White Lines

Awkward convorsations and pocket knives.

Leah kept glancing back at Vanz in the back seat then over at Noctis, "Look Noctis, I don't want you to get in a fight."

"I won't. He is one person who I can trust not to get into a fight with me." Noctis looked at her reassuringly.

Leah sighed and looked out the window, not entirely sure that she could trust him. He put his hand on her leg and bit his lip, knowing that she was worried.

Vanz looked out the window, not paying attention to what was outside, rather vacantly letting her eyes skim across her surroundings. Noctis pulled up to a small house and lay his head against his seat. Leah could tell that just being close to his family stressed him out, but this had been his idea in the first place.

"Come on." He said.

Vanz and Leah followed him to the door. Noctis held his hand up to knock, but stopped just before his knuckles hit the wood. He gritted his teeth together and knocked. A few seconds later, a young man with blonde hair pulled back into a short tail opened the door.

"Noctis?"

"Hey, Keith."

"Why are you here? I thought you said that you weren't ever coming back." Keith said.

"Where's Gabriel?"

"What do you mean?"

"Look, just where is he?"

"He is in his room. Why?" Keith leaned on the doorframe.

Vanz and Leah glanced at each other.

"Look," Vanz said, "I'm tired of everyone asking why, if I wanted you to know I would have told you."

Keith looked at Noctis and said something in French, winking suggestively. Noctis shook his head and spit out some of the curses he usually mumbled under his breath. Keith held up his hands and moved aside for them to entr the house.

The three walked into the room, Leah entering last and receiving a full body sweep from Keith to which she scoffed and rolled her eyes. Noctis turned around, "You two, stay in here. No matter what you hear, stay in this room." He walked down the hall and into the very last room, shutting the door.

Vanz and Leah looked at each other for a moment and sat down, whispering back and forth for a few minutes before Keith came out of the kitchen.

"Do you want something to drink?" he asked.

Leah looked at Vanz and shook her head, Vanz told him no for both of them and he nodded and sat in a chair across from the couch, "so, how pissed is Noctis this time? And also, how bad are his wrists?"

"Well," Vanz started, "since Leah keeps his knife hidden, even if he wanted to he couldn't do anything. But I think she has him pretty trained out of that."

Keith looked honestly surprised, "You actually got him to stop? How? No matter how hard me or Gabriel tried he wouldn't listen."

"He doesn't want advice, he wants someone who understands." Leah said sternly.

Vanz nodded and sighed, "You didn't try very hard did you?"

"I didn't mean to start something, you do not have to get defensive." he held up his hands.

"Sorry, we're just tired. We just got off of the plane about two hours ago." Vanz said, rubbing her temples.

"It's okay, when Noctis would visit for a competition or something he was always on edge too."

"I think he has a better reason to be though." Vanz leaned back and rubbed her face.

"Well when you hate everyone, yeah, you'll be on edge."

Loud yelling came from the back room, followed by a loud thud. Keith cringed and sighed, "I think Noctis just threw the first punch."

Leah looked at Vanz and sighed, "should we help him?"

"He told us to stay in here though." Vanz said sarcastically.

They got up and walked to the door. When Leah tried to open it, it was locked. "Vanz, give me a bobby pin."

Vanz removed one of the bobby pins that held her beanie in place and handed it to Leah. "Sorry Vanz, but I'm gonna have to straighten it out okay?"

"Anything to keep them from killing each other."

Leah picked the lock and opened the door. as soon as the two saw Noctis and Gabriel, they ran forward. They had both managed to get knives to each other's throats. Leah grabbed Noctis by the back of the shirt and pulled him off of Gabriel. She grabbed her knife out if her pocket (She snuck it past the airport security) and held the tip to his face, "Damn it, don't think I won't run you through." She said.

Vanz held Gabriel's wrist to the wall so tight that he dropped the knife. "What the hell are you thinking? I came here to get you back, not leave with you in a body bag!"

"Then maybe you should tell him that." Gabriel practically spat at her.

Noctis kept every smart-ass remark to a minimum. He knew that Leah wouldn't hesitate to at least maim him.

"Look, you need to calm your fucking adrenaline Leah. We were almost to an agreement. There was no more violence." Noctis said quietly.

"That's not what it looked like to me. Knives at each other's throats is a major sign of violence in my book."

"Leah, put the knife down. I dropped mine, Gabriel dropped his, now you drop yours."

Leah closed the knife and tossed it to the floor, but her arm was still pinning him to the wall. He could have easily just pushed her away from him and overpowered her, yet he knew that with how angry she was it would not help his case.

"You're coming with me." She said, grabbing his arm and leading him from the room.