Amara and Julio

[x-volcanic.livejournal.com]

Amara finally makes it home, and Julio is on hand to rescue her from certain embarrassment.

It had been awhile since Amara had spent a great deal of time back at the mansion - she'd been thoroughly caught up in her first semester at college, and so far had been loving every minute of it. But the attack on New York and then later on people she'd known of at the school had set her mind in motion, and by the end of all that thinking, she'd made a decision. She wasn't quitting college all together, but she had come to the conclusion that she couldn't keep herself so detached from the people back home. Which is why she was back on mansion grounds now, carrying a couple of bags of stuff she'd retrieved from her dorm room in New York. She'd been doing fine with carrying them up the driveway and most of the way up the stairs, but the recent rain had made them a little bit slippery, so she'd stumbled up the last couple, one of the bags slipping off her shoulder as she cursed under her breath. She really didn't like winter, and times like this didn't help her opinion of it.

The bag suddenly lifted, and behind Amara stood Julio. "I got it--" he said quickly, picking it up and shouldering it without any fuss. He was clad in a sweatshirt and track pants, and he was sweating slightly from his run. He smiled at Amara. "Welcome back," he said.

"Thank you," she said with a relieved smile, adjusting the other bag slightly now that she only had to manage with one. "I was worried I was about to go sprawling all over the place and make a terrible fool of myself." Thankfully Julio was the only one around, she probably could survive being clumsy around him.

Julio waved a hand dismissively. "Bah, this driveway has taken out full grown X-Men on many occasions, I would not worry." He stepped ahead of her and pulled the door open. "After you. Are you here for a visit, or...?"

"Usually with a little more reason than simple clumsiness, I'm sure." She grinned, nodding her thanks as she negotiated getting herself and her bag in the door. "I'm here for good. After what's been happening... I think I want to stay close to home for a bit."

"Fair enough," Julio said while nodding. "I myself had to soothe my freaked out Grandmother, 'Oh Mijito, ees eso dangerous up dere for you,'" he mimicked in a nasal sing-song. He was with his Abuela on the phone for an hour before he begged off because he had to go to work and then set his father on her.

Amara chuckled at that. "I think I'm glad my father's still relatively sheltered from the world, otherwise I probably would have got that as well. I think I'm probably due for another round of begging to come home soon." As much as she considered the mansion home now, the settlement that had sprung from the ashes of Nova Roma was just as much home as well.

Julio smiled. "Well, I cannot say that we are glad to have you back due to the circumstances, but we are glad you are back. I need someone to keep me on my toes in powers training, yes?"

"Well I'm glad to be back, despite the circumstances." She smiled a little ruefully. "And I think I can do that... I'm probably a little rusty these days, practicing with my powers is not something I really should be doing in the middle of a big city." It was bad enough doing it around the mansion without the proper precautions.

"Not worry, we shall fix that," Julio said with a nod. It was funny, he wasn't fine with what had happened in New York, but he barely ever got worked up over it. Around his college campus he was known as the 'zen master' since he rarely got agitated over anything. A part of it was maturity, and a part of it was that having seen and done the things he'd done over the past few years, a heated debate over Milton was nothing.

"And hopefully we won't bring the place down around our ears," she said teasingly. Both of them were far beyond their days of getting that out of control, thank heavens, but that didn't mean they still weren't capable of it. She hadn't quite learnt to restrain her emotions quite as well as Julio - it was still far too easy for her to lose her temper - but she had at least managed to keep her powers under control during the small flares of temper that came up in day-to-day life. She'd amazed people at college how easily she lost her temper - but then just as easily recovered from it.

"And since you are now returned, I do believe a celebratory trip to the kitchen is in order," Julio grinned.

Amara sighed rather melodramatically at that. "And here I was doing so well at not gaining the freshmen fifteen."