Ignorance (BEING REWRITTEN. SEE 'THE REVOLT')

Chapter Eight

We walk back along the underpasses together in almost total silence except for the pounding of our feet on the uneven ground and the sound of water running through the cracks in the walls. When we reach the final fork that leads to the hall, Puck stops.

“Some days I’m not sure if I want to go back.” She says, still facing the path. “It would be so much easier to just forget everything I’ve seen and go back to living my normal life with my parents and not have to worry about everyone around me.” I don’t really know what to say so instead I just carry on walking, knowing that she’ll probably follow. She does. “Sorry for being such an emotional idiot today.” She says with a slight laugh as she catches up with me. 

“I can deal with emotional idiots as long as they’re not throwing knives at me which you’ve managed to not do yet so it’s all good.” 

“I’ll make a note to not throw too many knives at you then.” She smiles and I smile back,

“You know, I think this is definitely going to be a brilliant friendship my Dullest Blade.”

“When you call me that just remember that I could throw almost as well as you could.”

“You keep telling yourself that.” She reaches into her left inside pocket of her oversized pocket and pulls something out. The handle is a black metal with words engraved on it in a language I can’t understand. She hands it to me and I close my hands around the hilt, feeling it’s weight in my hand. “Take it.”

“But,” I start to say,

“Just take it Luca.” She shoves her hands into her pockets. “It was a present from Zed a long time ago. I don’t want it anymore.”

“Why not?” I ask, wondering what happened between the two.

“It reminds me of too much stuff that I’d rather not be reminded of.” She pauses, “The words mean ‘patience is the strongest virtue’ by the way, it’s written in some old language.

“Thank you.” I say. “How long is it to HQ from here?”

“About ten minutes.”

“Okay.” We walk side by side, her hands still deep in her pockets, mine hanging by my sides as our legs move in sync. “Can I ask you something?”

“As long as it’s not why I’m such an amazing knife-thrower because I get that one a lot.”

“You and Zed, what happened? Did you guys have, like, a thing?”

“To be honest with you Luca, he’s not my type.”

“Oh, sorry. So are you gay then?”

“I don’t really like people in that way.” She laughs, “I’m more of a ‘be my friend and we can kick some government arse together’ kind of person rather than ‘be my boyfriend and we can kick some government arse together’ kind of person. Either way though, we’re going to kick some government arse.”

“Sounds like a good way to live.”

“It has its perks.”

“So were you and Tomi just friends then?”

“No, we were more than that. But not in a romantic way, it was a completely platonic relationship but he was like a brother I guess.” I nod as I don’t really know what to say. “All the guys at HQ are my family besides, anything other than platonic is kind of… Vulgar." She winces at the thought.

"Vulgar?" I laugh at her, “Do people even use that word anymore? What sort of parents did you have?” I stop. That's the forbidden question. So I carry on quickly to cover my tracks, "Well I get what you mean, I love my family.