Sides of a Mirror

11- Found At Last

Alright, these next two chapters are the individual Reverence sequence. Basically, ish gets serious between ships (not telling you the ones not obvious yet. You can ask, but I make no promises!) And friendships too. Let's get to it!

Aquarius was chatting merrily with thus girl named Aries Embross, who'd just joined the basketball team a few days ago. She had fiery red hair and ruby red eyes, with a remarkably pale complexion to match. She was bright and cheery when outside of sports, but was aggressive when she was playing. It seemed Aries had two sides; bubbly, and way to competitive. There was no in between. At all.
Aquarius really liked Aries, she was friendly and a good sport. Also, she was great to have on your team, but an absolute pain when she wasn't.
"Hey Aqua!" Draco piped curiously, "what do you think will be the outcome of tomorrow's game?"
"With Aries?" Aquarius chuckled, "we literally have a god on pur team! I mean, have you seen her play?" Draco laughed light heartedly.
"What's with the praise, huh? She just joined!" Aquarius rolled his eyes.
"Still though..." Cygnus spoke up now, having listened to the conversation for the last few minutes.
"I believe personally she has plenty of potential. Aquarius is right, we have an excellent player on our team, albeit inexperienced." He smiled in his usual composed manner.
"Thank you!" Aquarius hollered, winking at Draco playfully.
"Whatever! Anyway, here she comes now." True to his word, Aries was scooting towards them with a determined look written on her face.
"Ready for the game, boys?" She asked, eyes burning with fiery determination.
They all answered simultaneously, "Yep!" Before running off to change.

"To your left!" Aries shouted. Aquarius darted over to the opposing teammate before she could be passed to. Aries inched towards the net, pounding the ball on the floor so she could shoot. Just then, one of the opposing team's defenders accidentally slammed into her, and she shrieked in pain before her knees buckled and she collapsed on the ground. Hard.
"Aries, holy sh*t!" Aquarius yelled as he raced over to his fallen teammate. He hardly heard the coach's whistle for a foul as he crouched over her. "What the hell happened?" Aries tried to sit up, only to screech again as she fell back down, her face contorted in pain.
"I-" she gasped for air, "-fell!"
"Yeah, I can see that!" Aquarius did not know why he was acting like this! He cared about Aries, sure, but something seemed wrong...
Gently as he could, Aquarius rolled Aries onto her stomach, immediately regretting it as she hissed in pain.
"Sorry!" He apologized. Dang it! Aquarius hoped dearly Aries wouldn't be to embarrassed, and lifted the back of her shirt. She made a little surprised sound, but otherwise didn't protest. Aquarius stared at the deep red scars that lacerated her back. Who would've done this? He was mad. Beyond mad, actually. Aquarius couldn't believe that his energetic friend would have scars like these. And these were no ordinary scars either. They were made by a weapon, a lash of some sort. Who in their right mind even owned one of those? Much less used them on a teenager!
"Aries," he growled, "Who. Did. This." Aries was hesitant. Her breath seemed caught in her throat as she struggled to contain her surprise at his discovery.
"Tell me. Please!" She gave a sigh.
"Wait, I need to talk to you somewhere private..." Aquarius nodded, carefully lifting up his injured friend and half carried her to the courtyard. There, he took her to one of the concealed flower patches, and set her down.
Aries took a deep breath, clearly fighting tears. She turned to him, ruby eyes full of crystal droplets. "I..." She began, taking another shaky breath, "I have a very bad home life." Aquarius put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, eyes filled with concern. He wondered vaguely why she was telling him about something this private, but it didn't really matter.
"Go on, I'm listening." He coaxed gently.
"My mother... She started drinking many years ago, after my father left. At first, she'd lock herself in her room until she was sober, but when Leo turned twelve..." She paused. Leo? Does she mean that choir kid? Are they... Siblings? Still, he remained silent out of respect. And pity too, "It got worse, so much worse!" Tears now flowed freely from her eyes, splashing onto her hands and clothes. Even more concerned, Aquarius scooted closer to her and put his arm around her. She continued, though her voice has choked by sobs.
"She started to hit us, to scream and shout vile things at us! We didn't know why or how, but she did anyway! Only Leo was spared, and she hated that, bless her soul! I wanted our dad to come back, but he never did..." Aquarius didn't know what to think. All this time, he'd never known there were people like that! He'd always believed those instances could never happen to anyone, and yet here he was. Listening to someone who'd experienced just that. Oh my god! It was horrible! Aries was almost screaming now, both alarming and further concerning Aquarius. He could tell she was on the edge of having a mental breakdown in front of him.
Instinctively, Aquarius put a finger to her lips, shushing her gently. "It's okay, now I understand." Aries sniffled, her breaths still shuddering.
"Understand what?"
"You. I get you now." He smiled kindly at her, "thank you for telling me. I know it was hard." She nodded miserably. He motioned his arms, trying to ask if she was alright with a hug. Instead of responding, she threw herself into his arms, wordlessly sobbing. He wrapped his arms around her, gently stroking her hair.
"Shh, shh. It's alright, it's okay. You're safe here. You're safe." Her sobs quieted, muffled by his shirt. She looked up at him, eyes glistening with still present tears.
"I promise, Aries, that you will be safe here no matter what. I swear on my life!" Wow! I've never said that before!
It doesn't matter. I'll protect her.
No matter what.