Paladin

His Favourite Colour Was Green

Illyria knew it was a bad idea to turn up at Oscar's house, but she found herself answering his text message anyway.

She knocked once and the door opened up almost immediately. Her heart softened at the sight of his encompassing eyes and warm smile. She winced at the sight of his bandages and arm in a sling.

He stepped aside and as she entered, she set about apologising, "I'm so sorry. I never meant to land you in the hospital."

"Shouldn't I be the one apologising? I was the one who cheated," He frowned guiltily.

"And then you sent those pictures of us around to everyone...but I didn't even let you explain. I just reacted," Illyria admitted. "I'm really sorry."

"I get it though. You were more than I deserved, and I still treated you wrongly. I wish I could take it back. Can you ever forgive me?" Oscar beseeched Illyria.

"Ill accept your apology if you accept mine," Illyria promised.

"Okay, deal," Oscar grinned in acceptance. "I heard they expelled you."

"They finally had a reason to."

"No, they never liked either of us, did they?" Oscar mused bitterly; his afro was trimmed short per school regulations. "...can we still be friends?"

"I still need to...get over you," Illyria said. "But once I am, sure."

"I can live with that."

***

"Hey," It was Dean; Novak's partner in the Munera Games. "Hope I'm not interrupting anything important."

"You are."

"You're cute," And took a seat at her table and leaned into Illyria's personal bubble. "And I think-um-that we should go to the prince's birthday together-"

"Why is everyone obsessed with his birthday party?" Illyria cut Dean off and he blinked in response. "No one has stopped talking about it for days to me."

"Probably because that's where all the drama is going to kick off," Dean tried to convince her. "So it starts at nine-"

"I didn't agree, Dean," Illyria opened her HGM back up and began reading once again. "I've lost the taste for parties."

"Well what about meeting up later, just the two of us?" He asked hopefully.

"Sorry but I'm just not interested," Illyria wasn't going to make any more boy problems for herself if she could help it.

***

I'm so sorry. I completely forgot. I'm out right now. Rain check?

Illyria turned her phone off when she read Hyeon's message. What was this? The fifth time they missed each other? Illyria had completely cut off her fake friends after being expelled, after finding out they had sent the compromising pictures to more people than she had thought and going to Oscar wasn't an option.

Illyria was tired of just school, cleaning the library and the private lessons with John Callahan.

Which is why she picked up her HGM and messaged Lorna, where is this party exactly?

***

Illyria wondered if she was in the wrong place.

The neighbourhood was quiet, and lights of the building were out. She adjusted her high waisted jeans and pulled her jacket around her shoulders closer together and knocked hesitantly on the foreboding door.

The next thing she knew was that was covered in red paint and the entire school was laughing at her.

"-human trash-"

"-did she really think-"

"-she doesn't belong here-"

Illyria couldn't see anything but eventually she found something in herself to walk away. She felt like an idiot.

***

"So, you're not dead after all."

"John," Christopher knew he couldn't outrun his past forever. "You've found me."

"I just followed the fraudulent paperwork and missing information. Wasn't so hard to find you hiding out in the Human World." John came out of his hiding place which was the alley between Christopher's office.

"Who told you? Rufus or Amanah?" Christopher looked around; he couldn't keep messing up.

"Amanah and Rufus knew but not me?" John's face hardened. "The person you bonded with? Do Richard or Leonard know too? Am I the last one in the loop like always?"

"Paladin is your home and I wasn't going to take you away from it," Chris explained himself. "And of course, they don't know, that's ridiculous."

"You could've at least let me know before you took off. I thought you were dead for years."

"You were so blinded by Lilith that I thought you wouldn't care if I was gone," Christopher made a point. "You literally told me to go fuck myself when I told you to stay away from her."

"I needed to learn to make my own mistakes," John said. "Evidently so did you when you got involved with Aaliyah."

"That's different." Christopher ignored his scoffing. "I loved her then and I love her now. We have children. We have a family so don't ruin this."

"Your lack of faith is outstanding." They both grinned at one another.