The Year 47

9| Unexpected

Scottie arrived shortly after Livia, his eyes hooded and voice nonexistent and after being fussed over for at least an hour, he retired to his room. Every member of D28 and L47 alike stood in the common room, overtaken with befuddlement and not much else. Almost every candelabrum was lit and nearly every swinging light bulb switched on as minds weren't too keen on resting that night. The building seemed even stuffier than usual, with all the exasperated deep breaths and shuffling feet. Silvinia, Sammie, and Hale had followed Scottie to his room with intentions of keeping him company, while the other five attempted to make conversation that avoided the topic at hand.

Torey had been pacing treads into the poorly carpeted floor and wringing his hands that were covered in cold sweat.  “Carmen, what’s wrong with him?”

Carmen leaned against the far wall of the common room, arms crossed tightly. “I’m guessing that he went through some kind of trauma—“

“I know that, how do we fix him?”

Stino sighed, picking at his fingernails complacently, “Torey, you’re kind of an idiot.”

Livia thought it strange that Stino was teasing his leader when the tension between them had been thick enough to carve, but when she looked at his face she could tell that he wasn't teasing at all. The insult had been nothing short of genuine and long overdue.

“When he’s ready to open up, he’ll open up.” Kade said, he wasn't really happy to be in Torey’s presence either, in fact none of them were. As far as they were concerned, he was lucky if he got anything but glares and sarcastic remarks from any of them.

“I think we need to talk to Jacopo,” Torey said.

Kade nodded, “Fine, we’ll go and see him in the morning.”

“You know that’s not what I mean.”

“You can’t be serious.” This was the first thing Livia’d said in awhile, it hadn't attracted the attention of everyone else in the room like it would have weeks ago, maybe they were getting used to her presence. She moved to rise from her position on the couch, but Stino grabbed onto her wrist keeping her in place. She opted for sitting with her back straight, "Isn't that the very thing that Scottie got in trouble for?"

Torey rolled his eyes, "We'll be careful."

"You're being an idiot again--"

"Shut up Giustino"

"--then again, you never really stopped, did you?"

"Shut up."

"They're right, it's not a good idea." There was a point in time, when Livia thought that Torey's word was law, but after awhile she realized that it was Kade that held dominance in most situations. It actually seemed more like Torey was struggling for power whenever Kade was around. "We're on thin ice with the A00s."

"I really don't think that we should wait."

"What have I told you about thinking Torey?"

"God, Giustino. Shut up, shut your mouth or I will kill you. " Torey was red from the soles of his feet to the tips of his ears, like a thermometer that had just been dipped in boiling water. He shot daggers at Stino, who only smiled smugly in return, gently rubbing his thumb across the marked skin of Livia's wrist. He wiggled his eyebrows at Carmen, who just shook her head in return.

"I'm going, with or without you," Torey said.

Kade sighed and rubbed at his temples,"I guess I don't really have a choice then, do I?"

"I wanna go too," Livia said

"No."

"No."

"No."