the story can resume

[misscecilia]

It's taken far too long for Cecilia to move into her new apartment. She's not actually sure when she managed to acquire this much stuff in the first place, let alone how she got it all back across the Atlantic and up the coast to Maine, and if she is ever required to move again, she's going to handle it by giving away all her worldly possessions and becoming a nun or one of those New Age lifestyle bloggers. Or at least by paying someone to unpack all her things for her. One of the two.

The point is, it's been weeks since her arrival, and she'd been starting to think she was never going to get all the cardboard boxes out of her apartment. She has, though, she hauled the last ones down the stairs this morning. It's a feat worthy of celebration, Cecilia thinks, and she takes herself off to the boardwalk to do just that.

Notwithstanding her brief visit last year, she hasn't been back to Siren Cove in ages, and she's not sure how much of it will be like she remembers. The boardwalk, though, seems the same as it ever has, and Cecilia, after obtaining a huge and definitely overpriced ice cream cone, is content to wander, offering friendly smiles to everyone she passes.

[Open to everyone forever, come say hi! Find her on the boardwalk and let her looooooooove you.]

Comments

[ofcatsandfate]

Fabrice hasn't been avoiding his twin sister. Not exactly. He knows she's been back in town longer than he has; he's meant to stop by and give her the welcome home gift he'd gotten for her. But seeing Cecilia also means telling her about Oregon, and all of the ridiculousness he'd gotten involved with over there. Fabrice knows he'd acted like an idiot; he doesn't really want to have to face Cecilia over it.

But she is his sister, and his favorite person in the world, so Fabrice figures he has to get over himself. He's on his way to meet her at her apartment when he gets sidetracked by the boardwalk. He sees someone with fried dough, and then it's all over for his will power.

He's chewing on cinnamon fried dough and walking at the same time; multitasking that isn't always advisable for him. This is, of course, when he notices Cecilia with her ice cream cone heading in his direction.

"Cecilia!" He calls out, waving his fried dough in the air to get her attention.

[misscecilia]

Cecilia knows that voice, as well as she knows her own name, and she's already grinning by the time she figures out where it's coming from. She doesn't quite run to Fabrice, but it's a close thing; when she reaches him, she immediately throws her free arm around him in a one-armed hug.

"Missed you," she whispers, so only he can hear, and when she's finally done hugging him, she presses a kiss to his cheek, steps back, and just beams at him for a minute. She hasn't seen him since she got back, which is partially her own fault - between unpacking and plotting with Amelie, she's been fairly distracted - and partially due to the fact that he's been away every time she's dropped by his house.

"Brother dearest," she teases, arching an eyebrow over her grin, "have you been avoiding me?"

[ofcatsandfate]

He grins when Cecilia starts nearly running towards him, picking up his own pace in response. He takes care to hold what remains of his fried dough away from his sister as she pulls him in for a hug. He squeezes back, delighted to see her.

"I missed you too," he replies with a sheepish grin and a quick kiss to her cheek as well. And then she's beaming at him, bright and full of life. His shining star of a sister. He can't help but beam back, even as the guilt creeps in for not contacting her sooner.

"I, um, I can see how some would come to that conclusion, yes," he admits, susceptible as ever to her teasing. "I'm sorry, Cecilia. I should've seen you sooner. I just." He exhales. "It's complicated."

[misscecilia]

Cecilia hadn't really meant anything by it, but one glance at the look on Fabrice's face tells her all she needs to know about how close to the mark her teasing was. Her other eyebrow inches up to join the first.

"Complicated?" She draws out the word until it turns into something halfway between worried accusation and gentle mockery. There are only a handful of complications Cecilia can think of that might keep Fabrice from coming to see her, and absolutely none of them are good. "Fabrice, what did you do this time?"

[ofcatsandfate]

As much as Fabrice enjoys teasing with his sister, he has a tendency towards the oblivious whenever she balances actual teasing and accusing him of something. He offers her a sheepish smile in response to the knowing look on her face.

"I, um," he exhales, running a hand through his hair briefly before bringing his hands together to fidget uncomfortably. Telling Cecilia about all the trouble he runs into seems to make it all the more inescapable and real. "I may have gotten into an argument with a witch who may or may not have cursed me. You know. That sort of complication."

[misscecilia]

"You what."

Torn between anger and concern, Cecilia has to take a minute to remind herself that Fabrice had gone all sorts of places, and that this witch is probably not in Siren Cove and thus not available to be destroyed. Yet.

Concern wins out.

"Oh my god, Fabrice, what happened? Are you alright?"

[ofcatsandfate]

He winces, instinctively, when she speaks. His shoulders hunch in on themselves out of habit. She has every right to be angry with him: he should have told her before he got back to town and he shouldn't have avoided Cecilia to begin with. Still, Fabrice wants very much for his twin not to be angry at him.

"I'm fine," he assures her. "It's..." He chews on his lower lip, trying to think of how to best explain his situation. "I tend to transform into my deer form whenever I get too nervous or wound up."

And now, of course, for the part he most dreads telling her. "And I might have accidentally been startled walking into town the other day."

[misscecilia]

For a minute, Cecilia just blinks at him, then she wraps her hand around his arm and drags him over to a more secluded spot, out of the ebb and flow of passers-by. She doesn't drag him, doesn't do anything to draw attention or make a scene, but her steely grip on his upper arm is as effective as if she had.

"Who saw you?" she asks once they're less likely to be overheard. The way Fabrice is acting, she'd bet just about anything that his transformation didn't go unnoticed. "Do I need to hex them? And actually, while we're on the subject of hexing, who did this to you and where can I find them?"

[ofcatsandfate]

She doesn't say anything, at first, which allows for Fabrice's mind to come up with all sorts of possibilities for what she might say to him. Luckily, he doesn't have to process them, as Cecilia prods him over to a more discrete area with her steel-like grip. He winces briefly at the strength of it, but he follows, as he always does whenever Cecilia makes up her mind about something.

"Um." He hesitates, running a hand through his hair. "A few people. I mean, I was only at the edge of town when it happened, but there was a fair crowd. And I met another witch, too."

"I don't remember everyone who saw me," he says. "And as for the witch who did this to me, he's still in Oregon, last I checked. I hope. He was an asshole."

[ameliecoombs]

The text she'd gotten from Cecilia to say she's back in town is the best news Amelie has gotten all week. They've been emailing back and forth for weeks, talking and planning about how they were going to launch this business, and now that Cecilia is here, things can start in earnest.

She should wait until she's settled in, but Amelie's never been terribly patient, so she hunts her cousin down instead. "Cecilia!" She calls once she spots her, hurrying over. "You're home!"

[misscecilia]

Cecilia really isn't surprised when she spots Amelie coming towards her. Honestly, she'd almost expected her cousin to have tracked her down before now, regardless of the fact that she'd only just texted her to say she was back.

"I am!" she says, pulling Amelie into a hug. "All unpacked and everything. It's so good to see you again!"

[ameliecoombs]

Having Moira and Cecilia back around the same time means things are finally starting to feel normal again, like they're a family again. Things with Aoife are better but not the same, and she's glad to have the rest of them around to stop her feeling so distant.

"How are you? You look amazing," she says happily, hugging her cousin back.

[misscecilia]

"I'm doing well," Cecilia says, releasing Amelie and taking a step back. "It's wonderful to be back home." Siren Cove's always been home, even when she was jetting around the world, and of all the choices she's made, Cecilia thinks the one she probably regrets most is staying away for so long.

"How have you been?" She's been kept fairly up-to-date on the family drama, via Skype conversations with her mother and texts with her cousins, but the family drama isn't all that matters.

[ameliecoombs]

Amelie is better now that Cecilia is back home and Moira is back to herself. She's chomping at the bit to sit down with Cecilia and really hash out their business plans. Her conversation with Daniel about quitting her job had been kind of a throw away line at the time, her original plan to teach while her and Cecilia set things up. Now though, she's itching to do that and nothing else, and she's very seriously considering giving up the ghost and going to it full time. Even if it doesn't get off the ground straight away, it's not like she desperately needs the money, particularly with Violet still MIA and not likely to question Amelie taking more out of the family fund than she normally does.

"Better already, now you're back," she answers truthfully.

[pullmeapint]

Finn didn't spend much time on the boardwalk as a whole, just crossing over it on his way to the beach and back again, but today he'd decided to take some time to just enjoy the day. He'd walked the length of it once and was on his way back towards the pub when he started thinking that ice cream might be the perfect way to cap the impromptu walk and he turned in the direction of the ice cream shop.

Then came to an immediate halt when he nearly plowed into a woman holding a cone of her own.

"Shit, I'm sorry!"

[misscecilia]

When the guy walking in front of her turns suddenly, Cecilia nearly runs right into him. She jumps back a couple of steps just on instinct, then has to perform a very quick balancing act to keep her ice cream from meeting a sad fate on the ground.

Once she's satisfied that the cone's secure, she looks back at the man who'd almost run into her with a shrug. "That's alright. No harm done, see?"

[pullmeapint]

"Okay then. No harm, no foul, no ice cream hitting the deck," Finn nodded with a smile, "so it's all good, and I don't have to add another woman knocked on her ass to my list of life's horrifyingly embarrassing moments. Good day all around."

Still grinning, he extended his hand. "I'm Finn. It's nice to meet you."

[misscecilia]

"'Another'? Do you knock many women on their asses, then?" Cecilia asks brightly, grinning as she shakes his hand. "Nice to meet you, Finn. I'm Cecilia."

She leaves her last name out of it - she hasn't had time to gauge public opinion on the Coombs family yet, but as she recalls, the name isn't always a very popular one in Siren Cove.

[pullmeapint]

"Not intentionally, Cecilia," Finn replied with a laugh, "but I have my moments. That'd be the reason I don't dance much, because in addition to knocking women on their backsides, I'm also murder on toes. I haven't seen you around. Are you new to town?"

Even though he'd only been here a year or so, it amazed him how many new faces he saw in addition to the ones he'd grown accustomed to.

[misscecilia]

"I'll be sure to remember never to dance with you, in that case," she says. "And I'm not exactly new in town, but I've been away for quite some time. Have you lived here long?"

It's a guess, but a reasonable one. He's not a native, she thinks; even having been away so long, she recognizes most of the people who lived here when she was young, and she doesn't recognize him.

[pullmeapint]

"A little over a year, yeah. I opened a pub down near the water called, unoriginally, Finn's Pub," he laughed in return. "Been a pretty successful start, too, if I can say that without sounding too immodest. So I guess a welcome home drink on the house is in order," he offered.

[misscecilia]

Cecilia rarely drinks these days, but the reason it's 'rarely' and not 'never' is for precisely this sort of situation. "Well," she says cheerfully, "how could I possibly turn down an offer like that?"

[anddowntothesea]

His sketching still leaves a lot to be desired. He'd done a lot of practice while he was with Gale in New York and he can see what she taught him in what he's managing to turn out but it's still far from perfect. Perched on the back of a bench on the boardwalk, Gabe is working on sketching figures, store-fronts, the difference between wood and sky.

When she wanders into his line of vision, he looks up and smiles.


ooc: Gabe grew up in SC, so feel free to assume they know each other XD

[misscecilia]

It takes Cecilia a minute to place where she recognizes him from, and then he smiles at her and everything clicks into place.

"Gabe, right?" she asks, as she returns the smile, like she doesn't already know. He's a few years older than her and they hadn't known each other that well, back when she was still coming home every chance she got, but Siren Cove was a small enough town then that everyone more or less knew everyone else; she'd had the worst crush on him, the summer she was sixteen, Fabrice had teased her about it constantly. "Gabe Monroe? I don't think I've seen you in years."

[anddowntothesea]

"Cecelia," he says, with a warm smile. He's always had a good head for faces and names and it's not like anyone in Siren Cove can forget a Coombs. He sets his pencil down and gives her his full attention. "Yeah, it's probably been...not since school, right? You were a couple of grades behind me?"

[misscecilia]

"One or two," she says. "I wasn't around much, though, I'm a little surprised you remember me." She's even more surprised that he's still here, though she supposes she shouldn't be - Siren Cove tends to draw people in and keep them around, even when they want to leave.

She glances at the sketchbook and pencil, then back at his face. "You're an artist?"

[anddowntothesea]

"I've got a great head for faces," he says, with a smile. "You might have known my girlfriend better than me - Abbie Delaney?" The more things changed in a place like Siren Cove, the more they stayed the same. It's taken him thirty years to figure that out. "Artist might be too strong a word. I draw."

[misscecilia]

"Yeah, I think I remember her," Cecilia agrees. She remembers Abbie, alright, and she seems to recall someone mentioning something, a few years back, about Abbie skipping town. Good for her.

"I'm always so impressed by people who can draw," she adds. "I can do stick figures, but that's really about it."

[aoife_coombs]

It was supposed to be a quick run down the boardwalk, fetching a package and leaving the business of the day, but the Aoife spots a familiar head. A very stylish, familiar head.

"Cecilia?" She barely manages to keep herself from breaking into a run. "Cecilia!"

[misscecilia]

"Aoife!" Cecilia hurries over to her cousin, as quickly as she can without actually running, and pulls her into a hug. "How have you been? It's been ages; I've missed you."

[aoife_coombs]

"Cecilia, oh hello, hello." Aoife kisses her cheeks, holds her close. "It has been too long, we Coombs are much better together. How has your no doubt marvellous life been?"

[misscecilia]

"We really are," Cecilia agrees. It's true - just being back in Siren Cove, in the same town as her family, makes her feel more relaxed and happy than she has in ages. "I've been well - gotten out of university with my sanity more or less intact, so I'm inclined to agree that life is marvelous just now. How have things been around here?"

[aoife_coombs]

"Oh. Of course." This is the lesser part of having people being returned to you.
"A lot of magic, a lot of anger from the Thornton family towards witches, Amelie falling in love. Or well, she says so. I'm trying to support her decisions. That's the quick version of all of it. You look so good!"

[misscecilia]

"Ah, yes, I'd heard about Amelie and the Thornton boy." At length, and from multiple different people, most notably Alodia - by the twin virtues of being out of town and not being Moira, her cousin had apparently decided Cecilia was the best person to vent to about the tension between the other Coombs twins. "Are you holding up alright?"

[aoife_coombs]

"On that subject?" Oh, it was very tempting to fall apart over this, use this as something to lead on to the pain she was carrying with her because once again Amelie had, while Aoife hadn't. Not completely, no matter how often Isaiah texted and called her.

"You know how much of a negotiator she is. My life is better with her actively present."

[misscecilia]

It's literally the least convincing declaration of alrightness Cecilia has heard, including her own, and it's so tempting to press the issue until Aoife breaks down and tells her the truth. But this is the first time she's seen her cousin in a year, so she takes a breath and lets it go. There'll be time to handle all that later.

"On every subject. It's been so long; you look wonderful!"

[aoife_coombs]

"You think?" Aoife knows that she's not up there on Fabrice's levels of being a fashion embarrassment, but there is no doubt that Cecilia would wish much more for her wardrobe and outfits. She thinks of her favorite dress and feels miles and miles away from it. Maybe Aoife is nothing more than pastels and flowers. "Well, that is a compliment I'm going to accept with both hands. Did you cut your a bit shorter?"

[misscecilia]

"I did! And stopped bleaching it, though I don't know if you remember that - I only saw you briefly then, and there was so much else going on." The blonde look was fun, but it had been murder on her poor hair, so when she decided to come home and start being Cecilia Coombs again, she'd gone back to her natural dark color.

[aoife_coombs]

"I might have consciously avoided remembering that", she winks. "Your branch of the family shouldn't be in the blonds, I think. That's on us, but don't tell Thomas. He doesn't believe in tomato blond anymore."

It's so easy and fun, conversing with Cecilia. Aoife can almost pretend that the family returning might mean that they'll come closer together again as well. "You will stay around this time, won't you? For a longer time? A few months, at least?"