Participants:
| Scene Title | Hugs |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Those little pieces of white and milk chocolate hugged together seem to form a truce of sorts. |
| Date | August 19, 2011 |
Skinny Brickfront : Endgame Safehouse
It's chilly outside, and rain patters against the bricks of the Endgame Safehouse. The weather isn't much better inside, either; Remi is curled up on a tattered couch beneath a warm blanket, quietly reading a book. It's been a while since she's felt confident enough to even come out here, really. But here she is, reading like her life depends on it.
Idly, her hand rests on her stomach. A protective measure left over from a dream she had last night, one that nobody is likely to understand. Blue eyes trail over the pages, Remi's lips moving as she reads along.
"Coming in!" Devon's voice rises from the doorway, a touch of tiredness slinking into his tone. The rain had come up unexpectedly and it was a bit of a hike home. He'd spent the day out, again tentatively gathering information at the local colleges without asking too many questions, simply acting the part of an incoming freshman. In truth, it's not a difficult role to pull off, especially when it's done in earnest.
Only a brief respite from the rain, shelter taken at a convenience store where necessities were purchased. The usual fare for an adolescent pallet, high-sugar drinks and a small selection of junk food. All housed within a backpack that hangs from his shoulders. A short trip completed, goods paid for in cash, and Devon hit the street once again. The weather leaves him soaked and chilled as he makes his return.
The stairs are mounted with the teen's footsteps drawing him toward the common room. Shoulders are hunched against the cold and soaked hoodie, jaw tightened against the chatter that tries to take his teeth. He doesn't see Remi right away, eyes sweeping toward the kitchen before turning to the living area. Where he finds the telepath. And pauses.
The telepath pauses in her book reading, as well, as Devon steps in. One brow raises for a brief moment, before the telepath turns her eyes back down to the book, a frown worrying at the corners of her mouth. Apparently, the brief glance is the best that the teenager can hope for in terms of a greeting, the telepath quite happy to return to her book.
Jaiden, for once, isn't up here cooking or reloading. It was his turn to do the 'grunt work' of the safe house - which is schlepping their combined laundries down to the laundromat that's about ten blocks away and sitting while suds scrub out whatever filth that accumulated in delicate bits. He comes in a few minutes after Devon, although he isn't aware of it, a bag of freshly dried laundry slung over his shoulder. There's a pause when he sees Remi sitting there on the couch, reading a book, where he was planning to sit to fold. Ah well. Giving her a smile and a wave, Jaiden moves across the room to one of the cleared tables, emptying the laundry into a pile with a sigh. The things he does for the people he loves…
A look goes over his shoulder at the sounds of movement behind him, and Devon moves aside to let Jaiden pass. His own steps carry him into the kitchen, brows furrowing and head tipping downward. His backpack comes off a shoulder and a pouch is opened, a bag of caramel apple pops dropped onto the counter to be shared amongst the other residents. Another package of candies are pulled out, but these are kept in the boy's hand.
Pulling his pack back onto his shoulder, Devon turns back for the common area. His eyes go from Jaiden to Remi to the laundry, then back to the telepath. "Hey," he calls quietly but enough to carry across the room from where he stands in the kitchen doorway. A gentle toss of the package follows, to land in the red head-gone-blond's lap unless she manages to catch it. The candies aren't anything fancy, simply a bag of Hugs.
As Jaiden enters the room, Remi's eyes lift again. This time, she smiles rather than frowns, waving back to Jaiden. As he dumps the laundry out, the telepath closes up her book, moving to get up…only to have a bag of Hershey's Chocolate Hugs dropped into her lap. She blinks a few times, staring at the bag of candies, before turning her eyes up to Devon.
It takes a moment for her to even find the words, the telepath rather surprised by this act. She blinks several times, before turning her gaze up to Devon with an inquisitive look. "Ah…merci beaucoup…"
Jaiden chuckles softly at the fact that Remi was surpassed. It seems that Devon is good at hiding his emotions, or at least covered it up enough to surprise her. Good going, Devon! Jaiden makes himself busy, folding t-shirts into little squares, saving the more…ahem…delicate bits for later, as to not cause undue blushing from Devon. Remi, he's sure, doesn't care. "How're you two doing?" The first words he's spoken in a bit.
Devon shrugs, casting a frown in Jaiden's direction. "You said you wanted hugs sometimes," he explains to Remi. His hands jam into his pockets, his frown lingering on the Australian for a moment longer before he looks to the floor with a shake of his head. "I'm fine," he replies as a shiver takes him by the shoulders. "Spent the day out and pretending to be normal. Even stayed out of trouble."
Remi looks back down at the chocolates for a moment…before she offers a faint smile to the teenager. "I am doing okay," she murmurs to Jaiden, raising to her feet and folding the blanket on the couch, with her book and the candy resting on top. "Devon," She murmurs without looking at the boy, moving over to the pile of clothes and, slipping past Jaiden, pulls out a pair of jeans and a clean shirt that can only belong to the skinny teen. "Out of those wet clothes, before you catch a chill, oui?"
That's nice, but a little odd. Mommy Remi? Jaiden chuckles a little again, folding another t-shirt, this one Elisabeth's, more than likely, and setting it aside, separating shirts and pants and socks and underwear into equal sizes, then going from one pile to the next, folding and separating.
Looking up as his name is spoken, Devon eyes Remi in vague confusion. Then Jaiden receives a look in askance, hands coming from his pockets to take the clothing. "…Thanks," he says slowly, drawing out the word while he wonders at the action. After looking between the two adults again, brows creasing, the teen turns away to retreat momentarily to his room.
Remi heard that. As is evidenced by the small smirk she offers to Jaiden, leaning over to briefly jab her elbow against his side with a faint smirk. Once Devon has taken the clothes from her, she turns, helping Jaiden with the laundry…first by picking up a pair of her underwear and slingshotting it into Jaiden's face, before she starts actually folding.
Oh, yeah. Psychic Remi. She heard the 'Mommy Remi?' comment, even though it was that nice internal monologue that Jaiden sometimes has running. Sure, it says a lot of smart-assed things, and sometimes mean things, but his verbal filter often catches it before it comes out. He plucks the panties from his head and, like nothing happened, folds them, giving Remi a grin. "You seem to be doing better," he observes, setting the folded underthings aside. "I'm glad."
"A little," the telepath murmurs, folding up a shirt with a faint smile on her face. "I 'ad another dream." She tilts her head toward Jaiden as she finishes folding the shirts, and sets to work on a pair of pants. "And…I'm trying to come out of my shell. I can't hide forever, oui?" She leans over, planting a kiss on Jaiden's cheek, even as she folds the pants up.
Even with Remi being close, Jaiden finds himself letting his defenses down just a little. After all, he's kind of the reason she's here, and after they dated, it just kind of happens. He's open with people he's slept with at some point. "What did you dream about?" A simple qestion.
"…Should I come back later," Devon asks as he steps from the hallway. Changed into the clothing Remi had handed to him, along with a long sleeve shirt being pulled over the t-shirt. His eyes flick from Remi to Jaiden, brows raising slightly and completely honest in his question. He'll go, if either would rather not divulge the truths of their private dreaming.
The telepath tips her head toward Jaiden, smiling faintly. "I was pregnant," she murmurs in a soft tone. "I 'ad just…just found out. Liz was there…she was the one 'o 'elped me figure it out." She turns her eyes back toward the laundry, folding it; she doesn't seem to mind that Devon is here, or that he's hearing what her dreams were about.
She pauses in both laundry and speech, staring at a pair of jeans with eyes that suggest she's not actually seeing the jeans. "Graeme was the father."
He can't help it. Jaiden chuckles. A small, little chuckle that he does very well to suppress. Quite possibly the fact that Elisabeth turned a gay man to the straight-ish side, but Remi being devastatingly cute helps too. "I see…" A simple statement. Jaiden knew that he didn't end up with Remi, or Elisabeth, in the future, and it's interesting to see what happens…or what might happen. "Congratulations, I guess?"
The telepath smiles faintly, briefly touching Jaiden's arm for but a brief moment. It's not difficult, for those who know her well enough, to determine that she's talking into his mind. "It won't happen until I'm an old maid. I was 'oping to be a young mother." She offers a soft laugh, shaking her head once, before turning blue eyes toward Devon.
Brows arch again in surprise over what the telepath had dreamt. Devon moves toward the couch, and the laundry to help with the chore, but when he draws closer to the furniture, he hesitates. With a minute shake of his head, the teen sits on the floor, legs folding and crossing in front of him. "Graeme's a good guy. —You'd probably be okay as a mom."
"I think she'd take to it about as well as she took to dancing." Jaiden pats Remi's shoulder, then goes back to folding. "I could seeker beining a great mom."
"Apparently, in that…time, I am good with children. I — I could hear the baby's mind, before I even knew." She shrugs, turning back toward the laundry. "Infant minds are different than older minds. They think in desires and needs, not words." She continues folding as she speaks. "It's difficult to explain, the way a mind of an infant in the womb felt…"
Devon grabs a handful of socks and begins folding them together, glancing up at Remi and Jaiden on occasion. An only child to parents who died while he was still young, he hasn't much to input into the conversation. After all, he'd never been around babies, really, and he only has vague memories of his parents to fall back on. "That's… kind of…" The boy shrugs as he mutters, tossing a set of folded socks onto the table.
"Trippy, I know." Jaiden finished Devon's sentence with what he's thinking. Even him, meeting his son from the future, still has trouble wrapping his head around things.
Remi quietly nods her agreement to Jaiden's statement. "Fascinating is another good way to put it." She fiddles with a shirt, moving to lean against Jaiden as she does so. Once the pile of clothes is finished, she pushes away, her finger trailing over Jaiden's arm as she goes. "I should sleep."
Standing, Devon collects the small assortment that's likely his, and a few things that Graeme had left as well. As he straightens, he watches Remi depart for her room for a moment then slants a look toward Jaiden. The Australian seems lost in thought, no longer truly paying attention to anything but finishing the last bits of clothing. The teen rolls a shoulder at him, looking after Remi a final time just before she closes herself inside her room, then heads for his own room.