I'll have a side of...where have you been?! (Lucy)

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

Monroe yawned, leaning over the counter in the front of the diner where the waitress was also standing. It was often uneventful or completely eventful at this time of night. Working the graveyard shift was unpredictable. The diner could be empty or have several tables full. But right now, at one a.m., it was a ghost town. And so Monroe was drinking a cup of coffee from a fresh batch that the waitress had brewed and merely waiting for something to happen. He was even all caught up on the dishes so far. There just wasn't much to do.

He wasn't as tired as he normally was, namely because he was getting some sleep here and there, a few naps snuck in when he was on Hammel grounds by being put to sleep or rather knocked out by Candence Wasterson. Hey, he had to do what he had to do to get some rest.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

It was a little more difficult to maintain certain connections with the barriers of life in play. A handful of people Lucy genuinely cared about had graduated when she hadn't, and without a dormitory building forcing everyone in the same proximity at night, it was harder to see people. Effort was required. But lately, so much of her effort had been interlocked with a certain psychometrist.

She had to figure he worked the night shift. He was usually up anyway, so that made sense. The Australian was no clear fan of the cold, and so she did her best to bundle up tightly enough to find some comfort. Gloves, a scarf, a bright yellow beanie. Buttoned up flannel beneath a leather bomber jacket. The moment she walked into what could only be described as the world's most awfully awesome décor in existence, she could smell that obvious hit of caffeine in the air.

"This what you do all night, huh?" Lucy asked, hands permanently stuck in the pockets of her jacket. "Jack yourself up on coffee and pray for stragglers?"

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

The night really couldn't have gotten any more boring, but there was definitely room for improvements. And so when a familiar brunette walked through the door, causing the bell to ring, Monroe looked up from his mug. "Pretty much," he replied, a smile forming. The waitress didn't seem to know Lucy and Monroe wondered how anybody could possibly not know who she was.

It had been so long since he'd seen her, at least it felt that way. He was ot of high school and trying to come to terms with the fact that he was Eloise's twin and her father was his father and honing his power...it felt like he was still sixteen sometimes, trying to figure everything out.

"Seems my prayers have been answered. What brings you out at one in the morning?"

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

At his response, Lucy couldn't help the way she laughed. How easy it was to fall back into the swing of a joking stance to a relationship. She did her best to ignore the growingly familiar sensation of missing a person. Interpersonal connections were beginning to grow into more than just a strange, confusing habit.

Eyes once to the waitress who didn't seem to recognise her, and she was looking at him again.

"Looking for you. You're a hard fella to track down." Or maybe she was a difficult person to keep track of lately. More often than not she was busy; caught up with other people, or working, or actively trying to graduate high school. Things weren't as easy with the obvious divide between her and her graduated friends. "If that means I gotta come out at one, I'll come out at one."

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

"Am I?" Monroe asked. He was really only one of three places at a time. His apartment, the diner, Hammel. Or well, a coffee shop. "I don't really do much, honestly." He shrugged.

He looked over at the waitress, as if to ask her if it mattered if he went and sat down with Lucy and a cup of coffee. "I appreciate your committment. One a.m. is pretty late. As you can see my job is exciting." He gestured around the empty restaurant. "Can I get you anything?"

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy nodded once. Perhaps she was the difficult one to track down amidst it all. She had her go-to places, but a majority of the time she wasn't on her own any more, so she supposed that counted for something. Things always became more strained without the confinements of a dormitory; not everyone was a floor away, and that called for a new kind of effort to be put in place.

Retracting a hand from her jacket, she offered him a small wave. "Nah, I'm good." She replied. If she endeavoured to have coffee this late, who knew what kind of lecture she'd get when she got back.

Hauling her other hand out of her jacket, she folded her arms in front of her chest. Dark eyes glanced around the place she'd hardly ever seen before momentarily, "Did I ever tell you that I met the chick you like?" She asked, almost positive that the admittance had never left her mouth, "Or did she ever tell you?" Without much to go off, Lucy doubted such a short conversation came up in transit. "She's nice. Super quiet, but probably nice. Total deer-in-the-headlights when she realised I knew who she was."

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

It was strange seeing Lucy, as if she was an element from his former sleep deprived life of coffee and paint fights and suddenly she'd started to disappear with the rest of it. He wasn't by any means over his insomnia that had seemed to embed itself in him, nor was he over art. And he certainly wasn't over his friendship with Lucy Serrano, so why hadn't he at least made an effort? He felt rather shitty about that actually. "I feel like I owe you a cup of coffee or something," he said, honestly. "We have decaf. Although I don't recommend it." Fake coffee. That's what it was. "Well, if you're ever hungover, we've got really great hashbrowns," he suggested just before she'd started on about something that was seemingly random.

"No?" It came out as a question. "She didn't tell me and neither did you. When was that?" It was a strange thing to blurt out after seeing each other for the first time in a while, but Lucy had never been typical. "She's nice," he agreed. Although it wasn't like that was the first adjective he thought of. Endearing, maybe. But definitely quiet. "Well, you have to admit that you do come off a little strong."

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy couldn't help the almost childish grin she wore at the offer he placed in front of her. A new found shelter from a hangover storm. Not that she had the people to ever venture out in such a way any more, but still... "Then you," Lucy replied, tapping the counter once, "Will be my first place to stop. Because I'm reaching your country's the legal age really quickly." Not that it mattered. An ink manipulator could do wonders to a printed licence.

At any rate, the Australian had the intention of keeping up with the conversation as it was. It didn't surprise her to know her name hadn't come up in passing, because really, why would it? She'd seemed far too caught to ever actually mention it. "Not long after you graduated, honestly. Bit of a little run in in the hallway." Raising a hand, she exhaled on a definite laugh before she brought forth the strength to defend herself, "Hey, I was nice." She replied lightly, though the idea of Lucy Serrano and niceties probably seemed like a pretty hardcore stretch, "I just told her you were super keen on her. She seemed a bit mind blown."

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

"You still haven't accepted you are a part of this country now?" Monroe asked, rolling his eyes. "When's the birthday?" Again, he felt the need to make up his absence.

Addie hadn't told him about running into Lucy, which he could think was strange, but she probably just felt awkward about it and so he tried not to take it to heart. "As long as you were nice." Addie wasn't fragile, but she also wasn't Lucy. Nobody was Lucy. He wanted to face palm at what the Aussie told him next. No wonder Adaryn hadn't said anything. She'd probably seemed mind blown because of all that was going on at that time. It probably seemed like he wasn't so into her because he was constantly worrying about ending up with Eloise, and it turned out he'd only ended up in a family tree with her. "Yeah, well, I don't blame her. I was probably sending some mixed signals."

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

"November. Twenty-third for the big two-one." And in that moment, Lucy Serrano swore that if she was still in high school by that time she might just lose her mind completely. And no one wanted - or likely even needed - to deal with that outcome.

Lucy offered her friend a knowing grin. Nice? Of course she was totally nice, and she'd stick to that for as long as she could. Maybe it was bad of her to out her friend's feelings, but really, after their last in depth conversation she'd assumed he'd gotten that far already. She knew a little about their issues, but not enough to rightly judge.

Just enough to try to talk to the wallflower about it, and what a fail that was.

"Mate." Lucy stressed, shaking her head a few times; "How do you even fuck up a signal like that?" But the moment she had she really wished she could take that question back. The answer was obvious, at least to her anyway. After all, when it came to the beginning of a relationship, she really, really sucked.

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

Monroe had almost forgotten that she was older than him, well on her way to twenty-one and yet she was still at Hammel, even if he was sort of still at Hammel. He didn't mean to bring up something she didn't want to talk about, but now that he inevitably had, he felt like he needed to ask. "Are you graduating this year?" He was hopeful for her.

"Because at the time I was dealing with a vision my friend had which I wish he wouldn't have told me, honestly." He sighed. It was funny...he wouldn't even know about what Sebastian had seen had meta-powers not been a real thing. "I thought I was going to fall in love with this blonde girl...who turned out to be my twin sister. That's what he was seeing. We misread it and I really messed up the beginning of our relationship because of it."

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Raising both hands, Lucy wrapped her middle fingers around her index ones with a purposeful nod; "Fingers crossed."

Because seriously, if she didn't leave this year, she might lose her mind.

Right. Lucy remembered the vision he was talking about. She remembered being a little sceptical about it, but hell, who could ever expect that that was the card he was going to be dealt in the end? Dark eyes went understandably wide at the news he'd handed to her; she could only imagine how it must have knocked the sense out of his head. "Right, right, right. So... You got a sister." And a clear shot to the girl he liked, but she could wait to say something on that. "Well fuck me, that's probably the last thing you expected."

"Also makes it a bit weirder, but if you look past that, there's nothing bad about having a sister." She had two, after all. Though no twins. "Is she nice?"

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

"My fingers are crossed for you," Monroe told her. He really hoped it was her last year at Hammel. Lucy needed to move on, experience other things. "So when you do," Not if. "What's next for you, Serrano?"

"Yeah, twin sister," he recited once more. It was strange to say the least and not at all what he expected. It wasn't like they were carbon copies of each other.

He knew that there was nothing bad about having a sibling. It was really just how he found out that was jarring. That and everything that led up to it threw him and Adaryn out of sync. "Yeah, yeah she's nice." Well, she was sassy and sarcastic. But she wasn't a bad person. "Her dad..." He wasn't at all ready to say his dad. Or our dad. "He's sort of loaded...and it's weird. He wants to give me all of this money." He hadn't really been able to talk about it much with Eloise and he really didn't know how he felt about it.