Me: Hello everybody!
Taiga: It's the update you all have been waiting for!
Tora: Well what are we waiting for?
Me: The other Guardians. We are having a reunion party!
Taiga: Really?! Cool!
*Rin bursts into the room*
Rin: I heard that there was going to be a party! Will there be cake?!
Me: Of course what kind of party would it be without cake?
Rin and Taiga: Woooooo!
*Shin appears using his ninja skills*
Shin: Giving those two sugar would not be advisable Supchild.
Me: Why?
Shin: They will most likely perform acts of insanity during their sugar induced high….
Me: Like what?
*Ace walks in the door*
Ace: Like burning down the house.
Me: Well I kinda need my house, you know…...to live in…
*Lucy walks in the door with party stuff*
Lucy: So don't give them cake. Simple as that.
Me: Mmk! Rin! Taiga! You guys can NOT hav-
*I trail off as I watch the two eat the entire chocolate cake*
Tora: We're going to die….a horrible, sugary death….
Me: Ok everybody! Please read and review before Rin and Taiga kill us all…..
Rin and Taiga: SUGAR! WE NEED MORE SUGAR~!
Lucy: May the gods save our souls…..
Me: I'm too young to die~!
Chapter 15: Fighting Confessions
Rin's POV:
"He's going to kill you if he finds us here…." I huffed and spun on my heel, glaring at Lulu, whose face was buried in a large book.
"You could, at least, help me out here…."
"Nah. I like seeing you struggle with your problems." Lulu finally looked up from her book and shot me a devious grin before returning to her reading. I pouted before turning back to my task. Shin's door was still locked and I still wasn't inside. So nothing had changed in the past hour that I had been standing here. I really needed to talk to the rebels about how they had managed to make their base so secure…..
"He's coming…" Lulu mumbled, still engrossed in her book. Panic gripped my heart and I flailed for a moment with the bags of incriminating evidence in my hand. He couldn't get mad right? I hadn't done anything yet! I quickly flicked open a magic rift and shoved the bags of glitter inside, before anything could come out. They would yell at me about that later on but I had other things to worry about. I tugged Lulu, who was basically dead weight behind me, out of the hallway and back into the main room. As we stepped out of the hallway, Shin passed by, glistening with sweat from the workout that he- Wait...did I just used the word glistening and Shin in the same sentence. I stopped for a moment to make a mental note to train harder than before. If I had time to think ridiculous thoughts like that then I was obviously not working hard enough. Unbeknownst to me, I had slipped into deep thought or thinking coma as my sister like to call them. Lulu was managing to drag me behind her, read her book, and not run into anyone in the maze-like hallways that made up the rebel base.
"Where are we going, Lulu?" I drawled as I traced my eyes over the scenery which was slowly becoming familiar.
"Training room." That statement alone snapped my full focus to my leader. The past couple weeks, Lulu had locked herself away from everyone even the dragon slayer that she was so enamoured with. Before becoming a reclusive hobbit, she told her fellow Guardians that he was strategizing a way to take down the System, G.O.G, even Arab. Now I had the utmost faith in Lulu, but defeating Arab was near impossible, even for her. Arab had always been. Not always in the same form or even in on the same dimensional plane but it had always existed. No one had ever defeated it. Only kicked the problem down the road for the next generation to deal with. But if anyone was going to find a way to deal with Arab now, it would be Lulu. She was a miracle worker, she had saved them from the G.O.G after all. A smack to the back of my head snapped me from my thoughts.
"You going to stay in lala land all day." I swiveled to look at Lucy, who had finally put down her book and had changed into sweats in order to train. I shrugged but didn't reply. I stepped into the large training ring and waited for Lulu to step in after me. I knew that she hadn't finally left her room to lift weights, she was here to spar. Lulu meet me halfway into the ring, a strange glint in her eye. Without warning we both sprang at each other, fists back, ready to do some damage to the other. We exchanged blows, nothing more than a few hard love taps. This was all for the sake of getting warmed up after all. We stepped back from each other, both of our bodies humming with energy. Lucy's stance shifted, she was getting serious.
"I'm scared." Was all she said before launching a kick at my head that could easily snap my neck. I moved only enough to avoid having my neck broken before reaching out and grabbing her leg. I shifted my weight and threw her away from me.
"Well, that was unexpected…" I sucked in a deep breath, getting my bearings. Lulu stumbled a moment before getting to her feet.
"That was the point."
"You're horrible to just throw that at me….well why are you scared?"
I blocked the fist coming towards my face and promptly suckered punched Lucy in the gut. She hissed in pain and kicked me in the backs of my knees, sending me down to the ground. I thankfully managed to twist away before she could kick me in the ribs.
"What if I'm wrong…..what if I've only made this entire situation worse?" I raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything else as I continued to dance around, dodging or blocking hits. Lucy tended to talk out whatever she was feeling without any external prompting.
"I forced the Guilds from their hometowns without even thinking about the consequences...all those lives….all in my hand. I've never been responsible for so many so I just applied the same logic I use when I'm just dealing with the team. I'm thinking now that it might not have been such a good idea…."
Lucy panted as she spoke. Just because she was opening up didn't mean that the sparing would stop. We both need to work out our frustrations in a physical way.
"I could have caused more harm than good! I could have led all these people right into the hands of the enemy. And what about all the people in the cities where the guilds are based?! No one is there to protect them. And it's all my fault! My hands are already tainted beyond repair, I can't bear to have more blood on my hands! If Arab succeeds it would be all my fault! It would be my fau-"
Lucy never got to finish because my fist harshly met the underside of her jaw. The force of the blow knocked her onto her back. The sympathy that I would normally feel was buried underneath the boiling anger in my blood.
"You idiot. How dare you say that or even think that! What is going on is in no way your fault. This out of all of our control. We can only react to what's going on and hope for the best. You are my leader and I put my full trust in you." Lucy rolled backwards as I aimed a kick at her side, my furry getting the better of me.
"I trust and love you Lucy and that's why I put the lives of my guild and my sister in your hands. If I didn't think you could keep us all safe, I never would have, especially not my sister. She's all I have left and I will not lose her."
"Well, your trust is ill placed! I've only dug us a deep, deep grave. It's only a matter time before someone finds us and kills us all!" Lucy's voice was borderline hysteric as she swung out wildly. I caught her fist as it collided with the side of my head and used it to pin her arm behind her back. Lucy grunted and kicked out at my leg causing me to wobble. She used my moment of imbalance to throw me over her back and into the hard mat. I cringed as I hear her shoulder pop out of the socket.
"I was only playing pretend…..pretending to be brave and strong and powerful….I'm still as weak as I was before the G.O.G found me…..I'm...not as great as I act." Lucy gasped through the pain, her shoulder clutched with her other hand.
"I would hope not. If you were then I'd have to kill you cause you wouldn't be human."
Lucy looked up at me through her bangs and I finally recognized the look in her eyes that I had only seen glimpses of. Fear. The emotion that the G.O.G taught its agents to never have and shove away. But fear lead to reckless abandon and endangerment of the agent. Fear was inconvenient but it also kept you safe. Lucy was the perfect agent. She had shoved her fear into a locked box years ago.
"You're afraid. Which means that the Lucy that existed before the G.O.G is still in there somewhere." I smiled faintly. "And that means there is hope when all this over. When all this over we can go back to the lives we all lost and try and catch up on all we missed."
"You're optimism is surprising. I always pegged you as a pessimist." Lucy grimaced as she rotated her shoulder back into the socket where it belonged.
"I have a couple tricks still up my sleeve." I shrugged and prepared myself to fight again. "I swear, you are stupidly-smart Lucy."
"What?" She blinked owlishly, confusion written all over her face. I grinned and threw the first punch and soon we both fell back into the rhythm of the fight.
"You can't be strong all the time Lucy." I commented after throwing a rather hard blow to her back. "Which is why we are here to support you. When you fall we pick you back up. It's just a team does."
"I know...I just…." She stumbled back and threw a kick that I couldn't dodge. I probed my split lip with my tongue, the copper taste of blood spreading along my tastebuds.
"You're afraid. Not of what will come. You're not afraid of the G.O.G or even Arab. You're afraid of what might happen if you don't do something which is why you're trying to shoulder all this on your own." I stated matter of factly. "You know me pretty well Lulu but I know you too. No matter what I'm going to be in your corner Lucy. You just have to let us in."
Sweat dripping down both us. The air thick with sweat and spilled blood, we both poured out our hearts to each other.
"Why can't we have a conversation over junk food like normal friends. Instead, we have to beat the other's face in." A bark of laughter escaped me as Lucy hunched over, trying to hold in her own laughter.
"Didn't you know Lulu? Giving your friend bruises is the oldest sign of friendship. It predates friendship bracelets and hair braiding."
We both burst into laughter, collapsing onto the mat.
"What should I do Rin? I'm still so lost…." Lucy whispered, I wouldn't have heard had I not been lying right next to her. A faint smile spread across my face as faint memories of a little girl with blonde hair and brown eyes jumped in front of me to protect me from men in labcoats. I rolled up into a sitting position and then stood up.
"Well you first need to get up and finish this spar, so I can win, and then gloat. And after that we're going to call a meeting and we're going to plan out the next steps. With everyone and then we're going to win this war and go home for icecream."
"You're such an optimist."
"Well someone has to be." I held out my hand to her, and Lucy gripped it and started to pull herself up. Only to tug hard on my arm and use the advantage of me falling down to punch me in the gut. A feral grin formed on my lips as I staggered away from my friend.
"Oh it is so on Lucy."
"Bring it Rin."
AND THAT'S IT! For now….the story is taking a rather interesting shift and I hope you'll forgive me for the delays and stick with me. I really want to finish this.
Ace: So about this party...
Me: Let's have it next chapter after I find a safe food that won't send my OC's into a sugar induced coma...
SUPCHILD OUT