Nightshift 38: North of the Institute
[from here]Maybe he'd follow, maybe he wouldn't, she thought off-hand, dropping down to the ground below effortlessly. He was sure pissed enough that he might just walk off. And the eye thing? Senna had no idea what that was. She'd never seen anything like it before. What'd it mean? Was he human, or not
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He was a warlock. He didn’t run.
But the thing was, Reid wasn’t in the middle of this fight. Or at least, he wasn’t in on the details, didn’t know who was pulling a North Pole routine, wasn’t even the main target of all of that ice-water. He was… small fry. Whoever or whatever was out there was small fry, too. It was Landel, the cracked out ringleader, versus every wrongly accused, pissed off sane person he had in here. It was Landel and whatever spell he was using to keep Reid’s Power suppressed. Lurking around the soccer field to pay Minion A back wasn’t going to get him back his life, was it? (It’d just serve them right.)
The little girl sprinted the length of the field and hopped the wall like she had a couple of undead dogs snapping at her heels. Somebody definitely didn’t want to stick around and play… which might have had something to do with the state of his eyes?
Reid crossed slower, more reluctantly, not pissing his pants enough to hurry, but knowing his time was better spent away from the damn building. Fucking cold. His fingers hurt finding handholds as he scaled the outer wall with unnatural dexterity, letting his magic hum. Shit, what had she meant by ‘we’, anyway? He wasn’t a ‘yes, sir’ kind of guy who followed other people’s leads. Even, if the thing on the soccer field didn’t give a crap who it was messing around with, she had definitely seen, seemed like.
With his flashlight tucked in his pants, the warlock crouched on the lip of the wall. Senna was standing down there, about four feet or so to his left. Even in the dark, the bow on her back was obvious. “Who’re you running from, me or Frosty the Snow Bitch?” he asked, poised with his hands dangling between his knees.
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She turned then, to look at him. She had to admit, he was fricking creepy like that, crouched like a gargoyle with those darker than night eyes. But like she would ever say that. Instead she watched him for a second, and resisted the urge to ask if she should be running from him. It seemed obvious he still had access to something, and that was more than her stupid breezes and teleporting.
In the end, she just went with a Senna response, complete with her curious tone. "So what's with the eyes, anyway?"
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He sprang off the ledge like there was nothing to fear jumping from a towering height onto steep, rocky ground, which, of course, there normally wasn't. Magic tended to pad death defying stunts of all kinds. As it was, his legs only throbbed a little bit; he barely felt it because of his Power. Or maybe because of adrenaline.
"Oh, so you did notice," came his rhetorical reply, while he casually brushed himself off and adjusted the fit of one fingerless glove. Shouldn't he be having a bigger reaction? Something? His training said he should, when a comment like 'what's with the eyes?' turned into burning stakes, and revealing himself as a witch was like the biggest cosmic no-no ever. But he just didn't particularly care. That deserved a laugh.
Whatever, it wasn't like any of these people were exactly normal, either, right? The girl in front of him could've been from the Jungle Book for all he knew.
"Can't say yours are very subtle, you know."
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Like power, tricks, whatever. For all she knew, his eyes just changed color.
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This joint isn't going to change that either, no way, no how.
"And yours aren't?" followed the question that wasn't really a question. For effect, he hid his hands in his pockets to mask his fidgeting, refusing to blink while he locked stares with her. People seemed to find it more freaky when someone was utterly still, an inclination Reid hadn't been born with. It took effort. "You're right, though, mine are cooler. Not scared, now are you? They're about the tamest thing about me."
Midnight eyes were just for show.
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He had skirted her question again. Surprise. But he had started this predator vibe that reminded her somewhat of earlier with her roommate. In this, it didn't matter what she said, but what she did. Survival took over. Senna stayed utterly still, like before, facing him; her voice staying naturally light. She wasn't a threat. "They are," she agreed. "That's why I asked. And scared? Nope. You're not my enemy." She managed a half grin. "So you're not a laid-back person?"
Had she talked too much? Said too little? With Falis, it was easy to understand the boundaries of predator and prey--she had fought the other girl, and in that, understood her. But Reid... had been a seemingly lad-back person that hated stuff as much as she did. She wasn't quite sure what was the right response.
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The one thing Reid was always sure of was where he stood on things, but there was an odd moment, just standing outside in the Institute in the dark, when he wasn’t even sure of that. Something odd in the exchange of words. Was he supposed to ask or was he going to tell? Was she coming or going? Why had he even given her a nod to join up with him in the first place? Enemies, friends… who talked like that? (But he knew who talked like that. Underdogs talked like that. And right now, they were the underdogs and Landel was somewhere laughing his head off about it.)
Why ask someone you probably suspected wasn’t human if they were laidback or not? Reid didn’t even know what laidback was supposed to mean in this context. Yes, ma’am, I can go with the flow, but I can turn buildings upside down if I want to.
He paused for a second more, then turned away a bit so that he was only partially facing her. “Depends. But I’ll only hit you if you hit me first,” said the warlock, brushing his nose with a knuckle. To him, it was supposed to be reassuring, thinking of Elle and how quick she’d gone off on him. He wasn’t like that. “Anyway. I’m heading this way. You still want to come or not?”
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She had wanted to check out the ruins he mentioned for weapons, but she had no idea where it was. "I'll follow." Wasn't like she had anyway to be. She was just out here for the fresh air.
...Right.
It didn't occur to Senna to repeat the sentiment of she wouldn't attack if he didn't. It seemed obvious, to her at least, that she wasn't going to try anything. She had little enough friends as it was, even friends that seemed to only tolerate her.
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It was a weird feeling, half wanting to know what she was thinking, half not caring what she thought about him.
Maybe she just a supporter of the buddy system.
He shrugged, his version of an ‘okay’. “Right then, I’m leading,” he said, turning his back completely as he began heading along the wall. Just because he was a rich private school kid didn’t mean he couldn’t tell his directions when out in the middle of nowhere--he could thank Gorman for that. East. East to the river, and then…
Something. Something had to change from him getting absolutely nowhere and getting dragged back inside come sunrise.
He set the pace at more of a run than a walk. Was she in fear of tripping on that outfit thing and breaking an ankle? That would make her bear bait, and part of Reid wanted to know if he was supposed to take responsibility in case she got hurt when tagging along as his little duckling. She wasn’t Tyler, after all.
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She glared at his back for a few minutes as they jogged, trying to think of some way to ask him questions that he would have to answer. Some way to trick him into explaining. Senna did have a loose nature in general, and not much got to her, but things like this... She was curious. And that he wouldn't explain outright made her more so.
After a bit, she spoke up again. "So what's it mean when your eyes change color like that?"
And so much for being sneaky. Ah, well, it was too troublesome anyway.
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And it just felt good, having magic, any amount of magic at his fingertips. Not great, not great at all knowing he was as weak (or weaker) as he was at thirteen, but good. How could any Son live without… this? Just living through the days here was fucking awful, and he could still feel his Power, even if he couldn’t get to it. Now, at night, he only had so much he could use before his body turned traitor on him, but the key was that he could use.
Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he had to remember not to use it all before he was sure he’d made an escape. It was getting harder and harder to keep the thought in mind.
Although the flashlight knocked against his hipbone every so often, Reid ignored it, content to pelt through the dark. Senna’s question seemed to come from a long ways off. So she was still keeping up? Wanting to know what made him tick? He let out a soft laugh, not really knowing what was so funny about it, himself.
“Ever seen this movie, The Covenant?” he said back. Maybe she wouldn’t catch the reply. Maybe he didn’t want her to. Maybe he did.
[to here]
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