SOL - Generation Eight - Chapter Five
Last time, Akta and Rome fought over Yasmin's wish to go to a supernatural boarding school. I've included a last time because, holy shit guys, it's been a while. I have had 0 motivation because I should have set built and stuff. Instead I put more effort into the writing than I did the pictures. Ah, well.
I should also mention that as this generation is heavily inspired by a series of books I read as a tween onwards, that a lot of the ideas and some of the characters, such as Kerry, are property of Robert Muchamore.
No real FC because I am lazy, yo.
“And you came to me for help?”
“Trust me,” Aktaion said dryly, “no one is more surprised than me.” He rested his chin on his hand and watched his mother across the table. She continued to look at him dubiously. Behind her, the sea sparkled. Gulls shrieked overhead. The sun hit the water perfectly; beautiful - but dazzling - light rippled across the calm surface.
Emily played with her fingers, cleaning out the dirt from her nails and scratching at old nail polish. “I don’t know, Akta. Rome... has a point.”
“I know he does,” Akta huffed. “My problem is that I don’t want Yasmin to get involved in this stuff. How can I convince him out of it?”
Emily screwed up her face. With a sudden pang in his chest, Akta noted how deep the wrinkles were becoming. He hadn’t expected the panic at seeing tangible evidence of how old his mother was. Still, her black hair seemed rather resistant to greys, which was more than Akta could say about his father - who he was arguably closer to.
“I think you shouldn’t try that...” Emily cleared her throat and eyed Aktaion’s expression carefully, nervous in case she touched one of the sore spots. Or, well, touched wasn’t the right word. Emily always seemed to find the worst things to say, and those things were more like sandpaper to an open wound. “Maybe... you should be convincing yourself into it.”
Akta took in a deep breath. His nostrils flared. The smell of sea salt and sea weed assaulted his olfactory senses. He sat back in his chair, fingernails tapping out a rapid beat on the table. “I’ll lose her,” he croaked.
Emily’s eyes dropped to the table. Akta had become accustomed to the guilt from his mother, but this was the first time he felt bad for always bringing up how much his teen years had ruined everything. “The likeliness of that is low...” She wetted dry lips. The salt in the air kept chapping them. “Besides, maybe you will lose her if you try to stifle what she wants to do.” Emily struggled to meet Akta’s gaze, but when she did she didn’t regret it. She could tell that Akta had known what she would say to this situation, and knew deep down that was the only solution. Sometimes it took an outside force to show these things. Emily knew that better than most.
“I’m so scared,” Akta said quietly, his voice cracking in the middle. He was no stranger to this feeling of panic - like everything he couldn’t control was slowly slipping from between his fingers, like sand - and slowly stretched out his fingers so his nails didn’t dig into his palms. He itched to bake something, but hadn’t been in the house all day. He’d barely slept, and the bright sun was reminding him of that. It felt like a bad hangover. Unfortunately, the night before hadn’t been as fun as most nights out would be.
“I was scared of a lot of things too,” Emily said quietly. Once again, her gaze dropped to her hands. Her throat worked as she swallowed. “For the love of God, don’t make the same mistake as I did. Don’t let the fear come between you and your family.”
Aktaion closed his eyes briefly, his lids orange from the brightness of the sun. He could feel the heat on his face. A sudden crash from the waves on the beach brought him out of his thoughts. He had no idea what to say; anything he could think of would break this moment of understanding between them. Although Akta considered his mother forgiven - largely - he had never understood her until now. He could easily see the two paths in front of him, and he’d be fucked if he took the same one as his mother.
He took a deep breath. The warm salty air caught in the back of his throat. “I’m going to go home,” he said, in a voice much unlike his. His mother nodded and reached out to squeeze his hand.
“Rome’s good for you, Aktaion. And if this thing does get dangerous, he’d pull her out. Trust in him, and the council.”
Akta stared down at her hand wrapped around his. He’d hugged Emily on several occasions, but this was far more personal on many levels. He twisted his hand around so that he could link their fingers, for a brief moment, and then he pulled away. Emily smiled at him.
“Thank you,” Akta told her softly.
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The gravel crunched under his feet. Akta rolled his shoulders and clutched the door handle, the sun-warmed metal covered by his hand. He shouldered open the door and was relieved by the whoosh of cooler air.
Akta opened his mouth and pulled in a breath to call out for Rome, but the smell of burned... what was that? Akta blinked as he saw Rome hissing swearwords at a pan. Akta couldn’t help but cough as the acrid stench caught in the back of his throat.
“Did you manage to burn pasta?” he asked incredulously, holding his hand up to his nose in an attempt to protect himself from the pervasive smell.
“What?!” Rome jumped and twisted around, flailing with a wooden spoon before letting it fall to the floor with a defeated sigh. “No.” He narrowed his eyes and grimaced at a hissing sound from the stove. “Shut up,” he said defensively.
Akta stared at him. Rome stared back. It took the tiniest twitch of Akta’s lips and they were both crying with laughter, Akta holding his sides and Rome holding the counter to keep himself upright.
“How did you manage that?” Akta said fondly, wandering around to the oven to glance at the miserable looking pan. He shook his head. “I’m going to have to replace that.” In his peripheral vision he saw Rome pout.
“Well, I didn’t know when you were returning. So. There.”
And suddenly the atmosphere wasn’t so light. Akta shuffled awkwardly between the stove and the counter as he placed the pan there to cool. He was about to clear his throat, ready to speak, when Rome beat him to it.
“I hate arguing with you,” he said quietly. Akta felt the tense worry leach out from his muscles when Rome placed his hand on Akta’s back. “Please don’t tell me I have to knock sense into you again.”
“I promise,” Akta croaked, “that you probably will have to do that at some point in the future, let’s face it.”
Rome laughed lightly, the breath moving the short hair by Akta’s chin and tickling him. He felt his husband’s lips press lightly against his skin below his ear.
“I’m sorry,” Akta murmured. “I was - still am - so scared but... I can’t let the fear get between us.”
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“No, you can’t,” Rome agreed softly. “But I also should have discussed it with you first. Yasmin launched it on you; you weren’t emotionally ready for that. Please let her do it, Akta. It means the world to her right now. She’ll probably get bored of it in a few years time. This place pushes the kids to be the best, but that means it might be too much work for her. Who knows?”
Akta swallowed his automatic response of ‘but what if she continues?’. They would face that if it happened. In the mean time, Yasmin would be in no danger, and she would attend one of the best boarding schools in the country. “Is she in?” Akta said.
“Not yet, she’s staying at Liam’s for dinner. I didn’t think feeding her burned pasta would be a good idea.”
Akta chuckled. Rome made a pleased sound and wrapped his arms around Akta’s chest, pressing them close. Akta could smell a slight hint of vanilla beneath the horrible burned smell.
“Come on then, chef, open the window and we’ll make something for dinner.”
“By ‘we make’ do you mean that you’ll make it, and I’ll just be your pretty distraction?” Rome asked doubtfully. “Because I’ll be much better at that, I promise.”
Akta snorted. “Trust me, I’m well aware of how distracting you can be.”
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They were sitting on the sofa together, watching the T.V. when Yasmin shoved the door open and skipped into the room. Her eyes brightened when she found her parents cuddled up to one another.
“Good afternoon, munchkin,” Akta said, smiling at her.
Yasmin pouted at him. “I’m not a munchkin!” she said furiously.
“A little bit of one,” Rome put in, holding his thumb and forefinger apart about an inch.
Yasmin huffed crossly.
“Do you have any homework?” Rome prompted.
“I did it at Liam’s!” Yasmin answered proudly. “And I helped him with his, too.”
“Do you still want to go to the boarding school, Yas?” Akta asked softly, rewarded by Rome squeezing his thigh in reassurance. Yasmin looked between them and then her gaze rested on Rome, as if waiting for some signal. He nodded at her and smiled.
She swallowed. “Yes?” she said meekly. After a second her eyes lit up. God, there was so much of Rome in her. “There’s an application thing on this weekend!”
“Shall we go to it?” Akta asked, ignoring how dry his mouth had become. “What is it?”
“It’s a weekend where parents can look around the school and the kids go through the first round of tests to see if they’re suitable to get in.”
“Ah,” Akta said with a sharp nod. “Yeah, let’s do... that. If you’d still like to Yasmin.”
“Yes!” she said, jumping up onto the balls of her feet. Her grin stretched from one side of her face to the other it was so wide. “I’d love to, daddy.”
“Okay, we’ll do that.” Akta swallowed and then cleared his throat. “I’m sorry for shouting last night, Yasmin. That wasn’t fair of me.”
“It’s okay, I understand,” Yasmin said sweetly. Akta assumed Rome had explained a little bit of Akta’s teen years in the morning, which was probably for the best.
“Why don’t you start making a bag for the weekend,” Rome prompted. Yasmin nodded happily and bounced upstairs. Almost immediately, Rome turned to his husband.
“I’m glad you did that,” he said softly. “I know it was hard, but I love for you it.”
Akta gave him a weak smile. “I can’t let the past affect the future anymore, right?”
“Exactly.” Pleased, Rome leaned forward and pressed his lips to Akta’s. “I, for one, am very happy to be sharing a bed with you again,” he said, voice low and rough. Akta twisted around to deepen the kiss, but a voice made them both shoot apart.
“Ew, a grown up kiss!”
Akta coughed awkwardly. Rome laughed until he cried.
Remy wondered what was wrong with his family when he entered the house a moment later.
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“Make sure you call every night, and look after yourself, and skype us, and -“
“Aktaion, it’ll be fine,” Rome said gently, putting a hand on his husband’s shoulder. Akta pouted up at him and then at their little girl, who was rolling her eyes. “We’ll miss you, Yas, but we’ll see you next weekend, alright?”
“Yeah!” Yasmin said happily, going up on her tiptoes to hug them both. She pretended not to hear her father sniffing tears back. They were so embarrassing...
Rome pulled away and then tugged Akta to do the same. Akta watched, forlorn, as Yasmin skipped off into the building. “I don’t want to do this anymore...” he whined.
Rome sighed. “Think of it this way, we now have the house to ourselves...”
Behind them, Remy cleared his throat. “Not quite, you assholes.”
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Yasmin skipped into the entrance and immediately found the receptionist. She smiled down at the girl, recognising her from their open weekend, and leaned over her desk. “Hello, Yasmin. If you wait here for a couple of minutes, the head mistress will be on her way to show you to your room shortly.”
Yasmin wanted to squeal with excitement but managed to clamp her jaws shut. She had to make a good impression here. She had to be calm and collected. She had to be a bit more like daddy Akta than papa Rome.
The head mistress rounded the corner at that moment. She was tall and her hair was blonde and pulled back into a ponytail. The woman looked quite casually dressed, which was different to how Yasmin remembered her on the open weekend.
“Yasmin, your luggage has just arrived too. We’ll send it up to your room in a few minutes. My name is Chloe, and I’m the headmistress here.”
Yasmin nodded along; she remembered this from the open weekend. Chloe hadn’t been there during her induction tests - her academic skills were tested, as were her endurance and swimming abilities. It had been explained that they would train her to a high level in multiple skills so that she could pass the final tests to become a real agent when she was ten or eleven. She’d also have to get several shots for when she went to exotic places, which she wasn’t looking forward to so much.
Chloe chatted amicably as she led Yasmin to the kids’ block. Yasmin looked around the campus. The building she had just walked from looked like it was all offices. There was a large expanse of lawn and then, off to the side, the kids’ block. It was away from the two largest buildings, which Chloe explained were the classrooms for the older kids, and their accommodation block. There were other buildings that she pointed out as they made their way down; the world class dojo, the Olympic sized swimming pool and the canteen.
Yasmin was led up to the second floor. She looked into her room and gasped. It was so cool! It was way bigger than her room at home, too, and it even had a TV and a laptop!
“Before you’re a qualified agent, you don’t have a uniform to wear. Those you see wearing the uniform are qualified agents. I need to remind you that you signed a contract with us saying that you will keep the location and this facility a secret from everyone outside, not including your parents, and I must also stress that your identity should also be kept secret, or you won’t be able to become a qualified agent. If you’re in a video online, for example, that’s a danger for people to know your face and recognise you, and the Board won’t allow it. This also means you need to conduct yourself professionally when you are outside this facility, so as not to attract attention.”
“Will you show me around?” Yasmin asked with wide eyes. She had been told all this before, so it didn’t interest her. Chloe smiled.
“Your personal handler will come by soon and introduce themselves. They will have one of their qualified agents show you around, so you can ask any question you like.”
Yasmin bounced a little before remembering she should keep herself cool, and quickly stopped. “Okay,” she said instead, when it became apparent Chloe was waiting for an answer.
The headmistress smiled again and stepped back to let the luggage trolley into the room. “I’ll leave you to unpack, unless you have any questions?”
Yasmin had a million questions, but there were too many to short out and she became flustered and shook her head. Chloe waved and began to walk down the corridor. As the man left the luggage trolley in her room, a boy peeked out from the room opposite.
“Hey,” he said, mouth full. “I was wondering when they were going to fill that room up.”
“Are there a lot of empty rooms?”
“Sure are. Most parents don’t want to let their kids come along here,” he said, and Yasmin remembered her father’s reaction. “And there aren’t a huge number of supernatural orphans about.”
So they used orphans here? Yasmin wanted to ask more, but instead settled with his name.
“Mickey,” he said, finally swallowing whatever he had been eating. He brushed crumbs off his fingers and onto the floor. “Knock on my door later, if you want. I have some playstation games.”
This time, Yasmin did let herself show her excitement. She guessed he wouldn’t mind, and he didn’t; in fact, he laughed. “That sounds awesome! Thank you!” she gushed. A friend already!
Mickey disappeared back into his room and Yasmin rushed the unpacking process as much as she could. Another knock at the door alerted Yasmin to her handler. She turned around and smiled at the man.
“Hey, Yasmin,” he greeted. “My name is Abel Losa, and I’m your handler. How are you settling in?”
“Fine!” she said, and quickly remembered not to bounce about like she wanted to. “When do I get told my school stuff?”
“Ah, I have your timetable. I’ll go through it with you.” He perched on her sofa and waited until she settle down next to her. “You have all the usual subjects, such as English, Maths, Science and Social Science. You also have French and, as we expect all agents here to learn a language not in their native alphabet, you’re learning Mandarin. Gym lessons include swimming and martial arts, as well as endurance training. On top of that, you will be cycled through different classes related to espionage, such as introductions to hacking. I know it sounds like a lot, but these are fairly basic, and it will prepare you for the large workload if you continue in the school. Obviously, the qualified agents go off on two or three missions a year, and so need to be on an accelerated programme to make up for what they’ve missed.”
Yasmin looked at her schedule with wide eyes. Wednesday afternoons were free, but as a trade off, Saturday mornings weren’t! She wanted to complain, but didn’t want to seem immature, so nodded instead.
Abel smiled and looked up as a figure stopped by the door. “Yasmin, this is Kerry. Kerry is one of our qualified agents, and she’s going to show you around the campus and take any questions you have. Alright?”
Yasmin nodded exactly how she had practised in the mirror; calmly. Kerry smiled at her and beckoned her forward.
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The campus tour took almost three hours. Luckily, they had a buggy to drive about in (and Kerry had told Yas she would learn to drive once she was thirteen). She got to see the areas further away that she hadn’t looked at before, including the gun range and the large compound that she would do her final tests in.
“A lot of people will try to scare you about those one hundred days in there,” Kerry told her, “and don’t listen to them. It’s hell, I’m not going to lie, but once you’ve been through that you know you can do anything.”
“What’s it like?”
“They push you to your limit in every way. Exhaustion and bad B.O becomes the norm,” she laughed. “I had to do it three times, because I hurt my knee on one of the last days of the training. Means you’ve got to do it all over again. No contact with the outside, either.”
“How did you hurt your knee?”
“I was parachuting down to a land spot. It’s what you tend to do at the end. There’s a two or three day exam, if you like, to test what you’ve learned during the basic training. I think last year they went to Alaska, or something. In my year we went to a tropical rainforest. You gotta decode instructions and use a map, as well as making it to the next point before the time is up, all the while keeping yourself as hydrated and fed based on what you can do with the land.” She shook her head. “Like I said, it’s worth it. You know you can survive anything after that.”
“Has anything bad happened in the missions? This is new, isn’t it?” Yasmin began to feel panic creeping up.
Kerry smiled. “Don’t worry about it, you won’t be put into missions you can’t deal with. Besides, this is built on the foundation of several similar projects that the human governments have done, all over. You know they used kid spies in world war two?”
“Really?” Yasmin gasped.
“Uh huh. It started in France. Anyway, you’ll be fine. Here we are. If you need anything, you remember which room was mine?”
“Yeah, thank you!”
“No problem. Have fun!” Kerry called, before turning the buggy around and driving away.
Yasmin skipped back to her room and then, on a spur of the moment decision, knocked on Mickey’s door. He opened it almost immediately and brightened up when he saw her. “Want to play some FIFA with me and Josh?”
“Sure!” Yasmin grinned. She’d played that game with Liam a bit, and it was kind of fun. She was more looking forward to making friends, and happily sat between the two boys and ate their snacks.
It wasn’t home yet, not by a long shot, but she could see it becoming one.
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What is this? A SOL chapter with no drama??? I'm losing my touch.
Also, did I use a roller coaster seat for the golf buggy?? why yes, yes i did. fight me.