Music being listened to while writing (in order): My Heart Will Go On (Celine Dion), Face Down (Red Jumpsuit Apparatus), Bring Me To Life (Evanescence), Falling Inside the Black (Skillet)
Hereth starts the real chapter of Livin' Life Like an Ocean.
Warning: Contains slight yaoi in chapters, but no actual kissing. It's one sided, so I hope you can overlook it if you hate yaoi! Wait… if it's one-sided, is it really just… Okay, I'll just call it one-sided yaoi. I just felt like putting it in, even though I hate it. Shows how my mind works! (Not really!) No one understands how my mind works. Heck, I barely understand!
Amarantha stood at the edge of the cloud layer. Her home, and the home of many other Angels of Death, moved constantly, sometimes breaking into smaller clouds. She turned around, flared out her dark wings, and fell backwards.
Tucking in her wings, she fell faster, before she flipped over and caught the air. She angled her wings downward, and she shot towards Duel Academy. Amarantha shouted in joy. However, she fell right through a cloud layer that was gray and stormy. She ended up soaked, but as she exited the cloud, it started to thunder. Lightning flashed, and a bolt hit her, like she feared. Down she went. She held her staff in her hand as she struggled to stay conscious. She somehow managed a weak force field before crash landing into the trees.
Chazz stared at the brewing storm, his thoughts leaving him. He desperately tried to gather them, but they escaped him constantly. He needed to understand! Why was Jaden acting so weird around him? Why was Zane even more anti-social? More importantly, why was Alexis ignoring him more than usual!?
Lightning flashed, and Chazz welcomed the cool downpour. The crackled with something Chazz didn't recognize as static. He turned his head around in time to see a girl fall towards the trees, a shimmery, barely-there orb around her. It was distorting her features, but Chazz watched in horror as she crashed.
Without thinking that this girl could be dangerous (because hey, she fell from the freakin' sky!), the black-clad (and soaked) teen ran in the direction of the crash site. He fought through the underbrush and vines. Soon, however, he came across the site. The girl was unconscious. What gave Chazz the shivers about her were the obviously magical staff and the dark wings protruding from her back. Goosebumps riddled her skin, and Chazz cautiously stepped through the mud and broken trees to the girl. Her hair was oceanic teal, and her eyes were a bit droopy. She was pale as death.
Chazz crouched next to her and gently shook her shoulder. Without warning and without opening her eyes, she grabbed his wrist with a strong grip. Her ocean eyes opened and glared at him.
"Go away," she ordered him.
"Not before you tell me who and what you are," Chazz retorted, pulling his hand back from the girl's grasp.
"I'm Amarantha Mortimer, and I'm an Angel of Death." She clamped a hand over her mouth as she sat up. "I didn't mean to say that!" Her voice turned deadly. "You will not repeat that to anyone else."
"Sure…" Chazz muttered, not fully believing what she said. "If you're this Angel, where's your home?"
"I live on a cloud, duh," she replied scornfully before clapping her hand over her mouth again. She held up one index finger in a "one second" gesture. Amarantha hurried away from the teen and hid behind a tree that hadn't fallen when she landed. There, she pulled a crystal orb a little smaller than a tennis ball out of a little backpack. She breathed on it, and shapes formed in it.
"What is it, Amarantha?" Thanatos scowled at her.
"I keep telling this boy my secrets!" she hissed at him. Thanatos smacked his forehead in a gesture like he forgot something.
"I forgot to tell you! The first human you see that's not your target is your Secret-Keeper. You are forced to tell him or her everything, and if he spills anything, you collapse into dust."
"What?" Amarantha shouted in surprise a little too loudly.
"You okay?" Chazz called.
"One more minute!" she called back. She turned her attention back to the orb. "What do I do? How do I know that he won't spill?"
"Well, one way is to threaten him; another is to stick by him at all times…" Thanatos mused. Amarantha groaned in emotional agony.
"I can't do that!"
"It's your fault you have a sweet spot for teens," Thanatos replied, rolling his eyes. Amarantha though it was funny to see an old man like him do that, but she held her face still. "Complete your mission, Amarantha, and don't call back unless you have a problem!" Before she could reply, the old Archangel had vanished from the orb. Amarantha reappeared from behind her tree.
"Okay, boy—"
"I have a name," Chazz cut in. "It's Chazz, and I expect to be called that, not 'boy!'"
"Okay, sheesh, crabby. Listen. I need to complete my mission before I can leave this wretched place. If you never ever spill my secret, I'll grant you one wish at the completion. You can't spill my secret EVER, or else I'll really die, instead of my soul being used to help other souls move on into another body."
"Uh…" Chazz started, unsure of whether or not to believe her. She did fall from the sky, and she did have creepy black wings, so he took a chance. "Okay, I'll help you. But you gotta put away those wings if you can. They'll draw attention to yourself."
"Oh, right…" Amarantha pulled her wings inside of her—using magic of course. "And you have to help me come up excuses if I ever need one, 'kay?"
"Okay," Chazz finally agreed after a pause. Amarantha shivered.
"Now that that's out of the way, can you show me to a building of some sort where I can dry off?" Chazz laughed dryly and started leading her to the main building. He didn't feel like it was right, taking her to the Slifer dorms, so he took her there instead.
Chancellor Sheppard organized some slightly damp papers that had come in earlier that day. Today had been on and off storming, and it put him in a bad mood the way unpredictable weather does. The clock on his desk was nearing ten o'clock. He sighed and rubbed his eyes sleepily.
That was before the door burst open and a soaked Chazz charged in towing an even more soaked girl behind him. They were both covered in mud, and they both had greenery sticking out of their hair. The girl looked weary.
"What in Heaven's…" the girl flinched at that, "…name is going on?"
"Well…" the girl started hesitantly.
"She, uh, she fell off a yacht, and she managed to get herself to shore, but I found her, and brought her here," Chazz blurted a bit too fast. He bit the inside of his lip.
"I need a place to stay until my family comes and gets me," the girl said. "My name's Amara. Can I stay here?"
"S-sure, Amara. I suppose you can stay with Alexis Rhodes for the time being. Shall we get you some new clothes?"
"Oh, yes please!" Amarantha laughed. Sheppard left the room for a minute and came back with a box of girl uniforms.
"All we have are uniforms, but these clothes are better than those wet things you have on, I suppose." Amarantha glanced at what was in the box.
"Do you have a long jacket to go with that? I don't want necessarily all my stinkin' skin showing!" Sheppard looked incredulously at her, seeing as what she was wearing now sure showed off a lot of skin.
"I guess… I have the perfect thing!" he said suddenly. He rushed out of the room and came back with a long, dark blue jacket. It had the same design as a normal Obelisk's, only without the buttons and rolled-up sleeves. It was much more feminine, and it only closed at the neck. It didn't have tails like a penguin suit, but it swished around a bit like Chazz's. Amarantha loved it.
Sheppard showed her the bathroom where she could change. She swapped clothes quickly, and stepped out. Chazz had to admit she looked pretty, what with her flowing jacket. Amarantha twirled for show.
"So… Chazz, why don't you take her to Alexis?" Sheppard suggested.
"Uh…" Chazz started, placing one hand at the back of his hand sheepishly. "I can't. By now, she's in the Girl's Dorm, and I'm not allowed."
"Oh right, I guess I'll call Ms. Fontaine, then," Sheppard concluded. "Chazz, you are dismissed, Amara, follow me, please." Sheppard strode out of the room, Amarantha close on his heels. Chazz stared after them for a second, before shaking his head and heading towards his dorm.
A/N: Amara is Amarantha's "code" name. I did not err.
Chazz glumly entered his room. He collapsed onto his bed without bothering to change. His evening wore him out. And what was with Amarantha? She seriously creeped him out. How could he handle this, this "Secret-Keeper," he heard someone say, thing, when he has three blabbering duel spirits? There are at least two other people on this island who can see spirits…
Zane. It hit him. Chazz had noticed how weak Zane had appeared to be getting. Once, he had even seen him clutch his chest in pain.
Before Chazz could think anything else, he heard a knock. He didn't say anything, but the person barged in anyway. It was Jaden, surprise.
"Hey Chazz!" Jaden cried joyfully. "You're soaked! You're going to catch a cold, if you stay like that." Chazz didn't reply right away. He then realized that he was cold. He shivered and clutched his arms around his torso, like that helped.
"Go away, slacker," Chazz growled at him, not tearing his eyes from the ceiling. Jaden stood over him, and ruined Chazz's lovely view of the ceiling fan. "I said go away."
"You know, they say that if a person is mean to you, it means they like you," Jaden prophesized randomly.
"That only works for girls, dimwit," Chazz muttered, waving Jaden's face away so that he could sit up. "And I'm definitely not a girl. Go a-way." He stressed the syllables. Jaden took an uninvited seat next to Chazz and put an arm around him. Chazz quickly shuffled away from him.
"But Chazz…"
"What the hell are you doing, slacker, GET OUT OF MY ROOM!" Chazz roared suddenly. He had stood up at the last part, a gruesome and fearsome look on his visage. Wind appeared to whip around him. Jaden's eyes widened, and he slinked out.
When Chazz was sure the slacker was gone, he slammed the door and fished a Febreeze bottle out from under his bed and sprayed it. "I'm never going to get his presence out of my room, what with how often he comes in here," Chazz muttered. He quickly changed into a loose T-shirt and shorts and crawled into bed without another thought.
Amarantha followed the school nurse to the girl dorms. This time, they had an umbrella, thought Amarantha secretly kept the rain off of her using her staff. She refused to let go of it. Ms. Fontaine lead her to the second floor of the palace-like structure, and knocked on a door marked 215.
A dirty blonde girl with honey eyes about Amarantha's height opened the door with tired eyes. "What is it, Ms. Fontaine?" she asked, stifling a yawn.
"This girl here—Amara I think her name is—needs to stay somewhere for a while, and the Chancellor thought it was best if she stayed with you. I hope you don't mind," Ms. Fontaine added hurriedly.
"No, I don't mind. I just wish she'd come in the day," Alexis murmured. "But I digress. Okay, I hope you don't mind sleeping on the couch for now, but I have some extra blankets and a pillow."
"Thanks," Amarantha replied. Ms. Fontaine left, and Amarantha entered the room. It had a beautiful view from the balcony, and Amarantha loved how she could just stare out at the storm any time she wanted. Storms were her favorite weather. Alexis threw her a pillow and made up a make-shift bed on the couch. Amarantha curled there, and slept, the thunder and rain lulling her.
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