Chapter Text
“Hey, how ‘bout this one?”
Aerrow suppressed a groan as he took a direct-to-face hit from yet another offending item of Finn’s wardrobe. The long-suffering redhead slowly peeled the dark blue t-shirt - one of many - off of his face, his green eyes following the oblivious blonde with steadily growing impatience.
“So, not that one then,” Aerrow sighed, dragging himself up from his sitting position on the floor before flopping down unceremoniously onto the crumpled mess that was Finn’s bed. “Will you just pick something please, I am begging you.”
At his friend’s desperate plea, the other boy abruptly halted his frantic rifling, turning to look at him with an expression of pure disbelief. “This is a party, dude, one of the biggest parties of the year!”
“So?”
“So?!?” Finn burst out, marching over to the clueless boy lounging on his bed. “It means everyone will be there! E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E,” he emphasised, including a sharp jab on each syllable for good measure.
Okay, he got the picture.
To avoid any further attempts on his life, Aerrow shuffled backwards, leaning against the headboard as Finn shook his head pityingly. “It’s okay, I wouldn’t expect you to understand true fashion,” he stated with a condescending air, wandering back over to his wardrobe to continue his quest for the Perfect Outfit. “I just wish I could’ve taught you better,” he whispered brokenly, looking his fashion-less guest up and down disdainfully.
“Whatever,” Aerrow shrugged, rolling his eyes before glancing at himself in the mirror across the room. ‘I look okay, right?’ he thought, eyeing his chosen outfit carefully. In the end he’d gone for a simple look: flannel shirt, sleeves rolled up to the elbows, black ripped jeans and pair of white converse.
A triumphant yell from Finn brought Aerrow back to reality as he turned and saw his complete lunatic of a friend fully dressed, wearing a pastel blue shirt with jeans and converse.
“It’s time to PARTAY!” Finn yelled obnoxiously as he practically fell out of the house, followed at a slower pace by Aerrow, who had come to accept that he was never to see the outside world again.
‘Finally.’
As the two friends rounded the corner, Aerrow saw Finn’s mouth drop open in awe. The building in front of them was like something out of a fairytale, albeit a creepy, evil fairytale. It was a large Gothic mansion complete with French windows, turrets,...and even ominous overcloud. Purple ominous overcloud. Weird.
“Dude, her folks must be totally loaded,” Finn whispered excitedly, making a beeline for the front door. Aerrow followed after him with anticipation, the erratic blonde’s hyperactive nature rubbing off on him. He got to the door just as Finn lifted the bronze, Victorian-esque knocker and slammed it down with far more force than was necessary. “Oops,” Finn grinned at him sheepishly, “Bit heavy.”
Before Aerrow could reply with a witty remark, the front door flew open revealing Cyclonis, a petite, slender girl with a death-stare powerful enough to make even the most macho man run the other way. She glared at them now, with something Aerrow could only describe as a mixture of disgust and irritation. Unfortunately, Finn clearly saw something different.
‘Oh God,’ Aerrow cringed inwardly as he saw him assume the Flirting Position. He was forced to bear witness as Finn clumsily leant against the door-frame in what he thought to be an enticing pose. “So,” the younger boy said, gesturing to himself “you like what you see?”
Cyclonis very much did not like what she saw. Aerrow swore that he saw a flash of lightning as the small yet slightly scary girl’s eyes darkened. This would probably be a good time to move.
“Come on,” Aerrow muttered, grabbing Finn by the wrist and pulling him through the door, muttering an apology towards the Daughter of Darkness. He continued to push through the crowd until he heard a low voice from behind him.
“Hey, dude I think we lost her,” Finn said, as if what just happened couldn’t have been avoided if he’d kept his big mouth shut. Aerrow stopped walking suddenly, causing Finn to crash into him “Ow.”
The exasperated redhead turned to him, placing a hand on either shoulder in a pleading manner “Listen, this was your idea, and that’s great. But please, I don’t think I could handle it if I died because of you and your Great Ideas, so never ever make me see that again.”
Finn grinned at him, wiggling his eyebrows “What’s the matter? You jealous of my out-of-this-world womanising skills, huh?”
That gained him an eyebrow raise, although he wasn’t wrong about his ‘womanising skills.’ They really were something else.
“Also, what’s with the crazy grip,” Finn complained, rubbing his wrist “you been working out or something?”
Aerrow crossed his arms, looking him dead in the eye with a grin “You’re squirrelly and annoying, I had to develop a god-like physique to control the complete mess that you are.”
This caused Finn to stare at him for a couple of seconds, Aerrow could practically see the cogs whirring in his head deciding whether or not to be insulted, before he shrugged, turning away and waving his hand dismissively “Whatever man, see you later.”
He spun around one last time, complete with trigger-fingers and an eyebrow wiggle “It’s time for the Finnster to work his magic.”
That was something Aerrow was sure he really didn’t need to see.
After leaving the Finnster to ‘work his magic’ Aerrow had been at a loss with what to do with himself. After all, he was never really big on parties. For now, he was content with wandering through the various gaggles and crowds of people, taking in the buzz of the atmosphere. After a while though, he’d started to notice a different sort of buzz. He’d started to feel that something was off when the vibrant rotating hues of colour washing through the room became more and more like a kaleidoscopic assault, as his vision blurred in and out of focus. A sudden realisation dawned on him as he sniffed his drink gingerly.
‘Crap,’ he thought ‘is there alcohol in this?’ At least Finn wasn’t around to film his swiftly approaching loss of all dignity.
He began to make his way to the drinks table, in the hopes that if he just stood around and acted like he knew what he was doing, everything would be cool. Totally cool.
As Aerrow stood leaning against the wall, attempting to not think about how completely uncool this was, he felt a soft hand on his shoulder accompanied by a timid “Excuse me.”
He turned blearily to see a slim, dark-skinned girl looking up at him apologetically as she tried to get past. Realising that he was still stood in the way, he shuffled slightly, “Whoopsies,” he mumbled almost incoherently, mentally kicking himself for letting it slip out. Nice one.
‘Avoid eye contact, maybe she didn’t notice that you sound like you’re wasted,’ Aerrow thought frantically, chancing a glance in her direction. Nope. She noticed. She raised an eyebrow at him as she poured herself a drink, a light-hearted smile playing on her lips. “You okay there? You need to be really careful with this stuff, I can only ever have one or two.”
One or Two? Wonderful. He’d definitely had more than that. Aerrow was soon startled out of his hazy panic by a chirpy voice. It was that girl again.
”Someone’s definitely had one too many,” she teased, giving him a sidelong glance.
‘Just play it cool. You’ve got this she doesn’t know you,’ he thought quickly. He had to reply or she’d think he was some kind of weirdo. He shot her a goofy smile, reaching to lean on the table in what he hoped was a laid-back manner.
“Nah, it’s totally fine. I drink like this all the ti-”
His both cocky and fictional claim was cut short by a distinct lack of table underneath the palm of his hand.
He knew this would happen, he knew Finn would be the death of him. Even if this wasn’t directly his fault, he definitely had something to do with it. Indirectly.
Aerrow blinked a few times, slightly disorientated and confused by the fact that he was currently horizontal. Dazed, he looked up to see a somewhat familiar face hovering inches above his own, her carnelian eyes flitting between concern and amusement.
“Hey,” the girl said softly, “Having fun down there?”
“Totally,” he mumbled, as she offered a hand to him, which he gratefully accepted. Still feeling slightly tipsy, Aerrow let her lead him to a nearby chair, where she sat him down, handing him a cup of water, before throwing herself down onto the chair next to his.
The two sat in silence, Aerrow realising with each sip of water exactly how much of a Total Prat he had made of himself. To drag his attention away from the gnawing sense of shame twisting in his stomach, he turned to the girl.
“Don’t you feel like dancing or something? It’s a party right?,” he joked, trying to ease any tension between them, although he was pretty sure any awkwardness dissipated as soon as his face made impact with the floor. Talk about breaking the ice.
The girl shrugged, brushing a stray strand of midnight blue hair away from her face “I’m not really a big party person, I agreed to come because of Cyclonis, y’know?” Aerrow nodded slightly, encouraging her to continue. “Well, I know everyone thinks she’s this scary mean girl who’s friends with everyone, but tonight, don’t you think it’s strange that we’ve seen everyone else having a good time except her?”
At her question, Aerrow took a look around the room, realising with surprise that he hadn’t seen Cyclonis once, not with any of the various groups clustered around the house.
“I guess you’re right,” he murmured absent-mindedly, eyes still scanning the room. He’d never thought someone like Cyclonis could be lonely.
“So what about you?” the girl questioned, leaning on the arm of the chair, eyes glinting mischievously “You’re a total party animal, right?”
This made the older boy roll his eyes, “Ha, ha,” he dead-panned, taking a gulp of water to hide his ever-present embarrassment. He was never going to top this first impression. He fiddled with the cup for a few moments, giving a sidelong glance to the girl, who was watching him with laughter in her eyes. “To be totally honest with you, I’m not much of a party person either,” he admitted, although he could see by her expression of mock surprise that he hadn’t needed to tell her that.
“I actually came here with a-”
Aerrow found his conversation was cut short as he watched a familiar, wiry blonde fight his way through a crowd of people. As he practically fell in front of Aerrow, the redhead noticed that his head of perfectly spiked hair was all but dishevelled and one of his cheeks was a great deal redder than the other.
“Do I actually want to know what happened?” Aerrow asked bluntly, dreading the answer. He was answered with a wide grin as Finn pointed to his abused cheek “I got slapped in the face,” he supplied breathlessly, staring at his friend’s sympathetic expression before clarifying “No, no it’s okay, it means she totally digs me.”
Aerrow rubbed the bridge of his nose, shaking his head fondly. What was he going to do with his complete dork of a friend?
With that lingering thought, Aerrow decided it was probably best that they left, before Finn got himself killed by an angry mob of insulted women. He placed the now empty cup on a nearby table, turning to the still present girl who had been watching the whole exchange with barely stifled laughter. “We better go,” he said, gesturing with his thumb “but...thanks...uh..” Aerrow faltered, recalling that he hadn’t asked the girl’s name. Smooth.
”Piper. It’s Piper,” she said, with a small smile “And don’t worry about it...?” She paused, looking at him expectantly.
”Oh, uh, Aerrow,” he stuttered, cursing himself silently for being so awkward. She gave a quiet laugh at his response but didn’t tease him, she simply stood up and walked past, waving slightly at the pair. “See you round sometime.”
Awesome.
Aerrow was rudely zapped out of his goofy trance by the feeling of Finn’s eyes boring into the side of his skull questioningly. He raised his eyebrows, taking in the scruffy appearance of the younger boy before patting him on the shoulder and heading for the front door “Come on then, you lady-killer you.”
“You know it.”
After their escape, the two friends walked in companionable silence down the darkened street, illuminated softly only by the gentle amber glow of the lamp-posts.
That is, until Finn opened his mouth.
“So who was that?” Finn questioned, his voice laced with an obnoxious cheer known only to him. Aerrow took a sudden interest in the floor, scuffing his feet on the loose, crumbling asphalt. “I don’t know,” he mumbled reluctantly. He knew that when Finn wanted gossip he would not stop.
“She was just a girl, she helped me up.”
“Oooooooohhh,” Finn drawled childishly, nudging Aerrow’s side before slowing down. “Hey, wait,” he called suddenly, jogging to catch up with the taller boy who had quickened his pace at Finn’s incessant interrogations.
“Why did you need helping up?” Finn challenged suspiciously, narrowing his eyes at Aerrow, who looked everywhere but the nosy blonde.
“I fell over.” At Aerrow’s confession, Finn stopped dead, catching the redhead by the shoulder, causing him to stop too. “You...fell over?” Finn whispered, his voice cracking “You fell over IN FRONT of everyone?!”
Uh oh.
Aerrow blocked out Finn’s heated rant, only tuning into certain memorable phrases such as him being a “Gift from God,” and a “Man lusted after by many.”
Letting his mind wander back to the earlier events of the night, Aerrow debated whether what he had experienced had been either the best or worst moments of his life so far. He found himself smiling involuntarily as he remembered the playful laughter in those sparkling eyes, and the way her lips were always quirked, ready to smile. I mean, he would never forget the embarrassment and complete loss of self-respect he’d experienced, but if he had to describe it in two words:
Not bad.