Notes: Thank you to the Cadbury's website for having a useful timeline of what chocolate bars would exist in this time period. You've been very helpful.
To say Badger didn't sleep well that night would have been an understatement. He wasn't even certain that he'd slept at all. Even on the best of days Badger wasn't a particularly heavy-sleeper, but when he was as worried as he was now it wasn't even worth trying. And as much as he did feel like it was always worry, worry, worry with him, this time it was justified.
...A stubborn part of him insisted that it was always justified, but right now it definitely was. More so than usual.
As soon as the night drifted into the greys of the morning Badger stopped even trying. He pulled himself up from the mattress that had been laid out for him and hastily got ready. The rest of the room was undisturbed, given that Badger was the only one who'd slept there that night. No Wren, Socket or Marilyn at all. Perhaps he was selfish for even trying to sleep when the others were all out, but Marilyn had pretty much insisted.
Once he'd gotten downstairs Badger was at least faced with something that lessened his worries. Marilyn and Wren were sat together at the kitchen table. Wren's eyes were red and puffy. It looked as if she had been talking and crying for a long time. And Badger assumed Marilyn was just as tired as she was, but doing a good job of hiding it. She was softly rubbing a hand along Wren's back.
There was no sign of Socket though.
Marilyn looked up and over at Badger. He mouthed that he was going out to look for Socket and then waited for her response. If she said no then he wouldn't. But Marilyn nodded to him. She must have decided that enough time had passed for talking with Socket to be okay now.
So without another word Badger headed out to try and find him.
It was very early, meaning that the streets were quiet, but not entirely empty. People needed to work hard to get by in the market, so there were a lot of early-risers. Even Marilyn's parents were outside, gathering up what they would be taking to the stall today. It made Badger happy to see Marilyn's mum up and about again after so many years. The attacks on Misthallery had caused her to close in on herself to the point of sickness, but she was finally starting to recover.
He gave them a small smile, then headed off. At first Badger went to the usual places to look for Socket – the Turners' old house, their garage, the Black Raven base and even that shop the siblings used to hang around in front of – but these yielded no results.
He stopped near to where Aunt Taffy would eventually bring her sweet stall. Given that Socket had been out all night, Badger could wander around aimlessly and never pass him. He needed to put some thought into this. Marilyn had said she'd had a good idea where Socket might go. Maybe he should have asked about that before going out, but he hadn't wanted to interrupt her and Wren. So he'd just have to figure this out on his own.
The market was their everything. When the Black Ravens wanted to feel together, they'd be at the market. But if Badger personally wanted to get away from the Black Ravens for a while then the market would be the first place he'd want out of. It was possible that Socket had felt the same.
Badger did have places that he went to get away from the market. There was a wood further up town and Badger liked to hang about near the stream there. It was a peaceful place where he wasn't often disturbed. But he doubted that Socket even knew about it.
No, Socket would never go anywhere that quiet. He'd want to be around people, even after deciding that he didn't want to be around people. That was the sort of person Socket was. If he wasn't immersed in his inventions then he was energetically talking to someone. But if you ruled out the market crowd then there were few other people.
Great Ely was the next place Badger could think of with people they knew. None of them had been that friendly with the crowd up there in the past, but Sean and Charlie had joined the Black Ravens now. And when Badger thought about it, Socket did hang around near Charlie back in the old days. Mostly yapping at his heels and bragging about how great he was. But at the same time Socket always seemed to hate Charlie. It wouldn't make sense for him to go there.
Regardless, Badger didn't have any other leads at the moment, so it couldn't hurt to at least look before ruling it out. He made his way up to North Ely, the street that Charlie was from. Despite all of his bragging, Charlie lived in an unimpressive house on a street filled with similar houses. He was a step above what the Black Ravens could afford, but he still wasn't nearly as rich as he pretended to be. All the same, as Badger came closer to the house his nerves started to give out. If Socket was here it would look like he was spying on them and if he wasn't here then Badger would have to explain the whole situation to Charlie, who had left before it kicked off last night. Badger was far from the best at explaining anything.
After plucking up his courage, Badger knocked on the door. He was greeted by a man who could best be described as 'comfortably well-off'. Undoubtedly Charlie's father. He looked down his nose at Badger.
"Not another one of you market boys," he said.
"Anotheh one? Does that mean Socket were 'ere talking t' Curl- ...Charlie?" Badger asked.
"I don't know what you call him, but the loud boy was here, yes," Charlie's dad answered, "He was in quite a state. That sort of... hysteria is a bad influence on Charlie, but against my better judgement I let him stay the night. If you're looking for him then you're too late. They headed off already."
"Okay then, thanks fer letting me know," replied Badger.
The man sneered, so Badger didn't stick around to say goodbye and simply headed off back the way he had came. Which was probably rude, but it wasn't as if Charlie's dad had been very polite to him either.
At least now Badger knew where Socket had been last night. Perhaps Charlie's family weren't the nicest people in the world, but at least he was safe there. Now all Badger needed to do was find them both. Maybe they'd gone back down to the market and Badger had just missed them on his way here.
He hadn't gone too far back the way he'd came when something caught his eye though. It was the stream at the corner of Great Ely Street, which came out from a large pipe that ran under some of the buildings. The last time Badger had been there was during his chase of that fake Black Raven, which had turned out to be Crow. He'd even met Charlie back then, who had pointedly implied that Crow knew that tunnel better than most. Crow's past in North Ely was something that Badger had been curious about since learning of it, but had never been able to ask him. Not that thoughts of Crow were what drew him to this place now.
No, the reason it had caught his eye this time was because of a purple chocolate bar wrapper that had been discarded there. Littering was bad enough, but this looked like it could have been dropped recently. Cadbury's chocolate was a treat that not many of the Black Ravens would fork out the cash for, which meant whoever left it there must have been able to afford it and throw the wrapper away without a second glance. Possibly someone like Charlie.
Badger slid down the ledge, trying to be as quiet as he could, and then made his way towards where the stream and small path disappeared into the pipe. Sure enough, he heard voices.
"I still don't think I wanna go back, Curly." It was Socket. And he sounded as if he was eating as he spoke. Badger allowed himself to settle as he now knew for sure that Socket was all right.
"We've talked about this. You can't stay here sulking forever," Charlie replied, "Even I, the master of all sulking, know that there's only so long you can stay annoyed with someone."
"Ya ain't the master o' sulkin'! That's our Crow! A-an'... wait yeah, youse two stayed mad at each other forever, you an' Crow," argued Socket.
"That's different though. Crow and I don't see each other. We can easily carry on the way we are because there's no reason for us to talk again and, if we can both help it, that's the way it shall stay. But in your case, you're going to have to see all of the Black Ravens again soon, especially Wren. You live with her," Charlie said.
"Maybe I don't wanna any more..." mumbled Socket.
"You don't mean that," Charlie soothed.
"Nah... 'course I don't mean that. Wot do ya take me for, some 'orrid little brat 'oo 'ates 'is sister?" Socket asked. When Charlie tactfully didn't answer, Socket went on, "It ain't easy, ya know. I know that I'm right to be worried about 'er. We never needed any stupid school when we lived 'ere an' yet now Wrenny acts like it's the only thing that's important. But look at ya, Curly. Ya went to that school 'ere an' it never did ya any good, did it?"
There was a chuckle from Charlie that echoed through the pipe.
"My parents would flip if they heard you say that. But no, it... didn't work out for me," Charlie admitted, "However, I do understand what Wren is going through, better than you do, I'd hazard. As soon as I got into secondary school everything became about university. You had to pass some exams so they could figure out what set you were going into and predict your grades. Then you had to pass your mock exams so they could tell where you needed to improve. Then you had to pass the actual exams so they knew if you were smart enough to get into sixth form. At that stage you'd better know exactly what you were going to do with your life, because you had to pick your specialist subjects and study to get into university with them."
"That sounds like a lotta work... I 'ad no idea there were that many exams. Do they ever stop?" said Socket.
"I didn't stick around long enough to find out, but I assume that once you get past university they boot you out the door and send you off into the world," answered Charlie.
"Wot 'appened to ya then? I'm only askin' 'cause it might be the same thing for Wren," Socket checked.
"Well, when I was younger I was completely drawn in by it all. I'd never known anything else. All I had was school and my comics. So I'd study hard during the day, like my parents wanted, then come home and bury myself in super heroes as my escape," Charlie told him, "Only in my case, I wasn't the same as Wren. From what everyone tells me, she's a genius. But I've never been great at anything – don't you ever repeat this, by the way – just passably all right at some subjects and rubbish at others. I spent half my time worrying that my parents would find out about that and the other half worrying that I'd never get into a university for anything. And I won't do. Only now I know it's not the end of the world that I won't."
There was a long pause from Socket, then Badger heard a thoughtful chomp on a chocolate bar before he carried on.
"When ya put it that way, it sounds like Wrenny might be okay after all. Since she's super brainy," mused Socket.
"Part of me thinks that might make it worse for her," Charlie countered, "From what you told me, it sounds like she pushes herself harder than she should. There's more expectations on her shoulders to do well, because everyone knows what she's capable of. So she's much more likely to hit burnout than I was."
"Then wot do I do...?" Socket whimpered.
"That's something I don't have the answer to, I'm afraid. I can talk to Wren if you want, share what I went through with her. But we can't be sure that would make a difference," said Charlie, "However, maybe we could ask Badger what he would do, since he is standing just outside."
"Wot!"
"What!"
Badger took a few steps backwards, but it wasn't enough to get away from Socket, who barrelled out of the tunnel with a face that was both covered in chocolate and bright red underneath that. A stray wrapper from a Flake bar drifted out of his pocket and down to the ground. That explained the other one then.
"Carrotnose! Wot do ya think ya playin' at, spyin' on us like this!" Socket demanded, "Not th-that there's anythin' t-to spy on! We were just talkin' about Wrenny...!"
"He heard," Charlie pointed out, as he followed Socket out of the tunnel.
"I weren't spying... I just d-didn't want t' interrupt yers," Badger assured them.
Socket stared at him angrily for a good few seconds, but then he yielded; "It's fine, Curly. I know that Carrotnose is totally 'armless. No need to get ya knickers in a twist."
"I wasn't," Charlie stated.
"But still, ain't like ya to come all the way up 'ere, Badger," Socket went on, as if Charlie hadn't replied.
"I were looking fer yer. We're all worried," said Badger.
"There's no need to worry, I'm fine," Socket insisted.
"Didn't sound fine last night. Or just now," argued Badger, "Look, we're trying t' 'elp yer."
"By gettin' me into that stupid school. Don't ya think I've 'eard it all before, Carrotnose?" Socket replied.
"Nah, I doun't care if yer go t' school or not," assured Badger. And he meant it, "I neveh went t' one and I turned out okay, even if I can't read t' save me life. It's Wren and yer that I'm worried about. All this is bothehing both of yers, so it bothehs me, too."
"Aww, that's very sweet," Charlie chimed, before Socket silenced him with a glare.
"Look... that's nice, Carrotnose. I'm proper touched by ya concern an' all, but me an' Curly were just talkin' it out an' I reckon that I got this covahed. I just need to let Wrenny know that even if she messes up on the exams it ain't the end o' the world an' we're still gonna be there for 'er. Then the pressure won't be as bad. That is wot I 'ave to do, right...?" Socket said. He gave them both an earnestly worried look.
"Sounds like a plan t' me," confirmed Badger.
"That's it settled then. Let's get back to the market," Socket announced, "An' Curly? Pick those wrappers up. Ya got 'em everywhere!"
"Of course," purred Charlie.
He bent down to pick up the wrappers that had very clearly been left by Socket (there wasn't so much as a single chocolate smudge on Charlie's perfect-as-usual outfit) and then the three of them climbed back up the bank and onto the path, before they set off back towards the market.
"I'm not sure if Wren will be readeh to talk though. She were with Mal when I left and she looked pretteh upset," Badger said, tactfully.
"Wrenny is always ready to talk to her brother," Socket claimed. They all knew that was a lie.
By the time they got to Marilyn's house the streets had become a bit busier. There were a few market stalls set up now and the early traders were indeed catching the worms, in the forms of customers. Business as usual in Misthallery.
Badger had wanted to go in first to check that everything was all right, but Socket barged right past him and through to the kitchen, where Wren and Marilyn were still sat. Badger and Charlie followed along behind him, to the sound of a scraping chair. When they got into the kitchen both siblings were standing staring at each other.
It was a tense moment. None of them could be sure who would explode first.
"I've been really selfish to ya, 'cause I didn't understand what ya were goin' through. An' I'm sorry," said Socket.
"I'm sorry too," Wren replied, "I thought what worked for me would work for you too, but we're not the same. So... is everything all right with us?"
Socket shook his head; "Nah, not be a long shot. But that's 'cause we're both better than most people, so we've got a lot more weight on our shoulders than the rest o' these losers."
"Charmed," Charlie called out.
"Look... if you don't want to go to school then I won't make you. But I just worry that one day you'll find the one thing that you really want to do and you won't have the qualifications to do it," Wren said.
"Ya know me, sis, I can never do one thing for too long anyway. If I did find somethin' like that though, then I'd do wot it takes to get myself ready for it. Even if I 'ave to go back to school as an adult. At least I'd 'ave a super smart sister to 'elp me, right?" asked Socket.
Wren reached forward to ruffle his hair; "You'll always have that, Socket."
"An'... an' same goes for ya! That's wot I wanted to say. That even if everythin' goes wrong with these exams, not that it will, but if it does, then ya always gonna 'ave me an' Mum there for ya. We wouldn't see ya wrong," promised Socket.
"That's very kind of you to say," Wren replied, though she didn't sound entirely convinced.
"Certificates aren't the only way to open doors. Sometimes it's who you know and not the piece of paper saying what you know," Marilyn added, "And you have plenty of people who know what you know, Wren."
"Yeah, the Black Ravens wouldeh fallen apart years ago if we didn't 'ave yer 'elp with the ideas right at the start," agreed Badger, "I reckon 'alf of what we take fer granted is things that yer dreamed up."
"I'm glad you all believe in me..." whispered Wren.
"Wren! Don't cry!" Socket scolded.
"Then you don't cry!" snapped Wren.
"I ain't cryin'!"
"Yes, you are! I can see it running down your cheeks there!"
"S-stop embarrassin' me in front o' Curly!"
And just like that, it was back to normal. Maybe not quite normal, Badger would guess. Part of him worried that Wren would still throw herself back into her studies as soon as they got back to Chillingham and that Socket would struggle to settle on one field long enough to find a job in it. But at least they both knew for sure that they had each other's backs now. Hopefully it would all be easier for them now that the air had cleared.
It wasn't long after that when they all headed out to the base. No one exactly felt like breakfast. After all, Socket had scoffed so much chocolate, Wren and Marilyn might have had breakfast already, Charlie's eating habits were a total mystery and Badger certainly didn't feel hungry after everything that had happened. He was mostly just relieved that they were all okay.
The rest of the Black Ravens were there and getting on with work, presumably under Arianna's orders. Because the best way to stop someone from worrying was to keep them occupied. But as soon as Marilyn's little group came into the auction hall they all stopped what they were doing and rushed over.
"Are you both okay?" Arianna checked.
"Yes, thank you," Wren said, with a small nod.
"Never better!" Socket claimed.
With that established it was pleasant chats all around, which made Badger happy to see. Still, since he wasn't much for conversation himself, he became a little distracted and ended up looking around the room. He saw Charlie break away from the group and make his way over to Gus, who was standing a little away from the rest of them. Badger wasn't sure he could ever remember these two talking before, so he found himself listening, even if he didn't mean to.
"How's everything?" Charlie quietly asked. Gus did say something in response, but Badger didn't catch it. When Gus was finished, Charlie replied, "That's... a bit of a shame. But don't worry too much about it. Hey, can I look through your notebook again later?"
Badger didn't find out if Charlie got permission or not, because as quickly as that he was being called back over to the rest of them.
"Oi, Earth to Carrotnose! Our leader is talkin' to ya!" called Socket.
"What? Oh, sorreh Arianneh," Badger, mumbled, turning back to look at them again.
"I was just saying that our newest members aren't very confident is running across the rooftops yet," Arianna repeated.
"No, I am confident, I just won't do it," corrected Charlie, from where he was stood next to Gus.
"Yes well, perhaps a demonstration from an expert might inspire them?" Arianna prompted, with a meaningful look at Badger.
And Badger just smiled.
"If yer want an expert, then yer've come t' the right Raven," he assured.
The rest of the day was spent doing one of the things that Badger loved best – running across the rooftops of the market, dressed as the Black Raven. He had initially been maybe slightly nervous about the others watching, since he wasn't great with audiences, but doing this put him in his element. And part of him was proud to hear the others gasp in awe as he jumped and ran about. For just one day he could pretend that he was Randall Ascot, performing for the crowds of Monte d'Or as the Masked Gentleman. Only Badger liked his costume better than Randall's.
Eventually the others gave it a try, even nervous little Sean, though Tony rarely left his side. The only one who didn't was Charlie, who remained firmly on the ground, cat-calling the others when they slipped up. Badger gave up counting the amount of arguments Socket got into with him about it after five. Poor Socket was just too easy to wind up.
As he ran through the cool breeze that the day had brought them, Badger caught sight of Wren. Her Black Raven hood had fallen back and before she replaced it she let the wind rush through her hair. He could see from the side that she was smiling beneath the mask. For the first time in who knew how long, Wren was at peace.
After seeing that, Badger concluded that bringing them both to Misthallery had been the best medicine they could ask for.
