Title: Together
Author: DaenaBenjen42
Fandom: Everworld
Characters: David Levin, Jalil Sherman, April O'Brien, Christopher Hitchcock
Disclaimer: I happily borrowed from K.A. Applegate.
Notes: This takes place after book #12.

In answer to a quote from the M*A*S*H Quotation Roulette Challenge…

#27: Potter: I'd watch the dimwit talk Burns; your bulb's been out since I met you.


It is the morning after their rescue of Thor and Baldor from Hel's underworld and he can't help but watch her as she eats her breakfast and listens intently as Christopher and Jalil discuss the finer points of some very random piece of comic book trivia.

She's different, somehow, between last night and this morning. Almost as if… no. Not her. She'd have chosen to stay in the Old World, their former home. Right? It just didn't make any sense for her choice to be to stay here, among them.

April glances away from the other two boys and frowns at him, clearly not pleased with his scrutiny. "What?"

"You chose," was all he was able to say. All he trusted himself to say.

April stares at him for a moment or two before nodding, even though it wasn't really a question. "I did."

"Why?" He barely notices that Christopher and Jalil have stopped their discussion and are now listening intently, as if they too are waiting for her answer.

April sighs and glances at each one of them in turn, studying their faces. He knows before she says anything that the answer is not going to be entirely truthful. "Because there is nowhere else I'd rather be… and where else do you get the opportunity to die multiple times before breakfast or rescue ancient Immortals who believe themselves all-powerful?"

Christopher snorts in muted laughter. "We're all cracked, aren't we?"

Jalil was obviously trying to resist the urge to roll his eyes and David couldn't blame him. At all. "You started out cracked, Christopher."

April chuckled. "We all did."

David suddenly felt the urge for an affirmation. He stuck his hand out over the table, and slowly, they put theirs on top of his, April last. They'd started out on this journey as faces in the crowd to one another, strangers who barely knew one another from school, but who knew the same person, Senna, in different ways. The popular girl who was going to be in the school play, RENT, the reluctant clown, the new kid in school, and the nerd. Now, after all this time, they were friends, hard won. He couldn't imagine wanting anyone else by his side for the coming battle with Ka Anor. "Together."

Christopher, April, and Jalil nodded as one. "Together," they agreed.

And together, they finished their breakfast. There were things to do, and an evil immortal who ate other immortals, to take care of.


fini…