𝗺𝗶𝗱𝗻𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻 || 𝗷𝗷 𝗺𝗮𝘆𝗯𝗮𝗻𝗸

- runaways -

Melia quickly turns to look at the screen, JJ comes over and so does Kiara.

"It's the Royal Merchant.." JB whispers, looking up at his sister with a massive smile.

"Dad- Dad was right?!" Melia beams, she didn't even care about the storm now.

Her dad was right.

JJ wraps his arms around Melia, pulling her in for an excited hug. She giggles and smiles into his chest.

"Holy shit, Lia!" JJ exclaims, smiling and squeezing her tighter.

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There's a moment in every kids life, where you feel like anything's possible.

When you feel like you've got the total mojo.

You could, I don't know, free-climb El Capitan, land on Mars... Or uh- get elected as president!

The whole world's there for the taking if you've got the sack to go for it.

And the suddenly, when you least expect it, some Kook shows up and tells you there's no eternal mystery.

And then all that talk about free-climbing and mars and the president? Bullshit.

Magic gets cancer and dies.

—————————————————

They've been driving around for a while now, trying to see the gold that would've been left on the merchant. Melia had completely zoned out, she thought this would've been amazing. Not whatever the fuck this shit show is.

"It's not there. Look, just- just pull the drone up." She hears her brother snap.

Thunder rumbles once again in the distance and she flinches slightly, looking up to the clouds through one of the windows.

"Don't listen, Lia." JJ says, smiling at her softly, gesturing for her to come over to him.

She wanders over, resting her head on his shoulder with a shaky sigh. He wraps his arm around her waist and rubs comforting circles onto her skin.

She hiccups slightly as a few, small tears fall.

No dad, no gold, no nothing.

"Hey, it's okay.." He whispers, kissing the top of her hair, trying to hide his own disappointment. He swaps from holding her waist to full on hugging her.

"It'll be okay.."

She nods, swallowing the lump in her throat and quickly wiping her tears. She rubs her eyes and just lays back onto his shoulder.

Pope glances inside at the two, and looks back at everybody else's disappointed faces. He looks at JJ.

"Look, we can do another pass. R-Recharge the battery..?" JJ suggests, rubbing his forehead.

"We can- we can go back down!"

"We've done it three times. There's nothing there!" Pope yells, shaking his head.

Melia pulls her head up from JJ's shoulder and wanders lifelessly over to her brother.

"Shut up!" Kie yells, gesturing for Pope to stop.

"What?! It's true!"

"The- the gold could be buried! We don't know." She yells, running her hand through her hair.

Melia chokes out a small sob, hugging her brother who also had tears running down his face. She lays her head into his chest, trying to hold in her tears.