Ray's school hadn't changed much on the outside since her years spent there. It was still a series of ugly grey buildings, with flat rooftops that were paved with gravel and cement dust (not that you could tell from the ground) and lined with windows that were glittering in the diluted October sunlight. When she entered the reception she found it had been refurbished, now a sea of cream walls and burgundy carpets, sporadically peppered with the occasional potted plant. An elderly receptionist waved her towards a few bright green chairs that hurt to look at, and Ray spent a fidgety ten minutes looking at the pictures lining the walls, mostly old year 11 classes from past years. She even found her one, her entire year group smiling nicely at the camera, in the perfect uniform that had been inspected with an eagle eye before they could get in places. She had been sat in the front row, being even shorter at the time, and her eyes looked like tiny black holes, so thickly ringed in eyeliner. Ali looked no better, a few rows higher since she'd had a growth spurt that year and ended up 4 inches taller than Ray. Her blonde hair was streaked with purple and green and backcombed into a mess that stuck out about 3 inches around her face.
Ray glanced up from the photograph when a throat cleared nearby, and found a familiar face with considerably more wrinkles and less hair standing behind her. She awkwardly climbed to her feet, trying not let her nerves get the better of her.
"Hi there Mr Rice." She greeted, holding out her hand awkwardly, unsure of exactly how you greet someone who knows you from when you were the biggest delinquent in his school. Mr Rice didn't seem all that phased by seeing her again, he just looked tired. She supposed that was to be expected, the man had put up with Ali and herself for 5 years, and now he had to deal with Eddie too. She'd have retired years ago.
"Pleasure to see you again Miss Nicoll." He took her hand, giving it a light shake. His voice didn't give away any ill will he might feel towards her.
"Yeah, same to you." Ray replied awkwardly.
"Let's go into my office." Mr Rice suggested. She nodded her agreement and followed him through a nearby door, into an office that had barely changed since she'd last been in there. Sat morosely in one of two chairs in front of a large, tidy desk was Eddie, looking incredibly sorry for himself as he dabbed at a bloodied cut in his lip. Ray sighed and dropped into the chair beside him, letting her bag fall to the floor as Mr Rice took his own seat.
"Who else was involved?" Ray asked, reaching over and examining a large purple bruise blossoming over Eddie's left eye. "That needs ice." She added, familiar with the procedure regarding swelling and bruising. Eddie eyed her warily, apparently knowing that she was speaking from experience.
"A boy called Sam Hall. Edward approached him during lunch break and the two exchanged some… questionable words. Edward hit Sam in the stomach, and it quickly escalated into a full on fistfight. Sam has already been escorted home by his parents, who are not too pleased at the state of their son. Nevertheless, they have decided against taking further actions, and both Edward and Sam will be suspended for the next week." Mr Rice pulled off his glasses and massaged his temple in a long suffering manner.
"I understand." Ray replied. "I'll speak to his parents about it. Can I take Eddie home now?" Mr Rice nodded and glanced at Eddie.
"Go and collect your things from the first aid room, your teachers will be emailing work home for you to do under your parents supervision." He instructed, sliding his glasses back onto his long nose. Eddie nodded and climbed to his feet, shoulders slouched as he exited the office, still dabbing at his lip. Ray turned her attention back to Mr Rice, picking up her bag in readiness to leave.
"Has he given any reason for his outburst?" She asked carefully. Mr Rice shook his head.
"A few students who witnessed it said Riley Emerson's name was mentioned a few times." He told her. "But Edward wouldn't talk to anyone about it. Sam had plenty to say however, not very polite things, but he quietened down once we found and confiscated several contraband items from him. Lighters, cigarettes, that sort of thing." Ray nodded, attempting to put the pieces together in her head.
"He's going through some troubling things at the moment," she said slowly. "Family issues that are probably quite difficult for him to process. I'll speak to him, see if I can get through to him." She shifted slightly uncomfortably in her chair. Mr Rice fixed her with a slightly piercing gaze, the creases around his eyes deepening as he studied her.
"If you would like I can get him referred to our school counsellor. I know it never really did you much good," he gave a brief smile. "But you never had any problems. You simply acted out because it was in your nature. Your brother, however, keeps good grades and his head down. Detentions occasionally, but he's a teenage boy, it's to be expected. This is extremely out of character for him, and something big must have happened to have affected him like this." The smile had gone, replaced by a rather terse expression. Ray nibbled her lower lip, considering the offer.
"I don't know, it's really up to Eddie. Counselling never helps anyone if they don't let it." She was stung by her own hypocrisy as she spoke, but kept going. "I'll speak to him, like I said. Maybe it will do him some good, maybe he just needs a little guidance." She got to her feet as she heard the door open behind her, glancing over her shoulder to see Eddie standing there, a disposable ice pack pressed over his bruise. "Goodbye Mr Rice, sorry about all this."
"Indeed, take care Miss Nicoll." Mr Rice replied with a nod, and Ray hurried from the room, Eddie trailing behind her.
She head thought exiting the slightly stuffy building and getting into the cold air again might be helpful, but she felt herself, if possible, tensing further as she and her brother strode out onto the pavement. Being outside was difficult enough most of the time, it was downright terrifying when she was in a place she hadn't been in years, and the more time that passed, the harder she chewed on her lip. Eddie shot her a nervous look as he kept pace with her, a guilty look in his eyes. Ray sighed and drew her jacket tighter around her.
"So, did you at least land the last punch?" She asked, trying to sound calm. Eddie relaxed slightly.
"Yeah, right in the nose, about a second before Mills dragged me off him." He replied. Ray smiled slightly.
"And was there a good reason to mess up your little face?" She asked. He was silent for a moment, and she opened her mouth to ask again when he spoke.
"Sam, he's one of the dickheads Riley's been hanging around. She's crushing on him I think, but I overheard him and his mates this morning." His hands balled up into fists. "They're using her. For drinks and shit. They made her nick money off her dad, steal bottles from his cabinet, and they're the ones who got her into smoking, but they're just using her." He threw down the ice pack in frustration and stopped in the middle of the path, face screwed up with anger. A glint at the corner of his eye told Ray he was close to tears, but he angrily wiped it away, wincing when he applied pressure to the large bruise. Ray sighed, bending down to retrieve the ice pack and tossing it in a nearby bin. She wrapped an arm around Eddie's shoulders and carefully steered him in the right direction.
"Have you told Riley about this?" She asked softly. Eddie shook his head roughly.
"She's not in school today, and I can't call her 'cause she hasn't got a phone any more. She gave it to those assholes so they could sell it." He muttered. Ray patted his shoulder consolingly.
"Well, I suggest you speak to her. Try and get through to her, but don't expect her to listen straight away. Sometimes, when we think something good is happening, we refuse to see the shitty bits, the truth about what's happening." She swallowed a lump appearing in her throat, remembering all the warnings people had given her about Caleb at the beginning. Eddie nodded slightly.
"It's not fair though, Riley doesn't deserve this shit." He muttered.
"Nobody ever deserves to be used." Ray replied softly. "But it happens, and all we can do is try our best to keep assholes from continuing to use people. Punching them in the nose probably works fairly well, maybe he'll lay off now. But even if he fucks off right now, Riley's gonna need you, she won't understand, and maybe she'll be mad at you, but she still needs you, alright?" She squeezed Eddie's shoulder and they turned a corner together. "Now, fancy a hot chocolate and a brownie?" She asked, a smile flitting across her lips as she caught sight of the cheerful green canopy above the café.
o0o
Levi was in a bad mood. Of course this barely deterred Hanji, since Levi Ackerman was hardly a chirpy little ray of sunshine on a good day. But still, he was in an even worse mood just then, with the café almost completely full of people, all chatting and laughing and coughing, getting their nasty germs all over the place. Disgusting.
Hanji had, of course, known he was coming (he had yet to figure out how she always seemed to know when he was stopping by) and saved him a slightly more isolated table for four in the far corner, where he didn't have a view out of a window, but he didn't have to wait long if he wanted service, and there were less tables squashed around him. He was at least grateful that Hanji was a little too busy to join him just yet, she was zipping around the café cheerfully, making sure everybody was pleased and enjoying their food. She was very hands on when it came to customers, she was always polite, if a little overbearing, and it ensured that not only did her pride and joy bring in a lot of good reviews, but people wanted to come back, and would recommend her to their friends. Not to mention, when she wasn't experimenting with stupid ideas, the food could be utterly perfect.
Of course, Levi didn't forget that even when Hanji was leaving him alone, she was able to bug him. He'd simply glanced up momentarily from his drink at the sound of the door opening, and found her mischievous little eyes flitting between him and whoever had entered – he couldn't quite see past the an annoyingly tall man seated nearby dropping crumbs everywhere. He could easily guess however, and his guess was proven correct when Hanji darted forward and began to propel his paranoid neighbour towards him, her brother in tow.
Rays' eyes widened when she realised where she was being dragged, and glanced around frantically for another table. Levi wouldn't admit that it stung a little that she was so averse to sitting near him. Of course, her search proved fruitless, the café was packed full, and with an apologetic look on her face, she allowed Hanji to shove her into the chair opposite him, her brother squeezing into the seat against the wall.
"Sorry." She told him. "Couldn't stop her." Levi merely nodded as she turned her attention back to his erratic friend. "Um, do you have an ice pack?" She asked, gesturing to her brothers face, which was had clearly met with some fists recently. His left eye was beginning to swell. Hanji leaned over the table, and Levi barely had time to grab his tea before her hair could fall in it. She poked at Eddie's face experimentally.
"No ice, but I can get some frozen spinach!" She declared. "And maybe something for your knuckles." She gestured to the scrapes and bruises marring his hands, and Eddie sheepishly hid them in his lap. Levi peered at him over his cup, observing the injuries and breaking down what had happened. Hanji skipped away into the back of the café to dig up the frozen spinach, and Eddie and Ray began to get comfortable. She pulled her jacket from her shoulders and slid it over the back of her chair, displaying her tattoos again in her sleeveless dress. It was low cut, and showed the ink didn't stop at just her arms, Levi could see half of a tattoo over her heart. She appeared to notice the direction of his gaze and quickly adjusted her dress so more of the tattoo was hidden.
"Who gave your brother the shiner?" He asked her, sipping his tea. Ray looked up at him, gaze flitting to her brothers bruises.
"Kid at school." She answered. "Gave as good as he got."
"I can see that for myself." Levi gestured to Eddie's hidden knuckles. Ray gave a small smile, though she knew she really shouldn't be proud of her brother. He'd had good intentions though, and she'd been in enough fistfights to know she couldn't really lecture him on it. Maybe sign him up for some classes so he could defend himself better if it happened again. Not that it should happen again.
"Heya Ray!" A chirpy voice interrupted her thoughts and she glanced up, finding one of her co-workers standing next to their table, nibbling on a warm cookie.
"Sasha," she greeted, furrowing her brow slightly. "I didn't know you were working today."
"I wasn't, but Eren got his ass kicked by some kids and Mikasa took the day off to take care of him, and Armin needed help when it got busy. Hanji said I could eat as many cookies as I like as long as I smile and do the job." She grinned and took a large bite from her snack. Ray frowned slightly, glancing around the packed café, with only two servers apparently in.
"Should I take a shift, help 'til it quietens down?" She asked. Sasha shook her head, her ponytail swinging through the air.
"Nah, we've got it. Who's your friend?" She looked at Eddie, who was sporting a faint pink blush as he leaned casually back in his chair, apparently wanting to impress. Ray his a knowing smirk.
"My brother, Eddie. Eddie, this is Sasha." She introduced. Sasha beamed at Eddie, and his blush deepened as he stuttered out a greeting. Like any boy his age confronted by someone as pretty and confident as Sasha, he was trying so hard to look good he was coming off as awkward.
"What can I get you both then?" Sasha asked, shoving the last of the cookie in her mouth.
"Hot chocolate for Eddie, tea and cheese scone for me." Ray answered. "Want anything to eat Ed?"
"Brownie please." Eddie mumbled, almost inaudible over the sounds of the café. Sasha seemed to hear him, as she smiled and skipped away to fetch their order. A moment later Hanji bounded back out from the kitchen, the bag of frozen spinach in one hand, a kitchen towel wrapped around something in the other.
"I did find some ice." She informed them brightly, handing the towel and spinach to Eddie, who gingerly placed the ice on his face, and the bag on his knuckles. Hanji pulled out the empty chair and flopped into it, propped her head up on interlocked fingers. "So, Levi, Ray, you two bonded at all recently?" Her eyes glittered wickedly behind thick lenses. Ray raised an eyebrow at the question.
"Shut up shitty-glasses." Levi replied curtly. Hanji gasped dramatically.
"Levi! There is a child at this table!" She told him, pointing at Eddie. Levi snorted, setting down his empty cup.
"Please, we all know the kid swears more when his parents can't hear than I ever do." He retorted.
"Hey!" Eddie began to protest, but Ray kicked him under the table.
"Don't deny it Ed." She told him, smirking knowingly. He scowled at her.
"Yeah well, if I do I learned every curse word from you." He retorted. Ray shrugged.
"You probably did." She replied, sounding in no way guilty about it. Eddie tutted and muttered something about bad role models under his breath. Ray looked away from him to say something to Hanji and Levi, a smile on her lips, but the words died in her throat.
Levi was looking at her. Not odd in itself since Levi had looked her before quite obviously, but usually with an expression of boredom or disinterest. Now his grey eyes were fixed on her, giving the uncomfortable feeling that he could see right through her. She froze, meeting Levi's eyes warily, and very slowly he raised an eyebrow. She scrunched up her nose in confusion in response, not exactly sure what he was trying to tell her.
"One tea, one hot chocolate, one cheese scone and one brownie!" Sasha's upbeat voice brought her gaze away from his and up to see the young girl balancing a tray in one hand and a half eaten muffin in the other. She set the tray on the table, shot Eddie a cheerful smile, and bounced away again. When Ray glanced back at Levi, he was focused on his empty cup.
"So, Levi, did you know Ray does art?" Hanji piped up. Ray flushed ever so slightly and hid her face in the steam rising from her cup.
"Not very good art." She muttered. Eddie snorted into his brownie and she shot him a glare.
"Actually I did know." Levi said. "There's an easel and a pile of sketchbooks in the flat. Doesn't take a genius to figure it out."
"She's gonna bring some of her stuff in to show me!" Hanji barrelled on, ignoring Ray's discomfort.
"I've only got some charcoal still life drawings I did at Ali's." Since moving into her own flat she had yet to actually carry on with anything more than the occasional doodle on the back of a receipt or takeaway container.
"I've still got some of the ones you did of me and Hannah." Eddie said. "And mum framed that one you did of Ali, the watercolour of her on the roof?"
"She did?" Ray was surprised, she had assumed that any art her mother kept was just put in a cupboard to gather dust. Eddie nodded, sipping his hot chocolate.
"Wonderful!" Hanji crowed, clapping her hands together. "Could you show me some of them sometime Eddie?" She asked. Eddie glanced at Ray, who sighed and rolled her eyes, able to see the cogs turning in his head. He always did like to show off anything good his sisters could do, he'd gone on for months about how his big sister Hannah was a genius rocket scientist (she wasn't, she was just an astrophysicist).
"I'd love to!" He told Hanji happily, taking an enormous bite of brownie. Hanji beamed and jumped to her feet.
"Great! Well, you guys have fun, I need to do another walk around, holler if you need something!" She skipped away, leaving the three at the table to drink their beverages and eat their snacks. After a little while Sasha came to join them during her break, and she and Eddie animatedly talked about cooking – a common interest they shared – while Levi and Ray avoided each other's gazes and listened with half an ear.
o0o
When Ray returned home it had gotten dark outside. She wasn't sure when her flat had become 'home' in her mind, but even as impersonally decorated as it still was, she found she was actually becoming quite settled. She even had a plan for her evening, rather than simply sitting around eating takeaway and falling asleep on the couch. She felt as though she was buzzing with energy, though she'd spent the majority of her day out of her flat. Usually she would feel drained, but today it was like she'd overcome something, and when her step-dad had driven her home even he had commented on how she was improving.
She entered her bedroom, tossing her jacket on the bed, and faced the stacks of boxes that littered the floor. It took longer than she'd thought to dig through them to find what she wanted, but eventually she held a smooth box of charcoal in one hand, and a brand new unopened box of watercolours in the other.
Half an hour later and she'd settled herself down in her blue armchair with a clean sketchbook, a stick of charcoal, and a mug of tea steaming on the coffee table. She chewed on her lower lip thoughtfully, charcoal poised above the thick paper as she decided what to draw. She could try more still life's, objects around her flat, but she's grown bored of that staying at Ali's. Her 'style' was face and bodies, she'd never been very good at drawing inanimate objects, she just got bored and gave up halfway through. She liked faces for their complexity, liked how each one would turn out differently, even if they didn't always work. She liked interesting people, beautiful faces and the like. She could think of a lot of people she thought were beautiful, but she couldn't settle for who exactly she felt like tracing out.
In the end she just let her hand do all the work, merely a spectator as it lightly pressed to the page and formed faint lines, black powder tightly packed together and spreading across the creamy backdrop. After a while she began to see it, the short slightly crooked nose, rounded cheeks, wide thick lips curved in an explosive grin, the chin a softly curving line. She paused at the hair, wondering how she could quite perfect it. By the time she finished it, it took almost 45 minutes of careful concentration, she was slightly pleased with it. She'd managed to capture the wild mane that framed the face, though she was disgruntled with the forehead – it came out far too small. She filled in some of the shading in the eyes and added a neck and long sloping shoulders, and then squinted at it for several minutes trying to figure out what was missing that made it look so wrong.
After about 10 minutes of careful scrutiny she whacked herself in the face, smearing black on her forehead, and quickly filled in the thick eyebrows, one raised slightly higher to emphasize the cheeky expression. She left the glasses out, too impatient to draw those, and held her creation up, looking it over critically.
It was clearly Hanji Zoe – though maybe she only saw that because she knew who she was drawing. It could definitely do with improvements, sometimes she messed up and had a hard time covering it up, but she rather liked how she'd captured her bosses bouncing personality.
She set the sketchbook down on the floor, setting her much shorter stub of charcoal on top of it, and pulled her knees up to her chest, feeling a wave of tiredness hit her quite suddenly. She decided to just rest her eyes, too sluggish to move all the way to the couch, even though it was only a few steps away. Within a few minutes, she'd fallen into a deep sleep.
All around her was darkness. Freezing black water lapping at her calves. She shivered violently as wind blew right through her, from where she couldn't tell, she couldn't see anything. Everything seemed to be hyper clear, everything in sharp focus. The numbness in her lower legs, the cold air on her pale skin, goose bumps skittering over her, running down her body, her damp hair frozen into cold icicles that melted and dripped down her back and chest.
It took several seconds before she registered that the water was climbing higher. Or maybe it was simply stirring faster and casting larger waves. Either way it was splashing higher and higher up her legs, her toes sinking into sludgy mud. She barely struggled, too cold to resist, simply letting the water lap higher, now over her knees.
Suddenly hands snapped around her ankles jerking her back and sending her stumbling back several steps sinking further into the mud. She yelped and struggled, trying to wrench her legs free from the iron grip, when a familiar voice bubbled up behind her.
"Calm down Rachel baby, it's okay. It's just me. Stop struggling, you know me." Caleb's voice was soft, soothing her gently like a frightened animal. She sighed and stilled her movements letting her legs sink further into the sludge and the water lap higher at her hips. "That's right, just come to me baby, it'll all be alright, I'll take care of you." She closed her eyes and shivered as the water climbed higher.
She wasn't going to reopen her eyes, she planned to just let the water climb over her head and swallow her up, but she felt…something. Like a presence appearing nearby. She opened her eyes and blinked into the darkness, cocking her head at something slowly fading into sight. A figure, appearing unaffected by the cold, strode through the water towards her, stopping a few feet in front of her.
"Levi?" She asked, voice trembling with cold.
He didn't reply, he simply stared at her, his gaze piercing. At her ankles the hands tightened, as if trying to hold onto her.
"Rachel baby, ignore him. Come to me, we can be happy baby." Caleb's voice grew louder, and she paused. She furrowed her brow and pulled her right foot free of the mud, attempting to pull it from the hand. It tightened, nails tearing through her skin in attempt to keep her in place.
"No Rachel! Stay here! With me!" Caleb's voice rose to a shout, the water stirring faster around her. She struggled harder, the waves crashing around her chest as scrabbling nails tore at her skin, ripping and fighting to keep hold of her. Levi stayed still for a moment, simply watching her, until he lifted up on arm, reaching forward and trailing his fingers over her cheekbones.
Almost immediately, Caleb's hands weakened enough that she could wade forward, unconsciously leaned her cheek into Levi's warm fingers, her teeth chattering as the water continued to crash around them. His fingers began to trail down, tracing her jawline, sliding down her neck, and ghosting across her collar bone. They traced the tattoo on her chest, and she felt her stomach lurch uncomfortably, suddenly ashamed, wishing she could bat his fingers away and cover it up.
Something moved in the darkness, and she froze, staring behind Levi into the shadows. Hands appeared, stretching out to him, hands she recognised far too well, and she opened her mouth to scream, horrified as Caleb's leering face loomed behind Levi, spattered with blood, from a scene she could remember all too vividly, mouth wide and grinning, bearing down on the duo, hungry and malevolent-
Ray woke with a startled scream, scrambling up from her chair, breath coming out in short gasps. She almost fell, her joints aching from too long spent curled up in the same position. A thunderous pounding echoed through her head, and she glanced around in a daze, her living room lit by a faint morning light that signalled the start of a new day.
A second later she collected enough of her scattered thoughts to realise the pounding was coming from her door, and she staggered to open it, leaving the chain on so she could peer through.
In the dim hall she found Levi, looking about as rumpled as she'd ever seen him, wearing an expression she couldn't quite pin down. He caught her eye with his, and his mouth hardened in a frown.
"What the fuck kid?"