Renee / Deirdre / Pierre - Arrival - G

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It had taken a little longer than expected, but finally, Pierre was on the final stretch to Renee and Deirdre's house. Getting on the bus to go through the chunnel had been simple enough, despite the fact that he had arrived with about two minutes to spare. Hey, he never had been too efficient when it came to the whole packing thing. In his rush, he was fairly sure he had probably made some sort of horrible miscalculation along the way. Like bringing forty pairs of socks and only one pair of boxer shorts or something. Well, that was probably an exagerration. He didn't have forty pairs of socks. On reflection, anybody who did was probably a little strange. Renee's dad probably did. Hmm.



Things got a little bit more complicated when he had arrived in England. Who would have thought anyone could make a public transport system so complicated? He only wanted to get from point A to point B. He hadn't counted on making a stop-off at Q to take a train to K, only to accidentally get off at M and have to run around like a headless chook until he found another bus to B via V. Bugger it.

So he was an hour and a half late. It could be worse. It could be two hours. It could be any number of hours largely than one and a half, and it would be worse. See? It wasn't so bad.

The bus turned the corner, and the stop was in sight. It looked just like many of the other bus stops he had seen, but for the presence of the beautiful but somewhat bored-looking girl waiting there. Her hair was a little longer, her figure had filled out a little more, but it was unmistakeably her... his best friend, Renee. His face broke into a grin. She was glowering at the bus. Obviously there had been more than a few since four o'clock that hadn't contained a Pierre. The bus came to a stop.

Renee had been sitting at the bus stop for almost two hours. She had walked over there straight after school, just in case Pierre somehow managed to be early. You never knew with him. Clearly, she needn't have bothered.

Another bus was approaching. She was beyond expecting him to actually be aboard. Frankly, she was more prepared for a midnight arrival than anything. So naturally, it was that bus that Pierre bounded out of, suprisingly nimble for being lumbered down with such a large bag in addition to his backpack.

He yelled out something incomprehensible as he wrapped her in a tight embrace. She couldn't even tell if it was English or French. She vaguely noticed his bag slam into her back. The silly boy hadn't even put it down. They were both laughing now, just so relieved to finally be with each other. It was as if a tremendous weight had been lifted from Renee's shoulders, a weight she hadn't even known had been there until now. She had almost forgotten this ability they had to laugh at absolutely nothing, laugh so hard that they eventually collapsed in a heap on the grassy nature strip. This of course set them off again, incapacitating them for quite a few minutes.

Finally, they regained their composure enough to speak. "Pierre, mon ami, what happened?"
He grinned as he brushed himself off. "It was all your silly English public transport system's fault! I could not find anything! And your trains smell like beer and old man urine!"
"How on earth did you end up on a train? It should only have taken you two buses to get here from the tunnel!"
Pierre looked down and mumbled, "Three buses and a train."
Renee shook her head and smiled. "I did miss you so, Pierre. Come on, our house isn't far."

She led the way down the road as Pierre launched into a more detailed explanation of his adventures. Between misreading the map, misunderstanding directions, and being given purposefully wrong directions by a few decidedly nasty individuals, it was a wonder he had gotten here as quickly as he had. Before long, they arrived at the house.

"Just leave your things here, we can sort them out later," Renee smiled as she kicked off her shoes by the door.
"Ah, you have a lovely house!" Pierre marvelled. "This is as nice as your parents' place back home!"
"Yes, we are very lucky," Renee said. She led the way into the kitchen where Deirdre had been frantically making food in case Pierre was hungry when he arrived. "Pierre, this is my lovely girlfriend Deirdre. Deirdre, this is Pierre."
Pierre smiled warmly to Deirdre. "Hola."

Deirdre was nervous. Very nervous. She had asked Renee what Pierre would like, and it was actually very similar to Jamie's tastes. So she had spent the afternoon making pizzas from scratch and very involved hamburger patties with all the trimmings.

She heard the door opening as she laid the last plate on the counter. She was actually glad they'd come later than Renee thought. She'd only just finished.

Pierre smiled at her, and all of Deirdre's nerves drained away. "Pierre!" she squealed and gave him a huge hug. He just had this aura about him that made you want to adore him. "We finally moved everything out of the computer room. It's not like any of us ever used it anymore anyway, so you're staying in there. It's upstairs. I can bring your stuff upstairs if you want. I-I made food. Are you hungry?"

Pierre hugged Deirdre back, loving the fact that she seemed to be a hug first, ask questions later kind of girl. They were always the best kind.

"God yes, I'm hungry!" Pierre responded, immediately grabbing a slice of pizza and taking a huge bite. "Mmmmm... 'sreally good!" he said around bites. He took another massive bite before continuing. "Don' worry 'bout the shtuff. 'sfine. I can cawwy it."

Renee smirked as Pierre finished the slice of pizza and immediately grabbed another. The boy had always been an eating machine.

This time, Pierre actually swallowed before speaking. "Do you need me to move my stuff now? Is it in the way?"

Deirdre couldn't help but laugh. "No, no,it's not in the way!" She kept laughing as she said, "I'm glad you like the pizza" and she winked at Renee, kissing her on the nose. "You want some food, Love? I think Pierre is sticking to the pizza, but there's hamburgers as well. I have all the things you could possibly want on one, over there." She pointed to the area of the counter as Pierre took another slice of pizza. "Though the hamburgers might be harder to eat standing up in the kitchen." She indicated to the breakfast table.

Renee smiled and sat down to eat one of the hamburgers. "Thank you, dear. You're so thoughtful."
Her smile grew as she watched her two closest friends laughing together. She sighed happily. This was the best day she had had in a long time, and Pierre had only just gotten here!

"Mmmph!" Pierre made an odd sound as he swallowed another bit of pizza. Deirdre looked worried for a moment by his wide-eyed expression.
"Presents!" he exclaimed, and dashed out of the room.

Renee exchanged a confused glance with Deirdre before Pierre returned...

Pierre dashed over to his bag, quickly unzipping it and fishing around inside. Deirdre's present, being the more sizeable, was not hard to find. Renee's, however... there it was!

He pulled the two hastily wrapped items out and made his way back into the kitchen.

"Ho ho ho!" he grinned. "Do not be fooled by my chiselled good looks and clean-shaven jaw, I am the Santa!"
He placed the two packages on the table, the smaller before Renee, the larger one closer to Deirdre. The paper was wrapped around in multiple layers, probably due to the fact that it was hanging off all over the place despite the over-abundance of sticky tape in use.

"I wrap like a stupid man, but it is what is within that counts, oui?" Pierre said, blushing a little.

"Of course, dear," Renee smiled. "Thank you, Pierre." She was about to open hers when Pierre held up an admonishing finger.

"No no! The hostess first!" he turned to Deirdre and grinned.

Renee pretended to make a shocked face, and leaned back in her seat, mock-glaring at the boy. She couldn't hold it though, and giggled as she turned to watch Deirdre open her present.

Deirdre sat down at the breakfast table, present in hand. She unwrapped it, which took a rather long time comsiderng the sticky tape and layers. When she finally pulled the paper off, she was left with a beautiful leatherbound diary, with fantastic metal work in the sides. It was large and seemed to be held together with steel nails. "Oh my goodness, Pierre, thank you! This is...incredible!" She opened it up anf flipped to see what kind of paper was inside, and on the front page, Pierre had drawn a wonderful anime of Anakin and General Greivous. She let out a laugh, "Star Wars! Thank you so much! It's perfect." She reached out and hugged him with her free arm. "Open yours' Renee, Open Open!"

Pierre grinned at Deirdre's reaction, relieved that she liked her present. Even with Renee's guidance, it wasn't easy finding a present for someone he had never met in person.
"I know that scene I drew was not in the movie, but it is like one of those... what do you say... fan-made fictions, oui?"
He turned to Renee, waiting for her to open hers.

Renee watched with delight as Deirdre opened her present. It was gorgeous, without a doubt. Pierre was such a sweet boy.

Grinning at Deirdre's excitement, she tore the paper from her own present. Being familiar with Pierre's rather unorthodox wrapping style, she made relatively short work of it. As the wrapping paper hit the floor, she squealed in delight at the gift itself.

"Oh my Goddess, Pierre! You got me an iriver! Thank you so much!" She wrapped her arms around the boy and hugged him tightly.

"I was going to get you an ipod, but then I saw iriver and it was funny because I know you like The Firefly. Oh, and the box is already opened because I downloaded some songs for you," Pierre explained. "I know you were having trouble finding London After Midnight CDs, so I downloaded their whole catalogue for you."

Renee's eyes lit up, and she squealed again. Her grin now seemed a permanent fixture on her face. "I love you, Pierre. I love you, Deirdre. I'm so happy!" She squealed again for good measure. Today was definitely a fantastic day.

Deirdre delighted in how much Pierre lit Renee up. It was as if the weirdness of the past week or so meant nothing. They realy were so lovely together.

"Now you can take Nightwish and The Cure with you everywhere you go!" She giggled as she made herself a hamburger and then took a huge bite. "Oh my god. My cooking rules. I mean...so, Pierre, how was your trip. You seem to have arrived in one piece, which we are thankful for."

Pierre laughed. "For a while there, I was doubtful. I had an awful time trying to get here from the tunnel! It is probably a long and boring story, but the worst part is that there was this group of kids outside the arcade parlour who I asked for directions, and they sent me completely the wrong way. Maybe I should have known when they laughed as I walked away, but I thought it was just my accent they found funny. Yes, everybody laugh at the silly Frenchman. I had to take three buses and a train to get here, it should have been two buses! But you are right, at least I am in one piece, and more importantly your presents arrived intact!"

"Oh, Pierre," Renee said, stroking his hair. "You know I love you more than presents."

Pierre gave her a look, and they both laughed.

"We should probably go to Dante's soon, it's later than we originally imagined it would be, and our skatepark friends should be arriving soon."

"To the Dante's!" Pierre said, rising as if to lead a charge.

"Calm down, Napoleon," Renee said, also rising. "I'll show you to your room. Then you can groom yourself a little before we leave."

Pierre glanced at Deirdre, saw she was watching, and poked his tongue out at Renee behind her back before following her out of the kitchen.