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It's hard to get a grasp of him, of what he's thinking. Even though Theo has been his friend for a while. Now, friend is too much of an endearment, but what else to call it when their fights turn into fixing up each other's bruises, and they'd rather team up with each other in class even though they'd end up getting kicked out for arguing? But it's still hard to get a grasp of him. He'd sometimes stare faraway. And Theo’s mind is way too simple to actually guess what is in Whitney’s mind, so Theo never started to even wonder why those eyes always seem to search between the crowds. From on top of the roof, at the park. Especially at the park when he's under a lone umbrella and claims to love the rain.
It's a wonder at all he can feel love with how wretched he has been with the students at school. But Theo knows it's somewhat honest. Theo doesn't put it past him to lie about the things he likes, but why lie about liking the rain? Whitney is just a student, a normal person like all the others. Like Theo and all the others. Like what he bullies almost everyday if they cross his path. And youngsters like them shouldn't be bearing angst heavier than their ages, at least that's what Theo believes.
"Whit," he joins under the umbrella, surprising the blond for a second before Theo flashes a smile, "milkshake." He has it in his hand. Actually, Theo was just buying it for himself, a sweet treat after sweating at the gym. He doesn't really drink milkshakes before meeting Whitney though, Theo prefers something more dense ; energy drinks or protein shakes. Do they taste good? Probably not. To Theo, they are (maybe), and Theo is weirdly opinionated about it.
That aside though, Whitney shoves Theo away—to no avail—and frowns, "Don't hog my umbrella, dickhead." With Theo taller than most, he does hog the umbrella. Maybe it’s important to mention that Whitney didn't say anything about the milkshake, he didn't say no to sharing it with his friend. He doesn’t say no when Theo takes the umbrella off of his hand, to hold it over both of their heads, so Whitney doesn’t have to raise his hand too high to accommodate Theo’s height. He doesn’t protest about the taste of the drink either, instead he complains about the fountain, “Not enough dumbasses are throwing their coins anymore,” he says as he cocks his head towards the shallow thing. And while sipping on the straw Theo offered.
Theo purses his lips and thinks for a while. Enough for Whitney to almost drink half of the milkshake. And before Whitney could spit a ‘fuck you’re silent about?’ , Theo gasps and looks at Whitney as if he has offended him somehow. Just understanding what Whitney meant by the lack of coins. “You were planning to steal again from the fountain? That’s not nice, Whit…”
The blond clicks his tongue and rolls his eyes so hard it almost makes himself dizzy, “Why do you care.” Not having the energy to argue. Theo figured that Whitney only has energy to argue at school and around his friends. When he’s by himself, he’s rather quiet. A bit unguarded even, Well, right now he’s not by himself. There’s Theo holding the milkshake and umbrella for him.
Theo frowns from that response but upon drinking the milkshake again he stops. Easily pleased is what Whitney often say about Theo. Totally the opposite from Whitney who’s hard to impress in general. Theo is already licking his lips happily from the sweet drink, "It's really not too sweet!"
"It's because you keep drinking garbage," Whitney snickers.
"It's helpful for my routine."
Whitney shrugs, those protein drinks taste like shit, he doesn't have to harass Theo about it just to prove his point. "Give it here," he leans closer to bite the straw hanging from the drink. Theo smiles, adjusting the umbrella to be closer to both of them and offers the milkshake directly in front of Whitney’s teeth.
Then, Theo closes the gap as well, to Whitney's surprise. He knows the harpy is clingy but he can't get used to it at all. No one gets clingy to Whitney because, really, why would they? He was about to shove him away until Theo moves his wings to cocoon both of their forms, "Now it's warmer!"
The shorter man was stunned for one or two seconds before he shoves himself away. He can’t though, the wings are keeping them close. And yes, unfortunately, Theo is right about this being warmer. Whitney looks around warily, then he snarls under his breath, “Don’t tell anyone about this,” before sinking deeper into Theo’s feathers. And their chat is more of Theo rambling and Whitney nitpicking every word uttered from the harpy’s mouth.
“Ms. River keeps making me repeat her words during the class, I wonder why she’s only doing that to me…”
“Because you’re dumb.”
Theo gasps, then presses the plastic glass onto Whitney’s cheek, earning a sharp glare from him. “You’re so mean, I’m sure Ms. River doesn’t think that,” Theo says. Whitney wipes his wet cheek almost too roughly, like the condensation on the glass was something filthy, or because the feeling wasn’t as upsetting as he thought it would be.
“ Everyone thinks that, slut,” he doesn’t let up, “you’re dumb.” But the way he leans back to the dark feathers and the lack of malice in his voice doesn’t really support his case.
It makes Theo pout though. He’s aware that his grades suffer badly, maybe except for anything sports related. But he can always patch this up to Whitney just being his usual self, that Whitney is mean for the sake of being mean and Theo doesn’t continue the topic again. He just sips on the milkshake before offering it again to Whitney and letting him drink as if the milkshake is his and his alone. Theo smiles thinly as he sees it, “You can take the cherry.”
Whitney was already planning to take the cherry anyway, but hearing that from Theo, one of his brows goes up, “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Theo replies with a confused tilt of his head, “Huh? You can take th–”
He shoves the cherry into Theo’s mouth, not allowing the tall harpy to continue his words, “I don’t need your permission, idiot.” He empties the rest of the milkshake though, folding his arms and looking sideway at nothing before he straightens his back. He stretches his body for a bit, and takes a step away.
“Ah! Whit!”
It’s a wonder why Whitney let this bitch shorten his name like that, “What?”
Whitney lets a low oh when Theo lifts up his umbrella and shrugs at him. Whitney’s umbrella. Right . Whitney clicks his tongue and backtracks. Theo gives him the umbrella and grins at him, “Actually, do you wanna walk me back to the orphanage?”
Obviously the delinquent flips him off, “In your dreams,” and leaves the scene.
_______________
The school is always bustling with noises. Especially in this town, one would get a glimpse of two or more people jerking each other off at the cafeteria before the lessons start. Not a new thing. It’s supposedly also not new to see someone coming out of the head’s office without their lower garments. But one of the causes of everyday’s chaos is that familiar blond. He drinks the attention like he has been waterless for a week. He enjoys when people cheer for him and he gloats when he wins a fistfight. Especially when he wins, let that be marked as important. And this time, he’s definitely winning. It’s not even a fight , not really. It’s not a fight when the student in front of him is already a laughing stock and they’re already sobbing from defeat. Clutching onto their disheveled school shirt and onto their pathetic patched up bag.
“I’m keeping this,” he smirks. His friends cheer and the crowds around him are opening their eyes as wide as they can if they can get a glimpse at what color is it? That was their panties, right? A student is scrambling to look for a teacher but right now, there’s none in their vicinity. Lucky me , Whitney smiles wider and he kicks the sobbing student’s leg, “That’ll teach you to not stand in my way.”
“Whit?”
Whitney’s heart almost drop.
“Man, not again,” Theo appears from the crowd, immediately sinking to his knees just beside his sobbing victim. His face sour, of course! His friend just bullied another student. It’s not new, but Theo wishes it was less frequent. “Can you stand? Here,” the harpy drapes his jacket over the student’s lower half and ties it securely for them. It’s not enough to cover their shame, yes, but they can go to the head’s office or to the library to look for a change of clothes at least.
Whitney shoves his souvenir along with his fists into his pockets, sneering, “I guess sluts help each other, am I right?” The laugh is rowdy around him, a familiar environment that soothes his nerves, supposedly. Theo doesn’t seem to pay him any mind though, he’s occupied as the student is still sobbing in his arms, as he’s helping them to stand up. Whitney spits on the floor as he watches those wings cocoon that half-naked shithead and escort them into safety.
Okay , so he’s mad about it. Why? How would he know! What matters right now is that Whitney is upset. Incredibly so. So he does that wing thingy to just everyone?! Whitney doesn’t know why that’s even relevant and why did that question even pop into his head. Maybe he’s more pissed because he doesn’t understand his own train of thoughts? Who knows. He kicks the railings on the roof and grunts when one of his friends asks him what’s wrong.
“FUCK!” He screams into the sky, surprising a few pigeons around. And the fucking flaps of wings make him even more angry because Theo’s stupid fucking grin appears in his mind right after.
His friends shrug around him, one of them cringing, Whitney’s mental . “H-hey, Whitney–”
“I’m getting snacks,” he finally speaks normally–by normal here it means he’s being snappy. And he scoffs when his friends follow him along. Of course . That’s how it should be when it comes to him.
Theo was just minding his own business. He bought some corned beef to go with his rice and cafeteria foods. Definitely brought his own energy drink and bottle of water to gulp down. Good for him, is what he keeps saying to any questions he gets regarding what he eats. One day Theo’s blood pressure will rise up so bad and it won’t even kill him because Theo’s heart is strong as fuck. And then Whitney spotted him, then if we skip a few scenes, that piece of shit Whitney was already pouring his soda onto the harpy’s head with a scowl in his face.
Serves you right , Whitney said.
Theo’s reaction was unsavory –let’s be real, who wouldn't get mad if they got overly sweetened carbonated drink poured all over their hair and clothes and lunch ? Theo didn’t even get to eat. A fight broke out between them and the students around were cheering. They were clapping, whistling, hitting the table, straight out of a medieval tavern brawl. “Get him, Theo!” or “Kick his ass, Whitney!” were echoing throughout the entire cafeteria. And surely, it caught a teacher’s attention, plus some more students who weren’t even in the cafeteria. Whitney bit Theo at one point. Theo gripped Whitney’s arm so hard the skin turned purple. And some more small bruises, and some cuts because their nails were onto each other like claws.
Theo is not a saint. He may be polite and kind and sporty–does that matter? –but he’s still a person with heart and fragile emotions. Which means, if someone presses the right buttons, Theo will snap and snap them in half. And Whitney seems to know all the right buttons. It’s natural in his bones. The very being of Whitney pisses Theo off so bad that Theo can’t help but be drawn to it somehow. The opposite applies to Whitney but let’s not talk about it because Whitney wouldn’t like to even think about getting attached to this birdbrain beside him.
They got scolded thoroughly by Doren. The teacher told them to face the head later but Whitney obviously won’t do that and Theo doesn’t really feel like it because he’s super hungry right now, he needs to eat outside later. Probably somewhere near the cafe. And get himself a milkshake. Speaking of milkshake, Theo looks to his side, to the man with most of his fringe covering one eye. Sitting with him on one of the infirmary’s beds. Grunting while he struggles to put on a bandaid because it keeps sticking in the wrong place, literally anywhere but his damn wound.
“Let me see,” he says with a sigh. His mood is already calmer–like Whitney said, easily pleased . Theo isn’t mad anymore because his anger had run out along with the punch which landed on Whitney hard enough to make his nose bleed. Theo carefully places the bandaid on a bleeding wound on Whitney’s forearm. It looks nasty, scratch-shaped.
Theo frowns, more at the view than at Whitney, concerned about the other scars and bruises littering Whitney’s skin, “You should be more careful next time.”
Whitney wants to launch Theo’s towering form out of the window and hope a plane would just fall on him, killing the harpy forever, “You caused this, you bitch.”
Theo gasps at the vulgar language. Not that it’s new, but it’s just very Theo to get fully offended every damn time like he’s hearing this for the first time. It’s one of his charms actually, that he’s super easy to startle, super easy to mess with . Whitney yanks his hand away. Theo takes the box of bandaids onto his lap, taking matters into his own hands, “Let me see the other places.”
“You should be grovelling to me right now,” the blond lets Theo take a look at his elbow.
“Whit also bit me, so it’s just fair.”
“??? You strangled me, slut!”
The infirmary is so noisy even though the school has ended. If they don’t keep their voices lower, the head will come over and for real drag them into detention, no excuses. But Theo is too dumb and Whitney is too prideful. Most of Theo’s bruises will go unattended because Theo is already feeling well right now and because Whitney won’t care to look at them one by one. If he does anyway he won’t show it.
“You’re sticky. It’s nasty,” Whitney doesn’t pull his arm away.
“You poured your drink on me,” Theo huffs mentioning the obvious. But then he pauses, “Maybe we should get something after this.”
“Like what?”
“I wanna buy corned beef with rice,” the harpy’s feathers flutter behind his back, “and let’s share a milkshake.”