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((I apologize if I should not be posting this here. It is a RP Ari and I have been doing over AIm and I thought it was easiest to keep track of it here in the guild ^^''))

Ace had been gone that night, but he was there that next morning when Joy showed up for her usual breakfast rounds. He was just then eating the dinner she'd left for him in the fridge.

He was an absolute thunder storm, not making any sort of sound as she came in, but not exactly avoiding her eye either. It was almost as if his body was only on automatic function, but his brain left out somewhere else.

Joy woke on her normal schedual. Her little pink alarm clock chirping noisily at her to get up and get dressed. When she entered the kitchen she was only a little surprised to see Ace there. Only a little. As she went about her normal routine of getting the coffee pot brewing and setting out the plates for breakfast, she kept looking out the corner of her eyes at Ace. Something was so very wrong with her brother. he was never this mad. Never this angery. Or so she thought. Maybe she'd just missed it before. Joy's eyes flickered over the cold left overs her brother was eating and turned to the stone. In just a few minutes she had whipped up a cup of hot chocolate. A special blend of her own that was two parts hot coco and one part vanilla chai. She had even topped it off with a big dallop of whip cream and sprinkled a little cinnamon on it. Hesitating just for a moment, she approched her gloomy brother and set the cup down next to his plate. Withdrawing her hands, she waited for a moment, looking at her brothers distant features, before speaking. "You missed dessert..."

Ace initially drew back ever-so-slightly from Joy and her words, but when he could smell what was there, he stopped that. After a moment or two, he shook his head, "Doesn't matter." He pulled the cup toward him, taking his habitual sniff, but then putting his chin on it instead of burning his mouth by trying to drink it then and there. "It's morning already?"

It did not matter? That didn't seem like something Ace would normally think. Not when it came to dessert. Whatever had happened last night had to have been absolutly horrible. "Yeah. Well, morning enough for me to get up....didn't you sleep last night Ace? Maybe you should go lie down or something for a bit. I could tell mom and dad your sick so they will leave you alone.


Ace shook his head, "Dad wouldn't buy that... Mom's here? He called Mom in on this too?" He looked even more upset now, and now suddenly stood, "I don't want to see her too---I hate them!" His escape was slowed by the chair as it caught onto his pants and he had to wrestle the fabric back.

"Well...if I insisted he might..." Joy lamely replied. Perhaps bringing up mom had been a bad idea? The outburst of anger from Ace was off putting. To say the least. For a moment Joy feared Ace would turn that anger on her. Tacking her in with their parents. She was quick to reach for her standing brother. Seeking to throw her arms about him in a desperate hug. "Don't leave again Ace! Why are you so mad? If it's something I can help please tell me! You can't run away!!"

"I know I can't, I tried that! I SUCKS having a father that's up on the latest technology!" Ace roared back, but didn't fight out of the hug, except to turn around so it was a proper one. He placed his head on her shoulder, "I'm sorry." Sorry because he could feel how tense she was from everything going on and--- Ace suddenly DID jerk away, realizing that he was about to lose himself, "I'm going to the attic," He mumbled, and Joy could hear the waver in his voice too. Her happy-go-lucky older brother was about to burst into tears. He nodded to her, a not-quite-invitation for her to come along, but he wasn't excluding her either. But she'd have to choose, because he wasn't about to cry where the enemies could see him.

Joy wanted to cling desperatly to Ace when he jerked away. She did not though. Sometimes a hug could become a trap instead of a comfort. That was something she had thought of during her time when she had lived alone with their mother. Sometimes she had not wanted to be hugged while her mother was lost in her own self pity. It did not feel the same when the person being hugged seemed to be taking from you rather then recieving. Ace's mumble about the attic she understood partly. Her green eyes flickered about the kitchen as he turned. "I'll...I'll be there in a second..." She didn't want him to lock her out...but she wanted to make certain that her going along with him would make him feel a little better...and what could make Ace feel better then if she snatched all of the snacks in the house and crawled into the attic with him supplied with cookies, soda, chips, and video games? And maybe a blanket to sit on and a flashlight in case it got creepy up there...

Collecting everything wouldn't take Joy half as long as she thought it would. How hard was it to drop boxes into a pair of shopping bags? or rip her pink comforter off her bed? Or sweep the hand held games into the bags before tip toeing to the attic to knock on the door. "Ace? Can I come in?"

Ace had disappeared without acknowledging Joy's reply to him, but now he peeked out then let her in. When she came in, he very firmly locked the door with a makeshift deadbolt and then put a box on top of it--enough to scare the living daylights out of anyone who managed to get past the lock and---Well, give him time to do whatever it was he was thinking to do to defend his fort. He'd clearly been crying already, but Ace wasn't the sort to want to do that sort of thing in front of someone and so was trying--failing, but trying---to hold back now that Joy was there. "I hate them, Joy. I hate them. I wish they would decide to either disappear or stay. I wish they would think for once, I wish--I wish I could erase THEM from off the planet!"

Joy was relieved at gaining enterance to the attic...though now she started to wonder. Were there spiders and mice up here? Ugh. She really hoped not. She'd hate to have one run across her hand or something. Joy'd primary concern was flopping her comforter down on the floor so she could sit as comfortably as she could next to Ace. As he set up his little barracide, Joy had to wonder. Was this typical of Ace? Did Ace sometimes do things like this? Or was it something else? Joy did not think, reguardless of what he was saying, that he really hated them and wished they were gone.

Ace was hurt and that was why he wanted them gone. Something about their parents had made him upset. Was that typical too? Joy was no longer confident that she knew exactly everything about her brother. The only person she knew was herself. And her chest hurt while thinking about how her brother was feeling. She wiggled across the blanket to try and link her arm about her brother. She wanted physical contact, as if somehow that would show him that she was there for him at least. "They really got you mad huh Ace?" She softly replied. "But I don't think you really want mom and dad gone. Why do you hate them so much?"

"He's pulled me out of school!" Ace said, nearly spat, but he let Joy pull him down and back to the blanket, "And enrolled me in some other place and I'm not allowed to go back and is taking over my life and has virtually KILLED me! He's taken away MY LIFE! I...I knew he...he...but I didn't think...and...it doesn't matter, does it? We're trapped!" His words were something between just sad and angry, but he didn't flail around like usual, opting instead to lean again Joy. His last statement was almost more of a defeat than made in anger.

"He....he pulled you out of school? Why would he transfer you? I mean...all your friends are there." That didn't make any sense at all. Why move Ace from one school to another? Joy did not want to speak too sensibly, out of concern that Ace would think she was taking 'their' side. But still...sometimes sense was the only way to speak wasn't it? "We...aren't trapped Ace. We just...have very little in way of choices until we are older. If I had a choice Mom never would have moved away and we'd have stayed together. But they make the choices, not us...but it won't be like that forever. Just until your 18. Thats only how long away now? And until then...well..." Joy gave the attic a small glance while squeezeing her brother in their hug. "We can claim the attic as a Parent Free zone. I'll tell daddy that it is good for us to have a place where we feel we can be alone from the world."

"He doesn't SEE friends, Joy! He doesn't see life! All he sees is work, and if it's not good enough, he pulls stuff like this! He HAD to take me out of the school so they wouldn't let on." Ace made a face, "Joy, he deleted all my records from the past year. ALL OF THEM. Nothing I've done counts! I have to repeat all of that and...Joy, with a parent like that, we're trapped, just...it doesn't matter, we can't live our own life. We can't do what we want. If we're not like him, if we're not good enough," He suddenly glared at her, "If I'm not MR. Perfect next to your MISS perfect, then I'm worthless! What's wrong with you, anyway? Don't you want to live a little?" Ace took a shuttering breath. Geez, he'd just accused his sister. He'd made a habit of never accusing her. "I-I-don't want this."

Ace's accusation and biting words were something she had always been afraid of. Him getting angry at her because he was angry at their parents. There was no hiding the fact what he said was painful. But Joy did not lash out at Ace. Joy really couldn't think of a time she'd ever gotten angry over something. This would not be the first time it happened either. Instead she stared down at her hand. the pretty pink painted nails were currently lightly soiled by the dust from the attic. "I...can't believe....that was wrong. Daddy should not have done that. Going in and changing your records. Getting rid of them...thats just wrong... I know how to fix that though Ace. he can change what is in a machine but he can't change what people see or remember. I am sure there are paper copies or a back up of your records somewhere. besides...if he can just go and delete everything because he doesn't like it that means we should be able to do the same. So he'll have to see it was wrong..." But she was avoiding that last bit he had said. Avoiding responding to the whole 'miss perfect' comment.... "I'm not perfect Ace... I'm not perfect at all. I just....yeah...I'd like to do the same things you do but....I just can't."

Ace frowned at her words, "I guess so---we could go change it together while you're still perfect and fix it and then go---go do something crazy. What kinda things do you want to do?" Her logic had cut straight through Ace's agonizing. And she was RIGHT, they could, so they would. As soon as they could get over there they would. Then they could go out and so something stupid, because doing something stupid with his sister was enough to get him to stop pouting and start scheming. Wouldn't it show Dad right to go out and be smarter behind his back? Then ruin his perfect little girl? Mom would just freak... "They'd see that I'm NOT stupid, and that they can't keep using you like they do." The glee of vengeance was clear in his voice.

"Great. So we have a plan! We will just go to the school now. You can drive. Then we will find the counsler and explain to him that we wanted to look up your records so I could help you figure out what you should focus studying on. We'll say that we had decided to get you some tutoring...or say I had offered to help you cause I have super awsome study skills. We'll mention we couldn't find anything and ask if he could help us. He'll do the look up, find out everything is gone, and the system will take over from there..." And then Joy paused, her fingers lifting to her bottom lip as she slowly continued. "or...we could just...put them back... I could probably....if I used Daddys computer....I could probably find the way he got into the school records.. and duplicate another students records...then just change some of the information....Maybe even tweak it a little bit?"

Ace shook his head, "No, you couldn't. I'm better at computers than you are, and I can't figure it out." Ace huffed, "Dad like---goaded me about it too." That wasn't necessarily the case, but it was Ace's own reality, "There's nothing WE can do, but we'll go to the school. And then, once it's fixed, what do you want to do?"

Joy nodded her head in obvious relief. She didn't think replacing Ace's files would have been anything she could have managed anyways. Ace was right. He was way better at computers then she was. "I...don't know. I haven't really though much...no...that is kinda a lie..there are a few things I want to do but I've always been afraid to try... I was thinking about getting a piercing, in my belly button. Like how you see some of those girls at school? Obviously no one would see it, but I thought haveing a little pink rose would be cute....and...well...I...I kinda...wanna have a date...."

"Well...yes." Joy slowly admitted. Her head nodding at her brother as he would seem to be so very surprised. "I am serious. But I know daddy would never allow it. It's just...not proper I guess. Mom doesn't seem to think much of girls who have piercing in places other then their ears. So I haven't really asked." Joy's shoulders rose and fell in a small shrug before a blush began to creep into her cheeks.

"Oh don't look like that Ace. I just want to try dating...I just don't know what guy would be interested in me. I'm kinda a prissy geek or something."

"Really Ace? That would be so...so...neat! I really want a pink one!" Joy placed a hand over her shirt where her belly button was and wiggled it gently against the dent.

"Oh I really want to try dating. I just need to make sure it's a guy that won't get the wrong idea. I don't think I'm looking for a serious thing. just..someone I can hang out with and have an excuse to wear cute stuff for." Joy's eyes sparkled slightly as she shifted her hand up to her hair. "You don't know any nice guys do you Ace?"