darker_london | Casa Rosa (Cai, Danny, Zoe)

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.

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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."

Dom raised his eyebrows at Danny, a look that clearly said oh you mad young people, but he didn't press the issue. "They've lovely," he said, nodding approvingly at the flowers. "Earning yourself some favour points, are you?" he asked Cai.

"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.

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.

The front door opened into a hallway and the smell of baking cake rolled out to meet them. Running footsteps on the second floor heralded the appearance of a nine year old girl with an explosion of curly black hair. "Cai!" she exclaimed in delight, but half way down the stairs realised he wasn't alone and stopped, eyes wide and suddenly shy.

"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."

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!"

"Well, haven't you grown into something else?" Nonnie beamed as she accepted the flowers. "Girls, Danny is Cai's half-brother. I haven't seen him for donkey's years!"

"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.

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."

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.

"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'.

"Mind like a steel trap," Nonnie tapped her forehead, as Faye whispered to Zoe that Nonnie also had eyes on the back of her head. "What brings you over today?" She started to gravitate toward the kettle, getting some mugs out of the cupboard.

"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?"

"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."

"I'm sorry to here that, Danny," Nonnie said, with a small frown. "Tell you what, I'll brew some of my special tea. It's very soothing. And if you like it you can take some home." She nodded, decisively. "I'll bring some up to your room along with the cake. Zoe dear, would you like anything?"

"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.

"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.

Zoe was laughing at Danny; she couldn't herself. "You're such a nerd," she told him, following up the second flight of stairs to Cai's room. The third floor was narrower than the two below it, almost attic-like as the walls curving inwards. There was room for a small bathroom, a decent sized everything-room which Nonnie said she used for sewing but was mostly used for storage, and Cai's room.

"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.

"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."

Cai gave a quick bow of thanks, and Zoe edged toward the bookshelves to search for signs of evil. She certainly wasn't getting evil vibes from his baking grandmother and gardening grandfather and homemade quilt, but you never knew.

"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?"

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."

"I'll go with you!" Cai said, sliding to the floor head first, till his head hit the ground, the rest of his body still on his bed. "It rocked. Captain America's one of my favourites. Zoe totally strikes me as a Black Widow. Look at her memorising my room."

"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?"

"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."

"Sounds pretty intense," Cai said, from his upside-down position. "What kind of stuff?"

"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.

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."

"Shit," said Cai, and slowly slithered the rest of his body off the bed so he could sit up, leaning against it. It seemed more respectful, not to be upside down. "Sorry, Danny, that sounds rough."

"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?"

"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?"

"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!"

"Yes, I remember that," said Zoe. She was pretty sure the lady had ended up in Peter's hospital, but Zoe had been pretty involved with her own stuff at that time.

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"Yeah, yeah it is," Zoe said, biting her lip as she nodded. "Just be careful, okay? Don't go round walking Wolf after dark, just in case."

"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..."

"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."

Cai cracked up. "Wolfnado!"

"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.

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."

"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."

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.