Welcome Back (IC)

[Raveled]

Sunday

October 2nd, 2011

Claremont Academy

Rita Kord Dormitory

Brian Harris stood in his dorm room and slicked his hair back one last time, looking at himself in the mirror above the bureau he shared with Morgan Crowe. He'd dressed up in some of his best clothes tonight; a well-spun wine-red turtleneck, pressed khakis, and he's even strung new laces in his white tennis shoes. He'd even dug out the suit he'd brought from Little Rock, pulling it out of the dry cleaning bag it had lived in for the last three years, but he'd been forced to face just how much he'd grown. He had shaved that morning and even used some kind of gel on his hair to make it stand up in spikes, but now he was regretting that decision.

Brian glanced at Morgan's empty bed; he would've loved the chance to ask his friend how he looked, but the other boy was spending a few days in Boston with his dad, in the aftermath of the Gorgon. So he sighed and walked out of the room, locking the door behind himself. After a moment he opened it again and grabbed the wrapped package at the edge of the dressed, a box roughly the size of a necklace box covered in mint-green paper.

Locking the door again, Brian climbed the two flights of stairs to Gwen's floor, then walked over to her door. He took a deep breath to calm his nerves and knocked on the door.

[Breella]

What to wear?! Gwen rummaged through her dresser. She had been back less than a day and the room looked like a tornado of shades of green and brown. Don't ever let me buy a brown skirt or green tank top ever again! Gwen could feel the Vines thinking something over. No more! the Vines squeaked, then began throwing out ideas for clothing colors. The potted plants around the room also began to chime in with their favorites. Gwen grumbled something about needing to broaden her colors before she hit gold.

Gwen had cut her hair slightly after coming back from Sanctuary, it now came to only mid back rather than passed her thighs when loose. Gwen looked into the mirror at herself. She had found a purple dress that her grandmother had picked out for her grandfathers 60th birthday party a few months before. The evening air had a chill and Gwen grabbed a black shawl to bring with her. There was a knock at the door as she was pulling on her black flats. "Just a moment!" she called as she turned to look at herself in the mirror. Her hair hung free down her back, pieces pulled back with purple barrettes to keep it off her face. Gwen grabbed a black purse and opened the door.

[Raveled]

Brian stood there for a moment, taking in the sight of Gwen in her ruffled dress and loose hair. The butterflies in his stomach did an extra lap and he swallowed hard. "You... look absolutely beautiful, Gwen. And, um, I'm not just saying that because I thought I might never see you again, either." He stood in the doorway awkwardly for a moment, then thrust the wrapped package at her. "Here. I, um, bought you a present while you were... away." He peered past her and noticed that her roommate was apparently out. "Are you all ready to go?"

[Breella]

Gwen took the box but lunged at Brian, her arms wrapping around his shoulders and her face on his chest with her head barely reaching his chin. She felt like it had been ages since she saw him and took in a deep breath. After a moment Gwen pulled her head back and looked at him. "Yes, I'm ready to go." Gwen tiptoed her way up and kissed Brian, a short peck and stood back on her toes. "Also, I missed you."

[Raveled]

Brian hadn't been expecting a flying hug, but he was big enough to absorb the blow without a problem. He put on arm around Gwen's back almost automatically, feeling a warm tingle spread out from where she kissed him. He cupped her chin with his free hand and bent his neck, kissing her full on the lips for what felt like an eternity but was probably only a minute or so by the ticking of the clock. When he pulled back his face was flushed and the tingling had spread to his toes and fingers; he shook out his hands, trying to get rid of it. "I really missed you, too," he said, his voice quiet. "There were times when... when I wasn't sure if I was going to see you again."

[Breella]

Gwen put her finger to Brian's lips. Shh. We won't talk about that now." Gwen held the green wrapped box to her ear and listened for a moment. "Here, I--uh. I made you something, in Sanctuary." Gwen handed Brian a small cloth bag and hoped he'd like what was inside. "It's not much, they don't exactly have a giftshop there." Gwen toyed with the paper on her package. She opened it perfectly without marring the paper. The box slid out and she opened it with a gasp. Gwen held up the set of clips looking at Brian. "They're--beautiful." she said as she took pinkish purple out out and put it into her hair in the back.

[Raveled]

Brian felt a weight in his chest lift when Gwen accepted his gift wholeheartedly. A gift from her surprised him, but not in a bad way. "It looks great, Gwen," he said, raising the necklace to his throat -- only to remember he was wearing a turtleneck. The young man stood there for a moment, turning the gift over in his hand, wondering what to do with it. He didn't want to stuff it in his pocket or leave it on his dresser and maybe forget it... Brian snapped his fingers and grinned. He pulled back his left sleeve and wrapped the necklace twice around his wrist, fixing it there.

He put his arm around Gwen's shoulder as they walked down the stairs, his hand idly stroking down her back. He frowned and slowed for a step, checking out her back more carefully. "You... cut your hair," he said, sounding almost puzzled.

[Breella]

"Just a little." Gwen shrugged the comment off and looked back at Brian over her shoulder. "If I don't it gets bad and unhealthy." Gwen pulled her cellphone out and put the ringer on silent before putting it back into her purse. "Now, where are we going tonight, and will there be dancing?" Gwen put her arm into Brian's and hung onto him, drawing herself closer to him as they walked. The two weeks Gwen was gone had truly felt like months and she wondered if Brian had actually grown in those two weeks or if it was just imagination.

[Raveled]

Brian thought of a slow dance with Gwen, holding her close and swaying together was the music played... He blushed and glanced to the side as he took a couple of quick steps forward so he was abreast with her again. "No dancing, sorry. At least, none planned. But I've got some reservations at a restaurant, and then movie tickets. After that, I figured we'd head over to the Boardwalk." As dates went it was fairly conventional, but Brian wanted to play it safe tonight.

[Breella]

Gwen smiled as they walked on, slowly she interlaced her fingers with his. Her tiny hands were dwarfed by his but her hands were the more calloused of the two. Gwen looked down at her matched purple manicure thinking about things. She wanted to talk to Brian about what happened while she was away but she was scared-- scared of how close he may have come to such danger while she basked and played relatively safe in Sanctuary. "So-- it's been a rough couple of weeks hasn't it?"

[Raveled]

Brian felt Gwen's small hand slip into his and gripped it, perhaps a bit tighter than was strictly necessary. "It... it was kind of bad at times." His mind flashed through the last few weeks; all-night patrols, intensive training in his 'off-hours,' all culminating in a fight with a former alumnus that he'd been unconscious for half of. It wasn't an experience he wanted to relive anytime soon. He shook the gloomy feelings off and flashed a smile at Gwen. "That's in the past, though." He raised her hand and kissed her knuckles, then drew her closer and kissed her on the lips. "I promise, tonight is all about you."

[Breella]

After they had arrived and been seated Gwen sipped her water silently for a moment. She still wasn't sure when would be a good time to talk to Brian about the wonderful things she did at Sanctuary. Finally she grabbed a menu, and practically jumped out of her skin. Gwen waved nearly frantic for a waitress. It had been a while since she had what her mother referred to as proper food. She looked at the woman who came over to serve them and smiled. She was obviously hispanic and Gwen decided to go all out. In a thickly accented spanish she began to order. She seemed to speak at length with the woman asking questions and making judgements based on that. Finally she looked at Brian. "What do you like?"

[Raveled]

Brian flew the pair of them to the restaurant in the West End, setting down a few blocks away so they could walk over normally. Headmaster Summers could be really insistent on keeping the use of powers on the down-low, and the young man didn't consider it a great sacrifice to walk a few blocks with her. Once inside Tia Marta's they were seated promptly -- Brian hadn't been lying about the reservations -- and he began to puzzle through the menu. Only to drop it and stare at Gwen rattle off a string of perfect Spanish without pause. When she turned to him, he had a bemused grin on his face that he quickly tried to hide with his menu. "Sorry, sorry. I just... I forget how well-traveled you are." He cleared his throat and addressed the server. "I'll have a tapa... ah, tapa aioli, with the chicken. And a coke to drink." He folded the menu and put it down, looking at Gwen across the table. "You really are full of surprises."

[Breella]

Gwen flushed pale as she realized that there was so much she hadn't told Brian about her family. Gwen said something to the waitress and passed off her menu. "I..." Gwen pulled out the photo of her parents and showed it to Brian. While Gwen greatly resembled her father, the auburn hair, green eyes, pale freckled skin. However her body structure was obviously that of the Hispanic woman in the photo. Sharp chin, high cheek bones, short stature. "My mom was born in Venezuela-- well I was too but my mothers family is from Venezuela." Gwen shrugged for a moment. "Dad speaks it well enough too, I was raised bi-lingual."

[Raveled]

Brian leaned over the table, studying the picture in Gwen's hand. "That's really cool," he said. He dug out his wallet and carefully extracted a folded photograph. It was a group shot; a younger and blonder Brian dressed in football pads and a jersey, in between two adults. The man on the left was gangling and pale, with a prominent Adam's apple and a shock of butter-yellow hair on his head; he was cheering and had his hands in the air, clearly excited. On the right was a lean woman with prominent African features, including skin so black it was almost blue. She had her arm around Brian and was smiling widely, her bright teeth a contrast against her skin. Her hair was similarly dark and pulled back into a braid. "My dad," Brian said unnecessarily, pointing at the figures, "and my mom. This was just after the J-V football team went to state. We, uh, lost, but this picture was taken at halftime, so." He waited for Gwen to hand the picture back and then carefully put it back into his wallet. He rubbed his chin for a moment before offering, "You could meet my dad, I guess. If you wanted to."

[Breella]

"I'd like that." Gwen flipped her photos to another without looking at it. "You could meet my parents, whenever they get time to visit." the latter part of the sentence held a note of sadness. The photo lay open in Gwen's hand, this one was a younger Gwen dressed as a "proper" upper class child would be. Her hair was braided in two down her shoulders. A bright white knee length sun dress with matching white sunhat, white shoes and white stockings adorned the young Gwen as she stood between two sitting older people. The woman looked much like Gwen's mother, the man's salt and pepper hair was military buzz cut, he wasn't the tallest of men but even in the photo he had an air of authority to him. Each had a hand on one of the girls shoulders, like she was a prize to them. The photo was taken using a very old camera and the colors were faded. Gwen went to flip to another photo.

[Raveled]

Brian looked through Gwen's photobook, soaking each one up. It was hard to tell whether was that interested in Gwen's life or if his own picture had reminded him of how much he missed his family. By the time he sat back in his own chair the server had reappeared with their food. "That's really amazing," he said, unfolding his napkin and spreading it on his lap. "I don't know anyone with a family that cool, Gwen. I really hope I can meet some of them some day."

[Breella]

"On both sides everyone is kind of busy. They're a lot of professors, politicians... everyone's pretty busy..." another note of sadness filled Gwen's voice. "As much time as I've spent with mom and dad I really haven't at the same time. We've all always been, well busy." Gwen's eyes got distant and she could feel the Vines, who had promised to take a backseat for the whole date stir at her sadness and she felt something of a hug from them, letting her head clear. Gwen decided to change the subject. "I can also speak French and Arabic decently."

[Raveled]

Brian watched Gwen's face as she talked about her family and he felt a pang in his heart. He knew how hard it was to live away from one's family; he almost couldn't bear to think about where his mother might be or what might have happened to her in the time since he'd seen her last. He could well imagine how hard it was for Gwen to live away from the people she loved. He reached over and squeezed her hand, comforting her wordlessly for a moment.

As he cut into his food, he replied to comment about speaking a foriegn language. "I've never really tried to learn a different language," he admitted. "Hah, if I do well in biology this semester, feel like tutoring me in Spanish, instead? We can have sappy talks in front of everyone else and they'd never know!"

[Breella]

"Almost everyone speaks Spanish now, maybe French, or we could learn a whole new language together?" Gwen ran through a list in her head thinking of other languages she might want to pick up and filed the idea away. She looked down at her sausage and polenta. She took a fork and knife and began cutting the sausage up. "In your note you mentioned that there were things you wanted to speak about it." Gwen began to eat gently, recalling proper dining etiquette as she did.

[Raveled]

Brian pressed his lips together. "Yeah, I... we kinda have something to talk about." He looked down at his food and cut into his tapa, popping a bit into his mouth and chewing a plug of meat and bread for a minute. He swallowed and leaned forward. "You heard about the fight during the whole Gorgon thing? Where Megastar kind of wigged out?" The fight the Irregulars had survived had been overshadowed by the destruction another Herald had done to the West End, but it was important around Claremont. "He... he kind of said that my powers were from... the Terminus." He took a deep breath and let it out all at once, speaking fast. "I mean, it makes sense. My mother would've been pregnant at the right time, and there's the red colors and weird black fog that I do, and the fact that it's only good for blowing stuff up." He trailed off and looked down at his plate again. "It means I'm a T-baby, Gwen."

[Breella]

Gwen listened and when Brian was finished paused for only a brief moment. Raising her cup she took a sip of her coconut milkshake. She thought over what to say next, knowing that her reply could impact everything to come. "Does it change anything?" Gwen spread her napkin out on her lap. "Does it change how you feel? How you want to live you life? Does it make less anything you have done, or will do?"

[Raveled]

Brian kept staring at his food. "But if my powers come from the Terminus... Gwen, nothing good has ever come from there. I mean, it's all entropy and destruction and death and..." he sighed heavily and rested his head in one hand, poking at his food. All of a sudden food was the farthest thing from his mind. "Can I even be a hero with powers like that?" He shook his head. "Anyway. I don't know for sure. Summers said he'll set up an appointment for me with a doctor who can check me out. I just wanted to let you know. In case you have a sudden surge of sanity and want to run for the hills or something." It was hard to see with his face canted down, but that last statement had been followed by a tentative half-smile.

[Breella]

Gwen reached across the table and grabbed up Brian's hand. She made her face very hard to keep it straight. "So this one little thing makes you less of a hero? It lessens everything you've worked towards in your life?" Gwen squeezed Brian's hand, hard. "Entropy is THE natural course of life. There can BE no life without death, without change. What goes up must come down and all that." Gwen stared at Brian hard and took a deep breath.

[Raveled]

Brian squeezed Gwen's hand back. "Yeah, well. Just wanted to make this a full-disclosure kind of relationship. I don't want some stupid sitcom set-up where some little secret comes between us." Despite that, his hand betrayed him; his grip on her fingers was almost desperate. "Anyway. This is really good food, huhn?"

---

A few hours later and the pair were walking out a movie theater, Brian's arm around Gwen's shoulder. The title Brothers in the East blinked out from the marquee above them, illuminating the lowering darkness. "I'm not saying it was a bad movie," Brian protested. "I'm just saying, Tank and Gunner were not super-spies! The guys out-fought panzers in Europe, they weren't like James Bond in You Only Live Twice." He poked Gwen in the ribs. "You just liked it because George Clooney was the Brit in charge of the whole deal."