Find your way back home [NELL]

[koda]

Noly was a bundle of nerves as the taxi cab pulled up to the large manor. She didn't know what she was going to say. "Hey, it's been almost a year since I dissapeared, can I come in?" The blonde sighed to herself as she ran a hand through her curls. So much had changed since she left. Tasie was in jail, Noly didn't smile as much any more, and she had gained a cynical outlook on life. "Are ya gettin' out or what?!" The cabbie's voice made Noly jump, shaking her out of her thoughts. The girl gave a nod as she reached into her pocket, pulling out her debit card. She handed it to the man and he swiped it before handing it back. SHe repleaced the card in her pocket and slipped the straps to her duffel bag over her shoulder before sliding out of the cab.

As the car drove away, Noly stood looking up at the large house. It had taken a lot of digging to find out that Nell was living with Josh now, but Noly wasn't surprised in the least. With another deep breath, she made her way up to the large door. She lifted her hand to ring the bell, but couldn't bring herself to do it for a second. Finally she gathered her courage and pushed the button, stepping back a bit. She didn't know what she was expecting out of this, but she hoped the outcome was good.

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[NELL DOE DALE]

Nell did many things to preoccupy herself during the free time she had, and some of them may have been very unorthodox. Like blowing up balloons. Was there a reason she was sitting on the floor of one of the living rooms using a pump to fill them with air? No, not really. She could be outside, but her friends were busy when she was not and it was much too cold for her. Besides, she had found something to entertain herself in the confines of her home. It wasn't too difficult to find something to occupy her completely, absorb her attention for a while. As fidgety and flighty as she was, she had absurd dedication to a project like this. After filling up the floor of the room, she started drawing faces on them with permanent marker, wondering if the cats' claws could pop them. The girl looked around to see if any of them were around and saw Pablo eyeing them with obvious malintent. "I know what you're thinking, gato, and don't," she warmed as if the feline could hear her, and he looked at her when he heard her voice before sitting down and licking his claws. She smiled. The beast was trying to act innocent, but she saw straight for him.

Nell returned to her work, pretzel-legged and patient as she continued drawing black lines, some of them smearing. There were happy faces, sad faces, mutant faces, anything her imagination could invent. She didn't think about what she was going to do after she was finished with all the balloons, it wasn't a concern of hers. She just wanted to play with them, and a roomful of balloons excited her. Maybe it was because she never had balloons as a child, and it was something that every child should experience, the joy of wrapping a ribbon around their wrist and watching the orb bounce around. Her childhood wishes could explain a lot of things, but she never recognized it or thought about it. She did as she pleased, and it usually resulted in her buying ten packs of four-hundred count balloons. She also bought the long ones so she could try different shapes, but she had found she would be much too paranoid about them popping to successfully form an animal like she wanted.

When she heard the doorbell, her head bobbed up and she stood, wondering who it could have been summoning her. Her mind went to The Raven and she almost laughed, but she was too focused on getting out of the overcrowded room, thinking to call out, "Just a minute." Heading into the foyer, dressed in Yankees sweats and a tank top without a car of who it might have been who came to the door, she almost stopped walking when she saw a familiar face at the glass door, the pace of her heartbeat picking up. She went over and unlocked it, not even giving Noly time to speak before throwing her arms around the other girl and rocking her back and forth. "Oh my god, Noly!" was all she could get out from her excited squealing before pulling back, hands on the girl's shoulders as she searched her eyes. "I can't...it's been a year!" she couldn't even form proper sentences, she was so surprised. Noly was a person she thought she'd lost, one of the people who helped convince her that no one was meant to stick around. She couldn't describe how she felt now to have her baby back.

Remembering her manners, she stepped to the side and said, "Oh, come in, and uh...ignore the mess. I was blowing up balloons." She wore a tiny half-smile as she looked at the adjacent room overflowing with balloons, her attention now on the Water girl who'd come to visit. There was so much she needed to know, to talk about with her, but she urged herself to calm down. She was usually a calm person, after all.

[koda]

Noly did not know what she was going to expect, but when she saw Nell's face through the glass on the door, she felt tears prickling her eyes. It felt like more than just a year had passed since she had seen her best friend, and this reunion had her feeling like she was on cloud nine, even though she had not even gotten a reaction from the girl yet. But when she saw Nell start to run to the door, she wiped her tears away the best she could. This was supposed to be a happy moment, not one filled with sadness.

When Nell's arms flung around her, she did the same, letting out a bright laugh. She hugged the girl tight, rocking with her for a moment before Nell held her at arms length. "It's good to see you too, Nelly." She spoke with a bright smile. She still could not believe she was back to the Hollow after all this time. It was strange, but she felt like she was finally home. When Nell mentioned that she had disappeared for a year, Noly bit her lip slightly. She fiddled with her lip stud for a moment before nodded. "I know..I should've called. But things were...Complicated."

[/color] She spoke with a sigh before Nell finally stepped aside and asked if she wanted to go in.

She could not help but laugh, though, as she peeked past Nell and looked to the room overflowing with balloons. It reminded her of the good old days. "You'll never change, will you?"[/color] Her voice held laughter as she stepped past the girl into the house. Of course, she could not stop herself as she moved further into the house, kicking through the balloons to sit in the middle of the room, amidst all of the balloons. She set her bag next to her and went to pick up a balloon, only to be blindsided by a tiny blur that pounced out of nowhere, tackling the balloon out of her arms, popping it with a swipe of its claws.

Noly sat with her eyes wide, trying to register what happened before she burst out into laughter, tears rolling down her cheeks. She had missed home so much, missed everyone she left behind. Most of all, she missed the craziness she could find wherever Nell was.[/size][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[NELL DOE DALE]

Nell's stomach didn't know what to do with itself, the way it twisted and she didn't know whether it was a good feeling or a bad feeling. Seeing Noly was the greatest thing to happen in months with how bad it's been lately, so the feeling was wonderful, but the feeling like she kind of wanted to hurl...it's not the most pleasant thing. It had to be the surprise at her baby girl showing up out of the blue uninvited. For someone as emotionally controlled as Nell, it was a toll on her system. Again, in a good way. The only signs that she was so effected was the bright glean in her brown eyes, the smile crinkling them.

And Noly looked happy, even with tears in her eyes, which Nell wiped away with the back of her finger. That was a good thing. But was she honestly happy, or was this just make pretend? There had to be a reason she left, and Nell didn't know yet whether it was a good or bad reason. She didn't want to speculate, then far fetched ideas that were not even possible would come to mind. And suddenly Noly was being kidnapped by Mexican dinosaurs who took her to Mordor and she had to fight penguin mercenaries to escape. Her mind worked the same way a crack addict's did. "Complicated," she repeated, smiling wryly. That was the excuse she loved to use herself as explanation. She didn't look too disappointed by it. "I understand. You don't have to tell me, if you don't want to." What if it was Mexican dinosaurs and penguin mercenaries? Okay, maybe not that, but something bad.

Nell scratched the back of her neck, remembered the tattoo she had there now. It was something Noly had missed, she'd missed so much and thinking this, she said, "I guess not, but...a lot has changed when you've been away. I'd love to catch you up, actually. Don't want you to be left in the dark." Wherever she was away, off in east jumbabafuck, Nell supposed. Even though she didn't want to pry, she was still curious about what had happened. How could she not be, this was her bebe, her homie. She was part of her crew, and she had dealt with her absence like she dealt with all the others--tried not to think about it, attributed it to the fact that everyone went away. People came and went all the time, and Nell sometimes felt like her life was a hotel people checked in and out of. She held all the people around her in the highest esteem, loved them with all of her heart, and so she was always very aware of the people who disappeared.

She followed the girl into the room, kicking smiling faces out of the way. "I don't even know what to do with these, actually, just wanted to blow them up" she admitted, not showing embarrassment over the fact that she had done it in the first place without a plan for how to handle the mess. Then she saw the ball of fur attack Noly, and winced. The balloon pop was exceptionally loud, and he just caused mayhem wherever he went, didn't he? As long as Noly had not been injured in any way. "Ay, Pablo...this is why we can't have nice things," she muttered, giving him an exasperated look, one that he didn't understand. Him being a cat and all. And the Water was laughing, or at least Nell hoped that was what she was doing even though there were tears in her eyes, like there was earlier when she first answered the door.

Nell sighed, picking up one of the balloons with a cartoonish face and smiling at it. It may have been pointless, but it entertained her and gave her the happiness she was usually feeling. Little could upset her, little could shock and stun her. But she was still reeling, staring into Noly's face in a way that might have been unnerving. But she wanted to memorize everything, remember all the things that had disappeared when the girl had. When someone left her life like that, without a word or warning, it was like them dying. She had been resurrected, as it would seem. "Have you eaten yet? You know I need to feed you, darling! And I happen to have anything you could ever desire in my fridge, yep yep." There was always food in the fridge, so Nell could provide for her. The question about how she had come to find out that the Earth lived here now was still in her mind, but she'd save questions for later. She could ask what she wanted over food.

[koda]

Noly knew she should tell Nell what happened, explain everything to her best friend. It was just so hard. Nell knew how the girl felt about her twin, how much they despised each other, even with the love they shared, however minute. Would she understand? Noly bit her lip as she contemplated the answer. Of course, she lost her train of thought when Nell yelled at the cat under her breath. So that's what it was. A cat. Named Pablo? That just made Noly laugh harder, the tears falling faster.

She took a deep breath to calm herself, wiping at the tears with the back of her hand. "We could always just roll around in them. I know how it goes. Remember when we filled up my dorm room our third year?" Another giggle passed her lips before she stood up, walking over to the other girl. She wrapped her arms around her friend in another brief hug before she pulled away. Food. Of course Nell would mention food. And of course her stomach would choose that moment to gurgle loudly. "Food sounds wonderful." She said simply as she thought back to the last time she'd had a decent meal. It was cold and snowy. Scotland if she remembered correctly. She'd been trying to find a hotel when she passed out. An old couple found her, and fed her, and kept her for a few days to make sure she would be alright, then drove her to the airport. Such a nice pair.

"I'll explain everything while we eat." She finally decided. There was no way she was leaving Nell in the dark. The Earth girl knew everything about her, every last detail. So this was the perfect opportunity for them to catch up. And maybe Noly could finally decide how she was going to support herself.

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[NELL DOE DALE]

For someone not very sentimental, but very affectionate, it was odd to be hugging Noly after all this time. She missed it, but it had to be the strangest feeling. However, this renunion sat better than some other ones she'd had over the years. Her father and his sudden cameo in her life, expecting her to take him back after so much time. She could readily accept Nols, though, that came easy. She had done nothing wrong to her, even though she felt the sting of neglect from the girl. You don't tell anyone anything, what makes you think they have a right to tell you things? She never reveals information about herself freely, when Lark found out about Jane, it was because the bitch trapped her in a storage room. When Sandra found out about her brother, it was because a black eye was hard to make up lies about and the Water was no fool. When Devin found out about her history, it was thanks to her brother.

Food, in this case, made the most sense. She liked that it made the most sense, it was reassuring, it was home. She had lost a piece of her home when Noly left, like a window had been smashed in or a piece of siding fell off. But it was being repaired, and that was the best thing for now. She pulled open the door of the refrigerator, peering in. It would be easier to list what wasn't in there, but she said, ”I can make a pizza...I have pasta in here...Some Chinese....” There were a lot of leftovers in the containers and they belonged to Nell. Long study nights meant a lot of Chinese feasting. She tended to focus more with food. Okay, that was a little bit of a lie, she just liked to eat all the time. That wasn't a crime, and if it was, she'd happily wear that ugly jumped for a bucket of KFC.

After letting Noly choose, Nell spoke to her as she busied herself around the kitchen counter. ”Uhm...well, I guess that you already know I moved.” She peaked over her shoulder with a half-smile. The move had been so long ago it was weird to even think about that time. It had almost not happened because of her stupid stubborness, but she realized life would be much worse if she didn't have Josh to share a home, a bed, a life with. It had been foolish to even think that just because it would be his home, that she would be sacrificing what made her indepent. Relying on Josh did not make her weak. Holding up her finger, she showed off the shiny ring. ”Josh proposed. Last March.” That had been a long time ago, too, and there were so many little details that Noly did not know about. How could they even begin to talk about the little things? But Nell wanted to. She wanted to talk about everything.