Back again (open)

[Kitty Allen]

Back again.

Kitty clung to Chris more tightly than she had when they’d left. The changes were clear. They both had a twitchier look about them, their fingers firmly entwined in a way that had to be uncomfortable, if not downright dangerous. They hadn’t let go of each other the whole way here. They didn’t look likely to be even considering that as an option any time soon. Frankly, they were messed up. The twins knew they were messed up.

Kitty could barely remember what having a dry face felt like. Even their parents hadn’t done anything so inhumane as to split them up. She glanced at Chris just to make sure he was still there. Yep, still there. Good. She wasn’t even sure what to think any more. St Dympha’s had sent them to that hellhole. Then they’d brought them back… or something. She wasn’t even sure about anything any more.

---

Like hell were these bastards getting their hands on him and Kitty. Chris practically snarled at the adults around. Their mistrust of authority had hit the roof… and kept on going. While he knew this, he and Kitty were not letting any adult split them up again. Not now, not ever. And they’d fight anyone who told them to. They’d fight harder this time. They wouldn’t be split up again. End of argument.

---

Kitty was keeping her eye on anyone who looked like they might grab them. She wasn’t taking any chances either. Anything could happen. The twins ended up outside, even though it was turning chilly. They sat on the ground, still clinging to each other and watched the building. They hadn’t thought they’d see that again… She wondered if Maddy was still here. It seemed like such a long time.

---

Was Maddy here? Chris hoped they were still in the same dorm, if he couldn’t be with Kitty. Maddy was cool, especially on one of his highs. He didn’t patronise Kitty or anything.

[Maddox Greydon]

Maddy sighed, wandering out of the classroom. Yet another hellish lesson; despite all Cody's best efforts, reading and writing still presented a huge problem for Maddy. His head ached, and he felt like he needed to get liposuction or something... no, wait, that was for fat, not energy. Then again, calories were energy, and they made people fat, but no, having liposuction wouldn't make him less energetic. That was what his meds were for, he reminded himself, and groaned theatrically. Hours until he was allowed to take them again, and he didn't dare take them before he was allowed. He'd heard horror stories about kids who didn't wait long enough before taking medicine and having their heads blow up or something... no, he hadn't heard stories like that, he just imagined them. All the same. He didn't want to risk it.

Sighing, he concentrated on his steps, keeping himself from breaking into a sprint. Last time that had happened, he'd crashed into a wall. The dark shadow of a bruise still ringed his eye, and he didn't much fancy doing that again. It had calmed him down a little at the time, but that was probably because he was distracted, and then he'd had to go and see the nurse and she was all bubbly and happy and Maddy had been surprised at how upbeat she seemed, seeing as she was working in a loony bin, but she hadn't seemed to mind and... breathe, dude, breathe. Stopping for a brief second, he took a deep breath and carried on walking, trying to control the wild impulse to run.

He turned a corner, exited through a door, into the field out back. He could run around out here for a bit, maybe burn off some energy... then he noticed the two figures nearby, and frowned at them. There was something familiar about the way they were clinging to each other, although now it was much more intense, much more... desperate. A grin split his face. It was, wasn't it? "Chris! Kitty!" he yelled, sprinting over to the two and skidding to a halt in front of them. Well, that was the plan. He actually skidded to a halt about a metre to the left, and fell into a muddy puddle. Oh, shit.

Springing back up, a stupidly broad grin on his face, he waved at the brother and sister, probably spraying them with muddy water, but not really caring. "Hey! What are you doing here? I thought you were gone. Did they send you back? Are you OK? What was it like? Did they- of course they split you up, sorry. Are you OK now? You're probably not, are you? Sorry if I get water on you. I'm a bit high. It's good to see you two back! Did you have proper lessons there, or was it just therapy all the time?" it occurred to him that they might have trouble following his train of thought. Oh, well. They could work it out.

[Chris Allen]

“Hey, mate!” As muddy water sprayed them, both twins cracked the only smile that had been seen anywhere near them for weeks. Maddy was hyper then. Good. Someone needed to be happy now, heaven only knew the twins weren’t with their new (or simply improved) fuck-the-adults mentality. Kitty actually giggled.

“We… er…” Chris shrugged, embarrassedly. He didn’t really want to mention he’d broken the deputy head’s nose. “Way of the world, you know? It was hell.” he added, with feeling. Kitty nodded definitely. It certainly had been hell. That was the only word for what had been done to them really. What they’d been thinking was beyond her. Chris was in a similar view, except he really wanted to hit them more. If only to get it through their thick skulls that if they messed with him and his sister, that was what would happen, dumbasses.

Chris nodded, sombrely and Kitty squeezed herself just a little closer to him. “Yeah… they did, mate. Loads of therapy, there would have been more if we hadn’t been in isolation or anything, but they had lessons too. Proper lessons. You had to write and everything.” Chris pulled a face. “But they didn’t let us have pens. We had to use these weird pencils instead… so you couldn’t poke anyone in the eye. And they thought we were playing dumb cos we’re a bit rubbish at maths and that.” Chris wasn’t sure how much Maddy knew about his and Kitty’s ‘problems’ as far as a half-decent education went. Heck, who knew if he cared?

Kitty smiled at Maddy. She liked him, he seemed nice, even if a full blown conversation was too much to ask. After all, it would be a three way full blown conversation, but she hoped she’d get to actually talk to him one day.

[Maddox Greydon]

Maddy smiled, bounced forwards and wrapped them up in a hug that lasted only a few seconds, more due to the fact that he couldn't stay still much longer than that than anything. Standing in front of them, he hopped from foot to foot, dancing about and humming to himself. And he wasn't even at the peak of his high, yet. It felt to him like he'd been getting worse since he'd come here, but then, thinking back, there was no way. He remembered trying to climb up the sheer brick wall of a building once. Holy fuck, that had been embarrassing. Grinning at the memory, he looked between Chris and Kitty, only now noticing how tightly they clung to each other, and his smile faded slightly. He pulled a sympathetic face, trying to contain his energy to show how serious he was about this matter. It didn't last long; his folded arms fell back to his side after a few seconds, and he started rocking on the balls of his toes, the cheery humming coming back.

He pulled another face at the mention of maths. "Ew. I just came out of maths. It was all frequency tables. Why do you need to know about frequency tables? I don't want to be a... maths-person when I grow up. I mean, who really cares what the average... thing is?" He paused to contemplate these words. "That wasn't what I meant to say. Uh... oh, yeah! My point was, dyslexic and missed out about two years of school due to having to go and be a prostitute. I've been there, mate," he said, still in a little half-dream. What did he want to do when he was older? Sing, obviously. Hey, maybe he and Chris could form a band! Maybe Kitty could write their lyrics! He was fairly sure he'd considered this before, but it had never sounded like such a good idea as it did now. Oh, well. Give it a week or two, and he'd find lots and lots of flaws in this plan. No need to mention it to Chris until he was a little happier.

Then something struck him. Had he ever mentioned prostitution to the twins before? He tried to think back. Fairly certain he hadn't, he looked at his friends curiously, wondering what they would say. It would be a shame if they hated him for it. He quite liked them. Oh, well...

[Kitty Allen]

The twins smiled wearily at Maddy. They were still getting over being allowed out without an escort. Together. They hadn’t done that at Dusty Hill, that was for sure. Not even when they tried. Chris shuffled a little closer to Kitty and she squeezed his hand. Still here. Still here and not going anywhere, that was the important bit. Not being taken away. Although Chris had to admit at this point he was putting nothing past the adults here. Not after where they’d sent them. They had to have known what would happen…

Feeling Chris’ arm settle around her, Kitty sighed softly and rested her head on his side. She smiled up a Maddy and nudged Chris, giving him a look. “Kitty says frequency tables would probably suck loads more if we had any idea what they were. I mean, we kinda never got to go to a school. So…” Chris shrugged. They’d thought he and Kitty were dyslexic for a while, and that had sucked majorly in Chris’ view. He thought it had been worse for Kitty though… they’d had her down as everything from autistic to oppositional defiant just because she couldn’t talk. That had been before they’d even started on her handwriting. It had taken them forever to work it out… and they hadn’t let him tell them what she wanted.

The twins shared a glance. A prostitute? Poor Maddy. What did you say to that? “That… really sucks, dude.” Well, that sounded inadequate. Kitty looked from Maddy to Chris and decided that honestly, what they needed right now was someone to do something instead of sitting around looking all awkward. Disentangling herself from Chris, mostly, she heaved herself off the ground and went to give Maddy a hug. See? There were some things words couldn’t convey.

Chris decided to go for the manly hug/back slapping option. “Yeah, that just sucks balls.” He said, shaking his head in disbelief. And trying not to think that Maddy may well have—yes, anyway. He gave him a lopsided grin. It was in the past, right? Man they were a bunch of sexually screwed up teenagers… Kitty gave him another look. “Kitty wants to know what happened since we left, or whatever.” He only said it after a respectful pause. If Maddy wanted to talk about it, it was all good with the twins, but they weren’t exactly comfortable with all that sex stuff, and if Maddy was just mentioning it in passing or by accident or whatever, they didn’t want to make a huge deal out of it. Might make him feel bad. After all, if they’d brought up their whole sexual abuse thing they wouldn’t want anyone making a huge deal out of it. Well… they had. But yeah. Anyway. Moving on…

[Maddox Greydon]

Maddy smiled at them, receiving the hugs and sympathy with an indifferent shrug. "It wasn't all that bad. Most of it, I enjoyed, actually. When you're a sex addict, prostitution isn't rock bottom, you know? And there's something really wrong there..." he shrugged again, grinning at them sheepishly. "Did I not mention the sex and prostitute thing before? Um... addictive personality disorder, so... yeah, sex, gambling, and drugs are a big... thing for me," he told them, dropping down onto the grass beside them, managing this time to avoid the puddle and more wet, muddy minor disasters. The twins seemed a little unsettled, but from the way they'd reacted, it wasn't something that was going to end their friendship, for which he was grateful.

Crossing his legs, he leaned back and watched them carefully. They looked... fucked up, to be honest. Clinging together tighter than ever, both pale and waxy with dark shadows under their eyes. No way were those two going to let him get any sleep ever again, then. He didn't blame them, just... Evan, while a pain in the arse, was quiet, which was nice when he was low, and when he was high, he wasn't in his room anyway. In reply to Chris - technically, Kitty - he shrugged. "It's not that much different. There's another pair of twins, a new musician... have you met the new shrink, or did you leave before he came? Otherwise, there's nothing new... Oh yeah, Doctor Ivrie went away for a bit, but he's coming back soon, and that kid, whassisname... Morph or something, the dancer, he's gone to prison. I think that's all the news there is..." He frowned, trying to think. Not much else had changed, except apparently Evan had emotions, there was another junior who was an artist - it didn't affect Maddy or the twins at all, so there wasn't any need to mention him, really.

[Chris Allen]

That Maddy didn’t seem much bothered by doing… that was pretty much a blessing to the twins. It might unsettle them slightly (after all, while they didn’t think they’d ever mentioned their own abuse thing to Maddy they weren’t exactly sure anyone could come out of anything like that completely unscathed,) but that was a matter for his therapist as far as they were concerned. They were just his friends, what could they do about it? They decided not to make a big deal out of this revelation.

They hadn’t known about the addictive personality disorder either. “Nah, we didn’t know that.” Chris shrugged as if to say it didn’t matter. They liked Maddy, he was no different to them, he just had another label. Besides, the twins could hardly say anything about anyone’s issues, given their own, even if they’d wanted to. They’d never actually admitted having separation anxiety to Maddy, but occasionally it was pretty obvious.

“More twins? Awesome. We’ve never actually met any other twins…” Chris grinned at Maddy. “No more Morph doesn’t sound half bad either.” They hadn’t seen much of him besides a bit of smirking in the corridors, but anyone who hung around with Rio had to be bad news, right? It didn’t sound like a bad benchmark. Neither twin had much of an idea who Doctor Ivrie was, so they shrugged. “He’s that old guy, yeah? Cool. We met the new shrink… is he weird or what? We had therapy with him right before we left and he was all ‘I know what happened, but I want you to say it.’ Which was pretty random…” Chris did a passable impression of Doctor Murdock and Kitty pressed a hand against her mouth to stop the giggles. “I mean, we know and he knows, let’s just… move on.” Chris waved a hand to convey exactly how much he thought they should move on and almost whacked Kitty by accident.

Kitty giggled and tucked herself under Chris’ arm to delay any further almost-whacking. Chris chucked and grabbed her in a momentary headlock. Sometimes you had to pretend life went on…

[Maddox Greydon]

Maddy's grin grew wider at their reaction. They didn't seem to care, thankfully. He'd been a little worried that they'd reject him, and shun him, then start poking him with sticks if he wouldn't leave them alone, and beat him up and throw mud at him and throw him in the stream and... Frowning, he turned to them. "Would you throw me in the stream?" he asked them, knowing they'd have trouble following his train of thought, but deciding that they'd be used to it by now. Biting his lip, he shrugged at them. "Sorry, that was random. Um... but would you?" Eying them, he decided that between them, they'd probably manage it. In his experience (which wasn't much), people with IED tended to be very strong, and although he had several years experience fighting on the streets, he didn't fancy his chances against both of them.

He laughed at Chris' impression of the shrink. "Nah, I've never met him," he told them, shaking his head and looking slightly bemused. "Is he weird, or... what?" he felt his face flush at he echoed Chris, and he ducked his head, smiling sheepishly, and leaned back quickly to avoid being whacked around the face. As glad as he was to see them back, he didn't fancy being punched by way of welcome. Grinning when Chris got Kitty into a headlock, he reached out playfully and ruffled her hair, teasing her. Hopefully, that wouldn't set off Chris, or he was in shit. He didn't want to have to run away or fight off two of his best friends here on their first day back. Hair-ruffling wasn't a major crime, was it? He didn't think so. Even so, he sat back again, slightly out of Chris' reach.