The Boy With a Fairy on His Head

by DemonicPiano

In an alternate colored world, society is very closed, arts are condemned, and rampant apathy is a part of everyday life. A young boy, Oliver Kirkland, lives a sheltered life with his mother until she is branded for murder of his father, perhaps rightfully so. He will then have to take a step into the scary world, find his place, and strive to improve society as a whole.

24. Chapter 23

"Wow! Look at all these pretty ladies!"

One of the girls beside Oliver gulped down her cereal with a drawn out, "Oh, my god."

As soon as he walked in the dining hall, Luciano gasped in ecstasy at the sight of the many girls sitting at the tables instead of their usual spot on the bleachers. Flavio seemed delightfully shocked, too, but kept his joy more contained. His brother continued with clasped hands, "It makes me happy that all of you came by to bless me with your beauty!"

"What's the occasion?" Flavio asked.

Instead of the gathered girls groaning in distaste at his antics, which consisted of strange gestures and winking, they giggled and gushed. That was when Oliver realized there was a very fine line between disgust and interest. He rose out of his seat, hoping to talk to the Italians, but he was uncertain if it was a good idea to disturb Luciano's perch against one of the tables, tittering with a pair of sisters.

"Err...Luciano," Oliver began.

Flavio answered for him. "What do you want?"

With a double glance, Luciano slowly became attentive, and gazed at his disturbance in wonder. "What's up, Oliver? We heard about the ideas the others were tossing about to stop the stupid monkey attacks. It honestly does not surprise me that they are creeping around like that."

"They are not just creeping. They are armed now."

"So am I!"

"With guns, Luciano."

Luciano gasped, and held his hands up. "Oh no, a gun? Should I be scared?"

Oliver glanced between the brothers in half-confusion, half-horror. "Y-yes? Guns are very dangerous. They even say that you should not bring a knife-"

"Yawn!" Flavio slapped his hand over his mouth. "'Don't bring a knife to a gun fight, blah, blah, blah.' That's the stupidest load of shit I've heard. They don't know my knife! I could have a machete that shoots lasers."

His brother furrowed his eyebrows in a difficult ponder. "But...if it shot lasers, then it would not really be a knife anymore, would it?"

Oliver put in over Flavio, "Yes, all right. We get it. So, about these blokes that are running around; I had an idea that none of us should be out by ourselves, in case we make easy targets."

Flavio said, "Like Lutz?"

"Yes, what happened with Lutz."

Luciano crossed his arms, intensifying his pout.

Oliver continued, "I was hoping we could rearrange a buddy-basis of some sort to counteract against this new threat, but the problem is that we cannot pair up with the same people all the time. Some of us have jobs and places to be."

"What?" Flavio swished his hand, "Do we draw up a schedule, and have little name stickers for each day?"

Luciano let off a little giggle, and his brother smacked his arm. Oliver tried to keep his tone level. "No, we can figure that out day by day, I suppose. We can meet up here every morning, and chew it over breakfast."

"The only thing you should chew at breakfast is breakfast itself," Luciano claimed like a philosopher.

"After breakfast," Oliver said. The doors opened again, and other inhabitants entered the dining hall. "Have you seen the others?"

Flavio flapped a hand. "They're probably still sleeping!"

Kuro stopped beside him, giving the blond a distasteful scowl. "Excuse you."

"Hello, Kuro," Oliver said fondly. "Did you sleep well?"

The other teen turned to him, looking afraid. "Why would you ask that?"

Oliver's shoulders fell. "I-I was just wondering..." He shook his head when Kuro stared blankly. "Are the others on their way? We have an announcement to make regarding the threat of attack from Crookednose's posse."

Kuro raised his neat eyebrows. "Is that what we call them now? Very well. I go get my breakfast now."

Oliver went to the girls he was talking to, and plucked his half eaten breakfast from the table. "You will need to excuse me, ladies. I have some plotting to do."

They shot the boys glares for stealing him away. "Sure, Oliver. Don't forget about that salt scrub we were talking about."

"I will not forget," he promised, hurrying to one of the corner tables were the other boys were gathering. Eventually the two pairs of brothers waltzed in, gaffing at something that happened before they arrived.

Lutz stammered, "There's...there's no way." After wheezing from lack of breath, he said, "Down the street? In a barrel?"

Allen grinned ear to ear. "One of the best rides in my life."

"Hey," the other blond called out. "We have changed seats."

"Calm down, Lutz," Flavio told him. "Believe it or not, change can be healthy."

"I-I didn't say it-"

Luciano jerked his head in the direction of the kitchen. "Get your breakfast. We have lots to talk about."

Allen threw his arms in the air. "Baby!" He hurried to Oliver to wrap around his waist and land a few healthy smooches to his cheek. "You feelin' a bit better today?"

"Hmph, I suppose I am." Oliver gave away to a flurry of giggles. "Dork!"

"You're kinda a dork, too, Ollie."

"What!" Oliver squawked against the hand fiddling with his bowtie. "I am not!"

"Are too!" Another, rougher kiss to the side of his head, "You said you like dorky guys, right? That means you're a dork."

"You...!" Oliver could not fathom an appropriate name, so he sharply sighed, but lost to more silly snickers. "Go get something to eat."

"You don't got to tell me twice," Allen claimed, sauntering to the kitchen.

One of his bench mates let out a low whistle, causing everyone to snicker. Oliver glanced at them, and they avoided his gaze. "What is so funny?"

Lutz put his hand to his chin, grumbling, "Hm, I wonder..." His brother smacked the table, suffering from silent laughter. He reached over for Kuro to somehow help his hilarious torment, but the other boy, slightly disturbed, leaned the other way.

Flavio keenly observed, "It seems like you caught yourself the catch there, Oliver."

"What?" The baker echoed, not keeping up.

"No," Lutz said, "More like he dove out of the water to pull him in." Luciano let out a short, dry laugh, and he never looked more proud of himself.

Oliver growled, "I am not laughing."

"Of course not," Flavio swished a hand. "You don't see yourselves, so how can you laugh?"

"What in the world are you going on about?"

The question made them laugh harder. Oliver scoffed and threw his hands at them, telling that he was not going to listen to their antics. Luciano started a stupid tune, "Oliver and Allen, sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"

"Keep quiet!" Oliver snapped.

Siegmund started to choke on a biscuit, smacking his chest, but still laughing as Luciano continued, relentless, "First comes love, then comes marriage, and then..." he trailed off, growing deathly confused. After a few slaps delivered to his back from his brother, the mute smacked his lips, and looked to the Italian for the ending of his song. "Well, usually then comes the baby carriage, but I don't think that is going to happen."

Oliver could only glower at the table as his bench mates tittered. Lutz leaned to one side to announce, "Ja, because they're gay."

Flavio shot the other blond an unimpressed look. "You're the gay one."

A low, muffled gagging sound erupted from Kuro as he, too, started choking on his breakfast.

"What?!" Lutz's cheeks inflamed pink. "I am not!"

"Oh, please!" Luciano scoffed. "You are straighter than boiled spaghetti!"

"You would know," Flavio snickered.

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

Oliver giggled lowly to himself, pleased how the tables turned as the other two brothers returned from the kitchen, setting their plates on both sides of him. Getting the conversation on its original track, he asked, "So what are the plans for this buddy system? Are we going to solve it day-by-day, or are we going to stick with certain people?"

"Day-by-day," Luciano declared before Allen could say anything as his mouth popped open. "I don't want things to get stale."

"All right. What is everyone doing today? We can sort it out based on who is going where and when. I have to go to the bakery soon, so if anyone is going that way..."

Allen shot his hand in the air. "I want to go!"

"Of course you do," Luciano tittered, "but are you going to stay there so you two are not walking back alone?"

Matt spoke up, "Siegmund and I are going to be that way. We can walk Oliver to the bakery, and he can pick him up."

"Wait," Lutz furrowed his eyebrows. "Allen will be alone going up if that is the case."

"Dammit," Flavio hissed. "This is harder than we thought."

"Ooh!" Luciano had an idea. "What if we run out of here? Who cares if we are by ourselves? If we literally sprint out of the building..."

"If you want to look like an idiot running around everywhere, then knock yourself out," his brother said. "They might see you running, however, and chase you for fun, because they're assholes like that."

"It was just idea."

"Besides," Lutz announced, "Just because you are not on the property anymore, that doesn't mean you're safe. They have no qualms about sneaking out. How do you think they're getting the weapons the police officer was talking about?"

"Wow, Lutz is thinking for once!" Flavio announced, which caused the other teen to duck his head with an anxious scowl.

Luciano smacked his brother's arm. "Stop being mean to him."

"Oh, 'scusa. Only you can do that, I forgot."

Oliver gripped his plastic fork tighter at how easy the gathering went astray. "Perhaps Allen should come up with Matt and Siegmund, and just stay at the bakery the rest of the day, so neither of us are walking back alone. I-if that is okay with you."

"Yeah," Allen said, "As long as you feed me."

"Of course."

"Sweet!" He performed a fist pump. The rest of the table stared at him in vague wonder.

Luciano snipped, "Kuro, Lutz, you're with me today. Right?"

"J-ja, as always!"

Kuro muttered, "Do I have a choice?"

"What, you suddenly have big plans? Luciano asked. "If you do, then tell me."

"I will put that in mind," the other teen replied just as frostily.

"Good," the brunet said. "And we already have Matt and Siegmund going off somewhere together, so nobody is alone for the time being."

Matt let out a low growl. Oliver slightly scooted to his other side while his focus was on the Italian, and Allen invited him closer with an arm around his back.

"Make sure you stay with your pals, too," Flavio spat. "If you lose one another, or run off by yourself for some stupid reason, it is your fault if you get ganked. Don't pin the blame on your partners or groupies."

The dining hall doors swung open, followed by a short, dry noise of amusement, not quite laughter. The occupants hushed, glaring at the intrusion. As the said posse made their way to ransack the kitchen, they were absolutely pleased at all the eyes on them. Lutz keenly observed, "That is one way to shut a bunch of kids up."

"Assholes," Luciano hissed, his words staying around his own table. Another random Housemate swerved purposely out of the way to avoid the other group's path. "Look at that. It used to be them being petty thieves, and you would only have to make sure you don't get pickpocketed. That's what it is like outside, but now..."

"This is getting out of hand," Oliver grumbled, turning from glaring over his shoulder, to his plate, but the food seemed bland for his refined tastes and soured mood. He pushed the leftovers to Allen, who eagerly snatched it without a word.

"You have those kind everywhere," Matt said. "It's just like all those other times, right Al?"

"I don't know, bro. Back then, those were small packs of hillbillies that got too excited wit' pitchforks in their hands. These guys got a pack mentality or somethin'. They're more tricky."

"Doesn't matter," the rugged teen claimed. "We'll kick their asses like we did with the others."

Allen let out loud gawfs over the other Housemate's low mutterings of insults to Crookednose's posse. "You got that right!"

Oliver casted a suspicious pucker at the twins. "Do not do anything stupid."

Matt snorted, "Then what is the point of him doing anything?"

After breakfast, the four designated boys left for the bakery. Oliver glanced to his neighbor's table, and he swore most, if not all, of their eyes were on him. He resisted the urge to quickly look away, shying from their stares. Instead, he met their gazes with his own scowl. They leaned to one other, gesturing vaguely as they hissed in each other's ears. The baker knew from the girls that they were plotting something when that happened.

His panicked thoughts of the rivalry were snipped by Allen's hand clasping onto his as they approached the front gate, and floated away to other, lesser places at that moment. "D'you think Bella's got somethin' fer us in the oven?"

"Not for you!" Oliver teased.

"Aw, come on, babe!"

"You just ate your breakfast, and half of mine."

"I'm a growin' man!"

"Yeah, your waistline's growin'."

Allen twisted around to glare at Matt, who was reminding them that he and Siegmund were quietly following. "No one asked the peanut gallery."

"Fuck you," Matt shot unthreateningly. "Your brain is a peanut."

"Somethin' else is a peanut, too-!" Oliver yanked on Allen's arm to quiet him. Siegmund must have pretended it was not funny, but his triumphing smirk won over a neautral expression.

The baker asked, "Are you two going to come in for something to grab along the way?"

"We have places to go."

Allen let out short laugh. "Like what?"

"Like mind your own business," his brother grumbled.

"What if an emergency happens, an' we don't know where you are. What then?"

"If you don't do anything stupid, then there will not be an emergency."

"Oh!" Oliver exclaimed, tossing his eyes around playfully. "That is asking a lot."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Everyone only ignored, or snickered at Allen. He gave his and Oliver's conjoined hands an angry swing. "Man, I don't know if you guys are wit' me or against me!"

Matt said, "We're against stupidity."

"But you always say I'm stupid!"

"You act stupid. There's difference."

Allen let out a half whine, half grumble, "Come on."

"Yeah," Matt prompted. "Come on, we'll never get to the bakery at this pace."

"Uh oh!" Anabella sang when they arrived at her bakery. The other pair quickly left to do their own things without coming inside. "Double trouble! I am going to be eaten out of house and home."

"Bella," Oliver greeted with a bright smile. "You are up and about!"

"I cannot stay in bed all day. As nice as that sounds, it can get unbelievably boring after fourteen hours." She tipped her head, gazing behind her worker. "Allen, are you hungry?"

The other boy grumbled, "I'm always hungry, I guess."

"Then I will make something for you."

"Should I help-"

"Sit down, Oliver," Anabella said. "If I need you, I will call for you."

"If you insist," Oliver lightly sighed, and turned for one of the tables. He brushed by Allen, who followed more slowly. "It is nice to see her walking around. The bakery is not right without her."

Allen mustered a small, lopsided grin, settling in an adjacent chair. "Yeah, I wonder what was wrong wit' her."

Oliver remembered the blood she coughed up, and the absolute refusal to seek medical help. "Maybe it was a fever. At her age, those things can be deadly." The other teen grew quiet, tracing faint cracks across the surface of the plastic table. The baker reached over and pressed his hand on one of his. "What is wrong?"

"Who said somethin' was wrong?"

It was so obvious Allen was moping. Oliver claimed with a little grin and a sway of his shoulders, "I know things."

With a sharp sigh, Allen lolled his head to one side to prop up his elbow. "I don't know, Ollie. I just don't wanna be that guy in our lil' group."

"What guy?"

"You know, that guy. The one everyone invites so they don't feel bad. The one that they all snicker an' celebrate when he leaves."

"Do you really think we see you that way?"

Allen vigorously scratched his head, poorly covering his embarrassment. "Everybody says those things 'bout me. Like, I'm fat an' stupid. It really brings a guy down, y'know?"

"Friends dig at one another all the time. It is only light hearted teasing."

"That doesn't stop it from hurtin'."

"Who cares if you are fat?" Oliver spat, and Allen widened his eyes, placing a hand over his stomach. "I mean, if you were to ever become 'fat.' That means you get plenty to eat. Believe it or not, it is rather flattering that somebody enjoys what you put on the table." The baker's face grew hot as the other stared intensely, and he giggled from his fluster. "A-about being stupid, that is not true, too. You managed to survive so long on the streets. That takes a certain kind of smartness not everyone is capable of. I know I would not be able to do it."

Just when he thought he was babbling, Allen let out a bout of deep giggles, and slung an arm over his shoulder, causing both of them to lean closer to one another. "Aw, shit, babe, ain't that sweet?"

"I-it is nothing, really..."

"Are you two enjoying yourselves?" Anabella's voice drifted from the kitchen. Oliver straightened as much as he could with Allen still clinging to him. She emerged behind the counter with two glasses of milk, but her smile seemed made of plaster.

"Thank you, Bella." Oliver glanced from the cups she set on the table to her furrowed brows. "Is everything all right?"

"Do not worry, Oliver," she said, turning away. "The marshmallow cakes will be out soon."

Oliver stared after her scuffling departure with a fixed frown. He lightly exclaimed, "That is not what I asked!"

Allen wiggled in his seat, reaching to play with the baker's bowtie. "Ooh, marshmallow stuff. Sounds sweet."

"Knowing Bella, it probably is," Oliver crept an arm around the other boy's back, earning a squeeze for himself.

"I bet it's not as sweet as you," Allen snickered, pressing closer to kiss Oliver's face wherever he could in their embrace.

"Aw, how cute. I almost vomited in my mouth," somebody sneered behind them.

Both gasped, and pulled away, twisting to face the newcomer. Oliver was about to apologize for the inappropriate display, but his shocked face fell into a scowl. Allen leaped out of his seat, gripping the white metal as if he were plotting to swing the chair at the other pair of boys from Crookednose's gang. Oliver's neighbor was not present, but any of his pals meant trouble. The baker stood more calmly, but equally stiff to rest a palm on Allen's clenched arm. "Did you need something?"

They looked to him as if they did not believe Oliver had the audacity to question their motives. "What, we're not allowed to shop around town?"

Allen let out a low growl, the skin around his knuckles paling against his equipped weapon. "Don't give us that bull. Why you creepin' around?"

"Did you not just hear me? I said we're here for something sweet." The duo landed their gaze on Oliver, daring to grin like sharks.

"Well, what do you want?" The baker asked, "Do you need a menu?"

"What is this?" Anabella came from the kitchen with square tray. "New customers? Oliver, why did you not tell me?" She set the marshmallow squares on their table, flickering her eyes around the four teens. "Do you know each other?"

"We're all from the House," one of other boys announced.

Anabella gasped, "Really? That makes us all from the same vine. Here, have something to eat. I know with all those other children, you can only eat what you need to survive at that place. Relax and enjoy yourselves." She turned away, distracted by a sharp cough to notice Oliver's look of poorly suppressed horror. The other duo let out snooty sounds, noisily settled at the table, and eagerly grabbed the elder's beautiful treats.

"B-Bella-"

"Ah, I am getting a little tired. Would you mind manning the bakeshop?" Anabella asked, already making her way to the stairs, and not giving Oliver an opportunity to refuse.