Chapter 3.16 - Life In Its Purest Form

The shutters rattled against the window, grabbed and released by the wind blowing outside. Mireille sat on her bed, glaring at nothing and kicking irritably at her mattress.

She hated it. Hated. It was so unfair that Reagan was allowed to come and go as he wanted, but she wasn’t allowed to leave the house for anything but school.

So. Not. Fair.

She couldn’t believe her mom had grounded her. It was just a little bit of water! But no, Reagan sneaked out and all he had been punished with was to do a couple of dishes he would’ve done in anyway, but when she played a prank she got grounded! It was so unfair!

Her feet stilled as a thought jumped into her mind. Reagan had sneaked out and all he had to do was a couple of dishes. What could be the worst to happen if she sneaked out? Be grounded longer? Get yelled at for a bit? She didn’t know, but she wasn’t afraid of either of those.

She slid off the bed, eager to follow out her plan.

She didn’t get far before her plans were foiled. Her entire family were in the living room, and there was no way she’d be able to sneak out without being noticed. Reagan even had a girl over.

“Hmph!” she harrumphed and turned back around, acting like she just wanted to go to the bathroom. It was so unfair! Her parents always favoured Reagan over her! When she’d asked if Lucinda can visit they’d said no, because she was grounded, but when Reagan wanted someone over they were okay with it?! It wasn’t fair!

She wouldn’t accept it.

And once again she was bored. She hated it. Hated hated hated it. There was nothing to do in the house, and there was no way she was going to sit in the living room and watch her parents spoil Reagan.

Unfortunately, Reagan was the one to trigger her traps in the bathroom, long after his friend went home.

He came into their shared room with wet pyjamas and dyed hair, looking all miserable and lost, and Mireille almost thought she could see tears gleaming in his eyes, which was stupid. Everybody knew boys didn’t cry.

He didn’t say a word to her as he rummaged through his closet in search for a spare set of pyjamas with a sullen and slightly hurt air around him. Mireille almost felt guilty, a little. She hadn’t really wanted Reagan to get caught in her traps. She was trying to make a point to her parents, after all.

Ground me all you want, I won’t stop. You can’t make me stop.

But she wasn’t going to apologize. There was nothing wrong with what she did. If Reagan hadn’t been able to figure it out, then he was just stupid.

He left the room without a word, and when he came back again, the dye had been washed out of his hair. He still didn’t say anything to her as he inspected his bookcase in search of something to read in bed.

Finally, she couldn’t stand the silence.

“You look really stupid with pink hair, you know,” she taunted. She expected him to give her that hurt puppy look he did so well, but to her surprise, he clenched his teeth and glared at the bookcase, refusing to look at her.

 “You’re lucky it was me getting caught and not Blaise,” he muttered sullenly, finally deciding on a book. “Why do you always try to provoke him?”

Mireille sniffed derisively and looked away.

“Because he’s unfair, and I hate him,” she declared glibly. She didn’t really hate her dad. She was just trying to make him think she hated him. Maybe then he’d stop favouring Reagan over her.

He was curiously silent after her answer. Mireille glanced at him, curious about his lack of a response. When it finally came, it was again not what Mireille had expected.

“You don’t deserve to have them as your parents,” he declared softly, his brows lowered in an angry scowl. Mireille blinked. She hadn’t even known Reagan could scowl like that.

She immediately scowled back at him.

“What do you know?” she snapped indignantly and turned her back on him.

He didn’t answer her, settling instead onto his bed, book in hand. He ignored her the rest of the night, and it was a favour Mireille was glad to return.

He wasn’t her real brother. How could he understand how horrible her parents were?

_~…~_

The next morning dawned cold and bitter; the first official day of winter. Mireille was warm and comfy beneath her covers, sleeping soundly, but she was rudely awakened by Kiki meowing loudly and insistently. Mireille burrowed deeper into her covers, trying to drown out the noise, but she gave a loud shriek when something furry landed on her face.

“Geroff, Kiki!” she yelled and shoved the cat off her bed.

Reagan sat up blearily in his bed, woken by Mireille’s yell, and Kiki hightailed away from Mireille to his section of the room and sat in front of the closed door, eagerly waiting for the door to be opened.

Reagan groaned when he saw the cat and lied back down, throwing an arm across his eyes to block out the light.

Mireille scowled. Kiki was his cat, he should be the one opening the door for her!

She shoved the door open for the cat, thinking about how Reagan was supposed to do it. To her utter displeasure, Kiki merely stretched and ran towards Reagan’s bed where she promptly curled up and went to sleep.

Mireille scowled at the cat. Stupid cat. What an absolutely great way to start her day. She stalked off to the shower and with a content sigh, she let the deliciously hot water wash away her irritation.

Half an hour later, Mireille left the bathroom and went in search of breakfast. She rubbed her bare shoulders when she entered the living room, caught a bit off guard by the chill in the air. Her dad’s temperature charm on the house must’ve started to fade. She didn’t really understand how it work – just that every now and then her dad waved his hands around the house, shooting out brilliant globes of light, and afterwards the house would be not cold anymore.

She kinda really liked that.

 “Morning Mireille,” Reagan greeted her, glancing over his shoulder with a warm smile. “Thanks for taking care of Kiki this morning.”

Mireille sniffed the air derisively, pleased at his gratitude, yet unwilling to let him show, but a slight smile still sneaked onto her face.

“Well, she did wake me,” she pointed out primly. “And she’s your cat, so now you have to play with me after school.” She was still grounded, so if he promised to play with her later, she wouldn’t be so bored, which meant being grounded wouldn’t be so bad.

Yeah, that sounded like an idea, and Reagan agreed easily enough.

“Sure thing, Ray-Ray,” he agreed, the words causing Mireille to scowl.

“Mireille,” she emphasised insistently. “Mee-ray. It’s not that difficult. Stop calling me Ray-Ray!”

Reagan smiled into his pancakes, amused by the familiar byplay. “Okay Mireille,” he agreed indulgently.

With a disdainful sniff, Mireille grabbed her own plate of pancakes and joined Reagan at the table. Reagan left to shower, and not long after, the school bus arrived, and a flurry of activity filled the house as Reagan tried to get dressed as quickly as possible and Mireille wolfed her breakfast down. They didn’t want to miss the bus, after all.

At school, Mireille was immediately ambushed by her cousin and best friend, Lucinda. The other girl threw herself at Mireille and immediately started chattering a mile a minute away.

Mireille perked up, and suddenly her day was looking much, much better. Lucinda was the best. She was. So. Much. Fun.

_~…~_

Reagan sighed when he went home after school, tired out by the hustle and bustle of a normal school day. He had a ton of homework, and he was mentally tired – not only because of school work, but also because the Kahekili girls were going through some very obvious and very interesting changes. They were completely unashamed about the fact, and they dressed accordingly.

Reagan didn’t know how to look at them anymore.

“Mmreow,” Kiki greeted him, rubbing affectionately against his legs. Reagan smiled at the cat and picked her up, cheered up by her presence. He really loved animals. He would love to get another cat or a dog, but he never asked for one. He knew it would be inconvenient, and he didn’t want to be a burden to Lyra and Blaise. They never made him feel like he was a burden or in the way or anything like that, but…

…but he wanted to make life as easy as possible for them, because wasn’t that what people did to those they care about? What was the point of living if you couldn’t help others or make them happy?

 “Mmreow!” Kiki purred in his arms, demanding attention from her human and pulling him out of his thoughts. The days when she had preferred Mireille over Reagan were long gone.

“Alright, you little flirt,” Reagan laughed at the cat and lavished her with the attention she deserved.

Their quality time together was broken by a low voice demanding his attention.

“Reagan,” Blaise requested, his voice light. “You have a minute? We need to talk.” Reagan looked up, worried by the serious words, but the slight smile on his godfather’s face immediately reassured him that nothing was wrong.

 “About what?” Reagan answered, curious.

“Your magic,” Blaise replied promptly. “Your core is starting to stabilise, and it won’t be long now before you come fully into your magic. When that happens, you’ll need to start training. The last thing you’ll want is for your magic to go out of control and hurt someone.”

 “Okay,” Reagan agreed easily, feeling excitement well up in him. He was finally going to start training. Everybody knew the magical cores of children were unstable while they matured, so in order to minimise accidents, every magical child got a binding on their core when they started school, preventing them from using magic. Once their cores had stabilised enough the binding would automatically snap, and they would be considered mature enough to use their magic responsibly.

It was a moment all magical children regarded with eager anticipation.

 “Good,” Blaise approved. “When the binding snaps, let me know. You’ll know when it happens.”

“Of course,” Reagan promised earnestly. He couldn’t wait to start training, especially since Blaise would be the one training him. Blaise was brilliant. He was a dragoneer. Only the best of the best were ever chosen by the dragons. Being trained under a dragoneer was a privilege very few people get to experience. He couldn’t wait.

Any further conversation between them was interrupted by Mireille bursting through the door, smiling widely. She waved cheerily at her dad before bounding over to him to hug him and tell him all about her day.

She seemed to have forgotten she was angry at Blaise. She chattered on about how she and Lucinda did this and then that and then seemingly everything else. Blaise listened patiently to her, his mouth tilted in a slight smile.

Reagan instinctively repressed the slight sting of jealousy, feeling a little like a stranger looking in. He had no right being jealous. Mireille was Blaise’s daughter, and he…he was only the godson.

Mireille didn’t give him much time to brood over it. 

 “You promised to play with me!” she announced, looking eagerly at him now that she grew bored of talking to her dad. “You promised, so let’s play.” She blinked innocently at him, all excited and eager, and Reagan returned her smile resignedly. He wasn’t really in the mood for her childish games, but he had promised.

Playing with her… turned out quite a lot of fun, actually. She had a lot of energy to burn, so the things she wanted to do were things Reagan didn’t mind doing at all.

She had a mean arm with a pillow though.

The entire afternoon was spent playing with Mireille, and their activities only ceased when Lyra pointedly reminded them they had homework to do. Miracles above miracles, Mireille didn’t complain, and Reagan was left in peace to complete his mountain-sized heap of homework.

When the binding on his magic snapped later that evening, Reagan decided his day wasn’t that bad after all.

_~…~_

The sound of fingers tapping keyboard keys and light breathing filled the air. Besides the familiar hum of the refrigerator and the scritch-scratch of Kiki sharpening her nails on Lyra’s couch, those were the only sounds in the room.

Joelle leaned close to Reagan, reading what he’s written on their biology assignment on the laptop screen with a confused frown on her face. She was close enough that the floral scent of her shampoo lingered in his nose. The pendant around her neck swayed with the motion, drawing attention to places Reagan did not want to think about.

She still had no idea what effect her ‘fashion sense’ had on him.

 “Wait, why did you write 23 chromatids? Shouldn’t that be 46?” she pointed out, her brows still drawn with confusion.

 “You’re thinking of mitosis,” Reagan disagreed. “This is meiosis.”

She scrunched her nose up in a way Reagan found a little adorable, causing Reagan’s heartbeat to speed up slightly. She really was pretty.

“What’s the difference?” she asked. For a moment Reagan wasn’t sure if she was simply teasing him or not. They’ve been going over the differences in class for weeks.

 “U-uhm, mitosis is normal cell division, while m-meiosis is…” he trailed off, unable to give the rest of the explanation as embarrassment started to rise.

Joelle rested her head in her hand, an impish smile on her face. The movement caused her pendant to sway again, and Reagan suddenly realised the angle presented him with a perfect view down her top.

 “Cell division in the reproductive cells, right?” she finished his explanation for him. Oh, so she did know. She was just teasing him.

He blushed slightly and pulled his eyes away from the view, trying to drag his mind out of the gutter. To his complete mortification, there was a knowing smile on her face and her eyes glittered with amusement.

She smiled mischievously at him and fingered the collar of her top.

“You like it?” she asked coyly and pulled her top down about an inch. “I can show you more if you want.”

Reagan promptly turned blood-red and jerked his eyes away, blushing to the roots of his hair, causing Joelle to burst out in laughter.

 “It’s not funny,” Reagan mumbled out a protest, frowning, but Joelle wasn’t finished.

 “It is funny,” she disagreed, and before Reagan mumble another protest, she laid a slender finger across his lips, instantly silencing him. “But you’re cute, so let’s go to prom together, okay?”

Reagan blinked owlishly. He hadn’t really planned on going to prom. His only real friends were the twins, and he knew they would easily be able to find dates, and he didn’t want to go and be a third (or fifth) wheel. He’d never expected one of them would want him as a date.

“Okay,” he agreed with a tentative smile, a smile she returned brightly.

Time passed in a blink of the eye, somehow getting lost in the routine of everyday life, and suddenly the day of prom was upon him. Reagan was a nervous mess, constantly fiddling with his cuffs or pulling at his collar, despite Lyra’s admonishments as she tried to get a decent photo of her son-in-all-but-blood all dressed up.

The limo meant to take him to prom arrived far too soon for Reagan’s comfort, but he bravely squared his shoulders and left the house, his stomach in knots at the thought of going with Joelle. From the earliest days, she had always possessed the ability to fluster him.

The hall was filled with teens when he arrived at prom, talking and laughing and flirting. He felt decidedly out of place. He didn’t really like being around a lot of people.

 “Reagan!”

He turned towards the voice, and smiled broadly when he saw the speaker. It was Joelle. She was just as pretty as always. He had been a little afraid that her asking him to prom was just a joke, but seeing her grinning excitedly at him eased his worries. It seemed she really had wanted to attend prom with him.

The evening passed in a blur, filled with dancing and laughing and just all around fun. Joelle never left his side, helping him navigate the crowds of teens of ease, and when they weren’t socialising, they were dancing. It was a lot of fun.

But in his honest opinion, the best thing of the night happened when they were taking a break from dancing, waiting for the queue in front of the punch table to get shorter and watching Daniella dance with her boyfriend. Joelle was idly running her finger across her lower lip, and Reagan had a hard time not staring at it, because it made him want to do more than just look at her.

Once again, she caught him staring, and impish smile appeared on her face.

“Have you ever kissed someone?” she asked innocently, but her eyes were sparkling mischievously.

The question caused him to blush and look away, instantly answering her question.

Her smile broadened. “Me neither,” she confessed,” but I’d like to change that. Would you like to change it?”

“Wha-“ He didn’t even have time to finish his question before she leaned closer to him, and suddenly her lips were against his, soft and supple. It caught him completely off-guard, but it was something he’d been contemplating over for a while, so he gave in and responded, exploring the experience.

He liked it.

He couldn’t say how long the kiss had lasted, but when she drew away, he was a little disappointed.

 “And now, with that,” she declared grinningly, “you have to be my boyfriend. Okay?”

He blinked owlishly at her statement, not quite believing he’d heard right, but there was no deception in her eyes and she was clearly waiting for an answer.

“Okay,” he agreed bemusedly, and when her face lit up with her happy smile, he couldn’t help but grin back, excited by the change in their relationship.

He couldn’t wait to see what the future would bring.

_~…~_

The weather remained blistery cold as time went by, confining people to their houses. The days went by without any real incident, and days turned into weeks, and then into months.

Time was spent idly.

Playing.

Training.

Dating.

Fighting.

Nothing truly of note happened.

People woke up.

Went to school.

Worked.

Came home.

Spent time with their loved ones.

Went to bed.

It was just life in its purest form.

And then Mireille became a teen.

_~…~_

And now the drama can start again. XD

Lol. Kiki loves route-blocking Mireille. There’s only one tile space between Mireille’s bed and the wall, and that one tile seems to be Kiki’s favourite space to sleep. It’s annoying, but kinda funny at the same time, because Mireille always scowls at her. They’ve got this love-hate relationship thing going on.

And whoops. Apparently, I chose the wrong twin for Reagan. I made him ask Joelle to prom, which she happily agreed to. The day after prom, he rolled a wish to kiss Daniella. Well. A little more warning would’ve been appreciated, Reagan. But oh well. He’s stuck with Joelle now.

Also, please ignore the prom photo of the prom-that-technically-hasn’t-happened-yet in that first shot of Reagan’s room. >.> (I am a little disappointed they decided to waste all my effort getting them dressed up nicely by getting their photo in their outerwear.)

I added two new families to my town:

-          Archer (Junpei, Finley)

-          Sparrow (Dustin, Meghan, Jyoti, Jet)

Thanks so much for sharing them, guys!