Heroes RP World 2.5 - Reflections Future

(I know I'm taking my time, I'm sorry! )

Cassidy asked when Michael would be getting home and Joel answered that it would not be long. Cassidy asked about his life and Joel explained that he was engaged to a "lovely girl". Cassidy said she was happy for him, but her smile didn't really seem sincere. I'm sorry about you and Alex, Cassie. But forget about it. You'll find someone way better. Cassidy did not comment. C'mon, I haven't seen you look this sad since you came home with that black eye in freshman year.

She remembered what he was referring to - Cassidy had had a crush on Tommy, one of the seniors. She'd asked him if he wanted to get a coffee over winter break and before she could react, his girlfriend she hadn't know about had punched her right in the face.

Remember when you told me about that? We were down visiting you guys for Christmas and I finally got you to admit that someone hit you and you didn't just "fall into the water fountain". He was smiling at the memory, laughing cheerfully. I told Abel and he went and beat the shit out of the guy. Told him to make his girlfriend back off - or else.

What? asked Cassidy, completely unfamiliar with this side of the story. Joel had to calm down from his laughter before he could continue. I thought Tommy got hurt at football practice?

You're kidding! said Joel through muffled laughter That was just what we told Michael. You really believed that? She nodded.

You never told me, she said with a scowl, but she did manage a smile at that. It was sweet, in a way.

Joel chuckled again We figured you'd piece it together!

Cassidy thanked her brother and the two began exchanging other brief stories of the time they had spent together before he'd left for seminary school. She heard the front door go and smiled when she heard her brother shout hello. Joel replied, summoning Michael to the kitchen. Cassidy waited behind the door and when he walked in, she made him jump before hugging him.

( Great )

Michael smiled as he hugged his sister back, before realising what her visit meant. As much as he disliked it, Michael knew that she would never have come home unless she had no other choice or something was badly wrong. He read her expression with ease. What's wrong?

I broke up with Alex, announced Cassidy, forcing herself not to lie or fidget. I was hoping I could stay here for a few days?

His brow dipped. Broke up with? You stopped seeing Alex a long time ago.

I never said that, she pointed out, unable to stop herself from staring at her hands.

You lead me to believe.. said Michael, the chastising anger Cassidy remembered so well from her childhood reappearing. You've been with him this whole time? Even after everything he put you through with that guy?

Since Cassidy didn't reply, Joel made a tsk-ing sound to display his disappointment. Y'know, Michael. People'd tell you stuff more if you weren't such a judgmental asshole.

Michael didn't reply with his words, simply glaring at him. Joel picked up a bag of crisps and walked out of the room. Welcome home, Cassie! he called, as he climbed the stairs.

Although he's still annoyed, Michael looks sympathetically back at his only sister, seeing her expression beginning to border on her true emotion. Why didn't you say anything?

You never liked Alex, she shrugged, still not meeting his eye

Michael scoffed. Of course I didn't. He treated you like crap. Cassidy protested but Michael ignored her. He isolated you, Cassie. How many times have we seen you since?

I isolated myself, she snapped. I needed to believe things could be different - better.

Michael still looks angry but can see the hurt in her eyes and doesn't push his point. He tells her she's welcome to stay and goes and takes her bags to her old room her - just like she left it.

( )

The days pass slowly and Cassidy spends a lot of her time alone in her room. She considers looking at the apartments she had liked in San Francisco but she knows that she doesn't have the money - Michael would lend her the rent if she asked, but she didn't want to ask. She begins to learn a lot about what's happened since she left - for example, Joel spends a lot of his time trying to contact Anna, his fiancée, but each conversation ends in shouting. She also learns that Michael rarely sleeps.

A few days in her visit, she hears Michael shouting down the phone at someone at three in the morning. She doesn't press the point when he blames it on telemarketers although she knows they'd never call at three in the morning. It's only when she hears him having the nearly identical conversation two days later that she understands who he's talking to. Cassidy sees a glimpse of a tear in Michael's watery eyes and knows automatically. How's Paul? she asked, intuitively.

Bad, replied Michael after working out there's no point in lying. She watches as her older brother slumps against the kitchen surface, looking the picture of defeat. He checked himself out of the rehab centre a week ago. I really thought it'd worked this time.

This isn't your fault, she says, trying to offer comfort with her words.

His response is hoarse Isn't it? I never should have given either of you to Lucifer. I knew he didn't want the responsibility.

Why did you give us to him? asked Cassidy. She'd wanted to have this conversation for so many years - so many times throughout her childhood she had tried to ask and been ignored.

Honestly? Because we thought it'd be easier for him.

Cassidy was shocked by the answer. What? You thought giving him the two youngest would be the easiest?

Michael smiled a little, thoughtfully. You don't remember. Paul was such a great kid, so laid back and happy. And you were an easy toddler. No tantrums. You barely fussed at all as a baby. You would just stare at people all the time with those brown eyes of yours. Dad loved you so much.

Cassidy looks her brother right in the eye and watches him closely. He does not seem to be angry, or upset or.. even emotional. She urns for information about her father, but another part of her is so angry. Even after all these years, she still wanted to know why.

Why, though? Why did you give us to him? Do you have any idea what it was like, in that place? What he did? Cassidy's expression of the opposite of Michael's cool, crisp emotionlessness, her red-rimmed eyes brimming with tears.

Michael closed his eyes before replying. You don't.. know what he was like, before. Dad played favourites, everyone knew that. And Cain was his - with good reason. Even after all these years, Cassidy can still see the slightest glint of resentment in Michael's expression. When when dad died - he didn't deal with his grief, at all. But at the start, he was everything we believed he was..

You're right, exclaimed Cassidy, unable to hear her brother sing his praise. I never knew him before - I don't know what he was like, I only knew the monster he became.

The doorbell rang but they both ignored it, too wrapped up in the conversation. Joel shouted a few curses upstairs at why it wasn't his job to get the door, but they ignored that too. The doorbell provided a break in their conversation, a lapse in things to say.

We could never work out why he hated us so much.

Michael didn't look at Cassidy as he answered a question that had plagued her for a long time. He never hated you. He was jealous - jealous that dad's final wish was for you. Everything on his deathbed revolved around the six of you. He was so scared. He made the three of us, the older brothers, promise to give you the happy childhoods he had given us. From his perspective, it was only fair. From Cain's, it was a slap in the face.

She didn't smile or really reflect any serious emotion. For once, she could understand him - just a little bit, just a tiny, little bit. Cassidy and Michael stayed in silence as Joel marched down the stairs, yelling curses at them for making him answer the door when he was on the phone. What?! they heard him shout as he flung the door open.

I really hope you know that what happened to you and Paul - it wasn't your fault.. it was ours. Mine and Abel's. We should have made more attention, we shouldn't have turned a blind eye. But you've got to believe me, we never thought he could do what he did. The brother I knew could never..

Cassidy nodded, as if trying to be understanding when really, she was fighting off tears. Because now she knew that Cain had hurt far more people than just her and Paul. He'd hurt the people who actually loved him, too. She wiped away her tears when Joel entered the room. He already had his phone out and only glanced at his sister. There's a weird guy on the porch waiting for you. Cassidy didn't reply in any way except for a blink. There's a guy - on the porch. GO! Do you want to me to act it out in charades?

Sorry, she muttered, thoroughly drying her eyes outside in the hall before approaching the open door. Her eyes widened again when she saw who was waiting for her.

Hearing the footsteps, the man turned around his mouth forming an uncertain smile. When he speaks, there's no hint of the nerves he's feeling, only a casual if bizarre greeting. Almost like she had knocked on his door. Hey, Cas.

( )

Braedon, she replied, more than just shocked. She had honestly never put a second thought to the idea that she wouldn't see him again.

He fidgeted for one of the first times in his life, adjusting his tie as he tried to think. Realising neither had spoken in a few seconds, he broke the tense silence, rushing into his speech too hastily, meaning the words blurred together. He stopped, cleared his throat and started again.

Look, I know this is - this is weird. I've never been good at these things, like how long you're meant to wait before you ask someone out. Hell, I've never bothered waiting.. It's just.. I made a promise to myself when I was younger that I'd live with no regrets, that when I die, I won't be thinking about what could have been because I'll have done it all. And you. You're just.. I don't know what it is about you, Cas, but I just can't stop thinking about you. I haven't felt this way about a girl in a long time - maybe ever. I know there's still the stuff between you and Alex, but I don't want to die with any regrets and I don't want a "the one that got away". And I know that if I don't at least try, I'll always hate myself for this. I just.. do you understand what I'm saying?

He was put off from the rest of his fumbled words by her expression. Confusion, a lot of confusion. He couldn't read her well enough to know if she was happy, if she was sad. Hell, she couldn't read herself well enough. She couldn't understand this - was Braedon saying.. he liked her? More than liked her? It just didn't make sense to her. At all.

Are you saying you.. um.. like me? Her words were as tentative as his, her hands wroth into an iron knot with worry that she had misunderstood this and that he was saying something else.

Despite his nerves, his worry, his awkwardness and his panic, he still laughed at that. Somehow, seeing her worry relieved him and he was still broadly when he spoke. Yes, Cas, that's what I'm saying.

( )

She still didn't have a reaction planned, she had no idea what to do, what to say. Braedon's smile faded as he awkwardly waited for her to either return his feelings or inform him that she was still in love with Alex and that she could leave. He continued to wait, patiently, silently but Cassidy didn't reply. The silence went on, until it was finally interrupted by Joel. So who's the guy? he asked, unfreezing Cassidy. Braedon's eyes focused on Joel, assuming him to be a brother.

He's.. Alex's brother, offered Cassidy, her explanation of Braedon seeming hurtful, but he didn't seem bothered as he moved forward to shake Joel's hand.

If you're here to try and make her go back to him, began Joel, warningly. Braedon couldn't fight a smirk at the irony of the warning.

I promise, I'm not going to steal her away from you, he chuckled. You're one of the numerous brothers, then?

Joel warmed up to Braedon quite quickly, enough so as to offer him a drink, a courtesy he extended to very few. Cassidy followed after them in shock as the two chatted casually and then Michael joined them, shaking Braedon's hand without being mentioned as being Alex's brother. Although her brothers did not, Braedon saw that Cassidy was still caught deep in impossible thought as she tried to figure out what on earth she was going to do.

Soon enough, Braedon said he had to leave and was warmly told he could come back anytime by Michael, an offer he promised to take advantage of. Joel asked him where he was staying and Braedon replied that he was headed back to New York. Sensing their desire to be alone, Joel forced Michael out of the hall to give them some privacy. Braedon watched Cassidy, still impossibly silent and he sighed, shrugging his shoulders as he spoke. I'm sorry, Cas. I'll go. Forget about it. At least I told you. No regrets, right?

Cassidy, she corrected, automatically. Braedon smiled obligingly but his pain was more than clear to all. Without thought, she smirked too and before she could allow herself a second's more of that unless thought, she kissed him.

(Having to think about it means yes )

(Pretty much So maybe you did guess it, but still )

(Yeah, I guessed the maternity It's pretty obvious when I know the partners of every other kid )

(I know, but I couldn't admit it could I? )

(Maybe you could )

(Never I'm done, btw, so if you want to continue? )

(Now I'm trying to remember what comes chronologically next here )

(I have no idea )

(I've got the Nathan SL, but wouldn't that start earlier, with Darrien and Tessa, or maybe even years earlier with those 2 getting together in the first place? Except we don't really have either scene planned)

Tessa and Darrien getting together? That's worse than the time I think I proposed to him..

(I meant Emma )

Makes a hell of a lot more sense!

Makes a hell of a lot more sense!

(I write Darrien and Tessa automatically )