person." Jay chuckles, "That would make dealing with your damned game easier."

"Ah." T nods, "That makes more sense anyways. I can't picture Mal tracking anyone down."

"What the fuck is that s'pose to mean?" Mal demands angrily.

"I assumed you would just summon them to come to you, or send an underling." T responds his right hand rummaging through his bag til he pulls out a piece of cloth. "Here. I can make another one."

"That better be what you meant." Mal snarls, looking at the papers scattered across the table suspiciously. "And what the fuck language is this?"

"One no one else knows but D and me." T shrugs.

"Well what the fuck are you writing to her?" Mal demands.

"That defeats the purpose Mal."

"I wiill fucking end you." Mal glares.

"You mean try, right?"

"T!" Jay snaps, "Wanna knock it the fuck off?"

"Right." T frowns, "My bad Mal. It's legit just her telling me about her first period and shit, and my responses to it."

"Okay but why would she tell you about that?" Jay frowns.

T shrugs, "Cause it involved the sea three would be my guess."

Mal growls before she turns her back on the scattered pages and settles into a chair to keep sketching.

They fall silent as the bathroom door opens again. Hyades walks out and rejoins T, seemily unphased.

Carlos though, staggers out with a full body blush, looking thoroughly traumatized.

"I told ya man…" Jay chuckles.

Carlos plops into his seat and hides his face with a groan. "Yep."

"I would have just told you not to worry, the only thing you need to know about sex, is that you have to look like me to have it."

"Good to know." T responds for Carlos when the boy doesn't do anything but let out another groan.

Evie chuckles as she swats at Jay's shoulder, "Leave him alone." She demands as she walks back over to her seat. "Oh! D… I forgot to ask. When do you want to get your stuff to move in?"

Hyades shifts in her seat, "I don't have anything to bring."

"I'll get it for her." T rolls his eyes.

"No. Just, just no." Hyades shakes her head, "Don't mess with them."

"But your new clothes!" Evie nearly cries.

T points at Evie. "I'm getting your clothes." He stands up, flipping through his notebook.

"They think I lied to them," Hyades rolls her eyes, "I doubt they'll keep them."

"And you think people see me every time they board the ship, besides clothes float. Worst case I go swimming-It's not like they could have burned them."

"E, you know you're dying to make her more clothes." Mal rolls her eyes.

"But it's gonna take forever to make the material and outfits, and she only has one. We're evil not animals Mal. She needs clothes now." Evie huffs. "She's part of our gang now, she needs to look the part and I refuse to be the laughing stock when people notice she only has one outfit."

T takes the argument as an excuse to drop the photo in front of Deez.

Hyades quickly grabs the photo and hides it in her clothes, "My bag is at the forge, and I had a change of clothes in it."

"On it." T nods as he picks up the first tablet before heading out.


Another one bites the dust!

We're so anxious to watch the third movie. Everything about why this will be the last still breaking our hearts. Hopefully the rest of you will be able to catch it. And I just realized it's Thursday and not Friday but that's the life of a writer with two jobs :/

So, what did ya'll think of this chapter?

Was it a good fluff to feels ratio? Did your heart go out to Deez? Do you feel for Carlos being curious enough to follow the two princesses into the bathroom? Were you amused by his response to it? What about the secret language. Happy that D and T have a way to still talk about the Sea Three without upsetting Mal? Surprised that they can still play hide and seek? Happy that T and D can still chill?

Let us know!

Much love and appreciation

Dark and Twisted