PPC Mission: Assassinating Amethyst
At long last, a new mission - which technically is an old mission in terms of the timeline, but what can you do? Suffice to say this Agent pair have been around a while, even if I'm only just now beginning to demonstrate it.
Disclaimer: The PPC originates with Jay and Acacia, Harry Potter exists to do missions for courtesy of J.K. Rowling, and Forgotten Realms drow and other D&D content belong to TSR, Inc. and Wizards of the Coast. The fic in question, Silver and Amethyst, belongs to MoniqueElle, who can keep it.
Thanks to cassie5squared for betaing.
Content: Pretty standard PPC content; facepalm-worthy fic, some violence, a bit of bad language.
Mission: Assassinating Amethyst
Early September '09, HST
Wade Andrews slouched back to his RC, already feeling moodier. His last partner, Sonya, had just retired, and he’d heard enough horror stories to doubt that he’d get as friendly a partner the second time around.
The teenager swore under his breath. Sometimes this place made him wonder why he hadn’t gone back to Sydney - Cazza and Frog would still be there, they could go back to working on that band and partying until the cops came about the noise... Or at least, they could if Cazza no longer wanted to punch his face in for hitting on Lucy - Wade shook his head. It wasn’t his fault Cazza’s sister had grown up pretty hot after all, for all they’d called her Stringbean when she was younger.
He snorted quietly. No, he probably couldn’t just go home yet. Maybe later, though. He promised himself he’d go home later. Once things have settled down.
The RC door had barely closed behind him when there was a knock on it from outside. Wade halted, already on his way to his stereo, and turned around. He opened the door -
Wade stared. The... person, who stepped through the doorway, forcing him to back up, was just plain weird-looking. Long white hair, jet-black skin, red eyes, pointed ears... Wade blinked three times. The first blink confirmed that yes, he was seeing what he thought he saw. The second blink helped him register how much shorter and thinner than him the newcomer was. The third blink, on the other hand, resolved the question of whether the newcomer was male or female. He’d have called the guy androgynous, if Wade had ever used the word before in his life. Since he hadn’t, he settled for ‘pretty-boy,’ along with a few other mental descriptors he’d never have said aloud.
“Okay... who are you, what are you, and what are you doing in my RC?” he asked, at last.
The answer came with a mocking lift of one white brow. “My name is Mazarun Zothyrr, of House Zothyrr in Menzoberranzan. I am a drow. I am also, incidentally, your new partner, apparently. Will this suffice, or must I repeat myself with explanatory footnotes?”
Wade bristled a little at the derision in the light, oddly-accented voice. “No,” he snapped, “I got that just fine. New, are you?”
“Somewhat. Rest assured I have been put through what appears to pass for training in this place, and have sufficient existing combat experience for the task, unless they were lying more than is customary about the difficulty level.” That mocking red gaze surveyed Wade again, and Mazarun continued, “I doubt this is the case, if humans survive it for any length of time.”
Wade scowled, and turned on his stereo, Amon Amarth blasting at full volume. Only because he was looking back over his shoulder did he see Mazarun cringe back against the wall, hands clamped over his ears, a grimace of pain on his face. He turned the stereo off again. “What the hell’s wrong with you?”
Mazarun glared at him, gradually lowering his hands. “How can you inflict such loud noises upon yourself? You must be insane.”
“Hey, this is good music,” Wade protested. “It needs to be up loud to get the full effect.” Sonya had never protested Wade’s preferred stereo volume, he reflected sourly. She’d said it was good to be able to hear it at all. He took another look at his new partner’s pointed ears. Drow, then, were some extra-freaky kind of elf. Just his luck, trading a partially-deaf partner for one who could probably hear a mouse across a football stadium or something, he thought, scowling.
Mazarun shrugged, and set down what looked to be some kind of backpack in one corner. As Wade watched, he pulled out a number of items, including several weapons that should not have fit in a bag that size. “If you touch my belongings I will kill you,” Mazarun commented pleasantly.
Wade just stared. “What the hell’s up with that bag?” Belatedly, he added, “And don’t threaten me. I don’t care about your stuff.”
“Handy Haversack. Don’t tell me you don’t have magic where you’re from.” Mazarun turned away dismissively.
Whatever reply Wade might have given was drowned out by the Console’s ‘BEEEEEEEP!’, and he had the somewhat petty pleasure of watching Mazarun wince and cover his ears again. Finally, he hit the button, cutting off the piercing sound. “Huh. That’s a short one. They make you read Harry Potter during training, or am I gonna have to spot all the mistakes myself?”
“Yes, actually, they did.”
“Okay. Let’s get this crap over with. All in Slytherin, so the disguises ought to fit you just fine.” Wade busied himself setting up the portal. “Come on.”
“I have to be human?” As the disguise was applied, Mazarun stared down at his hands, with an expression of extreme disgust. While still dark-skinned, he was now rather more within the usual human standards of complexion, and the hair he proceeded to pull down in front of his eyes for inspection was black.
“You could be a house-elf if you wanted,” Wade offered, snickering. He, by contrast, retained his own light skin and medium-brown dreadlocks.
“Let’s go.” Mazarun’s tone was icy.
They stepped through the portal into the Slytherin common-room, and immediately were forced to hide in one of the doorways leading out into the dorms, since the room was supposed to be almost empty.
6th year Draco's eyes scanned the seemingly empty fire-lit common room. It appeared there was but one person in the room. She was an attractive female Draco didn't recognize.
“And there’s our Sue,” Wade muttered, flipping open a note-pad in preparation for the charges to come.
Her honey colored hair fell to her waist in gentile ringlets. She seemed to be staring into the fire.
“So her hair’s not Jewish... how about the rest of her?” Wade was scribbling away. “At least it said it was only the colour of honey, or there’d be a hell of a mess to clean up.”
He waltzed in front the couch the girl was sitting on. He smoothly placed himself next to her on the cushions. The girl didn't acknowledge his presence. He shifted a little closer to her, so he was almost on top of her, and placed his arm around her shoulders. She gave no response.
Mazarun’s sulky expression contorted as he fought back laughter. “Does that happen often?” he whispered, apparently diverted from his bad mood by the sight of Draco dancing across the room.
“You have no idea.” Wade rolled his eyes.
"I don't remember seeing you before. I would think I'd never forget a girl as hot as you." He said to her with a sexy smirk. "What's your name beautiful?" Draco asked her. The girl looked at him now. Her eyes were a combination of silver and violet. They were the most unique, most beautiful things he had ever seen.
“Weeeeeeird,” Wade observed, drawing the word out to better express his mood.
“If he is so wealthy, surely he has seen far more impressive things than an eye-colour that could probably be handled by a cheap illusion,” Mazarun noted.
“Definitely.” Wade paused, then shook his head a little. Apparently there were points upon which he and his new partner agreed. He remembered something Sonya had told him, when he was new; ‘Plenty of us can’t stand each other. But nobody can stand a Sue, so hating them comes first. Bitching about other Agents can wait.’
They listened as the Sue identified herself as ‘Amethyst.’ “Can we charge for that?” Wade wondered to himself. “It’s not the weirdest Pureblood name out there, given she’s talking to a guy named after a dragon...”
Then, suddenly, they were thrown into a flashback.
He first saw her on the train to Hogwarts their first year. Then, she had been a pale, frail, rather pathetic looking girl. Her platinum blonde hair was flat, as was her chest. Her eyes were empty, and colored a dark, dreary gray...
“Guess the emptiness is just in her skull now,” Wade commented, shrugging.
When it came to be time for her to be sorted into one of the houses, the Sorting Hat merely sat upon her head. Silently, lifelessly.
“Maybe it knows she doesn’t belong,” Mazarun whispered.
The crowd of students looked around at each other in confusion. She looked unfazed. After a good, long minute, the girl spoke for the Hat, and, quietly but confidently declared one word, "Slytherin". Draco didn't think choosing your own house was allowed.
“It isn’t.” Wade added an extra charge on his note-pad.
The rest of the school seemed to think the same way he did. The students began trading off between whispering amongst themselves to staring at her. She got up from the stool, and began slowly walking toward the Slytherin table as the crowd hushed. No one had EVER declared what house they were in. Oddly enough, the Hogwarts staff didn't do as much as raise an eyebrow. They seemed completely fine with the girl's action. The girl sat down at the Slytherin table, and the sorting continued...
“Oh, of course the teachers are fine with it. Bet the Suethor had some sort of special destiny in mind for her Sue. Fuck!” Wade cursed as they were thrown unceremoniously out of the flashback, landing back in the doorway, his head colliding with the stone.
Neither the Sue nor Draco noticed. They seemed to be far too busy staring at each other while the Sue replied to Draco’s unspoken comments.
"Yes, you're beautiful now" Draco drawled. "Shit! That was NOT the right thing to say!" he thought angrily to himself. Amethyst laughed. Draco was amazed. That was the first time he had seen her smile. Her teeth belonged on a toothpaste commercial. "What is so amusing?" he asked her.
“If her teeth belong elsewhere, yank them out and put them there,” Mazarun suggested in a helpful whisper. It went unheard, of course, the only partly verbal conversation continuing.
"Good at reading people?" he asked her.
"You could say that." She responded. He was still staring into her eyes, transfixed by their beauty.
"Thank you" she said.
"For what?" he asked.
"You think I have beautiful eyes."
"I didn't say that..."
"You thought it," She retorted.
“Stupid pointless mind-reading... Who taught her Legilimency? And I swear Draco knew Occlumency by this point...” Wade frowned.
“He’s planning to kill someone, and this girl’s reading his thoughts,” Mazarun put in. “He shouldn’t be taking this so casually. If anything I’d expect him to get away from her until he can work out if he needs to dump her body in the lake.” The drow tilted his head. “He should be testing his ability to kill on the security risk.”
“Creepy but right.” Wade nodded.
"Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a potions exam to study for."
"But it's the first day of school, we haven't even had classes yet!" he thought.
"It's never too early to prepare." She said. Then she began gliding away.
“We can get her once she’s outside the common-room,” Wade noted. With that in mind, he opened a portal to the corridor.
"What a weirdo." Draco thought.
"You're just as weird as I am." she said over her shoulder.
She left him there in the common room pondering.
As the Sue stepped out, she found herself being grabbed by two Slytherin boys who stepped from nowhere. One of them gagged her with a few folds of her own robes, with quiet efficiency.
The other held up a note-pad. “Amethyst, you’re charged with having stupidly-coloured eyes that fascinate Draco more than they should; making me have to think about your name longer than I wanted to; having a dramatic transformation in looks just to get attention; choosing your own House; causing the teachers to be fine with your choice; pointlessly emphasising that your hair’s not Jewish via stupid typo; trying to score Draco by doing bugger-all except just sitting there like an idiot; having him fall over himself to get to know you; reading his thoughts with no decent explanation; keeping him from reacting as he should to having his thoughts read when he’s planning stuff he wouldn’t want found out; being annoying; making me pad the charge list by not bothering to do much; and being a Mary Sue. That means you die.” He shrugged. “Any last words?”
“Mmmf!” the Sue protested through the improvised gag.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Wade looked at Mazarun. “You want to handle it, or will I?”
Mazarun surveyed the Sue in his grip a moment longer, and then let go.
Amethyst ran, eyes wide with terror. Just as she thought she might be able to get away, a sharp pain made itself known in her back. Her limbs felt heavier, suddenly. She didn’t even reach the bend in the corridor before collapsing, Mazarun’s crossbow bolt still protruding from her back.
“A sporting chance,” he commented with a strange little laugh. “Too bad she doesn’t run fast enough.” With that, he walked over to the unconscious Sue and slit her throat.
“You are really fucking creepy,” Wade commented, reluctantly coming over to portal the body away. Some distance away, Voldemort’s Inferi-filled cave suddenly gained another corpse.
“We are done, then?” Mazarun asked.
“Just a moment.” Wade returned to the common-room, to neuralyse Draco. There was a brief flash of light. “Okay, you never met a girl called Amethyst, and you’re way too busy to care about chicks with freaky eyes right now.” With that, he portalled out again. Mazarun was still waiting there in the corridor. “Now we’re done.” Wade opened the portal back to his RC.
Once back, Mazarun looked visibly relieved to have the disguise gone. “That,” he said precisely, “was so little of a challenge it was hardly worth the time it took.”
“Be glad of that. It was short and we didn’t have to do much. Better than the alternative.” Wade slipped into the bathroom for a shower.
When he returned to the main segment of the RC, he was startled to discover the lights were out. The disadvantages of his usual method of storing clothes quickly became apparent, as he tripped over a jacket he’d left on the floor. “Ow! Fuck... Why’s it so dark?”
“Bright lights are uncomfortable and unnecessary. It’s not my fault your low-light vision is poor.”
As Wade clambered to his feet, trying to disentangle himself from his jacket without falling over again, he heard a quiet snicker. The teenager muttered a few more words that would have had his mother threatening to wash his mouth out with soap. Why couldn’t he still have Sonya as a partner?
Disclaimer: The PPC originates with Jay and Acacia, Harry Potter exists to do missions for courtesy of J.K. Rowling, and Forgotten Realms drow and other D&D content belong to TSR, Inc. and Wizards of the Coast. The fic in question, Silver and Amethyst, belongs to MoniqueElle, who can keep it.
Thanks to cassie5squared for betaing.
Content: Pretty standard PPC content; facepalm-worthy fic, some violence, a bit of bad language.
Mission: Assassinating Amethyst
Early September '09, HST
Wade Andrews slouched back to his RC, already feeling moodier. His last partner, Sonya, had just retired, and he’d heard enough horror stories to doubt that he’d get as friendly a partner the second time around.
The teenager swore under his breath. Sometimes this place made him wonder why he hadn’t gone back to Sydney - Cazza and Frog would still be there, they could go back to working on that band and partying until the cops came about the noise... Or at least, they could if Cazza no longer wanted to punch his face in for hitting on Lucy - Wade shook his head. It wasn’t his fault Cazza’s sister had grown up pretty hot after all, for all they’d called her Stringbean when she was younger.
He snorted quietly. No, he probably couldn’t just go home yet. Maybe later, though. He promised himself he’d go home later. Once things have settled down.
The RC door had barely closed behind him when there was a knock on it from outside. Wade halted, already on his way to his stereo, and turned around. He opened the door -
Wade stared. The... person, who stepped through the doorway, forcing him to back up, was just plain weird-looking. Long white hair, jet-black skin, red eyes, pointed ears... Wade blinked three times. The first blink confirmed that yes, he was seeing what he thought he saw. The second blink helped him register how much shorter and thinner than him the newcomer was. The third blink, on the other hand, resolved the question of whether the newcomer was male or female. He’d have called the guy androgynous, if Wade had ever used the word before in his life. Since he hadn’t, he settled for ‘pretty-boy,’ along with a few other mental descriptors he’d never have said aloud.
“Okay... who are you, what are you, and what are you doing in my RC?” he asked, at last.
The answer came with a mocking lift of one white brow. “My name is Mazarun Zothyrr, of House Zothyrr in Menzoberranzan. I am a drow. I am also, incidentally, your new partner, apparently. Will this suffice, or must I repeat myself with explanatory footnotes?”
Wade bristled a little at the derision in the light, oddly-accented voice. “No,” he snapped, “I got that just fine. New, are you?”
“Somewhat. Rest assured I have been put through what appears to pass for training in this place, and have sufficient existing combat experience for the task, unless they were lying more than is customary about the difficulty level.” That mocking red gaze surveyed Wade again, and Mazarun continued, “I doubt this is the case, if humans survive it for any length of time.”
Wade scowled, and turned on his stereo, Amon Amarth blasting at full volume. Only because he was looking back over his shoulder did he see Mazarun cringe back against the wall, hands clamped over his ears, a grimace of pain on his face. He turned the stereo off again. “What the hell’s wrong with you?”
Mazarun glared at him, gradually lowering his hands. “How can you inflict such loud noises upon yourself? You must be insane.”
“Hey, this is good music,” Wade protested. “It needs to be up loud to get the full effect.” Sonya had never protested Wade’s preferred stereo volume, he reflected sourly. She’d said it was good to be able to hear it at all. He took another look at his new partner’s pointed ears. Drow, then, were some extra-freaky kind of elf. Just his luck, trading a partially-deaf partner for one who could probably hear a mouse across a football stadium or something, he thought, scowling.
Mazarun shrugged, and set down what looked to be some kind of backpack in one corner. As Wade watched, he pulled out a number of items, including several weapons that should not have fit in a bag that size. “If you touch my belongings I will kill you,” Mazarun commented pleasantly.
Wade just stared. “What the hell’s up with that bag?” Belatedly, he added, “And don’t threaten me. I don’t care about your stuff.”
“Handy Haversack. Don’t tell me you don’t have magic where you’re from.” Mazarun turned away dismissively.
Whatever reply Wade might have given was drowned out by the Console’s ‘BEEEEEEEP!’, and he had the somewhat petty pleasure of watching Mazarun wince and cover his ears again. Finally, he hit the button, cutting off the piercing sound. “Huh. That’s a short one. They make you read Harry Potter during training, or am I gonna have to spot all the mistakes myself?”
“Yes, actually, they did.”
“Okay. Let’s get this crap over with. All in Slytherin, so the disguises ought to fit you just fine.” Wade busied himself setting up the portal. “Come on.”
“I have to be human?” As the disguise was applied, Mazarun stared down at his hands, with an expression of extreme disgust. While still dark-skinned, he was now rather more within the usual human standards of complexion, and the hair he proceeded to pull down in front of his eyes for inspection was black.
“You could be a house-elf if you wanted,” Wade offered, snickering. He, by contrast, retained his own light skin and medium-brown dreadlocks.
“Let’s go.” Mazarun’s tone was icy.
They stepped through the portal into the Slytherin common-room, and immediately were forced to hide in one of the doorways leading out into the dorms, since the room was supposed to be almost empty.
6th year Draco's eyes scanned the seemingly empty fire-lit common room. It appeared there was but one person in the room. She was an attractive female Draco didn't recognize.
“And there’s our Sue,” Wade muttered, flipping open a note-pad in preparation for the charges to come.
Her honey colored hair fell to her waist in gentile ringlets. She seemed to be staring into the fire.
“So her hair’s not Jewish... how about the rest of her?” Wade was scribbling away. “At least it said it was only the colour of honey, or there’d be a hell of a mess to clean up.”
He waltzed in front the couch the girl was sitting on. He smoothly placed himself next to her on the cushions. The girl didn't acknowledge his presence. He shifted a little closer to her, so he was almost on top of her, and placed his arm around her shoulders. She gave no response.
Mazarun’s sulky expression contorted as he fought back laughter. “Does that happen often?” he whispered, apparently diverted from his bad mood by the sight of Draco dancing across the room.
“You have no idea.” Wade rolled his eyes.
"I don't remember seeing you before. I would think I'd never forget a girl as hot as you." He said to her with a sexy smirk. "What's your name beautiful?" Draco asked her. The girl looked at him now. Her eyes were a combination of silver and violet. They were the most unique, most beautiful things he had ever seen.
“Weeeeeeird,” Wade observed, drawing the word out to better express his mood.
“If he is so wealthy, surely he has seen far more impressive things than an eye-colour that could probably be handled by a cheap illusion,” Mazarun noted.
“Definitely.” Wade paused, then shook his head a little. Apparently there were points upon which he and his new partner agreed. He remembered something Sonya had told him, when he was new; ‘Plenty of us can’t stand each other. But nobody can stand a Sue, so hating them comes first. Bitching about other Agents can wait.’
They listened as the Sue identified herself as ‘Amethyst.’ “Can we charge for that?” Wade wondered to himself. “It’s not the weirdest Pureblood name out there, given she’s talking to a guy named after a dragon...”
Then, suddenly, they were thrown into a flashback.
He first saw her on the train to Hogwarts their first year. Then, she had been a pale, frail, rather pathetic looking girl. Her platinum blonde hair was flat, as was her chest. Her eyes were empty, and colored a dark, dreary gray...
“Guess the emptiness is just in her skull now,” Wade commented, shrugging.
When it came to be time for her to be sorted into one of the houses, the Sorting Hat merely sat upon her head. Silently, lifelessly.
“Maybe it knows she doesn’t belong,” Mazarun whispered.
The crowd of students looked around at each other in confusion. She looked unfazed. After a good, long minute, the girl spoke for the Hat, and, quietly but confidently declared one word, "Slytherin". Draco didn't think choosing your own house was allowed.
“It isn’t.” Wade added an extra charge on his note-pad.
The rest of the school seemed to think the same way he did. The students began trading off between whispering amongst themselves to staring at her. She got up from the stool, and began slowly walking toward the Slytherin table as the crowd hushed. No one had EVER declared what house they were in. Oddly enough, the Hogwarts staff didn't do as much as raise an eyebrow. They seemed completely fine with the girl's action. The girl sat down at the Slytherin table, and the sorting continued...
“Oh, of course the teachers are fine with it. Bet the Suethor had some sort of special destiny in mind for her Sue. Fuck!” Wade cursed as they were thrown unceremoniously out of the flashback, landing back in the doorway, his head colliding with the stone.
Neither the Sue nor Draco noticed. They seemed to be far too busy staring at each other while the Sue replied to Draco’s unspoken comments.
"Yes, you're beautiful now" Draco drawled. "Shit! That was NOT the right thing to say!" he thought angrily to himself. Amethyst laughed. Draco was amazed. That was the first time he had seen her smile. Her teeth belonged on a toothpaste commercial. "What is so amusing?" he asked her.
“If her teeth belong elsewhere, yank them out and put them there,” Mazarun suggested in a helpful whisper. It went unheard, of course, the only partly verbal conversation continuing.
"Good at reading people?" he asked her.
"You could say that." She responded. He was still staring into her eyes, transfixed by their beauty.
"Thank you" she said.
"For what?" he asked.
"You think I have beautiful eyes."
"I didn't say that..."
"You thought it," She retorted.
“Stupid pointless mind-reading... Who taught her Legilimency? And I swear Draco knew Occlumency by this point...” Wade frowned.
“He’s planning to kill someone, and this girl’s reading his thoughts,” Mazarun put in. “He shouldn’t be taking this so casually. If anything I’d expect him to get away from her until he can work out if he needs to dump her body in the lake.” The drow tilted his head. “He should be testing his ability to kill on the security risk.”
“Creepy but right.” Wade nodded.
"Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a potions exam to study for."
"But it's the first day of school, we haven't even had classes yet!" he thought.
"It's never too early to prepare." She said. Then she began gliding away.
“We can get her once she’s outside the common-room,” Wade noted. With that in mind, he opened a portal to the corridor.
"What a weirdo." Draco thought.
"You're just as weird as I am." she said over her shoulder.
She left him there in the common room pondering.
As the Sue stepped out, she found herself being grabbed by two Slytherin boys who stepped from nowhere. One of them gagged her with a few folds of her own robes, with quiet efficiency.
The other held up a note-pad. “Amethyst, you’re charged with having stupidly-coloured eyes that fascinate Draco more than they should; making me have to think about your name longer than I wanted to; having a dramatic transformation in looks just to get attention; choosing your own House; causing the teachers to be fine with your choice; pointlessly emphasising that your hair’s not Jewish via stupid typo; trying to score Draco by doing bugger-all except just sitting there like an idiot; having him fall over himself to get to know you; reading his thoughts with no decent explanation; keeping him from reacting as he should to having his thoughts read when he’s planning stuff he wouldn’t want found out; being annoying; making me pad the charge list by not bothering to do much; and being a Mary Sue. That means you die.” He shrugged. “Any last words?”
“Mmmf!” the Sue protested through the improvised gag.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Wade looked at Mazarun. “You want to handle it, or will I?”
Mazarun surveyed the Sue in his grip a moment longer, and then let go.
Amethyst ran, eyes wide with terror. Just as she thought she might be able to get away, a sharp pain made itself known in her back. Her limbs felt heavier, suddenly. She didn’t even reach the bend in the corridor before collapsing, Mazarun’s crossbow bolt still protruding from her back.
“A sporting chance,” he commented with a strange little laugh. “Too bad she doesn’t run fast enough.” With that, he walked over to the unconscious Sue and slit her throat.
“You are really fucking creepy,” Wade commented, reluctantly coming over to portal the body away. Some distance away, Voldemort’s Inferi-filled cave suddenly gained another corpse.
“We are done, then?” Mazarun asked.
“Just a moment.” Wade returned to the common-room, to neuralyse Draco. There was a brief flash of light. “Okay, you never met a girl called Amethyst, and you’re way too busy to care about chicks with freaky eyes right now.” With that, he portalled out again. Mazarun was still waiting there in the corridor. “Now we’re done.” Wade opened the portal back to his RC.
Once back, Mazarun looked visibly relieved to have the disguise gone. “That,” he said precisely, “was so little of a challenge it was hardly worth the time it took.”
“Be glad of that. It was short and we didn’t have to do much. Better than the alternative.” Wade slipped into the bathroom for a shower.
When he returned to the main segment of the RC, he was startled to discover the lights were out. The disadvantages of his usual method of storing clothes quickly became apparent, as he tripped over a jacket he’d left on the floor. “Ow! Fuck... Why’s it so dark?”
“Bright lights are uncomfortable and unnecessary. It’s not my fault your low-light vision is poor.”
As Wade clambered to his feet, trying to disentangle himself from his jacket without falling over again, he heard a quiet snicker. The teenager muttered a few more words that would have had his mother threatening to wash his mouth out with soap. Why couldn’t he still have Sonya as a partner?