Alone Together: Chapter 1 (Harper and Nataliya's POV)

## Natalyia's POV

There comes a time in every girls life, when she needs to gain confidence, and fight for the rights she believes in. She needs to take all measures to conquer the oppositions and reap the rewards. I, was conquering my opposer.

"Harper! Give me the remote, I want to put something else on!"

My friend Harper was laying on the couch, covered in a mound of blankets and clutching the remote in her hand. Her brown hair rested around her shoulders as shifted to a more comfortable position.

"Nooo I wanna keep watching this!" She insisted. I grumbled and stood up to walk behind her towards the kitchen, and when passing the couch, I snatched the remote from her hand and jumped back into my chair.

"Hey!" She yelled, tearing off her blankets and bounding after me."

I laughed and jumped behind my sofa chair and pressed the button to change the channel. Nature documentaries. Booooring. Dodging Harper again I held the remote high and switched the channel. Murder mysteries. Eh.

"Nataliya gimme the remooooote," Harper said as she tried to reach for the remote I was holding off in the other hand.

"Nuh uh," I replied, pushing her away. She grumbled and tried to reach some more, but I was dodging her snatching attempts. She reached once more and I topled over, pressing the channel button one last time before she grabbed the remote from me.

"Ha ha!" She laughed in triumph, her hazel eyes sparkling. I frowned, sticking my tounge out at her and she laughed again before staring at the TV quizzically. I had apparently flipped on the news channel.

"Breaking News!" The reporter started to say, "The King and Queen of Switzerland have just passed a law that outlaws all demigods from the country. They have sent out a search to look for these individuals to capture and banish them from the country. Let's take a look at the court room right now to see the action."

The news screen shiffted to the court room where we saw the King and Queen signing official documents. I glanced at Harper quizzically who looked just as confused.

"What's the deal with demigods?" I wondered aloud. "What'd they do so bad to get outlawed?" Harper shrugged in confusion as she stood up from where we had tackled each other on the floor. At that moment, our guardian Aarav walked in looking perplexed.

I greeted him, "Hey Aarav! Everything okay?" He nodded and stared towards the tv, biting his lip in deep thought. I glanced at Harper who frowned.

"Whats wrong?" Harper asked him, shutting her tv off.

"I have just recieved word from my work. I am being transferred immediately to the headquarters upstate. They have already procured us a house. You need only pack your belongings, the rest the house will have."

Harper and I sat there for a second, processing this and then we nodded and headed upstairs to our room.

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"Well that was sudden," Harper noted.

I muttered a "mhm" as I started to pack my clothes. This wasnt something new for us, we both have been on the move for as long as we can remember. Before Aarav became our guardian, we both were being thrown between different places. Our mothers died when we were very young and we both were never in contact with our fathers, so we never had a real family or a real home. We hadn't met each other untill we both were placed under Aarav's care three years ago. Since then, Aarav's job has caused us to move quite a lot, but at least we all move together. I appreciate our little family, it provides so much more stability, and Aarav is amazing.

"We go again," I said with a smile. Harper grinned a little.

"Its kind of fun actually," Harper said. "The adventure, always going new places. It was tough before when I had no one to go with, but now its fun."

"Exactly what I was thinking," I said.

"I Wonder what the new house will look like," she said. I chuckled and decided to make a big joke about it.

"I bet it will be HUUUUGE with a big open area and a huge bedroom for us to share. And there will be a pool and a game room and a big kitchen and a REEEEALY BIG tv. Actually, two tvs! One for you and one for me so we dont fight anymore."

Harper laughed aloud, "Haha betcha ten franc that won't happen though."

I laughed and turned to close up my suitcase. I saw the framed picture of my mom on the nightstand beside my bed. I dont remember a lot about her, she had bright red hair like me and smiled a lot. I just remember her being a generally very happy person. Then one day...she was gone and some people came and told me they we're going to take care of me. Then a little while later more people came and took me somewhere else, and I was passed around for the majority of my childhood. I sighed at the picture and gently tucked it on top of my clothes before zipping up my suitcase. Harper finished her packing too and hauled it off her bed with a grunt.

"All set?" I asked.

"Yeparoo," she said. So we picked up our bags, and took them downstairs to where Aarav was waiting.

## Harper's POV

My life has been a very interesting one.

Many different things have happened to me throughout the years, but until this day, I’ve never expected it to be this interesting. There have been times where innocent people are trying to live their lives in peace, when people of bad intentions come along and wreck that. That’s why I fight back. That’s why I fought back. Especially now.

I was enjoying my life as a typical teenager, when all of a sudden, my friend decided to try and pull the television remote from my hand in the middle of my action show.

"Harper! Give me the remote, I want to put something else on!" Nataliya yelled, her green eyes gleaming with greed.

"Nooo I wanna keep watching this!" I insisted. Nataliya made a nearly inaudible grumble, and stood up. She seemed to be retreating to the kitchen. Her multicolored reddish hair was pulled back into a short ponytail, and the blond strip hung loose. Walking behind me, she unexpectedly grabbed the remote from my hands and bounded back to her chair, wearing a smug grin.

"Hey!" I yelled, ripping off my mound of blankets. I saw her laugh and jump behind the chair. She must’ve changed the channel, because right as Tanner, the main character, stabbed the mega villain in the head with a butcher’s knife, it switched to an old man saying something boring about pollination. And that’s when I struck. I lunged to tackle her, but she rolled to the side. Maybe time to try verbal insistence.

"Nataliya gimme the remooooote," I said with great eloquence. When she wouldn’t give in, I grabbed for the remote. Nataliya used the classic old trick of raising it in the air away from me, while holding me off with her other arm.

"Nuh uh," She replied. As she tried to shove me away, I muttered “darn it you hibsnibbler” under my breath. I reached out for the remote, extending my arm as far as it would go. Nataliya struggled to shove me back, but I continuously grabbed at it. Using my weight to shove her, I reached up for the remote.

Nataliya fell down onto her side, but not before pressing the channel button again. I partially stood up, grabbing the remote from her hand.

"Ha ha!" I announced my great victory in this one on one battle. Nataliya made a frown, sticking her tongue out like a child. I laughed, rubbing my pvp-prowess in. Then we both turned to see what channel the tv was now on. It was a news channel, which we hardly watch.

"Breaking News!" The reporter said, using that classic cliché phrase. "The King and Queen of Switzerland have just passed a law that outlaws all demigods from the country. They have sent out a search to look for these individuals to capture and banish them from the country. Let's take a look at the court room right now to see the action."

What the what? The screen showed the live camera feed of the king and queen signing some boring papers. Nataliya glanced over at me.

"What's the deal with demigods?" She asked. "What'd they do so bad to get outlawed?"

I shrugged, and finally stood up, to move over to my spot on the couch to return to watching my TV idol maliciously stab some creeps. I heard footsteps from the hallway that led to the bedroom of our guardian, Aarav. He was wearing grey sweatpants and a white t-shirt. He hadn’t put his thick black hair up yet, so it hung down to the middle of his shoulders, where he had it cut last. He stared at the tv, which was still on the news channel with a very confused look. Then he looked at Nataliya and I, and back at the tv. Natalyia greeted him,

"Hey Aarav! Everything okay?" He nodded and stared towards the tv, biting his lip in deep thought. Nataliya glanced at me and I frowned.

"Whats wrong?" I asked him, shutting the tv off.

"I have just recieved word from my work. I am being transferred immediately to the headquarters upstate. They have already procured us a house. You need only pack your belongings, the rest the house will have."

Nataliya and I sat there for a second, processing this and then we nodded and headed upstairs to our room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Well that was sudden," I thought aloud. Nataliya responded with a simple

“mhm."

I took clothes from my dresser, and started piling them onto my bed. It wasn’t much of a pile, since we didn’t have that many clothes. Its not like we’re poor, Aarav has a good job. But with his job, we’re constantly moving. We’ve been doing this since I was about eleven. Until then, I lived with my mom. She was… an interesting person, at least from what I remember about her. I know she has, or had, long wavy brown hair. Her eyes were a deep bluish green that twinkled. She had the kindest face, but her heart wasn’t exactly the same.

"We go again," Nataliya said, breaking me away from my thoughts. I offered a small grin in response.

"Its kind of fun actually," I admitted. "The adventure, always going new places. It was tough before when I had no one to go with, but now its fun."

"Exactly what I was thinking," she replied.

"I wonder what the new house will look like," I said.

Nataliya chuckled. "I bet it will be HUUUUGE with a big open area and a huge bedroom for us to share. And there will be a pool and a game room and a big kitchen and a REEEEALY BIG tv. Actually, two tvs! One for you and one for me so we dont fight anymore."

The thought made me laugh. "Haha betcha ten franc that won't happen though."

Nataliya went to close her suitcase, then looked at the the framed picture of her mom. I knit my eyebrows together. I don’t know a lot about her mom, but I know Nataliya didn’t know her for as long as I did. I shook my head, continuing to pack my clothes. I lifted up a hoodie, many sizes too big. I remember my first night under Aarav’s guardianship.

Since I could remember, I’ve had nightmares. Or at least very vivid or unpleasant dreams. I was too terrified to go to sleep, and since then I’ve failed to return the hoodie to Aarav. I’ve never met my dad, nor do I know who he is, but Aarav has been that for me. And boy am I glad its not him and some foster care creep. I finished packing at around the same time as Nataliya, and I managed to zip up my suitcase.

"All set?" she asked.

"Yeparoo," I grinned. I shifted my suitcase to a position easier to carry. And together, we walked down the stairs where Aarav would be waiting.

He has always waited for us no matter what, and always will.