Taurus

Settling down for the night was so fun. There's four places to sleep; the bed, the couch, the floor, and this one rug next to the couch. And since nobody is sharing a bed, we have randomly decided who gets what. Leo gets the bed, Scorpio gets the couch, Aquaria gets the rug, and I? I get the floor. Yeah. That was great.

As soon as Leo's head hits the pillow, he starts snoring, which is even better, because now the three of us can't sleep. It'd be fine if it was just two of us, one of the archenemies and I, awake, but nope.

It had to be them.

Aquaria stares daggers at Scorpio as she sits cross-legged on the carpet, and he returns her glare up on the couch, pointedly placing a foot on her head. She doesn't move the foot, but she does not look very happy, and that is a gross understatement.

I find a warm space next to the heater - ha! I'm the only one who gets to be warm - and curl up as I hear their low voices arguing about something or other.

At some point I doze off and wake up in mid-afternoon; I try to keep my eyes closed, since I still feel tired. Leo is still snoring away.

I distantly hear a quiet voice speaking, "Do you still remember the Fall -"

And then a bitter voice responds, "Of course I do. Of course. Shut up and go to hell."

"Oh, honey, where do you think I came from? I might have seen you there too."

"I hate you."

I squeeze my eyes shut tighter. I wouldn't be surprised if Leo's snoring was the reason I wake up. If it is, I will kill him.

-

Leo's snoring was not the reason I woke up. I wake up to my alarm, actually. At four in the evening. I forget why I set the alarm; it's not important now.

So I wake up to Die For You blasting at top volume from my phone.

And I did not know when I set that tone that it'd be such an effective alarm. Scorpio jumps up as if he's been electrocuted, almost stepping on Aquaria. Actually, there is no almost about it; he steps on Aquaria, who is in a notably bad mood as she snarls loudly.

Even this fails to wake Leo, who is still snoring away. I'm impressed. Just a little bit. His greatest accomplishment so far is sleeping through my alarm.

"Where the hell is that coming from?" spits Aquaria, sitting up. Cross that out - she is in a notably very bad mood.

"It's an alarm -" I start.

"For five in the evening?" she snaps angrily, standing up.

"It's four -" I point out, but she interrupts again.

"Do I look like I damn well care?"

"Sure ..." I say, staring at her, "that's a very extreme reaction."

She's not a morning person - far from it - but this is something new. Then again, the Deadpools are contradictory by nature. And she is not exactly agreeable the rest of the day. She may be a little bit of a night person.

"Leo still isn't awake," I add, trying to keep the note of admiration from my voice as I look over at the heap of blankets that contain him.

Scorpio too is notably pissed.

"How about this?" I propose, "let's go and get breakfast, and leave Leo behind?"

Scorpio arches an eyebrow, leaning back slightly. "Good idea. But for your safety, I'd highly recommend turning off that alarm."

"I will if you tell me why you look like you sat on a beehive," I counter. Probably not a good idea. Caprice constantly tells me to make good decisions, but I'm a Hell Zoner and what's the fun in being predictable?

He stares at me for some time; it's definitely unsettling. "What if I saved myself the trouble and threw the phone out of the window?"

"Uh - well, okay - fair point I guess -" I splutter and tuck my phone safely in my pocket. And I'll be keeping an eye on it.

-

There are few tables downstairs, but we choose tables close to each other. I slope over to sit with Caprice and Vienna.

"How'd ya sleep?" Vienna inquires. Her hair is chopped off at her chin and she looks very cheery about it. She looks more cleaned-up now

"Ughhhhh," I groan, rubbing my eyes, "not too badly, considering that the idiots could've yelled at each other all night. But Leo. Solis, Leo."

Caprice yawns and leans back, almost falling off her chair, "What about him?"

"He freaking snores!" I exclaim. "Why did you not tell me that, Vi?"

Vienna looks at me innocently, "How am I supposed to know or care about keeping track of his habits?"

I inhale deeply, trying not to scream, "You share a wall with him."

"Oh - that," Vienna says in a perfectly innocent voice, "I simply may have forgotten."

I restrain myself from swearing. "What's that for?"

Vienna shrugs, "I was experimenting. If you'd know, what would you have done?"

"I-" she's right, of course.

"I assume my sister wasn't too happy about her accommodations," remarks Caprice. "Leilani tried to steal makeup; I helped and grabbed it from the woman next door."

"Caprice! What kindness to your enemy!" gasps Vienna theatrically, "are you sure you're okay?"

"Oh, she owes me now," Caprice says with a smirk. "And I needed to steal something."

"Ah. Smart of you," I say, grinning for some reason I can't put my finger on.

"I see it that way too." Caprice looks pretty happy. I'm sure that she'd preen if she could.

"Oh," Vienna says with a sneaky smile, taking a big bite of some kind of tough fruit, "how was it sharing a room with Ari?"

Caprice rolls her eyes. "I had to take the couch," she says haughtily.

"Oh dear," Vienna says under her breath, "the injustice."

"I had to take the floor," I volunteer.

"Yup," Vienna says, yawning, "I took the carpet and let me tell you, that was not much better. Nia's foot was in my face all night."

I dig my fork around in the small melon salad I got, "Hey, Capri? How do you have the money to get us food?"

Caprice offered to buy Vienna and I food. We accepted, because we were hungry.

"Well," states Caprice with a sly smirk, "let's just say that makeup wasn't the only thing I took the liberty of pinching."

Sagittaria

We get moving remarkably quickly, given that we're a group of clueless, overly dramatic, very messed-up thirteen teenagers. Caprice lends Miasma enough money to buy a map, and we use that to find our way out of here. We're not walking, though; we've decided to steal a car. Not just any car. A car big enough to hold all fourteen of us.

We're taking a delivery van. That plan sounds like it has at least a few holes, but nobody questioned it.

And it is Caprice who proposes the plan, because she's a genius, and so smart, and et cetera. I hear this all the time at home.

"Excellent!" Caprice pulls out a dart. I stare at it and she explains, "This is the dart that was shot at us ... uh ... I think when we picked up Miasma?"

"But the surrounding people," objects Ari, looking very happy to object.

"We can always figure the rest out afterwards. Whack first, think later." Caprice waves away his complaint dismissively.

"I like that idea!" I say with a wide grin.

"I second!" Gemi and Nia raise their hands at the same time with grins befitting a lunatic.

"You guys are idiots," Vienna says, and Ari nods, backing up someone who isn't Caprice.

"Oh, that's bold of you to say," Leo retorts. "I think it's a great idea."

Vienna sneers and mumbles something about falling on his head as a child. Of course she did.

And that's how we stand outside one of the only stores as the sky darkens with rainclouds. But we're standing at the back side of it, where trash bins, overflowing with garbage, are parked outside; graffiti is sprayed on one of the steel doors leading into the building. And then there's the delivery zone, which is exactly what we're looking for. A wide garage door is set into the building, and the ground slopes steeply down in that direction. There's nothing there, so we wait around the corner, sitting on the curb and peeking around the wall once in a while to check.

"Cappy," calls Ari, but she refuses to answer. "Caprice. Can you steal a car?"

"You underestimate me," sniffs Caprice, but doesn't say anything else.

"Capri, we love you," whines Taurus with a half-hidden grin. "Come on?"

"Of course I can steal a car. I left my lock picks back at Lonely Star, though," Caprice adds with a small sigh. "I really liked that set. It doesn't matter, I can do without; can somebody go and get me tools?"

Gemi volunteers - which is new, because Caprice doesn't ask. She orders. Nobody volunteers - they obey.

I sit back and rest my feet on Ari's lap because. If that wasn't enough of an answer, it's interesting to see him squirm.

We sit in silence; even Caprice is staring off into the distance fiddling with her fingers. Her lips are moving quickly, but she doesn't seem to be speaking. I wonder if she's having a panic attack. I also wonder where's the nearest place I can buy a new pack of matches. I didn't make it to slip one pack in my pocket. And the pack I already had in my pocket was lost.

Gemi returns soon, with seemingly innocent things in a plastic bag.

And that's when the last delivery truck of the day pulls in, slowly. Carina stands up, nearly tripping over her feet.

"Act normal!" hisses Pisces, pulling her back down.

We spot only two people bustling around, which is good even though we only have one dart. Taurus twists a branch into a club and Leilani reflexively creates airless pockets for practice.

"Go -" Nia murmurs suddenly as the people are closest to the truck.

We're not all running, though. If fourteen teenagers show up, they're much easier to track. We can ditch this van and pick up another eventually. They'll be looking for two girls - Leilani and Caprice - and not who will be driving the truck.

I watch Leilani and Caprice casually walk towards the delivery truck. It took a long talk to get them to agree to go together, but now they're hanging on each other and giggling. It's a bit obvious that this is fake, but who's looking too closely? Who notices that they're glaring at each other from under their eyelashes?

Leilani commandeers the dart; as they walk behind one man, Caprice casually loops an arm around his neck and tightens her grip while Leilani stabs the dart into his neck. The other man turns, but Leilani makes a yanking motion and an airless pocket opens over his head, suffocating him. She holds it, averting her eyes, until he goes unconscious.

"We don't need to jump the truck!" crows Caprice, rummaging around in the second guy's pocket and holding up the keys to the truck.

"Now hurry up!" snaps Leilani, dusting herself off after this terribly embarrassing and quite difficult endeavor. I'm being sarcastic here.

"I'll drive," Taurus volunteers. He actually looks the oldest here as he accepts the keys and climbs into the driver's seat. Something very important suddenly occurs to me.

"Do you even know how to drive?" I call to him and he grimaces.

"I learned something at fourteen, but I may have forgotten. So I'd advise you to hang on."

We decide that Scorpio is the best person to sit in the passenger's side; he is the tallest of us all and carries himself with a calm, if not absolutely terrifying, air.

Pisces peers inside. It's half full with labeled boxes, but there's enough room for us. There aren't any handholds, and it manages to be stiflingly hot in there.

I crouch between two boxes as the truck rumbles forwards, plotting the route in my head. Gemi brought a map, too, and Miasma is studying it intently. In the background, I can hear Vienna and Leo squabbling about something else.

There are lots of turns where I'm nearly flung against a wall. Carina actually is flung against a wall with a muffled oof, and serve her right for not hanging on properly. And she thinks she's so logical.

Suddenly, the driving becomes a lot smoother and I let out a breath of relief, relaxing my grip a little bit as I notice that my hands are sweaty.

Leo yawns in my ear and I jump, glaring at him. He just shrugs with a small smirk.

Thump. A fist knocks agains the wall and I hear Taurus's muffled voice, "I think the police are chasing us!"

Aesthetics updated on the introductions! And yes, I know it's been some time. But, have another middle-of-the-night update!