Casa Rosa (Cai, Danny, Zoe)
Apr. 23rd, 2014 01:53 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
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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.
“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.
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Date: 2014-04-23 02:37 am (UTC)From: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."
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Date: 2014-04-23 02:57 am (UTC)From:"Nah, they were all Danny's idea," Cai grinned.
"Good on Danny," Dom said. "She's making cake with the girls. Roe is over, so don't be too adolescent."
"I thought she wasn't here till the weekend?"
"Eh, things change. Now, you call for me when that cake's done." Dom pointed at Cai, to drive the point home.
"Yessir," Cai saluted, and led the others up to their front door, explaining. "Roe's one of the kids we foster. She doesn't handle things like shouting and loud noises very well but I figure you guys aren't going to start rioting in the kitchen. That's pretty much what Dom means when he says adolescent."
"I think I can restrain myself from rioting in the kitchen," Zoe said.
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Date: 2014-04-23 03:01 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2014-04-23 03:23 am (UTC)From:"Faye!" Cain grinned up at her. "Come down and say hi." Cai knew he wasn't supposed to have favourites among the kids, but Faye was absolutely his favourite. She was shy around new people though, and turned and ran back up the stairs.
"RUDE!" Cai forgot momentarily about noise, and thundered up the stairs behind her, Faye shrieking in delight as she was chased. He stopped at the doorway as she ran into the kitchen, doubling over like running had been a huge effort and she was so fast to have beaten him. "Drat," he said. "Speedy monkey."
Zoe exchanged a look with Danny and followed Cai up the stairs at a more reasonable pace. The kitchen was smaller than Zoe's, which wasn't hard, but it was lovely. Large windows let the light pour in, and all the benches were covered in baking paraphenalia. There was another girl sitting at the kitchen table, her attention focused on her drawing in front of her. Faye had run in and was hiding behind Nonnie, who was decked out in her floral apron and covered in flour and cake guts.
Cai made the introductions, as Nonnie pulled Faye round from behind her, hands on the girls shoulders in support. The girl drawing at the table was Roe, twelve years old with straight, thin brown hair. She didn't look up when Cai said her name.
"It's very nice to meet you, Zoe," Nonnie said. "Cai has told me plenty about you."
"Has he?" Zoe looked at Cai, trying to mentally interrogate him about how much information plenty was. Cai looked infuriatingly innocent.
"And Daniel Marlow, look at you," Nonnie continued, shaking her head in wonderment and coming across the kitchen to get a better look. "Come in, come in, don't hang about in the doorway like a bad smell."
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Date: 2014-04-23 03:26 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2014-04-23 03:32 am (UTC)From:"What's a donkey's year?" Faye asked, staring at Danny. Nonnie gave her a little nudge, and she drew together all her courage and strode over to offer her hand to Danny to shake.
"A really long time," Cai explained. He remembered how frustrated he got when adults didn't answer his questions properly when he was a kid.
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Date: 2014-04-23 03:36 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2014-04-23 03:50 am (UTC)From: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.
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Date: 2014-04-23 03:53 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2014-04-23 04:01 am (UTC)From:"We just ran into each other at school," Cai said. "He's friends with Zoe."
"It's a very small world," Nonnie said. "How've you been since we last met, Danny?"
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Date: 2014-04-23 04:07 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2014-04-23 04:29 am (UTC)From:"Um, soothing tea sounds alright, if you're making some?"
"Dom said it was vitally important someone tell him when the cake was ready," Cai told Nonnie, bringing the important thing, the cake, back into the conversation. "Faye, I will leave this heavy burden with you."
Faye accepted this heavy burden with a grave nod.
"Okay," Cai said to Danny and Zoe. "Give me one second before you follow me, alright?" He took off to his room, aware that there were a few days of underwear strewn across his floor.
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Date: 2014-04-23 04:32 am (UTC)From:They watched Cai bound up the stairs and then Danny glanced at Zoe before heading towards them. "Is it safe?" he called out.
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Date: 2014-04-23 04:55 am (UTC)From:"It's safe!" Cai called back, pushing the laundry basket under his bed. "This is my tower room," he made a sweeping gesture across the room. One wall backed onto the storage room, but the other walls curved round like it might have been a tower, the windows looking out over the neighbourhood. "It's basically one of my favourite places in the world."
His bed was pushed up against the flat wall, covered in a constellation-themed quilt that he had helped his mother and Nonnie make, when he was younger. He'd made his desk himself, and his bookshelves, which were full of sci-fi paperbacks and graphic novels. Faded old glow in the dark stars covered the ceiling.
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Date: 2014-04-23 04:58 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2014-04-23 05:09 am (UTC)From:"Does it pass inspection?" Cai asked, noticing Zoe's rather intense examination of his book collection.
She looked a little guilty. "Uh, yeah. Just seeing," she said. God she was bad a new people.
"You can borrow anything you like," Cai said, as he kicked off his shoes. One of them hit the wall beside his wardrobe but the other went in. He left the out of place shoe where it was so it could think about what it had done. "Do you read a lot?"
Zoe nodded.
"I like stuff about the future," Cai said. Zoe shot him a careful look but Cai carried on. "Prophecies and stuff. Visions and dreams and things coming true. Mutants, superheroes, anything like that. What do you think about that kind of thing, Danny?"
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Date: 2014-04-23 05:20 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2014-04-23 05:36 am (UTC)From:"I am not memorising your room," said Zoe, who had been memorising his room. Cai grinned at her upside down like he knew exactly what she was about. She narrowed her eyes at him, but she stopped looking around and sat down on the floor near Danny.
"Do you mean your nightmares?" Cai asked Danny. "You've mentioned them a couple of times. They really bad?"
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Date: 2014-04-23 05:40 am (UTC)From:"Oh, uhm-" Danny started fiddling with the hemline of his uniform trousers then and he nodded. "Yeah. They're pretty bad. Like clinical bad."
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Date: 2014-04-23 05:49 am (UTC)From:"Cai," Zoe said, warningly. "Danny's been through some crap." She wanted to tell him that Danny's nightmares weren't visions; they were serious post-traumatic crap and he shouldn't be trying to dig into that for information.
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Date: 2014-04-23 05:52 am (UTC)From:"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."
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Date: 2014-04-23 05:54 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2014-04-23 06:00 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2014-04-23 06:05 am (UTC)From: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?"
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Date: 2014-04-23 06:11 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2014-04-23 06:18 am (UTC)From:"Syed said he saw that in person," Cai said. "He swears it was real. His older brother got it on tape but it's too shaky to see anything properly."
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Date: 2014-04-23 06:21 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2014-04-23 06:27 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2014-04-23 06:29 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2014-04-23 06:33 am (UTC)From:"In case of wolves and flying people?" Cai asked, his head on one side.
"In case of lots of things," Zoe replied, narrowing her eyes at him again.
"Alright, okay, I'm not disagreeing with you. It's not an awesomely safe city, I get that. Blood in the rivers and fires and terrorists..."
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Date: 2014-04-23 06:36 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2014-04-23 06:48 am (UTC)From:"I feel like a flying wolf wouldn't be as bad, somehow," Zoe said, her mouth twisted in a bit of a smile that was still tinged with worry that Danny could have been mauled by a werewolf. "I think they'd be slower if they had wings."
Cai was still laughing to himself. "Wolfnado," he repeated.
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Date: 2014-04-23 06:54 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2014-04-23 08:08 am (UTC)From:He finally managed to stop laughing, but then Zoe whispered "Otterquake."
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Date: 2014-04-23 08:11 am (UTC)From: