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If you asked Pluto’s friends (friends. Huh. He hadn’t… remembered having those before Nevermore) to come up with adjectives that described him, it would probably be something along the lines of “anxious,” “quiet,” maybe “cat-like”.
Pluto knew this. And of course he knew that there was nothing wrong, really, with being seen like that.
It was true, anyway, so what was there to be bothered by?
So what if he wasn’t fearless like Duke to the extent that it was actually life-threatening sometimes, or interesting like Eulalie? If he didn’t have Berenice’s joie de vivre (as Duke put it), or Morella’s kindness?
If he wasn’t brave like Lenore?
Well. Usually Pluto tried not to let himself be bothered by this.
Key word tried, sure, but at least he didn’t find himself in a position like the one he was currently in, where his only solution was to wish as hard as he could that he was anyone other than himself.
Duke wouldn’t have let this happen.
Lenore would never have let this happen.
“Duels utilizing your spectre forms,” Ms. Poppet had said- a chance for the class to face one of their peers in a fight against them at their strongest. Everyone was led to through a portal not unlike the one Pluto remembered from the “Spectres vs. Non-Spectres” challenge where Lenore rang the bell. This one, though, led the class to what seemed to be a Roman gladiator-inspired arena, with Ms. Poppet quickly herding the class to their assigned seats in the stands before poofing herself away in a cloud of lilac smoke to a seat higher up on the balcony next to the Caesar’s throne.
Well, technically there were two thrones, now- Mourn had materialized another after Merry had tried to sit on his lap he’d first sat down, much to his twin's (were they twins? Pluto really couldn't tell sometimes by the way they flirted with each other. He certainly hoped not.) amusement.
A large board above the stadium that looked nothing like it belonged in the time of the gladiators read out each of the students' names next to who they would be facing in battle. Pluto was up against someone named Sterling- he’d heard the name before, seeing as they were in class together, but Pluto didn’t know him personally, nor did he know the abilities of Sterling’s spectre.
He’d been a bit too distracted to worry at first, seeing as Berenice was explaining to him and Duke how she’d once gotten so drunk that she’d flipped off her boss and called him a “staggering waste of space” (and somehow hadn’t gotten fired). Eulalie seemed to be sharing fun facts about turtles to an curious-looking Morella while Lenore walked behind the group, her head tilted up to the challenger board curiously as she read everyone’s opponents.
“And then I was offered another drink, and another, and so on- you get it,” Berenice explained, halfway through her tale.
“Yes, yes, we get it, Bee, you got drunk- get to the good part,” Duke teased, making Berenice turn around to shoot him an amused glare and to flick him in the forehead.
“Then my boss shows up, right?” Berenice continued once she felt Duke had received enough punishment. “An’ I wasn’t supposed to be drinking-”
“Who’s ‘Sterling’?” Lenore asked, running to catch up with Pluto, Duke and Berenice at the front of the group.
“Hm?” Pluto said in confusion, tilting his head to the side slightly at his friend’s question.
“I 'dunno,” Berenice said unhelpfully, shrugging. “Anyways, back to-”
“Pluto’s dueling someone named Sterling,” Lenore explained. “I know the spectres of all our other opponents, but not… whoever that is.”
Pluto squeaked nervously. “Feck...”
“Don’t stress, minou,” Duke said with a grin, putting a hand around Pluto’s shoulder and pulling him in. “I’m sure he’s nothing special. You can handle it.”
“I think these are our seats!” Morella called, her and Eulalie appearing out of nowhere and moving down the empty aisle to grab the seats at the end, followed by Lenore and Berenice, the latter of which was still complaining about not being finished with her story.
Pluto ended up squished between Lenore and Duke, the young woman turning to him to reassure him- like Duke- that he probably had nothing to worry about.
“Plus, I’m always willing to earn a few demerits to help out a friend,” she finished with a small smirk. “If you need any help, I’ll be right here. Not sure what I can do without a spectre, but it’s better than nothing.”
“Thanks,” Pluto said with a small smile, ignoring the small part of him that felt stung by the fact that Lenore would probably be better at this than he was, spectre or not, and instead trying to focus on the warmth in his chest at her willingness to care for him.
I always wanted a sister friend like Lenore.
“Ouais, moi aussi, j’peux aider,” Duke said, poking Pluto in the shoulder.
“Still can’t speak French, Duke.”
“Pas ma faute. J’ai oublié.”
Lenore snickered, making Pluto glare at her as well as Duke.
“Whatever. I won’t need help anyways,” he finally said.
Whether it was to convince his friends or himself, he didn’t know.
Sterling’s spectre was worse than anything Pluto could have imagined.
He would probably have been saying “I thought you said this would be fine!” to Lenore and Duke were he not tied up fighting against his literal worst fears at the moment.
Because of course he had to face another terrifying version of Ada- except so much worse. He wasn’t trapped inside his own mind reliving his worst nightmares now. They had come out to greet him.
He had had just been laughing with Morella, Duke, and Lenore as Berenice and Eulalie threw fake punches at each other in the arena and tried to do backflips (earning many demerits as they went), and the next thing he knew he’d been poofed away to the center of the ring, already in Spectre form with his opponent facing opposite to him.
Merry yelled at them to “Begin!” and Sterling hadn’t wasted a second.
The tall blonde-haired young man- now in his creepy, twisted spectre form, a ripped shirt hanging off his mangled torso- grinned in a way Pluto could only describe as a borderline evil before tackling Pluto to the ground and placing a palm to his forehead.
And then the world went white.
…For about two seconds.
Pluto had quickly pushed Sterling off of him with a scratch to the face for good measure, and he quickly regained his footing to leap into the air, floating as he scanned the arena for his opponent.
Who was… nowhere to be found.
What?
It was a huge empty arena, this shouldn’t be hard to- wait.
Pluto screeched. “Spider!” he yelled, falling back down in a panic and hissing at the bug, his voice cracking embarrassingly as he spoke.
It was a black widow, and a large one at that- about the size of a tangerine (Pluto had never seen one, but he’d heard from Eulalie that they were this large when she told him some of her highly extensive arachnid knowledge). The cat spectre backed away as the creature climbed over the dirty floor of the arena towards him, hissing again when he hit the wall behind him.
Why did this have to happen? He had enough to worry about with Sterling, and- wait.
Pluto tried to follow the breathing exercises Lenore had showed him as the spider came closer and closer, clearing his head as a theory formed. When the black widow finally came close enough to attack, Pluto forced himself to pounce on it, and, sure enough, it poofed away in a cloud of red smoke, revealing Sterling to be the only other living creature in the arena. And he looked pissed.
Pluto could faintly hear Duke and Lenore cheering for him from where they had gotten out of their seats and were standing at the edge of the arena, but his brain was still reeling from the discovery he’d just made.
Sterling could manifest his fears in real life.
Anything he showed to Pluto to try and metaphorically disarm him was also shown to everyone else in the arena. Pluto hissed a third time at Sterling, trying to convey I know exactly what you’re capable of, and I’m not letting you anywhere near me.
Because he knew how Sterling worked, now- the fact that the blonde had tried to reach out for Pluto’s forehead at the start of their match had told him everything he needed to know. That was how his power must work- while Ada could show you your worst fears if you looked into her eyes, Sterling could show you and everyone around you your fears if he was able to touch you- maybe even just your forehead.
That was why a spider had shown up, of course. Pluto was terrified of them. (He could already hear Duke's teasing.)
He took another deep breath. He just needed to keep Sterling away from him whilst simultaneously taking him down so that he wouldn’t get demerits.
Simple, right?
Only problem was that Sterling was smart.
He quickly seemed to be able to calculate a subconscious pattern in Pluto’s speeding dashes that not even Pluto had noticed, and before the black-haired boy even knew what was happening, Sterling was on top of him once again, this time using his arms to pin down Pluto and just straight-up bashing his forehead into the smaller boy’s.
Pluto heard his friends calling his name, and then the world went white a second time.
Plip.
A drop of water fell on Pluto’s forehead, followed by another.
Plip.
He blinked his eyes open, finding himself lying on the floor of an arena, a full moon and stars above him.
What…?
Another drop. This time Pluto sat up.
He was in his spectre form, still, but he didn’t feel any of the usual electricity running through him, urging him to dash. He cracked his knuckles nervously and pushed himself off the ground, narrowing his eyes as he scanned the arena.
There were seats around the ring, but they all seemed to be empty, save for one silhouette of a person on the opposite end to Pluto. He didn’t have much time to wonder about this before he felt the amount of raindrops increase intensely, soon making the arena seem to fill up with water like a swimming pool up to his ankles.
Pluto hissed and bit out a curse, looking around once again- this time for a higher place he could go to evade the quickly increasing water.
“Duke?! Lenore?!”
The walls seemed to start to close around him as he made a mad dash for the stands, but he felt drained and weak, and the water acted like quicksand, trying to pull him down. He felt sore, out of breath, and the water was now up to his torso. His spectre form dissolved, and his academy clothing immediately got soaked from where he now knelt in the water, panting.
“Bee! Eula! Morella!”
Pluto felt tears start to fall from his good eye as his breath sped up.
“Anyone? Please,” he begged.
This had to be a nightmare. This couldn’t be happening- what was even happening?
In his panic, he hadn’t even noticed the silhouette in the stands had made their way towards him.
“God.”
Pluto flinched at the low voice. That was all-too-familiar.
“Quit crying, boy. It’s just wa'er.”
No, no, no.
Pluto scrambled back, the low waves splashing around him as he got more soaked.
“I-I can’t swim,” he whispered, feeling like he couldn’t control what he was saying. “Please. I- I can’t.”
“Not with that attitude, ya can’t,” the figure said, finally stepping close enough that Pluto saw him clearly.
He looked the same as he had that night when Pluto had left for the last time, still stumbling a bit from too much alchohol and still needing a shave.
Still with that belt around his waist.
Pluto got deja-vu as he once again backed into the wall, almost wishing he could go back to when it was only a spider he was afraid of.
How had he gotten rid of that, again? Everything felt like a blur.
“In ya go, kitty.”
Pluto yelped as he was shoved under the water, which suddenly felt as though it had grown ten feet deeper than before.
“No!” he yelled as he splashed in the mini-lake, trying desperately to keep himself above the surface, but it was useless, as always.
He never seemed to be able to save himself from this.
Lenore could have.
“Stop, stop, st-”
Water filled his lungs and the world went white again.
When Pluto jolted to consciousness the next time, he was completely dry.
His spectre form was still missing, but he was dry.
There wasn’t water surrounding him, he was back in the normal, not-flooded arena.
Just a nightmare. Must have gotten knocked unconscious.
He didn’t get much time to soak (good choice of words, brain) in the relief, though, because he quickly realized that this was once again the arena with all the people in it, the one where he was supposed to be fighting Sterling.
Except- where was-?
“Right here, boy.”
That wasn’t Sterling.
Maybe if Pluto had been less shaken he could have noticed Duke calling out to him as Lenore frantically looked for Ms. Poppet to demand a different opponent, or Berenice and Eulalie yelling angrily as Morella seemed to be shaking with anxiety. Maybe he could have noticed how Sterling hadn’t put the hook-hand on the right side, or gotten the low and husky voice exactly right.
But Pluto was still reeling from what felt like almost drowning, and just seeing that face was enough to make his vision tunnel in on Sterling.
Except he didn’t look like Sterling, and Pluto had no idea that this was his same opponent from before.
No, this was a different kind of fear coursing through his veins.
It was just a nightmare, just a nightmare, just-
“...D-dad?”
So here he was. Face to face with the man he thought he’d finally been relieved of forever.
Pluto felt a wave of anger wash over him along with his fear. How dare he? He was the reason Pluto had died and come here in the first place! How- why did he come here?
The rational part of Pluto’s brain, of course, was trying to tell him that there was no way his dad had followed him here- it was still just Sterling, building up some fucked-up nightmare.
But Pluto wasn’t very keen on listening to the rational part of his brain when it came to his dad.
His primal instincts always seemed to kick in, and he usually picked ‘flight’- ‘fight’ had gotten him one-too-many beatings.
“What, ya’ think I’m Santa Claus?”
Pluto practically leaped back as his dad took a step toward him when he spoke.
His dad just grinned in return. “Just wanted to see how you were settling in.”
Pluto felt like his whole body was frozen. He vaguely registered his dad reaching him and slamming him against the wall of the arena- make that three times he’d been cornered there- and spewing some more bullshit into Pluto’s ear about how he’d be better off if he just went straight to the land of the dead, but really, he’d been in this situation enough to know that dissociation was the only way to go.
His dad would hit him a few times, blame him for his mother’s death, get the alcohol out of his system, and then Pluto could retreat to his room and wear a sweater the next day, tell his boss he tripped or something to explain the bruises.
Except.
He didn’t have a room to escape to here- he shared it with Duke.
Duke.
He was watching right now. Lenore was watching. Berenice Eulalie, and Morella, they were seeing all this. Not to mention Annabel Lee, Montresor, and the rest of those arseholes. They would be seeing all this, seeing how weak Pluto was, and-
Pluto ducked from underneath his father’s arms, breath shaky and fast as he stumbled over his feet as he tried to run away.
“Come back ‘ere and fight me like a man,” his dad slurred.
Pluto finally snapped back to his sense and frantically searched for Duke and the others where he remembered they’d sat but found them nowhere. Well. He could only hope that they hadn’t already left and that he could show them he wasn’t weak.
“What are you doing here?” Pluto growled.
“I told ya’! I wanted to see how you’ve been doing here!” His dad chuckled humorlessly. “Strange how life works, huh? Folks like your mum can only get one shot, and here you are prancing around acting like you deserve this new life.”
“I don’t- I’m not keeping it for myself,” Pluto said. “I have friends- we’re going to-”
This time, his father’s laugh sounded real, making what he said next sting even more. “You?! Friends? That’s a good one, boy. But tell me-”
Pluto barely even had a second to react before his dad was up in his face, clutching him in the air with his good hand by the collar of his shirt.
“How much longer until you ruin their lives, too? Seeing as that’s all you’re good for.”
He tossed Pluto to the ground, making him grunt in pain. “You think they even like you? Boy, there’s a reason you didn’t have anyone when you were livin’. You’re fuckin’ cursed. You killed yer’ mum, my wife, and you couldn’t even do the one thing you wanted- escaping and leaving all of us behind. Face it, Pluto. You’re a failure. A fecking disgrace.”
Pluto heaved again, gasping for breath as his vision grew blurry with tears.
No, no, this was supposed to be over. Not now, not in front of everyone.
Not like this.
“Tsk,” His dad continued. “God, get up. Quit crying all the time.”
Pluto didn’t move. He wasn’t sure if he could.
“I said get up!”
He felt a painful stinging sensation on his arm, one he knew all too well that was from a hooked hand, followed by a few kicks to his stomach and face.
Red, sticky blood dripped from his nose and from his wound, but Pluto barely even noticed through how much he was crying.
Not like this. Not in front of them.
“You’re making it too easy to finish the job, boy.” Pluto flinched as he heard the sound of his dad’s belt unbuckling, finally finding the courage to push himself up and out of the fetal position.
“N-no,” he croaked out, voice hoarse. He could taste iron.
His dad’s belt felt so much worse than he’d remembered. It stung like a thousand wasps on Pluto’s face and chest, making his successful attempt to stand up fruitless as he fell to the ground on again in pain, letting out no more than a small squeak.
He’d learned to be quiet over the years. The neighbours did not like being woken up in the middle of the night.
“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure it’s not quick,” His dad bit out, stepping on Pluto’s chest and wrapping belt around his son’s neck before pulling it taut. “I’ll rid this place of you, and your ‘friends’ won’t ever have to lie to you again.”
Pluto coughed as the belt was pulled tighter, his hands reach up to frantically claw at it before his dad swatted them away.
“They hate you, boy. You might as well be glad you’re out of their hair. They’ll be better off without you. Everyone is, in the end.”
Pluto tried one more time to remove the belt from around his neck, making his father punch them away, harder this time, with a punch to the face for good measure.
Pluto would have groaned if he could make any noises at the moment that weren’t pitiful choking noises. This time, the world started to fade to black instead of white.
“Get-” someone- Lenore? Pluto vaguely thought as black dots appeared at the edge of his vision- grunted, and Pluto felt some of the weight lifted off his chest. “-off him!”
“What the fuck?!” someone who’s name Pluto was pretty sure started with an S yelled. “You can’t just-”
“Don’t take one more step in his direction, I swear to God,” Berenice hissed- oh, Pluto knew their name that time!
“Pluto, are you alright?” Morella fretted. “Oh, no, that’s going to bruise…”
“Will he be okay?” Pluto heard someone he knew as Eulalie whisper anxiously.
He wasn’t sure who she was talking to- it was still too bright to open his eyes, and he was nowhere near ready to face reality after whatever the hell had just happened. It couldn’t have been real.
It couldn’t be real.
Because that meant- Pluto let out a small whine, pushing himself up a bit more as he felt his breath speed up for what must have been the fourth time in just the past hour.
He had to get out of here. He couldn’t let them see him like this any more, his dad had been right, and he should just- just-
Forcing his eyes open, he saw Lenore right in front of him with a frown on her face, the rest of his friends- could he still call them that?- behind her.
Berenice and Eulalie were seemingly yelling at Sterling about something while Morella stood a few feet behind Lenore, obviously wanting to come closer to Pluto but deciding not to- to give him space, maybe?
Maybe she doesn’t want to be around you.
“Pluto? Pluto, Do you remember the breathing tricks I showed you?” Lenore asked gently. “You’re going to faint, darling.”
“I’m not- I mean- Where’s Duke?” Pluto asked without meaning to.
“I-” Lenore looked down. “I’m not sure. He ran off somewhere after we got Sterling off you. Ass.”
She whispered the last bit under her breath, but Pluto heard it. Of course he left. They all wanted to leave, right? Wasn’t that what his dad had said?
Maybe he should just hang himself. Finish it for real. He was never even supposed to come to Nevermore, right? It was supposed to be over.
Yeah, that’s a good plan, Pluto’s muddled-up brain told him as he tried not to focus on the aching around his neck.
He stood up quickly-too quickly, seeing as he immediately almost fell back down, Lenore catching him and asking what the hell he was thinking- but he didn’t have time for that.
He couldn’t- He couldn’t breathe.
He couldn’t let them see him like this anymore.
Ignoring Lenore and Morella’s confused cries, he pushed his dark-haired friend away and ran past her and Morella towards the exit, past Berenice and Eulalie and Sterling, as fast as he could.
He felt almost giddy with the thought that this would all be over soon, not even bothering to stop and remind himself thatit hadn’t been real, his dad hadn’t been there.
It felt real. It looked real.
They had seen it, and Pluto had always been good at running.
Well, except for today, it seemed.
Turns out almost getting choked to death could do that to a person. Pluto barely made it up the stairs to the boys dormitories before he practically fell over, gasping for air. He wasn’t sure if this was panic, the choking, or a mix of both, but his lungs hurt like hell and he was very much convinced he could not run another step.
“Heh,” He mumbled to himself humorlessly as he lay down at the top of the stairwell, feeling tears prick in his eyes. “Can’t even kill yourself right. Idiot.”
“Quoi?”
Shit.
“Duke?”
“Pluto, what did you just say?”
And Lenore?
“What the hell, minou?!”
God, of course they both had to catch him while he was down one last time.
He was so fucking done with this school.
Not thinking clearly in the slightest, Pluto tried miserably to push himself up, ignoring the severe ache in his lungs from the oxygen deprivation he’d suffered minutes before. He was able to push himself up to a sitting position, but his legs were seemingly refusing to hold up his weight, and Duke and Lenore didn’t seem to want him standing for some reason, anyway.
“Hey- Wait, hang on a second!”
“Here, let us help, just-!”
Pluto was made very quickly aware of Lenore and Duke sitting next to him when they immediately both hugged him, one on either side, only releasing after about a minute- Pluto counted.
“I think we should just stay sitting for now, Pluto,” Lenore said gently once she’d let him go.
“Please,” Duke said with a dramatic deep breath. “Mon Dieu, you run fast.”
“...Sorry.”
Duke paused and looked down, making Pluto immediately turn away and look to the floor, ignoring Lenore trying to catch his eye as well.
“No need to be sorry, minou.”
“Yeah, Duke ran off before you did, anyway,” Lenore scoffed, the playfulness of her tone flying completely over Pluto’s head.
He hugged himself tighter, preparing for a fight between the two most important people in his life that would be caused by him.
Why couldn’t he have been less dramatic?
Why couldn’t he have waited until later, or ran faster, or never even come here in the first place-
“Excusez-toi, I left to go find Ms. Poppet! Plus, we’d already gotten rid of Sterling!”
Duke went quiet for second before Pluto felt an arm around his shoulder.
“J’suis desole, minou. I am… not great at comforting people. I didn’t want to make it worse. Or have you feel awkward.”
Pluto could hear the frown in Duke’s voice, the guilty look on his face countered by Lenore’s disappointed one. All speculation, of course- he was still too scared to look up and face them.
Wimp.
Pluto felt the tears that had threatened to spill earlier returning, reminding him he had to get to his room if he wanted to save whatever was left of his dignity in front of Duke and Lenore.
Really, he just wished they’d left him. Maybe this would all be over by now.
His resolution of escaping before he cried lasted about two seconds before the first teardrops hit the floor.
“I-I’m… s-sorry,” Pluto whispered between hiccups as he cried quietly into his knees, knowing how pitiful he must have been acting and not stopping anyway. He wasn't sure what exactly he was supposed to be sorry for, but based on past experiences, it had to be something, right?
Pluto heard two sharp inhales of breath on either side of him before he began getting bombarded with confused and angered exclamations from Lenore and Duke (the latter mainly spoke in French though, so Pluto couldn’t understand much of it). The rational part of Pluto’s brain let him know that they weren’t mad, just confused as to why he was apologizing, but Pluto hadn’t been listening to that part of himself since he fought Sterling, and he wasn’t about to start.
He curled himself up even tighter, internally begging his friends to leave him alone so he could just end it all in peace.
Why did he always do this when his dad lashed out?
Why couldn’t he just get over himself?
Why did his brain have to go and shut down and make him unable to think properly about anything except the relief of escaping?
Escaping.
Pluto shoved off Duke and Lenore- wait, when had they decided to hug him again?- and pushed himself up, this time standing and walking a few short steps before he started feeling woozy.
The mixed-language complaints started up again from behind him, and someone grabbed his shoulder- not roughly, but it was enough.
Pluto flinched, hard, and devolved into another coughing fit, only half-aware of Lenore asking if he was okay as he tried blinking the dark spots away from the corner of his vision.
He didn’t answer.
He couldn’t think.
Why did this happen, why did they see, why-
Pluto knew exactly where he was when he woke up, because he'd woken up there before.
He sat up in his bed at the academy’s infirmary, rubbing at his eyes and yawning like he’d just had a nap. Although he knew he must have passed out. He- unfortunately- vividly remembered the events that had taken place- Pluto paused. How long had he been out? His neck still hurt quite a bit, but his mind felt so much clearer.
He could breathe again. He took a few deep breaths, savouring them and vowing to never take them for granted again.
“Hm,” he mumbled to himself after a brief glance around the room showed no sign of Miss Dolly- or anyone, for that matter. “Duke? Lenore?” he called, voice slightly hoarse.
He pushed his covers off him, noticing an intact copy of his uniform folded neatly next to the bed. Pluto quickly changed out of his pajamas and hopped fully off the mattress, looking behind him once more to make sure he didn’t forget anything (old habit, it wasn’t like he many things to forget) before pushing open the infirmary door and stepping out into the hall.
“I’ve told you, no!” Pluto jumped at Miss Dolly’s angered shout.
What in the-
“Give us an estimated time until he wakes up, at least!” Eulalie replied.
“Please?” Morella sounded like she was on the verge of tears. Pluto couldn’t be judging, though, considering his last conversation with Duke and Lenore.
“Don’t say ‘please’!” Berenice complained to Morella before turning back to Miss Dolly. “She doesn’t deserve it, that stubborn ass!”
“Another ten demerits, Berenice,” Miss Dolly hissed. “For- once again- insulting a teacher!”
“She’s got a many more where that came from,” Lenore bit out. “And that’s not even a threat, anymore. Not when it comes to our friend.”
“We still do not even know what these ‘demerits’ do,” Duke muttered.
“Uhm… Hello?” Pluto spoke so softly he was worried no one would hear him.
He was immediately proven wrong as he was bombarded with five different people hugging him at once.
“Oi-!”
“Pluto!?”
“Minou!”
“You’re okay!”
“Knew you had it in you!”
“Hm? He didn’t have anything special in him, though. He’s just very resilient!”
“That’s not what I-” Berenice sighed. “Yeah, you’re right, Eula.” She released herself from the hug, punching Pluto lightly on the shoulder. “You are pretty resilient.”
“You were meant to rest longer, you know.” Miss Dolly had her hands on her hips and a foot tapping impatiently on the ground when Pluto turned to look at her sheepishly.
“I- uh, sorry, Miss.”
Dolly rolled her eyes, turning to stop back into the infirmary. “Whatever.”
“I think...” Berenice turned to Morella, smirking playfully. “I think this calls for celebration!”
“You just want an excuse to drink alcohol, Bee!” Morella huffed, giving Pluto one more tight squeeze before letting him go, Eulalie following suit right after.
Lenore and Duke let go as well so that they weren’t exactly hugging him anymore, but they both had their arms around his shoulders, protecting the back of his neck.
It made Pluto feel safer than he would’ve liked to admit.
“What makes ya say that, duckling?” Berenice teased, leaning back on the railing outside the infirmary.
“It’s probably because you usually show up to the celebrations you plan with alcohol,” Eulalie said matter-of-factly, following Morella as she walked away towards the forbidden wing and groaned into her hands.
Berenice laughed and skipped after them, continuing to tease Morella as the three walked ahead.
Pluto snickered, and was just about to follow when Lenore’s voice made him turn around to to look at her curiously.
“Uhm, Pluto? Could we…” She gestured awkwardly to herself and Duke. “...Talk to you?”
“About… yesterday,” Duke clarified.
Ah, Pluto though. It happened yesterday.
He swallowed nervously, looking down and unconsciously stepping back a bit. “I- s-sure.”
The three hung back a bit in silence as the rest of their friends moved ahead. Lenore and Duke shot a few glances in Pluto’s direction that he opted to ignore every so often.
“Won’t the others-” Pluto started, gesturing in the direction Morella, Eulalie, and Berenice had gone.
Lenore shook her head. “We sort of… talked about this with them beforehand.”
“Just so that you wouldn’t feel as… bombarded, you know?” Duke said.
“I’m sure they’re still going to want to speak with you another time, just... Well, we wanted to check in,” Lenore finished.
“M’fine,” Pluto mumbled, decidedly not fine, and well aware he would definitely be having nightmares again.
Lenore and Duke shot him another Look.
God, those damned expressions on their faces- “I don’t need to be coddled.”
Oops. That last part might have been said with a bit too much bite. As if Duke and Lenore needed any more reason to never speak to him again.
Pluto blinked again and felt his eyes get wet, and God, why did he keep crying? And why was it always in front of them?
He rubbed his good eye to wipe away the tears when he heard- I’m sorry, was that a giggle?
Pluto risked a glance up at his friends, finding Lenore laughing into her fist into her fist and Duke smirking.
“What- what’s funny?” Pluto asked indignantly, praying to a God he didn’t believe in that they weren’t laughing at him.
“Hon, we just saw you get nearly strangled to death yesterday,” Lenore said, moving forward and draping an arm over Pluto before he could even flinch.
(And he did flinch. Lenore didn’t seem to take it too personally.)
“So?”
“So,” Duke said, following Lenore’s suit and draping an arm over his smaller friend as well on the side opposite to her. “Forgive us if we want to- how did you say it- ‘coddle’ you, minou.” Duke used air quotes on coddle, making Lenore snicker again. Pluto felt his face grow red.
“I could have handled it,” he grumbled.
Duke snorted. “No doubt you could have handled it, you’re quite the formidable opponent.”
Great, now his face was even more red-
“But,” Lenore interrupted, “That doesn’t mean you should have to handle it. And that looked very taxing. I’m not sure if I could deal with having to relive the events leading to my death.”
“Especially in front of all the pricks here,” Duke said.
Pluto laughed humorlessly. “Well, don’t worry. You’d’ve never gotten yerselves into a situation like that, anyways.”
“Minou…”
Lenore squeezed her arm a little tighter around Pluto. “Trust me, I certainly would, and certainly have. Fathers are hard to please.” She paused. “D’you remember the name of yours, by any chance?”
“I- uhm, no.”
“Hm. Too bad. I’d have liked to have a chat with him once I get out of here.”
“H-hey, now, wait-!”
“Could I ask for an invitation for this chat aussi, Madame?”
“But of course, my fine sir.”
“You don’t know the whole story, it’s not like that! It’s not his fault, I…”
Duke and Lenore turned to look at Pluto from where they had run a few steps ahead to bow to each other playfully, the smiles wiped off their faces.
“You don’t… You know you didn’t deserve that, right, Pluto?” Lenore asked gently, reverting to her original arm-over-the-shoulder position so that she was half-hugging Pluto.
The smaller boy looked down, gesturing his hands at nothing as he tried to explain himself. Duke seemed to be frozen, eyes wide.
“I- I mean, I was really being difficult that night-!” Pluto justified. “An- an’ he was drunk, an’ I’d been smoking, so-”
“So you deserved to be murdered?!” Duke exclaimed, looking angrier thath Pluto had seen him since his fight with Monty in the basement.
“He didn’t kill me! I wasn’t- I wasn’t murdered!” Pluto covered his mouth eyes wide.
Shit. He hadn’t meant to say that.
Sure, having people think he was pathetically strangled to death by his own father wasn’t the greatest, but it beat the alternative.
But here Pluto was, completely going back on his plan to keep that a secret.
“What?” Lenore asked, shocked. “How did you- Why did Sterling show you that-?”
“So it wasn’t… real?” Duke asked, looking slightly relieved.
“N-no, it was real. I just… I didn’t die. From that, at least.”
Lenore pulled Pluto over to a small bench outside the infirmary, placing Pluto down so that her and Duke could sit on either side. “How did you die, then?”
“...”
“Pluto? You don’t have to tell us if you don’t want to.”
“Yes, you do. Sil-vous-plait.”
“Shut up, Duke.”
“Mhnnm.”
“What was that, Pluto, sorry?”
“I wanna. Tell you how I died, I mean.” Pluto blinked rapidly. “S’just harder than I thought it would be.”
“Take your time, darling.”
Deep breaths.
“Me and my dad never really got along, ever since-”
Deep. Breaths.
“Well, I.. he was telling the truth. I killed-I killed my mum.”
“You…?” Lenore whispered as Duke put a hand over his mouth.
Neither of them moved away, Pluto noticed.
He picked at his nails. “When I was born, she… she couldn’t take it. An-and she passed away.”
Lenore and Duke went quiet for a few seconds before Duke let out a humourless huff of laughter as Lenore put her face into her hands and whispered “oh my Lord”.
“W-what?”
“Pluto, that’s not-” Lenore sighed. “You couldn’t- You don’t really believe you murdered her, right…?”
Pluto shrugged helplessly. "I- I maybe wouldn't call it murder..."
“Pluto, you were a baby,” Lenore continued.
“You couldn’t have controlled that!” Duke exclaimed. “Mon Dieu. Blaming a child for that. So that’s why he- why your father was saying-”
“That I killed her. Yeah. Uhm. He said that a lot. I-in real life, I mean.”
“Asshole.” Duke and Lenore muttered at the same time.
“Anyways, I killed- I mean, my death happened the same night that… the whole thing you saw with Sterling happened. With the… the choking. And the belt.”
Pluto shivered, curling in on himself, making Lenore rest her head on his shoulder as Duke grabbed his hand and held tightly.
“An’- And then I just c-couldn’t take it anymore. And I-”
Feck, Pluto thought as he saw the first tear slide off his cheek onto the floor.
“I killed myself,” he finally whispered.
He couldn’t recall ever being hugged so tightly before that moment.
“I- I hung myself that same night. I just couldn’t- I couldn’t stay there anymore, and that was my… my only way out.”
“Oh, Pluto,” Lenore whispered.
“I- I’m sorry,” Pluto hiccuped. “I don’t even know why I’m here. I don’t deserve another chance at this, it’s my fault I’m here! I-”
“Don’t.” Duke interrupted. “Don’t say that, mon minou. You are owed so, so much better than that asshole of a father. And when we all get out of here, we’re going to give you that. The life you deserve.”
“Or we’ll die trying,” Lenore said. “Again. We’ll die again, I suppose.”
“But I’m not- I’m not brave like you two,” Pluto mumbled. “What if I can’t do it? Maybe you lot should just leave me here, and-”
“Tu est serieux?! Pluto, this place would be terrible without you! Not that I’m super glad you’re at a school for the dead, but…” Duke smiled. “I’m glad we’re friends.”
Pluto felt his face get hot again. “Ah. R-right.” He chuckled awkwardly and tried to joke. “You sure you don’t want to be friends with someone… I dunno, braver? And maybe someone who didn’t kill their mum?”
“Quit that,” Lenore scolded. “You are brave. You’ve proven that time and time again, and I won’t stand here and let you put yourself down. And you did not kill your mother. Trust me, I understand wanting to blame yourself for somebody’s death.”
She looked down sadly, hunching her shoulders for just a moment. Pluto reminded himself to ask her about that later as she continued.
“It doesn’t do them- or you- any good. And you don’t deserve to keep doing that to yourself. Your father’s not here anymore. Now-” She stood up, pointing a finger at Pluto. “-We’re going to go spend time with the others and eat stolen snacks, and then you’re going to get some rest, and we’ll be nearby in case you get night terrors. Which-” Lenore glared teasingly. “I get, as well. So maybe I'm not brave. And I think that's alright.”
“Ouais, I have them also,” Duke said with a shrug before standing up with Lenore.
“See? We’re all equals here. And for the record, I adore you both. I’d prefer you let me know if that’s ever unclear from now on.”
“O-okay,” Pluto stuttered, face flushing from the affection.
“Come along, I’m sure the others are getting impatient,” Lenore said, walking ahead.
“I heard Bee mentioning something about a dartboard with your father’s face on it- not sure where she’ll get a photograph, but it sounds fun, doesn’t it?” Duke teased to Pluto.
“I might sit that one out,” Pluto said sheepishly, feeling quite too exhausted to confront the strange, conflicting feelings of love and hate he had for his dad at the moment. He just wanted hopefully not think about Sterling ever again, and to spend his afternoon in the forbidden wing with his family friends as Eulalie tried to braid his hair and Duke put an arm around his shoulder and teased him about the way his snoring sounded like purrs.
And as the chatter of Berenice telling a new tale to an unimpressed Lenore and the warm hot chocolate Morella made with stolen cocoa powder lulled him to sleep, he’d feel more at home than he ever had in life.