tomorrow will be kinder

“It is acid that gives sour candy its sour flavoring.” Aspen said. As she spoke, she shrugged. The world was more science than genuine experiences for her. “Studies have shown sugar to be quite addictive. Snickerdoodles are delicious. Simple chocolate chip cookies are probably my favorite, however.”

Niko, for once, was at a loss for words. For all that him and Lian went back and forth, neither of them were so forward. Not that Niko really minded. “None at all, Lian dearest. Just curious - where did this come from all of a sudden?”

It makes her continue to smirk seeing how speechless Niko was for once. It had been the reaction she was hoping for. Dearest? There was a new one. “I just felt like being honest.” Truthfully she doesn’t know what all came over her. She steps closer, pressing a finger against his chest. “Don’t let it get to your head.”

“ wow … you’re hot when you’re angry. “ / @lianhrpr

“Excuse me, kid?” Niko feigned shocked, but failed to hide the smirk tugging at his lips. He had even forgotten what he was angry at to begin with. “I’m what?”

Lian tilts her head as she looks up at Niko after closing the distance between them. “You heard me. I said you’re HOT when you’re angry.” She repeats herself, stepping away to pull her hair out of the ponytail she had it up in. Her eyes turning back to him with a similar smirk. “You got a problem with that?” 

“let me stop you right there-” dropping the rubiks cube that he had been messing with onto the case file opened before him, cris finally had the decency to look up at the person stood across the department’s reception desk. “don’t you think you’d be better off bothering campus security with this, instead of us?” it wasn’t the most professional thing to ask, but you had to hand it to him ; he didn’t seem to think twice about the words that left him. sitting back in the office chair he’d been stuck in all day ( a punishment that was becoming all too COMMON for him ), he crossed his arms over his chest and fixed them with a look, the kind that betrayed how far from invested he was in this situation, already. “i don’t mean no offense - but the department ain’t gonna waste money on little league felonies.” 

Lian’s response made Niko falter a bit, he didn’t know her situation with her mother. In all the time he’d spent annoying her, he never knew that. He didn’t expect to feel so guilty about it, but swallowed it down when he did. “Of course, kid. What would you ever do without me?”

Lian used to wonder about her mother when she was a kid, but now she was older and Jade was never to be heard from. She was probably too busy with her life as a supervillain to check in. “I’d be lost. I guess I need to keep you around.” She says with a soft smile, nudging him with her foot again.

Ira ground his teeth together, trying to keep from fidgeting around while she worked. This would be his greatest feat of patience and stillness yet. “That’s right. I’m a rent-a-friend for the day,” he joked, half smiling back at her. It had taken him a second to warm up to her – literally. His body temperature naturally stayed pretty cold, but years of antisocial behavior had reinforced a bad habit of dropping down to freezing to burn anyone that tried to touch him. “I’m okay. You can keep going. I don’t know how long I can keep from accidentally freezing the paint. So, I’d rather you finish and get your pictures first just in case it does and the paint cracks,” he replied, pausing for a moment before he added, “besides, it stopped tickling me finally, so I can stop giggling every five seconds. I’m good now.”

“I wouldn’t see it as that. It’s like friends helping out each other, and I know how sitting there must be tiresome. Paying you for your time just feels right.” Lian laughs a little as she moves the paint across his skin again, making the final touches. It takes a few minutes before she’s pulling back all excited. “I think that’s it!” She claps putting the brush down, resting it in the dirty water. “You want to see before I take some pictures? It looks better than I had hoped.” She can help take it off, which was always the worst part wasn’t it?

“Remind me again what I’m getting out of being a part of your art project?” Ira asked, his nose crinkling from the thick smell of the marker and paint. After being a shut in to study for finals the previous year, his father worried about him relapsing into old reclusive tendencies.  Making an effort to manage work and play, he was beginning to wonder if this plan was starting to feel like it was going terribly awry. “Isn’t it dangerous to be taking in fumes like this? I feel like it is.  This is your way of slowly murdering me, isn’t it?”

Lian smiles as she pulls the paintbrush back, tilting her head. “Two hundred bucks, and lunch. I promise this paint isn’t harmful.” It was expensive, but she wouldn’t put something dangerous on someone’s body. “I’m almost done. Did you want to take a break?” She offers as she dips the brush in some water to clean it off so she can use a different color — blue.

“I’m practically in tears, do your parents know their little girl is so stone cold now?” Niko leaned back, crossing his arms. “Oh, I don’t think I am. Babe, I know I am.”

“I don’t know my mother, but she’d probably be proud.” Lian tilts her head as she looks over at him — yeah he was cute, but she knows she shouldn’t give him the satisfaction. “Well, thank you for correcting me there, sir.”

ok so maybe he’s not supposed to be in here, but … he’s never used a real bow and arrow (well, not extensively. there was that one time he tried to learn in preparation for the idol star athletic championships, but…) and he’s kind of curious. he uses one made from his energy while he’s hwall, but obviously that doesn’t compare to a real bow and arrow. especially with draw weights, he’s never done that. so he gingerly fiddles with the strings of some practice bows, before sighing and taking his place in front of a target, empty handed.

his hands glow softly, a lilac energy emerging, before he raises his arms and a bow and arrow appears in his hands. his form isn’t perfect - but when he looses the fake arrow, it lands nicely in the center ring of the target. and dissipates into the air. and for the next hour, this repeats, the easiness of the motions bringing him peace and calm.

“You’re pretty good at that you know. You’re a natural. How long have you been an archer?” Lian asks as she moves into the area, a quiver full of handmade arrows attached to her hip. She had her compound bow in her one hand, a set of red leather gloves on her hands too. She moves to an empty area in front of a different target. 

She pulls two arrows out of the quiver, pulls the string back after aiming quickly before letting it loose. They hit the center and she smiles satisfied. 

“Little Lian Harper with a comeback? Aw, you’re growing up!” Niko put on a hand on his chest, feigning pride. “I’m so proud.”

“Who would have thought — huh?” Lian smirks though, nudging him with her foot gently. “You think you’re real cute.” 

“Almost, kid.” Despite his best efforts, nothing really seemed to faze Lian. He didn’t go out of his way to annoy her, he really didn’t. But it was part of what he did now, since they met. “Got somewhere better to be?”

Lian can tell what Niko is trying to do, but she has a thick skin. While easy to bleed, she can handle anything. “I don’t actually. If I’m a kid does that make you a GRANDPA?”

❝ i’m willing to bet that. you look young. just in time for any mental illness to arrive before adulthood. ❞ archie speaks intelligently, but her knowledge is all lost in her twisted words. she’s more joke than girl, and her jokes fall flat. ❝ people in paragon. the one percent all in a small space. weird is in the air. ❞

❝ and the negative is, like, seeing all your family and loved ones die and being able to do nothing about it ? dark. ❞ those billion and one pop songs had it wrong. it was nothing to strive for and percy is only nineteen but feels like he’s eighty.  ❝ maybe, yeah. people either really hate or love, like, either of my parents and very rarely ever both. ❞

“There aren’t many sweets I don’t like.” They were still a luxury to her, maybe would always be when her childhood consisted of bland food chosen for the nutrition instead of comfort or flavor. “Sour candy is gross, however. I can’t see the point of it.”

You can always count on Niko to cut into someone’s personal time. He sat in the free space, nudging at her legs so that one of them laid down before dropping of his legs over her’s. In a move to test her patience even more, he gave a lopsided grin. “Hey, kid.”

Lian didn’t know what Niko was up to as he was nudging her legs. She lays them down eventually, and his drop over hers. “Kid? You know I’m almost your age, right?” She laughs though, closing her sketchbook at that point. “Trying to trap me under you?”