“Well that makes a lot of sense. You’re too COOL to have come from here.”  Warren laughs a little at the words, but after he realizes that he made an ice pun that makes the smile disappear from his face. It doesn’t feel right when Bobby wasn’t here to enjoy it. He tries not to let that emotion show though, just continues walking toward where the cars were. 

His gaze turns to look over at the other man though, stopping the twirl of the keys. “Well that’s romantic. You can never go wrong with Coney Island. You sound very close with your family.” Warren had wished he could have had a relationship like that with his own parents. He nudges a door open and looks on as he steps up to a red sports car. “This is the one. Ain’t she a beauty?”

Arlo doesn’t miss that, the way he deflates after his joke. He understands why but he doesn’t call attention to it, it doesn’t seem right to respond. Like he’s interrupting Warren’s mourning. He tries not to cringe when Warren calls the trip to Coney Island romantic, it hadn’t been in the slightest from what he was told. At the time Jean was still young and more of a little sister to his dad than anything, but he knew out of context that would just be weird and awkward to hear. “We were... uh, were close. Yeah.” 

It was always strange to some people that Warren would have a fancy red sports car when he has a large set of wings to fly with instead. He likes to own things, and even if it was just for show it came in handy in moments like this. While he could drive himself, but why not offer up for someone else to do it? Their idea to go out so he just thought it would make sense for them to drive to take them SOMEWHERE. “It’ll be fun, I’ll show you where I keep it.”He says as he jingles the keys in is pocket.

Warren motions for them to go toward the end of a hallway that will lad to the car. The grief was always going to be sitting in the back of his head, and it was still eating away from him. He walks down the hall, swinging the keys around between his hands. “You never been to the city before?”

Arlo considers explaining his sheltered upbringing. How far away his parents kept him and Hope from this place. He considers telling him about the cabin he grew up in, about his father’s desperate attempt to keep him and his sister safe. What good that did, Sinister found them anyway. Instead he chuckles and shakes his head, not letting the anger in his chest take him over. “I’m not from around here, bud.”

There was a lot Warren had learned to do growing up. Perhaps bottling up his emotions should have been one of them, and being able to put on the perfect face to the public when he was out with his parents. He never wanted to make his father look bad, but now that was all different. They were gone, and it was just him. He was the face of the company – making big changes, and those weren’t ones everyone agreed with of course. He likes to show that he can feel these things, and he didn’t care about any of it because BOBBY WAS GONE.

“I’d really like that. I haven’t really left since he died you know? Aside from going to work, but  they don’t really understand.” Warren sniffles a little, and he looks over at Arlo again, and for the first time he flashes a small smile. “I have a car we can use. You want to drive?” 

Arlo knows that smile, and it feels like a hard won achievement. His answering smile is brilliant, and he worries for a moment it’s too much like his father’s. The kind of smile that nearly swallows your face. He looks down quickly and clears his throat. “Yeah, yeah I could do that.” It isn’t the first time Warren has asked him if he wanted to drive, in fact he asked him plenty of times before he had a valid license and to be fair, he didn’t exactly have one at the moment either. He definitely lost that when he went to prison, not that a license dated so far in the future would be valid here.

How strange it is to go through losing someone. Warren wasn’t ready to face a reality where Bobby was so long gone that people wouldn’t recognize his name. They were supposed to grow up to do great things together. Not even just with each other, but Bobby had been so smart. He wanted to see him succeed, and now no one will get that chance. He puts the phone down in his lap, and sighs for a moment as he reflects on all of these emotions. 

Warren lifts his head to look over at him when he talks. “Ha, sounds like some people I know. I don’t think that’s always a bad thing. I mean, if you can’t annoy your significant other then what’s the point right?” He chuckles a little, but he knew how hard fathers can be. He wasn’t going to push the issue if that made him uncomfortable. “I think when it comes to what we do humor isn’t ever traditional, huh?”

Sounds like some people I know. Arlo refrains from wincing, he really was getting close to showing his hand. It was a dumb idea, to come here and comfort Warren but he couldn’t bring himself to regret it. Warren had always been there for him, when he was growing up. Even when he got sent to prison. He couldn’t just stand there and watch him be miserable without at least giving him a shoulder to cry on. If he could do more, he would.

It was strange to feel this way, so broken, and it wasn’t like it was anything new. He has gone through pain, and a lot of hardship before, but this was the WORST of it. He had lost his parents, but losing Bobby hurt more than that. He hates to think about what would happen years from now. He has to keep everything he can to remember him. He swipes over to a video now, showing Bobby talking in view of the camera. It makes him laugh for a moment, but after it’s over he looks over at the man he had just unloaded on.

Their gaze meets, and he has no idea how important he ends up being to the person he was talking to. “He was pretty great. I can be a little cynical sometimes, and just get lost in stuff that wasn’t important, but he brought me back to earth. He reminded me that I’m more than some rich asshole.” He laughs at his own words though, and nudges the older man. “Alright, if you’re sure that you want to hear ‘em.”

Arlo watches the video, more than just diligently. To him Bobby Drake wasn’t a ghost. To him, he was very real and yet this video of him felt like watching someone else. He wondered if one day he’d watch a video of himself and barely recognize that person. Blinking slowly as it finishes, he smiles softly at Warren. His Uncle Warren, but not yet so. The man sitting next to him didn’t know everything he’d become, especially to Arlo. 

There was always a worry deep in Warren’s mind that he wouldn’t ever get to retire one day. Once he envisioned himself growing old at Bobby’s side, and even if they had been UNSURE about having a family of their own – they could have at least adopted a pet. It feels like a silly dream, living to get a HAPPY ENDING. He doesn’t know where to begin with the process of moving on, and part of him doesn’t want to. Warren wonders if maybe he should join one of those support groups. “Well I’m at least glad you don’t mind it then.”  His gaze looks at the bench, and moves to sit down. The feathered wings folding a bit to make room next to him there for the stranger to sit down.

Talking about Bobby helps keep his memory alive. Warren doesn’t want anyone to forget about him, especially all the good times that they’ve had. He pulls the device back out, opening it back up to the photos he had been looking at. He scrolls to one, opening it up. “This is around when we first met. We were so young back then, but he quickly became my best friend.” He was just a kid then, wings a little smaller than they are now, but still just as cocky. “Bobby had the best laugh. His jokes weren’t always great, but you could always count on him to cheer me up when times got hard.” He scrolls trough a few more photos of them through the years as they got older. “He was always the one that helped fix my feathers. He’d straighten them out or even help get rid of the ones that were too broken. I never met his parents when we were dating, they weren’t always kind to him. He was one of the best people I knew, and I feel lost without him here because how much of a constant he was.” He tries to smile, but it’s not working.

“I didn’t mean to talk so much, I’m sorry.”

Arlo listens, actively and attentively. He knows how important this is. He knows it’s all Warren has left. It was a terrible feeling, the fear of forgetting someone you love. As he grew older, he realized the distinct features of Hope’s face started to blur in his memories. Photographs couldn’t capture her, not really. They were just a shot in time. They couldn’t replicate her. And he knew that talking about her brought her to life more than anything else.

He wished he could nod along, add anecdotes the way Warren had with him. But he didn’t know anything of a young Bobby Drake and if he said anything now it could alter history in unforeseeable ways. “Hey,” he says softly, tilting his head so their eyes meet. “You don’t gotta apologize to me, man. He sounds great.” Grinning slowly, he knocks Warren’s knee with his as he comes up with an idea. “I know, tell me some of his jokes. The worst ones, I wanna hear them all.”

Warren knows that this was going to be a long, difficult road. Even before they got together the two of them were best friends for many years. If anyone deserved a happy ending it was Bobby. He bites on his lower lip for a moment, but he nods his head when the other starts to speak. “Thank you. Bobby was my best friend. I wanted to marry him someday, but that was a FOOLISH dream, wasn’t it?” His eyes look out the window, unsure if the snow was helping him or not.

“I don’t mean to get all emotional on you. I just really miss him.” He pushes his fingers through his blonde hair, messing up the perfectly styles strands. He was unaware of the connection the two of them share, but he appreciates the condolences regardless. 

Not so foolish. Arlo wants to say, but he knows now isn’t the time. He knows every single thing he says sets off a butterfly effect and that he needs to choose his words carefully. “I don’t mind,” he says with a shake of his head. “In my family, emotional is pretty much the norm.” He clears his throat, straightening his back. “Why don’t you...” His hand claps on Warren’s shoulder in what he hopes just seems like a simple gesture and with his other he indicates towards the bench he’d just been sitting on. 

He sits down beside him, knowing how to angle his body just right to keep from getting wacked by one of his wings. He glances at where Warren had tucked his phone into his pants and points at it. “I didn’t know him very well,” he admits, lifting his shoulders in a shrug. “But why don’t you tell me about him?” It helped, when him and Warren used to talk about Hope. Because his parents didn’t want to, found it too painful he supposed so they acted like she had never existed in the first place. But Uncle Warren, he listened to and entertained every thought he had about his sister.

All of the days since have blended together since his boyfriend’s death. Warren has tried to pour all of his time into WORK as if that would take away the pain. Whether that meant sitting in on meetings at his company or training at the danger room. He finds it hard to pay attention to classes, eyes just staring at that empty seat. Warren doesn’t like going to his dorm either, the room is just a reminder with how much of BOBBY was there.

He was looking through some old pictures, lost in his own world. He’s sure the look of dread was clear on his face, but it’s becoming a new normal for him. He looks up, wiping away the tears forming at his eyes when he hears his name. “Yeah, the one and ONLY. What can I do for you?” His hands putting the phone away into his pockets, and standing up from his seat.

Arlo hates seeing him in pain and he hates that he can’t tell him the one thing that would make it better. It was the hardest part about this endeavor, not telling anyone what he felt they had a right to know. And he was the one worried about Rebecca. Sighing, he looks out the window and at the snow falling. It blankets the ground, obscuring the landscape from view. It was like a strange metaphor for what he couldn’t tell Warren. Warren, the man who came to his baseball games and was at every single one of his birthday parties. He couldn’t do a single thing for him.

“I was just....” Arlo struggles for words but he can’t come up with anything believable. He could remember the day they lost Hope, the months following afterward where no one knew how to behave around each other. Especially his parents, and them around him. Warren was there to comfort him, to wrap his wings around him and keep him somewhere safe. “I was just wanting to offer my condolences,” he says finally before looking into the other man’s eyes. “I heard you were close, with... Bobby.”

“Hey...” he says, hands in his pockets and still not sure what to say past that. It wasn’t like they’d been introduced quite yet. “Warren, right?”

“I’ll go look for her in an hour or so and get her to come out if she hasn’t already.” The statement carried none of the harshness that Arlo’s had. It was simply a fact. Rachel would let her ball her eyes out for now and then Rachel would make sure she stopped because Kate needed both those things. Kate felt so much all the time and Rachel couldn’t imagine the headache that must be. To never be able to turn it all off. 

“Hey Arlo.” Rachel reached over to turn the danger room controls off complacently. She didn’t feel like practicing any more. “The circumstances are bad but I’m still glad you’re here.”

Arlo could always rely on Rachel, and sometimes it made him forget how young she was. But looking at her now, he feels a surge of protectiveness like he wants to keep this entire situation far from her. Like he was an absolute asshole to put Kate’s pain on her shoulders. He places a large hand on top of her head and smooths it over her hair, down the side of her face. He searches her expression and sighs. “I’m sorry, Rachel,” he murmurs. “I wish neither of us had to be here.”

“There are worst things than dying.” Rachel warned, momentarily dropping her psychic illusion to reveal the scared tattoos that branded her face as evidence. Still, she felt her body relax as Arlo reassured her. 

She listen carefully to the plan. To what he said and what he meant. The boys were already taking care of Noah. Good, she thought. She could let herself believe he’d left on his own terms too without ever seeing a body. She was well versed in pretending things hadn’t happened. They all were. 

When he broke eye-contact, Rachel knew exactly what he’d ask, or rather who he’d talk about. She couldn’t understand his grudge against Kate’s existence. She’d always been so nice to Rachel, to all of them for that matter. What did it matter where she was from? As far as Rachel was concerned Kate was as much family as Arlo. “Of course.” She nodded. He was right though, someone did need to keep an eye on her. 

Arlo didn’t want to see it, what had been done to her (and know that he couldn’t have stopped it) but it isn’t his choice. It’s hers to reveal as she wishes and he wouldn’t look away if she wanted to be seen. He resists the urge to take her in his arms and keep her there. She didn’t need him to shelter her from the world, but he’d still do it in a heartbeat if she asked. She was more his sister than Kate was, and maybe it was shitty to feel that way but he did. 

Sighing, he rubs the back of his neck and steps back. “I think she’s still in Oli’s room,” crying for sure, “But start keeping an eye on her whenever she comes out. If she comes out.” Realizing how off it sounds, and a little mean, he tries to amend his statement. “I don’t blame her if it’s awhile, Noah has been taking care of her for years.” He might not feel much about not having spoken to his father in so long, but Kate was attached to their dad. Well, her own version of Alex. So when she’d been forced through the time rips and landed at Noah’s feet, she’d taken to him like a duckling.