Cherries Jubilee Flavor Binge
Author: Casey
Story: Nothing is Ever Easy (NIEE) universe, Healing (Pre-NIEE)
Challenges: Cherries Jubilee (flavor binge)
Toppings & Extras: Cherry, Butterscotch, Sprinkles (Nicole is very minor in the real narrative), Chopped Nuts (Nicole should have died), Butterscotch, Fresh Blueberries (necessity creates the law, it supersedes rules; and whatever is reasonable and just in such cases, is likewise legal; it is not to be considered as matter of surprise), Fresh Pineapple (The waiting is the hardest part/every day you see one more card/you take it on faith, you take it on heart/waiting is the hardest part)
Word Count: 1,931
Rating: PG-13 (for adult situations)
Summary: Damien rescues all three siblings and...things happen.
Notes: Upon writing Nicole for Marina’s and my joint project, Taking Root, I realized she would have been rather awesome, had she survived to the story. So this is what might have happened if she hadn’t been killed. Probably the first of a series of this AU. Possible triggers: suggestions of abuse; physical, emotional and sexual. For the BTS Challenge (Flavor Binge, Chopped Nuts and 1k+)
1. free speech
Once Damien gets them out, he takes them north to where his uncle, Harry, and his cousin, Joey, live. He watches Resh, Alex and Nicole cautiously - he knows Harry does too - for the first week. They’re too damn quiet. But then, it happens and he knows they’ll be all right, or at least Nicole will.
“Joseph, why in the world do you think I give a flying rat’s ass? Gods’ breath, I’m traumatized, not stupid,” she exploded.
Damien blinks, looking up from his book. Nicole’s got both hands on her hips and is staring down Joey with a flat, steady look.
“But...just, Dad said I shouldn’t push you,” Joey protests.
“Fuck that.”
She’s not quite twelve and Damien would be more worried if Resh and Alex didn’t seem perfectly at ease with her potty mouth.
2. to bear arms
Later, it is hard to say who came up with the idea first. It happens one night as the four of them sit chatting. Resh remembers it as Nicole, which is no surprise. His sister has changed - all three have - but she’s become harder and more determined. He’s just become more scared and Alex is...Alex is invincible and unyielding and it’s hard to tell what happened to her. But she’s the oldest and he thinks that might be why.
“We need to do something.”
They’ve been up north for a year and Carris has been busy, moving into Tira and making a move for the throne.
Resh agrees that something has to be done. “But why us?”
“Who else is going to?” Damien asks from where he’s leaning against the wall.
“We don’t know anything.”
“We can learn,” Alex says and that’s that.
3. quartering troops
Within a month, they’ve quietly moved into a small inn in the capital. Everyone’s excited about Carris’s arrival, excited about the chance for a better future and Nicole scoffs constantly about how stupid they are. Generally the other three ignore her, but she and Resh are the two that find the next two of their posse.
Resh finds Kenz, sort of by accident. He is watching a schoolyard, wishing he could be that normal again, when the girl marches right up to him. “You should not be here as you do not belong.”
“Oh. Sorry, I...I’ll just leave,” Resh stutters.
Then the girl, somewhere between his age and Nicole, smiles brilliantly. “That is okay. I do not mind.” She thrust out a hand. “My name is Mackenzie, but please call me Kenz.”
“I’m Resh,” he says in surprise.
Weirdly, Sek’s almost as simple.
Nicole and Resh are walking down the street when a young man crashes into Nicole, almost knocking her off her feet. Resh grabs her at the same time as the man and they all freeze. “I’m sorry,” he says. “I was...I’m just angry. That’s all. My apologizes.” Then he turns away but Resh catches the mutter, “goddamn Carris.”
That’s all it takes.
4. probable cause.
Nicole sees him for the first time since their escape one gorgeous morning. She’s out for a walk, against Alex’s express wishes, to enjoy the day. Carris is having a rally, yelling loudly out to an excited crowd. Nicole pushes her way to the second row, peering out between two larger people. She stares at him, letting his rhetoric wash over her.
She chews hard on her lip to resist the urge to yell out, to tell these fans how much of a scumbag their future leader is, to just let it all out and show the scars, finally. Nicole knows it’s not time, though, that people aren’t ready to hear it.
He raped her sister, tortured all three of them, murdered countless people - including Damien’s parents and...Nicole leaves before she screams. He will die.
5. self incrimination
Damien watches Resh disintegrate and hates every minute of it. Kenz tries hard, she really does, but it’s not the same. He’s pretty sure the only one who could get Resh out of his funk, out of the blame of having let his sisters fall into Carris’ claws a second time, is Sek, but the other man is useless.
Then, he vanishes.
Damien’s had enough. He marches up to Sek, grabs the younger man by the collar and stares him down. “You will go after him and you will find him and you will tell him that we will get his sisters back. Do you understand?”
For a moment, strange things go on in Sek’s expression, and then it clears and he nods. “I’ll do it. For Resh.” Then he grabs Damien’s wrist in an iron grasp. “But don’t ever do this again. Do you understand?”
The two size each other up for a moment longer before Damien loosens his grip. “Loud and clear.”
6. counsel
Once Resh is back, Sek gathers him, Kenz and Damien for a meeting. “We need to plan this out if we’re going to get Alex and Nicole back from Carris and his little stooge there. What’s his name?”
“Taggert,” Resh says, scowling at anyone and everything.
“Yes. Him. This won’t be easy.”
“And who put you in charge?” Damien asks easily, leaning back on his hands as he regards Sek.
Sek smirks. “You did. Deal with it.”
“I think that is okay,” Kenz says. “I do not know anything about waging a war. Neither does Resh.”
Resh nods his agreement. “Damien does, though.”
“I know how to wage my own wars, not others’. I’m okay with Sek doing this.”
7. trial by jury
Alex can’t believe it when Carris gets them. Worst part is that they get Nicole too. Her sister is strong, but she’s only thirteen. Alex is barely seventeen, but at least she’s almost an adult. She’s been the adult, ever since Carris marched into their house.
She’d known Carris since she was small, they all had. Her father was the mayor, Carris was a local farmer and landowner. It all came to head after three bad harvests.
Unbeknownst to the Solaris family, Carris gathered a gang and marched on their house, blaming them for the lack of harvest, blaming them and all that stand with them, like Damien’s parents. Resh pulls the short straw for that encounter. He’s in the room with his father when they bust in, when they cut his head off.
Alex doesn’t consider herself much luckier, trying to protect an only seven-year-old Nicole.
They never stood a chance and could never explain themselves. It was when Alex learned the meaning of ‘nothing in life is fair.’
8. cruel and unusual punishment
Nicole notices that she and Alex react differently, not that it surprises her. Alex shuts down the moment Carris’ men snatch them, expression quiet and unreadable. Nicole’s just pissed. What right does he have to them? What right does he have for any of this?
Expressing that opinion gets her smacked, but she’s not about to stop. What other choice does she have?
She clings desperately to the fact that Resh and Damien will never leave them there, as she tries to block out the pain, block out what Taggert does to her sister on the bed behind her, just block. Block and kill.
9. separation of power
Almost two weeks have passed since Carris snatched the girls when he makes his move. Damien is all for acting while he’s distracted, but Sek says no. Damien turns to Resh for a decision and the boy just shrugs. “Sek knows what he’s doin’.”
So they let Carris walk into the castle and take it over and, in doing so, accidentally collect their last companion. Andrew throws a fit in the city center and is about to be arrested when Sek steps in, with Damien’s help, and rescues him, spiriting him away into the backstreets of the city.
It’s Andrew who turns out to be the key. He knows the city. And he knows that Taggert, Carris’ right hand and the girls’ keeper, is not in the castle.
Now Sek says it’s time.
10. by the people
It is Kenz who realizes the current of life in the city has changed. No longer do people aimlessly cheer Carris in the streets. Life is not all cheerfulness and hope. They’re cynical. The people are very quickly able to see that things are not changing under Carris’ rule, that things aren’t better.
“Resh has to be the one who exposes him.”
“I can’t do it.”
“Resh, you must. You are the one he has touched most definitely. We do not have the pain to speak from.” She stares him down. “This is your time. This is your chance to change life and make it as right as it ever will be.
So Resh climbs onto the fountain and tells it all. Carris’ men are there and, at first, they try to stop him, but Damien has him covered from one of the windows and they are forced to let him speak his piece.
By the time the boy sneaks away into the crowd, there’s a full out riot. That’s exactly the type of distraction they need and, once he and Damien catch up with Kenz, Andrew and Sek, they head for the castle.
11. church and state
Nicole only vaguely remembers Before. Some days, she’s pretty sure she’s forced herself to forget, because she was certainly old enough. One thing she does remember is actually meaning common oaths and curses, being afraid that the gods would come down and smite her - probably Resh’s fault for feeding her imagination.
Now, she says them just as an outlet, nothing more. There is a vague part of her that wishes it was real, a part that calls them down, hoping if they smote her, they’d at least get Carris and Taggert too.
She’s pretty sure Alex still believes, that she clings to it as hope for a better future. Nicole’s damn sure her older sister, right about so much, is dead wrong here. There will only be a better future if they do something about it.
So she bides her time.
12. life and liberty
Everything comes to a head at once. Nicole gives up on waiting even as the others enter the castle after them. She jumps one of the guards from behind, keeping both arms around his neck. Alex comes out of her stupor almost instantly and attacks him too. Luckily, Carris has gotten slack and when they bring him down, he’s the only one.
Nicole takes his knife, testing the feel in her hand. During their year at Damien’s uncle’s, they practiced, but she has no idea if she’ll be any good in real combat.
Then she goes hunting, not particularly caring if she will be or not. Alex follows, obviously uncertain, but just as willing not to give up.
They find Carris, along with their brother and friends in the throne room. Nicole takes it in and sprints into and through the fray, darting among flashing swords and knives, until she breaks through.
Ahead, it’s only him.
13. the pursuit of happiness
By the time Resh spots his sister, it’s all over. Alex crouches at Nicole’s side, as his younger sister sits on her knees, still clutching the bloody knife. Carris lies at their feet, eyes open but unseeing.
It might not be over, but they’re free again. Free to create a life out of what’s left and Resh is determined to do just that. His family has had horrible luck for over six years. Now it’s time for it to change.
Life can start again.
Story: Nothing is Ever Easy (NIEE) universe, Healing (Pre-NIEE)
Challenges: Cherries Jubilee (flavor binge)
Toppings & Extras: Cherry, Butterscotch, Sprinkles (Nicole is very minor in the real narrative), Chopped Nuts (Nicole should have died), Butterscotch, Fresh Blueberries (necessity creates the law, it supersedes rules; and whatever is reasonable and just in such cases, is likewise legal; it is not to be considered as matter of surprise), Fresh Pineapple (The waiting is the hardest part/every day you see one more card/you take it on faith, you take it on heart/waiting is the hardest part)
Word Count: 1,931
Rating: PG-13 (for adult situations)
Summary: Damien rescues all three siblings and...things happen.
Notes: Upon writing Nicole for Marina’s and my joint project, Taking Root, I realized she would have been rather awesome, had she survived to the story. So this is what might have happened if she hadn’t been killed. Probably the first of a series of this AU. Possible triggers: suggestions of abuse; physical, emotional and sexual. For the BTS Challenge (Flavor Binge, Chopped Nuts and 1k+)
1. free speech
Once Damien gets them out, he takes them north to where his uncle, Harry, and his cousin, Joey, live. He watches Resh, Alex and Nicole cautiously - he knows Harry does too - for the first week. They’re too damn quiet. But then, it happens and he knows they’ll be all right, or at least Nicole will.
“Joseph, why in the world do you think I give a flying rat’s ass? Gods’ breath, I’m traumatized, not stupid,” she exploded.
Damien blinks, looking up from his book. Nicole’s got both hands on her hips and is staring down Joey with a flat, steady look.
“But...just, Dad said I shouldn’t push you,” Joey protests.
“Fuck that.”
She’s not quite twelve and Damien would be more worried if Resh and Alex didn’t seem perfectly at ease with her potty mouth.
2. to bear arms
Later, it is hard to say who came up with the idea first. It happens one night as the four of them sit chatting. Resh remembers it as Nicole, which is no surprise. His sister has changed - all three have - but she’s become harder and more determined. He’s just become more scared and Alex is...Alex is invincible and unyielding and it’s hard to tell what happened to her. But she’s the oldest and he thinks that might be why.
“We need to do something.”
They’ve been up north for a year and Carris has been busy, moving into Tira and making a move for the throne.
Resh agrees that something has to be done. “But why us?”
“Who else is going to?” Damien asks from where he’s leaning against the wall.
“We don’t know anything.”
“We can learn,” Alex says and that’s that.
3. quartering troops
Within a month, they’ve quietly moved into a small inn in the capital. Everyone’s excited about Carris’s arrival, excited about the chance for a better future and Nicole scoffs constantly about how stupid they are. Generally the other three ignore her, but she and Resh are the two that find the next two of their posse.
Resh finds Kenz, sort of by accident. He is watching a schoolyard, wishing he could be that normal again, when the girl marches right up to him. “You should not be here as you do not belong.”
“Oh. Sorry, I...I’ll just leave,” Resh stutters.
Then the girl, somewhere between his age and Nicole, smiles brilliantly. “That is okay. I do not mind.” She thrust out a hand. “My name is Mackenzie, but please call me Kenz.”
“I’m Resh,” he says in surprise.
Weirdly, Sek’s almost as simple.
Nicole and Resh are walking down the street when a young man crashes into Nicole, almost knocking her off her feet. Resh grabs her at the same time as the man and they all freeze. “I’m sorry,” he says. “I was...I’m just angry. That’s all. My apologizes.” Then he turns away but Resh catches the mutter, “goddamn Carris.”
That’s all it takes.
4. probable cause.
Nicole sees him for the first time since their escape one gorgeous morning. She’s out for a walk, against Alex’s express wishes, to enjoy the day. Carris is having a rally, yelling loudly out to an excited crowd. Nicole pushes her way to the second row, peering out between two larger people. She stares at him, letting his rhetoric wash over her.
She chews hard on her lip to resist the urge to yell out, to tell these fans how much of a scumbag their future leader is, to just let it all out and show the scars, finally. Nicole knows it’s not time, though, that people aren’t ready to hear it.
He raped her sister, tortured all three of them, murdered countless people - including Damien’s parents and...Nicole leaves before she screams. He will die.
5. self incrimination
Damien watches Resh disintegrate and hates every minute of it. Kenz tries hard, she really does, but it’s not the same. He’s pretty sure the only one who could get Resh out of his funk, out of the blame of having let his sisters fall into Carris’ claws a second time, is Sek, but the other man is useless.
Then, he vanishes.
Damien’s had enough. He marches up to Sek, grabs the younger man by the collar and stares him down. “You will go after him and you will find him and you will tell him that we will get his sisters back. Do you understand?”
For a moment, strange things go on in Sek’s expression, and then it clears and he nods. “I’ll do it. For Resh.” Then he grabs Damien’s wrist in an iron grasp. “But don’t ever do this again. Do you understand?”
The two size each other up for a moment longer before Damien loosens his grip. “Loud and clear.”
6. counsel
Once Resh is back, Sek gathers him, Kenz and Damien for a meeting. “We need to plan this out if we’re going to get Alex and Nicole back from Carris and his little stooge there. What’s his name?”
“Taggert,” Resh says, scowling at anyone and everything.
“Yes. Him. This won’t be easy.”
“And who put you in charge?” Damien asks easily, leaning back on his hands as he regards Sek.
Sek smirks. “You did. Deal with it.”
“I think that is okay,” Kenz says. “I do not know anything about waging a war. Neither does Resh.”
Resh nods his agreement. “Damien does, though.”
“I know how to wage my own wars, not others’. I’m okay with Sek doing this.”
7. trial by jury
Alex can’t believe it when Carris gets them. Worst part is that they get Nicole too. Her sister is strong, but she’s only thirteen. Alex is barely seventeen, but at least she’s almost an adult. She’s been the adult, ever since Carris marched into their house.
She’d known Carris since she was small, they all had. Her father was the mayor, Carris was a local farmer and landowner. It all came to head after three bad harvests.
Unbeknownst to the Solaris family, Carris gathered a gang and marched on their house, blaming them for the lack of harvest, blaming them and all that stand with them, like Damien’s parents. Resh pulls the short straw for that encounter. He’s in the room with his father when they bust in, when they cut his head off.
Alex doesn’t consider herself much luckier, trying to protect an only seven-year-old Nicole.
They never stood a chance and could never explain themselves. It was when Alex learned the meaning of ‘nothing in life is fair.’
8. cruel and unusual punishment
Nicole notices that she and Alex react differently, not that it surprises her. Alex shuts down the moment Carris’ men snatch them, expression quiet and unreadable. Nicole’s just pissed. What right does he have to them? What right does he have for any of this?
Expressing that opinion gets her smacked, but she’s not about to stop. What other choice does she have?
She clings desperately to the fact that Resh and Damien will never leave them there, as she tries to block out the pain, block out what Taggert does to her sister on the bed behind her, just block. Block and kill.
9. separation of power
Almost two weeks have passed since Carris snatched the girls when he makes his move. Damien is all for acting while he’s distracted, but Sek says no. Damien turns to Resh for a decision and the boy just shrugs. “Sek knows what he’s doin’.”
So they let Carris walk into the castle and take it over and, in doing so, accidentally collect their last companion. Andrew throws a fit in the city center and is about to be arrested when Sek steps in, with Damien’s help, and rescues him, spiriting him away into the backstreets of the city.
It’s Andrew who turns out to be the key. He knows the city. And he knows that Taggert, Carris’ right hand and the girls’ keeper, is not in the castle.
Now Sek says it’s time.
10. by the people
It is Kenz who realizes the current of life in the city has changed. No longer do people aimlessly cheer Carris in the streets. Life is not all cheerfulness and hope. They’re cynical. The people are very quickly able to see that things are not changing under Carris’ rule, that things aren’t better.
“Resh has to be the one who exposes him.”
“I can’t do it.”
“Resh, you must. You are the one he has touched most definitely. We do not have the pain to speak from.” She stares him down. “This is your time. This is your chance to change life and make it as right as it ever will be.
So Resh climbs onto the fountain and tells it all. Carris’ men are there and, at first, they try to stop him, but Damien has him covered from one of the windows and they are forced to let him speak his piece.
By the time the boy sneaks away into the crowd, there’s a full out riot. That’s exactly the type of distraction they need and, once he and Damien catch up with Kenz, Andrew and Sek, they head for the castle.
11. church and state
Nicole only vaguely remembers Before. Some days, she’s pretty sure she’s forced herself to forget, because she was certainly old enough. One thing she does remember is actually meaning common oaths and curses, being afraid that the gods would come down and smite her - probably Resh’s fault for feeding her imagination.
Now, she says them just as an outlet, nothing more. There is a vague part of her that wishes it was real, a part that calls them down, hoping if they smote her, they’d at least get Carris and Taggert too.
She’s pretty sure Alex still believes, that she clings to it as hope for a better future. Nicole’s damn sure her older sister, right about so much, is dead wrong here. There will only be a better future if they do something about it.
So she bides her time.
12. life and liberty
Everything comes to a head at once. Nicole gives up on waiting even as the others enter the castle after them. She jumps one of the guards from behind, keeping both arms around his neck. Alex comes out of her stupor almost instantly and attacks him too. Luckily, Carris has gotten slack and when they bring him down, he’s the only one.
Nicole takes his knife, testing the feel in her hand. During their year at Damien’s uncle’s, they practiced, but she has no idea if she’ll be any good in real combat.
Then she goes hunting, not particularly caring if she will be or not. Alex follows, obviously uncertain, but just as willing not to give up.
They find Carris, along with their brother and friends in the throne room. Nicole takes it in and sprints into and through the fray, darting among flashing swords and knives, until she breaks through.
Ahead, it’s only him.
13. the pursuit of happiness
By the time Resh spots his sister, it’s all over. Alex crouches at Nicole’s side, as his younger sister sits on her knees, still clutching the bloody knife. Carris lies at their feet, eyes open but unseeing.
It might not be over, but they’re free again. Free to create a life out of what’s left and Resh is determined to do just that. His family has had horrible luck for over six years. Now it’s time for it to change.
Life can start again.