{Rune}
When I got home late that day, Vera was waiting for me in the kitchen with her phone in her hand. Her posture was strangely uncomfortable when she handed me the device without any comment while I still struggled to take off my jacket.
"Who...?" I whispered to her but she wouldn't answer so I took the phone and put it on speaker.
"Hello?" I said unsure what to expect when I was met with the angry and worried voice of granny.
"Rune... Vera refused to tell me anything but next time you don't want me to know where you are you should deactivate your snap chat location..." She stated in that voice of her that sounded like a teacher but at the same time it made me feel sad.
"Granny, I... don't think you'll approve of this but you need to accept that I'm not a child anymore." I tried to start explaining to her without going straight for the shocking news.
"I know you are not a child and I know you and Vera can care for yourselves but there are things out there that you don't know about and you have no experience with those." She argumented against me. I knew well that she was right but the fear of the unknown shouldn't hold a person back and limit their possibilities. It was my decision what to do.
"Then you should have introduced us to all of that sooner. I am sick of hiding and living a life like this, grandma. I want to find out about my family and live in the society that I was born in." I did not raise my voice at her but I stood my point confidently.
"What are you up to?" Granny asked after a few seconds hinting a little fear in her voice. I did love her a lot but right now her worry wasn't what I could endure.
"You don't need to worry. I'm keeping my identity hidden." I shortly stated but that only resolved in the old woman starting to speak faster and more worried than before.
"Rune, one of the most influential and big groups, Inoue group, is in LA. They won't need long to find out about you if you lose focus for just a second!"
"I said I'll manage!"
"No, you might be fast but these gifted groups are not to joke around with! They can wipe you out in one night without anyone noticing. There are not only good people out there, Rune!" Granny complained but I wasn't swayed by her words.
"I don't want to fight them." I explained.
"You will eventually want to at some point. I know I've never spoken much about your parents death because I don't know why we were attacked so suddenly back then... but the Inoue group had always been a close friend before they betrayed us. You can't trust them!!"
"Grandma, you can't judge everyone in the group for what only few might have caused." I coldly replied somehow going into defensive mode for the Inoue group now. Of course I didn't fully trust them but my grandma was blinded by her hate.
"They are egoistic and inhuman like every other group. They only take in the ones that have enough money to pay them. People with poor background, handicapped gifted ones or simply those that pose the slightest threat to embarrass a group are not given attention or care! I can't say that the Falcon group wasn't the same but Rune... that society is full of mistreatment, arrogance and power play. See for yourself like you always do but don't come back crying to me when your imagination of a good world starts to break!"
With that she ended the call and I stood there totally out of myself for a few seconds.
Now that I thought about it, she was right with what she said at the end. All people at Inoue group were healthy, otdinary people but I had never seen anyone of lower social status. A flashback of the man that was taken away by the security guard in front of the Inoue company building replayed in my head. He had suffered from his ability because he couldn't controll it... there had to be many more people like that but if what granny said was true then there was no one to help them.
"I told you, we'd get in trouble..." Vera's voice pulled me out of my thoughts when she took back her phone. I went straight for the stairs without giving her a second glance. It wasn't on purpose but if I was upset I couldn't look at people's faces nor talk.
"We're not in trouble." I answered shortly and took an apple from the counter with me to the staircase that went up to the second floor where I had my room.
There were new things that I knew now thanks to my grandma. Firstly, the Inoue and Falcon families had been close friends before and secondly, grandma actually hadn't been involved deep enough to know what happened exactly.
In exhaustion I sank down on my bed. This day had been too full of events, it made me feel sick. All these mixed emotions let me feel like it didn't matter at all. How was I gonna continue my research with all the pieces of clues that I had? How could I face Raven after what happened this evening? Would he be meaner from now on... it'd fit his personality in a way.
{Raven}
The whole next day at training Rune seemed somehow energy drained, tired and unfocused. At first I was unsure how to approach him because I now knew that he was Dandelion so I ended up teasing him more than usual but that quickly stopped a little when he didn't react to it and kept his mouth shut most of the time. His movements were slower than usual and even Kate won against him in training battles. Somewhere in the back of my head I desperately wanted to know what bothered him so much. Did people find out about Dandelion's identity because he sang in public yesterday? Was that the reason?
"Hey, we have an important game in two days. You should focus on training a little more." I remarked when we finished the first phase of training as usual and went to the changing rooms. Rune was wiping his face and neck with a towel before readjusting his hair in the mirror. Through the reflection he stared at me.
"I'm sorry. I didn't sleep well." He explained but his face rested rather emotionless, different from usual.
"Is it making you that nervous that I know about you being Dandelion?" I smirked sarcasticly and intensified our eye contact before he broke it. This was also unusual for him and it annoyed me. If he had a problem he could say so instead of being quiet about it and ignoring me.
"Does everyone who applies to join the Inoue group get to start training or education lessons?" Rune then randomly changed the topic when he turned around again and sat down on one of the benches where he threw his blue hoodie before.
"Why do you want to know? We can't take everyone in. What would this place be if any random dubious person could join." I sighed not getting what Rune was going on about. He got in so what was there to worry about?
"I was... just wondering. Nevermind... actually I still have to thank you for bringing me home yesterday." He switched the topic again when he was finished pulling the hoodie over his head.
When he started talking about yesterday the first memory that came to my mind was how he randomly hugged me and I pushed him away hardly. I still didn't understand what happened back then and why I decided to help him walk after that so it was embarrassing to think that Rune would remember that for ever.
"I told you to stop thanking me, didn't I? Now come on and get yourself something to eat. You look like you'll faint again any second." I pulled his hood over his head and made him walk out of the changing rooms by grabbing his shoulders and pushing him from behind. It was always interesting how you couldn't tell whether he was a girl or boy by the shape of his body in these baggy clothes but through the fabric I could totally feel the firm muscles on Rune's shoulders.
He put my hands away and pulled on the hood strings to hide his face when we were entering the small convenience store instead of the cafeteria today.
It looked funny how he walked around like that to grab himself some sandwich and a package of lollipops.
"Why the candy?" I wanted to know when I put my own food down to pay.
"I like sweet food." He explained and payed for his stuff, now his hood back to normal and strands of his hair falling into his face.
We were about to go to the outside training grounds a little further in the east of the city, where Jane and her two trainees would drive us. But before that we had 15 minutes to eat so Rune just followed me to some empty benches in a hallway.
He seemed a little more happy now that he was eating and I watched him opening one of his lollipops and taking it between his lips that had almost the same red pinkish color. He wrapped his tongue around it and started licking on it.
It was how every person would eat their lollipop but my eyes could not move from his lips and I starting to get a weird feeling in my stomach.
"Want one too?" Rune suddenly asked and I saw how he was grinning at me for the first time today. I felt totally embarrassed for a moment but quickly caught myself and decided to go along with the joking to save me from this awkward feeling. I would never admit that I had been staring.
"No thanks. I think you'll enjoy them more than I do. You like licking things, huh?" I crossed my arms that were resting on my knees. I was sitting on the floor opposite of the bench were Rune was.
"Yes I do. Especially lollipops." He popped the p and again let his tongue swirl around it keeping his eyes on me. So he really was playing along? I didn't expect that...
"Oh, I see you're quiet skilled with your tongue." I thought that this would make him at least a little uncomfortable but even if it was he wasn't showing any of it.
"You like that, pervert?" His eyes widened creepily when he took the candy out of his mouth and glared down at me making me realize that he indeed wasn't taking this calmly. Rune was a little tensed and it was even funnier.
"Pervert? Who is the one seductively sucking on his lollipop?" I held my hands up in defense and was met with the sound of the candy breaking between Rune's teeth when he kept his creepy grin.
"If you think me eating a lollipop is seductive, doesn't that call you out?" He questioned but when I was about to go off we heard the echo of faint voices from somewhere around the corner of the empty hallway. Both our heads shot in that direction. I was able to clearly make out the voices.
"No, you need to think about this! A male member of the Falcon family was seen in London at their old headquarters 2 days ago. This is a serious issue, Sir." That voice was totally unfamiliar to me but the word Falcon family rang a bell. I was taught about it very often in the past and I remembered that my dead grandparents did lead the fight against those traitors. That a member of them was sighted near their old headquarters wasn't necessarily troublesome, was it? Surely there were survivors but what could a single person do?
"Anthony, please keep this to yourself apart from me and the leader. We can't let our group get distracted by an issue like this but I'll promise to order some back up check on the seen man." This voice clearly belonged to Mr. Gray but soon their voices were gone again when they had walked too far away for us to hear.
This little incident threw me totally off the topic but when I looked back at Rune his eyes were still fixed on the direction these voices had come from.
"I thought everyone of the Falcon family was dead?" He questioned strangely invested in what he heard. I couldn't say if he was just surprised or even scared.
"That's what people think because it hasn't been proven wrong yet but if you ask me it's not a surprise that some of these traitors people are still out there." I shrugged but when Rune answered his usual voice sounded a little off although I couldn't identify what was odd about it.
"Do you think there are more of them out there?"
For a second I thought about it. Why would he want to know?
"Possibly, but this should be none of your concern or rather I'll have to make sure it's none of your concern because this is treassured secret information." I narrowed my eyes but knowing that Rune wasn't dumb I could be rather sure that he didn't tell what we heard to everyone.
"No worries... I am just a little scared of them. They hold the strongest gifted powers after all." Rune smiled and laughed silently at himself when he relaxed and sank down on the bench again.
It didn't fit his image being scared of some random group when he usually didn't show any sign of respect for other dangerous people.
"I thought you weren't scared of anything?" I teased him to get a better grasp of what exactly he meant.
"Oh... I guess I called myself out." He grinned awkwardly but again it felt weird. Rune did apologize a lot and it was obvious that it had been intended sincere all of the time. But right now even I could hear that he had to be hiding something... or maybe he was lying.
I had made this assumption a lot of times and most of them were wrong because I was really bad at reading people... so I didn't depend on my intuition much for now. I'd find out eventually some day and even if I didn't, since when did I concern myself with others? It was a waste of time.
Apart from all that I felt satisfaction from Rune finally admitting that he could in fact feel scared of someone.
"What else is there, huh? Things that scare you?" I excidetly hopped up from the floor and was about to sit down next to him when he did the opposite.
"Break is over, we should go. Like hell I'm gonna give you more motivation to get on my nerves." He chirped and I immediately went after him. Did he really think he was still safe from me now? Haha.
"Spiders maybe? Frogs? Snakes?"
"Do you think I'm a disney princess?" Rune raised his eyebrows when we went downstairs in a fast pace.
"You look like one for sure." I shrugged before I realized what I had just said. It was supposed to sound offensive but Rune wasn't the type of person to be offended by something like this. I already knew that he understood it wrongly when we had already reached the gym hall again.
"So you think I'm pretty?"
"Rune! Rave! Come over, we'll go to the outside training area! Hurry or the others will drive without you!"