Fantasy Guardians{Part 2}(Leopard&Svenny)

[svenny]

The heavy doors swung shut with a gentle thud behind Annabell as she strode into the small lecture hall. Annabell slipped into one of the middle rows and walked until she was centered before slapping her backpack onto the desk. When she slumped into the chair, she grinned up at Danny. Her ginger hair had partially slipped from her braid since breakfast, a few loose framing her face. Annabell gestured for her to take the seat beside her, which Danny did without hesitation. "So," Annabell started, leaning forward so that her ribs pressed against the edge of the desk, head propped against her palm, "How are you liking college so far?" Annabell hadn't really gotten the chance to talk to many since moving in a week ago, but she'd gotten mixed reviews just from the few people she had had interactions with. As she waited for Danny to formulate a response, she fished her phone out of her back pocket and set it on the desk by her elbow, her screen lighting briefly as a new notification came through: a text from her mother.

Mama Addie: Ryder kept insisting that I text you today even though I kept telling her I didn't want to bother you... so here I am. Mom always wins those arguments, doesn't she? Anyway, we wish you good luck on your first day of class. Might have to come down and compensate for the lack of fighting classes they teach there... think about joining some martial arts club. You never know when you might need to ... Okay, okay, Ryder is reading this text over my shoulder now and is disapproving. We love you Annie, talk soon.

"-- just didn't expect it to be this lively," Danny was saying as Annabell refocused on the conversation.

She sat up a little straighter and flashed Danny an apologetic smile, "I'm sorry, can you repeat that? One of my moms just texted me and I got distracted."

Instead of being annoyed that Annabell had zoned out, Danny just laughed, "Does your mom not usually text you?"

Annabell giggled at the memory of her moms, shaking her head. She always felt comfortable talking about her mothers. "My mom likes to pretend she doesn't do the whole emotions and feelings thing but my other mom insists that she has more feelings than me and her combined. Oh, it makes her so uncomfortable," she laughed again just thinking about it, picturing Adysin squirming in the chair in front of the fire as they relentlessly teased her.

For a few minutes, they talked about Annabell's parents and then Danny's parents, who were both dentists. One from Ireland and the other from Scotland -- they had met in school in England. It felt nice to talk about her life back home, even if it was in a superficial way; she used the fake town name that she had to use and left out the fact that from a very young age she had been trained as a fighter. Before Annabell knew it, the rest of the class was filing into the room and they said their farewells with promises to work on the English assignment in the next few days.

The class was a whole bunch of introductions, going over the syllabus and expectations for the semester, and by the end of it, Annabell was glad to escape into the hallway. After rounding a few corners and taking a flight of stairs, she walked past the room Larkin was in and peered inside, trying to catch a glimpse of her, not knowing if it was even the same class being taught.

By the time the gap in her schedule came around, which was from 12 to 2, she was thankful for the escape to her dorm room. Arren was getting restless in her pocket and some privacy to let him fly around the room was needed. She had shut the door only for a few seconds before she pulled her sweat-soaked shirt over her head and helped Arren out of the pocket, inspecting him in her palm. Annabell pressed her pointer and middle finger to the pendant she wore, nodding to Arren. Her tiny dragon stretched out his wings and shook himself before taking off into the air, darting around. She stood in her sports bra with her back to the door, head tilted upward to watch Arren fly. Without her shirt, her scars were exposed. The thin white lines ran across her spine in no pattern -- the memories of how and when she had gotten them were vague at best. Eventually, Annabell looked down at her arm, turning it so that she could trace the lines of the tattoo. Who would believe her that by some magical power, she had been born with this tattoo, her heirloom, her birthright? Some people were born with birthmarks, she had been born with a tattoo. Annabell laughed at herself. Yea, no one was going to believe that one.

A small sound above her drew her to look up again, seeing that Arren had flown into the wall. "Arren," Annabell scolded, "Please don't hurt yourself. If you break a wing when you're this small it's going to be a nightmare to heal."

 

[Galaxxies]

Larkin reached her break in the day at about eleven. Knowing she had about an hour before Annabel would also be free from class, she decided on a walk around campus. She had Bluetooth ear buds popped into her ears, but they were only for show. She liked how people would see the buds, and assume she couldn't hear them. It made it very easy for her to ignore anyone that might have the courage to speak to her, and allowed her to listen in on conversations. However, they did dampen the strength of her hearing a bit, but that only made it easier for her to focus in on the conversations closest to her. As she walked, she ended up in a stream of people that allowed her to listen in on a full conversation about someone named Haley finding out that Mark has been cheating on her. Apparently, Haley lost her shit, and in the middle of doing so, she told Mark about her nights with James and Levi. The two reliving the drama seemed to be siding with Mark, but it was clear they were friends of Haley.



After that conversation, Larkin bounced around the main area of campus for a while before heading back to her dorm. It was now an hour after her class had ended and she wondered if she would find her roommate, no her friend, in their dorm room. Using her ID to key herself into her dorm building, Larkin made her way up to her room. She was already planning the excuse she would use to get away from sharing lunch with the roomie. Then she started to feel awful. Yes, the human food was getting too much for her and it was getting harder and harder to stomach, but she had promised. Eventually, Larkin made it to their room, and unlocked the door before walking into the room.

 

[svenny]

When the door opened behind Annabell, she whirled around, palms open to reveal the dragon inside. She clamped her fingers shut immediately and stuffed Arren into her pocket. Larkin would just assume it had been a toy. Larkin would just assume that Arren was a toy. "Larkin!" Annabel squeaked, clutching her hand over her heart, "You startled me. I'm..." Suddenly her face grew hot because she realized that she still was standing there in her sports bra, tattoos and scars visible all over her body. "Oh, ah, I'm sorry." She might be comfortable playfully flirting with Larkin, but standing in front of her without a shirt felt so intimate that it made her heart leap to her throat. "I got too hot outside and needed to cool off," she hurried to her dresser. Yanking a drawer open, she scavenged through the shirts inside until she settled on a pale tank top. When she slipped it on she let out a sigh, pressing her palm to her forehead -- she was an idiot. Larkin was just her roommate, why would she care if she had been standing half-naked in front of her? But something else twisted her guts, something Annabel couldn't quite identify. She knew a part of it was the embarrassment of her tattered body; while well-muscled, it had taken a lot of damage over the years. With clothes, she could pretend she had had a normal childhood, but without them? People would accuse her mothers of abuse or assume the worst. They weren't exactly wrong... Annabel shook her head again and turned around to face Larkin, hands clutching the dresser behind her as she leaned against it. "Sorry about that," she reiterated, giving her roommate a crooked smile, "What time is it?" Annabel glanced down at her phone screen, which had lit up on the dresser beside her. 12:23. "Are you ready for lunch?"

 

[Galaxxies]

Larkin jumped a bit at Annabel's squeal of her name. Had that been a toy dragon in her hands? To each their own, Larkin thought, but it did seem weird she'd want to hide it so badly. Just as Larkin was about to say something, Annabel whirled around and started digging for a shirt. As she searched, Larkin noticed the scars that littered the human's back. A low growl threatened to leave her chest. It took everything in the vampire to keep from demanding to know who had hurt Annabel and storming off to find them. But she knew that wasn't the behavior of someone who was just a roommate and friend. The rush of anger at whoever had hurt Annabel almost covered up the small flicker of heat that coursed through Larkin at seeing Annabel in her sports bra. Knowing that it didn't cover it completely made a small blush color Larkin's cheeks. However, but the time Annabel had turned around, Larkin had fully composed herself and even had prepared a smart remark to further cover her near slip. "I don't think you need to be outside to be too hot." Larkin gave Annabel a goofy grin and nodded. "And yes, let's go eat." Larkin quickly swapped out the binders in her backpack and turned towards the door. She could tell that the moment with the shirt hadn't been the best for Annabel, so she chose to just not even mention it. Maybe once they were closer, she could ask Annabel about the scars that littered her body. If Larkin ever let them get that close. Larkin took a breath to clear her head before heading out the door. She held it open for Annabel as she spoke. "So which cafeteria do you wanna go to? The one that's right here, or the one across campus?" Larkin shut and locked the door behind them before starting down the hall.

 

[svenny]

Annabel was grateful when Larkin seemed to brush off what had happened and she gave her a thankful smile. At Larkin's agreement, her stomach rumbled. "I haven't been to the one across campus yet, why don't we try that one out?" Annabel twisted her body to grab her shoulder bag off of the dresser and slipped it over her head. "Lets go," she declared. She slipped her hand into her pocket to take Arren out and leave him in the dorm, but when she did, he bit her finger. "Ouch!" she exclaimed and jerked her hand away. When she pulled it out, blood welled at the tip of her finger and she brought it to her lips to suck off the blood. "Sorry, I have a safety pin in my pocket that I forgot about," she said, "I guess I need a bandaid first." Annabel walked toward the bedside table and opened one of the drawers. She rummaged through some of the boxes and grabbed a bandaid that she wrapped around her finger -- no one would be able to see the wound because how would she explain why it looked like mini bite mark? Annabel gave Larkin her best smile, hoping she would just forget about everything that just happened. She knew she needed to be more careful from now on and not be so stupid; she could hear her mothers scolding voice in her head and wanted to grimace. As much as she knew they supported her, if they found out about this, Addie would have a field day about why she wasn't ready to leave the nest and why humans weren't safe to be around (despite the fact that her father was human). "Are you ready now?" she asked as she walked toward the door, this time leaving Arren undisturbed. She would have to find a better solution than keeping him in her pockets -- she found the urge to grimace just at the thought of how tight his wings must be inside her pocket. "How were your classes this morning?"

 

[Galaxxies]

Larkin felt something inside her jerk the moment blood welled up on the human's finger. As Annabel ducked into the room to look for a bandaid, Larkin focused on keeping her fangs and urges in check. How could the human do this to her? Larkin didn't want to hurt her. She didn't want to feed from Annabel. Larkin didn't like the fact that she had to feed from humans anyway! But now her body was betraying her and begging her to grab Annabel and sink her fangs into the soft flesh at the humans throat.

She was able to stay in her own head while Annabel was in the room, but when Larkin heard her walking out, she composed herself enough to hopfully appear normal on the outside. But she knew it most likely wasn't working. So Larkin did was Larkin does best. She lied. As soon as Annabel asked if she was ready now, Larkin nodded and quickly stepped further out into the hallway. She held a figure up to indicate for Annabel to wait on her second question. "Sorry... queasy around..." Larkin couldn't bring herself to say it, so she just motioned towards Annabel's bandaid covered finger. Sure it would seem extreme to have a reaction at just the talk and thought of blood, but the embarrassment of that was far better than Annabel figuring truthfully while the blood bothered her so badly.

Keeping a few steps of distance between them, Larkin led the way out of the building and started towards the cafeteria across campus. Once out into the fresh air with a slight breeze carrying the scene of Annabel's blood away from her, Larkin was able to think clearly and remember the other questions Annabel had asked her. "Classes were alright. Meathead from the other day was in my class. And he was being obnoxious just as he was before." She laughed slightly, showing Annabel that no real harm had been done. "How were your classes?"

 

[svenny]

Annabel angled her head, studying her friend and roommate carefully before looking down at her bandaged finger. When she looked back up, she gave Larkin an easy smile and curled her fingers into a fist, hoping that without seeing the bandaid the queasiness would go away. The blonde woman followed Larkin from the dorm and out into the sun. Immediately the heat greeted her and Annabel contemplated the possibility of escaping back inside. Why had she decided to go to the cafeteria all the way across campus? By the time they got there... At the mention of the jerk from the other day, Annabel snapped her gaze to her friend, studying her porcelain profile as they walked. "I don't think that man can be anything but obnoxious," she mused cheerfully as she looked back ahead, though she couldn't deny the burning irritation she felt at thinking of that man. No, he wasn't a man, he was a child. "I'm glad they were alright," she added, her tone still light. No need to worry Larkin. They hadn't shared any classes that day and still wouldn't, but the next day they did. If they ran into that dude tomorrow, Annabel wasn't sure if she'd be able to control her temper, Addie's famous protective temper. Mother like daughter, no?

Adysin's eyes narrowed as she stared down at the burly man, blonde hair tied into a sloppy ponytail. "If you don't leave," she took a threatening step forward, "I will make sure you regret it." Mar stepped forward with Adysin, her lips drawn back to reveal sharp canines.

The man glanced between Adysin's hard face and Mar's towering form. Then his gaze flickered to the little girl that stood behind Adysin clutching a stuffed animal to her chest. She gazed back at him with big blue eyes.

Annabel blinked and the memory was gone. "Oh, mine were alright," she answered Larkin's question, "I think I'm going to enjoy the classes I had today, even if discussing the syllabus today was rather boring." She fell into silence for a moment before continuing, "Have you heard of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest?"