Unsung Requiem by C.L. Stone

Legato

(Joined)

Victor

For a while, there was peace as Mr. Blackbourne got phone calls and Victor, Luke and Gabriel scoured houses for sale on their phones.

At least, Victor did sometimes look at the homes for sale.

Most of the time, it frustrated him. There were so many and it felt like not one of them suited their needs. Who knew shopping for a house would be so problematic?

At times, instead of looking, he went through old messages and photos from Sang, or taken of Sang by the others that they shared.

He particularly liked one of the ones where she was half asleep. Her hair was a little fluffy and her eyes half closed. She looked really cute.

The peace didn’t last long. Mr. Blackbourne’s principal’s office became crowded with the addition of Nathan and Kota, followed closely by Mr. Buble and Sang.

North, Silas and Nathan had joined them not long ago. They’d all taken a lunch break and talked about what was needed for a house to live in. They even put together a list of options to go look at.

A few were downtown. Victor hated to admit it, but the more rooms needed, the more likely they needed a big house, and bigger houses were either too far outside the city than was convenient, or they were downtown.

When Mr. Buble entered with Sang, the conversation stopped. Aside from Dr. Green still in class, it was everyone together.

Funny how a surprise family meeting happened.

The door was closed. Sang at first lingered behind Mr. Buble, hands in her hoodie pocket, head down, like she’d walked all the way from the parking lot like that and realized she was now among friends. After a minute, she relaxed, put the hood down.

She looked around the room, but when she landed on Victor, she avoided his gaze.

Odd. Something was wrong?

After that, she kept her eyes on the floor, the wall, other stuff around the room, not really looking at whoever was talking.

At first, Mr. Buble just relayed shortly what happened, that Sang got her point for Victor.

Victor wanted to say with this sort of timing, he could have earned his own favor back by now, but Sang still needed to learn how the Academy worked. He understood that was mostly Mr. Buble’s attempting to get her involved quickly.

“We got the car,” North said to Mr. Buble. “We just had to buy it… again. It wasn’t hard. We can change the VIN and plate back. What to do with Victor’s…”

“Scrap it,” Victor said.

“It’s not terribly damaged,” North said. “If you don’t mind, I haven’t had experience with fixing a flood damaged car. If I can get the time, I’d like to try.”

Victor didn’t expect it was reparable at all. He’d said goodbye to it already and now it was getting resurrected. He didn’t know how to feel about it. He nodded slowly. “It’ll take a while though?”

North nodded. “I might not even be able to do it. Either it works and we’ve got a spare car to use, or it doesn’t but I have scrap parts to work with on the other BMW.”

That made sense. “In the meantime, we’re down a car still.”

“Now that we’ve cleared the docket a bit,” Mr. Buble said, “maybe we can work on these more domestic issues at hand. We are at a loss of locations to stay. I understand there’s a security trailer outside the diner…”

“Sang can stay with me,” Silas said quickly.

“She can stay with us,” Kota said.

“She can stay with us, too,” Luke cut in.

It was all at sort of the same time. Immediately afterward, Mr. Blackbourne coughed, shortly, in a very direct way that indicated he wanted them to stop.

They were looking too eager to have Sang spend the night with them, perhaps.

“Temporary solutions aside,” Mr. Buble said, “I currently have an opening at my own residence. It’s a single room with two sets of bunkbeds and there are other children present in the rest of the house, none of which are us at present.” With us he meant Academy. “There’s a maid and cook that come in during the day, also not us. It’ll work, however, until a suitable location is purchased and will cost nothing in the meantime.”

Victor was oddly curious about where Mr. Buble lived. And it sounded like a good plan. Sang did tend to go from place to place, which was fine, but Victor and now Nathan would be making rounds. Parents were likely to figure out what was going on. Maybe Erica wouldn’t mind, but she’d wonder about why they were all suddenly homeless. Uncle would be fine with it, but their house right now was still half falling apart, and the trailer on property was small. Not to mention if Gabriel joined them as well soon, it’d be a disaster. Dr. Green’s would have been better, but his mother was still in town on business. Mr. Blackbourne’s location wouldn’t work. Silas’s father would have a problem with so many people staying for so long. They’d be welcomed but again, questions would be asked.

That left nowhere else really.

It was an odd sensation.

His parents would have been smug about the idea of him homeless.

“If it’s acceptable,” Mr. Buble continued, “I’d need someone to get supplies needed, clothes and any medications and so forth, all delivered to the address.” He looked pointedly toward Kota and Nathan, likely because Kota was family lead and knew where to find everything.

“I have to stick around for tonight anyway,” Nathan said. “I know he’s got a flight, but we should be watching the house if no one is there.”

“We’ve got the night shift,” North said, motioning to Silas. “Everyone else should get sleep.”

There was more conversation between everyone about who should sleep where. Victor was lost for a moment, thinking about Nathan at first, about his father, who should be with him for that confrontation.

Then there was Sang, who kept her head down the whole time. It wasn’t like her. She usually, while silent, was wide-eyed and watching everyone around her. When she was like that, listening attentively, she was really beautiful, happy, and adorable. She did it a lot around the group.

Right now, she wasn’t even looking. Victor wasn’t sure she was paying attention.

His name being mentioned dragged him out of what he had been thinking. “What?”

Mr. Blackbourne spoke. “I could use your help here.”

“Actually, I have one last thing to do with him today,” Mr. Buble said. “And it has to be him specifically as we already started together. It’s short and shouldn’t take long.” He checked in with direct eye contact with Victor. “Our librarian friend.”

Of course. Mitch. He’d nearly forgotten. There were a few steps to help make sure things would go smoothly.

“If anyone else would like to join us…” Mr. Buble paused, allowing anyone to speak.

It was Sang that jumped in quickly. “I will,” she said.

Before anyone else could react, Mr. Buble nodded and with his head titled back just a little, he motioned with an open palm in the general direction of outside. “I’ll be accompanying you two the whole time. Everyone else will have to make arrangements for you in your stead.” He changed his attention to Kota. “I trust in you for that.”

“Of course,” he said.

No one else seemed to notice, but it was Mr. Blackbourne whose attention had shifted.

Falling right on Sang. Watching her. Studying.

Victor’s attention went between the two. Mr. Blackbourne seemed curious. Sang was still not really looking at anyone, but she’d picked her head up at least.

Slowly, Mr. Blackbourne’s gaze shifted, until it landed on Victor.

Victor wordlessly lifted an eyebrow. While the others talked around them, he was silently asking Mr. Blackbourne, Is something wrong with her? What happened?

Mr. Blackbourne’s also silent reply was very clear: I don’t know, but you better find out.