As people poured into the house, Mari went away from the crowd, quickly finding their room upstairs. They dumped their bag but didn’t bother unpacking, they needed some air and a smoke.
They looked at the window and found it opened completely. Mari pushed it open and climbed out, swiftly getting onto the roof. They sat down on the tiles and, using their powers, conjured a lighter and joint from their pocket dimension.
Mari relaxed, letting the smoke fill their lungs.
It was only a few minutes before someone else tried to climb onto the roof, two hands gripped the edge of the roof, an old beat-up black boot swung over and hooked on the roof and a handsome boy with black hair hoisted himself up with a grunt, pausing when his eyes found Mari.
“Need a hand?” Mari offered with a smirk.
He shook his head and finished climbing up, “Wasn’t expecting someone up here already.” He pulled out a cigarette from his pants and lit it with a snap of his fingers, “you mind a bit of company?” He gave Mari a charming smile.
“Not at all,” Mari said, “Also, that’d be my room there, so I take it we’re roommates?”
“Oh nice, I really lucked out getting such a pretty roommate.” He sat down next to them without getting uncomfortably close, “I’m Sirius by the way.”
“Starting with flattery are you?” Mari leaned in, “It’ll get you far. I’m Mari.”
Sirius laid back on the roof with his hands laced behind his head and a smirk on his lips. “Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you,” Mari puffed and offered the joint to Sirius, “Want a puff?”
“Sure.” He held his cigarette up and took the joint with his other hand, taking a puff before offering it back to them.
Mari took it back, “Look at us, flaunting the rules of parole,” they joked, “I saw you with a collar early on, what’d you do?”
Sirius shrugged, looking a tad tense, “Just set some fires, burned some things.”
“That’s all?” Mari said, taking a few puffs and offering the joint back, “No juicy crime story? No fighting the law?”
“Not this time,” he answered somewhat quietly, not taking the joint yet.
“Shame, so what you’re saying is that you’re some big soft teddy bear?”
Sirius snorted, swiping the joint from her for a puff, “As if. I’ve beaten up plenty of people and ran from cops before just… not this last time.”
Mari’s interest was now piqued, “What went wrong?”
Sirius stared at Mari for a long time as if debating, then smiled, “That story will cost you.”
“What’s the price? Money,” Mari conjured a stack of $100 bills from their pocket dimension.
Sirius’s eyes went wide and he barked out a laugh, “I was going to say drugs or liquor but that works too, how much are you offering?”
Mari made bags of weed appear, and some premium liquor, all loot from their previous adventures and theft, “Take your pick?”
Sirius swiped the alcohol and took a swig, “I’m going to need to be a little drunk to say this anyways.”
Mari laughed and let him take it, a brow raised. How bad was his story? “Took it off some racist shit, so enjoy.”
“Most times I fought or ran off, even got in trouble for assaulting an officer once. This time… I turned myself in.” Sirius took another long sip of the alcohol.
“Turned yourself in?” Mari asked, “Why? Suddenly regretted things?”
“I set fire to a building that I thought was empty.” He got quieter, “It wasn’t.”
“Oh fuck,” Mari paused. That hadn’t been what they’d expected.
Sirius drank some more and spoke slowly, “A kid died, another one got badly burnt.” Mari put a hand on his shoulder. “And so I turned myself in this time.” By then Sirius had already drank half the bottle.
“Puta de mierda,” Mari said, “You can keep the bottle.”
“Thanks.” For a while, Sirius just drank in silence
Mari stood by his side, they didn’t poke further. Down in the garden, a black girl with wings came out of the house. She jumped around, beating her wings but falling back down every time. Sirius tipsily giggled at her failure.
“What do you think she’s trying to do?” Mari asked, leaning forward.
“Fly?”
“Well, evidently that’s not the correct way,” Mari said, “You think she’s just got her powers?”
Sirius shrugged, “probably.” He cupped the hand not holding the bottle over his mouth and called down to the girl, “You can do it, pretty angel!
Mari decided to join him. “Fly little bird!” Mari added, laughing as the cannabis was getting to them. They lounged back against the roof. “You know, I thought this place would be dumb,”
“Do you think it’s dumb now? I think it’s still hard to tell.”
“I don’t know, just… I don’t do well with rules y’know.” Mari said, “Getting told who’s a bad guy and who’s a good guy by someone else.”
Sirius shrugged again, his eyes half-lidded and drank some more
“It’s why I put on a fucking mask, to begin with, cause there were some people needing fighting and the law didn’t give a shit about.”
“You a vigilante then?” Sirius had the slightest slur to his words, clearly starting to get a bit drunk.
“Something like that, have you heard of the great and mighty Carnival?” Mari said jokingly.
“Never really paid attention to all that stuff, I was never very interested.”
“You should see my fan page,” Mari teased, “but if you weren’t why Ravenhold, and not other options?”
“The kid had wanted to be a hero.”
“Oh…”
Sirius fell silent, taking another drink, the bottle almost empty by then.
“Well that killed the mood,” Mari says.
“Well, you were the one who wanted to wheedle the backstory outta me.”
“I thought it’d be fun,” Mari said with a heavy sigh. They took out a bottle of beer from their pocket dimension, still ice cold despite weeks in there, “Now I need a drink too.”
“So what’d you get caught for that was sooo fun?”
“Where to start?” Mari answered, “I beat up drug dealers, scared the shit out of a slumlord abusing tenants, vandalized a racist’s business,”
Sirius whistled, “that does sound like fun.”
“Just doing what the cops wouldn’t, and making plenty of money so win-win.”
Sirius laughed, “my hero!”
Mari patted his head, “It was fun, but I made a dumbass mistake and got caught by the cops.”
“Boo.” He stuck his tongue out and then took one last swig. Mari took the empty bottle and disappeared the evidence back into their pocket dimension.
“So, how are you planning on getting back down while shit-faced?” Mari asked.
Sirius squinted at the edge of the roof, clearly having not considered this, “maybe I’ll just sleep up here?”
“Or could jump into the pool,” Mari teased, “It’s not that far.”
Sirius stood up and stumbled a bit, “s’only two stories.” Mari stood ready to catch his dumb drunk ass if he tumbled.
“Probably want to pass me your electronics before you soak them,”
Sirius pulled his phone out and squinted at the screen, “my dad texted.” He started typing while swaying a bit
“Is that bad?” Mari asked, “Need me to beat up your dad?”
“No, no he’s—” hiccups cut his sentence in half, “—he’s okay just kinda boring.”
“Well, boring’s better than a dick,” Mari joked, “What’s he nagging you about then?”
“Just asking if I’m okay. He’s a nice guy.” Sirius seems to forget why he was getting his phone out to begin with and tries to put it back in his pocket, only to miss and drop it. “fuck.”
Mari’s reflexes kicked into gear and for a moment the world moved in slow motion for them, they grabbed the falling phone before it slid off the roof. “You owe me one,”
It was then that the winged girl finally took to the sky, another girl had come to her side. Mari and Sirius clapped and whistled for her.
“Was wondering when she’d get it,”
“You did it, pretty angel!” Sirius called.
After a round of the yard, the winged girl went back down to earth.
Mari made Sirius’ phone disappear and turned to him. “See you down there?”
Sirius nodded and kicked his shoes off into the yard below, shrugging off his jacket and flinging it down too.
Mari called their powers and in an instant, their outfit changed into swimwear, they looked at the pool, slipped onto the patio’s roof, and jumped the few feet between it and the pool.
The water was cold, giving them a bit of a shock, they emerged to see Sirius follow their lead, thankfully without slipping and breaking his neck like an idiot.
“It’s fucking cold! I’m warning you!” Mari laughed.
Sirius surfaced and spat out some water
“You made it,” Mari came over, swimming to him.
” ‘fcourse.” Sirius said.
Mari climbed out of the pool, and conjured a pair of towels, waiting for Sirius who took the ladder. He took a towel and dried himself off.
“Well, downer story aside, tonight was pretty fun,” Mari said, “Not often do you get to get high, drink, flaunt school rules, and jump in a pool from the roof of a building.”
Sirius wrung his hair out with the towel, “I should probably try not to get expelled on the first day.”
Mari laughed, “I’m not telling anyone, are you?”
“Fuck no.” He laughed
Mari grins, “Now, the only thing I’d need to make it perfect is some cute guy, girl, enby,” she said, giving him a charged look.
“Got me drunk and wet and now you’re flirting with me.” Sirius teased.
“Am I?” Mari came closer, draping an arm over him, “And would you even remember what we did in the morning?”
Sirius leaned towards her a bit, grinning, “Oh baby I’m not that drunk yet. I’m sure I’ll remember everything we do.”
“Well, then,” They whispered, “shall we get back to our room?”
“Oh it was rather dangerous of them to put us in a room together, what were they thinking?”
“Shame we only met now, would’ve liked having someone like you before, I have a thing for bad boys.”
Sirius just leaned down and kissed them, Mari meeting him halfway.
“Look at us, first night, not even a date,” Mari teased, “my grandmother would faint from the scandal.”
“Drinking together on a rooftop doesn’t count as a date? I’m a failure of a romantic then”
“Does it?” Mari pondered, “I don’t know, I feel a date should be planned.”
“Why? Spontaneity is so much fun.” He pressed in for a deeper kiss not letting them talk anymore.
Mari let him, they grabbed him by the wet shirt and dragged him toward the deck, letting intoxicated minds and impulsivity win, there might be regrets in the morning, awkwardness, and bad memories, but it was a problem for future Mari to deal with.
Ravenhold Academy 