#red smith

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Red didn’t even know what he did wrong.

Seriously, all he did was stand next to Jay by the lockers and chat! And he couldn’t remember doing anything wrong during the morning, or yesterday, or-

And yet for some reason, Smith came storming over with a look of pure fury. Fury pointed at him.

“I thought I made it very clear,” Smith growled. “What would happen if I caught you hanging around here.”

Behind his sunglasses & the bangs covering his face- he wasn’t used to his hair being down- Red’s expression furrowed in confusion with an edge of hurt. He started to ask what Smith was talking about but shut his mouth when the other teen jabbed a finger toward him.

“Don’t play games with me, Kai.” There was an odd style to how he stressed Kai’s name, but he couldn’t place what it meant. “I’m not in the mood.”

Red was aware of Jay standing awkwardly to the side, fingers tugging at the frayed end of his scarf. His gaze darted back and forth between the two like he was watching a tennis match. A very volatile tennis match where the tennis ball could explode into flames at any moment. 

And Red? Red was just confused, and more than a little hurt now. At first, he’d thought maybe Smith hadn’t recognized him- his own friends hadn’t the first time he’d ran out of time to gel his hair up before school- but when he used his name it was clear he knew exactly who he was talking to.

Red just didn’t know why. He hadn’t even been drinking a lot of coffee lately, so he hadn’t (or shouldn’t have) done anything crazy in a caffeinated haze (he pulled an all-nighter once, figuring that it would be okay to skip the few hours of sleep his mind would have let him get anyway. Never again). The last time he and Smith had talked, they’d ended on friendly terms, right?

So why was Smith acting as if Red had slammed Jay into the lockers and demanded his lunch money?

“Smith-”

“Don’t you ‘Smith’ me,” Smith interrupted. Red recoiled at the open hostility, the strongest he’d ever heard from Smith. “You know, just when I think I know how low you’re willing to sink, you go ahead and surprise me.”

Okay, ouch. Red really wanted to know what he’d done now.

“I-I-”

The two turned to look at Jay, whose ramble grew muffled as he ducked his head into his scarf and blushed. Smith moved, stretching out his arm and-

Positioning himself between Red and Jay. Okay, what parallel dimension had Red been dropped into that moment where Smith felt he had the need to protect Jay from him, as if Red would whirl around and attack him like some evil minion of Garmadon?

“Hey, it’s okay,” Smith spoke in a soothing tone to Jay. The latter shot Red a confused and apologetic look over the former’s shoulder. “Did he hurt you?”

Did- did Smith really think- think that he- he would-

Red’s heart shattered, and if Smith had been looking, he would have seen how his expression crumbled into devastation. Instead, his focus was on checking Jay for injuries. Every second that passed drove another knife blade through Red’s heart.

Something sputtered in his chest.

“Did- did you really think-” His tone went from hurt to defensive angry, an instinctive reaction to lash back against the undeserving pain. “That I was going to- that I was here for that?”

Smith spun with his teeth bared and Red nearly lost his fire. “What else? You knew you weren’t supposed to, and yet here you are. Why can’t you just leave me alone? Can’t you see no one wants you around, faker?”

This- this had to be a joke, right? Or a misunderstanding? Smith didn’t really say that. He didn’t- he didn’t mean that-

Shoving his shaking hands in his pockets, Red fought to keep the choked sob down. Jay tried to step toward him, to say something, but his voice hitched into a stutter. Smith once again turned to comfort him before turning on Red with the fury of the sun in his eyes.

“What. Did. You. Do.”

Oh FSM, he wasn’t kidding. This wasn’t a cruel joke, Smith was serious. Red swayed on his feet, blinking back tears. He was so, so utterly confused, drowning in hurt and shock and a lack of understanding.

Smith’s hand clenched. “They were all right. You are the absolute worst. There is not a trace of good in your pitiful, shrivelled excuse of a heart. Resorting to this pettiness just to spite me. You’re pathetic.”

Red couldn’t breathe. Heat rushed to his face, and the only reasons he wasn’t crying were his wish not to appear weak at school (he needed to keep his reputation strong to scare off some bullies for Lloyd) and seeing how behind Smith Jay looked furious on Red’s behalf. Though he hasn’t managed to find his voice, the look of support- at least one person didn’t fully believe that- kept Red from breaking on the spot.

“Yeah? And they were right about you.” Red was proud to admit that his voice only slightly wavered. “You’re not-”

And the next moment he was on the ground. 

His face stung. Why was his face stinging? What-

He looked up through the cracked lens of his sunglasses at Smith, standing over him with his fist held as if-

As if he’d just decked Red.

Smith had a mixture of anger, surprise, and smugness on his face, like he hadn’t fully expected to connect but was damn proud of himself for it.

As for Red, the punch had brought more tears to his eyes in reflex, and they were starting to spill over his cheeks. He wanted to wipe them away before they ran far enough for someone to see, but his body was in shock and wouldn’t respond.

“What- What is wrong with you!!”

Oh, Red had not heard that tone in a while. It took a lot to get Jay to explode like that, and it warmed Red’s heart the one that lay in shattered pieces on the floor or the hallway to know it was for him. Smith looked over his shoulder, eyes wide and puzzled, and shuddered like he’s been statically shocked at the intensity of Jay’s glare. The look of sheer anger didn’t last long, though one could argue that the amount of guilt you were slammed with when his expression dissolved into tears was worse. He hiccuped and rubbed his cheek in a rushed stroke, still managing to look pissed despite the water stains splattered across his freckles.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay-” Smith tried to soothe him. “He tried to trick you, but-”

Jay was having none of it, slipping under Smith’s outstretched arm and hurrying over to check on Red.

Smith did a double-take. “Hey- Jay! No, he’s lying to you, you can’t be hanging around him, please, you’ll get hurt-”

“More hurt than what ‘Smith’ here did to your friend.”

The three startled as a fourth voice joined the conversation. At Red’s side, Jay curled in on himself with a soft, strangled whimper, his eyes wide and confused. Smith stared at the newcomer.

And Red-

Red looked up to see himself.

Or, well, what he thought was himself for a moment. Between the crisp leather jacket and aviators, hair chopped in an intentionally short and messy style, the guy was the epitome of a ‘bad boy’ without the cringe. A scar peeked out under his left eye- not that dissimilar from Smith’s, actually- and he had a wolfish grin that immediately put Red on edge and fired off every warning signal in his brain.

“You- how-”

Smith glanced between the newcomer and Red, horror slowly creeping into his expression. 

Between him, Red, and the newcomer, Red noted, they could be mistaken for triplets under the right circumstances.

“My my-” The newcomer whistled, hands in his jacket, posture leisure. “You really did a number on him. That’s going to be a black eye for sure, maybe two! I must congratulate you.”

Smith whirled on the newcomer with refreshed anger fuelled by- Red hoped for a moment it was guilt, then chided himself for hoping that because that would mean Smith was hurt, but based on the dots rapidly connecting in Red’s mind, his words hadn’t actually been meant for him.

They still stung though, and his face hurt worse.

“You-”

“Me,” said the newcomer, unbothered by Smith’s scathing bark.

“You vile, evil, manipulative-” 

The newcomer raised his hands- damn, Red was a little jealous of those gloves, some kind of fancy fingerless style that they once again pulled off effortlessly- and smirked at Smith. “Hey now, that-” He gestured to Red, still sitting stunned in the floor, and Jay, who pressed against his side and shrunk under the sudden attention. “-was all you, ‘Smith’.”

Smith looked less than a fraction of a second from spitting some very choice words in the newcomer’s face, but his pupils slid to Red and his expression dropped back into guilt. “Kai, I’m-“

“Ah, right. Kai.”

Red really didn’t like how the stranger said his name.

“Honestly, I’m not surprised Smith landed a punch on you. If I was allowed, I’d do the same. Though I must admit, I wouldn’t be able to stop after just one; your mug just screams ‘dork alert’. Grow a little spine.”

Red found his voice. “Hey-!”

“Come on now, Kai,” the newcomer spoke over him. “Be a little smart and realize this isn’t a fight you want to pick. Can’t you see the big boys are talking?”

He caught Smith’s punch with one fist before it could hit his cheek, never taking his eyes off Red. “You know what ‘Smith’ here was saying is true. You’re just too stupid and stubborn to realize it. Come on, ‘Smith’. Let’s take this discussion outside away from these losers.”

Smith lunged at the stranger again but he merely sidestepped. “Ah ah ah, don’t want to cause a scene, do we? Would be a shame to involve these two more than we already have.”

Smith sneered at him and for a moment Red thought he’d attack him again anyways, but he bit his tongue. The two walked out of the hallway, one storming, one with all the time in the world. 

At the last moment, the newcomer turned and a chill shot through Red; he could have sworn that behind his shades, his eyes looked crimson in the light. His grin was twisted, sinister even, and Red realized with clear certainty that he wasn’t a student at this school. “I have a feeling this isn’t the last time we’ll cross paths, Kai Smith.”