”Told you before, I’m not gonna leave you. You might not come back and things around the mansion got boring.” So boring he stopped showing up for his classes and decided to find homes away from the mansion where he could fly to when he was sick of the mansion he rarely saw his roommate Koga was off doing the superhero thing and Kat had her boyfriend the creepy guy meaning Carrick was mostly alone except when he befriended the odd trouble makers, oh how few of them they were at the mansion.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out Liz was still upset about something, and Carrick was no where near a genius intellect he could however read people pretty well and given that Liz was someone he kind of sort of maybe liked more than a friend he actually cared to read her even after a year he liked to think it was still somewhat easy. His mismatched eyes fixed on her light brown ones and he smirked again his sharp teeth showing more than he had realized. ”As far as what I’m going to do with you?” Carrick realized he never answered her question. Carrick shrugged and turned his head slightly to the oncoming wind his hair getting buffered as he leaned forward and he started to fly in circles above Liz and the stoop she was on.

”Hmmm…” Carrick thought allowed as he eyed her like a bird of prey as he continued to circle her. A second passed then another and then Carrick flapped his wings shut and landed on the building next to Liz with a small thud and he stood upright. Not realizing how close he actually landed to her when he stood upright he was almost eye level from her and within reach forcing his cheeks to fill with color. Carrick turned his gaze away from her and then sat down, upset with himself for he could face down a big red ape with no problem but being around her gave his stomach butterflies. ”Who says I want to do anything? I just wanted some company for the view.” Carrick said defensively as he nodded forward towards the buildings below.

They were higher than all the other buildings in Manhattan so everything below them looked like toy buildings and ants. Carrick closed his eyes for a second as the wind buffered his face and he opened them again, ”So who was the bird?” Carrick asked trying to make casual conversation hoping the bird she had been with earlier when he spotted her was a safe topic that wouldn’t make her feel trapped.

Any elation over the success of her ploy vanished as Carrick began circling around her. Elizabeth instinctively retreated a step, feeling the primal surges of danger well up in her, warning her of potential threat that was seeking to dive and attack. Elizabeth shirked those feelings quickly. Carrick wasn’t a threat. But his circling didn’t calm her nerves one bit.

Even as he danced around her question before considering it for real, the feathered lad landed on the roof very close to her. Very, very close. Her cheeks burned a bit at the realization of the fact, but hopefully Carrick would just attribute that to the nippy air. Liz also noticed that the two were staring into each others eyes. Lest she fall into those bicolored orbs of his, Liz averted her gaze and began an intense examination of the composition of the roof she stood upon. Peripherally, she watched him move around before sitting against a wall.

The blonde joined him for many reasons. It was warmer there, out off the full brunt of the wind, as well as close to another warm-blooded creature. And it was a good place to sit, where she could support her back. It would also help her hear anything he said. And, maybe just because it was where Carrick was at. Regardless, Liz ended up quite close to him again.

When he finally answered, Liz smiled, for real this time. And maybe her heart momentarily increased its pulse-rate. She scooted a little bit closer to the Irishman. Yes, she was definitely going to enjoy the view. And she was certainly feeling warmer, and she wasn’t just talking temperature.

His choice of conversation topic came as a bit of a surprise. It shouldn’t have, since Carrick had usually taken quite some interest in birds around her before, but the empath hadn’t really been expecting it. “Oh, uh, I don’t really know. I’d only just met her. But she was a beauty, wasn’t she?” Kestrels were safe topics. Liz forced herself to sound enthusiastic about them. “I actually managed to convince her to come down from the tree and land on me. Without possessing her. Cool, huh?” Hopefully, she sounded convincingly normal.

She was close to him now; very close so close he could reach his fingers out from his side and place them around hers. He didn’t though instead he thought about it for a few seconds before blood danced to his face again, he remembered the kiss they shared and he wondered if anything between them would be the same again or at least normal enough to the point where his face doesn’t light up bright red or his stomach doesn’t knot itself up. Still he didn’t inch away when he could catch the smell of her shampoo on the air when the wind blew some of her hair his way.

” Didn’t know you could do that.” Carrick said his eyes still focused out on the horizon while his thoughts were focused on Liz and their conversation and defiantly not the butterflies dancing in his stomach. ”So you can do bird calls too then?” Carrick asked giving a few chirps and not the screech he suddenly felt the urge to let loose from the adrenaline that he was currently experiencing. ”Just birds? I wonder how Nico likes the competition; don’t think he ever liked me. Pooped on my shoulder a few times… then again I was always way out of his league as far flying.” Carrick said smirking tilting his gaze to the girl whose hair was being blown about due to the flight and the current short bursts of wind.

His eyes fixed on her for a second before he shifted his gaze back out to the horizon, ”Strange, it was always colder up here when I was by myself.” Carrick said his wing behind him shifted forcing his arm to brush up and remain against hers. ”Won’t be able to do this much longer once winter is here, very hard to fly about up this way between the winds and snow.” Carrick said, ”Never been one to fly south either.” he smirked and kept looking forward. ”Was it cold where you were?” Carrick asked trying in his round about way to try and figure out where she was without making her uncomfortable.

During his casual non-direct questioning his tail had managed continuously to somehow brush up against Liz’s hand over and over again where Carrick had no intention or idea of it being there.

Hmm, maybe Carrick had gotten the wrong idea of what she did. “Oh, it was nothing like mind control or anything. I just played up her curiosity and shorted out her natural fear and concern. And a bunch of other things to make her think it was okay to perch on a human.” She tilted her face toward Carrick after she finished correcting herself, listening to his bird calls. They sounded very realistic. Was he becoming more like a bird? It was then she noticed the pointing ears.

Huh.

She tuned back in to Carrick’s flow of speaking. A small smile surged up over the memories of Nico pooping on the boy’s shoulder--and not always on accident, either. “Eh, I don’t think Nico cares. Just as long as nothing ever interferes with him, he’s generally cool.” Liz neglected to mention that she’d always felt that Nico’s particular antagonism towards Carrick was actually more of a long-term prank than actual malevolence.

He turned and looked at her, even through the nebulous whipping of her hair. She raised a hand in attempts to curtail the keratinous constructs, trying to pull it behind her head or something. She’d neglected to bring any hair ties and hadn’t felt the need to bind it earlier at the mansion. And then, as he remarked about the cold, his arm touched hers. She froze, acutely aware of each millimeter of contact between the two of them. But she refused to move her arm away. It was okay with her, truly, it was just....a surprise. A pleasant one, that is.

The idea of not being able to fly away from everything saddened the girl for a bit. “So what you’re saying, is that we should enjoy this time while we can?” It was mostly a rhetorical question; she was definitely going enjoy the time. Even with a fuzzy tail flicking oer her hand. Idle thoughts of trapping played out in some wing of her mind.

But then conversation returned to her. For a moment, Liz was silent as she just stared off into the skyline. And for another moment. And another. Then she finally spoke, ignoring his question. “I went back home, in New Jersey. I thought it’d be a good idea. And it was, for awhile.” Liz stopped talking, afraid her voice would suddenly give out. Meanwhile, she battled against the water building in her eyes and the images in her brain. Suddenly, she just dropped her head onto Carrick’s shoulder.

“It was a bad idea.” Finality in her voice, it counteracted any contradictions in her answer.

‘Good for Nico’ thought Carrick willing to share Liz, something Carrick wasn’t entirely sure he was capable of luckily as far as the mansion goes he was pretty sure he was the closest to her and she didn’t even bother to tell him she was leaving for a year so it seemed that now she was back Carrick might not have to compete with anyone. Before he could answer her question about enjoying their time together she propped her head on his shoulder and the butterflies dwelling in his stomach started to flutter about.

The topic of conversation shifted to her about her home and where she was from. ”Oh… eww a jersey girl….” Carrick said trying to sound as playful as possible tilting his head momentarily to the side leaning it on hers before lifting it up and leaning it back against the building. He could hear from her tone she was sad about her home and how everything had become. Instinctively he tried to break the tension and lighten her mood, ”Then you realized you couldn’t go flying with me? Or keep me focused in school?” he asked trying to smile despite her sounding upset.

He paused for a few seconds and then his nostrils flared, ”What happened in Jersey?” he let the question sit trying not to add any more humor to the situation for fear of upsetting Liz more than she already was. The last thing he wanted to see was her cry.

Carrick tried to lighten the mood. He really did, and Elizabeth could tell. As much as she appreciated it, though, his efforts were like so much water down a drain. In vain. As much as she would’ve loved to allow the conversation to continue in that direction, she just couldn’t. It would be too hard to bring it up again, and she might as well finish it since she’d already started it.

She shuffled her head a bit on his shoulder, trying to find the perfect position. “I thought it would be a nicer change of pace, you know? Safer.” She left unsaid many of the dangers that had plagued her in New York. Carrick was familiar enough with them to know what she meant. He’d been there for a few of them. “And my uncle had died and I just wanted to stay home for awhile. And so I left the Institute and transferred back home. In the long run, it was going to be a good idea, even if I had to give up the friends I made here.” Because those few souls she’d befriended were parts of her life she never wanted to lose.

“And it was nice, for some time. First semester, actually. Got a job, great classes, several new friends, a couple sports, stuff like that. Living the dream, right?” At that, a bitter smile materialized on her face, reminders of what had been and what could’ve been. “Life was grand and it was all good.” Those were the days! Those wonderful, happy days!

Liz discreetly wiped her nose and sniffed. “But second semester, this guy transferred in. I thought he was perfect, like the only diamond in a world of coal mines. Good at everything he attempted, stellar at things he actually put effort into. Charming, great guy, everybody liked him.” The blonde’s voice took on a dreamy-like quality, flickers of fond memories alighting in her eyes. Russell Crane. All that potential in him....desecrated.

“He asked me out. I said yes. And just like that, we were the star couple of the school.” Liz pulled her hair back behind her exposed ear, simultaneously shifting her position a bit on the ground to avoid numbness. “Life couldn’t have been better.” Suddenly, Elizabeth’s voice went bleak, as if the emotions have been leached from it. “And then I told him I was a mutant. The next day the news was all over the school. And that I’d use my-my mind powers to force him to--” Her voice cracked and she couldn’t continue the thought. Tears began to well up again, even as the memories played back before her mind’s eye.

Liz tried wiping her eyes before sliding her arm through Carrick’s, clutching at the arm for support.

Carrick nodded at her first explanation about leaving it might have been safer. For a while now Carrick had gotten so used to all the chaos in New York City he started to think that was just how it always was, a massive chaotic adventure. Something he had grown to like but in Liz’s case there was a few times where she had gotten into trouble, one being his fault something he didn’t plan on forgetting anytime soon. ‘Did I push her away?’ Carrick found himself asking as she continued to explain her escape that turned all wrong.

>>> “it was going to be a good idea, even if I had to give up the friends I made here.”

Carrick stopped nodding and he looked down at his feet despite Liz being back those words cut in deep and he was about to say something but didn’t. Could he too do something similar just up and move and forget everyone here? He had done it before what’s to say he couldn’t do it again, but did that mean forgetting Liz? Carrick mentally shook his thoughts; he could brood later in his favorite brooding spot next to a pair of gargoyles by the abandoned church he frequented. No, now was the time to be near Liz he missed her and wanted to understand why she was so upset.

She was happy, which was good friends and a job and sports. It was what every kid dreamed of well in Carrick’s mind it was just friends and a good time. The job and classes and sports weren’t really his thing. Carrick hated to be stuck somewhere, one of the reasons he never really saw a need for a job and one of the reasons he rarely attended school.

Carrick was happy for Liz that she found all that, up until she mentioned a guy. His heart stopped pounding, as intensely despite the fact that she was so close to him and it seemed those butterflies in his stomach died or decided to stop fluttering about. Either way the initial feeling he had next to Liz was on hold. ‘She found someone else’ thought Carrick ‘good!’ his thoughts continued as she continued.

Once she was done Carrick nodded his head and waited for a few seconds as she slipped her arm through Carrick’s he was tempted to pull away but didn’t not yet at least. ”Sounds like a Caffler to me.” Carrick then moved from Liz and stood up and brushed his pants off as he looked out into the horizon ”Whole lot of them sound like apes an’ asses. Honestly, girl great as you, even if you’re from jersey.” Carrick shifted his weight backwards and spun on his heal to face Liz, ”I mean I’m no diamond, but I seem to get ‘long with you well enough.” Carrick said smirking, ”Got to be careful with Diamonds, everyone thinks they hit it big with ‘em only to realize it’s a cheap knock off.”

Stretching his arms over his head and yawning Carrick shrugged, ”Bah to diamonds, that’s what I say.” ‘Well at least she isn’t still into him.’ Carrick thought trying to find the silver lining through all of this trying to ignore the comments Liz said before hand about forgetting him. ”Guess ya know what needs to be done now ya?”

They maintained physical contact for longer than a moment, but soon enough Carrick pulled away and stood. She followed him with her gaze, never moving from her grounded seat. She didn’t know how he’d take it. But was she expecting any sort of reaction from him? Or was it more for herself, that she needed to explain? Yet, she noticed that people tended to act a bit odd when others exposed their true feelings. And Elizabeth’s soul was pretty bare right then.

His words and actions, though, did not seem to convey any real type of any emotion to...something. Liz didn’t even know why she expected one. A tiny part of herself realized that maybe she’d just started expecting such outrageous attitudes from people. But then again, why was she comparing other people to Carrick? Even if he did attempt to jokingly slander her home state.

A glimmer of humor flashed in her drying eyes. From this angle, slightly looking up at Carrick from behind, his silhouette against the nearly-setting sun was spectacular. He looked like a real angel (if one happened to ignore his flicking tail). She quickly averted her attention back to his face when he suddenly spun around, pretending to wipe her eyes in order to cover the slight heat of embarrassment suddenly lurking in her cheeks.

For a moment, the talk of diamonds confused the blonde, but only for the moment. He was comparing Russell to a diamond. And his message....was sweet, poetic, sincere, and valid. All that glitters.... She conceded his point with a nod. Next time (if there was ever, ever to be a next time) she’d scour the diamond with lasers before she put it on a ring on her finger. and she agreed with his “bah!” But she didn’t know what he meant, as to their next course of action.

Her confusion showed in her puzzled frown. “Live in a coal mine for the rest of my life?” she queried.

There were a few things he could say right now in an attempt to cheer her up, however he remained silent for a few moments to let her think about what she wanted to do. Carrick wasn’t sure what she really wanted but he had hoped that he was somewhere in the equation, he didn’t like the thought of Liz leaving again.

Carrick was still upset with her but as usual he decided to smile than frown so his true emotions didn’t show because they were emotions he wasn’t used to, he didn’t really know how to act on the butterflies that were no longer active in his stomach. Finally he spoke, ”Spend it in the coal mine?” Carrick asked repeating her question, ”You feel like digging the rest of your life. Me? I’d much rather enjoy it above ground.” Carrick said turning to face the sun for a second before adding and propping open his wings, ”Way above ground.”

Carrick’s wings closed and tucked themselves behind the winged thief, ”However, if I need to come back down to earth ever now and then I think I can manage it every now and then for those who are special to me.” Carrick said turning back to Liz, ”Don’t leave again without telling me, ‘sound good?” Carrick said folding his arms trying to act tough.

Turns out, that wasn’t the answer Carrick was looking for.Oh well. But then she didn’t listen so much to his words after that; her attention was suddenly captured by the view being presented. Again. It was as if Carrick knew what kind of effect he could have on a temporarily emotional teenaged girl. It was certainly helping her push through the memories, for sure.

As before, that side of Carrick vanished all too soon and he faced her once again. This time, what he said actually touched her. Is he saying I’m special? A small smile appeared at that, once she self-consciously attempted to remove. A similar feeling happened in her chest, a light, fluttery feeling, as if butterflies had suddenly taken wing.

The smile returned as Carrick put on a macho routine, crossing his arms for an intimidating effect, but she managed to sober quickly. Brown eyes flickered up, seeking out mismatched ones in return. These words were not funny. Neither missing a beat nor responding immediately, Liz maintained eye contact. “I promise.” And then she realized what everything he’d said really meant.

Oh. Oh! I never....I never told him I’d left! She’d hadn’t told anyone, but even that was terrible. Amber, Haylee, Kai, the others--she hadn’t told anyone she’d left. But it seemed so much worse that hadn’t told Carrick. And that’s why he’d mentioned talk about diamonds. And getting along with me. And looking tough. Her eyes widened and she knew her thoughts were flashing across her face.

Liz took a deep breath before stumbling to her feet, wiping crud off of her skirt once upright. She gripped her arms, more of a gesture of fending off the cold than crossing them in emotional expression. “I’m so sorry,” she said, her voice soft with regret.

Carrick nodded his head once and then smirked to Liz when she apologized, ”Damn right!” Carrick said no longer mad she didn’t tell him she was leaving it was in the past after all and Carrick being upset wouldn’t help much now anyways seeing as Liz was crying not to long ago and the last thing he wanted to do was turn those tears back on.

She was cold, that much was clear to Carrick she was wearing a skirt. Carrick would have been cold as well in fact with his wet hair and slightly damp clothes Carrick was surprised he wasn’t shivering, ”Christ it’s cold what say we go back to the mansion?” it wasn’t really a question because when Carrick asked his feet were already off the ground and his wings started to flap in short strokes enough to keep him just off the ground.

A swoop and a grab and Carrick was in the air with Liz and once again his face warmed up from the increased blood flow. ‘that’s why I was warm’ thought Carrick as he flew back towards the mansion before the sun went down, ”Now that your back you think you can make that cake again?” Carrick asked hopefully glad the girl he sort of kind of probably liked more than just a friend was back at the mansion near him.