uppercut

Aurel blinked in confusion, trying to process every word thrown at him before he looked down at his shaking hands. “I’m fine.” He said, standing per Ira’s instructions despite the shock of the environment around him. “The door? The door!” He sent a last glance at the weeds he had been mentally whispering too, still disappointed in his own attempts at escaping before nodding at Ira with a somewhat shaky determination. Should he wait for his father? No. Clearly not. But the fear of finding out a family secret that was not meant for him kept him standing in place. He didn’t want to disappoint again. Even if the first thought was to run. “Princess?”

Ira followed Aurel’s eyes to the taller boy’s hands, frowning as he saw them shake. Being taken hostage then having to see a trio of villains hash it out right in front of him couldn’t have been a lot of fun. His face the epitome of determination, Ira grabbed Aurel by the hand, tugging a little. “Prince Charming if you like that better, but now we gotta go, alright? Before Wardrobe Number Two gets back on his feet.” The one who worked with Kingpin wasn’t moving yet, but Ira hadn’t thrown him hard enough to be sure he never would. It was against the rules, after all. “Come on handsome, we’re leaving.” He proceeded to herd Aurel along with him to the door, keeping to the walls so as to not paint a target in their backs. Luckily Superman was more than most villains could handle, even two against one. When they reached the door Ira threw a hard kick and it opened with a ruckus he didn’t hope had gone unnoticed. “Go go go, we’ll figure out somewhere safe to take you,” he hurried after Aurel, letting go of some of the tension in his shoulders now that they weren’t in the warehouse anymore.

The warehouse Aurel had found himself just earlier in the night tied to a chair in wasn’t physically on fire but it certainly felt that way to the nature inclined boy. His only thoughts were get out and run as far away as he physically manage, then a plane ride, a train, or whatever would get him off the coast and in a totally new place where no one knew his father, his brother or him. 

When the man who tied him to the chair in the first place began monologuing at him, Aurel couldn’t believe it. He did live in a world with vigilantes and super powered humans and maybe he was one himself but his family wasn’t involved in that sort of thing. Why else would he and his brother be specifically instructed to never reveal their own gifts? After seeing his father and twin arrive, every bit as imposing as they were in their business meetings, Aurel was hard pressed to believe the truth. At least it gave him time to breathe and get out of the mediocre binds on his hands and feet. 

Warehouse sometimes had the unfortunate architectural feature of high narrow windows. Why couldn’t this one look more similar to his own converted warehouse loft apartment with scores of natural light? Hearing more crashing behind him, Aurel tried to stop focusing on the woes of the cities many architects and focus on the crop of plants he was willing to grow larger. It wasn’t easy with the patch of weeds that had found it’s way under the brick wall of the building, but it was starting to look like a way out. Only problem was his complete inability to focus and shaking hands, well shaking everything. It wasn’t like he had trained for this. The most he did with his powers now a days was help his own plant kids grow. A voice broke him out of his sad attempts at coxing the weed to grow big and strong and Aurel turned to look at who could possible be talking to him at a time like this. Standing there was the boy he had just met up with at the other day. The boy he had been texting before all of this insanity had started. “Ira? What are you- we have to get out of here!” He didn’t take in the get up, the strange sunglasses at night, or the words spoken to him prior to his name. “It’s not safe!”

Well how was that for a kick in the nuts? Ira stared aghast at the taller boy, tentatively blinking the shock away. He knew it wasn’t safe, thank you very much. What did Aurel think his one-time date was doing there? As a matter of fact what was Aurel doing there, too? Obviously he had been the hostage, but why him? After just the one date Ira didn’t know much about the other’s family, maybe they were rich enough to pay a huge ransom or something like that.

Shaking his head, the pint-sized hero took a decisive step towards the civilian. “I know. As I said, I’ve come to help. Can you stand? Are you alright?” He didn’t look hurt, but it was hard to tell. Ira couldn’t exactly do a complete body scan with a blink of his eyes – just like he couldn’t fly, yet. Which begged the question of how to best get away from the danger zone. “We can get out by the back door over there,” he pointed at the farthest wall from the both of them. “I’ll kick it down in no time. Or, I grab you in the least awkward way possible because you’re much taller than me, and we just through the ceiling. Your pick, princess.”

Ira had placed his bet on hostage situation gone wrong. The three had been working together but ended up disagreeing, giving time for the aforementioned hostage to take cover – which worked out great for Ira who had been put on rescue duty.

One punch caught one of the bad guys square in the chin, sending him flying against the wall. The Superboy waited a second to see if the villain was attempting to get back up, only to turn around with a shrug when the guy’s head rolled on his shoulder. Knocked out cold, perfect. A quick glance at Superman showed Krypton’s last son had the other two men handled, and so Ira scanned the extra large, extra dusty warehouse (could villains learn to innovate? Please?) for the innocent soul to save.

It was hands on his hips, smug grin on his lips, sunglasses covering his eyes that Ira, in full Superboy costume (t-shirt printed with the House of El logo, tattered jeans and a leather jacket), called out to the human-shaped silhouette crouched by a small jungle of growing vines: “No worries, dude, Supes and older Supes here to save the day, you’re sa– oh? ... Aurel?”

Lissy pulled the book onto her lap, not giving Ira the satisfaction of finding out her new affinity for Mermish. “Why are you shouting? I’m less than a foot away from you. Do not get me kicked out because you can’t control the volume of your voice.” She slammed her book shut and started to pack up her things. What was the point of all of this if he wasn’t going to leave her alone? Lissy was better off hiding in her tower where he couldn’t follow her. “Get up.”

Any response or attempted reply Aurel had was gone the second his nose was booped. “Nope?” He pulled his face away, placing a hand on the spot that was likely flicked. It hadn’t hurt but a strange warmth had flowed through his body. What were they discussing? Obviously nothing as important as Ira touching him again. “A lion?” Well, that was a strange thing to say. “Yes! I mean, sure. If it means you might stay out of trouble, I could consider it a part of my job. A requirement. Maybe.”

In retrospect, touching Aurel had been a terrible idea, because now it was all Ira could think of doing. Maybe he could pull him by the hand on their way to the kitchens? Wouldn’t that upset Aurel, though, be too bold for him? Besides, what was Ira even playing at? Wanting to get those however many metres and centimetres of beauty in his bed was one thing, but fantasising about holding his hand? That was something else  ridiculous, that’s what it was. He tried to shake himself out of it, acting the same as usual. “Oh, yeah, absolutely. You need to come with me, otherwise who knows what sort of trouble I’ll brew? You don’t want me and Peeves putting our heads together.”

“…Well, I don’t know?” Despite their years of accidentally running into each other, Aurel didn’t know much about Ira. Though when others spoke of the relaxed boy, Aurel tried to listen. “I…sure!” He didn’t know what to say to that. “It’s my job to make sure every students is happy, I presume. And I, well, you’re not causing any harm if you’re hungry. You are hungry, aren’t you?”

“Exactly. Neither do I.” If Aurel wasn’t into staying in the library like some nutjob, maybe they had a cool common point. But that was soon forgotten in the face of how adorable the taller boy was. Was he sunshine wrapped in a human body? If so, would he be unnaturally warm? Without thinking Ira brought a fingertip and applied it against the tip of Aurel’s nose. “Nope,” he said in something louder than a whisper. No unnatural warmth there, but his skin was very smooth. “I’m hungry though, yeah. Could eat a lion”, he joked, grinning big. His index joined forces with his thumb and he flicked Aurel’s jawline, nothing hard enough to hurt. “Do you want to grab a late night snack with me, live a little?”

Lissy leaned closer to her cousin, giving him a blank glance to not further encourage whatever this new ‘bit’ was. “We’re at school.” She whispered it as though it was a secret. Pulling back, she opened her book once more. She was going to need a chance to speak to an actual mermaid if this was going to stick. Sometimes her cousins lax attitude was endearing but currently it was very much unneeded. “I won’t. She hasn’t written to me. She just wants to make sure you’re speaking to me and not rotting in the dungeons, scrubbing trophies for the rest of your days.”

“Two weeks. Three weeks. Doesn’t matter. You’re coming back.” He wasn’t going to tell Ira to learn some fucking respect. That’d never happen.·“Listen, _kid, _if you actually fucking cleaned them we wouldn’t have this interaction every week and I’d give you another piss-poor job.” He leaned back from Ira, smirking all the while.·“Sit down. You have a quarter·‘til.”

“You love me this much?” Ira mock-whispered, voice a bit watery. He knew he shouldn’t play with fire because fire played back, and getting ousted from Hogwarts would certainly not please his parents. But he knew that, had Stone been his age, they would have fought every single day and he was a bit sad he didn’t have the opportunity given their difference in academic status. Not to mention he had trouble with authority, pure and simple.·“But I got attached to this piss-poor job,” he whined as he looked around for a free table. There were some at the front, of course, but also one in the far back of the room. He beamed and started walking towards it, hoping he’d get to train his origami skills for the next fifteen minutes.

Lissy sighed. The library was intended to be an escape from people like her cousin. Not invited office hours to harass her at will. She snatched the letter up before closing her book, knowing Ira would prove to be a great distraction. “Can’t you just sum it up? I’m trying to study.” More accurately, she was trying to learn Mermish. She leaned back and crossed her legs. She hadn’t been intentionally ignoring her aunts letters but there wasn’t much to say on the subject. ‘Ira’s still getting into trouble. I’m not his babysitter. Yes, school is how it always is.’ “Has she decided to finally give you up for adoption? Are you getting sent to Japan and am I getting your room?”

“See ya next week for that mouth. You really clean them this time or are you gonna have to fucking do it over again?” Kennedy looked up from the dismal papers on why so and so wanted to learn how to apparate to level Ira with a glare. He knew to keep his tone low. No need for the other students to hear him mouthing off to the little lion. Kennedy might have hated Ira but he truly enjoyed putting this kid in his place. “You ever fucking going to learn or do you really like spending all your nights here? You startin’ to miss me?”

“Can’t, already have detention then.” It was a small miracle he didn’t have detention planned for the whole of the upcoming month, too. Maybe his teachers were starting to give up? “What’s it matter to you given that you’ll make me clean them again anyway?” A contemptuous smile wormed its way to Ira’s mouth before he let out a low whistle. “Wow, I had no idea the Ancient Runes teach wasn’t the only one hitting on students. Should I tell your girlfriend or is she in the know?”

“To leave? Do you mean from the library? A book. Sure.” Aurel never assumed that was where Ira would be. Or that he was reading. He had much grander ideas of pranks and somewhat rude acts that were the reasoning behind the younger student’s constant detentions. “Is it?” Now he had truly confused the blond. Where was that rule? Surely not in the prefect handbook. Where so many things different now that he was head boy? Or was Ira kidding? Aurel laughed politely, still a bit confused by the turn of events. Did Ira not like their routine?

“No, from the common room. What would I be doing in the library?” Alright, maybe he wasn’t ready to lie quite that much. The library required constant silence, something Ira wasn’t too keen on unless it was to stalk his favourite teacher’s pet prefect in the dark hallways of Hogwarts. “Yeah, it’s no fun when someone else catches me. At least you indulge me a little, even if you do your job,” he explained in a low voice, cheeky grin the cherry on top of his debonair shrug.

Nearly all of his mother’s letters mentioned Elisa, so much so that Ira was starting to suspect Emi didn’t feel like writing several letters but was more interested in her sort-of niece than her own son. ‘Have you seen your cousin lately’, ‘I’ve heard her grades are so good’, ‘she must be very dedicated to her studies’ and so on, it was a right bother.

So on a dull Thursday evening, Ira made a beeline for the library, Elisa’s true dorm. Honestly, if she weren’t boring she would have stayed the night in there sucking face with books, but last Ira heard his cousin didn’t have the mischievous streak like he did. Probably why he had ended up in Gryffindor, if he was honest. Spotting the Ravenclaw from a distance, he walked to her barely trying to avoid the chairs in his way. If people didn’t want to take his bag to the head, they should study closer to the table.

“There you go.”

The toothbrush clanked against the wooden surface of the desk, laying there like an athlete after a marathon they hadn’t prepared for. Ira stared at Stone’s face, openly disdainful and every bit the brat he had been put on this Earth to be. He could get another detention for his attitude, and really he was tired of having all his spare time taken away from him, but he couldn’t help it.

“Toothbrush all used up, now it’ll be good and soft on your teeth. Polish should smell better than cigarettes anyway, right?”

“I’m sure you could, Ira.” Aurel really didn’t have it in him to argue. Now or ever. He found the whole process distasteful, especially when his brunette friend wasn’t going to listen to him. “I am going to have to take away some house points.” He did so out of duty rather than want. Was one point enough to reprimand someone who really wasn’t up to anything other than a stroll? Aurel hoped so. 

He began making his way to the kitchen, shooting the shorter boy a dazzling grin. “What were you up to tonight if you haven’t made your way to the kitchens yet? Was it quite devious and dangerous and likely to get you in all kinds of trouble?”

Ira shrugged, his grin not going anywhere – and neither was he, unless Aurel accompanied him. “Sure, you do your duty. Wouldn’t want to get you in trouble.” Besides, he could make up for those house points he lost by helping Gryffindor win the Quidditch cup. No big deal whatsoever; besides, he trusted Aurel not to take away so many points that it would make an obvious difference.

The prefect’s grin should have alerted any living (or dead, such as it were) creature in the area, it was so dazzling. A ray of sunshine or something. Ira wasn’t too good with poetry or anything akin to it, but Aurel’s smiles did make the Gryffindor want to kiss him. He was just that kind of pretty. “I just took some more time to leave, I was finishing a book.” By book he meant manga, but he would make himself sound more dedicated to his studies by all means. “Then I almost got caught by another prefect, so I hid and all. Can’t have anyone but you finding me out, it’s a rule.”

It shouldn’t come as surprise that nearly every time he was on duty Ira was wandering the corridors after hours. It had been perhaps the only constant his rounds had. Though a small part of Aurel did hope the younger boy would one day learn the consequences of being out after bedtime, it would make his own nights dull. 

“You’re not supposed to be out.” Aurel stated, despite the wide grin on his face. He never expected to befriend a Gryffindor but here was one standing in front of him. One that apparently knew his route. “I was headed there…you really should go to bed, Ira. Or at least back to your common room.” 

“Which is exactly why I am,” Ira immediately retorted with a widening grin of his own, not missing a beat. Sure, navigating the moving staircases at night could get pretty risky, but other than that he couldn’t see any reasonable explanation as to why night strolls weren’t allowed; thus he disobeyed that particular rule as often as he felt like.

Cocking his head innocently, the Gryffindor went as far as jutting out his lower lip in a pout, knowing full well the very limited effect it was likely to have on Aurel. He didn’t mean to take the prefect for a fool, which Aurel was aware of – at least Ira hoped he was. “I’ll go once I’ve got something to snack on. Can’t go to bed on a half-empty stomach, can I?”