Tea and Coffee is SCIENCE! [/Aras]

Sitting there on the balcony, staring out into the street with her usual indifferent façade, she had to wonder what had really changed in that year she was gone. Had she been sorely missed, or did nobody notice at all? How were all her friends doing, how much did they change? Come to think of it, how much did she herself change? In her mind, probably not a lot of change had taken place. In retrospect, she might as well have been a different person with the same face.

Fifteen minutes was probably a lot more thinking time then she had originally anticipated; a lot more thinking time then she wanted, in all honesty. Aurelia took another sip of her tea, still steaming from the mug. She might’ve been insane taking hot tea on a hot day, but she adamantly refused to neither ice it nor take it from a bag. It was loose leaf or nothing and would remain that way for as long as she drank tea. Might as well be Asian while she was at it—for as long as she drank tea probably meant the rest of her life and then while she was standing at the gates of heaven or hell.

Aurelia ran her fingers through her hair, contemplated that, then picked her mug back up and took a few more sips. Her hair had definitely grown out—after all, she hadn’t cut it in about a year. She was no longer pale to the point of translucency either, and for that she was mildly thankful. Hours in the middle of sunny, sunny nowhere had done a number for her skin. Her hair was no longer sleek and glossy, though the roots would no doubt start throwing that feature again. It was still wispy, but now it looked rather dusty and dry as well. It wouldn’t surprise her if it wasn’t salt and peppered yet either, but alas, she hadn’t grown that old while she was away.

But she had grown a year older; 26 to be exact. February 12th had been her birthday, and she had celebrated it by sleeping in until six in the morning, man, what a party. Her last thought came off as mildly bitter. Why yes, she had been quite alone on her birthday with nothing but the sound of rattling metal and guns. It hadn’t been so bad then—she dealt with it like she did with everything else; lack of concern and a flat-out poker face. But she was getting old, damn it. Back in Vietnam, she should’ve already had five children by now and happily married. Her thoughts came screeching to a halt right there and not a moment too soon, a hair before her thoughts reached out and curled around her fiancé’s name.

Also not a moment too soon, a certain Mr. Aras Duval sat himself down across from her. His normally expressive eyes had given away to a rather neutral blank—somewhat to her distaste. Yes, it’s been a while. A very long, long while. Their eyes met, unwavering, and she found herself almost excessively relieved. Those hazel eyes were familiar in a way that she had never thought she would miss; right alongside the past ear length mop of brown hair and his slightly dry sense of humor. Some things never seemed to get old. As of current, she was torn between giving him a nice hug or dropping that mug of hot tea she had right on his lap.

“Yeah… It’s been a while.” Her eyes flicked down towards his hand for a moment. It was wrapped up in white gauze and bandages, just tempting her to ask what that was all about. A long silence stretched between them, and even that was familiar. Another sip of tea, yet she still held his gaze over the lip of the mug. “A year, actually. Miss me?” And there it was, her usual cynical humor. Some things just never change.

Aurelia actually found herself amused and mildly relieved when he slipped off that detached face of his in favour of a smile. That was the Aras she knew; the one whose hazel eyes were always lively and whose brown mop of hair hung around and framed his grin just so. She would, of course, have to listen to him later on when he finally got around to being extremely annoyed with her, but thankfully Aras seemed to have forgone that for the time being. Now more then ever did she realize how much she actually missed her friend. He had been a face she had gotten used to, and though she didn’t feel the pinch as much while she was away as he probably did, she felt it in full right now.

“Huh, glad to know I was missed, if only a little.” Aurelia let herself relax as Aras did, holding her mug in her lap now as opposed to her breast like she had before. It was a nice first day back. Only way it could’ve been made better was if she had gotten a bonus in her paycheck for her troubles, but knowing her superiors, that was highly unlikely. She wanted to tack on a ”I missed you too” to the end of that, but again, she refrained. It would’ve come off sarcastic, either way. She was the cynic alright; when she smelled flowers, she would go in search of the coffin.

”How’ve you been?”

She could’ve thought up about a million and one response for that. Oh, what should she say? Where should she start? There was a lot she wanted to tell him and a lot she would’ve preferred he never found out. Ever. They had been separated for a year, after all. There had to be something to say, no matter how miniscule. Overall, she had been okay, but just okay. She hadn’t enjoyed that boot camp as much as she thought she would’ve, and during the last six months especially, the time stretched to an eternity. That was the point where she realized she would either be sent home tomorrow, or be here for quite a while longer. It had proven to be the latter, and clearly nobody was pleased with the outcome.

“I’ve been worse for wear,” She trailed for a moment there, her finger wandering around the rim of her mug as she thought. By ‘worse for wear’, she probably meant that she felt like she had aged twenty years and her back was bound to get creaky sooner then later. “Turned 26 and now I feel old. Nothing out of the ordinary, right?” Right. A mid-life crisis at twenty six years old didn’t happen often, but it was happening. Oh well, she’d hit another one at age fifty and keep on living. She would keep playing with that machete until she broke her arm, and then she’d play some more.

“And how ‘bout you, lovie? How’s life?” A sip of her tea, staring at him over the rim of her mug yet again. He had barely changed at all since she last saw him. Maybe one or two more lines in the corners of his eyes then she remembered, and maybe he had recently gotten a haircut. If anything, however, he actually looked a tad younger. Either way, life had moved on without her while she was gone, and she didn’t expect Aras to wait around for her either. Time was slow out there in the middle of a desert, surrounded by nothing but sand, but back here in Keis, it continued to chug along. She wasn’t expecting to catch up just today—a year’s worth of information was too much for her frazzled, old-lady mind. Hopefully she would be seeing Aras around a lot now that she was back.

The waiter came back around to see if she wanted anything else, and Aras took his chance to order an iced latte then. Well, that must had not changed about the young man at least. If he was to be given the choice between caffeine and oxygen, he would’ve probably taken the caffeine. Well, tea was caffeinated, at least some of it, and that’s what kept Aurelia going half the time. She would probably be better off not to judge, in that case. At least she knew that Aras’ caffeine addiction did not ebb at all and that coffee for his birthday was still an acceptable gift. Which reminded her; when was his birthday anyways? Oh damn, she would have to scrounge around for that one ASAP, before it came and went without a word from her. Reyes would more then likely know, but in the almost impossible instance that he didn’t, she’d have to access some system files and all that jazz. Let’s just hope that Reyes knew and that she would get around to asking him sooner rather then later.

Judging from the look that came upon his face, she knew her answer didn’t exactly satisfy his question. Why yes, she had been quite vague, but Aurelia seemed to always have her reasons. Though he asked if the students--bless them--had been that inept with a grin, she knew he wasn’t entirely joking either. Anything asked with a grin was taken with a grain of salt. She only chuckled at that one, but let the question hang. The past year had brought some interesting things, shoved her through some interesting events, and she would be happy to let it rest in peace for the time being. When she had arrived off that helicopter, she was surprised to see a few people she had never meant to see again, and she honestly was assuming that they were what caused her so much unrest.

His answer was equally as vague and mirrored her own. There was a pause that settled between them once again. It seemed to happen on a semi regular basis and she really had no problem with it—comfortable silences were always better then awkward conversations. He seemed to become lost in thought for a minute there, and was it just her, or was the hot tea making her see more colour in his cheeks? She rubbed her eye for a moment, man I woke up late today. Well, if you counted eight in the morning late, that was. She still hadn’t gotten used to civilized life back in Keis yet, where you didn’t have to wake up at four in the morning for cold water in the shower and didn’t have to check your boots for scorpions that may or may not have crawled in there during the night.

“Heard anything about the raids?”

The blank stare she gave him, accompanied by the slight rise of her brow, told him that no, she had not heard of these raids. She caught that glance down at his hand and followed it, going back to the gauze-wrapped appendage placed on his end of the small round table. She had to wonder what his hand looked like under all those white bandages, but she sincerely hoped for his sake that he wasn’t missing a few fingers.

“No,” Aurelia placed her mug down on the table and leaned forward, gingerly picking up his wrapped up hand. She looked like she was inspecting it for a moment before setting it back down and placing her own hand over it. “What about the raids? And is that what happened to your hand?” Aurelia of course knew that Aras was an assassin for SEG and a marksman, and having a ruined hand would cause some trouble.


OOC: Izzeh, you be stalking us? 8|;

Aurelia had a feeling, this teeny tiny inkling of a feeling, that the next few weeks were going to be anything but rest and recovery. If whatever it was had been important enough for Aras to bring work up right away, it would have been important enough for the higher ups to get her butt back into gear as soon as humanly possible. She also highly doubted that ‘humanely’ was defined the same in her boss’ head as it was in hers. Aurelia sincerely had to pause a moment there and wonder why oh why she took this job in the first place. Because pay was good, she was mostly jobless then, and the prospect of handling weapons all day just appealed to her. She was, of course, not informed of needing to be sent out to kick serious ass once in a while, but that was stuff she got paid extra for.

Still, however, she was more concerned about Aras and his hand. She in no way doubted his skills as a sharpshooter—okay, maybe a little—but aside from that, she would he hard pressed to find something he could use that didn’t involve his good hand. His job was to kill people quickly and quietly, so with his hand out of commission, now what? And if he had lost a finger or two along with that, he would have a lot more to worry about. She made a mental note to teach him some old-school weaponry some day; something that could be used with both the right and left hand.

Aras tilted forward and rested his elbow on the table. Even though Aurelia was already leaning in, she pulled herself forward a few more degrees. SEG had been under a lot of scrutiny, she knew that from even before she left to the middle of informationless nowhere. She could only imagine how much worse it got after these ‘raids’, whatever they were, and she was going to find out very soon. The chance of a shifter listening in was small, true, but it was a present threat none the less. Long story short; there were a lot of things in this society that were never meant to be heard by the everyday class. Unfortunately, a lot of that was heard by Aurelia and doubtless, Aras as well.

When Aras told her that it was capture-not-kill, it immediately illuminated a lot of what had happened to his hand. ”It was a wolf.” Was quickly tacked on to the end as if it was an afterthought, but his grimace told her clearly that he was still feeling it. Aurelia couldn’t help but press her lips into a fine line. The woman had always had this… Thing against wolves. An experience at the boot camp just cemented her growing hatred for wolves deep, deep into her mind and it was probably never going to let go at this point. It involved a wolf shifter that had somehow slipped past the blood test unnoticed that was completely and utterly creepy and kept giving her the eye. She had to spend a year with that guy, 365+ days.

“You just missed the last of the raids, I think.”

Of course she did; Aurelia’s timing was always either impeccable or horrendous. There were only two options for her; arrive at the very second of the appointed date, or arrive hours early or late. It seemed that this time she had narrowly dodged the bullet and arrived just on time and the raids were over. Though she wasn’t too sure whether she wanted to get involved in that or not, she figured better safe then sorry with a bullet between your eyes and your brains making nice patterns on the wall. She would be filled in eventually, if not by Aras, then by somebody else.

“Lucky me, eh?” With her free hand, she took another sip of her black tea. It was cooling by now and though it was to her distaste, it was hot out and it registered somewhere deep in her mind that it tasted pretty okay. The waiter also seemed to have some pretty good timing going on. The two had yet to move apart and Aurelia still hadn’t withdrawn her hand when he came around with Aras’ caffeine. He set the coffee down and took a good look at the two of them before smiling and walking away, no doubt thinking of something along the lines of “love birds”. Damn, not this crap again. Aurelia had already had enough trouble with the Lorentzes.

“Do we really need to talk about work after I just got back, or is there anything else that important that I must know.” Aurelia said it with a hint of sarcasm. If there was anything that important, then she would like to know. That didn’t mean that she preferred to know, but she wanted to know at least the very important things so she would have to sit through less blah blah blah later. And anyways, this was supposed to be catch-up time and an apology to Aras, not updates on work.

The waiter lingered a little longer then what was absolutely necessary to drop off a latte and see if they wanted anything else. If Aurelia remembered civilized life correctly in Keis, this was normal? There were no restaurants or fancy little cafes out there in the desert, after all. She thought about it for a second, unsure of what exactly to say while the waiter looked almost expectantly at them. She turned away for a moment, trying to break that little awkward blob that had formed between them. When she looked back, the waiter was gone and Aras did seem a few shades rosier. Right now, she was a bit too worn out to figure out whether it was a blush or heatstroke. If it was a blush, he would be spared this one time, but if it was heatstroke, he would be dead.

“Sorry. It’s just that it’s all I’ve been doing for the last couple of months.” Aras sighed; almost visibly wilting as he the words left his lips. Aurelia could almost see the little gears clicking in his head as he tried to think of some news. Well, it had been a year, there must’ve been something or another that would’ve been important enough to remember and share. She certainly had a few things, and the desert was clearly not as eventful or scenic as Keis was. She herself had to sort through all the things she needed to tell him and the things that would’ve been better to keep under wraps.

Again with her free hand, she picked up her mug and took a sip. A few seconds later, the mouthful of tea just barely saved itself from being sprayed all over Aras and the table. Aurelia swallowed, coughed a few times and her brain tried to make the fact click. “What?” She finally managed after a bit more coughing. “Sonia had a boyfriend?” The fact that Sonia even had a significant other was already quite a bit of information to process. Sonia being engaged was something different altogether. Why had she not been informed of the former, let alone the latter? Damn it, next time, she was definitely not going on any more of these funny little boot camp trips. But it didn’t surprise her in the slightest that Sonia was engaged to another dog lover. They probably had a big house with a big back yard and a big kennel to go along with it. Such a happy little life they built.

But then the topic of the dogs came up. The offer from before her little trip still stood, and though she sorted through her mind here and there, she sincerely had no reason to turn this one down again. Well, the Duval family knew one of her weaknesses, and that was dogs. Oh, she hated wolves with a passion, more so since the camp, but dogs were completely different. Reyes had a dog, a mildly retarded boston terrier that had the eyes of a mildly retarded chameleon. His name was Gobshite and he had an odd habit of humping people’s legs. He also bad a plethora of other animals, including a rooster, a porcupine and very, very large variety of fish. He named all of them and could tell each and every one apart from each other.

“That would be amazing,” Aurelia smiled, sincerely this time and without the almost cynical edge that made one corner rise up above the other. “I mean, are you sure that’s okay? I know how your sister is with her dogs…” Knowing Sonia, you had to be a really, really good family friend to be offered a dog, let alone a puppy. Aurelia didn’t consider herself too close to the Duval family, aside from Aras, of course. His sister and the oldest she got along fine with, it was more Eneas that she had a bit of trouble with. In short, he reminded her too much of her older brother, Minh; always laying on the charm a little too thick. Lyall was… Well… Lyall was Lyall, that was all she could say. It probably went without saying that she liked Aras the most.

“Also,” Aurelia’s mouth turned up in her usual mockingbird smile. “Has Reyes been bugging you while I was gone?” It had been pretty obvious for a long time that Reyes had a thing for Aras, and though she thought herself a horrible, horrible person for it, she found the situation very humorous. Hopefully he hadn’t gotten into too much trouble while she was away.

Sonia hadn’t seemed to change much, at the very least. She talked more about her dogs then any other subject, and though Aurelia didn’t mind at all, it surprised her a bit that she didn’t mention she had a boyfriend even once that she could remember. She expected it to be mentioned once in passing at least. Thankfully, being a scenthound provider to SEG, she was free to talk about dogs all day. She remembered the first time the woman had met Gobshite, Reyes’ chameleon-eyed boston terrier… thing. Aurelia barely counted Gobshite as a dog. But Sonia had almost gawked at him as he hobbled around and drooled all over everything and her shoes. Thankfully, Gobshite hadn’t chosen that day to furiously hump anything, so that was a good point. Aurelia couldn’t understand why oh why Reyes thought the dog an angel, but he did and he loved that thing to death, so she wasn’t about to tug them apart without being ready for whatever that came along with them being separated for more then a few hours.

Aurelia nodded at the mention of paying the Duval household a visit, and now his sister’s place as well. Maybe she could finally meet this man that had impressed Sonia enough to allow him to put that ring on her finger. Though the two had gotten along very well, they hadn’t gotten to know each other that much before she was to be shipped off. That had been too bad, really. Aurelia figured they would’ve been very good friends within days had she not been sent off. Oh well, she would make up for lost time now. She wondered briefly if Sonia had thought she had fallen off the face of the earth like everybody else had.

“Take a guess. I think he lasted about half a day after you left before he got bored.” Aras said following a short burst of humourless laughter. Half a day? That was much longer then she could expect. In her mind, it would’ve been more like half an hour before he got fed up with being alone and kidnapped Aras to his place. To him, it probably wouldn’t have mattered if Aras had been kicking and screaming bloody murder the whole way. Knowing his siblings as well, they probably would’ve taken a glance, realized it was Reyes and figured they’d let their little brother go play.

Aurelia couldn’t help but chuckle when Aras told him about the amazing, adventurous, real-time play-by-play of Irene the reef squid’s car ride back home. She remembered how Reyes was considering getting one of those fabled squid before she had left, and she guessed that he got around to ordering it. Thankfully, she hadn’t been around while he had to wait for it to get here, or else the topic of conversation would be squid. Every. Single. Day. “Well, a squid is eager to see me, at the very least.” Knowing Reyes, he probably picked one with the most pointed stare. Also knowing Reyes’ luck with getting animals, Irene the squid would probably sit there and glare at you the whole time you sat in his basement.

“Oh, and he decided that Lyall is his new best friend, so I got a break for a while.”

This coaxed from Aurelia a slightly raised eyebrow. Aurelia honestly wasn’t sure how to react to that bit of news, but unlike Sonia’s engagement, this one wasn’t just unexpected, it was a bit incompatible. Out of all the people in the world, it just had to be Lyall, did it? Aurelia had always thought Lyall a bit eccentric, but only a little. But adding even the slightest bit more crazy to Reyes was like adding just a few more bombs to blow up the Whitehouse. “Lyall? Like, your big brother Lyall?” Aurelia would just have to see where this headed to, but she wasn’t sure whether to be afraid for her life or amused by the new turn of events.

With a sigh, Aurelia sat back in her seat and finished off the rest of her tea—cool by now, may I add. She was tired, but it was nice hearing all these things again. Things had certainly changed while she was away, but she was glad to hear that some things haven’t budged. “Heh, I missed you guys, I seriously did. You do not know how relieved I am to be back.” Aurelia, despite her lifeless expression, did have some emotion underneath that skin.

Well, that was good to know. Ofelia was either stoic or snarky a good amount of the time. It was true, she would probably never admit to missing Aurelia, but knowing she did was nice. Actually, it probably made it just that much better. Though the two women hadn’t met under the best of circumstances, they saw eye to eye pretty well. At least, better then most other people that Aurelia met that tended to throw a knife before talking if surprised. Ofelia and she had found a sort of happy medium with each other; just don’t bother each other and don’t stab anything important. Except for Aras; he was free to stab. That was quickly changing, however, and if Ofelia stabbed him, she’d probably get angry. Of course, Aurelia had to still get her feet out of that try-not-to-stab-each-other-with-coat-hangers stage, but only her feet.

“Well, I already sent Reyes a text, so he might get it soon, or he might get it in a week. Whenever he finds his phone, you know?” Of course, Aurelia did plan on going home today, or maybe early tomorrow if Aras kept her out that long. Usually he wouldn’t, and would be escorting her back to the house of crazy before midnight. Of course, then he would hesitate to leave her alone and offer for her to stay over at the Duval house for a while. Aurelia knew this routine; she would reassure him that she would be okay and remind him that she had stayed overnight at Reyes’ house long before she met him, so she would be okay tonight, just like every other night.

So, it was that Lyall, huh? She knew he liked to make things go up in flames, and the more fantastic the display or resulting fireball, the better. Well, with that new tidbit of information, she had to nod and agree with Aras about the whole sirens-coming-from-the-general-direction thing. Well, it was much more then likely that the two would keep her up to ungodly hours of the morning at least once a week. And when she did get up to see what they were doing, she would probably find them throwing the porcupine—what was his name again?—around like a football and seeing who got stabbed first, or Reyes trying to pry Hotpants and her teeth off Lyall’s fingers.

Which reminded her, she had to thank her lucky stars that Hotpants didn’t find her in the house when she dropped her stuff off. Rondine would’ve come riding in on the pig’s back like he was some general on his horse and sic the pint-size mount on her. And damn, Hotpants had a bite that was probably more vicious then any of Sonia’s dogs. The pig hated absolutely everybody but Reyes himself and Rondine, her best friend. She also tolerated Ofelia, but would try to maul just about everybody else. Maybe the reason she didn’t try to tear Aurelia’s leg off, and the reason why Reyes wasn’t home, was that he was taking her for a walk. Yes, Reyes took his pig for walks—outside of human civilization though.

“We've missed you, too.”

Very slowly, Aras placed his good hand over hers. She hadn’t moved her hand from his injured one, and it felt pleasantly warm. Ah, so this is what it felt like to be loved, huh? Wow, did camp really make her that sentimental? Schmaltzy, it all was, and though it would probably bother Aurelia a bit later, it certainly wasn’t now.

Aurelia was about to say something and actually got her mouth half open to speak, when suddenly she snapped it shut and seemed to freeze. She was getting that familiar feeling in the back of her head again, as if something was about to go horribly, horribly awry. It took her a moment to sift through that year-gone-stale information in her mind to remember exactly what it was. That moment was a bit too long when it came to such situations like these.

Not a moment later, there was a commotion from inside and out from the doors burst a very familiar, chameleon-eyed boston terrier in a rather James Bond-esque flurry. All that was missing was the exploding fireball that Gobshite was jumping from and the scene would be complete. But of course, the drooly dog was closely followed by his master, who came running a second later. The dog immediately headed for Aras while Reyes went running to Aurelia, and now she was well aware of that early-warning system that had gotten slightly rusty over the year she was gone.

“Oh em gee, Aurelia!” The much taller man immediately scooped her up into one of his bone-crushing hugs that could possibly kill a small child. At least that hadn’t changed while she was gone, but she wasn’t sure if she would be relieved or irritated if it did. “You’re back! You don’t know how much I missed you and now you’re back and you won’t believe it but Irene got here and—“ Reyes began his long winded rant while still trying to squeeze the oxygen and maybe all the blood out of her. People were glancing over at them and some were smiling, some hiding snickers of amusement. The staff was probably also too amused to kick them out, either that, or it was just morbid curiosity that kept them from being banned.

“Reyes, can we please take this somewhere else?”

There was a pause as Reyes actually seemed to think about it, before brightening up instantly with a cheery “Okay!” and grabbing both her and Aras by the wrist, dragging them right out amongst the suppressed chuckles and laughter of the other patrons. The man was truly, justly shameless.

As of this second, she had been with Reyes for less then a minute since she came back from the desert nowhere and already she was updated on how Irene the Caribbean reef squid had finally arrived and was excited to meet her, how Reyes had finally finished that giant shark couch project and how Ofelia would miss her comeback but just wouldn’t admit it but don’t tell her that she heard it from him. This, among a plethora of other things, was way too much information to take in at the speed Reyes was dishing it to her.

A glance to her side confirmed that Aras had not jumped the balcony or bolted without her. Damn it, if he had, this reunion might not have turned out as happy as she thought it would have. He had, however, managed to successfully dodge the boston terrier bullet. Gobshite was a strange, strange… Thing. Aurelia didn’t really count the little black and white animal to be a dog, exactly. Dogs were supposed to be smart, like Sonia’s dogs. Of course, Gobshite’s crippling lack of intelligence didn’t stop him from winning Reyes’ heart and the man took him home anyways. Well, at least Hotpants thought Gobshite was too stupid to kill and left him be; entertained by watching him run into walls and right off the stairs.

She always said that if Reyes’ house was the castle, then his pets would be the royal court. Rondine was the king, Hotpants his trusted steed and Gobshite the unwitting jester. Michelangelo was probably the priest and Reyes would be the servant. As for Aurelia, she was more likely then not a wanted woman for reasons probably only known to those animals. Those guys, minus Gobshite and Michelangelo, hated her guts and probably would for the next little while. It would be a welcome relief when the new deerhound pup could come home with her. She could finally sit down with one of the pets in her lap and not get drooled on, mauled or have her hands impaled.

Also, Gobshite was now humping—or making an attempt at humping—one of the table legs and she really, really hoped nobody saw that.

Reyes, with a cheerful confirmation, quickly grabbed the both of them and dragged them a little too forcibly out of Spot Café and away from the spectator’s view. That wasn’t to say they were out of everybody’s view, only the people at the café. Aras gave him a resigned look, and Aurelia returned it, but with a little less defeat then what was apparent in his eyes. Well, if she survived this a year ago, she could survive it again. She just needed a bit of time to adjust.

As they got closer to the area with houses in it, the outward staring soon turned to fleeting glances. Those glances eventually turned into brief looks from whatever the person happened to be doing. Upon seeing that it was Reyes, they returned to what they were doing as normally as if they had seen somebody walking a dog down the street. They too had seen this all before, and it was just another thing to get used to. In the block or two closest to the house, a few of the neighbours that happened to be in their yards waved at her, welcoming her back. Well, at least they were friendly. The commotion with Reyes was wholly ignored, like he wasn’t even there.

Back at his house with the big red door, Reyes let go of her long enough to open it. Aurelia contemplated briefly to just run for it right now when she had the chance, but Reyes still had a tight hold on Aras. The utterly defeated look on his face told her to stay, and almost with a sigh, she did. Damn it, the things she did for this guy.

With the door open, Reyes dragged the both of them in happily. She was back in this old familiar space again, and to tell the truth, it wasn’t so bad. She had only been in here briefly earlier when she dropped her stuff off, but was in too much of a rush to stay and let it all set in. She was, after all, running from Rondine or Hotpants. “Welcome home Aurelia!” Reyes’ voice was a little louder then absolutely necessary, and right in her ear too. Ah yes, it was good to be home.

The house had gone through some redecorating, though it was nothing too radical. Even if it was, she’d be okay with it within a few days. A few more sumi-e paintings had been hung up on the wall, the corner with his saxophone in it looked a bit messier then before and the couch had moved up closer to the fireplace. A few new clay figures had appeared over the fireplace as well, and the far wall was now a brick red instead of the egg shell white it used to be. She wondered briefly how the basement, kitchen and upper floor changed since she was gone. When she had come back to drop off her stuff, she had made a beeline for her attic room and right back out the door.

Almost as if it had been rehearsed many times before—which it bad, by the way—Rondine, mounted on his trusty steed, Hotpants, came charging out of the kitchen. Rondine was a silver laced polish rooster of standard chicken-size--crested to add to his faaaabulous appearance—who thought he was seriously the king of everything he could shake a feather at. Hotpants was a little white pig that came up about halfway up Aurelia’s shins; making the perfect mount for said king-of-everything. Also, Hotpants had somehow taken it into her mind that she was a big, ferocious dog that hated everything and everybody but Reyes and Rondine.

The intrepid duo went for Aras and his ankles first. Since Aras was sometimes smarter then the average bear, he immediately hopped up on the couch and pulled his feet up and out of range of the furious animals. Aurelia didn’t even know why they were so mad, so she guessed that the two breathing their air was sufficient enough to mount an attack. She would be glad when the Scottish deerhound came around; she could finally sit down with one of the pets in her lap without getting slaughtered. Alright, so here was Rondine and Hotpants, and Gobshite had taken it upon himself to drool all over Aras’ shoes by the door, so where was…

Too late to finish that thought.

Deciding that Aras and the couch was too much of an obstacle to mount and they couldn’t be bothered at the moment, they went for poor, helpless Aurelia with a machete at her hip and a solid pair of nunchaku strapped to her belt. She had doubtlessly come inches from killing these two before, both on purpose and by accident, but she knew that Reyes would have a breakdown and she absolutely did not want to deal with that. In her current worn down state, she could’ve easily lobbed off the little pig’s head with her machete once it came for her.

Next thing she knew, Aurelia was up on the couch and squished in right next to Aras, balanced halfway on the back. Was she just getting fatter or was this couch always this small? Or maybe it was the new cushions on it? “Nice to see you again, lovie.” She muttered at him, keeping her feet up so there wouldn’t have to explain to the doctor why there were angry little incisions in her ankles right before getting them stitched up.

There was suddenly a faint thud and she looked over to Aras. But Aras wasn’t exactly there anymore, or at least, his face wasn’t the same. She should’ve known; Michelangelo the porcupine loved heights and was one of the few pets who loved Aras. The porcupine had climbed up to the top of the bookshelf almost directly behind the couch and had completely and utterly divebombed the man, landing square on his head and keeping precarious balance there.

Matters got considerably worse when Reyes decided that since the both of them were on the couch, he should be there too. He tried to grab Aras into a hug, porcupine on his face and all, but only managed to subsequently knock the whole party backwards. Aurelia soon found them all lying in a heap on the ground. Michelangelo had fallen off in the descent and thankfully nobody landed on him, but being his usual self, he puttered happily back up to Aras and plopped himself right back onto his face.

Hotpants and Rondine too had found their way around the couch. Rondine, deciding that breathing his air and falling off his couch was too much of a personal insult, decided to take it upon himself to attack her. Jumping off his royal steed, he began pecking at her arms and pretty much anywhere he could reach. “Reyes!” Damn it, another second with this rooster and Rondine’s head was going to come off. “Reyes, call him off!”

Aurelia could only watch, precariously balanced on the back of the couch, as Michelangelo did a dive and landed perfectly on Aras’ head. The porcupine seemed quite pleased with his feat, though Aras was much less then impressed. In fact, he tried to swat at the spiny rodent, only to stop a few mere inches from the quills. Thank goodness his brain kicked into gear just in time. ”Aurelia, could you please..?” He gestured towards his head. Fortunately or unfortunately, Michelangelo was the only one of Reyes’ multitude of pets that adored Aras.

She was about to grab Michelangelo around the sides, but before she could move a finger, Reyes decided he should be on the couch too and slammed into all of them. They were all spilled out onto the floor, where the real fun would begin in a minute. While Aurelia was being savagely attacked by a farm bird, Aras was trying to get a porcupine off his face. As soon as he got Michelangelo off him, however, the little white pig was on him in an instant. Hotpants kept trying to go for his fingers while Aras made a valiant effort to pull or shove her off him. Aurelia tried to swat at Hotpants too while attempting to get a hold of Rondine’s lets so his inch-long claws wouldn’t bury themselves into her eyes, but quickly found herself unsuccessful when Hotpants snapped at her fingers as well.

The pause was all too long for the both of them, probably. Finally, Reyes grabbed Hotpants and Rondine and placed them aside. Of course they tried to get at Aurelia and Aras again, but the much taller man just kept pulling them back until they got the idea and, dejected and probably seething for revenge for their humiliation, sulked off back to the kitchen. Aurelia just sort of lay there on the floor for another minute or so, staring up at the ceiling and wondering what the hell just happened. She was just knocked off a couch and attacked by a potentially rabid farm animal with a complex.

“Aras, you okay over there?” Aurelia finally sat up, leaning against the upturned couch. Did coming home always have to be this stressful? Did she always need to be concerned for her safety every time she came back into this house? The answer was probably yes, and though she sometimes thought of moving out, Reyes would be devastated. A devastated Reyes was never a good thing. Thankfully, the last time he had been ‘devastated’ by something was around spring of last year, when one of his favourite parrotfish went belly-up. He had been freaking out and had insisted upon burying it in a small, fenced off area in his backyard. After a few weeks of brooding over his dead fish, he got found out that he could get a Caribbean reef squid, and everything was fine and kosher once again. The man was one big bad-acid-trip from being declared legally insane.

Aurelia extracted a small paper carton from her left pocket and popped the top open, pulling out a cigarette. Out of a force of habit, she shielded the flame as she lit up and took a deep inhale. She didn’t keep count of how many cartons she went through while she was away, but the amount probably doubled from her normal usage in a year. Yes, she was probably going to die of lung cancer or something, but stress tended to cause a temporary void in her mind on the subject. Ie, she didn’t care.

“Aurelia,” Reyes clearly disapproved of her smoking habit and chewed her out for it all the time. Of course he wouldn’t forcibly stop her, but a disapproving Reyes was never pleasant to be around. “Those are bad for you.”

“Trust me, hun, I figured that out a long, long time ago.” Another inhale and she offhandedly offered the box to Aras. She had offered him enough times to know that he always refused, but she felt rude if she didn’t put one forward.


Notes: Is this better? :3