After school, Cai and Zoe and Danny had missioned through Camden to buy Rachel a sneaky second phone before getting the bus back to Cai's house. He led the way down his quiet street, most of the time a few paces in front of the others, walking backwards to talk to them. He'd lived in this house for all of his life, and was familiar enough with the street to know where the cracks or lumps in the footpath were and when to duck under protruding tree branches without looking at them.

“Welcome to Casa Rosa,” said Cai, as the three of them stopped in front of the pink house and it became obvious that this was their destination. There was a little wrought iron fence that Cai usually just vaulted over, but since he had guests and one of them was wearing a school skirt he thought he better be a gentleman and use the gate.

Zoe thought: if I was seeing this house for the first time five years ago, I would have been exquisitely happy. It was painted such a lovely shade of pink, and all the windowsills were a clean white.

Cai's grandfather was in the garden, decked out in gardening gloves and kneepads, one rather large pile of weeds behind him. Cai called out a hullo and Dom sat back on his cushion, pulling off his gardening gloves as he eyed them all up.

He was a good looking man, Dominic Finch. Though he had flown past his sixty-third birthday he still had a thick head of silver hair, and "the body of a man who still did all his own stunts," as Cai had written in his last birthday card. Cai was taller than he was; he'd overtaken him a couple of months ago, and hadn't stopped gloating about it since.

"This is my granddad, Dominic," Cai said, as Dom came over. "This is Zoe and Danny. D'you remember Danny, Danny Marlow?"

"Course I remember Danny Marlow," said Dom, as Cai had suspected he would. Dom never admitted to forgetting anything. "How's it going, lad?" Dom asked, as he reached out to grab Danny's hand and shake it.

Date: 2014-04-23 02:37 am (UTC)From: [personal profile] daniel_marlow
daniel_marlow: (Scared)
The house looked just like Danny remembered it when he had seen it from the car while Cai was being dropped off. He had never been inside, of course, but the outside was so lovely.

Danny had been clutching a small bouquet of peonies for the entire trek and when Dom tried to reach out to shake his hand, it was like he used them as a shield. He flinched obviously and then danced backwards out of reach. When he realised what he had done, he turned brilliantly red because he hadn't been here for three seconds and he was already rude. "Heh- Sorry, I- I don't- er...hi."

Date: 2014-04-23 03:01 am (UTC)From: [personal profile] daniel_marlow
daniel_marlow: (Bite lip down)
When Dom didn't press the issue, Danny visibly relaxed. He glanced sideways at Zoe for a moment and then turned to follow Cai into the house. "I don't think I would know how to riot in a kitchen," he agreed with a nod. "And I'll be sure to keep it down." Roe sounded like she had been through some stuff, and Danny could understand that.

Date: 2014-04-23 03:26 am (UTC)From: [personal profile] daniel_marlow
daniel_marlow: (Grin glasses)
Daniel broke out in a grin when Nonnie remembered him. He held out the flowers awkwardly, blushing a little. "Hello! It's really nice to see you again. I brought you flowers," he said, stepping forward to hand them over. "I've never been inside the house before. It's so nice!"

Date: 2014-04-23 03:36 am (UTC)From: [personal profile] daniel_marlow
daniel_marlow: (Looking)
Danny grinned down at Faye and when she offered her his hand, Danny reached out to shake hers too. He made sure he did so slowly, so she could pull away whenever she wanted to. "Pleased to meet you, Faye," he said happily. "I don't know why 'donkey's years' means a long time. Just one of those things, I guess. It should be 'turtle's years' because they live forever."

Date: 2014-04-23 03:50 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] lightningseed.insanejournal.com
Zoe snorted in amusement and Faye turned to look up at her. "You're really pretty," Faye said. "I like your uniform."

Zoe laughed. Kids could be so great. "I like your hair," she replied. "Are you keeping that flour in it for later?"

"Maybe!" Faye said, though her hands flew up to her hair to try and brush the flour out of it.

Date: 2014-04-23 03:53 am (UTC)From: [personal profile] daniel_marlow
daniel_marlow: (Normal smile)
"You never know when it might come in handy," Danny said, chuckling. Then he smiled at Nonnie and said, "I didn't know if you'd recognise me. My hair used to be so," he flapped his hands around to indicate 'crazy'.

Date: 2014-04-23 04:07 am (UTC)From: [personal profile] daniel_marlow
daniel_marlow: (Concern)
"I wish I had one of those, exams are coming up," he laughed. When she asked how he had been though, his smile faded. "Oh, uh- Okay," he lied, because what else could he really say? "I mean, mostly." He gave her what he hoped was a brave smile. "Nightmares and- uhm...yeah, no, I'm fine."

Date: 2014-04-23 04:32 am (UTC)From: [personal profile] daniel_marlow
daniel_marlow: (Glasses sweet)
"That sounds really nice, thank you," Danny said, ducking his head a little. "I love tea. And soothing. Oh goodness, I'm so embarrassing. It's nice to see you again though. Maybe next time I won't act so ridiculous."

They watched Cai bound up the stairs and then Danny glanced at Zoe before heading towards them. "Is it safe?" he called out.

Date: 2014-04-23 04:58 am (UTC)From: [personal profile] daniel_marlow
daniel_marlow: (Normal smile)
"It's awesome!" Danny said, approvingly. He had talked about the stars when he was a kid, but Danny had never seen them. "My room has these...arch kind of things, but it's not a tower room."

Date: 2014-04-23 05:20 am (UTC)From: [personal profile] daniel_marlow
daniel_marlow: (Impish smile)
Danny took a seat on the floor, looking over the titles on the bookshelf. "Hmm? Oh, yeah! I think that stuff's awesome! I want to go see Winter Soldier, but my friend Dylan keeps saying he has to go when his girlfriend can go and she's busy," he said, with only a slight roll of his eyes. "And I totally think dreams can mean things sometimes. I mean, mine do."

Date: 2014-04-23 05:40 am (UTC)From: [personal profile] daniel_marlow
daniel_marlow: (Default)
"Oh. Oh yeah, we should go!" Danny said, delighted Cai would want to spend more time with him. He had been so worried his brother would think he was severely uncool. Mostly because Danny was pretty aware he was severely uncool. "And Zoe, you are so Black Widow. She's so awesome."

"Oh, uhm-" Danny started fiddling with the hemline of his uniform trousers then and he nodded. "Yeah. They're pretty bad. Like clinical bad."

Date: 2014-04-23 05:52 am (UTC)From: [personal profile] daniel_marlow
daniel_marlow: (Default)
Danny felt like his throat was starting to close up and seriously, this is why he should learn to lie. Zoe swooped in there and saved him, however. And she was so clearly Black Widow. He gave her a grateful look and then nodded.

"Uhm, yeah, they're- It's just bad memories. Crap that actually happened. But it feels real, you know? And I sleepwalk sometimes too and end up in crazy places. Once my mum found me on the neighbour's front step, freezing my arse off but totally asleep."

Date: 2014-04-23 06:00 am (UTC)From: [personal profile] daniel_marlow
daniel_marlow: (Default)
"It's alright," Danny said and then he twisted his lips up. "Well, it's not, but I get on with it! What about you, Zoe? What do you think about dreams and mutants or whatever it was?"

Date: 2014-04-23 06:05 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] lightningseed.insanejournal.com
"Um," said Zoe. "They're cool."

Wow, she thought. Real bright, Zoe. Real insightful. "I don't know. Mutants. Well," she swallowed. "You hear some pretty weird stories, living in London, don't you?"

Date: 2014-04-23 06:11 am (UTC)From: [personal profile] daniel_marlow
daniel_marlow: (Default)
"You do," Danny nodded, though he had no idea what he was skirting around the edge of. "Like that lady who jumped out of a window and survived and people said she had wings, but other people said they were just taped on or something. That stuff is fascinating!"

Date: 2014-04-23 06:21 am (UTC)From: [personal profile] daniel_marlow
daniel_marlow: (Default)
"Wow!" Danny said, feeling drawn into the whole thing. "I wish I knew more about it. I know I saw a wolf while out walking my dog, strangely enough named Wolf, once. And London isn't supposed to have wolves. I mean he could have been an escaped domesticated one but he didn't look tame."

Date: 2014-04-23 06:27 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] lightningseed.insanejournal.com
"You have to be careful," Zoe said, with a sharp hand gesture for emphasis. "They can be really dangerous. Do you remember that string of animal attacks a while ago? That could have been that wolf."

Date: 2014-04-23 06:29 am (UTC)From: [personal profile] daniel_marlow
daniel_marlow: (Default)
"Oh shit, really?" Danny said, his eyes widening. "Yeah, well when I saw it, Wolf growled a lot and I sort of half-jogged home. It freaked me well out. Still don't know what it would be doing here though. London's weird."

Date: 2014-04-23 06:36 am (UTC)From: [personal profile] daniel_marlow
daniel_marlow: (Default)
"Okay, I won't," he nodded because already he was used to Zoe trying to protect him. He rather liked it, actually. "What if there was a flying wolf? That would be so weird."

Date: 2014-04-23 06:54 am (UTC)From: [personal profile] daniel_marlow
daniel_marlow: (Default)
Danny cracked up at Wolfnado too, nearly falling over. "Did you see Sharknado? I had to get it off Dylan but oh my god, what a stupid movie! I think Giraffenado would be the most hilarious. Imagine those necks, swaying in the wind."

Date: 2014-04-23 08:08 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] lightningseed.insanejournal.com
"Oh no," said Zoe, covering hand with her mouth. Cai was having difficulty controlling himself, the images of giraffes flailing their necks about in the wind too funny to control.

He finally managed to stop laughing, but then Zoe whispered "Otterquake."

Date: 2014-04-23 08:11 am (UTC)From: [personal profile] daniel_marlow
daniel_marlow: (Default)
Danny actually did fall back to the floor with that. The fact that Zoe was rarely whimsical making it all that much funnier. "Oh my god, Zoe!" he managed to whimper.

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