Someone Hug Me (Reggie)

[Calliope Gallo]

Calliope was lost. Now, normally it was easy to figure a way around a University campus; there were maps around almost every corner with arrows that pretty clearly indicated where you were supposed to go. But when Callie got lost, she couldn't help but get flustered. She was looking for Eric, and he had class but he had promised to meet her right after to talk about what was wrong.

Because something was wrong. Niko was...

But she was early and wherever he had said to meet her was not on the map. Maybe he'd been using lingo or something? She couldn't call or text him; he was weirdly serious about his business classes. So a bright eyed Calliope had stood at the map for a very long time before she turned her eyes to her feet, blinking back tears. She shrugged away and parked herself on a nearby bench in the quad, sniffling slightly as she waited. She would just have to wait to call him.

[Reggie Earle]

Class had been hectic but Reggie was still all smiles the whole day, especially because she knew she was going to spend time at the end of the day with the man in her life. To her, that was the definition of being set for life. It really was the little things that counted.

As she headed towards the cafeteria, the chromokinetic spotted someone at the quad, alone. The blonde looked sad and lonely. Immediately, Reggie's heart went out to the girl.

Without much hesitating, the brunette marched over to the girl and planted her skirted bottom down beside the blonde. "Hey. I'm sorry for just barging here unannounced but are you okay, hon?"

[Calliope Gallo]

Callie's blue eyes had stuck their gaze to the screen of her phone as she cradled it for dear life in her hands. Whatever was going on, which she still didn't really understand, it was enough to stop her from smiling. But she didn't want to be like that when Eric showed up, because she already knew that if he caught her like this his heard would probably break.

Heh. Brothers.

She looked up finally when someone else was there. Instantly she shifted over in her seat, because she initially thought that she might have just wanted to sit on the other side of the bench. Her features were coloured by surprise when she actually started talking to her. Calliope pocketed her phone and looked over at her, offering a defeated shrug. "Not really," She admitted, which was hard to say. The simple fact that a stranger was showing concern seemed to make her brighten a little, "But thank you for asking." She tried her hand at a smile, however defeated it might have looked.

[Reggie Earle]

The smile did nothing to deter Reggie from coming in close. Her feelings of PDA were definitely starting to get thrown out the window. She supposed she had RC to thank for that but lately, she just felt like everybody needed to be hugged.

Especially this girl. This girl who looked like her foot had been trodden. Only worst.

"Oh honey," she slung her arm around the blonde and pulled her close. A little awkwardly but it was the effort that counted. "I'm sorry you're feeling this way but um...you can talk to me if you want. Did you get lost? When I first got here, I got lost too and that was a bit scary."

[Calliope Gallo]

It was the thought that counted. Callie fell into the other girl's side with ease. She loved hugs, and despite the awkwardness it was just the thing that she needed. And she was used to most people passing by her when she was upset. People didn't really like to stop for someone who might have been crying. She had been doing pretty well so far to stop it from happening.

"No, not lost... I'm waiting for my brother. Of all things, he takes his classes seriously." It means she couldn't call him. Eric probably didn't expect her to be early; she was late just about every other time they met up. She was sure he fully expected her to get lost. "I mean, yeah. I guess I am lost. I suck at directions. And your maps are so weird." Calliope couldn't help the laugh that fell from her mouth. "There's like a million halls and houses and centers with different people's names. Can't you just colour code, or something?" If she ever went here, that's totally what she was going to do.

[Reggie Earle]

Adjusting herself so it would be more comfortable for the blonde, Reggie rubbed the girl's arm slowly, listening to her without interruption.

Chuckling lightly at the map comment, Reggie had to admit that too. She had a hard time navigating about the campus when she had first started. The idea of colour coding excited Reggie and the beam on her face showed it. "You know what, that isn't a bad idea at all." She squeezed the girl and released her only to extend her hand for a shake.

"I'm Reggie by the way. I love colours." She manipulated the colour to just her hand, careful there wasn't anybody around looking at them. Hey, if the girl was a metaphobe, at least she'd get a kick out of the colours anyway, since she did just suggest having colours as distinctions to buildings and stuff!

[Calliope Gallo]

"I guess you get used to it," Callie started again, shrugging at the thought, "But if I went here people would have to get used to me always running late."

Callie looked down as she extended her hand out, watching as it started to change colour. Instantly she looked around to make sure no one was looking. It was just an instinct. She looked back and extended her hand to meet the coloured skin, her wrist falling out of its joint and resting in the palm of her hand. It probably looked broken but despite the internal detachment, her fingers curled around her hand as if nothing had happened.

"I'm Callie. I love colours too but I can't do anything with them." She had an feeling, one that normally she preferred people didn't voice to her. But... "Your parents named you Reggie?" She didn't mean it the way it might have sounded, so she laughed nervously; "Sorry. That was kinda rude."

[Reggie Earle]

Reggie laughed and nodded. "Probably."

When the blonde's hand popped down, Reggie gasped before slapping her other hand over her mouth and giggled. "Oh my God. So what can-"

She paused at Callie's question, scrunching her nose up before smiling. "Well, they named me Regina. My full name is Regina Lee Earle. I didn't like anybody calling me Gina or Regina so I shortened it to Reggie. So my full name is Reggie Lee Earle.

"My mom actually thought Regina sounded regal because Queen Victoria was called Victoria Regina, which meant Queen Victoria in Latin. Lee is actually my granddad's middle name so..." she trailed off before laughing nervously while her hand went up to the back of her neck in embarrassment. "Sorry. I'm...that was a long rant about some really useless information you probably didn't want to hear." Reggie patted the disjointed hand gingerly. "I am so sorry you had to witness the spaz attack."

[Calliope Gallo]

Callie listened when she answered her question, understanding what she was saying completely. The small explanation turned into a larger one and she just sat there and listened, nodding along to what was said at random intervals. She looked back down at her hand, allowing her wrist to hit back into place; some people found it uncomfortable. "Oh, don't worry about it. I do that sometimes too. And I sort of had a reason for asking." She smiled tentatively at the thought.

"My full name's Calliope. I don't really like it, so I don't really tell people." In fact, this was probably the first time that she had ever told a stranger something like that. "My middle name is my Yia Yia's name- I mean, my grandmother," She pointed to herself with both hands, "My family's Greek. Well, most of my family. It's a little complicated." She sighed. It wasn't that complex, but she doubted a stranger wanted to hear about her family.

"But the name. Regina? It suits you. It's pretty, like you are." She said brightly.

[Reggie Earle]

Reggie laughed and nodded at Callie's confession. "I'm glad I'm not the only one." She swept her hair back and laughed again.

"Oh but Calliope sounds pretty." She tried making it sound better. Finding out that the blonde was Greek made Reggie perk up. Grabbing both Callie's hands in hers, Reggie voiced out her excitement in very broken Greek. "I'm in love with old languages! Do you speak it often with your family?" She asked the last part in English after laughing off how awkwardly the language sounded coming from her.

"Oh thank you." Reggie brightened up, her smile wide. "I guess we all have a lovehate relationships with our names." She shrugged.

"Now, tell me. Where were you supposed to meet your brother? Maybe I can show you around campus?"

[Calliope Gallo]

Callie looked at her hands quickly when they were both grabbed, then back up to meet her eyes again. She raised her eyebrows in surprise and mild confusion when she started trying to speak the language. Her teeth sunk into her bottom lip as she tried to stop herself from laughing. It was so much like Eric when he tried to tackle the language. "Yeah we do. It's really important to my mom. We've been speaking it in my house since I was little. It's easier to pick up that way, I guess."

Callie tried to remember what Eric had said about his classes, but she couldn't. "I think he said he was in a business lecture. I... Can't remember what building that's supposed to be in." Callie explained. She stood up and dusted herself off quickly.

"Thanks for stopping to help me. My other brother has been living in Greece for a while now but, he's kind of... Distant. That's why I..." She stopped and indicated to herself again. Crying, she meant, but at least she wasn't doing it at the moment. And instinctively she reached out for the other girl, taking hold of one of her hands with both of her own. Contact was grounding for Callie.

[Reggie Earle]

Reggie couldn't really see past her own excitement of meeting a genuine Greek to see that Callie was trying hard not to laugh at her horrible attempt at speaking her language. The fact that Callie was basically saying she knew the language like the back of her hand meant that Reggie had found a lifelong friend. As long as Callie would have her anyway. She neglected to find out whether or not Callie was even comfortable having a stranger call her a friend so soon after they had met.

"Oh my gosh, this is superb. I do that with French and Spanish. My parents are big on languages and I picked it up pretty early in life but I've always, always wanted to properly learn Greek and you basically landed on my lap. It's serendipitous!"

Quickly, Reggie tried to remember which wing the Business building was and finally remembered. "It's probably just called the Business building," Reggie thought out loud before turning to Callie. "Let's walk," she bounced up and let Callie hold on to her. The chromokinetic squeezed the other girl's hand and beamed up at her, a little surprise and jealous that the blond was taller than her.

"Oh honey, thank you for being here. And it's no biggie really. I'm just a busybody." She giggled, pushing a lock of hair behind her ear. "I'm sorry to hear about your brother. Will you be visiting him any time soon?" Reggie asked, concern clouding her eyes.

[Calliope Gallo]

"Wow. That's a lot of languages to learn." Callie replied. She had a solid understanding of the Greek language and culture under her belt, but a lot of her understanding had come from just being engulfed in the culture. She couldn't imagine trying to learn another language now. "Well, I'd be glad to try and teach you a little more if you want." Plus it was an excuse to hang out with her more. That was, if she needed to find one.

She also made a mental note to ask Eric what serendipitous meant.

Callie was glad she didn't pull away or anything like that. Not that she thought that she would, but it was always a worry with some people. She was just used to a lot of that kind of thing, but it was hard for her to remember that others weren't. She was also surprised by the height difference, looking down slightly and offering her very best smile.

"Thank me? I didn't do anything." Calliope replied. She couldn't see how she was being helpful. If anything, she was taking up the other girl's time, which she did feel a little bad about. "My family visit at least twice a year. We have a lot of family there still, so it's great to go and see everyone." Callie stopped herself. She could probably talk about her family for a long time if someone let her, so she turned that around as soon as she realised. "Are you close with your family?"

[Reggie Earle]

"I'm majoring in linguistics. I've still got a long way to go." Reggie laughed. Her smile widened at the prospect of learning more about a language she was absolutely fascinated by. "Oh I do. I do want, Callie. Thank you." She beamed at the blond, squeezing her arm slightly.

And truth be told, Reggie would have pulled away. Physical displays of affection used to be a little worrisome for her. But having RC around had definitely opened her up a lot more. Mostly because she couldn't spend one day around RC without wanting to touch him. Even hand holding was enough for her.

"Well, for one, you didn't run away when I tried to comfort you." She teased and listened as Callie spoke. When the question was turned to Reggie, a soft smile spread across her lips. "We call each other every fortnight." She didn't mind at all spending time on the phone while Carter told her about the game he had watched on TV or when her mother fixed the broken pipe in the kitchen or when her father called to tell her about the new recipe her mother had cooked up on her own. She relished the phone calls because she missed them so much.

"I'll be going up this weekend to visit them with my fiancee." Her thumb pressed against her ring and she smiled. "Oh! There it is! Okay. So I usually tell which building is which by the number of bricks in a row of the entrance. It's tedious, I know, but they all have different numbers of bricks so it's easy for me. Look see, here they have five. Over there, the science building, they have eight."

"Would you like me to wait with you for your brother?"

[Calliope Gallo]

Callie admired it when she saw people who knew what they wanted to study and do with their lives. She still had no clue, but she wished she had some kind of direction. Once people knew they seemed to just know. She wanted that feeling.

"Wow, you're engaged?" Calliope asked brightly, looking down to catch a glimpse of the ring. How did she miss that kind of thing before? She must have wanted to get married. She wanted to ask how she knew she wanted such a thing, but that seemed like a loaded question that would be uncomfortable to have to answer.

Callie squinted her eyes as she started talking about counting bricks. It was difficult to adjust to trying to count how many of the same thing when they were in a row like that. But five was the building for business. She could at least remember that much. "I'll try to remember that." She replied finally. She'd need to.

"I've taken up way too much of your time. You're probably really busy." Callie shook her head briefly. She retracted her hand and wrapped her arms around herself; "I can just stand here and wait for him. Really, he shouldn't be too long." She feigned a smile, because she really hoped he'd be out soon. She was a little scared that she might cry again, but hopefully she could handle that on her own this time.