Actions

Work Header

Rating:
Archive Warnings:
Fandoms:
Relationship:
Characters:
Additional Tags:
Language:
English
Series:
Part 23 of Prompt Fics
Collections:
Good Omens Fic Writers Workshop: Weekly Prompts
Stats:
Published:
2021-08-25
Words:
929
Chapters:
1/1
Comments:
14
Kudos:
25
Hits:
189

Too rare to be lost

Summary:

Pepper and Adam ponder each other and themselves

Notes:

For the Writer's Server's Weekly Prompt
This week: Jealousy

Work Text:

The bird awoke Pepper before her alarm clock could. Which was a good thing really, since she had forgotten to set it. She slipped out of bed and shuffled to the bathroom. 

Brushing her teeth, she peered out of the window. It was a nice day. She and the other Thems could go to the lake as they had planned. 

That was good of course. No summer lasted forever and the remaining holidays should be wisely spent. Swimming in cold water and drying in the hot sun was a very wise way to spend a summer day.

Pepper sighed. This was no summer like the others. Sure, no summer was exactly like another, but still, the world almost ending and being saved by Adam through sheer willpower, qualified as a special summer.

Scoffing, Pepper splashed cold water into her face. Of course, Adam. It had always been Adam. Pepper could run faster, throw farther and eat more biscuits. She was better at stick fighting and could hold her breath much longer. Okay, by now Adam could punch harder and beat her at arm wrestling[1], but she was more agile still. But of course Adam got to be the chosen one. The one who just like that got a dog and super powers for his birthday. Pepper didn’t even get the bike she wanted.

Life was unfair, really.

*

Adam was late. Adam often was late, but usually he did not care much. Today however, he was not late for school or a boring visit at Aunt Hortensia’s, no he would go swimming with the Them. He had 10 minutes to get ready and be at Old Dave’s Tree.[2]

So he decided that brushing his teeth was much more important than brushing his hair and finding matching socks was less important than wearing socks at all.

“No time!” he told his mother who was setting the breakfast table.

He rushed past her and grabbed a banana. Smiling fondly, she ruffled through his hair and told him that she loved him.

“Love you, too, Mom,” he yelled and ran outside.

As he climbed onto the bike, he halted. Swimming. Adam loved swimming. He was the best at it. But was he really? At a lot of things, Pepper could beat him so he was usually especially proud when he could beat her at something. But after the events of the summer, he wondered how much of this was real. 

When Pepper climbed a tree, won a fight or a race, it was all her. But how could Adam be sure that it was him who earned his own victories. Maybe it was all just the mysterious power resting inside him.

Pepper would always know her achievements were her own.

Life was unfair, really.

*

Still sulking at life, Pepper left the house. Stupid summer, stupid super powers, stupid Adam. She rounded the house and grabbed her bike. She halted. Her bike.

It was not really her bike, was it? Well, now it was, but… She’d had that stupid pink girly bike with a basket at first. But Adam, seeing her disappointment, had switched bikes with her. 

Unbidden, other memories came to mind. People, talking behind her back about her scandalously single mother, a white woman with a black child. And Adam, ignoring their nonsense. Boys she won against, later claiming they were “going easy” on her. And Adam, taking defeat like man.

Pepper recalled the first day of soccer training. She had been great, of course, and therefor had been in a grand mood. Until stupid Greasy Johnson felt the need to say, “Girls shouldn’t be on the soccer team”. Smiling, Pepper remembered Adam’s reaction. She could still hear his casual and dry comment, “Well, slimy snakes shouldn’t be in the school’s gym, yet here you are.”

Adam was her friend. Who cared if he was an angel? Half-angel? Demon? semi-demon? Superhero? First and foremost, he was her friend. That mattered more than stupid competitions.

*

Adam arrived at the edge of the forest. At the tree line, he got off his bike and pushed it through the thicket. Nearby was rustling and as he neared Old Dave’s Tree, he spotted Pepper. Pepper, who could ride a bike faster than the wind, could climb every tree like a cat and chase away all the bullies like a superhero - without any magical powers.

After leaning her bike against the tree, Pepper looked around. Soon she spotted Adam. Her eyes lit up and she smiled. Seeing her wave and hearing her call out his name, had Adam smiling, too. 

Pepper, the coolest, bravest and smartest girl he knew, was happy to see him. Suddenly, it did not matter anymore if his swimming, climbing or throwing skills were real. Because Pepper’s smile was real. He had done that. Adam Young had managed to befriend this amazing person. Not the Antichrist. Adam.

“Hello,” said Adam.

“Hey,” answered Pepper.

“Where’s Wensleydale and Brian? Are we too early?”

“Don’t think so.” Pepper said and grinned. “They’re just a pair of lame ducks.”

Adam laughed.

“They really are,” he said and with mischief in his gaze and voice, he asked, “Race to the lake?”

“You bet.”

 

The End

[1] Maybe first signs of puberty which was just unfair.
[2] The tree did not really belong to Old Dave. The Them had just seen that guy standing at the tree, watching a squirrel. Actually, they also didn’t know whether or not his name was Dave and he didn’t look that old. But still it had seemed fitting at the time.

Series this work belongs to: