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"Oh, don't worry, you look hot in that dress..." Sid said as she shoved the door of the duplex open with her hip, keys dangling from her fingers and her phone pressed between ear and shoulder. In her arms, a couple of bags from a high end clothing store and a duffel bag that had seen better days.

"If you wear it tonight, I promise you will have my full and undivided attention." Her voice went thick and dark at that, full of smokey promises. Unsurprisingly, the subtle changes to the house while she'd been gone went completely unnoticed in favor of her conversation and her baggage. Since Rob's parents kept up the place while he was gone, it wasn't really unusual...

The door clacked shut as she kicked it with the heel of her combat boots and stumped towards the stairs, bags and paper rustling as she tried to juggle them into a configuration that would let her up them.

"Tommy said he'd be there too. I can probably score some off him, you know how he is around me. But if you want something else, I can probably find it. Perks of knowing everyone there." Something said on the other end sent into rolling laughter and she paused a few steps up, dropping her duffel to the steps so she could rearrange her phone in the curls of her brightly colored hair.

Hearing a man's voice on the landing nearly made Sid jump out of her skin and she whirled as she stumbled, all knobby knees and slim hips as ever in her light leather pants and oversized, artfully-tattered sweater. Her duffel tumbled down the stairs to flump against the floor in a lumpy pile

"Jesus ********!" She gasped out, magenta eyes wide. "Robin?"

The startled face, with bright purple lips and varied piercings, quickly brightened, her mouth spreading into a wide, eager smile.

"I gotta call you back, Babe. You'll never guess what the mother ******** cat dragged in." She laughed as she dropped her phone into an open back and came stumping down the stairs again, whipping around the banister to throw herself at the scruffy blonde man she hadn't seen in... well, years now.

"Rob!" Sidney squealed as she dumped her bags unceremoniously on the floor and threw her thin arms around him. "********, when did you get in eh?"

She was still thin as she hugged him tightly, still short and slight. He might have grown up a little, in their time apart, but she seemed much the same... well dressed in designer threads, but timelessly Sid. She still smelled like smoke and perfume hiding weed and her happiness to see him hadn't dimmed in their time apart.

A bright laugh left her as she scrubbed his jaw with the backs of her knuckles, roughing up the stubble he'd grown.

"You expect me to remember what I was doing a month ago? It probably got buried... I'm sorry about that. Things have just been busy, you know?" She hardly seemed fazed by the ruffle of her multi colored hair, the fluffy strands as untamed as they ever were. There were more piercing to her now, creating false dimples at the corners of her mouth and marking the bridge of her nose with bits of sparkle. "I think I told you I went on tour for a bit as an opening act? Maybe I forgot... which would be super embarrassing."

She grimaced, making a face as she ran her fingers through his dreads, neatening them up around his face and smoothing then down the fronts of his shoulders.

"Hmm? Oh! Yeah! I met a girl on the road, Joanna. We hooked up... six months ago? Something like that. What the ******** is time anyway." Sid laughed as she wrapped her arms around his waist, giving him another squeeze. "You'll have to meet her sometime... she has this swanky condo uptown, and I spend a lot of time there when I'm not performing. I made a deal with your Da and he kept the place up for you since I'm rubbish at that stuff."

She changed her grip to one of his hands and turned to drag him towards the kitchen.

"Lets get a drink to celebrate you being home! I know I left a bottle of vodka here, for times when I swing in to check in on stuff and get new clothes. Sorry the fridge is kinda empty. It just seemed easier not to keep food in the house rather than throw it out when it went bad." Sid was all chatter as she fussed about getting glasses and trying to figure out where she'd stashed her liquor.

"We all have our crosses to bear." She snipped, bumping her bony hip into his. She was smiling though, as she pulled away to fish the shot glasses out of the back of the cupboard and plunked two down on the counter.

She pulled the vodka from the fridge and twisted the cap off, dropping it to let it bounce across the counter as she tipped the bottle over the shot glasses. Her smile was slyer this time, the expression that settled on her face looking distinctly cat-like and self-satisfied.

"Joanna... is not a musician." Sid said, drawing out the name, affecting a higher class accent as she did it. "Joanna is an executive at a law firm who enjoys sipping cocktails at the bar after a long day at work... and on weekends when a new band is playing. She's more of a groupie, though don't you dare tell her I said that." She twisted the cap back on the vodka bottle and then pointed it at him across the kitchen, shaking it threateningly.

"She'd get in a huff and pretend like she has to work over time, and then pointedly ignore me until she remembered how much fun I am in bed..." Picking up the glasses, she carried them over and plunked one down in front of Rob at the kitchen table, flopping her gangly limbs into the seat beside him. "She's ******** loaded and I enjoy the perks that come with that, so I'd rather not deal with Joanna in a pout. I met her at the show at one of the places we played. She was out to have fun, and so was I, and afterwards we liked each other's company enough to keep the fun going. We run wild at night, and in the morning I'm smart enough to make myself scarce while she's being all professional... the arrangement works well enough for us right now, and she doesn't mind me seeing other people as long as it doesn't get in the way of her fun."

Lifting the glass, she held it out towards him.

"To the lights and the crowds, eh?" She said. "It was nice to come home after being on the road, but god, I miss it."

Sid tossed her shot back as he did, grimacing and sticking her tongue out at him for the congratulations.

"Dirty huh?" She teased. "You must have learned a few new tricks if you think you can out-do me on that."

She squeezed his hand and let him go again with a brush of her fingers, watching as he headed for the kitchen. One foot braced up on the chair, she leaned back into it, toying with the shot glass in her fingers.

"I'll invite you along some night, if you're free, and you can bang about at the bar with us like we used to. Not a lot has changed there, but its been a while since we partied together. Anything else new I should know about? Three years is a ******** long time, when you think about it... did you meet anyone while you were over there?"

The question started out casual, but it swiftly felt very important, actually. Three years might feel like no time at all for her, but for normal people, it really could be a long time, especially at their age.

Sid laughed, the sound rough and low, and she smile as she leaned forward. Her expression was fond, more real than what she usually showed people, and she cupped his stubbly cheek in her hand, giving him a few gentle pats.

"You're full of s**t, Robin, and I love you for it." She teased. "I hope they were all hot as ******** and you had them screaming and begging you not to leave the next day."

Sliding off her chair, she padded around the table and wiggled past his arms and down into his lap, draping one of her own over his shoulders as she grabbed one of the glasses. She lifted it to him in toast before she sipped it, pressing a soft kiss to the side of his mouth after.

"Welcome back, luv. I ******** missed you." There was real warmth and sincerity to the statement. There weren't a lot of people Sid could say that about, and Rob was a lot more than just one of her random friends. She hadn't even really realized how much she'd missed him while he was gone, too busy drowning herself in other sensations to feel much of anything at all. He meant something, and he wasn't someone she felt afraid to admit that about.

A small, sardonic smile curled over her brightly colored lips as he nuzzled into her hair. Lashes veiled her eyes as she considered what he'd said, her stomach doing that weird twisting thing it did sometimes.

Rob wasn't Ice. They were friends, albeit best friends, but intrinsic in that was the ability to walk away, or come back, any time they wanted. He could ******** off to London for years and that was okay, because he was back now. They'd never made any promises to each other, and he wasn't asking her to change herself, even for the better.

She could leave any time she wanted, she reminded herself, and there was something freeing in that.

"You know I'd have gone with you if you'd asked." She said, affecting an over-the-top, wounded act. "I'd have dropped everything and ******** off to London with you. But that's okay. I think you needed that time. Sometimes you gotta just... not be attached to anything. I get it."

She did really ******** love him, though. She could admit that, it was okay to admit that. He was family.

"Now, unless you got something better to do..." Sid hummed as she leaned into him, sneaking a hand down between them. "I think we should take this celebration upstairs, so you can show me if you learned anything from those UK girls..."

The bubbly feeling in her chest was back just like that and she couldn't stop herself from grinning.