a place where i feel at home

“What about here? Is here home now? If you left, would you want to go back?” Not having a home made no sense to him. “You at least had a house or a home base in places, right? Want to go back there? Are you good here?” Switching back to the topic of Halloween, Kikei brightened considerably. “Nothing bad about that, just wondering. Cute has it’s place. Mostly in children’s fun houses, but it’s there. I’m more the scare the hell out of ‘em type of person.”

“It’s home in the sense that it’s where I reside. I think that it’s become a proper home, but it’s not a place that I’ll grow homesick for, I don’t believe. I lived in a house. I have no desire to go back to it, if it is even still standing, which I don’t believe that it is. I have no desire to return to that town either. There are no fond memories. I left as soon as I was able and I have not looked back. I have no regrets. There was no one and nothing for me there.” That was honestly a lot more than Collin had wanted to confess about his past, but he just wanted to make the questions stop. “Seeing as I do work with children it stands to make sense that I would go for that type of Halloween celebration.”

Maya had met people like him before. There had been a few in the foster care system back in Salem. People who honestly wanted to help, but in her experience ended up stymied by the system they had to work in. Maya had learned to just fuck the system entirely. It was a philosophy which she had no intention revising at the moment. 

“Well, luckily for both of us I’m not your job,” she replied sharply. There was no call to be rude, she knew. In most cases she tried not to be rude, since burning bridges tended to limit her options. With bleeding hearts, like Maya suspected he was, the bridges could be rebuilt. “And doubting my ability to take care of myself is exactly what you’re doing, so how about you go bother someone else?” 

“I didn’t think that you were.” Colin said, taking a half step back from her. He didn’t want her to think that he was caging her in. He really hadn’t meant to upset her. “I was merely concerned because you’re new in town so you don’t know all of the sorts of things that happen here, and in the woods. But if you want me to leave then I will. Please take this though.” As he spoke he reached into his pocket, pulling out his wallet. He slipped a business card from his wallet, holding it out towards her. In addition to having his work email and office phone number it had his cell number as well.

“Jeez you’re so intense, you might go into cardiac arrest there, bud.” Leon said with a short laugh.

“Intense. That’s not usually a word that people use to describe me.”

Kikei sighed. He was being unfair to a person simply trying to help. Nodding, he deflated, placing his chin on one hand. “I got it, I got it,” he mumbled, a hint of guilt in his voice. However, it was gone in the next moment. “How do you not relate to homesickness? Everyone’s got somewhere they’re from. You don’t just poof into existence.” The fae blinked, staring at Colin as though the man was some odd abstract piece of art. “So you’re the cute Halloween type person? Good for you.”

“Obviously I’m from somewhere. Everyone’s from somewhere. But I don’t have a home. I don’t have a place that I long to go back to.” Colin didn’t want to start spilling his guts to some stranger. It wasn’t any of his business that he was never loved, that he had been fending for himself since he was a child. “If that is what it is being called then I suppose that I am, yes.”

“Poetic, but sometimes making people smile is also a way of helping,“ he pointed out, “and your sweet dance moves, definitely touched the lives of those who saw that,“ Leon finished with a grin.

“I don’t believe that I ever said that smiling doesn’t help people. I know the power of laughter. But that’s not the legacy I want to leave behind, one of smiling.”

“Sounds great. You’ve been a big help. She smiled, appreciating his upbeat attitude that was for sure. It took away some wariness though she still pegged him on the list of most as someone to watch just in case. Nice people weren’t always really nice people.  “So are you a local then? Since you know where all the good eats are. I’m still week one and wandering.”

“Of course. I’m glad that I was able to help.” Colin just couldn’t stop helping people, even with the most minor things. Because he knew from experience, both personal and through work, that what could be minor to one person could mean the world for another. “Local? With this accent? Heavens no. I’ve been here a few months, however. And my work requires that I be familiar with the town. And a number of it’s residents.”

“Reading huh? Whatcha reading then? This teen magazine here tells me that I am apparently going to be a lonely old lady with no grandbabies and lots of spare time to knit my life away. Doesn’t sound all that bad. These quizzes are so silly.”

“Goosebump books. One of the children at work insisted upon it once they learned I never had. Well that’s rather forward of the magazine. Those things just get more forward and more ridiculous as time goes on it seems. Don’t they understand how the teen mind works?”