OVERLOOKED ㅤkotlc

047

Skylar is not impressed with Alvar, and Alvar is not impressed with her.

"So your eyes are blue too," is the first thing she says, as we walk into her guest bedroom. "And you're like 144 pixels."

It looks nice, but I can tell it's a prison of its own. The door locks from the outside, and the windows have iron bars.

"And yours are green," Alvar says to her. "Your perception astounds me."

She straight-up ignores him, turning to me. "And you three are here because?"

I shrug. "I don't know," I say. "To make sure you don't kill someone, I guess."

"Kill someone?" Skylar laughs. "Your standards are high, Dex. I don't know if I can live up to them."

Alvar sighs. "Ruy, how long are we staying?"

"Wow, Blurry Man has a name," she says to herself, and Alvar shoots her a glare.

Ruy looks like he's trying not to smile. "For a while, probably. Gisela wants us to stay the afternoon so that she doesn't commit arson."

"Murder and arson," Skylar says. "You're giving me ideas."

"Yeah?" Alvar crosses his arms. "How about theft, while you're at it?"

"Already got that covered, sweetheart."

"Aren't you like twelve?"

She raises an eyebrow. "Sixteen."

"Sixteen and you still have no life—"

"So, that's Alvar," I say, cutting in before Alvar's balls get kicked. "And that's Ruy. This is Skylar."

She looks at me. "As fun as this is," she says, "it really isn't. When can I go home?"

"I'm guessing you know too much now," Alvar answers for me, and surprisingly, his tone isn't insulting. "You might trigger people's memories, you know."

Skylar makes a face. "How many people's heads did you screw with?"

I glance at Ruy and Alvar; I'm actually curious about this, too.

"We're not the only elves who play with humans," Alvar says, rolling his eyes. "The Council does it, and the Black Swan too."

"So you're all odd and intrusive?" Skylar says. "I thought elves were Santa's present slaves or something."

"You're such a—"

Ruy laughs. "Come on," he says, nudging his friend. "We should go do something, instead of arguing all day, right?"

Skylar purses her lips. "How about you explain this whole elf thing first?"

"Well, we don't sit around making presents for a make-believe guy," Alvar says, sitting in her swivel chair.

"You're avoiding the question, smarta—"

"We have abilities," I cut in, before it can escalate.

She looks at me, an exasperated smile on her lips. "Okay? So you guys, what, have superpowers?"

Alvar laughs. "You are so annoying."

"Would you rather I be serious, and formal, and polite?"

"Personally, I don't care. You're a piece of—" He hesitates. "A piece of poo either way."

Skylar narrows her eyes. "At least I don't act like someone spit in my coffee."

"At least I have a reason to dislike you."

"Having a reason doesn't give you the right to be an a-hole." Her voice drips with condescendance. "Besides, what even is that reason? Did someone drop you as a child?"

"No, but your species screwed me up once."

What?

I glance at Ruy; he clearly knows what's going on, but I have no clue.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Skylar asks. She seems more curious than irritated now.

"Some humans beat me up once because I wasn't white," he says, and it sounds like he's trying to play it off as something small. (It's not very convincing, though.)

A long pause. Skylar leans back on her palms. "That sucks, but not all of us are bad."

"Most of them are," Alvar says. "A lot of them are."

"I don't think my parents were." A pause. "But either way, you guys make mistakes too. You play with our memories, that's creepy as hell."

Alvar's quiet for a second. We all noticed the past-tense, and even though we're in all these organizations, none of us are used to Death.

He shakes his head. "Whatever." Alvar stands, sending a look towards Ruy. "What should we do today?"

"Running away from your problems isn't healthy," Skylar says, sounding amused. "It'll come back to bite you later."

He flashes her a rude hand gesture, which she just laughs at.

"Mm..." Ruy glances at me. "What do you wanna do?"

"Me?"

"Yes, you," he says, with a laugh.

"Well..." Everyone's looking at me now, so I try not to fidget. "If we need to teach her about elvin stuff... the Wanderling Woods is a good place to start."

They exchange a glance, then Ruy nods. "Let's go to the Sunroom then."

˚ ༘ 🌷 ── author's note!

not me barely having anything for the next chapter AKJSDJ, time to bust out the alec benjamin all songs playlist