All the lights had been turned off, and Ravok laid down staring at the ceiling. He attempted to sleep but had been struggling the entire night, sleeping and then waking up. The things that happened today were all much more than he could handle, and it seemed that tonight was not the night that he would get some sleep.
His body felt extremely heavy like he had a long run with Sarah to encourage her. He attempted to get up but realized it was no use. His vision felt hazy, like he was about to fall asleep again, until he noticed something moving in the corner of his eye. They shot open as he realized what it was, a scythe coming from the side of his bed, rushing down at his throat. His body was too heavy to move, too slow to get out of the way as the blade cut right into him. As he was shocked awake, pulling himself into an upright position as he grasped for his throat. No cut, wound, or anything would indicate an attack.
"A dream." Ravok whispered under his breath as he looked at the clock. Six twenty-two in the morning. There was plenty of time to get some more sleep in, but somewhere in the back of Ravok's mind, something was telling him to get up. Quickly he threw his legs over his bed to turn off his alarm. Unlocking it with a simple square pattern, he never really liked using his face to open his phone, despite many telling him to do it because it was much quicker.
He had some time before everyone would be up, more so than he usually already did. As such, he decided to start making lunch for Cole, Sarah, and himself, cutting the sandwiches, spreading the butter and putting some cheese in between the two slices, and putting it in a small paper bag for the two to take with today. It was then that he heard a loud thumping noise outside.
Ravok stared out the window, and he noticed Red hitting a tree in the park next to his house., delivering kicks and punches against the bark. They were strong enough to see the light brown spots of the inner tree at every point her fist and legs connected.
He decided to finish some more sandwiches for Red and Blue before going outside, calmly approaching her as she was speeding up her punches and kicks and asking. "Did the tree do something wrong?"
Red was shocked by the flurry of punches she delivered as she looked at Ravok. "Wha… no? What do you mean?" She asked as she let down her guarded stance.
"It was… never mind." Ravok said as he looked around. A couple of people were already up and getting ready for work, staring at the two awkwardly as if it was not every day you could see someone practice some form of martial arts in public. "We should get inside before too many people see us here." He said calmly, awkwardly putting up his hand to wave at his neighbors.
Red looked annoyed but complied. "I just want to get back to normal as soon as possible." She looked at her arm as she spoke, followed it up and down where the wound previously was, then clutched her hand as she returned home with Ravok.
"You can't do that in public, you know. That isn't normal." Ravok tried to explain to her, but Red shook off his reaction with a simple. "So what? I don't care what people think." As he heard her excuse, Ravok put his hand on his forehead.
"Yeah, but other people will film it, talk about it, tell others… Do I need to go on? How did you remain hidden for so long if you acted like this?" Shaking his head as he spoke, closing the door behind them.
Red's face got flustered at the thought like she had been told this many times before but just refused to listen. She pointed her finger at Ravok and frowned. "You are not the boss of me you…."
Before she could finish the sentence, Ravok put a finger in front of his lips and one in front of hers as he turned around. He heard light taps slowly coming downstairs, each step groggy but careful as Cole was coming downstairs.
"Good… morning, Ravok… is breakfast ready yet..?" He asked as he rubbed his eyes, holding the stairway railing as he finally reached the bottom of the stairs. Ravok responded with a nod and pointed him to the kitchen, where he had just finished a sandwich with peanut butter, his favorite.
As Cole moved through the hallway and into the kitchen, Ravok turned back to Red. "No swearing in front of Cole. That is the rule. Keep to it, please."
Red was stunned in shock, not just by the fact that Ravok shushed her but also by the fact that he could recognize who's steps were coming down the stairs, leaving her with nothing to say but a confirming "Uhu."
It didn't take long for Sarah and Blue to join them. Despite Blue's uptight behavior, she was the last one downstairs with her hair pointing out in all directions. Cole realized that the two people in front of him were not Lily or Brandon, who had been over many times but completely new folk as he immediately pulled slightly back from the table and lowered his shoulders as if to hide away from sight.
"Not going to introduce us?" Sarah asked as she grabbed the piece of bread and put it in her mouth as she was tying up her hair. She was getting ready for an early run.
Ravok nodded. "Cole, Sarah, these are…" He thought for a moment, their names being Red and Blue would be strange at best, but before he could think of a nickname, Red jumped in, a bright and warm smile on her face as she introduced herself to Cole
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"You can call me Red and her Blue…." She said, full of confidence, only to be met by Cole looking at her with a doubtful look. "It is a nickname because of our hair." As she spoke, she grabbed two locks of her hair and held them up to both sides. As she did, Cole burst out laughing, any doubt on his face disappearing at the funny sight.
Sarah only nodded as she took a bite from her sandwich. "Ah… well, nice to meet you two... I am Sarah, and that is Cole." She casually pointed at herself and Cole. She finished her sandwich with a couple more quick bites, "I'll catch you two later, though. I am already late for my run." With a slight hop in her walk, she moved to the hall, waving as she walked away.
The four slowly finished the rest of their breakfast. Cole and Red seemed to get along well, as he constantly asked questions about Red, where she met Ravok, what she was doing here, and many more similar questions, only for Red to attempt to struggle around the truth without lying too much to him. Blue was only focused on her food, cutting the sandwich into as even pieces as she could before eating each piece, clearly focused as if eating itself was a strenuous task. All this while Ravok was staring at his food, he didn't feel hungry, since yesterday it felt like there was a stone in his gut, something heavy that he couldn't ignore. He managed to eat his food with some difficulty, his stomach letting out an irritated growl.
By the time everyone was finished, it was already 7:45, he didn't have a lot of time left to bring Cole to school, and as such, he quickly told Cole to pack up his bag and get to the car, who only agreed if Red came with to help him. Ravok quickly exchanged a look with her, one she returned with a smile as she followed Cole to his room.
"Blue, shouldn't you fix your hair or something?" Ravok asked as he had been staring at her puffed-out hair now and again, reminding him of the time that Sarah would wake up, her hair doing the same thing in the morning. Blue only nodded to him. "Yeah, it should be fixed indeed." As she nodded, she held out a comb to him that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere and turned around, leaving Ravok flabbergasted. He didn't expect her to make him do it so blatantly, part of him wanted to refuse, but he knew that would not get him anywhere. With a sigh, he slowly started combing her hair, giving him a good look at it from up close, all the way from the tips of each strand to the roots, the blue color could be found. There was no sign of discoloration that you would find when someone colored their hair.
"You are much more gentle than Red is," Blue says absentmindedly, still eating her perfect cube-shaped pieces of sandwich.
"Do you never comb your hair?" Ravok asked, to which she shook her head, carefully taking care of any pieces that managed to get tangled.
"No, I never had to. I think.." Her voice was as neutral as ever. Ravok decided to stop asking questions, at least for now. But with each little thing he learned about either, he found more questions than answers.
Finally, Cole and Red came downstairs, wearing his backpack, quickly grabbing the paper bag on the counter and stuffing it inside. Red noticed what Ravok was doing, only giving him a nod as the group moved towards their car, it was old, and a lot of parts were broken, a couple of dents could be found in the pumper, and the plate was barely readable. Ravok was the only one officially allowed to drive, but Sarah sometimes took the car as Ravok did not always have the time to ferry her around town.
Ravok sat in the driver's seat, making sure that Cole would sit next to him to see what he was doing to ensure that he would be wearing his seatbelt and mostly remained still.
Red and Blue sat in the two seats in the back of the car. "Seat belts." Ravok said out loud, only for Cole to look back and repeat it louder. "Seat Belts!" Blue quickly looked down and pulled the belt, figuring out how it worked relatively quickly, clicking the strap inside the locking mechanism with relative ease. Red, however, was struggling, at first pulling the belt too hard as it remained stuck and refused to budge. Then when she finally managed to get the belt out, she was struggling with clicking it in as if she had never seen such a thing before. Ravok looked in the mirror and realized they weren't from here and had many things to learn about this world, while the opposite was true for him. He had to learn about their world and their habits if they were to get along.
Ravok swiftly drove Cole to his school, telling him goodbye and texting Sarah to pick Cole up when he got out of school as he had some new plans. When the trio finally arrived at Ravok's school, he looked back and spoke up. "Can you two…. hide?" He asked, pointing at himself. "I don't think it is a good idea for you two to walk around college with me suddenly."
Red spoke back. "So we will have nothing to do for 8 hours or so? No, thank you." but before Ravok could say anything, Blue spoke up. "We have to… to hide. But if you desire, we can practice when we are there. We should be fine if we do not let out too much of our power." Red sighed as she understood the necessity but was not happy with it.
Ravok jumped back in. "I'll buy you some clothing tonight, as long as it is not too expensive," He said, which sparked some interest in Red. "Fine, Deal." she said as both of them disappeared in a flash, immediately followed by Ravok grabbing hold of his head again as the same pounding pain appeared. But it quickly started subsiding. He looked in the mirror of his car and noticed that his pupils, despite Red and Blue refusing to share their power, had a hint of color in them, his standard brown showing the occasional glint of red and blue.
"Here goes nothing," He said as he opened the door and made his way to class. On his way there, he met Brandon, who dramatically put one of his hands on his forehead. "At least my other friend won't abandon me."
"Oh, shut up. What happened to Lily?" Ravok asked while laughing as the two made their way to class. "Something about work, told the teachers she was sick, but she had a busy day," Brandon said as he shrugged, they knew Lily wouldn't skip out on school unless it were necessary, as if there was one thing that was important to her it would be the fact that she was never sick or late.
The two discussed some subjects throughout the day until they ended as they finished up their studies and said goodbye. Ravok occasionally heard the voices of Red and Blue clashing and discussing things. It was hard for him to focus as he could hear the blades clashing in the back of his head when it was too silent.
When Ravok finally got to his car, he sighed. "You guys can come out now." He sat down and waited. It took a couple of minutes before both Red and Blue came out, the two of them sitting in the same position as they did before, Red smiling while Blue still had the same look on her face that she always had. "Seems like you two had fun doing nothing for eight hours." He said with a grin, starting the car to drive towards the shopping district.
"Yeah, we did. We ended up finishing six to three." Red said with a smirk on her face. Ravok didn't have to guess what they were doing based on the sounds he heard in his mind. Blue was staring out the window as the car drove through the tightly packed city center until they arrived, saying nothing about what went on inside Ravok.
Finally, the group arrived in front of the shopping mall, parking the car relatively close by. It was lucky that the town he lived in was not a very big one, and as such, they did not have to pay for the parking spots here. Ravok stretched as he got out, turning around to open the door for Red, who was sitting behind him, only for him to realize that she was struggling with the seat belt again. "You just press the button." Ravok calmly said, only for Red to yell back, "I know how it works!" Pressing the button a multitude of times until the seat belt let go.