[outside of jordans house–midday]
"THIS IS stupid," Park hissed. The red-eyed woman rolled her eyes and relaxed against the tree.
"You need to chill, Park. We have to wait until Jordan gets back from school."
"But they're right there!" Park waved wildly at the shapes of Diego, Ben, and Klaus standing in the yard.
"Yeah, and you know what will happen if we go up to them?" She leaned forward as and grabbed Park's bicep tightly. "Diego will toss his knives at us, and they won't miss. Ben will raise that cute little sweater vest and release that tentacle monster that lives in his chest, and although Klaus can't do much, he can still make the dead visible. That's a scary-ass power, Park."
"Let me go," they snapped, black eyes glinting maliciously. They stared each other down for a moment, unnatural red against abnormal black, before she released them.
"Go back to using your fucking powers, butterfly boy," she mumbled, closing her eyes. "I'm going to take a nap."
"You're such a school skipper," they mumbled as they closed their eyes. In front of them, the gorgeous butterfly began to materialize, light shining through its iridescent wings.
"Technically, I was never actually enrolled," she said, eyes still closed. A wide smile had grown, her sharp canines poking at her lip. "The Handler can weave some powerful time-magic."
"There where a lot of inconsistencies, though. Didn't anyone ever ask where Billie Ramone came from, or where you went?"
"Nope. No one wanted to talk to Billie Ramone; she was a cigarette smokin', purple haired freak."
"Better than being you."
"Rude."
The conversation ended; Parks butterfly fluttered down into Jordan Reel's backyard, landing on a tree and listening to the three brothers talk.
~{}~
Diego frowned. It was obvious Klaus and Ben didn't believe him; maybe he should've gone to Five and Vanya instead. He'd really only chosen these two because Klaus had been complaining about his want for weed and there wasn't any anywhere he could find, and that comment Allison had made about him sobering up stuck a chord. So he'd asked them to come outside with him; Ben had grinned at him. So, Ben and Klaus sat on the ground and he paced anxiously, fiddling with the knife.
"You think that Allison and Luther are arguing over whether or not to tell us that dear ole dad has sent out a search warrant? For us?" Klaus scoffed and made a face of disbelief. "No way. Didn't he die, anyways?"
"That was before we time-traveled back into our thirteen year old selves, Klaus," Ben whispered. Klaus nodded and let out a long 'ohhhhhhhhhh'
"Yeah, dad is alive and well. And, apparently, looking for us. Because, somehow, we, like, absorbed our past-selves. Or something." Diego picked up his knife and threw it at a tree; a vaguely familiar butterfly (where had he last seen that? Somewhere important, but not as important as the matter at hand) flew out and floated away, it's blue wings turning into rolling shades of purples.
After a moment of marveling after the butterfly, it was gone and Diego was focused again.
"If he's put out a search warrant, why haven't we heard anything about it?" Ben asked. Diego frowned.
"I d-don't know!" He said angrily. "But it's what Luther and A-Allison where arguing about!"
"Okay," said Klaus. He was tracing words on his palms; Diego assumed it was the previous tattoos he had. He wondered if he'd get them again. "So, what do you want us to do about it?"
"I d-don't know, I just f-figured it was important to know." Diego snapped. He needs to focus, his stutter was getting worse. Klaus rolled his eyes.
"Relax, Diego. We all bonded with our Group Bro Hug, so chill out."
Ben snickered. Diego threw his knife, and it embedded himself in the trunk of a tree.
"Why don't we, you know, bring it up to Allison and Luther?" Ben suggested, pulling at the grass. "They can explain why they don't wanna tell us."
"They don't wanna s-st-stress us out," Diego said, stalking over to the tree. He pulled at the knife, stumbling slightly when it finally came out. "They s-seem to the under the impression that w-w-w-we can't handle it."
"Seriously? They do know that we, like, pretty much ended the apocalypse?" Klaus scoffed. "I was in Vietnam! And, Five was actually in the apocalypse? He fell in love with a mannequin!"
"Not to mention the fact that I died, got stuck with Klaus for what felt like eternity, and then came back to life." Ben frowned; Klaus let out an indignant hey! and crossed his arms, pouting. Ben poked his cheek and Klaus hit his hand away.
Diego sighed. He took a deep breath, focusing on the words he was going to say. "Should we tell Vanya and Five?"
Ben shrugged. "Probably. Are we telling Jordan that our dad had a search warrant out?"
"Pfft, of course not!" Klaus laughed. "Why in the world would we ever tell the guy who's fed us, housed us, and put up with our bullshit for, like, a week that the our dad is looking for us?"
Ben glared. Klaus giggled and poked Ben's cheek.
"You are an idiot," Diego said to Klaus. He winked.
"I'm gonna go eat a snack." He said, and disappeared.
"Try not to eat too much!" Ben yelled. "Jordan still needs to go shopping!"
Klaus groaned obnoxiously.
Diego sighed and glanced down at Ben, who was still plucking grass.
"What do you think?" Diego asked. "Should we tell Vanya, Five, and Jordan?"
"Well, should we? Yes. Will we?" Ben shrugged. "Eh. Probably not."
"Isn't it the right thing to do?"
"Oh, absolutely. But, come on, when have we ever done the right thing?" Ben cracked a grin.
Diego laughed. From over near the road, the sound of a shout echoed.
Ben's head whirled to face the trees.
"What was that?" He whispered. Diego pressed his lips together, clutching the knife.
"Come on," Diego said, moving forwards.
Ben crawled to his feet and followed.
The two stayed crouched low, scanning the trees. Ben played with the hem of his shirt, and Diego held the knife loose enough to be easy to throw.
It was the middle of the day. Every other kid, teenager, or young adult within any echoing distance (which was none) would've either been at school or at work. No one should be sitting in the trees that overlooks both the road and Jordan's front, back, and left yard.
No one should be shouting in the trees.
To the right, a twig broke.
Diego wheeled around and threw his knife into the trees.
A bird dropped.
"Shit," Diego hissed. Ben stood up straight.
"Wow." He said, chuckling. "You hit a bird. We freaked out over a bird."
Ben giggled. Diego rolled his eyes and made a face at him.
"Well, screw you," said Diego. Ben laughed again, and stood up on his tip-toes to sling an arm around his brother.
"Come on, crazy," he smiled. "Let's go make sure Klaus doesn't eat whatever we're having for dinner."
Diego and him talked about unimportant things as they walked inside, arms slung around each other.
They didn't even see the red-eyed woman stand up from the bushes, twigs in her hair and a leaf in her mouth.
"You pushed me!" She hissed quietly, unseen by the three boys in the kitchen.
When she didn't get an answer, she crawled back up the tree. Snatching the knife out of the trunk, she waved it at the person who sat with a grin above her.
"You," she threatened. "You, Park, are an asshole."
"I know," they said, giggling. "But watching you fall out the tree was fun."
She rolled her eyes and settled back into the branches, watching the boys in the kitchen make sandwiches. The Asian one—Benedict? No, Ben—pulled out a jar of peanut butter
"I miss peanut butter," she sighed.
Park leaned over and shoved her out of the tree again.
A/N:
hey it's monday again lol
today my friend and i saw this random live band start playing on the marina and lemme tell you it was fuckin amazing to sit in the grass with a breeze on my face listening to live music. i really fuckin love live music.
anyways i hope you liked this chapter and that you have a lovely day!!!!
( and, just so you know, seeing all of your comments really fuckin makes my day. it's the greatest thing in the world to have people say that they love your writing and your story 💖 )