Jesse woke up the next morning feeling like a zombie. Her eyes were restless, struggling to pry themselves open, and her shoulders and neck ached horribly. Still, with great effort, the raven haired girl managed to roll out of bed to start the day.
She tugged on her red and white t-shirt and overalls, and straightened out her hair so that it didn't look like she had a wrestling match with the blankets this morning. She completed her outfit with her golden yellow hair clip, pinning back her left bangs. When she was relatively satisfied with her looks, she stepped out of her bedroom and left the basement into the Order Hall.
Radar, of course, was already there when she arrived. He was busy dusting and polishing the trophies, keeping them nice and shiny. Jesse was grateful for his work, knowing full well that she didn't have the time to do any of that herself. She remembered her office being an atrocious mess, but when Radar came along, everything was so neat and organized that she had no clue where everything was. The office ended up turning mildly messy to Radar's dismay, but it was good enough for Jesse so eventually he let it go.
She approached the young teen with a smile. "Morning, Radar."
Radar immediately stopped and turned to face her. "Morning, Jesse," He paused, his grin melting into a frown. "You look..."
"Awful?" Jesse guessed.
"Tired!" Radar squeaked. "I was gonna say tired."
Jesse groaned. "I know, I know," She pressed her hand against the side of her face. "It was a rough night. Let's just get today over with. What've you got for me, Radar?"
The young teen still looked a little concerned, but he snapped out of it and ripped his notepad from his inventory. He violently scrambled through the pages until he found the right one. "Uhh, doesn't look to be too busy today. After all, things have settled down since the Admin was defeated. Lukas came by earlier today wanting to talk to you, but I told him that you were resting-"
"Wait, earlier?" Jesse planted her hands on her hips, glaring at him accusingly. "Radar... what time is it?" Radar paled.
"Uh, well you see- um-"
"Radar..."
"Y-you looked pretty tired last night after having that nightmare, and so I thought that m-maybe I could let you sleep in a little bit-"
"Radar!" Jesse said finally. Radar squirmed under her hard stare and gulped.
"It's half past noon," Radar confessed finally. Jesse's mouth fell open, only now realizing how tired she had actually been before. The nightmare had shaken her up, but she had to admit, the rest had definitely revitalized her. Still, that was half of her day already gone. She could've gotten a lot of stuff done by now.
"Radar, you should've woken me up," Jesse said sternly, arms folded across her chest.
Radar bit his lip. "I know," He squeaked. "I'm just... I'm just worried about you. With all that sleep you've been skipping out on... it isn't healthy. I knew you wouldn't sleep in willingly, so I took matters into my own hands. I just want to make sure my boss is okay."
Jesse's gaze softened, her shoulders sagging in defeat. Radar... he was such a sweetheart. He'd grown so much over the past two years in her care that she was starting to see him as something like an adopted son; a part of the family. She always thought that he only saw her as his boss. She hadn't realized that he cared about her just as much as she did... maybe even more.
"Radar, you're sweet," Jesse smiled. "But you know I can take care of myself."
"Can you?" Radar asked. "You're so busy worrying about the well-being of other people that you don't even stop and think about the well-being of yourself. Sure, you do well in battle, but you tend to shrug off your own mental health quite quickly. When you do that... it scares me, and I think it probably scares the others too."
Jesse opened her mouth to protest, but then it shut when she realized she had nothing to say. She knew that he was probably right, but being a leader meant putting others first and herself second.
"Just... promise you'll take better care of yourself?" Radar asked. Jesse finally nodded with defeat, giving the kid a smile. She ruffled his jet black hair.
"You're adorable, you know that?" She asked, ruffling his hair harder.
"H-hey!" Radar ducked away from her, and Jesse laughed.
At that moment, the door of the Order Hall lifted open, shaking the ground. Jesse and Radar whirled around to see who their visitor was, and sure enough, there was Lukas, striding into the Order Hall. His cerulean eyes landed on theirs, and Jesse grinned, waving. "Hey, Lukas!"
Lukas beamed back, approaching them briskly. "Hey, Jesse, Radar," He nodded to both of them, then turned back to Jesse. "I tried to come earlier but Radar said you were still asleep."
Jesse laughed nervously, Radar joining in as well. Radar was taking it a bit too far and stood there laughing awkwardly. There were a few moments of silence as Lukas raised an eyebrow at them. Jesse cleared her throat. "Yeah, sorry about that."
"Am I missing something here?" Lukas asked.
"Nope!" Radar remarked hastily. Lukas continued to frown at him and Radar squirmed under his stare. "Hnn, you are making me very uncomfortable."
With that, Radar ran off, disappearing into the hallway to his office.
"Huh," Lukas said. "Wonder what that was about?"
Jesse smiled sheepishly, shrugging. "It's probably Radar just being Radar. Anyways, what's up?"
"Oh right," Lukas remembered. He reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out an opened envelop and took a breath. "This is what I wanted to talk to you about."
Jesse took the envelop in her hand and pulled out a note. It was clear that the message had been rushed, the words practically scribbled onto the page. Whoever had written it appeared to have messy writing, even without the hastiness.
'Lukas,
We know we don't deserve an apology, and we aren't expecting one. We just want you to know that we're sorry. Sorry for kicking you off the team. Sorry for everything. We never meant for things to go so far. You probably hated us, and most likely still do. We regret everything we ever did to hurt you and the others, and we're so sorry. We wish we had time to make things right.
Please forgive us,
Maya and Gill'
Jesse's eyes widened as she saw the two signatures at the bottom of the page. The message gave her the chills for some reason, and she rubbed her arms after handing it back to Lukas.
"It's not just me, right?" Lukas said worriedly. "Something weird is going on. It was almost as if-"
"They were saying goodbye," Jesse finished. Lukas visible tensed his shoulders, his slightly shaking hands clutching the paper. Jesse placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"I'm worried about them," Lukas admitted, glancing at Jesse through the blond locks dipping over his eyes. "I have every right to hate their guts right now, but I'm worried about them."
Jesse squeezed his shoulder. "That's because you're a good friend, Lukas," She said. Lukas smiled. "Of course you still care about them, and you always will, no matter what happens between you."
Lukas nodded, taking one more glance at the note before pocketing it. "There's... something else you should know," He said. "I haven't heard from them since I got this letter from... a month ago."
Jesse pondered on that with wide eyes, trying to figure out what to do. "Have you written them back?"
"Multiple times," Lukas said. "I've gotten nothing."
No wonder he's so worried. Jesse thought, her gaze fixed on the ground as she formulated a plan in her head. Whether he liked it or not, the Blaze Rods really meant a lot to Lukas, similar to the same way that Jesse felt towards Axel and Olivia. It was that loyalty that made Lukas who he was.
Lukas seemed to respond to Jesse's silence and sighed. "Look, I know the Blaze Rods haven't exactly been civil towards you in the past-"
Jesse scoffed. "That's the understatement of the century."
"-Okay, yeah, they've been horrible, but you're right. I do care about them," Lukas admitted. "Them going silent like this immediately after sending that letter... it's just unsettling. I can't help but feel like something bad has happened to them."
Jesse chuckled at her friend's worry. "Lukas, calm down, I get it," She smiled. "Don't worry. I'll help you find your friends."
Lukas' eyes widened, and his face broke into a grin. "Really? You're serious?"
Jesse put on a mock face of hurt. "Oh, ye of little faith! Shame on you, Lukas!"
"Okay okay, I'm sorry."
"Alright, let's get going!" Jesse instructed. "Detective Jesse is on the case."
"Oh no, not this again." Lukas shook his head in amusement. Jesse grinned over her shoulder at him.
"Oh yes. Pack your bags, Lukas. We're going to Sky City!"
••••••
Word count: 1539
Hahaaa, okay let me explain what happened with the few mistakes in the last chapter.
Basically, I had the prologue written in first person originally, but then decided that I wanted different perspectives. Instead of switching POVs from character to character, I rewrote it into third person.
Unfortunately, i didn't catch all the "I's" like I thought i did. XD If you were confused about why it kept switching POVs... thats why.
Any theories? Leave a comment! I'd love to hear them!