[CLOSED]

[keywarding]

Who: Holly (keywarding) & Skyler (strikeraid)
What: Holly & Arielle had a playdate but me thinks she's going to stumble on a secret
Where: The Veracruz Residence
When: Forward dated to January 6th | Afternoon
Warnings?: Holly might smack someone in this.

With the idea of going back to school looming for the next day, Holly had finally gotten a chance to call Arielle and have a play date. She'd told her parents and headed over immediately upon finding out it was okay- because she really needed something normal right now.

She'd been turned into a zombie, gotten attacked by gang members and scared her parents half to death by having to wait till the last second to call and let them know she was staying with a "friend" a few days before because of said zombie happenings.

Honestly she was lucky she hadn't been grounded.

With all that stress, it can be excused that she got really tired, Arielle noticing when she was falling asleep watching an animated movie with her. Holly had brought over that yellow costume for her to play with like Skyler had suggested, which had been a blast before they decided a movie would do while they had a late snack. Arielle had suggested she rest in her room, which Holly eventually relented to after she started to gradually slide down the couch while talking.

Fast forward an hour and she was awake in an empty house. There was a note next to the bed on stationery Holly had bought for Arielle for her birthday. 'Gone out grocery shopping. Be back soon.'

She'd never been in a friends house by herself before. What was she supposed to do?

Curiosity won out quickly, she ventured from Arielle's room and wandered. Milo's room was marked with a sign with his name on the door, their parents door was half open with a shot of their big bed announcing it as their room- which only left.

Skyler's room.

Tapping her chin, she glanced towards it. The door was open, the room looking pretty clean and tidy from what she could see- but... Tugging on a piece of her hair she slowly inched into the room as if expecting a fire alarm to go off announcing her presence and how much she shouldn't be in the room.

The farther in she got though, no alarms and no Skyler coming out the closet to scare her, the more relaxed she got.

"His room is pretty neat." She muttered to herself, glancing around. It wasn't super clean, but there weren't clothes all on the floor and the desk was pretty tidy. "Hmmm." Arielle would probably love if she could find a diary or journal from her older brother, Holly knew she would.

Tugging her hair again, Holly slid forward, sitting down at the desk and peering into a few drawers. What do you have to hide Mr Skyler Veracruz?

Comments

[strikeraid]

A lot. A whole lot.

Mr. Skyler Veracruz was on his way home after a Key meeting, dusk falling quickly as he travels quickly through his neighborhood, cutting behind tall shrubs and climbing fences so no one would raise the alarm of a stray Key wandering through their neighborhood. (Not that it would be too surprising - their neighborhood wasn't exactly affluent, and he was actually pretty sure that some Keys lived nearby, but he's not about to take chances on his family finding out about this.)

He cuts through another bush and peers from it into the driveway... Both cars were gone, meaning his dad was still at work, his mom was out, and since Milo wasn't really aware of the outside world, she probably took Ari with her. Normally, this would elicit a momentary feeling of anger and frustration at his older brother, but he was dead tired today and he didn't even need an excuse to feel relieved that he could roll into his window and strip off his Blood Key outfit off in the safety of his room. He'd be mad at Milo for being an uncaring loser later. Right now, bed.

A tree grows right next to his window, thankfully, and Skyler leaves his window unlocked, since he's fairly certain he's the most dangerous thing that will ever be in his room. It only takes a few leaps to send him from the ground to the tree, and then from the tree onto his windowsill with a solid thump. He sighs from under his bandanna and shades as he eases his window open, lifting up the blinds...

... Wait, who's in his room? Skyler freezes in a crouch on his sill, his eyes automatically switching on nightvision. Who's there? Ari? Shit. Shit.

[keywarding]

Really, she's too busy snooping to notice any tell-tale signs of thumps or anything that would give away the fact there is a person about to climb into the room, let alone who it could be until the blinds are lifted and she notices the movement out of the corner of her eye.

Glancing over, expecting to see a cat or bird or something other than a gang member staring back at her, Holly freeze for a solid five seconds.

And then she screams, and tries to get out of the chair in the same motion as turning which never goes well for anyone so she ends up on the floor with the chair on top of her and she's pointing at the person- because she still just sees a hunched figure and that's enough to terrify anyone.

"Go away!" She would throw something but all she has is the chair and she's in the process of getting her foot from being caught in it!

[strikeraid]

-- That's not Ari. That's someone else... Holly? Oh shit, oh shit, he's still got his shades on, but he doesn't have his contacts in - he usually doesn't, not when he's running around with the gang and the eyes are a sure sign that you're with them - and the rest of the outfit is a dead giveaway, and even worse, he's wearing a shirt that doesn't even come close to hiding the tattoo...

... And there's no way to explain this to Holly without messing something up here. He comes in, landing lightly on his bed, the light from the hallway casting more light onto him. Sure, he could have just left, but then he would have just come back home to his parents flipping shit because someone left his window open for any old burglar to come in, and he needs that window unlocked without his mom coming in to check on it randomly. He's... not sure how to handle this. He didn't want Holly to find out this way. Ideally, she wouldn't have found out at all.

He reaches out, both hands outstretched in a placating gesture. "Holls, Holls, calm down, it's me, I'm - ghk." He doesn't swear around anyone he could teach in summer camp. Rule one. Instead, he removes his bandanna, keeping his shades on for now. Maybe, by some freak accident, she would casually ignore everything Key about him. Maybe she'll just stand up and walk away, satisfied that he has a perfectly reasonable excuse for entering his room by the window. Maybe she-- oh fuck. Maybe she'll just ignore the fact that he could recognize her face in the darkness of his room. Good going, Veracruz.

[keywarding]

There's still a fair amount of panic until he starts talking in which causes her to freeze completely.

"Skyler?" She questions, almost sounding confused before she's finally able to get out from the tangled mess she'd made herself and flips on the light. "Skyler! Why-" Her emotions have been on edge since the zombie incident so now she actually flips, which is so rare for her.

"Skyler what are you thinking?! Why are you dressed like that?! What are you doing?!" Every question is nearly shouted, her cheeks red with her worry and her outrage. Holly Avalon has never yelled like this before, not to her brothers or sister and not even to Skyler when he could be frustrating... but she's had a rough week.

[strikeraid]

"Shh, Holly, calm down, it's ok, just--" He sidles his way over to the door and shuts it before removing his bandanna entirely and throwing it on the bed, his jacket following it. He smells like cigarettes and rusted iron and the clammy smell that hangs around the Dead District, but the smoke isn't on his breath as he turns to face Holly. His shades are still on, and now that his hood is off, his hair is fully visible. Most of his spikes pinned back so he looks like he has a duckbutt rather than full-on anime hair. He gets down on a knee so he's a little shorter than eye level with her, putting a hand on her arm to get her attention and looking up at her face. "Quieter, 'kay? I don't want Mom coming back home to see this."

[keywarding]

Holly pauses in her tirade for a moment, a moment to watch him toss the offending articles of clothing onto his bed and to watch him shut the door, it's when he touches her that she seems to come back to the world of the living.

Her expression twists into concerned worry, one arm waving out at him. "What is this?" She almost whines, because he can't be a Blood Key? Right? "Skyler, what is going on? I was attacked by people dressed like this! It's not funny if this is a joke!" She'd not shared that information with many people, just the ones who'd been there and Garrus because he seemed trustworthy.

[strikeraid]

Skyler winces, leaning back so the arm doesn't catch him in the face (gotta keep those shades on)... then feels his temper flare when she mentions the word "attacked". He didn't know about this! "You were around the Dead District? What the - Why were you even there?" Key territory was getting wider by the day; more slowly now that their numbers had been reduced by that much, but that never made the territory itself safer as far as he's concerned. "You can't go to the Dead District! You could've gotten hurt! What happened?"

(... Hypocritical much? He's not really thinking about it, but it doesn't quite occur to him that she could argue that he did the exact same thing a month ago.)

[keywarding]

"I was Christmas shopping! It was an alley off a crowded street!" She fires right back because she hadn't been doing anything crazy, she hadn't been wandering in the dead of night. "It was the middle of the day! If Banagher and Elly hadn't shown up I'm-" She wasn't sure what would have happened but really that's not the problem here!

"Enough about that, what are you thinking Skyler? If Arielle finds out or if you get hurt?!" It's enough of a situation to bring tears to her eyes, angry tears that she's really trying to not let fall because she won't cry just yet! She needs to know what is going on.

[strikeraid]

-- That's right. Skyler shifts back a little, moving to sit on his bed, pulling a hand over his face, pushing up his shades just a bit and letting it rest on his mouth. They're supposed to be more aggressive, meaning that attacks just outside of Key turf in the middle of the day would have been a lot more likely than Skyler was willing to admit. He couldn't blame her for that. "Don't go places near there alone," he tries to interject loudly, his resolve on that point certain. If Banagher and Elly hadn't been there? Does that mean she went out that way by herself?

She changes subjects like a slap in the face. Ari. Most of the fight goes out of him, but he still has enough left to fire back, "Ari's not gonna find out, and I'm gonna be fine--"

But he stops when it strikes him that now she's about to cry. He can see angry tears bubbling up in her eyes. Oh, god damn it. He reaches out to grasp her by the shoulders again, trying to get her attention. "Hey, Holly, I'm fine and I'm gonna be fine. Ari's never gonna know, you've gotta promise me that. Mom and Dad and Milo, none of them need to know." He's trying very transparently to avoid having to answer why he's doing this, but at least this was a pretty important concern to cover here.

[keywarding]

His concern for her is no more than usual but for her the very idea of him putting himself in any dangerous situation is enough for her to end up breaking down because he's her friends brother, he's always tried to be nice in his own bratty way- and he reminds her of her own brothers. When he touches her shoulders the tears start falling and no amount of wiping at them will get them to go away.

"Skyler just- why can't you stop it?" She questions, her hands scrubbing at her eyes to wipe away more tears that are not likely to stop any time soon. "This is dangerous!"

[strikeraid]

Auuugh no! Nooo nonono. He made a girl cry and now he feels like a huge fucking ass. Shit. He pauses, chewing his bottom lip, then takes one of her hands and puts it on the side of his head, resting her fingers on his shades. He draws them off, but keeps holding them to her hand, hinting that he'd prefer if she takes them off. If she does concede and take them... Well, first of all, she'd now see that his eyes are now a deep, piercing blue, very unlike the rest of his family's and indeed a very different color from what they were before. The second thing she'd see is that both of his pupils have an additional opening to them, a rectangular blackness connected to the pupil from below, making his pupils look roughly like keyholes.

Whether she does or doesn't remove them, he will say in an uncharacteristically somber tone, "Even if I wanted to, it's too late."

[keywarding]

The action calms her for a moment, the tears still sliding down her cheeks but the breathy sobs stopping as she lifts her other hand to carefully take the glasses off.

The difference is so startling her own eyes go wide. They're so blue, and at first that's all she can notice. They're as blue as the ocean in the tropics or a spring days sky. They're beautiful but not right, not his, this fact is even more so when she notices the key holes.

"Oh Skyler..." she mutters, one hand letting go of the glasses to cup his cheek. "What have you done?"

[strikeraid]

Her hand is warm against his cold face, and that, along with the genuine concern in her voice, is enough to break something in Skyler's refusal to let anything he keeps close to his chest fall away. It's just a little chip, a little dent, but it's a lot more than what he's used to.

He actually smiles a little, laughing awkwardly. He's too tired for hysteria. "I-I didn't... think I'd get this far. I just wanted to..." He pauses, his eyes dropping to the floor, searching for words hidden in the carpet. "I wanted to do something. This was something only I'd do." He draws in a deep breath, then takes her hand with his and pulls it off his face, holding it as he looks back up at Holly again. "Elly and Banagher... They're on the network, right? They wouldn't... do something like this. Join a gang and start hurting people. Right?"

[keywarding]

Listening to him, her expression becomes so incredibly sad. She's never seen Skyler like this, he's always smiled or acted like a jerk, but this was something different. This was raw and all she wanted to do was to protect him from whatever had caused him to end up like this.

"They wouldn't, but you've always been different right?" She starts, pulling her hand from his so that she can lean down and wrap him in a hug. "You did what you thought was right, I promise I won't tell anyone. Please be careful." Her voice is just above a whisper, she hugs him like how her mom hugged her when she was little, like she was trying to protect him from the world.

[strikeraid]

That's a good seven years of a downward spiral to mitigate, preceded by ten years of a less than promising start. He'd appreciate the thought, though.

... God, hearing that is... It sure is something. Careful? He's never been so careful about anything in his life. Constantly keeping his mouth shut about it, dodging the topic whenever it comes up, avoiding people who'd want him to talk about himself. It's hard, especially because he knows he's not the brightest kid. He's probably fucked it up more than once, this moment right here included, especially since the network was the closest things to a group of friends he had. He tries not to think about it. He's already determined that he's one of the shittiest people on the network, and that he was the only one with the right combination of traits who could realistically pull this off. So. It was up to him. It's... not exactly true, in more ways than one, but this is just the first of many excuses he made up for himself.

So when he leans into the hug... Well, he doesn't start breaking down, because he's had seventeen years of practice pretending that he doesn't have feelings and it won't take one conversation to break that particular barrier. He does, however, allow himself to hug her back, wrapping his arms around her back and gripping his hands into her shirt. That, somehow, leads into him shivering violently, and he can't stop no matter how hard he tries. He's scared of a lot of things, he doesn't actually have a plan, and he's never had any sort of confessional before. He hasn't felt this safe in a long time. Just having someone to talk to, who didn't have anything to do with the Keys or any of the godawful mess he's made of his life, is kind of a huge deal.

[keywarding]

Holly doesn't ask if he's okay, obviously he's not. Even if she were dense she would be able to tell that Skyler wasn't 'okay' in any sense of the word, no matter how brave a face he tried to put on. She doesn't loosen her hold or try to pull away to check on him. If anything the moment the shivering begins she holds him a little tighter, one hand coming to pet over his hair and those spikes and down his back. Soothing motions to help someone wade through the storm.

"Everything will surely be alright." She says to him, a phrase she's just realized in the past few days was one her past self said many times. It's such an optimistic phrase, one she is quickly realizing fits her thought processes perfectly. It can't stay dark all the time.

"It's hard to see right now, but you've got a lot of light around you. I know it'll work out." She trusts him to see this through without him getting hurt or killed. "I believe in you."

[strikeraid]

His shivering starts dying away under her hands, but Skyler's grip in her shirt suddenly seizes up tightly as he experiences an echo. His shivering switches off very suddenly as the hollowed out sensation gets into his head and reaches his heart. His face has come to a rest on her shoulder and he doesn't remember when that happened, his eyes squeezed tight against the sensation as he buries his face, trying to will it away. He hates this. He doesn't want the almost daily sensation of disconnect as he gets hollowed out and filled with memories and feelings from someone he doesn't know. He doesn't want to get burdened down with another guy's problems when he makes too many of his own already.

The heart may be weak. And sometimes, it may even give in. But I've learned that deep down, there's a light that never goes out!

... Even if what he remembers happens to be oddly uplifting. Ugh. His other guy was completely unreal and frankly Skyler doesn't trust a word he says. He shoves the memory away for later.

... Right, still here. He finally lifts his face from her shoulder, somewhat encouraged by the fact that neither his eyes nor her shirt came away wet. He takes a deep breath and lets go of her shirt, finding a little smile and pointing it down at his knees, not really ready for eye contact. He doesn't trust his other guy, but he does find Holly a little more convincing. Ari always had better taste in friends. "... Light, huh? Crazy." His voice is coming out croaky and soft. He clears his throat, trying again. "Thanks." He means it, too.

-- Let's break this moment! At some point during the next few moments, a very dog-like bark will suddenly come from Skyler's closet. What does she do?

[keywarding]

Holly smiles down at him, a reassuring bright smile that means she believes in him and she'd probably have given him another quick squeeze if not for that bark.

"You have a dog?" She asks, looking at the closet curiously. She's positive he doesn't, or else Arielle would have already spilled the beans to her about it so what is behind door number one?

[ooc: Sorry for the short and late reply. I know you're on hiatus and I don't mind waiting for this to continue because they're adorable.]

[strikeraid]

[ ooc: don't apologize for short tags! i just never stop writing, you are under no obligation to match me. UuU i love them too and i will tag until the end! ]

He smiles back, and... his smile actually widens at her question. He wiggles his eyebrows at her as he gets up. "Sort of. Can't believe I haven't told you about Cenabell yet."

He walks over to his closet and opens the door... and nearly gets bowled over by a big blue dog, its fat, black-speckled body wiggling in joy as it hops up into Skyler's arms and starts licking his face gleefully. It's probably too huge and fat to be real, and it could easily be mistaken for a plush animal if it wasn't wriggling and whining in such obvious joy. After a few moments of accepting his face licks, Skyler sets him down on the ground and turns him in Holly's direction. "Cenabell, go introduce yourself. Be polite."

Cenabell waddles up to her and sits down, his tail thumping at the ground happily as he barks at her. If she gives him a pet, he will bark happily and bury his face into her shin. Meanwhile, Skyler digs into his closet to throw on a shirt that covers his sternum tattoo and put in his contacts, coming back to the bed while removing his hair pins.

[keywarding]

[ooc: was waiting on an echo request! woot!]

For a good few seconds she's completely still, watching Cenabell with a far away look in her eyes and honestly she's missed the fact the little dog, toy?, dog? came over in the first place till she's hearing Skyler saying something about it introducing itself to her.

She carefully puts a hand out, lets it sniff it then goes about petting the little thing, even as it snuggles against her shin causing her to laugh. "Skyler, that toy I talked about, the one from my first memory? It's name was Kero... and- um does this mean anything to you?" She's had a short memory shuffle through her head at the sight of a toy bounding around a room. With it came a name for the card she's pulling out of her pocket. The Clow Cards, we have to capture them all before a great calamity happens.

The card is pink, tall and narrow like a tarot card with the image of a firey boy on it, the name 'The Firey' at the top. As she holds out the card in question, she continues to pet the little dog with a smile.

[strikeraid]

"Kero?" Skyler finishes taking the pins out of his hair and puts them on his desk, ruffling his hair back into its now eternal spikes as he takes a seat next to her, which is clearly a signal to Cenabell to jump onto the bed as well. The Meow-Wow bounces around in a circle before rolling over on his back, his tiny stubby legs flailing gleefully in the air. Skyler takes the card and looks at it intently, flipping it over in his hands a few times before shaking his head. "I've got nothing. Is it a tarot card? Maybe your witch told fortunes."

[keywarding]

"It looks like one, they're called Clow Cards, or I think they are. The girl, she was supposed to capture them? Something bad was going to happen if she didn't get them all." Holly explains, standing again offering to take the card back.

"I've gotten so much back in the last few weeks, and a lot of memories. It's a little scary." She admits, looking down at the card with a frown before she sits on the bed next to Skyler.

"I was keeping a journal but I've gotten so much back I feel like I'm constantly forgetting something, but maybe that's just the missing pieces?" Sighing, Holly rubs at her head. "I'm sorry, we were talking about your problems and I just dumped all mine."

[strikeraid]

Skyler hands the card back to her, then drags Cenabell onto his lap, scratching his belly as he listens. The dogcat kicks his tiny legs in bliss.

None of that sounds familiar to him, which is a mild relief. If she has any relation to his other guy's life, it probably would have been so small that it was insignificant. She's safe.

"It's fine." He looks over her, a little smile spreading on his face again. He doesn't claim to care about other people's problems (he does a little too much in reality), but for her, he can make an exception. It's easier to listen to her problems than to explain his own, somehow, and they're pretty similar anyway. "It's kind of overwhelming. If I had to remember everything I've echoed from him..." He slowly shakes his head. "It'd take me a while and I'd probably forget something anyway."

He pauses, collecting his thoughts, then takes his finger and pokes her directly in the forehead. "Remember, no one's expecting you to remember everything. This isn't a test at school. You don't owe anyone anything, and that includes her. So... Take your time and don't worry so much. And I'll be here to help you if you need it. Ok?"

[keywarding]

She looks a little surprised at first, not because Skyler was being nice, she kind of always gathered he wasn't as bratty as he put off- but that he was offering to help her. Any bit of niceness always seemed to be because she was Arielle's friend, this however has nothing to do with his little sister- but no matter the reason she smiles and nods.

Holly needed to hear that, because getting things back she could handle, but memories that weren't her own, some that even included look-a-likes to Ethan- that was scary.

"Thank you Skyler." Holly replies, "I haven't forgotten about this." She leans forward just a hair and pokes the center of his chest very, very lightly. "But I won't ask more on it. Just please be careful, I don't want anything bad to happen to you."

Once she's said her piece, her hand drops down to Cenabell and scratches it's belly with him. "You're such a cutie, I wish I had one just like you."

[strikeraid]

"Oof". He rubs the spot where she poked her, wincing as though she'd punched him, but smiling all the same. "I hear you."

If you asked him why he was doing this, he'd preface it with a lot of bluster - Holly's a girl, and she's also a kid, and she's one of Ari's friends and he owes it to Ari - but in the end, it's mostly because he doesn't want to see her life go as badly to shit as his own has. He's trying to catch all the shitty stuff before it reaches anyone that he wants to protect. Thus the dive into the deepest part of the deep end. It works for him for right now. But meanwhile...

"Cenabell's a Dreameater," he says, rolling up his sleeve as Cenabell flops around on his lap happily, revealing a dried up scrape on his elbow. He usually lets his injuries heal on their own if they aren't too serious because he doesn't want to arouse too much suspicion, but he can make an exception here. "A magic dogcat who comes from a dream. He knows tricks. Hey, Cena - Heal."

Cenabell rolls onto his legs and barks twice. A shimmering green light accompanied by a soft jingling noise surrounds both him and and Skyler, and suddenly the scrape melts away into smooth skin. Skyler scratches Cenabell behind the ear. "Not that heel, dummy."

[keywarding]

Laughing, Holly leans closer to watch the trick, her eyes widening as the glow surrounds Skyler. It's like one of those magic shows, except a hundred times cooler, no a thousand times cooler.

"You have your own personal healer, like in those games Taylor used to play." She comments mostly to herself, speaking about her oldest brother, the one in college and who was completely not cool at all anymore.

"Cenabell, you are wonderful!" Holly praises the little dreameater, petting it herself with loving strokes. "How long have you had him?" Would she get Kero back? Would she wake up one morning to a little stuffed animal floating around her room? Or worse that lion form he had in that one memory?

It was enough to give her a headache.

[strikeraid]

Skyler nods! He mostly wanted to get the little demonstration out of the way in case he ever had to leave Cenabell with Holly... He knows how to heal himself, and doesn't necessarily need Cenabell around. Better for Cena to stick with someone who needs that talent.

"Since September. The magic was an extra echo - I bet he'll learn how to do all sorts of things." Cenabell wiggles and barks happily under her hand. "He's pretty easy to hide. He's pretty smart and he looks like a toy when he's standing still."

...! Speaking of that. Skyler turns to her and scoops Cena up in his arms, sticking his chin on top of the dog's head right next to its horn. "Do you get echoes off him too? I mean... 'Cause the little animal friend you had looks like a stuffed animal, right?"

[keywarding]

Rubbing at her neck, she nods. "I actually just did get one. He was floating in my- well the other me's, room and explaining something about capturing these cards... which I'm going to assume is what the tarot card is." But capturing? Does that mean she had to fight things for them... or maybe fight the cards themselves?

"His full name was Cerberus but the other me shortened it to Kero. It's kind of a cute name, right?" She's toying with her hair as she talks, she's started to let the forelocks grow a little longer then the rest of her bob cut.

[strikeraid]

"Kero..." Well, he doesn't know about cute, but it's much less of a mouthful than Cerberus. "I wonder why you needed to catch them, though. It's just a card, right? It's not like they could fly away."

[keywarding]

"Something about a calamity? Something very bad was going to happen if I- er.. she didn't get them all." And now that she thinks about it, she did get that memory of her being frightened.

"I think it happened, or was going to happen. I got a memory the other day when I got turned into a zombie and she was scared of losing her friends, but she had to do something to save them." Yes she did just mention zombies and just keeps going because for her, it's old news.

[strikeraid]

He immediately checks himself as she does - not her, the other girl. Didn't he just get done telling her that she didn't owe her anything?

... He narrows his eyes. "Back up. Zombies? When?" This seems like something a little more immediate than some calamity that happened to some other girl.

[keywarding]

Oh. Oh! Yeah she should probably explain that one better.

"Um. I was out shopping at the end of December and met this lady, I thought she was sick but she wasn't. She bit me and I .. turned into a zombie?" Her voice has slowly turned questioning, because this sounds weird as heck to say after she's calm and she had the time to get over how scary it'd been.

Clearing her throat, Holly shows him her hand and the small teeth marks on the fleshy part. "It really hurt."

[strikeraid]

He takes her hand and looks at it, studying the bitemarks... Then he looks up at her. Very seriously.

"Do you just want to take Cena home with you tonight?"

[keywarding]

"But he's yours!" She protests, shaking her head. She couldn't possibly take Cenabell home with her over something like that.

"I've been fine recently, I think I filled my 'crazy things' quota last month." She says with a laugh, smiling at him. It was sweet he offered, and he was so serious during it.

[strikeraid]

"Yep. Meaning that I can do what I want with him. Meaning I can lend him out too." Skyler gives her hand back and scoots back and past the bed between them. Cena waddles over and splays his fat self down happily. "Well, if you ever get yourself in danger again, you know who to take for back up." Skyler's mild expression, which had started from the beginning of what he said and spread all over his face, drops again. "Just... don't make a habit out of it."

[keywarding]

"I don't plan on making myself into a super hero, Skyler!" Holly replies with another laugh, shaking her head at the idea while she leans forward to pet Cena more. "I'd be horrible at it anyway. I was useless with the Blood Keys, I think I accidentally hit one and I almost apologized!" She continues, tilting her head. The words 'I am so so sorry' had been on the tip of her tongue and had Ethan and Banagher not be shouting at her to run, she probably would have apologized.

"Speaking of them. I'm not kidding, please be careful. I trust you, but just be careful." Her gaze is directly on him now. If anything happened to Skyler, she's not sure what she'd do. He was like another brother to her.

[strikeraid]

Skyler... well, he doesn't laugh, but he does try to hide a grin. Despite his feelings about the Keys attacking her, that does sound pretty funny. "If you're going to be a magician and you wanna help, you'll find a way to get into trouble. Just let me know before if you can. Cena and I can only get to your place so fast."

Skyler sighs and rubs his face, looking at the ground as he drops his hand to his lap. He can't promise anything in good faith. "I'll remember. It's... gonna be fine." He doesn't sound as sure about that as he'd like, but he screws up his gumption, inhaling deeply and giving her a smile. "Don't worry. Better me than you, right?"

[keywarding]

Unfortunately, Holly seems to get into trouble fairly quickly, no calling for aid time allowed.

At the smile, Holly frowns at him. Shifting on the bed she leans forward and gives him another hug. It's light, not nearly as strong as the one just a few minutes before had been and it's over quickly. "I'd rather it not be anyone, Skyler. You're not expendable. Please remember that." She says as she's pulling away, a hand on his shoulder.

[strikeraid]

-- Was she reading his mind or something? What she says blindsides him, his face dropping its smile as he jerks around to look at her when she pulls away, studying her face, looking for something. Does she...? He doesn't want to ask. He's been living with so much doubt and self-deprecating belief that anyone could look at him and see something worthwhile that he's too scared to ask. You know. Just in case she's just being nice.

She means it. And even if she doesn't mean it, he wants to believe that she does, and he doesn't want to break the illusion.

... Getting around saying that all out loud is going to be impossible to pull off, though. He struggles with his mouth, trying to get it to smile again instead of turning downwards. He has no control over the emotion around his eyes whatsoever, and they are not smiling. (At least he doesn't feel any tears coming on? It's the doubt that's doing it. If he had no doubt in his mind that she was being sincere, he would have way less self control.)

"'Course. I'm kind of a big deal. Right?"

[keywarding]

There's a brief moment where she looks really sad, she's always had a kind heart, and sometimes her family says she cares too much, but how can you not? Taking a breath, she forces a smile. Something bright and shining.

"Of course you are. There's only one Skyler in my book." She says with not quite as much cheer as she had hoped for, but it's something. Holly can't understand why he would ever doubt himself, sure he's been a brat sometimes, but she never saw a villain.

[strikeraid]

... He's not sure how he's making her so sad, but it's something he'll find out later once he gets his head out of his own issues. But seeing her trying her best to stay positive does a lot for his spirit. Forget money and health and that pile of bullshit, all he needs is a smile.

For right now, he grins when she does, more easily this time, and reaches over to ruffle her hair. "Better believe it."