Late Epiphany:

A Fanfic by DJW.

Usual copyright stuff here.

‘Late epiphany’

Quick summary: Tom reflects on things while he sits through a normal week of school, while Clovis tries to avoid getting into trouble for always missing first period. Hilarity ensues. This story takes place the beginning of the week after ‘Way of the Cynic’.

Day 1: Monday

Tom Sloane sat down at his desk in Mr Shrubber’s history class, he looked around to see the class was nearly empty, “Well you did arrive a little early today” he told himself as he began to get his books and stationary out.

“Yes but with good reason” he retaliated to himself…then stopped because from what Daria had told him it was a good sign of madness, but the case was he did have a good reason, Mr Shrubber had threatened Clovis with a months worth of detentions if he turned up late to first period history one more time, so he would either see Clovis getting yelled at or the rare spectacle of him arriving on time and giving Mr Shrubber a heart attack…either way he would have some entertainment.

He sniffed a little as he leaned back in his chair waiting for class to start; he still had traces of a cold left from when he and Daria had been caught in the rain on Friday, he chuckled to himself as he remembered the commotion Daria’s mother had caused about the two of them, now there had been an interesting sight, Helen Morgendorffer’s battle of wills against herself: on the one she didn’t want to let Daria or Tom wear those wet clothes and catch something…not that it made a difference anyways, on the other she didn’t want to leaver her daughter alone and not fully dressed with a ‘hormonal young man’…Tom sometimes wondered if all parents were this protective of their kids…his certainly weren’t, lastly there was her unwillingness to send Tom home with his car not working in the rain.

Next thing he knew Daria was in her PJ’s and he was in one of Jake’s old bathrobes and would be sleeping on the couch…no doubt with a tripwire on every step of the way to Daria’s room though, not that it had mattered as they had both fallen asleep on the couch watching movies, waking up on a couch with a blanket and next to Daria wasn’t how he had planned to start the weekend but he could think of worse ways…he just wish she hadn’t fell asleep on his left shoulder, it still twinged after…

Suddenly Tom was snapped back to the present by the ever recognisable voice of Mr Shrubber, the man had a tendency of speaking near a whisper then every now and then he would shout out a word and twitch at the same time “well NOW it seems that Mr Lee-DANIELS has decided AGAINST gracing us with his PRESENCE” the teacher announced as he stood looking at the door, meaning he did not notice Clovis get up from under the teachers desk and walk over to his usual space next to Tom.

“You slept under his desk?” Tom asked his best friend stunned, “Too Bloody right I did mate, I’ve been under there since 5am, can’t say I was late now can I?” Clovis replied taking a seat as the hapless teacher turned around and looked more than a little surprised “WHAT the…how LONG have you been THERE?” Was his expected response. Tom grinned as he prepared for what would promise to be an interesting week.

Day 2: Tuesday

Tom sat at his desk eagerly awaiting whatever would happen this time, he rubbed his left shoulder as it twinged again, the pain had nearly gone but now and then it would flare up and bother him like it was now.

“Clovis meant well with what he did so you can’t really be mad at him…although there must have been better ways of telling me how much of a jerk I was other than dislocating my shoulder” he thought as the pain subsided, he wondered how long until it stopped doing this and he begun to remember how it had happened in the first place.

They had been sparring as they always did on nights when there was nothing good on anywhere, earlier that week he had patched things up with Daria and was feeling pretty good with himself, the two of them had circled the room as he had sent a flurry of strikes at Clovis who had managed to deflect them until Tom saw an opening and planted a punch into the chest of his friend who had been staggered by the blow, “Well someone is in a right old good mood aren’t we?” Sometimes Clovis could read entire volumes about a person from the way they fought…usually he only got about “I am a useless fighter” from most people.

“Yes as a matter of fact I am as it happens” he had replied, “I recently got back together with my girlfriend, I’d say that gives me plenty of reason to be wouldn’t you agree?” Now that he looked back he realised that Clovis had seemed a little sterner while he had given a simple “uh-huh” as his response, normally he would have given a much more irreverent response to that, Tom sometimes wondered if he should have just kept his mouth shut or if he was better off with what had happened.

“Something wrong buddy?” he had rather foolishly asked him, “No not really, just curious as to whether you sorted everything out with the other girl and gave them time to sort things out?” was his response as he sent a punch that was surprisingly hard to deflect…almost like he was trying to actually hit him, slightly taken aback Tom remembered answering “Huh? What are you talking about? Jane, the last one she came to me and I admitted it, she told me to give it a chance with her friend so I did, we had a few arguments but we seem to be fine now” and then he said the worse thing he could ever have said “I got through it all unharmed and that’s what counts right?”

He never even saw what happened that night, all he knew was that his best and sometimes only friend the world had shown an expression of utmost contempt as he ducked under his arm, grabbed his elbow and with one blow to the back of his shoulder popped his arm out of his socket.

He has been so stunned he did not scream or anything, he just collapsed to the floor trying to hold back the tears from the pain he was feeling.

“Get up” was all Clovis had said, Tom could only whimper in response as the hand grabbed his throat and hauled him to his feet “I said get up” Tom was genuinely scared now, Clovis had the strength and skill to tear a man apart if he wanted to, he felt afraid, hurt and betrayed at this, “Why are you doing this to me Clovis?” he managed to ask as his friend struck him in the stomach and knocked him down.

The look of contempt softened to one of sorrow briefly as he stood over him “Tom I’m sorry but this had to be done, you need to learn about the repercussions of your actions” his face hardened as he turned to walk out “I’ll be back in an hour, that should give you plenty of time” he looked over his shoulder to see his friend curled up on the floor and shook his head exasperated “sign of the hammer be my guide” he grabbed an old book on Tom’s shelf “here comfort yourself” he said as he threw it at him rather unceremoniously and left the room.

Tom had sat there in shock for 5 minutes before he opened the book on the floor and began to read the stories within it…after 10 minutes he wept.

Clovis had returned within the hour to find Tom sat in the corner, his head buried in his arms and his favourite book covered in stains of what Daria would in time learn to be tears, Tom looked up at Clovis as he entered “Tom I’m…” he began to say before he was cut off “Don’t you dare apologise” he had told him “I know exactly what you where doing” Tom wondered where he had found the strength to stand up and face him “Was I always such a self centred bastard?”

Clovis had neither shaken nor nodded his head when he answered, “Not as such, you’re a decent guy Thomas Sloane, or at least you try to be and that’s what counts, you just have to stop thinking of yourself first, given your obvious desire for this relationship to work I decided you needed to learn firsthand that no-one escapes unharmed through something like this” he put his hand Tom’s shoulder causing him to wince.

“I would have said that hurt me more than it hurt you but it would be a lie, but I want you to know I took no pleasure whatsoever from that, you know I don’t enjoy hurting people it’s just something I’m good at” as quick as it had happened he jerked his arm around and there was a sickening pop sound as Tom’s shoulder was popped back into his socket “Thank you Clovis, I needed a friend to tell me what I’ve done wrong…albeit I would have preferred a more verbal explanation” Tom smiled a little as he moved his arm trying to ignore the pain he still felt.

“It was an honour and a privilege mate, now what say you to checking out ‘The Vortex’ I hear there is a Jimmy Wang Yu season on?” Clovis asked, his usual self again, “Tempting, but first I think I need to make a phone-call or two, I need to fix things with Jane and then decide what I’m gonna tell Daria…oh and one last thing” his fist connected with Clovis’s cheek so quickly neither of them registered it “If you ever try that stung again you will regret it” man he had felt better after that he thought, Clovis laughing assured him there was no hard feelings.

Tom found himself once more pulled back to reality, thinking that one hour of pain was worth it to be able to fully mend things with Jane…he had finally apologised for everything that night, and he knew that he had managed to make some progress with Daria, he just hoped it would last…although with his father already talking about Bromwell he was beginning to worry.

“IT would seem Mr Lee-Daniels does not PLAN another magical appearance TODAY” Mr Shrubber announced in his own special way, this time he was looking under his desk making sure his quarry was not hiding anywhere, Tom was distracted from this when he heard a tap at the window which he then saw was Clovis indicating that he wanted Tom to “OPEN THE BLOODY WINDOW YOU PRAT” as he would have put it quite vividly, Tom leaned over and swung it open as his friend sprung over the ledge and again took his seat, as once more poor Mr Shrubber nearly had a heart attack.

After a while it occurred to Tom “Wait a minute…we’re on the 3^rd floor” words failed him sometimes.

Day 3: Wednesday.

Tom found himself feeling nostalgic for the 3^rd time in a week as he sat killing time in the work of Saki, even if he had given his copy to Daria he had still decided to buy a new copy as despite all the emotion involved in passing it on he had to balance it with the fact that he genuinely loved the stories. As he finished yet another account of the schemes of Clovis Sangrail he began to remember how he had met his Clovis, now there had been a day to remember.

He didn’t remember much except that it was a normal day at Fielding, he was 16 he knew that and didn’t really think back to that time much…to many bad memories? No not bad, just not good…it was certainly a confusing time.

It had been a first period history just like this, and Mr Shrubber had not yet developed his ‘quirks’ as Principal Brucie had begun to refer to them, “Well class, today we have a new student joining us, he has just moved here from Hong Kong so lets try and make him feel welcome, why don’t you tell us a little about yourself?” he asked pointing to an Asian student with green hair who looked at the teacher for a while before saying “I’m from New Jersey…although I have been attending these lessons since the beginning of term” the student Tom would later come to know as Wasabi pointed out rather annoyed.

After the laughter had subsided a student in a cream sweater and a black baseball cap had stood up, despite being from Hong Kong he was Caucasian and slightly paler than the other students, looking at him would make you think he was from England or somewhere else…his accent helped there as well, Tom was reminded me of the lead guy from ‘The Princess Bride’ the way he spoke, “I believe I am the student you are looking for” he said as he walked to the front of the class “Clovis is the name, Clovis R Lee-Daniels” Tom realised he had never asked what the R had stood for in his name, although at the time he and everyone in the class was more interested in his hair, as he removed the cap a long braid fell over his shoulder, “I look forward to my time with you all” and then to most peoples surprise he bowed to the class and then to the teacher before returning to his seat.

Tom at first had felt sorry for this new guy, he obviously meant well but he was defiantly an outsider, a white-guy who thinks he is Chinese was obviously not going to make friends here.

The first hint that this would be the case was when Tom was in the bathroom and saw a group of the typical ‘Jocks’ crowded around the new student, they where obviously picking on him yet he seemed oddly relaxed, “What’s the problem new kid? We asked you a question, so you better wise up and answer it this time, what’s with the girly hair?” the ringleader who Tom had never bothered to pay much attention to had asked “I don’t want to be seen around sissy-boy, so unless you plan on keeping well away from me and anyone else in this school I suggest you lose that stupid pigtail” Tom was as surprised as the jocks when the guy just looked amused as he rolled his eyes and walked past, brushing past the ringleader as if he wasn’t even there, as he passed Tom he made eye contact and nodded “All right mate, everyone this friendly in this school?”

This caused the Jocks to begin laughing, “Oh man this is rich, the guy is being friendly with that Sloane weirdo, we need to act quick”

They surrounded the boy and held his shoulders while one held his braid out, the ringleader brandishing a pair of scissors, the boy was eerily calm, Tom assumed he thought they where bluffing but he didn’t know them as well as Tom did, “Just leave him alone its his first day” Tom wondered why a closed off guy like himself had bothered sticking up for a complete stranger, but he didn’t have time to think at the time as he had drawn their attention now.

“You need to learn your place Sloane, one of them said as he pushed Tom back, as he fell he felt a hand on his back push him upright again, “Now, now chaps I’m sure no one wants to get hurt here…and would the pillock with his hand on my braid kindly let go?” seemingly choosing to ignore the boys second comment due to lack of understanding the Jocks ringleader advanced with the scissors to which the boy sighed “And to think I was hoping to avoid this for at least a few days” at which he grabbed the forearms of the two people holding his shoulders, leaned forwards and threw them both to the floor, he did this without breaking eye contact with the ringleader.

“Look Clovis or whatever your name is, I’d recommend getting out of here fast, these guys don’t mess around if you start trouble with them” Tom had hoped he would see sense from this, instead he swatted his braid out of the hand of whoever it was and began to crack his knuckles “What a coincidence…neither do I” he said grinning as the jocks began to circle him and Tom.

It was not clear who struck the first blow but it was definitely wasted as Clovis simply grabbed the wrist, turned lightly and pushed the person on the back sending him following his punch into the man behind Clovis. Tom recognised the movements as being like those Tai Chi classes his father made him take, only this looked like it could actually do something, this was proved correct when the next person to try and strike Clovis had his fist caught and pulled back forcing him to the floor where Clovis caught him with is foot and swung him into the legs of another Jock sending them both sprawling, the two he had thrown got up and tried to rush him at once, he put a hand on ones shoulder and swept him onto his knees, then spun around and grabbed the neck of the other one’s shirt and leaning back onto the kneeling guy sent the other over the top and onto the pile of others, the ringleader finally tried to tackle him but he came back up and putting a hand on the guys head vaulted over with his legs nearly doing the splits, this caused the would-be tackler to go sprawling into his kneeling accomplish and left all seven Jocks sprawled in a heap in the bathroom.

Clovis straightened his cap and sweater and turned to the stunned Tom, “Fancy a bit of lunch mate?” Tom could only nod stunned as he followed him out. Later on Tom was finding himself fascinated by this strange person who sat opposite him on the grass in the school explaining his life story.

From what he had heard Clovis was born and raised in Hong Kong until he was ten years old at which point he moved to England for 2 years, up until then he had been attending lessons in Kung-Fu devoutly and for a child he had become completely obsessed with learning all he could, by the time he had left the country he had developed an insatiable thirst for training no matter the style. He had spent the 2 years in England trying to balance his school with finding anywhere he could keep learning martial arts, after being forced to leave many sessions after being too good his parents decided it would be best if they got this obsession out of his system by letting him focus on his training, they arranged for him to spend the next 4 years travelling the world and learning martial arts under the watch of his uncle by marriage Ken Wan, the two had travelled all over Asia it seems and Clovis had become proficient in nearly every style of marital arts in existence it seemed.

“Clovis…err do you think you could teach me how to do that stuff you did back there?” Tom had asked him, deciding it was worth a shot, “Huh? Well I guess I could take a student on…though I need to know why” he responded so Tom explained to him how since coming to Fielding he had felt he didn’t quite fit in with the other rich kids, he just didn’t see anything in common with them but he couldn’t identify it, however he seemed to not have the same feeling with Clovis. This had been enough to interest Clovis and he agreed to give Tom 2 lessons every month, this soon became 2 lessons a week…

“And the rest as they say is history” Tom thought to himself as he saw Mr Shrubber enter so he knew Clovis would follow soon. Suddenly all the lights went out for a few moments “Pay no attention CLASS, the principle SAID this may happen ONCE or TWICE today” Tom did recall a mention of possible power outages as they changed some fuses and other things. Once the light returned and the usual hubbub had died down Tom heard a voice say “Good thing no one is afraid of the dark eh mate?”

Day 4: Thursday

It had gotten to the point where there was now a pool on how Clovis was going to turn up today, Tom hadn’t bothered betting as he knew not to bet when ‘JD’ was involved, as well as being scarily good with women he was also an uncanny gambler, he was still annoyed about the 50 he had lost last time.

Tom looked out the window to see the grass rippling in the wind, knowing Clovis he was probably stood on the roof watching in awe, you had to hand it to the man, he had travelled the world and seen it all before he turned 16, yet he was still captivated by things like the wind blowing. Probably why he was always late now that he thought of it.

Tom’s thoughts began to drift back the night before; Clovis had violin lessons (Tom wondered how such a big Heavy Metal fan as Clovis would be into playing classical music…he really should introduce him to Trent to see what happens) so Daria and Jane had come over to watch some ‘Versus’ after Tom had convinced them that gun-totting zombies where the best thing to take their minds off of their schoolwork.

The three had been watching the movie making their usual comments at the right moment when it had been partway through the film Tom heard a knock at the window and went to open it leaving Daria making a comment about “Remember Jane when we dispose of Kevin’s corpse we don’t leave his football in case he comes back and remembers how to use it” Tom rolled his eyes as he opened the window for Clovis to somersault through with his violin case in his hand “why do you never use the door?” he had asked “well I am a famous Kung-Fu master” was all he got from Clovis as he did every time he asked.

“Sorry to barge in like this, Dad had to stop the lesson as he needed to do some work” Tom remembered Clovis saying his father worked in diplomacy “seems he needed to do something about the Tajikistan Situation” Daria and Jane’s answers both gave different impressions “There’s a situation?” Daria had asked whereas Jane had asked, “There’s a Tajikistan?” causing Tom to bite his lip, “apparently he says its nothing much but could threaten the balance of power in…ooh zombie martial arts” and that was the death of that train of thought.

They had spent the night doing their own thing really, Clovis had played the violin for Jane to do some sketches of while he and Daria alternated between watching the movie and teaching Daria a few Tai Chi moves…mainly as after seeing how Clovis had taken down 7 men without throwing a single punch it was agreed it would be the best martial art for Daria as it required next to no effort…at least that’s what Tom and Clovis had said as they both still had strong senses of self-preservation.

Tom looked up from his desk as Mr Shrubber came in, surveyed the class and grinned when he didn’t see Clovis and started writing on the chalkboard, while he was writing Tom looked up to see the air vent on the ceiling start to detach, as it fell it stopped in mid air hanging from what looked like a black rope which on closer examination proved to be Clovis’s braid as he dropped out of the vent straight into his seat, he then removed the vent cover from his hair and hid it in his desk. He and Tom grinned at each other as they heard ‘JD’ sigh in disappointment, Daria would be pleased…she had $75 riding on Clovis using the vents.

Day 5: Friday

Nunchaku, why did it have to be nunchaku? Tom sometimes wondered why he still let Clovis arrange weapons night every other Thursday as he rubbed the band-aid on his forehead. Still at least he isn’t using live steel weapons…anymore; Tom was glad he wouldn’t have to explain that scar on his chest to Daria again anytime soon.

Tom wondered how things would have been if he hadn’t met Clovis in the bathroom that day, the two had been hanging out with each other ever since, the fact he was actually talking to someone had made him start opening up to others a little as well, such as Wasabi and ‘JD’ amongst other people, he had also stopped taking the anti-depressants his father had made him start taking without anyone noticing, Tom reasoned that it was because he was never actually depressed, just detached.

He had also begun to experiment with venturing out beyond the elitist world his family lived in, and found he liked it, although when your best friend wont stop telling you the story of the duel he had with an old rival onstage at a concert over summer you do get influenced by that sort of thing.

Mind you if he hadn’t been at ‘The Zen’ that night he wouldn’t have met Jane and…well as he had said before he didn’t want to dwell on the past anymore and besides Clovis still had his ‘No angst policy’ that translated as “You whine like a bitch then you get slapped like one” or something less eloquent, the school Goth wanabees had never quite been the same since Clovis had instigated that policy…although he had a good reason.

Tom wondered if he should ask Daria out to ‘Millionaires Express’ for a meal sometime soon, given the unanimous consent of the quality of their food it would probably not be difficult to persuade her, even if it did risk another of Stephens comment on Tom being bland, Tom had seen Clovis and Stephen hanging out before, apparently he was a sort of older brother figure for Clovis, they let him hang around the restaurant after hours and other things like that. Funnily enough he had also seen Stephen at Clovis’s home some of the few times they had been there, apparently his family knew their family from Hong Kong so he was always welcome.

Tom thought back to the only time he had been to ‘Millionaires Express’ that had been on the day Clovis had not turned up…

Tom remembered it vividly that day, how he had heard Clovis had heard his parents having a fight about something, how he had been involved somehow, how he had taken a few drinks and how he had not turned up for the school the day after. Tom had been to his parents house and found a menu on the table while listening to his mother explain that Clovis had heard them arguing about pulling Clovis out of his training ‘pilgrimage’ and whether it had been right to take him out of it at this time, Clovis had heard them and misinterpreted it as thinking something about them not wanting him back, he had been getting into trouble for fighting at school so this may have led to this misconception.

Actually what they had meant was that they had been worried that they should have given Clovis more time to adapt to a regular life instead of just thrusting him into school days after returning home, they had been afraid he hadn’t learned to fully keep himself under control with the martial arts he knew, Tom though validated to his parents that Clovis was smart enough not to start a fight…although he wouldn’t hesitate to end one.

Tom had turned up at the restaurant as they had begun to close up for the night but once he explained it to Stephen the head waiter he had told him to take a rest and that he had seen Clovis earlier that day, he was drunk and they told him to leave as they did not want him to start trouble, thankfully the bar was still open and Tom had been running around Lawndale all day so he asked for a glass of water, Maggie the barmaid handed it him without asking for ID or anything else bar staff can be difficult about, mainly as Stephen had told her what he had been told by Tom.

He had leaned on the bar trying to catch his breath when he noticed the man on the barstool next to him “Lose something?” He had asked, Tom hadn’t paid much attention to him so all he could remember was that he had a red jacket, a goatee, a ponytail and a pair of sunglasses, “Actually yes” was Toms response, “I don’t know why I’m telling you but I seem to have lost my best friend” the man raised an eyebrow from his sunglasses “Maybe you need somewhere with a better view? Because I don’t think your gonna find him hear, you need to learn how to look at things kid” Tom was sure he should have been offended but instead had been hit by a realisation “sorry but I gotta go” he said as he barrelled out knocking over Stephen “Steve, Maggie, thanks” as he left he turned to look to make sure Stephen was ok and saw out the corner of his eye the man in red talking to a women wearing white and was sure he heard “you did it again didn’t’ you?” as he ran as fast as he could to the school.

By the time he had managed to get in through an open window (no doubt Clovis’s point of entry) and made it up on the roof he saw his friend stood near the edge taking a step to the ledge, Tom did not know if his friend was just getting a better view or was about to jump, either way he decided to act.

Without shouting or anything he ran and grabbed the giant braid at the back of his friends head and yanked him away from the ledge and onto the floor “What do you think you’re doing?” he had yelled at his friend on the floor who just lay there looking confused and thoughtful for a while until he looked like he had finally made a decision and spoke “I was going to ask you the same question mate” he said as he got up, “Do you mind not speaking of this to anyone?” his friend had asked him no doubt concerned about what people would think, “I’ll take it to my gra…” he stopped himself that time thankfully and gave probably the smarter response of “Sure…mate” as the two left the night that never happened.

As Mr Shrubber entered Tom realised that Clovis never spoke of that night in any way, but after that he began to spend time either on the roof or just stood there watching the world go by, Tom never asked what he thought because he had made a deal with his friend, Clovis would tell him when he was ready. As their teacher began his now ritual rant he stopped and stared for a while at something, during this Tom glanced quickly at his best friend sat calmly in his normal place and smiled, Tom had decided that the poor teacher had suffered enough so deserved to see Clovis on time for a change.

Sadly the shock seemed enough to finally give Mr Shrubber that heart attack as he fell to the floor much to the shock and also annoyance of Tom.

“You know Thomas my old mate, there is going to be hell to pay for this I do believe” Clovis said in a deadpan voice Daria would be proud of “You know Clovis I do believe that you are right” Tom responded in an equally deadpan tone. It had definitely been an interesting week.

Cue ‘Dreamer’ by OZZY Osbourne.

The End.

Author’s notes:

Well another Fanfic finally done, hope you liked it, this story I wanted to use to do a little more development of Tom and Clovis. Partially as Clovis is going to be a main player in upcoming stories and also as I wanted to show the somewhat unusual friendship between him and Tom. The apparent suicide attempt at the end was intended to be ambiguous as to whether he was going to jump or was just going for a better view, am not sure how successful I was but that was what I was aiming for, as to the Man in Red, he was added as a tribute to Greystar’s ‘Something didn’t happen’ and ‘Daria we need to talk’ seeing as they where the two Fanfic’s that encouraged me to get off my arse and actually write something, hope he doesn’t mind. Some of the stuff here is planted as seeds for future stories (Tom’s apparent prescription of anti-depressants, their teachers heart attack, and various other stuff) I hope I can cover it all in due time.

As always feedback, comments and criticism plus whatever else you want to say can be sent to mechahead@hotmail.com so feel free to mail away.