Azure: 19
Penne + Ravioli: 17
Azure didn't exactly know how to take the news that his father was dead. He wasn't sad, why would be be? The man had done nothing for him but give him life, and even that was probably the worst idea of his career. He felt more...intimidated than anything. Because now he, the failure, the magicless twit, the inept idiot that he was in the eyes of everyone else, was inheriting a company that relied solely on the magic of a supreme being with power that everyone knew Azure did not have.
Power that they hoped was only buried deep, deep down, a power that would reveal itself when the company was truly in need, but had yet to do. He practiced every day without fail in the privacy of his father's office- crap, it was his office now, wasn't it?
He had been doing this for two weeks; trying and failing, trying and failing, shifting his energy flow as his teachers had taught him, trying to make something, anything happen as the fate of the whole company and everyone employed in it rested on his shoulders.
But he was a failure, failure, failure, falling asleep too early every day, not using enough energy or using too much energy, failing and failing and failing with nothing to show, nothing to prove that he was good enough because he wasn't, he would never be his father, he would let everyone down, he would make thousands of people unemployed, he was just a failure, failure, fail-
"Azure, you need to get out of here."
Looking up from his desk, he saw Penne slowly opening the door, her eyebrows creased, her eyes looking at him sadly, followed by her brother, who looked downcast and very, very tired.
"What?" Azure asked, not really processing the statement she had made. His brain was too...everything.
"Azure, look at you," she said pressing her hand over her mouth, "Your hair, your eyes, your clothes, your stubble, look at all your veins, they're popping. You have bruises all over, have you been-"
"I HAVE TO GET IT RIGHT," he screamed, pounding his fist on the table, his eyes bloodshot, his eyelids twitching, the panic and stress bleeding through the composed mask that never worked on Penne as he trailed his bleeding fingers through his greasy hair. "I h-hafta...hafta..." his whole body was spasming, and he pounded the desk with his fist again, laughing hysterically. "IT'S GONNA WORK!" he screamed, looking at her desperately, his hands clasping onto the collar of her dress as she silently cried. "IT HASTA!!!"
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
Then he fell back into his chair, laughing madly as he stared at his hands and started screaming. "WHY WON'T IT WORK WHY WON'T IT WORK WHY WON'T IT WORK-" and now Rav was crying and covering his ears and Azure was back to laughing again, laughing and laughing until he broke down into uncontrollable sobs that shook his entire chair, wailing and crying and screaming.
"Oh honey, oh honey," Penne said, gently leading her brother out of the room and returning to Azure's side, closing the door behind her as she wrapped her arms around him until he fell into the cool escape of sleep.
Slumping to the ground, she layed her head on his legs and cried, thinking about the times when they had been so carefree, and now look where they were. Azure was going to go mad if he stayed here much longer, and when he cracked he would be a danger to himself and others. He was a mess. His golden hair was hanging limply in front of his eyes, in desperate need of a shower and a trim. There were heavy bags under his eyes, explaining plain and clear that he had been driving himself mad both night and day. He hadn't changed out of the clothes she'd seen him wear practically a week ago, and his fingers were rough and bleeding, his fingernails bit down to the ends and the raw exposed flesh underneath in desperate need of a cleaning. But at least he was asleep. Perhaps he would get a chance to escape this horror.
But one thing was for sure.
He needed to leave.
So quietly slipping out of her room to retrieve her sobbing brother, she led him to their suite, comforting him all the way, leaving him in the care of Mom and Dad while she went to go pack a few things for her beloved friend.
His room was just as she had remembered it; somehow, despite the situation, everything was filed according to a system only he knew, because looking at it head on made no sense. There were random things strewn across the floor, random groups of things on shelves, and a bunch of random books and crap on his bed, but it was a system. Whether or not she would be able to navigate that system would be the gamechanger. She really just wanted to find wearable shirts, pants, socks, underwear, and like, a hair brush and other toiletries. Just stuff 'em all in a bag with a butt-load of cash and he would be set, right?
As she navigated his room, picking up stuff she needed as she went, a wave of emotions suddenly crashed over her as she suddenly realized that this would mean him leaving. For good. The light-hearted, roof-leaping Azure she knew was gone. There was nothing she or Ravioli could do to bring him out again. The pressure had been building his whole life, but something about the death of his father and the power shift had just made him break. And there was no glue that she could think of to fix it.
What he needed was a fresh start.
And as she shoved everything into a bag, not really bothering to fold anything because time was of the essence, she encountered two obsacles in her master plan.
Convincing Azure to leave.
And figuring out how he could.