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Days stuck inside. Lucy is trying not to go stir crazy. She's also trying to remember that she's not really called Lucy. Laura's safe house isn't a house but it's better than sleeping rough, though. For all that she's stuck indoors, she's grateful to have a bed. And there's even water. Hot water! It's very exciting. Still. Lucy wants her bracelet back more than anything. She's pacing the small space as has become her habit when she finally asks the big question.
"What if we can't find it?" She is sure Laura will have an answer. Laura always has some kind of solution.
*
Laura has been, unsuprisingly, very calm in regards to this whole ordeal, only going out for neceessities, including a swing past the park. Right now, she's sitting on the fllor, legs crossed, hands in her lap and a book in her hands. She brought a handful of them for reading material. It's… an eclectic and strange collection. A fair number of children's books at assorted levels, plus some hard scifi and a couple of history books and classic lit.
"We will," she assures the other girl. "Your scent is very distinctive. You said you never took it off. For years. the scent will linger." She tilts her head thoughtfully, considering the possibility that they might still not find it. "But if not… you will adjust to being colorful and pretty all the time, I think." Her notion of 'pretty' and what it entails is not entirely normal, granted. Still.
*
"People will know what I am." Lucy has been trying not to think about it but now she wrings her hands with worry. "My parents will find me." Tears prick her eyes. "Laura, they can't find me." She comes to crouch next to her friend, uncertain if Laura understands the seriousness of the situation. "I don't know what they'll do if they find me."
*
Laura looks up and mmets Lucy's eyes when she comes closer. Oh, her face is quite serious. That doesn't mean she entirely understands the concerns, but… she doesn't need to to take it seriously.
"Then we will find it," she replies emphatically. "It cannot have fallen far. Once they sent me into the snow after a man that ran a week before. It was a simple chase. They thought it would be hard. This is more difficult, but simple in other ways."
She reaches over, pats Lucy's hand. She's seen the gesture used effectively before— okay, by Kitty and Piotr, but. "We will find it," she repeats firmly. "We could go look now if you want."
*
"I guess…" The hoodies don't really cover up Lucy's glow. "If we're careful. And there's no one there." There's a lot of empty streets in New York City these days. "I don't want to wait too long. I really need it back. I can't turn this off." It's very frustrating.
*
The last part is the relevant section, as far as laura's concerned. She nods once, closes her book, sets it aside, and rises to her feet in the kind of way that someone who is used to getting to their feet from cross-legged does it.
"Okay," she replies. "Daytime will make it less-noticable. And anyone still there will be too busy to bother us." Frankly, even if news cameras are present… there's more interesting things than a glowing girl and her tiny friend. useful.
*
"All right." Lucy steels herself to face the world. She's still not quite over the fact that Laura had no arms and then had them again. And the smell of cooking flesh…she's had nightmares about all of it. But, this is life now. "Let's go. It must have fallen out of my pocket when the blast threw me back toward that…that…place." Just thinking about the Hellmouth is queasy-making. It's awfulness distilled.
*
Laura nods, and as they get ready to go, Laura closes her eyes to consider this information. A bit after Lucy's ready, her eyes pop open and she nods. "Okay, got it." She's pretty sure she knows where Lucy was standing at the time now.
Laura opens the window, pokes her head out for a look around and a long sniffing of the air, a headtilt to listen, and then she makes a c'mere gesture with her hand, puts a no-nonesense arms around Lucy's waist, and swings both of them out the window and down the drainpipe outside. Usually she'd do this with her claws, but she has to return to this building regularly, so… nope. Drainpipe.
*
That part is kind of fun. Lucy stifles a 'whee' on the way down. She's not past having a good time, not entirely, at least. Lucy could fly but that would draw even more attention. Once they're on the ground, she grabs Laura's hand, mostly because she's nervous and partly because she doesn't want to get too far from Laura in case something goes wrong.
"Laura? Have you ever seen anyone like me?" That would be good to know. Because then if someone asks, she can just say she's like that other person. There's a lot of versions of 'normal' out there, she's finding.
*
Fortunately… Laura wandering around with girls in hand is actually an extremely normal state of being for her. The sisters did it, Kitty does it… it's comforting. So Lucy gets her hand and also gets propelled along by a little dark-haired thing on a mission. Kinda literally.
"No," Laura replies promptly. "But I did not get out of the lab unless I had a mission," she says without a stitch of self-consciousness about it. "I've met lots of people that are nothing like anyone else since I left, though. Piotr is made of metal sometimes. And Kitty walks through things. And there's a boy made of ice. And I saw a man made of fire last week. And I look pretty normal I guess but I'm not, so I think humans mostly lie to themselves. It is foolish."
*
"Everyone lies. My parents lied," Lucy says grudgingly. "They gave me the bracelet. They lied my whole life. I wouldn't care if people saw except that I'm scared of them finding me."
She's quiet for a little while, then she squeezes Laura's hand. "If I knew more people like you, maybe…" She hesitates before saying something so daring. "Maybe I would wish they would. And then maybe they would come and…" Maybe they would have to pay for what they did.
*
Laura looks thoughtful. "I do not think it is productive to wish they would find you. It is looking for trouble where there is none. But I think it is good to not be afraid of being found," she says after some time thinking it over while they continue to cut through streets. "I do not know your parents. But you do not need to be afraid of them. I would help you. Others would, too. If they took you away, we would follow. It is not as hard as people think." Not as easy as she's making it out to be, either, but.
*
"I'd like to throw them in that thing in Central Park so they couldn't hurt anyone anymore," Lucy says bitterly. "But they might like it in there. It's nice that you think people would help. I guess if they did something public, maybe people would. Secrets make everything so much harder."
*
Laura makes a face. "Don't know what it would do, anyway," she shrugs, coming up short briefly to peer around a corner. Not too far off from the park now. "People wanted to help me and they did not know what was happening," she points out. "I was even sent to acquire some of them," she notes, while peering, listening, and sampling the air. *Seems* clear enough for now…
*
"Everyone thinks my parents are great." Lucy rolls her eyes at that. "They have money. Houses. A plane. So many friends. That's what scares me, that I could ruin things for them so they might… you know." She can't bring herself to say it. To go from a happy childhood to a harsh reality is a difficult leap. "But. If we find my bracelet I can hide again and not worry so much."
*
Laura bobs her head, once, then pulls Lucy around the corner. "One thing at a time," she agrees, lowering her voice to a low, but not whispering, level. "Bracelet. Perhaps we will find it without running into anything troublesome." She doesnt' sound *too* convinced this will be the case. She gestures down the road. "I remember you standing there." Roughly, landmarks have moved a little. Cars got thrown, etc.
*
"There's where the pavement got burned." Lucy remembers that. She points down the street. "And that's where I was with my gear. I remember because the sewer was just a little way away and I wondered if I could fit down it. The silver glass was there, too, but it's gone. And I went that way, past the cross street and almost to where the pavement is all broken up like an earthquake came through. It was a long way." She sounds awed. "I guess I didn't notice because I kind of flew back."
*
Laura nods, and leads Lucy over to the first location— where the gear was. This is where she finally releases the other girl's hand, so she can crouch down, touch fingertips to the asphalt, and scent the area closely. She spends a bit of time at it, head tilting back and forth and investigating the mingled scents. "There's your bag," she notes. "And you… and…" she tilts her head, and she sort of scurries along following what must be very faint trails. "This… is where you took it off? It changes. More like you smell now than before." Logical enough.
*
"If it fell out…" Lucy gets down to search the gutter where she hid, then follows the street down toward where she landed. "It really could be anywhere, Laura. I don't even know what it's made of. It's shiny though, so we should be able to spot it if a crow didn't grab it…"
*
Laura wrinkles her nose, and continues along Lucy's track. "A lot of metal things have their own little bit of scent. Maybe that's why you smell different now," she notes. In any case, the logical place to start, for her, is to just trace Lucy's movement through the area and see if anything leaps out at her, like a diverging something-plus-some-Lucy track. "We'll keep eyes open while we go, though," she agrees. No sense spending longer here than they have to— it's very exposed.
*
"Laura, look!" Lucy sees something glitter up ahead. It could be broken glass or junk but it might be her bracelet. She takes off running down the street. "I think we found it." In her excitement, she forgets to use her feet and flies toward the sparkle, trailing a faint rainbow behind her.
*
Laura blinks, and her face faults a little when Lucy takes off like that. Yelling… would only draw more attention, so she takes off running after her friend. For someone who is concerned about being noticed… She lifts a hand to shade her eyes from the sun glare and get a better look at the glimmer. Her eyes are as superlative as the rest of her senses, so it is not as ridiculous as it looks.
*
"It is, it is." Lucy snatches up the bracelet from the broken sidewalk and snaps it around her wrist. Immediately, her glow goes out and she looks dull and ordinary again. "I don't know what I'd do if I didn't find it," she says, sitting down all at once as relief takes over her. "I can't rely on it forever, though."
*
Laura manages to only look a little disappointed. Pretty blonde girls aren't quite as pretty as glowing prismatic ones with naturally floaty hair. Not… that she'd mean that sort of observation the way people usually do. She helpfully tugs Lucy's hood loose of her head now that she isn't quite so… noticable.
"No," she agrees. "But now you have some time to work on it, so it was worth the effort."
*