Revamped!

[I love how you wanted the test to be negative or for there to be more Kaider and frankly… SAME.]

The Scarlet Letter: Part Two

Wolf looks down at the object Scarlet put in his hands. He knows what it is and for some reason, he doesn't feel himself reacting like anyone else would. He's more confused.

"Why did you give me a negative pregnancy test?" Wolf asks.

Scarlet's taken aback for a second as she takes back the test. When she looks at it herself, she collapses in utter relief. She runs her hands through her hair before relaxing. Wolf, however, is confused and perplexed by whatever happened.

"My period is late," Scarlet explains to him.

Wolf freezes as the only thought running in his head was "oh my stars, my girl thought I got her pregnant." He thinks back to the time it happened and wonders if he used protection or not. It was stupid of him not to have if he didn't.

"You don't get how scared I was," Scarlet says as she pulls Wolf inside and closes the door behind him. "I couldn't even begin to think about having a baby because not only am I still a teenager but I don't know how to mother and I wasn't even sure what you would say or do."

The atmosphere between Scarlet and Wolf is thick. He isn't sure what to say or what to do with his hands. Thankfully, Scarlet keeps on talking.

"I hate it," Scarlet continues. "I hate my face, my freckles, my curls, my genes… I hate everything I inherited from my parents only because I got it from them. The only mothering my mom ever did for me was carry me in her womb for nine months. I haven't seen my mom since she left because she never bothered to stay in touch and I have no clue where she is. I barely remember what she looks like since my dad got rid of every photo she was in. I forget her smell, her touch, or her face. Everything back in France was twisted. My father polluted everything in his touch, and damaged everything and everyone around him. I don't know if he did it because he wanted to or because he had to. Maybe that's why Mom left and she didn't take me with her because I was polluted. I was stuck with my drunkard dad where I only had to option to run away from it all. I felt like if I stayed there, I would've become damaged beyond repair."

And then, Scarlet curls into herself and cries. She leans against the door before sliding down it, sitting on the floor and sobbing uncontrollably. Her tears dampen the curls that stick to her cheeks and she can't bring it to herself to look up at Wolf until he sits down beside her. Wolf wraps an arm around her shoulders and pulls her close to him.

"I told you that I would kiss every single one of your freckles," Wolf whispers to her, "and contrary to your popular belief, Scarlet Benoit, I would've loved a kid."

Scarlet pushes him off of her. "You're just saying that."

Wolf pulls her back in. "I'm a firm believer in loyalty. I'll live up to my actions … most of the time."

He smiles to get her to budge and the corners of her mouth twitch a little. Scarlet sits up again and leans against the wall.

"You might've been better off not knowing all those spades about my family," Scarlet mutters disgracefully.

"If you have to carry that around, I should as well," he replies.

"But you didn't do anything. You just listened to me."

"Ma says listening is incredibly powerful." He turns her head to face him. "Scarlet, you'll never have to lose yourself to win me over. I'll love you for as long as my heart is beating."

-o-

After Scarlet's sudden unannounced exit (only from the boy's perspective), the remaining group went their separate ways. Wolf went to go check up on Scarlet which was the start of the departures. Winter had to leave since she had an appointment with Dr. Darnel later in the day, and Cress and Thorne wanted to go window shopping as a testament to their newborn relationship. This left Cinder and Kai alone in their booth in the food court, not that they minded.

Cinder puts her small backpack on the table and dumps it out to find her wallet. Not only does her wallet tumble out but so do her tampons and a box of pregnancy tests that was supposed to go to Scarlet (since they bought many different types. To Cinder's surprise, different brands of pregnancy tests had various ways of saying pregnant or not despite all detecting HCG the same way. Marketing.)

"What the stars are those?!" Kai exclaims, eyes darting right for the pregnancy tests.

"Pregnancy tests," Cinder responds ever so casually as she just tosses them back in her bag with the tampons. "Got them accidentally."

"Why are you keeping them?" Kai asks.

Cinder shrugs. "Just in case we don't use protection when visiting that fantasy land of erotica together."

Cinder glances at Kai with a wild smirk on her face and Kai's mouth dries up. Sure any ordinary girl would make Kai's life happy but Cinder would make it extraordinary. She has so far. And then there were some things she said, like that, which are unordinary. Nobody will have the patience to handle her like him. Sometimes, he wonders how he does it.

"And now I will never go there with you," Cinder says jokingly, lightly pinching his inner thigh just to get a rise out of him. He jumps up feeling a little freaked out.

Cinder waits for Kai to respond but he still seems a bit disturbed by the fact that she has pregnancy tests in her bag to do anything let alone say something.

Cinder clears her throat. "To be honest, if our parents were still around and we did accidentally get pregnant, I think your dad will be as stunned and confused as you are now and our moms will be shook to the stars."

Kai is still busy processing the pregnancy tests to be thinking about this new headcanon. He can't blame himself for wondering why she had those if they never even made it that far even to be thinking of using those. He's genuinely confused now.

"And my mom would want our baby's name to mean moon to continue that legacy," Cinder says almost nostalgically. "Names I know were used so far are Jannali, Channary, Levana, and me as Selene."

Kai can finally make eye contact with her and can't understand why her face is as neutral as it would be if she was talking about what she did on the weekend. Why did she look so serious about the moon legacy?

"Kai," Cinder says, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I'm kidding about the pregnancy tests, I swear. They're for someone else. Will you say something?"

Kai exhales a breath he didn't know he was holding. "Forget cock-block, you're a cinder block."

"They build houses with cinder blocks."

Kai huffs a laugh that sounds sarcastic. "Look at us talking about babies and houses already. Thank the stars we don't have to be making big life decisions yet."

Cinder snorts a little when she laughs at that. She appreciates him being sarcastic instead of going ballistic at the touch of the topic she was just poking at. She's happy he isn't as sensitive as others would be.

"Speaking of moon names," Kai continues, "Cress's real name is Crescent Moon."

Cinder thinks about that for a second. A part of her feels as if she already knew that but it just skipped her mind. Did she know Cress's real name before this conversation?

"My mom might love her more than me," Cinder confesses. "I'm more surprised that she didn't name me Luna after the damn country."

Kai laughs a little. "We're not our parents but who are we if not a product of their mistakes and history?"

"You're saying that to the urban myth daughter of a dictator who destroyed her country."

-o-

"Hypothetically speaking," Winter says as she holds the phone to her ear with her shoulder since she's rummaging through her bag before getting ready for her appointment. "If I told you I was pregnant, what would you do?"

Jacin Bae: Ask who the father is.

Winter rolls her eyes as she hears Jacin laughing to himself on the other end. Ever since Scarlet came to her with her possible scare, Winter couldn't help but wonder what would happen if she was in the position. Clearly, Jacin isn't taking it seriously like she is and she can't blame him. When she focuses back on her phone call, she doesn't hear Jacin laughing anymore.

Jacin Bae: Wait, Winter, are you actually-?

Winter jumps a little when she hears her door swing open. She turns around and sees Levana standing there, making her way inside. Winter lowers her phone as she watches Levana get closer to her.

"Are you pregnant?" Levana asks, crossing her arms.

"Aces, no," Winter responds suddenly feeling her cheeks heat up. Jacin's laugh on the phone isn't helping. "I've never even done it." She looks up at Levana with a small smirk. "Why? How would you react?"

Levana takes a breath. "Pray to the stars that it's Jacin's."

Jacin Bae: Same.

-o-

Sometime after, Wolf finds himself walking. He ignores where he's going since his mind is fixated on what happened at Scarlet's. He couldn't believe that there was the chance that he got her pregnant. He tries his hardest to think back to if he used protection or pulled out on time but, spades, he can't remember. How could he have been so careless? He blames Scarlet for being so hot and him for being an impatient idiot who just wanted her. That is all she would be responsible for in this scenario. What would he have done with himself if he had a child on the way?

"Yo! Cannis Lupus!"

Odd enough, Wolf turns around and sees Thorne and Kai in a car pulled up to the side. He jogs over and opens the back door, passing out onto his stomach in misery.

"What the stars did you call me?" Wolf grumbles.

"Your name in Latin," Thorne responds.

Wolf rolls his eyes. He pulls out a pack of cigarettes from his back pocket and lights one and Kai starts driving.

"No smoking in Nainsi," Kai scolds.

"Sorry, Nainsi, but I seriously need it now," Wolf says. He doesn't even comment on why Kai's car has a name because there were more boggling things in his mind. "Just open a window."

"What happened with Scarlet?"

"She thought she was pregnant."

Wolf expected Thorne and Kai to sympathize with him and nod their heads, but their stunned faces don't even come close to relating with him. They're speechless. Wolf is more surprised he made Thorne speechless. And to think that he asked that so casually. (At least to Kai, he now knows why Cinder had the pregnancy tests and who they were really for.)

"You guys haven't had that problem?" Wolf asks just to make sure he's on the same page as them. "Really? Kai, you haven't explored Cinder's engine or Thorne, you haven't seen Cress's moon?"

Again, the two boys are silent.

"Cinder's too mechanically inclined," Thorne says on behalf of Kai.

"Cress's head is in the stars," Kai says on behalf of Thorne.

Wolf groans, exhaling some smoke and then doing Nainsi a favour and cracking open one of the back windows so neither Kai nor Thorne (nor even Nainsi) die of second-hand smoke. He shifts positions and is now lying on his back in the entire back seat, but since he's tall, his knees are slightly bent upwards.

"Too bad…" Thorne mutters, turning over a little to look at Wolf. "I would've loved a godchild."

"Who says you would've been the godfather?" Wolf asks.

"I thought it was obvious."

"More like you're oblivious."

"I appreciate the honour."

Wolf smirks. He likes to return his favours to Thorne by teasing him mercilessly. Because friendship. That's it.

"You're very calm about all that," Kai says to him.

"I had to keep my spaces together so she wouldn't freak out!" Wolf looks over to them. "Guys, I have never been more scared in my entire life and I've seen some stars."

[Of course, it would be negative. If there's one thing I can't stand, it's teen pregnancy clichés in stories … (ignore the hypocrisy)]