Azure: 16
Penne + Ravioli: 14
"Oh my God! Moon has a hot son, how did I not know this!? RAVIOLI WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME!?"
While Penne shook her brother's shoulders until he gently removed her hands from his body, all Azure could do was stare at the photo that Penne had pulled up on her phone.
"It was actually kind of hard to find him, too," Penne said, grabbing the phone and scrolling through the sparse photos. Most of them were of Moon, and the only resemblence between the silver-haired, silver-eyed, dark-skinned man and the navy-haired, silver-eyed, light-skinned boy was the strikingly empty eyes, close to pupil-less and staring out of the photo and into the viewer's soul. It made Azure shiver...he didn't know if that was a good or bad thing. All he knew was that whenever he saw that picture, all he could feel was heat and he honestly didn't understand it at all.
"He's basically a recluse. No social media, no press appearances, he's never even been to those fancy dinners with the local congressmen that you sometimes go to, Azure."
All he could mumble was "Lucky," before she barreled on.
"It must be the people at the company who take photos. They probably know that no one's seen the kid, and are willing to risk their jobs over something trivial like that. I'm not saying that I wouldn't, because I totally would. I mean, the kid's a total hottie, if I worked there, I would make out with him twenty-four seven! Just look at him, Azure!"
The heat flared up his face again as Penne swiveled the screen towards him, and he quickly looked away, clearing his throat and grunting, "I've done quite enough of that." Penne gasped then let out a little squeal, tapping away at her phone before shoving a picture right up to Azure's nose, the heat radiating through the screen as he tried to make sense of what he was looking at.
"Maybe if you pulled the screen away, I would be able to see better-" and as she did just that and he saw the picture in its entirety, he bellowed, "WHO WOULD TAKE THAT PICTURE!?"
Penne started howling with laughter, shouting, "WHOEVER TOOK THIS ONE DEFENITELY GOT FIRED!" and all Azure could do was desperately hide his face, all the romance novels Penne had given him suddenly flooding his mind as he tried to deny was was evident on his face.
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Feeling a tap on his shoulder, he whirled around to see Rav scribbling in his sketchbook, turning it around so that Azure could see the giant heart with a question mark displayed for all to see. Azure slapped the book away, yelling, "NO RAV!" while Ravioli just looked at him in confusion and Penne picked up the sketchbook and started guffawing.
"Rav, YES!" she said, giving him a big thumbs up and saying, "You can't hide from the feels, Azure!"
"Just because I blush when I see a guy half naked doesn't mean I-"
"You see Rav half-naked all the time when we go swimming," Penne interjected, motioning at her brother who just nodded along.
"Well, Rav's different! I'm not-"
"In love with him!?"
"I was gonna say I'm not allowed to fall in love with Rav, he's friendzoned."
Penne cocked an eyebrow. "But why did he need to be friendzoned? Am I friendzoned?"
"Well, no, 'cuz-"
"Finally, Mr. Stoic's loosening up! Can you believe this Rav!? Can you believe it!? It's Azure's first crush!!!!"
If there was anything he could do to get sucked into the ground right then and there, he would do it. Anything to escape Penne. There wasn't anything...he wasn't doing anything...Penne didn't know what she was talking about.
"Ugh, NO, Penne, it's not!" And suddenly he realized something. Something that slurped the blush off of his face like a kid drinking a smoothie. Something that would make sure that he would never get to see Navy again.
"Besides," he said sadly, looking up at her and smiling like nothing was wrong, "he's my competition. And one way or another, everyone is going to expect me to take him out."
The room was silent as he stood up and was about to walk out of the room when Penne spoke up. "Ok, sure. He's your 'competition.' Sure. But there is more than one way to take a person out, you know."
And with the blush clouding his vision, he heard one last thing that made him smile before he turned the corner. "YOUR WORDS NOT MINE!" Penne yelled, waving as Rav gave him a thumbs up.
"Ugh," he sighed, pressing his back against the wall and sliding down onto the cool tile floor. "Navy hair. Silver eyes. What a stupid combination," he grumbled, "And now she has that stupid shirtless picture ingrained into my mind. That's just great."
Competition, competition, competition, was all he could think. He's your competition. He probably hates you...that, or he doesn't even know you're alive. He's your competition. COMPETITION. TAKE HIM OUT.
Why didn't it feel like competition anymore, when Dad would live forever and so would Moon? What was the point of being cooped up all day when nothing would ever go wrong outside? Ugh, this sucked. Stupid Penne.
It would wear off. It was a crush. He would get over it. It was stupid. Ravioli was wrong. No heart. Noooo heart. Navy was competition. But every time Azure heard the name, he still smiled.