♡ ▬▬▬ 𝐀𝐏𝐇𝐑𝐎𝐃𝐈𝐓𝐄,
ざ 🌸🌿ˎˊ- ━━━ 𝘃𝗶.
╱ ❝ 𝙰 𝙻𝙴𝚂𝚂𝙾𝙽 𝙸𝙽 𝙴𝙽𝙲𝙷𝙰𝙽𝚃𝙼𝙴𝙽𝚃 . . .
𝓡IVEN PRESSED his lips against the vape, retrieved from Dowling's office, he blew puffs of smoke into the room, making circular vapour-filled clouds. Sky hadn't gotten back yet so Beatrix was keeping him company, she was busy sticking her nose in another book. He didn't really get the appeal and, going against the childhood lesson ━ the cover was black and tattered so it looked uninteresting.
He was mid-conversation on his phone when he let out a chuckle, lowering his arm so Beatrix could see. She looked briefly, staying glued to the pages she was reading. "Homophobic gay-bashing by GIF? Truly, you've reached your peak clever."
"Okay, one, I don't think he's full gay. Probably mostly but, two, I don't care. Just 'cause he's gay doesn't mean he has to be lame."
"So you're gonna help him by making him feel bad about himself? A well-intentioned bully?"
"That's the plan. Why? Is that a...confusing archetype for you?" They laughed lightly, looking at each other. Beatrix's teasing eyes lingered for a moment before taking the vape off of him.
The door opened, and Sky walked in, Hyacinth followed behind him. He'd only needed to pick a few things for her help.
"Hello," Sky said as he walked in. He'd almost forgotten that he shared a room, not that they were going to do anything that required privacy.
It crossed his mind that he probably should've warned Hyacinth about Riven before they arrived but it was too late now and there was an unsettling feeling in his stomach when Riven shot a distasteful look in their direction.
Sky noticed that another girl was in the room. He hadn't seen her before but judging from how Riven worked, she was probably his latest dalliance.
"Oh, shit, sorry," Beatrix offered them the vape.
"No ━ thank you."
"Sure," Hyacinth nodded. She walked across the room, crouching down to take the vape off of Beatrix.
Hyacinth inhaled deeply before exhaling a large amount of smoke in Beatrix's face, chuckling softly as she watched the girl try to breathe in her secondhand smoke.
Sky grabbed his notebooks, sorting them off the table, he tried fanning most of the smoke away. "Daytime, Riv? Not smart. If Silva catches her up here━"
"Beatrix. Not her." The redhead clarified, "Beatrix."
"What's she doing here, then?" Riven continued to laboriously stare down Hyacinth.
"We're not staying here."
"Uh, Silva left...I kinda snooped to make sure. Something about meeting up with a military detachment from Solaria. Ask your girlfriend." Riven looked at Hyacinth, who looked perplexed. "Stella."
Hyacinth nodded, remembering her too clearly. The two Specialists smiled at each other, knowingly.
"You're dating the princess?━ shit!" Beatrix chuckled, "is it weird having sex with someone who looks just like you, or is that kind of the point?"
Riven chuckled, looking at Sky who didn't seem to take an interest in their banter. Sky frowned, moving on, "If the Solarians are coming..."
"Then the rumours must be true," Riven added. "They've captured a Burned One. The Solarian prison is no joke ━ I guess they're gonna transfer it. You see, the upshot is..." He brought his lips close to Beatrix's face, whispering, "we've got nowhere to be."
Riven planted a kiss on her neck, he looked up at Hyacinth with a smirk ━ raising his eyebrows at her. Beatrix picked herself up from the floor. "Speak for yourself. I'm gonna head to the library."
Sky shot a look at Riven, harshly whispering, "I don't have time to tell you all the reasons why that is a bad idea."
"Yeah, yeah," Riven sighed, flopping back onto the bed.
"C'mon," Hyacinth smiled at Sky. "Let's just get to it."
"Get to it?" Riven smiled widely. "You two are busy."
"God, no...but of course, that's what you would think." She rolled her eyes, took another puff of the vape and blew it into Riven's face this time. He didn't say anything or even move. He just looked at her with a smirk, raising an eyebrow.
Sky walked across the room to open the window, letting out some of the smoke. "Please tell me you didn't steal that thing back from Dowling."
"Does it really matter?" Riven shot a look at Hyacinth. "It's not like anyone was watching me go in there or anything."
Sky pulled out his a typed a quick text to send to Stella: Burned One being taken to the Capitol. Move along with the plan ASAP!!
"Yeah," Hyacinth sighed. "Not like you shouldn't be more careful about where you...steal. Especially if the tools you're using are..." She looked him in the eyes with a smug smirk that made his everlasting- simper drop for a moment. "Small."
"I'm pretty sure you were just jealous you weren't in the toolbox." Riven jumped up to his feet and walked over to her. He brought his face closer to hers, sneering. "You see, some people don't want tools that are rusty, expired and probably..." He looked her up and down, an exaggerated look of curiosity on his face. "Used."
In response, to what was so obviously an insult, Hyacinth laughed. She responded with an almost tongue-in-cheek nature, "Just be careful, Riven."
He just stared into her eyes, placing his vape in between his lips. He puffed a line of smoke into her face just to get a reaction out of her. Understandably, she simply stood and smiled, raising an eyebrow.
"I will," Riven replied before picking his leather jacket up from the bed. "See you."
Sky folded his arms, "That wasn't all about tools, was it?"
❀
𝓢KY CROSSED his brows, he clutched the back of his neck, scratching. His eyes squinted and his cheeks flushed pink once he noticed, "Wait, so, this is all wrong?"
"No, not all of it," Hyacinth chuckled, she leant over, taking the pen from him, "theoretically, you can't create this type of digital life form without these specific tools." She pointed to the textbook lying on the table, where diagrams were shown.
Sky put his head in his hands, he watched her scribble over the paper in confusion. He ran his hand through his hair, pushing back the glossy blonde tufts on his forehead. He looked at Hyacinth, who was locked in focus on the notebook ━ scribing multiple equations for him.
He wasn't ashamed that he was watching her rather than focusing on the work she was basically doing for him at this point. The bun she'd tied to keep her hair out of her face was lopsided, floppy and black strands kept falling into her eyes.
He let out a deep-throated chuckle seeing her push her hair away every two minutes. The younger girl was none the wiser, continuing to be adorably oblivious as she bit on the edge of his pen, her chocolate orbs scanning the pages.
"Sky, I think this...oh━" He was pulling her hair back for her. She felt the tingle of her skin, he touched her hair delicately, gently pulling the loose strands away from her eyes.
"Sorry, I was just helping."
"Thank you," she cleared her throat, "I've, um, written the basic equation down for you. Hopefully, it makes a lot more sense now."
"Yes ━ thank you, it does," Sky took the pen she handed to him, smiling, "how is it that a first-year knows more about Advanced Robotics than I do?"
"Please, you're good at everything else. And it's not all me, really," Hyacinth tapped the book she was referring to, filled with post-it notes. "I have a friend who's basically a human-robot."
"Misty? I've heard she's really good, getting all the top grades for everything. It's very impressive. She's putting all the teachers through the wringer ━ Silva included."
"Yep, that's her. I'm surprised she got through to Silva. I thought that man was unbreakable," she paused for a moment, stacking books on top of books, she moved towards his bed, making herself comfortable on the fabric. She tapped on the space next to her.
He got the message and sat next to her. "Silva's tough but definitely not unbreakable. I'm worried about him."
"I'm sorry...you must be so scared," she grabbed his hand without a warning, "I mean, I know he's important to you and he's dealing with one of the scariest monsters I've ever seen ━ t-the realm has ever seen."
He smiled, "You don't have to talk about anything you don't want to, you know? I'm perfectly okay with just sitting here in silence."
"Right," Hyacinth chuckled, "so we can just sit and stare at each other."
He gave her one of his magnetic smiles, "Okay with me as long as it's okay with you...unless you want to take a picture."
"It would last longer."
"As long as I get to take a picture of you."
"That only seems fair."
It was refreshing to talk to someone who was receptive to his playful flirts and reflected them at him with equal good-humoured wit.
Sky brought out his phone, pointing the camera at her face. He burst out laughing when he saw her through the screen, she'd made her eyes pop out of her head and twisted her lips into a creepy smile.
Hyacinth did the same, snapping a picture of him and they both laughed together when he made a sillier face than she did.
As she looked into his eyes, she felt the lost feeling coming over her again. This time it felt like she could feel his whole soul ━ kind, honest but fractured. However, once again, the feeling was magnified.
"You're the first person I've really able to talk to like this in a long time." Sky had his hands close beside her, inches away from touching her thigh.
She looked from where his hand was to his face. "Me too."
"Here." He used his other hand to give her his phone. "You should take my number." Sky took her phone from where she'd dropped it on the bed.
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" She didn't say anything else but he knew what she was talking about. He showed her phone, nudging her to put in the passcode.
"It's 220605," she told him. He smiled ━ aware of the trust she had effortlessly given him. He gave her his phone, which he unlocked for her.
She clicked on his contacts and scrolled past the phone numbers he had saved. Bloom was a name she recognized and was near the top of the list. Scrolling down further there was...Riven...and Stella. She typed her phone number into his phone and called it Hyacinth.
He scrolled through her phone and let curiosity get the best of him too. Looking through, there were a lot more phone numbers than he had. Part of him was curious to see how many guy's phone numbers were on there ━ not much. He read through the list, briefly reading names: Dane, Misty, Hunter, Jacqueline, Glasses. No Riven.
They showed each other their screens after they were done.
The two burst out laughing. Hyacinth almost choked and Sky keeled over. They had both used their silly pictures for each other contact photo.
"Oh...my...god," Sky spoke between laughs.
The light clamour noise outside made Hyacinth stop laughing first. She was going to dismiss it as nothing before she heard more ruffling of feet and the loud exclamation of someone's voice moving down the hall, asking, "Is it another Burned One?"
"Shit." Sky jumped up from the bed, he lead the way out of the room. Stella was approaching him, a frightful look on her face. "What the hell happened?"
"I tried to get my ring but that thing got loose."
"What? How is..." Part of him recognised how he should take her into consideration ━ it's what people who care about each other are supposed to do. "How are you?"
"I got lost..." Stella started breathing heavily. "And when my magic wouldn't work..."
It made Hyacinth look at Stella differently seeing that she actually had feelings. In a way, it was somewhat reassuring to see that she had palpable emotions and she felt her heart offer a piece of sympathy to the girl. Not saying anything, she watched her without the feeling of total distaste towards her.
"Hey, hey, hey..." Sky spoke in a reassuring tone, holding her arms with his hands. "I'm...I'm sorry. You're back now. Tell me everything that happened."
"Sky!" Hyacinth interrupted, looking down from the balcony. "Sky ━ I think that's Silva."
Sky rushed past her immediately, running to the stairs quickly.
Hyacinth stood in front of Stella, they simply looked at each other. The blonde's eyes narrowed, her lips pursed, her eyebrows began to furrow but she refrain from saying anything and they both followed Sky in the same direction.
"I need a med-kit from The Bastion!" A girl, holding onto the Specialist head, shouted as she walked through.
"I'll get the headmistress," Beatrix came from corridors, pulled into the crowd with everyone else.
Misty and Carmen were amongst those in the crowd and they came towards her, weaving their way through the flock.
Misty watched Beatrix run down the hall, twirling a strand of her hair around her fingers. She leaned towards Hyacinth, "What do you think?"
"I don't know what to think." Hyacinth's heart was beating loudly in her chest, ringing through her ears.
"You want to know what I think?" Carmen fiddled with her spectacles, crouching down to put both her arm around each of her friends. She answered the question, grinning, "Less homework!"