Valedictorian- A Maximum Ride Fanfiction

10th Period

REN FOUND SEBASTIAN huddled around the pool, eyes downcast and refusing to answer any of his soft questions. She batted away his hands with annoyed grunts and covered her ears when he spoke. He sighed. 

This wasn't how he was planning on dealing with this.

"Sebastian." Ren frowned, wincing as pain shot up his leg as he sat. Ever since Sebastian had found him, she'd been nothing but strong, honest, and to the point. Seeing her mope was a direct contradiction of her entire existence, and Ren wasn't sure how to deal with it. At the sound of her full name though, Sebastian's white head shot up, and she sent him a withering look. Like she wanted to be angry but couldn't bring herself to. Black eyes that were always so hard looked a bit more like a dead fish, now. "What happened?" He tried again.

"I don't know," She finally said, muffling her words through her leather sleeve. He could see just fine in the dark, but at her dejected expression settled for awkwardly placing a hand on her shoulder like he was blind. "It wasn't me, I swear. I. You don't matter, you know?" Ren raised an eyebrow. What was she on about? "I always know that you're going to take what I say and consider it on your own time. I'm not worried. You.. You do your own thing." Her voice wavered and sounded more like she was trying to convince herself, and she punched the floor of the cave- recoiling immediately with a small hiss. "It's the others I'm worried about. They probably thought I was trying to kill them. I'm not a traitor, I s-"

"So you do care." He cut in, realization dawning on him. Sebastian- well, he'd pegged Sebastian for the type not to care about anyone but herself. But she did, apparently. A barb and shelled creature with a soft stomach. Though Ren was the type that liked to be alone, even he jumped at the chance at making some new friends this time. The sudden connections he had with certian people in the flock and his reactions to them were other things that surprised him- Nudge's endless chatter was actually comforting, Iggy's sarcasm and general approach to things endearing. Angel didn't seem to like him for some reason or another, but he wasn't about to force her. And Max and Fang... well, they seemed to accept him well enough. It was almost like having parents, if he'd bothered to think about it. Ren gave a few more awkward pats, feeling an odd sense of deja vu. The same unnerving feeling he got listening to Nudge speak. There was an itch at the back of his mind that he just couldn't scratch.

"No one thinks your a traitor, Seb. At least, I don't think they do. If they did, they'd just go up and leave, right? We're the two injured ones, it's not like we can chase them. Relax." His mouth hurt from the long sentence, and he brought his other hand up to rub at his jaw. He sucked at this comforting thing, he decided. 

"You and your blind faith." She snorted. 

"It's called not over thinking things. You running off probably just made you look more suspicious. No one said anything about you yet." Ren sighed like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Sebastian glanced at him and nodded, her single long segment of curly hair bouncing slightly with the motion; and went back to staring at her knees.

"What exactly did you... find?" She choked around the word.

"I'm not sure." Ren shrugged, diverting his gaze to the pool where fish lazily lapped about. His fingers fell from her shoulder and fiddled with a rip in his jeans, thigh twitching uncomfortably at the dried blood that was caking there. "I was only there for bomb disposal. Fang and Max were the ones who actually fought." Pause. "I was just hit at the end." Pause. "You'll have to ask them."

Sebastian huffed, clearly displeased; and Ren felt his eyes crinkle in a mouthless smile.  Even if he'd never admit it, he liked her. Not in a romantic way, of course, but Sebastian was a firmly engraved part of his life. She'd blazed a trail right into his head, pushing and pushing until he let her in. She was hard to handle sometimes, and was more pushy than a spoiled princess, but he wouldn't have her any other way.

Tough as nails and snarky to boot.

Maybe it was because they were so similar that she and Max didn't get along well. 

There was a very, very small yelp he emitted when she poked his side.

"Blood bothering ya?" She grinned, changing the subject in one sentence. Ren nodded numbly. Her smile grew bigger. "I'll give you some of my little girl jeans."