Orphan. [part 1] [Gage]

[Astrid Rotweil]

> Forward-dated to the first of December. Around noon. <
> There will be a LOT of swearing and possibly some questionable content. Be advised. <

She'd been telling Gage to come over, to check out her new bong she'd picked up while in town the other day, when her phone had rang. Unknown caller, by the sounds of it. Astrid moved away from her computer as she answered the phone. It was rare that her display showed New York's area code in the number, but she figured her mom was calling from work again.

She always had something to talk about if she'd finished a new case. Being a Lawyer meant you got to see a lot of weird shit first hand. Maybe someone had married three different wives again? That'd be neat.

"Yeah, this is Astrid speaking." She greeted, putting the phone to her ear and leaning back in the computer chair.

"Astrid Rotweil? This is Calvin Heinz, your mother's lawyer. We spoke once last summer, remember?"

Oh hey, it was that baldy who'd helped Mom write up her will last summer! Wait, why was he calling?

"Oh, hey Heinz. Fancy hearing from you. What's the whozit?" She smiled, figuring he had an update on the will or something she'd need to know about. Maybe Mom had run into a snag with the budget again?

As if a multi-millionaire had to worry about that. Pah.

"Actually, I've got bad news, Astrid. I hate to tell you this over the phone but I figured you'd want to hear it from someone you know rather than the cops." Wait, what?

"What's wrong? Did something happen?" She was worried now, sitting forward in the chair and tensing up.

"I'm afraid so, Astrid. Please, stay on the line with me, okay?"

"...out with it, Heinz. What happened? What's wrong?" She snapped, not the type to bother with the whole 'calm down and listen carefully' bullshit.

"It's about your mother, Astrid. I'm very, very sorry to tell you this. I swear there was nothing anybody could've done. The police did all they could to prevent it, but-"

"What's wrong with my mother!?" She was on her feet now, tail fluffed and ears pinned back.

"I'm sorry Astrid. There was an armed robbery at your mother's bank. Shots were fired and Juanita was one of the hostages that were shot."

"...w-what?"

"I'm so sorry, Astrid. Your mother... Juanita's dead."

"...N-no... you're l-lying. She can't be... not her... not..."

"I'm so sorry, Astrid."

Dead.

Astrid dropped the phone and felt her heart stop. She blinked and suddenly she was on her knees, staring at nothing as the man on the phone called out to her in vain, his tiny electronic voice falling on deaf ears.

Dead.

No thoughts. Nothing processed. Flashes of what could've happened ran through her mind, her mother screaming for a masked man to let her go, a gun held to her head. Cops outside using megaphones to try and handle the situation. Media lined up outside the yellow tape, trying to get a good shot.

Gunfire. Blood. Silence.

Dead.

She found her voice but all she could manage was a scream, slapping her hands to her head and doubling over as if she'd been kicked. The screamed died into coughing, sobbing, cursing and balled fists slamming against the floor, leaving noticeable imprints in the carpet... eventually leaving raw bloodstains as she beat against the floor, not caring that she was hitting hard enough to break skin. She couldn't even feel it. She couldn't stand, or else her room would've already been torn apart in a mixture of rage and grief, shock and fear. "IT'S NOT TRUE!" She repeated, over and over until her voice started to fail her.

"It's not true...

...not... true..."

And then the silence of broken crying.

In her suffering, she'd forgotten to unlock the door, to hang up, to turn off the computer. She'd forgotten that Gage was coming over. He'd find her like that, on the floor, crying, hands bleeding from the abuse. She didn't care. It couldn't have been true. There was no way her mother...

...was dead.

[Gage Reinhart]

Gage gave a deep sigh, stretched, and clicked his computer off. Astrid wanted to show him something, huh? Sounded interesting. He assumed it was a type of weed she bought or something, but he still wanted to go and find out. He stood up and glanced around his room, looking for a clean shirt he could wear over to his Sacrifice's dorm. He was surprised, though, considering she usually didn't like him coming near her room. This would be the first time he'd actually get to go inside -- if he got caught, the two would be in BIG trouble. With that in mind, he grabbed a black, long-sleeved shirt of the fitted variety and headed out the door with nothing but his cell phone.

Making his way down to her room was boring, as there wasn't much to see. There weren't too many people walking around, so he wasn't too concerned with being found out. No matter, though, he'd still be on the lookout. As he approached Astrid's dorm, he heard something that shocked him into silence:

Someone screamed.

A very loud, very scaring sounding shriek that seemed to echo around his mind. He stopped on the spot, ears flattening and eyes widening huge. Was that...Astrid? Almost immediately, he found himself running to her door, and turned the knob on her door, half hoping that it would open itself. "Astrid?!" he yelled through the thing, listening for some sort of response, but all he heard was sobbing and coughing.

What the fuck was going on?! He banged on the door multiple times, calling her name frantically. His heart was racing, and he couldn't help but to think something terrible had happened to her. The door didn't look as if someone had broken in -- so what was the meaning of this?

"Open the door! Please?!" he begged, eyes darting around the surface of the door as if it would hold some sort of secret as to how he could get in. Apparently it did, because he started beating his body weight against it. Breaking the door down would probably cost him a fortune (or Astrid a fortune, rather), but he didn't dare just stand here and wait and see what happened. He had to see his Sacrifice, and he had to see her now.

[Astrid Rotweil]

A banging at the door didn't jar her out of her crisis at first. It took louder, full-body strikes at the damn thing to finally make her snap back into reality for a moment. When she heard his voice, Gage, outside the door, she got up and managed to unlock it, opening it and without another word (before he could slam against it again), grappled the poor, frantic fighter in a hug that could only be described as desperate.

Then she cried.

She clung to his shirt with bloody hands and buried her face into his chest, sobbing almost painfully and forgotting any pride she might've had left. No words, at least, nothing anyone could understand. A couple of choked curses. Some pained 'whys'.

[Gage Reinhart]

When the door suddenly opened after what seemed like an eternity, Gage had to abruptly stop his banging of the door so he wouldn't knock his Sacrifice to the ground. However, the state she was in shocked him into a momentary silence, causing him to just stand there awkwardly for a few seconds. Once he fully realized what was going on, he slowly brought his arms up to embrace her in a tight hug. He didn't exactly know what was going on or why the hell her hands were bleeding, but the girl obviously needed comfort. "Astrid..?" he voiced softly, his voice barely a whisper. He didn't really expect her to actually answer him.

A few minutes later, he glanced around the hallway, wondering why no one had come by to see what was going on. Feeling kind of disappointed in the other students, he gently picked her up off of the ground, cradling her against his chest as he moved forward into her dorm (being careful not to hit her on the door frame, obviously). Once inside, he tried to find a place to lay her down. The couch seemed like the best option, so he placed her there and quickly moved to close the front door. After only a moment of doing this, he was back at her side, sitthing on the floor in front of her. "Astrid, what happened?" he asked, feeling things unfamiliar to him. When had he ever been concerned about another person? Never. But this was different. Astrid was his Sacrifice, his other half, his reason for living. He had every right to be afraid for her.

Knowing a frantic voice would get him no where, he spoke in a soft and careful voice. "Talk to me...?" As much as he wanted to shake her and ask what the hell was wrong, he kept his cool.

[Astrid Rotweil]

Astrid's cries had calmed into a bitter silence as her Fighter held her, tears still falling but sobs silent and tiny. She didn't make her usual protest to being carried, simply curling into him as he brought her carefully to her couch, a white leather thing that had been delivered from her Condo after plenty of convincing with the Headmaster.

She sat there with her legs pulled up to her chest, eyes open but staring down at the floor, hands pulled up to her chin, still bloodied but no longer actively bleeding.

Her eyes focused on him when he came to sit infront of her, but they'd lost their shine. Greiving tears.

After a few quiet moments, she lowered her chin to her knees, hiding her hands in the process and closing her eyes tightly.

"...some fucker shot my mother." She started, her voice cold and cracked. "She didn't make it."

She left it at that, eyes closed tight, concentrating so hard on not breaking down again. Gage was here. Everything would be fine, right? She wasn't alone. He'd be there.

[Gage Reinhart]

Thankful that his Sacrifice didn't protest to him carrying her, he gave a small frown when she did nothing but gaze at him after he'd sat down. He took one of her hands and held it gently in his own, inspecting the damage she'd done. He faintly wondered if he should get a wet towel to clean them with -- but it didn't take long before the girl started talking to him, even if her voice seemed strained.

When Gage heard the news about Astrid's mother, his eyes went a little wide. The man didn't quite know how to react, given he didn't have a very close relationship with either of his parents. How would he have reacted if he heard his mother died? Probably...not at all.

"Im so sorry," he offered, tilting his head to the side as he watched her. She didn't say anything else, so he assumed she wasn't ready to really say anything else about it. It depressed him, seeing Astrid like this. It was so unlike her usual, tough self that it had Gage off-guard. He wanted to be here for her in every way possible -- and if that meant spending the night in the girls dorm area and risk getting in huge trouble, then so be it. He wasn't about to leave her in this state.

Without saying anything else, he stood up and sat next to her on the couch, pulling her toward him so she could lean against him as he wrapped his arms around her. Though words weren't spoken, what he wanted to say pretty much got across --- I'll always be here for you.

[Astrid Rotweil]

She let him sit beside her, let him murmur those stupid words of remorse, that filler thing that people did when they didn't have anything better to say. It didn't click in until a moment later, but when she realized how stupid those words were, 'I'm so sorry', numbness gave way to misplaced anger.

She suddenly frowned and wrenched away from him with a shove, baring her teeth as she sat leaning away from him, obviously not actually angry at him; just angry in general. "Fuck you." She cursed, glaring. "I don't need your pity." Astrid couldn't help it; so many emotions were raging war inside her brain at that moment and anger happened to be one of the more... expected ones for her.

After a moment, a breath, she realized her mistake and her shoulders sank, tail (which had fluffed up in her anger) flattening and falling limp onto the couch behind her. Just as quickly at it had appeared, her anger vanished into regret.

"...Gage, I'm sorry." She repented quickly, all but throwing herself at him again, burying her face into his chest. "I didn't mean it. Please don't be angry." Wow, a polar opposite to what she normally was. Hopefully Gage was ready to ride the emotional rollercoaster from hell tonight, cause Astrid didn't have a choice in the matter.

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