When Piper glances at her clock next, it's 2:38pm. She glances back down at her notes, where she'd been converting them into coherent sentences with her favourite Kid Danger pen that they don't make anymore since he 'died'. Of course, Piper has multiple sets of them. She's a social media star, a surfer of the dark web, and a minor with multiple charges for piracy and illegal sales and purchases. Of course she has multiple sets of them.
The thought of Kid Danger's death makes her heart skip a beat, her mind vengefully reminding her of the incident.
No. He couldn't be dead. She wouldn't felt it, felt it inside of her. Just like grandma, just like uncle Jimmy and auntie Mary.
However, she did feel something else. It was strong, the same form of logical persuasion that had gripped everyone else on that mountain side.
There was no way her brother could've survived that blimp crash.
She shook it off, subconsciously gripping her pen with a burning passion. It was a miracle the plastic hadn't cracked yet.
There were signs to show it, too. Piper hated evidence against her.
His footless boot, the burnt half of his mask that had blown to her feet in the wind. The fire, the radio silence.
There was no way her brother could've survived that blimp crash.
No, he was and still is alive. She needs to get over that memory, as pointless and futile as it is. It had no impact. No purpose. Pointless and a waste of time on her part. Piper tore her mind from the memory, eyes darting around her dorm room for any form of distraction. She would even take her unnecessarily loud roommates as a distraction right now.
Alas, she found nothing but her phone. She picked it up, immediately swiping down her millions of contacts until finding her brother. Without any regard for what he could be doing or the time in Dystopia, she face-timed him.
It rung a couple times before he answered, and something in her settled at seeing him alive. Of course, she already knew that.
"Hey Pipes… wassup?" He slurs quietly, clearly having being woken up by her call. She could of found that without the slur of his words, especially with the state of his hair and the dark circles under his eyes. Idiot.
Piper finds herself a little lost, because she doesn't really know why she called him. Just some form of strange autopilot she'd adapted to around age 4. Like the times she'd demand he let her sleep in his bed with him after a nightmare, because dad snores and mom sprawls and he doesn't do either. Or when after she'd found out his identity, and find out about a particularly dangerous mission and demand he tell her everything and let her berate and lecture him until the bubbling rage in her gut died down.
She doesn't get to do that anymore. Not now when he's on the other side of the world. Not in Dystopia.
Not that she'd ever admit it, but she might be missing her brother.
"I… just wanted to talk, I guess. Can I?" She asks a little carefully, moving to lock her door cautiously.
"Mhm." Henry hums tiredly, and she's suddenly greeted by obnoxiously loud shuffling sounds that are probably a hell of a world lot quieter on the other end. Her suspicions of waking him up in the middle of the night are confirmed. She finds herself not caring.
The movement of the camera suddenly stops, and she's met with her brother sat at a table looking at her.
"What y'wan talk about?" Henry asks, pulling some papers and a pen from somewhere she can't see. He looks at them and quietly sighs in a dejected manner, propping his head up in his hands before looking back up at her.
"Oh, it's kinda…touchy-feely…" she mutters a little defeatedly, looking down at the cute little eggs and bacon design on her socks. Her stomach growls quietly, and she's quick to silently wish upon everything in the universe for the ground of swallow her whole.
"Tha's fine. Don' mind." He scribbles something down of the paper, frowning when his pen scratches.
Piper moves to lean comfortably back on her chair, reaching for the hair tie to tie it back. She ends up with the smallest ponytail she's ever seen.
"Florida's nice… It's warm, sunny and it's got some really cool cafés and malls everywhere you look."
"Quit bragging, Pipes. You sound like a door-to-door salesman." His heart isn't in it, just a little joke to try and egg her on. She ignores it.
"That's not my point. My point is, it's just…not like SwellView. There's no villains or twisted rules and legal workers. No heroes or cool events like puzzles and puppies week. It's… different." She admits, intertwining her fingers absentmindedly as she tries to explain her point.
Before her brother can reassure her, she adds to the pile. "And I know it seems selfish and pathetic, but I miss it. I wasn't working with you guys for long, but I miss it. And it's never going to come back-" she cuts herself off with a sob, one that she didn't expect.
Why was she so worked up about all of this?
"Pipes-"
"No! Stop it! Stop it Henry! Don't say it's gonna be okay, or that I'll figure it out, because that's different, too! Nothing's going to be that easy to figure out, so stop it!" She's sobbing and sniffling miserably by the time she's done, prepared to jump into the floorboards if they won't swallow her willingly.
"You always do that, don't you? You said the exact same thing after you literally died for seven stupid minutes-"she spits, sniffling a little longer.
Piper doesn't know what her point is with this, but she's arguing against words that were never spoken. She's arguing against her own thoughts and mind to someone who shares none other except genes and blood. How stupid.
She's crying over it too, pretending she has the right to be upset about something that never even happened. Something that was never even said, or even thought of. Something she's making up for her own self's sake. How stupid.
There's silence from both ends as she pulls her composure back together, finally building the confidence to look back at her phone screen.
His eye are wet as he scrubs at them with the back of his worn, grey sleeve. He looks away from her, something she'd learned both of them do when they cry. He sniffs a little before looking determinedly down back at his papers.
"I'm sorry."
Oh. She hadn't meant it like that, she hadn't meant to get on at him because it wasn't his fault. None of it was. Even though his decision was terrifying, to say the least, he did make the best one. Those kids needed Captain Man, not Kid Danger. He'd needed to leave SwellView anyway, if only for his own sake, and was already too selfless in the long-run.
Yet she'd just blamed him anyway, out of irrationality. Out of stupidity. Even with Piper being known for her temper for most of her life, she'd placed her anger with reason and at least some form of logic. It was like the universe was against her, or more specifically, her voice was against her. Her mind against her subconscious.
"No- I didn't mean-"
"I'm sorry, Pipes. I'm sorry. I'm an idiot, I was an idiot- and I still am, but I'm sorry-"
"Stop it! I'm sorry. It's not your fault." She backpedals, furrowing her eyebrows in slight agitation. Apologies suck.
"Pipes, you don't understand, the things I did-"
"Aren't your fault. Stop." She demands, daring to meet his eyes through the screen. For once, she finds herself feeling sorry for him. On the other hand, she's sort of interested to find out what it is her dumb brother did that got him so worked up.
The silence that ensues for a couple minutes is thick, despite it being in the confines of phone connection.
"Guess we miss SwellView, huh." Henry asks wetly, yet it seems a little more like a statement that an inquiry.
She hums in agreement, looking towards her locked door out of boredom. Forget college, that should be your bedroom door. With an irritated sigh, she screws that thought back into it's jar and nails the lid in place for what seems that the 19th time this month.
"Seriously though Piper, we're all missing home right now. But… we're just gonna have to wait it out. Wait for the right time. Carry on with what our heart says until its really over , then we can go home." It sounds more like he's trying to persuade himself, then he blows his breath out in a small chuckle. "That was so sappy…"
"Yeah, it was. But… home is where the heart is, isn't it? That's what mom used to say." Piper reminds her brother airily, a faint smirk spreading across her face at the memory.
"Mhm, there anything else you wanna say?" He asks thoughtfully, returning to his chicken scratch handwriting on the papers.
"No, but… I wanna just talk. Normally. If that's okay with you."
"Since when did you become so goddamn insightful?" He asks sarcastically, looking back up at her with that stupid smug smirk on his face. "But sure, three-am paperwork doesn't sound all too bad."
"Oof, that sucks. What's it for?" She interrogates casually, propping her chin under her knuckle. When she'd became rational enough to not want to burn her brother alive whenever she had to say a single word to him, she'll never know.
"In the airport, one of their scanners got a trace of the mutated DNA somehow, the one that makes my forcefield and the one one that encouraged part of my old hyper-motility. Now I have to sign a bunch of contracts so they don't put me in a science lab." He explains vaguely, muttering his words as he reads a particularly long paragraph.
"Wow, must be some advanced machines." She concludes, picking off a piece of flaking wood from the edge of her desk.
"They are, some are on Schwoz-type level. Wait- did Charlotte tell you about her whole cyborg thing?"
"Yeah, actually. It's pretty cool."
"Yeah…" he agrees half-heartedly, pausing on a few sentences near the bottom. He fumbles through the other papers determinedly, a look of frantic concern plastered across his face. "Piper, I'm sorry but… I've gotta go. Call you soon?"
"Oh! Uh… okay, I guess. Bye." The call ends as soon as the word 'bye' leaves her lips, and she's a little disappointed. And curious. And a little frustrated he had to blow her off as quick as he did. She wants to tell someone about how she feels, because that's supposed to be healthy, or whatever, but the only person she truly trusts to tell nobody is her brother.
And he just simply can't do that right now.
She wants to tell him.
But she can't do that anymore. Not now when he's on the other side of the world. Not in Dystopia.
I know it seems rushed towards the end, sorry about that.