Chapter Text
The rest of the day continued like normal, that was, until Zeke heard heard people talking about Wellston’s famous Triple Chocolate Cake that was supposedly being served today during lunch.
The problem was— lunch already started.
And while it started only 2 minutes ago, those 2 minutes were dire. The cake is usually gone by the 3 minute mark at the latest— so he needed to hurry.
He powered up and dashed over to the cafeteria, creating a breeze for passersby— also freaking out the lower tiered ones in the process.
He swung open the door, out of breath. People were now looking at him, but he didn’t mind much; the only thing that he could think about was the Triple Chocolate Cake. He hadn’t gotten to it in time in months, and he was desperate for a taste of fluffy, gooey, chocolatey goodness.
He zoomed over, just to find out that there was no more cake. He was late, again.
He nearly fell to his knees, but then a rather short, but muscular student with ratty black hair caught his eye.
This individual was particularly interesting because because she had just sat down at a table, holding a lunch tray with the Triple Chocolate Cake on it.
She— this nobody— had taken the last slice.
Zeke stormed over to her, eyes still glowing.
“You.” She looked up, staring at Zeke in the eyes. “Give me your cake.” Zeke demanded, glowering down at her.
“No..” She muttered, frowning.
”’No’?! ‘No’?! Who does this girl think she is?!”
“Excuse m—“
“Fuck off, Zeke.” A blank, feminine voice cut Zeke off from near the table. Zeke looked over, realizing that it was Quinn.
”So that’s why she was acting so ballsy— she has an elite on her side! I’m not scared though, Quinn is still a weakling.”
“And what if I don’t? What’re you going to do?” Zeke scowled, glaring down at Quinn.
She stood up, her eyes glowing a menacing color.
“Are you forgetting that my defenses are strong than yours?” She deadpanned. Sometimes Zeke wondered how she was able to remain so calm during any situation, and while he’d never tell— he admired that about her, because that was something he could never do.
“Won’t be a problem” Zeke said, grinning. He then swung at Quinn’s head, causing her to duck and then throw a punch at Zeke’s gut with her glowing, barked skin. Zeke turned on his defense form, it absorbing most of the impact. While Quinn’s defense was strong than his, her attack and speed stats weren’t the best— Zeke easily surpassed them in his attack form. In his defense, though, he was a bit weaker than her.
While they were close and Zeke was slower, Quinn took this opportunity to grab Zekes head and slam it repeatedly over her barked knee, her thin socks making sure not to absorb any of the impact of the slightly spiky exterior of her skin.
”God damn it— the female uniform is such an unfair advantage”
While Zeke was still in his defense form, repeated direct hits with good damage can whittle away at his defense— making it almost useless. And that was exactly what was happening right now; his face was practically being caved in and carved out— or at least thats what it felt like.
Zeke only had one clear option: get out of his defense form and into his attack form— hurting himself gravely in the process— to escape her powerful grip.
So that’s exactly what he did. The grayish blue color disappeared from his skin as he reverted back to his attack form. He grabbed Quinn’s hands with one hand roughly, causing them to flake slightly, and delivered a powerful knee to her gut. She gasped, not expecting that. Still, though, it didn’t do as much damage as Zeke was hoping for.
Without giving tine for her to recover, Zeke sent a right hook to her face, sending her backwards. Her glasses, now broken came clacking to the ground. While the punch didn’t do devastating damage, the broken shards of glass from her glasses definitely could.
Luckily, nothing landed in her eyes, but she was now bleeding— and some of the shards were wedged in between her spiky exterior.
Zeke grinned.
“What was that about your defense being stronger than mine?” Zeke jeered, causing Quinn to grimace.
Suddenly, though, she smiled— ever so slightly. And so did the girl at the table, now munching on the cake.
Zeke was confused, until—
“Whoa!” A familiar, chipper male voice rang out from behind him.
Everything went black.
The last things Zeke remembered before he lost all of his senses was the sound of wind— then a cold and hard object striking him in the back if the head, Followed by the floor closing in on him— or was he closing in on the floor? His ears rang, and his limbs felt staticky.
Then the first thing he remembered as he woke was what sounded like four people talking— not counting the large student body chatting in the lunch room. Although, the room was rather quiet.
The next thing he could sense was a slight poking at his side, presumably by a finger— there was also a voice louder than the others, the same chipper voice he had heard earlier.
“..How can an apple do that?!” An authoritative and feminine voice spoke, probably Remi.
“You stuff it with metal balls or somethin’?” This voice was one he wasn’t familiar with; it was rather androgynous, but had a slight grit to it.
“No? Where would I get metal balls??” A rather chipper voice inquired, mouth sound full. Now that Zeke had heard this man speak again, he recognized it as coming from the man Quinn was with the other day. What was his name again? Rick? Mick? Vin?
“Shut up, you two.” This voice was definitely Quinn, he was sure.
Zeke groaned, the searing pain of being kneed in the face repeatedly mixed with being hit with an…— apple? —at high speeds was beginning to get back to him.
“Whoa, he’s waking up. I guess he’s not dead.” Vic said before taking another bite out of the apple that he had just assaulted Zeke with just a few minutes prior.
“Told ya’ he wasn’t dead, Vic.” The ambiguous voice spoke again, this time sounding like their mouth was full.
”Oh, right— his name is Vic”
Zeke sat up quickly, causing a sharp pain to shoot to his brain. Zeke groaned in pain and held his head in his hands.
“Zeke!” Remi called out, “Are you okay?” She crouched down beside Zeke, next to Vic.
Zeke didn’t respond, instead he looked around and the four talking around him. Quinn was still there, not bleeding anymore, but without glasses on sitting at the seat closest to him. Vic and Remi were crouched on the floor next to him; Vic had a curious look on his face, while Remi looked really worried. Lastly, the other voice be heard turned out to be the muscly girl that he had tried to steal from. A bit of a masculine voice for a girl, but who was Zeke to judge? That was pretty much his type, after all—
Either way, Zeke was pissed. Who wouldn’t be? He had just been knocked out by a cripple, and with an apple no less.
He was more embarrassed than anything, though. Almost the entire student body saw him get K.O.’d by an apple.
He stood up quickly, quivering with rage. As he stood up, black dots filled his vision as he began to feel like his head was cotton. He swayed a bit from side to side, before being caught by caring arms.
“Careful! You might faint again—“ Remi started, before being interrupted by Zeke.
“G-Get your hands off of me!” He barked, voice slightly shaky.
Remi frowned, reluctantly removing her hands from him. The lack of support made Zeke stumble— what a shocker.
As a reaction to this, the unfamiliar girl started snickering and covering her mouth. Zeke’s attention snapped over to her and gave her a long, cold glare.
“What’s funny?!” He barked out again, trying to sound menacing; he only ended up sounding like a chihuahua, though. This, of course, made her laugh even more.
“Ren! Don’t embarrass him!” Remi scolded, but it was obvious that she was finding the situation quite amusing too; she was trying to suppress a laugh.
Quinn couldn’t help but to let out a chuckle as well, although she composed herself quickly.
Zeke’s face turned beet red. He was pissed, sure, but the embarrassment of it all was too much— he powered up and sprinted out of there. Before he fully left, though, out of the corner of his eye he could see Vic waving goodbye to him.
Feeling absolutely humiliated, Zeke just decided to head home for the day; school was almost over anyway. What’s a couple more missing assignments?
Right when he got to his room, he slammed the door closed and flopped over on his bed, laying on his stomach. He screamed into his pillow, flopping his legs about.
He felt humiliated, violated, absolutely pathetic. He was always pathetic lately.
He grumbled incoherently into his pillow.
“I’ll get that bastard back..” He murmured to nobody but himself.
He turned over his wrist, smiling at the blue 6.8 staring back at him. He found solace in the fact that, technically, his soulmate is right here with him.
”Hey… wasn’t there some sort of superstition that if you touch your soulmark, your soulmate can feel it too?” He thought to himself.
He reached out with his right hand, tracing the letters gently with his fingers— outlining each number. Then, he placed his whole hand on the mark, encompassing his wrist in his warmth.
”God, this is so stupid— am I that lonely that—“
Just as he was about to remove his hand, he felt warmth, a different kind of warmth, he felt individual fingers wrap around his wrist— ones that were much longer than his. The palm of the ghostly hand was less wide than his was, but the fingers and the hand itself were much longer.
But it was so weird— Zeke couldn’t see the hand, he could only feel it. He could feel a lot, though: the gentle squeeze it gave, the dryish skin laying upon his, the slight intricate spirals of the skin— everything.
Zeke was transfixed by the touch, laying motionless on his bed. His eyes staring at his wrist in bewilderment.
Eventually, the invisible hand gave him a harder, but still gentle, squeeze before the touch disappeared.
Just as fast as it came, it was gone.
His hand fell limp. ”What the hell was that..?”
He melted into his bed, he was confused to hell at this point, at didn’t want to spend time thinking about it.
So; he fell asleep, drifting away from all of life’s woes.