Serena hummed to herself as she'd finally finished sorting out everything in her apartment. She felt like her lungs had been clogged with dust for the first few days, but now everything had aired out a bit, and her fridge actually had food in it. And she had milk, for tea! She had a little wrapped box sitting on her kitchen counter waiting for her sister.

Leaning against the counter with some pretty loud music playing Serena hummed and tapped away at her phone, sending a text.

Hey sweetie, do you want to come over tonight and hang out? I promise the apartment is both clean, and there is food.

She made herself a cup of tea while she waiting for her sister to respond and walked around the apartment, checking that stuff was clean. She did of course, still have a pile of clothes in one corner, and her sofa was a mess but her writing desk and kitchen were once more sparkling, so there was that.

Alice had planned on a private gaming sessions with the latest expansion for her MMO fixation but apparently her sister had other plans, sending her an invitation over and adding in those magical words. Food.

I'll be right there, should only take a few minutes to get a bus across. Want me to bring anything, like games etc?

Putting on a pretty simple t-shirt and jeans combo, Alice set about gathering up the items she would need before heading out, giving one the guards a brief nod and shout to tell him where she was heading off to. She got the feeling that the staff at the mansion probably wouldn't be upset about her visiting a family member, especially one who was a graduate of the same place and a regular fixture around the grounds. That and she didn't really feel like sneaking out when she had a good excuse for escape.

A taxi, a bus ride and a short walk later she arrive outside the block of flats, her quest marker conveniently pointing the right place out if she somehow managed to forgot such an important part of her life. Easing her way inside and up to the right flat, she juggled her bag and phone before knocking on the door.

Serena had some surprisingly heavy music playing on her speakers while she hummed, going through the cupboards and just double checking she had everything she needed if the two of them decided they wanted to do some baking or cooking. Gaming was easy, she now had snacks in the apartment, even if most of them were on the healthier side of things, she had stuff to drink and she had consoles and whatnot all set up.

Serena wasn't actually sure what Alice played, but she was pretty confident her library had something they'd enjoy if they wanted to play stuff. Her phone pinged and she pulled it out, grinning and humming along with the music as she typed out a reply.

Anything you like, all I require is you and yourself. <3

She set her phone down on the counter and leaned against it, closing her eyes and just enjoying the ambient sound of the music while she waited for her little sister.

With the reply she decided to just bring an extra controller and a newer co-op game that had come out while Serena had been touring the country, rather than bog her down with too many choices. She knew her sister had enough games of her own for them to choose from anyway so it made sense to scope out what she owned first, then tailored what she brought in the future. Plus it meant she wasn't having to bring too much with her other than a few snack bars to tide her over and keep the hunger bar up between meals.

Getting to the place hadn't been hard and she was pretty sure she had the right place, what with the quest marker and the fact she'd been there before but her knocking hand't provoked much of a reaction. Maybe it was the music she could hear now that she'd stopped for a second, so she knocked harder again before realise she probably should have sent a quick message to let her sister know she'd arrived.

Hey sis, I'm kind of just outside your door. Mind letting me in or is the heavy metal just too good to stop?

While waiting waiting for Alice, listening to the music inspiration struck Serena and she slid over to her writing desk, fishing out a note pad and jotting down some ideas. It really had been a little while since she'd felt creative at all and it seemed like being back in New York at all was helping get everything going again. It wasn't much, but she noted down some ideas. Of course she'd kept up with her geeky column, but that was easy. Opinions and critical analysis were no problem compared to coming up with original thought.

She blinked when her phone buzzed on the counter. Was Alice texting bac- her eyes wandered to the clock. Oops. She slid her notepad away in the drawer, grabbed her phone and read the message on the way, hitting mute on the speaker before swinging the door open. "Alice." She leaned forwards and immediately hugged her sister. "Good to see you." She smiled warmly.

"Sorry about that, would you like to come in?"

Being careful not to drop anything and hug her sister back certainly did test her co-ordination but Alice managed to pull it off without too much effort. "Hey Serena, good to see you too." She was glad to have the distraction and something a little more than to do than gaming.

"Yes please, this bag is getting a little heavy and I don't want to damage out another controller if I could avoid it," she replied, stepping in lightly with her items is a beaten up canvas satchel before dropping it off on an available surface for easy reach later. Glancing around she didn't quite know what she expected but it was, clean? That was about her limit of ability to notice differences but at least her sister seemed to have settled back in?

"So, what's the plan then? Movies, games, cooking?" counting them off on one hand she struggled after the third suggestion, "Or......something else I can totally name?" Which she couldn't at all in that moment. Ever the master of wit, Alice thought to herself.

Serena chuckled happily. "That is the correct way to answer your older sister tackle hugging you." She chirped, leading Alice inside and locking the door behind them she double checked the music was off and let Alice start dropping off her stuff, making herself comfortable. The space really was lonely on her own sometimes. But she supposed that did kind of fit the brooding writer angle, not that Serena brooded often. She had been known to on very rare occasion.

She snorted. "I can appreciate that, but I'm sure unless it's sentimental you can afford more." She teased. How careful was Alice with possessions? It was so strange having a blood sister that she'd never lived with in her life, she didn't know that much about Alice's living habits other than the little she'd gleaned from her bedroom.

"Do you know, I could not tell you the last time I actually played games with another person. Most of the stuff I've written about has been little single player obsessions." She sighed. Her column was really falling behind in that regard, she'd reviewed a decent number of movies and done some more lifestyle blog posts, but she was really slipping in her nerd credit.

"Would you like something to drink, I don't mind cooking or anything, but I also have Alice suitable calorie heavy snacks." She admitted. "OH! And what have you been up to, my dear?" She smiled.

"Yeah, I feel like I don't have a choice in those to be honest. Kind of a package deal with you aren't they?" It's not like the hugs were bad but Alice wasn't that kind of person. That and she generally hadn't really been close to more than one other person in her life so she wasn't used to them being normal.

She could afford more. Or she could keep saving for the monster of all gaming rigs and replacing controllers wasn't cheap. "You learn quick when it's for a console that's out of production. Took me weeks to find one for one of my older systems the last time I broke it."

Alice nodded along, already having figured out her sister hadn't had much time for co-op stuff. After all she'd hardly stayed put long enough to play any longer term games let alone ones needing 2 people. Still, it meant they had alot of ground to cover, given some of the great games that had come out recently. Ground they would definitely dent tonight.

"Just a cola for now, unless you have some real cider. It's been ages since I've had any and the stuff they have here just isn't the same." What kind of monster made non-alcoholic cider? "I've also got snacks with me so we should have plenty to chose from."

Considering the last question she didn't have much really going on other than school work. "Not much, really. Been getting ready for last few school months and finally got my acceptance from NYU." That had taken an annoying amount of time to get hold of, but at least it was through. "I even floated the idea of moving in with a friend when uni starts past mum and she seemed weirdly happy for some reason."

Serena smirked knowingly. Good that she'd picked up on the fact very quickly and accepted her dreadful fate. "Yes, yes they are. If you're my friend, or my sibling in your case you get hugged." She replied matter of factually.

Were they friends? It was weird. She had a very different relationship with Alice than she'd had with Jake. She wasn't sure if it was just because she was the older sibling this time or if it was a personality thing. Maybe because they were both gay and into nerd stuff? Yeah, maybe it was a nerd lesbian thing.

Serena nodded, she supposed that made sense. "I'm a little surprised you're that frugal." She honestly though Alice was much easier going with money. "I think I have a few old consoles lying around. Not that old mind you, mostly just 90's stuff." Serena really didn't own enough stuff to fill out her apartment, not that it would be that impressive to Alice but it was pretty huge.

"Of course I have real cider. Do you take me for a heathen?" She teased, moving towards the fridge. To pull it open and then swiftly spun around and grinned. "Really?? That's fantastic news Alice!" She crossed the room and assaulted her sister with more affection. "She probably thinks it will be good for you, help you understand living independently a bit more." Alice probably didn't have much experience in that field. Serena remembered the system shock when she moved out again.

"And congratulations~ Celebrations are in order then!" She moved back over to Alice and deposited the small wrapped package in her lap. It was about the size of a very small jewelry box. She then turned back to the fridge and went and fetched Alice a cold cider, and poured herself a glass of iced tea.

Alice return the grin with one of her own. Siblings were pretty damn awesome, apparently and she couldn't help but now feel jealous of the girls she'd gone to school with who'd spent their time complaining about theirs without realise how much they kind of improved things. Then again she hadn't had to deal with the fun hormonal puberty side of that relationship so maybe they weren't entirely wrong.

"I wouldn't really call it frugal, since I'm spending it on very expensive computer parts." She was soooo close to having everything she needed to build the computer of her dreams, even with the setback of a reduced allowance hadn't stopped her. it had extended the time frame for sure, put she was nearly there.

"You are the best I ser-" was all she got out before even more hugs. Serena hugged a lot. Too much. And it wasn't like it was uprising news, Alice had really just been waiting on a by gone conclusion with her grades being much better the second time around. "But you're right. I think she's actually glad I have friends, like I'm some kind of recluse or something."

Which she totally wasn't. At all.

And now presents? Yeah Serena was the best. Tearing the wrapping apart she was suprised by a small box. Which looked like it had jewelry in which was......weird for her sister to get her. She didn't exactly wear much except some basic piercings but hey, maybe it would still be cool.

Except it was a key. Right then. "Erm, sis. Did you mean to put this in here," she said, holding up the key. It kind of looked like she'd made some weird switcheroo or something.

Serena shook her head in amusement. Of course that's what Alice was spending the money on. She was enjoying getting to know Alice and learning more about her personality steadily and was as a result swiftly discovering the way that Alice operated. She was very goal and pleasure centric. Which Serena honestly though was fine. She'd had plenty of people suggest she should really lean more in that direction herself, and she didn't think they were necessarily wrong.

Serena laughed happily. "Good. I'm glad you get on so well." She mused. "I wish me and dad got on like that, he never seemed that happy or interested to be perfectly honest." And he had a hell of a sordid romantic history, that was for sure.

Serena glanced over at her sister as the blue haired girl eagerly tore into the little boxes wrapping and unfurled it. She was pretty certain Alice hadn't been expecting it, and she was more certain once her sister actually opened it that she didn't understand it. Serena laughed again and took a seat next to Alice, popping a can and glass of cider on the table in front of the other Brit, taking a sip of her iced tea at the same time.

"Well..." She turned and gave another one of those amused, excited little smiles to her sister. "I did mean to. I'm very excited and happy for you moving out, and I was already planning this." She admitted. "It's a key to this apartment. There is a spare room I never really use, and it's yours." She replied softly.

Serena glanced away for a moment, thoughts on the situation were making her watery eyed again and Alice had seen more than enough of that when she first got back. "I don't want you to ever feel pressured to live here or anything. That's not the intent. But... You're my sister, and this is just as much your home as it is mine. If you ever need it, for any reason if you ever need a place to stay, a place to call your own or just somewhere to hide out for a few days. It's yours." She added, looking back to her sister, eyes somewhat dryer.

It was as much an honest gesture to Alice of Serena's acceptance and affection towards her as it was an expression of trust. "Oh, and for the record if you need a co-sign on your lease and don't want to deal with your Mother at the time, I'll be happy to do that for you." She added softly.

Yeah, he certainly wasn't the most interested person in Alice's regard. Definitely not interested enough to even acknowledge his own child's existence, let alone speak to her, which made her sister's statement just a mild understatement in her eyes. "You can say that again," she added, not entirely sure her lack of contact was a good or bad thing with what she'd heard.

Her mind reeled at the offer. Serena was actually willing to let her live there, if she'd wanted, and she would be lying if she'd said she wouldn't have loved to if she hadn't been sold on the idea on moving in with Marisol. "Bloody hell Serena, are you trying to win some kind of best sister competition or something because you are kind of in the running for a medal at this rate."

Putting the box on the table she gave her sister a quick hug, even ignoring the cider for now. "I really appreciate this, like massively. Can't tell you how much it means to have a place to call home here." Sure she'd have her own place soon and the mansion was nice but nowhere in the city ever really felt like home to her. Christ even most places where she came from didn't have that feel which wasn't a surprise how the living there had beem over the last few years. "And I won't mess this up. Or borrow your games. Much."

OK maybe she'd borrow a few.

"I might take you up on that if I can't grab her, or if they don't believe she's related to me." In reality, her mum was way less well known than Serena on this side of the Atlantic but she did pop up every now and then at a charity do or business report. If anyone was into that stuff that would definitely not trust some random blue haired stick claiming to be her daughter.

Serena did feel really bad that Alice had never gotten to meet him. "I'm realising as I get older that people are a lot more complicated than they appear, he might never have told us everything but he certainly never tried to manipulate me like Victoria, he might have had his reasons. It's just frustrating that I can't talk to him about any of it." Hell, it's not like she told everybody every single fact about her life. She was still timid about her mutation with Alice and Serena certainly had her own skeletons she was never going to expose her little sister to.

Serena chuckled. "I swear I'm not. Well.." She tilted her head. "I'd be lying if some of it wasn't making up for missing so many birthdays, and not being around the last couple of years but there is more to it. This place is home, not just this apartment, this city, certainly the mansion. I want you to feel like it is too. And if there is anything I can do to make you feel more like that, I'm going to bloody well do it."

More hugs, yay! Serena gave her little sister a squeeze. "I'm glad you like it. And seriously don't worry about it. I trust you. I've only ever given one other person a key in all the years I've lived here, if I didn't trust you completely I would not have given it to you." She soothed.

Serena was sure that Alice's mother probably wouldn't have trouble getting the stuff through, and Alice did probably have legal ID so it wouldn't be too hard to verify. But the blonde kind of saw the two of them as being outside of the main family structure, and she knew for a fact that she wasn't to rely on them as little as possible. Though Alice was a little bit more.. spoiled than she was, so it may have been the case she was comfortable with that. "Of course, and I don't want to step on her toes either. I'm not entirely sure she trusts me fully. But I thought I'd offer, just in the case that you do run into some trouble."

Serena seemed pretty forgiving about their fathers choices or lack of them. At least on the surface anyway. Alice, less so. Bad decisions were one thing and not being a good parent another, but never even seeing her? Not checking on your own daughter? That was just f**ked. "Yeah you and me both. I know I'd have certain words to say to him repeatedly and in a variable pattern," she finished bitterly. She'd swear at him, if she could. For a while. Maybe 3-4 days before taking a break.

"I, well yeah of course it is, home at least. And you can't blame yourself about missing out on the birthdays, not like had much choice in the matter." The choice had been made for them, by an evil old witch, and the silence on a flawed man. "Mainly having my real family around makes it that. Not the estate that's for damn certain." Didn't feel real yet and the key was kind of heavier than she'd expected, even with how small it was.

Ok, hold up. She'd given someone else a key, to her apartment. And this was the first she'd ever heard about this. Cocking an eyebrow, "Serena, if this is the first time hearing you were dating someone long enough for them to be able to let themselves in I am going to be upset. Spill it."

"I mean, not entirely I guess," she admitted before hastily adding, "not that it says anything about you. She can just be protective at times. It was just the two of us for a while, we were.......are close," correcting herself quickly. "And I know you mean the best. Kind of proven that already with this," grinning she waved the key for effect. "Hard to step back from that."

She tried not to wince. She absolutely understood Alice's feelings on the matter, she felt similarly about both her grandmother and she'd felt that way about Alice's own mother for a while. Sure, the old bloodsucker had probably told her not to contact Serena or Jake but... That didn't mean she had to listen. Alice certainly hadn't grown up following the woman's word to a T, how could she not have wanted to meet her niece?

Okay wow. She'd not realised there was still some lingering resentment there. That was something to deal with on her own time though, not something to bother Alice with. "I understand."

It was really hard to imagine, growing up on that estate. One of the things that did still stand out in Serena's memory from her brief visits was how warm their servants had been though, they'd all treated her like family and some of them apparently even remembered her from when she was a kid, too little to recall her brief time there. It had evidently been a few years judging by Alice's age though. "That makes me so relieved to hear, you have no idea." She squeezed her sister a little more before giving her some room.

Awkwarrrrrdd.

"Oh-Er-" Serena cleared her throat and took a drink to try and get rid of the lump rapidly forming. How did she talk to Alice about this? How did she speak to anyone about this?

She winced. "It was part of the reason I left. That's why you've not heard of her." It came out at more of a whisper.

The many whys and hows that had dominated her mind for so long began swirling around it again. Along with the more morbid thoughts, what if she'd died somewhere and nobody had told her? What if she was stuck in that other dumb dimension? The worst thoughts of all were the "what did I do wrong?" aligned thoughts.

Damned dust in her eyes. The writer closed them before her sister could see the tears welling inside of them. "Her name is Amelia and she was the best thing that had ever happened to me until she suddenly wasn't there, I don't know why and I don't want to discuss it further."

A couple of shaky deep breaths later and she reopened them. "And I get your mother, I may have overprotective issues myself." being Serena she of course didn't quite understand the degree to which she understated.