Out of the blue one day, Juniper heard a few sharp raps on her door and paused mid song. She was in the middle of practicing for the next show and hadn't been expecting anyone. Xavier certainly didn't knock like that, and Blue could just let himself in as he pleased... assuming he didn't lose his pants again. "Coming!" 

She set her guitar aside, propped up against the wall, and pushed herself to her feet. Maybe it was Saul?

Unlocking the army of deadbolts on her door she edged it open and peeked out. The two faces staring back at her caused her jaw to hit the floor.

"M.....Momma? Papa?"

Juniper blinked, absolutely flabbergasted by the sight of her mother and father standing on her doorstep. And… were those suitcases??

"Juniper." Her mother responded in a short and clipped manner. She was clearly not impressed by what she was seeing and she hadn't even been in the city for more than an hour now.

"Are you going to stand there with your jaw on the floor, or are you going to invite us in? You can't have lost all the manners I taught you already."

Mechanically, Juniper stepped out of the way for her parents to shuffle into her apartment. Her mind was a whirl of panic, surprise, a smidgen of hope that maybe this was a sign that things would change between then… but, mostly panic.

It was a good thing Blue was away right now because she was sure her mother would have some choice words for him and end up getting herself literally roasted.

"...What are you doing here?" She knew how they had gotten there, it wasn't hard since she had given them her address a full year ago….but.. why??

"Am I not allowed to visit my only daughter?" Her mom had deposited her bags neatly by the kitchen counter and was already looking around her living room with a critical eye and her hands on her hips.

The four years since she had last seen her mom had apparently been kind to her. She was a bit thinner and her hair was a little longer. It made Juniper wonder if maybe her mother wasn't super into the whole Anti-femininity thing as she had been before. 

"No- I mean, yes, but like… you never wanted to visit any of the places I liked before, so i'm just confused I g-"

"Oh, don't be so dramatic, Juniper. It wasn't like you ever extended an invitation to us before. Don't try to spin this and make me out to be some kind of villain."

Juni's face scrunched up. But… she HAD extended an invitation to them. At least twice in four years! The first had been ignored completely since they had been over in Hawaii doing whatever it was that did in that obvious cult, and the second had been two years ago when she had first moved into a small apartment in South Carolina. She'd been excited since she was learning how to play the Banjo, like formally with a cool teacher and everything, and had texted them her address and an invitation to come visit. She'd received a reply days later that was roughly just her mothers bias thoughts condensed into three sentences about how awful and racist the south-east corner of the US was. 

Juniper was smart enough to not say that out loud, though.

"Sorry, I just… I wish you had let me know in advance. I would have tried to like, make space for you or whatever."

"Why, is your room filthy?" 

Her mother speared her with a look and then turned toward the little hallway that led to her washer/dryer closet and her bedroom door. Her level of panic rose like a rapidly filling tub left unattended and soon to overflow. 

"No, but-"

"Then there's no problem at all. How big is your bed? Big enough for your father and I? If not David can sleep on the floor." 

Her dad grunted in response. Apparently he hadn't changed at all in four years. Still as large and scruffy as ever and perfectly willing to go along with whatever his wife decided.

"I-" Juniper paused, hands curling and uncurling uncertainty as she struggled with herself. She didn't want them in her room. Hell, she didn't really want them in her apartment either but here she was. But… she REALLY didn't want them in her room. 

It was her safest place. It had all of her cherished memories and to absolute hell if she was going to let her PARENTS sleep in her bed.

"... I would prefer if you didn't, actually. I can set up space out here for you if you need to stay here, but like, there are plenty of hotels and motels and stuff around here." She tried desperately to not let on to just how uncomfortable she was trying to stand up to herself, especially when her short, stout mother turned her attention back on her. It was hard to not flinch. 

"Juniper Wilhelmina Brown… I cannot believe how absolutely inhospitable you are being. I raised you better than that!" The woman clucked her tongue and crossed her arms while she shook her head. "Living in these filthy cities has obviously had a negative impact on you. Turned you selfish and spoiled rotten." 

Cindy turned up her nose and looked away, "Fine. Kick your parents out. We'll find somewhere else to stay. Probably for the best anyway, it smells like nasty animals in here. Do you still have that ratty old thing you dragged out of the woods?"

...Ouch. The instant reminder of Clyde caught her off guard and she felt her eyes sting a little. It had only been a few months since he had died so the wound was still fresh inside her. "No… He passed away recently."

She wasn't going to mention Berry. Her mother, and father to a degree, was steadfast against keeping pets. Her opinion on animals was pretty low to begin with seeing as she wasn't even willing to eat them, and she had a particular hatred for cats. 

"Good! Should have left him in the woods where you found him anyway. I thought I taught you better than dragging around half dead creatures, but you always seem to insist in getting in the way of what nature intended. That thing was better off being food for the plants."

Her father, ever the silent giant, said nothing as he stood there with his hands tucked in the pockets of his jeans. Juniper was scowling, hands clenched tightly into fists, desperately fighting back both feelings and the harsh words she wanted to shout at her mother for such heartless thing to say. But... she knew that saying anything would just prolong the topic and honestly she just wanted to stop talking about Clyde already.

"Oh... Juniper, you poor thing. Such a big heart but for all the wrong reasons. You always seem to get so attached to strays." 

Strays… Like Clyde, and Mason. Cindy had always referred to her small group of friends like that. "You'll get fleas hanging around all of those strays like that… why don't you play with your cousins instead?" In other words, keep it in the family. Except she couldn't, because around the time she had actual friends to hang round with the rest of her family had already started to ostracize her based on her clear dislike for her Uncle. He was a family favorite; Everyone loved him. She was labeled a drama seeking liar and none of her cousins were allowed to play with her.

The strays were literally the only people she had.

"...What's this?" Her attention snapped away from the past and back to the present as her mother started moving. She was flitting around the living room looking at various things in a disapproving manner. "Jesus Christ, Juniper, have you abandoned everything we taught you? Aren't you aware of what this company does? They work with communists! Child slave labor! They take your information and sell it to the very people who would have snatched you up as a child and sold you to china!"

Her mother was holding her laptop and waving it around. It was a well known company and Juniper, who had once fully believed the lies her mother was currently spouting, had found out that they were all fabricated conspiracy theories years ago when she had first looked into a laptop. 

She… wasn't going to try and jump into that. Juniper just shrugged weakly. Her mother was already moving on, ripping apart other choices she had made like the wool blanket draped over her couch, the leather embellishments on the sides of her instruments, and what kind of food she had in her fridge and cupboards.

Of course, this was her mother so she was absolutely sure to take it a step further than just loudly complaining. 

"Oh, this will absolutely not do! Meat!? Juniper you KNOW we are strict vegans. How could you keep those vile things in your fridge?" The scorn was dripping from her voice as her mother got busy pulling every piece of food she disagreed with out of Juniper's fridge and cupboards and dumping each one into the tall trash can at the corner of the counter. 

"Mom, don't-"

"Oh hush! You clearly haven't been taking care of yourself in any capacity. Look how skinny you are! Look at your hair and the circles under your eyes!" 

Leave it to her mother to try and show how much she cared by systematically breaking down all of her physical faults one at a time. "If you hadn't always been such a petulant, argumentative child you would have grown up normal like the rest of us." 

The woman scoffed as she shoved the last pack of frozen hot-dogs onto the pile of now wasted food, and turned to emptying the shelves of dry goods. "But no, instead little miss Juniper gets a wild feather up her butt to try and prove her parents wrong and decides to go hunt for MEAT on her own. I was so close to putting you outside with the rest of the wild animals and locking the door SO many times."

Again, Juniper fell back into simply standing and silently watching her mothers energetic tirade while her father mutely stood by. This was nothing new, and while wholly unwelcome certain habits were hard to break. 

"Really, I deserve some sort of award for putting up with you for so long. Don't I David?" Her father grunted, and walked himself over to sit on the couch and rifle through one of the magazines on her coffee table. "Of course, dear."

"Of course I do!" Her mother affirmed, while flipping a box of pasta around to scrutinize the ingredients list. "Eggs! BAH!" Into the bin it went.

".....Mom." In the span of, what… ten minutes? Twenty?...  it felt like she was losing all the progress she'd made in becoming more and more independent the further she distanced herself from her birth givers. Having her mother rampaging around in her kitchen shot her right back to being teen and having her mother raging around in her room, ranting about things she'd found outside or been given by her friends. Things that had sentimental value thrown in the trash because they didn't suit the narrative her mother ran in the household.

"Don't you start with me, Juniper! It's always been clear to me that you are the type of person that needs to be constantly kept under the thumb!"

The rampage continued for a few minutes more and by the time it was over only a few boxes of pasta, some crackers, and whatever fresh veggies Blue had stocked in the fridge for dinners were left in her kitchen. 

"Go take this out." Cindy waved a hand at the trash and Juniper was tempted to tell her no. But… it was easier to just go along with it, and all of the food was literally in the trash bag and gross now… so she supposed it wouldn't hurt to just give her that, at least.

She went through the motions of gathering the bag up, hefting all of her own food and trash out of her apartment down the hall to the trash chute, and depositing it there. The thought to just like... run away and not come back until her parents were gone popped up, or to hide over in X's apartment until they went away… but she also wasn't sure if that was a great idea. 

Also, she didn't want X discovering what a sh*t show her family was, sooo…

Back to the dungeon it seemed.

As she slumped back into her apartment and started to close her front door, she caught the tail end of her mother complaining about something else.

"-thought we taught her better than this, David. It's so disappointing. It's like she just FORGOT everything while she's been out here traipsing around with all these degenerates." 

Juniper paused before shutting the door, effectively hiding at the front entrance of her apartment behind the tiny wall and closet that shielded her from her parents view. 

"I mean, I expected a certain level of disappointment considering how she was as a child, but THIS… ugh, giving her money to sham companies and participating in child trafficking holidays." 

...Holidays? Juni's heart leapt straight up into her throat and she rushed into the living room without shutting the door all the way. Her mother was standing in front of her father, one hand on her hip while the other was holding a folded piece of paper. A piece of paper with colorful hearts and glitter on it. 

The Valentine's day friendship card Xavier had given her.

"Don't touch that!"

She crossed the room quickly and reached for it, using her power to get the card out of her mothers hands when she tried to move it away. 

She backed up immediately once it was safe in her hands, inspecting it closely to make sure it wasn't damaged. 

It was. Her mom had ripped it off the wall none too gently and the action had resulted in the tape that had been holding it up ripping off and taking a chunk of paper with it. A bite had been taken out of the middle of the top of her card. She traced it with her fingers as her brows creased and anger boiled inside.

"Don't touch my stuff!" She didn't exactly mean to shout, but… well, that's how it came out. Her mom scowled deeply and she caught her dad's attention. Juniper rarely raised her voice to either of them and the last time she had the argument had gotten explosive. 

In fact, the last time she had screamed at her mother had been when she had been 15 and had told them that she was leaving. Running away. Her mother had looked her in the eyes calmly, coolly, and after a beat had wished her the best. That she was sure the world would eat her up and spit her out, and that she would be waiting for an apology when her daughter came crawling back home in tears.

It had been the only time that Juniper had screamed that she hated them. She'd packed her small, illegally acquired car that night and had left as soon as she could without any more words between them. 

"So, what drug dealer gave you that shoddily made DIY card? Or do you have something to tell us? Is there an illegitimate little grandchild running around we don't know about?" 

Because who in the world else would give their daughter of all people a handmade card for a scam holiday?

"It's not like that. A friend gave-"

"A friend? Bah!" Her mother laughed, cold and cruel. "Friends don't give friends stupid little cards like that without wanting something in return. I thought I taught you not to accept gifts from people like some kind of sheep? Are you livestock Juniper? Can someone buy you for some glue and glitter?" 

Her jaws clenched. Xavier wasn't like that, but all the words in the dictionary strung together couldn't get her thick headed mother to accept that. 

"Is that where all of this stuff came from? People buying favors from you like some kind of common hussy? I thought you grew out of that, but apparently I stand corrected."

Juniper turned away from her mother, shying away from the urge to try and defend herself. She headed for her room so that she could tuck the card away and made sure her door was locked. 

"...I don't know what to do, David. This is just so upsetting. What happened? Where did we go wrong?"...

She stayed in her room for a bit, guiltily so, because she just didn't have it in her to go back out there and face her mother. Trying to talk to that woman had always been a weak point for her, as when her mom went on tirades about things it was just easier to shut down and leave it alone than it was to try and argue. Her mom just didn't listen… to anything. She had her own opinions that seemed to be formed from titanium or something and wasn't afraid to try and beat you down with them no matter how ridiculous they were.

What felt like hours later, she came back out once she had calmed down and gotten some control over herself.

"Come to apologize?" Her mother was seating on the couch, scrolling through a phone that was, ironically, a direct competitor to the creator of her laptop. Her father was still on the couch where he had been when she left, but had fallen asleep at some point and had his ball cap pulled over his face. 

"....Sorry." Juniper muttered, not making eye contact and going into her kitchen to try and scrounge something to eat from what was left. She ended up settling on plain crackers.

"... Not nearly good enough after how immature you just acted, but i'll give you more time to muster up something better." 

Juniper noticed that things around the apartment looked to have been moved around. She didn't have the energy to try to puzzle that out though.

"Who convinced you to grow your hair out like that?"

...oh no. Not THIS.

"I just wanted to try it long." She popped a cracker into her mouth and tried to drown out whatever her mother was about to say with chewing. 

"I always thought you looked so much better with shorter hair." At some point Cindy had come up to the counter and was standing by it, arms still crossed. 

"The blonde just makes you look like one of those loose girls online, you know. Darker hair suits your features better." Her mothers had brown hair the same color as her. A bit of grey here or there, but not much yet. 

"I like Blonde."

Her mom huffed and went back to scrolling through her phone, lips pursed and shaking her head slightly. Juniper kinda hoped that brewing argument was over before it could get started, until…

"... All that effort I put into teaching you the harms of embracing patriarchal values and how sexist they are, and look at you now. You may as well have gone out and gotten a boob job and butt injections. Glorifying yourself just to attract sexual attention from males."

"... Actually, i'm bisexual."

"Then dress like it!" 

She turned, half a cracker in her mouth and squinted in confusion at her mother. Dress… like a...? What? 

"... like… If I dress myself up the way you want me to, wouldn't that be the same as dressing like a girl because a man told me to?"

"Don't you try to get smart with me, Juniper brown!" 

The phaser turned away again with the world's most dramatic rolling of her eyes. She really hadn't ever been able to grasp whatever twisted logic her mom was trying to use when it came to being vehemently against anything even remotely "feminine". Being one way or another when it came to who you were attracted you had nothing to do with what kinda clothes or accessories you chose to wear. 

While she was ruffling around in the package for another handful of crackers she didn't hear her mom reach around the counter and grab the kitchen shears from her knife block. She didn't think anything was off until her mom stepped up right behind her and the feeling of a large chunk of hair being grabbed sent her nerves alight with panic. 

The soft Sssshk of sharp scissors slicing through her locks caused her to freeze, a cracker midway into her mouth, and her eyes went round.

… She wouldn't.

...Would she?

"What the HELL?!"

Juniper jerked away, phasing herself to safety right through her counter and into her living room. Indeed, her mother would, as she was standing in the kitchen with a self satisfied smirk on her face and a huge chunk of blonde hair clutched in one hand. 

"Mom!" Juniper reached up and felt for the damage. It was hard to ignore the painful feeling that hit her square in the chest when she felt short, pokey, choppy hair at the middle of the back of her head. It wasn't something she would ignore and hide under the rest of her hair. 

A slew of graphic curses spewed out from her lips as she ran for her bathroom to survey the damage. 

… She didn't come out for a while. 

Finally, after she had come to terms with the damage to her hair a little, she stepped back out into the rest of her apartment... which was slowly starting to feel like a battlefield. She glanced over to where her mother and father were eating dinner at her coffee table. It looked like Chinese food of some sort. The irony wasn't lost on her, but she didn't have the energy to gloat.

"....will you cut the rest of my hair…" It came out as a mutter. 

Her mother pretended not to hear her at first in a juvenile manner. “What’s that? David, do you hear something?” She continued on eating. 

Juniper chewed on her lip angrily, brows creasing as she fought her temper.

“Mom, can you cut the rest of my hair. Please.”

With a satisfied smirk, her mother set her fork and plate down and stood. Her mom wasn’t really any taller than her which made it harder to look down her nose at her daughter. Somehow it still worked though. “Was that so hard, Juniper? Honey catches more flies than vinegar after all.” 

Juniper wasn’t party to what exactly that was supposed to mean, but since it kinda made it sound like her mom was some huge disgusting fly she wasn’t gonna argue. 

“Well? Go on into the kitchen. Go on!” 

She was ushered into her kitchen, which was a wreck with plastic bags, Styrofoam containers half full with food, and dirty dishes. Her mom caught her frown and preemptively snuck in, “Guests don’t have to clean, Juniper. You would already know this is you had ever really paid attention to the things I taught you.”

Cindy picked up the same shears she had used before from the counter. Juniper stood where she had been standing before and stared down at the chunk of hair at her feet. Her mother hadn’t even bothered throwing it away. 

“Alright. Trust me honey, you’ll feel much better after I get all this off. Having nice short hair again will wash away all those nasty pressures that society likes to place on girls your age.”

“Why do you have long hair, then.” 

Angrily, her mom jerked her hair a little while she turned her head this way and that, preparing to start cutting somewhere. “Because i’m older and more mature and people can’t pressure me into things anymore, you little ingrate.”

Juniper winced, but kept her mouth shut. Even though she wanted so badly to point out that her mom was probably one of the easiest people she knew to talk into things. She had a running rep for falling for schemes, like the essential oils, and the vegan anti-aging make-up, and the spirituality cult, and… the list went on and on. 

Chunks of hair started to fall as her mom worked, and with them her sense of self confidence. She’d worked so hard at breaking away from everything she could that led back to the old her. The little girl who was afraid to speak and had a hard time making eye contact. The girl who really, really hated what she saw in the mirror. 

Bit by bit as chunks of blonde hair fell away, she didn’t like the feeling of seeing a return of that pale, sad looking girl again. Yeah, hair could grow back and all, but…. She’d used it for so long as a shield. Something to remind herself that she was different. Better.

Her mom spent the time muttering about various things, including about the blonde color itself and how she’d get rid of it too, if she could. When she was done Juniper was standing in a halo of light yellow fluff from her own head. She had recently had her roots bleached, so her hair wasn’t at all the same color of her mom’s. A tiny bit of dark brown leached out of the bottom, but not much. 

Her mother had left it long enough that no skin showed through, but not enough to really style. Blonde chucks poked up all over in every direction unevenly since, coupled with all of her other obvious failings, her mother wasn’t great at cutting hair. Never had been. Juniper had spent most of her childhood running around with scruffy, wild hair because of that. 

“There we go! Right as rain!” The scissors were abandoned on the counter and her mother checked the watch on her wrist. 

“David! Time to go find someplace to stay, since our ungrateful daughter REFUSES to allow us the decency of sleeping under her roof.”

She listened, mutely, as her mother hurried her father along in picking all their bags up, they headed to the door, and they both turned to her briefly. 

“We’ll be back tomorrow at noon, sharp. We’ve got many things to discuss, and I expect a better attitude by then!”

Her mother stomped out. Her father lingered, watching her quietly for a moment. He opened his mouth to say something, thought better of it after a moment and cleared his throat. 

“You’ve, uh… gotten taller, kiddo.”

And then he turned and quietly left, too.

Juniper listened to her door close, looked up from her hair on the floor at the mess in her kitchen, and mutely went to get her broom. 

The next day as promised her parents were back to try and ruin her life some more. Juniper was seated on her floor on the opposite side of the coffee table of them. Her mother had insisted that she sit on the couch with them, which Juni refused on principle and had allocated herself to the floor.

"-immature of you to hold such an immature grudge like that, you know. I've told  you countless times but it never seems to get into that thick skull of yours."

She really wasn't a fan of where the conversation had ended up. It had started with complaints about the city, crime levels, how the hotel had been, more whining about her not letting them stay, and then had shifted to the problems she had with other members of the family and how it 'just wasn't fair'.

"-Getting out in about a year and it would be nice if we could have a big family get together for once. It's been years, ever since you cause a rift and-"

It wasn't new... She'd heard it all before in the various letters her parents sent her over the years. There was always a poke and prod slipped in somewhere about her making amends for the 'happiness' of the 'family'. She wasn't interested.

"-get any of the letters he sent you? The poor man's been trying his hardest, but whenever we talk he says he never hears back from you. You really should-"

So far it had been an hour and she hadn't gotten out much more than a few yes' or no's in reply to the woman. She was the type to just keep on rolling and never give you a chance to participate. That was exactly why her father and her had gotten together in the first place. He was basically a yes-man.

"-you even listening to me Juniper??"

The phaser blinked and dropped her hand back into her lap from where it had been fiddling with her hair.

"Yes."

Her mom didn't look convinced. "What was I saying then?"

"Something dumb about a scenario that's never going to happen."

"Juniper! How absolutely RUDE-"

Her mom's outraged screech was interrupted by a sudden knock at her door. A familiar knock.. Juniper froze as absolute terror washed over her.

...Oh no.

So... It had been an interesting week. One of those types that barely left you time to do any community service! So, when he'd finally had a free day, he spent the whole time cleaning gutters with ex convicts! It was fun, but they kept asking him what he was in for. They were confused when he replied with 'a fun time making the world a neater place!' every time.

Still, after all of that work, it was noon! Noon already, huh? What? The service had started at 3am! It was healthy to get an early start on the day. returning from his community service, though, he found that his neighbor had... A bunch of packed bags? His face went pale a second. Was... Juniper moving away? No way!

Wait, this was more bags than she had possessions, wasn't it? He scratched the back of his head for a moment, and then smiled confidently to himself. Someone had to let them know that there was a person going around stealing people's packages, and thus keeping these bags out here could be dangerous!

He would be that someone!

The giant blonde hunk of a young man walked up, his white T-shirt a little dirty, but clinging tightly enough to his frame that most people wouldn't notice anything other than abs. Aaaaaabs... what? Oh, right, a person. He knocked on the door. Abs.

Cindy was fast for her age. She was up off the couch and crossing the room to the door faster than Juniper could scramble to her feet.

"Mom, do-"

Juniper watched in helpless horror as the short, grumpy woman spent an embarrassingly long time unlocking each deadbolt, muttering to herself the whole time, before finally jerking the door open.

Her scowling face met with Xavier's cheerful smile, and-

"We don't want any! Get a real job!"

SHe promptly slammed the door in the embodiment of justice's face, turned and huffed her way back into the living room, and sat back down on the couch with her arms crossed. "Probably some hooligan trying to beg money out of people."

Juniper wanted to rip her own hair out, if she had any, as she hustled over to the door and yanked it back open.

"Xavier... now isn't the best time, if you-"

Her eyes landed on ABS.... and then all the luggage she'd somehow missed the first time she'd let her parents in and she instantly looked exhausted. Apparently, her mom hadn't given up on the idea of staying with her yet. Which... just fit her personality to a T.

"Don't you cave, Juniper! He's probably just trying to get money for drugs! ... really, David, this place is such a dump."

Juniper, who looked like she'd eaten something sour, just frowned through it. "Lemme get those." She reached out to grab one of her dad's suitcases.

Oh, Juniper was answering her door! He knew because the series of locks was audibly getting unlocked. It would only be about a minute until she got the door open. Wait, why wasn't she just stepping through like usual? Oh! She was going to let him in! He smiled widely.

The door opened.

An old looking juniper opened the door. His mouth was still open and smiling by the time she shut the door. She... didn't want any? Wait, he didn't have anything. Should... Should he have brought something? No, she just would have turned it down.

The door opened, and he opened his mouth to speak, but young Juniper beat him to it. He raised an eyebrow as there was a loud announcment that he was probably just looking for drug money. Oh, there was a very vast fundamental misunderstanding about his character, here.

Juniper started grabbing a suitcase, and Xavier held out a hand. "That's okay, Juni, I've got it!" He lifted the case, and three more, and invited himself in. "Hello there! I'm Xavier, Juniper's neighbor! You must be her..." He set the suitcased down gently, and stood tall, smiling with his hands on his hips. "Parents! Nice to meet you!"

"No, wai-"

Xavier gathered up all the luggage in a flash and vanished into her apartment. She stood outside and pondered just leaving him alone in there while she made a swift getaway, but... no, that would be too cruel. Xavier couldn't do anything in his lifetime worthy of that kind of punishment.

She slunk in behind her tall fried, already scowling as he pegged who there were and energetically introduced himself.

Her mother and father stared, eerily quiet, and then her mother donned a scowl that could scare away a murder of crows and crossed her arms. She didn't address Xavier or introduce herself or her husband.

"Oh, so this is him, is it?"

Juniper managed to look surprised for once, from over where she was hiding by the entrance in case she needed to run. "Sorry?"

"This is the Gigolo who bribed you with that trash?"

Juniper opened her mouth to respond but was interrupted by Cindy again. "Or is he just some victim you pulled the wool over to get what you want? Certainly seems your type." She turned her eyes, like lasers, onto Xavier and actually looked at him for the first time.

"So, what is it? Are you some kind of pimp, or what? Steroid user? Politician? Car salesman?"

"...Mom, we're just friends. That's it. Fer real."

"Sure you are! Just like you and that Mason boy were just friends. Look how that turned out!"

That stung. Deep inside, like a knife to an old wound.

In Xavier's mind, parents weren't perfect. In fact, they were often the further from perfect someone could be. Bearing that expectation in mind, Xavier was still unprepared for Cindy Brown. Woefully so. As she spoke, throwing her barbs, he just sort of looked around, until he found something he could reasonably reply to.

Oh, she was talking to him! Quick, make a good impression. "Uhm, no Ma'am, I am none of those things. I'm a student, and I save people's lives in my spare time!"

He set out a barrage of blinks as Juniper insisted they were friends. "Yeah, we're just friends! She's been a great friend to me!"

Right! He'd almost forgotten the rest of the luggage. He walked over and opened the door to a see a man grappling with a bag in order to drag it off. There was an awkward pause before the man turned and bolted, and Xavier rushed after him.

Moments later the young man returned with the luggage, and hauled the rest in. "Whew! Glad I was able to save your things! Where would you like me to put everything?"

He paused as he looked over to Juniper for a second, and muttered. "How's your jaw? It looked rough."

Mama brown looked a little put off that she had garnered no reaction, but let it stew a bit as she mulled over what he had said. A student, who saves people's lives on the side. Right.

Juniper watched Xavier rush off, saw a glimpse of the action outside from inside her apartment, and just... couldn't be bothered to care, really. Her mom's eyes were boring holes in her back and she could hear Cindy muttering to her dad about something under her breath.

"Friends my ass. I'll believe that when pigs fly."

Xavier came back in and Cindy pounced, "Right back where you found them! I never asked you to touch my things, did I? You had no business putting your hands on someone else's property!"

"That's rich."

"What was that?!"

"Nothing." She offered a flat smile at her tall friend, "I'm okay. I've had worse, and it's basically just a bruise now. Just drop them by the door, X. Nothing you do is gonna please her." Juniper took one of the bags from him, phasing it right out of his grip.

"Rich indeed. Juniper, don't make me remind you of exactly how entitled you are. Don't think we forgot about you stealing all that money from the safe, just so you could run off and go on some drug-addled party trip around the country!" The Blonde froze with the bag still in her hands, eyes wide and considerably paler.

"Imagine to my utter surprise that not a thing had changed. Still hanging around with the dredges of society, getting in fights, drinking. I'm surprised you haven't tried to rifle through my bags ye-"

"Mom. Stop." Juniper dropped the bag in the corner and didn't turn around yet.

"I will not! You still haven't even apologized for your deplorable attitude yesterday!"

Arriving back in the apartment made him want to leave. It was odd, because he wasn't often the type to just nope out of a situation, but boy, was the atmosphere tense in here! He smiled nervously as the little woman pounced on him. "Oh, Sorry, Ma'am! I wanted to make sure they didn't get stolen by anyone. This part of town has a lot of that going on, and I can't bear to see someone lose their belongings like that."

His head bobbed back and forth as they argued, beady little eyes blinking at the absurdity of it all. He didn't flinch at the mother's past dredging. He knew that Juniper'd had a rough time in the past. He knew it made her uncomfortable to talk about.

This... was a situation that needed saving. Quick, change the subject. Make the tension dissipate so you can keep it from snowballing! "Uhm, Oh, hey! I love that bracelet, Mrs.Brown. Is that home made?"

Cindy Brown blinked, slightly confused about the abrupt change of topics, and looked at the bracelet that she had chosen to wear that day. It was clear acrylic with an assortment of native Hawaiian foliage and flowers.

"O-oh. Thank you! I made it myself while taking a DIY jewelry making class in Hawaii!" She held her wrist out and showed it off a bit, suddenly smiling with 100 watt energy. "I made a bunch, actually! I figured i'd start selling them on the side since everyone loves them so much. Why I've gotten hundereds of compliments, isn't that right David?"

"Of course, dear."

"Of course it is! I was actually thinking of having Juniper Model them for me, but since she's ruined her face for the billionth time I guess that's off the table." Her gaze went shifted into something razor-sharp in a flat second. "Of course with you here I might not even need her! You've got youth appeal and are in decent enough shape. Maybe a bit too big for most, but beggers can't be choosers, I suppose. Would you mind modeling a few for me? I've got my camera right over there and it will only take a few-"

"Not everyone wants to be your cash cow, mom."

The scowl returned instantly.

"Well excuse me for giving out a compliment or two and offering and giving the poor boy some possible opportunities for the future! Think of all the exposure he'd get if he modeled the jewelry for me!"

Her dad, who had been mostly quiet the whole time, was eyeballing Xavier up something fierce. His explanation for what he did for a living had rubbed him the wrong way and he was trying to puzzle the kid out. Someone who saved lives? Not many jobs did that. Either you were someone in the medical field with pockets lined from big pharma money, or you were some kind of cop. Neither option sat well with him.

Wow. That was... night and day. He smiled a bit as she went into an explanation about her desire to sell them. He looked to Juniper as the strange statement that she'd ruined her face. What, the bruise? Right. Well, he still felt bad about that. Sure, it was Elke that had hit her, and Juniper that had started the fight, but he couldn't help but feel bad. His eyes dropped toward the floor. He looked to Juniper again, though, as she protested, and stepped up. "Oh, no, it's okay! I don't mind. I think it's neat that you're so enterprising!"

His thought process here was this. If Juniper's parents could see that she had friends here that were nice and helpful, they might cut her some slack! He just had to be the best friend ever, which... well, he was! He just had to be him around them, and everything would be okay!

"Oh, right, I saw your, uhm, trip yesterday. They really have to, uh... fix that carpet! The one in the lobby that keeps lifting up. Looks like it got you pretty bad, huh?" He was terrible at lying. Dreadful at it. Here he was, though. Juniper wasn't going to get through this unless he could combat every negative thing her mother had to say about New York. He wanted his friend to stay, after all, and having her parents approve would help with that, right?

"I could wear one while I'm out doing community service if you'd like! Sometimes people just... take pictures of me!" There was some sort of meme about him being incredibly photogenic on the internet. He didn't really follow those things, but it was something, apparently.