The Boy Dressed In Red.

Dwayne woke to his mother Sophie crouching over him whilst huddled up in a corner. His eyes stung and his head throbbed with white hot pain. He didn't notice to hat he hadn't been breathing until his hand tightened it's grip on something hard and rectangular. A book. , .

"Dwayne! Thank goodness you're alright, I was worried sick." she wrapped him in a tight embrace in fear that he might fall unconscious again.

His eyes shut as he winced at the pain that now travelled his entire body. Dwayne was exhausted and needed to rest. From his mother's shoulder he could see the sporadic glinting of something yellow from outside the window pane.

!!! Shards of glass scattered across the room and the front door flew off its hinges. Jennifer was seen falling onto her knees, her shoulders moving up and down as she tried to regain breath. Her limbs ached with fatigue and her head felt light, she was beginning to see double.

"How do you like my Spontaneous Flare, you old hag?" she gave a prideful smirk on her sweaty face, "I first released an ouderless inflammable gas into the air, waiting for you to breathe it in. Once you did, it was just a matter of manually igniting the gas so that it could incinerate you from the inside."

she dropped to her side and lay in the recovery position in an attempt to regain her lost strength.

"Jennifer!" Dwayne shouted at the top of his lungs whilst he painfully ran toward her. He arrived with Sophie close at his heels. She felt for Jennifer's jugular pulse, sighed and nodded at Dwayne to indicate she was alive.

"Relax yourself," she spoke with a laboured voice. Jennifer smiled slightly as she remembered when Dwayne had said the exact same words during their first encounter. "I'm still alive and will heal over night."

"You two should rest now," suggested a disoriented Sophie. She was trying hard to remain in control as the adult, but the situation was just too abstract for her worn mind to grasp. "I'm sure even your kind need some sleep every once in a while, no?"

"Actually, I don't even feel tired at all. My body feels. . .I can't really explain it but I feel ." said Dwayne as he gazed absent-mindedly at his hands. He then stood and offered Jennifer a hand.

Sophie looked at him and smiled, a small smile that would be hard to look at. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. , . ' , "That's. . .nice."

Jennifer slowly rose to her feet, using Dwayne's lent hand for support. A jolt of what felt like static was transferred between them and prompted her to let go. . . .. . She then shrugged the thought aside without hinting to Dwayne what she had felt. Instead, Jennifer placed a hand on Sophie's shoulder and looked straight into her eyee. ' ', ' . These words were seemingly pushed into Sophie's mind through telepathy.

"Huh? I-" she began but Jennifer put a finger to her lips and shook her head slightly.

"Uhhhh. . . ?" said Dwayne with confusion writ on his features.

The crescent moon was at it highest peak in the indigo night sky. The stars were like innumerable diamonds with an infinite sparkle. The fire outside had been extinguished by the moisture and cold wind. Somehow, nobody had heard of or even witnessed the fight between a school girl and a humanoid lizard.

Sophie had insisted that both Jennifer and her son take leave for the night. She tucked Dwayne in - something she hadn't done in years - and kissed his forehead. When she left, Jennifer slipped out of her disguise, letting her blouse fall and cover most of her lower quarters and crammed herself beside him in bed.

"Tomorrow your entire grasp on reality is going to change drastically, Dwayne." she said rather grimly and turned in the opposite direction, pulling most of the coverlet over herself.

When she heard him open his mouth in search of a reply, she simpered. "Your new eye color complements the night sky, I like it. Goodnight."

Dwayne closed his mouth and blushed in the moonlit darkness. He had caught a glimpse of himself in a mirror before changing into his pyjamas. The sight even made him smile.

"Goodnight." he whispered and lay facing up.

Each second felt like an hour as he tried to fall asleep and Jennifer's loud snores weren't much help either. Finally, he sighed and slowly rose from the bed, doing his best not to wake the fire girl. He then went to the varnished timer desk at the corner of the room and switched on the study light, a soft blue light that barely harmed his eyes.

From the pile of books on the desk, only one mattered. He took the leather bound book and looked at it properly from the first time. , . The title stood out in the light and he smiled at Apathy's nea cursive writing. He turned to the first page and began reading, taking in every single word and making meaning of as much as he could.

"DWAAAAAAAYYYNE!!" shouted an annoying voice. Sunlight crept into the room through the slanted blinds and the blue still emanated from Dwayne's desk lamp. With a start, Dwayne woke up from his uncomfortable pillow - the book - with an alarmed expression painted onto his face.

"Whaaaat?" he croaked, his eyes still heavy with fatigue. He groaned as he stretched the tension in his arm and neck muscles, exhaling in relief when he heard the satisfying sound of his joint bones cracking.

"It's a Feline Daeo in disguise!" Jennifer shouted, sword already in hand.

"Calcine!" the steel blade was set ablaze and Jennifer bellowed as she charged towards what looked like a cat in the far corner of the room at high speed. "Hiyaaaaahh!"

Subconsciously, Dwayne's eyes traced her movement. He saw it as though she were leaving afterimages with every step she took. He walked toward the sleeping munchkin kitten and scooped it into his arms before Jennifer had a chance to arrive. Jennifer's soft brown eyes widened with shock as she saw Dwayne holding the cat in his arms.

"Dammit Dwayne, don't interfere!" her sword disseminated in bright yellow petals of light and she leapt, aiming to kick the cat out of his arms, “I must exterminate this monster!”

"Monster? Noo. This is my pet, Shion." the munchkin was still snoring rhythmically, it's delicate frame rising and falling with each breath.

Still seeing Jennifer's movement as a slow transition of afterimages, he crouched and gently placed Shion onto her orchid colored beanbag. He then rose and let Jennifer's leg enter a loop made by his bent arm before claiming it once she was close enough for him to hook his arm beneath her's and use her momentum to turn and pinned her gently against the wall. He blankly looked at her with his vivid amethyst eyes.

Jennifer's back hit the wall with a faint thud and her nostrils flared in frustration. It melted instantly when she took note of the situation she was now in. Dwayne had her one leg wrapped around his hip, his arm beneath her armpit and pushed against the wall. His waist was a little too close to the inside of her thigh covered only by the long shirt she wore. Her entire face flushed scarlet as she looked at his face that seemed equally confused. Their breathes mingled into this warm unpleasant morning stench and in unison they screamed. "EEEEK!"

The bedroom door burst open and almost flew off of its hinges.

"Wha-" a startled Sophie lost her trail of thought at the sight of Dwayne sensually pinning Jennifer against the wall.

Her right eye seemed to twitch and a smile that didn't quite look like a smile stretched across her face and a shadow was cast over her eyes as she marched toward them. "Hello, kids."

After a few cuffs, slaps and knocks here and there, Sophie dragged Dwayne and Jennifer by their ears downstairs to the living room. The sunlight was practically pouring into the room through windows and the broken door. On a lavish, velvet red couch with puffy fuschia silk-bound cushions that complemented the sofa's hue sat a boy that looked roughly nineteen, his hair and eyes an impossibly similar shade of chestnut, his mono-brow flat and void of emotion. All but the unduly seriousness that sharpened his eyes, the rockhard gaze that Dwayne had seen once before. Sophie sat both Jennifer and Dwayne on the opposite side of him before proceeding to claim her own seat.

Jennifer tensed - suddenly feeling underdressed in her oversized blouse. Dwayne scrutinized the boy from his leather boots to the uniform he wore and his impossibly perfect facial features. ? , , ' . He thought as he continued to study the boy.

"Ah," he said in a voice as fluid as mercury, his lips just the right shade of pastel pink.

He placed his cup of coffee on the glass table before him. With movements that appeared choreographed, he brushed off the crumbs left by a blueberry muffin from his red outfit that looked like a uniform of some sort with matching trousers and a loose coat that made him blend into the couch.

"So it is you whom Granfedyu has seen in her vision this time?" he said and shook his head infinitesimally, a sliver of disappointment eclipsed his perfect features. "Let's hope she's right this time.”

He then tore his gaze from Dwayne to Jennifer, seriousness carved into his face, “The Princess has your uniform with her in miss Daniels's chambers, go get dressed. You look like a desperate, underpaid prostitute."

Jennifer's cheeks flushed a deep red and something like frustration glinted in her eyes. Both Sophie and Dwayne thought she would defy him but instead she rose and dipped into a low curtsy, ", '," then she was gone.

"That was uncalled for young man!" shouted Sophie, her nails digging into the soft textile of her couch.

She had been dressed in an oversized T-shirt and lengthy black leggings with heart patterns that revealed sections of her skin here and there. Her eyes had rings around them as if she hadn't slept a wink, however her hair was still flawless and she still had a bit of alertness in her tired eyes.

"My bad, but as her superior I am to assure she is properly attired at all times." His baritone melodious as he spoke, then he looked at Dwayne once more. "You and I need to talk about something before we leave."