RP Lynx


Jasper thought about it for a long while. Then, he gave Mandy a smile that reached his eyes. He turned his hand over and caught hers, squeezing it gently. He tipped back the rest of his cider and set the mug down on the table. He rose from the table and with that smile still on his face, he started to pull out his phone. “Would you excuse me for just a minute? I need to make a few phone calls.”

After being directed up to an empty room, Jasper dialed first his brother. The phone rang, but he didn’t pick up. That was probably for the best. He sighed as the phone beeped and sent him to voice mail. “Obsidian, it’s Mal. Listen, I’ve got nothing for you. If you want her, you’re going to have to come out here yourself. I’ll be home soon. Bye.”

Then, he stared at his phone for a long moment. He thumbed through his contacts until he found his girlfriend’s number. He looked at it, his face softening into something gentle. Gentle, and scared. He took in a deep breath, and then he hit the call button. The phone rang for a minute, and then she picked up.

“Jasper! I thought you wouldn’t be able to call tonight. Is something wrong, babe?”

Katherine’s voice was excited, even if laced with a bit of concern. She was always so excited to hear from him, to see him. God, he hoped that didn’t change after this. He let out his deep breath in a soft sigh, and then in as gentle a voice as he could muster, Jasper started to talk.

“Katherine. There’s something we need to talk about, baby.”​
 
March in Minnesota was hardly the spring thaw most southern states hoped for, but to the locals, the somewhat-defrosted trails were a welcome opening after a winter spent mostly indoors. Four of the graduating class from Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig School – Bug School, as they called it – plus one soon-to-be graduated homeschooler, took advantage of the thirty-fahrenheit heat wave to tramp down old trails. There was a clearing they’d used ever since LJ moved out here to hold meetings – not really ‘secret’ meetings, since their parents all knew where they were, but private at least. In the last year, most of the meetings had devolved into rants as each high schooler found their voice for their passions.

Marc, Dawn, Rob, and Chris all sat around the fire, watching their weirdest friend pace and rant. Today’s topic of interest was LJ’s outrage at the lack of large natural predators in southern states, specifically Ohio, where he’d decided to go to college. His focus was going to be reintroduction of these predators to human-devastated areas.

“You sure you gotta go to Columbus for that, man?” Chris said, frowning at Lyle. “I mean, we’ve still got the wolf reintroduction programs up in like, Ely. They got –”

“Relisted as ‘endangered’ in December, I know.” LJ tugged at some stray curls that had escaped his thick beanie. He didn’t sound frustrated, really, but the annoyed tone was typical to rants. The others all let him have his turn; last week Rob had ended up on five different tangents regarding local indigenous history. “But they are being reintroduced here. Southern midwestern states, though? Ohio, Pennsylvania, places with chronic cases of CWD in deer – and it’s not just wolves, either. The extinction of the eastern mountain lion has been devastating to prey populations in areas where modernized farming techniques have required more land.”

They made no attempt to keep their voices down, circled around their makeshift firepit. This was their sanctuary, their auditorium, their lecture hall, their podium. Even if they only had an audience of four, each one would address their topic of choice like they had a hundred or more listeners, and with a fierceness not seen in a thousand scholars and researchers. They were young. They were home. And, for a while longer, they were together.

Really, right now, that was all that mattered to them in the whole world. That, and the topic of the day.
 

Snow fucking sucked. Lapis had decided in the forty-five-minute hike that she would be happy if she never saw snow ever again for as long as she lived. It was impossible to judge where to place her heeled feet in the slush that covered the ground. She had almost gone down at least six times in her hikes, and her feet were cold and wet from the snow that had made it into her very low-cut boots.

She cursed as she pulled her stylishly puffy winter coat tighter shut. At the very least, she had that. When she had left, Malachite had told her to bring warm clothes, but Lapis didn’t really own anything “warm”. She stomped angrily through the white and small bursts of green. This kid better be worth it. Obsidian wanted him, or his mother, so there was no way he wasn’t, but boy was she annoyed about this. The kid couldn’t have been somewhere warmer, no. He had to live out in the middle of bumfuck nowhere in Minnesota.

She felt her ankle almost twist and stopped, shifting her weight off the foot. She adjusted her footing and then kept moving. They were supposed to be nearby, according to some of the people she had spoken to down on the reservation. They had a spot, apparently, where they would go. She’d been combing slowly through the trail to try and listen for voices, to try and find this supposed site. So far, she hadn’t had any luck.

She was just about to turn around, to turn back and say fuck it, when she heard voices up ahead. She sighed with relief as she rounded a bend and found a couple of older teens gathered around a campfire. She straightened out, dusting her clothes off the best she could. She ran her fingers through her long black and blue hair, ruffling it. A deep breath in, a deep breath out. She strode out into the clearing and looked at all five of the faces. Then, with a flirty smile in her voice, she looked at the kid with the palest skin and the long curls, and she said, “So, you LJ? I’ve been looking for you all morning.”​
 
The white girl took advantage of a natural lull in the conversation to make her interruption. However, that meant that everyone in the circle looked at her at once, four pairs of black eyes and one pair of blue all held her in the quiet of the clearing for a second too long.

Four of them spent that second wondering how to break it to the stranger that they were pretty sure the fifth one wasn’t into women.

The aforementioned fifth one took a second, and then laughed and shook his head. “In that? I guess it’s important. Dawn, your boots might be the only ones that fit her. Here, this’ll help.”

LJ shrugged out of his army-green overcoat, revealing at least three layers underneath, and tossed it to the stranger with relative accuracy. Dawn had already been unlacing her boots, and without discussion, the ring of teens shifted a little to leave room next to her – across from LJ – for the new person to join them. It wasn’t like they were going to send her back into the woods by herself dressed like that.
 

Lapis looked at the jacket and caught it, blinking in surprise. That was… not what she’d been expecting. Nor was she expecting for them to all start to shuffle over as the girl began unlacing her boots. Lapis raised a hand and waved it off, “No, no, I don’t need your shoes. Really. Uhm. Thank you for the jacket?”

She realized then that she sounded uncertain. She moved over to the stones that were pulled up to the fire pit. As she moved, she felt the eyes of the other boys on her, watching her move. Well, that was reassuring at least. It wasn’t her. Then, she looked at him, with his long curls, his eyeliner, his painted nails– shit. Shit. He was gay. The kid was gay.

She took her seat next to the girl– Dawn– and started to pull the jacket on. Her eyes flickered over to the other teenagers who were sitting at the fire pit. She didn’t really enjoy having an audience, and now that she knew he was gay, this was going to be nigh on impossible.

“LJ, I don’t suppose we could talk privately, could we? I have some… important things to discuss with you.” She kept her pitch even and her tone upbeat, as though she wasn’t suddenly annoyed and immediately fed up. Obsidian had given her no warning about this. And a warning would have been nice.​
 
Dawn started to tighten her bootlaces, her eyes following the white girl as she came up next to her. She might’ve been judging a little, but she knew exactly what that kind of outfit was for. Admittedly, she felt a little sorry for her. The other boys were making it pretty clear that LJ was the only one who hadn’t noticed the kind of occasion she was dressed for.

That wasn’t helped by the way LJ looked at the sky with a frown, then looked around the circle, and then said, “Sure, we can… go back to my place, I guess. It’s getting late anyway.”

Rob and Chris exchanged a glance. Marc coughed to hide his smile, then pulled up his scarf over his nose and mouth. Dawn did her best not to roll her eyes, and bit her tongue. LJ didn’t seem to notice at all. He was so blind sometimes. Or maybe he just didn’t know better – or maybe he just didn’t judge. With his mom, the last one was completely possible. Nothing would surprise or offend him, Dawn was sure.

LJ, for his part, started kicking snow onto the fire. Chris got up to help him while Rob and Marc started gathering up what little trash they’d brought into their backpacks. Dawn would’ve helped, but she was busy checking her boots and sitting with the new girl. The boys had it handled today – and it was only fair, she’d built the fire. She waited next to –

“So, new girl, I don’t think we got your name.”
 
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There was a moment of silence as Lapis watched the guys start to clean up. She felt awkward, like she should be offering to help. Before she could offer, however, Dawn addressed her. She turned and looked at the girl, who had hard features, who had makeup that was subtle and perfectly fit the contours of her face. God, it would have been easier trying to get this girl than gay kid over there. She sighed under her breath and offered a cheerful if sultry smile.

“I’m Lapis. Lapis Lazuli. Pleasure to meet you all.” She adjusted the jacket, surprised at how well it fit over her puffy coat. She imagined she looked silly, but she was much warmer now, and couldn’t bring herself to care. She kept her tight clad legs pulled up tight to her body. Thankfully she’d warn the thermal ones, the ones with the fleece on the inside that just looked like sheer stockings, but that didn’t change the fact that now that she had stopped moving, she was cold.

At least the double up on the jackets kept her body warm, even if her legs were starting to freeze. She watched LJ while he moved, while he worked. It was unfortunate he was gay. He was cute, pretty even, and his face had just started to lose that softness of childhood. He had sharp features, and was taller than her by more than a foot. He could have been fun.

Too bad he was clearly gay. God damn it, Obsidian.​
 
LJ hesitated, took a second too long between picking up a piece of trash and slipping it into his bag. Chris noticed first, then caught Rob’s eye and glanced quickly between the two of them. Rob shrugged. Dawn saw the exchange, looked at LJ – who’d gone back to cleaning up without saying anything – and then at Marc, who had a crease between his brows. Lapis’s body, and any return introductions, seemed to be forgotten in the almost grimness their friend had taken on. Or was it concern?

It was something, that was for sure. Lyle had no idea what it actually was. Just that Lapis Lazuli rang the same bell as Malachite and Sulphur. Another rock-themed name, trekking all the way out into the middle of nowhere, Minnesota looking for him? It wasn’t a coincidence.

They must’ve given up on Mom, then. But what would they want with him? He was human, would be for the rest of his life if he could help it. He’d never be in the situation Dad had put Mom in. He knew better than that. He knew what he was. Grandpa Nick and Mom had both made sure, as had John in the reservation. But the Crystal Gems that kept bugging them had no idea about any of that, even if Sulphur had claimed to know Mom was a wendigo. The old stories were so blurry sometimes that it was hard to ground them into reality.

He steeled himself, though, and by the time the four of them had finished, his old warm smile was back. He stretched, listened to his shoulders and spine pop back into place, then shivered once.

“God, you really came out here in that? No offense, I guess. ‘Spring’ tends to mean something different this far north.”

Marc laughed, once, but the mood had changed. Everyone felt it. It was in relative silence that Dawn got up, offered Lapis a hand to help if she wanted it. The five of them moved like they’d grown up in the snow. They had. Even if LJ moved a little better than everyone else, nobody said anything. He wasn’t like his mom. He just had more time to spend roving around in the dead of winter. Besides, they all must look like that compared to Lapis, in her heeled boots.

LJ came over, whether or not Lapis accepted Dawn’s hand, and offered his arm instead.

“It’s slick if you’re not used to it,” he explained, although he knew she already knew that. Even he could tell the other guys looked a little bit jealous, but they didn’t know what he knew about her. Better to be safe. “We’re parked down in the first lot, so it’s a bit of a hike, but the pickup’s got heating once we make it down there.”
 

Well, even if he was gay, he was a gentleman. She’d accepted the girl’s hand to stand, and then quickly abandoned it for the kid’s arm. She smiled at him, a smile designed specifically to be tempting to men and women alike. She turned to the girl who had helped her up and smiled at her, the kind of smile that said if she wasn’t on a mission, she’d be more interested in her than in him.

“Thank you, Dawn.” She practically purred the girl’s name and winked at her before turning her attention back to LJ. “I don’t mind a walk. After all, I made it all the way up here, didn’t I?”

Now that she didn’t have to try as hard with the kid– there’d be no getting to him if he really was gay– she felt a little less angry, and a little more free to be casual. And that casualness dictated that she flash a knowing smile to each of the other boys who were gathered there. A smile that wasn’t as much of an offer as the one to Dawn had been, but was still flirtatious.

She clung tightly to LJ’s arm as they made their way back down to the parking lot, and between that and the jacket that had been gifted to her, she managed not to freeze on the way back down. She was quiet as they walked, but then she turned to him, a smile on her face, and said, “So, LJ, how far is the drive back to your place? I didn’t get a chance to swing by there before coming out.”​
 
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