Ryan Aron Simpson[WIP]'s Story

Harper was running late again, as usual. It was the whole morning thing. She was so not a morning person. Her small fluffy pup, Panda, sat on the end of the bed watching her run around her room throwing on articles of clothing, grabbing books and stuffing them in to her too heavy messenger bag, and trying to find her other Van’s shoe that actually matched the one in her hand.

“You know, I love to sleep, but you wouldn’t be so panicked if you wouldn’t hit the snooze so much and actually got up when the alarm goes off…”, Panda said to her in a calm but slightly condescending voice.

“Oh can it Pan”, Harper said as she finally dislodged the troublesome shoe from a place far underneath her bed. “Are you following today or no?”

“If you are going to the cafeteria for coffee and breakfast, then yes I’m following. There’s always someone who will give in to my begging face and give me yummy human scraps”, Panda responded with a lazy dog grin and a happy twinkle in her eye at the thought of “yummy human scraps”.

“Well come on then, let’s book it!” Harper breathlessly said as she swung the door open and flew out at a brisk run/walk with Panda trotting happily behind. Panda didn’t seem to mind mornings so much, she seemed happy no matter what time of day. She was probably the only individual Harper could actually stand seeing happy in the mornings. Well, except maybe Arrow Boy. He was pretty happy in the mornings too.

She flew down the halls and somehow managed to make it to the cafeteria before them shutting down the lines. She went through the coffee area and breakfast line, grabbing a mocha frappe and a still warm bacon, egg, and cheese flatbread. She turned food in hand and had taken no more than a couple of steps when Ryan, Arrow Boy to her, walked up to stand in her path. Both she and Panda looked up to say in unison, “Well, hey there.” Of course Panda said it like she knew she could weasel food out of him, and Harper said it like she would just like to go back to bed.

Ryan grinned impishly at a still grumpy Harpy, who had obviously not started in on her coffee yet. “Running late again, I see”, he said with a slight teasing tone. He, of course, had gotten up in plenty of time to get ready, grab food, and even save some strips of bacon for both Panda’s big begging brown eyes, and Piper’s less begging amber ones. Ryan laughed as Harper rolled her eyes at him and followed her while she stalked off to plop down at a table and dig in.

Ryan sat down beside her, less ploppish, and started feeding the pups the bacon. After Harper had her coffee in her, then he would strike up real conversation. She would be good after that. He reflected on how easy it had been to just fall back into their natural friendship pattern. He wished it could be a bit more, but hey, maybe they would get there, if he got up the courage to ask her. Watching her gulp her frappe down, he wondered what this year would really hold. There had already been a bit of tragedy, a bit of drama, maybe some healthy romance would get thrown in the mix. He would just have to sit back and bide his time for the right opportunity.

The corners of Eros' mouth turned upward into a pleased smile when he saw the familiar lanky form of Arrow. Oh! And there was Harper. Eros didn't know the girl well, despite the fact they were in the same coven. She seemed nice though and he knew that Arrow was, like, eternally in love with her. His grin seemed to widen. Arrow really liked that girl, Eros could even feel it from where he was sitting. It was precious. However, he lacked the confidence to go after her, which was really a classic fault shared by best friends throughout the course of time.

'What a tragedy.' Eros said, shaking his head slightly. The sound of banging tables caught his attention and he turned, seeing Ayman hopping table to table in his direction. His smile grew. His friend with benefits plopped down next to him with that irresistibly confident smile and magazine-worthy face. "Sleep well?" he purred. Eros slightly bit his bottom lip, brushing his shoulder against the other boy. "I slept okay. It would have been better if you were there." He giggled slightly, reaching one hand behind the base of Ayman's neck and gently brushing his lips against his own. He pulled back quickly and grinned, shoving another spoonful of fruity cereal into his mouth. Eros really liked Ayman and not just for his body. Well, his body was a very nice feature, but it wasn't the only thing he liked about him. He was just mellow and fun and easy to deal with. Ayman was the closest thing that Eros had had to an actual relationship for a good while.

Eros looked back to Arrow and Harper. "C'mon." He said to Ayman, grabbing his hand with one hand and his cereal with the other. They walked over to the duo, swiftly sliding in between them. "Buenos dias!" He greeted cheerfully to them. He looked over to Arrow, his hands shooting to the other boys hair. "Why do you wear your hair like that? Your hair looks sexy pushed back." He turned to look at Harper. "Will you please tell him his hair looks sexy pushed back?" Ah, yes. It was never too early for a Mean Girls reference. Now he just needed to work out 'And none for Gretchen Weiners' into the conversation.

He played around with Arrow's hair a bit more, a look of fixed concentration on his face before he ultimately gave up. "So, how are you guys doing?" He wiggled his eyebrows at Arrow and subtly pointed at Harper. God. Arrow really was attractive. Eros was actually kinda sad that he didn't swing his way. Or that he was at least curious about what the young enchanter had to offer in the bed room.

Eros kept his hand on Ayman's thigh, rubbing slightly in an absesnt minded manner. There was some sort of comfort in being near the other boy, though he wasn't quite sure why.

Slurping down the last of her Frappe and looking around the cafeteria, Harper happily took in the knowledge that she now knew or could name a lot of the students crowding in there. Glancing over she spotted Aymon walking towards Eros, meeting her eyes he had nodded and smiled at her and she returned the gesture with a small wave. She could see Evanne sitting at a table by herself with her tray full of food. Harper admired that she could eat that much and stay in such great shape. Looking a couple of tables over were some of the Circe coven, including Ivy, Ryan, and Div. Was Div crying? Harper pondered that for a minute. It isn’t every day that you saw Div cry. Harper filed away the knowledge that the girl had feelings, at least about something, for later reference. She took in a few other students faces, noted their presence, and then shook herself out of her observations. She had been too quiet. Finally having her coffee in her, she turned to Arrow and said, “Alright Arrow boy, I’m capable of conversation with the lively now.”

“And might I mention that if you keep sneaking her scraps like that she’s going to get mighty plump.” Harper said while gesturing at Panda. Panda returned Harper’s comment on her physique with a reproachful look in her eyes, a huff, and got up and moved closer to Arrow.



Laughing Ryan patted Panda on the head a couple of times and whispered to her under his breath for her not to worry that he was going to keep sneaking her bacon anyways. Turning back to Harper, he said, “I don’t know if you’ve heard the latest or not yet, what with you over-sleeping and all, but the Circe coven held a funeral for Thrasher this morning. We all are aware that the Sons of Eden are the murderers, what I don’t get myself is how Thrasher even became a possible target, much less Merlin. They were both outside of the usual victim of choice for them, and both were powerful enough that they should not have had a problem fighting them. So, to me, this signifies only one thing: they’re gaining power, and frankly I myself would like to know how. How does a group go from picking out children, the elderly, the generally weak, to taking on Merlin? It just doesn’t make sense. Or perhaps there could be a new weapon to attribute their rise in power to. Something they’ve gotten hold of that our side doesn’t know about yet. I suppose time will only tell though.” Ryan finished his flurry of thoughts in a long breath and turned to find Harper staring at him intently with a thoughtful look on her face, taking in his words and genuinely considering them. That was why he loved her. The girl had brains. She actually thinks about the things he says. Waiting for her to think her response through, he sat back with a worried sigh, and wondered just what the schools next course of action would be. It wasn’t a matter of if the school was going to do something, it was a what, because he knew Hecate would not take this laying down.




Harper was still organizing her thoughts in order to respond to Ryan's talk of the Sons of Eden when the tabled rattled as two of the sexiest gay boy's of the school flopped down. "Buenos Dias!", Eros cheerfully stated to them with Aymon in tow. Ryan immediately thought that any earlier his cheerfulness would not have been received well by a not yet caffeinated Harper. He chuckled under his breath at that thought before being taken by surprise as Eros started running his hands through his unruly hair. Both Harper and Ryan busted out laughing at Eros' terrible Mean Girl's reference, but Ryan didn't miss the significant glance that Eros gave him in regards to the girl sitting beside him as Eros asked them how they were doing. Ryan couldn't resist making a quick reference himself before addressing Eros' look, "I wear my hair like this because it's so fetch, and we are doing okay, just...you know, talking about the recent tragedy...and stuff....", Ryan's words trailed off awkwardly. Eros knew Ryan had no idea what he was doing in this situation. He watched Eros play his hand across Aymon's thigh, and thought of how much he would love to have that kind of relationship with Harper. With a small sigh, he looked back up at the two guys in front of him and asked, "but anyhow, how're you guys?"

*Will be posted later*

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Poor Ayman had no idea what Eros had referenced (he had never seen that movie before) and did not understand why exactly people were laughing. He assumed that the male had said something funny. What he found amusing was that Eros had decided Ryan's hair was not perfect enough.

When Ryan asked how they were Ayman smirked. "Oh~ Perfectly dine actually~ In fact, on my way here I hear a funny conversation. This girl and guy were talking, I'm going to assume they were together, but one can never be sure. She was all like: 'Baby~ I'm wet~' How the guy did not get the obvious clue was beyond me. So replied asking is she wanted a paper towel. She claimed she wanted more than that. He offered her two of them. Then she stated that she wanted something thick and round. He decided that she wanted the whole roll" He rambled the joke, "But I'm going to assume that since the guy was Asian, he just didn't want to show off his tiny rod~" Ayman chuckled, simply wanting to keep the air light and humorous. At least to him. He instinctively leaned against Eros and never once thought of stopping the hand on his thigh.

"Oh, yeah." Eros said, looking around. "The tragedy." The image of the Circeans' black robes and Dia de Los Muertos makeup came with a bitter and familiar taste in the back of his throat. Oh all the emotions, he was pretty sure he hated sadness, especially sadness over a loss, the most. He struggled against both the empathetic tears coming to his eyes and the images of his sister's casket being sluggishly lowered into the ground. His mouth felt dry. He kept his hand on Ayman's thigh, hoping the feel of his pants would keep him anchored against the flood of depression he was having to deal with.

'Dios mio.' he thought. Now he could feel rage lacing the thick cloud of sorrow. The Sons of Eden. Those human bastards thought they could get away with murdering such a powerful witch. They were mistaken. The Coven of Circe had a thirst for revenge written all over their hearts. Eros mentally shook himself, ridding his mind of emotions that didn't belong to him. That, however, didn't rid him of his own rage toward the Sons.

Eros just noticed the smug smirk on Ayman's lips, so he figured that he probably missed one of his boy toy's dumb jokes/stories. "Sweetie, I thought I told you to stop getting your jokes from the internet." the boy said with a wide smile on his face. He was joking (sort of) and though Eros could be semi-brutal towards his friend with benefits, it was all in good fun.

'Hello all!'

The flapping of wings quickly caught his attention as Helen, in all her glory, landed in the center of the lunch table. 'Hello Eros, darling.' She craned her long neck gracefully, examining the table of students around her. 'Oh what is going on with Arrow's hair? He should definitely fix that. Tell him to push it back. Oh Harper looks cute today. I hope she burned that blouse she was wearing on Tuesday. Someone needs to. Ayman's looking dapper as always, though I'd frankly like him better without a shirt.'

Harper could feel the sadness and anger rolling off of Eros at the mention of the recent tragedy afflicting the school, and of the Sons of Eden. It amplified her own feelings toward it. She wasn’t sure which hit her more strongly, the sadness or the confusion of what Ryan had mentioned. Is it possible they had a weapon that Hecate’s people didn’t know about? Could that be the cause for increase in their strength? Or perhaps they had simply grown in numbers. With this idea, Harper started to turn and say as much to Ryan, when she realized Aymon was telling one of his usual terrible jokes. After he had finished with a light laugh, she found herself speechless, caught between attempting an equally terrible response, or pretending he hadn’t and jump back on her own train of thought in regards to the discussion they had been having. Thankfully, Eros came to the rescue with a gentle teasing of Aymon’s taste in humor. She flashed a grateful grin in Eros’ direction before turning to Ryan and pointing out, “Maybe a weapon yes, but perhaps they have simply gained powers in numbers. I’m sure Sophia has speculated these points herself though, and surely she has a plan, we just don’t know it yet. I have a feeling we will soon though. Like you said, Hecate isn’t anybody’s bitch.”



Ryan smiled ruefully at Harper’s bluntness. “Well, I didn’t quite say it so boldly, but essentially yeah that’s about right.” He turned to give Eros and Aymon a brief recap of what they had been actually discussing before they walked up, and to ask their opinions on the subject, when the lovely white figure of Helen landed in the middle of the table.

In her flurry of wings, and soft clucking, Ryan watched as Aymon leaned over to whisper in Eros’ ear. He smiled slightly, and found himself turning to look at Harper with a gentle look on his face, and she completely oblivious.

Divinia simply shot Ryan a glare but uttered not a word. She could feel the stares of people on her and she couldn't help but to feel a flash of anger sear through her like a brand. She didn't care that people thought that she was the Regina George of the school; Smart, beautiful, manipulative, powerful, classy, and mean. She didn't care that people thought that she was a souless whore of a bitch. But how dare think that she would have so little respect for others that she would not shed a tear for their deaths. She sat in silence and otherwise ignored their presence until she felt a hand on her shoulder. She needn't look to know who it was: Evanne. Evanne was just about the only student who would comfort Divinia publicly. Mostly because nobody else knew what to do – Divinia didn't get vulnerable for the public eye. It wasn't in her nature to show weakness in the face of her enemies. She was even capable of dismissing the slight bit of pity that Evanne radiated. She could already hear Deseronto's teasing when he found out that she had shed tears in public, silent as they may have been. She would honestly rather have him tease her than to comfort her. He was such a dick! Him and every other Merlin with their fucking hero syndrome. But she did have respect for the ancient wizard nonetheless.

Even if he had called her the spawn of demons and devils.

At the nudging of Meg's elbow she finally took a bite from her toast, pulling out her cell phone. It was Audrey, one of her other best friends. She liked Evanne and Audrey the best out of most others, though she'd never say so. Couldn't have people know who was close to her. While they certainly weren't Ivy or Ryan, the two other young women ha a certain...innocence that she liked. To corrupt? No. Just to be around. They weren't sanctimonious and they understood her in a way that her other friends didn't. She wasn't about to propose to either, but she found her time was better spent in their presence. To Sorellina: I'm in the cafeteria – Usual table. She put her phone away and returned to eating her toast with her expression growing slightly more amused as she watched other students rush out to vomit after seeing Meg swallow yet another fat mouse whole, making a show of slurping down the tail. “Don't worry, little one. You'll have a smile on your face within the next thirty or so minutes.” Divinia turned to Meg at the cryptic message, though she didn't bother trying to pry into her Familiar's thoughts for an answer. Meg may be a Familiar, but she was once a very powerful and very old witch. If she wanted Divinia out of her head, she didn't have to put that much effort into it.

Div simply shook her head before turning to face Ryan and Ivy, taking a few extra seconds to wash her toast down with a gulp of her smoothie. “Classes probably won't be starting for another day or two. Either way, we're going to need a meeting. Soon. I'll talk to Odinson about it.” Her gaze moved across the cafeteria a bit and her lips pulled into a frown as she spotted Eros and his latest groupie interacting with Harper and her friend Ryan. She didn't really like Harper or Eros, she found them both to be immature and annoying twits possibly deserving of being erased from the cosmos. She didn't really know Ayman but she knew that he had a smart mouth. He stayed out of her way though. Ryan Simpson... He was Harper's friend but he defended Divinia's honor when people talked about her. Yet he wouldn't approach her. She would have to handle that later. She was simply curious. But her attention was drawn back to the table before her where she continued on with her breakfast, Meg shifting from her human form to that of her snake form. Divinia felt a bit more comfort as the massive snake wound herself around her ward, resting her head against Div's shoulder.