Starring:
Date: January 4, 2011
Summary:
In true Heroes fashion, a trip to the park is never normal, and you always see people you know.
"Wintertime in the Park"
Uptown, NYC - Central Park
While it's not a perfect park-going day, as it's still cold out, it's not raining or snowing or hailing, which means New Yorkers are out in force. Well, maybe not in force, but there are people out there. One of them is Portia Maddox. She's not really busking. She's practicing a piece she wrote for a class at Julliard, but the fact that people throw money at her is always a plus. That and crowded dorm rooms with people studying don't always appreciate music. Bundled up, she's got her guitar on her lap, fingerless gloves allowing her to still play while keeping warm, the guitar case at her feet and a satchel of school supplies tucked just underneath the bench. She hums softly as she plays, likely humming the vocal lines instead of bothering to sing them. She likely hasn't written the lyrics yet.
A light snap can be heard behind the young teen.
Then a faint humming can be heard behind Portia. A light airy tune and if Portia were to look behind her, she'd find nobody. But then.. there she goes. A woman with brown hair staring at the musician with a wide grin. Her doe brown eyes alight with excitement. She's happy about something, clearly.
Dressed in a pair of dark jeans along with a dark red top. Her brown cowboy boots clunk on the pavement as she sways from side to side a little, though if it's questionable if it's from the music or not. Kitty Hanner squints her eyes and looks up towards the sky. "They all fall down." She says with a light smile crossing her lips.
A long, black sweater jacket that falls to her knees completes her outfit. Hair a bit of a mess, but she smoothes it down.
"What are we doing?" she peeks, with a tilt of her head towards one of her oldest friends.
Sunny, not below freezing, snow on the ground but the walking paths still open? Sounds like as good a day as any to take a break from lunch in the stuffy confines of the building cafe or one of the overcrowded (and overpriced) local eateries to enjoy a chilly little bite out in Central Park. So! Back to work after the new year, and already Alex is escaping to hit up a food cart somewhere in the park. The familiar craving for falafel is easily satisfied in portable pita form this way.
Of course, this is well up the walking path from Portia and Kitty. It'll be a few dozen steps (and probably an equal number of bites) before Alexandra manages to clop up to the singer and friend. Thank those park workers; there's something to be said for oversalting, even if it the fact that she's wearing heels out and about in the winter.
Robin has been in the park on his own today, carrying an oddly-shaped bag as he walks into view. The bag's long and thin, a little too small to be an instrument bag but the same general shape. He glances up towards the source of the music and on spotting Kitty, makes his way over quickly, waving to his sister and the musician as he gets closer, "Hey."
"We're practicing," Portia replies. Kitty's surprising arrival has the teen blinking a little in surprise, but it's nothing too weird. Coming from the girl who regularly fades in and out of sight, being snuck up on like that can't be too unexpected. "Julliard keeps me busy. It's great, though, because I have an excuse to work on my own music too… it counts for classes. Brilliant idea, huh?" There's a pause, then the teen grins. "Did I ever tell you I wrote a song about you? Well, never the lyrics, but I've got a melody. Just gotta write something that expresses your awesomeness in words."
Her gaze shifts over as she notes both Alex and Robin, and she searches her memory for a moment as she tries to recall if they're familiar. Considering most of the time she's pretty busy with her music, her memories been failing her for anything that isn't a sixteenth note or contains a crescendo. Still, she offers both Alex and Robin a polite smile.
"Did you eat the cookies?" Because obviously she freaking made cookies for her brother. Her gaze centers on Robin and she beckons him over to the two. Kitty's eyes widen and she beams at Portia. "That song will score you a Grammy." She grins and twirls around. Looking at Robin, "Tia, meet the Bird." She dips her head and waves her hand in front of the two.
"Much more suitable in my opinion." She mutters and rubs the back of her head. Err.. what? The young woman looks up at the sky again and blinks again. Stomping her foot on the ground, she scowls up at it and then eyes Alexandra. "You may not." She says and she's then stomping over to the small woman. As if she might have done something wrong.
Kitty's eyebrows raise as she peers in closer to inspect Alex. "Hmm?" she studies her for a moment, rather close to Alex before circling around her and then shaking her head, rubbing her forehead. "Tremor." It's making her head hurt obviously.
The music was pleasant enough…until there was a vagrant-cowgirl-looking girl is in her way. "Um, can I help you?" is the natural reply as Alex is stopped dead in her tracks with Kitty's random inspect. "Have we…met, somewhere before?" A quick flashback to a late-night resuce and then…no, it couldn't be.
The mention of tremors though causes Alex to narrow her brows; the confused expression on her face fades away and gets replaced with something a little more serious. "Come again? What was that?" She can't possibly be intimidating at all of 5'3" pushed higher in plain pump heels, a skirt and overcoat from work but, looks can be deceiving right?
Robin grins and nods to Kitty, "Yeah, I did, they were great." After he's introduced he offers a hand to Portia, "Robin, to be more specific. Cool to meet you." Then Kitty starts getting a little weird, though Robin doesn't seem too phased by it. He just glances back to watch as she approaches Alex.
Sure, it had been a while since Portia had seen Kitty, but this was a bit erratic. She looks at her friend in concern before her gaze shifts to Robin. "Ah, I see why she's calling you the Bird. Well, pleased to meet you, Robin. I'm Portia, Kitty calls me Tia for short." Her gaze shifts from Kitty to Alex, the concern still there. She carefully lifts the guitar from her lap and sets it down in its case. "Uh, Kitty?" She questions, blinking just a little bit.
Then the gesture made famous by Meet The Parents is made towards Alex. "Watching you." She says softly before backing away and then winking. "Oh!" she nearly forgot to mention. "Happy to see you're okay." Cryptic for the others, but Alex would know what she's speaking of. Or she should at least.
Wheeling to face the musician and the singer, she comes to sit on a nearby rock. "He's my brother, blondie." She dips her head towards Robin with an affectionate smile and then she's staring off into the trees. Kitty is in a mood today it would seem, though she's smiling. Agitated could be described, no offense to you deary Alex.
"You know he could be your daddy right?" she raises an eyebrow towards Portia and shake a finger at her younger friend. "Calling Dez." She pretends to begin to reach into her coat pocket for a phone.
Well, now there's really nothing about the conversation that Alex can either understand or be privy too. In fact, it sounds like the conversation has taken a personal turn. "Watching…me?" Alexandra mouths silently to nobody in particular, and is left feeling a little confused about what just happened. Even so, her lunch break is coming to an end, and there's a few blocks between her and work.
Robin is looking a little lost too, though he also seems like he's used to that with his sister, the way he glances to her at her last comment to Portia. "Who're you talking about?" He sets down his bag for the moment.
Woosh. A brief gust of cool wind washes over those gathered today, only lasting for a split second. It's like something just went past at high speeds, but…nothing is to be seen to have caused it. Probably just a random wind, or something to that effect, gone just as soon as it happened.
Then, it's like something out of a ninja movie. From behind a tree, a petite woman steps out, bundled up in a long black military peacoat, complete with a matching grey glove/hat/scarf combination. Wilhelmina decided to go for a run around the park today. It's usually not so crowded in the winter time, so it makes for a good place for a run, Mina style.
Never mind that a run, Mina style, involves supersonic speeds.
She really wasn't expecting to find people here. Thus the rather abrupt stop. Comparatively slower than her former speeds, the young MD wanders her way toward the people gathered, curious as to what exactly is going on here, as is noted by those raised brows of hers.
Windy? Oooh. That wasn't there before. Portia instinctively takes a quick peek around, but Mina doesn't strike her attention too much as someone to be worried about. Just that she hadn't noticed her creep up. What is this, startle Portia day? The teen peers at Kitty, and then suddenly looks alarmed. "What?! Why would you call my mom? What are you talking about? You aren't seriously going to call her, are you? I'm not twelve." Her eyes skip back over to Robin, then back to Kitty. "Did she hit her head or something?" The girl peers towards Alex, who hasn't escaped her attention. "Um, hey, sorry for my friend, she's acting a little weird."
Ah, there is a phone and just as Kitty is about to dial the world's greatest mom. In zooms Mina, well. Nobody knows she zooms, do they? "Psst!" she calls over to Mina and waves her hand over. "Careful with that." Kit grins widely at Mina and nods her head towards the woman and then she's eyeing Portia and then the phone. "I'll use this, you know I will."
The young sybil takes a quick look over her shoulder, "Stop looking into the past, you dolt." She says to herself, scratching her head. "Bird! Er, Bird!" she looks around as if she's lost Robin. "Dad or Harley?" she asks with a tilt of her head. She misses her family. But they're all off in Europe. Set up in one of Kitty's houses over there. Bummer.
The guy heading down another walkway nearby has a pair of black el-cheapo earbuds firmly in place, turned up loud enough that others nearby can hear that they're on - if not actually make out what they're playing - and his eyes are focused on the treeline off in the distance, not expecting to run into anyone quite so soon. His sense of touch is working as well as ever, though, and the shift in the air is enough to cue Randall to slow down just in time to avoid running into Mina. Or Kitty, hey, there's someone he hasn't seen in a while. Or— "Portia!" he says, pulling the buds out with a single swift downward tug on the central cord. "What're you doing here this early?"
Robin blinks at Kitty's words again, and answers Portia, "She's had a really rough year." He looks back to Kitty then and says, "I'm right here. What about them? I haven't seen either in ages." He glances up curiously a moment to the new arrivals as well, then back to Kitty.
Mina turns her gaze toward Kitty, idly meandering toward her. Her raised brows seem to ask, 'Careful with what?', though she does nothing but offer a faint smile in response. A glance is cast toward Randall, before it shifts once more to Kitty, the woman tilting her head to one side. After what seems, to her, like an eternity, she offers a bright, almost ditzy smile.
"Je ne comprendes pas, madamoiselle. Pardon." Play the foreigner card, for now. Who said that doctors were boring? Wilhelmina certainly isn't. It's always fun to pretend not to speak English, in any case. She raises a hand, running it through her hair as she peeks around at the faces of those gathered.
If Portia had known Mina was the reason Kitty delayed her not-so-drunk drunk dialing, she would have thanked her profusely. "Kitty, put the phone down. There's no reason for you to call my mother, for heavens sake." She rubs her temple, trying to recall what it was that Kitty said, exactly. Something about daddy? Then she spots Randall. "Practicing for class later. People get mad at you for playing guitar loudly sometimes, so I came out here to—" She cuts herself off, and her eyes whip around to Kitty. "He's what you're talking about! How the heck did you figure that out?" She folds her arms. "Look, I'm in college now, college kids can make their own decisions, I'm not twelve or something."
But if Mina wanted to cover up her mistakes with some French, she chose the wrong crowd. If Portia were a dog, this would be the point that her ears perked up. The teen peers towards Mina, offering her a smile. "Combien de temps avez-vous ete dans le pays?"
"Oui, vous ne."
Is said in that creepy childlike voice that Kitty mimics. But then she's waving her arms around and walking around the area they are in. "Je ne sais pas! Je ne sais pas! Arrtez a!" Kitty then sways back and forth and then she's walking by Alex and whispering. "How's the train?"
Back to English fully. "He's your grandpa!" She yells back at Portia and taps her foot on the floor. Though she does slide her phone into her pocket and lays over the big boulder she was sitting on. From behind it, she draws her black messenger bag and a package.. it's guitar shaped alright. "Happy birthday." She says to Portia and places it by Portia's feet before she lays her head back against the boulder and takes out a bottle of whiskey. It helps with her.. issues.
Looking towards Robin she beckons him over. "I miss them, can we go see them? I'll be good, kay?" she nods her head and then looks at Randall. "You." She doesn't finish what she was gonna say though. That's because she's taking a huge gulp of her whiskey and smiling brightly as the warmth feels her.
"Merde."
Randall blinks and looks around, the abrupt surge of French lost on him. Maybe he should try picking it up one of these years— there seem to be more and more people drifting in from the northern reaches who are familiar with it. It was the same thing with Spanish back in California, only more so. "Me—? Who is?" he asks, mentally rewinding through the conversation as he looks from Portia to Kitty and back again. And then Portia's retort sinks in properly. Oh, this is about to get ugly, he thinks to himself, taking a step back. The booze can't possibly help.
Alex had gotten a few paces away but, the combination of French and Kitty's drunken inquiry is enough to halt her in her tracks. "The…train?" Ding! The lightbulb goes off over her head just then, and she looks Kitty over with one raised eyebrow. Spastic behavior? Check. Attention span of a caffeinated gnat? Check. "That's…where I know you from," she whispers. Where one person goes, more are sure to follow, and the other faces start to fall into line. Well, Robin's at least. From a meeting right before a very dark time.
Robin looks back to Kitty and says, "Yeah, I miss them too.. um, sure. I wouldn't mind visiting them. I don't have any tournaments again for a few weeks, so anytime would be cool." He glances to Randall and Portia again, still a little lost on that whole side of the conversation.
An amused smile is fixed on Mina's face as she listens to Portia complaining to Kitty about something or other, though the confused look remains. It seems she's just amused by the antics of the people, though she doesn't quite understand what's going on. Ah, youth. One can't help but adore the young ones in life. She idly toys with a strand of hair, thoughfully watching the group.
And she almost blanches when she is responded to in her preferred tongue more than once. She blinks once or twice, before focusing a smile on Portia, pointedly ignoring the whisky-drinking Kitty. That's alright, she'll just go over here, awaaaaaaay from the apparent drunkard. "«Oh, I live here! I have been in the country for a while now. I just got back from a trip to France today! I went to Marseilles. Such a beautiful city! Have you been there?»"
At least she's not lying about that. She did actually just get back from a day trip to Marseilles. She does so love to take advantage of the fact that she can make a run to France without paying any transportation fees. Running on water is one of the many wonderful perks to her ability.
"«I mostly stuck to Paris when I was abroad, though I did a tiny bit of traveling. I was a bit busy with school and stuff so I didn't get to explore as much.»" The teen answers back, then she looks back towards Kitty. There's a blink. Then another blink. She just stares, doing little more than gaping and blinking for a second or two. "My birthday's not till March, but… thank you." She looks to the vaguely guitar-shaped package. "And he's not my grandpa." She moves to open the package. It's guitar shaped, but… it might just be a mean trick.
"Helps." She says meekly towards Robin and nods her head at Mina and Alex. "Take your time." For what? Then she's blinking and looking over at Mina. "«Rude.»" She pouts softly and turns her nose up. Then she's giggling and closing her eyes. "Sleep. It's coming later, ya know? You'll need some rest." She looks over at all of them and grins darkly. "Don't do that, tasteless." She says to herself and then she's shaking her head. Looking into the near empty bottle. "I have too." She says in a tone a mother would use if she's scolding her child.
Inside, Portia would find a custom guitar. The wood dark, oh wait it's black. And is that.. is that a freaking Martin?! Yes it is. "First gift." Kitty throws her bottle over her head, a cat can be heard screeching as it's heard shattering behind her. "Name good." Then she's standing and beginning to leave. Pulling out her phone she dials a number and sighs as someone picks up. "Arnie?" she yells and rubs her eyes as she drags her messenger bag along with her.. she might not want to be doing that. Because.. well.. every one of her friends knows she carries a gun in there.
"Central Park?" she says with a furrow of her eyebrows. "Sorry, okay. Bird is here." She says softly into the phone and looks over her shoulder at Robin. Yes, she's talking to Arnie their butler. "Okay, waiting." Then she's closing the phone and turning her head to look at Robin, her hair a bit of a mess. Then she's walking over to kiss Portia on the forehead and grinning down. "Come later, kay?" And Randall is given the stink eye, along with a finger to the face. "Not you." It's what big sisters do.. sorry bro.
"Arnie says hai. I say," she say as she makes her way down the path and away from the group. "Be home before midnight." The words echoing back towards the others and the woman is gone. Kitty has left the building. Minutes later, a loud crash and cursing can be heard from the direction she went.
"Squirrel!" is screamed and then moments later.. "I'm okay." Then no more.
Well, what else can he do, really? Randall just stands there, staring at Kitty as she jumps from one half-expressed thought to another - offering a sour grimace at the sight of the one gesture that needs no explanation - and waits till well after she's already taken off before he approaches Portia once again. "I'm sure there was some logic to all that," he says with complete sincerity, "I just wish I could figure out what it was. I haven't seen anyone go to plaid for… I don't know, at least a year or two."
Robin looks back to the others after his sister vanishes, "Um, yeah, sorry about that. She's had… a really, really rough year." Not really sure what else to say, he picks up his bag once more, but not moving away just yet.
The woman's differently-colored eyes turn to watch as Kitty makes her departure, brows raised slightly. Well then. That was…interesting. A smile on her face, Mina turns her attention back to Portia, smiling faintly. "«You should go to Marseilles! It is a beautiful place. Then again, Paris is beautiful, as well.»" She offers a charming smile.
Then, Randall's comment just…completely breaks the facade that Mina had going of the ignorant French woman who doesn't speak a lick of English. She turns, staring at Randall with a straight face for a moment…before she suddenly just laughs, shaking her head. "Who knows. I smelled lots of whiskey on her breath." She speaks…perfect English.
"She got me a…" The teen carefully pull the guitar out to examine it with a lot of care. "I could never afford one of these. They're like, six grand or something for something like this." Portia stares in the direction of Kitty's cry of squirrels. "I don't know what happened to her, but…" She looks to Robin for a moment. "Take care of her, okay? She's a good friend. Always has been. Even if she's a little weird right now." The guitar is cradled like a child as she admires it. She glances to Mina, grinning slightly as the woman switches to English. "Last time I checked she wasn't a drunkard. Normally she'd be piping up about going shopping or boys. Lots can change, I guess…"
"She is piping up about boys. Just… going the other direction with it." Randall steps back again, this time to give Portia room to open up the guitar case, his own eyes lighting up as he looks it over. Those contours do look a little familiar— and a lot pricey, just like she said. "Does she know what else we've been up to? Because this is. Well. Pretty much perfect."
There's a little envy and annoyance tinging his voice, if anyone's paying that close attention. What's he going to get her for her birthday?
Mina peers down at the guitar appraisingly, smiling a bit. "I don't know much about instruments, but that's rather gorgeous." A warm smile forms on her face. That's a pretty thoughtful gift, really. She turns her different-colored eyes back up to Portia, grinning faintly. "Thoughtful, too." A faint nod, and she's running a hand through her hair, her eyes darting around.
Robin shakes his head quickly to Portia, "She's not a drunk. Not usually, anyway. She's just… had issues, that's all." Then he nods again and says, "I will. I'll do my best, anyway." He grins a bit to Randall's words, though, "Perfect gifts are kind of Kitty's specialty. And.. she probably knows everything about you," he adds to his other question.
"Wouldn't surprise me." Portia chuckles, looking towards Robin. "I just had no idea she knew." She glances back towards Randall. "I'll be the envy of everyone at Julliard. And I'll make better music. Man, this is fantastic." She looks towards Randall. "I see you peeking. You can look at it." She offers it towards him, eyes shifting to Mina. "Yeah, it looks good, doesn't it? It's a Martin… they make some of the best guitars. Custom made ones go for so much more… sometimes up to eleven-thousand-dollars. That's a freaking lot of money if you ask me. I don't even wanna know how much this is worth cause I might feel like I owe Kitty my soul."
Randall moves to make sure he's got a good hold on the guitar before Portia lets go, eyeing it closely. "Feel like I'm supposed to break into a Spanish torch song with this thing," he muses, after handing it back. "Make sure you get an insurance policy on that, huh? Just our luck if someone were to make a grab for it."
Another look around, and he offers a hand to Robin, finally. "Hi, I'm Randall. I take it you're well acquainted with Miss Hell on Wheels back there?"
A smile forms on Mina's face as her mind seems to wander off elsewhere. She could probably steal that expensive looking guitar easily enough. There one minute, gone another. It would be easy, just like it's easy for her to waltz into stores in Paris and steal the latest designs in fashion. But she won't. The girl seems nice enough, so she won't ruin her day.
Instead, Mina busies herself with peering thoughtfully at her fingernails.
Robin slings his bag onto his shoulder, so the bag itself rests on his back, one end sticking out over his shoulder a little. He shakes the offered hand and nods quickly, "I'm Robin, and yeah, Kitty's my sister."
It's a good thing Mina isn't feeling cruel, because Portia's too happy with this thing. "I don't think anyone's ever given me something this nice before." She moves to carefully tuck the guitar away, latching the case shut gently. "I guess I'll get insurance on it then. It'll be great for concerts, though… I'll look badass and like a serious professional now." She peers towards Robin, offering him a smile. "Kitty's your sister? Wow. I guess you beat me on knowing her the longest. I thought I had that. I didn't even know she had a brother…" She looks over towards Mina. "So yeah, I'm Portia, by the way."
"Pleased to meet you," Randall says, taking up a position by Portia's side but not so close that the guitar is in danger of getting bumped. "And— er, how do you know her again?" This is addressed to Mina, whose side of the conversation he missed earlier, but she seemed to at least know someone present. The perils of being in Kitty's crosshairs…
Mina blinks a few times up at Portia, raising her brows for a moment with a faint smile on her face. "Pleasure to meet you, Portia. I'm Mina." She glances in turn to each face, smiling faintly, before she's rummaging in her bag, coming out with a cigarette. She's at least polite enough to get downwind of the others, so they don't have to smell the smoke.
Mina blinks quietly, and shrugs. "I don't know her. I just noticed that she smelled of alcohol." She offers a charming smile, puffing at her cigarette and blowing the smoke away from the group.
Robin grins and shrugs to Portia, "You probably have known her longest. I only met her a year and a half ago. Our dad had a lot of kids with different women and mostly left it to us to find each other up until a few months ago."
"Oh, wow. I guess I should be grateful my dad was just a douche and not a womanizer." Portia laughs, then looks to Randall. "So clearly Kitty thinks you're my grandpa." She jokes, pulling the guitar case onto the bench and carefully making sure that nothing will jostle it. Her eyes flick to Mina. "Odd, she kinda seemed like she knew you…"
Randall makes another face, this time courtesy of the absent father in question. "More seriously, she's probably all paranoid about every other guy on the planet jerking women around. We weren't exactly the closest of friends anyway…" At the mention of Kitty and Mina, he merely shrugs; Kitty's ramblings aren't making any more sense to him now than they did a few minutes ago.
A shrug rolls over Mina's shoulders. "Nope. Never met her before, I don't think. I see lots of people, though." A bright smile. "So I could have forgotten?" She takes a puff of her cigarette, smiling faintly. "I don't recall seeing her, though." She doesn't mention that the woman saw her do her speedster thing. That's just something she'll happily gloss over.
Robin grins to Portia again and says, "Yeah. He's a cool guy in general, just a jerk with women who aren't his kids. He has this crazy idea about passing on his genes as far and wide as possible." He nods a little to Randall and says, "Maybe, yeah. Kitty's great at reading other people, but she's really hard to figure out, especially lately."
"She used to make a lot of sense.." Portia murmurs, though she glances back to Randall. "That's okay. I think she'd act like that no matter who I was dating. She did always try to take care of me. It's kinda cute." She looks to Mina then shrugs a little, before she looks to Robin. "You sure she's okay, though?"
A nod to Mina, then Randall glances back in the direction that Kitty took off earlier. "Just hope she eases up after a while, it'll be tough if she decides to keep that up all the time. Maybe we should offer to meet up with her again?" Now that the guitar's safely out of the way, he edges a little closer to its owner. "Speaking of music, are you free tonight? I came up with a couple new ideas but I'm not sure if they'll work out or not."
A faint smile passes over Mina's face as the attention shifts away from her once more. She watches the group for a moment, slowly drifting away by soft footsteps. Then, when she's sure everyone is blinking…well, Mina was there. Now she's very much gone, as if she just disappeared. Accompanying this is a brief gust of wind and a slight crack of air. What…on earth?
Robin nods to Portia's first comment, "When I first met her, too. But she was never predictable. Now it's… really really extreme." He shakes his head, then, "No, I don't. I hope she means it about seeing Dad and Harley… Harley's our brother. They might have an idea to help. Speaking of which, I better call them… it was nice meeting you," he adds to… both remaining, blinking as he looks to where Mina was. Shrugging, he heads off as well, at a much slower pace.
"Yeah, I'm free after class, that's all I've got going on this evening." Portia comments, giving a bit of a nod. She glances towards where Mina was and blinks. Nothing there. Ah, well. She looks back to Robin. "Well, you take care of her. She seems like she needs it. And take care of yourself too, okay?"
Randall is watching Robin too, scratching his head— he missed Mina rushing off, but he did feel the fuzzy edges of that gust of wind again. Something is messing with the weather a bit. "Yeah, definitely take care of yourself," he echoes, momentarily lost in a private train of thought. Just as quickly, he snaps out of it, leaning close to Portia's ear. "I had an idea about the music, too," he deadpans. "What about now, though, have you had lunch yet? Or do you need to head back soon?"
Robin grins as he glances back once more, "*That*, I don't have a problem with." Waving, he then turns and he's soon out of view.
There's a bit of a smirk at his comment about the music, and she gives him a bit of a playful push. "Haven't had lunch, if you wanted to get something. I could use the help, too, since I'm lugging two guitars now." Portia points out.
"All right, all right," Randall mutters under his breach, feigning annoyance as he moves to pick up the old one. Let the girlfriend show off the shiny new gift, by all means. "There's an Indian place a couple blocks out, just opened last week, I figured we could try it out. And hopefully not get glared at," he adds, rolling his eyes. It's not the first time he's taken heat over that sort of thing.
"You know they're all just jealous cause your girlfriend's hot, right?" Portia grins, slinging her messenger bag over one shoulder and picking up a guitar case (the new one, of course) before taking Randall's hand with the other. She'll let him snag the other case, like a good boyfriend. "Besides. Give it a couple years and they'll think I'm dating you for the money and give me the funny looks."
Randall shakes his head. "Me, strike it rich? That'll be the day. If anything, we'll hit the big time together, and then people will come up with every theory you've ever heard of. Not that we'd care at that point." He's dancing around the real issue— a real close friend would take the time to learn the real situation, but then there are those who are just close enough for things to potentially be an issue. Like Kitty, for instance.
"Well, I don't think it matters, personally, so long as we're both happy, right?" Portia points out. "It's not like I'm a little girl or anything anymore." She squeezes his hand, giving a nod for him to lead on. "Can't believe she was threatening to call my mom, though… that was pretty dirty. I suppose the Martin makes up for it, but…"
"It's not like they can stop you, really, but still. They can waste your time and your peace of mind— and you need as much of those as you can get." He squeezes back as they reach the streets, and raises his voice to keep pace with the mechanical hum of cars passing by. "What do you think your mom would say, anyway? I suppose I should meet her at some point…" At least it doesn't sound like there's a shotgun-toting dad in the picture to worry about.
He's wrong about that part. "Urk. Family life is weird, though. I mean… I dunno that you'd want to meet them. Pretty much every type of crazy is in my family, now that my mom's remarried." Portia looks back over at him. "I don't think she'd disapprove of you, though. She might question your intentions, but… I think she'd accept you. So long as you treat me right."
Randall shoots Portia a look. "Hey, crazy is not a problem with me, you know that. It's not like I haven't been called that myself. And of course I'm gonna treat you right," he adds, his voice lowering again. "I just hope she doesn't kill me for stringing you along as long as I did."
"Stringing along implies that you had no intention of getting to where we are now. Stringing means you were just faking it with no real feelings involved. You wouldn't have let me follow you around like a puppy if you didn't secretly hope that there might be something one day." Portia smirks, looking back at him. "And when I say crazy, I mean my step-dad's got a patch for an eye and can read your mind and my mom sees the future in cereal and my twin brother is who-knows-where in who-knows-whose body and then there are all the step-siblings…"
That one comment brings him up short. "Puppy? Really? I was thinking 'classy cat burglar' would be more your style. I could see you in a Vala type role." As for the rest of the family… "Wait, as in literally sees the future? Talk about strange loops— Do you think she ever saw us?"
It's the mention of whre her twin might be that really pulls him up short, or rather who he might be. A stepdad is one thing, that could just be mutual interests at play, but the idea of this sort of weirdness actually running in families… it's not something he's considered before as a major factor. Maybe that was a mistake.
"It's not always cereal… but she sees the future in things… and sometimes it just happens to be cereal. Happened more than once." Portia looks to Randall with a sly grin. "You're winning points by making me sound a lot classier pining after you like I did." There's a pause. She knows that look on his face. He's thinking. He does that. He thinks. She likes that about him. "We aren't all crazy. I mean, I think I've got the tamest ability out of everyone… I'm just glad I'm not living with… y'know, all that. Mom's future stuff is pretty random, though, I don't think she's ever seen anything about me. And my dad's kind of a douchebag, at least he was to my mom, that's about the most crazy he is."
Randall shakes his head. "I can see why you might want to keep a little distance from it all. At least if you're only dealing with one or two of them at a time… How many step-siblings are we talking here? Kitty and Robin, that's two, I guess." 'All' usually implies more than that, especially from the way they said the kind-of-a-douchebag had gotten around so much.
There's a sudden laugh. "Kitty? Actually, I'm not related to them at all. I've just known Kitty for a long time, and she kinda treats me like a sister." Portia chuckles. "But I've got four step-siblings. I'm not real close with the younger two, didn't really see much of them but I know the other two pretty well, sorta. We're all old enough that we didn't really grow up or anything together."