Welcome to Gaia! ::

I - Introduction

"Gabriel."

The metal gate slid gratingly in a horizontal fashion just far enough for a person to enter. If said person entered sideways and sucked in his chest. Gabriel gave the meager width a flat stare. Another way for the house to showcase its warmth and welcome.

After a few tense seconds, the gate slid another few grudging inches open and Gabriel just managed not to glare at the guilty looking man huddled in his booth as he walked by. No doubt he was just following orders. Bella's, to be exact, although he wouldn't put it past his father to give such demeaning commands as well.

Scraping the bottom of the barrel a bit, isn't it? The darlings.

Most of the household staff conveniently made themselves into wallpaper as he strode through the corridors and up the stairs. Gabriel quietly contemplated the possible outcomes of this time's reunion. His last visit had been a not-quite disaster, and feelings might still run sour, if the little incident at the gate was any indication. The youth's lips thinned slightly, his only outward change in expression. He took the last few steps to a door and knocked once, entering without waiting for a reply.

Green eyes met green eyes, and Gabriel very nearly instinctively turned around to leave again before he realized the girl was smiling. He breathed a sigh of relief.

"Sorry."

"Again, Gabe?" Laila stood up from where she had been sitting on the bed and went over to embrace him. "And you call yourself my brother. Twit."

"Hello Gabe, I've missed you, how did you manage to grow even more dashing in the last few days?" Gabriel prompted in reply, and was rewarded by her muffled giggle in her ear. He released her reluctantly as she stepped back.

Bella and Laila, the almost twins, even though separated by nearly six years, were vastly different when it came to their personalities. For that, Gabriel was devoutly grateful. He had never told Laila how, as a child, he had fantasized smothering her when she was an infant, just so there wouldn't be a second Bella to torment him. Those feelings had intensified as she grew to look more and more like her eldest sibling before he came to understand that she, unlike Bella, would not consider her life fulfilled until Gabriel would not taint her presence with his mere existence.

"I have something for you," Laila whispered as she went to rummage in her wardrobe for something. Gabriel smiled easily and dropped himself onto a chair by his sister's study table. "It's not my birthday yet."

"I know. Twit."

"Why do you insist on calling me that?"

"Do you know of anyone else I could call a twit? No."

"So I should be gratified then?" Gabriel propped his chin on an elbow he draped over the chair's back rest and studied her as she straightened up with a package in her arms.

"Yes, you should." She thrust the parcel at him. "Here, take it. I'm glad you're finally here, I need that wardrobe space."

"You could toss out Bella's stuff," he suggested lightly, and subsided when Laila tossed him a dirty look. He inspected the package instead, and frowned in confusion. "Laila, I think you've handed me your old doll's collection by mistake."

He could see the hot retort hovering about her lips, ready to be seasoned by her new nickname for him, and he hastily tilted all the stuff out onto the table for closer scrutiny.

"Careful, I think the egg's fragile."

Gabriel made a non-committal sound in reply as he fingered through the bewildering array of.... dolls' wigs, some dyes and a manual. Plus the egg the size of an ostrich's in which a small figurine could be seen floating. "Descending angels?"

Laila nodded, scanning his face for some small sign of... anything. Gabriel carefully held his features neutral. "It's this shop which just opened down town. The angels-" she lifted the egg carefully- "are supposed to be able to move and actually fight! You could dress them and customize their looks and everything, so the shop lady says."

"Lovely." Gabriel's voice was flat. Laila faltered. "You don't like it," she accused, sounding hurt. Gabriel's inner voice gave a low-pitched moan and admitted defeat without so much as a whimper. "No, no, I didn't mean that. It's just... isn't this a ... girl's thing?"

"You use it to battle, Gabe." His sister took on the tone one used to explain matters to a toddler. "Which part of that strikes you as girlish?" Gabriel gingerly picked up a random wig and shook it in her face. "Alright, so the dressing part may be a little hard for someone as mentally retarded as you-" Excuse me?! "-but the rest is alright, really. Really."

"If all this is so fun," Gabriel already sounded resigned, which his sister took as a good thing. "why don't you play it?"

"I will, I will, just not right now. School's hectic, and Bella would freak."

"Would she? I find myself spectacularly unsurprised."

Laila smiled. "Just give it a try, go on." Then she glanced on the clock on the wall. "Bella will be back soon."

Gabriel shoved everything unceremoniously back into it's packaging, the egg following with a little more care. "Time for me to leave, then." Laila curled her legs beneath her on the bed. "Aren't you going to go see mother?"

"Maybe next time," he replied evasively.

"Elder sister trumps mother?"

"No, more like demonspawn trumps mother. Thank you. I love you. Goodbye."

Laila's forlorn 'Goodbye' followed him as he left.

III - Entry phrase

Now this is truly the outrage of the year...

He eyed the doll sitting on his desk, propped against pencil-holder. She -there you go, thinking of IT in a person perspective again- was wrapped in a dark red handkerchief knotted in the front, which served as a temporary form of clothing. Gabriel would have been fine to leave the angel as it was, really, but for the little note attached to the handkerchief which he had found at the bottom of the package. It had been overlooked then, since the fabric had somehow clung to the package when he had upturned it onto his table yesterday.

The handkerchief must have been one of Laila's. As for the note...

'Don't even think of leaving it naked on your table. I know you and your perverted thoughts. It will not be genetically and physically possible anyway. Use the hanky.

Love, Laila.'

Gabriel had choked, and decided that Laila was in dire need of a good talking-to. She was an impressionable young lady, and as such, she must have been picking up ideas from children-corruptors at school. When she had answered his phone call and heard his rebuke, however... well, some of the things she had said in reply did not bear repeating. Suffice to say, it had been a hair-raising ordeal for Gabriel, to hear such words coming from Laila -his small darling baby sister!

But back to the task at hand. Gabriel got up and gave the manual its promised and much deserved severe damage, mainly by placing it in the shredder, page by page.

Entry phrase, indeed.

Somewhere at the back of his mind, he could vaguely picture Laila laughing in an alarmingly hysterical manner. Perhaps with even a 'mwa' in it. Migraine. Ow.

He could also somehow picture her vigorously applying something hard and heavy to his head if he refused to come up with an entry phrase. Sweet, mild tempered Laila? Impossible. Oh wait, of course he could picture that. Bella did it to him at the charming age of ten.

Gabriel scowled.



"Lyla, go..."

Bite off Bella's head and spit it down the neighbor's drain. And while you're at it, try defeating your opponent as well.

Gabriel folded his arms together and buried half his face in them. He regarded the angel morosely. Telling Laila -LYLA- to do anything remotely violent was beyond him. Maybe he should have named the angel Bella, capable of doing all sorts of atrocious things to parts of other angels' anatomies that they didn't even realize they had. Except then Bella would have to be in his house, and he would have to face it everyday.

Urg.

"Darkness has descended, shine for me Lyla."

How... poetic.

Not to mention corny.

"Lyla, Lyla, do your thing."

Like putting me out of my misery.

"Watch her spin! Watch her twirl! Go Lyla!"

I'm so dead.

He shifted, propping his chin on his fists. Lyla.. make me worthy of you.

Gabriel cocked his head slightly. "Dream for me, Lyla." He smiled almost tremulously.

N.E.D. - I

Dear non-existent-diary buried in the deep recesses of my mind,

Today, I was approached by the same oddball I had -regrettably- rescued a few days ago. The reason for my petulant tone is that said oddball seemed, to all purposes, intent on driving me out of my precious sanity zone. On the day I magnanimously extricated him from the grasp of three uncouth idiots, he bribed Morag with muffins. I should have suspected something dark and suspicious then, but because of the innocent state of my mind and my view of the world, I did not.

This morning in the park, Ailein, the aforementioned eccentric species, invaded my treasured privacy, told me I was nice, gave me ice cream, then asked me to stop pretending to be nice to him because he was weird. Suffice to say, my brain had quietly shut down at that point. After I had pointed out that the circus holds a more interesting variety of specimens, Ailein calmed down enough to come to his pitifully limited senses. He mentioned being friends, to which I lost the capacity to reply in a coherent manner. Thankfully, he did not push the issue.

He also mentioned attending Gambino University as well. I doubt the truth of that particular statement. He seemed too young. I hope his sister, who sounds like a sensible young woman, will be able to take better care of her sibling and not let him wander freely to terrorize hapless citizens.

Yours truly,
Gabriel

Reserved for Ned.