[PRP] Have Your Cake and Eat It (Harvard, Caroline, Stormy)

[The Semblance of Unity]

After much finagling (a lot on the part of Caroline as well), Harvard though he had cobbled together something suitable, more or less. A slice of strawberry shortcake lifted from some half-shaved kid in the cafeteria. He'd just given it over without asking anything in exchange when told what it was for. Harvard thought he might be the type to be easily taken advantage of and marked that down mentally, in case he ever decided to start playing games with tall boys who had far too many piercings. But the cake was acquired, and deposited into an airtight box - one of the Life lab's sample boxes, but Stormy didn't need to know that.

For the balloons, he'd enlisted his favorite partner-in-crime, and she had delivered. All that was left was to effectively ding dong ditch the makeshift birthday supplies.

"I think it should work best if you tie the balloons to her doorknob, Caroline. Would you do the honors?" It was quite silly, but still.  

[Nothing Yet]

Knowing the best routes and connections to ensure that her 'babies' had everything they needed was Caroline's first priority after she'd settled herself here. That generally meant looking out for the kids from the university, but her desire to be protective wasn't all that exclusive. In Stormy's case, she'd been watching her words and cautiously considering if she could tuck her under her wing with the rest of them, so to speak - but when Harvard enlisted her help for this cause, there was no hesitation in using resources reserved for them.

Most of the balloon bouquet was comprised of white and silver (a festive 'Happy New Year!' here and there), with only a smattering of bright solid colors. They were tied together with glittering red ribbon, remnants from Christmas; a star-shaped silver charm dangled from the ends of it.

"Yes sir, of course," she playfully saluted, grin wide. "Only right that we do our best."

With much more concentration than the task really needed, she looped the ribbons around the doorknob and tied it in a bow, so it could be untied easily enough. Once finished, she looked to him with eyes full of excitement, impatient for the next step of the plan.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

He grinned at her, somehow caught up in the sheer childishness of the project and her saluting and everything. Harvard quelled his face into something more serious, even if humor still glinted around his eyes. "Quite right. Never do anything by half measures." The bow she tied took time, more effort than needed, but he liked this silly side of her. Stormy deserved something a little nice, he thought, and Caroline with her over-abundance of care had been the perfect person to enlist. She already checked in with the university students (he did, too, albeit in more quiet, unnoticed way), and adding another to the list wouldn't be so bad.

"Well done," he said, and reached forward to tangle their fingers together. "Sadly, the next part is not viewable. Let's go and I'll let Stormy know something is waiting." He taped out a sentence or two on his phone and then pocketed it. Harvard let go of Caroline's hand and leaned forward to whisper into her ear before taking off.

"Race you."

nothing yet

medigel

stormy got things yay

 

[medigel]

Maybe it was a little sad to be surprised someone other than Otto or Lex wished her well on Twitter, (it wasn't an underlying accusation--she knew Gale and Evan and Tuck didn't often go there for sure, so it had lowered her expectations as far as being more than a passerby comment in whatever chaos that might grip the intranet that afternoon) but, well, there it was: a little Leap Day surprise. Funny how a few words could brighten someone's day so much, even for someone like her. Her shift at the library seemed to last only an hour before she realized it was time to sign out.

That was one of the silver linings from the lab destruction, if one could call it that: one always kept busy trying to reorganize everything salvaged from the wreckage. It made it a little easier to ignore the lingering dread of what she'd tell Ami when the woman got back. As such, she wasn't in her room when Harvard's latest DMs came in, but rather was on her way back.

Instead of answering right away, Stormy switched to stealth mode and quietly made her way up the stairs, pausing only to silence her phone in case he tried to DM her again. Couldn't have it give her away.

Slowly inching the stairwell door open, Stormy took a peek down the hall. While her place wasn't particularly close, it was easy to see the colorful balloons that made the couple in front of her door stand out amongst those mingling in the hall. Grinning. Ribbons. A box.

A not so little Leap Day surprise.

She closed the door just as quietly and then took to leaning against the cool wall, since that seemed the best way to deal with the sudden and sharp heat in her chest. Don't cry. Don't cry. Don't let anyone need to use these stairs anytime soon. Her hands flexed in and out of small fists before she reached for her phone.

The Semblance of Unity

DM to Harvard: What's in the box?

Nothing Yet

bless u both omg <3

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

He felt his phone vibrate, but it took him a few moments to reply. Careening around a turn, Harvard stopped, slipping the phone out of his pocket. If Caroline won the race, well, that meant she got a prize. If he won, he'd have gotten a prize - really, it was a win/win situation. He shook his head at Stormy's dm.

"So suspicious." A second or later, he was back to running, having sent her a reply.

medigel

DM to Stormy: If I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise anymore.

 

[medigel]

Thump thump thump. she could hear them and realized at least one might come her way if she didn't act fast.

The Semblance of Unity

DM to Harvard: Please come back. Both of you

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Caroline," he called out, reaching to snag her as she came along. "She wants us to come back." His arm slid comfortably around her waist, the other hand holding up the phone so she could see. It was probably for the best that Caroline had never gone through his phone before - Harvard had never deleted his dms to Mimsy. He made a note to do that later.

His gaze slanted over to Caroline. "What do you want to do?"

nothing yet

 

[Nothing Yet]

This was a pretty weird way to race, she thought, upon being captured. She wasn't going to argue against trying something different anyway, and readily shifted her focus to lean into him with an easy contentment as his arm wrapped around her.

"Ooh, did you get us in trouble?" she teased, before glancing at the message he'd tilted towards her. A hint of concern crossed briefly into her eyes as she read, quickly chased off again.

"Well. Not gonna say to ignore her on her birthday, that's for sure." No, that would be terrible to do. She straightened up again, slyly sneaking in a butt pinch along the way that she left unacknowledged. The subsequent little nudge of her hip was a bit more blatant. "C'mon. She said both. We can pick up later where we left off."

The Semblance of Unity

medigel

 

[medigel]

The door, the box, the balloons--all was still as they had left it. In the stairwell, Stormy struggled to steady her breathing and wiped at her eyes with a long sleeve. No more thump thump thumps at least. Just the ones from within her rib cage.

The question was what now? Have them stand awkwardly at her door when she wasn't even there? Approach them? Both seemed too much in their own way. Damn it...

(She remembered why she kept her socializing to small moments now. Easier to digest that way, less time to worry about all these details and wonder why she was begin stupid about them.)

The Semblance of Unity

DM to Harvard: Please share with your partner
DM to Harvard: Why did you run?

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Always." He wrinkled his nose at her wandering fingers. Tapping the phone against his chin thoughtfully as he walked, he paused as two more messages came through. "Caroline," he said once more. "She wants us to share her gift." Harvard frowned. He tapped away at his phone where she could see.

Quote:

DM to Stormy: It is a gift for you.

He paused. "What an odd reaction." How had she known they ran? If she saw them, why didn't she call out? He began to type another dm and stopped, backspacing it. So much texting over a silly thing was annoying. Thank goodness for records, Harvard thought. With a huff, he dialed Stormy's number and waited for her to answer.

"I'm going to call her and see what is going on," he said to Caroline, snaking an arm around her waist as he lifted the phone to his ear. He supposed he could have knocked on her door, but if she was using the phone instead of coming outside to them, he wasn't going to force her out.

nothing yet

medigel

 

[medigel]

When the phone began to ring, she muffled the sound and allowed it to go on. If Harvard was going to insist on this, she might as well get out of hiding...

Taking a deep breath, Stormy pocketed her phone and exited the stairwell. Her hands were folded before her, her short, curly bubblegum hair bouncing with each step. She might have been walking to someone's office to be admonished with the way she carried herself.

"Please wait," she said as she approached, her gaze directed somewhere near their knees. When she was close enough to hold polite conversation, she stopped. "D'you want to come inside?"

The Semblance of Unity

Nothing Yet

sorry for all these extra posts I want Caroline to have something to react to!

 

[Nothing Yet]

Asking them to come back was a reasonable reaction in Caroline's eyes, but everything that followed just made her increasingly confused. Harvard didn't seem to be especially worried, at least, which kept her mind from straying too far in that direction. Pulled close to him again, she propped her chin up on his shoulder and patiently waited for an answer, staring at nothing in particular with a light look of contentment.

She expected that answer to come from the phone or the door, so when neither happened and the girl appeared in an entirely different place, it almost startled her. But the resulting wide-eyed reflex of an expression didn't last for long; when she fully grasped who she was looking at, she took on the appearance of someone who had just seen something devastatingly precious (largely because she had).

"God, she's adorable. Why's she look like she's in trouble, though?" She fell silent and moved to watch her, reaching to hold loosely onto his arm as she lifted her head, trading one point of contact for another. Once Stormy was near enough to hear them, she chose not to ask her directly in favor of providing some reassurance. It seemed like she needed it.

"Hey, it's all right. We won't run off again." Then she smiled, big and cheerful, because she just couldn't help it any more. "So, happy birthday! Wanted to surprise you, not intrude, so there's no obligations. Only what you want to do."

She glanced briefly at Harvard, a bit unsure about responding in a way that answered for him too. As minor as this one was, it felt different when someone else was involved.

The Semblance of Unity

medigel

shhh I'm happy to rp with you (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Ah, sneaky," he murmured as Stormy emerged. From her comments about listening to people, he shouldn't have been surprised. Stormy seemed very much a watch and wait sort of girl - the kind who would be in 'the room where it happened', so to speak, but no one would notice. Not even with the pink hair. She was probably dangerous in her own right, he mused, and kind of lonely.

Harvard squeezed Caroline's hand. She was so excited to find a new girl, maybe someone to add to the university babies Caroline kept up with. Her enthusiasm over this girl she didn't even know was infectious. What to say... There was girl in Delta, Harvard remembered, who had needed 24 hours notice of plans or she broke down entirely. Not on the outside, not where most people could see, but anxiety ate her up from the inside, slowed her. He wondered if Stormy was similar - the snippets of conversation they had online suggested something was wrong, but they had only been snippets. He could be misreading.

"You're a little less Disney castle in person, Stormy. I'm impressed." The pink hair was still pretty Disney though, if he was being honest, but it wasn't an actual person-sized castle rolling towards them. "I'm Harvard or Dr. Falls - as you please, this is Caroline." It was rare that he gave people the option, most only got 'Dr. Falls' or professor.

"Sometimes a surprise is better if its's not full of unexpected people. You are not obligated to do anything but enjoy your birthday." He smiled. "Happy birthday, leap year girl."

medigel

nothing yet

 

[medigel]

Caroline...Delta too, she remembered. Probably a mission she should have gone on, given the recruits that had come out of it. Close to Harvard, given the hands. Together? The way they smiled at her was almost parental at any rate--another uncomfortable, longing thing twisted in her chest. You need to be smiling too. Maybe making them come back had been a mistake after all, but it was too late for that.

Stormy didn't know what to say to the compliment--at least castles were sturdy, which she couldn't say she was anymore--but she nodded all the same. "Thank you both." A smile was still too much to give; honestly she was afraid of just bursting into tears in front of these poor, generous people, and adding onto what was probably a terrible first impression.

She scratched at her long sleeve idly, batting away the moth under her skin without conscious thought.

"I'd...like to share the cake with you, if that's okay," she continued, her pause the result of looking again at the ribbon and balloons tied to the door knob. Juxtaposed was the large gash in her door, which brought up another layer of unpleasant feelings. Focus on the placard instead. 221B Baker Street. An inside joke between her and Gale taped to the door as well. So many memories were trapped on just this one object, and now more would join it in a confusing tapestry of association.

Thane waspishly rattled about how easily she was distracted.

"Um." Stormy looked for her keys and eventually unlocked the door, after which she picked up the box. "If you didn't need to be anywhere, I mean." Still avoiding direct eye contact with either of them.

But at least even a troubled soul knew how to keep her place clean. (It was one of the few things that really motivated her.) The inside of the apartment was larger than others on the same floor, because she and Gale had chosen side by side rooms and knocked the wall out between them, effectively creating a small one-story home. The usual amenities were around: a couch, a kitchen with a stove and fridge, a coffee table with a pack of cigarettes, a tv, a station for one of their iPods to sit if they wanted music, and so on. The only out of place thing was a chair dragged towards the window with a towel draped over it.

Nothing Yet

emotion_kirakira emotion_kirakira emotion_kirakira

The Semblance of Unity

emotion_kirakira for u too

 

[Nothing Yet]

A little wave was given alongside Harvard's introduction, a playful wiggle of her fingers. Through everything they said, the girl in front of them still looked like she was waiting to be scolded, and Caroline still didn't understand. She didn't need to know, but if it could give her a context that would tell her how to help, she wanted to make sense of it.

That was the reasonable portion, at least - the rest of her wanted to scoop her up into a hug, but she was not entirely certain that Stormy wouldn't somehow break or implode or meet some other irreparable ending if she startled her or held her too tightly.

"Of course it's okay! And it'd be okay for you to ask even if it wasn't your birthday." It seemed important to specify now, in case she had somehow overheard her earlier comments and reasoning. It wasn't impossible, considering how cleverly she'd hidden.

With her attention on Stormy, she missed most of the details of their surroundings (excepting '221B', which stuck itself in her mind with the rest of her numbers and refused to divulge why it was familiar). She followed their hesitant host into the room, still holding gently onto Harvard's hand, only tensing her fingers in the brief moment that her movement almost pulled them apart.

Just inside the door, however, she stopped with a quiet 'oh'.

"This--ah, this is wonderful," she nearly purred. It had been so long since she'd lived in a room this size, and she had not expected to see anything like it on this island. "You've made it so nice in here, too. Glad you're in a place like this. Really glad."

medigel

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*her

The Semblance of Unity