Lucy caught Elise’s hand, trying her best not to be afraid of the bat the girl was holding, she looked like she wanted to trust that she would not actually use it on her. “Come back to my room and we can talk?” There was a pleading look to her face, but the words left Elise dizzy with confusion, the world seemed to slip out from underneath her as she tried to orient the words.
“Your room?” When had her mother given this girl a room? How could she not tell her? Not even a text message? Things got worse when Lucy led her back to Lucky’s room. She let the girl take the bat from her when she felt the fingers slide over hers where they gripped the bat and watched as the pink-haired girl tucked it by the side table. Elise hadn’t realized just how tightly she’d been gripping the thing till it was no longer in her hand, now she wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to get her fingers from their claw-like shape. Lucy moved with an ease about the room, settling at the vanity that Lucky had gotten, and began to put on the skincare that sat there, Elise had helped Lucky pick the products out that first day. “What is going on? Where is your brother?” She let herself slip to the bed, hitting it a little harder than expected, sort of jarring herself back to reality.
The girl at the vanity paused, glancing down at the pot in her hand, thoughts turning behind her eyes as she calculated what to say next before she finally raised her eyes to meet Elise’s in the mirror. “Xander is still at the group home, but your mom is working on getting him here.”
“Lucky, where is lucky?” her voice was impatient, she knew how sharp it sounded even to her own ears but she couldn’t help it, it felt like she was being dragged around in a circle with no real answers.
The pink-haired girl turned back to examining herself in the mirror as she contemplated how to answer the question before she spoke again. “I’m right here.” Her voice was so quiet that Elise was sure she hadn’t heard that right.
“Come again?” She leaned forward on the bed, craning to try and hear what she was going to say this time around.
The young woman proceeded to remove her pink hair from the t-shirt on her head, the pink springy curls falling into a mop around her head but as they did, they shifted. Elise could hardly believe her eyes as the pure baby pink shifted to a purple and blue in some places, matching the cotton candy colours she was so used to. “I’m right here, I didn’t go anywhere, I didn’t invade, I live here, I am Lucky. There is no Lucy, well there is but she is me just as much as Luke and Lucias and Lucille are all parts of me. I’m just a gender-fluid shapeshifter with a few nicknames.” She pulled a bottle of nail polish out of the drawer and began to paint her fingernails as if she hadn’t just dropped a massive bomb that was shattering Elise’s world.
“How?” she demanded, trying to figure out what was happening, she wanted to argue that it was crazy or impossible, but she couldn’t deny her foster sibling sitting in front of her. The way they sat was identical and besides the pitch, the tone was the same, the girl sitting in front of her was undeniably Lucky.
Lucky turned a little to look at Elise, something sad and soft in her face, she obviously felt bad for this. “I’m Fae.” She admitted to her foster sister, biting her bottom lip. “And I was not supposed to tell you that, you were not supposed to find out, you cannot tell your mom you know, I would be dead or out on the street at the very least.”
“She would never do that to you! It’s not your fault!” She quickly protested, but there was a nagging feeling in the back of her brain that her mother wasn’t exactly the person she thought she was. “And what exactly weren’t you supposed to tell me? That you’re… I don’t even know what, what the ever-loving and entire fuck is happening right now? Am I dreaming? I have to be dreaming.” It was hard to catch her breath, she couldn’t get the air to go any deeper into her lungs, it was starting to make her feel dizzy. It took her a little bit to calm enough to get her bearings before she looked to her foster sibling again.
Lucky had finished painting her nails while Elise had a panic and had even gone to her closet to retrieve a hoodie, feeling a little exposed in her towel. “I’m a shapeshifting fairy.” She repeated as she pulled the tie-dyed thing over her head, coming to sit on the edge of the bed with Elise. “And wouldn’t she? How do you know? She never told you about all this.” She waved her hand around herself before motioning out into the world, implying so much more than her foster sister could handle.
The brunette tried to wrap her head around this new image of her mother that Lucky was laying out for her, it didn’t line up with the gentle and loving mother she knew. “Of course not! Clearly, I’m just not supposed to know this because I’m human and momma wanted to protect me from that.”
“You’re not.” The cotton candy haired girl leveled her gaze with her sibling, shaking her head slowly, giving her a minute to digest everything. “You’re fae, so is your mother, and so, I would imagine, are Olive and Nina, Simon probably was too.”
Her brother was dead, if this was true then he had lived his whole life not knowing the truth and had died never knowing the truth. There was no way he wouldn’t have told them if he had known, she could no longer distinguish what would have been worse. “That’s not possible!”
She glanced up when she felt the arms wrap around her, delicate fingers wiping away tears she hadn’t even realized she was crying. Lucky wasn’t saying it out of malice, she realized that pretty quickly, she’d have to be very dumb to think her foster sibling was trying to hurt her, instead it was just the opposite.
“You know, I don’t like that you qualified the shapeshifter with fairy, that implies that either there are different kinds of shapeshifters or fairies.” There was a weary way she spoke, hoarse as she was when she found her voice again. Her brows knit together in the tension of confusion as she tried unsuccessfully to imagine what kind of fairy tale creatures existed out there besides Lucky.
Lucky settled back a little on the bed when Elise seemed to calm a little, maybe not quite settled into acceptance, but no longer in full panic mode. “Do you really want to talk about this now?”
There was some hesitation on the brunette’s face as she considered the question, but at the end of the day, if she didn’t ask now, she was going to be up all night just wondering what she was missing in the world. “I… Think I would like to talk about it? If I go to bed now I’ll think it’s a dream in the morning.” It was mostly a joke, she wasn’t so sure she could forget her sibling in the shower with an entirely different anatomy than she was sure they had, had.
“Can I just say, I am so sorry that you had to learn all this shit out via my naked ass?” There was laughter there behind the words, behind the nerves that Elise might be mad at her, or that their relationship as siblings had just been torn apart with no hope of repair.
Elise dragged a hand through her hair with a nervous laugh, trying to ease the tension between them, she wanted to get back to the easy report they had to quickly found. “It’s fine, I’ve now seen all of my siblings naked, I have seen shit I never wanted to see, I’m good at blocking this shit out by now. Let’s just agree to knock from now on?”
“At least you didn’t see my dick?” She laughed a little easier this time, taking a deep breath, deflating into her pillows as the tension broke.
“Thank god for that!” The brunette laughed in agreement, collapsing back onto the bed too, letting out whatever knot had been keeping her frozen. “Tits I can handle, but tits are whatever, I have those, really don’t need to see someone’s dick, I’ve seen more than enough of Lexi’s as it is and hers is silicone.”
That was enough to send both of them into a fit of laughter, it was good to let all that out and just be dumb. “What is with Ali’s OOTD selfies? Like everyone, she takes at Lexi’s features the top of the dresser, and all of their toys! Get a box under the bed like normal people! I’ve seen more dick from Lexi than I have from my own boyfriend and I just met her!” She cackled a little, double-checking her phone at the mention of Drake, he was supposed to call later but she was thinking about telling him she couldn’t.
“It’s worse in person! They leave them out even during parties and when people sleepover!” Elise tried not to let the confusion back into her face but she couldn’t help the furl of her brows. “I thought Ali stopped doing OOTD? And I don’t think I’ve ever seen one at Lexi’s?” She reached for the fuzzy blanket at the end of the bed, pulling it up over herself for a bit of comfort.
Lucky looked a little awkward again, it was obvious whatever she was about to say had to do with whatever was hidden from her. “That’s probably because you can’t see it… a lot of those posts are for Inhumans only…” She trailed off, trying to decide how to drop this bomb about her friends. “You remember how shocked I was by Lexi? She’s one of the other kinds of shapeshifters, she’s a werewolf. And kind of, really powerful?”
“Lexi? You mean the one who cries about how much she loves Ali when she’s had a little too much to drink? My idiot friend, who I literally watched fucking completely fail at a keg stand like two weeks ago, is a powerful werewolf?” Elise had brought her phone out of her pocket and was now scrolling through social media, trying to put together how her friends fit into this new world that she was learning about. “I have so many questions, I literally don’t even know where to begin.”
The cotton candy haired girl shifted, pushing the pillows up so she could prop herself up a little more, giving herself a better view of her foster sibling while they talked. “Lexi is the Alpha of one of the most powerful packs.” There was a little hesitation to her voice, nerves about what she should or shouldn’t be telling her sister. “Like, she is set to inherit the throne on her 19th birthday….”
“No! Absolutely not! Lexi is not responsible enough to be that in charge of everything! That isn’t even possible.” She was sputtering, it was so wildly out there she’d almost believe it was a lie if it weren’t too far out there to be something Lucky made up.
Her foster sibling pulled her knees up to her chest, flushed with embarrassment as Elise read her friend for filth. “She’s not in charge of everything, but she will be king of the werewolves, her dad was before another clan killed him.” It was just as hard to accept as it clearly was for Lucky to explain it. “There are other rulers of different races, but she’s the ruler of her race… it’s why there was such a rush for her and Ali to get engaged.” Now that she was hearing it, it did make sense, aside from the fact that they were so sappy it was just like them to get engaged in high school, it was somewhat comforting to know that it wasn’t entirely their choice in an odd way.
“To be honest, they probably would have gotten engaged anyways, they’re pretty disgusting, we all knew it was coming, weird public pressure or not.” She was really worried about her friends now, it was a lot of pressure and she couldn’t imagine it was easy. “It sounds like she’s in charge of a lot of shit that I don’t know I trust her with… but at least she’s not all-powerful?” The more she thought about it though, the more questions she had. “Why Lexi thought? Why not her older sister Virginia or like, I don’t know, Des’s mom Corinthia or like someone who is an actual adult? That seems like poor decision making. Lexi can’t even decide what she wants for breakfast half the time, who let her be in charge?”
Lucky considered her response for a long moment and it was obvious to Elise she was trying to find ways to explain it that would make sense to her. “They’re not alphas, they aren’t leaders, Lexi is a natural-born leader in a way that none of them are.”
There was hope on her sibling’s face that could only make Elise think she was hoping she understood that answer. “Jesus Christ.” Was all she could think so say.
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