tressler

It was June before Emerald felt settled, like she belonged. Everyone else was too; she thought they were all getting along. Mostly. She still wanted to scream at Atlas—and did—on occasion, but that was getting to be...normal. Emerald loved it.

Of course, a lot of their time was dedicated to planning the three shows they had to do. A lot of the planning was already done for them, but they still had to get their hands on the props they would need, and some of the technology...and they had to get ahold of Arthur Tressler.

Emerald knew of the man, of course—he was famous. But she didn't know anything about him. Which was why she was surprised when Atlas insisted she go with him to talk to Tressler.

"Your thing is illusions, illusions are- they're popular, they're showy," Atlas explained, talking with his hands more than usual as he rushed around the main room of the apartment. Emerald had no idea what he was looking for, and wondered if he even knew.

"And you think he'll take me seriously?" Emerald said, uncrossing her arms to wave them around. "You don't take me seriously! How could he?"

It was true: Atlas still treated Emerald like a child, and she was sick of it. He did the same to Jack, but that was hardly any consolation at all. It just showed how little he really thought of them. Emerald could only take so much of being looked down on.

Atlas stopped, looking up at Emerald. "What, you think I can't act?" he asked, smirking at her. He returned to what he had been doing, cawing in triumph when he found whatever he'd been looking for, holding up a bundle of papers. "Seriously, Emerald, your stuff, it'll get his attention." He looked up at her again. "Or do you not think you can do it?"

Emerald stared at him, her mouth hanging open. "Don't- don't you pin this on me!" she cried, pointing a finger at him. "I can do it, I didn't think you thought I could!"

"You can," Atlas said, "Obviously, or I wouldn't've asked you. I mean, you need some practice, less of a temper..." he trailed off as Emerald glared at him. He knew as well as she did that her temper was only directed at him.

"Shut up, Atlas." Emerald grumbled, turning to leave the room. There was only so much of him she could take, and she'd hit her limit.

"So are you coming or not?" Atlas called after her. She ignored him.

—

"What do you wear to meet with a crazy rich international businessman?" Emerald asked Henley, hands on her hips as she stared at her closet.

Henley was sitting in a chair behind her, leaning forward as Emerald moved aside for her to look. "Something professional." she recommended, "But with some color."

Emerald turned and gave her a sarcastic look, if a facial expression could be called that. "Wow, Henley, such wonderful advice. I totally know what I'm going to wear now."

Henley sighed dramatically and stood, moving to stand by Emerald. "The black skirt," she said, pulling said skirt out of the closet. "And green. For your name."

Emerald took the skirt, sighing. "When will people stop telling me I should wear green just because my name's Emerald?" she questioned as she shooed Henley out so she could get dressed.

"Probably never!" Henley called just before the door slammed shut, smirking to herself

—

The meeting went well. That was good. What wasn't good was that Emerald wanted to kill Atlas. Again.

As she stormed into the apartment, startling Jack and her dad, who were watching TV or something, she slammed the door, saying, "Get me far, far away from him before I literally murder him." She collapsed onto a seat next to Jack, banging her head on the back of the couch.

The was the sound of the door opening and closing rapidly, and footsteps echoing down the hallway as Atlas came in, obviously taking the hint and avoiding Emerald.

Jack and Merritt glanced at each other, both unsure of how to react. The pair made faces at each other for a while before Merritt finally sighed and said, "You all right there Em?"

Emerald groaned and picked her head up off the back of her seat, opening her eyes. "Atlas is a jerk." she said matter-of-factly.

Merritt chuckled. "Well, I knew that, but what did he do this time?"

"He spent the whole meeting talking down to me!" Emerald's anger burst forth loudly; she clenched her fists, almost trembling. "And of course it sounded like he was complimenting me. I. Hate. Him."

She leaned over, face planting into Jack's shoulder. Jack, to his credit, didn't even react, just reached over with his other hand and patted her on the head a little awkwardly. Emerald groaned, knowing far too well how childish she sounded. Maybe Atlas had a point under all that infuriating Atlas-ness.

Nah.

Emerald sighed, adjusting her position so she was leaning against Jack more comfortably rather than just having her head on his shoulder. "Can we pretend he doesn't exist for a while?" That nothing else exists right now, she thought, glad at least that she had two people—three, counting Henley—to talk to.

—

893 words.

Feel free to hate me for how long this chapter took. Inspiration fled, mostly because I was working on Shadow and Flame. But, I did manage to get this done!