acontritemess | Reunion;

Reunion;

[That meeting had been annoying, awkward, and left Nathan with a bitter taste in his mouth. The last time he'd joined the lot of them in battle, he'd nearly killed them all, himself included. Now they wanted him to join a concerted effort to assault one of their adversary's weapons depots.

It felt really weird calling them "adversaries", but that's what Natalia insisted on calling them, and who was he exactly to argue with a centuries-old vampire? He couldn't help but smile at that thought. Tony'd hate him for it. "Does that make me an exception, Nathaniel?" He could hear it already. The little meeting they'd had after the main one was boring, and he let Cairn do the majority of the talking.

He was actually finding himself a little exhausted from all the meeting he'd been doing. A year was a long time to be in seclusion and contemplative meditation with only one other person for company and he could already tell it was going to take some to to acclimate to being around people again. There was actually only one person he wanted to talk to at the moment. He hadn't seen her for over a year, and she looked so...different now. Not anything too noticeable, just subtle differences. She held her shoulders straighter, made eye contact. She was more confident, that was it, and it was hot.

Adorable, but hot. Like she'd always been, like he'd remembered her to be. Finally he was dismissed for the night to go back to the rooms they'd prepared for him, and he didn't waste any time getting out of there.

What he wasn't planning on was stumbling upon Luther the Egotistical Prick and Airy in the hall. She didn't look happy to be there and Nathan's eyes immediate narrowed.]

I'm not interrupting anything, am I? [His voice was even, controlled. He didn't like what he was seeing, but the past year had taught him that much at least. How to control his anger, at least to an extent.]

[Luther responds to his question, but doesn't even give Nathan the respect of turning to look at him when he does.] As a matter of fact you are.

[Nathan's tone darkens slightly.] I wasn't asking you.

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I don't know. I can think of a few ways I could benefit from you having new dresses. [Well, that just came out without his permission.

The plant...seed, thing. Yes, that's a better focus.]

And yeah, I like it. I'll take good care of it.

[Airy's cheeks flush and she feels her heart jump in her chest at Nathan's response. He moves on and she works to keep any sign of her reaction out of her face as she passes the seed over.

She wouldn't mind showing him some of her dresses but there is no way she can say that and not have it sound wrong.]

Good.

[She pauses and feels her heart skin when she glances back towards her album.]

Hey, Um... Nathan? Can we talk about something?

[Airy looks over at him, her bright green eyes dulled slightly as the sensitive topic rises in her thoughts.]

[Nathan would need some time alone with the seed to determine whether or not he could actually rejuvenate it, but he was going to try, damn it, because she brought it all the way from Rome for him.

He nodded at her question, though.]

Of course. What's up?

[Airy reaches for the photo album after placing the seed safely on the nightstand. She pulls the large leather bound book in her lap and gently rests her hands over the cover. It's only then that she looks over at Nathan again, her expression a little sad as she began to talk.]

I found out what I did to my home town. I think that's why Darren hates me. [She pauses realizing that Nathan might not know who that is.] Darren's the one who kidnapped me. [She adds quickly before moving on.]

After I first woke up here... I didn't really feel up to doing much. I mostly stayed with Antonio. I sorta lost count of the days. [Except she remembers all of them as if it had been yesterday.] I decided after a few weeks that I wanted to just go home. I got tired of people not telling me stuff and staying locked up here like another prison. I left during the day leaving Antonio a really crumby note.

[She looks over at Nathan before looking down at the book again.]

Gus caught up with me before I made it. He told me that my family was dead. I... [Her voice broke and her fingers curled into tight fists.] It's my fault... that they were killed.

[He listened through her explanation, growing slightly more annoyed when he heard they didn't tell her about the state of Island Falls. If he'd been given the chance to see her before he was dragged away to Arkansas, he would have told her what'd he'd found there when she'd accidentally teleported Antonio there and he'd had to go get him.

He didn't, however, know the rest of it.]

.......they're dead? How? They...were fine when I was there. They...didn't remember you, but they were okay.

[He holds up a hand.] I wanted to tell you, but...I couldn't stay here. [He clenches his jaw.] Airy, no. It's not your fault. You aren't the reason people are nuts, and you aren't the reason they have such little concern for life that they can just decide to end it.

[Airy shakes her head and forces herself to smile at him. She lightly reached for his hand as she spoke.]

I know you would have Nathan. Believe it or not but I have a high opinion of you. [Her smile then falters.] You sound like Gus.

I might not have committed the act but I ran away from home. I kept what I could do a secret and I thought that somehow that was helping. I've made...so many mistakes Nathan.

[She looks down at her album.]

I know you met them... I still can't believe I did that to Tony... [Airy lets out a short laugh and shakes her head. She realizes then that she's still holding Nathan's hand and slowly slips away again.]

I just wanted to tell you. I technically own my house now but I've left it the way it was. I don't really have anyone here... beside maybe Gus and sometimes Tony who I'd want to share my memories with.

[She lets out a shaky breath.]

That's sorta a lot isn't it. I'm sorry. [Now she feels a little awkward after unloading on him like that.] I miss them but it was a year ago now. It isn't as painful anymore and I'm fine honest.

If you hadn't run away from home, I never would have met you, and we never would have been able to protect you.

[He didn't necessarily want her to pull her hand away, but he let her, but his eyebrows rose at the names. Tony he understood. He didn't realize she was so close with Gus the Hotdog Werewolf, though.]

You...want to share your memories with me?

[He's really starting to sound like Gus and that thought alone makes her smile. Gus cares about her, she knows that now, and it feels like Nathan does too. Airy doesn't know if she wants to admit why her and Gus became close. She might, because it's Nathan, but that in itself is a long story.

She leans forward slightly, her head tilting to look up at Nathan.] Is that okay?

[She won't if he doesn't want to hear them. She knows at least one person so showed very little interest in the memories of her family.]

[He smiled at her, nodding.]

Of course it's okay. [He motioned to the photo album.] Show me what you've got.

[Airy smiles brightly and then pulls the album over to be the center of attention. She scoots closer to Nathan so their sides are pressed tightly together. She then leans over opening the book to cross both of their laps.

She looks up at him, to excited to notice how close they are now.]

No laughing at me okay? Some of these pictures go back four years.

[Like nay growing child she went through an awkward phase but Airy has always had a cute smile and a happy expression that's worn in most of her photos. There is one that her father took where she's pouting, her arms are crossed and she's glaring at the camera.]

Okay to start. This was my first day of highschool. [Airy is wearing a pair of torn jeans and a tank top. She's smiling with her two best friends who later began to date.] So this is Sara and this is Mark. They lived close by.

[She points to another picture.]

This is my little brother. [Her smile widens.] He was so angry because mom had bought me all this new stuff for high school.

[He took a deep breath when she snuggled up to him, smiling. She was adorable when she was a kid, and he was enjoying her being so close on top of that. Still, he turned his attention back to the album, because that's what she was talking about.]

Wait a minute. Those are new plants?

[Airy looks up at Nathan with an expression that suggests that he needs to go to a teen store in the early 2000's.]

Don't you remember when everyone was buying pants with holes in them? In my case it's because I was a little bit of a tomboy. [She also fell down a lot so most of the holes in her pants were the real deal. It's only convenient that it was 'in style'.

She smiles again turning the page. She carefully pushes a little bit of brown hair behind her ear revealing more than a few scares on her neck and then shoulder.]

Okay, so this was a science fair. I decided to make sugar crystals on strings and of course I made it sound scientific by adding different amounts and stuff but I really just wanted to try and make sugar candy. [She looks up at Nathan again.] It didn't work. They got moldy but I did dare my little brother to try it.

[He nodded at her question, remembering very well the pants he used to wear. The...pants he still owned.] Yeah. I've got a few old pairs in my closet, actually. [He laughed.] You? A tomboy? No way.

[And then he laughed again.]

You know, it doesn't surprise me at all that your science project was food.

[Airy lightly bumps his shoulder.]

It sounds so mean when you say it like that. [Her tone however is light, it's hard to feel sad when she's able to talk about things like this. It's like Nathan never left.]

So this is homecoming and then prom.

[She points to one page and then the one across from it. There are pictures of Airy, her parents, her brother and her best friends. There is one where her best friends are kissing too. Both dresses were the same though the dress clearly fit more when prom came around. The dress is a shimmering sky blue with an open back. The skirt flares around her thin hips in the picture falling longer in the back than it did in the front. It is a sleeveless dress with a low cut neck.]

After that we have family vacations.

[She pauses looking over at him.]

You can tell me when this is getting boring.

[He laughs more heartily.] Which part?

[He smiled at the homecoming and prom pictures.] Do you still have that dress?

[And he shakes his head.] It's not boring. Go ahead.

The food and yes I do. It's with all those other dresses I don't wear.

[She shakes her head and continues to flip through the album. She laughs when she spots her little brother with a long scrape down his elbow.] Oh, he fell off a mountain... don't ask me how, it's a mystery to this day.

[Airy flips the next page and pauses a little bit longer. It's a family picture with all of those she cared about at home, even her best friends.] This was a family day at school. We did a lot of stupid things but it was still fun. [She looks up at Nathan and then smiles a little brighter.]

Um... thank you for listening. I think I should probably tell you more about here and now versus 4 years ago.

[Nods, having suspected as much.] Well, you love food. It's cute.

[And his smile falters, raising an eyebrow.] He...fell off how big a mountain?

Oh? [The family day at school looked cool. They'd never done anything like that at his school.] What kind of stupid things did you do?

[And then he returns to smiling.] You can talk about whatever you want, Airy. I just...like talking with you.

[Airy has to try not to blush when he calls her cute. She looks down at the mountain picture and laughs.]

It was a few yards up? There was one steep side and one easy slopped that we walked up. He fell down the slop. [It's still funny. She looks over at the family day.] We did things like three legged races and balancing an egg on a spoon in your mouth.

[Yeah, in high school.]

Really? I can talk about anything? Ever? Are you sure you want to say that?

[Airy is trying not to smile to brightly at him. It's really nice to be able to talk to someone who knew her before she was just 'the creator']

I'm glad you got pictures. Falling down a mountain's something to remember. [He chuckles.] That...sounds really lame, but...my high school never did anything like that.

[And then he smiled, reaching out to take her hand.]

Yeah, of course. I just...really missed talking with you.

[Airy smiles brightly, unashamed by how happy his last comment made her.]

That's what happens when you live in a small town where everyone knows each other.

[It is a tight community in Island Falls, Maine. She looks down at the album again and inhales a soft breath the next page is filled with pictures of Mark and Sara and another thin boy that hadn't been in the others.]

So I think I've mentioned Mark and Sara before. They were my two best friends through grade school. This is John. [She points to the young thin scraggly boy.] He's my little brothers best friend. My parents sort of adopted them in a way, they were always over and mom was always feeding them. She didn't mind but because of that they were part of the family and ended up in the album.

[She looks up at Nathan wondering about his friends but she bites back the question. The small album is at it's end and the last picture is Airy's senior photos which all look very lovely. She doesn't wear makeup often but it's clear she had for that day. On the back cover are pictures that Airy had paisted there herself which included Gus, a headshot of Nathan that she swiped from Antonio, the Flores, Antonio and everyone person that she could from the hideout. Luther is there as well which is why she doesn't linger long on that last page before closing the book.]

That's all of it.

[He smiles, nodding through all of it. Her childhood was so much different than his.]

It sounds like a nice place to grow up. Pelham Bay wasn't too bad, but...it was still a community in New York City, not...nothing like this. [He gestures to her album.] I played baseball when I was a kid.

[Airy smiles.]

Really? Both my dad and my brother played, that and football and basketball and a few others. My brother always roped me into playing with them because he couldn't take my dad down by himself.

[Nathan seems like he'd be good at baseball. It has a finesse that suits him.]

We didn't have many sports teams, not enough people but there was something like an all ages league for baseball.

[She pauses for a moment and then moves to place the album back on her nightstand. When she returns to sit next to Nathan there is more space between them, not having the book as an excuse to sit close.]

What was growing up in New York like?

[As she sits back down, Nathan can't help but feel a little sad about it. It was a nice excuse to sit so close to her. Without one, the distance seems somehow greater.]

We didn't really have many sports teams, either. [He laughed.]

That didn't stop us from having a good time, though. [He ran a hand back through his hair.] I always sucked at food ball. I could hit a baseball and I could run. I wasn't so great at catching it.

[He shrugged at her question.] Well...millions of people live here. I went to Public School 138 for elementary, 247 or middle, 356 for high school. They don't have names, so I mean...if that give you an idea.

[Airy's eyes widen, she knows that there are a lot of people in the city but she can't imagine the schools having numbers instead of names.]

I guess people came and went a lot from school to school? [They probably have different districts while Airy saw the same group of people every year from kindergarten up to senior year of high school.]

I don't think you ever told me about your friends from high school. [For this Airy turns to face Nathan on her bed. She snatches a pillow next to her and hugs it against her chest as she crosses her legs. Her lips are fixed into a smile with her eyes set on Nathan.]

What did you guys do? Any late night adventures?

[Airy has a few of those with her friends.]

[He shakes his head at that.] Not in my neighborhood, really. Sometimes, but not often.

[He shrugs.] I didn't really have many friends in high school. There was Chad. I've known him since we were kids. He was in band, I was one of the drama nerds. Most of the popular kids hung out with my older brother.

Chad was almost as a big a clown as me, but we sort of drifted apart after I left for college. When I came back, he let me crash with him for a while...until he kicked me out to let his girlfriend move in.

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