{Raven}
I lead Rune inside the building where Vince and Jane were already waiting for us. We had let her in on Rune's real identity as soon as everything had been settled after the incident during the game today. She and Vince were both my best friends after all.
I still held Rune's arm when we entered through the backdoor unnoticed. Actually, I didn't think he'd run away or do anything but still I kept staying close to him out of intuition. On top of that my leg hurt like hell despite having been treated a few hours ago. I wasn't even supposed to walk yet.
Earlier, I had told Mr. Gray that Rune was sent home by me, leaving no questions open. At the same time as me, Ayaka had been attacked but she was guarded well enough so she wasn't hurt by the intruders that were confirmed members of Mellontikos. The leader guessed that they had in mind to use us as hostages to force her to submit to their conditions but of course that didn't happen. Breaking into Inoue property was plain stupidity.
"Follow me." I ordered silently leading Rune through the darkened hallways until we reached the elevator up to the apartment floor. When we arrived at Vince's I knocked 3 times and we were met with Jane whose shining eyes widened when she saw Rune before she literally pulled the boy out of my grip.
I followed inside with a sigh. If I had been alone I'd have already locked Rune up somewhere but Vince sadly had so much influence on me that I let myself become soft. How ridiculous.
"I knew something was too perfect about you!" Jane concluded obviously making Rune stand there uncomfortably when he laughed a little.
"I guess..." he answered when the crazy women eyed his purple iris like some fascinating experiment.
Not wanting to witness this any longer I went around the corner to find Vince at the kitchen table signing us to join him. I made Rune and Jane sit down next to us in a circle before the room went serious and quiet. The nervousity that radiated from Rune was bothering me so I nudged Vince to finally begin whatever he wanted to say.
"So... Rune Falcon. We want to give you a chance here because your abilities are in high need for secret missions, especially since another Falcon family member has appeared and if he turns out to be an enemy you'll prove helpful in a fight. Additionally, you have not harmed but saved members of the Inoue family several times." He stated in his usual serious voice but in my opinion he went too nice on him.
"We'll not tell anyone about your identity." Jane added causing Rune to raise an eyebrow.
"But?" He wanted to know and focused his eyes first on Vince and then on me. He definitely wasn't dumb for doubting we'd trust him so easily...
"You have to tell us every valuable information about yourself and your life and acquaintances. We also have to know what exactly your abilities can do and you'll be under observation as soon as you leave the apartment we assigned you to." Vince kept explaining and I could see the hope in Rune's expression fade a little.
"What apartment?"
"Don't worry. It's right across mine, so you won't accidently run away." I sweetly said to him hinting sarcasm that he gave back with a disgusted smile.
"Yeah, because your lame ass could ever catch up to me." He contered with a duh face and my hands formed into fists when I punched in his direction. It was more of a joke because I knew he could dodge but nevertheless Jane caught my fist and glared at me with those scary dark eyes of hers.
"Settle down your testosterone, you prick." It sounded like a threat when she said that and I rolled my eyes and sat back down.
"At least I have some."
{Rune}
Was this supposed to be offensive? Because I looked more feminine? How desperate did I need to be to feel offended by that?
"Maybe thats why you stink of-" Jane was in the middle of her sentence when Vince interrupted her and tried getting our small meeting under control. I pitied him a little for having such lively friends.
"Please, we are here to make sure we can trust Rune so let him tell us a little about himself and his reasons for coming here." He pleaded and actually the others listened to him when soon all eyes were on me.
Well, how much could I tell them?
"Uhm, my real name is Rune Falcon but in my ID it also sais Rune Smith. I am 19 years old and I've lived alone in Germany, hiding my gifted abilities from people like you for obvious reasons." I couldn't totally hide my grudge there but even if they noticed they decided to ignore it.
While continuing to talk about uninteresting stuff I switched from person to person and occasionally just looked at my hands. Being in the spotlight like this wasn't exactly calming.
"I finished school almost a year ago and worked in a convenience store."
"In your record it sais you finished school with remarkable grades. Why not go to college?" Vince wanted to know.
"I don't need a job that pays well and I wanted to find out more about the gifted society, my parents and the Falcon groups death."
"Is that why you are here?" He sternly continued and after thinking for a second I nodded slowly.
"Yes, I know the Inoue group played a big role in the masacre so at first I thought about taking revenge..." Raven visibly tensed when his eyes narrowed and his presence felt more intimidating than before.
"But... first I want to know what really happened back then because I don't think the story that is told is true. There are some important details missing
.. However, if someone of the Inoue group turns out to have killed my parents I don't know what I'll do or feel." I kept my head low and waited for someone to respond.
"Told ya" Raven crossed his arms in satisfaction.
"Thanks for being honest with us. Since we're also more or less in the dark about details of the masacre we can't help you right now. There is a way to do so though but we'll come to that later." Vince thanked me and I was yet again impressed by how well mannered he was... I didn't witness that often. It was the same with Jane.
But...
"But first I want to know how you're aquainted with Vera. I saw you entering her house." Raven flipped the whole topic up and leaned in closer before Jane dramatically gasped.
"Vera?! That Vera? Don't tell me she's your girlfriend!!"
"Shut up and let him explain." The other silenced her down and somehow I had a feeling Raven was especially interested in that. Was he jealous? Maybe I should really say she was my girlfriend to see how he'd react.
"No, she is not my girlfriend. We've been really good friends since childhood before she moved here and now I'm occasianally over at her place. She knows about gifted ones." I lied to them for the sake of not exposing that there was another speed gifted one around here. After all, I still had to protect her and I happened to be a fairly good liar.
"Why did you pretend to not know each other in the jewelry shop then?" Raven still doubted anything I said resolving in me saying the truth to his face.
"She thought it'd be funny to try and make you jealous by kissing me on the cheek for some reason. Don't ask me why because personally, I just didn't want to complicate things by saying I know a celebrity. Satisfied?" I boldly send glares back at him and finally achieved silence from his side.
"Pfft, I like that girl." Jane quietly snorted covering her mouth.
"It worked tho." Vince also added just as loud so Raven could still hear it.
"WHAT?!" He jumped up form his chair and slammed his hand on the table accidently breaking it in half.
"Who said I was jealous?! Because of blondie?! I have standards you know." He growled totally offended.
Ouch... that hurt. I was self confident enough to not let it sink in much but saying I didn't fit his standards sounded like there was something bad about me that I didn't know of and that feeling was upsetting. When we had been in the car he was flirting but in front of Jane and Vince he turned back to insulting me... I slowly grew out of patience.
"What are those standards, huh?" I got up myself and stretched my arms. Why not trigger the situation more now that he started it?
"Guys please. We're not finished yet." Vince probably sensed that something was going to happen but neither me nor Raven had the intention to stop right now.
I was aware that Raven was a guy that felt great being superior to others and enjoyed causing people to worry and chaos. He never addressed a real problem he had with me though so I wanted to hear from him what exactly I had to do in order for him to not randomly start going against me again. If he went form being nice two hours ago to playing the asshole I wanted to know why at least.
"If you can make me give up in a one on one fight... then you achieved my standards." Raven coldly said and my brain instantly started working on a strategy. Hurting him and threatening to kill him until giving up was not going to work and I honestly didn't think I could pull that off so I had to come up with some dirty trick.
I let my eyes roam over his whole body until I stopped at his hair. Maybe... just maybe.
In less than a second I had searched the small kitchen for the scissors and jumped up now sitting on Raven's shoulders with my legs wrapped around his neck. I grabbed a red and a black colored strand of his hair and placed the scissors next to it ready to cut.
"One wrong move and I'll cut all your hair before you can touch me." I laughed a little and caressed his head and soft hair to infuriate him even more. Maybe I was a little too sadistic because both Vince and Jane had weird expressions on their faces when taking the scene in front of them in.
"Hah, do you really think my hair means that much to me? I'm a soldier. I don't care about looks." Raven chirped with confidence but nonetheless did not move any muscle and let me sit there on his shoulders and mess up his hair.
"Oh? Well then." I shrugged and cut of a few centimeters of one hair strand. I took it and held it in front of his face.
"Beautiful hair. It's such a waist to cut it all." I sighed and proceeded to cut another when Raven finally gave in.
"You fucking psycho. Daring to cut my hair. I give up, idiot but this doesn't count." He hissed and I grinned widely.
"I still won though, right?" I turned around to see Jane agreeing with me and Vince being confused.
"Give me the scissors, you're not allowed to carry weapons." Raven demanded and held up his hand for me to pass it down to him. Without thinking much about it, I did what I was told but instead of taking the device he grabbed my whole arm and suddenly yanked me down from his shoulders and on the hard wooden floor. The impact took my breath for a second and I coughed out in pain. Why did I always let him get his hands on me so easily? I could've pulled away before he grabbed me if I payed attention but now it was just like in training and Raven was straddling me on the floor with an arrogant grin. However, this time he had the scissors in his right hand while holding both my wrists above my head with his other.
I could not deny that I had a small... liking for being held on the floor like this. Yes, even in my head that sounded very weird but usually these were the moments in a drama that would make the viewers heart flutter because it never happened in reality. But with Raven that happened quite a lot and I didn't know where to put that information in my head.
I just then realized how my thoughts had totally drifted off and how ridiculous that was. This guy was pointing a sharp object at me and I fantasized about dramas. Nice Rune... very nice.
"How about we cut off your hair instead?" Raven wondered and pulled away the hair tie that was keeping my blond waves in a bun at the back of my head. It softly fell to all sides and blood rushed to my cheeks when both fear for my hair and nervousity took over.
In need for time I used my own shameful thoughts against him.
"You keep pinning me on the floor like this quite often, you know? Is this some kink I don't know about?" I asked and blowed away a strand of hair that was in my eye.
"I warned you in the car, didn't I?"
Wait, did he mean that? What was he about to do here? He couldn't be serious...! Even worse, the scissor blades moved closer to my hair and I could only turn my head away.
"If you cut my hair I'll do ten times worse as soon as you let go of me." I growled only for him to hear.
"Then you'll be hunted down by my family until the end of your life and I'll see how someone slices your throat with my own eyes." Raven's eyes gleamed dangerously and I realized I was totally at the disadvantage here. Fuck. What time did we even have? I fought the whole day, first in the game, then Mellontikos, then Raven. I ran at least 50 kilometers and stayed in the rain. Probably I even had a cold and now I was fighting again...
The strength left my limbs and a sudden tiredness overcame my body. I closed my eyes and hoped for Raven to fuck off already when suddenly he was brutally pulled back and I was free.
"I don't know what relationship you have with each other but you act like two annoying bitches!" Jane's thunderous voice echoed through the whole apartment while she still had Raven in her grip and her other hand on her hip when I opened my eyes again to see her having saved me.
A quick glance at the clock on the wall told me that it was already 3 am in the morning.
I was too tired to continue this right now... the adrenalin trip was over.
"Don't worry I'll just go sleep here for a little." I crawled into an embryo position, still on the floor and cuddled myself into Raven's large black hoodie. Apart all that happened he still gave that to me...
"What the fuck? Who just sleeps on the floor like this." Jane was still talking loudly when she easily lifted me up from the floor despite being only a little taller than me.
I didn't even protest because I had no worries when she was the one carrying me until she put me down on a guest bed in a small room next to the living room.
"We decided you can sleep here in Vince's apartment for today. I already wanted to bring you here 10 minutes ago but then y'all had to start bitching." She complained and threw her hands in the air. In response I only hummed a little and again cuddled myself into the hoodie and duvet. After some time Jane eventually shut the door and I fell asleep faster than even. Getting out of that awkward situation before had happened a lot faster than I expected for sure.