Welcome to Gaia! ::

Ever since he presented his new schedule at Sovereign Heights to his family, Tristan suddenly found himself seated with a work schedule at the store that meant he was responsible for closing out the register and closing up the shop before he could head home. So his typical day was now helping to open the store, then school for most of the day with little breaks in between, then working at the store until closing. Today was an especially long day, as it was raining and the usual crowd of customers had thinned out particularly early, to the point where the store was actually empty for the last hour before he officially flipped the sign to "closed."

He had already put all the chairs up and started to mop when someone caught his eye from beyond the shop window. She was familiar, particularly her periwinkle colored hair, all bundled up and making her way through the rain. The sight of a fellow high school classmate brought down feelings of nostalgia on him, and he paused his task for a moment to reminisce the good old days that ended just that past summer. He didn't realize that the window was wide open for her to see that he was, however, inadvertently staring at her whilst daydreaming.

Across the street Hannah held her library book close to her chest just barely tucked into the folds of her jacket. The rain came down in waves though thankfully it was angled at her backside. Given it meant her jean calves were soaked, as well as the socks beneath them, it did make it easier to keep the borrowed book fairly dry. Had she thought to check the weather instead of assuming it would remain clear the rest of the day, Hannah wouldn’t have left her side bag at home and unfortunately, prior to leaving the library, she had had forgot to ask the check-out librarian if they had any plastic bags.

No matter, home was only about twelve minutes away. Yes she could have called her parents and asked one of them to pick her up but truthfully, the last thing she wanted to do was bother either of them when chances are her father was watching the football game while her mother was preparing dinner.

Just after she had finished crossing the intersection a harsh gust of air swept through the side alley way. The black umbrella, with sky blue fabric on the inside, jerked her arm forward. What once was something used as a shield now resembled a rain collector or a funnel in the way it had turned inside out. “No no no no.” Frantically Hannah tried to fix what the wind had ruined by pushing the top of the concave dome against the building only to have one of the wires, that keep the umbrellas shape, snapped.

It was perhaps a miracle that Tristan snapped out of his reverie when he did, because the sight beyond the window when he finally came to resembled something he thought he'd only ever see in a comic book or some story or another, where a girl was caught in the rain struggling to fix an inside-out umbrella. He couldn't help but watch, caught in a confused sort of stupor for a moment before he realized that he should probably go out and help her.

"Crap!" he cried as he dropped the mop, the handle landing with a thwack as he tried to open the door. In his rush he forgot he'd locked it, so he tried to force it open before it clicked that he had to turn the key to open the door. When finally he was outside of the store, though, he made sure there were no cars before he jogged across the street. He didn't bother to announce himself or even offer to help, he simply removed his apron and used it to cover her head while he took hold of the umbrella and her hand and led her back to the safety of the shop.

"I'm not some creepy kidnapper!" he said aloud so she could hear him over the sound of the rain. "Just trying to help, it's dry in my shop!"

Startled Hannah blinked several times and after a fruitless attempt at pulling her hand free she finally conceded and allowed him to drag her across the street.

Once inside she stopped in the entrance as the door closed behind her. In here there was light and only when he finally looked at her did she recognize who he was. “Tristan?” her voice was questioning since she wasn’t entirely sure it was him especially since it had been almost a year since they had a class together.

It was a relief that she didn't struggled too much, as that would have meant more time in the rain, which in turn would have meant a more drenched version of him walking back through the shop doors. As it was his hair, which was already pretty messy on its own, was even worse, plastered to his forehead while the rest of it was basically flattened by rain. His uniform wasn't doing a whole lot better, but at least he had a change of clothes in the back.

He was admittedly a bit surprised that she remembered his name considering they hadn't really talked at all even though they shared a class or two before, and it's been a while. What was it, a year now? Still, Tristan gave a nod and, before anything else, he focused on righting her umbrella and set it down once he managed to fix it (sort of, one of the wires was broken and there was nothing he could do about that).

"Yep," came his short answer, then offered a smile. "Do me a favor and lock the door behind you while I go grab some towels?"

With him now in the back room, Hannah turned around and latched the door behind her. Eye level, the sign that hung at eye level read OPEN in a fancy red font swung slightly from the door being shut a few seconds prior.

“Thank you,” she finally spoke once he returned with a stack of off-white colored rags.

Tristan offered her a towel before taking one for himself, then pulled off the band that was tying his hair back so he could dry his hair properly.

"No problem," he started to say as he worked on the rest of him once his hair was adequately dry. It was the perk of being male, or at least he thought so, that his hair didn't take forever to dry, unlike all of his sister. All four of them. Mornings were a nightmare to share a bathroom with them, which was why when they finally moved to a bigger house they were generous enough to let him have the only other room besides the master bedroom that had an en suite. It was also downstairs and right by the kitchen, which meant no inconveniences when he wanted a midnight snack.

“With it raining that bad most people have elected either to stay inside or find some other mode of transportation.” There really weren’t many pedestrians out walking the streets of Destiny City especially when the clouds opened up and dumped a torrential downpour on the poor citizens. Thankfully that also meant that the likelihood of many powered individuals running around would be slim to none, they were all human after all and very few liked to get wet if it could be help it.

"Yeah, which is why I was kinda surprised to see you out there." This was said with a smile as he started unbuttoning his shirt. He got two buttons down and made sure to show her the black undershirt he was wearing so she didn't think he was some perv before he kept going. "Lucky I saw you at all though, huh?" and he gestured toward her busted umbrella.

Hannah’s expression spoke louder than any words she may have said in the way her eyebrows raised when she looked down at the now jumbled mess of bent metal and soaked fabric. No kidding.

With a sigh she looked up just as he began taking off his shirt. Her eyes went wide, shocked he was undressing out in the open for her to watch only to have her chill kissed cheeks turn even redder from the embarrassment. Calm down, deep breath he has a shirt on underneath, she reprimanded herself. “I’m sorry,” Hannah offered him a rueful smile noting how drenched he got trying to rescue her from the torrential downpour.

As his eyes were mainly downcast he missed the red cheeks and look of embarrassment. Tristan had already managed to peel off his button-down when her apology came, and he waved a hand as if to dismiss it. "Don't mention it. Weather can be a little tricky and all."

And finally he looked up, still smiling as though nothing had seriously gone wrong. Wet clothes weren't exactly what he would call a "disaster," particularly not when it was already after-hours and all he was doing was cleaning up anyway. He kept working on drying himself as much as he could, the thought of going out back to grab his clothes as well as his sister's (for her to borrow) crossing his mind briefly.

"So where were you headed?"

“I am,” She looked up at him with a lopsided grin and shrugged. “I was on my way home since the library closed.” Clearly that was not the case now however since it didn’t look like the rain would be letting up anytime soon.

Using the hand towel he had given her, she did her best to wring out her hair so it would at the very least stop dripping on the floor. It did nothing to stop her waterlogged jeans and squeaky shoes from leaving a mess of their own. Today just keeps getting better and better, she thought as a shiver ran down her spine. “What about you?” she inquired, not sure what else to ask at the given moment.

Glancing around the cafe bookstore she noted how the shop seemed fairly clean inside given the amount of customers that frequent their shop,“Were you just about to head out?” Hannah added assuming he had just finished cleaning up since the lights had been turned off prior to him bringing her inside.

"I was," he replied with a downward glance at the current mess they were making. "Guess I've gotta stay behind a bit longer now, but that's okay." Another shrug and an accompanying lax sort of grin he hoped sent across the message that he didn't want her to worry about that, either. He would rather spend a few extra minutes cleaning up some water than have it on his conscience that he left someone to their fate out in the rain.

He gestured toward the back, where he'd gotten the towels from. "There's some spare clothes out back. We always keep 'em for emergencies and stuff. Spilled coffee and whatever. My sister wouldn't mind if you borrowed hers, gimme a sec to go and grab it." Not that he waited for her to protest; he was already halfway there before he even finished talking.

“No-no… It okay. Really!” Hannah stuttered. Though dry clothes would be fantastic and what not, she felt weird about putting on someone else's clothes; especially when they belonged to someone she had never met.

It didn't take too long for Tristan to grab what he needed from the lockers. He set out the clothes for her and took his out to the front of the store where she was waiting.

"I figured you wanted some privacy so I left out the stuff in the locker room," he said as he jabbed his thumb back in the direction he'd come from. "It's the only room that's open with a light on, you can't miss it. I'll change out here."

Hannah worried her lower lip while rubbing her arm nervously. For the number of times she had been here to see Arianne she had never went behind the counter; even when she helped her friend restock the shelves when new books arrived. It was like a sacred place with a big ole ‘Do Not Enter’ sign written in nonexistent letters.

Still, despite her attempted protest,Tristan had gone out of his way to get the clothes for her; how could she still refuse. “Thank you” she finally said after a brief moment's pause.

With each step she took towards the back room, the wet soles of Hannah’s shoes squeaked. There would definitely be no sneaking up on him once she finished changing, not that she intended to but she had been accused by her parents for being too quiet when she walked around the house.

He of course waited for her to disappear into the hallway leading to the back before getting behind the counter and changing out of his wet clothes and into the blissfully dry set he had waiting for him, underwear and all. Hannah might not have that simple luxury given that that would be way weirder than simply just borrowing a top, but he was all smiles all the same.

When he was finished he set out his wet clothes on the chairs and started mopping up the mess they'd made while he waited for her to come back. Somewhere in the middle he remembered to call his sister, too, so she could come and pick them up. All his effort to get dry only to go walking home in the rain?

Haha, no. Not happening.

The sound of tiny dying treefrogs met his ears after a few short minutes as Hannah walked down the empty hallway. Soon enough she appeared in the entryway back into the store holding her clothes out away from her to keep it from getting water on the ones she was wearing.

Surprisingly enough the clothes he got for her fit quite well save for the pants which were a little loose which could be expected since she did have a smaller frame. “Um, do you by chance have a plastic bag I could use?” Hannah asked with a rueful look on her face. She felt bad for having imposed on him so much in one night.

Squelching was never not amusing to hear, as evidenced by the goofy grin that was splayed on his face as she emerged from the hallway. Tristan flickered his bright orange gaze over her figure, relieved to see that the clothes fit her well enough. At her request he gave a quiet nod before turning to grab one of the ones for the store.

“Sure,” he said simply as he approached her and handed it over. “I called my sister to let her know what’s going on. If you’re alright with waiting for me to finish up, we can give you a ride home.”

“Thank you,” she spoke softly. Hannah took the bag, after sticking her clothes inside she tied the handles closed then set it down on the table next to her broken umbrella.

“I appreciate the offer,” she smiled almost shyly. Though she didn’t wish to impose on him any further, let alone his sister as well, Hannah opted to accept his generosity. In any case it would be rude to continue rejecting his attempts at being nice towards her.

“Would you like some help?” She asked with a lopsided expression then added, “A lot of this mess is mine anyway.” The apologetic expression on her face was in fact sincere.

With mop in hand Tristan started to clean up the small mess that their brief, rain-soaked adventure had caused. Her offer to help was appreciated, but it felt a little wrong to enthusiastically accept it. He finished the main floor before he regarded her again, maybe a minute later.

"Uh, I was just gonna finish cleaning up the counter and stuff after these floors so if you wanna help you could do that?" A quick gesture would point her to the materials he'd set out for dusting and wiping down and such.

"I'll finish this up and once you're done we can just wait around for our ride."

“I can do that,” Hannah nodded. It had been something she had helped Arianne do once or twice before. A bit of a relaxing task when things had been slow in the cafe area and she had little else to do at the time but chit chat with her friend.

After setting her bag down on one of the booth seats she set about helping Tristan wrap up cleaning the shop. There was a comfortable silence between them, not one where she felt the need to fill the conversational void but rather a nice quiet with the sound of rain outside beating against the glass storefront window serving as their evening melody.

“So,” she paused to sit down on one of the nearby stools. “What have you been up to since graduation?” Though they had only one, maybe two, classes back in High School, Hannah remembered him well enough given her lengthy leave of absence at the beginning of the year.

Tristan was a little she surprised at her familiarity with the counter; yes, he snuck looks while working. Assuming she was new to the store and all, he wanted to keep an eye on her just in case. Apparently he didn't need to, so when he realized that she knew what she was doing he settled into the comfortable silence and finished with his mopping before he flopped down on a stool just beside her.

"More school," he said with a sigh. He always planned on taking a break from school after high school to focus a bit on his art, but his parents had other plans. Not that he could complain about that; they meant well and their plans for him made sense, it's just that he had plans as well. He hung his head back and closed his eyes, flashes or many an argument about his future briefly surfacing before he pushed them aside.

"And working here, I guess. Besides that not much else. What about you?"

It was still a bit of a surprise that she remembered him, not that he didn't appreciate it. It was always nice to be remembered, even if only by a random classmate.

“Same as you,” she replied steepling her fingers in front of her. “I had to take a few summer classes to get caught up since I missed a quarter of school at the beginning of the year.” Hannah shrugged and gave no further explanation as to the reasoning for her absence.

“As of now though I’m working on my general classes so I can hopefully make it into the nursing program.” Though she had a deep aversion to needles, her desire to help has never changed. Unfortunately relying on her magic as a Senshi would do more harm than good since it only mended physical injuries especially since there were severe limitated in regards to the number of times she could use her abilities.

“Outside of that we’re just planning our Thanksgiving Day dinner with family.” Though after current events she wasn’t all too sure it was going to happen this year.

"Yeah, I noticed," he said after she mentioned her extended absence. It wasn't hard to notice that the person just one seat over was gone for weeks on end. It got him curious enough to ask around, but he didn't find anyone that had any answers as to why she'd been gone so long so he eventually came to the assumption that she had either transferred or just had a hell of a good reason for missing school.

Tristan didn't ask her now, though. He really had no business in knowing and he didn't want to seem nosey.

He stood up again and stretched a bit before beginning to put the mop away. "Nursing, huh?" he asked as he wheeled the bucket over, cringing slightly at the way its wheels squeaked as he moved it along. "That's cool." Like her, he left the comment at that and simply moved on with the conversation. He wasn't too interested in ruining the conversation by bringing up his frustrations about school.

"Huh. You know, we don't really do Thanksgiving at our place. At least not traditionally. We use it as an excuse to meet up and hang out, stay up for Black Friday type of thing."

“Oh trust me” Hannah laughed “My mom and both my Aunts get really into looking through the ads then divvying up who gets what when the stores open. I just hope my Aunt Rebecca doesn’t duck out early to go stand in line for some door buster deal.” The sad reality of the world now days was that holidays were fading away. The spirit of this wonderful November holiday had been overshadowed by consumer greed since businesses started opening their doors in on Thanksgiving all in preparation for Christmas.

Hannah’s demeanor seemed to shift then as a contemplative air settled around her. Lost in thoughts about the upcoming holidays it took a moment to realize she had fallen silent. “Sorry,” she flashed him a rueful smile. “I guess I just miss the holidays and how they use to be.”

That got a light chuckle out of him as he started to wheel the bucket towards the back to empty it. He paused when she stopped talking though, a curious gaze falling her way as he stood by the entrance to the hallway. In that moment he took notice of the particular way the light fell on her figure, the thoughtful expression on her face and how, when she finally came to and apologized, the smile settled just so. He replied to the apology once again with just a wave of his hand.

"No worries, I know how that goes. It wasn't always this way back in elementary school. Gimme a second, I gotta put this thing away." And with that he vanished into the back again and quickly went about his work.

As he did so, a car pulled up to the front of the store, and from its driver's seat came a woman who had concern written all over her face. With her umbrella overhead she squinted through the window briefly before scurrying over to the store's entrance. Swiftly, she unlocked it and made her way inside, her bright orange gaze soon falling on her friend who was seated so casually by the counter.

"Hannah!" she cried perhaps a bit overdramatically, then crossed the room and opened her arms to give her friend a warm hug. It also gave her a chance to kind of mother-hen and fret and worry the way she knew her brother would if she had been in Hannah's position.

"You're the friend my baby brother was talking about? He said 'high school friend' so I was thinking it was one of the guys that always came over. Oh my gosh, are you okay? Are you feeling sick? We could totally swing by and pick up some cold medicine, just in case, if you want!"

“No no I’m okay. Really, I’m fine!” Hannah returned Arianne’s embrace with an equal amount of excitement. The sadness she had felt just seconds prior had been shunted aside the moment her friend came running through the door.

“I didn’t know you two were related.” She exclaimed after letting her friend go so they could both breathe. Given she probably should have been able to put two and two together and figure it out but honestly it didn’t click before hand.

Tristan made it back in time to see the two girls pull away from a hug, a quizzical expression on his face.

"Oh, you guys know each other?" he asked. Apparently Hannah was full of surprises tonight. A small smile settled in as he gave his sister a side-hug type greeting, though he was mostly pushed aside.

"Yeah, yeah," Arianne mumbled before turning her focus back to Hannah. "Are you sure?" Her eyes flickered up and down the other's body in search of something that proved otherwise; when she found none she relaxed just a tad and turned back to Tristan to swat him in the shoulder.

"Be more specific next time!"


He dodged as best he could but still got the brunt of it on his shoulder. "Hey!"

"If it's a regular customer you tell me so I can bring creature comforts." Turning back to Hannah, she gave a soft smile. "Wait here, I've got just the thing. I was saving it for your next visit!" and she skittered along to the back, humming a tune.

Hannah watched as Arianne disappeared into the back hallway. “Umm…” one brow quirked in curiosity as she glanced over at Tristan. “What just happened?” she asked utterly confused.

Normally one plus one equals two except those times when it doesn’t. You’d think because they shared the same last name Hannah would have realized that the two were siblings. Nope… somehow that one slipped by and now she stood in the middle of the cafe near the one who saved her from the storm rather bewildered by what was going on.

Tristan looked on as his sister went off, rolling his eyes. Hannah's question didn't even register until a beat of two later, at which point he turned to her with an apologetic smile.

"Arianne storm happened," he said, tone dead serious. His sister had a way of...just wreaking havoc and mayhem wherever she decided to pass in his life (which was, unfortunately for him, a daily dilemma) and he'd never been one to sugarcoat his frustrations with said sister. Granted, he was also the first to jump in and defend her if someone ever commented negatively. Far as he was concerned, he was the only one allowed to bag on Arianne, and all the rest of his sister for that matter.

A hand went up to run through his hair as he heaved a sigh. "She forgets to leave out little bits and pieces of details so people who get sucked into her atmosphere are kind of always clueless until the last minute. Anyway, she means well, I promise."

"Found it!" came a cry from the back room, and the woman zoomed out again with a small bag. Without much hesitation she handed it to Hannah, who she just noticed was wearing her clothes (she gave an approving nod), with a wide smile.

"Here! Something to make up for the bad weather and getting stuck here with my kid brother," she said (as though the weather was her fault to begin with). "He didn't do anything weird or anything right?"

“No. Not at all,” Hannah replied while opening the gift she had been given. “He’s been very nice, he actually came to my rescue when my umbrella broke.” To further emphasize her point she pointed at the mangled mess of wire that was her umbrella lying in a heap next to the front door.

Once the tape had been removed she opened the bag and peered inside. Both brows raised in surprise followed by a sincerely happy smile. “Arianne, thank you!” Dubbed a bit of a popsicle from how easy it was for her to get cold, scarves of any color really were the best gift that would definitely get a lot of use.

Carefully lifting the bundle of fabric out of the gift bag she marveled at the pattern woven with gold thread in an intricate almost oriental style weave. Back home in one of her still unopened bins was one similar to it but instead of dark purple it was an emerald green and a bit more narrow than the one she currently held. “It looks so warm!” Hannah exclaimed most excitedly.

Arianne gave a squee at Hannah's reaction, reaching over to pull the younger girl into a tight hug. "I'm so glad you like it! And I'm glad to hear he didn't do anything silly. Was even helpful, huh?" She turned her orange gaze to Tristan, who was smiling but shaking his head at the same time, considered his usefulness for a moment and then, as though she simply dismissed the thought, she began to usher Hannah to the door.

"Alright, well then let's get you home so you can take a hot shower and get cleaned up. Rain water is dirty, you know," and, as Tristan usually would have done, she began to mother-hen the poor periwinkled college freshman all the way to the car. "And lock up, would you Tristan?" she called back before the door closed behind their retreating forms.

Tristan gave a sigh but gathered his things and did as he was told. It was his job, after all, and had Hannah not been there for him to save it was likely he would have been stuck walking home through the rain. So, despite getting home a little later, he had something to thank her for as well. Granted, it meant he had to deal with his sister a lot sooner than usual, but...well, that was a small price to pay. With a final glance around the cafe Tristan called it a night, then quickly stepped outside and locked the door before following the two girls to the car.