home is where the heart breaks | ondina

[Deleted]

Ondina Nell Weasley

it was the last day of the first week of summer and luke was already tired of being home. there weren't enough people, the conversation could be lacking at times and the talk around table was often centred around the middle child of their family. he trudged down the stairs after waking up, not bothering to keep his movements too quiet because the odds are his parents had already vacated for work and it would either be just him at home or him and ondina. he ran his hand through his hair as he found his way downstairs, keep an ear out just in case he was wrong about his parents being home, lest they drag him into doing something for his sister or something of the sort. he hid a yawn behind his hand as he headed into the kitchen and for a spilt second he wished there was someway to bring the castle elves home with him, because his own skills in the kitchen were severely lacking.

he opened the fridge and pulled out enough stuff to make some kind of omelette, though it would probably turn out like scrambled eggs with bits through it. he dumped everything on the counter before pulling pots, pans and bowls from beneath the counters and he set to work making what he hoped would get rid of the hunger he'd woken up with. as he finished he tossed the bowl into the sink so he could rinse it later, still not totally used to being free to use magic whenever he wanted most of the time he forgot that he could. he stirred, flipped and low and behold ended up with a mess of egg and toast on his plate as he sat down at the table to eat.

[Ondina Nell Weasley]

i  d a r e  y o u .

THE WEASLEY HOUSE WAS SO TERRIBLY QUIET and that pleased Ondina. She awoke every morning to nothing but the annoying twitter of birds and the odd shard of sunlight through her terrible blinds. But, she found herself annoyed nonetheless. And, quite frankly, it came down to the fact that she had so little to complain about. Harper was gone, she had her own flat to live in squalor. What was Ondina to do?

"Did you use my milk?!" Ondina practically screeched as she waltzed in to the family kitchen and found her little brother hunched over a slop of egg and soggy toast. Her pale face was glistening with sweat from her yoga routine - which she religiously performed in the morning. A bottle in her clawed hand stained green from the juice she'd made beforehand.

Ondina relished the look on Luke's face as she crossed the room towards him and yanked the fridge door open, peering at her bottle of oat milk as if she could tell whether or not it had been tampered with. All the while she glared at Luke as if his freckled little face might reveal all his secrets. Having him home for the summer was really a terrible inconvenience. "You're like a dirty little doxy!" Satisfied that she wouldn't have to choke him out for using her milk, she slammed the door and discarded her bottle in the sink, casting him a severe warning as she did. "Keep your hands off my things..."

@luke

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[Deleted]

Ondina Nell Weasley

he heard her before he saw her. he could almost hear the intake of breath to her lungs as she'd opened her mouth to start talking, screeching, at him and he almost rolled his eyes at the predictability of what she said. there really wasn't good mornings in their house hold. not when it came to ondina anyway, his parents might mumble one as they went about their mornings, busying themselves with getting ready for their days but they weren't really a done thing. he stabbed his egg, not bothering to look up from his plate to look at her and he pointed the bit of egg he'd stabbed at the fridge. "that, gloop is not milk. it's an affront to milk." he said as he glanced up from his plate at her, sticking the eggs into his mouth and chewing them slowly.

he watched her as she examined the milk, trying to find the drop that she was hoping was missing so she could unleash a wheezing hell on him. he was used to her though, he'd spent the last seventeen years as he younger brother and he was resigned to the fact that he was the only one at home for her to screech at now that harper had moved out. "well we are related..." he muttered quietly as he finished up with his food and got up to rinse the plate off. he sat the plate in the drying rack and went back to sitting at where he had been. "trust me dina, i won't touch your things." he said as he looked up at her, put on his sincerest face and crossed his hand over his heart. "it's not worth the noise."

[Ondina Nell Weasley]

i  d a r e  y o u .

ONDINA GLARED WITH SLEEK NARROWED EYES at her brother's bland demeanour. He had none of her fire, or Harper's kind composure. He was just a sour teen, with his rubber eggs and his smart remarks. She didn't have much time for him, because he could do nothing for her. It was quite infuriating. "Oh, don't give me it." She snapped at him, her mouth tense at the corners as he continued to stare down at his plate, not even deigning to look her in the eye as she accused him of theft.

When he stood abruptly, Ondina had the overwhelming desire to stick out her foot, or utter a little non verbal spell that might have him tripping over his own feet. But, she watched him instead, curious as to what he might say next. "You're feeling brave!" She drawled sarcastically, heat rising in her pale, sallow-skinned face as his plate dropped in to the sink with a clatter. And then he turned to her, his little skinny arms crossing - he was getting awful tall now, his frame lanky and disproportionate. All big feet and long arms.

The name 'Dina' rolled from his barely broken voice and every muscle in Ondina's face tightened. Her hard glass bottle sailed across the room at an alarming speed before she even opened her mouth, her throw not terribly powerful, but fuelled by her own bruising rage. She aimed for Luke's head. "How's that for noise, Lucas!" She growled at him, the glass shattering across the floor where it fell on the hard terracotta tiles. "Puberty's been a real bitch on you, sure." She snarled, that wavering shade of rage wobbling off her like heat waves, there was an awful wheeze beginning in the back of her throat. Somewhere a clock ticked overtime and every gnome in their overgrown garden lumbered in to hiding.

Crossing the space between them with tiny little steps, her feet deftly avoiding the shards of broken glass. "You better your mouth, kid." She reached up and her clawed fingers shook around Luke's pointed, soft chin, shaking his head a little, her nails nipping in to the skin at his jaw. "Cause I tolerate you at best." Luke wasn't the only one feeling brave lately. Ondina's life had never been more frightening, nor exciting. And perhaps her attitude towards cruelty was beginning to loosen just a little bit too much. 

@luke

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[Deleted]

Ondina Nell Weasley

that had done it. that has pissed her off. he'd low key known it would when he'd said the nickname she'd despised since he could remember but it hadn't been enough to stop him from saying it. he heard the clink of the glass bottle in her fingers and managed to duck out of the way before it hit him, hearing it shatter as it smashed into the floor. "well you always did know how to make noise." he said as he glanced down at the shards. "yeah, so far, but there's still hope for me." he said as he leaned back against the counter lightly. he knew better than to push her. he knew better than to upset her, it was the most important rule in the house, to his parents at least. don't upset your sister. it had been drilled into him for as long as he could remember and it came above all else. it had never mattered if she had upset them, at least not that he remembered.

he knew he was bitter about it. he wished he could be a little more like harper, more tolerant or at least more willing to let the things she said slide off her back but he wasn't like his other sister. it wasn't a feeling he liked, jealous was as much a sour taste as bitterness but he couldn't help it. he watched her close the gap between them, avoiding the glass as she did and he didn't move when she took her fingers to his chin. he wasn't really worried about that, physically he could overpower her in a heartbeat, he knew that but magically he wasn't so sure about. he didn't lack talent but neither did she. "well you know all about just being tolerated, don't you?" he asked as he raised his hand to push her hand from his chin. it had been months since he'd tiptoed around his sister and he didn't intend to start doing it again, no matter what she tried to do to him.

[Ondina Nell Weasley]

i  d a r e  y o u .

STANDING AS CLOSE TO LUKE, SHE KNEW HE would hear the wheeze at the back of her throat. As if she'd swallowed the squeaker from a broken dog toy. She also felt it in her chest, the tightening vice like and dangerous as she flirted around the very edges of an attack. And yet, he appeared unfazed. His hand reaching up to push away her clasping fingers, leaving a red outline where each one had dug in to his pale flesh.  

"Oh, yeah...?" She huffed, her expression unyielding but unhurt. "And what are you gonna do about it?" She sneered at him. He was right, Ondina was not universally liked. She did not need to be liked, the notion bored her. She'd much prefer to be feared. It had a tangible taste to it unlike any other. It tasted like power.

"Doesn't pay well to be liked, Lucas." She drawled callously, turning away from him, the adrenaline dying so that all she was left with was the pain in her chest. She rubbed at her rib cage, her lungs aching like she'd been punched, but she didn't regret the terse exchange. "Never cured me." She shrugged with a dry and pitiful laugh. "You better clean that up." She told him, before exiting the kitchen with a terrible ease, the knobs of her spine and the jut of her shoulder blades so pronounced sickly over her thin sports bra. 

@luke

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[Deleted]

Ondina Nell Weasley

his shoulders lifted and dropped slightly as he fixed his gaze onto hers. "i'm not going to need to do anything, am i?" he said as he listened to the wheezing that was being emitted from her throat as she breathed. years of conditioning to worry about her was making him slightly concerned about what might be happening within her but he also knew he couldn't just step back and concede, it wasn't who he was and while it was probably the smart choice it was also the one that would probably make ondina think she'd gained some power over him. "it sounds like your body's going to do." he watched her turn away from him and he felt his stance relax a little, allowing himself to lean back against the kitchen counter.

"it doesn't pay to be hated either though, hated people don't usually end up on the right side of history." he said as he tucked a hand into his pocket. it didn't pay to be too well liked or to hated either way, but he'd rather be liked than disliked. contrary to what he liked to let people think, he did care about how others saw him and he wanted to be someone that people actually liked and wanted to be around. it was probably logic that was just as flawed as ondina's way of thinking but he wasn't about to admit that to himself.

"have you ever tried it?" he asked her, as he watched the way she moved. he knew he'd pushed it and he'd cop it later if she told their parents but it was too late now. "you've always been to busy hating everyone, i figured you'd never made an effort to get people to like you." he said as he pulled out his wand and muttered a quick spell, flicking his wand as the glass shards shook for a few seconds, the soft tinkering sounds filling the kitchen before it started to weave themselves back into the shape of a bottle.

[Ondina Nell Weasley]

i  d a r e  y o u .

AS HER SIBLINGS GREW THEY INTERACTED WITH her differently. As a child, she was small and sickly, something to be pitied and doted upon so that she might improve with sheer affection and attention. As an adult, it was different. Physically, she had not improved, but their capacity for tolerating it and the way it made her act, had dwindled. She did not like the quiet confidence her brother exuded, the condescending way he tuned in to her signature wheeze. She was not weak, she reminded herself. And he would be foolish to think she would be stopped by something as 'trivial' as an attack.

"Oh, hun." Ondina stopped at the threshold of the kitchen, her back to her brother as she turned her head to give him a sly, slippery smirk. "You think you're worth remembering?" She snorted, rolling her eyes. "You'll be lucky if you make it in to the footnotes." And she turned, unable to walk away from a perfectly good fight. Though she leaned against the wooden frame, her arms crossed, her tired body using the structure to almost prop herself up. She liked to think it looked casual, though. Purposeful.

"You think you know what I'm busy doing." Ondina stated, her expression cruel and smarmy as she watched up take out his wand and utter his little spell to clean the mess as she'd instructed. "I don't hate everybody, that's childish." Ondina shook out her hair and lifted a hand to rub the reddened skin of her neck and chest. "I just don't care." And this was partly true. Ondina didn't care to be hated, but she didn't actively hate other people. It was more of a judgement.

"Maybe if you spent less time kissing arses, you wouldn't be as utterly pathetic as you are now." And she leaned her head back against the door, tongue in cheek. "Take my advice, idiot." She watched him reassemble the glass and place it carefully aside. "Stop doing what you're told all the time," though she felt herself exempt to her own rule. There was no fun in these empty interactions otherwise. Except maybe reporting back to their parents about her horrible little brother and his awful new stage of puberty, as she'd kindly put it. "It's so... boring."

@luke

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[Deleted]

Ondina Nell Weasley

luke shook his head slightly as his sister turned back to him. "i don't give a rats if i'm remembered, i just wanna be on the right side." he said as he looked at her. seeing the way her body leaned against the door frame, like it would fall down if she didn't lean against it. maybe to an outside eye it would look like she was just leaning there but he'd lived with her for the last seventeen years too long, he knew it wasn't for the sake of it.

"surely you know that kissing arses is how you get things, you've been doing it long enough with mum and dad." he almost muttered to himself as he set the glass in the sink. he rolled his eyes a little at her well placed advice and he glanced over his shoulder at her. "didn't think you'd care enough to consider me anything, so i'll take boring." he said as he tucked his wand back into his pocket.

"i'd sit down if i were you, i can hear your body about to give out from across the room." he said as he walked towards the door she was leaning on. he manoeuvred past her so he could walk down the hall, telling himself it was probably better to walk away now while they were both still standing and in one piece, lest she take another turn for the worst or curse him for being a pain.

[Ondina Nell Weasley]

i  d a r e  y o u .

WITH A SEVERE ROLL OF HER EYES ONDINA worked a sneer on to her delicate pale face. Her brother, as sincere as he appeared to be, was as stupid at the rest of them. If she were a weaker woman, she might have felt sorry for him. Instead, she just felt annoyance spike in her, as it often did. "'The right side'?" She mimicked theatrically, her head bobbing in a poor, high pitched rendition of her brothers deepening voice. "Who makes those rules, huh?" Her chin jutted out and she looked at him cruelly. "We don't remember the 'right side'," She snorted, crooking her fingers in air quotes. "We remember the winners." And then she grinned at him.

Face scrunching, Ondina felt personally offended at her brother's bitter insinuation. "Don't be jealous, kid." She huffed, her face as red as it was screwed. "You're just the baby they forgot they had." And she smiled at him, almost pitying before she looked down at her nails, perfectly filed and maintained like the rest of her.

And then he was walking towards her and Ondina was forced to look up as he slid between the space left in the door frame. He was walking out on her before she could, and that just wouldn't do. A thin hand gripped his bicep as he spoke, nails digging in briefly. "Don't tell me what to do." She told him haughtily. "I wouldn't miss you if you were gone." And then she let him go, as if the feel of his arm disgusted her. His back was turned to her, walking away just like Harper. It made her feel horrendously angry. "And neither would anybody else." She jeered after him, pushing off the door frame to go inside the kitchen.

[END]

@luke

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!