Reunion (Hawthron)

[Sunny Adams]

It was a new year and the weather was already taking a tole on the streets of Pilot Ridge. While that made things slightly inconvenient in the city, it turned the outskirts into a winter wonderland filled with various ice hazards and no city truck to help plow the streets. Sunny's little Camry barely pushed itself through the dirt trail on her way to the Talbot household. She knew it was probably a stupid idea, especially with the current weather trends, but part of her was driven by a sense of concern mixed with a hint of guilt. Not like she'd actually admit to it, but why lie in your own head?

It had only been a few days since she had found out Hawthorn had been in an accident a few years ago. She might have gone her entire life not knowing about it after they had drifted apart, but it seemed like all news eventually circulated in small towns, even to the outlier families. A friend of a friend of a friend mentioned his leg to her mother after the Holiday party and while her mother was indeed weird, she was anything but cruel. The woman had quickly set to making a get well present and was ready to send it through the mail before Sunny intercepted it and volunteered to deliver it by hand.

The present in question laid in Sunny's passenger seat, secured in a paper box with a blue bow on top and cushioned by old food wrapers and extra winter clothes. Sunny herself stuck to a predictable red and black thick trenchcoat with gloves and a scarf to combat the cold. Unfortunately her legs were still freezing (thanks to a pair of jeans) and beginning to itch.

Sunny's car slowly pushed its way to the lonely green house, skidding a few feet before she successfully managed to get her car to completely stop. A few drips of snow melted off the roof in the mid afternoon sun, barely missing the few plants that were still on the front porch. The raven haired girl grabbed her mom's gift and head for the front door, taking in the smell of dill and rosemary as she passed the plants. She had to admit, it was a better smell than leather and various harsh chemicals she usually had when she went home.

Sunny carefully cultivated herself into a casual appearance, trying to look as bored and uncaring as possible before ringing the doorbell. As soon as it was answered, she offered a small wave. "Hey. Mind if I come in? I'm freezing out there."

[Deleted]

It was all too common for Shay to find himself in the household he grew up in, despite having his own apartment that he paid for in Pilot Ridge. These days he just found himself worrying for his mother too much to want to leave her by herself, and he'd only been driven out of the house by his family's constant fretting over his physical conditions and weakening mental state. He felt things were better than they had been at the time though he preferred to keep to himself more than ever and had been seeing yet another increase in nightmares the past few weeks. But that was normal considering it was winter, and winter always left him a bit more depressed than he might be otherwise.

This time, he'd fallen asleep on the couch, feet propped up and head tilted back in an open mouth snore. His mother was taking her own afternoon nap, but in her room, she'd been getting exhausted much easier as of late. He might not have woken up at the ring of the bell had it not been for Jessi's, the family's border collie that was getting quite up there in age, alarmed bark. She struggled off her perch on the couch, where her head had been laying on the stomach and moved to stand anxiously by the door, whining and pawing at the wood.

"Just a second," he shouted and wiped what sleep he could from his eyes before standing up. He was dressed for lounging, obviously, in dark grey sweatpants and a black thermal that he had to adjust from where it had ridden up during his sleep. "Hello?" he answered the door, eyes still a bit squinted from his sudden awakening, and his arms wrapped over his chest as the winter air poured in and over his bare feet.

He waved Sunny in quickly, waiting for the surprise at seeing her until after she was in and the door to -what he considered to be- the frozen wasteland outside was shut. "What are you doing out here?" They hadn't really spoken in years, which didn't sting as much as it might other people, though he did recall a fondness for her from their Hammel days. He sat back down on the couch, Jessi managing somehow to jump up beside him despite her aging bones. Shay rubbed his eyes again before, waving her to a chair for her to sit in herself.

"Just, uh, give me a sec. I dozed off," he didn't add that it was the first good wink of sleep he'd had in weeks.

[Sunny Adams]

As a woman who was taught her manners growing up, Sunny made sure to clean her boots off on the doormat and to offer her hand to Jessi when the dog came over to investigate her. As a woman who grew up disregarding those lessons, she strut into the house like she owned the place and plopped down on the chair with her legs wide open and her arms around the back to lounge. She set the gift down on the floor beside the chair.

"You forgot to turn off your swag and now you're attracting bitches," Sunny said in her usual dry tone. "On a serious note, mom heard about your accident and heard you were still recovering. She dealt with it in her usual way and made a gift. Figured I should deliver it so she wouldn't have to see people reaction to her eccentricities. Want to open it now or save the suspense for later?"

It was a bit of an understatement to say that Susan Adams was an odd woman. A taxidermist by trade, she found both dolls and animals cute and tended to combine them into interesting but often misunderstood art pieces. She'd create little scenes out of raccoons and frogs, posing them into tea parties and dances. More often than not, she tried to give these creations as gifts.

There was a good chance there was something like that in the box.

[Deleted]

It was a slow process but the heavy, sluggish feeling was leaving his body and he was becoming slightly more alert. Jessi whined beside him, excited at the prospect of a new person but too loyal to leave her master's side. He scratched the top of her head, encouraging her to lay down and calm down.

"Close those," he commented, smacking the side of her knee playfully, because in truth he didn't care at all how the woman chose to seat herself, "You'll offend my delicate sensibilities." Shay fixed the young woman with a bemused look, "Not that I'm not /overjoyed/ or anything that you managed to remember I exist, but you're about three years late."

Shay sat up a bit and dragged the box closer to him, "If I tell you I hurt my back too do I get a second surprise visit," he grinned over at the woman with a raised eyebrow, "or does the pity have one injury only limit." If this had come along with the original onslaught of get well gifts he'd gotten immediately after his accident, he would have been a lot less receptive. Even now he was a bit bitter about the show of sympathy but didn't let himself get angry over it.

"Might as well get it over with," he said with a reluctant sigh, he'd been privy to the things Mrs. Adams had made before. Or at least, heard about them. Now he supposed he had the good (?) fortune to own one.

"Oh dear god," he said in genuine surprise, eyebrows shooting up above his eyes before he broke into a loud laugh that caused Jessi to jump beside him. He wasn't sure how he felt about the taxidermy mouse picnic he held in his hands. On one side it was quite artistic and cute on the other it was a bit more morbid than he liked to have on his person.

"This is something," he said nodding as he turned it over and inspected it from various angles. "Where does she even find the mice? Oh wait.... please don't tell me she traps them herself."

[Sunny Adams]

The offending leg did not budge an inch with the smack. "I'm flattered you missed me, though I always assumed you made more friends in college. You were pretty good at it in Hammel, even though I'm pretty sure our teachers and janitors hated you for it."

She leaned forward and put her hand on her chin and her elbow on her knee, peering up at Hawthorn from her new position with a hint of plotting behind her eyes. "I'll tell you what. I'll make it up to you by letting you buy me a drink sometime."

The corner of her mouth curled into a smirk fueled by embarrassing memories. "That is, if you can handle anything stronger than a cosmopolitan."

When it came to flirting, or really taking to anyone in general, Sunny treated her words like the tides, constantly pushing and pulling away without really making progress in any direction. To her, it was a game of seeing people react and seeing if she could string them along long enough to get them to do what she wanted. She liked Hawthorn too much to try to get him to actually buy her things but at least she could see if she could get an interesting reaction or two from him before the night was over.

When he opened the box, Sunny remained leaning forward, though cocked her eyebrow when she heard his question. "Was that rhetorical or do you want an actual answer?"

Even with her odd upbringing and constant exposure to the concept of death, Sunny was aware she was not in the norm. When she was younger she would have answered in excruciating detail without a second thought. Over time she learned that telling people about her family's grim secrets was a good way to lose friends and get the police called on her if they didn't know her well though.

[Deleted]

"I don't remember saying anything about missing you," the amusement stayed on his face, despite the somewhat honesty of the statement. He might have missed their friendship for a while after graduation but... he had just forgotten about a lot of things after the accident. He'd become a lot more self-hating and trapped in his own head and didn't often seek out new friendship.

It didn't mean he wasn't enjoying her visit, though, it was a little nice, despite being a little put off by the pity basis of her presence. Which was just how he tended to feel about any visits pertaining to his injuries or 'get well' gifts, no matter how belated they might be. "Well, I dropped out," he said plainly, hand moving to scratch between his dog's ears as she drifted off to sleep once more.

"Only if you can use your feminine wiles to fetch me a discount. " Shay laughed at her comment, he knew very well his tolerance was negligible at best and it didn't bother him much that she pointed it out. He grinned and winked at her, "Maybe if they serve me my drink in a thimble."

Shay was pretty aware when it came to flirting, and even if he remembered not to take it seriously he was always down for playing along just as much as she wanted to. Though at the moment he was trapped between deciding whether or not to do so, "Though I'm sure they'll wonder what alley I dragged you out of," teasing always proved to be more fun.

He shook his head and offered a weak chuckle, setting the gift down at his feet so that he could (attempt) to find a place to put it later. Maybe his mother could find a way to turn it into a planter, she could find a way to put a plant in anything. "No, I've rethought it and I don't want to know." Shay had never minded the oddness of Sunny's family, though he had only really met or bumped into them on rare occasions. He felt he didn't have much to judge when he lived in a family of plants (rather people named after plants but it all felt the same to him when his house constantly smelled of dirt and herbs).

"How's life been for you?" Shay wasn't much for small talk but he was interested, after all, he hadn't spoken to hardly anyone from his Hammel days in several years and he was sure some of them had to be doing more with their lives than he was.