Paige rolled over in the bed, she glanced at her phone on the nightstand. She had it plugged into the charger, but it was turned off. She didn't want it on, so she left it alone. Her eyes shifted over to the clock, she was already late for school but her Aunt Odette didn't come to wake her up yet. But Paige didn't mind. She liked being by herself for once. No one is bugging her. She no longer had to worry about others and just needed to focus on herself at the moment.
Was she afraid of being by herself? Do people actually need her around? What was she doing to help anyone? How did she even contribute to her friends? All she ever did was run away from the bad guys. She couldn't fight. She couldn't help. Maybe no one had even noticed that she was gone. For the most part, everyone just assumes that she's always okay. She was always okay. Or she was good at pretending it was all okay. But she had even tricked herself that everyone was okay. That nothing was wrong.
Bringing her hand up, Paige covered her face with her arm. God. She was so useless. Why did she even have friends? Because she was nice. Nice people get taken advantage of. Her Aunt basically took advantage of her her entire life, keeping her powers at bay with sweets. But it couldn't work anymore because of Derek.
Paige never did see his reaction to what she said. She kind of sounded absolutely insane. Anyone would think she was bonkers with the kind of crap she was saying. Some stupid fairy tale crap. Ironic. Fairy tale bullshit as someone who was a fairy.
Odette knocked on the door, she was already dressed and had obviously been out. Leaning against the doorframe, she sent her niece a small smile, "I've gotten us some breakfast."
A wave of excitement filled Paige, but then she remembered that her favorite thing about breakfast was coffee. And all that sugar.
Noticing the change of demeanor, Odette tentatively walked into the room and then sat at the edge of the bed, "Please tell me you like omelettes, cause that's what I got. I usually put tabasco sauce on mine, but I know you like-"
"I want to try." Paige cuts her off as she sat up, bringing her legs up to her chest, "I want to keep off sugar."
Odette watched Paige for a moment, "Just because sugar nulls your powers slightly doesn't mean you can't enjoy it, kid."
Paige just sunk a little bit at this, despite Odette being right she just didn't seem up for it anymore, "Please..."
"Alright..." Odette sighs softly and leans back onto the bed so she was laid out beside her, "So, do you want to go to school?"
"Not really." Paige mumbles, eyes connecting to the roof and locking them there, "I don't even want to move."
"I see." Odette whispers. She rolled over on the bed so she was on her stomach, "You're gonna give up, kid?"
"What?"
Odette leaned on the palm of her hand as she gazed over at her beautiful niece, she was such a perfect combination of Andre and Phoebe that it was hard to look at times, "In no way am I saying 'fuck you' to how you feel. You've got every right to be upset, I probably would too in your position. But you need to focus all of those emotions into something and not destroy yourself in the process. You feel down, do something that'll make yourself feel better. Do something for you, kid."
Paige slowly brought herself back up, eyes holding onto Odette's. She was wallowing in her own sadness, which was just making matters much worse. This feeling of uselessness, this feeling of being alone. They were getting worse. She needed to put her focus on something that she could do. That would make her feel better. Odette was right.
"What's on your mind?"
Something that Christine said to her came to mind. Paige remembered how it bugged her but at the same time she didn't say a word. "Could-could you train me?"
Odette pulled herself up and gave her niece a rather pointed look, "Do you really want that? How would your friends feel?"
"It doesn't matter how they feel. It's how I feel right now." Paige urges, which made Odette form a small smile, "I've focused on what everyone else is feeling and never thought to think for myself. I don't want to feel so useless. Even with-even as a fairy. I'm supposed to be so rare, but I can literally do nothing but heal myself and feel feelings."
Odette thought for a moment and tapped her fingers on her thigh, "If that's the case. I think we ought to eat."
"You're not going to tell me no?"
"Well, it's not like this is going to harm you in the long run." Odette shrugged her shoulders and got up from the bed. Her boots clicked on the hardwood floor as she moved over to the door, "Let's have some breakfast and I'll see where that stamina is at."
Paige threw the blanket off of her and swung her legs over. She was still in the clothes she wore the other day, which kind of left her with a grimy feeling. "So, tabasco and eggs?"
"I feel like it adds flavor." Odette jokes and hands Paige the container, "I also snagged us some coffee."
Her eyes fell on the cup and wondered what normal coffee tasted like without sugar in it. So as Odette grabbed their forks, Paige drank the coffee. Her face contorted at the weird bitter taste it had, she couldn't really put her finger on the flavor. "Ew-"
"I have creamer."
"No, it's fine." Paige mumbles and drinks some more again, "I-I want to know the extent of my powers without the block of sugar."
Odette let her eyes stay on Paige for a moment, "How much do you know about your species?"
"Little to none." She accepted the fork and watched as Odette poured tabasco on both of their omelets and potatoes, "I have some notes on my powers, but that's just from what I've already experienced."
Odette hums in response to that and digs into her breakfast, "Didn't you find your dad's bestiary?"
"My dad had one?"
"He had to." She says simply, "He was the head Mercier after the death of our dad- your grandpa. He kept that book with him everywhere."
"It was an actual book? Not some electronic PDF?"
A snort came from Odette, "Your father was not good with electronics. He'd probably grow frustrated over using an iPhone."
A small smile formed on Paige's face, she heard a lot about her mother because Maggie grew up with her. But anything about her father was small little things. "What was he like?"
Odette then realized that she was being inconsiderate since Paige never got to know him, "Strong. Determined. He always did what he saw as the right thing. Anyone else be damned."
"He was a good person? Even as a hunter?"
"I understand her view of us isn't exactly good." She was a little irritated with this, but Paige's circumstances made her opinion clear, "But your father was a good one. He hated the code and believed that it should have been changed."
Paige leaned her elbows on the table and gazed at her aunt. "Did he want me?"
Odette looked absolutely bewildered by this, "What? Of course he did."
"You didn't know about me."
"I knew Phoebe was pregnant, but..."
"I know." A soft sigh came from Paige as she recalled the lie Erik fabricated to keep her a secret, from what, she had no clue, but she remembered, "Do you think dad would have trained me at a young age like Christine?"
Odette leaned back on the stool a bit and kept a firm gaze on her, "Probably, but not in the same way we were trained."
"What?"
Odette watched Andre get thrown into the wall by their father. She flinched and stopped sparring with Erik to rush over to him, but her dad grabbed onto her. "But-"
"Get the hell up, Andre."
Andre pushed himself off the ground and wiped at his mouth, blood dripping from his nose after receiving that heavy handed punch. He struggled to stand but kept a glare on his father.
"Odette-" Erik hissed and yanked her away, keeping his voice low, "You know not to get in the way."
"How tough are you? Come on, Andre. You keep holding back like you do and you'll be killed without thought out on the field. A werewolf will tear into you without second thought."
"You're my father." Andre, eleven years old, continued to force himself to stand, "Shouldn't you hold back?"
"And give you a false impression of a fight? No."
Paige scrunched her nose up, "He sounds terrible."
"I can guarantee you all of us felt the same way." Odette had a far away look for a moment, "We didn't get parents that loved us. We got drill surgeons. We were just soldiers to them. If one of us died, it wouldn't affect them."
A wave of pure sadness hit Paige, which caused her to tear up a little bit. Odette was sad and it was actually a little overwhelming. "Did that happen?"
Odette seemed to snap back into focus and look over at Paige, "What?"
"Uh-" Paige wiped at her eyes and showed the liquid to her aunt, "You got sad. I literally felt it hit me like a truck."
Odette cleared her throat and took another bite from her food, "It was a long time ago. Lost my sister out in the field."
Paige decided not to press on it anymore than she needed. After eating breakfast, Odette let Paige use the shower and even said that she could borrow some of her clothes. Odette took her out, taking her on a walk to keep talking to her.
"So Derek Hale?"
Laughing nervously, Paige scratched at her nose with her ring finger, "Uh, well, guess that's a weird fairy connection thing and not real."
"He's pretty hot, so even without the connection I'm sure you'd crush on him."
This made Paige warm up in embarrassment. Was this how girls spoke when there was a guy involved? Most of her conversations with Allison were about werewolves and Scott, rarely about her crush. Was this normal?
Odette threw her head back at her niece's reaction, "You stage whispered that, kid. But yes, this should be pretty normal. Can I ask you something?"
Paige nodded her head, "Uh-" She couldn't believe she said her thoughts aloud without realizing it, "Sure."
"What do you think of this connection you have with the little Hale boy?"
Hearing someone refer to Derek as a boy was new and kind of weird, but he was younger than her Aunt so it made sense. A bit. "I feel uncomfortable with it."
"How so?"
Paige bit down on her lip as her brain turned for an answer, "Well, it's like... we're supposed to... fall in love, right? From what I understand. But it makes me feel like it's so forced and it's not real."
"Well, before you knew about the connection, you liked him right?"
"But that was just a girl crushing on a guy cause he looked nice."
Odette snorted at this, "That's still a valid reason to like someone. I can't speak for you, but I see the connection as an extra push. A little incentive. You are the one that determines if anything happens between you two. If you don't want it, then you don't have to act on it. Don't let this deter you from falling in love with someone. Whether that someone is Derek or not."
"But... isn't he like my soulmate?"
Odette just shrugged her shoulders, "And? If you don't want what your feeling to be fake, just make sure you know that it's not just because of this connection. Besides, you feel it. Derek's not a fairy, you are. You feel these things, not him. Make him fall for you by just being you. No one else."
"What if who I am isn't me?"
"Is this because of that sugar stuff?" Odette crossed her arms over her chest, "Why would you think that?"
"Well, sugar it uh-" Paige scratched the back of her head and she tilted it to the side, "It's like alcohol or drugs to me."
"Then it's still you, just impaired." She suddenly stopped and grabbed Paige's arm, "Okay, this is far enough."
Paige sent a confused look to her aunt, "What?"
"You wanted some training." She placed her hands behind her back with a smile on her face, "I don't think doing it where cops could see us would be smart. Besides, it's a nice day out."
And Paige had wanted a day away from everything. So, Odette was actually doing her a huge favor.
"Alright, kid. Go over that list of powers for me."
Sorry, I am a day late on schedule! It was my father's birthday yesterday so I wanted to be able to spend it with him. It's been so hot, I did not want him to have to worry about making dinner. So I did it all myself. I also kind of feel like this chapter is not that good. It's just Odette and Paige. But I hope this was good!