[u]Ben and Claire Voss[/u]

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Claire woke up in their bed alone.

She yawned, and stretched, the night shirt she had on moving up and revealing her midriff and belly button as she did so. She blinked the sleep out of her eyes and rubbed them, momentarily looking around. She was taking college classes, and had requested that the alarm be muted in favor of the ones they had bought themselves since they didn't need to be woken up early every morning. She hit the alarm on her side of the bed, as to silence it before it went off. She had no classes today, but Ben had accidentally crushed his yesterday, and he normally had classes on Thursday mornings. Well, save for this morning because of the speech the Headmaster had planned. They had heard the announcement the day before.

She looked over to Ben's spot on their queen sized bed. Normally she just about slept on top of him because he radiated unnatural, but comfortable warmth. He had somehow managed to slip out from under her without waking her. For man his size, he shouldn't be able to do that. Her ears perked up, the shower was on. She stretched again, cracking her neck, and slid off the bed. She wore nothing but a Jurassic Park nightshirt that Ben had bought at some point and panties. But she didn't care much. Half the time Ben walk around their home in his trousers or went commando in jeans. She walked over to the bathroom, and opened the door to poke her head in. Most of the time Ben was singing some song wordlessly. But right now Ben was just... standing there in the water, facing away from her. His hands at his sides, not moving. He barley looked like he was breathing. His slightly tanned skin looked almost pale. She frowned, and left the room, grabbing her latrines and the clothes she was wearing today. Ben walked out a few minutes later wearing jeans. The lip of underwear could be seen just above the hem of the jeans, which sagged ever so slightly, like they were meant to. No commando today, it seemed. His upper body was bare. She looked him up and down and smiled. Not caring for his muscular body and more so laughed at the spongebob bandaids that covered his forearms. She shook her head, and moved into the bathroom to do her business.

When she returned, Ben was sitting on the bed wearing his usual getup of his work shoes, white tank top, and the brown leather jacket he had worn since as long as she could remember. He looked up at her, his big brown eyes looking over her attire. She struck a pose. "Like what you see?" she questioned, giving him a coy smirk. She wore simple blue jeans, with boots. Above the belt she wore a simple grey shirt and a slightly darker grey hoodie, which was very thin. Obviously more for looks than actually protection from the nonexistent cold. Ben gave her a melancholy smile, but there was a silence in the room. No words were exchanged, not vocal nor mental. Claire frowned, and sat down on the bed next to Ben. He hadn't been right yesterday, he had been especially bad Wednesday evening when they returned home. Ben had always been in tune with life. Everything he did related to life in some way, hell, his power was control over what was by far the most populous and diverse organism on the planet. All of them had inherit connections to things. He did, Pink did, hell, Ziz probably did too wherever she or he was. His was his inherit empathy for everything around him. So while he accepted death and what it was to the world, it affected him. Especially when someone who had been unrightfully taken from this world.

"You know you can tell me anything, right?" Claire said, looking up to Ben for a moment, her large lucky emeralds meeting pools of chocolate. She took off her right and lifted it for him to see. "I promised you I would always be there for you." she said, before placing her ring back on. She placed a hand on the side of his face. "And there ain't nothing that's gonna change that." She said, giving him a soft smile. For the first time in the past two days Ben gave her a smile in return. A real, genuine smile.

[i]"I will always do the same."[/i]

Claire gave him a hug, and without releasing she spoke. "I know you will." She released him, but help onto his hand, interlacing their fingers. He gave hers a firm squeeze. "We should probably leave soon." She said, looking over to the clock. It was close to that time. "You see this Ben?" She said, lifting up their hands. "If you start getting upset during the speech, squeeze my hand." She said, earning a gentle smile from her husband, who simply nodded. "Break my hand and I'll break your wrist." She said sternly. Ben laughed his silent laugh at this, he knew she (probably) was kidding. He looked over to his nightstand and grabbed his reading glasses, placing them gently into one of the pockets inside his jacket. Before turning around again and grabbing the book he had laid next to the glasses. It read "Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy: Volume III". Ben often carried around one of the guides, it kept him busy when he was not in the mood for conversing or wanted to distract himself. He saw the latter being the most likely today. Claire in turn grabbed an umbrella. It looked like it was going to be a dreary day and better safe than sorry.

The walk to the Auditorium was quite, but it was a sort of comfortable silence. The whole way Ben's hand had been in Claire's. He hadn't been particularly comfortable coming out for the reason they were, but he had to show up. It wasn't his choice. As they entered they chose seats in the center of the auditorium, like, dead center. They seemed to be some of the first ones here, save for that reptilian fellow who seemed to have been here for while, and that Jago boy who was leaning against the wall. Claire bit her lip to refrain speaking. He didn't look like he wanted to be bothered. Another boy walked in right after they did and seemed to be turning around to talk to Jago. After her quick scan, she turned her attention to her phone as to review for the Botony pre-exam that her professor was having them do. Ben had already taken out his glasses and begun reading from his book to distract himself.

Her attention was brought away from her studies when she felt a large and calloused hand wrap gently around hers. She looked up and to the side. Ben had pulled their hands to rest on his knee, which was propped up with his ankle resting on his other leg's knee. He hadn't looked up, he was still reading, but there was a soft and small smile on his face as his eyes slowly but surely scanned through the pages in the book. He Claire returned the smile, even though Ben wasn't looking, and returned to her own reading.

They could always find some solace in one another.

---

[u]Henry Olin[/u]

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Henry didn't do his morning routine like normal the day before. When he returned to his empty dorm cold, wet, and alone that terrible Tuesday night he did the one thing he knew he couldn't fail at.

And and so he rested, and slept through the whole of Wednesday, recuperating from Tuesday's events. From the battle, to the cliff jumping, to the murder... It was too much for him to take in one day. And so he rested. And he rested well. Twice he had awoken, his claws ripping at the air as if he had reached the attacker before they had done their deed to Vera. 

When he awoke he had received the text from Adam to him and the other teachers about what the plan was. He canceled class for the day and did his best on Wednesday evening. He woke up early, and did his average routine. When he returned home, he dawned what looked to be a semi-casual dress shirt, and khaki pants. Both specially fitted to accommodate his size. He had arrived very early, 6 AM on the dot. He had been there for an hour give or take now. They had prepared the auditorium Wednesday evening.

On stage there was no casket. He didn't expect there to be. He sat in the front row facing the stage, in his huge reptilian hand was his phone. The background set to a picture of himself, Vera, Dana, Theresa, and several others at one of the piers holding their biggest fish. He remembered that day. It had been a good day. Full of happiness and the academy he had grown up in.

Dana had caught the biggest fish. A grouper as big as she was that she had hooked while reeling in a smaller fish. It had eaten her original catch and was hooked on accident. As she had gotten it close it quite nearly pulled her chair into the water. A few others held her back as she brought it in, and when she finally landed it, if flopped back into the water. Now, Henry being himself was pissed off at this, and dove in after it. Regardless to say, in the picture there was a fish nearly as big as Dana herself laying in her lap. Vera had caught a Wahoo, and he had a Dolphin fish. Theresa had hooked a nice Kingfish bigger than his own catch, but not as big as Dana's. There were others there too with assorted marine animals ranging from sea bass to redfish to whiting.

It had been a good day. Probably one of the more fond memories he had with her and the others and he was glad he was there to remember it. Not long after the cooking club came over and had a barbecue. He had lost a game of beer pong and was forced to attempt to breakdance while wearing a horse mask and a superman cosplay. It was terrible.

But he wouldn't give it up for the world. Henry sighed and stood up, placing his phone in his pocket before walking to the back of the auditorium. He stood behind the farthest row of seats. This was where most of the teachers stood to overlook the students. He wondered if the Headmaster would be addressing friends and family, or himself as he was the person to happen upon her body. His tongue flicked out. He would need to apologize to Jago later for snapping at him. But for now he would have to endure the speech. He knew the Headmaster couldn't tell the full story, or would have to lie about it. There was a tactical advantage to keeping everyone calm and collected that the school would need in a time like this.

But despite the silence the school would attempt to use to cover up the incident, Vera wouldn't be forgotten. He would never forget.

And he doubted anyone else who knew would either.