Welcome to Gaia! ::

He read over the reply once. Twice. Then leaned back in his chair to mull it over. Getting out of the house for a night would be great....especially when compared to the notion of having to give Talon a wide berth all evening once he got home.

The problem was, he doubted his parents would go for it. How would he even explain it? "Hey mom and dad, I'm going to go spend the night at a girl's house I've only known for a week. By the way, she was the same one who you caught me asleep on the couch with. That's cool, right?"

His eye wandered from her IM window to his buddy list where, nestled among the handful of other names was one in particular. ONoItsKen was currently listed as Do Not Disturb with the small message "Can't talk. Raiding." as its explanation. After a moment of debate, he typed Nani a response.


Bluekirin: just a sec, let me check on something real quick...



He and Kendall didn't talk too frequently anymore since he and Raven had moved into their own place on the other side of Gaia, but they still touched base online now and then when Ken wasn't in the middle of his online games.

Opening a window, he fired him a message on the offchance he might actually see it.


Bluekirin: Whenever you've got time, can I ask you a favor?
Autoresponse from ONoItsKen: Can't talk. Raiding.
ONoItsKen: holy crap, you LIVE!!!! 8D We're between wipes. What do you need?
Bluekirin: I need to get out of here for a night. Dad's driving me up the damned wall.
ONoItsKen: Uhhh, its cool with me, but you'd need to talk to Ray. Only spare space we've got is the living room and that's her domain =P
Bluekirin: I've got a place to go already, I just don't think its somewhere I'd get away with going to if they knew about it. Could you cover for me?
ONoItsKen: Dude. We don't talk for weeks and then you want me to lie for you?


He flinched with guilt, having not thought of it that way and moved to apologize. Before he could, however, Kendall continued talking.


ONoItsKen: I'll IM you when we're done and we can talk about it then ok?
ONoItsKen is Away



Well, its was better than nothing....X'ing out the window, he returned to the one he had open with Nani.


Bluekirin: I'd love to, actually, but I just need to get my bases covered first. How are you feeling?

Bluekirin: I'm really, really sorry for that. You don't deserve to feel that way. But like I said, that's how he treats everybody. I don't think he hates you or anything...


He didn't know that for a fact...the truth was, it seemed like anymore his father hated -everything-. He couldn't recall a time he'd seen him smile to recent memory, in fact.


Bluekirin: Look, I wanna make it up to you if I can....I really do. What would make you feel better?

In spite of the mood he'd been in a few minutes prior, he felt himself smile, and heat rise in his cheeks at her reply. Surprise her, huh...?

The gears of his mind were already furiously turning, wondering what he could do that would make amends for this morning.

Bluekirin: I'll see what I can think of =)


His fingers lingered on the keyboard even as he sent the note, feeling like he had much more to say, and at the same time, didn't know what.


Bluekirin: I'm glad you want to see me again. Meeting you was the best thing that's happened to me in awhile.

Bluekirin: I'll see you tonight, Nani. Take care til then.
Autoresponse from Fairyimp: I am away from my computer right now.


Pushing back from the computer as well, he rose, stretched, and then fished his wallet out of his pocket to leaf through it and see what kind of budget he'd be working with. ....looked like whatever surprise he was going to come up with, it was going to have to be via his own devices, as he was suffering from a severe case of Teenage Brokeitis.

A shrill ringing of the phone on his nightstand interrupted his thinking as he snatched it up.

"H'lo?"

"I HATE my guild sometimes. Haaaaaaaate."

Zhane felt himself smirk. "Hi Ken."

"No, seriously, you have to hear this s**t. We're on our last try for the night before two of our healers have to go, we're doing really good, boss is down to five percent. Then the tank decides to just stand there and start DANCING. I ask him over vent what the hell he's doing and he says 'Giving the DPS time to catch up! Don't worry we've got this, dude!' .....except we clearly DIDN'T because everybody started dropping like flies all over the place."

".....I have no idea what any of that means, but I'm sorry."

"Yeah me too." he grumbled. "Anyway, so where are you going that you don't want to tell anybody about?"

Zhane shot a sideward glance at his door, as if affirming no one was peeking in on him before speaking. "A friend's place. Just for the night. I met this girl--"

"HA! And she's just a friend. Riiiiiight." Zhane felt his earfins flatten.

"Its not like that." he sighed. "I met her online, and then in person like less than a week ago. She's got a spare room, and I swear to god if I don't get out of here for awhile, I'm going to lose it."

There was a pause as it sounded like Kendall was shifting the phone from one ear to the other.

"Okay so....I can see why you wouldn't want me telling him you ran off to spend a night with some girl from the internet you just met. But what DO you want me to tell your dad?"

"I.....I dunno. Tell him I'm with you if he calls. And if he asks to talk to me, just say I'm out for a walk or something."

"Gotcha. And what do I tell him if you end up on the news chopped into little bits in a garbage bag someplace?"

"Worry about that if it happens." he groaned, eliciting a chuckle from the older boy.

"I'll cover you this time, but don't think this is gonna be a regular thing. Next time you wanna spend the night with some girl, man up and tell him that yourself. That, or give me her sister's number."

He rolled his eyes, nonetheless smiling. "Thanks, Ken. I owe you."

"Big time. See ya." And with that, the line went dead.

Looking briefly at the time, he pulled his overnight bag out from under his bed, unzipping it and rifling through the contents since the last time he'd used it to spend the night camping, tossing aside a half-full canteen and a baggie of trail mix he'd barely touched.

He had a lot to get done between then and that night.

Putting together the overnight bag hadn't been a problem. As Nani was supplying a room, he'd not needed to bring much save a change of clothes and his toothbrush, though he'd packed other things as well, such as his digital camera, still loaded with pictures from his outings, and a few CD's which contained the same.

He had not asked permission to go, so much as bid his farewell with a note taped to his monitor which read simply "At Kendall's. Be back tomorrow."

It was not until he was nearly out the door that it occurred to him he had no idea where he was going, such had been his haste to be gone before his dad got home.

Laying his bag by the door, he padded back to his room to fetch up the phone and, once again, hit redial in hopes that Nani now felt up to answering it.

"Hey Nani, its Zhane." he said, feeling the last cobwebs of his anger from earlier being dusted away by hearing her voice alone. "Hope you're not busy, I um....heh, I was on my way out and forgot to get directions."

Ordinarily it would have been cause for embarrassment, but as it was, with the day they'd had, he didn't think anyone could blame his thoughts for being a bit scattered.

He closed his eyes, pacing a bit in his bedroom as he muttered the directions as she said them, trying to emblazon them in his memory. "Right at the Reclamation Facility, then right down a gravel path. Okay, I can do that." he told her.

"Anything you'd like me to bring while I'm out?" he inquired, figuring it was polite to at least ask. He was going to be her guest, after all...

"Okay I'll talk to you--" he trailed off, his thought neatly cut off by her last words, even as her voice was gone with a click. He stood for a long moment listening to the dial tone....he didn't know -how- long until an annoyed-sounding tinny voice began to speak in its place telling him that if he'd like to make a call, he should hang up and try again.

Still dazed, he hung up the phone and returned it to its cradle in the kitchen to charge as he went back to collect his bag from where it waited for him by the front door. As he slung it over his shoulder, he paused with his hand on the doorknob, thinking things over one last time.

He'd never done anything like this before -- lying to his parents and slipping out to spend the night somewhere else. Then again, tension between himself and his dad had never been this bad before either. And clearly SOMETHING had to give....it may as well have been him.

Besides, it wasn't like he was running away or anything...

Quelling the last of his doubts, he let himself out into the crisp autumn afternoon.