Four Years Later
December 31, 2071
"A12, please, don't. If you use your wish for this... you'll fall into a terrible place. You'll be hated!" I grabbed A12's arm, determined not to let him go. He simply looked back at me with a little smile.
"F, I told you all about what happened to me. I can't stay where I am without the guilt. He... He should've been the one to rank up, but he died. I can't feed off his achievements any longer." A12 yanked away from my arm, yet didn't walk forward. "Hey, F7?" I looked up at the taller boy.
"Yes?"
"We're friends, right?" At A12's comment, I dashed in front of him and grabbed his shoulders. His eyes were watering as he fought back tears.
"Yeah. We're friends." I smiled sympathetically and released the copper haired boy. He smiled back a little and walked away from me, towards the stand of elders. "We're friends." I reassured myself as I walked up to the stairs and back to my seat to watch from.
"A12, you have been an outstanding soldier and leader since day one," the wish granter fawned. He continued to talk about achievements and whatnot but I wasn't paying attention. All that I could think of was how strange it would be in section 5 without A12 keeping me from being rash. How strangely empty the bunks would be without A12 there making a ruckus. How weird it would be to wake up to an alarm rather than A12 poking me after having snuck into the girls bunks at 3 AM. It would be so awkward. So different. How would I apologize to C9 for failing at keeping her friend from leaving. Before I could figure it out, I was awoken from my thoughts by people whispering around me. I could hear them fighting over something in harsh whispers. What were they saying?
"Who's he looking at?"
"It's not me!"
"Who said it's not you!?"
"Quickly, who is it?"
I looked up from my hands and engaged in reality once again. It was A12. He had stopped the wish granter mid speech by turning his whole body away from the man and looking directly into the crowd behind him. Directly at me.
"Wish granter," A12 turned back to the wish granter a half smile slithering onto his face. "I appreciate your compliments but I already know what I am doing to my wish. By the thirty-first proclamation of wish granting rules, I wish to give my wish to F7, the informant of Section 5." Immediately, the crowd burst into a ruckus.
"An F informative? Not possible."
"There's no way he should be able to do that."
"Someone check if he can do that?!"
"He can! The thirty-first proclamation states that wishes can be wished to be given to people of different lettering or standing."
"Quiet!" the wish granter shouted. A silence fell upon the room. I could feel my heartbeat increase. He was giving it to me? Did he have something I was supposed to do with it? Why would he give it to me and not C9? "How do you correlate with this individual. You do know that by the sixty-seventh proclamation the person receiving the wish must have ties to the one giving them the wish." The crowd fell into deep thought with the wish giver's words. A12 stood in the center of the silence, not saying a word. The air seemed to be sucked from the room as the people held their breath in anticipation.
"She..." A12 looked down as if ashamed to say his next words. "She has been my fiancé since the week after she was born." At this an uproar overtook the voices of all. It bounded off the walls and the booming voice of the wish giver came out as a whisper in comparison. The crowd began to stand, thirsty for the blood of the one who would receive the wish. I felt myself cower back in my seat. These people were out for blood and I stood out. I was wearing an F uniform with my informant badge sitting on my wrist. I even had my number tattoo showing! The power crazed onlookers immediately turned to me, their rage covering their faces. I felt their malice radiating off them as they drew nearer and nearer. One man grabbed at my hair and yanked me up from my seat.
I screamed as my hair was pulled from my head. The ripping sensation felt as if someone had decided to rake knives down my skull. Suddenly, the pain stopped and the noise dulled. The sudden silence caused my ears to ring and though my vision was unimpaired it felt as if my eyes were fooling me. Standing in front of me was A12, his form silhouetted by the light coming from the stage. He had a sword drawn and it was hanging by his side, liquid running to the tip. Red liquid. I looked to the man who had grabbed my hair. His hand was on the floor and he was staring blankly at the bleeding stump that used to hold his hands. I felt tears of horror begin to swell in my eyes.
The man screeched, grabbing at the bleeding lump before looking back up to A12. I followed his gaze to see that A12's eyes weren't like they normally were. They were hard and emotionless. Their color had gone from the soft golden I'd learned to love to a gold coated steel. When I first met A12, it was as if his eyes were avoiding the light but now the light seemed to avoid them.
"A12! You traitorous scum!" an A soldier screamed from a little ways away.
"I am only protecting my fellow F." A12 said with a frown and removing his white coat. There was a marking on his deltoid that I had seemed many times. I'd never taken much interest in it, but now that I was looking at it closer I could see clearly what it said.
F12, Soldier of Section 5. I gasped at the sight. He'd told us multiple times that he was not an A, but an F? And none the less, I'm the baby who bonded with him? It was a well known fact that the way couples were chosen in this day and age was that once a male turned one year old, he would go into a nursery with all the female babies of their letter. The child would wander around until one of the females and him established a friendship. Once they did so, the male was taken away and told every day who their fiancé was and what they were up to. The female, however, was not informed of who their spouse was until the day they turned 20 years old. By admitting that he was her spouse to his fiancé while they were only 17, A12 had just broken one of the biggest rules in society. Not only that, he'd revealed what his number was before becoming an A. He'd just become public enemy number one.
"A12! What are you doing?!" I shouted, grabbing at his hand. Immediately, his eyes returned to their soft golden coloring and he realized what he'd done. He grabbed his jacket, sheathed his sword and grabbed my hand back.
"Hurry!" A12 sprinted off, dragging me behind him as a growing mob gathered behind us. We ran out of the building and into the sunlight. There were countless people all piling around. Most of them had cameras or notepads; most likely reporting for their section or bunking. Cameras began to flash as we ran out from the building and we were blinded by the bright light. However, just as the mob broke through the doors and total chaos erupted, A12 wrapped a hand around my waist and pulled me next to him. He looked down at me from his couple inch advantage and smiled a little.
"Stop me if you don't like it." I felt my eyes widen in shock as he pressed his lips against mine. They were soft and warm like a summer breeze. It wasn't harsh either. All other kisses I'd ever received were harsh and forced. This one wasn't, he was being patient, he understood this was unexpected and was happily going at my pace. It was nice. I kissed him back and right after, he released me. The cameras begun to take pictures even faster now, my vision going completely white with the flashes once again. A van broke the white as it ran through the people, honking crazily.
"You dumbass!" C9 shouted, sticking her head out the window to look at A12 and I. "Didn't you say you weren't going to tell her until next year?!"
"Sorry. Got a bit caught up in the moment." A12 ran ahead, still holding my hand and lifted me into the back of the van. I went to help him in and saw the F army sprint through the doorway, guns in hand.
"Fire!" the commander shouted. I grabbed A12, pulled him into the van and then slammed the doors, pinning the boy to the ground. The bullets flew threw the door just barely missing us. I let out a deep sigh as the engine started and we pulled away from the chaos. Thank God. Now onto the second matter at hand.
"What the hell, A12!" I punched the boys arm as hard as I could but his face didn't change. He just sat there staring blankly ahead. I waved a hand in front of his face... nothing. "Hey, C9?" I looked up at C9 who was muttering angry comments to A12 under her breath. At my comment however, she stopped and turned back to look at me.
"Oh, well that's just perfect." C9 frowned and looked to her right. I couldn't see them but I could hear another person talking with C9. She nodded and then climbed back through the little window and into the back of the van. She grabbed A12's arm and took something from her back pocket. I recognized it. It was one of the newer vaccine patches. I could only see half of the label but what I saw was enough to spring some questions. Polar per and Dis. Off the top of my head I immediately thought of polar person distance but I knew what it really meant. Polar personality disorder. As the patch was laid on A12's arm he immediately sat up straighter and rubbed where I had hit his arm.
"Why does my arm hurt?... oh..." A12 looked over at me. "So I guess you know, huh?" A12 removed the patch and gave it back to C9 with a nod. C9 nodded back with a sympathetic smile before retreating to the drivers seat through the little window once more.
"Was it true?" I felt my mouth say without really thinking about what I was saying.
"What... that I have polar personality disorder?" A12 rubbed his wrists like he did when he was nervous and I felt myself heave in relief.
"Thank God." I muttered and ran my fingers through my shaggy hair. A12 seemed confused by my words, I would be too. "That was the first thing that came to your mind which means that that kiss wasn't just a signal. I thought that this might end up being a one sided crush and that would be awkward." I chuckled, but when my comment was met with silence on the other end I looked up to see if A12's expression was in agreement with my speech. His face and ears were turning bright red and his lips were scrunching together nervously.
"Oh God, I actually kissed you, didn't I?" A12 reached up and put his hands over his face. "I am so sorry! I didn't mean to embarrass you or anything!" At this I couldn't suppress a chuckle. A12 looked at me as if I was puking molten metal; a mixture of confusion and concern. With his expression my chuckle turned to a laugh and from that into pure hysterics. Even C9 was looking at me weird. I couldn't help it though. This adorable boy liked me back (not only that but he was also my spouse), my friends and I had just broken the law and were now fugitives from the government, and I couldn't be happier. The whole world seemed to like me right about now. I couldn't care what happened as long as I was with my friends.
...
Boy was that about to change...
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A/N: Hey guys, technically this is still the 23rd. Yes its 8:18, but it's still the 23rd! I'm taking it. So tomorrow is Christmas Eve and then the day after that is Christmas so I apologize if I don't update. Next one should be out around 12/26 or 12/27. (Sorry for ending like this.) This chapter was mainly Twenty One Pilots and a little Melanie Martinez (an interesting combo). I don't know if it's any good and I didn't edit so sorry if there are lots of mistakes it. That's all I had to say. Stay Weird! (I need a better catch phrase -_-).