Long Time Coming

Chapter One

Griffin Luck had been practicing his card tricks when it happened. He'd been sitting there, one leg resting over the other so his ankles touched, in the middle of a waterfall cascade when a girl ran up, dropped a walkie talkie in his hand, and then left. Griffin watched her go to the far side of the pavilion, and then watched her scale a tree, the leaves rustling where she clearly took roost. Griffin finished the cascade one more time before putting the deck of cards, which he weaponized in a few creative ways, into the pocket of his pinstripe waistcoat, and picked up the device. It wasn't even a scroll. It was a flat out, old-school, battery powered, yellow-and-black walkie talkie that had been placed in his lap. From what Griffin had seen, she had lightly tanned skin, dusky rose hair, most of which was covered up by a black beanie. She had a black scarf resting around her neck and shoulders, and it was just large enough to cover up a part of her red-and-white hoodie. And just as she vanished into the tree, he could have sworn he saw her wearing blue track pants.

Then, the walkie crackled to life.

"Eagle One to Eagle Two, Come in Eagle Two, over" Her voice came through the device, some slight static distorting it as she spoke.

"...Hi? And Eagle Two is...?" Griffin held the walkie talkie up his mouth in one hand, the other brushing the one red lock of hair he had out of his eyes, the rest being an untameable mane of messy white hair that was just long enough to reach the base of his neck. The red lock had come from an incentive his team had to dye one lock of their hair different colours. All in all, there was Red, Green, Black, and Gold between the four of them, and everyone seemed happy with the colour choice they had made

"Yes. And Eagle Two, you need to say "over" when you end transmission, over." She answered, a few leaves rustling on the tree she was most likely perched in. Griffin set down the walkie talkie for a moment to roll up the sleeves of his green button-up shirt to just past the elbows before picking it up again to answer.

"Got it, Eagle One...over." He said, moving it away from his ear before the squeak of static blasted into his ear, waiting for the girl to reply. In comparison to the sort of stuff that happened at Shade Academy, this was something close to normal. Not exactly normal, but it was pretty tame when compared to last week's prank. Said prank involved six cats, one pair of flame proof pants, and a piano filled with sausages. Thankfully it had gone off without a hitch, or someone could have been smeared on the deck beside the pool.

"I like you Eagle Two. Over." After a few minutes, her voice crackled out of the walkie talkie, so quiet that he almost didn't hear it when she said it. Griffin, of course, was surprised and looked at the walkie talkie in disbelief, blinking his dark green eyes a few times.

"As in "like", like, Eagle One? Over." Griffin spoke slowly and calmly into the device. Okay. This was a new development. Not a bad development, mind you, considering Griffin was single. Just...new.

"Affirmative Eagle Two. Over." She replied, leading to a long silence between the two, the only sound coming from the static that the left-on walkie talkies made. Griffin had to full out sit back down on the edge of the fountain, running a hand through his hair and letting off a deep breath. He just needed a minute to let it all sink in and think.

"Eagle Two, please respond, this is really embarrassing, over." Her voice finally came through the walkie talkie again, spurring Griffin into saying the first thing that came to his mind.

"Eagle One, would you like to get dinner sometime? Over?" After that, the static intensified, and Griffin could have sworn the girl had to make an effort to keep herself from falling out of the tree. And the evidence of that came from the fact that he saw the lower half of her body emerge from the leaves before she pulled herself back up.