Saint Joseph School

[We realize this is now two months late, but Elly and I have been working on this off and on as we get the chance. This story takes place over Memorial Day weekend.]

Thursday, May 21

"Every chance you get, you're humilating her and putting her in danger! A girl the state put into your protection! What're those big-wigs gonna think when they find out about all the crap you're putting a child through just because of some 'destiny' she now has and certainly never chose? You abuse her constantly and use her for your own dirty work! What makes you any better than the pigs you send her after?"

Hands came down, slamming onto the desktop that separated Diyar and Tor. The middle-aged wizard was on his feet, a good foot and a half over the boy in front of him. His face was contorted in a look of rage, and his eyes darted from Diyar to the person behind him and back. His voice rasped, but it was deep and commanding. "Get out of my office, both of you! I will not tolerate this kind of insolence from her, and I certainly will not tolerate it from you!"

Diyar stepped forward a little, undaunted. "Sir, would you just -"

"Get the hell out of my office, or I will remove you!"

He clenched his fists, stopping himself and stepping back away from Tor. He had to think quickly how to save the situation, to turn the tables on the wizard. "Fine. We'll be back in a few hours." Before Tor could respond, Diyar had turned to the girl standing behind him. "You've still got the number for child services, right?"

Elly didn't even miss a beat, nodding to Diyar. "Sure." Diyar started walking toward the door, holding out a hand to lead her out.

"Child services?! If that 'child' was chosen by those bracers, she's anything but a 'child!' And she will not bear the property of MAGI out of this city without -"

Elly whirled around, nearly shoving Diyar out of her way as she took a step toward Tor's desk. Her eyes locked with the older man's, her hissed words somehow still filling the room better than Tor's booming outrage had: "I. Am. Not. Your. Property."

The wizard went wide-eyed and took a step back from his desk. Diyar regained his balance, and quickly grabbed Elly by the arm, pulling her behind him before there was a bloodbath between the two. Elly's glare remained locked on Tor, but after a few tugs, she finally stepped back, letting Diyar stand between the two. There was a moment of stunned silence, neither party ready to speak.

Diyar closed his eyes for a moment. When he spoke again, there was a rasp in his voice and a crackling of fire. "She is going with me. I have already told you I will 'babysit' her while we're in Boston if you are so paranoid about it. Otherwise, we will be back, and you can kiss the damn bracers and your little 'princess' goodbye."

Tor slowly sat back down in his chair, his face betraying the fear he felt. The air in the room suddenly seemed stifling and oppressive, as if the air conditioner no longer worked. Elly pulled away from Diyar, growing increasingly uncomfortable. The silence dragged on for what seemed like hours as the room increasingly got warmer.

Finally, Diyar spoke again. "So...can Elly take a break from her assignments for one weekend? 'Sir?'"

Tor blinked, returning from his thoughts. He looked at Diyar, then at Elly, then began shuffling through papers scattered about on his desk. "I..." He picked up a paper, reading it over quickly. "...there are rumors of a small Circle cult in Boston. I want you two to go there and investigate."

Diyar looked over at Elly, annoyed. "What's the speed dial, Elly?"

Tor threw the paper back on the desk, turning his chair around to stare at the wall behind him. He spoke in a low voice. "You've got your damn Boston. Go!"

The two kids turned around, Diyar putting a hand on Elly's arm and gently pushing her toward the door. They walked into the hall, letting the door slam behind them.

After a while, Elly exhaled loudly. "...Christ, I can't believe we got away with that."

Diyar laughed. "I'll say."

"Did you see his expression there?" Elly laughed, shaking her head. "He looked like a cornered crook. Poor guy," she added in a mocking tone.

"I was a little worried he'd still say no." He smirked at Elly, squeezing her arm. "I want to know who shoved that stick up his ass..."

Elly frowned in response, her pace slowing before they reached the stairs. "He thinks I'm a disgrace to the Princess line and that I should be punished 24/7 for it." She balled her hand into a fist. "Asshole."

Diyar looked over at her, slowing down to match her. "Yeah, I gathered that." He sighed, stopping in the hall and turning back around. "I've still got half a mind to report him..."

He looked down as a hand reached over and took hold of his elbow, tugging lightly. "My hero."

He chuckled a bit, beginning to walk again and putting an arm around her waist. "Hey, I can try, can't I?"

She laughed. "Going to save the princess from the evil wizard."

Diyar nodded, looking forward, his smile fading just a tad at her sarcasm. Elly noticed and stopped him, turning the smaller boy to face her.

"Well, you got me out of the tower for a weekend, at least." She smiled.

"Heh...weekend..." He shrugged. "Guess it's better than nothing." They began climbing the stairs towards the main lobby, dodging a few fledgling heroes and various employees of the offices in the building.

"Oh, it'll be awesome. Well," she stopped, her expression thoughtful. "Unless your parents live in some creepy manor."

The two kids laughed at that, glad they could look back on Elly's last trip out of town without shuddering anymore. Diyar shook his head, smiling wide. "No...no creepy mansion. Just a nice - well, small, but nice home. Hmm..." It was his turn to look thoughtful now. "It's going to be packed with you in there too..."

They started walking again. "Can't be smaller than the dorm rooms."

"Well...heh, no. Enough room for seven people at least..."

"Oooo, roomy!"

"Ha...no, not really. I got lucky...had my own room..." Elly looked over at Diyar, curious. He continued, "only boy out of four kids...it kinda helps." The boy shrugged.

The lobby of the Freedom Corps building was bustling with people registering for hero licenses, trying to get to meetings, or signing up with Longbow. Elly and Diyar pushed through the crowd to the doors and walked out into the warm afternoon sun.

"Guess I get to meet those three sisters of yours."

Diyar's eyes grew a bit, and he laughed nervously. "Oh jeeze..."

"And hear any stories you haven't told me yet." Elly grinned slyly.

He looked over at her, smirking back. "Well...something tells me you and Mel will get along just fine --" A soft chirp interrupted him. Diyar reached into his pocket, pulling out the earpiece to his comm. As he put it into his ear and tapped to answer the call, he saw Elly doing the same with her own comm unit.

"Yo?"

"Hello, Diyar?" It was Sister Moltar; Diyar looked over at Elly in confusion, mouthing the name to her. She looked equally puzzled, pointing to her own comm unit. "Please come to my office as soon as possible."

"Oh, uh...yes'm! Is something wrong?"

"There is something I need to discuss with you. Please come immediately."

"Sure thing! I'll be there in a few, ma'am." He tapped his comm, then pulled it out of his ear, nodding at Elly. "You too?"

Elly held up a finger to silence Diyar, still listening to her comm. She frowned, replying to the person on the end, "Well okay, but what is it?" There was a slight pause. "But..." She stopped, apparently cut off, scowling now. Then she replied through gritted teeth, "Fine...ten minutes." Diyar looked down at his watch as she hung up the comm, punching it off. "It's something about the trip. That bastard thought it would be fun to report us to the penguins."

"Wait. That's what this is about?" Elly wasn't listening to him, too busy cursing and trying hard not to kick the nearest thing or person. He put his hands on her shoulders, stopping her. "Hey! Hey, hey! Calm down!" She stopped gritting her teeth, but didn't look him in the eye. He tried to reassure her. "It'll be nothing. I doubt he told them we couldn't go."

"Yeah, which explains why we're getting an urgent call to Moltar."

Diyar just shook his head and took her hand. "C'mon. Let's go see what's happening." He started walking, pulling Elly along with him.

"I just wanted to check something with both of you." Moltar motioned to the chairs in front of her desk. "Mr. Delevar, you'd told us that you were going home to Boston soon, correct?"

Diyar nodded as he and Elly sat, the large door slowly swinging closed behind them. "Yes ma'am, for Memorial Day. Did I forget to sign something?"

Sister Moltar shook her head. "No, you didn't forget anything." She turned her attention to Elly, her countenance getting sterner. "But Miss Smith, you didn't mention you were planning to go with him."

Diyar glanced over to Elly. She was fuming, but she managed to force out, "I just found out I could go."

"...and, I didn't mention it either 'cause she didn't know," Diyar chimed in.

"Nor did I. Your... guardian, Tor, just phoned me. He seemed very concerned about the two of you going together so far from Paragon."

Elly let out an exasperated sigh, leaning back in the seat and rolling her eyes. "And?"

Sister Moltar narrowed her eyes at Elly's tone, leaning back in her own throne of a chair. "And, first, you need guardian permission to leave for a weekend."

Elly opened her mouth to yell something that would probably get them both confined to campus, but Diyar took her hand and squeezed it, shaking his head. "Sister, we... umm... just got permission for her."

"Oh?"

Elly tried her hardest to keep calm this time, despite the frustration that had been threatening to burst all that afternoon. "He didn't say no, did he?"

The nun shook her head. "No..."

"So what did he want?" Diyar asked. "He already gave his permission for her to come home with me, no strings attached. It's just for Memorial Day."

Sister Moltar shrugged, her eyes still on Elly. "I'm guessing? He wanted to be sure these sorts of trips didn't violate school policy."

"Going home for a holiday isn't against school policy, is it?"

Moltar narrowed her eyes at Diyar now, and he shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Traveling with a girlfriend, however, is questionable. I wanted to make sure I understood your plans."

"Sister, I've seen plenty of kids go home with friends for various holidays if they either can't go to their own home or don't have one to go to. This isn't different, is it?" Diyar looked over at the quiet girl beside him; Elly had the seat of the chair gripped tightly, her lips pressed together in an attempt to keep from making the situation any worse. He looked back at the nun seated across from him. "We're just going to Boston; my family lives there. We'll probably do a good old-fashioned 'American' barbecue on Monday, maybe catch a Sox game, maybe some sightseeing since she hasn't been to Boston."

"And you'll be staying at your family's house?"

Diyar squirmed in his chair, suddenly remembering the very full house that awaited him. "Well... probably." There were already six people in the house. Two more could be a bit tight; he wondered if there would really be room. "Sister, I'll be there. My grandparents, my mother..."

"Alright then. I'll trust your family to keep you two from being..." She paused, focusing her stare intently upon Elly. "...inappropriate."

Diyar nodded. "Completely."

Sister Moltar leaned forward and quickly signed a paper lying on her desk. "Very well. I'll inform your parents of the need for Elly to have someone responsible with her regularly; other than that..."

"Are we... good to go?"

Moltar considered the two children sitting in front of her for a moment, then nodded once. "Yes. I think so."

The two teens stood up quickly and turned to leave. Diyar had to lunge forward to get to the door before Elly; chivalry aside, there would probably be slamming involved if she was the one to close it. She walked out, barely noticing the door was open for her and hurried down the hall, her fists clenched into tight balls and her scowl even more severe than it had been in Tor's office. Diyar ran after her down the hall, grabbing her hand and spinning her around. "Hey. Stop." He put his hands on her shoulders and shook her once, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Christ, I hate that asshole!"

Diyar winced a little, but nodded. "I know. I know. He's had no reason to trust you, but he's never given you a chance to prove otherwise... we come back from this with our noses clean, and he'll have less cause to doubt you. Yeah, he's a blowhard... but screw him. You don't belong to him."

There was a brief moment of silence between the two. Elly rolled her eyes, her frustration barely subsided. Diyar closed his eyes and bit his lip, struggling to keep a smile from forming. Then he laughed once, burning with embarrassment.

"Second thought... don't screw him."

Elly blinked once before her jaw dropped in disgust. She shrugged Diyar's hands off her shoulders and covered her face. "...DIYAR! Now I'm gonna have that image in my brain!"

Diyar laughed, poking her side to get her to jump. "Now why... would you... have that in your head?" He punctuated each statement with a poke, until she reached down and grabbed his hands. "How about..." He leaned in then, kissing her quickly on the neck. "...I help get it out..."

Elly just shoved Diyar away, shuddering a little and grinning. "Damn right you will."

At that both kids began to laugh. Diyar motioned with his head down toward the end of the hall where the doors were, taking Elly's hand as they began to walk again.

"Seriously though...we're going to Boston, ok? Dumbass gave you permission, and Moltar said it was good too. We're good to go."

"Yeah, which is the only reason I didn't trash something."

Diyar grinned. "And... I think we made the point clear to Tor... hopefully things'll start looking up."

Elly shook her head. "It'll look up when he keels over of old age."

Diyar shrugged in response. "Hey, it could happen."