Chapter Text
Like all good stories, it starts, as it will end, with death.
— — —
There’s a school, somewhere. This school has students, and so it has teachers too. It has janitors, librarians, an accountant, a nurse. The headmaster has a secretary. Everything is in order, the way all things should be. People move according to their role in the play.
Until they don’t. Until someone– something disrupts the order of things.
(A butterfly flaps its wings.)
— — —
Apollo is late. He knows it, but it sure won’t help him run faster. Still, he really hates being late, and he loves Ms. Fey’s classes so much, he kind of feels bad for missing part of them.
His mind drifts as he runs. He thinks about her smile as she welcomes the students in her class, about the jabs she makes a point to send Mr. Wright’s way when they meet in the corridors, about the way her eyes light up and crinkle at the corners when she meets up with Mr. Armando for lunch.
He thinks of her as the mother figure he never had.
He doesn’t know that Ms. Fey won’t teach her class today. Or ever again.
He keeps running.
— — —
For the first time in years, Phoenix is late to work, and in his defense, it’s really not his fault. At least Miles prepared them breakfast, because right now he could very possibly mistake salt for sugar and die inside a little bit more.
Trucy woke them up at the crack of dawn because she was so excited about Maya picking her up after school to go shopping for her wedding dress. She screeched about color palettes and skirt lengths, which Miles had made the mistake of teaching her about a few days prior.
(Phoenix doesn’t know who’s more excited about that; Maya, the woman who is getting married, or Trucy, the girl who gets to pick her aunt’s wedding dress.)
He fell back asleep right after her rant and slept through all his alarms and Miles trying to wake him up.
He shouldn’t feel the childish need to find an excuse for arriving late, yet he tries to formulate one while inhaling his breakfast. He knows most of his class arrives late anyways, because, according to them, ‘who arrives on time for art classes???’. He thinks that’s bullshit, but he never voices it out loud (he has a bet going on with Miles on who’ll cave in and swear in front of their students first. He won’t lose to his husband.)
He doesn't know it, but he won’t need an excuse today.
He rides his bike faster than usual.
— — —
Mia is tired. She is so, so tired.
She’s been feeling more and more exhausted over the past couple of days.
She is just reaching the school gates and she knows something’s wrong.
She doesn’t get past the teacher’s entrance.
— — —
When Diego sees Mia lying on the ground, he knows. He feels, deep in his core, a thread snapping. He hurls himself next to her, even if he knows.
By the time the other teachers arrive, he is clutching her body with all his might.
Mia’s gone.
He no longer sees why he should stay here.
He leaves. He doesn't plan on returning.
— — —
Mia’s dead and Armando left.
Phoenix’s world feels like it has ended.
He thinks about Maya and Pearls. He thinks about Trucy, and about Miles. He spares a thought for Mia’s students. For that Apollo kid Mia always rambles about. Rambled.
For once in his life, he also thinks about himself. He looks at himself, looks, and sees a broken man, a broken student, a broken teenager. Battered and bruised before she rescued him and literally adopted him into her family.
His world feels like it has ended, and he’ll start it again if he has to, but not now.
Now, he grieves.
— — —
“I don’t belong here,” his husband says quietly. “Maybe I never did. But it’s worse now.”
“Oh, Miles…”
“Now that Mia’s… Now that she’s gone, you and Franziska are the only ones I’ve got left. And I know you’re gonna bring up Trucy , but she’s not the same, okay ? You are family, Mia was, and the kid is too, but... I’ll love her till my dying breath, but it’s just different. It's just… It just feels like my father’s gone again, I guess.”
Phoenix tightens his grip on Miles, forcing his husband to rest his weight against him as they sit on the teacher’s lounge’s couch.
Back when they met in elementary school, Miles used to hate physical contact. He became a master at the art of avoiding Larry’s hugs early on in their friendship. Phoenix has always been an in-between, not that touchy-feely but enjoying a good hug from time to time.
Then they grew up. Miles left, Larry frequently disappeared to chase after girls, and Phoenix stayed behind. He met Dahlia, and was surprised when she rejected his embrace some days and basked in it some others. Then things happened. He met Mia, who promptly decided he perfectly fit her family and basically adopted him. He proceeded to meet Misty, Maya and Pearls. From time to time he would catch a glimpse of Morgan, who took a dislike to him early on in his stay in Kurain village. Despite that, he learned how to love and be loved in this small village that became his home.
He soon learned to call it his ‘Heimat’, once Miles returned from Germany and brought a new sister as a souvenir.
— — —
They huddle close together, the three of them, the TV on mute, in relative darkness. Trucy cried herself to sleep, her eyes are still puffy and there are tear tracks on her cheeks.
She lost her aunt, and Miles would love to tell her that everything would be okay, but he lost his– he realizes he doesn’t have a word to describe Mia. She was just Mia, and she was everything. She acted as his mentor, as his sister, as his best friend and confidant. She’d been here, and that’s what matters to Miles.
He misses her.
He feels a hand on his cheek, gently wiping tears he hadn’t realized were falling in the first place. Phoenix is looking at him, and he looks back, he looks at his world, at his everything. He looks, and he sees his husband and daughter, together in one place, and alive.
He’ll call Franziska tomorrow. He’ll tell her he loves her, even though he knows she’ll stubbornly ignore him and threaten him with eternal whipping. But he does. He loves her, and he loves Phoenix, and Trucy, and Maya, and Pearl, and the kids he teaches, and Lana and Gumshoe, and Iris, and all the people who were there for him and his family in the darkest of times.
They don’t sleep. They can’t, not yet. But they rest. Together.
— — —
A week later, school starts again. Armando still doesn’t show up.
They don’t catch wind of him for another two weeks, and they then learn that no news doesn’t necessarily mean good news. Their best friend(family-sister-mentor-family-family)’s fiancé is in a coma. Kept alive by nothing but tubes and chemicals, because he tried to take his own life.
— — —
Diego Armando knows what he’s getting into as he brings the small bottle to his lips. Either he dies, and he joins her… Or he falls into a coma, and doesn't have to live with the burden of a Mia-less world anymore.
It’s ironic, when he thinks about it. The poison.
He supposes he won’t really go out with a bang, but the letter hidden in a safe place should be enough to ensure they remember him by. He feels strangely at peace, knowing he gave them the key to solve everything. He knows they’ll figure it out. He knows he can trust them with this.
Diego Armando spares one last bitter thought for Mia. She’s probably waiting for him, anyway. He might as well get this over with.
He swallows down his love with a sip of the poison.
— — —
Apollo learns of Ms. Fey’s death the same way every one of his classmates do. He receives an email. A very bland, impersonal email, which means Ms. Skye isn’t the one who wrote it, because despite her cold attitude, she always uses outdated emojis and cheery expressions in her emails. School is canceled, therapy will be provided to anyone who needs it, blah, blah, blah.
Ms. Fey died. Apollo is… Apollo feels things he can’t name. Mostly, he feels as though he’s drifting through a thick fog.
He stays in bed the whole week off school they gave them. He doesn’t bother to do his hair, he lets it down. The smell of his hair gel makes him sick anyways. The hair gel Ms. Fey recommended when she saw him struggling to fix his hair between classes.
He doesn’t even do his vocal exercises. He doesn’t speak to anyone outside of school, no need to warm up his voice. Apollo stays in bed, looking at his phone, finger hovering over Trucy’s contact. He knows her dad was really close to Ms. Fey. They don’t really talk outside of their shared classes, but he likes to think they’re close enough for him to be worried about her.
He’ll worry about himself later.
— — —
When school starts again, Trucy feels empty. It’s like she’s far away, looking at her body move from afar. She meets up with Pearly in front of the dorms, and they walk to school in silence. It’s not exactly a heavy silence, but it’s not an easy silence either. Well, it is heavy, kind of like a thick blanket draping over them. Kind of like the blanket is covering their mouths and they can’t talk. Kind of like the blanket is weighing them down. Kind of like the blanket is wrapped around their brains and they can’t think.
They keep walking side by side. The blanket is still there when they reach the gates, and it follows them to their respective classrooms.
— — —
Monday afternoon finds the entirety of the year 12 students huddled together in a deserted park a few miles away from school. Most have no idea why, exactly, they’re here, but they all came nonetheless, without thinking about it. They absentmindedly followed Trucy, knowing she’d be the most affected, wanting to offer some comfort, and ended up running into each other and forming a small group following her silently. She turned around at some point and noticed them, but she kept on walking.
In the end, she led them to this park and sat down on the grass, beckoning them to do the same.
“I usually come here to think”, she starts, subdued. “It’s quiet. Only depressed college students who won’t bother trying to talk to you.”
“Trucy… How are you holding up ?” That’s Clay, because that boy is nothing but a pure soul, and he knows not to ask ‘are you okay’ to a girl who lost someone so important they called each other family without being bound by blood.
“I’m… It’s not important, right now. I didn’t come here to mope. I came here because I know something is wrong. I’ve known Mia my whole life. You’ve known her for years. I hope you’re all aware something is wrong.” Trucy looks strangely intense now. Apollo speaks up first, intrigued.
“Do you think this is linked to Ms. Skye’s weird email ?” All heads turn towards Ema, who kept silent the whole time despite usually being so talkative. Her shoulders droop further and she ducks her head.
“Ema ?” That one is Klavier, because they basically grew up together and he knows the Skye sisters like he knows himself. “What happened to Lana ? You don’t have to tell everyone about it, but please talk to someone, okay ? Just… Just talk.” The longer she remains silent, the more frantic he sounds. He knows something must have gone really bad for her to be like that. It’s something that happens to her sometimes, but the last time it happened… She almost lost her sister to a false accusation of murder, and Mr. Wright saved her in extremis. She opens her mouth, but no sound comes out. She finally raises her head, and when Klavier sees her pale face and her expression crumble in the absence of sound, he engulfs her in a hug.
“Oh, Ema… C’mon, it’s alright. You don’t have to talk, Schatz. Just nod or shake your head, is that okay ?” She nods, her face regaining a little bit of color. “Great”, Gavin resumes softly, “So. Is something wrong with Lana ?” A nod. “Do you know what is wrong ?” Another nod. “Is it related to Ms. Fey’s death ?” Ema nods again, slower. She pales again. “Okay. Do you remember some of the sign language Lana taught us ? Can you try to fingerspell what you know ?” Ema raises shaking hands and meticulously starts signing.
“L-a-n-a a-r-r-e-s-t-e-d” Klavier sucks in a breath when he finally puts the letters together. He pushes on before he lets himself get sidetracked. “...Okay. Okay, did the people who arrested her say anything ?” Ema’s heart is beating wildly in her chest, but she keeps signing. “s-u-s-p-e-c-t m-u-r-d-e-r M-i-a” After a moment, she adds “a-g-a-i-n”.
Her best friend briefly closes his eyes before turning away from her, now facing the rest of their friends. “Ms. Skye was arrested, they… They believe she might have killed Ms. Fey.”
Gasps are heard in the small crowd. Disbelieving shouts erupt. “That’s bullshit !” Kay Faraday roars, fuming. “That sweet woman never even raises her voice at people, she’s so… so peaceful ! How could she kill someone ?!”
Trucy steps up in front of the small group, facing them.
“I know my dad. I know he knows something. And I know he’ll do something about it. That’s why I took his name when everyone was treating it like poison.” Trucy’s eyes shine with something not unlike tears, except she got over sadness at that point. Now, she’s enraged.
“Aunt Mia taught him that when you have the ability to help, you have the responsibility to help.” She pauses for a moment before continuing. “Her sister, Maya, is staying in town right now, to take care of the funeral. She’ll give us a hand.”
— — —
With the wedding postponed, Maya was expecting to stay at Nick’s for a few days, grieving silently, but she definitely hadn’t been prepared for the flock of teenagers meeting her at the park where she and Trucy like to have their ‘espresso depresso’ walks, Trucy leading them. When she sees her niece’s dark blue eyes, warm but calculating, she knows she’s in for a ride.
After all, why not. Maybe an adventure is what she needs right now.
— — —
When Phoenix enters his classroom on Friday, exactly two weeks after Mia’s death, he finds his students changed. They’re all standing a bit closer to each other, and something in their demeanors changed.
Their eyes are steady and unblinking, burning with quiet vehemence. They stare at him, as if they’re aware of something he isn’t. And knowing them ? They probably do.