Back home, Arthur and Ben return (Open)

10/26/15
7:40 Before School
The steps of the DWMA

Arthur and Ben stood at the base of the steps to the DWMA. Each was holding a school bag on their back, they had changed a lot since they had been gone. Arthur looked like he had dropped some weight, he was no longer as bulky as he once was. No longer built like a barn. He wore a black coat that was open along with a white undershirt and black tie. His shoes were a pair of simple dark and blue runners, and his hair was a bit longer then last time as well. Ben was several inches taller, his hair was looking even more bright then normal. The boy was also wearing a dark coat, with a white zip up undershirt. Sporting a streak of red down the center. He wore red sneakers and his bag looked to be full of much more.... Unorthodox items then Arthur's. A few bulky things stuffed in there with pencils and a calculator in the side pockets.

"It's been a looong time huh Ben?" Said Arthur, looking up at the big building towering into the sky. The academy was the heart of the city, and it sure looked the part. "You aint kidding." Said Ben, he was looking up those steps again at all the kids going up. No one had recognized them yet. Ben had prepared himself for happy faces, angry faces and well.... Aurora. The two had missed her so much, but it was no secret between them. They knew that going this long without a proper explanation would leave anybody emotional over their partner.

"Took your med's today Arthur?" Said Ben as they started heading up those thousand steps. "Ha! Damn near took a double dose, remember that time I did on accident?" "Yeah and your eyes got all droopy and you had jack all for inhibition and the doctor said your brain chemistry was turned off. I was there having a heart attack while you sang folk songs on the roof in nothing but your-" Arthur looked around at the gentle stream of people flowing into the school around them. "Ok! That's about enough of that. But yeah, I'm taken care of. Would not want an incident on the first day back am I right?"

They would reach the top soon, the boys were no stranger to the steps.

Aurora was hiding behind the school building, it was her new habit. She was doing this to hide from everyone before the school day starts...And to have some free space to smoke a cigarette.
Smoking was also one of her new habits. The witch was wearing a pair of dark jeans, white tank top and black leather jacket. Also, she had a leather glove on her left hand, to cover her left robo arm. Aurora didn't want anyone to see it. The witch was slightly taller than she was during her last meeting with Arthur and Ben. Also she was slighlty slimmer. The witch did not care about her health anymore.
Yeah, the cigarettes have already showed this fact, but she had more secrets under her sleeves.

"Well, at least I've realized that talking to myself is a good way of fightin' the boredom..." Aurora said to herself.
The witch finished her cigarette and threw what's left of it away. She looked at her blonde hair that was moved by wind. "I miss my cute white hair..I guess, I cannot change it.." She said. "Alight! It's time to go to school, right, Aurora?" She asked herself. "Nope! Let's skip the class!" She replied with a childish voice. "*Sigh* Noooooopeee.. This time I have to write that one test." She said, with those words she headed towards the school entrance.

Would you believe the two young men got a close as five feet away from her before Ben organised the sweet old girl. Arthur was not even lightly looking for someone in a leather jacket. Hell, that's how he used to dress. The height difference had also thrown off the other boy, and her hair had changed as well. It's when he saw somone wearing a lether hand on her left hand that he looked up at her eyes and said. "Aurora? Is that you?" Arthur stopped walking when he heard this and looked over he had big blue eyes and looked just perhaps a tiny bit more frail then when she had last seen him. "....Hey."

Aurora was completely lost in her thoughts. Plus she was not expecting to meet anyone, alright maybe except her current weapon. She started to wonder why is he late by the way. She wouldn't even notice her two former weapons if she didn't hear her own name. Aurora stopped for a moment, thinking that some one from her class was making fun of her. She made one of her annoyed face expressions and murmured. "Of course, it's me you dum-...!" Then she looked diretly at the two.

Her face changed. Suddenly, she looked shocked and pale. "W-What...B-But..." She couldn't even say a sentence. "Boys...? Y-You're back..Why?" She couldn't believe her eyes. Perhaps there was something wrong with her cigarettes or something? Or maybe she had too much fun with some alcohol last night. No, it couldn't be true! But it was. Right in front of her, there were her two former partners. The ones who she couldn't even make into death scythes. They were there, in fron of her, after a long time.

Arthur looked over at Aurora's eyes, shocked to see how she had changed. He felt terrible for leaving her for so long. It had been about a year hadn't it? "Well... Um..." Said Ben, who was not good at this kind of thing, clearly. "Well, I've come to terms with the fact that I'm going to be sick for the rest of my life. I umm... Really missed you and everyone here. So I came back as soon as I.... Yeah... hmm...."

Ben whispered over to Aurora. "Arthur he's.... Gone ill in a different way since greece. The same illsness his mother had that uhh.... You know... Made her the way she was. He just needed to come to grips with it. He's... Dieing... Slowly, but he's come to accept this."

"We became death sythes to make up for lost time. I'm sorry we did not wait to do it with you. I really am... Just sorry about everything...." Arthur took an interest in her boots and scratched his head.

When the witch heard about Arthur's deadly disease, her face went deadly pale. After this whole years, he returns and he's ill? Everything because of the mission in Greece. No, she couldn't just say that it was only because of that mission. It was her fault! She was not careful enough. Because of her and her carelessness she lost an arm, but her arm is not a big thing. Because of her carelessness the terrible disease that was in Arthur's veins woke up and is going to kill him.

Aurora covered her eyes with her hand. "All because of one..two faults...Both caused by me.." She said to herself, quietly, hoping, they will not hear.
She looked at the two, trying to hide her sorrow. The fake smile appeared on her face, she knew however that the two knew her too well, she couldn't hide anything from them, they could read from her eyes, just like old good friends, they were.

The witch walked over to Arthur. "No problem, Arthur. I am happy you both are Death Scythes. Hm..It gives you right to teach other people here, I guess." She told him with a smile.
"You both, in the eyes of Shibusen achieved everything, while I..I am a two star meister, I guess. Oh, you know, I start from the begining, with a new weapon and stuff. I need to make myself a new fighting style and everything. But it's fine. Everything is fine now. Beacause you achieved our goal. I also need to tell you that my healing magic is a bit stronger, and I can more focus on healing one particular thing if I want. Making serious diseases weaker for some time counts." She added.

A sly smile appeared on Aurora's face, because a crazy idea came into her head. She pulled them both to herself and hugged them both with a big strenght. Arthur was the unlucky one who got under her left arm so..It was going to hurt..A bit.. "I missed you too.. A lot!" She told them with cheerful voice

Arthur was just able to catch what Aurora said, Ben could not make out the words. "I suppose so, never thought the day would come where I would be a teacher. Not that I'll have a class or anything...." Said Arthur. Sure he was eighteen years old. But there was only so much knowledge he could extract from books at his home. He was still a Junior in the academy. "Oh two star, three stars. Who cares? Do you think we could have gotten ourselves this far? It was because you were there with us that we were even able to do this in the first place!" "I'm... Really sorry about that... It... Sucks that you need to start over. But you do have more experience then everyone else with you, I mean. You practically made two weapons death scythes."

Arthur wanted to get a faint hope going when Aurora talked about how her healing magic could even work on serious diseases. But while she might be able to provide him short time relief he knew in his heart that it would still claim him no matter what help she gave. Then Aurora embraced them, the two boys hugged back. Ben was just overjoyed to be with his friend again, Arthur looked like he was tearing up a little. He had hit teeth grit tightly together and his eyes were tearing up just a little. "I did too!" "Same! It, was never your fault Aurora. We just got stuck in a bad place by luck. It was going to come around soon, atleast I'm ready for it now." He did not even care that her arm was hurting him a bit, he just hugged her tighter in return.

Aurora carefuly listened to their words with a smile. It gave her so much warm in her heart. She was so happy to see them both again, even if Arthur was slowly dying. Honestly, Aurora was afraid to see the day of Arthur's death, she knew that her poor little heart would not survive it. She was too kind for it.
"Oh come on! Starting over is fun. I learn more thanks to it. For example: My current weapon is a gun with a silencer and he knows nothing about the kishin eggs, witches and stuff like this. So I need to teach him everything. It's also a good lesson for me. But as I said- new weapon means new fighting style. This will be the most difficult thing." She told them

After a moment Aurora released them from her hug and took one step away to give them some space.
"Yeah..Oh, sorry Arthur for using too much strenght.. You know.. Old habits.. I forget that this arm is much stronger than human limbs" She told him with an embarrassed smile.
"Ready for it now, you say..." She repeated after him with worry on her face. "But you will let me slow the disease and make it weaker, right? I'd be happy to help you every way I can." She told him, smiling honestly. "Oh and Ben! Be prepared for some ice cream escapades with me! There is a great ice cream shop near the school." She told the younger boy, with a childish tone. Oh, Aurora loved ice cream so much.

"You think I want to be sick? Hell yeah I'll take that help from you Aurora! I just hope the new guy is a cut out partner to keep you safe. Oh don't worry about the arm." Said Arthur rubbing his sore back. "It's not bad at all." Ben lit up when he heard that Aurora wanted to spend time with him, ohh the thought of american junk food again. The closest thing they had over the sea was sugary cereal. "Ohh you have already gotten me ice cream hungry!" Said the boy with a big ol grin on his face. "Geeze at this rate we'll be too amped to just sit in class all day. Who know's? Mabey we'll get ungodly lucky today and end up in the same class. It's just about all core stuff for us now, they'll be bringing us in lots I expect to help with the other students."

"Oh by the way..." Said Robin who began digging in his school bag. "Picked you up a little souvenir when we were there." "Reminded us of you." Ben took out a small ceramic pot. It was covered in all sorts of paper wrapping and padding. He handed it up to Aurora. When unwrapped, it would be a little vase with a fox painted on the side. A fennic fox if you would believe it.

"Oh don't worry. German people have balls. He'll be able to protect me. The only thing I need to do is teach him how to fight. I have a feeling that he has got some experience...well, but watching his face when he ate that spicy wasabi, thinking that it's sweet was priceless....yeah I am the one who told him that. A cruel person I am...but yeah.. I've changed a bit since you left. I don't mean my appearance, because it's too obvious. My head and the way I look at everything changed..but it's nothing we should be afraid of. I'm still the same person." Aurora replied with a smile.
The girl looked at Ben with a grin. "I knew you would agree! After school we're getting a huge bowls of ice cream!" She said cheerfully.

Aurora put her hands on her hips. "Of course we'll be in the same class! If not, I'll bite Adam's nose off" She said that with a sly grin, she giggled a bit.

Aurora unwrapped the gift and looked at it with a the most beautiful smile, she'd ever made. Even she had a small tear in her eyes. "And I know why.. I can't believe, you found a pot with a fennec painted on it. It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Really.." The witch couldn't resist. She hugged them both again, this time gently and with tears of happiness in her eyes.

Ben was ecstatic that she loved it. Arthur had suggested they pick her something personal up the week before their flight left. But it was Ben who was able to find just the right pot. When Aurora hugged them both again Arthur could not help but to have just a tiny tear roll out of his eyes. "Hey you know, stop that.... It's contagous..." He said as he hugged her, wiping it away. A couple guys who were walking by snickered. Arthur opened his eyes and gave them a look that said. If you even think about talking s*** about this to anyone else I'll toss you off a bridge

Arthur had a very expressive personality.

When they were done Ben said. "So catch up time, what's been going on here? Is your sister doing good?"

Aurora looked at the couple guys and gave them a stare that could kill. She remembered their faces, to keep an eye on them.
The witch looked at Ben with a smile. "Yeah, Angela's doing fine. She tries to not get too much attention from anyone. But sometimes she visits me for a cup of tea and cookies. About more political-balance-death city stuff...hm... My investigations ended up with a conclusion that there are more than one vigilante groups doing their work around the city. Uhm..Also.. No Nebun/Inker actvity...Strange. I've heard rumors about a new popular coffe shop company, which opened one of their shops in death city. Surprisingly, they seem to like having dwma students as employes..I..guess...that's all..Oh yeah..And I got some bad habits lately..one of them is in my pocket.." She said. About the bad habit- she was talking about the cigarrettes.

One of the two kids mumbled somthing incoherent and they both kept walking.

"Well that's good about your sister then, hmm... I wonder if the vigilantes are getting jacked on inferior non death bucks coffee before they go out fighting crime...." Arthur gave Ben a look and the two boys started laughing. "Wierdest thing is they like students as workers, you know since they always take off all that time on missions..." Said Arthur.

Once she said that she had a problem in her pocket Arthur looked around and at Ben, who gave him a shrug. Neither of them knew what she was talking about so Ben said "Well what's the problem?"

Aurora laughed.
"Well, perhaps those students help them?" She suddenly noticed. Aurora always wanted to be like Sherlock Holmes, so such investigations were like a test to her abilities.
The witch sighed an pulled out a pack of cigarettes out of her pocket. "Classical problem of youth, huh? I got addicted to this shit. I can do nothing about it. At least I can heal my lungs to not have problems with them in the future" She said, embarrassed to have such "bad habit".

"Yeesh, that's rough..." Said Ben when he saw them, smoking was a pretty serious thing. Even if she could heal her lungs, she was not doctor. There was no guarantee that all that poison would not do some damage. Hell, just looking at her left arm was a beg enough reminded that even with magic the body getting hurt had repercussions. "Well if you want to quit, we'll help you!" Said Arthur, who was in too good of a mood to let something like this get him down. "We'll come over to your place and help you go cold turkey for a whole week, after that it will be a lot easier to kick it." He looked down at her arm. "After all, you're already down one body part, making lungs is a lot harder than arms I'd wager!"

Aurora laughed. She was getting a pretty goo mood thanks to them. "Well..Yeah we can try. Hm... Let's guess what class are you in, guys. Hmm... What is your first lesson? I have history with Adam..." Aurora proposed with a smile. It could be a nice guessing game for them.
The with would be in heaven if she were in the same class with her former weapons. Everyone would be, right? The witch hid the cigarettes in her back and put her hands on her hips. She sometimes could forget that she has an artificial limb. She asked one friend of hers to recalibrate some stuff in it one month earlier. "Oh, by the way. This mechanical arm is great. I have no troubles with using it." She said to show her gratitude to have this arm.

Arthur would bend over and take his schedule out, Ben would put his backpack on the ground and start digging through it for almost a minute before e produced his. "Nope! No history this semester. My first is AP chemistry." He said, looking up. "Hey, that's lucky! I got the same class! I guess, you know since I'm behind on those subject by a few years we're at the same level. Cool! What do you have after that Ben?" Ben looked through the crumpled piece of pink paper. "I have.... Cooking, then English, then computer science." Arthur looked at him. "So you took cooking as a blow off class or-?" Said the boy. Ben shook his head. "Nope! I want to learn how to bake." Arthur shuddered. "Oh god after last time? You do remember what happened to our apartment don't you?" Ben made an innocent face.

Aurora laughed loudly. "Oh Ben! You don't need those cooking lessons when you have me!" She said with a grin. The witch remembered those beautiful days when she used to prepare breakfast for them. Aurora put her hands into the pockets of her jacket. "Uhm..Ben..I just...Hope...You don't blow up the whole school, right? Please, be careful..You know what happens when you break the symmetry of this place." Aurora told Ben, straching the back of her head.

Ben smiled when Aurora said this, to even think she would be mad at them now was just ridiculous. Just looking back at the times she had cooked for them reminded Ben of all the home cooked food he always wanted but never got, and it reminded Arthur of some of the sweetest times he had with his mom. "Right, yeah right! I mean, I learned my lesson from last time. Don't cook alone, don't get lazy and make a cooking robot to help you. Put plenty of batteries into your robot if you do make it. And no matter what don't count on the batteries to last long enough for it to turn off the gas when your done making macaroni."

"But you'd really teach me!? That just sounds awesome! We are going to get very fat." "Well I'll help you test it, easiest job afterall." Arthur said ruffling his hair. "As long as Aurora's there helping you out. Hell, I used to cook all the time. Could be a new hobbie for us all."

Aurora looked at Ben, giving him a confused look. "Waaaait..You...have..Created a cooking robot?" She asked, sure that it was the worst idea ever. "Lemme guess..It caused a big mess, stopped working, because batteries and then it exploded." Aurora said, raising her eyebrow. The witch put her hands on her hips.
"Of course, I'd teach you! Cooking is one of my hobbies and sharing it with you would be a pleasure" Aurora replied to Ben. The witch looked at Arthur with a smile and nodded. "We need a bigger kitchen then." She giggled.

"Yeah, and it was so cool! I got it making toaster waffles, and bringing them to the table! But yeah, I mean, I maybe should not have kept around the batteries from the last three robots to put in him." Said Ben reminiscing.

Arthur smiled. "Oh I think the one for the home ec class or something is open after school, you know. As long as you only hang around for a couple hours and you clean up afterwords. Oh, you people are making me hungry! I had to spend so much time making my own waffles this morning I don't even know why I got out of bed...." The hallway was starting to clear out. First period would be starting soon. "Crap, we need to get going don't we?" Said Ben looking up at the two of them.