[ Glow ] ~ Anthony Lockwood x OC

XI - The News

"Hmm. This is the best Italian restaurant I've ever been to." Lucy's tone held sarcasm, but Daniel simply shrugged in response.

"It's good pizza." She nodded with a smile. She was sitting directly next to Lucy, George standing just in front of them.

"So have you always lived here?" Lucy asked. She was trying to start up a conversation with her roommates since she hardly knew them at all.

"Zone six." George said through a mouthful of food. "Much nicer and safer."

"Why'd you leave?"

"Well- My mum and dad are lovely, but I couldn't stay." George walked forward. Daniel subconsciously scooted further from Lucy and the boy sat between the two. "They had four kids. Engineer, engineer, engineer, weirdo." He let out a chuckle.

"So have you always been a bit. . ." Lucy trailed off.

"Obsessed? Yeah. The Problem's all I've ever known. All any of us have ever known. That's not okay, so I wanna find out. . ."

"What?"

"Everything! That's why I got fired from Fittes. Did Lockwood tell you?"

"I disagree." Daniel hummed out, turning her attention down to where her hands rested in her lap.

"What?" George gaped, sneering his words out like they physically pained him.

"I disagree with you. I think the Problem is perfectly fine. They have us psychics to deal with it, serves as a good distraction." Daniel shrugged.

"Distraction from what?" George huffed, not enjoying the fact that Daniel had so easily told him he was wrong.

"I don't know. Our responsibilities, life, our problems." She shrugged. "It's just all a bit too much sometimes."

"And what problems are those?" Lucy pressed further than Daniel was comfortable.

"None of your business." Her words were snappy, harsh. She took in a deep breath, trying to calm herself. "Doesn't matter, you'll find out anyway. Everyone's got shit to deal with. Sadly for me, my shit was broadcast in the papers. So, if you really want to know, just look it up." Daniel shrugged again, sliding her hand into the pizza box and pulling out another slice.

Lucy knew when to stop, and this was that moment. So instead of asking Daniel anything else, she moved her attention back to George. "Did Lockwood tell me what?"

Daniel zoned out then, she couldn't focus on anything. Nothing but her dead friends and her dead family. She wished she was different, that she could get close to people and not have them fade from her life, but that just wasn't in her cards. Daniel Aikens was doomed to a life alone and that sucked. When she was five, her parents and sister died in a fire that she somehow survived. She then went to live with her mum's best mate for a few years, who raised Daniel until she was six and then hung herself. Then she lived in the foster system, all the kids getting picked up by families to love them. That was, until her eight birthday when her foster parents shipped her away to train with Fittes. The agency immediately took her in, because of her last name, and she was brought up there. Once she was thirteen she got all her parents inheritence and rented an apartment of her own after just reaching her second grade. Inspector Barnes would always show up to check on her here and there. Never on a schedule, and always on a whim. She never knew why, but, for some reason, he seemed to care. Daniel was always thrown around teams once she finally passed fourth year, no one ever wanting to keep her around for too long. Until she was put on Lilith Kennedy's team, but that didn't last long. Daniel couldn't really find a single person who had always been there for her, nobody but herself. So yeah, invesitating was a nice distraction from how alone she felt. From how cold and harsh the world was to those who didn't quite deserve it.