Chapter Twenty-Seven: Une Nuit en Ville III
1433 Words
“Guys, you are too gloomy….” Calvin drawled after they had walked for almost thirty minutes down the street without so much as a word to each other, “look at the night.”
He said, clearly trying his best to shift everyone's focus from their miseries.
“Tonight,” he said slowly as he placed his hand on both Aleu and Lucy’s shoulder, “you are not a student, even though you have your uniform on.”
He then turned to Aleu.
“And you are not yet a walking corpse-,”
But before he had the opportunity to continue, Lucy threw her knee to his stomach.
“Uuh! okay,” he said between sharp breath intakes, “T-to soon…?”
As he spoke his last question, his voice sounded shrill and forced.
Calvin's hands had left their shoulder easily to soothe his stomach, an act which only served to increase the sound of Aleu’s deep chuckle as he praised his sister.
“I think I understand what Calvin is saying,” Lucy mumbled.
“A…n..d n...not a m…moment sooner?” Calvin hissed his sarcastic comment through the pain, causing Lucy to flinch her body in a taunting manner.
He took a step back from her, and she smirked.
“That’s what I thought.” She mouthed to him, but rather than pursue her victory; she turned to Aleu.
“Okay!! I won't try to change your mind or…complicate things further. I just want to know how you feel about all this.” she insisted.
In the same beat, she hastily ate her last dango then forcefully shoved the empty sticky skewer down Calvin’s shirt.
Ignoring Calvin’s protests, Lucy turned to Aleu, then took his much larger and tanner hands in hers, and for the first time, the difference in their statures echoed within her.
After all, Lucy had been unsure whether Aleu coming clean about his insecurities would make the ever-present tragic hero seem smaller, or if instead, it would cripple the insecurity of feeling useless, rooted by years of always having to depend on the ever-present hero for rescue.
Of course, she was grateful for him. However, what lessons can one possibly learn if all their battles were fought?
That was part of the reason she loved the academy, sure some kids were awful, but she could build her own identity and get to understand herself better.
“Please?” she pleaded to her brother, but more than him spilling his secrets, she needed to know where she stood, “I’d just hate it if something were to happen to you and-”
“I don’t –” Aleu sighed, making her heart flutter with relief as the knowledge that he trusted her sunk in, “I don’t know how I feel about all this. On the one hand, Fuscia will be in the palace. I mean, as long as she hasn’t already been sent away, I get to see her again. In addition, you, mum and Calv are all here… So, I don’t even have a need to go back to Nissa.”
He paused.
“But, on the other, Fuscia’s stay is temporary. Once the reason for the summoning has been resolved, she goes back to Nissa, and the gods only know what the duke asked her to do.” Aleu’s frown deepened, “what if she complies and he uses her in his plans then discards her? Or…or what if Fuscia refuses to comply with the duke’s whims and he sells her off as a slave?
“Then after that, there is also the issue of after your graduation,” Aleu sputtered, then his hand flew to the back of his neck, where he dishevelled his curls, “You are a smart girl, I am certain that getting accepted to the ministry of magic tech will be smooth, but what if the duke decides to go back on his word by collaborating with the Empress who by then will be my master, or what if I am dead when that happ-,”
OKAY!” Lucy yelled over his words as she found herself overwhelmed by the drastic rate at which his worries grew more articulate, “Okay.”
She repeated a second time to buy time to figure out what words she could put together to better soothe her brother.
“First of all, I just joined the academy last year.” She informed her brother as she squeezed his large hands, “I have at least three years before I graduate,”
“B-but that’s counting this year, and we are halfway through that!” Aleu fussed.
“Still, I think this is the best place that we have ever been.”
“I-I mean, Fuscia is smart, she knows how to stay away from drama, plus she is pretty charming.” Lucy proceeded with her explanation, “And…and your good looking, not my personal opinion, but all the maids back at the manor found you attractive! That and you are strong, kind, brave, why…why would the Empress not choose you!”
“You’d be her favourite concubine, and then, to spoil you, she could sponsor my education and remove me from the duke’s control and…and…” Lucy stiffened when she noticed that all the colour in Aleu’s face had drained, “and I said something wrong, didn’t I?”
“Uh…oh? No…no!” was Aleu’s only immediate reply.
“What...? what did I say?” Lucy turned to Calvin, who under the yellow glow of the streetlights avoided her gaze.
-Oh, no... -
“What?” she asked again, panic gripping her stomach.
“N-no, it's nothing,” Aleu reassured.
“Aleu?”
She called his name with more emotion than she had intended.
This was supposed to be the moment that she proved not only to Aleu but to herself that she was a potential pillar of support should he need her!! But how?
How, how could she have messed up giving advice???!!
And that wasn’t even the worst part; the worst part was that they kept their lips sealed as to what her blunder had been??
How was she supposed to improve when….???
“No, hey…” As though Aleu sensed the turmoil in her mind, he pulled her into his warm and secure embrace; only it no longer felt that way.
His arms no longer gave security and the promise of comfort as once before. Rather it gave…condescension.
Lucy did not expect that he had put minimal upper body strength in his embrace, so when she pushed him off her harshly, Aleu had had to take two and a half steps back to secure his standing.
“Luc?” shocked, he called her name, but her emotions had not simmered down.
“STOP LOOKING DOWN ON ME!!” She huffed, beside herself with their ‘comfort’, “OH LUC! SWEET LUC, AWW LUC, HEY LUC!” She mimicked their ‘calming’ voices.
“JUST TELL ME WHERE I MESSED UP!! DO NOT PITY ME! IT’S….IT’S SUFFOCATING!”
“HOW AM I SUPPOSE TO GROW IF ALL YOU DO IS…. AAARRRGGHH!!” her face grew warm, and as the anger made her sentences less cohesive, she screamed as that was the only way she could express her overwhelming feelings.
“You know what….” Lucy began, her voice a dangerous shade of calm that both Aleu and Calvin, who were stunned into silence, had never heard from her, “sometimes, I feel as though I should just run away because of how much of a burden I am to you! To both of you. Do you have any idea how small your silence makes me feel?”
The boys did not answer. Rather, as they had not expected an outburst from the ever calm Lucy, though they tried to form an appropriate response, it was slow, slower than her mana diluting smokescreen.
For a few seconds, the area in which Lucy stood filled with a translucent purple smoke that on vanishing revealed one less person on the space.
- Writer
