Kindling [Macaria, W. Stronghold, Warren]

[Macaria]

"Then go buy plaster and wall-paint and fix it up that way," she responded, folding her arms and giving him a look right back. A smirk of her own followed it.

Macaria bit back a gasp when Warren yanked his shirt up. Rows and rows of gruesome marks and bruises....it was horrifying, and she did stare in horror at what her parents (her parents, for Zeus's sake) had done. She swallowed, hard, as Will pulled Warren's shirt back down, and let out an inaudible sigh for him. How awful. And she had thought the thing with Hercules had been bad. Her parents weren't villains, they were monsters.

Maci, resuming Warren's petting, glanced back up from Warren to Will as he offered her a place to stay again. She would find someplace else to go, eventually (there was a good chance Herc would have a vacancy and when she finally found out what had happened, exactly, she could always talk to him about it, too) but for now...it was getting late, and she couldn't bother anyone now. Maci bit her lip and smiled sweetly at Will.

"If you don't mind," she said with a little shrug, "I mean, I'll find somewhere else to go tommorow or something, but I'd prefer not to go hotel-hunting at like 10:00 at night."

Macaria stood up from the bed, gently easing Warren off her lap as she did so. She leaned over once she was up and kissed him softly.

"Good night, sweet dreams, don't let the bed bugs bite, yadda yadda yadda," she giggled , and then with a little wave, walked out the door and stood in the hallway, leaning against the wall and waiting for Will.

[Will Stronghold]

“’Night…” the pyro whispered and sweetly kissed her back, relaxing against the pillows. Corbie emerged from under the sheets and seemed to shoot Maci a jealous look.

Will grabbed his guitar and followed the goddess out, closing the door as he left. He snickered. “I swear that’s the most I’ve seen him smile in five minutes. He really loves you.”

The young superhero led Macaria down the hall and into his room, swiftly clearing his floor of scattered clothes. Will kicked a stray textbook into a corner and gestured inside. “My room. You can take the bed, I’ll take the couch downstairs.”

Will entered and strode over to his bed, gathering together a few weights for his bench press that he’d chucked there earlier. He set his guitar down on the stand by his desk, tossed a weight up and down in his hand like a Frisbee, and set the rest down next to the bench with a thud. He sat down of the bench’s edge and turned the weight over in his hands a few times, contemplative.

“So when did you decide you liked him, too?” Will asked hesitantly, breaking the silence. “I mean, I’m glad that you do, but I… I just didn’t see that one coming.” He shrugged and played with the weight, drawing a few stars and writing his name in the metal with a finger.

[Macaria]

Macaria followed Will into his room and sat neatly on the end of his bed. A tiny smirk played at her lips as she noticed the careless way he handled the obviously heavy weights. She couldn't help but compare him to Hercules. If Will dropped/broke the weight, him and her cousin would be practically twins.

"Sounds good," she remarked casually, and again watched Will play with the weight. She blinked and looked up as he broke the silence that had formed with a question.

Macaria thought for a second.

"I...I think," she said slowly, "that, like....subconsiously, or whatever....I've always sort of had some sort of crush on him, but....but I only added everything up when he told me that he loved me. Like....all the pieces fell together then. I didn't realize it right away." She shot him a smile, hoping that made some sort of sense. It was the truth, but it sounded strange. Like she was just making stuff up. It was true though, that was exactly what had happened.

There was another short period of silence. Macaria stared down at her pink hands and finally spoke, her voice coming out shakier then she'd meant it to.

"I hate that my parents hurt him so badly," she said without taking her eyes away from her hands. She winced. "I don't suppose he told you what exactly happened, huh?"

[Will Stronghold]

Will looked up, his eyes sparkling with a knowing look.

"Funny... Same thing happened to me with my own girlfriend, Layla. I've been best friends with her since first grade, and I didn't notice until my first year of high school that she had started crushing on me. It took accidentally hurting her feelings and getting a clue-bat to the head from Warren to make me realize that she really liked me... and that I... I really liked her, too. A lot."

The superhero-in-training stopped playing with the weight for a moment to shrug and smile. "It just took some sort of freaky emotional trauma to get me to realize the feeling that were there all along."

He fell silent again. Will casually tossed the weight on the floor, momentarily forgetting that it weighed 120 pounds. The resulting crash echoed through Will's house and rang in his ears. Corbie yowled from the guest room, and Warren hollered something in Mandarin. Will doubted that it was anything G-rated.

He glanced up at Macaria as she spoke again, a worried frown settling over his features.

"No... He didn't talk to me about it." Will stared at the floor, slumping forward. "All I got was a phone call in the middle of the night from him, saying that he needed my help, and..." He swallowed. "Warren needed help getting his clothes back on. He was too hurt to do it himself, and you-you saw his chest, right? There's more of that all over his legs, arms, back... just everywhere."

Will started wringing his hands, his voice quieter. "My girlfriend can control plants, so I could kindave imagine what your... your... mother... had done..." He dipped his head. "It looked like vines had burst their way through his floor, and some of those welts match the plants I saw in his room... His clothes were all ripped up, too."

Will took his head in his hands, miserably looking back at Maci. "That's really all I know. Warren's... quiet. Even when he's just hanging out with me and my friends at school, he really doesn't put much in except snide comments. He's sort of a loner, I guess."

Will sighed. "He sort of... scary, too. Like, 'you don't ask him stupid questions' kind of scary. He gets mad when you invade his bubble and... Um, he went psycho and tried to torch me when I did that the first time. B-but that was before we were friends!" He stammered out an explanation.

The young superhero toyed with his leather bracelet and chewed on the inside of his cheek. He glanced in the general direction of Warren's room. "... And when he told me to come over and help him, I... I've just never seen Warren miserable before. I never even tried to imagine it. He looked like he was going to cry or yell at me or just turn and walk away, and I didn't push him for an answer... just 'cause, well, Warren can be unpredictable. I was scared that I'd just make everything worse.

Will finished with his voice barely audible, a slight quaver appearing in his throat, too.

"I dunno what else to say except... I'm sorry for what your parents did... and what happened to Warren... It's slowly driving me insane that I can't do anything to help it now. It isn't fair."

[Macaria]

A slight smirk crossed Macaria's face as Will spoke of his own girlfriend. So maybe her situation was possible.

She jumped, startled, as the weight came crashing to the ground (she heard Warren yell something), and then another smirk appeared. "You're just like my cousin," Macaria couldn't help remarking, very much amused by this, "You two should meet. The house would probably come crashing down or something."

Maci winced and then grimaced as Will told her of the scene he had come to at Warren's. She couldn't hold back a shudder. Maci's gaze fell back onto her hands.

"That's sick," she muttered in a barely audible voice, biting her lip to keep away the tears that threatened to spill. It was bad enough that anyone had gone and done something this gruesome, but her own freaking mother. For Zeus' sake. The thought was nearly overpoweringly depressing and she almost succumbed to her tears but caught it just in time. Macaria didn't like crying, and furthermore, she was really supposed to be an anchor for Warren as he swam in his own tears. She wasn't supposed to drown, too, even if Warren wasn't here at the moment.

Macaria sighed and shifted on the bed, her legs folded under her and her hands on either side of her.

"He doesn't strike me as scary," she grinned a little as she said this. Then again, Warren's scary side wasn't something she had been subjected to often. Or...ever, actually.

"I can see how one would think that, though," her grin, like magic, became a smirk, "Pyros are scary." To punctuate her point, her hands became submerged in flickering orange flames and she teasingly bared her teeth (fangs x]) at Will while wiggling her fingers in a "scary" way.

She extinguished herself and became more serious, silent. Maci stared again at her hands, wincing a little as Will spoke.

"I knew my parents had issues," Macaria said finally with a little dejected sigh, "I mean...my dad's killed people before and my mom's almost as bad, I mean, she has her stupid little periods of rage where she'll zap anyone who looks at her funny, but I really...I didn't think they'd do anything....like this. Just....I'm shocked. And it's really...i-it's bad enough that someone, anyone would do soemthing like this, but to know that in a way I'm involved in this happening, that this is in a way my fault, that my own parents made this happen, it's just...." She shook her head and sighed again, looking miserable.

A tight smile appeared on her face, looking more furious then happy. "And words can't describe how mad I am at them."

[Warren Peace]

“Nothing’s your fault.”

His deep voice unexpectedly came from right outside Will’s room, and Warren pushed open the door. He was leaning against the frame for support, but the shy smile that he wore made it hard to tell if he was hurting or not.

His smile faded a little, his expression thoughtful as he went into sage mode. “It just happened. We got unlucky. But that’s the whole flip side to this… ‘we’. Plural. We’re here together, just catching each other when we fall.”

He limped across the room and sat on the bed next to Macaria. Warren gently took her chin in his hand and turned her face towards his own, studying her amethyst eyes.

“Hey. Listen…” he said softly, putting his other hand on her shoulder and massaging it. “If you ever need to… I just want you to know that it’s okay if you need to cry. You’re so tough and beautiful, and I know you want me to stay happy, but I don’t want you bottling everything up for me… I tried to put on a blank face, and I just broke apart last night. I don’t ever want you to feel that miserable… but you can cry in front of me, when I’m asleep, whenever, and I know I’ll be okay.”

He gave her a smile, then turned and smirked at Will’s scolding look for getting up and out of bed. “Dude, that horrorfest on your gut isn’t gonna fix itself if you don’t rest it!” the younger teenager complained.

“I’m not dying, Flyboy. Chill.” The pyro shot back, rolling his eyes, annoyed. “And I’m friggin’ HUNGRY. I haven’t eaten anything for, like, 28 hours.” As if to accentuate his point, Warren’s stomach growled. “I need food. Now.”

The pyrokinetic shut his eyes for a moment and slowly hoisted himself off the bed, his jaw clenched. He stood still for a second, murmuring a nearly inaudible moan, then started limping to the door.

Will gave a loud groan to the ceiling and threw his hands up, rushing after Warren. The pyro gave a few shouts of protest as his best friend gently tipped him over and scooped him up into his arms, heading down the stairs. Warren gave up and allowed himself to be carried, albeit with an indignant scowl on his face.

[~Elisa Maza~]

Mix one part of pure meltage at the incredibly sweet post, plus one part dying of laughter at Warren's siggie, and ya got me. ^^

[Macaria]

((I can't even look at the sig, I keep giggling. And Maci doesn't like it too much, either. ;D ;D
seriously, though....the above post was definitely melt-inducing ^^))

Macaria turned, startled, as Warren's voice rang out from the other side of the door; he opened the door and leaned against the frame. The goddess' eyes didn't leave him as he spoke again, and she too smiled a little and agreed softly, "We're Fated t be together..."

He moved and sat besides her, her chin in his hand. She locked her gaze on him and it didn't waiver as he spoke. A tiny grateful smile twitched across her lips at Warren's words and she hugged him gently near the end of his monologue.

"Gods, I love you," she sighed quietly and then blinked and sat up (still holding him) to look at Will as Will suddenly said something. Well, complained something.

"He's got a point," she couldn't help smirking to Warren. Macaria reluctantly let him go as he went to stand, and again her eyes fixed on him as he shakily rose from beside her. Will had went to go help him in a flash and then the two were down the hall. Macaria waved at her retreating friend and boyfriend.

"G'night," she grinned, and settled back into the bed, taking out the hairband that held up her gigantic ponytail and pulling the covers around her. A slight wave of her hand and the lights clicked off. Macaria closed her eyes, sighed, and attempted to get some form of sleep...

[Will Stronghold]

Will shoved something random in Warren’s mouth from the fridge, a slice of cold pizza. He wolfed it down in record time, and the superhero-in-training checked his hand to see if he was missing any fingers before feeding Warren another slice. The pyrokinetic declared himself stuffed after four slices. He had always been a light eater, and it baffled Will. He’d have easily eaten the whole pizza if he’d gone a day without food.

The pyro was yawning nearly every five seconds, stuffed and sleepy, when Will dumped him in a chair so the younger of the two could grab a few blankets for sleeping on the couch. Warren was snoring when he returned from the linen closet. Will rolled his eyes and smirked. K. O.’ed again.

He tossed the blankets on the couch and gently picked Warren up again, floating up the stairs and into the guest room. Corbie’s tail was poking out from under the sheets, and Will shooed the ebony cat out of the way for the pyrokinetic. The feline curled up next to her personal heater when the younger boy had tucked Warren in. Will closed the door without a sound, and retreated to the couch downstairs, lying awake and staring at the ceiling for a while before sleep closed his own hazel eyes.

[Macaria]

((kuh-lozed, people :3 THE END!!))