After that psychological mess of a chapter, I'm surprised if you're still reading this fic. I don't blame you if you stopped after last chapter, but if not, then HEY THERE.
As I said, this chapter is going to be a lot more light-hearted. Like, a lot more. Well… I hope.
Hours passed as I sat outside the infirmary down in the Rocket's HQ. I sat as if I was a hollow statue – emotionless as I tried to sink in what had happened. I had taken my gloves off for the first time in a while and was currently fixated on stroking my cheek; it felt as rough as the wall it had collided on. This isn't fair… Finally, I got called in – and yet again, smelt familiar, corroding smoke. But this time – It wasn't Petrel. It was just an ordinary grunt whom was slumped back at his desk, a smug expression upon his face. He clicked his fingers and ordered me to close the door. Obediently closing it, I went to sit down in the chair opposite him once I heard the click of the lock chime behind me.
"What's the issue?" He asked, stubbing out his cigarette as he leaned forwards towards me. I unenthusiastically pointed at my cheek.
"Damn – that's nasty. You haven't even cleaned it up!" He smirked. I shrugged as I slumped back into my chair, the velvet padding cushioning my newly-bruised back.
"How did you even do it?" he asked me, slumping into his chair simultaneously.
"Fell" I grunted as I retold Proton's alibi, looking towards the side of the room as I tried to avoid the grunt's amused grin.
"Proton doesn't have any luck picking his girls – they're always falling" He laughed, trying to lighten the mood. I wasn't having any of it. Besides, how does he know I'm in Proton's division? "Come here, let me have a look at it".
I obediently got up out of my chair and walked over to him. He stood up and investigated my cheek, prodding it about with his fingers. Doesn't this idiot realise that this is extremely painful?!
"Are you stupid or something? You're letting it heal up over gravel" the grunt nagged at me, his tone becoming more serious. I shrugged again. "That means it may get infected" I raised an eyebrow at this point. "I've got to remove the gravel. That's under your skin." I snapped back into action and slapped his hand away. There is no way he is touching my cheek.
"Don't look too alarmed… it's only a few bits and your skin hasn't completely scabbed yet" Elizabeth – do you want this to scar or not?
"Whatever" I gave in, revealing my grazed face again. He got out a pair of tweezers from his draw and started picking out the pieces of gravel. I winced every time he picked out one of the stones, an annoying itch travelling through my cheek every time he dropped them on the floor.
"Right, all done! See – that wasn't so painful, was it?" He announced. I opened my eyes and tried to look at my cheek instinctively, but couldn't avert my gaze that low down. I turned around to thank the grunt and noticed he was leant against the desk – lighting another cigarette.
"Let me guess – you're part of Petrel's division?" I asked, throwing the chance of a thank out of the window. Perking an eyebrow up, he inhaled the toxic smoke, a smirk spreading across his face.
"You could say that".
"What do you mean I could say that… you either are, or you aren't" I hastily replied as I started coughing through the smell of the smoke.
"Why would I be part of Petrel's division?" He asked again as he exhaled the smoke, hopping on top of the table as gracefully as a Graveler trying to do ballet - I couldn't help but laugh as he almost rolled off the table.
"Well – you're chain smoking, which seems to be a common theme whenever I see him" I shrugged, smiling this time as I walked back over to the padded chair. I took in my surroundings – the infirmary was a lot different to the corridors. It was painted a luminous white and had several diagrams depicting human anatomy. The desk was almost identical to Proton's desk, but the chairs were wooden with a deep, crimson lining. It also stank of lingering cigars, much to my lungs' dismay. My mind was set on the rather nauseating smell until a series of clattering rung from the desk and I swiftly averted my attention to it – to be faced with the grunt crawling across the table. To make it even more awkward, he stretched his arms over to my chair and started snaking his way across me – eventually stopping face to face with me. I started shaking out of nerves; what on earth is going on in this madhouse?
"You're shockingly observant, Eliot" he breathed directly into my face, smoke enveloping my senses. Woah – wait, did he just call me Eliot? Wait, wait. Is this Petrel? What.
"W-what are you doing?" I coughed, extremely confused by the situation unfolding in front of me. I stared into the grunt's eyes and sure enough, they were the same beady eyes belonging to the bizarre executive I'd crossed paths with the previous day.
"EXECUTIVE PETREL! WE FOUND YOUR KOFFI…" The door suddenly burst open. I turned around, the hasty entrance snapping me back into reality. It took me a moment to realise that what had turned out to be Petrel was almost completely on top of me. Blushing, the grunt whom had walked in darted back out as if he'd witnessed a murder. I turned back around and faced Petrel again, who looked like he was about to burst into hysteric laughter.
"P-Petrel?" I asked, my eyes widening as I realised exactly what was happening.
"Hello, Eliot" he grinned in acknowledgement. I hastily tried to push myself away from the situation, and succeeded to some degree. The chair had completely fell backwards and had propelled Petrel to the other side of the room with a loud crash. Gasping, I stumbled up and ran towards him but couldn't help but laugh as I looked at his facial expression.
"You look… stoned, Petrel" I giggled, covering my mouth with my hand as I tried to show concern.
"How old are you really, Eliot?" Ignoring me, he looked sincere as he questioned me.
"Please, call me Elizabeth. And I'm 17 – 18 in a few weeks, actually" I replied, kneeling down to his side. He sat up instantly.
"But Eliot is a great name!" he shouted with shock.
"It's the name of my brother, Petrel…" I replied, becoming a little exasperated. "Wait – wait, where did your goatee go?!"
"I shaved it off because I was so ridiculed by you" he looked disheartened. Guilt-ridden, my heart sank. He then perked up again and literally tore off his face.
"I'm only joking. I'm not getting rid of this for anything" he laughed as he revealed his true face and his terrible taste in facial hair, flinging what appeared to be a mask away. It seemed mean, but years were literally put on him. There was one thing different about his actual face though: his eyes were seemingly softer. This perked my interest even more and my mouth opened as if he had just told me he was my father.
"Don't look so shocked! I'm the master of disguise" he proudly announced, closing his eyes at his self-recognition. Suddenly, I stood on top of him and peered down at his face. Curiosity struck and I forced his eyelids open again, looking to see if his eyes really had drastically changed or if I had been inhaling too much of his second-hand smoke.
"Elizabeth, what are you do…" he looked mortified as I glared down at him.
"I… don't know?" I responded, not completely sure what I was doing as I let go of his face and pondered. Seriously Elizabeth – and you wonder why you've never had a relationship! I then noticed that his eyes had flickered down towards my chest.
"Hey – you were right!" He laughed – amused by his own joke. I flinched with dread as I remembered 'prove it' and covered my chest from his view, stumbling back towards his desk. He followed my lead and sat down next to me, lighting yet another cigarette.
"You're going to kill yourself if you keep smoking" I huffed at him, eyeing the cigarette with hate.
"Theres no loss – I mean, I already have syphilis scabs" he grinned at me, referring to one of my previous offences. Quickly, I snatched the cigarette out of his hand.
"Wait – I didn't mean it! Give it back!" he completely flipped, revealing a childlike state as he tried to snatch it back off me. Grinning, I stood up on top of the desk and held it up as high as possible.
"You're not dying while I'm around!" I taunted him as he tried to stumble up on the desk with me. The combined weight made it wobble and creak, but he had suddenly stretched himself up to the cigarette and was franticly trying to grab it from my hands. He had almost clutched it as the door opened again and we both looked in shock.
Proton was looming through the doorway, leering at me with malice.
Petrel seemed unfazed by the new visitor, but I on the other hand instinctively froze dead on top of the desk – my muscles seized out of fright.
"Hey, Lizzy!" He grinned at me, blanking out Petrel completely. "Your cheek looks rather red – are you happy to see me?"
My vocal chords didn't respond as terror pumped through my blood stream. I reached out and touched my grazed cheek protectively.
"She looks ecstatic, Pro" Petrel answered the question for me, sarcasm apparent in his voice; he jumped off the desk and waltzed over against the green-haired marionette.
"Who wouldn't be?" he joked, before forcefully grabbing onto my wrist again. I tried to pull it away, but at the same time he pulled me off the desk, causing me to fall straight onto the floor. I flinched as pain coursed through my arm, making me look up at Proton with yet more pitiful mercy stares. He roughly pulled me up again, and locked me into his arms.
"Lizzy and I were about to go on a walk, actually" He announced. I stared at Petrel in desperation, shaking my head franticly in disagreement.
"Well – actually" Petrel responded, taking a step closer to Proton. "Elizabeth and I were just debating my smoking habits. I think she's…" he grabbed onto one of my arms, "…much happier where she is."
Did that really just happen? Am I getting saved from Proton by a chain-smoking man with a goatee? Proton refused to let go though, and simply stared down the older man.
"What makes you think that, Pet?" Proton growled in a threatening manner, taking a step back with me – my arm flopping out of Petrel's grasp. Petrel was ahead of the game though, and quickly snatched it back.
"Because apparently, I'm a nice guy. And this girl doesn't like nice guys wasting their lives away" he suspiciously grinned, before he reached out with his other arm and pulled Proton's cap down over his eyes. Proton instantly let go of me to lift his cap back up, and I seized the opportunity of escape from his grasp; I ran directly into Petrel and hid behind him, grabbing onto his sides for protection.
"Oh – what now? Is Giovanni out of the window now? Oh, look at me, I'm the master of disguise! Hail Giovanni!" Proton spat at Petrel as he mimicked him, ramming his hat off his head with anger. I suddenly felt a shake start to surge through the older man's body – was he scared of Proton too?
The younger man didn't wait for a response and finally stormed out of the room, slamming the mahogany door behind him, managing to completely break it off its hinges. I stood shaking in fear, unable to comprehend what just happened. Petrel, on the other hand, started giggling as if Proton had just confessed his undying love rather than mimic and spit.
"Your face!" His giggling turned into frenzied laughter. Intimidated, I instantly let go of his sides and then the realisation hit me that I had been holding onto a stranger's sides. Elizabeth! You have more balls than this! You could have just kicked Proton in the… no, scratch that. Regaining confidence, I walked towards the door in an attempt to abandon the inappropriate laughter.
"Good night, Petrel!" I shouted over his hysterics, and slipped out through the door frame.
I finally made my way back to the dorms to be overwhelmed by a buzz of gossip relating to the Slowpoke well mission. Not wanting to be reminded of the nightmare that had occurred there, I pulled my cap over my ears and collapsed onto my bed.
"Psst – did you hear about that girl who completely wiped out Proton?"
"Or how about the girl that Proton wiped out?"
"Wiped out? I heard more…"
Overhearing the comments, I buried my head in my pillow to try and escape the thought of being 'wiped out' by Proton again.
"I'm kinda jealous, I'd love to be noticed by him…"
"Are you kidding me? He's the scariest one going!"
"You mean the most attractive one going!"
I mentally cringed. What was it that all these girls found so intriguing about Proton? Maybe I'm too emotionally cold to even pick up on if I find somebody attractive or not…
"The one must be somewhere in here! She's not exactly going to be attempting to talking to that weird executive – what's his name… Peter? is she? Especially after all the attention she's getting off Proton…"
I instantly sat up, completely unnoticed. This was getting a little too accurate.
"I've heard that she's that girl who pretended to be a boy…"
Instantly, most of the dormitory cast their gazes to me. I felt my face go warm; I blushed into a crimson red and started thinking up with a comeback, but the words couldn't slip out of my mouth – not with all of these people looking.
"Yeah! I've heard that too!"
"Pfft – I've seen it!"
Where the hell are they getting these assumptions from? I hate the guts out of Proton! Hate doesn't mean love!
"The blushing says it all…"
I snapped.
"For god's sake – I wouldn't touch Proton even if I was paid to! He's fucking terrifying!" I shouted, interrupting the rapid build up of accusations. Everybody quickly silenced their selves and stared at me as if I was an alien.
"…Told you he's intimidating!" a voice finally broke the noiseless room and erupted the conversation back into full swing. Slapping my forehead out of exasperation, I sunk back onto my bed and indulged in the rumours again.
"She's only saying that because she doesn't want her secret to get out!"
"Maybe she's the one who made it up and doesn't want anybody to know because we might tell Proton"
"…Maybe we should tell Proton"
I sat bolt upright again.
"Maybe we shouldn't" I emphasised, interrupting the gossip again.
"Why shouldn't we?" a voice rung out from the opposite side of the room.
"Because I'm injured enough as it is" I replied, biting my tongue as soon as I realised what I had said. A few giggles emerged from the corner, but the rest of the room fell eerily silent. I felt eyes burning against my cheek as out of the blue, a cold whisper sliced through the silence.
"…She likes it rough".
I stood up from the bed in anger as the whole dorm burst into laughter, almost hitting my head on the top bunk in the process, and stormed out of the room.
"Jesus Christ – I'm only seventeen!" I snapped at my audience, before slamming the door behind me. The door quickly opened and Cadence appeared, this time without her wig on. It took me a few minutes to register the change from short, pink hair to long, curly, blonde hair.
"Oh my god – what the hell have you done to your face?!" She fretted, peering at my cheek as if it was glaring at her.
"Oh my god – what the hell have you done to your hair? Just kidding, I fell over" I replied, allowing her to examine my graze over. She completely ignored my excuse and jumped right down my throat about Slowpoke well.
"So what did you talk about with Proton? You looked pretty scared"
"We planned our future wedding. And I'm pregnant" I replied sarcastically, hinting that I wanted to drop the subject. But still, she dug deeper.
"No seriously – tell me Lizzy!" she seemed desperate to know, suspiciously desperate.
"Well – let's say we both found out that I am easily pushed over" I rolled my eyes at her, before walking away down the corridor. My footsteps echoed around the corridors as I walked around in solitude, before Cadence popped back up into my conscience.
"So what about that rumour earlier? The infirmary door rumour" she desperately tried to dig out any form of information.
"Well, I can safely say that Proton is a big ball of anger" I replied, cold as ever. Silence reverberated around the hall as I stopped in my tracks, Cadence imitating me.
"Not about Proton – about Petrel".
I suddenly felt defensive. "What about Petrel?"
"One grunt said you were, I, uh, getting intimate" she admitted, looking a little embarrassed as she said it.
"Jesus Christ! What am I, a prostitute?" I retorted, shuddering at the thought of more intimacy. Then it hit me – a grunt had walked in on his 'snake impression'. Oh my god.
"Well, did you?" she replied, not buying my retaliation.
"Well… I don't know if it was intimacy or not? One minute he was sitting on the desk, the next he was using me as a bed!"
Cadence looked mortified.
"Ugh, Cay, don't get the wrong idea. Nothing happened" I blatantly lied. What didn't happen? I had been fooled by a disguise, stolen cigarettes, sexually harassed, pulled on the floor by a lunatic and had been laughed at by an equally as weird lunatic as well as being fought over by said lunatics.
"Whatever, Lizzy. We've got tomorrow off, do you want to go to national park?" she thankfully changed the subject with the most normal proposal I had heard in several months. Still, I couldn't shake off the doubt of Proton; he'd clearly have something to say about it, which could resort in symmetrical cheeks. And strangely enough, I couldn't stop thinking about Petrel…
"Lizzy?" Cadence snapped me back into reality, freeing me of doubts.
"I… yeah, yeah I would like to go" I agreed, submerging myself back into my imagination. In my life, I had never really felt respect towards somebody – and now I actually respected one of the people who I was always told to show uttermost disrespect to as a child. Aha, next you're going to tell yourself that Proton is a nice person…
Wow so I've never seen a chapter drag on so much as this one – it's even worse than the first chapter which is like a world record LMFAO
Also, I don't /think/ the next chapter will have any violence… but, knowing me, it'll happen so just keep an eye out towards the start.
Also, I've just realised that I named the grunt whom seemingly had a thing for Proton in chapter 5 'Kris' – this is not to be confused with the female hero from Crystal version! I only just realised their names were the same last night and kicked myself for it. 8|