be gay / DO CRIME

“You ever see a sink hole in real life before?”

“Not in the slightest. If she feels guilty now after 19 years, that’s her problem.” She waits until it’s gone and then sighs, turning away. “I’d like to know how she found me here though.”

“Oh, would you look at that. She found me here. Or her Christmas letter did at least.” Anyhint of joy her voice drips in sarcasm. Piper had never met her mother in person, only knowing her through the yearly cheap Christmas cards signed Mom. She didn’t know why the woman bothered at all. Piper chucks the card into the bonfire with little more than a cursory glance. 

“Why would I be mad? I can shoot literal sunlight from my hands. Way cooler than a rainbow.” Nadir throws back easily and relatively harmlessly as he holds his hand up and generates a warm, yellow glow in his palm. It’s a simple little competition they’ve had for a while now, pretending their power is better than the others when the truth is their mutation isn’t that different - it just presents differently. “Rainbows wouldn’t exist without the sun, so you should remember that.”

“Now you’re just showing off.” Nadir says with a roll of his eyes at the sight of the rainbow, but there’s no real bite to his words. He knows who it belongs to of course, he’s seen Salem create them before - always making a spectacle of himself purely to remind Nadir he can make coloured light. Which.. he can’t deny is pretty of course, but that’s not the point here. He looks over his shoulder to see Salem approaching, not at all surprised to see him. The truth is he’s usually glad to see Salem - he knows the guy is Rose’s friend, but he’s easy to be around and Nadir doesn’t exactly feel that way about a whole lot of people so he likes to spend time with him. Even with the showing off. “I get it, rainbows are cool.” [ @foundarainbcw ]

Sleep. It was the one thing that Arabella desired the most but…. it wasn’t impossible. Between Greta’s awful music, the constant loudness that came from Penny’s room, and the stress of ending a semester at school, Arabellla felt as if she was ready to snap and maybe she was. The pang of her stomach growling was only making her more grouchy and there was a grumble beneath her breath as she tried to find something to eat. Especially her leftovers which were apparently gone. She wasn’t sure why she targetted Salem, though it wasn’t exactly targetting. It was accusing and there was absolutely no proof. Not bothering to knock on the door, Arabella flung the door open as she glanced over at the other Rogue. “Did you eat my leftovers?”  ( @foundarainbcw ) 

If there’s one thing Eli always has infinite amounts of, it’s unshakeable hope. He’s always been that way, even in the worst moments, even in the darkest times, he’s always found a way to hope for more, for better. And this.. this is no exception. The harder he stares the more he hopes that he’s right, even if the odds are ridiculous. It’s been so many years since he last saw his little brother and a part of him wonders if maybe he’s just wishing for Salem to find him because he knows how much he needs him, but the resemblance is too much to ignore. The feeling of warmth and familiarity deep in his chest is too much to ignore.

And then Salem nods, smiles, and responds with Eli’s namesign, and everything else around him just.. disappears. Eli’s moving before he even realises, before he even thinks about it, rushing across the room to the brother he’d been forced to leave behind all those years ago. The brother he’d raised, the one he’d taught how to speak, how to sign, how to read. How to be more than their parents wanted him to be. The brother who gave Eli so much more strength than he ever probably realised, purely by giving him someone to protect and to love.

The moment Salem’s within reach Eli pulls him in for a hug, arms wrapping around the brother he thought he’d lost forever. “You’re here. You’re here!” He squeaks over and over again, squeezing Salem tight as he lets the reality sink in. Eli always knew, whether they saw each other again or not, Salem was always going to have a place in his heart - now, seeing him here, getting a chance to make everything right again, Eli can make sure Salem knows it.

It takes a few moments to really sink in to Salem that this is real, that after all these years he’s reunited with Eli. It doesn’t feel real. Seeing Eli again, brought back a rush of memories he had pushed to the back of his mind, mainly to keep himself from dwelling in the past. It didn’t matter how long it had been since they’d seen each other though, Salem still knew that Eli was the his big brother, the one who protected him and taught him everything he knew. 

When Eli had left, Salem had been devastated, not only had he lost his best friend, but he was left alone with their parents. It had only taken about a month after Eli left for Salem’s own powers to develop and make it possible for him to run away. Even after being separated for over a decade, Salem always knew that him and Eli would find each other again one day. His dad had even offered to find his brother for him more than once, but one way or another it ended up not working out.

Eli makes a point of being early for his classes, spending a little time making sure he’s ready before the students start filing in. It’s not entirely unusual for people to wander in early from time to time so, when someone does, he doesn’t really pay all that much attention to them. Not at first, at least - he figures they probably don’t want the TA bugging them before their class is actually supposed to start, anyway.

It’s not until he glances up at them that he’s struck with just how familiar they look. The harder he looks, the more he gets this niggling feeling that he knows them until…. no, it can’t be. Eli can’t help but squint a little, trying to get a better look at them, shock and confusion and hope swirling around in his mind, making him dizzy as he steps around the desk at the front of the classroom. It’s been over ten years since they saw each other, but.. could it possibly be Salem? Could it really be that after all these years.. his brother has found him?

“A-are you..” He begins, biting his lip before he can finish the sentence as he watches the other. Hesitant hands moving to sign the namesign Salem had chosen all those years ago, when he was so small and Eli had so carefully taught his baby brother sign language so he could communicate, and hoping against all hope that he recognises it. [ @foundarainbcw ]

Salem was told he needed to change his schedule, he couldn’t only take art classes, so he transferred into an english lit class, hoping he could just hope for the best. English had always been one of his better subjects, something he attributed to all of the time spend hiding out from his parents with his brother. Salem attributed a lot of things about himself to all of the time spent with Eli in the first eleven years of his life though.

Being his first day taking this new class, Salem figured it’d be best to get there early so he could make sure he got a seat near the front. He was surprised to see he was the first student to arrive. He was even more surprised to see the TA. Salem tried to shake off the feelings coming on. It couldn’t be. Salem blinked a few times before rubbing his eyes, part of him hoping that this wasn’t just his mind playing trick on him. It’d been a decade since he’d last seen his brother.