Welcome to Gaia! ::

Life was not, exactly, getting back to normal.

The dusk of summer had brought with it a conclusion to Destiny City's coma endemic. Time pressed forwards, as it always did, and dragged the hapless citizens of the freshly bustling metropolis along with it. Adults went back to work. A new school year had started, and Vanessa was (at the stubborn insistence of her father, much to her embarrassment and frustration) repeating her senior year at Meadowview High. Vanessa continued to live at home with her father and her brother, as well as Auntie Marianne, who was a new and temporary addition to their little family, and did typical teenager things in typical places with typical people.

Vanessa did her homework. Vanessa did not have to remind John Jr to brush his teeth after supper. Vanessa went to bed at a decent hour, without fighting crime or hunting bad guys.

This was not normal.

She grieved quietly everyday for Super Van, who Mr. Rae had taken away from her, and for the freedom that she had lost. Mr. Rae said that this was how life would be for them until he could trust her again. Sometimes, Vanessa thought about moving out.

Mostly, she thought about setting a better example for John Jr.

It was on her way home from the library on an early October evening, toting a bag full of heavy books that she had never heard of before, that Vanessa stumbled upon a boy in a back-alley.

He was scrawling very naughty words on a wall with a can of vibrantly coloured spray paint. She was at once intrigued, and irritated.

"That's not very nice, you know." Vanessa informed him. Her voice was very cool.

Vanessa stared dumbly back at the boy with the spray cans. There was no telling, really, what she'd expected. If you were to judge from the vaguely startled, fish-out-of-water expression on her face, it was very obvious that this was not it. For a moment, all Vanessa could think was that a rug would be a stupid thing to put in an alley.

It would be impossible to keep clean.

After a couple of irritable heartbeats Vanessa came back to herself, and stepped closer. She approached Nate at a leisurely pace, with her hands carefully clutching the straps of her backpack.

"That's somebody's property," she insisted loudly, perturbed by this stranger's open disregard for his fellow man and his unfortunate choice of words. Vanessa was, admittedly, a little bit fascinated by the things that he was doing-- but she was the sort of person who vandalized her own things, and never anybody else's.

She wrote on her arms all the time In History class!

This was not exactly the same thing, but it still sort of counted.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to stop," Vanessa sighed, because somebody had to. She held out her hands expectantly for those spray cans.

All things considered, Vanessa should not have been surprised. She'd stumbled upon this hoodlum vandalizing somebody else's property. As far as she could tell, Nate wasn't a youma or a bad guy. Nate was just a stupid kid who didn't have much respect. It was silly to presume that he'd stop simply because she'd asked him to, but presume she had, and surprised she was.

The paint felt cool and wet against her hand. Vanessa's jaw dropped and, golden eyes flickering with anger, she gaped at him. She recognized his posture as a challenge, and straightened accordingly where she stood. Vanessa was on the tall side, but she was so skinny and gangly that it was difficult for her to look intimidating. This did not stop her from trying.

"Give me those!" She snapped at him, and reached for the cans that he wielded. Her hands flashed, the metal of her watch glinting in the dull light of the street beyond the alley, and fingers attempted to coil around his wrist.

Vanessa couldn't abide being teased or taunted, and confusion proved only to further feed her frustration and anger. If Nate happened to be on the lookout for something to play with, he'd certainly found it in her.

Of course she was asking for it. This was what Vanessa did best.

He was laughing at her. Vanessa made a soft, affronted noise in the back of her throat. It sounded somewhere halfway between a disapproving scoff and an irritated gasp. This boy was as awful and insufferable as Steven, who she hadn't seen in a very long time, but that wasn't the point. Vanessa remembered Steven just fine. This strange boy with his patronizing grin and naughty spray cans was barking up a short tree on his way to getting on her nerves.

"Why do you care about them getting messy?" Vanessa demanded to know with a roll of her eyes that suggested this was the stupidest thing she'd ever heard, "They're just cans of paint- Hey! You did that on purpose!"

The glare she turned on Nate was accusing, and Vanessa's jaw was set in a firm, defiant line as she regarded him hotly. Her hand, and the sleeve of her sweater, were stained a vivid blue.

"Didn't your parents ever teach you that it's rude to paint swear words on back alleys?"

Vanessa's counter was delivered with a swipe of her forearm across his chest. This was not a strike as much as it was a rub. She used the paint on her arm and her hand to get her revenge on his clothing.

"Take that!"

Outraged. Vanessa was outraged.

She gasped, jaw nearly dropping to the ground in shock at his daring, and glared daggers at Nate's smug face where she stood. The paint was wet. The paint was cold. This was one of her favourite sweaters, and now she'd have to walk home with a pair of embarrassing targets on her chest. How was she going to explain these markings to her Aunt?

Vanessa's face flamed red with the ferocity of her temper. It was fuelled by Nate's laughter, and by Nate's disregard, and Nate's stupid spray paint.

"That's IT!"

There was no pause, no inclination to count to ten. There was just a mighty battle cry, rent from the depths of her furious chest, and then Vanessa had launched herself at Nate.

She tackled him around the middle, attempted to drag him to the ground so that she could pay him back properly and growled a promise under her breath;

"You're gonna get it."

There was no way Nathan was laughing at her now. No way.

But he was. It was so loud and so uproarious that he had to gasp for air. Vanessa couldn't believe her ears. They turned bright red with the heat of both humiliation and anger. She swore under her breath, struggled with Nathan, and was clearly not having fun with this.

It was difficult to reap any joy out of losing. And she was losing.

"Don't talk about my boobs!" Vanessa inhaled sharply, a little bit scandalized, and wriggled underneath him with unbridled contempt. "Get -ugh!- off of me!"

He was not very heavy, but big enough that she was experiencing some trouble escaping. Vanessa grumbled hotly, and reached with her free hand for the paint can that she'd seen fall. It was right there-- only a fingertip away. With her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth and a little groan, Vanessa managed to stretch enough to get a good hold on the can.

A triumphant grin exploded onto her face.

Excepting the golden sundress she'd worn to Jada's debut, there wasn't a single article of clothing in Vanessa's closet that wasn't somehow torn or patched or stained. As a little girl, she'd always come home from school with something stuck in her hair, or between her fingers, or on her face. But never like this.

Cars had headlights. Girls weren't supposed to.

"I am not a wuss!" Vanessa, offended, growled at Nate and scrambled to her feet when he hopped away from her. There were traces of an embarrassed flush on her cheeks, and the fingers that clutched the spray can were white with tension. She glowered at him and gave it several menacing shakes.

This was a showdown. Clint Eastwood Style. Vanessa wished, suddenly fiercely, for a cowboy hat.

She gave Nate a pointed look and said, "hand over the can and nobody gets hurt."

Despite Nathan-

Despite what he'd done to her clothes-

Despite herself-

Vanessa couldn't help but like this loud-mouthed boy. She did not approve of the things that he'd been writing on the wall, but admired the nerve it'd taken to do such a thing. She did not appreciate the way that he'd ruined her clothes, but thrilled to the call of battle. Any animosity she felt for Nathan, if she rule felt any at all, was coupled with a heady sense of joy.

Because she was having fun too.

"It doesn't need to be," Vanessa quipped, spray can at the ready, and watched Nathan through golden eyes that twinkled with excitement, "because I'm gonna make sure- Hey!"

She gasped when his hand jerked up, jaw dropping open, and took aim with her spray can. Vanessa squeezed her eyes shut and leaned away from the cool attack of his cloud, and flailed blindly with her own-- sprayed in the direction that she remembered him to be.

And was promptly covered in blue.