The Updraft | SDV

Prologue

     Y/n smiled at the tiny cubicle, nostalgic for a moment of everything she was leaving behind. Damian leaned over the wall between their cubicles with a somber expression on his face - not that all the workers didn't look drained of life in Joja's office anyways.

     "You promise you'll call, Bunny," asked Damian, eying the small box of the last of her belongings taken from the tiny workspace. It was a wonder even that much had fit.

     "Of course Fern," she smiled. "I don't know what I'd do without my best friend. When we get the place set up I'll send you a bus ticket hm?"

     "That would be amazing Bun," he grinned. "Can't wait to see what you do with the place. I know it looked ragged when we went to move everything in but at least you had enough money left over to pay for renovations to start before you got there."

     Y/n nodded, stepping away from the desk. Damian followed her through the office as it closed down to switch shifts, early-leavers skittering sadly and lifelessly towards the exit elevator.

     "It cost me all my savings but that nice lady Robin was right when she said I should pre-plan a new room for Ava. She's in this weird pre-teen phase and since dad died she's been begging for her own space to live."

     Damian pressed the elevator button as they filed in, the last groups of people getting in line as the doors closed. He looked at his watch and Y/n was hatefully aware of the ticking that had driven her life since she graduated high school. She'd originally been in Zuzu University for her first semester of her Law classes, but her mother left her sick father behind and she dropped out at 18 barely three months in to take a shitty cubicle job to help support him and her baby sister Avalyn. Now that their dad had passed Y/n was the sole breadwinner and had been working overtime doubles until the sudden move.

     "She's grieving, Bun, and you are too," Damian mumbled to Y/n in a more private manner. "Don't forget to feel real emotions while you're out there picking peaches to send me in the mail."

     Y/n chuckled at him and tried to push away the sadness aching in her chest. Her father D/n had passed away recently of a heart attack which had thrown a traumatic sheet over their family. Ava had started lashing out and Y/n could do nothing but tuck everything away to keep her tiny family together. Damien was right in his implication though and Y/n knew it. She had to feel something or she'd never heal.

     "I think when we settle down I'll... I'll relax and maybe go visit the grave."

     "Take your time Y/n." Damien put a heartfelt hand on her shoulder, pulling her into a loose embrace. When the elevator door opened he put his arm out to let her out first. They walked through the crowded Joja Corp lobby and out into the dreary daytime world of Zuzu City.

     "You know Fern," Y/n sighed, eyes squinted at the cloudy sky and shimmering high-rise skyscrapers, pausing to breathe. "The only thing I'm going to miss is the night life. I didn't realize until I had other things to focus on how much time I spent with you and River."

     "Man, don't even get me started," Damian groaned. The two walked down the sidewalk side by side, enjoying the bustling city for the last time together for a while.

     Damian spoke again as they turned the corner, hands in his pockets, "Not sure what I'll do without my drinking buddy. We didn't even get to turn 21 together. Not that you won't be back to party, I'm sure."

     She laughed as he bumped her shoulder. She adjusted the box under one arm and rifled around in her coat pocket for her car keys. The school bus was coming right on time, stopping a half-block ahead and dropping off an exited Avalyn L/n. She waved down the street to Damian and Y/n and raced ahead into the apartment complex's parking garage.

     "Twenty years old and moving to a farm," Y/n laughed. "Can't believe this is how it turned out. At least I'm not stuck at Joja - no offense Fern."

     "None taken," Damian snorted, truthfully upset he didn't have a family farm as an out of a Joja Corp job. "But hey I'm getting a promotion soon and we worked different jobs so you really would've gotten stuck."

     "One more week, yeah?"

     Y/n swiped her apartment card and walked into the parking garage with Damian still in tow. Their footsteps echoed through the huge underground layers.

     "Yep. When I get my new office and pay raise you should bring Ava back to see Granny, I'll have the money then to take you guys uptown."

     They neared Y/n's car and watched Ava pack her bag away in the trunk, one tiny spot left for Y/n's tiny last box.

     "I think that would be nice. Granny needs the company, I just hate we can't move her out to the farm too."

     "Hey, plan on it, might be a good place for her last few years."

     Y/n shook her head at the morbid comment and stuffed the box in the trunk. She tossed the keys to Ava who jumped in and started the car already playing music from her phone.

     "I hate that our family is so torn now Fern," Y/n commented quietly, eyeing Ava sitting in the drivers seat strumming her fingers on the steering wheel.

     "Well after uncle D/n died there was nothing keeping any of us together. As bad as that is, he was the glue. Mom is thinking about moving back to Reno with my stepdad and my dad is lost in the wind... go figure."

     Damian kicked a rock across the parking garage echoing the clicks and clacks along with the music spilling out of the open car door. Y/n reached out and touched Damian's arm affectionately.

     "It'll get better, Damian. Everything's going to be all right."

     "I hope you're right Bunny. You just focus on getting you and little troublemaker out of here before she hits another kid with a textbook or breaks yet ANOTHER nose."

     The cousins shared a laugh at the recent incident, the catalyst that threw Y/n into taking over the family farm. After a boy had made fun of their recently deceased father and Y/n's dead-end office cubicle job Ava had smashed his nose in with a textbook and gotten expelled. Y/n had taken that as her sign to get the hell out of the cramped city and promptly driven to the farm to sign the deed. She was secretly thankful Ava had lashed out first because Y/n could feel the plug about to blow on her own emotions at her shitty now ex-job.

     Damian walked around the car and slumped into the passenger seat. Y/n walked up the the drivers seat and tapped Ava for her to move. The teenage girl shimmied into the cramped backseat of the car and immediately shut down, throwing herself into the music in her headphones and disconnecting it from the car. Y/n put the car in reverse and minutes later they were parking again in from of Damian's apartment building.

     Damian and Y/n shared one last cramped hug, leaning over the console between them to reach. Ava hugged Damian next, sparing him a half-happy half-sad smile.

     He walked away and up to the door and turned to wave them off. As Ava buckled into the front passenger seat they waved back at him, pulling away slowly as he watched. His smile faded into a lonely expression and his figure disappeared around the next corner as Y/n GPS'ed her phone to the farm. She reached over to the passenger side and took Ava's hand hopefully, squeezing her hand lightly to give her a little comfort.

     "So, a new beginning?"

     "Yes ma'am Avalyn. A new beginning."

     The clouds of Zuzu City began to pass by overhead, the sun shining down on the road ahead a good omen Y/n hoped quietly as she turned the radio up. A mere six hours and they would be on the coast...

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Y'all are NAWT prepared. I have SO many ideas. As you can see the storyline has changed so much already and I have my reasons for it. Avalyn is important to the story, their dad is, the pre-renovations — everything has a purpose trust.

I hope you enjoy, remember to fav/save to keep up with updates as they'll probably come sporadically since I'm enrolled in and starting university soon!