After All Is Said And Done

Posted on Sat Jan 24th, 2026 @ 8:52 by Matteo Beneventi & Phoebe Hunter

Chapter: Besieged
Location: Avalon Institute
2229 words - 4.5 OF Standard Post Measure

Phoebe stared out across the campus grounds from the roof, she had needed a moment to herself after all the choas. She knew it would not be long until someone realised she was gone but until then she shifted her gaze between the grounds and the beautiful juxtaposition that was the sky and the stars that they were lucky to have. The battle was over and they had won by some miracle and everything she had thought she knew had been turned on its head which left her with the feeling of what use was she when she could not see things clearly.

It had taken Matt longer than he found comfortable to find her. As a man left to his own devices too often, he had developed a brooding introspection that shifted gears towards fretful worrying far more often than was comfortable, and so as much as a mild sense of panic was possibly an overreaction, nothing really seemed far-fetched given everything they'd just been through. Once a twenty-minute search had come very close to resulting in a search-and-rescue, and he had realised where Phoebe had positioned herself, frantic concern had switched fairly quickly into patient reservation. Intruding seemed a bit much; if she had wanted company, she would have asked for it after all. But, after an internal monologue rife with indecision had seen him reach a point of frustration with his own indecision, Matt had arrived at a point of 'check-in but don't butt-in'. A compromise. It involved sticking his head out of the window.

"Warm enough up there?"

Hopefully, in the dark, she wouldn't see him wince at how lame that sounded.

“Got the big coat on.” Phoebe commented as she glanced over at him and finally took a step back from the edge where she had been watching Tom fill in the ground indents from machinery. It would be like nothing had happened in a day or two once they had rested up properly. “But if you have something warmer to offer I could be persuaded down.”

"I can do you one better," Matt started, and moved to step through the window in a fit of considerable contortion before he managed to squeeze his bulk free to shuffle tentatively over. "Special delivery." Once he had his balance, it wasn't difficult to shift focus to a wry smile and the rub of both hands against Phoebe's arms to generate some heat. "Not contemplating how to fly, are you?" It had honestly been hard to find a minute to themselves, which was understandable and difficult to complain about but it also meant there hadn't been a lot of opportunity to really debrief. As much as he had opted for good humour, the ever-present concern in Matt's eyes lingered as they scanned the redhead's features, searching for clairvoyance enough to at least pick a starting point for figuring out what was going on in her head.

“No. I never did like flying of any kind. I am just keeping watch.” She promised leaning back against him a little. It was Matt and Matt was the safest person along with Jonathan, Thomas and William. Claire was around but she also knew she would be struggling to make peace with everything that had happened. “I was also watching Thomas put back the ground and making sure he do not get troubled.” She added pointing to the lonely figure in the distance that seemed to almost have a green glow around him go a moment before he turned and started back towards the castle.

"Almost looks like a school again."

The quiet observation came after a protracted silence, ample time to ruminate without any pressure beyond a requirement to just be. Like many of the adults, Matt hadn't slept particularly well since the siege had ended, and without an official role to bolster any kind of authority, had mostly kept himself occupied with manual lifting and some of the superficial repairs that nobody else was really prioritising. At Leo's behest, Matt had kept a fairly low profile, which was at least something he didn't have to try very hard to achieve.

“Yeah Tom does good work. Have you met him properly?” She wondered trying to keep the conversation light and easy going even as the wind blew her hair up that was loose around her again before she tucked it back behind her ear. She turned a little against the man and leaned her shoulder back against his chest.

"Not exactly, but the same could be said for a lot of the staff, really."

An arm settled across her shoulders gave a squeeze of reassurance. Circumstances hadn't exactly been ripe for more than incidental introductions and Matt was decently sure that a good portion of Phoebe's colleagues didn't even know there was a valid reason for why they couldn't remember his name. In situations where there wasn't a lot of time to answer questions, Matt had always found his powers useful; it was during the aftermath, these moments where loose threads were being pieced back together, where he typically had all his explaining to do.

“Oh yeah.” Phoebe frowned in confusion as she caught up with how stupid she had sounded there and then. She was someone with brains and skills that were not exactly being used at the moment. She slowly turned and cuddled against the man, just taking in the simple presence he was offering.

A breath drawn in slowly through his nose became a quiet sigh that Matt released along with the tension that had sat across his shoulders for the past few days. It was a conscious effort, only partially successful because. whilst the direct threat was gone, they now lived in a world where trust was going to be even more difficult to secure.

"How are you really doing?," he asked after a moment, having toyed with the option to simply remain silent and not intrude. Since meeting Phoebe, the realisation that she lived a life somewhat larger than an ordinary history teacher had taken a while for Matt to tune into, and even then, he'd never been very good at figuring out what the something else might actually be. In many ways, he was no closer to understanding the details, but it was going to be harder moving forward to covet his own anonymity. Being easily ignored wasn't all that valuable when it couldn't extend to the people whose safety mattered more than your own.

“I am tired. I am stressed. But I am trying my best.” Phoebe explained quietly. It was all she could do to keep herself together and keep putting the next step forward. She would see a few days to unpack and process but she would be okay. She had no choice but to be but for now the danger was gone. The visions had been hard to understand but now everything had come to pass it had left her confused at why she had really seen when it came to Cam but that was an issue when she had slept more.

"Trying your best doesn't have to look like putting everyone else first all the time." Matt's tone was guarded, hesitant of overstepping boundaries, but if there was one guarantee when you lived a life on the cusp of most people's memory; you picked up on things that others missed. Right now, the biggest red flag was how much Phoebe seemed to be struggling to move forward and, though he was no expert, Matt had just enough imagination to at least wonder what that meant where a clairvoyant was concerned. "What does Phoebe do for Phoebe when she needs a break?"

“Well she used to drink to stop the tsunami of possibilities but right now I think she could just do with a quick check in with her students and a shower if there is any hot water anywhere before she sleeps for a little.” The woman commented as she heard a whistle from below that was Thomas and herself signal that he was safe. The woman turned and made it back before looking at the man. “Care to join me for any of it?” She wondered just sounding a little hopeful that he might want to.

A flare of frustration, mild enough to become just a ripple beneath the surface, was not aimed at Phoebe but himself. Matt understood that nothing about the last few days had been typical but it wasn't the exceptional nature of circumstance that left him defeated; it was his own inexperience, which paraded too close to ineptitude for comfort sometimes. He didn't know what he was supposed to do, how he was supposed to help, what words were supposed to tumble out of his mouth to ease any of the burden Phoebe was facing, but he was pretty sure he wasn't even hitting close to any of it. Still, he'd tried. He couldn't make her talk to him, even if stung a little that she didn't seem to want to.

"Sure, we can sort most of that out." Squashing his insecurity behind a lop-sided smile, he dropped the arm from around her to facilitate the move back through the window. "The hot water might be a bit of a stretch, though they were rationing the showers earlier." An entire castle full of students who had roughed it overnight had necessitated a pretty strict bathroom schedule; Matt had listened to Leo's indignation over 'obnoxiously-loud timers buzzing every few minutes' with a mixture of amusement and sympathy.

“I will take a cold shower if that is all that is on offer.” Phoebe assured as she hauled herself through the window properly and turned back to offer a hand to her much larger boyfriend. “I do not want to go to bed grubby after facing the woman that … made me believe that Cam was gone or did kill Cam and then … I do not know what happened but he is there but I know she did stuff.” The woman sighed as she tugged on Matt’s hand and brought him close to her.

Matt had even less of an explanation to give, though Phoebe's confusion did knit his brow together in a faint frown. "Leo did mention that the young girl involved looks older now." Initially, he had assumed it was just hyperbole, a mixture of post-traumatic processing and the same general observational discrepencies that usually plagued preteen boys who tended to fixate on their own things whilst the rest of the world passed them by. Further comments from the staff had corroborated his brother's version of events, however, but nobody seemed to have much of an explanation for why it was possible. Children ageing years overnight seemed about as unlikely as men returning from the dead. "Sounds like a situation with a few missing details."

The red head nodded. That was what she had decided when she had seen the girl that she was missing a few details from the strange turn of events. They were very important details in her opinion but until there was a catch up she was just as clueless. “Leo is okay?” She questioned softly as she took his hand and led him quietly down the corridor.

"Seems to be," Matt lifted a shoulder in resignation. Whilst a few of the younger students were still uncertain, timid about accepting that the worst had truly passed, the younger Beneventi had rallied with a trademark resilience that would have made Matt prouder had it not come at the expense of an ignorant childhood. There wasn't a lot to celebrate in the fact that Leo had come out of the siege optimistically because he'd spent his entire life learning how to get over hardship. "I think he'll just be glad to get back to school, all of this interfered too much with his entrepreneurial aspirations." A soft chuckle suggested it was mostly jest, though the kid had a head full of inventions and finally the workshop space to experiment with at least a few of them.

Phoebe felt like she did not want to know what entrepreneurial aspirations meant right there and then even with the laughter. She would find out in a few days when things settled down. “Glad he is wanting to get back to normal.” Phoebe squeezed his hand before letting go as she they reached the main stair case down to where the students were.

"He's not the only one."

It was a quiet response, lost somewhat to the footfall of them both descending the staircase and the intrusion of additional activity. It would take a while for the student body to return to previous enrolment numbers; quite a few had been taken from the school when the situation had worsened and, understandably, it was going to be a little while yet before those families trusted the new brokered peace enough to return their children. Some, Matt supposed, would probably never come back. As someone who had never geled well with the school system, having any kind of presence in these hallways came at the cost of feeling like an imposter and thus there was a smidgen of intent to the fact that many of the students moving past only greeted Phoebe and seemed blithely unaware of the man standing next to her.