Astrid Blu: Orion's Curse

Gang

                   
                   It has been more than an hour since Arthur went into his father's office. Astrid and Katherine are sitting quietly in the huge library. Katherine is immersed in the same book she was reading this morning, while Astrid is tensed up like hell. She is worried for Arthur. His father wanted to have a word with him. It doesn't take a genius to know what he is going to talk about. The conversation is definitely going to be about her. She doesn't want Arthur to fall into  trouble because of her.

Katherine seems to notice Astrid shaking her legs as she sits, while fiddling with her fingers and constantly looking at the door. But, Katherine doesn't say a word to the quivering girl beside her.

"What's taking so long?" Astrid finally asks after getting impatient.

"Father is probably giving him a lecture on life. Don't worry he'll be fine. Unless he babbles something unnecessary." Katherine answers, without looking up from her book.

That didn't help at all.

Before anyone could say anything, a sweat dripping Arthur appears at the door. Slightly panting with a small piece of paper crumbled in his sweaty palms.

Astrid jumps from her seat when she sees him. Her eyes widen as he slowly walks towards the table and sits on the chair near her. He is panting as if he ran a marathon.

Katherine raises an eyebrow at the sweaty boy sitting across from her.

He places the crumbled paper onto the table and Astrid sits down to look at it. Something was scribbled on it.

George Ainsworth. Oakwood residence, 22 avenue. Status: Alive.

Astrid looks at Arthur. He was already looking at her.

"He is alive and probably still lives at the given address. I also found about the places he worked at. The person from Earth probably worked at one of those places." He says, while still breathing heavily. His forehead glistening with sweat droplets.

"Great." Katherine says. "But, why are you in a situation like this?" She points towards Arthur's sweaty situation.

"It was hot as hell in there!" He exclaims.

"Uh huh. And what did father tell you about?" Katherine asks.

"He asked me why I never talked about Astrid before, when I was still at Azure. I was damn scared, but managed to come up with something. I told him, that he never really paid attention to what I used to say back then, and that I've mentioned her a few times. But, eventually stopped after realizing he didn't pay any attention to my babbling about school and stuff. He seemed to look kind of guilty after I said that. He took the lie really well." He sighs.

"No one used to pay any attention to what you said back then. They were just so... stupid. Like how your friend Henry stuck out his tongue at you and you didn't know what to show him so you made a poker face and left." She laughs hard.

"Stop it, Cathy." He says. "Well, now I know that you used pay attention to my babbling." He smirks at her.

"You were literally stupid back then. Not like you are not now. The intensity of stupidity was way more back then." Katherine continues to laugh by embarrassing her little brother.

"Yeah, yeah. Very funny." Arthur says and turns his attention to Astrid, who was simply sitting there listening to the sibling, babbling.

"Anyways, what do you think?" Arthur takes the piece of paper and hands it over to her.

"We can finally get you back to Earth." He says with a subtle smile on his face.

"Earth!?"

Their attention turns towards the foreign voice in the room. A boy in black standing at the door with his mouth wide open. Harry.

Katherine hits her own head with the book she was reading. Arthur gasps and looks at the boy smoothly walking over to the table with his mouth still open.

"Why does she need to go to Earth?" He asks.

"Earth? What? Who said anything about Earth? Why would she need to go to earth? Don't be stupid, Harry." Arthur tries his best to keep his cool by pretending not to know anything.

"It's more than obvious that you're acting, so stop trying. You're really bad at it, Arthur." Harry says, instantly silencing Arthur. He looks at Astrid, who is now looking like a rabbit caught in a trap.

"I don't want to include this crack head, right now." Katherine says with a slight disgust in tone.

"Woah, woah...hold it. Include me where?" Harry eagerly asks.

"So you agree that you're a crack head. Good. Congratulations Harry, you finally realized the truth." Katherine mocks him.

"Will you two cut it?" Arthur's asks, putting a stop to there silly argument. "Okay. Harry, this is very serious. So take it with a lot of care." He tried to explain the situation, little by little.

Harry's mouth was wide open as he listens to everything from the beginning itself. How Astrid got into a mirror, how she met Arthur, and everything they know about portals and Ainsworth.

Arthur stops and takes a deep breath after explaining everything till now.

"You know, you can close your mouth, now." Katherine says, and Harry quickly closes his mouth. He stays silent for a while.

The three of them carefully examines Harry's each movement. He lifts his head and looks at the three of them keenly watching him. He smiles widely.

"It's going to be so much fun!!" He jumps from his chair.

Katherine signs and goes back to reading her book.

"No. This is going to be serious." Arthur corrects him.

Harry just smiles and sits down.

"So, now I'm part of the gang?" He asks, with his eyebrows raised with excitement.

"Gang? What gang?" It was Katherine.

"You know, like a gang. We are a gang, right?" He looks at all three of them. Astrid smiles at the boy's excitement.

"I'm already done." Katherine dramatically sighs.

*****