"That bitch!" Saillie screamed at the top of her lungs. Izunami was with her, giving her a cup of hot tea and handing her a tissue as her friend cried. "I can't believe she can be such a psycho and still Argos chases after her. What the heck Nami, I just don't get it!" Izunami patted her friend on the back and gently smoothed her hair.
"It's OK, Sai, I understand."
"I mean, first she has to go and make me look like a laughing stock. I stoop down to her low life level and try to help her out and partner with her, and she fucking obliterates my freakin brain? What the hell is that. And then to just totally go for a guy like that? She knows I like him! Its been two and a half months here for Christ's sake and he hash;t even looked my way. She could at least put in a good word, if she wants to pay me back for all the humiliation she's already caused."
Nami sighed, trying to relate to Sai but hitting a block. Yeah she'd liked guys before, but never that much. Sai was really set on that Argos kid and right now she was just a mess. "Look hun, it'll be fine. He's not actually going to partner with her. And even if he did, I bet he's not even into weapons!" She tried to look hopeful. "I mean as far as I can tell the kid's kind of asexual or something. I have even caught him staring at Jenn's tits once."
Sai shot the exchange student a dirty look. Teaching her cuss words was going to be the worst decision she'd ever made. "Can you stop trying to integrate tits into your everyday vocabulary? I'm having a breakdown here and you're talking about boob slang." Izunami just shrugged. Sai groaned and put her face back in the pillow. "I really hate boys."
"Liar!" Izunami said playfully, trying to cheer her up. Sai looked at her, eyes puffy and red and stone cold serious.
"Then I hate Raze Harlow and that's not up for debate. Pick a said Nami, I don't care if she's your quadmate, I'm the one that teaches you American slang."
"That's true." Nami contemplated the idea, but didn't really like where it was going. Sai was obviously planning something and she didn't really want to be a part of some catty one-sided turf war. She handed Saillie another tissue as she lapsed into another dramatic sob spree.
***
Argos was eating breakfast with his brother when he noticed Raze walking toward him with a small plate of food. She looked a little nervous, but it was barely noticeable under the mask of disgust she always wore.
"That's weird," Argos commented leaning over to his brother, "Look, it's Raze."
"What's weird about that? We see her like 24/7 thanks to you." He sounded a bit put off by the mere thought. Maybe even pissed.
"She's alone."
Chide stopped chewing. His eyes swiveled to where Argos was discreetly pointing. Raze Harlow was intact, alone. Also, her hair was tied up and mostly out of her face for once, which even weirder. "It's Saturday morning though, why is she here without her sister?" Argos shrugged. He had absolutely no idea. She looked like she was headed for a small two person table just past their spot at a semi-crowded long table. As she past by, Argos called out.
"Raze! hey, where's you're other half?"
She looked over her shoulder as if surprised that Gail wasn't actually there. She was silent but stood there, waiting for Argos to ask what he'd wanted. Certainly he hadn't just wanted to say hello, she thought.
"You alone?" He asked again. She nodded.
"Yeah, Why?"
He shrugged and smiled a little and gestured to the empty seat across from him. Chide looked at him like he was crazy. When did they go from mortal enemies to buds inviting her to sit with them from morning tea? Again she looked over her shoulder, double checking that Gail wasn't there to drag her away again. She looked like a mixture of uncertain and extremely distrustful. The person she ended up sitting next to cast her a nasty look and scooted further away.
"What do you want," She demanded. "If this is about yesterday, forget it. Nothing happened, alright?"
Chide looked from Raze to Argos, confused. "Excuse me what?" At first he thought she had meant Gail beating him senseless again, but the smirk on his brother's face hinted at something completely different. Something personal. Between them and Argos hadn't told him.
"Look, I haven't told Gail and she wouldn't-"
"Who cares what Gail would for wouldn't say about it." Argos cut in like a knife. Raze waas clearly uncomfortable and for a second looked very scared and upset, but also maybe just a little bit hopeful. Chide thought he was seeing things and slouched in his seat, clearly forgotten. Raze sent an angry glare at Chide.
"I heard what you said to her, you asshole." She hissed. Chide looked down at his plate sheepishly. He scratched the back of his head and Raze noticed she'd seen him do that before when he'd felt awkward or nervous. She was glad he felt squirmy.
"About that," He said, shoving a spoonful of cereal into his mouth. He chewed and there was an awkward silence. Raze thrummed her fingers on the table in annoyance. He swalloed and the cap'n crunch, he swore, was serrated. "Uncalled for, really uncalled for." he pulled down his collar and revealed another, angry purple bruise on his collarbone. "I deserved this one." Raze grinned. There was some sort of vengeful fire in her eyes. Argos laughed and she turned her eyes on him.
"Please don't bring up what happened yesterday. That was a mistake." She bit into her apple and a bit of the juice ran down her chin. She wiped at it with her sleeve, not lady like at all clearly not trying to use her manners.
Argos was still smiling. "But everything was so clear for me. Wasn't it for you?" Raze wouldn't meet his eyes. Chide was pretty sure he was seeing something really rare happening right in front of him. This ice queen psycho bitch was actually trying not to smile. It took him a moment to realize what Argos had meant though, and when it hit him, he choked on the crunch berries half way lodged in his throat.
"Wait!" He said, holding up a hand while he hacked his lungs up. "Hold the phone, did you guys try to sync? Argos you said you wouldn't do that! I promised Gail you wouldn't DO that. Why would you actually do that?!" The small smile that had played on the corners of Raze's lips was gone.
"Shut up, Chide. Nothing happened."
Argos snorted. To some it might sound pretentious. And a lot of people probably thought he was a conceited bastard. The problem was, they weren't far off the mark. Argos just wasn't aware of it himself.
Raze slapped a fist down on the table. "I'm serious!" She shouted. Then she realized her volume was through the roof and quieted down. "i'm serious. Nothing happened, hear me?" She pointed her knife threateningly at both boys then used it to cut her waffle. Not very intimidating, Chide decided.
"Raze, consider it. You need me just as much as I really actually need you." Chide nearly did the choking thing again. NEED? WHEN WAS THE WORD NEED BROUGHT TO THE TABLE? But when he thought about it, yeah… A meister did need a weapon. And since it couldn't be him, Argos was SOL. But that didn't been he had to go and need someone as potentially dangerous as Raze.
"Whoa!" Chide interjected. "Whoa whoa whoa, let's slow this down here!"
"Yeah, for once I agree with dumbass, take a few steps back there, bitch." Raze said. She looked absolutely furious. "You can't tell me what I need and don't need!" Chide nodded furiously in agreement. She pointed at him, "Check yourself before you wreck yourself, ass. I don't need you're pathetic reassurance that I'm not a good enough partner for your priss ass macho man brother." Chide's hands immediately assumed the defenseless in front of chest it wasn't me look at the guy who has the same face as me position.
He almost felt bad. This girl seemed so broken. He tried not to let himself think of the broken girl he'd seen on the swings. He tried not to agree that they fit. He tried to remember that she was extremely dangerous, no matter how much he understood what she had gone through with Saillie, he couldn't have that happen to Argos. This needed to not be need before it actually turned into some sort of actual thing.
Argos heaved a sigh, "Sorry, I tend to jump to conclusions. But seriously Raze. Consider it. You can't be partners with your sister here. I mean, I'm not saying I'm you're only choice, but no offense, look around you. How many people are actually offering. I actually," he paused and looked really awkward for a good four seconds, "Uh, like you, yeah and I think we could probably make something work."
Raze's first was clenched around the apple. Juice was dripping down her wrist. Yeah, no table manners here. "No!" She said forcefully.
"I'm not asking for your hand, Harlow. Just for a little help." Argos continued, changing his approach. He was really pushing hard this time and Raze looked ready to combust. Chide was too intimidated by both of them combined that he just prayed she was as stubborn as she threatened to be.
"Liar."
"I'm not lying, Raze. You know that. Look, why don't we just pretend this conversation never happened."
Yes! Chid thought. Yes! Let's move along to that nice chain scythe guy from second period and be done with any mention of the Harlow sisters. Even if they were kind of really talented and - NO NO NO. PUMP THE BRAKES, Chide yelled in his own head, STOP RIGHT THERE. Again, the swing set came to his mind. He was losing a very important mental war right now.
"You're wasting my time," Raze huffed, getting up to leave.
"Wait." Argos asked.
Raze actually waited, Chide was surprised.
"Next Combined training, i want to fight you. One on one."
"We already have, it won't end any differently."
"How sure are you about that?" Argos was baiting her.
She looked ready to explode. "Fine. We can fight. But I'm not transforming for you again, got it?"
Argos grinned. "Got it."
