Chapter Text
“Put those in the cabinet, not the drawer!” she heard a voice downstairs call. Up in her room, Amaia busied herself by putting away different items she had brought over. Today had been the day they finally completed their move from Spain to Paris. And boy, what a move it was. They had gotten a call from someone about assigning her uncle Salomon to the City of Love for something. What it was, Amaia didn’t get the whole story. But it seemed like it was good for his job, so she went with it.
“I’m trying!”
Speaking of.
“Mireya, can you please not misplace them again?” she could hear the exhaustion already in his voice. “I’ve already had to go look for them ten times this past hour!” Mireya’s shrill cackle answered everyone’s questions. Alongside adding to Salomon’s list of woes to deal with.
“Aye, tio,” she heard Mireya say. “It’s only to keep you on your toes.”
Yeah, better not get involved. Especially when she heard Salomon unleash a stream of swears she didn’t dare repeat. Was Mireya already driving him to his limit today? Wow, it’s amazing how he didn’t pop a blood vessel or two by now. Mireya certainly had that effect on people.
Arf!
“Hm?”
Amaia looked down to see an adorable cotton ball of a puppy running between and around her feet. His baby blue eyes looked up at her. Paws on her leg, tail wagging at maximum speed, jumping up and down trying to get her attention. Completing the effect was the way his tongue lolled out of his mouth. He yipped and jumped. Pawing her leg to maximize his attempts at getting her attention.
“Aye, lobito,” she muttered, picking up her puppy and holding him in her arms like a newborn. “Greedy little one, aren’t you.” The puppy smiled happily up at his owner. Eagerly snuggling against her while she sat down in a nearby chair. With a faint smile of her own, she tickled his hind paw. The puppy squirmed, panting with his tail wagging at high speed. He reached up with a paw to pat his owner’s nose. Earning a chuckle from her to his delight.
Riiiiing riiiing!
Her dog yipped in surprise, being spurred from the puppy version of dreamland. Ah, whoops. Probably shouldn’t have placed her phone so close to her. Grumbling, she reached for the ringing phone. With a glance at the caller ID, her irritation melted into warm content with a side order of joy. True, she was spending time with her puppy just now. But hey, it was life. Pressing the call button, she answered the person on the other side of the phone.
“Hey, Ben,” Amaia said. The image of a redhead with golden amber eyes appeared on her screen. Smiling so brightly she was certain he’d blot out the sun. He bounced up and down in his seat. Ready to chat her ears off.
“Amaia, hey!” Ben chirped. “How is everything?”
“Going well,” Amaia replied. With her free hand, she stroked her dog’s back. “How are you and Idon settling in?”
“We’re doing well,” Ben informed. “Idon’s looking for an office to update his license. You know how he is about motor safety.”
“Wouldn’t be Idon if he didn’t,” Amaia commented. She liked Ben’s older brother. He was one of the few people she’d willingly hang out with by choice. Others included her boyfriend Ben, her brother Andres, her surrogate mother Mireya, and her uncle Salomon. She’d rather be caught dead than hurt any one of them. Her dog Diego included.
“Have you found out which class you’re going to be in?” Ben asked. He took out a sheet of paper from his bag. “My schedule says I’m in Miss Mendeleiev’s class for homeroom.” Amaia reached into hers to look at her schedule.
“Mine says I’m in Bustier’s class,” she said. “The other teachers were giving me weird looks when I said that out loud.” Wonder why.
“Well, I did hear her class has the most akumatizations out of everyone at that school,” Ben said. “I’d have looked at that Ladyblog, but it seems she focuses more on satire than anything else lately.”
Amaia scoffed. “No kidding, have you looked at the latest posts lately?” Ben and Amaia had combed through everything they could gather before the move. Their mentor slash guardian had given them her blessing to come here. Something about an imbalance going on and another needing help. Whatever that meant.
“I heard our friends back home were going to do skits about those,” Ben snickered. “Seriously? Best friends with a superhero? Teaching Clara Nightingale how to dance? Saved Jagged Stone’s kitten?”
That last one had caused an uproar in the Jagged Stone fan club back home.
“Whoever this tonta is, she’s lucky no one is suing her for libel,” Amaia snarked. “Yet.”
“Yet, you say,” Ben chuckled. “What do you think about that other blog? The one by those girls at KIDZ+?” Amaia checked the link Ben had sent her through e-mail.
“If I can get past that obnoxious host, I might be able to tolerate it,” Amaia grouched. In time for a cacophony to sound off in the next room. “Speaking of obnoxious.” A song from an old rock band was playing on full blast. Covering up the weird sounds from next door. A head of white hair shook up and down in the rhythm of the song. It didn’t take a genius to figure out the song. Or the listener.
“Is he listening to Bohemian Rhapsody again?” Ben asked.
“When is he not?” Amaia snarked. “I swear, he listens to that more than Jagged Stone.” The little metal head she called her brother. Covering Diego’s ears, she turned back around. “Andres!” The music abruptly stopped. “Tone it down before Mireya comes up!” For a while, there was no sound coming from Andres’s room. Peaceful and quiet, enough Amaia could sit back and—
MAMAAA, OOOOOOHHHH!!
“Ah!”
DIDN’T MEAN TO MAKE YOU CRY!!
“Andres!!”
Ben laughed while Amaia set Diego aside to chase her brother.
“Well, that went well,” Amaia groused. Beside her, Andres snickered.
“Serves you right,” he cackled. “Did you see the way the table flipped over?”
“After Salomon nearly popped a vein,” she grumbled. “Really, Andres. What were you thinking.” Blasting the song at max volume scared the ever-loving snot out of everyone. Human and four-legged. The sudden burst caused Salomon to drop and break a few of Mireya’s prized plates. Which then resulted in the two of them being punished by going out into Paris on a grocery run. Starting with bread for tonight’s dinner.
“Hey, it got us out of the house,” Andres protested. “Besides, didn’t you wanna go see the sights?” He gestured to the view of the city in front of them. Or rather, the school. “Maybe you’ll find a few date places.” For maximum comedic effect, he wiggled his eyebrows at his sister. Who promptly turned as red as her hair.
“That’s not the point and you know it!” she protested back. “You know as well as I do that’s not what we’re here for.” Andres rolled his eyes.
“Yeah yeah, imbalance and stuff,” he snarked. “What? Is there a yin-yang thing going on here?” His head swiveled around. “Now where’s the bakery?” Amaia stared deadpan at her brother.
“You’ve got to be joking…” she groused again. “It’s right… there…” She trailed off. “What the…” A question mark floated above Andres’s head. His eyes followed hers to the bakery. Where there seemed to be a large number of customers filling the bakery. About fifteen, if they were to guess.
Weird… they seemed angry about something.
“What the heck…” Andres questioned. He pressed his ear to the wall, Amaia following his example. “What’s going on?”
There was a lot of shouting happening in the building next to them. Spouting accusations they couldn’t make out. There were too many voices mixing into one. Protests sounded off against their ears. One voice was shrieking and crying. Amaia felt her heart twist at how pained that one sounded. Almost like…
“—betray us like this!” someone shouted. “I expected better from—!”
“You all!!” a woman shrieked. “Get out of here! Now!”
Amaia and Andres pulled away. Whoo, that one sounded mad.
“We’re not going anywhere until she apologizes!” someone else shouted. “Do you have any idea how much Lila was crying because of her?!” In the back, Amaia and Andres spotted two stragglers from the crowd. One was a girl with a splotch of dyed purple in her hair. And another, a boy, with a head full of red hair. It was difficult to pinpoint their emotions, but they seemed distressed about something. The girl was close to crying.
“Get out!” a man’s voice bellowed. Shivers ran down Amaia and Andres’s spines. “Or we’ll call your parents!” They watched with amazement while the threat didn’t seem to faze the crowd. It just seemed to stoke them even further.
“Like you’d actually do that!” the first voice sneered. “Lila told us everything! We’re just—” The rest of that sentence was lost amidst the loud clamoring from the rest.
“Traitors!” someone else roared. It sounded like a boy. Someone the purple-haired girl seemed to know judging by the way she flinched. “You’re all traitors!”
The argument was lost on the brother and sister duo while they observed the so-called traitors. The wailing was getting louder. Drowned out by the incoherent shouts from the company in the bakery. From their hiding place, they could make out the individuals in the crowd.
Leading the front was a girl in a plaid shirt and black glasses. She was the angriest out of all of them, shouting incoherent accusations at someone. Beside her was a boy wearing a red baseball cap. Unlike the girl beside him, he looked uncomfortable. In the middle was a blonde girl wearing a ghastly set of pink clothes, a tall and buff jock in a red hoodie, and another boy in a green shirt and black glasses. Off to the side was a girl with pink hair in sporty clothes.
Towards the back, not taking part in the argument but still disappointed, was a pair on the larger side. One was a girl with multi-colored dreadlocks. The other was a boy in rocker clothes who was scowling as though someone stole his breakfast. The stragglers in the back tried their best to appease the crowd. But nothing they said reached their ears.
What caught Amaia’s attention was a blond boy in a white jacket in the very back. If she had been any other girl, she’d have thought him handsome. Fine features set off by green eyes. Only problem was he was just sitting back and letting the argument take place. Doing nothing whatsoever to appease anyone, much to the two straggler’s irritation.
If anything, he just looked disappointed.
“Seems like there’s a fight going on,” Amaia mused under her breath. “A serious one, too.” Andres’s lips were drawn in a taut line. His eyes narrowed at the interloper in the back doing nothing. A snarl escaped his lips. Flaring from the argument inside turning ferocious. Andres bit his thumb. His mind raced for a way to dispel this before something or someone was seriously hurt.
“… wait,” he suddenly said. “I have a plan.” Amaia quirked an eyebrow while he disappeared back into their house.
The volume from the confrontation increased. Loud enough the walls seemed like they would break apart. Amaia stepped back. The fight dragged on, reducing someone to tears that stabbed Amaia’s heart. Sensing a presence behind her, Amaia whipped her head around.
Andres stood there, grinning his gremlin grin while holding… a toy snake.
“Did you go into my room…” she questioned, eyebrows pinched in the middle.
“It was either this or face Mireya again,” Andres said. Amaia immediately shut her mouth. “You got that app on your phone?” Her face went flat and blank. Then she pulled the phone out of wherever she was keeping it. Wordlessly, she typed in the passcode and pulled up the app for making animal sounds. Searching for snake hisses, she tested it before maxing out the volume for her phone. Sending silent signals to each other, they positioned themselves closer to the window.
“Ready?” he whispered to his sister. Amaia nodded. “One… two…” On three, she played the sound while Andres wiggled the toy snake near the window.
It only took three seconds for someone to scream “Snake!”
It took three more for the crowd to stampede out the door, screaming their heads off at the nonexistent threat. Dust hovered over the area. The two stragglers and the blond do-nothing stood off to the side. Mouths agape. Before the sound of strangled laughter sounded off.
“I—hah! I didn’t think they’d fall for it!” Andres wheezed out.
“Uh huh…” Amaia said, sarcastically nodding along. Soft sniffles and cries filled the air. Andres’s laughter slowly faded out. From their hiding spot, they could see the blond boy puffing up and marching over to someone. Only to be stopped by someone, a blue-haired rocker. Amaia could feel the anger radiating off him in waves.
“You need to go,” the rocker growled. “Now.” Amaia had to give the blond credit. He didn’t back down even when facing three angry people. He stood his ground and spouted his beliefs.
“It’s not their fault!” he protested. “If only Marinette would apologize, it would all go back to the way it was!”
… maybe naive and masochistic was a better description.
“I don’t think so,” the rocker growled. Whatever he was saying next was lost to them. Amaia and Andres rounded the front. Making eye contact with the two stragglers from before.
The girl panted. Chest heaving up and down in labored breaths. The redhead next to her sported wide eyes. As though he had just seen some sort of ghost. There was a pained look in the girl’s eyes. Almost pleading for this to be over. Amaia and Andres glanced inside. The argument was heating up while two adults were comforting a girl with bluish-black pigtails.
The girl’s eyes moved from her and Andres to whatever was going on inside. The redhead beside her sank to the ground. Holding his head as though he were in enormous pain. From what had just transpired, he may as well have been. Amaia and Andres nodded, implicitly understanding what the girl was asking them to do. Silently, with no one else noticing their appearance, they crept inside.
“What do you suggest they do, then?!” the rocker all but roared. “Keep isolating her until she breaks?!”
“Marinette can handle it,” the blond chirped. “She’s strong enough to make it this far without being akumatized.” The rocker stepped back. Dead silent, though Amaia suspected he was about to explode and unleash all pandemonium on the blond. The pigtailed girl and the two adults stared at him like he had grown a third head. Amazingly, it didn’t seem to register in the blond’s head what he had just said. The two adults looked ready to murder him right then and there.
The pigtailed girl’s eyes locked onto something. The color drained from her face. As did the two adults protecting her. Question marks floated above the blond’s head. The rocker’s expression morphed from unrestrained rage to horror. The blond turned around to see what had their faces so—
CRASH!!!
Everyone jumped and flinched at the sound. Eyes trained on the heavy display that had somehow shattered against the floor. Beneath the pieces of the display was a black butterfly. Emanating dark magic and twitching helplessly on the floor. Amaia stood above it. Eyes blazing. Never leaving the butterfly on the ground. Wordlessly, she knelt and held her hand out to her brother. Wordlessly, he handed her a pack of salt. Which she then ripped open and poured all over the butterfly.
The insect underneath writhed. Seemingly experiencing a seizure. Roughly a minute later, the butterfly turned back to its white color and hurried out the door. Practically ignoring the two stragglers who watched with wide eyes and white faces. Seconds later, after a look from Amaia and Andres, they nodded and bolted down the street.
Amaia’s blazing eye welded the blond boy where he stood. Seething and glaring holes through every inch of his body, she pointed to the open door. His knees shook. His hands trembled. Until his feet found their senses and carried him out the door. He was long gone down the road when the pigtailed girl began sniffling again.
“… welcome to the bakery,” the woman said. Plastering on her customer service smile and approaching the register. “How can I help you?” Behind her, the rocker and the man helped the pigtailed girl stand and leave. She seemed exhausted.
“Um…” Amaia muttered. Suddenly feeling very awkward. “Do you have bread we can buy?” She wanted to slap herself for that. They ran a bakery. Of course, they had bread.
“We certainly do,” the woman cheerily confirmed. “What kind would you like?” Amaia eyed the display that wasn’t broken. Mireya had wanted a couple of baguettes. Did she have enough money for it?
“Two baguettes, please,” she said. Beside her, Andres reached for the coin purse Mireya had given them.
“Oh, you don’t need to pay,” the woman said.
“What?” Andres quipped. Amaia stared, dumbfounded.
“But miss, I—” she glanced back at the broken display. “I broke your property and…” The woman stopped her right there.
“Oh, we were looking to get rid of that, anyway,” she said. “We thought about donating, but nobody would take it. You did us a favor.” Both by breaking it and by saving the pigtailed girl. “So please.” There was a pleading look in her eyes. “Let us do this for you. As thanks.” Amaia paused. Long and hard. From the way the woman was looking at her, there was relief mixed with pained anger. A thin film of tears threatened to spill. And that familiar pain stabbed her in the heart again. Withholding a sigh, she relented.
“Alright.”
The woman’s eyes shone. As though a cloud had disappeared from her sight. Humming a melody, she retrieved the baguettes and neatly wrapped them up. Her smile seemed brighter somehow while she placed the baguettes on the counter for them to take.
“I’m Sabine Cheng,” the woman said. “What’s your name, dear?”
“I’m… Amaia. Amaia Collins,” Amaia said. “This is my brother Andres.”
“Pleased to meet you,” Mrs. Cheng said. “And thank you once again.”