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WHO:

tothecloud,

iknowyourfear, &

herturn.
WHERE: Nina and Terry's apartment.
WHEN: Afternoon.
WARNINGS: Possible supreme awkwardness. Swans and spiders.
SUMMARY: Abby stops by to see ~~if anyone has had a psychotic break yet~~ if Nina's settled in.
FORMAT: Paragraph to start, whatever we want inside!

She had to admit, it probably wasn't one of her best ideas ever-- at the time, she'd really just wanted to help out, because Nina had seemed so nice and quiet, and Abby still remembered what it was like to arrive in the City for the first time, trying to find a safe place to stay. On the one hand, it was a nice apartment, and there was definitely room. On the other... Well. Terry came with his own warning label. Abby knew her friend was something of an acquired taste for most people, and while living with him didn't come with the usual hazards of rooming with a teenage boy-- he kept to himself, he was decent-- there were certain other things that Abby worried about.

But she hadn't seen any panicked posts to the network, and she hadn't heard Terry complain either. So maybe things were working out after all. She could only hope. Just in case there was anything that needed smoothing over though, she'd brought a little plastic bag full of flat-warming gifts.

Abby hesitated only a moment before lifting her hand to knock on the door.

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"Terry?" Nina called out, stepping out of her room with half-dried hair and a towel in her hands after she heard no activity that suggested the visitor had been attended to. She had already figured out that one was better off waiting to get out of work in a pet salon before taking a shower -- otherwise she would end up needing to take two a day. Late showers were already a habit, anyway, so there wasn't much of a change in that department.

She threw the towel onto her bed and tried to comb her with her fingers to look a little more presentable, walking towards the door to open it just enough to see who was outside. There was no sign of recognition, but she figured that a teenage girl with no flyers or forms in her hand was bound to be an actual visitor -- one of Terry's friends, perhaps? She arched her brows and pursed her lips, answering with a coy and pleasant tone.

"Yes?"

The girl's face perked up as the door opened-- then shifted into surprise. She'd been expecting Terry to answer the door, but the person standing there was definitely not Terry.

"Oh! You're--" Abby's hands clapped together once, as if to say ah-hah. "You're Nina! Right? Wow. You're really pretty. I mean, I bet you get that all the time, and it's not like I was thinking you weren't pretty or anything." She pauses expectantly, then seems to realize after a beat that oh, right. Nina's never seen her before.

"Er-- sorry. It's me!" She smiles sheepishly. "I'm Abby."

It's been a surprisingly normal week. Uneventful, once Nina had finished moving in. He doesn't even heard Nina call his name, or the knock on the door -- mostly because he has his earphones in, drowning in the dulcet tones of the Rolling Stones at a volume only a teenager could survive, while pouring over homework. It's only when he notices Terror barking and pawing excitedly at his bedroom door that he gets up and wanders out into the foyer.

Oh. Well, of course.

"Hey, Abby." A touch wryly, maybe: "As you can see, Nina is in one piece."

Nina widens her eyes just a little bit, both surprised and a bit confused by the girls' excitement -- for a moment she thinks that Terry has a girlfriend he has not yet talked about (which she can't possibly blame him for, being a fan of discretion herself) -- there is certainly something very familiar about the way she speaks, though, and Nina finally makes sense of the conversation when Abby introduces herself.

"Oh -- yes, of course. Hello." Nina produces a sheepish grin when she opens the door to let Abby inside, turning her head when Terry announces his own presence a few steps behind. Not quite sure of how to react to his statement, she quickly resumes her attention to the visit to pick up from where she left off, lips still pressed in a smile.

"It's nice to meet you, Abby."

Abby waves at Terry when he emerges-- and she takes his casual ease as another sign that things are well. She knows, if anything made him unhappy, it's be obvious in his demeanor. But while "pleasant" is a rarely a word anyone would use to describe him, he seems comfortable. It's reassuring to her. And it's true, Nina is is one piece. That's reassuring too.

"It's nice to meet you too, Nina." She offers another easy smile and heads on into the apartment. "Look, guys, I totally brought you some awesome stuff, okay."

Moving over to the coffee table, Abby begins pulling items out of her plastic bag, naming them off as she sets them down. She rattles each thing off excitedly. "See, I got magnets for your fridge-- they're like, animal ones, super cute-- and this white board calendar and markers you guys can share. Oh! And sticky notes. I got lots of different colors 'cause I wasn't sure what colors you like. Plus, I got--" Squeak! "--this awesome toy for Terror. It makes noise and stuff!"

Abby brings a different energy with her when she comes and she always does. Not that Terry minds the quiet -- really, Nina is an ideal flatmate so far -- and he's fairly sure he'd go crazy if he didn't get a break from Abby's sparkles-and-sunshine, but it's not unwelcome. It's almost... Endearing, really, the way she's even more enthusiastic about what she's brought for them than they are. If it were anybody else, Terry would be annoyed out of his mind.

His voice comes dryly when he speaks, drifting over to the couch to sit on the arm of it. "Maybe you should keep the toy. Not like Terror doesn't make enough noise already."

Nina closes the door quietly when Abby steps inside, tucking her hands under crossed arms with a quick inhale. Curious eyes follow the girl's movements, visibly surprised by all the little gifts. She's inhibited enough as is and doesn't see this as a situation where she's supposed to pronounce her opinion or gratitude, taking a more discreet place in the living room. There's an exhale, not quite a laugh, accompanied by an entertained grin when Terry states his opinion on the toy. She lets a little moment of awkward silence (on her part alone, she's sure) pass before she finally pronounces herself with a hesitant start. Her eyebrows knit with sincerity.

"That's really nice of you." There's another beat. She imagines that Abby might have come to share a few words with Terry and she has no intention of standing in the way, so she moves toward the coffee table, eyes on the girl. "I'll take them to the kitchen. Can I bring you anything, Abby?"

"O-Oh! Okay--" Abby carefully scoops all the items back into the plastic bag and hands them off to Nina. "Um. Maybe, could I get a glass of water please?"

She pauses, waits until Nina is gone before glancing back at Terry. She isn't sure if she really wants to ask him how things are going. It seems like things are going well, and maybe she could sleep easy on that much alone. But, it's better to ask, maybe, just to be sure. Just in case.

"So. She seems really nice." Abby sits on the end of the couch opposite to Terry, tucking hair behind her ear. "Everything's okay, right?"

Terry turns to watch Nina go, still not quite entirely used to her presence. He's kept mostly to himself since she moved in, and to see her interact in the context of having a guest is something new. He glances back when Abby speaks to him. He knew this question was coming. It was inevitable. In the end, that's what everyone was worried about -- whether or not Terry Ward was going to flip out and traumatize people for life or not.

He can't help a twinge of annoyance. He reminds himself that Abby means well, that the question is reasonable, and the only reason he feels annoyed is that he's tired of being treated like a ticking time bomb.

"Yeah. It's quiet. It's fine, really." He looks at Abby's face, to see if she seems convinced. "Ask her yourself. I haven't been reading her mind, driving her crazy, or transforming into her worst fears. Scout's honor."

To be frank, the concept of entertaining a guest is a little new to Nina. Her life with her mother in a small apartment was very much sheltered; Nina never really saw her mother get visitors and never really brought her own back home, aside from friends from her childhood days. There was just something about her household that wasn't very inviting. It was where she woke up and where she came back to have dinner and sleep to wake up the next day and repeat the routine.

She clears her throat as she finds the glasses in the cabinet, preparing two of them -- one for Abby and one for Terry, even if he didn't ask -- and taking her time. Nina can hear fragments of their conversation from the kitchen and makes a very self-conscious attempt to ignore the words, partly because she doesn't want Terry to potentially detect her and think she's doing it on purpose. She still isn't sure how his abilities work and wonders if she'll ever get used to knowing they're just... there.

Open mind, Nina. She lets them talk for another while.

There is a sort of gentle skepticism on her face. Like she wants to believe him, and she mostly does, but she can't quite put to rest the fear of what might happen. She knows it's unfair to him-- to treat him like he's dangerous all the time-- but he is. He is dangerous. And that one percent chance of things going wrong, minute and unlikely as it is, represents something terrible enough that she does worry.

But she wants to give Terry the benefit of the doubt. She tries.

"Is it... Hard? Having someone else's thoughts around all the time?" Abby knows how Terry's powers work by proximity, how he's constantly keeping his mindreading and shapeshifting under control by sheer willpower. "I know you're doing this 'cause I asked, so-- I mean. If it's not working out, you can just tell me. Really."

Terry doesn't respond immediately. He takes a moment, reins in that automatic defensiveness -- because it's Abby, and he knows she means well, even when her questions annoy him and even when she's pointing a gun in his face, ready to pull the trigger. He exhales and turns his head away. He knows he's dangerous; he's just tired of people pointing it out to him all the time when he's trying.

"Listen, Abby," he says finally, "It's always hard, okay? If I don't focus, I can probably hear every fear on the entire floor. If I tried, I could hear the entire building." He tries not to sound as exasperated as he feels. It only half-works. "But I'm not going to hurt her. I'm not going into her head unless somebody's life depends on it or something, alright?"

Nina tries to entertain herself with putting away random things in the kitchen that look out of place, then, when she decides that it's taken her long enough, picks up the glasses and brings them to the living room with a pleasant and small smile.

"Here you go, Abby. I brought some for you too, Terry." She gives him a quick look in the middle of her movement, still hunched over to set the drinks on the coffee table before and stepping over to take a seat on the other end of the couch. She holds her hair and places it over her shoulder, hands then neatly clasped together on her legs. The girl looks like she has an absolutely flawless posture all the time.

Abby glances up, back straightening a bit when Nina returns. She reaches for the glass of water with a little 'thanks very much,' taking a sip of it before setting it back. She seems unsure what to say at first, unwilling maybe to openly discuss the topic of Terry's powers with someone who didn't know him well yet. It was a fine balance between keeping everyone safe and giving Terry a fair chance. Abby hasn't quite figured out the best way to do that yet.

At length, she exhales and says to Nina, "Terry was just telling me you guys are getting along pretty good. And, um-- I'm really glad." A beat, like she isn't sure she should say more, but... "I was worried. But I feel a little better now."

Terry murmurs a little thank you of his own, still a tinge ruffled by all the questions, maybe. His glance shifts between Nina and Abby, and he imagines if they got to know each other better, they'd get along well. Similar types. 'Course, it's always the quiet ones, and as much as he and Abby have patched things up, he's hoping Nina isn't going to shoot him in the face too -- or worse.

"Like I said," his voice comes a bit dryly, "I haven't touched her thoughts, and I haven't shapeshifted into anything horrible. Thanks for the faith though."

It's clear that Nina grows uncomfortable and awkward with Terry's blunt remark. She was hoping they'd stick to Abby's vague (but obvious) concern... but seeing as that isn't the case, all that is left to do is keep her discomfort discreet, despite slightly wide eyes shifting between the boy and the girl.

"He's been very respectful." That's all she says, producing a reassuring smile and a soft nod.

Abby too feels a little reprimanded-- though honestly, she doesn't blame Terry. She knows she has something of a chronic fear when it comes to his powers, because experiencing what Terry can do once, let one two or three times, is something you don't just forget. But more than that, she really wants this to work out-- for Terry and Nina. It would mean something, if he could prove to himself and to Abby that he could do this.

"Sorry," she says at length, fidgeting a little. "I know you got this, Terry." Abby glances at Nina, reaching out without really thinking to gently touch the other girl's arm in a gesture meant to be reassuring. "I'm not... You know. Trying to scare you or anything. Really. Everything-- I think it'll be okay."

Edited 2011-03-30 02:46 (UTC)

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