Le Author’s Note: Welcome back to another chapter! Language warning. It should be stated that the language warning will be constant as long as Ezreal is around. It’s been some time as well. Though I never forget about my favorite sim family ever, I do have bouts of… being uninspired, I suppose you would call it. I do wish I had the resolve of some other sim writers out there.
Ezreal’s POV:
I woke up with a throbbing head once again. Same nightmare this week, different animal though. This time it was a pink hellcat coming at me full speed, and me narrowly surviving the attack. I jolted up breathing heavy, eyes wide, and desperately searching my room for any signs of the phantom feline. Of course, there were none. There’s never anything, in these last five years, I’ve been waking up from the one fear that my subconscious has just pushed down constantly, deeper, causing the nightmare to be more vivid. And in these last five years, I have shared a room with my daughter. Sometimes scaring her awake as well.
I look across to where she slept, checking to make sure that wasn’t the case this morning… but, one thing to note, I’ve picked up a knack for knowing most of her quirks, tricks, and oddities from watching every move she makes, such as the times she pretends to be sleeping.
I could tell she was pretending this time. The rise and fall of the covers were in time with ‘awake’ breathing patterns. She was nervous, as most children would be on a day like today; the first day of school. Considering preschool was a breeze, 1st grade and beyond is much more… intimidating. Probably didn’t get much sleep either, now that I think about it.
“Sasha…” I say quietly and she flinched, ever so slightly. She stirred and opened her eyes fully, focusing on me. “You have to get up now, get ready for school.”
She sat up, hanging her head in the process. Oh, do I feel a lie in the making coming on? I wait for it, getting out of bed and stretching my legs and back. When she didn’t say anything for a few moments I glanced in her direction.
“Do you want to go to school?” She shook her head, letting out a cough. Ah, the ‘I’m sick’ one. To be honest, Sasha doesn’t actually verbalize her words most of the time. She relies on signals and facial expressions to get her point across, at least for me. I had to learn them as they come and although the system works, I wish she would use actual words though. Maybe then her little fibs would actually work sometime. But I humored her for a moment.
“Let’s see… no fever. Eyes normal. No runny nose. I’d say you’re quite well to head to school. It won’t be that bad.” I say smirking a little at her furrowed brows. Foiled again. She starts to pout and I stand up, not feeling like playing her game this morning anymore.
“Sasha, school. Kotetsu can walk you.” Her eyes sparkled. Of course they would, they always do with a mention of ‘Koko’s’ name… I’m not jealous. I’m just… you know what, never mind.
I got her up and ready for school, Kotetsu made pancakes for breakfast (as he does almost every week), and soon they were off. I went to the living room as my daily schedule has been for over 4 years as per the order of avoidance but there was something different going on today apparently.
“How are you today?” She starts. I didn’t answer her right away. This is a new thing to process, I figured she was just fine staying mad at me for the rest of eternity but…
“Look, I… Ok, Ezreal. You’re my brother and I said some very harsh things to you in the past but I want to say that, I’m sorry.” I glanced at her. Was this some sort of trap?
“Why?”
“What? What do you mean–“
“It’s been a few years so… why now?”
She sighed and started twiddling her thumbs, searching for a way to explain her apology.
“To tell you the truth, I forgave you a while ago after you tried to cook dinner that one night, I saw you were trying… desperately. But I finally decided to apologize to you after Dad kept spamming my texts, calling me all the time, and showing up at my bakery to get me to apologize but–“
“I thought it was a café”
“The important thing to note is that I apologized. And that I am genuinely sorry and ashamed of the way I have been acting. That wasn’t me and it was very unbecoming.”
“No shit Sherlock. But, I do accept your apology. I’m tired of arguing with you over the stupidest things, avoiding you at all costs, staying in the livi– actually I’m fine lounging around here.” I say that last part mainly to myself but Irelia had something to add.
“That’s… the other thing I wanted to talk to you about. You weren’t always a hermit. What happened to Fairytale Finders? Did you quit that?”
“No… I just… avoided requests? I mean, I had one in the last week but that’s about it.”
“I’m sorry I was never very active in that.”
“It’s alright. Turns out I didn’t really need anyone since it was mostly little things. Lost dog, weird messages being left around client’s homes that live alone, stalkers with a hidden motive. You know, usual, boring stuff after Beauty and the Beast.”
“I see.” She says trailing off into her thoughts. “I think… I think you should get out more. Hang with Liam and Kotetsu, maybe make some new friends.” Before I could say anything, she took her leave. I assume she was headed to her bakery, er, café? Whatever she wants to call it now. After a few moments I decided to shower and get dressed. For what? I don’t know, something I suspect. Maybe I’ll take Irelia’s advice.
***
So, I went out… to my favorite, well it used to be my favorite, old place. Fairytale Finders! When I first started out it looked so… new? Sparkly? Like ‘anything I set my mind to would just fall right into place no matter what’ type feeling. But now it just looks like hell. Why did I come here? I trudged up the steps and slowly opened the door to the place I once loved.
I was assaulted by a smell, at first, I didn’t know what and then it hit me. I haven’t been inside of this place for years… MY FISH! There he was… a floating, blackish, bacteria ridden form of mass. Poor Raffi, guess I’ll put on a biohazard suit to get rid of him but first, let me just take in my old space.
All of my books and papers were still here, of course they would be. The place wasn’t vandalized, just forgotten. Or at least, I tried to forget it… the bad part of it. I looked at the stacks and stacks of scripts. All of the fairytales and stories that I memorized and held dear as a child, all the papers and documents from clients. They were all covered in a thin layer of dust.
“I’ll start cleaning this in a few days…” I say to myself and looked for a small bag to dump my lost friend in, afterwards heading back home. What I’m getting ready to do here is going to require all of my magical attention.
***
One day, before I could really dive deep into organizing my old office, Kotetsu cornered me when I came out the kitchen from grabbing a light snack.
“Ezreal! Just the guy I wanted to see.”
“I feel that is a lie.” I say sarcastically. He rolled his eyes and continued on.
“We should hang out. You, me, and your socially awkward cousin Liam. A guy’s night out!”
“What on earth possessed you to think I had the urge to have a “Guys Nigh Out” type day today? What if I wanted to be left alone, like every other day since–“
“Now that’s a lie. Come on dude, it’ll be fun. For once we can all hang out again and chill. We don’t even have to stay cooped up in the house all day. Irelia promised to babysit Sasha too.” he says, trying to bribe me.
“No. I don’t feel like hanging ou–” “Yeah you do.” “No, I really don–” “For free booze?”
“I don’t even drink like that! Kotetsu, look I really– you know what. You’re just going to keep bugging me about it aren’t you?” He smirks. “Fine! You win, we can hang out tonight. But! It better not be lame.” I say feeling defeated. Kotetsu’s smirk turned into a grin at that.
“Oh, it won’t be. I can promise you that.” he says and glides away. I slump on the couch slightly curious but more so dreading the idea of tonight.
It was almost evening when I got fed up with waiting around.
“Kotetsu, you said this wasn’t going to be lame… and also we weren’t going to be cooped up in the house all day. Your words.” I state. Liam let out a slight chuckle while staring at his phone. In the years I’ve known my odd cousin, I’ve come to the conclusion that he’s good people, after all he’s the one who wanted to stick around me when I was shutting everyone out, along with Kotetsu. I admit when I heard the news Uncle Genesis had another kid I thought the worst but, Liam does make our days brighter when Hazel is constantly busy with– HAZEL! That’s right, Liam is an uncle as well. I almost forgot about Hazel and Alex’s son. Mainly because they brought him over when I was in my depression funk which lasted a long while. Even my dad could hardly get me to eat something sometimes… Those were dark times.
The little tyke was quite adorable back then from what I remembered through the haze. And he took after his father mostly, which means his manners were out of this world. He also loved Sasha to death. I can’t really complain about that. They were really good friends, and I was glad she had a better social life than I did when I was a kid… Well, a more normal social life.
“We are going. As soon as the girls get back. As long as they’re home, I don’t have to worry about them.” He says and I felt my eyes roll ever so slightly. Leave it to him to always show me up in the caretaker department.
“So this night was planned based on Irelia? That’s great.”
“No, I don’t want the worst possible outcome to happen. So if they’re both at home, then I have nothing to worry about. You should feel that too.” “I do but I also don’t? Does that make sense?” “Sometimes, I just want to punch you man.”
“How about we don’t punch anyone and just wait for them? They shouldn’t be long, it’s already 4.” Liam says softly. And as soon as he finished that sentence, I heard car doors slam and little feet running up the stairs. Hm, did they say they were bringing Christopher over?
“Hi genie man!” I heard an unfamiliar voice say. I glanced behind me to where an unfamiliar little girl was waving frantically at Kotetsu and Sasha ducking her head when she caught my gaze.
“Shawn, I told you not to say that!” Sasha said in a sharp whisper. “But he waved back. Hey–!” That was all I heard before she was pulled away up the stairs by my daughter. Sasha, the one who never uses her words. Interesting, things were beginning to change… Worrying.
“So, I see we’re going to have new faces around a lot.” I say right before my twin walks in.
“I kind of promised them cookies…” She says looking embarrassed. “Well that’s nice of you. Who was the other one?” I ask her. “Shawn Dubois, Sasha’s new best friend. As stated by Shawn herself.” I nod and Kotetsu announced that we were about to leave. Finally.
***
A dive bar. They took me to a dive bar. I thought this night was going to be fun, exciting, thrilling! But no, I’m stuck here watching these two play foosball without a care in the world. After a few more minutes of watching them kick a little ball back and forth, I let out a loud groan.
“Want a round Ezreal? You’ve been pacing for a while now.” Kotetsu says without taking his eyes off of the game.
“No, I want to have fun. Like you said this night was gonna be.”
“This is fun, if you would actually join in and be a part of our conversations.” “I don’t care about foosball. Well, not right now. It’s not exciting.” “You could use your magic?”
“Wait, no. Please don’t mess up this very normal, very logical game table.” Liam cuts in. There are very few things in life which Liam adores as much as electronics but tabletop games seem to have made their way into his heart. He always lights up when Kotetsu invites him to play a few rounds of anything nontechnical.
“Ha, ok scratch that magic idea. You know what, we’re going to Akura. Maybe that’ll stop your whining.”
“Akura…? That new bar that just opened up?” “Not just a bar, it’s a club Ezreal. A really nice club.” Kotetsu says, scoring the last goal of their game. “One you have to get dressed up to even be let inside.”
“I am literally in my street clothes dude, and we are not going back–” “You’re a witch, conjure up something.” “What about Liam?” “Don’t worry about it. Let’s go, no excuses.” And just like that, we were on our way to the second venue of the night. I had a slightly bad feeling about this.
Akura… not that nice in my opinion but that’s me, I’m hard to impress. Well, Liam doesn’t look too impressed either. Not impressive enough to dress up for anyway.
“Three of your finest please.” Kotetsu says to the bartendress.
“Sure thing, handsome.” I roll my eyes. For as long as I’ve known him, any interaction he’s had with someone of the opposite gender, they always say something along those lines. ‘Handsome’, ‘cutie’, ‘stud’, and more recently; ‘daddy’. That last one creeps me out, why is that a thing? I mean the girls tend to not know he’s over a few hundred years old, but still.
I stare at the drink being made, not feeling anything except slight uncomfortableness. Soon enough though, Liam, Kotetsu, and I each had a drink with glitter swirling around in it. This is their finest? I think Kotetsu could see it on my face too.
“Ez, seriously?” “What?” “You know what. That’s your unimpressed face. Your, ‘is this all ya got’ face.” I shrug. I mean, is this all they–
“Upper floor. Let’s go, Liam look alive.” “What is on the upper floor?” Liam asks. You could faintly hear music bumping the ceiling.
“I’m guessing it’s where the party actually is.” Kotetsu says and once again where were both following behind him to someplace new.
“Is this better for you Ezreal?” “WHAT?” I yell over the music. He yelled his question back.
“This is inherently worse! The smoke is nauseating and those flashing lights–“
“Liam, this is what a club is!” Ok, the yelling is quite annoying.
“I’m going to get a drink.” I mumbled and Kotetsu almost shouted again but I put my hand up to stop him. I trudged to the bar.
“—And he said he wasn’t ready for commitment.” “So, then what?”
“Uh, excuse me, could I get a Violet Sunsettia?” I interrupt their conversation since I was seated for about 30 minutes. “Sure hun, coming right up. Bea you’ve got to tell me the ending.”
The bartendress up here was a chatty one I see, at least with the girl named Bea. Just what I needed… Maybe this was a bad idea, maybe I shouldn’t have ever come out. Maybe I should’ve just ki–
“Violet Sun for ya.” The drink was practically shoved in my face. I mumbled thanks, and noticed the laughter of my friends behind me. Seemed like they were actually bonding over the blasting music. I sighed and gulped down my drink. Then another, and another. Time passed and I almost didn’t notice. After my… 8th? drink, I got up. Or I thought I did, the ground suddenly looked way closer.
“Whoa there sweetheart, forgot how to hold your liquor? You have to be careful.” Huh… the music’s quieter, and she has wings and a very attractive face. I think this might end badly.
“I do-don’t usually drink?” I was slurring, oh great. Why is it that my inner voice is stable but my actual conscious mind is not?
“Yeah, I can see that. You were drinking kind of heavily, downing your drinks in one go? Yeesh.” She cups my chin in her hands and tilts my head up. “Hm, your eyes aren’t swimming that much. Where’s your friends you came in with?”
“Uh…” I managed to spout. From the corner of my eye, I saw a shimmer. It didn’t take me long to realize that no, I wasn’t seeing things. Yes, this woman with the green skin and navy wings, was actually a fairy. She’s my type, and I’m really buzzed. I need to exit this encounter NOW.
“Friends? They’re over–” I glanced, or at least tried to, behind her and I couldn’t see Kotetsu’s long silvery hair or Liam’s natty sweater he was wearing. As a matter of fact, the club looked quite empty. The music was low as well… Where did everyone go? Was I that in my fucking head?
“Seems, like they’re missing. Need a ride home?” “No. I’m fine, I can– can… home.” “I think you need a little help, let me do a little magic chan–” “That won’t work.” “Pray tell, why not?” “Magic doesn’t work on me, I made sure of that when–“
“You’ve never had Bea’s Magic.” She smiles, a type of smile that caught me off guard. My gods that was beautiful. I didn’t realize when she opened her mouth again, she actually spoke something very softly.
***
…
…
……
…………..
Wait… This isn’t right. Sleep… when did I get home? And no dreams? Dreams of… it?
I woke up confused. What exactly happened last night? What time is it? Why didn’t I dream? Or did I and just couldn’t remember the contents? When did I change into my pajamas? I should have guilt tearing away at every ounce of sensibility I have left. Where did that fairy go? Why was she so nice to me? Will I ever see her again? Why am I thinking about THAT!? And another thing…
“Why am I on the floor!?”
I walked downstairs to see Kotetsu still in his pajamas looking down. When he heard my footsteps he turned around and stared at me lazily.
I stared back at him and felt my elemental energy rising. A cackle of electricity went through the air.
“Where the hell were you?” I growled at him. “I’ve been at this table all morning, much to my disliking. Your sis–” “Last night. At the club. Where were you? Where was Liam?”
“Uh, well we were there, then we kind of… left?” “You guys left me, alone, at the bar–” “You seemed like you wanted to be left alone in your sorrows. That of which, I honestly don’t think you have any, anymore.” “Did you see that fairy?” I changed the subject. Not wanting to get into an argument I knew I was bound to lose. “Fairy…? Oh the one with the dark wings, green skin, dazzling smile?” “Dazzling… sure. Do you know her? Did you send her to interfere with my sleep? What in the gods name were you thinking just leaving me there!?”
Kotetsu sighed. Tilting his head back and placing a hand over his face he mumbled;
“Ez, it’s too early for this. No, no, and I did it out of spite honestly. I wanted to see if you would come to your senses after drinking yourself black and waking up on the side of the road or something. I’m tired of–” “I’ll be at Fairy Tale. I have stuff to do.” “What about your daughter? You’re just going to abandon her again?” “It’s not abandonment–” “Oh I’m sorry, although you treat her like a burden Ezreal. One can only assume you enjoy the feeling of abandoning her.”
I sometimes, very rarely, see this side of him. My sister probably sees it more than me but right now I wasn’t in the mood for his bullshit, or anyone’s for that matter. I didn’t give him the satisfaction of an answer and instead turned and went back upstairs to get ready for my day of cleaning my almost forgotten business.
I first stopped at city hall to see if I could still operate my business and when I arrived, I saw the glitter of some very familiar wings. I glanced to my left and sure enough, there she was, looking right at me.
Before she could even raise her hand and wave, I was already making a mad dash up the stairs. Not dealing with this today either. Just need to get to my office, just need to avoid people… and fairies. I could feel her eyes on me still when I reached the front door.
***
After a while, a car came to rest in the parking lot of Fairytale Finders LLC. It had been driving for a very long while, 16 hours to be exact, though that’s nothing for this model of vehicle. The engine shut off after idling for a moment and the inhabitants of the vehicle let out a breath of relief.
“Well, it wasn’t that bad. The drive I mean.” a melodic voice tried to lighten the mood.
“You slept for most of it.” The male said. He sniffed the air after letting down a window. “You sure you want to go through with this? Smells abandoned.”
“I’ll never know if I don’t try.” She opened the door.
Not long after, the male followed, begrudgingly getting out of the car, stretching his limbs. He let out a muffled yawn and cracked his neck.
“Do you always have to put on a show when you don’t need to?” She asks slightly serious.
“Do you?” He shot back. Silence fell between them and by the time they reach the doorstep and knocked, you could almost feel the anxiety from her and the animosity from him in the air.
Two minutes passed, then five…. 30.
“No one’s here, can we actually go now?” “No no, I’m sure I heard some movement. Let me try knocking again” “You knocked 45 times Ari, we’re losing light and–” “Let me try again.” And she did, with a different result.
“Oh! You opened the door, I didn’t think that would actually work…” She spurted out. The bored male who was growing more agitated by the minute shifted ever so slightly and cast a sharp look to the one on the other side of the door. He was unimpressed and could already tell he wasn’t in the mood for guests… unannounced guests at least. He could also smell a faint scent of… was that magic?
“Uh, hello. I’m Ari and this is Malen, my uh, well, he’s my bodyguard. We came here to, no, uhm, I came here to see if you or your organization could help me. Malen drove. Anyway, my parents are apparently Storybook natives and I’ve been researching, searching, studying, anything I can that might take me closer to the truth. One day I came across an old flyer with Fairytale Finders advertise so when I had the chance, after all of my previous obligations would actually let me, I insisted we come out here to find this because… you would… uh…help? Are you ok?”
After she finally stopped talking, registering the look of the mans face before her, the resident witch sighed heavily and blinked once.
He stared at the woman for a few moments, you could almost hear the gears turning in his head. He cast a quick glance at her companion then back to her. He finally noticed her hair and that unfortunately made his decision for him.
“No.” Was the only word he uttered. Then he stepped back and shut the door, without using any of his limbs mind you. He didn’t have the energy for physical work today, at least, that’s what he told himself earlier.
That left the two unexpected disturbances outside with the quickly diminishing daylight. They stood there for a moment in bewilderment, then the one she called Malen grabbed her wrist and led her back to the car.
“Did I say something wrong? Wait, was I talking too fast? Maybe he didn’t understand, why was he staring like that? Perhaps I should go back and–” “Aricelli, stop. He gave us his answer.” “What if he’s not the only one that works there?” “You and I both know he is. This place was practically abandoned. I’m actually surprised someone opened the door… and also surprised he didn’t just leave out the back door.” Malen said that last part under his breath.
“Look, we’ll find a hotel or something, sleep there for the night and figure out what the next steps are in the morning. I can tell you’re tired, your mood is dropping faster than the daylight is leaving.” His eyes gleamed. “Let’s find something to eat first, I’m as hungry as a wolf.”
She chuckled, she always did whenever he joked about his affliction. He felt his inner tail wag and quickly shut down that feeling. He opened her side of the car door and closed it for her when she was settled. After he got in, he drove away with the girl called Aricelli softly crying silently to herself.
Back in Fairytale Finders, Ezreal was having a slight mental dilemma.
“Why is it when I see pink hair, I want to die?” He thinks to himself. “I knew she fucked me up but I didn’t think just the sight of that color would cause me to react like that. I couldn’t even move… Huh, maybe I need Dad’s help more than I thought. Well, one thing is for sure, because of that conniving woman Briar, no, that’s not her name… ugh SHE has me convinced that I will never fall in love again. That’s a promise.”
***Note*** Malen is not my sim. I forgot where I downloaded him from but if you ask, I can search for him.
The Legacy of the Xavier's 