fleets: This story is rolling along so slowly - I'm more used to more action and drama! When's the action?! Where's the drama?! ...sorry, I just hate writing necessary la-dee-daa buildup chapters...but they're necessary so I'm not sure I can do anything about it. Ooooh, and btw, this story may just be ridiculously short compared to BC (considering BC was 40+ chapters and TU is going to be around 30). My guesstimate is around 12...but we'll see. I'm known to be a horrible guesser.

Chapter 5: Stupid, not Dumb

Vaati sat glumly in his desk, waiting for Ms. Tutari to come back to the classroom after sending a note to the orphanage to explain why he was staying after school. Delta was sitting back in his chair lazily as though he were a veteran of the detention process. All the desks in the classroom had been pushed aside to the back wall save for the two the boys were sitting in. The afternoon sun was setting, and the classroom was bathed in a dim orange glow.

Ms. Tutari poked her head in through the door holding a stack of papers. She flicked aside a few stray strands of hair and tucked them behind her ear. "I'm sorry, but I won't be back for another half hour because of a teacher's conference. In the meantime, I want both of you to come up with a good apology for each other that you will say in front of me when I return."

Vaati mumbled a quiet "yes," while Delta huffed and continued to rock his chair back and forth with both of his feet on his desk. Once Ms. Tutari left, Vaati glanced disapprovingly at the boy next to him.

"Why do you do that?"

Delta cocked his brow and looked at Vaati as though he'd grown an extra leg. "Are you talking to me you tard?"

"No duh, who else would I be talking to you dolt?" Vaati rolled his eyes. "Look, it's not like I find it fun to insult you. It surprisingly becomes very boring very fast." He leaned against his elbow. "So, why do you do that huh?"

"Do what?"

Vaati waved his free hand in the air. "You're rude to everybody here, even to Ms. Tutari! And don't think I haven't noticed you're especially a jerk to me." The minish boy squinted at Delta. "What do you have against me anyway?"

"You're a freak of nature, isn't that enough of a reason for you?" Delta shuffled around his poncho and took out a polished pebble. He began to throw it up in the air, paying little heed to Vaati. The other boy scowled.

"Maybe I am, but – "

"You ARE, weirdo."

Vaati forced himself to not go punch the kid in the face. He took a deep breath and began again. "Maybe I am, but if you didn't want to have anything to do with me the best thing you could've done was to ignore me. I would've ignored you, by the way. We would've ignored each other and we probably wouldn't have had to go to detention."

Delta scoffed. "Oh look, poor poor Vatee is upset that he couldn't go back to mommy and daddy sooner."

"Actually," Vaati felt his face flush red, "I don't have either mommy or daddy."

"Well in that case, aren't you just lucky."

"Why you – "

Delta interrupted Vaati's outburst with a cold glare. "I mean it."

Vaati was taken aback, and his protests died down to an uncertain quiet stuttering. Delta turned away and looked out the window, tossing his pebble up and down.

"I hate my parents."

"That's so stupid!" Vaati exploded. Delta almost fell out of his chair in surprise. Vaati was shaking in anger, his pale little fists even whiter than usual. "Just because you hate your life you go spread it to everyone? That's so stupid! I bet you don't have any real friends, huh, because no one wants to be with a loser like you! Is that why you picked on the new kid, so someone else would be a loner with you?!"

Delta gritted his teeth. "What did you say?"

"You heard me you bully. You're a friendless loser."

Delta fumed, but didn't say a word. Finally, he shrugged it off and turned his attention back to the pebble, but it was evident that he was thinking over Vaati's words. He creaked his seat loudly as he rocked back and forth. "It's not like I care. It's no fun talking to people dumber than you anyway."

"Wow, I'm really not surprised no one likes you. So you think you're so smart huh?"

The pebble continued to bounce. "I'm beyond the level of this class. I'm currently reading The Legend of Swiftblade, but you probably haven't heard of that yet."

"I've heard of that, and I've read all three books of The Legend series." Vaati watched the other boy frown at this new development. "You're so cocky that you don't have an open mind anymore. Miss Britta said that's the most important thing you have to have when you meet new people." Vaati glowered. "You know what you did to me? I came to school so I could make friends, and you had to go and ruin it. I don't have to learn any of the school stuff – I know them already. I just wanted to meet people. Thanks a lot, jerk."

The two remained completely silent for the duration of their wait. Delta had long stopped tossing his pebble and was looking at his desk, pretending to be interested in the pattern in the wood. Vaati sat with his back towards Delta, refusing to acknowledge his existence. The two stirred when the door opened and Ms. Tutari returned.

"Sorry about that." She said as she sat down in her seat. She looked at them both sternly and then she rapped her desk smartly with her pencil. "Now I hope both of you know why you were given detention. You've had plenty of time to think over what you'd done. I want you to give a sincere apology to show me you understand what was bad about your behavior. Delta," she pointed the pencil at the copper haired boy, "you're up first."

Delta got up painfully slowly from his desk and shuffled over to the front of the room. He had his hands stuffed inside his pockets and had his eyes glued to the floor. After a while, he bit his lip. "I'm sorry."

Ms. Tutari leaned forward in her chair, her look as sharp as her bun. "What are you sorry for, Delta? And Vaati, pay attention."

He sighed, and his voice sounded reluctant. "I'm sorry I said you were dumb. I should've known better than to say that without knowing what kind of person you were. I was wrong, you aren't dumb, I'm sorry."

Ms. Tutari nodded her head. Coming from Delta, that was probably the best she would get out of him. She signaled him to take a seat. "You may sit down. Vaati, you're up ne – "

"Actually, you're flat out stupid and you're still weird." Delta finished. By this point, Vaati had stood up and Ms. Tutari was looking flustered.

"Delta! I'm disappointed in you! That's no way – "

"Delta, I'm very sorry I thought you were a friendless loser. I should've known you were one."

"Boys…"

"And thanks to me, you're one too."

"Yeah, thanks so much. But we both know that it wouldn't have mattered anyway since everyone else is too dumb to talk to."

"Vaati!"

"That's right. You're not dumb, you're stupid." Delta began to smirk.

"Thanks, and so are you. Your parents should be proud." Vaati was grinning.

"I'd say the same thing except you don't have any parents you lucky loner."

"Delta!!"

"I don't have parents because they were murdered by evil monsters who were afraid of the reincarnation of a hero."

Delta snickered from the Swiftblade reference while Ms. Tutari, lost in the conversation, struggled to find words. "You? A hero? With your skimpy little arms?"

"That's the clever bit. I'm a hero in hiding. No one will ever know."

"Yeah really, what with your blood red eyes and all."

"Deceptive, aren't they? I can make myself look scary with these."

"Um, actually, they make you look like you were crying your eyes out. Or you stabbed yourself in the eye."

"Uh…boys?"

Delta and Vaati turned their attention to a confused Ms. Tutari. They exchanged glances and burst out laughing from her expression. They were slapping each other on the back and wheezing in laughter while they occasionally threw out insults in between.

"Boys!" Ms. Tutari called sharply. Vaati and Delta hiccupped and tried their best to suppress sniggers. Ms. Tutari shook her head. She opened her mouth to say something, stopped, and then began again. "Um…so…I don't think I remembered Vaati's apology?" She asked in an effort to go back to the beginning of the conversation when things had made more sense. Delta elbowed Vaati while the other boy tried his best to keep a straight face.

"I'm sorry…pfffft." Both of them resumed sniggering until neither could speak in coherent sentences. Giving up, Ms. Tutari dismissed them with a bewildered look stuck on her face. She waved them goodbye from the classroom and watched in puzzlement as the two boys who she had believed had been sworn enemies practically waltzed away with their arm around each other's shoulders. She didn't know what had happened during the half hour she had left them on their own, but whatever it was it seemed the two had been able to come to mutual understanding.

Ms. Tutari smiled to herself. Although she had been worried about Vaati and Delta, she was glad that things had turned for the better in the end. She gathered her belongings, closed the shades, and locked the door behind her. Now that that was over with, she needed to work on straightening out their manners. Where do kid learn all of those mocking taunts?

XXXXXXXXXX

Within a few weeks, Vaati and Delta were inseparable and neither of them could figure out what it was that had brought down the walls of hostility that had been so evident during the first two days. During their detention time, something had clicked and the two knew that they were equals and different from the other kids.

They discovered that they both liked to read during their spare time. Delta preferred adventure stories while Vaati liked reading about stories regarding humans, and both of them were fascinated by legends. They both liked to collect unusual colored pebbles, they had both once tried to count all the stars in the sky until they fell asleep outside, and they both dreamt of leaving their tiny village for greater ambitions one day.

Among other things, Vaati learned that Delta had chosen to distance himself from the other kids of his own free will. He liked to learn, and had naturally taught himself subjects before they were discussed in class. Due to his unusual interests and book reading, Delta had quickly gained the label as class nerd. With his tremendous pride, the boy hadn't let the label hinder him and had toughened up, showing he wasn't bothered by the name at all. In fact, Delta had gained such arrogance that he held the title as though it were a privilege until the other students saw it as something to envy as well. This had only fueled his cockiness until he held an intimidating aura that had made him unapproachable. The other students became afraid of offending him, and he eventually held enough power to be able to rally the other kids if he wanted to, as he had demonstrated on Vaati's first day of school. Still, his unapproachable atmosphere had prevented him from becoming close friends with anybody.

Vaati also learned about Delta's frustration with his family. He had been devastated when his father had died in an accident, and he had felt betrayed when his mother had spent less than a year of mourning before she married someone else. Delta had no respect for his stepfather and had completely lost respect for his mother; he began to spend less and less time at home. Though Vaati had sometimes wished he could see who his parents had been, he wondered if having room for doubt about his parents was something he should be thankful for after hearing Delta's bitter account. Delta frequently spent time at the orphanage with Vaati to stay away from home, and Miss Britta was only too happy to let Vaati's new friend to stay. Glen even cleaned out his room and shipped most of his belongings to Holodrum early so Delta had the option to use his old room if he ever wanted to sleep over at the orphanage.

Vaati and Delta sat next to each other in class and would chatter during lessons so much that Ms. Tutari had to occasionally separate them. Delta's cheekiness became worse now that he had a partner in crime, and he wasn't afraid to let the teacher know how boring he thought the lessons were. To shut them up, Ms. Tutari gave them extra work to do, but the two boys didn't mind. If they forgot to do them, they claimed they had been "optional" as the rest of the class didn't have to do them. Still, they usually turned it into a racing match to see who could finish all the work they had been given first with accuracy. They made a rule that they would win extra points if they could complete it during a period without getting caught by Ms. Tutari for not paying attention to the lesson. The teacher marveled at the increasing amount of books the two boys brought to school: it turned out that they were using them to hide behind during lessons. The loser had to hand over their lunch snack over to the winner. They were pretty equal with each other, but most of the time Vaati won by a fraction of a second.

Before long, the rest of the students became curious of Vaati and Delta. Realizing that the two boys were ahead of them, they began to go to them for help on homework. Their popularity steadily increased, especially Delta's who seemed to enjoy helping the other kids more than Vaati. Delta even became more open and shed his unapproachable aura; so much so that kids seeked him out during recess to talk. Vaati, on the other hand, was more introverted, but he held a quiet charisma that made others want to listen to him if and when he spoke. The other kids no longer poked fun at his looks; well, it had been mostly Delta's fault.

Both of them made more friends, but at the end of the day, Vaati and Delta were the best of friends.

fleets: It might sound weird that Vaati and Delta did a 180 and went from enemies to friends within a matter of days, but this was actually based on personal experience. One of my best friends and I used to hate each other, and I mean hate each other. I think one day we duked it out with as many colorful insults we could think of (I know...immature...) and then by next day we were best best friends. We forgot why we hated each other so much. Weird huh?
Anyways, gahh I can't wait until I get to Ezlo...

Astral S. Kepeire: Yup! I'm not surprised people guessed this outcome because Vaati and Delta are somewhat similar to Vaati and Link with the like/hate. So, no need to dodge bricks! ;)

Shadow Rukario: Two minutes? That...takes skill. Thanks! I'm fine now, just a little sleep deprived though.

Victoria-BlackHeart: I agree. Vaati's cool. That's why I write these fics too much... :D

Peka the Corsair: And I think your guess was correct! ;)

Bishieluver01: I know there's Melta, Jenta, Bukta, and Chilta...but not Delta? Actually Delta's pretty sharp too, but if I were to bet on one or the other I'd go with Vaati (this is totally not biased....XD )

Darkwind: Oh noes! But it paid off in the end - if you can call getting detention as something that will pay off.

Velk: Yes since he's got a friend now.

marium: I felt nice - it's one of his few lucky days XD. Ah, thanks for visiting my little gallery. :)

H-bomber: Don't forget that one blatant foreshadowing in the beginning, too, about Vaati killing his friend and "himself." Very important. ;)

I luv Vaati: Yep, they're bffls! And yes, Vaati kills him like he says in the prologue. It'll begin to make sense as it goes on.