Bulletproof Heart

“Eh.” Victoria waves him off with a flick of her wrist, turning her attention back to the principal. Obviously she was in charge of anything that had to do with speaking to people because Archer had no social skills. His humor was that he had absolutely no humor, and the funniest joke he told was, ‘What do you mean “what’s up?” The fucking sky, Bright.’ Looking at her husband as he defended her, she raises an eyebrow and pats his shoulder, smiling a bit. “I have to agree with my husband. This alleged teenager could have something against my son and could have framed him to get him into trouble. My son doesn’t make a lot of friends…from what I can tell he’s like his father.” Victoria sighs, shaking her head before she rolls her eyes and swipes a piece of hair behind her ear. Colton had been a lot like his father, Caliber however had been slightly more like Victoria in the way he made friends and socialized with people. When Colton got into trouble she usually made Archer deal with it. Obviously that responsibility would be ending considering he had the principal at gunpoint when she arrived. “Mr. and Mrs…..ah…you’re son had been known to steal test answers before, and this isn’t his first offense.” Victoria’s eyes rolled again. “Listen ma’am. I know how my son is, but he didn’t do this. Trust me, I know when my son’s gotten into shit or not, this wasn’t him. I’m afraid you’ll have to have more concrete evidence to suspend Colton. If you do, I’m going to the superintendent.”

Archer turns his glare to Victoria. “What? I have friends. Plural.” He starts to count the names on that list. Sure, it’s not a long list, but he doesn’t see the point in retaining many personal connections. It gets in the way of important things, like family or his job. “I mean she’s good at lying but you can’t call her a liar.” He growls at the principal, pushing away Victoria’s hand from his shoulder. Why does she keep doing that? “This is bullshit. Prior action doesn’t prove anything. Or are you admitting that you’re biased against our son? Aren’t you teachers supposed to be fair and shit?” He throws up his hands in the air in frustration. He doesn’t care if Colton really did steal the test and orchestrated this whole thing. What pisses him off is the baseless accusation from the school. They didn’t even bother to investigate this and jumped to conclusion. It’s unreasonable. “Who is this witness? Don’t tell me you didn’t interrogate that kid first before calling me.” His tone is threatening enough to make the principal cringe. 

“Well those are meaningless threats I won’t follow through with sweetheart, a gun can get you arrested faster than fists can.” Victoria states through gritted teeth, laughing lightly and smiling at the principal. “Archer, please.” She frowns at her husband, shaking her head at him before putting her finger to her lips. Archer had been against school since the beginning, but Victoria wanted her sons to grow up and have normal lives. Homeschooling them was out of the question. Victoria was far too busy with work, and she was not about to let Archer teach their sons by himself. School would discipline them the way they should be. The principal goes to her computer and pulls up the email, moving the screen so Victoria and Archer could see. The first thing Victoria noticed was the email address. She knew her son’s email and monitored both of her son’s online activity. This was not his, but a fake. She frowns, also reading the content of the message. This sounded nothing like her son. “Ah…Ms. Joy, with all due respect…this is not my son. The boy who reported him is obviously lying. Now, I know Colt has been suspended before and gotten into his share of trouble, but this isn’t his email and he’d never say ‘sup Wayward High.’ It’s a hoax. This also means my son is being bullied. What kind of action do you plan to take on that?” Victoria states bluntly, folding her arms across her chest. “Mrs. Brightman-Shepherd…Your son could have very well made it seem like it wasn’t him and made a fake email…” “Excuse me? Are you calling our son a liar? Are you calling me, a liar? I know my son, I know his email. I check their internet activity.” 

“Your fist is as lethal as guns, Bright.” He mutters, speaking from experience. He glares at her for shushing him, but shuts up because he knows she is better at dealing with people than him. So he resumes to scowling at the principal. His eyes basically read ‘I won’t hesitate to shoot you in the face multiple times if you screw up’. He scans the email in a second and notices the same thing Bright points out. It is very much likely that his son used the fake account-- because he knows that the older one does not like that Victoria reading his emails-- but Archer knows better than blurting that out. Instead he unfolds his arms and leans forward to the desk. “Are you calling my wife a liar?” He narrows narrows his eyes on the principal intensifying his angry expression. “There is no way that you can prove that. You are making an allegation based on some teenager’s testimony and an email that does not match my son’s internet activity-- which we can prove.” He speaks quite candidly for a person who looks angry. “Unless you’ve got something concrete, your decision to suspend my son would be a grave mistake.” He puts an emphasis on the word ‘grave’.

“Well put it the hell away then. We don’t threaten our children’s principal, dear.” How the hell he’d gotten to a conclusion like ‘hey, why don’t I point a gun at my son’s principal to threaten her,’ Victoria sure didn’t know. She rolled her eyes, putting her finger firmly on the chair next to her. “Because I’m your wife, now shut up.” Turning back to the principal who was still cowing in the corner with her eyes wide, Victoria leans across the desk and pats the principal’s chair. “Please Ms. Joy, sit. I’m sure we don’t need to publicize this or have anyone kicked out of school for it. Like Archer stated. He’s got anger issues.” She says the last words with a blunt and monotoned tone, looking over at her husband with daggers in her eyes. Victoria turns back to Ms. Joy, smiling brightly at her. “What seems to be the problem here with Colton? My husband seems to think you have no proof he committed any act to get himself suspended. Now what exactly do you think he did?” “Your son, Colton, stole the answer sheet of several exams for various teachers classes and sent it to every student in the school. You can see Mrs. Shepherd-” “Ah, Brightman-Shepherd.” Victoria corrected with a finger raised, still with a smile on her lips. The principal looks at her blankly for a moment before continuing. “Mrs. Brightman-Shepherd, your son is in a great deal of trouble. A student saw Colton take the answer keys and has the email he sent.” “Oh does he?” She looked at Archer, raising an eyebrow. “May we see this email?”

“Since when?” He saw Victoria threatening to punch an employee at one of those coffee chains because that kid messed up her order. “Just because we are married and have children doesn’t mean you can order me.” Now he sounds sulky and defensive. He eyes the principal who pulls her chair away from Archer and closer to Victoria. Snorting loudly, he deflects the death glare from his wife. “So your witness is an underage student and a piece of information stored electronically which can easily be tempered with.” He counters, which is a point he made before he decided that the principal was imbecile and a gun would explain the situation better. But the principal ignores him, it seems. Honestly, Archer does not like that his children have to be in school. He once read over textbooks Caliber brought and they had so many bullshits. Why does one need to know what kind of rock is harder than others? Archer turns his head to Victoria, his lips pursed, obviously disgruntled. “I told you school was a bad idea.” He grumbles. “If we homeschooled them bullshit like this wouldn’t have happened.” 

Are you fucking kidding me?

Archer glares down at the little woman who calls herself principal. The gun in his hand is facing her ready to paint the wall with her brain. Of course, he wasn’t going to shoot. That would be rude. “I have no intention to shoot her.” He gives Victoria a quizzical look, glancing at the gunpoint on him. “I’m just threatening her. There’s a difference.” It was a simple math in his head. The “principal”-- if that’s even her real title-- was giving his son a trouble. Eliminate the problem, problem solved. Allegedly, his elder son stole the answer of exams and sent it to every student in the school. And even though they had no proof or any piece of evidence that his son did it, they were going to suspend Colton. That did not seem fair. He thought a gun in her head might change the principal’s point of view. “How come you get to point gun at people and tell them what to do, and I don’t?” He complains, but backs down soon. Clicking his tongue, Archer reluctantly holsters the gun and sits down, his arms folded. There is a part of him that fears what to come after this meeting, such as Victoria unleashing her rage upon him. He loathes the fact that he has that part. “...I have an anger issue.” He adds as if that would explain the little gun situation they had. “And they have no fucking proof that he did it.” 

Hey, punk.

[Archer curses under the breath as he spots one of the Projects playing with the pistol. When will these tiny fuckers would learn that these are not some BB guns with plastic bullet? He swears he will not take a teaching job again if he gets the third chance. He walks up to the girl and snatches the gun out of her hands.] This is not a toy. [He snarls with audible irritation in his tone, and checks the safety lock and the bullets.] And your stance is completely off. No way you can hit the target correctly if you shoot that way.

[Archer is usually not the one for meddling with the other's business unless he really has to. But when he saw the possibly most dangerous man in St. Mary's out in the field, he couldn't help but get concerned. What kind of sinister thing Storm is planning? Archer groans to himself before making his way toward the man. Out on the field, he hears Storm cussing under the breath with a pistol in the hands. He raises a brow as the gun is shoved unsafely in the pants.] You might want to get a proper holster for that one. [He comments in his usual flat tone.] I don't understand how would it matter to you. Were you doing something private? If you were maybe you should find a better place to do such thing.

[Instead of replying she just makes a face at him instead. For some reason he was extra annoying to her today] You’re fucking drunk. [Taking just didn’t feel right at the moment. It felt nice to sort of just be quiet for once and mull it over in her head. Archer had said sorry a lot of times and it hadn’t mattered until now. Not until he knew what it felt like and maybe that was finally enough for Victoria to forgive him. That was sort of bitchy of her but honestly, it’s what did the trick] Alright then. [She pulls away from him, looking at him for only a second before she turns to the bartender and slaps down some money for the drinks] Come on, let’s just get out of here before people make us. Plus you have to see my apartment. [Right, it was spotless after she went a little nuts thinking about this..]

[He clicks his tongue, clearly annoyed by how she dismissed his determination. He can be civil with people... if they're not idiots.] I'm hardly drunk. I've only had about five glasses. You, on the other hand, were already tipsy when you sat there. [He retorts as his nose wrinkles by the weird look he's making.] Okay. [Archer repeats calmly, although his head tilts in confusion as he gets up of his seat. He takes out his wallet and pays for the drinks, and gives her a puzzled look.] Why would I want to see your apartment?

You’ll try and fail. [She retorts, rolling her eyes and sort of pouting in a childish way but goddammit she was sort of drunk. Or at least she felt tipsy now] Blah blah blah, I’m Archer Shepherd and I’m boring as fuck. [Victoria stares at Archer for a long, long minute that probably turned into two. This man never apologized for shit like, ever. It was sort of a big deal to her that he was] Thank you for seeing that. Because it did hurt, Archer, a lot. I felt betrayed. And it isn’t so fun. But now you know, so it’s in the past. [Quite frankly the extremely happy look on his face and the fact that he’d just said what he did made Victoria want to fucking vomit. Cute shit was not cute. Making a face at him, she waves him off and drinks another glass of some sort of alcohol, she can’t remember anymore] Alright you need to shut up, and start kissing me. Now. [Taking a fist full of his shirt into her hand, she leans forward, pressing her lips softly against his. Surprising, she thought she may tip over kissing him or even slam into him but she was sort of gentle. Kissing him though it was…nice. Really nice, more than nice] 

Well, that's fucking negative. [He frowns visibly, wrinkling his forehead. What's her fucking problem? Soon he makes a snort, concluding,] You're drunk. [Her staring is quite bothering and uncomfortable, and he doesn't look back at her. It's mostly because it's too quiet for Victoria Brightman, possibly the most loudest people on the earth. He usually doesn't make conclusive observation, but he is fairly convinced that she is ,indeed. When she says finally, he feels kind of relieved.] Okay. [-- is all he says. He apologized to her before, but it was because he knew that he hurt her, not how it hurt her. Now that he does... well, it might have added more emotion or something in his apologize.] What? [He completely spaces out by what she says next, and what comes after it. He did not see the kiss coming. But he no longer cares, about his shirts that is now crumpled and possibly smudged by her hands, or about that they are kissing in public and that it might cause a trouble, or about all the shits that have been falling down on him. He appreciates how she quiets his mind.]

[Archer side eyes Blondie with a dubious look.] ...I don't see any lady here. And I said I don't like the current color of your hair, not that I care what kind of hair you carry. Just don't blame me when I don't recognize you. [The bartender comes back with his drink along with Blondie's beer. He stares down at the liquor letting his thoughts sink in. But he doesn't want to think right now. Alcohol is one of few things that shut his mind down. So he drinks it.] I'll stop if I feel like I can't make it to my own room. [He purses his lips together putting down the half empty glass on the bar. He doesn't look at her way.] I don't know. We haven't talked about it. School? It's the same as always. Just some... new employees.

What the fuck? [She frowns at his words, slightly confused he was acutally going to ‘tone it down.’ Yeah fucking right, this was Archer Shepherd we were talking about] That’s fucking right it’s fair point. [Alright, Victoria was fairly certain she nearly blew out a lung when she chokes on her drink. Holy shit she’d been right….he didn’t even get his words out before she had noticed it in his expression. Fuck…] Fuck. So you do know what it feels like. To look in the person you loved’s eyes and see they don’t remember you. Well. Now you know. [She nods once, running a hand through her hair as she gains control of her breathing again] I fucking hate that you’re enjoying this right now. Fine. Say you still love me, I know you do and now we both know I do too. So fuck you. Jesus Christ. Can I get another drink please? I’m not nearly drunk enough for this. 

...What? I said I'll try not to be so rude. [He clicks his tongue with annoyed expression, giving her a frown.] You don't have to repeat it right after I said it. [He turns his eyes to her when she chokes on her drink. He raises the brow, and lets out a small sigh.] Yup. And I'm sorry that I made you feel that way. It was never in my intention or consideration, but I'm sorry. [He apologizes quietly, staring at his empty glass. A small laugh comes out of him with her reaction.] You don't want me to enjoy this? How the fuck can I? I love you and you love me. That makes me very... happy, even in this shitty time. [He beams at her for a while-- okay, maybe I'm getting tipsy-- before he shakes his head.] Yeah, I need a fucking drink.

Well you know what? You’re really fucking rude about it so there. [Rolling her eyes at Shepherd, Victoria takes a drink again before putting up her index finger at him] Most of the time is not all the time. [She pauses when he speaks, sighing lightly] Ah. Someone you know that was dead is alive again and they didn’t remember you. What, was it your ex? [Victoria jokes lightly, shaking her head lightly at the idea. Dead ex coming back, not really possible was it? Wait…what year has it been when she died anyway…was, it possible? Shaking off the thought, she takes another drink instead over thinking it] Right. Thanks for the apology Shepherd. [Staring at him and his stupid smile, Victoria throws her hands in the air] Oh look, he’s smiling! Great, just great. This is dandy! Here we are, sharing feelings at a bar with my Ex. Who I still love. Who still loves me. And I’m going to go barf. [She sighs, finishing the drink before asking for another] 

...If you don't like it, I'll try to tone it down. [He opens his mouth to say something but decides against it, shuts it. He nods curtly, muttering.] Fair point. [The thing about Archer Shepherd, is that he appears to be the same most of time.His almost every expressions are subtle unless he gets furious. So when Victoria asks if it's Zoe that he's talking about, he looks the same. But if she knows him like she tells him that she does, she would notice how he is wallowing over his past.] ...Yeah. She survived the accident. But, uh, something happened and she doesn't... yeah. This whole thing makes me feel like a fucking idiot. [He lets out a wry chuckle, shaking his head.] You're welcome. What? You started it. I wasn't planning to say anything since you've told me not to. Am I allowed to confirm that I still love you as well?