Prompt: You're hot-headed, and never willing to back down from a fight. You don't let anyone mess around with you, because that would be total cowardice. But then you meet Gally, and a true friendship sparks between you. Can he teach you a new perspective on dealing with your anger?
You stand straight in the middle of the Glade, hands on your hips; breathing in the fresh morning air. It was a beautiful sunrise, considering you're trapped in this dreadful prison. Too bad you'll have to waste your time in the Kitchens preparing every slime-boy Glader's breakfast. Last time it took four hours preparing, cooking, packing up, and cleaning. This time it probably won't go by any faster. You look away from the sun and spot Frypan over at the entrance to the Kitchen block, his scruffy face and tired eyes searching for the rest of the Cooks. You sigh, take one last glance at the sun, and the head on over.
By the time the boys start seeping in, taking their seats around the block, smelling the cooking of eggs and bacon, you and the rest of the kitchen crew have almost finished with last batch of food. Right now you feel alright, somehow you have enough energy to keep going, but the constant smell of all of this breakfast food scrambles your guts, pushing a feeling of nausea over you. You and breakfast food obviously don't mix.
"Can't you work any faster, Y/N?" A boy named Corey pushes, his raspy voice practically inviting you to be irritated. "We're almost done but you're holding the rest of us up."
"Slim it, egg boy. I'm going as fast as I can. Besides, what else have you got to do? Not like you're going on a date anytime soon." You wipe the sweat of your forehead with your arm and keep working with scrambling a portion of the eggs, it takes a bit of time to get them right. Just because Corey can't handle a few hours in the Kitchen doesn't mean he gets to push you around for being a tad slower.
"Whatever." He mutters, shaking his head as he moves along to a different station.
You finish with this pan and move onto the next, glancing behind you for a few seconds. You see egg-boy again, talking to Kev while sneaking dirty looks back at you. He's not peeling or cracking the eggs like he is supposed to, instead he's chatting away like it means nothing. What a hypocrite! You ditch the pan, and walk straight across the kitchen towards Corey. His eyes widen as you come closer, you can feel the heat emitting from your face as hot anger takes control.
"What do you think you're doing?" You lash out, watching Corey's eyes dart around your face nervously.
"I..." He looks over at Kev who has decided to slowly edge away from the confrontation in front of him. Corey looks back at you, "Who cares? Just go scramble those eggs before they burn, shank."
Usually, you don't take the word shank as much of an insult. But the tone in his voice and the anger in his eyes... something just snaps inside you. "You know what Corey? You're done."
"Excuse me?"
You shove his chest, hard, "Get out of here!"
Corey stumbles back and slips on spilt milk, sending him ass up. He knocks his head, and as his yelp resounds throughout the kitchen, people start flooding towards him. He lifts his head dizzily, his hand coming away from the back covered in blood. "Ah, crap."
You swallow hard at the sight of his blood, something in your gut drops making your heart beat fast. Guilt.
"Who left their eggs unattended?" Frypan shouts over the rushed voices of Med-jacks. "They're freakin' burnt now, what a waste!" His eyes narrow on you, and you roll yours back at him as you walk passed. You exit the building, tears jerking at the edge of your eyes. The anger inside you, at Corey, at Frypan, at the eggs, at yourself. It fires you up with too much energy, too many emotions. As you pass the exit's wall you slam your fist into it, breaking through the thin layer of wall. You didn't realise that the walls weren't as thick as the ones inside.
You walk away from the block, a few people eyeing you off as you leave. One of them, Gally as you recall, calls out to you, "What happened in there?"
"None of your damn business, slinthead." You feel the growl in your voice escape from deep within your chest, and it takes Gally by surprise. Or rather, amusement.
It's the next morning, and you're up as the sun rises. But finally, you get to have a break from morning preparation. You finally get to have a break from egg-boy. You laugh at the thought, it's been too long.
You sit on the grass this time, knees pulled up to your chest. Of course you would rather sleep the morning away but the events from yesterday have kept an incredible guilt lingering in your mind. Of course you didn't mean to hurt Corey like that however you're very grateful that he'll be alright.
"Y/N!"
You swivel around immediately, a hand raised to block the sun from your eyes. It's Corey's friend, Kev. He must be on breakfast duty this morning again. You stand up from the grass, your eyes burn into his, "Something on your mind?"
"Yeah," He nods over-confidently "There is, actually. I find it disturbing that you hurt so many people around the Glade, and not one person teaches you a lesson." He takes a breath, his green eyes sparking with some kind of righteous anger for his friend, "You do know there is a rule around here about not harming another Glader, right? I reckon you've broken that rule about... hmm... fifty times?"
"Back off, Kev. I don't need no mommy telling me off."
"Oh yeah? Boohoo. Stop acting like some kind of savage, Y/N. Attacking everyone you meet isn't attractive."
You shove Kev's shoulders; he stumbles back. "Just get lost Kev."
"Make me."
You shove him again, even harder than last.
He laughs, "Why are you so mad? Something stuck up your ass, sweetie?"
"I said," Your voice deepens as you get mad, "Get. Lost."
"Or are you just on your period?"
You jump at him, taking him to the ground. His back hits the dirt and you keep him pinned underneath you. Your hand clenches into a fist as he struggles to push you off. You raise it above his face, but as the anger swells up inside you another hand from behind you grabs onto your fist and rips it away from the scene; your body follows. The hands wrap around your waist and lift you over a shoulder, carrying you away from the storm that could have been.
"Let me go you slimy bastard!" Instead of a witty reply or an irritated grunt, even a gasp of fear, you feel whoever holds you up laugh; their chest shaking. "You are so going to regret ever picking me up!"
Finally, you're put back onto the ground, your eyes meeting the Glader who put you to absolute shame. Gally.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" His voice comes out rough, but there's a hinted smile behind his eyes, "You're like," He takes a second to look you up and down, "Five foot nothing! What the hell were you trying to achieve by attacking Kev, who is practically triple your size, shrimp."
You eye him angrily, his words only firing you up once again. "Don't you dare call me a shrimp you... you... you douchebag!"
"Oh ouch, I'm really hurt. I think I'll go cry to my mommy now."
You cross your arms over your chest, "How about you just leave me alone, asswipe."
Gally chuckles, "Seriously? Asswipe? Come on, I know you can do better than that."
You stop a moment, looking him over. He's big, of course. Probably bigger than Kev. You suppose he would have to be massive if he's the Keeper of the Builders. Maybe if you muster up enough strength you could take him down. You step in closer to him, but he only raises an eyebrow; like he's mocking you or something.
"You know what Gally? Maybe I'll spare you, this time." You glare up into his amused eyes, "But if you talk to me again, if you even look at me, I will take you down."
He nods his head slowly, "Uh-huh, sure."
"Shut up."
Apparently your threats didn't work, they didn't even phase the guy! He keeps following you around, lurking in the shadows. Today, he pulled you away from yet another almost-physical-encounter. What is he, your mom?
"Y/N, seriously, when are you going to stop picking on everyone around here?"
"When they stop pissing me off!"
Gally looks at you for a moment, and you hate it. You'd rather him slap you in the face than being disappointed. "People are always going to be pissing you off, believe me, I know."
"Well then..." You look away, slightly embarrassed. "What am I supposed to do? Let them push me around like that?"
He smiles, which is weird. You've totally never seen this guy smile before... it's nice. Well, it looks nice. You shake those thoughts out of your head and listen to what he has to say. "Glad you asked. If someone pisses you off, you don't let them know it. You walk away. You do something else. You could even come talk to me, seriously. I know it might sound hypocritical coming from me, because I'm probably always in a grumpy mood. But I've learnt to stop taking out my anger physically because it's not healthy, and I know you can learn it too."
"I can't just walk away from a fight, it's cowardly."
"No, it's not. It's letting the other person know that you don't care enough about them to let their bullshit hurt you."
You're quiet for only a moment before saying, "I've never thought about it like that before."
"I'm glad I could be the one to open your eyes," he laughs, light-heartedly. "But like I said, if you start to feel like you're losing control, come talk to me. I'm still learning to figure out when I'm going to explode, so we can help each other. Okay?"
You try very, very hard to not smile, "Okay."
"You know what?" Your voice lashes out, clenching and unclenching your fists. You stare the boy straight in the eyes, and strangely enough, Gally smiling pops up in your mind. You frown, irritated that this is the fourth or fifth time it happened this week. Why is this memory always haunting your every move?
"What?" The boy replies back.
"I'm going to... to walk away and not talk to you for a few hours, got it?" You turn away and walk far away, your eyes searching the Glade for Gally. You spot him, and immediately he notices your distress. This is probably the fifth time you've had to use him to calm you down. But this time, instead of calming down as he nears you, you burst into tears.
"Hey," He cups your face, "What's wrong?"
"This boy... he –he." You couldn't manage to get the words out as the sobs overtook your throat.
"What did he do?" His eyes fill with concern for you, and it makes you feel slightly better.
You breathe in and out, Gally's touch calming your distress. "He said... He said I'm a lousy Cook and that I should get Banished for what I've done because no one would miss me anyway."
Gally frowns, "He what!?"
"Gally?" You ask, uncertainty lacing your voice.
"Where is he?" He glances around, letting go of your face. "I'm going to punch him in the face so hard that he wished he was getting Banished!"
You run after him as he takes long, angry strides in a desperate attempt to find him. Even though he has no clue who said it. "Gally!" You shout, but he completely ignores you. What happened to this so called wise man who has learned the secret of not getting all fired up?
"Y/N, where is-
"Gally!"
He shuts up and turns to face you, slightly surprised by the firmness in your voice. "What?"
"What happened to not getting pissed off at someone?"
He frowns, and then chews the bottom of his lip out of frustration. "Well, he can't just insult you like that!"
"I'm fine."
He raises his arms in the air as he tries to prove a point, "He made you cry!"
"I'm a big girl now, I'll get over it." You take a hold of his hand, and he starts to breathe at a normal pace again.
"But..." He sighs, and pulls you into a tight, warm embrace. "I would miss you, you know. If you got Banished."
You laugh, "Thank you, Gally." Your own arms wrap around him too, his smell of wood and sweat and dirt comforting you for some reason.
"And you're an amazing cook."
You giggle into his chest.
"I'm not kidding! The kitchen would be lost without you. Besides, your custard tarts are incredible."
You shove him playfully, "Oh really? Your true colours are showing, Gally. Now I know your real intentions of befriending me."
"Oh, come off it, Y/N."
You laugh and keep playing along, "Nope! Our short lived friendship is over. No more hugs, and definitely no more custard tarts for you."
Instead, he pulls you back in again by wrapping his arms around your waist, "I couldn't care less about the custard tarts, just please don't say that we can't hug anymore."
You blush bright red, so you hide it by burying your face into his chest. "You're a real big shank, you know that?" Your voice is muffled by his shirt.
"A big, hunky shank."
You both sigh after your fit of laughter, and Gally rests his chin on top of your head. "Want to know something?" He asks softly.
"Sure."
"I befriended you because I saw the same struggle in you that I had, and I didn't want you to get hurt because of it."
"Wanna know why I befriended you, Gally?"
"Sure."
"Not only for your hunky manliness," He chuckles again at this, "But because you actually care. And because I like your smile, and I like it more when you smile because of me."
He lifts his head off of your head and looks down at you, "You like my smile?"
"It haunts me."
He raises an eyebrow.
"It does! Today even! When that guy said those horrible things to me, I wanted to really punch him right in the face but then I saw your smile and I remembered that disappointing you was way worse than backing down from a fight."
He smiles, "Really?"
"Really."