Settling Back In (Open)

Luke was in a happy place when another person came into the room. From a quick sweep of his sonar he didn't recognize her but for a few moments he was still distracted by his book. It was always awful stopping in the middle of a page and then having to search to try and find your place again. While he worked on finishing the last page or two of his chapter, the young woman walked across the room to turn on the TV. After working on adjusting channels and volume she turned around and seemed to be somewhat startled by his presence.

”Oh!” The surprise and sound of her voice was familiar. Even though Luke had never seen her before, his memory was trying to make some sort of connection. Closing his book, he turned his face toward her, thinking as hard as he could as she continued to speak, ”I hope I’m not bothering you with the TV. I can go somewhere else.”

"No, you're fine." Luke replied with a smile as he placed a bookmark between the pages and then shut his book, "I'm Luke Jacobs but I think you already know that. Haven't we met before? I get the strange feeling that we know each other but it's rare that I forget someone's voice."

It was a strange way for most people to put it, but that was normal for Luke. With his blindness he knew everyone by the strange way his sonar mapped out faces and by their voice and while Kealey's voice sounded familiar something about it was off. Had he only heard her over the phone? Or maybe on a recording? Was she a singer of some type or something like that? It was nagging at Luke's mind but somehow the connection just wasn't being made.

The cat wiggled as the ball rolled over it, on to bigger, better things. It hit a person, and then... inevitably... a rainbow. But not before the water spout. And sure, there may have been a few bounces along the way, a few lost lawn chairs, but that had all led up to the penultimate katamari pick-up.

Finally, he'd done it. The rainbow.

The ball had reached the appropriate diameter.

Shin put the controller down, and let out a wistful sigh.

"This game, this game, this game..." Hmm. This game was making him hungry for another game of equivalent awesome. Something on the Wii, rather than his old PS2. And also... it inspired him. He knew what he had to do.

As Shin walked down the hallway towards the Living Room, he hummed a little Katamari title theme music.

La lah lah law lah lala law lah lawlawlawlahlawlah~

His focus was on his finger tip. Tiny shards were dancing in the air above it as he walked, forming a miniature pyramid. He went down the steps, and his brow crinkled as another pyramid worked its way into the mix, and another, eventually forming a curve.

He focused. He really focused, on making the ball. The hallway loomed ahead, and still, he focused. The ball hovered on the tip of his nail. In his mind, Shin imagined the classic pose, thumb drawn back like the hammer, index pointed at the target like a gun barrel, imagine the trigger in your mind, and... BANG!

A streak of blue shot past him, crashing into Shin's right side with a heavy 'thump'. And suddenly, the walls of the hall were spinning, round and round, round baby, right round. As the yellow blur (sometimes red, this time, blue) blasted past him, Shin lost his focus, and suddenly... lost his sphere.

It cut across the wall like a spirit gun, a light-blue ball of triangles pressed into shapes, built up into a sphere, and as it went, it cut a path. The shard ball flew across the right side of the hallway, and Shin? Shin crashed against the left, wall dented slightly around him.

It seemed it didn't take much to damage mansion property. One little running man, and wham... ugh... His head was spinning. His eyesight? Failing. Triangular pupils didn't want to focus. His body was more focused on the pain. A bruised shoulder, bumped tailbone. The wind had been knocked out of him.

What the heck had happened?

As his eyes crept open, he saw it. He didn't quite believe it, but he saw it. Across the right side of the hallway, cutting off just a foot from the doorway to the living room, a thin gash had been cut.

His shard ball was nowhere to be seen.

"Uh... help?" He hadn't done that... had he?!

Sang? Kealey actually burst out laughing at the accusation and shook her head. ” Goodness no, I’d never subject a large number of people to such torture.” she said, still struggling to place the name the man had given.

”Do you ever go to the Library downtown? I used to work there? Or anywhere around the Fashion Institute of Technology? I’m studying fashion…there….”

Kealey cut off at the crash from the hallway, followed by a ripping sound, eyes tracking along with the feelings as they careened into the wall. Someone was hurt…probably not badly, but Kealey’s brows drew together and a hand half reached towards her head at the resulting confusion.

Luke spoke a single word, a name, and the blonde’s eyes widened. Up she shot from the couch, stumbling slightly with the confusion in the hallway.

Around the doorway she turned, and there Shin was, on the floor and looking dazed. Down Kealey dropped to eye level, reaching out a hand towards the side of his face, ”Shin? Are you alright? You’re not hurt bad are you?”

Kealey looked around at the damage to the wall, he’d had to have hit it pretty hard to actually dent the drywall. Up she looked to Luke, ”He’s confused…” Back to Shin, ”Want me to take it away, or is everything alright?” she asked.

Thoughts of trying to identify this mysterious woman had been momentarily replaced by concern for Shin's well being but as it become obvious that the young man was OK, the thoughts were swiftly returning. Especially considering how concerned she appeared to be about Shin's condition. Was she always this caring or was Shin something special to her? Curiosity was threatening to get the best of him but this wasn't exactly the right time to be asking Shin if he was dating anyone.

Shin's confusion was obvious as he tried to regain his mental faculties but it was also slightly amusing now that Luke knew he wasn't hurt. He asked questions, stood up, and then fell into the young lady's arms.

"Nice catch." Luke commented with a half smile as he leaned up against an undamaged part of the hallway wall, "And it's good to see you too Shin. I've been doing well enough thanks, though being gone for almost a year was far to long."

It had been a long time since Luke had last seen Shin and from the way he stood... or half stood, and spoke it seemed like he had grown up some more since Luke had been away. Thankfully there were plenty of mentors for the young man to look up to, especially Sam who Luke remember had taken the young man under his wing. In almost a years time so much could have happened. Had Shin become a full blown member of the X-Men yet? Had he been forced to stare death in the face? Had he experienced love and loss? So many questions but Luke knew that most of them really weren't any of his business.

"Your friend and I were actually just trying to place if we've ever met before. Her voice is very familiar and she seems to slightly remember my name but we're not making the full connection yet." The comment was easy and friendly and made for the perfect opportunity to continue with one of the questions Luke was very curious about, "So, how do you two know each other?"

Had it really been a year? So much had happened. Everything with Kealey, Romania, X-men tryouts, this... Shin nodded slightly. "It is."

Shin smiled at Kealey's comment, leaning against her shoulder for the moment. Her hand was pressed against his chest. He was lucky to have her there, and he was glad. They'd have to talk about what happened once he was finished catching up with Luke.

For now, it seemed, Luke and Kealey were focused on figuring out where they knew each other from... and where he knew Kealey from. How he knew her.

Shin suddenly realized, not-too-embarrassedly, how things looked with her holding him up like that. He could walk now. The initial shakiness was fading fast.

He shifted out of Kealey's clutches as he pondered the serious question of footing. They moved so she could face Luke, and he could stand, not too far from her, in case he had another bout of falling, but not too close. He didn't want to risk being too far, and he didn't want to make things awkward by cuddling her in front of Luke.

Or make Kealey blush... which is kind of what she did anyways. Whoops~

>>"Well," she started, looking to him.

He smiled subtly, letting her know she could say it. ...And she did. He snaked out an arm and gave her a one-armed shoulder hug. "She's my girlfriend," He stated. Just to make things clear.

Plus, it was fun to say.

Shin looked curiously to Kealey as she tried piecing together a timeline for when and where she could possibly have met Luke, yet not remembered his face. Shin looked with interest towards Luke. Something about remembering someone, yet remembering them with the wrong face resonated something in his memory. He tilted his head. "You haven't had any out-of-body experiences, have you? Because a while back, before the new year, I was Abyss." He hardly remembered what had happened, but he had vague recollections of people he'd met. Some Texas-accent joker, egging him on, Kasumi as Jaxon... it was strange. Different face, same person. It was the only solution he could think of.

Yeah. Shin always did conjure up the most oddball solutions.

Kealey leaned slightly into the one-armed hug that Shin gave her, slipping an arm around his back but worried about sending him off balance again with too much pressure. He clarified their relationship status and the blond grinned and nodded, wondering just how often she walked around with that same stupid grin on her face. Luke was mentally “aww’ing” at them, but Kealey let it go, not everyone got to feel the emotions that went along with statements like that. Luke could “aww” all he wanted.

The blond chuckled at Luke’s statement about action, drama, and adventure and shrugged her shoulders, ”Well, in that case, we’re leaps and bounds ahead of the pack.” It was true, in terms of those three things, Kealey and Shin had been through enough before they’d even started dating that their karma had to be off the charts. Thankfully though, it seemed that things had slowed down.

Shin started talking about out of body experiences and Kealey did a mental double-take. He’d…been…Abyss? Confusion reigned now, even in spite of the obvious truth behind Shin’s words. Surely he didn’t mean literally…how could you just be someone else for a while? Kealey filed the information away for later, boy they had some things to talk about. ”Like…were as in…were Abyss? I’m confused.”

Through her confusion, Kealey could feel Luke working through the problem of her identity. The equivalent of a mental light bulb went off, and Kealey’s eyes jerked back to Luke’s as he finally remembered who she was.

Cheeks pinking slightly at the list of positive statements that next followed, Kealey shook her head, "I don't know about all that..." she said, confused and embarrassed until Luke pointed out exactly where it was they’d met.

”No way.” she gasped, eyes going slightly wide. ”That was you? I’m so glad everything worked out!”

Implications were raining like cats and dogs, and Kealey shook her head and took a deep breath, trying to clear her thoughts. This was a lot to take in. Something else Luke said caught Kealey’s attention and she choked slightly on a chuckle, ”That was Juka’s body? Oh my, that must have been a shock.”

Shin was still next to her, and Kealey turned her attention back to him, ”I was working on my portfolio in the aquarium…and suddenly I couldn’t concentrate because someone was so morose…you know me, I can’t keep my hand out of an emotional cookie jar, so I took the liberty of introducing myself and seeing if I could help. Don’t know what good I did…but obviously you figured things out.”

The blond held out her hand with a smile, ”It’s nice to meet you officially.”