A Generation Icarus High School AU That Nobody Needs or Wants

The Y - Part Two

How late is this?

Very. Very late.

Procrastination skills: 10/10

Oh, and please read the bottom A/N. There's relevant plot information down below!

I'm going to keep the top A/N fairly short because of that. Onto the chapter!

***

Kestrel – Once again six months before everything changed. Next chapter it won't be.

Sadly enough, Tui had not hospitalized anyone in the twenty minutes since we had last seen her, but was still holding her own pretty dang well. I counted two people on the sidelines in various stages of pain, and from the looks of Tu's current match, a third would soon join them.

Not five minutes later, one did, and Tui stepped out of the ring to join us, beaming as Falcon tossed her her water bottle from his seat. "Some match, huh? Did you see when I roundhouse-kicked that first guy in the face? You'd think he didn't know I could fight, by the way he was talking." She started to imitate his voice, taking on a nasally tone. "I'll go easy on you, 'cause you're a girl." She snorted. "He dropped in under two minutes." She wiggled her eyebrows mischievously. "Of course, that may have been because I accidentally kicked him in the balls. No biggie."

I snorted as Con looked horrified and subconsciously covered his crotch with his hand. "Way to go, Tu. Do you have anything else you want to do while we're here?"

Tui made a face. "Leaving means interacting with your demon sister, so no thanks on that not-so-subtle wish to leave."

I rolled my eyes, but mentally made plans to stay until the midnight closing. More often than not, Tui was at my house to escape from her drunkard mother and her many boyfriends.

I mean, not that you could blame her – the one time I'd been to Tui's house, it ended in a shouting match between the two, with Tui dragging me out not three minutes later.

And anyways, after Tui's little sister had died, she had no reason to keep going home. She'd often end up smuggling herself into my bedroom after school, since Gavin wouldn't even approve of me actually having a friend over. Maria would then usually bring Tui food while I sat through a painful dinner with the stepfamily from hell.

"So, then what do you want to do?"

Tui shrugged. "Raven's starting her self-defense class in a few minutes, is she not? We could pop into that?"

I shrugged back. "Sounds a good a plan as any."

For those of you who had never been to one of Raven's classes, they're kind of hard to explain. Her father, about a year before he died, taught her to defend herself, using a mix of martial arts. Although that by itself doesn't seem like a huge feat, one also has to understand that Raven is 4'10 but can flip a fully grown man over her back like a rag doll. Word to the wise: don't mess with her.

Grabbing Con by the shoulder, we followed Tui over to the fidgety half dozen or so girls who were awkwardly standing in a circle, waiting for Raven to show up. Although there was no definite rule, the class definitely did cater more towards teenage girls, in an attempt on Raven's part to try and keep as many girls safe from her experiences as possible. Chloe, who basically ran the Y, was more than happy to add it to the courses list when Raven suggested it.

Raven arrived exactly on time, armed with a handful of keys and a rubber dummy that was bigger than she was. She smiled and nodded towards the three of us as she set up the dummy, then handed out the keys.

She clapped her hands together. "How many of you have ever heard about using a key against an attacker?"

Several girls raised their hands, as did Tui, Con, and I. Raven had taught everyone a while back, but she believed strongly in refreshing information to make sure it stayed in the front of your mind.