Chapter Text
So, the mystery had been solved. Here’s what happened.
At the beginning of tenth grade, Lee Ping was sent to detention for an entire year after pulling off the biggest prank in highschool history. However, he didn’t do it. With the help of his friends Camillo, Holger, Tina, Brandy, and Biffy (though he refused to admit Lee and him were friends), they uncovered that it was actually Vice Principal Victoria and his former classmate Lynch Webber who set it up as an elaborate scheme to get Principal Barrage fired and to usurp the title of principal in order to run some crazy mind control experiments on the students. But, during the school dance, the Parent’s Council came in and took VP Victoria away, and used her tech to erase everyone’s memory of the event (Everyone except Lee and Biffy, that is).
However, things only got crazier, as it was discovered that Kimmie’s mom and the rest of the Parent’s Council were trying to unlock a pyramid under the school to find its secrets and gain its powers. Meanwhile, an ancient Tazzelwurm-man called His Emminence was using them in order to free his people and reclaim the land for his reptilian people. Along the way, they discovered all the teachers were clones of geniuses from long ago, except his mom who was a clone of herself, as well as the old principal before Barrage, and that everyone from Mann, Wurst, and Finnwhich, including his family, the Pings, were all involved long ago, and that Lee was some kind of “chosen one”, and that he held some secret powers because of His Eminence marking his bloodline during Alexander Nigma’s Time. After a long, tough battle, almost dying at least ten times in the span of one hour, and several plan reveals later, the baddies were all defeated. Kimmie’s mom and the Principal(s) were detained, and Barrage took control of the school once again, spending a week to clean the place up, giving the students all a week off to recuperate (to everyone’s surprise).
Did that mean that everything went right back to normal? Not really, but it was certainly more normal than it was when the Big Prank happened.
The first week of returning to school, Principal Barrage (reluctantly) released him from his year-long detention sentence (as repayment for his bravery or something), and his moms decided to unground him, both of which were quite cool. Oh, and yeah, he now has two moms, as in both his clone mom and his real mom, one of whom lives in the school. And his long-lost brother, The Serpent, AKA Li Ping (wow, his parents really wanted that name), who was kidnapped from his family at a very young age by his own classmate’s mother , now has a room in their home where he sometimes chooses to stay (but he mostly stays at his casino where he feels comfortable). And, yeah, he can’t quite look his dad in the eye anymore after learning about the whole “cursed bloodline” thing, but they still talk (mostly during dinner).
But besides all of that , his life has become perfectly, practically normal once again.
Which is why it frustrates him when his clone mom hands him back his graded math test they took the first week back and sees it marked with a big, red 70% on the top right corner.
“See me after class.” His clone mom said to him as she walked away to pass out the rest of the tests.
Lee sighed, staring down at his paper, when Camillo leaned over to look at his grade.
“Yo, esse ! That’s, like, the worst grade I ever saw you get on a math test, dude,” Cam said, wide-eyed as he stared at the paper. “Like, it’s even worse than mine, bro. Check it.” He handed his paper to Lee, and he saw that, yes, it was worse than Camillo’s, even if only by 5%. Still, that was enough to dampen his mood even further. Math was not one of Camillo’s strong suits.
“You feelin’ okay, hombre? ”
“Yeah, I just… I’ve just been tired lately, that’s all.”
“Yeah, but, like, you’ve passed tests with the flu before, dude. You should, like, get some rest or something. It’s been a rough few weeks.”
“Try year .”
Both Lee and Cam chuckled at that. Eventually, they quieted down, and class continued as normal. However, Lee couldn’t seem to focus on the lesson this time around, and found his vision going in and out of focus.
“Lee!”
Lee’s head shot up, not realizing it had gone down in the first place. Did he really almost fall asleep in class? His mom’s class (well, today it was clone mom, but still).
His clone mom opened her mouth to say something, but the bell interrupted her before she could, and the entire class filed out as quickly as possible, some people muttering and giggling under their breath “Sleepy Lee”. Cam gave him a small salute, and Lee returned the gesture, before walking over to his clone mom’s desk.
“I’m sorry for falling asleep, mom. I promise it won’t happen again.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about, and you know that.”
“Oh, the 70. Is it okay if I retake it? I promise to get a 100 this time, just let me remake the grade.”
“You know I don’t like giving out retakes.” Lee deflated at that. “But, because I know you haven’t been feeling well lately, sure. Only this once!”
Her expression suddenly softened. “But that’s not what I wanted to talk about. I wanted to ask; how are you feeling? You’ve been so… down lately. I’m worried about my son.”
Lee opened his mouth but then closed it again. It was weird that his mom was asking how he was feeling, clone or not. Usually his dad did that. Or Li, if he was trying to be cheeky or something.
He didn’t really know how to describe how he was feeling. Tired, certainly. All he wanted to do was fall asleep right then and there, not caring he was standing at his clone mom’s desk. Happy, yeah? He doesn’t have detention anymore and, as long as he tells his mom his plans, he can go out whenever he wants. So, a little happy. Was he scared? Well, if the fact that he can’t sleep a minute without nightmares haunting him, distrust in his family and the people around him, the constant need to hide, run away, look for something, anything to give him answers? The fact that he dreads going to school, and not for the same reasons that most people would. The fact that he’s starting to fail his classes, and that people keep looking at him weirdly, how his arm strangely itches underneath the tattoo, how it feels like everything is wrong, wrong, wrong . How hearing any kind of techno music sets off alarms in his head, and how the smell of Green Apple Splat makes him dizzy and nauseous. How there’s a persistent headache just at the back of his head, threatening to turn into a migraine.
Yeah, he’s a little scared, but it’s not that bad.
“I’m just tired, mom, really. I promise.”
“Okay, but if you need a break, maybe me and your real mother could talk about letting you rest. Now go to lunch. It’s sloppy joe day.”
Hell yeah. “Thanks, mom. Love you.”
“I love you too, son.”
Lee sluggishly made his way out of the classroom, folding up his math test and shoving it into his backpack for it to rot, and stumbled out to lunch. He nearly forgot he didn’t have detention anymore and almost walked down the detention hallway until he heard a voice call out to him.
“Hey, caf’s this way” Biffy said teasingly, stopping Lee in his tracks.
“Oh, right, thanks. I keep forgetting.” He replied sheepishly, following beside Biffy to the lunchroom.
“You good, dude? You look dead.”
“That’s funny. I’ve already been told that twice earlier.” Lee replied snarkily, starting to get annoyed with people repeatedly asking the same questions. Did he really look that bad? “Like I’ve said already, I’m fine . Just tired.”
“If you want, I can find a way to put you back in detention. Get some beauty sleep there?”
“On sloppy joe day? No way. I’ll just rest after school.”
The two got their lunch and looked around the lunchroom, finding Holger’s long arm waving wildly in the air, calling them over. Biffy gave Lee a pat on the back and went off elsewhere in the cafeteria to eat. Lee went over to where his friends sat.
As soon as Lee took a seat, Holger brought him into a bone-crushing hug. “Lee, Holger is so happy to see you!”
“N-nice to see you too, buddy.” Lee choked out. When Holger finally let go, Lee let in a strong inhale, and Holger started to ramble.
“Holger was scary that you would not be at the school today! Holger noticed Lee looking very kerfluffelshank , like the flu but without the sniffles.” Holger leaned in a bit and sniffed, scrunching his face up as if he smelled something foul. “And you smell like the sadness.”
“Man, is it really that bad?” Lee asked,
“ Ja! ” Holger made a pouty face, looking almost like he was going to cry for Lee.
“Yeah, actually,” Jenny spoke up. “Not to be rude or anything, but even Barrage looks more relaxed than you, and that man is always on edge.” The rest of the table nodded in agreement.
“Yeah, bro. Like, you’re usually all, like, ‘I gotta go do this thing’ and running around and stuff.”
“Well I’m sorry I can’t be upbeat and ready for action all the time.” Lee snapped, wincing as his never-ending headache worsened. “Sorry, that was rude. I’m just… I’m just tired, okay? You guys don’t have to worry about me!”
Tina stood up and moved beside Lee and gave him a small peck on the cheek. “You don’t have to be sorry for feeling bad. We just want to know how we can help.”
“I know…”
Before anymore could be said, the bell rang, dictating the end of lunch and the beginning of their next period. His friends all chattered beside him, but he could not find the energy to join in. His vision was slightly blurry, and his head was really starting to hurt. It sucked that his tiny emergency pill bottle was empty and A. Nigma High didn’t have a nurse who could give him anything (for some reason). Though, he was stubborn anyways, and wouldn’t go there even if he was on his deathbed.
He would say “At least it’s just art”, but he’s even got a B in that class. Not the worst grade, but it’s only been a week, and he loved art. He’s never had lower than an A in it before.
Lee stared down at the blank sketchbook on his desk as the teacher passionately explained their next assignment.
“I’m sure everything that has happened this past school year has caused some distress in all of your lives, and that returning to school has been a rather difficult adjustment to make.”
‘ Understatement of the century’
“That is why, for this week’s assignment, I want you all to take your feelings about this current school year and present them through art !” The teacher put her sketchbook under the ELMO projector to show off her sketches to the class. Yeesh , she looks like she’s had a rough time. Probably the whole clone thing. “Start by creating sketches in order to have an idea of what you want to create. Then, you can use any materials you can find in order to create a piece of art to convey these feelings. All of your work will be due Monday, next week, and will be presented in front of the class. Now get sketching!”
Everyone picked up their pencils and started sketching. Lee, however, could only continue to stare at the paper as he clung to his pencil and struggled to muster any kind of thought or feeling. If he were being honest, besides the itchiness of his arm, he felt nothing. Empty. That was the best way he could describe it.
But, he had to get at least something on the page, right? He needed to sketch something.
He started with a sketch of a pyramid. But that didn’t really connect to his feelings, so he scribbled it out and sketched out a hand. But it was an ugly hand - an amorphous blob if he were being honest - so he scribbled that out, too. He then drew an eye. Then a few more. But he couldn’t just make his project all eyes, could he. So, he scribbled all over the page to cover up his mistakes, breathing heavily in frustration and only stopping when he noticed, oh , the page ripped, and he accidentally marked up the page behind it. No one said anything, only giving him a side-glance before continuing with their work. The Teacher herself looked sympathetic to his outburst.
Lee’s face flushed in embarrassment, but he ignored his classmates and flipped his sketchbook to a new, fresh page. He tapped his pencil against the paper, marking the page in small dots, and sunk his head low, suppressing a groan.
He barely managed to draw even a single circle before the bell rang and they were forced to make their way to their final class of the day. As students filed out, the teacher yelled “Make sure to finish your sketches by next class!”
History, the final class of the day, was the most boring of them all. Lee wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. All he knew was that only ten minutes into the lecture, and he already felt his eyes starting to droop, his head bobbing up and down like the world’s most lethargic rock concert, before he finally fell asleep.
The Tazzelwurm lay at his feet, open-eyed and unmoving. His Eminence stood in front of him, his normally eerie, calm demeanor broken by a sick, twisted grin as he gripped his cane tightly. The ancient being lifted his chin using the end of the cane, forcing Lee to make eye-contact with him. Behind His Eminence, he saw all his loved ones - His parents, Biffy, Cam, Holger, Brandy, Tina and Jenny, and even Li - all of them laying as lifeless as the Tazzelwurm, staring at him with blank eyes.
“Wake up, Lee.” They all said at once.
Lee shot up from his seat, sweating and panting, the bell ringing loudly dictating the end of the day. He could barely hear his classmates snickering, just as they did during math earlier that day.
“Ping, go to detention for falling asleep in class.”
‘ Dang. And just when I got out…’ Lee gathered his things and reluctantly made his way back down that all-too-familiar hallway, stepping beside Principal Barrage, who was escorting Biffy to the detention room.
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t Lee Ping. Nice to see you back in your place,” Barrage teased, letting him through. “Cause any trouble? Pulled any pranks? Walked out of class without a pass? ”
Reluctantly, he answered. “No, just fell asleep in class.”
Barrage huffed, clearly dissatisfied with such a boring answer, but continued. “You both know the drill. Butts better be in seats until 4:15, or else .” With that, he slammed the (still heavily fortified) door and walked away. Biffy released Mrs. RumpleKittyKat and sent her to the teacher’s desk at the front of the room (who, despite everything, remained asleep), and she pulled out a small control with a red button. She pressed it, and Biffy let out a sigh of relief.
“You should’ve been here last week. I made this remote that deactivates all the stuff in the room without needing to open the door or accidentally alerting Barrage!”
Lee just nodded in agreement and gave a small thumbs up, lowering his head back down and hoping to catch some Zs. However, unlike during class, he just couldn’t find the energy to relax himself. He let out a groan of frustration and tugged on his hair.
“Yo, what’s up with you?” Biffy asked, leaning over his desk.
“I was somehow able to fall asleep in class, but now that I’m not , I can’t!” Lee complained, wincing at the piercing pain that shot through his skull. “And my head is killing me!”
Biffy made his way to the teacher’s desk himself this time and reached into the drawer, pulling out a small pill bottle. He poured two out in his hand and handed them to Lee. “You can dry swallow, yeah?”
Lee popped the pills into his mouth and bit his tongue to salivate before swallowing.
“So, you’ve had a rough week. We can all see it, and I heard what Holger said during lunch today,” It concerned Lee that Holger was loud enough for Biffy to hear him from the opposite side of the lunchroom. “You need to take a couple of sick days or something. Or see a therapist.”
“I’m fine. I’ve handled worse while in school. Plus, my mom doesn’t trust therapists, and frankly, neither do I.”
“Yeah, but you need to do something with yourself. If you don’t, you’re gonna crash. Hard .”
Lee rolled his eyes at that. Yeah, Biffy was definitely correct, as he always is, but he couldn’t do that. He just couldn’t. All he has to do is survive until summer, and then they’ll be just fine.
“Hey, maybe get some of your homework and stuff done in here, and maybe you can sleep the rest of the time at home.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. Besides, all I have to do is art anyways. I don’t think the teachers are feeling up to grading, either.” Lee pulled out his sketchbook from his bag as he said this, opening back up to the blank page he was in during class earlier. “Except my mom. Though, there are two of her, so she doesn’t really have a good reason not to do any grading.”
He tried taking a look at older pages, hoping maybe he could get some kind of inspiration as to what he could do, but… nothing. All his previous art to him just looked like blurred shapes, with no discernible features, let alone anything he could use to represent how he was feeling.
It also didn’t help that Biffy was looking over his shoulder the whole time.
“What’s up? You look like you wanna say something.”
“What’s your prompt for this assignment, because you look like you’re struggling, and I remember you always having something to draw when we weren’t solving mysteries or anything like that.”
“Ugh, it’s something about ‘presenting your feelings as art’ or something.”
“And you’re emotionally constipated right now, is that what I’m understanding?”
“Yeah, something like that.”
“Then why not just make something up? Like ‘oh, I felt sad so I drew this thing to show how sad I’ve been.”
“I could, but c’mon, dude, it’s art. You know I take it super seriously.”
“Yeah, I know.”
Lee held his head in his hands and let out a sigh, eying the vents just across from him. It would be so nice to have another mystery to solve, another “Lee Spy Mission” as his friends would call it. But no, everything’s been practically sorted out. The Pyramid is wrecked, the baddies have been stopped, even Barrage is chill. If he were to talk to his past self and tell him that he would miss going to detention and then escaping from it to find some new secrets about A. Nigma High, he probably would’ve punched himself and then tell him to leave him alone.
The rest of detention was, strangely, spent in silence, save for RKK playing some tunes on the piano. Time ticked slowly and all too fast at the same time. At 4:12, Biffy reactivated Barrage’s detention traps. At 4:15, detention let out, and for the first time in forever, Lee didn’t have to pretend to have sat through it.
At Barrage’s “Dismissed!”, the two detentionaires filed out, and their only good byes were a small pat on the back as Lee’s mom - his real mom - picked him up.
“I can’t believe you got detention again from sleeping in class.” She scolded as he entered the car. “We’re going to have a talk when we get home. Is that clear?”
“Yes, mom.” Grounding was okay - it wasn’t like he had anything to do besides homework anyways, but a talk? No. Absolutely not. He hopes the car crashes and he’s the one that doesn’t survive.
The car right is spent in silence, besides his mom’s occasional cursing and screaming at the other drivers, and somehow without so much as a scratch on the car, they made it home.
“Go to the kitchen. If you’re hungry, there’s rice in the cooker and kimchi and eggs in the fridge. I’ll be right back.”
Lee did as he was told, putting his bag on the seat at the table. And yes, he was hungry, so he did exactly as his mother suggested, frying an egg in the smallest pan they had while his rice heated up in the microwave. He decided to pour both he and his mom a cup of tea - she might be a little less upset if he does - and once his food was ready, he put kimchi in his dish and returned to the table, eating it languidly.
His mom returned not too long after. He moved her tea closer to her as she sat down, and she gave a small nod in thanks, taking a sip before clearing her throat to talk.
“Your grades have been slipping. I haven’t seen a single A in the gradebook since school started back up. Now today, I get a call from the school telling me you’re in detention again for falling asleep in class.” She takes another sip of her tea, then looks at him sadly. “I’m worried about my son. I know I missed a lot of this past year, being cloned and all that, but still. Can you talk to me?”
Lee was starting to get actually annoyed by everyone asking him the same question all day. Still, he swallowed his anger and repeated his answer. “I’m fine, mom. It’s just been a bit difficult readjusting to school again after everything, you know?”
“Yeah, I know. Just promise me you’ll talk to me or your dad if anything is wrong, okay?” Right, she still doesn’t realize that he and his dad are kind of distant.
“I promise.” He lied.
“Okay. Go finish your food and get your homework done, okay? And make sure to sleep early tonight! You’re retesting with me tomorrow.”
She kissed him on the top of his head and went upstairs to her room.
Lee finished his food quickly, washed the dishes, took a pill for his killer headache, and locked himself in his room to work.
Once again, Lee was tapping his pencil against his sketchbook. Once again, all he drew were crude scribbles of eyes and hands on the page, which he fought the temptation of scratching out as he didn’t want to tear anymore pages from his text book.
Dinner was already called, but he just said he wasn’t hungry. At least he wasn’t lying.
A sketch, that’s all he needed. Any kind of idea to explain his feelings and then he could move on to the actual project. But even the planning session wasn’t working for him.
He banged his head against the sketchbook once or twice before letting his head hang low and rest on the table.
He could call Cam and Holger, or even Tina or Biffy. Maybe Brandy or Jenny would even talk. But even the thought of having to show his face and use his voice made his heart race and his hands sweat. So, he didn’t. In fact, as soon as he received a call from Cam and Holger, he let it ring until it stopped.
He knew he was being distant and kind of jerk-ish. It’s almost like when he first found out about the school mysteries and he refused to talk to anyone unless they could provide some intel for him.
But there’s no mystery. And it’s now just him, his baggage, and his work that he needs to get done to raise his grade back up.
Such as this sketch.
He wanted to cry. He wanted to scream. He wanted to hit something.
Really, Lee just wanted to be normal again like everyone else.
He looked down at his sketchbook and found he unconsciously wrote that on the page, albeit in terrible handwriting. Be normal again? How could he portray that?
Lee thought back to his teacher’s sketch. An image of a woman splitting into two, both halves screaming in what looked like agony or pain. He could see where she was coming from - his clone mom explained it to him how she felt like a split person between his real mom’s person and her own. An identity crisis for the ages.
He tried recreating the sketch in his own way. One half working at a desk, entirely focused on his work. It was probably English, as the figure’s face is scrunched up in a frown. The second figure was stretched out from the first one. Lee tried to make it look like it was investigating, but it didn’t look right. He fought the temptation to scribble it out, and instead hung his head low, holding it in his hands.
“This isn’t working.” Lee muttered to himself. “What time is it?”
He took a look at the time on his phone. It was only 9 pm, but it felt like it was midnight. He should just go to bed.
Lee got up from his desk and quickly brushed his teeth in the bathroom. He yelled “I’m going to bed” before entering his room again and switching the lights off. He crashed himself on the bed, and his head suddenly went fuzzy with tiredness. Before he could even pull the blanket up over him, Lee fell asleep.
Lee walked through the empty hallways of his school. Not a single sound echoed through the normally ear-bleedingly loud place. No chatter, fighting, coughing, screaming, yelling, lockers slamming, nothing. Even the hazmats and eyeballs were not present. Still, Lee kept walking, making his way to detention despite it being morning.
The door was open, and again there was no one inside. No Biffy or sleepy teacher. The detention door didn’t even close back up when he entered and took a seat.
He pulled out his sketchbook and turned to a blank page, trying hard to create a sketch he could use for his art class, but his pencil didn’t seem to be working, as nothing was showing up on the page. Lee scoffed and scribbled wildly on the paper, trying to get something to come out.
The page tore, and Lee felt his left arm ache.
He looked down at the tattoo, only to find it wasn’t there, but instead replaced by a scar similar to his Brother’s.
The room suddenly stank of Green Apple Splat mixed with rotted carcass, and Lee couldn’t help but retch, holding his hand to his mouth.
The disgusting beverage pours out from the vents in falls and covers the floors. Lee gets up to try and escape, but the door slams on him right as he was about to get out.
Lee began to panic, feeling the slimy, wet drink start to soak into his jeans. It wouldn’t be long before he would drown, he realized.
His friends all sat in the seats, filling up the detention room. He tried to call for them - yell at them to help him open the door, tell them to get on top of the desks, tell them to call someone, anyone , to save them.
But he couldn’t. His mouth tasted slimy, and felt like apple flavor. He coughed, and some of the disgusting drink spilled out of his lips.
The drink was up to his thighs now.
He moved from the door and walked over to each of his friends, shaking them by the shoulders, trying to get them to wake up. But they only stared, smiling at him as if everything was fine.
The drink was up to his waist.
Lee looked around the room to see if there was anything still there to help him and his friends escape. However, everything had been covered in the slime, and he could not dive in to grab anything.
The only thing that he could find was his sketchbook and pencil. On the previously blank page, he saw a drawing of the key. Reluctantly, he grabbed it, and made his way back to the detention room door.
The drink was now up to his shoulders
Desperately, Lee slammed the book against the familiar keyhole on the door and turned, hearing the satisfying click of the door unlocking itself.
However, instead of freedom, the splat in the hallways crashed into the detention room like a tsunami, sweeping him away and pushing him under the drink.
Lee awoke with a gasp, staring up at the ceiling as he unconsciously moved his hands around. There was no splat. He was in his bedroom, lying on his floor with the blanket dragging just beneath him.
He took a couple of deep breaths - in, hold, out, just like Tina taught him - and soon he was conscious enough to push himself up to standing, only wobbling a little bit.
Lee took a look at his bed, but found his stomach twisting in knots at the thought of going back to sleep. So, he instead decided to open the window and look through it, the cold night air relaxing him just a bit.
His relaxation was broken by the sound of grunts, and hits, and loud hissing. He looked to the direction the sound was coming from and found his brother and Priscilla fighting in the yard, his brother unarmed for once. He watched them fight, interested in who would win this match. Lee hoped it would be Priscilla.
He never found the conclusion to the match, however, as his brother noticed him staring through the window and called a timeout. He then made a waving hand motion, calling him over. Lee shook his head, but his brother began to pout and act like a child, which was simply embarrassing. So, reluctantly, Lee made his way down to the yard, climbing down from his window.
“It’s very early for you to be up, Lee.”
“I could say the same for you. Why are you and Priscilla fighting?”
Li laughed his hyena laugh as Priscilla moved up towards them. “We’re practicing. It’s just what we do.” He then perked up and snapped his fingers. “Hey, why don’t you join us? You know how to fight, right?”
“Not really, no.”
“No, you do. You’re a Ping, you can fight.”
Before Lee could protest, his brother suddenly threw out a punch, and Lee was just barely able to dodge. “Hey!”
Li put a finger to his mouth and made a shushing sound before pointing up at the house. Right, parents are asleep.
His brother suddenly swept his feet, causing Lee to fall straight onto the ground. He coughed as some dirt entered his mouth upon the fall. Li was laughing again.
“Okay, that’s it.”
Lee pushed himself up and rushed at his brother, going in for a punch at his stomach. His brother evaded, but Priscilla got in the way and head butted him in the side, making him wince in pain, though a smile remained plastered on his face. Lee almost cheered, but before he could, Priscilla wrapped his legs up with her tail.
“Hey, you never said this was a three-way fight!” He yelled at the snake, who seemed to smirk at him teasingly.
The three continued to fight for a short while, finally stopping when Lee got a punch on his brother.
“Hah! Finally! I got you!” Lee celebrated before dramatically falling backwards onto the grass, huffing and puffing in exhaustion.
His brother laughed his iconic hyena laugh, rubbing his arm. “Yeah, you did. And you didn’t even have to use any fish.”
Lee stared up at the distance before pushing himself up and looking his brother in the eye, who was now also sitting in the grass.
“I know you’re not just practicing for the sake of it,” He said, finally voicing his real thoughts. “There’s nothing for you to fight anymore, and it’s not like you’re living with Cassandra anymore, either. What’s the actual reason you’re here?”
Priscilla curled up on Li’s lap. He stroked her head gently, averting his gaze and looking solemnly at the ground. “You’ve become far too observant, you know that?”
“That’s what happens when you’re shoved into a mystery for almost a year.”
Li chuckled. “I suppose you’re right. And that’s also why I’m here. Every night, in fact.”
Lee stayed quiet, waiting for his brother to continue speaking.
“I’ve spent… my whole life fighting, preparing to fight, following orders. But, when I heard from Cassandra about a “Lee Ping”, I couldn’t help but think that somehow, my family was here. I then started to go off on my own explorations, especially once I got the casino. But, I also became paranoid, worried that I’d be caught doing my own side projects, or that if I slacked off on my regular work, my a… butt would be kicked right out. Or worse.” Lee ignored that Li refused to swear in front of him, and continued to listen.
“I used to spar against Cassandra’s little bots. They were strong, and they didn’t go down easily, so they were good for spending hours awake on. And, when I got Priscilla, I sparred with her, too.” He scratched under her chin. “And now, it’s just stayed with me. It helps. Gives me something to do. I’m sure you can agree.”
Yeah, actually. Lee did recognize that he didn’t feel as terrible as he did before. Sure, he’s definitely falling asleep in class again, but his mind felt more open. Clearer.
Li stood up and made his way back into the house.
“You should wash up and go to bed. You have school in the morning.”
With Li and Priscilla gone, Lee was left to his lonesome once again. He did not climb back into his room immediately, but instead looked down at his hands and fiddled with them, loneliness and anxiety creeping through him once again. They were soiled, the dirt and grass painting them green and brown. His clothes were in a similar state, and he knew he’d certainly have to soak them to get the stains to come out. Even with his eyes adjusted to the dark, the lack of lighting made his hands look weird. Knobby. Disproportionate. Disfigured.
He wasn’t going to bed tonight. Lee knew this.
Lee clilmbed back into his room before grabbing a new, fresh set of clothes and making his way to the bathroom. There, he stripped and put his clothes in the sink before washing himself in the shower, carefully climbing over the tub to not slip. After washing and drying, he changed into his new clothes and put the old, dirty ones inside the tub. He plugged up the tub and turned the water on hot, watching as the dirt stained the water brown. He then poured soap into the tub and swished it around before leaving it for the morning. Lee was glad his parents had their own bathroom. Otherwise, his mom would probably kill him.
Seeing as he wasn’t going to bed soon, and that he had a 20 minute timer to let his clothes soak and release all the dirt that got caught in there, he figured he should go back to his sketchbook. Maybe he finally hada some idea of what he wanted to do.
He opened up his sketchbook and started to draw. First, he sketched out a pair of hands, similar to his own. Knobby, disfigured, dirty, just like his clothes. He darkened the background surrounding them, emphasizing their shape and dirtiness. He then draws tendrils creeping in to them, as if the darkness surrounding them was grabbing him them.
But as Lee stared at the sketch, which filled the whole page, he couldn’t help but frown, tempted to tear the page out yet kept it in. It explains exactly how he feels. It follows the prompt, it shows skill and artistry. The proportions are right, it’s a piece of art.
But even so… it feels empty.
Lee feels his face grow warm and his eyes prickling with tears. He thought he finally figured something out - finally found a way to clear his head, finally figured out how he was feeling, but no. No, he’s just…
Tears drip down from his cheeks and stain the page.
Lee gets his clothes out of the tub and throws them into the washer. Then, he curls up in bed and buries himself under the blanket, unable to sleep and wishing to get crushed under some heavy weight.