.. (![]() ![]() @ 2018-04-12 19:39:00 |
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Entry tags: | character: anthony troy, character: lochan madan, narration: backstory, narration: log/thread |
WHO: bb!Lochan and bb!Tony
WHEN: Summer of 1997!
WHERE: The March Mill
SUMMARY: Escaping the Madan residence, the boys get into trouble.
WARNINGS/STATUS: None/Complete
The sun shone its last beams as the moon took its place in the sky. Summer could be amazingly fun. Light filled the world for longer hours, warmth graced every inch of land and one would suspect the children could be out later. Not so for Lochan. While trusted, his parents demanded specific bedtimes no matter if the sun was up or not- unless it was a holiday, of course. A promise must be met at all costs, this was a rule Lochan lived for and as a seven year old, this was the time for making as many counterproductive promises to his best friend as possible. As he sat on his bed on the second floor of his house, Lochan waited for Tony to arrive so he could sneak out and enjoy the summer night. Mom was working late tonight. Which meant a babysitter. Luckily Mrs Luther was super old and she always fell asleep. After that happened it was as easy as popping his bedroom window open and sneaking out. Mom wouldn't be back till like morning time anyway. Finding his way to Lochan’s was a well-worn trip. Tony knew pretty much every shortcut and hidey hole between his apartment and his best friends house. Sure it was a walk but it was nice out today. It wasn't supposed to rain or anything. Climbing up the side if Lochan’s house was also familiar enough so that Tony was pretty sure he could find the handholds with his eyes closed. He shut his eyes. His hand slipped and they sprung open. Okay. Not with eyes closed. But he hung onto the jutting sill, bumping his forehead against the glass to knock. Lochan never really acted like other kids, and even less so matching his neighbourhood peers. His father owned his own business and his mother always attended every dinner and threw gathers alongside the man, so when they had moved to Fall City long before Lochan was born they picked the nicest neighbourhood, Henley Park, to live in. When Lochan and Tony became friends was when Lochan realized the discrepancy between homes and went out of his way not to be like some of the other kids in the neighbourhood. Jumping out of his bed as soon as he saw the silhouette of his friend outside of the window, Lochan opened it up and helped him in. The house was big enough that his parents would not hear Tony’s entrance, Lochan still held his finger up to his lips. His mother had super senses, he was sure of it. It was why he always needed Tony’s help to get out of the house. “So, I have mine and my sister’s bikes set out if we want to use those.” He said, the bikes being the only part of the plan he had come up with. Tony had long ago mastered the art of falling through Lochan’s window without making a sound. He was light on his feet and pushed himself up onto them with a bounce. Lochan's finger to his lips reminded Tony to not just immediately start yammering on. It wasn't his fault Lochan's mom always got weird when she found him here after that, his own mom always just assumed she forgot that Lochan was staying over. Bikes. Bikes were awesome. Tony wondered if he could convince his mom to get him one. “Wanna go throw rocks at the Mill?” He whispered. Lochan laughed. “Yeah! Wait, is it closed at night? Because spooking the workers seems fun.” The mill was a large part of the town, but Lochan did not know enough about how it worked to know if they had an overnight crew. He would not have known that night crews existed anywhere if it were not for knowing Tony’s mom worked late often. His world was not closed off as much as some, but they were still young and had a lot to learn about the world. “There’s an old man that hangs around the Mill that I’ve seen a few times, so late at night it might be easier to get people to go running.” “Yes!” Tony agreed, remembering to keep his voice low enough with his excitement. They had bikes so the mill wouldn't be too far away. It'd be easy to make it there and back before Lochan's parents might suspect anything. They usually didn't. He pointed his thumb over his shoulder at the window. “We climbing?” Moving over to his closed bedroom door, he placed his ear to it and listened for a moment. “Yeah, we’re climbing. They’re moving around too much to sneak out any other way.” Lochan grabbed his backpack, full of treats, sod and two flashlights- just in case- before heading to the window and climbing down with the ease of the year of climbing up and down had brought. The bikes leaned up against the wall of the non-attached garage allowing them to make some noise grabbing them without drawing attention. Tony followed down after, looking over his shoulder to keep an eye on Lochan every so often. But they both made it to the ground fine. He clapped his hand against Lochan's backpack. That was always such a good idea, he had no idea why he never remembered to pack one. “I'll even take the pink one.” He grinned bright in the darkness as he grabbed Lochan's sisters bike, swinging his leg over it. “Keep up!” “Oh, you bet you will. I ride my own bike,” Loch chuckled. Usually a quiet kid, Tony brought Lochan out of his shell easily. Their friendship made it easy for him to talk back and the beginning of his sarcastic, if not a bit dark, personality blossomed in the other boy’s presence. With Tony in the lead, Loch raced beside him. Any turn taken or object bounced over, Lochan was ready and willing to take on the challenges. Out of the gated suburb, Loch started to try to beat Tony in their game. Seeing a hill he could fly over to attempt to be first to the Mill, Lochan pedalled as hard as he could until his tires flew off a small ledge and he went flying through the air. Tony laughed bright and breathless as he watched Lochan take the jump. It looked like so much fun, but Tony had a different game. His legs pedalled wildly at the start of the hill before he jutted his feet out, letting the speed and gravity coast him the rest of the way. Night air blew through his hair which should probably be cut but none of that mattered. “Oh no, you don't.” Tony grinned as his feet found the pedals again to speed up to Lochan on their way. It wasn't so far, and it wasn't like there were cars around this time of night. The roads were theirs. Zooming down the empty street, Lochan skidded into a turn to go up a dirt path just before the mill. His heart racing, he closed his eyes to breath in the heavy wooden scent that filled the area around them. Dumping his bike to the side, he crossed his arms and looked down the indistinct path they had taken time and time again for messing around where they should not have. “I think we should find a way inside this time. I want to see what the fuss is about.” Typically the more adventurous decisions were made by Tony, but there was something that scrapped just out of sight about the Mill that Loch had always been curious about. Not that a year or two of recognizing it as a place to go was always, but in the mind of a seven-year-old, it was forever. “I'm game.” Tony's bike ended up on the ground by Lochan's. No one came up this way usually, they'd be fine. Trying to get into the mill sounded exactly like Tony's kind of plan. And it sounded more fun than throwing rocks at the side of it. Walking up to the fence, he eyed it carefully. “Bet I could give you a boost over.” “Then how will you get over? I think we can climb it.” Loch tugged on the fencing to check how stable it was, at first trying to see if they could sneak underneath it instead and then just to tug on it before planting his small feet inside the diamond-shaped holes to swing on the fencing while it still jiggled. “Yeah, we’ve got this.” “Well yeah, I can climb anything.” Tony's head popped to the side, cocky as his grin before lept at it, landing all feet and hands as it shook from the sudden weight. His grin only grew bigger as he looked over at his best friend. “Its my superpower. Like Spiderman.” Handholds and footholds found it was easy work to scramble up and pull himself over the top. “Lemme know if you need a hand.” He chuckled from the top. Lochan held on for dear life as the fencing shook and strained. “If Spiderman was an elephant!” He exclaimed, trying not to fall off. Lochan was not spiderman; he was some weird Dead Zone child- though he could not say that he had ever been in a car crash or had a coma. After Tony scrambled up and over, Loch steadily climbed over the fence. His heart pounded lightly as he started down the other side, but not wanting to comb back down he jumped from the top, landing softly on the grass. Batting the dirt from his palms, he smiled at his friend. “Okay, so where first?” “There's probably been an elephant Spiderman,” Tony added quickly before jumping down to the ground. He landed on his feet, just like a Spiderman should. Or a cat but Spiderman sounded cooler. With a matching smile to his friend, he headed off to the factory. “You did say inside.” Before they even entered adrenaline started to pump through Lochan’s system. He knew they would get in trouble. He suspected they would get in trouble. And by the time they made it to the large fallen trees set-up and ready to be cut down further, Lochan’s earlier question of overnight shift was answered. A tall man with wisps of dark hair sprouting out from underneath a yellow hard hat tapped on some of the outdoor machinery just as Lochan crept forward to hide behind a large tire. “This is like a video game,” he gave off a soft nervous laugh. “Yeah.” Tony agreed as he peeked out from behind the tire. They probably didn't have guns like a video game would. They were just grown-ups. “Do you think we could get on one of the machines?” “Spiderman could, why not you? I really want to climb the thing that looks like a rollercoaster.” Lochan pointed to the metal railing that held a few long logs that went to somewhere unknown. For living in a town with a lumber mill, he had no idea what one entailed. Lumber was not something his father or business partners talked about. Ready to become action heroes in their own internal narrative, Lochan watched the foreman make his round to make sure all equipment had been shut down properly. As soon as the man was out of sight, Lochan pushed Tony forward. If Tony could be Spiderman, maybe he could be something more than the weirdo psychic sidekick. Lochan wanted to be Superman, if no one else. He hadn’t been expecting the push, stumbling forward and catching his hand against the ground. But Tony pushed himself up quickly, recovering as if it were nothing. If Spiderman could do it then so could he! They wouldn’t get caught, Tony rarely got caught. Super rare, like never. Creeping forward, he grinned bright as his hands touched the cold yellow metal of the machine, whatever it was. He found handholds, because he could climb anything, and started to pull himself up. Watching Tony start his climb, Lochan followed suit and tried to find handholes to climb onto the large conveyor. Hands reaching for anything that might bring him closer to being on top of the world, he looked back at Tony with a wild grin. Fingers wrapping around a pole, he looked back to place his feet, but screamed instead and fell down to the ground. The scream startled not just Tony but the old man in the hard hat. A flashlight swiveled over to them with a booking voice following. “Who's there?” “Oh poop.” Tony launched himself off the machine, landing with that crunch of dirt and gravel and the minute jolt of pain up his legs that quickly passed. He was at Lochan's side instantly, trying to pull his friend up to him. “Can you walk?” With a groan, Lochan pushed himself up as Tony helped him back to his feet. “Oww, oww, oww, no.” He huffed, trying to shift his weight to keep of his left ankle. The footsteps of the approach foreman started faster toward them. “Now would be a great time to know how to fly,” Loch whispered. Well more poop. Tony guided Loch best he could to around the back of the machine. He leaned his friend against the metal. If Lochan was seen out here he'd get in trouble. But if Tony got in trouble that wouldn't be a big deal at all. Besides, he could outrun any adult. “Count to 200. I'll be back.” He said quickly before running out into the open, picking up a rock and throwing it toward the approaching grown up. “Hey! Over here!” Tony called out and took off like a bolt in another direction. He could hear the foreman come after him, swearing grown-up words at him as he did. But Tony was faster and Tony could climb. Ducking under and climbing over, eventually he heard the grown-up words go off on a false start. And with that, he started to creep back to his friend. “109, 110…” Lochan became distracted from counting several times, listening to the ruckus of the chase from his hidden place behind the tire of one of the machines. He was already going to be in trouble from twisting his ankle, but there would be so much more trouble if they knew he and Tony had gone to the Mill. Loch closed his eyes and leaned his head back. “It’s all your fault if I get in trouble. You can’t just do that to me… Just because you were hurt doesn’t mean I will be. This place didn’t even-” Lochan chewed on his lip as pain flared in his ankle. Getting back to his feet, he was done sitting there and arguing. He needed to be ready. Soon after Tony reappeared, likely closing in quick to the 200 count mark. “We need to find a different way back to the bikes.” Looping Lochan's arm around his shoulders was automatic for Tony. Right. Bikes. “If I gave you a boost do you think you could pull yourself over? If you sat on top till I climbed over I could catch you.” Tony offered in a hushed whisper. If Lochan couldn't walk he couldn't ride a bike. Which wasn't a big thing, Tony could put him on the handlebars. He could probably walk back and get the second bike. There'd probably be enough time to get home after that. It'd be fine they could do this. Plans on how to ride his bike with one leg was already in the works in Loch’s head. “Um, yeah? Maybe. I just definitely couldn’t climb down. I’d probably break something if I tried.” Loch wobbled, using Tony’s position to help him walk forward. Once they were to the fence, Loch gave a huff. The foreman could be heard, having called for back-up to find the kid running around the mill yard. Shouts and adult words filled the air and more and more light started to spill over the outside area from flashlights. “Ok, it's your left one right? Boost on three. One. Two.” Tony crouched down and slipped between Lochan's legs to put him on his shoulders. This was a great plan, an excellent plan, they could do this. “Three.” He lifted Lochan up, his legs shaking as he stood up. “Can you pull up? They're coming!” This all sounded like an appropriate plan, they were seven after all; everything sounded good when there was even some kind of semblance of thought put into a situation. Loch grabbed the top bar of the fence and attempted to pull himself up. It took a moment before he managed, straightening his arms and swinging his injured foot over the bar. Everything was going to plan. Until the momentum of throwing his leg over did not stop when they needed it to. Lochan continued up and over the fence, falling with a loud thud into the moss below. “OW!” He gasped out. The loud sound of a kid’s voice grabbing the attention of those looking for them. This was definitely a video game now. Poop, poop, poop! Tony scrambled up over the fence to follow Lochan. If he broke his foot his parents would know. Was taking Lochan home even a good idea when he was hurt? He needed a doctor or something. Tony landed next to Lochan, scrambling to pull him up. “Come on, come on.” The flashlights were coming closer. “Do you think you can get on the handlebars?” Tony asked. “Um. I think we need to go see my mom.” “I can ride my own bike,” Loch groaned limping the rest of the way back to the bikes. The moss had been soft enough and he only landed on his side, not his feet. Some scraps were visible in the small pools of moonlight, but nothing substantially telling of their adventure. “I just need you to hold it up while I get on… in case.” There was no way he was going to see either of their parents about this. He was damned already, but his mother had her own superhuman senses and likely already knew he was hurt. She always seemed to. “Okay.” Tony got Lochan's bike and pulled it up so that his friend could climb on. “But you're hurt and mom won't tell cause she's at work so it'll be fine she can patch you up!” The sounds of those on alert in the Mill could still be heard beyond the two boys but were no longer the problem needing to be solved. Lochan placed his hurt foot on the foot peg on his front wheel and shifted easily onto the low bike. “She’s going to tell because she’s going to have to drive me home if we go to her. Plus we’ll have to pass my house to get to her.” “Ok, but I can't just leave you at your house when you're hurt. And how are we gonna get you up to your window?” Tony asked. He kept behind Lochan. If the grown-ups scaled the fence and came after them he could be a good distraction so Lochan could get away. That was the thought anyway. The ride home would be slow, pedalling with one foot while doable was not efficient in the least. The late-night security at the Mill would have a long night after this and a longer day about the security issues, but none of that mattered to children. “You could distract my parents while I go through the back?” It was unlikely to work- again his mother had super senses- but it was worth a try. The back door was commonly unlocked, due to the small town mentality, and if it was locked they had a key hidden between the concrete and stones of the back porch. “You’ll still be hurt.” Tony pointed out as he pedaled after Lochan, pausing to keep from passing him. The grownups probably wouldn’t follow after them. “I mean I can take your dad kicking me out again but you’re still hurt.” “Fine… we'll go to your mom,” Lochan could not think of good ways into the large house without drawing attention and he'd need to wrap or ice his ankle for a little before he could climb back the way he left. |