fandomtownies | Parents Weekend Meet & Greet, Friday

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Parents Weekend Meet & Greet, Friday

It was a crisp yet none-too-chilly September afternoon in the Park, the weather as always perfectly nice to fit the island's general ideas about what these events would be like.

The theme in the park seemed adorably retro, perhaps best seen in the massive banner that hung above:

ⓅⒶⓇⒺⓃⓉⓈ ⓌⒺⒺⓀⒺⓃⒹ ②⓪②③

Welcome, friends, family, and other hangers-on! Please make yourself at home.

[[ ocd up, have at! ]]

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As Duke had mentioned to Marc, he and Grimm knew exactly where to find Arden, strolling up behind her at the meet and greet. Though they'd given no sign of their approach, they hadn't quite gotten into touching range before Arden was whirling around, arms upraised in a poor version of the self-defense stance that she'd been learning in class for the last three weeks. Her arms dropped when she saw Duke and Grimm behind her, blinking at them in surprise.

"Duke?" she sputtered. "Grimm?! You're both--how?"

"We were invited," Duke said with a rumble of laughter. It was...generally true. Ish. In a manner of speaking. "Did you expect us to pass up an opportunity to see you?"

"Better question, why are you here, duckling?" Grimm asked, nibbling on an apple cider donut. "Parents' Weekend doesn't seem like it would include you, you didn't know we were coming, and yet here you are."

"Thanks for the reminder I'm a fucking orphan, Grimm," Arden said, pursing her lips while Duke glared at his cousin. "I might have forgotten after eighteen years. Anyway, there's free food. Really free. Who'm I to pass that up?"

She took a bite of her own donut and chewed as aggressively as she could, a kind of masticating fuck you.

"Also, I meant, why are you here?" she repeated. "Why bother giving me a callstone if you're not going to use it?"

"So snappish, little bird," he chided. "Feeling guilty about how you ran off on us?"

"I have no reason to feel guilty," Arden snapped, still unsettled enough to play with her pendant before catching herself. It had been a while since either of them had been able to drop in without her sensing them first. "I took nothing that was Callista's. I know the rules, and the dangers."

"Nothing of Callista's except you," Grimm reminded, fluttering her lashes at Arden, her sapphire blue eyes catching the light.

"I don't belong to Callista either," Arden said, scowling. "I owe her. It's different."

...Sorta. Easier for it to be different when she was hundreds of miles away from North Carolina, though.

"You two cannot just pop in here like this." It had always been their habit to appear when they pleased, and it had been bugging the hell out of Arden since she was sixteen. And, like always, Grimm just scoffed and tossed her long red hair while Duke just kept his teasing smile. This wasn't the first time she'd tried telling them off only to be dismissed, and it rankled. "Also, we had an agreement," she reminded them, knowing it was pointless but ticked enough to say it anyway. "You're not supposed to be watching. Boundaries, remember?"

"Maybe, maybe not." Duke leaned against a table and stretched long legs out in front of him. "Regardless, you can imagine my concern when I turned a thought your way and found the barrier that normally went around this island completely gone. Of course Grimm and I had to take the opportunity." A slight pause. "To make sure you were all right."

"There's a barrier around the island?" Arden asked, looking confused from one of them to the other. "What is it? What does that even mean?"

"Mmmm, so our little bird doesn't know either," Grimm said. She wrapped a crimson lock around her finger, looking coy until her eyes flashed to their natural ruby and back. The eyes were always a tell. She was nervous. Or pissed. Something, but not in complete control of her emotions.

That made two of them.

Arden straightened from a reflexive hunch. Djinn temperamentality could be painful. "I'm not about to be in the middle of whatever plot you two have cooked up. I'm here to go to school and to leave all this Otherside nonsense behind me."

Grimm pulled a face. "You can't leave behind what you are."

"Enough, Grimm." Duke uncoiled from his lean and resettled the suit jacket over his shoulders with a tug on the lapels. "Arden, darling, it hurts that you're not happier to see us. We're practically family." His teeth flashed white with his brilliant smile. "I, for one, was hoping to hear more about how you were settling in on this island. Have you made any friends? How are your classes going? We do just want you to be happy, little bird."

"And what do I get in return?" Arden asked immediately. Djinn never simply offered anything; there were no gifts. None without barbs, anyway. It was why she hadn't let Marc accept the money until she'd found the strings. And if Duke wanted information from her, even just information as simple and easy as what she'd been up to these last few weeks, she was going to collect.

If they were here and offering, they wanted something more than simply to check on her. That was just facts.

Edited 2023-09-29 17:48 (UTC)

Grimm looked up from her fingernails, her pout vanishing. "Perhaps I could share a tale in return," she offered. "Like how living in a House of Shadows will affect jurisdiction if Callista comes to collect you."

"A what?"

"Ugh," she scoffed. "The holes in your education hurt me."

"Who left them there?" Arden snapped.

"Callista's orders, sweetheart," Grimm said, unfussed.

"Cousins, please," Duke said with a sigh. "Wandering angels about or not, we have a Detente to maintain?" He offered them both an arm. "Let's go talk somewhere a little more private, hmm?" He flashed another grin. "My treat."

Arden was ready to just tell them both to fuck off, but...she glanced around the park and...yeah. There was a whole bunch of stuff that she didn't want making it to the radio.

"Fine," she said. "We can talk in my room. But be polite to Midnight, okay?" She'd hammer out the definitions of 'his treat' later.

"We'd never dream of being otherwise," Duke assured her. "Lay on, McDuff."

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Parents Weekend Meet & Greet, Friday

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