as we fall ✤ octavian

four

Logan had a death grip on his teddy bear as they stepped outside of the bus, as though he expected the thing to get up and walk away. It was cute, Laoise decided, and held his free hand while Octavian placed a hand atop the boy's shoulder, steadying him as they reached the ground. Though even as they walked away from the bus and into the vast city just next to the US-Mexican border, she couldn't help but glare at Octavian, his voice ringing over and over in her head.

All she was good for.

Fucking asshole. She'd show him. She'd-

"Lee-Lee!" Logan squealed, jerking his hand out of her grip. "You hurt me, you were squeezing too hard."

"Oh, Logan, I'm so sorry," she sighed as guilt twisted in her stomach, reaching down to pat him on the head. "I didn't mean to."

"It's okay," he mustered a brave smile, before turning to look at Octavian, who had taken the compass out of his pocket, and was examining it as though it held the secrets to Brigid's location deep inside it. "What now?"

"The border is about three miles away," Octavian clicked his tongue, tucking the compass back into his pocket. "We'll walk there, then Laoise, you can flirt our way through security. Though I didn't pack any condoms, so be sure to have the guy pull out if it comes to that"

"What the fuck is wrong with you?! I'm not prostituting myself!" Laoise folded her arms over her chest with her jaw dropped in outrage.

"What's a prostitute?" Logan blinked, glancing between the pair. "And a condom?"

"Nothing," Octavian interjected swiftly, glancing at the red haired girl. "I was kidding, Laoise, seriously. If it comes down to it, I'll just stab them or something."

She rolled her eyes, ignoring the stinging in her chest. "Yeah, because you can overpower a border patrol officer. They deal with buff drug lords on a near daily basis - they'll snap you like the twig you are."

"Are you two going to argue all day?" Logan interjected with a whine. "Because I'm tired. I want to get to Mexico so we can go to sleep."

"He's right," Laoise sighed. "We should get moving. It's already dark out - we don't need to find out what kind of people lurk at the border in the middle of the night."

By the time they reached the fence that Laoise was certain separated the United States from Mexico, her feet ached from the walk and her eyes were strained from staring through the dark. Logan wasn't in much better shape either, whining the entire walk, until Octavian picked him up and yanked the boy over his shoulders, giving him a piggy back ride the rest of the way.

Setting the boy down, Octavian stretched his arms in the air, groaning as Laoise heard his back crack. "Fuck, that hurt."

"You said a bad word!" Logan scolded.

"Hey, you can't be complaining when I just carried you three miles. I think I can say whatever words I want."

Logan just giggled.

"So, do we just like...hop the fence, or what?" Laoise's jaw shifted as she eyed the fence. It didn't seem too difficult to climb - she'd expected much worse, truthfully. There wasn't any barbed wire, or electric signs. It was a normal chain fence, just a bit taller than average.

"Yeah, Laoise, we're totally going to jump the fence," Octavian rolled his eyes. "Follow me. We're going in the legal way. Well...semi-legal way."

"Semi-legal?" She raised her eyebrows, as she grabbed onto Logan's hand and yanked him alongside her. The boy stumbled over his feet, but managed to keep up with her unrelenting pace as she sped to walk next to him. "Do tell, Octavian. Explain your genius plan that's certainly better than mine."

"We've already been through this. We'll go to the actual entrance, you know, where the cars and shit go through, and have you flirt our way in."

"So you do want me to prostitute myself," she grumbled.

"Not prostitute," he scrunched his nose. "Just...flirt. It's your talent."

Her jaw clenched, anger simmering in her stomach, but she managed to push it away as she trailed next to the boy with Logan held firmly at her side.

It didn't take long for the trio to find the road, and thus, the proper entrance into Mexico. Being so late at night, only a few cars remained in line to enter the border, their lights providing an easy guidance towards where the guards were stationed in little huts next to the roads. Road blockers prevented cars from speeding across the border, lifting and returning back down with every entrance allowed. The three could easily dash under one of them, if their plan to flirt their way in failed, Laoise figured as they grew closer. Well, Octavian's plan. If it were up to her, they'd just climb the stupid fence, even if it resulted in a few broken bones.

"What's your business here?" A woman called out from inside one of the huts, lowering the window as they approached the road, growing closer to her. Her eyes grew wider as she took in the three, evidently shocked at their age, and Octavian let out a groan.

"Let's hope she's a lesbian," he muttered under his breath to Laoise, quiet enough that Logan wouldn't hear, and question what a lesbian was.

Biting down on her lip, Laoise let go of Logan's hand and stepped in front of the two boys, lifting her chin and adjusting her shirt ever so slightly, so her cleavage showed. She was certainly gifted in that department, and she didn't see the point in pretending otherwise.

Octavian snorted from next to her, and she resisted the urge to turn around and shoot him a glare. This was what he wanted her to do, after all.

"We need to bring our cousin back to his parents," Laoise nudged her chin behind her, towards Logan. "They're in Mexico. Not too far from the border. Do you think it would be a bother if we just...brought him over? We'll be right back, we swear."

"Do you have your passports?" The woman raised a dull eyebrow, lips pressed together.

Laoise adjusted her shirt again, this time moving her shoulder so her black bra strap was visible. "No, we don't. But you can make an exception for us, can't you? I mean, it's the middle of the night. Our cousin just wants to get home."

"Is this some kind of dare?"

"Dare? No, of course not," she stepped towards her, moving so her hips were swaying in the most seductive way she could think of. "Though...I do like to play games."

The woman simply raised her eyebrows, boredom written into her expression. "Kid, c'mon. It's the middle of the night. Go home, get drunk, have some safe sex - not in front of the little boy, of course. Let me do my job."

Laoise tried not to let her offense show. "I told you, Miss, we need to get into Mexi-Octavian?!"

Octavian had evidently decided that enough was enough, and began running as fast as his legs would take him, dipping underneath the car blocker and racing into Mexico, not so much as glancing back in the direction of Laoise and Logan as he did.

"Stop!" The woman shouted, reaching into her pocket and in an instant, a gun was aimed at Octavian's back. "Stop now, or I'll shoot!"

"Don't shoot him!" Logan cried out, his voice wobbling and tears building in his eyes. The woman didn't so much as look in Logan's direction, eyes fixed on the target of her gun.

"Octavian!" Laoise cried out this time, feeling something awful pierce in her chest as she struggled to form a coherent thought, her mind swarming too much to focus on one thing. He couldn't...if they shot him...if he got hurt...

They'd been threatening to kill the other earlier that day, but of course, they'd been playing around. At the end of the day, they'd never actually wanted each other dead, and this fact hit her like a smack to the face the moment that gun was aimed at his back. "Octavian, stop!"

She didn't possess charmspeak, she knew that. That was restricted only for children of Venus, like Brigid. But even so, she wondered for a moment, if she had to have some sort of power, given the visceral reaction Octavian had to her plea, stopping dead in his tracks the moment those words left her mouth, as though his mind and body had been taken over by something only she could control.

And when Octavian turned around, arms held in the air in surrender, it wasn't the cop he was looking at, but Laoise.