Welcome to Gaia! ::

As the door slammed open, Aneira let out an alarmed squeak, so high pitched it was hardly more than a strained gasp. She pulled her feet up onto the couch, an easy thing for the small woman, and sat curled there as she watched the dark haired woman with wide eyes. She shrank back as the woman ghosted by, but when Aneira caught sight of her expression, she became oddly curious. When they went into Amelia’s former room, the ginger woman leaned forward to see what was happening, only to jerk back in shock when a few moments later Ceath came reeling back out and landed on the floor with a crash.

Aneira turned to Skye with an irritated expression. “Can you please leave it alone, for a moment at least?” she asked in a small voice, straining to be polite. A part of her was terrified of Skye, but her irritation with the man was reaching a point where she was torn between her fear and wanting to tell him off. “Julian will be back when he’s ready, I’m sure.” If ever, she thought as she left the couch.

She kneeled down next to Ceath and touched his jaw lightly where a red mark had already formed and, because it was Amelia, a bruise was sure to form soon. Her fingers brushed it lightly and her brow furrowed as she looked at him with concerned green eyes.

"Um, that sounds great," he said, shifting his attention back towards his nominal new home. "Yeah, I'm sure I'll see you around."

xx

"Sounds excellent, you mean!" Karl grinned back at Kai, clomping along gamely with the child attached to his leg. "Gotta love Faron's cooking. Well, really, any cooking that isn't mine." He made a face. Glancing down at his passenger, he made a half-baked effort to get her off. "Well let's go look then. I can't move with you clinging to me."

xx

Julian froze in the doorway, having pushed it open further with the edges of the boxes. He struggled to keep hold of them in face of the pandemonium in the living room, and, seeing Amelia in the way of his putting the boxes anywhere near where they where supposed to go, he remained frozen. Above all, he tried very hard not to even glance in Skye's direction.

Julian physically took a step back from the anger and pain in Amelia's face. She vanished into the other bedroom, and he was left wondering what on earth was going on. She'd seemed perfectly friendly (or at least more sane) than most of the people he'd met so far. Apparently he'd been wrong. (the blood from her footprints was still pooling on the floor). She hadn't even flinched or limped a little. He was torn between sympathy and discomfort.

The conversation that followed, while Ceath was half-conscious and Aneira was fluttering around without really doing anything useful (like getting an icepack) was one Julian abhorred. Skye had already entrenched himself in the student's head as a thoroughly unsavory character, and the newest member of the conversation was hardly any better. Julian scowled back at Kindle, wondering if he was supposed to be intimidated by the man's unutterable good looks. Sure, his sudden appearance and casual arrogance made Julian's heart beat a little irregularly, but this was completely uncalled for. "I certainly am something." He snapped, still holding his boxes. "And if you don't mind, I am also someone." Stepping further into the apartment, he deposited the boxes next to a wall and went to check for ice cube trays in the freezer. Pretending to ignore everyone else in the place, he busied himself putting the frozen cubes into a plastic bag (once he'd found one) and wrapping the bag in a dish towel.

Kindle’s grin couldn’t help but widen as the man he addressed became rather defensive. It didn’t take the dark haired man long to ruffle the newcomer’s feathers. With a strange eagerness Kindle stepped in time with Julian to the kitchen, watching him with mild interest. If the twenty-six year old could have found an interesting point about the younger man he would have surely applauded such a feat (for everyone needed applause now and again), but he had yet to see anything worthy of praise. Kindle was fully aware that this was exactly what drew him to Julian—the lack of apparent extraordinary.

Choosing to simply silently observe the man turned to the refrigerator and pulled a clear box from the top of it. “If you’re ever in need a first aid kit,” he started off in his usual bored but sultry tone and emphatically shook the kit, as if Julian was dim witted. “They keep it one on top of the fridge, the other is located under the sink in the bathroom.” He looked at Julian with a forced smile. “I do wish that Ceatherine would have told me of you moving in though, I would’ve made arrangements for Amelia.” The last name that left his lips made the cruel man’s expression soften, if only for a moment.

Skye was at a sudden loss unbeknown to him—his dark skinned prince had not bothered to even graze Skye’s smooth golden skin. He had even waxed and shaved for the occasion but Julian’s blatant ignoring of the Asian man was embarrassing. He had the right mind to abuse the poor man that dared to defy his fine pointed stiletto demands. But he kept his temper under his best control, managing only to snap the feather duster his chubby hands were previously fiddling with in half. Of course it wasn’t Julian’s fault, Skye eventually came to realize, but it was Amelia and Ceath who had caused the issue. If they hadn’t caused such a ruckus his prince would not have been caught in a daze and would have certainty found himself in Skye’s lap.

Ceatherine, the poor confused young man who had no idea of what he did wrong, only looked at the bedroom door Amelia had slipped into. He looked back at Aneira with the same reassuring smile he had put on moments before. He knew he needed to seem as fine as he could, but also wasn’t completely sure he could change his facial expression without making his jaw throb in a more violent manner. “It’s okay.” He strained himself to say, grimacing suddenly and moving his hand to his jaw to hold it for comfort.

Already on edge from Skye's attentions, Julian did not take calmly to Aneira's comment. He'd been steadily growing more still as Kindle spoke, apparent emotion draining away, to be replaced by an icy glare.
"You can take it then," he said sharply, half-dropping the cold bundle onto the first-aid kit she was holding.
"Apparently too few people heard about my moving in," he continued, trying to find something to occupy his hands and failing. It was stay in the kitchen or go back into the living room, and since that involved going past Kindle Julian elected to stay where he was. "All I knew was Ceath didn't mind I didn't have a job yet."

Aneira blinked and a quiet "oh" escaped her pink lips as much of the confidence drained out of her at Kindle's words. The ice remained in her hand, turning the pale skin pink as the cold burned. She ignored it for the moment, watching as Kindle left. She frowned, cheeks flushing. His words toward Ceath were unnecessary (she wasn't worried about Skye for the moment, though she knew she'd be hearing about it later in the apartment) and she rushed over to the ginger man.

"Here," she said, green eyes dancing over his face as she tried to discern how much pain he was in. She knelt down and held the ice to his jaw. "I'll go get Daela, unless, should I take you right to the hospital?" she asked, growing more and more worried. She hated to admit that Kindle was right, but she knew how helpless she was in most situations. At least she could drive alright.

Aneira adjusted her soft black t-shirt as she looked in the mirror. She leaned in close and wiped away a smudge of mascara or eyeliner (she wasn’t sure which) that darkened the pale skin under her eye. Then she turned to the side, running a hand over her hair, pulled into a tight bun on top of her head. Good, she decided. She glanced at the clock and muttered a curse as she darted from the bathroom. “s**t.” She grabbed her black apron from the back of the couch on her way out. The door shut with a bang behind her and she cringed as the sound followed her down the hallway. Her shift at the bar started at ten, which was now.

She ran down the stairs, narrowly avoiding falling on her face as her foot missed the last stair, landing with a thump on the floor and causing her heart to skip a beat. She looked at the small silver watch she wore on her wrist, the delicate chain glistening in the dim lighting. “Thank god,” she said quietly. She’d gotten down there in less than a minute, and wasn’t technically late. Yet.

She wrapped the apron around her waist as she approached the bar, looping the ties around twice so that they wouldn’t hang too far down her legs. She preferred to keep the ends short, having learned fast that sometimes the drunker customers liked to grab them. “Hey,” she greeted Ceath and Julian, only slightly breathless from the rush. She ran her hand over her hair again, smoothing down any fly-aways that had sprung up. “How’s it been tonight?"