Cara Lugo [Complete]

Chapter Two: Long Live the King

Storyline:

"What are you doing here?" Robby grouses, although since he was under the Beast it did not have much of an effect. "Come to nag me again?"

"Nope," Cara sighs, leaning her hip against the metal monster. "Mum found me and shoved me out. It was either you or actual work."

"Huh, you saying this isn't actual work, sis?" He pulls out from underneath and gives her a glare, to little effect. "Just 'cuz you're tiny and useless doesn't mean I don't work. You just don't do any of the lifting."

"I'm not useless." She huffs. "Just because physical labour is the sole thing that is deemed useful in this ridiculous place, doesn't mean by far that I'm actually useless. I have brains, which few of the people in this place can actually boast."

"Don't bash hard labour, sis. Being intellectual doesn't deem your worth."

"Neither does psychical prowess then," she counters.

"Fair enough," he concedes.

"Anyway, I'm not saying they're lesser, I'm just saying I have something most of them don't." Cara explains. "Brains are good, and they're needed to keep a place like this running."

"Ah yes, they're good if you can get to a place you can use them." He pulls himself up and towers over her. "In case you forgot, midget, you're stuck down here while all the higher-ups, with or without brains, make the decisions." He pokes her (lovingly) on the arm. "Mum's right, your brains are useless."

Robert shared some of her cynicism. Perhaps even all of it, but he hid it will. Once and a while his exasperated and bitter tone mixed just well enough with his sarcasm until you could perfectly pick up just how much he hated the place. Still, he behaved, having learned to very quickly at a young age. Unlike what it did to other kids, Cara's wild ways did not inspire Robby but instead made him cautious. Couldn't even look into his sister's eyes without getting twitchy.

One too many visits from authorities since you were a toddler tended to make you docile. Even if he himself had done nothing wrong, he, sure enough, got a good helping of the scolding they unloaded on the family. Perhaps that's why Cara would tone it down from time to time. Robby's smile was worth it to her. Sit indoors and play with him while he drooled on his shirt and grabbed all that was in sight. He didn't drool anymore (well maybe in his sleep but Cara was not going to check if that was the case) but the case still stood. Protect the baby brother at all costs, even if he was twice as tall as she'd ever be and still hadn't stopped growing. And even if he was a pain in the damned ass and obviously the favourite.

He didn't comply though either. Sure, he was quiet and held the doors. Perhaps he broke no laws and made sure no others could either. Hell, he even reported people as necessary and went against his sister's wishes. But was that not the perfect cover? If something went awry, no one would accuse the boy who turned in his own childhood friends. Even if you had managed to pin it down to the Lugo family, the first you would go for is the sister. Then it turns out her rampage in town squared provided a pretty good alibi. The parents were no question. Quiet, stoic, much like their son (until you looked the mother in the eye and saw the embers her daughter had inherited).

No, you could only find any one of them guilty if they willed it so or if they got too cocky. Only one member ever got too cocky. So now the authorities were left there, standing like confused, petulant children, stomping around and trying to find the perpetrator with their whiny voices. What a sight to behold.

Robert Lugo was just as much of an enigma as his sister.

"Here, attach this. It's small enough that I can't manage and with your child's hand, it should be fairly easy." Robert drops a copper wire and a spanner into her idle hands and shoos her off. "Go be useful."