Serendipity ○ All 14

1. North

North used to love the stars.

When he was nothing but a kid moving from one country to the next, doing his best to please his father, the stars were the only consistency he had.

There were times after he took a beating, he'd look up at the night sky and wish for nothing more than to be one of those stars. Nothing but a shining star, but a guiding light to many.

As he looked up at the sky in that moment, all he could think about was how much he hated those fucking stars.

All it took was the end of the world for him to lose all joy he had for those insignificant dots in the sky.

He once thought that no one could take away that one simple thing from him, but he was wrong. So fucking wrong.

When the virus hit, humans started to drop like flies. There was no one to call for help, no one to beg and plead for mercy. Hell, North was sure that even Silas - the only one of his brothers that was remotely religious - stopped praying.

Who would they pray to when they were sure no one was listening?

The fact that he and his brothers had survived should've filled him with purpose. The fact that his Sang Baby survived should have made him feel fulfilled, because who else really mattered?

At the beginning of the end, he was feeling all of those things. If only he could go back and curse himself for being so fucking naive. People mattered.

Sure, he had his team and the Toma team. He had Sang, Kayli and Jessica.

It just wasn't enough. Watching his uncle and Dr. Robert's fall to the virus after the first year made him finally clue in.

He missed strangers. The people he didn't know but who gave him smiles in greetings, or the occasional bump of the shoulders, the hustle and bustle of the city, and the cars that covered the streets with traffic. 

If he had to see one more ghost town, he was going to be sick. He hated the silence the most.

North continued to muse as he skipped rocks across the pond. The moon's reflection on the water cast a depressing picture, but it kept his eyes from wandering to the night sky and stars. 

The heavy footsteps sounded from the pathway to the lake. He knew it was one of his brothers. North's above average hearing picked up the heavy thunk, thunk, thunk, which made it obvious that it wasn't one of the girls. He breathed a sigh of relief.

North straightened from his crouched position when black motorcycle boots invaded his sight. It seemed that his brothers had sent Brandon to calm him down that time. He wondered if they were keeping a tally of how many times North stormed out.

It was silent for a moment before Brandon's words interrupted the stillness in the air. "Calmed down yet?"

"Hardly," he grunted and skipped another rock with more force than the other rocks he threw. He wasn't going to bring up the point that he would've been fine in his own time, and no one else's. They weren't good at leaving him on his own. They were lucky he didn't tear their vehicles apart like he would normally do to blow off steam.

"You're going to have to come back inside at some point," Brandon spoke bluntly and shoved his hands in his pockets. "Luke looks like someone set fire to his candy stash."

North scoffed bitterly. "What candy stash? Everything is expired."

"Who would've thought the possibility of no more candy would upset you so much."

It wasn't the idea of no more candy that pissed him off, it was the fact that there was one more thing the fucked up world took from his brother. He'd never admit it out loud, never mind to himself.