Welcome to Gaia! ::

Her room wasn’t hard to find, it was of course, just down the hall. Besides its easy location, however, it had been a place that Shiloh had known well, had spent most of his time in before they both got busy, before the Island dug its claws into them both. He was the sort of type to hold those thoughts back, to keep them to himself for fear of burdening anyone because his problems were his own to bear, after all. Even Ian didn’t know the extent of what he’d endured, didn’t know details that might implicate him in anyway. Maebe didn’t either, and Shiloh had no intentions of changing that, but he missed her.

He missed his best friend.

So he made his way down the hall, sort of inwardly sheepish but outwardly just the same, smile on his face and cheery, his knuckles rapping on her door in with a friendly tap-tap-tap.

“Knock, knock,” he sang out in a terrible impression of any sort of singing voice, knocking again just to be obnoxious.

Maebe was always like that, pretending she didn't care, that she wasn't interested. His eyes drifted over her, from her chiding expression to the hand on her hip and he grinned, following her through the door like an obedient puppy. Shiloh, of course, knew nothing of actual obedience, but he knew his friend and he knew she was as happy to see him as he was to see her - he'd have had the door slammed in his face otherwise.

She walked away but didn't get far before his arms were draped around her, wrapping her up in a bear hug from behind, squeezing her a little too tight. He'd missed her.

"Do I count as a gift?"

“Maebe,” he whined, shaking his head. “Leave it to you to twist it into something like – Oh!”

The loose hug he’d hoped for, and even kind of expected. They were best friends after all; she could at least afford him that. But she’d turned around and hugged him even harder, a hug that was so tight it made it sort of hard to breathe but he didn’t mind because it said all the things she wanted to say and didn’t, it said everything that needed to be said without having to say it at all.

He understood, and he took a moment for himself, hugging her even closer to him. They stood there for a moment, not saying anything at all and it was better that way, as he breathed in the smell of her shampoo, her perfume, the smell of Maebe, of his best friend, of someone he’d missed deeply.

Then he gave her a squeeze, smiling, and one more just for good measure before letting her go, and making a monopoly of her bed as he flopped down onto it.

“You’re cute, but no way are you unwrapping me. And don’t you dare tell Ian that you did anyway, brat.”

Oblivious, Shiloh whined, flailing beneath her.

"Maebe, Maebe, help me, I can't breeeeeeeathe!" he gasped, feigning playing dead. One look at him though, and the obnoxious way he was trying to hide his smile, completely ruined his ruse. That, coupled with his inability to shut his mouth, made him give up on the tactic pretty quickly. He poked at her arm.

"What are you, a starfish?"