Vaille Que Vaille - Come What May

PV @Scott Alexander, @Ami Procoppio, & @Reid Kovacs

It was the end of the year. To Alexx, this meant the fear of what awaited her at home. Or rather, the fact that she wasn't going home, and instead to visit some of her mother's family in New Orleans for a bit. The unsettling feeling ate away at her, and she disliked every bit of it. Alexx chewed on the inside of her cheek, looking out the window. She waited quietly for her friends to join her, not knowing who would come. She just knew that she didn't want to be alone.

When Alexx looked back on the year, she smiled. So many exciting things had happened! Sad things, too, but many exciting things! How had she gotten Prefect? How had she become a temporary Editor in Chief? How had she managed to play Quidditch? She didn't know. But the best part was all the friends that she had made! All that she had ever wanted was a solid group of friends, and for once in her life, she had found it.

Rosalie sat in the seat next to her, rolling happily about. Alexx had grown very fond of her pet over the last couple months that she had accompanied the French girl in the school. Rosalie was easy to manage, and she was quite the cutie. She had definitely been a more enjoyable part of the year. "Did you have fun this year, Rosalie? I get to take you home now. You can meet some of the family." Rosalie had very briefly seen Mikey and Tex, though this summer, Alexx was going to New Orleans and would be with different people. Irène and Cyrille, her aunts, twins in their late 20s, and then Jean, her uncle who was getting close 40. And, of course, pépère Franck and Grand-mère Jeannine. They all lived quite happily in New Orleans. A piece of paper in her pocket had some differences between French French and Creole French on it. Just in case.

Looking over at the door, she found a figure standing in the doorway. Reid Kovacs, her favorite constant. "Not staying for the summer camp, Kov-" She paused, taking a breath. "Reid?" She hadn't been calling him "Reid" all this time. She didn't even call her deepest enemies by their surnames the way that she did him. Why the difference of formalities, she didn't know. It wasn't that she disliked him or disrespected him. In fact, it was the exact opposite. Alexx enjoyed Reid much more than she enjoyed other people.

Moving Rosalie into her lap, she smiled at him. "Would you care to join me? There's room." He could have easily sat across from her, but if anyway else were to join, which she half expected Ami to magically appear with Scott in tow, then she would like for the Hufflepuff boy to be seated next to her. Not only that, but Rosalie liked Scully, so that was the winning argument.

Shuffling around, she absent-mindedly petted the oversized pink lint ball, which made some sort of noise of affection. The two were never seen apart, that was for sure. She turned her attention back to her friend, offering him yet another smile. "Any plans for the summer, mon ami?" She remembered, as she always did, that Reid didn't appear to know any French. She wondered if he would ever study that list that she gave him. If he was going to be around her, he needed to understand when she slipped back into her mother tongue. It was a force of habit, and she definitely couldn't help it. She tried to remain in English as best as she could, but she often didn't even realize when she said something in French until someone asked her what she meant. She also found herself easily forgetting English words for things as well.

Asking him about his summer plans distracted her from her own, at the least. She could easily sit here and reminisce the past all that she wanted, admiring her second year, which was far better than her first. Alexx really hoped that her third year would be just as good, if not better. She didn't want to use up all of her glory days now. Most importantly, she hoped that changing years didn't mean that she would lose all of her friends.

Note: Godmodding permission granted by Reid Kovacs

There was only one word fitting enough to describe Ami in this moment, and that word was 'hyped'.

She was hyped because America! She finally got to go home, although she supposed she had already started to grudgingly accept London as 'home', too. Hogwarts was making its way up the list, it was hard to exclude it when you spent 75% of your time there. But Chicago... Chicago would always be home to her. It was where she grew up, where she learned how to become a semi-functioning member of society! Where she learned to read, to write, to talk, to skateboard, to busk... Chicago would always hold a special place in her heart.

For once, their roles were switched- although Scott was a notorious rambler, Ami had taken over the wheel this time and she would not shut up. After they had apologized and made up after their first major fight, Ami was anxious to prove to Scott that she was not a bad friend. But now, all thoughts of maintaining any semblance of put-togetherness was thrown out the window, and for the past half an hour, Ami had not stopped talking about Chicago. About the stores, the skyscrapers, the millions of people who lived in the urban hotspot.

Both of them had already changed out of their robes, Scott in jeans and a t-shirt, and Ami wearing... well, pretty much the same thing, but with shorts and 'USA' printed obnoxiously large on the shirt. Chattering away happily, the pair made their way through the crowd of students towards the train, Ami leading the way. Her hand wrapped around Scott's wrist, she practically dragged him through the crowd, and they finally made their way onto the train. "Of course," Ami was saying, "Dad'll want to take you out eating everywhere, right, which is so totally rude because he knows that I can't eat, like, half the things you can... oh, wait, let's go in here!"

'Here' meant the train compartment that she had just peered into, and to her intent delight, one of her favorite people was in that compartment. Alexxandria Séverin, the prettiest girl she had ever laid eyes on, was sitting in that compartment, and that automatically meant that she was going to go in that compartment in as well- poor Scott, being dragged along just so Ami could mess around with her lackluster love life.

Did she just say love life? She wasn't gay. No, Thomas was the gay one, not her.

"Hey, Lexx!" Insert totally bro-esque head nod towards Reid Kovacs, a fellow Hufflepuff that she kind of, sometimes, occasionally talked to if she had a really good reason to do so. "Hope it's fine that we crash here? Yeah? Awesome!" Plopping down on the empty seat across from Alexx and grinning at her openly, she glanced innocently at Scott with an equally wide smile. "Come on! Come sit.  I'm sure these two don't mind." Kicking her bag to the side, she patted the seat beside her with an eerily wide smile. 

What an assholish, rude American she was.

With a strangled mewl, Leo poked his head out of Ami's backpack, staring at Ami with a hurt expression- clearly, he hadn't enjoyed the bumpy ride in her backpack, although he did glance at their two new train compartment companions with interest. He sniffed in the direction of the toad rather disdainfully, and stared suspiciously at the pygmy puff. Whatever. He would deal with them if he had to.

It was hard even for Madeleine to keep up now, what with the speed at which Ami pushed and turned her way through the busy train aisles. Scott had to follow her red hair like a cat himself, as it disappeared and reappeared in the crowd around them before she took his wrist. She seemed almost ecstatic, and because of that Scott couldn't bring himself to really mind the pace (albeit, his cat presumably did from where she was stopped every three seconds by the next pair of shoes to almost step on her tail). His friend's smirks and good mood was simply contagious...

He didn't have to assume, either, that it was their summer plans she was excited about, as she went on and on about them over her shoulder. He listened carefully to her, and tried to make his enthusiastic comments heard through the already noisy atmosphere.

"Well, who knows, really? Maybe you should try and show me vegan plac-"

"Oh, wait, let's go in here!"

Lady Madeleine, as if understanding only those words perfectly and with great relief, was the first to sneak inside the compartment outside of which Ami had stopped- fleeing to safety between Scott's feet. Inside, two students had already made themselves comfortable opposite to where Ami settled down. One of them, the blonde Slytherin girl, Scott knew the name of. Not that he used it this once.

"Pygmypuff-Prefect!" He addressed instead, with a delighted smile mainly aimed towards the pink little creature in her lap, before pushing his trunk onto the shelf above their heads and sitting down next to his friend. He hadn't gotten to know Alexx very well yet, but all he knew he liked. They'd talked about the third year to come, and which subjects they were most interested in... She seemed to him like a kind person.

Then again, most people tended to.

The boy, on the other hand, Scott couldn't place no matter how hard he tried. He was a Hufflepuff, as his robes suggested, and had messy dark hair... was a third-year-to-be, as well, judging by how they were roughly the same size, which made Scott all the more disappointed with himself for having apparently missed one.

But a late introduction is better than no introduction.

So Scott smiled widely at him, too, nodding his head as he reached to shake his hand and said: "And you, as well. What's your name? Mine's Scott Alexander. I hope Ami's right, and you two don't mind we sit here? It's as wild as a jungle out there- a stampede, pretty much."

He laughed, and leaned back as his cat jumped to sit over his knees.

Alexx was very attentive as Reid spoke. He wasn't the most delicate or elegant person, but he was her friend. Her eyes remained on him the whole time, and she stood by a comparison that she previously made; Reid was a damn renaissance painting. How did he manage to do that? How was it that when someone placed a toad atop their head, it suddenly made them the definition of beauty and grace? Reid was certainly a chaotic good, but she took these moments to embrace her friend. Now just to make sure she didn't lose him.

As he was explaining himself, Rosalie jumped from her palms and made her way up towards where Scully sat. It almost felt like Rosalie liked anyone who wasn't Alexx. The two were growing closer, and worked together very well, but that was the extent of it.

She thought deeply about his question. "Well- I'm going to America. I didn't plan that. Wanted to go back home to France, but... The divorce and stuff." She shrugged, giving him a half, disheartened smile. "I don't have friends outside of school. Nothing to worry about for me."

Her eyes cast down and she looked sad. "Actually, I-" Before she was allowed to continue her train of thought, Ami and Scott had joined them.

It wasn't that she was disappointed. Alexx loved the duo. They were quite the pair, and Ami certainly held her attention, almost in the same way that Reid did. However, there was something that caught her ears. The word prefect. They hadn't heard the news. She could have cried, but she pushed her tongue the the roof of her mouth and held her head up high. Not yet.

Alexx had taken the liberty of stepping down. With all the chaos at home, she simply wasn't in the right mindset to be the girl that she was. She had built her whole world around that position. She was strong. Confident. Happy. Intelligent. All the things that she wasn't last year. Would someone like Reid Kovacs really be her friend if she lacked all of those qualities? Would someone like Ami Procoppio find themselves hanging out with someone so insecure? Would someone like Scott Alexander give her the time of day? There was absoluely no way that all of these people who miraculously appeared in her life were there because she was actually more interesting than she thought. No, it was because being a Prefect had made her feel good. And now that feel good title was gone.

Letting out a hitched breath, one that was almost destined to follow with tears if she spoke too much, she started up again. "Hey, guys," She said in a low voice. She wouldn't be like this if that word, that one little trigger word, had never been said. It just brought it all back. "Uhm... Actually, I'm... I'm not a prefect anymore. But yeah, it's me." She choked on the word itself.

Her eyes cast themselves away from everyone, and she frowned. This wasn't going to be a dismal train ride back. Not because of her.

Upon seeing Scott, Rosalie perked up. She had made herself a home in Reid's curls, snuggling down next to Scully. It was quite an adorable site to see. However much she loved Reid and Scully, it would not compare to her love for Scott Alexander. Suddenly, she had hurled herself at him, her pink body smacking against his shoulder and then spiraling downwards. She made a noise, whether it was in pain or in joy, Alexx couldn't tell. But Rosalie was happy, at the least, to see Scott.

It was something to laugh about, anyway. Something to take her mind off of the other topic. A tear had slipped down her face, but she brushed it back, and decided she wasn't allowing herself to cry over it. She had also hoped that no one saw.

To her relief, Scott didn't protest at all to their mild invasion of the train compartment, instead addressing Alexx with a smile and a nickname. She didn't have any reason for it, but a small spike of semi-jealousy pierced through her, her smile dimming slightly as she realized that Scott was on rather friendly terms with Alexx, and even had a meaningful experience they shared together, which warranted a nickname. However, Alexx swiftly corrected Scott, and Ami nodded, noting the change in Alexx's life mentally. Right. Don't mention prefects.

Then it was Reid's turn to enter in the conversation, introducing himself to Scott and commenting lightly on Alexx's non-prefect-ness. That had to be a word, right? Probably worth at least 20 points in Scrabble. It was then that the toad sitting on the Hufflepuff's head caught her attention, her eyes drawn to his head of luscious, voluminous curls. They reminded her of... of wine? Why did it remind her of wine? She thought back to Elijah's words, when he had told her just how to keep her attention and focus under control. Her brain had skipped a few steps, that was all... so, wine. Why wine?

Cork? Wine came in bottles with corks, and to uncork it... a bottle opener. That was it. Reid's hair looked like the squiggly things at the end of a bottle opener, or maybe instant ramen. Maybe both? Whatever, Reid's head looked like food, and that was a specific enough comparison for Ami. Satisfied with her one competent thought of the day, she settled back in her seat, watching as Leo walked up to Alexx, sniffing the girl's ankles in an interested fashion.

"So, what're you guys doin' over the summer?" Ami asked, beginning the obligatory few minutes of small talk before they would inevitably digress into a deep conversation that ended up with at least one of them on the floor crying from either laughter or sadness. Besides, they needed to move on past all that sad stuff about Alexx not being a prefect anymore- all the bad vibes seriously bummed her out. "I'm goin' back to America, cos parents and all that stuff, and Scott's comin' with me!" As she spoke, she eyed Alexx's exposed midriff before mentally scolding herself. She couldn't be staring at pretty girls like that! Someone might think she was gay, or something. She wasn't gay, she liked boys! It was as the wise Lizzo said, she didn't discriminate against boys!

Girls were just so pretty. No. Stop. She wasn't gay.

Leo, taking Ami's relaxed manner and casual tone of voice as an approval of the girl he was sniffing aggressively, leapt up into Alexx's lap, mewling quietly as he turned his massive grey eyes upon her, practically begging to be pet. The kitten was no more than 9 pounds, light and lithe. He glanced at Lady once, still slightly afraid of the regal and poised cat. He respected her, no doubt; perhaps even more than he respected Ami.

"Oh! Sorry Alexx," she said with a sheepish smile. "I didn't introduce Leo. That's, well. Leo. He's a rascal, that one... But Lady's much nicer than him, more mature for sure," Ami added, gesturing to Lady Madeleine and Scott.

Scott's nose was already half buried in the soft, pink, fur- when Alexx started responding very quietly to his greeting. It was only when he let out his last delighted chuckle, and lowered her Pygmypuff to his lap (from where Lady Madeleine stepped patiently down to rest on the floor between their feet), that he could see that the Slytherin girl was upset! Perhaps (and he feared this was true) even because of something he himself had said... Although Reid, the Hufflepuff boy, seemed already to be reassuring her. The two must've been old friends. Sure looked as if they were.

"Oh, he's right! It's all good. I'll have to find another name for you, is all... Frankly, this is a great thing, because it means I can proceed to get chocolate all over these seats once the trolley arrives, and there'll be no one around to sni-" Scott cut himself off, and took another look at the dark haired boy sitting next to her. And the emblem on his uniform. "Alas..." He sighed. "They are everywhere... But that's alright, too! I was a Prefect as well, for... Well. How long was it, Ami, five minutes?"

Scott let Rosalie clamber from hand to hand as he turned to his friend with a wide grin, but apparently Ami wasn't looking at him at all. Instead, her eyes were studiously following her cat and the current subject of his curiosity... Then, when she began talking herself, the excitement from the aisles came back as if tripled! She was chatty... Now, Scott knew that Ami could get passionate, invested and even overwhelmed by a subject- but babbling was his thing.

Something was as if fanning her.

Scott looked at her now with the most puzzled interest. Finally, as she'd gone on to talk about their cats, he had to agree with her- and he started to pat his new friend again, taking his suspicious eyes off of Ami very slowly.

"Yes..." He said. "Yes. But Leo's amazing. Seems to like you, Alexx! Seems to like you a lot... Lady's- well she's tired, now. Otherwise I'm sure she'd be all over you, too. I think she was off all night, scavenging around the castle... and then she couldn't sleep all day today because of all my packing! Poor thing... Do you have any pets, Rei-"

Oh.

How on earth he had not spotted the most handsome little fellow in the compartment before, Scott couldn't say. Only that now, as he'd leant forward to stroke Lady's grey back, there was a small green lump peeking down at him from on top of Reid's head. Two greenish-brown eyes, peering from in between the dark locks of buoyant, velvety, luscious, shimmering, wild, staggering hair...

"Who... is... that?"

Scott pointed, wide-eyed, to Reid's coiffure. Then, because he was leaning so far forwards that Rosalie nearly rolled off his knee- he had to catch her in the midst of her terror and sit up straight again.

"We've all brought quite the zoo! I only hope they'll all get along for the entire journey... I hope we'll get along, too, of course, but I don't fear one of you will bite me should that not be the case."

Scott held out a finger in front of Rosalie's nose, as if testing her, and nodded in confirmation.

"Now it's only Ami we'll have to watch out for. You two are safe, you're not about to spend weeks with her."

Alexx slumped back into her seat. Reid did make her feel better. The thing that really bugged her was that she was good at her job. Damn, was she good. It made her feel whole. Like she served a purpose. Mostly, like there was something that she was good at. Alexx wasn't good at a lot of things, but she sure could delegate.

But now wasn't the time. She had her moment. The conversation should move on. So she nodded, sending smiles at everyone. She decided it was time to answer Ami's question. It would take the attention off of her that she didn't even mean to collect to begin with. "I'm going to America as well. New Orleans." Her nose crinkled as she remembered the place. It wasn't that she didn't like it, but her memories of it weren't amazing. Big city. Little girl.

Alexx had been on her own there. She ran wild and free, and no one was around to stop her. Why? Why was a little girl given so much independence? From a young age, she had tasted maturity and cautiousness, but maybe she shouldn't have to. It was a happy thought to believe that maybe she should have been granted some stricter rules. The rules only got strict when it came to appearances. When it was time to be home and look good for the people that her parents were entertaining for the night.

The feline that had made a home in her lap made her feel brilliant. Alexx reached out to pet him, smiling. "Cute." She stated, nodding. But her eyes turned to what Scott was referring to before she could say much more. For a moment, she had forgotten about Scully. "Scott... Scott, dear, that's just Reid. I know he looks funny and smells weird but really, you shouldn't point at him like that!" She looked puzzled, wondering if Scott had a sudden loss of memory to the boy that he had just introduced himself to.

Crinkling her nose once more, she eyed Reid. He hadn't changed within the last 30 seconds, had he? There was no weird aspect about him. Well... Nothing that was weirder than usual. As for right now, he looked just like he always did. Dark hair. Beautiful green eyes. Strong physique. It was Reid. The same Hufflepuff that she had known since the funeral. He might have matured a bit since then, but she really couldn't tell, as she was just so used to seeing him at this point.

Living with people day in and day out for an entire schoolyear caused you to be blind to certain things. When they returned from summer holidays and someone had a haircut or a piercing, yes, that was noticeable. But during the school year when things happened, such as someone getting taller or their hair getting longer. She didn't really notice when people changed. It felt so normal at this rate to see it happen right in front of her. She supposed that she had changed too and hadn't even noticed. Her hair got longer a bit. Her face was shaping over time. But those were all things that she paid little to no attention to.