Chapter Text
"What are you doing?"
The accusing voice made Black Sapphire nearly jump out of his skin. He snapped his head around to give a small glare at the other kid, Mercurial Knight.
He was Silverbell's older brother, a quiet kid, but also a goody to shoes in Black Sapphire's opinion. Someone who always saw Black Sapphire as a trouble maker though he rarely did anything to stop him, and sometimes reaped the rewards that came with Black Sapphire's trouble actions. Their relationship was confusing at times, but Black Sapphire did enjoy his company regardless.
"Could you give more of a warning before sneaking up on others," He hissed, standing up with the locked box still in his hands.
"Well, you are doing something bad aren't you," Mercurial Knight said.
"No I'm not," Black Sapphire retorted confidently. That was a lie, he was a constant liar, but everyone believed him.
"Yeah right," Mercurial Knight gave him a punch in the arm.
Well everyone expect Mercurial Knight. How annoying.
"What's in the box?" he asked, though he spoke in a more demanding tone. He really didn't trust Black Sapphire.
"Money," Black Sapphire answered honestly.
"Stolen?"
"Hard earned." Black Sapphire pouted at him. So little trust but the other boy never bothered to report Black Sapphire to a teacher.
"So you tricked others," Mercurial Knight concluded.
"No, how low do you think of me?" Black Sapphire asked, sounding offended. "I offered people information and help, I was simply paid for my services." It was simple business, a little side hustle of his, from what he has heard his Mimi describe it as.
"You probably over charge," Mercurial Knight said crossing his arms.
"Not my issue if they don't know the value of their money, their dummies," Black Sapphire shrugged his shoulders with a smug air about him.
"How much have you earned?" Mercurial Knight asked. Sounding more genuine this time.
"Want to count with me?" Black Sapphire said, shaking the box. The sound of coins jostling could be heard.
"Sure."
The two boys sat on the floor of their cloak bay, Black Sapphire pulled out the box's key from a small pocket in his bag, opening it. Together Mercurial Knight and Black Sapphire counted all the money and came to the conclusion Black Sapphire had earned himself quite an amount.
"$235.80, would you look at that, I'm rich," Black Sapphire quietly celebrated. He didn't want to alert other students. the last thing he wanted was his money to get stolen. There were many troublesome peers lurking anywhere.
"That's so much you've taken from others," Mercurial knight said in disbelief.
"Hey! I already told it's hard earned, besides I'm a kid from a poor background okay," Black Sapphire retorted. He shut the the box with a his money and locked it, before securely putting it in his school bag.
"Does your mum know about that?" Mercurial Knight asked, standing up with Black Sapphire.
"It's Mimi, but no, they'd probably tell me to stop," he replied. Hiding it wrapped in his his PE gear. It rarely got used so his Mimi had never found it.
"Right, maybe that's a sign to stop doing it then, if your Mimi wouldn't approve," Mercurial Knight pointed out.
"If you keep saying that then you can forget getting anything from the dairy with me," Black Sapphire huffed crossing his arms.
"Your house is in the other direction of the dairy, and isn't your mum- uh Mimi picking you up?" Mercurial Knight retorted sounding slightly frustrated. Only Black Sapphire is seemed to evoke strong emotions out of him.
"No, Mimi doesn't finish work until the evening, I have to walk to the kindergarten my sister's at and stay there, then I get picked up," Black Sapphire explained. "You walk that way anyways so I'll be walking with you, or are you getting picked up?"
"I don't know, but my dad usually parks down that direction," he said. Mercurial Knight sighed seeing Black Sapphire's pleading eyes. "Fine, I'll walk with you," begrudgingly said.
"Yes!" Black Sapphire pumped the air with one hand.
•~•~•~•~•
"Okay, everyone you can now begin your planning for your projects," Ms Foxglove explained. Chatter immediately filled the classroom.
The field trip they went on last week was for them to get inspiration for a project.
They had to create or research something inspired from the exhibits they saw. It could be done in anyway, a poster, a presentation, read aloud to the class on the one condition that it had to be done by the end of the term.
Black Sapphire still remembers his time there perfectly, why wouldn't he. He got to spend a school day with his Mimi and learned so many cool things. Mimi had a very soothing voice, making listening the massive amount of information fun.
"Do you have any idea on what you're going to do?" Mercurial Knight asked quietly. The two boys sat on edge of the table.
"Don't know, what about you?" He replied.
Mercurial Knight shrugged his shoulders. He wasn't part of Black Sapphire's group on the field trip, he saw the museum's displays of the regions military and war artifacts.
"I would've preferred doing your topic," Mercurial Knight commented.
"Surely you could, what is the teacher going to tell you off," Black Sapphire said with a light shoulder bump.
Mercurial Knight gave him a slight glare. "Not all of us have that freedom, like you do," he muttered. Black Sapphire rolled his eyes.
"How are you two doing? Got ideas flowing?" Ms Foxglove asked, stepping up to their table.
"Not yet," Black Sapphire answered for the both of them.
"That's okay, but you your plans should be done by this Friday," she said with a kind smile before checking in on other students.
Black Sapphire quietly groaned, resting his head on his propped up hand.
"I don't want to do this right now," He mumbled.
Mercurial Knight made a comment in agreement and Black Sapphire jokingly rolled his eyes at the other's tone used.
The end of the day eventually came with the signal of the bell. With the classroom chairs placed atop of the tables, Ms Foxglove allowed her students to leave.
Black Sapphire and Mercurial Knight left side by side to the front gates. Road patrol was already out, helping students cross the road safely. Students waiting by the pick up zone for their parents, or buses.
They crossed the road with a dozen of other kids and parents and headed off towards the dairy. Black Sapphire yammered as they went, Mercurial Knight listened intently and sometimes offered a comment or input. This dynamic of theirs worked well together, it made their friendship make sense for the time being until something causes them to bicker like they hated each other.
"Oh, my dad's car is there," Mercurial Knight said. He pointed to a dark grey car driving towards them, doing a u-turn to pull up to their side of the road.
Black Sapphire loudly groaned. Quickly throwing his head back as he did so. "Great."
Mercurial Knight also didn't look amused either but he opened the back door to the car ready to climb in, when his dad piped up.
"Is Black Sapphire walking?" Elder Faerie asked, looking over his shoulder from the driver's seat. He was the city's librarian, maybe he took a day off to look after Silverbell.
"Yeah,"Mercurial Knight answered, half in the car. "Could I still walk with him so he's not alone?" he asked.
"If you want to, I can take you bag," Elder Faerie said.
"Thank you dad, see you later, love you," Mercurial Knight said, dropping off his bag before hopping back out of the backseat.
"Thank, Mister Elder Faerie," Black Sapphire said.
"You are very welcome, stay safe." Elder Faerie gave them both a little wave before driving off once Mercurial Knight had shut the door.
"Well would you look at that," Black Sapphire said, placing his hands on his hips. "Come on, let's get to the dairy before the kids take all the good lollies." He said, dragging Mercurial Knight by the arm.
•~•~•~•~•
"Should we share a large bag of chips or get separate smaller bags?" Black Sapphire asked. Pointing at the shelf filled with different chip packets.
"I think we should just share one, it'll save us more," Mercurial Knight answered.
"It'll save us? I'm sorry are we sharing money now?" Black Sapphire jested with a laugh.
"Ha ha ha," Mercurial Knight said dryly. "Very funny."
"Okay what flavour do you want?" Black Sapphire asked.
"I'm okay with whatever," Mercurial Knight shrugged. Black Sapphire cocked an eyebrow at him. He muttered something under his turning his head away from the other.
"You choose the flavour, I'm going to check out the lollie section," he said leaving his friend.
There was a large crate by the entrance filled with little bags of gummy coke bottles, snakes, bears, and other things, including sour gummies. $1.50 for each bag, he could buy like twenty bags.
With excitement he picked several different bags for him and Mercurial Knight. Five bags of snakes, and four coke bottles, his Mimi liked the sour gummies so maybe he should get some for them.
In the midst of grabbing the bags, another person walked into the dairy. The loud ring signalling to him but also the shadow that casted over him.
Black Sapphire turned to look at the person, and he froze in middle of picking up the sour coke bottles.
A grown man stood before him. Towering over the boy, he was broad in the chest and sculpted with muscle, not as big as his Uncle Burning Spice but he was still big. But that wasn't want froze Black Sapphire.
The man looked familiar, scarily so. Pale greyish-purple skin, he wore a white tank top showing a tatoo on his shoulder. His long shaggy hair was tied up in a ponytail, it was mostly black but faded to a dark purple near the tips. He had round black eyes with oval shaped pupils that stood out as a bright violet.
He stared at Black Sapphire intently. Like whatever previous thoughts that were going through his head had come to a halt. His eyes scanned over Black Sapphire.
Why did he look so much like him?
It was like Black Sapphire was staring into a mirror, only this time it was a much older verison of him.
It chilled him to the bone. He couldn't move, he didn't know what to do. Who was that man? Why does he look like him? Is Black Sapphire meant to know him?
"Black Sapphire! Why are you ignoring me?" Mercurial Knight asked, walking up to him. "Oh." was all he said noticing the other man, who's eyes seemed to widen slightly like he figured something out.
"Did you pick out a chip flavour?" Black Sapphire asked, his tone rushed.
"uh yeah-"
"Let's go," he said, dropping the bags of gummies he had grabbed, only holding onto one of the sour coke bottles.
"What?" Merucrial Knight asked, as Black Sapphire pushed him towards the counter. "What about getting some drinks, chocolate milk or something?" he sugested.
The man had seemed to broke out of his trance and walked over to the refridgerated drinks, grabbing one. Black Sapphire wanted to get out of the dairy as so as possible.
"I'm good," he replied. Placing the bag of chips Mercurial Knight held, and the bag of sour coke bottles. "Just that," he said.
"Paying for yourselves i see," the dairy owner jested. Black Sapphire would've made a comment on the absurdidy of it, but knew what they were talking about.
the random had lined up behind them. His presence shadowing over Black Sapphire, it was insuffacating. he rushed to pull out his money, paying for their items.
"What about the change?" Mercurial Knight asked.
"You keep it," Black Sapphire said, handing it to him, before garbbing their items and heading out of the dairy. he could vaguely hear the owner saying something in a joking manner to the man but Black Sapphire didn't bother to hear it.
"Stop." Mercurial Knight said. More demanded. He grabbed Black Sapphire's wrist, and looked him directly in the eyes. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Black Sapphire answered. his gaze quickly shifting to the man exiting the dairy and crossing the road to his car.
"Uh huh," Mercurial Knight clearly didn't blieve him. "It's because of that man, isn't it?" he didn't need to ask, the answer was plain to see. "Do you know him?"
"No," Black Sapphire said, his voice meek and shaky. He could now feel his heart beating loudly in chest, the slight shake in his fingers. He hadn't felt like this in a long while, a feeling he hoped to never have felt again. It was nauseating.
"He looks like you two could be related," Mercurial Knight pointed out.
Black Sapphire wanted to curse but knew that wouldn't help, of coruse the two looked related. It didn't take long for him to piece together the details. That man is possibly his father.
Mimi never spoke much of Black Sapphire's father. Only ever spoke of him from their time at high school, they never spoke of why they ended their relationship. All Black Sapphire knew was that he looked a lot like his father, and that his father had turned out to be a horrible person from his Mimi's perspective.
"You can have the chips," he said. Handing th ebag over to Mercurial Knight. Barbeque Soy Chicken, a flavour Black Sapphire would really enjoy but he fathom eating right now.
"What about you?" Mercurial Knight asked. Taking the bag.
"I'm not not hungry."
•~•~•~•~•
When his Mimi had come to pick him and his sister up from the kindergarten in the early evening. Black Sapphire felt less shaken up but the thought of the man he had seen didn't leave him.
Maybe he should've told his Mimi about the man but he didn't knwo how to word it. What was he meant to say. 'Hey, so Mimi I think I my day at the dairy today.' He'll pass on that conversation.
It didn't matter. The issue would go away shortly enough. That's what he convinced himself anyways. He wouldn't see that man ever again.
The days went by, Black Sapphire had not seen that man again. Though he remained cautious when walking to and from school. A feeling of paranoia followed him, or maybe something else.