darker_london | Coincidences (Cai, Zoe, Danny)

After the hospital had said he was alright, no damage done from his brief fainting spell, Cai took the bus home. School wasn’t out yet, but it wasn’t worth going back just for last period. He liked History, but not enough to miss out on getting home before everyone else. They had three kids staying with them this week, who would be with them over Easter as well; all girls, all handfuls. Noisy handfuls.

So Cai went home, had tea with his grandmother and told her about his vision, tablet on the table in front of him so he could write up the details as he spoke. He told her all about Zoe, how unsurprised she seemed at her own vision, how surprised and annoyed she’d been that he had seen it too. “She sounds like a very interesting young woman,” Nonnie agreed, after he’d been talking about her for some time. “What are you going to do about it?”

“I don’t know yet,” Cai took another biscuit from the pile on the plate. “Talk to her, see what happens.”

“Wise lad,” she smiled at him, reaching out to pat him on the arm. They were careful about touching one another, since he'd explained to her that his reluctance for touching wasn't entirely down to the fact that he was a teenage boy and touching was weird. Cai liked hugging, and secretly wished there were more hugs in his life. But he'd worked out by now that gestures of affection like pats on the arm, shoulder squeezes and hair ruffles were all safe. Nonnie's family were from the north of Chile, near the Bolivian border, and she still greeted her friends with cheek kisses. Often habit kicked in and she kissed him as well, and it had always been fine, but Cai was always worried.

Nonnie had told him that he must be very wary of visions, after he’d told her why he’d had to break up with Alex. It was a gift from God that could be easily abused, a fact that Cai had already considered. He read enough, had seen enough movies, to know people went one of two ways with superpowers.

And of course he’d thought about the possibilities. He could grab his enemies’ wrists and learn their deepest secrets; he could be blackmail king of the school. But it was just a thought, and not one that held much appeal aside from power fantasies. He knew the reality of it was different, that there was little good you could do by invading someone’s privacy.

Till now, the visions he’d had of the future had only been inconsequential things; foreseeing Dom’s car breaking down on the way home had been the worst of it. Cai hadn’t been able to do anything to stop it, since he couldn’t tell when it would happen. He kept reminding Dom to take the car in for a tune up, Dom kept dismissing him and saying the car was fine, he’d looked at it.

When Dom did eventually make it home, with a borrowed car from the repair shop, Cai couldn’t stop himself from smirking and saying “I told you so.”

“Little shit,” Dom had said, wrapping an arm around his grandson and giving him a quick squeeze. “I’ll listen next time.” That was before he'd talked to Nonnie about miracles, so his grandparents just figured he was being a know-it-all.

Seeing a future funeral was different. Someone was going to die, and something was going to happen at the funeral, and Cai and Zoe had witnessed it for a reason.

Cai searched for Zoe at school the next week, but the campus was large enough it was hard to just run into somebody unless you knew where they sat. He walked round at lunchtime and break, earphones in, searching. His friends left him to it; they were busy discussing their plans for the long weekend. Syed’s mum was away and his dad was cool with the boys taking over their living room for The LAN That Would Last Forever. It would have sounded appealing a few months ago.

He finally ran into Zoe one lunchtime, and broke away from Jared and Syed to run across the quad and catch up with her.

Zoe heard someone calling her name, and turned away from her conversation with Danny to see what was happening. Guys shouting her name across the quad did not feel like a good sign.
But it was Cai, who she’d been looking for everywhere. “You!” she exclaimed, the relief in her voice sounding like out of character gladness. “I’ve been looking for you!”

"Hi," Cai grinned at her. "Me too, and..." he said in surprise, eyes travelling to the boy she was standing with. "Danny?"

He knew Danny went to this school, of course but they were in different year levels, and hadn't really spoken to each other much in a while. He said hi in the halls when they passed each other, but they both seemed to have their own things going on. The fact that he was friends with Zoe, though, that was weird. Coincidences made him worry.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Danny had been engrossed in his conversation with Zoe, and he hadn't even realised the person shouting his name was his half-brother, Cai. When he recognised him, the edges of Danny's mouth quirked up a little. "Hey, Cai." Why had Zoe been looking everywhere for Cai. "Is-is everything okay?"

"Sure, all's well with me," Cai's smile was effortless and wide. "How's all with you? Zoe, you doing alright after last week?"

"Yeah," said Zoe. She'd told Danny and Rachel the bare minimum about what had happened last Friday; she'd said she had a fit while she was swimming, but she had no idea what to say about Cai so she'd left him out of the story, mostly out of embarrassment. She felt kind of bad about that now, but she hated admitting that she'd needed to be saved. "Cai kind of helped me out on Friday," she said, because she did feel that Danny had a right to know.

"He did?" Danny asked, and then he smiled widely at the other boy. "Thanks," he said, sounding a little surprised. "We heard she was unwell and we were really worried. What did you do?"

"Nothing big, helped her out of the pool, hung out in the ambulance," Cai said. He could see Zoe's discomfort, and certainly didn't want to make her feel any worse.

Zoe swallowed, and smiled awkwardly for a moment. "I really am fine," she said to Danny. She hated making him worry about her, she was the one who was supposed to worry about him. "They only made me go to hospital as a precaution, I didn't have to stay." She looked quickly over at Cai. "Were you okay?"

"Sure, no big," Cai said.

"Helped her out of the pool? Did you save her life?" Danny asked, his eyes wide. "That's like a proper super hero," he said with a grin. "You want to sit down?"

Cai grinned at Danny, flexing the muscles in his arm. "Most heroes don't get overexcited and pass out after, but that's blood sugar for you," he winked at Zoe, who didn't know what to do with a wink so ignored it.

"Sounds inconvenient," said Zoe. "Does it happen a lot?"

"From time to time," Cai said, watching Zoe, both of them aware they weren't talking about fainting. "Sometimes worse than others. That was a particularly intense afternoon." Zoe nodded in agreement. "Do you ever faint, Danny?"

"Oh, uh- Well yeah, sometimes," Danny said, feeling a little uncomfortable now that the focus was on him. "I get sleep terrors and when I don't sleep sometimes I just pass out. Or my meds make me- You know," he said with a shrug. "Never done it in a pool before though. But I hate swimming." Mostly it was because of how naked you had to be to swim.

"How are things with you, Cai?" Maybe he should feel guilty he didn't really keep up with Cai, but it just wasn't a thing he often thought about. "Everything okay with your...grandparents?"

"Shit, sorry mate," Cai said, and though he was wondering if perhaps visions might be a family thing, he did say it with genuine sympathy. "Yeah, we're all going along swimmingly, although maybe I should rethink my use of that word now, right Zoe?"

"Ha ha maybe," said Zoe awkwardly. "So you guys know each other?"

"Yeaaah we shared a dad for a while. Didn't really work out."

Zoe's head snapped toward Danny to see if Cai was being serious, one of her eyebrows sharply raised.

"Yeah well, he's an ass," Danny said with a roll of his eyes. "He actually called me the other day," Danny told Cai. "And the fact that I was less than pleased to hear from him was somehow my fault. He kept talking about coming to my birthday but I can only imagine one person I want there less." He groaned and spread his hands out on the table. "Then my mum was awesome and basically told him outright he was a shitty father. She said she would be surprised if he could even recognise me."

Zoe thought: if Rachel was here she'd reach across the table and take Danny's hand and show him that she cared about him. But Rachel was spending lunchtime working toward her Dance recital in a couple of weeks time, so Zoe was on her own with the boys. She didn't want to reach out and grab his hand, that was too... too something. Under the table, though, she nudged her knee against his, and gave him what she hoped was a supportive smile when he looked at her.

"He called you?" Cai said in surprise, not sure how he felt about that. "Huh," he said. Hurt, he felt hurt. He shouldn't, because he told himself he'd accepted the fact that he and his father simply did not fit in each others lives, but it still hurt. "What about you, Zoe, your parents alright?"

"My adopted ones are," Zoe said, without further explanation.

"Good," Cai said firmly. "I live with my grandparents, my mum's parents, since she passed away."

Zoe winced - why did everyone's parents have to be shitty or dead? "Sorry," she said.

"Thanks. They're good, though. Proper decent people."

"Yeah, he called but it was the first time in...ever? First time in ever. I think he just wanted to make himself feel good, really. My mother said he asked what was wrong with me because I didn't want to talk to him." Danny's face twisted, remembering. "He's an ass. I'm glad Mum's awesome. And I met Zoe's mums too! They're really nice." He smiled at his friend, because he knew something! He had been to someone else's house!

"I haven't seen your grandparents in a long time, Cai," Danny said, trying to think of when it could have been. "I think I was...seven, shit. Would they remember me?"

"I'd say so," Cai grinned. "Nonnie's got a memory like a steel trap, and Dom, if he doesn't remember something he just totally pretends that he does, so no one ever actually knows. I'll ask them about you, though. Hey unless you guys want to come over after school and hang out?"

"Um, maybe?" said Zoe, looking over at Danny again. She did want to, in a way. Maybe not to his house, but she definitely wanted to know more about this boy, and though she did want to get him alone to talk about visions, she didn't want to be at his house alone. Maybe hanging out with him and Danny for a bit together, starting slow, was the right way to go? Zoe didn't know. The fact that they were related was spinning her head, a bit, though she found it did make her feel more like trusting him.

Zoe looked at him and under the table, Danny nudged her knee lightly right back before turning to Cai. "Yeah, alright," he said with a smile. He wasn't afraid of Cai trying to hurt him and he sort of had a feeling if anyone tried when Zoe was around, they were going to end up crying. "I'll text my mum and tell her. She'll be glad I have friends."

Then, when he realised that made him sound a little pathetic, he blushed and said, "heh-"

"Hah, tell me about it," Cai snorted in amusement. "The number of times Nonnie sets me up with kids from church so I can make friends, I barely get any homework done." He shook his head, dramatically mourning this infringement on valuable study time.

The fact that Cai didn't make fun of him made Danny grin at him. "She was really excited when I told her about Zoe and Rachel," Danny said, because he was still a little nervous and info-dumping was a good way to get through it. "Should we bring your grandmother flowers?"

"Yes," Cai said, with a confident nod. "Yes, we should definitely bring her flowers. She will adore you forever and force-feed you biscuits, fair warning. Rachel's your blonde friend, the runner?" He looked at Zoe, remembering the blonde in the vision. "She can come too if she wants."

Zoe nodded to answer his question. "She might but she's still grounded," she explained. "Her dad's way strict."

"I like biscuits!" Danny said excitedly, as if he never got them at home. While his mother was in to healthy living, he didn't have a lack of biscuits. "Flowers it is!"

When Zoe mentioned Rachel's dad though, he grumbled. "It's not fair."

"Yeah," Zoe agreed with Danny, anger in her look as well. It sucked only seeing Rachel at school, and she was kind of worried by the fact that she couldn't text her or catch her online, since her Dad was still monitoring all of that and it wasn't as if - Zoe's eyes widened in a thought. "We should get her a second phone," she said to Danny, words coming out of her mouth before her brain could properly filter them. That didn't happen all that often, Zoe was usually fairly careful with her words. "This afternoon, while we're getting flowers. I don't like that she can't call us if she needs us."

"Is she okay?" Cai asked, concerned, remembering the way she'd just bolted out of the funeral.

Zoe bit her lip; she wasn't sure. "I'd rather be safe than sorry," she said.

Danny's eyes widened and then he nodded because he didn't really like the idea that she couldn't reach them either. "I got forty quid from my mum the other day for hol- er...for something I did. We could use it to buy her a mobile." Cai sounded genuinely concerned that something might be wrong with Rachel, and it kind of made him want to hug the other boy.

That was weird. What was happening to him? Though the money he had was for hugging Rachel and not freaking out. He wondered for a moment how much hugging Cai and not flipping his shit would be worth.

"I don't know much about her family but I just- I want her to be okay. We can get her a proper plan and everything, I can pay for it."

"I'm not exactly poor," Zoe said, raising her eyebrows at Danny but smiling. "I can help with money."

"So, I know I don't actually know anything," Cai said, watching the exchange between them. "We foster some kids and some of them come from some pretty bad homes, so I talked about pretty bad homes quite a lot. Just be careful giving her something that might make things worse for her, if it's discovered, okay?" Zoe was frowning at him, so he added, "Look, the good might outweigh the bad, there, I just wanted to say be a little careful."

"No, I know, I just-" Danny looked down at his hands then as he said, "I just felt like taking care of her..."

When Cai mentioned it might get her in trouble though, he frowned. "Oh right. I-I didn't think about it. Do you think it would be okay, Zoe?"

Zoe nodded, though she wasn't entirely sure anymore. "Yes," she said. "I'm sure Rachel'll be clever enough not to flaunt it, and I've seen her room, it's got enough stuff in it that there's plenty of hiding places."

She remembered watching Rachel squeeze out the tiny top window to reach her arrow, because her bigger window didn't or wouldn't open. Although even if the window did open, it was still a bad drop to the ground. Possible, but bad. Zoe didn't like thinking of Rachel trapped in her room without an escape route, or any way to call for help.

"And you can buy it, if you want to," she added, giving him a small smile to say she was sorry for stepping on his protective toes. They would be good for each other, Zoe thought.

Zoe's assurances made him feel better and he nodded. "Okay, I'll buy it and we can both pay for the plan or the credit or whatever," he said with a nod. He missed spending time with Rachel, and he hoped she wasn't grounded much longer.

"I've never been to her house. I don't even know if she'd be allowed to have me over."

"Dunno," Zoe shrugged; she wasn't going to try and guess at Rachel's fathers actions. From all that Rachel had told her, he sounded totally... erratic, was one word for it, if Zoe was feeling kind. She'd heard plenty of good stories about him, but she'd never witnessed any in person.

Cai was searching in his pockets. "Speaking of phones," he said, pulling his out and handing it to Zoe. "Can I get your number?" He smiled flirtatiously, another thing Zoe wasn't sure how to take. She adopted a businesslike nod and swiped his screen to unlock it; he didn't have a password, Zoe noticed. That was pretty trusting. She put in her number, and handed it back, though Cai handed it straight over to Danny to get his as well.

A delighted smile crossed Danny's face as he accepted the phone. He entered this details quickly and then handed it back. "We really should see more of each other," he said and he did mean it. "I'm sorry I never, you know...made an effort. It was shitty of me."

Cai shook his head, bearing no grudge against Danny. "That'd be good," he agreed. "And you too, Zoe, I'd like to see more of you." Zoe looked a little like an angry deer in headlights, so he gave her a grin to say he really wasn't a giant truck bearing down on her. "I better skedaddle, I'll meet you here after school?"

She nodded, and Cai gave them both a wave and took off. He thought he better see his friends at least for a little while, today.

Zoe looked at Danny. "He's... peculiar," she said, cautiously.

Danny watched him head off and then he turned back to Zoe. "I suppose? I dunno, he's more normal than I am," he said, because he honestly had no idea that wasn't the case.

"Before my dad stopped wanting to see me much, we had a bunch of fun together. We used to play this game where Melissa was kidnapped by one of us and the other would have to save her because of course we live in a patriarchy and we didn't know any better." Why yes, Danny did have a Tumblr. "Usually saving her was accomplished by throwing a ton of dirt and pine cones at whomever was playing the villain that day. And when we were supposed to be in bed we would tell each other the dumbest stories to try to freak each other out. Usually they were just rehashed urban legends but you know...kids.

"He doesn't know about- I-I never told him about my uncle. When things got bad, before my parents knew what was going on, my dad just thought I was wetting the bed because...I don't know, I was an idiot or something. And he didn't want to deal with it. He had already checked out by the time my mother found out what was happening. And I still went to visit on occasion, but it was never as fun because I was too freaked out by everything to just have fun. I might have given him the impression I didn't like him, but that was never the case. Before my uncle, having a brother was like...the most exciting thing in my life. I talked about him all the time to my mum. Then afterwards other things just took over and it sucked. Wow. Sorry, I kind of motor-mouthed there."

Zoe listened with interest, even laughing a silent breath of laughter as Danny mentioned the patriarchy. The mention of his uncle threw a damper on that fire, though. "You don't ever need to be sorry about talking," Zoe told him, with a slow shake of her head. "And, you don't have to worry about normal. Normal does not matter to me." Her voice sounded very grim - she could hear that herself. But she wanted him to know she was serious. "I remember kidnapping games as well, you know," she said, a little lighter. "Though we didn't have pine cones, not in the middle of Vegas."

They'd all had childhoods once, a very long time ago. Zoe had never mentioned hers to Danny before. She wasn't entirely sure why she was doing it now, besides the fact that he'd shared some of his.

"Normal doesn't matter to me either," Danny said brightly. He registered that Zoe hadn't mentioned her childhood before, but then again a lot of time was taken up talking about his life or Rachel's. Zoe's didn't get much of a look in.

If she was going to talk about it though, he wasn't going to stop her. "Was it hot there?" he asked, fascinated by it. "And was it like...all casinos? And was it hard to sleep at night because of how bright it was? Sorry...you don't have to answer if you don't want to."

"Mm, it was hotter than here," Zoe said, "And brighter, though I don't remember it keeping me awake. Loads of casinos, too. Though there's plenty of bright lights and casinos here as well. Less firefights on the street at night though. They kept me awake," she gazed at the table between them, seemingly transfixed by a knot in the wood. Guns, if only the world could get rid of all the guns.

"Oh my god! Like actually in the street? It sounds so scary. Was it scary? Sorry, I've never been to America, but I've seen it on telly and I always wondered what it was really like. Are serving sizes actually way bigger there? Did you have a pool?" Perhaps he was being ridiculous, but he really wanted to know.

Zoe looked up at him, and almost laughed at his string of questions. They were all harmless enough. "No," she said. "No pool, too poor. And yes, in the street sometimes, and yes it was scary. And I think the food was bigger, but then, I was quite a lot smaller so..." She shrugged, the corner of her mouth turned up in a smile.

"Yeah, that's true. I used to think big Macs were s big, but now I can eat two of them when I have an appetite. And Happy Meals are just ridiculous. Do you miss it sometimes or do you like London more?"

"No I don't miss it," Zoe answered, quick and sure. "Not ever." She took a deep breath, let it out slowly through her nose. "I don't know if I actually like London, but it's better her. I have Liz, here." And you, and Rachel, she thought, but I still don't know either of you, not really.

But she'd told Rachel she wanted to trust her, and that did extend to wanting to trust Danny too. But it was not easy.

"Liz is really great," Danny acknowledged. "And you have us too! W-was it- I mean are- Are you okay? Did something bad happen there? And if so, is it something you want to talk about? I can listen. I mean, only if you want me to. Or instead I could tell you funny Wolf stories until the bell goes." He tried to grin at her to lighten the mood, but he didn't know if it was successful.

Zoe took another deep breath, though this one was much less even as it left her. "Yes something happened there," she said, but she was already starting to feel her throat begin to tighten with the threat of it. "It's - it's an excruciatingly long story - I can't," she shook her head. It felt like someone's big hand was squeezing around her neck. She looked at him as if to say maybe, maybe one day I'll say it but I can't, not today. Not here and now. She twisted her lips a little, managing to smile back at him when he grinned at her, though she didn't feel like the expression was any more successful than his was. "Tell me about Wolf," she said, instead.

Watching her wrestle with words like that was something he understood a great deal. When she said she couldn't, Danny gave her a little nod, acknowledging that it was a Big Thing and she wasn't going to talk about it today. Instead of drawing attention to that though, he gave her a gentle smile, and moved on.

"Wolf really likes oranges. I don't know why because what kind of dog likes oranges, but he loves them. And this morning I was packing my lunch and I put an orange aside while I went to get my can of Coke, right? And when I went back, the orange was gone. Wolf had full on bogarted the thing and he was out in the yard, eating it under the tree. And he didn't even have the decency to look ashamed when I confronted him about it. When he sleeps on my bed he takes up most of it too. I think we're going to have to have a chat about his manners.

I can't really be mad at him long though, because he's the best dog. He keeps people from bothering me when we go for walks in the park. One time this guy came over and he was being really kind of rubbish and Wolf just kind of lost it and just started barking like mad. Like he went mental. He's a citrus thief but he's protective of his people. Kind of- kind of like me."

Zoe really appreciated the fact that Danny didn't push her. It wasn't that he didn't care to know - she could tell that he did - it was that he seemed to understand that some words could crush you if you let them, if you used them too carelessly. She wondered what he would say, if she told him she'd spent thirteen days in a cage after her family sold her to the auction. She wondered what Rachel would say. She wondered if they would believe her. She wondered how she could expect Rachel to tell her her secrets when Zoe still had so many of her own.

"It's sweet how you're protective of Rachel," she said, since he was bringing up protection. "You guys really have a thing going, don't you?"

Danny chuckled down at his hands before offering her a smile. "I meant both of you. And I don't know, maybe? I- it's weird because I've never felt- We kissed a little and it was okay and I only panicked a little bit! But like...doesn't any thing more lead to- stuff? I don't- I don't know."

Zoe smiled wryly at the idea that he wanted to protect her, even with all he was dealing with. She would have been annoyed if it was anyone else, at their presumption that she needed protecting, but Danny didn't have a presumptuous bone in his body.

"It doesn't have to lead to anything else," Zoe said, wondering what Liz would say. "Not unless you both want it to."

"That's true, I guess. I just worry that like- She might want it to eventually and I just-" Danny shrugged and lowered his hands into his lap. "I sort of always figured I'd end up alone."

From the beginning, Zoe had thought that Rachel and Danny had way more in common than Zoe and Danny, but here was something they shared: the assumption, or the acceptance that they were going to end up alone because the alternative was so far out of reach.

She picked at a bit of the table in front of her, where someone else had gouged their name into it with a knife. "I know what you mean," she said, really digging her short fingernails in there. "Alone is a lot safer."

"Yeah, exactly," Danny agreed. "And I mean...even if you don't have all sorts of hangups it can end up shitty. My dad was a terrible husband and he left my mum even before I was messed up. So she was just stuck with two kids. I would never do that to someone, but who knows if they'd do it to me. It's so hard for me to trust anyone anyway. If my trust was broken like that- Yeah. It'd be bad."

Zoe's eyes widened in agreement, and she nodded, though she kept picking at the graffiti like it was the most interesting thing in the world. "Yup," she said. "Yup, people are shitheads."

"Some are," Danny amended because even after everything he knew not everyone was terrible. He was always worried people might hurt him, but he also understood that most of the people wouldn't. "I think though, at least from what I know of him, Cai is one of the good ones."

"I really hope so," Zoe said, deeply sincere. He seemed decent, and Zoe wanted him to be decent, but she'd be a fool if she trusted him straight away, shared visions or not.