genessia | run and tell the angels that everything's all right (CLOSED)

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run and tell the angels that everything's all right (CLOSED)

Who: Neil, Charlie, Regina, and Arya
What: Neil and Charlie go for pizza and ice cream. They run into a couple of lovely ladies and make it a foursome--with ice cream food fights.
Where: Attleton Boardwalk
When: night of 9/1
Warnings: PLENTY of schmoop, fluff, and found family fun. Will add additional warnings if they come up.

The last time Neil had this much fun was his first visit to Coney Island--and this was way better.

Finding pizza was easy, but what had started as a solid parenting suggestion from Regina turned into an actual craving the more he thought about it, meaning that he wasn't happy until they found a place where they could grab a salad, too--extra tomatoes on the side, which he ate himself while Charlie gave him weird looks every time he popped a chunk into his mouth and let the bright, acidic flavor burst across his tongue with a little hum of pleasure.

Sitting on a bench, food set up between them, Neil eventually devolved into telling her stories about his childhood in Nocturne--including stealing from the palace gardens grown with magic during his first week in the Five Realms, how badly he'd been punished by the Night Dragon, and then taken down to the kitchens in the man during the middle of the night so he'd know about the cook's larder. It was always full of food, including candies like rock sugar and honey drops from the surrounding human villages, and savory dried fish from the coast of the Opal Sea...and best of all, the Night Dragon himself assured Neil that the cook had absolute power in her kitchen, meaning Neil could take what he wanted whenever he wanted so long as he told the cook he'd been there.

"Ate myself sick for two days straight." he finished, reaching for a paper napkin to wipe tomato sauce from his mouth after destroying another slice of pizza. "First time I could ever grab the good stuff 'fore someone beat me to it--or stole it from me later. Speakin' of stealing..."

He pointed to the last slice of pizza between them with a grin.

"Gotta finish 'fore we go get ice cream--c'mon, fight me for it. We used to play this game in New York when I was real little...thumb war, I think they called it. Put up your dukes, let's do it."

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Charlie was certain this Night Dragon was a dick. She didn't like them, but Neil seemed okay with them, so she was willing to just ignore her feelings on that guy. Sitting with Neil, eating pizza and goofing off like they did this all the time? She was happy to pay full attention to the moment, eating her pizza slice after slice (she put away at least four slices on her own because she's a growing teenager) and listening to Neil babble away.

Making a mental note to find rock candy for Neil and leave it somewhere as a surprise, she looks at the final piece of pizza and shook her head.

"I am actually pretty full. The slice is yours. No thumb war needed."

Wait...

"Full in the sense that what room is left is meant for ice cream."

There we go.

The lightening flow of visitors to the boardwalk nevertheless kept up a steady flow of traffic around where Neil and Charlie sat. A weyr (in keeping with her dragon-themed Operation) of visitors coiled around them, and then released, leaving behind a woman, as texted, wearing a royal blue chemise under a black wrap, with black jeans and black boots, both hands resting lightly on the shoulders of the small, strangely intense girl of perhaps thirteen, who stood in front of her.

Because Arya liked to know things, and what she knew was less terrifying, Regina had explained the 'surprising Neil and Charlie' part of things. But she bent lower now to say, "I know he's a mountain of a man, but Neil would put out the sun before he'd hurt a child." Charlie, she'd told Arya, she hadn't met yet, so they could be awkward about that together.

Arya wasn't terribly intimidated by someone just because they were bigger than her (if she were, she would have to be intimidated by almost everyone); she'd seen giants of men who were cruel and awful, like the Mountain, and giants of men who were gentle as could be, like Hodor. Neil didn't look like the cruel sort.

Of course, appearances could be deceiving. She was proof of that.

Still, she merely nodded a little, her left hand at her side rather than resting on Needle's skinny hilt. "I trust you," she replied simply, the thin shoulders under Regina's hands lifting and dropping in a bit of a shrug--still studying both Neil and Charlie with a curious-and-slightly-wary eye, though.

Trusting Regina didn't mean she completely trusted everyone, after all.

Charlie's assurance that he could have the last slice got her a raised eyebrow and a smile.

"You're no damn fun." he huffed in mock disappointment as he reached for the slice. "Seriously, though--"

He froze, mid-reach, and the light in his face immediately died. It wasn't anything he could pin down, nothing either supernatural or ordinary--it was the primal instinct of the human animal he'd been trained to hone, to value above knowledge and skill, to trust with the protection of his life and those he was responsible for.

His hand moved past the pizza, fingers resting on Charlie's knee instead--a silent reassurance despite the sudden grim awareness on his features, the dark light in his eyes.

It wasn't something wrong, it was just...something. The shift in the crowd, the pins and needles that came from an awareness of attention, eyes burning skin...

There.

His head whipped to the side just as the crowd began to shift, to part...and revealed a gift of the Ember deposited just a few short feet away.

The change was immediate: the surge of warmth and the lightness of being that rose in his chest was on full display across Neil's features as he melted into a smile. There was literally no reason for her to be there, a cool vision of beauty in royal blue and warrior black, but not only was she there, she'd brought someone--maybe the child she'd mentioned, Arya?...

"It's Regina." he sighed, laughing a little as the fingers on Charlie's knee shifted to pat her leg instead before he got to his feet. "C'mere. You're meeting her."

Beckoning her forward eagerly, Neil stood from the bench to walk towards the pair--every bit the mountain he'd been described, a wall of muscle barely contained by his bright red t-shirt, and devoid of threat with the dazzling smile of shocked delight on his face.

"I can't believe you're here!" he chuckled, crossing over to lay a hand on Regina's shoulder so he could kiss her, a quick peck of greeting that lingered just long enough to promise an adequate follow-up later. He drew back almost at once, regarding the skinny child Regina had brought with her. Delicate looking, but armed with a good sword.

He hid the sudden, blazing ache of familiarity behind a very genuine smile as he offered her his hand, as one had been offered to him once upon a time: a warrior's greeting.

"My lady. You must be Arya--obviously a woman of strength and honor to have a name fit for Regina's tongue to speak."

Twisting his head to look back over his shoulder, Neil couldn't hide the wild pride and joy in his expression as he gestured towards her with his other arm.

"Ladies? Meet Charlie: the single coolest person you will ever meet." Glancing back at Regina, he winked teasingly, but still he glowed with that unabashed pleasure in having the women he cared so deeply about in the same place at the same time.

"Don't worry--you're still the hottest."

It's the hand on her leg that has Charlie's paranoia spiking upwards a tad, the frown on her face evidence of this very thing. She watches Neil, looking around as she does so, trying to find the source of his actions. But she doesn't see what he sees until there's another shift in his mood and he's happy.

Grinning from ear to ear. If he were a puppy, he'd be an excited golden lab about to get belly rubs and the biggest dog treat he's ever seen. And once she spots the woman with the child, Charlie looks at him and decides to follow. She wants to meet this Regina, see who makes Neil so happy. So it's with a smile on her face, albeit a cautious and uncertain one and once she's introduced and she has a chance, she sticks her hand out to Regina first, and then Arya.

"Hello. I'm Charlie. It's a pleasure to meet you both." And to Neil because she can't not tease him;

"So is Regina your dinner date from a few nights ago?"

In Regina's head, this had all been polite, orderly. Her introducing Arya to Neil, Neil introducing her and Charlie to each other, hand shakes in proper order--and it all went to hell the instant Neil laid eyes on her. She probably ought to have warned Arya about his tendency to 'stupid' when he got excited, but it hadn't occurred to her that seeing her without expecting to would be a cause for it.

She had just gathered breath to speak when Neil came bounding over, and her fingers squeezed gently at Arya's shoulder in case the suddenness of it brought Needle into play. Although it hadn't happened yet, she didn't doubt if Arya were startled or worried someone might hurt either of them, the sword would be in her hand as quickly as Regina could summon fire. Expecting a kiss on the cheek, if anything, Regina began, "Neil, th--" and the rest of what she'd intended was swallowed up by his mouth.

Fortunately surprise overcame other instincts -- both to kiss him back much less politely and to smack him for kissing her in front of children -- and she spent the next moment blinking once and sorting her emotions while he went on to greet Arya. She hoped the 'my lady' wouldn't upset her, and took a protective step closer so that her body shielded Arya's back and Arya could lean into her if she liked.

One hand remained on Arya throughout the greetings, just a gentle support rather than any kind of restraint, even when she offered Charlie her other. She was prettier than Neil had mentioned (far better than Leopold's creepy obsession with Snow's beauty) and a little warier.

Regina didn't try to overwhelm that wariness with too warm a welcome. Just a kind smile, pleasantly firm handshake, and a wry, "Hi, Charlie. Yes, that was me. At least--" Now she glanced at Neil, turning the full force of her charm on him with the sweep of her lashes, the touch of her tongue lightly to her top lip, and the mischievous brightness in her eyes. "It had better have been."

In Arya's experience, people didn't often offer their hands to children--or girls, for that matter. In Westeros a handshake was a gesture of respect between men. That was the only reason for Arya's slow blink, her hesitation before she accepted the offered hand that Neil held out to her, her own hand ridiculous small, almost doll-like compared to the larger man's.

"Arya Stark of Winterfell," she replied, because it was nice to feel safe enough to be Arya Stark or Winterfell again. Charlie's hand was taken with less hesitation, partly because she was expecting the gesture now, and partly because, well, she was a girl, and it didn't seem quite so odd or surprising. She was still wary, and her manners weren't as delicate and refined as her sister's, but she was polite enough. "Pleased to meet you."

"Neil Blair, son of Nocturne." he offered when Arya gave her full name. It was strange to watch the three women exchange introductions and handshakes--in the best fucking way possible. It made his lungs feel too full and the world suddenly a very small, intimate, safe place. He felt a little possessive of it, like something really big was happening in the moment...something good.

Then Regina and Charlie were giving him shit, and he had to laugh, cheeks coloring just a little as he ducked his head, then looked up into Regina's sparkling eyes, that little twist of her mouth that brought her tongue to her upper lip...

"Yeah, that was you. That was her, I mean." he told Charlie and Regina both--still grinning like an idiot with no hope of stopping. "And Charlie--she was the one I had to text."

Inevitably, his gaze settled back on Regina again.

"I just--I can't believe you just showed up." he laughed, looking for all the world like a kid on Christmas morning for just a moment until it hit him.

"Ice cream. Me 'n Charlie were just about to get ice cream--Arya, you're comin', right? Hey, have you eaten yet?" Jerking a thumb over his shoulder, he looked down at her hopefully. "Last slice of pizza. I was gonna thumb wrestle Charlie for it, but she chickened out on me. It's yours if you're hungry, what do you say?"

This was probably the weirdest thing Charlie’s witnessed, Neil being all polite and formal. Not that she did t think he could be, but he seemed to switch up behaviors for each person. For Arya, it was something Charlie would imagine happened in castles full of knights and royalty. For herself, it was teasing and silliness (though that bit about chickening out earned him a mild frown) and for Regina? That was a different level of silliness. The kind she saw between her mom and dad when days were good and the phone wasn’t ringing with dead air on the other end. It was flirting. As endearing as Charlie thought it was, she really wants to payNeil back for saying she wussed out of a thumb war.

“I can take Arya to get the ice cream. It’s right over by the pizza place. You can still see us, we can still see you. You and Regina can get a minute or two by yourselves before your space is invaded by two young girls.” As is prone to happening, you see. “What ice cream do you want, Regina? They have an amazing dark chocolate cherry that I tried a sample of a couple days ago.”

And that? That’s just Charlie being herself. Caring and accepting and open. Neil likes Regina. Regina makes Neil happy. That’s all Charlie needs. She turns to look at Arya, smiling warmly.

“I’ll get you whatever you want, too. Me, personally? I’m leaning towards a Sundae with Rocky Road Nd Pistachio.”

Even though Arya could take care of herself and Charlie too, and Charlie could take care of them both according to Neil, Regina hesitated before releasing Arya. It had nothing to do with either of the girls or any danger they might get themselves into. Simply: she'd offered to bring Arya to get ice cream with her, and on any number of levels, letting her go with Charlie so she could be with Neil felt wrong.

For one thing, she'd wanted to introduce Arya to ice cream herself. Share the bonding over sampling different flavors and learn what Arya liked and what she definitely didn't. For another, not ditching child for boyfriend was a lesson she'd learned when Henry was still very young and she was 'seeing' Graham. But even more, she enjoyed Arya's company and wanted to be with her.

But she had brought her down here to meet Charlie in hopes they'd get along, and she could get Charlie out of the hellhole she was in to share a nice room in the Amagi with Arya.

"Thank you, Charlie." Regina smiled at the girl, because regardless of her mixed feelings, it had been a genuine offer. "If they have an apple pie flavor, or apple pie a la mode, I'll take that." She glanced down at Arya, still standing with Regina's hands on her shoulders.

"Up to you, sweetheart." If she went with Charlie now, Regina would just take her for ice cream another time. Or find some other thing for the two of them to share. "Either way, everyone's ice cream is on me."

Arya hesitated a little too, though for slightly different reasons; she wasn't used to receiving kindness, or trusting so quickly and so easily. But when she turned slightly and tipped her head up to look at Regina's face, seeing her hesitation immediately made her want to reassure her. "It's okay," she murmured quietly, and turned to Charlie with a slight smile. "I've never had ice cream before...but why does it have road rocks in it?"

"Hang on, hang on, hang on." Neil laughed, looping a friendly arm around Charlie's shoulders to keep her from darting off--and to offer a little squeeze of silent apology for cracking wise about the thumb war. "Nobody's going anywhere without the rest of us. I'm playin' the macho douchebag card--it's after dark, and I don't know the area. I wouldn't send a squad of less than four out solo in enemy territory, no way in hell I'm gonna do any different with you girls, we'll go together."

...that sounded very dad like. Neil hesitated for a split second, then corrected course a little.

"If you girls wanna talk about what a nerd I am behind my back, that's fine. You can take point and skip ahead a little, but you stay in line of sight and shouting distance. No veering past our ten and two, 'kay?"

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run and tell the angels that everything's all right (CLOSED)

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