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me: I don't have favorites
also me: *furiously shoves stickers of jack toby hoodie and habit back into wallet* why would you even think that smh
Also more Luca content bc I love my child <3
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The adult in front of you sighed and took off their glasses to rub in between their eyes. You looked down at your blood covered knuckles and peeled at the dead skin around your nails.
"Do you have an excuse for what you did this time, Ms. Mycroft?"
The little kid who's legs were too small to reach the ground from the chair, you, shrugged. "Not like you'd listen to what I had to say."
Their brows creased and their lips strained. "[Y/n], please."
You glanced up at them.
"He deserved it."
"You broke his nose."
"I did warn him." You responded blankly.
They ran their fingers through their black slick-backed hair and leaned forward on their desk to narrow their eyes. They didn't look mad, more concerned and irritated.
"What exactly caused you to have such a reaction?"
You fidgeted.
"It doesn't matter, I'm still gunna get in trouble."
Their nose wrinkled.
You just stared at them.
"Maybe, maybe not. But to me it matters, okay? If you feel like you're being threatened to the point you feel like you need to resort to violence, we need to know."
You glanced towards the side at the faint figure standing beside you. The small figure hugged your arm worriedly. They were frowning. The counselor didn't spare a glance at them, almost like they couldn't see the figure.
"I'm worried about you [Y/n]."
Looking back over at them you're gaze stayed dull.
"He was being annoying."
They perked up a bit at the progress.
"How so?"
"He was scaring my friend and wouldn't leave me alone."
They paused and looked down at the papers on their desk and looked back up with a brow raised.
"Someone else was with you?"
The figure squeezed your arm. You ignored it.
"Yes."
"What...what was Jon doing to scare them?"
"He was being mean. He called me a freak and said they weren't real. He was threatening us."
The counselor's brows furrowed, "...Jon saying they weren't real scared your friend?"
You shook your head, strays of hair moving with the slow motion.
"They were scared he was going to hurt me."
You looked back to the side to see the figure covering their face in your arm, small whispery whimpers escaped the translucent figure.
"So I hurt him to show them we'd be safe."
They paused. They leaned back in their chair and turned to their computer typing something in.
"What's your friend's name?" They asked without looking away from the screen.
"Jasper."
"Last name?"
You turned to the figure beside you. Their hollow eyes looked nervous as they subconsciously scratched at their head which was splattered with dried blood. They hesitated before moving closer and whispering something to you.
"Emmons." You parroted.
The counselor stopped.
They turned back to you with narrowed eyes. This time they looked a little frustrated and bewildered.
"Young lady," they hissed, "It is not nice to speak ill of the dead."
Your expression didn't change.
"I'm not."
They pinched the bridge of their nose.
"Where did you get this idea? Did you see the old memorial in the hallway and think it would be funny to use his name to get you out of trouble?"
You didn't know what a memorial was. You guessed they meant that little place in the hallway with the picture of Jasper on it.
"No." You again replied flatly, "I'm telling you the truth."
The child clutching your arm glared at the counselor, their lip quivering.
"You're upsetting Jasper, sir."
"Get out of my office." They scowled, "Your parents have been notified to come get you early."
You shrugged yourself off the plastic chair, taking your friend's hand and leaving the room.
"Did I get you in trouble...?" His whispery overlapped voice questioned.
You shook your head.
"These people are stupid." He frowned when you said the 's-word'. You sat on one of the outside office chairs, he crawled up to be beside you.
"What about your parents..."
You shrugged again.
"Mama won't be mad."
"And your dad...?"
Looking down at the blood that had dried long ago on your knuckles you hummed.
"Who cares?"
You leaned on the window of the car watching with boredom as the trees zipped by. Jasper had to stay back, he wasn't allowed to leave the "preschool" or whatever the place was. Something about a boundary.
"This whole thing with the imaginary friends needs to stop, Ruth. She's beating up kids now for gods sake! I didn't say anything when she started talking and playing by herself, but this is getting out of hand."
The man's knuckles turned white on the steering wheel, "You can't keep making excuses for her."
She didn't appear to be listening to him, instead she looked over her seat at you and smiled.
She put out her hand, to which you automatically took. Rubbing her thumb over your still dirtied knuckles she hummed lightly and turned towards the other, "I'm not making excuses George."
"That kid, Jon was it?" You nodded when she glanced at you.
"Had been bullying our child for god knows how long, and since no one decided to help she stood up for herself. Nothing wrong with that."
"She broke his nose, Ruth."
"The little bastard had it coming." Your mother's voice was sweet and held a bit of a joking tone. She looked back over at you and winked. You grinned. She was always on your side.
Hitting the side of the wheel, George huffed angrily.
"You think it's okay that she hit this kid over her imaginary friends? This is getting out of hand! She's getting too old for those things!"
Ruth sighed, "They aren't imaginary George. I've told you this."
He muttered something about voodoo and witches. Your mother's gaze narrowed at him, like she was irritated.
Using her free hand she massaged under her eyes, "Besides I thought you didn't care what our child got up to, hm?"
His gaze stayed steeled on the road.
"I don't until it puts our family's reputation on the line."
She squeezed your hand and looked forward towards the road.
It was quiet.
"We'll talk about this at home."
She muttered in a hushed tone.
Leaving your parents in the main room you took your backpack and fled to the backyard. Walking up to the fence you dropped your backpack and lifted your one hand up.
"Fix this."
The creature turned its head at you. It gave off a patient yet stubborn vibe. You frowned and rolled your eyes.
"Please."
That satisfied it. The creature took the handkerchief in it's suit pocket and carefully took your hand. It's grip didn't feel like anything. Using the handkerchief it wiped the blood from your knuckles.
Once it was done you dropped your hand and nodded. Despite not having eyes it seemed to be "staring" at you intently, waiting. Again your nose wrinkled before you muttered an annoyed "Thank you".
The intense vibe around it dissipated a bit and it pat your head. You glared at it until it stopped. Flopping down on the grass you yanked your backpack over to you more. Taking out some paper and a dull pencil you simply began to scribble.
Laying on your back you held the paper above your face. Placing it down beside you, you squinted at the blue cloudless sky.
Sighing, you shifted in the grass and rolled over.
You fell out of bed.
Legs still caught in the mess of blankets that lay half strewn over you and your bed, you groaned loudly. To make matters worse your alarm then started blaring. You just whined louder.
Sluggishly you got up (not before tripping over the blanket several times) and smacked your phone to stop the alarm. Funnily enough your alarm was just the sound of the streamer—youtuber Schlatt doing his demonic laugh. It helped motivate you to get up since it was loud and also because if you didn't get up it would feel as if he was laughing at you for being lazy.
You loved being productive.
Note the sarcasm.
Guess you'd have to go to class soon.
Curses.
Dragging yourself to your closet your head buzzed as your dream dulled. You couldn't remember what it was about. You had the vague feeling of familiarity and swore your mother was there, but otherwise everything was fuzzy. Almost like your mind was refusing to remember it. Weird.
Pulling a shirt off its hanger you hummed. You had work after class, lovely. At least Lizzie would be there. Speaking of which, Lizzie had dropped off your beloved pets in the afternoon yesterday. Eyeing the side you could see your toad hiding under her little log in her tank. Freddy was in his tank bathing under the heat lamp installed in his cage.
Tugging your shirt off to switch it for the clean one a sigh left your lips as your shoulders cracked. God you were stiff, curse your weird sleeping positions.
Moving towards your dresser you dug around for pants and looked up at the framed photo of Luca you had. You smiled.
You wondered how he was right now?
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Putting his boots on the small brunette hummed quietly. The Belgian sheepdog nudged his head against the boy, who giggled and pushed the dog away softly.
Standing back up and hoisting the heavy backpack over his shoulders, Luca pat Luigi's head once. The dog's tail wagged before it sat at the door, in some way he seemed to be seeing Luca out.
"Be good for them, alright?"
Luigi's head tilted.
"Hehe, yeah."
With that, Luca kissed the dog's head before leaving the house. He shut the door behind him. Neither of his two parents ever locked the door so it didn't matter if it didn't fully close or not, but still Luca felt better knowing if the door was closed so Luigi wouldn't get hurt.
Jumping down the broken stairs on the porch the young teen began his journey to school. Avoiding the cracks in the sidewalk Luca nuzzled into his scarf. It was very cold out, but that didn't bother him too much. It wasn't the first time he walked, in fact he usually did walk. Even in the coldest weather. You weren't aware of this however, and Luca didn't plan on telling you anytime soon either.
The boy wasn't stupid nor was he blind. He had been your step-sibling long enough to realize how much stress you were under constantly. Even if you did hide it. He didn't want to burden you anymore. Asking for more than what he already had would be selfish, wouldn't it?
A low growl cut him off from his thoughts. It was quiet, quiet enough for most people not to hear. Luca however was not like most people.
Stopping in his tracks, Luca clutched the straps of his bag and warily looked around. Nothing out of the ordinary. It was quiet and cloudy. No one was out on their lawns either. (Sometimes Luca wondered if people actually lived in his neighborhood seeing as it was so quiet and looked so run down or abandoned.)
Hesitantly, he continued walking, this time without a little hop in his step. The hairs on the back of his neck stood and he stayed alert.
There it was again.
This time Luca froze up and whipped his head around trying to find the source of the sound. His eyes fixated on a small figure leaning out from behind a house. The creature's ears were pointed backwards and it was staring intently at him.
A cold dread fell over the boy and his hands began to fidget nervously. It didn't look friendly. It looked like a dog.
Swallowing thickly, Luca crouched down slightly to seem like less of a threat. Hesitantly he held his shaking palm out.
The canine's head tilted upwards like it was sniffing the air. Suddenly the dog's ears sprung back up and it's hostile posture changed drastically. Happily it walked out from behind the house with it's tail wagging.
The young teen jumped at the sudden change and froze again when the dog finally reached him. The husky sniffed his hand before rubbing it's head into Luca's side.
A wide smile overtook his features as he rubbed the dog's face.
"Hi there!"
The dog pressed it's snout against Luca's nose, causing the boy to giggle.
"You're not so scary...do you live in this house?"
The dog tilted its head from side to side and made a confused whimper sound. Luca hummed, "I guess not then."
Inspecting the husky's fur the brunette puffed out his cheeks, "Well you don't seem to have a collar either."
Making an exaggerated humming sound, Luca tapped his chin before gasping.
"Oh, oh! How about you come with me? I have to go to school but maybe we can find your owner on the way there. If not maybe you can come back with me after school."
Scratching behind the dog's ear Luca's brows furrowed and he smiled awkwardly, "Does that sound good?"
The dog smiled.
Luca's eyes widened a fraction before he grinned.
"I didn't know dogs could smile like that." Standing back up he dusted off his pants, "You're a cool doggy." The husky bristled with pride at the compliment.
"I should probably give you a name or something...oh! Oh! What about...Batman!" The childish teen did jazz hands.
The dog tilted it's head, almost like it didn't agree with the name but didn't want to be rude. Luca dropped his hands and pouted, "I guess that's a no."
"Uhm..." He gripped his backpack straps again and rocked on his heels, "Smile? Does that sound good?"
The dog's tail wagged and it barked happily. Grinning Luca tugged at the strings of his jacket, "Heheh cool."
Turning on his heel, Luca dramatically pointed North.
"Well then! Let the adventures of Luca and Smile begin!"
Smile barked and jumped around the boy in a circle.
The pair had been walking for a while. It didn't help that the house was so far away from school. Luca however didn't seem to care, seeing as he left early so he'd be on time. The dog beside him stuck close to his legs and it's head would swivel to the side every now and then. It appeared to be looking for something.
Sometimes the dog would turn and stare off in a certain direction and begin growling. Luca figured it was a squirrel.
They had reached a busy part of town, not a lot of people were out and about but still it was definitely more lively than the neighborhood a few streets back. Luca stopped when Smile's ears perked up.
"Eh? What is it boy?"
Smile sniffed the air before he started jogging off in a certain direction. Luca paused, he wanted to follow the dog but knew he would be in trouble if he was late. He didn't like being in trouble.
Smile seemed to notice the boy wasn't following and stopped before turning back to look at him. He barked once, tail wagging slowly. Fidgeting, Luca glanced back down the sidewalk. Chewing on his lip nervously, he slowly followed the dog, guilt and anxiety crawling up his back.
"We-We can't stay long going wherever, o-okay? I have...I have school."
Smile only grinned reassuringly. Almost like he was aware and was trying to get Luca not to worry. Luca sucked in his cheeks but continued to follow the husky, albeit a bit reluctantly.
After weaving through a few different spaces between stores and sidewalks the dog seemed to find what he was looking for. Stopping, the husky gently bit onto Luca's puffy sleeve and began leading him towards two people.
Once realizing what was happening the naive boy froze, Smile could feel the anxiety radiating off him. Again the dog grinned reassuringly.
Once close enough Smile stopped and dropped Luca's sleeve before barking.
The two men who were sitting at a table, a little outside part of the coffee shop, looked over at the familiar barking. One of them started choking on his drink at the sight of the child with the dog. The other's eyes widened slightly in recognition, before he glanced at the dog with a look that screamed "what did you do".
Covering up the surprise the shorter of the two smiled warmly, "Hey there kiddo. I see our dog has found you."
Luca cautiously took a step back.
Clearing his throat the taller one cut in, "You don't happen to be Luca do you? [Y/n]'s brother?"
He stopped and eyed the man weirdly.
"...You know [Y/n]?"
The first guy cleared his throat and glanced at his friend. He had a weird look on his face.
"Yeah, I'm a friend of hers." The taller one glanced away slightly, unsure if that's what you two were. Friends or polite strangers.
He stuck out a hand, not needing to bend down since he was already sitting, "I'm Brian. This is Tim."
The other waved, "Hey kid."
Luca just stared at his hand before stepping over to the side to put his hand on Smile. The dog nudged his leg. The boy frowned and paled slightly.
"I don't..." he swallowed as his voice got quieter, "I don't do handshakes."
He looked away as his palms grew clammy.
The two adults shared a glance.
Tim nudged Brian before grinning at Luca, "That's fine. I don't do handshakes either."
The comment made Luca give a tiny smile. He liked this guy. He wasn't sure about the taller one, but the shorter one seemed cool. He also had the vibe of a chill dad. Or maybe wine aunt.
"Y'know...Luca, was it?"
He nodded at the man with sideburns.
"It's very cold out, what are you doing out here in that?"
He gestured to the fact that despite Luca's warm clothing it certainly wouldn't be enough. Christ! The boy didn't even have gloves.
Subconsciously Luca began stroking Smile's head, "Oh I uh...'m on my way to school, this-this is just uhm..." He couldn't make eye contact while talking and he shifted on his feet. He stopped talking. What else was he supposed to say?
Brian opened his mouth but was interrupted.
"School huh? Brook, I'm guessing? Well that's still quite a walk from here."
Luca just nodded.
"You don't have anyone walking you there?"
He squirmed and awkwardly looked down at the dog who was staring at him with a tilted head.
"Uhm...sometimes my sister does."
"Where is she? Does she know you're here?"
Shrinking into his scarf the boy shrugged. He felt awkward and maybe guilty.
"She uhm...doesn't know I walk alone."
Tim seemed uncomfortable for some reason. His brows furrowed at the boy and he looked away for a second. Brian glanced at him.
"Well—"
He stopped. Both adults suddenly snapped their heads in a certain direction. They suddenly became alert and fidgety.
Luca saw Tim glance at the dog with a weird expression. He didn't know what it meant, but for some reason the dog seemed to be giving the man a hard serious stare. He didn't know dogs could do that.
Brian spoke after a second, "How about we escort you there?"
Luca blinked.
He was told to stay away from strangers.
But these men knew you.
They knew him apparently.
The dog was safe, and the dog brought him to the men.
Besides...the didn't seem to be dangerous.
Luca still had an off vibe about Brian, but Tim he immediately liked. It was just the vibe he gave off.
His eyes shifted over to Tim who looked nervous. Nonetheless the man smiled gently at him. Smile also nudged the young teen again.
After a moment of thinking he scratched his own cheek, his cheeks flushed red from the cold.
"Okay..."
He looked back up at the two with a stern look, "But just so you know, I know karate so don't t-try anything."
They didn't seem that phased by the threat and simply grinned softly at him.
"Wouldn't dream of it kiddo."
The two stood up, Brian took the empty coffee cups and quickly went to throw them out. After a moment of internally debating with himself, Tim held out his hand. Luca's tense posture immediately changed and he smiled wide. Excitedly he took the man's hand. His own hand being much smaller. With his other hand he still kept his fingers lingering on Smile's fur. The dog barked happily.
Brian came back with his hands stuffed in his pockets.
"Ready?"
"Mm!"
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» "My beautiful S.T.A.R Child." «
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