Put on Your Face&Let's Pretend (Noralei)

[Noralei Harris]

It was rare for anyone Noralei talked to to have a chicken story, so when Gabriel explained she sat at rapt attention, looking away only to ensure that her pasta salad made it safely into her mouth rather than down her front. She realized she’d been resting her elbow on the table and slid it off, hoping they didn’t notice her breech in etiquette. “I didn’t know chickens liked tomatoes.” She mumbled thoughtfully, remembering that they hadn’t quite used the very last of the canned tomatoes from the previous summer yet. “We always have a few extra eggs, I’m sure I can bring some... sometime...” Mid-sentence she realized how very bad that idea was- her usual bohemian attire probably wouldn’t be welcomed in a house like this.

But they moved on to their rabbit and she nodded, muttering a mandatory ‘I’m sorry’ when Uriel told her it had passed on. Pets dying always made her sad, even when they weren’t hers and she had never even met the animal in question. They took pride in their rabbit’s hatch and she smiled. She could never handle a rabbit in the house, if only because she’d become so committed to the cute little thing that she would become an absolute recluse. They offered to get her one, but she shook her head. “Mom says no more animals, sorry. We have enough as it is.” The money they spent on dog food alone could probably but them an exotic vacation.

Glancing in the direction Uriel was looking, Nora could just barely see their mother... And she promptly sunk down in her chair after doing so. If the adage ‘looks could kill’ were true... She began to wolf down her food as fast as politely possible, making sure to eat everything on her plate. It wasn’t hard- she had taken rather small portions- and she was done by the time dessert was being put out.

Apparently the dessert course was more of a walking and grazing affair. Nora paused by her mother, who smoothed the back of her hair and squeezed her shoulder.
“Making new friends?”
“Mmhmm. Gabriel and Uriel, they’re rather nice.”
“Don’t monopolize all of their time, okay? There are other guests.” Her mother wasn’t trying to be patronizing, she was only worried about Nora’s tendency to follow people she knew around. There were other teenagers here, after all.
“I won’t.” She offered, smiling as her Mom gave her one final smile and left.

Since the twins were busy, she decided to attempt to socialize with said other teenagers, sidling up to a girl in her class who was absorbed in her texting. “Hi Kate, how’re you? Has cheerleading practice started up yet?” The girl gave her a glare fit for the devil and walked off, still absorbed in her texting. Nora frowned and sighed. “Yeah. That’s what I thought.” She muttered to no one in particular, leaning back on her heels before turning around.

A few minutes later she had been sucked into a discussion with two old women about ‘kids today’ and was being quizzed on her habits. After realizing that they had managed to find a good specimen of how kids were ‘supposed’ to be, they proceeded to fawn over her and asked her all about herself. What did she want to be when she grew up? “Exotic animal veterinarian.” Did she know what college she planned on attending? “Not yet, I plan on researching it more this year.” Was she in sports, extracirriculars? “No, that’s more of my sister’s thing. I just do show choir.” Did she have a boyfriend yet? (They asked this with wicked grins and Nora felt suddenly like she was under a microscope.) “Not yet. I only have time to take care of one troublemaker at a time and my little brother is a higher priority.” With the final comment she excused herself, claiming she had to find said little brother, and took off quickly so she wouldn’t be sucked into another conversation.

Finding Guylan was easy- all one had to do was find the snack table. The child was a black hole. “I want jello cubes please.” He asked her, and she lifted him up to rest him on her hip as they debated between green, blue, orange, or green, (in the end it was a tie of orange and green, his two favorite colors.) She served him and he wandered off. She took a look at the desserts, but couldn’t find anything she really wanted at first glance so she left. She was full anyway- some more walking would calm her stomach down a bit.

[Gabriel & Uriel Raines]

After the table was cleared and all the desserts were out, Gabriel and Uriel did make their rounds to all the guests again, ensuring everyone was having a good time, oh how is your pet cat, Mrs. Suchandsuch, oh, Mr. Soandso, how goes the remodeling of the '64 Corvette going? Yes, anytime you need a hand, feel free to call on us, et cetera et cetera. It was obvious all the Raines could listen and remember weird things people cared about.

Of course, when Mrs. Suchandsuch offered to show them pictures, their only option was to look at and coo appropriately over them - which of course, they did. It was a cat, after all.

Once they'd finished that, even talking with all the kids for a few minutes - and discreetly showing Guylan the 'live long and prosper' sign and telling him they thought it was SO. COOL, they successfully found the teenagers. They talked an appropriate length of time to them, ignoring the few girls who fawned and fluttered and swooned around them - airheads, all of them, but very nice people - none that the Raines' would ever date.

In short, they made their way back as quickly as they could to Noralei. "Saw you talking to Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Campbell." "Did they give you their usual spiel about the awfulness of this generation? "Bet you proved 'em wrong like we did." "Did you get their usual interrogation?" Uriel looked up, as if he was thinking, though he listed them off perfectly. "Future job, college, extracurriculars, girlfriend. Err, boyfriend for you, I guess."

Gabriel stepped forward with an explanation. "The first time we met them, they did that. Now, every time you see them, they'll remember, and they'll ask you the same questions every time. Very charming women, we like them a lot and are always happy to answer them and talk with them." "They're very funny." Uriel threw in, Gabriel nodding in agreement. They didn't mean in a laugh at the old women way, of course, they meant in they, these women tell excellent jokes and have the funniest life stories.

"Now, I have a business proposition for you. We'll grow a tomato garden, and whenever you give us chicken eggs, we'll give you tomatoes - for your chickens and your family, of course." He said with a smile. Their mom had an herb garden that used to have tomatoes too, and the boys were sure it'd be easy to start that part of it up again. Uriel nodded in agreement, smiling. "Yeah, we have a little garden out back, there's enough room there for a few plots. Mm, fresh eggs." He said, grinning, trying not to think about the Hammel food.

It wasn't bad, not by a long shot. But it wasn't fresh eggs and homegrown spices and vegetables.

[Noralei Harris]

Within a few moments of standing by herself, Nora was once again in the company of the twins. She wondered if, had they met under different circumstances, their impression of her would have been different. Here she certainly didn’t look like weird and annoying Noralei Madison Harris. In fact, in her dress and flats she almost looked, well, normal. As soon as she left, of course, her hair would come out of its braid, her toe-pinching flats would come off, and her dress would be replaced with something a lot more comfortable and a lot less clean. Judging by Guylan’s energy levels, they’d be home around ten when he finally fell asleep- unless the jello she had given him was sugar free, then they’d be looking at about nine.

Nodding, Nora played with the ribbon on her dress and cast her eyes at the ceiling. “Something like that.” Every generation found fault with the one after them- except if they were the last generation, then they pointed out the flaws of those who came before. It was a vicious cycle, and she chose not to participate in it. “And yes, I got all that.” It was surprising that they were so predictable, but then again they were old women. Not that it was a bad thing, of course.

Turning from Uriel to Gabriel, she half-listened to his explanation while she tried to find a way to differentiate the two again. She didn’t want to see them again and get them confused, that would leave a bad impression. Instantly she found a way- in the lighting before she couldn’t see it, but now she noticed a light scar running down Gabriel’s right cheek. In the current setting, it was still hard to see, and it took her a moment to determine whether or not it was real or a trick of the light. Once she was certain, she returned to the conversation, catching the tale of end of Gabriel’s explanation and Uriel’s comment. “I’ll remember that next time I see them.” If she saw them again, which was doubtful. She had never seen them before- she suspected they either kept inside a lot or were from the next town over.

The proposition sounded good enough for her, and she nodded with obvious enthusiasm. “Sounds fantastic.” She would’ve given them eggs for free, of course, but her mother would be so happy to have fresh tomatoes. She loved making pasta, and her homemade tomato sauce was to die for. “We normally have a garden, but not this year.” They decided against it- her Mother had longer shifts this summer and couldn’t go through so much work canning the vegetables. Besides, Regina had been digging in the garden plot, and they were worried that she would dig up all the plants on accident. They would train her not to dig in the yard this summer and resume their gardening next year.

“Prudy-ence lays the best eggs.” Guylan had magically appeared from behind Nora, handing her his plate of half-eaten jello to dispose of. “I dunno where the trash is.” With that, he was off again. She eyed the jello cubes- most of which were orange- and looked around for the trash. “Uhm, where do I...”

[Gabriel & Uriel Raines]

They nodded at her saying they didn't have a garden this year - they understood, schedules changed a lot and some people just didn't have much time. Also, they had their priorities straight, knowing spending time with family in your free time was more important than something such as gardening.

Gabriel smiled at Guylan as he approached and told them who had the best eggs. "I trust you completely." He told the younger boy before seeing the trash. With a chuckle, he took it. "I got it." He said, before taking the plate carefully and heading off.

As he left, Uriel smirked to Noralei. "So, we can't actually use our phones during parties, but if you'd like our numbers, I'd be happy to give them to you." Since she, obviously, could use her phone, whereas they had to be perfect hosts.

As Gabriel returned, he rose an eyebrow do them, looking around suspiciously as if he was about to deal drugs. Or something. "Do you want to meet our dogs?" He asked, with another grin, before also extending the invitation to her currently M.I.A brother. "Guylan can, of course, come too, if he wants to." He had, of course, noticed how Guylan seemed to need the reassuring presence of his sister somewhere nearby.

Uriel, at this proposition, gave a huge grin. "You would love them. But we have people here allergic to them and one of them is a little ball of energy, so we keep them up in our rooms."

Gabriel nodded in agreement. "When have no one allergic, we let our older dog out, and when we have our completely not formal parties, we let them both out." But not for a party like this, between someone people being allergic and them also having the little ball of energy dog, they tried to keep them hidden away for ultra formal events like this though.

But in the boy's room was their toys, and a bed for them, and food and water. They actually ought to probably let them outside for a few minutes anyways, so that could even be their perfect excuse if their mother noticed all three of them missing.

[Noralei Harris]

Nora passed the plate to Gabriel with a smile. “Thank you.” She watched him leave for a moment before turning back to Uriel, blinking at his sudden request. It took every fiber of her being not to break out into a grin- instead she nodded, enthralled that they found her interesting enough to warrant talking to her again. “Sure!” She unzipped her bag and dug around in it, looking for her ancient cell phone before pulling the scratched and battered machinery out, flipping it open before handing it over to Uriel, confident that he’d be able to navigate it well enough to enter his and his brother’s contacts.

As Gabriel returned from his errand to the trash can, Nora noticed the look on his face and immediately knew he had something in mind. He glanced around and she wondered if this had anything to do with the fireworks, but she proven wrong a moment later. “Of course!” She chirped, eyes alight as he extended the invitation to her brother. She looked behind her and found him sitting and watching the party, so she waved him over. He blinked and started to follow her command, making an ordeal of climbing down from the high-seated couch he had gotten himself stuck on. She turned back to the twins. “Oh, I see.” There was no hope for anyone allergic to dogs keen on entering the house- their hair and presence was so deep set that removing them would do no good. Of course, the Raines household was much bigger and cleaner.

Guylan finally wandered up and gripped his sister’s hand, shooting the Spock sign to the twins before using that hand to also grip his sister’s, resulting in both hands locked around her fingers. He wasn’t normally this clingy- he had actually been complaining about Nora holding his hand too much earlier that week. She bent over and picked him up, and he locked his arms around her neck- she realized as he held onto her that despite his new friend entertaining him, he was not liking the party. She suspected that there were just too many people around for his liking. Perhaps a break from the crowd would open him up a bit. “You wanna see Gabriel and Uriel’s dogs?” She asked gently, bouncing him as he considered it. He nodded slowly, his usual bubbling fountain of speech turned off for the time being. Oh yeah- that jello was sugar free. Poor thing. “Okay.” She fixed his hair and he waved off her hand, pushing his hair all around himself- he liked his hair messed up. Maybe he wasn’t too bad then- he flashed a smile before giggling and hiding his face.

“Lead the way.” she gestured to them, signifying that her and Guylan- now resting his head on his shoulder while messing with her braid- were ready to go.

[Gabriel & Uriel Raines]

Gabriel and Uriel both did the Vulcan sign back to Guylan, before leading Nora and he into the kitchen, where there was an organized stack of dirty dishes and everything else was clean. They snuck around to the back stair, leading her up the stairs. As they headed down a hall, Uriel decided to go ahead and explain the dogs' names.

"So, the older black lab is named Merlin, he's eleven. The smaller, outrageously hyperactive mutt is Royce, they're both named after engines." Gabriel furthered this as they passed a few closed doors, before stopping in front of one.

"Rolls Royce Merlin is a 27-liter British V12 liquid cooled piston airplane engine." He explained, smiling to her. "We like cars. We like engines. We really like locomotives of any sort, and our dad thinks Rolls Royces are the bee knees." He said with a chukled.

Uriel opened their door, sticking his leg in first to push Royce back. Once they were all four in, he shut the door, Royce jumping up, trying to lick anything, anything he could of anyone. Gabriel sat onto the floor, Royce immediately leaping into his lap and licking everywhere on his face.

"Don't worry, neither of them bite. Uriel promised, with a grin. "And obviously, you've met Royce.." He chuckled. A black labrador, obviously old, rose up from a comforter that had been folded up and was into between the two beds, meandering over and nosing at Nora's knee, trying to smell of her. "That's Merlin. He's a little old, very loving. Both are cuddly, Royce is just a little wound if he hasn't been on about three runs a day.." Gabriel chuckled at that, nodding.

Their room wasn't huge, though it was certainly big enough for the two boys. They had a closet, two small dressers, and a large bookcase filled with books, sorted by color and size. They had one nightstand between their two extra-long twin sized beds, and not much matched. The carpet was a deep blue, the walls and pleasing and well matched yellow, which had sharpie drawings and lyrics written by the boys over it.

Little sketches by Uriel, lyrics and poems they both liked, even a few doodles from Gabriel. Their parents loved giving them creative freedom, which was obviously what this room was. Everything had used to be white, except the carpet and walls. The nightstand had been drawn on and painted on, making a new scene with each side you looked at, same with the bookshelf. The front-face, behind the books, had landscapes. Towns, cities, sky rises, on each shelf. The shelf itself, under the books that couldn't be seen had more words on it, and the thin front of the shelf had squiggles and polka dots.

One side of the bookshelf had a sun rising, and the other side had the sun setting, though both over the same scenery of a farm. Their headboards were decorated randomly, much like the bits of the wall. The nightstand, upon closer inspection, had dinosaurs drawn onto the most obvious side, with people - just random people - drawn on the other sides.

The wall was still mostly empty, though the boys were at Hammel most of the time. It wasn't messy at all, beds made, and a two-sided lamp on their nightstand that had a circle traced around it, then all around it colored in circular patterns of oranges, reds, and yellow, as it, looking down on the lamp, you'd see a sun. The only that that was visible as not being put away - aside from backpacks next to their appropriate beds - were the colored sharpies on their nightstand that they drew with, in all sorts of colors and thickness.

"Please," Gabriel offered with a smile. "Both of you, feel free to sit anywhere." It was true, they could sit on the beds, the floor, anywhere. Royce, after realizing there were other people in the room, were sniffing curiously in a circle around Nora, walking under Merlin's chin.

[Noralei Harris]

Following them through the house, Nora held onto Guylan, who had turned around to see where they were going. She could tell by the look on his face that even though it was only 7:30- thank you, clock on the stove- he had worn himself out playing with his friend. He would be going straight to bed when they got home, that was for certain. She climbed the stairs right behind the boys and followed them down the hall, pausing only to shift Guylan’s weight on her hip before moving on.

She understood they were named after cars, of course. The names were easy to comprehend, but car engine jargon was beyond her. The most experience she had around cars of any sort was when she held the flashlight and revved the engine in her Dad’s car when it broke down last summer. They had fixed it, but Noralei was next to useless when it came to working around a car. So when Gabriel explained it to her, she merely nodded. She did note his choice of words in the conclusion of his speech- she thought she was the only one who used the term ‘bee’s knees’ anymore. She smiled at him as she made her way in.

The room made Nora realize that her earlier assumption about Uriel being a show off was most certainly false. The sheer amount of work they had put into decorating their room was amazing. She admired the walls and the carpet then turned her attention to the furniture, nodding appreciatively at the various designs on them. She stared at the bookshelf and took in the detail of the design, then noted how clean the room was- not a mess in sight. She had shared a room with Marilee for many years- it was similar to this kind of set up, but the furniture was not doodled on nearly as much. A nudging at her leg brought her back to reality, and she rubbed Merlin’s head as he lifted his gaze from her knee to her face, studying her like the wizened old dog he was. She suspected that he would probably enjoy Zib’s company- the german spitz acted similar to him.

Guylan immediately wanted down once he saw the smaller dog sniffing around his sister’s ankles and began to pet him. The creature turned his attention from the short girl to the little boy, sniffing him. Guylan immediately balled his hand into a fist and held it in front of the dog’s nose. After moment on sniffing, he opened his hand and held it, palm down, out to the dog. Nora had drilled the proper way to introduce himself to a dog into his head, along with the ‘tree’ pose used in case he was ever approached by a strange dog. As concerned for animals as she was, she still worried more about her little brother. Once Royce licked his palm, Guylan’s bottom hit the floor and he began to scratch the dog’s ears, giggling as it tried to turn around to lick the boy’s hands.

Nodding to show she had heard Gabriel, Nora, rather than sitting, petted Merlin’s head and scratched his ears before leaving him alone to expect Guylan. She wandered over to the wall on her left, hands clasped behind her back, and began to read the quotes and lyrics written there as well as inspected the drawings. “My sister and I write quotes on our ceiling.” She confessed, moving from one poem to another. “But neither of us are particularly good at drawing.”

[Gabriel & Uriel Raines]

Gabriel and Uriel sat onto one of the beds, Gabriel then sliding onto the floor behind Guylan, giving a soft whistle. "Merlin, c'mere boy!" He called, Merlin trotting over, and immediately sniffing Guylan's face for mere moments before giving him a lick, and sitting next to him. Gabriel sat back, letting Guylan enjoy the dogs, and watching Nora.

"I don't believe in bad art." He let her know, before continuing with, "Neither does Gabriel." Gabriel nodded, smiling. "You should've seen our drawings from when we were young..awful." "Dreadful! Gabriel's still are." He joked, grinning.

Actually, just by looking at the drawings and the handwriting, you couldn't tell who did what, because the drawing style and the handwriting was identical. There might have been a few drawings that were clearly done differently - that whoever had drawn them took more time doing as opposed to the random scribbles.

Gabriel smiled. "The sun, around the lamp? Work of art, that is. Of course, for some strange reason, we didn't do it centered, so the lamp is always a tibble bit closer to my side." He said, nodding. Gabriel shrugged.

"It worked out, though, you need more light to read than you do to draw." "Touche." Gabriel said with a chuckle.

Then he glanced at Guylan. "Guylan! Do you want to draw on the wall? You can draw anything you want. Or, even, make Uriel draw on the wall for you." He offered with a smile, before glancing up to Noralei.

"The invitation is, of course, extended to you as well. There's plenty of space left, we're not really home often enough to draw too much.." He trailed off, glancing at the backpack and thinking of the homework they had left to do for the weekend. But it, of course, wouldn't take too long.

Uriel gestured towards the sharpies, so Noralei would see them, and offering them to Guylan of course. "We've got all sorts of colors." He nodded, very proud of their sharpie collection to be completely honest.

"Or, if you want," Gabriel continued. "You can write something." Royce seemed to sense that Guylan might be getting up in a moment, and leaped onto Uriel and onto the bed, Merlin laying down next to Guylan and Gabriel with a sigh, in position so he could protectively watch everyone in the room.

[Noralei Harris]

Listening to the twins without looking at them was quite an experience. Even when she listened closely, she couldn’t discern who exactly was saying what unless they referred to each other. She was so absorbed in their wall that she barely heard them, focusing on reading it all instead- she was one of those people that got sucked into things and found it hard to get back out of them once she was in. The Harry Potter series, for example, was a blessing and a curse in the Harris household. For one, it was something to keep Nora quiet when she was younger, since she wasn’t exactly a stellar reader when she was a child and often would take extra time to read a page over before moving on to the next one. If something wasn’t completely understood, she remained stuck on it. As she got older, however, the book reading evolved into a slight obsession- delivered the day of release by her mailman father, Nora’s book would arrive at their house at seven in the morning before her father left for work. She wouldn’t even sit down the book to go eat, opting instead to lay on her bed and read it. The last book had been an emotional one for the whole family- Nora had quite literally thrown the book down the stairs when Severus Snape died.

As it was, she was barely listening to Gabriel- she was busy reading and re-reading a poem. She didn’t recognize it, or even the telltale style of an author who might have wrote it. After reading the final stanza she glanced at the bottom and realized it had their names at the bottom of it. They must have written it themselves. She began searching for others to read and stumbled across a few, smiling as she read them. Some were funny, others were sad, but all of them were good.

Guylan, however, was more than ready to draw on the walls. He knew better then to do it at home, but here they seemed absolutely content with it. “I WANNA DO IT.” He said, adamant that he color on the wall for himself. He stood up, careful not to upset the dogs, and grabbed the whole set of markers from Uriel with a grin, holding them to his chest as he ran to stand next to his sister. He looked up at her and discovered she was totally oblivious to his presence before dropping the whole bunch onto the floor with a large huff. He sat in front of the wall, grabbed a marker, and immediately started coloring, intent on making something cool like the twins.

The clattering of markers onto her feet startled Nora out of her reverie, and she glanced down at Guylan as she slowly re-entered the real world. She caught what Gabriel said just in time, and she nodded very slowly. Her train of thought was still starting up, after getting off track for so long. Her family poked fun at her for it of course- even Guylan patted his sister’s leg in a way of mock understanding as he switched from red marker to orange.

With a moment of deliberation, Nora picked up the red marker her brother discarded and began to write in a small empty space just above her current eye level.

‘IF WE DID ALL THE THINGS WE WERE CAPABLE OF
WE WOULD ASTOUND OURSELVES.’
-Thomas Edison

Putting the cap on the marker, she handed it back to Guylan and patted his head. He didn’t even notice, he was so engrossed in his work. Nora turned and walked back to where the twins sat, taking up Guylan’s old spot on the floor next to Merlin as she patted his head and scratched his ears. His tail hit the floor with a satisfied thump and Nora smiled. She didn’t have anything to say, so she let the sound of Guylan’s capping and uncapping of the markers, along with the scribbling sounds in-between, break the silence.

[Gabriel & Uriel Raines]

Gabriel watched as Noralei investigated the wall, and as Guylan jumped at the chance to draw on it, too. He took all the colors and scampered off to be near Noralei, but where he could also draw.

Uriel rose, Royce leaping up and racing to the door, wagging his tail expectantly at Uriel. He stepped carefully over all the people in the floor, glancing back to Merlin. "Wanna go outside, Merlin?" He asked excitedly, but it only furthered to cause Royce to go almost ballistic. Merlin merely looked at Uriel like he was stupid.

Giving a 'pfftt' Noise, Uriel picked up Royce, opening the door and heading out, since if he just opened the door, Royce would sprint right downstairs into the party. At Uriel doing this, Gabriel immediately tensed, since no average person could just lift wiggly and somewhat heavy Royce. He would use the excuse that they worked out.

Yeah, that would work. They worked out. A lot. Royce didn't actually weigh that much, but but wiggly weights always take more muscle.

Maybe she just wouldn't notice. That'd be best. Although they loved humans, they weren't sure how she felt about Metas. Maybe that'd be something good to ask her.. or was that considered random? Definitely random. Wait till it comes up in conversation, that's how that would work. Then they'd gauge her reaction to them and pray she wasn't against them.

He stared idly at Guylan's drawing as he thought all this, mentally taking a deep breath - Uriel must've been outside, probably doing the same. They'd have to go back downstairs, but he certainly wanted Guylan to finish his work of art. "It's looking great, Guylan." He said with a grin, one hand rubbing on Merlin's back.

They'd only met one person who hated metas, in their whole life, back before they even knew they were one. They started talking about how they were freaks, and.. well. Gabriel and Uriel didn't really like to think back on it. That night, they'd gone home and asked their parents if metas were bad, and freaks, and their parents had explained to them that God made them the way they were for a reason, and He loved all of His children. All of them. Even the bullies who'd said those awful things.

It still plagued them, sometimes, knowing that people actually thought like that. Sure, some of the metas might've had cruel intentions, but so do humans. They just.. none of the Raines' really understood why hate was around, but Gabriel and Uriel were always afraid they'd meet one. The faraway look in his eyes told anyone who was paying attention that he wans't focusing on anything but rubbing Merlin's back and what was going on in his head.

[Noralei Harris]

Nora’s head rose and she watched Uriel stand up and leave with Royce, leaving Merlin behind as the other dog went ballistic. The older dog merely laid on the floor, allowing himself to be petted by the two older kids in the room. She did notice that Uriel picking up Royce looked a little easier for him than what is would be for anyone else, but she dismissed it and figured that the two of them must have to do it all the time, with him being such an excitable little thing. Once the door closed, she went back to petting Merlin, leaning over to look at him and smile. He lifted his head and looked at her expectantly, and, as if she knew what he wanted, she switched from scratching his ears to the underside of his muzzle. The resulting thump from his tail hitting the floor again showed that her gesture was well received.

Glancing up at her brother, she noted his drawing and tried to make sense of it. It looked like just a mess of color, but now he was adding tiny dots to it and he was carefully considering where to put each one. She noted the smell of sharpies was starting to pervade the room, and she stood to go look at his drawing, kneeling to his level. The fumes from the markers was even worse where he was sitting, and she decided they’d have to cut his drawing time short.

“Hey, Guy.” She whispered, affectionately, patting the back of his head. “I think its time we put the markers away, okay?” Guylan pouted for a moment and he stared at his drawing, clearly thinking it wasn’t finished. She rubbed his back and noted how long it took him to blink- he was definitely ready to drift off. “Why don’t we go sit with Merlin and Gabriel now, buddy.” He finally complied, capping the marker he was holding and getting up. With a few deft movements Nora collected and capped all the remaining markers. She crossed the room with Guylan, who was suppressing a yawn, and handed the markers to Gabriel with a smile as she sat back down. Her brother took his place in her lap and patted Merlin quietly, leaving the room in silence.

“Good dog.” Guylan muttered, breaking the silence as he laid his head on Nora’s leg and his hand on Merlin’s collar. The dog seemed to let out a sigh as he lowers his head to the floor. Nora smoothed her brother’s hair and, like clockwork, he messed it up again and muttered a muffled ‘Stop it’, which she complied with. She turned her attention to the wall across from her, taking the time to read the words and admire the drawings on the other side of the room. She wasn’t sure how to make conversation with Gabriel- she wasn’t good at starting them as much as keeping them going- so she kept her mouth shut as she listened to the sound of the music from downstairs. She heard there was supposed to be dancing, but she doubted she would make it down for a quick , goodnatured spin with her Dad or anything like that. She was content where she was, anyway.

[Gabriel & Uriel Raines]

When she hadn't mentioned anything, Gabriel had nearly sighed with relief. What would she say, though? They loved humans. Why couldn't humans always love them? Shaking his head, eh relaxed, just basking in the silence, even after the markers had all clicked close quietly. Chuckling quietly at how Guy was drawing it, he offered him a smile. "Don't worry, you can come back anytime you want and finish it." He promised. He leaned back against the wall, closing his eyes tiredly.

He would've made conversation, but he was slightly shy and rather out of things to say, and the silence didn't feel awkward at all.

As Uriel came back in, once again carrying Royce, he grinned. "Batch of old women, the lot of you!" He teased, since they all looked a distinct combination of zoned out and half asleep. Gabriel nodded. "It's true. I've been trying to keep it a secret, but I've been found out. I'm secretly an old woman." He laughed, before rising, offering a hand to help Noralei up, since he was sure Guylan would want to stay in her arms.

"Back down to the party then? Good, mom'll flip if we're up here much long." Gabriel nodded, looking down at his watch. "8:00 on the dot. Three hours to go.." "Hopefully less." Uriel added with a smile. "Lots of other old women down there, too." He said with a wink to Gabriel.

As the headed back downstairs, Gabriel shut the door quietly behind himself. They headed down the stairs and back to where the people were. There were people dancing, but it was all the 'younger' crowd now, teens and elderly having left, and only people around their parents' age remaining, unless they had small children. So the people had been cut about in half, and about half of them were dancing.

Gabriel gave a quick smile to Noralei. "Excuse us, please, we need to make our usual, super-social rounds." Almost on cue, they both looked awake and refreshed, big, welcoming grins on their faces as they talked with all the guests and were even forced to dance with a few of the ladies - including their mother, of course, who spent half a song with one and half with the other.

Within the duration of two songs, however, they'd found Noralei again, glancing over the party to make sure they hadn't missed any massive disasters while they were hiding upstairs.

[Noralei Harris]

The silence was broken by Uriel’s arrival with Royce under his arm once again. Guylan barely even looked up, and Nora merely smiled- she wasn’t tired, but her brother definitely was. Gabriel made a joke about secretly being an old woman and Nora laughed, scooping up Guylan with one arm as she took Gabriel’s outstretched hand with her free one. “I guess that makes two of us then.” She kidded. Once standing she rubbed the base of her back, which actually did hurt mildly, before heading downstairs after them.

By the time she went downstairs, Guylan was fast asleep with his head on her shoulder, no doubt lulled to sleep by the dogs and the quiet room away from all the people. After the twins had departed, Nora waved to her parents and deposited Guylan into her Mother’s care. She patted the back of her son’s hair and Nora left them alone, walking by the snack table to grab a couple strawberries for her dessert. She watched all the people dancing and wondered if her parents had gotten a few dances in before she had come down. She figured they had, but didn’t ask.

After a couple songs her Father patted her shoulder and told her to get her bag, they were going to head out. He disappeared to go say goodbye to everyone and Nora finished off her strawberry, depositing the green top into the trash as she wiped her fingers on a paper napkin. That also went in the trash. Nora tried to remember where she last had her bag and realized she had left it in the twin’s room- it had fallen off when she had pulled Guylan away from his drawing.

Gabriel and Uriel looked busy with their guests, so Nora figured she’d go get it herself, cutting through the kitchen and going up the back stairs like she had done before. Away from the party, the large house was rather quiet- something Nora wasn’t used to. Her flats clicked as she headed down the hall, and she realized she couldn’t remember exactly where their room was. The doors all looked the same to her. She opened one and discovered it was a guest bedroom, another turned out to be a bathroom. Sighing, she tried the third, and she turned out to be right- and ended up being greeted with a bouncing, hyperactive Royce.

She realized her error as she grabbed hold of the dog, already straining to bolt down the hallway. Merlin was still laying down on the comforter, so she could devote all her attention into making sure the little dog didn’t get past her. It was easier said then done. She held onto him but he squirmed in her grip, whining and wagging his tail. She tried to lift him but realized it was no use, he was just too heavy. The twins must have perfected the art of it.

After a moment she realized she was stuck there and she tried to pull Royce back into the room again. This resulted only in the dog burying his hind paws into her leg. “Ow, Royce, that hurts.” She told him, scooting so his claws were on the floor and not embedded in her thigh. “C’mon, Royce, you don’t want to go down there. It’s a boring human party. Just let me get my bag.” She whispered, trying to look for a way to get him back in the room again.

[Gabriel & Uriel Raines]

As neither of them could find her, the twins heard the noise of claws scraping on the upstairs, and both looked up. Royce was out. Exponentially higher hearing was lovely, as well. "I.." "Ahh.." They both looked confusedly at their mother, then at the stairs.

"You..you keep her happy. Don't let her know I'm upstairs again." He said, Uriel nodding, and all but bolting (Actually, he just walked quickly..) to their mother, grabbing her up and turning her away from the stairs.

Gabriel went up the front stairs, since it was the fastest way to their room, an saw Royce all but dragging poor Nora. "Royce!" He hissed, quietly, Royce stopping his all but dragging of Noralei, and turning to look at Gabriel. "Let him go." He told Nora, so he didn't have to try to step over and around her to get to the dog.

As soon as she did, Royce bolted to Gabriel, and at seeing he was being grabbed for, tried to go around - between - under - anything to get to where the people were! After all, people were very exciting to a dog. Gabriel seemed to move quickly and silently, with a skill mastered by someone who did this often.

Or, you know, was a meta-human.

He scooped Royce up, cramming him into one arm and looking to Noralei. "Are you all right?" He asked, still whispering. The upstairs was a little echo-y and he didn't want everyone to ehar all the commotion going on upstairs - especially not his mother, who would probably know anyways. Mothers might as well be metas, with the way the know everything..

Gabriel helped Noralei the rest of the way up, grimacing a little. "So sorry about him, but, now you understand why we keep him locked away during things like this.." He chuckled a little, leading her back into his room. He set Royce down, after shutting the door behind him.

"What did you forget up here?" But he saw it - the little clutch. It was something not normally there, and so it was the first thing he noticed as his eyes did a quick sweet of the room. Ah, her bag. He would've chuckled and made some joke about how she shouldn't lose that, since it had her phone in there, and the twins obviously expected texts.

However, he wasn't the one who had put the numbers in there, and he was worried enough she would know something was up with them so easily being able to things such as lift Royce, and he hoped she hadn't thought he was moving faster then he should've been when he grabbed Royce. He knew hoping was all he could do, but until he knew how she felt about metas, there was no way he'd tell her. No way.

Okay, that was a total lie, neither of the brothers could lie well, and therefore, really all they could do was hope to God she didn't question it, and if she did, that she had some secret love - or at least didn't hate - metas.

[Noralei Harris]

Nora heard someone coming up the stairs and gulped, holding her breath as she looked from the back staircase to the one ahead of her. She hadn’t noticed there were two, but now Royce was tugging her around toward the other way as the footsteps got closer. Once she saw the telltale head of red hair, Nora sighed in relief, then realized she would have to explain herself to him. The dog was all but dragging her across the floor, and it took all of her strength to keep hold of him- curse her for being so small! Glancing from the dog up to Gabriel again, she nodded and loosened her grip on the dog, falling forward onto her elbows as he all but exploded from her grasp, running so fast toward Gabriel that it probably could be registered as speeding on certain roads.

Yet, despite the dog racing for him being faster than a speeding bullet, Gabriel managed to outmaneuver Royce’s evasive attempts and scooped him up like he was nothing. Either she was super weak, or he was super-human. She suspected it was the former, considering her upper body strength was so bad she couldn’t even do a chin up in gym or work a set of playground monkey bars. She realized she was panting from the effort of holding him as Gabriel came back with the squirming dog in hand. “How... Do you DO that?” She asked in a whisper, looking herself over. There were a couple of raised red marks on her calf, but otherwise she was fine. “Just a scratch, it’s fine.” She had gotten worse from her chickens at home.

Taking Gabriel’s hand, Nora hoisted herself up and took a glance at her leg- it wasn’t too bad. No broken skin, no problem. She patted Royce’s head in good humor to show there was no animosity between them. “It’s alright, I should’ve just gotten you or Uriel.” She whispered, smiling and shrugging with a little ‘oh well’ hand motion thrown in.

Remembering what she had originally came up for, she peered into the room. “My purse, it’s, ah...” Gabriel had spotted it by the time she mentioned what she had lost, but she pointed to it anyway for good measure. She normally didn’t carry a purse so little- usually her bags were bulky, heavy things that she would notice leaving behind. She wasn’t used to such tiny purses- she had borrowed it from her mother, to be honest. But once she had it safely over her shoulder, she held onto the strap to make sure she didn’t walk off without it again.

Realizing that by the time she got downstairs she have to rush out the door, Nora pointed to the front staircase, then to the back. “I have to go. My family, we’re leaving.” She realized a tad too late how stupid that sounded, but ignored it. “Which staircase should I take?” She didn’t want to get him in trouble by going down a staircase in full view of everyone else with him. That might cause problems, and she had more than enough of those for the night.