Amends (Part 1)

Odette gently blew ripples into her cup of coffee to cool it off. She took a careful breath and looked to his eyes across from her in the booth. "You were right about me. I do like to know things in order to be in control. And I understand how I can get pushy and nosy. I'm really sorry about that. Especially towards you. I can be demanding and aggressive when I want to fix something instead of just… going with the flow like you said. I'm gonna try to be better about that. I'll try really hard."

William stared into his own cup of coffee and nodded. "Thank you. I forgive you."

"So, from now on… if I ask you if you want to talk and you don't want to, I'll back off. Okay?"

He opened his mouth in hesitation before replying. "I should apologize for being so difficult." William looked at her. "This is different for me."

She nodded understandingly.

"… It's not that I don't trust you or anything. I do. It's just that I don't want you to think any less of me than you already do." He said evenly and with no actual emotion in his tone as he swiped his fingers through his dark shaggy hair.

When she blinked it was almost a flinch. "William, I never think anything negative about you. Never. And I never will." Odette watched him sip from his cup with a grateful nod. She knew he wasn't convinced. She had to let him know somehow. Her blue eyes grew sad as she watched him look out the window with tired eyes. She used to think it was just his drinking habit, but she learned a long time ago that his eyes always looked that way. There had to be a way to help him. Maybe she just wasn't going about it the right way. Perhaps it was time to get down on his level. He never liked making a big deal out of anything. Maybe she should stop trying to make it a big deal, too. "… I have an idea. Let's play a game."

He turned back to her. "A game?"

"Yeah. Every day, I tell you something personal about myself that you don't know. And you tell me something about you that I don't know."

William blinked. "… You're serious?"

"Yes. I mean… if that's all right with you." She sat back in her seat a little.

He sighed deeply and looked around the coffee shop. "… Every day is a lot."

"Every week then. And that gives you a while to recover between turns." She said with a smile.

His eyes turned on her again but this time with a glint of something more that she didn't see often. Something that kind of looked like she had won points for understanding something new. He nodded slowly. "Okay."

"I'll go first? Are you ready?"

"Sure." He took another drink of coffee.

Odette inflated her chest and tapped her fingers on the table. "All right, let's see… Um… I left home when I was sixteen years old. Came straight here to be a weapon meister."

He blinked. "Why did you leave home?"

"Next week." She winked. "Now you."

He sighed silently. "There's nothing good."

"It's okay." She reached across the table and patted his hand.

For a long moment he was quiet. Odette watched his eyes and she could almost see him consider a moment to share but then toss it away and jump to the next one. She didn't want to stare for that long so she took another drink of coffee so as to not make him nervous. And then he spoke quietly. "I used to hurt myself but I don't anymore."

An icy shock pierced her heart as she met his eyes again.

He went on casually. "Not because I was upset or anything. Just… Well, I honestly don't really know why I did it. I was stupid. Sometimes I would do it to see how much I could take. Like burning and cutting and stuff? To see how far I could go before it was too much. The rest of the time I didn't know I was doing it. Like I would just come to and it would already be done. Couldn't remember how it happened." William shrugged.

Odette held in a shaky breath. She prepared herself with a swallow before responding. "Was that because of the madness? The black blood?"

"I don't know. I guess so." He didn't sound regretful or bothered at all. He sounded like he sounded when he ordered his coffee. Completely nonchalant.

She touched his hand again. "But you don't do it anymore you said. Maybe it was the black blood and you've gotten in control of it now."

He nodded. "You're probably right."

Odette smiled softly. "Thank you."

He lowered his voice even further. "Thanks for not judging me."

She leaned forward. "Never." Her lips gave his cheek a quick peck. "Come on. Let's go back to our dorm and watch a movie." Odette slid out of the booth with her coffee. William followed her out the door.

(Page Break)

The next day, the group headed to their usual spot for their training session. It was quiet again as they walked. Nikki kept glancing at Odette and William and Katy and Christian as if she could try and predict how today's session would go. When Tim noticed, he subtly scolded to her to make her stop. Katy's eyes were still low and Christian walked a few paces behind her instead of ahead of her as he usually did. His hands were in his pockets and maybe his eyes were lower than hers. Dr. Stein and Miss Marie met them in the outer commons area in front of the school as they exited the building. The giant candles hanging above them began to cast an orange glow on the face of the castle and the large stoop on which they stood. A voice cut through the quiet, a voice they all recognized to be Jason Calkin's. "Well, look who it is!" A unison cringe appeared on the student's faces as they all turned to face him and his meister, Storm as well as a girl with full brown hair and another with straight jet black hair that curtained a narrow face. Calkin stepped forward again. "On to your secret lessons, huh?" He smiled a crooked smile with equally crooked teeth.

"They're not secret, everyone knows what we're doing," Rachele said flatly.

"What did Lord Death say to you?" Storm's frosty green eyes flicked between them for a moment. "Hey, William."

"Hey," he said back.

Odette looked up at her partner with a bit of a snarl. "How…?"

He lowered his voice. "I… might have…"

She blinked and looked ahead again. "Oh." Odette cleared her throat. "Not really your business, Storm."

"Don't be a bitch. You said everyone knows what you're doing, I just was curious as to why you're doing it."

Nikki stepped forward. "You mean why are we doing it instead of you? Because Lord Death picked us and not you, that's why."

The other girl with straight black hair spoke up, putting her thin arm by her side that bore a spiraling rose tattoo. "Why the hell would he pick you instead of anyone?" She looked to Odette's partner. "William."

He nodded at her. "Cicero."

Odette turned to him with more disgust in her features this time. "You are utterly despicable."

"We've—established this, yes. I know." He closed his eyes in a brief pang of guilt and shame. But only briefly.

"You want to start something?" Nikki stormed forward. Tim caught her arm and held her back.

Her brother now spoke up. "Lord Death has faith in us, you want to know why? Let's go." He pulled his hands out of his pockets.

Alex huffed. "Are you joking? We've finished all our missions for this year already. You want to fight?"

"Hell yeah, I do."

"We have a lesson to get to," Katy said behind him.

"We're not in any hurry. You officiate a duel for us, Doc?" He tossed his head over his shoulder.

Dr. Stein repositioned his glasses on the bridge of his nose and gave a thumbs-up. Odette still carried on a quiet hissing conversation with her weapon. "Alex too?"

"Of course not," he said with a grimace as if he were offended that she would think such a thing. "… She's a lesbian."

Odette blinked and looked forward again. "Oh."

"All right then, it's settled." Christian popped his neck.

Katy snatched his arm. "It is not settled! I don't want to fight them! I want to go to our lesson and go home!"

The blonde turned to her and she flinched when he put his hands on either side of her face and looked down into her hazel eyes. "You just need a confidence boost. That's all. You're gonna win this fight and you'll be back in the saddle, believe me."

She gripped his wrists. "Christian—"

"Do you trust me?"

Katy sighed shakily, glancing at everyone around her before meeting his eyes again. "For some reason that escapes me. Yes, I do."

"And I trust you." His hands barely gave her head a little shake of assurance. "Let's kick their asses."

She licked her lips nervously before breathing her reluctant response that wasn't nearly loud enough to be heard. "Okay."

Odette whispered, leaning closer to William. "So… Alex and Cicero…"

"Mhm," he crooned as his eyes glazed over in a pleasant daydream with a devious smirk.

Christian took Katy's hand and his body gathered itself in a white light to transform into his elegant naginata form. The meister faced Alex and Cicero with her mouth closed and her heart pounding horribly in her ears. The rest of the students backed away into a loose circle, giving the opponents a wide berth.

Alex stepped forward in a pair of old, worn sneakers and held her hand out. Cicero took her hand and became engulfed in light as her body narrowed and elongated. When the light broke away, she now rested in Alex's grip as a twelve foot long braided black and white whip. The end rested on the ground in front of Alex's feet with a collection of loose strands that averaged a length of about two feet each. The material of Cicero's form was not leather as Katy was expecting but rather a pliable metal and each curve of a braid reflected a glint of orange from the great candles above them. Alex flicked her wrist with minimal effort and the whip recreated the motion and magnified it. The tassels on the end snapped and the entire length of the weapon now sparked with blue pops of electricity up to where it stopped at the handle.

Kian and Rachele both made almost identical faces of worry, biting down on their lips or cheeks hard. Tim sighed calmly and nodded at his girlfriend.

Katy swallowed and gripped the shaft of her weapon tighter, her hands sliding with moisture. "You got me into this, you better get me out of it in one piece."

Christian's voice sounded from the blade beside her. "Always."