The music was loud, and Icarus was high. The gummy had hit midway through the concert, and he was swaying in time to the music, singing at the top of his lungs to ‘Vampire’. He felt weird and bubbly, and he slumped against Jacinto and laced his fingers through his.

“I’m high!” he declared, and Jacinto looked at him with a smile, his eyes soft and gentle.

“Is that so?” he asked, and Icarus nodded.

“Like, really high,” he confirmed, and Jacinto laughed and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

“You’re fine,” he said, and Icarus swayed to the beat of the music, letting it fill his bones and take up residence in his organs.

“I USED TO THINK I WAS SMART, BUT YOU MADE ME LOOK SO NAIVE!” he screamed at the top of his lungs, despite the fact that he had never once been in a relationship and knew nothing of the heartbreak Olivia was singing to.

Jacinto began to sing along with him, and Icarus swayed in time with the music, singing his heart out with Jacinto’s hand joined in his. Olivia was on stage, singing out like she had just gotten the break up text minutes before she came up on stage, and Icarus was feeling it. He loved Olivia Rodrigo. Of course, he would rather go to a txt concert, but this was fine, too. They probably weren’t going to be coming to America for a while.

It was right. It was just… right, standing here with Jacinto like this, hand in his as he sang along to the music and felt it resonate in his bones. Gods. He missed when Jacinto lived with him. He was feeling nostalgic. Neither of them had any idea what they were doing, but Jacinto had been a rock in that time, supporting Icarus through the abandonment of his brother even while he was suffering from the loss of his parents. The two of them had started testosterone on the same day. They made sure the appointments back to back. Jacinto should have been able to start it way earlier, but he waited for Icarus, so they could do it together.

You couldn’t manufacture a friendship like that. Jacinto was the best thing that had ever happened to Icarus.

The song came to an end, and Olivia spoke into the mic.

“Wow, you guys,” she said, and the concert venue quieted down. “You really were feeling that one. Are you all okay?”

“We’re good!” Icarus called, because he had never been dumped in his life, and Olivia laughed gently in the mic.

“Okay, let’s---”

She broke off to the sound of something groaning. Everyone looked up and over, and the large groaning sound rattled the concert venue and made the ground shake. Icarus’s eyes went wide. The…

The C-rank gate.

He looked wildly over at Jacinto, who was tensed up and looking around the venue, and Olivia cleared her throat.

“I’m sure that was nothing---”

BOOM!

The ceiling caved in, and a large, feathered bird screeched to the heavens. It looked like a chicken, but it was the size of a dinosaur.

Immediately, there was a panic. People began screaming and yelling, and security rushed onto the stage to get Olivia off. The chicken cried to the heavens, and then it fell down in the hole.

“Stay here!” Jacinto said to Icarus and leapt over the crowd of people, flying at the bird and activating his skill, Quick Step. He disappeared in a blur and appeared out of nowhere, kicking the bird in the head. Another one appeared in the gaping hole as the crowd began to panic, pushing to get out, streaming towards the doors, and Icarus was caught up in the mob as he was shoved and pushed towards the doors.

So much for staying there, he thought as Jacinto fought the two chickens that were screeching their displeasure to the heavens. They pecked at him, and he blocked it, and Icarus realized he didn’t have his weapons on him. He did not have his knives. He was fighting them barehanded, and wasn’t that like, really dangerous? Did he need help? Did Icarus need to help him? But… Jacinto would be really mad he didn’t tell him he was re-awakened. He would be really mad, Icarus didn’t want to make him mad---

A third chicken popped in through the roof and slammed down into the group of people Icarus was in, flattening them beneath its feet, and Icarus realized something important.

People were going to die if he didn’t do something.

He leapt. He didn’t know what he was doing, but he leapt and punched the chicken in the face, and its skull caved in. Blood splattered all over the crowd, and the chicken flopped over, deader than a doornail. Icarus looked in horror at the blood and brain matter all over his hand, and then he screamed.

He needed to do something. He needed to move.

He charged forward into the fight with the two chickens and punched one in the head, splattering its brain matter all over the crowd, and screams rose up as they were bottle necked at the door.

“Icarus, what?” Jacinto asked in horror, and Icarus gave him a sunny smile, because Jacinto could never stay mad at him for long when he was smiling.

“I re-awakened today!” he reported, and Jacinto kicked the chicken in the head.

“You did what?” he asked, and Icarus dodged around a vicious peck. The chicken’s beak slammed into the concrete and cracked it, and Icarus kicked it like a football. Its head caved in, and it went flying, slamming into the wall. “How much mana do you have??”

“3000,” Icarus reported, and Jacinto stared at him, pale.

“What?” he asked, his voice small and hurt. “And you didn’t tell me?”

Oh… Oh, Icarus felt bad. He felt really bad. He smiled at Jacinto, reassuring, and another chicken appeared in the hole.

“I was gonna tell you after the concert,” he explained, feeling that time was moving too slow and he was left in his feelings of inadequacy. No, inadequacy was not the word he was searching for there… Hm… What word was he thinking of? He wasn’t sure…

“Are you in any pain?” Jacinto asked, and Icarus gave him a tight smile.

“Not right now,” he replied, and the chicken fluttered down and landed and let out a screech at its fallen brethren. It pecked viciously at Jacinto, and he activated Quick Step to sidestep it and kick it in the head. Its head crunched like a watermelon hit with a sledgehammer, and blood rained down all over them. Oh, Icarus was never going to get this out.

“I’m wearing a white shirt,” he complained. “I liked this shirt.”

“Is that really what’s important right now?” Jacinto asked in annoyance, and Icarus looked at the bottleneck at the door. Chickens were probably going to attack them outside. They needed to get out there.

“Should we take out a wall?” Icarus asked, and Jacinto blinked.

“Probably,” he said, and Icarus walked up to the wall and punched it, not even considering the consequences of that. The wall crumbled like sand, and pain flared up in his hand. Ow. That hurt, he thought as he shook out his hand. But, there was a hole, and he stepped outside.

There were white chickens everywhere, harassing people, pecking viciously at them, and Icarus leapt forward and punched one in the head. Its head exploded, raining down brain matter and blood all over him, and he was drenched in it now. Another chicken pecked at a girl, and she screamed as she went down, bleeding from the shoulder. Icarus flew forward and kicked it like a football, and it went flying, slamming into a wall and coming up spitting mad and ready to kill him.

“You should run!” he said to the girl cheerfully, and she nodded and took off, white faced and terrified. The chicken let out a war cry and rushed Icarus, and he punched it in the head. It crunched in a rather disgusting way, and the chicken tipped over like a cow. He looked around at the carnage, people running and screaming in the parking lot, and then he charged after a chicken viciously pecking at a group of teenage girls.

He crashed into it and bowled it over, and the girls scattered. He grabbed the chicken by the throat, looked it in the eye, and viciously headbutted it. Both of them went stumbling away as pain flared, and he charged towards it, punching it hard and sending it head over heels. It climbed to its feet and flared its wings, squawking loudly, and he charged towards it and punched it in the head. More brain matter splattered him, and he straightened up, panting hard. More and more chickens were pouring out of the open gate, and he was tired. He didn’t want to deal with this. They were flapping around, squawking and killing people, and he could not keep up with all of them.

The wind shifted. A breeze blew through his buzzcut, and he turned. The clouds were darkening in the sky, coming together in a whirlwind, and his breath caught in his chest. He knew that skill. He knew that skill, and he immediately ducked behind a car and hid there. The teenage boy behind the car recording jumped, and Icarus shot him a smile as the scent of ozone hit the air.

“What are you doing?” the boy demanded. “Get out there and kill those chickens!”

“Can’t,” Icarus said. “My brother is showing up, and I don’t wanna see him.”

The boy stared at him, the camera trained on Icarus, covered from head to toe in blood and brain matter. There was a sonic boom, and a large crack as Aiden March in the flesh landed down, spear crossed behind him, and then the lightning storm started.

Lightning stuck down, frying the chickens like they were bathed in buttermilk, one bolt after another landing down and leaving them dead on the ground. Thunder boomed, and rain started to fall, and Icarus muttered to the boy.

“Excuse me, I’m just gonna---” he said and crawled over the top of the boy. Whoever parked here did a terrible job. The cars were right next to each other. You couldn’t even open the doors. He rolled off of the boy and crawled through the lines of cars, headed for Jacinto’s car, and the boy continued to film him.

“What are you, a coward or something?” he demanded, and Icarus shot a smile over his shoulder.

“No, just conflict avoidant!” he called, and continued crawling between the cars. All of the chickens were dead, so he didn’t need to be here anymore.

He crawled around the back of a Miata and suddenly, pain wracked him. He gasped, seized up, and collapsed on the ground with a low moan. The boy scrambled towards him, and he waved him off as the boy continued to film. What was it with teenagers and filming everything?

“What’s wrong?” the boy whispered, and Icarus gave him a reassuring smile.

“I just re-awakened today,” he coughed out, and the boy hovered. “I’m still… Owwwww.”

The weed was numbing it, but he was not feeling this. He was not feeling this at all.

“You re-awakened today and killed all those chickens?” the boy asked, and Icarus’s eyes slid shut as he tried to breathe through the pain. This little gay boy… So many questions.

“Yeah… People were gonna die,” he rasped out, and the pain slowly began to pass. The boy stared at him with wide eyes, and Icarus sat up and buried his head between his knees. “I don’t want to be S-rank. I’m…”

A private person. He didn’t even post photos of himself on his socials. His TikTok had never had a single post on it. He didn’t want to be S-rank and end up like Aiden. Aiden was…

Somewhere around here. He needed to go hide in Jacinto’s car.

“Excuse me,” he mumbled and started crawling away again, and the boy followed him.

“Is Aiden March your brother?” he whispered. “Aiden doesn’t have a sister.”

“I’m a trans man,” Icarus bit out.

“Well, he doesn’t have one of those, either,” the boy said stubbornly, and Icarus peered around the back of the car to make sure Aiden was nowhere to be seen. He wasn’t, and Icarus crawled to the next car.

“Yeah, I imagine he doesn’t talk about me often,” Icarus muttered. “I was just F-rank.”

“You were F-rank? What are you now?”

“No idea, it happened today, I need to get tested,” Icarus replied.

“What’s your name?” the boy demanded, and Icarus inhaled sharply.

“Doesn’t matter,” he said as he crawled on the hot asphalt, still warm from the heat of the sun from the day.

“Sure it does!” the boy said, and Icarus looked around the corner and continued crawling.

“No, it doesn’t,” Icarus said. “I do not intend on getting famous.”

“Oh…” the boy said, and Icarus looked back at him.

“What?” he asked, and the boy cleared his throat.

“There’s already 50,000 people in the live stream,” he said, and Icarus stared at him in dead silence. “They wanna know your name. And why you’re crawling.”

Oh… Oh, the media was going to have a field day with this. Oh, gods, no.

“I, uhm, hi?” Icarus tried for.

“They also want to know if you’re high,” the boy reported, and Icarus frowned.

“That’s no one’s business,” he sniffed and turned aside to keep crawling. The boy followed him, and Icarus straightened up to duck walk, dodging between different cars until he finally, finally reached Jacinto’s beat up Honda. He slumped down next to it, and the boy sat down next to him.

“So… Aiden March,” he said, and Icarus let his head thump back against the door of the car.

“My name is Icarus,” he said quietly, intimately aware that he was on a fucking live stream right now. “And my brother…”

“Your hair’s really cool…” the boy said, and Icarus picked brain matter out of it and threw it aside.

“It’s normally red,” he muttered, and was interrupted by the sound of two people arguing.

“Esme? Is that you?” Aiden asked, and Jacinto braced in front of him.

“It’s Jacinto,” he said, and Aiden coughed awkwardly as the boy trained the camera on them.

“Jacinto?” he asked. “So, you’re…?”

“Don’t talk to me,” Jacinto snapped and turned aside. “I’m leaving now.”

“Jacinto, wait…” Aiden said, and Jacinto paused. “Where is Kayla? Is she okay?”

“Well, if you called her, you would know,” Jacinto said snidely, and Icarus thanked the stars above he was misgendering him. “Keep her name out of your lying, traitorous mouth.”

“Oh… So, she’s mad at me,” Aiden said, a bit stupidly, and Jacinto glared at him.

“Yes, she’s fucking mad at you,” he snapped, and Aiden shifted awkwardly. “What the fuck is your problem, puta?”

“I, uhm…”

“Never mind, don’t answer that,” Jacinto said and headed towards the car. “I’m leaving now.”

The car unlocked, and Icarus scrambled into the back seat, laying down and praying Aiden didn’t see him when he drove past. Jacinto slid into the front seat and turned the ignition, before he looked back at Icarus laying on the seats.

“Comfortable?” he asked in amusement, and Icarus stared at him with eyes wide and full of panic.

“Just drive,” he hissed, and Jacinto put the car in drive.

“Let’s go,” he said and pulled out of the parking lot, leaving the clean up to Aiden.

Gods. Fuck. This had gone so wrong.