a bumblebee mess

“Not yet doesn’t sound very promising. If I see something weirdly red and short running around, I’ll let you know. And the tea… negotiable, some of the people I’ve met had to be on some sort of drug.” Yasuf grins, softly, even though the thought of a Queen of Hearts on the island isn’t exactly reassuring. “Maybe we shouldn’t talk too loudly about this, or else we’ll give the island ideas.” If someone had told him ten years ago that he would talk of an island as if it was a living and breathing element, he’d have laughed and told himself to do less coke in the future.

A moment later, a loud snort left his lips and he raised his eyebrows. “Wow, jumping straight to the point. Some guy told me to stay away from the farm for a while, but I didn’t know that was because you’d jump right into canniballism. Do I look that delicious?” Jokingly flexing his arm muscles and turning a full 360, Yasuf comes back to a halt, the grin never leaving his lips. He’s not afraid that Madi’s going to cook him into a nice dish - sounds less terrifying than being ripped into shreds by some ominous creature from the jungle, or by Emre Akbar.

“Hey, Madi. Nice to meet you, too. Though I’m not quite sure about that yet, with your army of bees and tendency to tell people they’re fresh meat, right on this weird, living island. Super normal conversation we’re having, really.” Carefully, Yasuf leans closer to inspect some of the bees, and allows them to land on him along as they stay away from his face. “They’re looking healthy. I’m sure you’re doing a great job with them.”

Taking a few steps back as the bees leave his body, he inspects the home. “I’m still searching for the place that feels.. right, you know?”, he asks her, “I’ve been looking at so many houses, but most of them seem to carry so many ghosts of past lives, past stories. I don’t want to feel like interrupting anything going on.” Curious, he looks her up and down - “What’s your attunement? Let me guess? Uh… air?”

— ✿ ❀ ✿ —

Madi let out a small chuckle, her expression turning more pondering. “You know, I never quite know if it really is listening or not. If the island is actually alive and all that, or if we just think too much about it and assume too much, but-- sometimes it does feel like it is alive. As crazy as it sounds. So yeah, maybe not giving it too many new ideas might be the best thing.” Then again, all the stuff this place already heard, it probably had plenty of things that could be interesting.

Madi could feel her face turning red completely as Yasuf teased her - and it was just that, teasing, she was aware of that! So why did her body have to betray her and turn her into a tomato and rise that awkwardness so far high into her throat. “No, no-- I don’t-- we really don’t-- that is not at all-- what I meant. Just that-- sorry, just that you’re-- you’re new. That’s all, I-- I promise. You don’t look delicious at all.”

A pause and then she added, “I mean, that isn’t-- I am sure you’re delicious and all, you look really good in general, aesthetically and that is probably not related but I am just assuming that if anyone bit into you or something, they’d find you tasting good and-- oh god do I sound like I am hitting on you now? I really am not, I promise, I would never-- well, that sounds rude, it’s nothing against you really, I promise, I just-- I am a lesbian and so you’re not really my type and-- and this got way out of hand and I really am going to stop talking now. Possibly sink into the ground and never come out again.”

At least him focusing on the bees gave her a bit of a distraction and a topic that she could safely talk about that will not lead to her embarrassing herself. “Thank you. I attracted all of them myself, this place had no set hives around the farm, and all of this setup was built by me. With help, of course, I am not claiming that it wasn’t, but it was mostly me. They are-- they mean a lot to me. I just hope they are thriving.” She was like a little proud mama over them, really.

She gave a nod. “Yeah, it makes sense. This entire place is full of memories and people who have once lived here. If you cannot at all find the right place for you, you can just take one of the tents and set it up wherever you’d like, and there are a couple of people who are pretty good at building things. Willy built a bunch of the homes, mine included,” she nodded behind herself, towards her home near the apiary, “Emre is really handy and can make anything work, but others can do a bunch of stuff too. They can help you build your own home.”

“Hey, hey, hey. Locations?” Nick hummed, stretching back in one lithe motion to rest his elbows on the scorching sand. He’d imposed a little bit of self-restraint. Just a little, so he didn’t burn through all the nicotine he’d recovered but nonetheless the impending nuptials had added a new stress. Where else to forget his woes but stretched out pretending the island was a beach resort. “Oh, that’s cute.” And, more to the point it was a little something that Nick could actually bring to the table. Thus far Mik had largely taken charge of everything. Partly out of sheer excitement on his behalf.

“Okay, c’mon sit talk to me about locations.” Nick swivelled to sit up, properly, pointing with the still burning cigarette at her basket of flowers. “Love the deep reds.” There’s enthusiasm, sure, but thinking too hard on it spiralled Nick into the kinds of thoughts that required something infinitely stronger than a menthol. “God, fuck, vibes. Maybe one night of glorious partying with zero terrible consequences. Also absolutely not the train, too creepy and same goes with the obelisk. I was thinking of asking someone to build a gazebo…but elegant. Hey you don’t mind, do you?” Nick asked, with a wave of his still burning menthol.

— ✿ ❀ ✿ —

Madi settled down next Nick and put the basket of different flower between the two of them. She shook her head, “No, never had a problem with anything that is smokable, I was never into those. I do want to point out that it’s not good for you, especially probably not before a wedding, but that’s all.” And she wanted to focus on the wedding anyway, she wasn’t even focusing on the cigarette in his hands.

“Okay, so for the flowers first - the red could look amazing. I we could make flowercrowns for the two of you. Groom crowns or something like that. Only for you two, and then everyone who attends the wedding could wear something similar color attached to their dress or tucked behind their ears. You know, to match and all. It could look really pretty and fun.” They had some cameras, so they could even take some fun pictures of everyone on the dash - bless the weird magic of the island that was keeping all the electronic devices alive.

“Ohhh right okay.  So you’re saying you had no choice but to get along with me, is that it?  Babes, I’m wounded,”  Emre relentlessly teased Madi, feigning seriousness.  But then he looked smug and pleased.  “Reckon I owe Meridium a big wet snog for playing you, innit.  Cheers, island, you manipulative bastard,”  Emre kicked the ground, addressing it.  “Actually working to my advantage for once?”

Madi’s naughty little grin was exactly the reaction he’d wanted, maybe even a slight pink flush of her cheeks.  He was smug and pleased as he nodded.  “Right.  Yeah?  Now you’re recognizing benefits of them air-attuned.  Honestly they got more power than I first gave them credit.  Water, fire, earth - I see how that magic could pack a whollop.  Air seemed a little weak compared innit.  But…nah.  Total switch-around in my head now.  Benefits seem bloody endless for them lot.” 

He smiled at her tease, Emre so piled with smugness he should have toppled over from the weight by now.  “Nah bruv, no need.  I like making others hear us. Free porn innit.”

Madi played along about the shower serenade, then responded about her and Hazel.  Bereft of Iyaz’s personal life to meddle in, Emre was stamping for Madi and Hazel to work.  And Wren and Tam.  And Tomas and Libby.  Hell; even Nick and Mik.  So he was practically beaming from Madi’s very reasonable, realistic assessment of her and Hazel’s situation. “Anything I can do to help it along?” he asked hopefully, unaware of overstepping boundaries (unless of course those boundaries were his own).

But adjacent to Emre’s obsession with Iyaz, was the real Iyaz. The one gone off on his own, as Madi gently reiterated.  He wanted this. Emre frowned, thinking about how Wren saw it.  “D’you think he was…selfish about it.  Wren thinks he’s selfish.”

Kaz had a shower of sorts too, but Emre wasn’t going to mention it or else he might go into far too much details.  “Can’t believe he let me crash with him.  Only for a short time, mind.  I’ve got to decide how I actually want to live, where and that.  And honestly, I’ve got no clue.” As for the wooing, Emre smiled and bragged.  “I brought him mangoes. The best mangoes.”  Emre might as well be saying ‘I brought him a Ferrari.’

He didn’t agree with Madi.  But he understood why; she couldn’t possibly see that the immensely huge scope of Emre’s actions and decisions were about Iyaz.  She wanted to try out an exercise with him instead; so Emre obliged.  “Farmwork, obvi.  Chatting others. Loads of sleep. Still can’t get enough sleep after the bloody waswasah. A bit of exploring.  The new stone stadium, have you seen it?  And the obby-thing too, is changed up innit.”  Emre chewed on a guava, thinking.  “Erm…wanked off, a few times? Dunno how detailed you need me to get to make whatever point you’re trying to make, luv.”

Just tell her you miss her.  Madi made it sound so incredibly simple.  And she was right too - it was a start, and it was an attempt.  And Emre felt responsible for reaching out to Wren at this point.  It was a position that Emre felt comfortable in - fucking up royally, only to come crawling back to people, begging forgiveness.  Time and time again, Emre rarely learned on any grand scale, only individualistic.

But this was about Iyaz.  He frowned, thinking.  “I don’t know.  I don’t know if I want to define it.  Maybe it’s better if we don’t, yeah.  Maybe Wren and I would get along again, if we don’t dissect our ideas of each other and that.”

— ✿ ❀ ✿ —

“No, no, that’s not what I-- that’s not what I meant,” Madi immediately started insisting, even if she could technically see he was just joking. “I wasn’t manipulated or anything, it could have just as easily drove us in the other direction, but-- the fact that there was no chance of just going to the other side of the world and not see each other without much effort? That created opportunities for us to talk. Or yell at each other, more often than not, I guess.” She gave him a small smile. “I don’t want you to think it was like, forced on me or anything. Like you were forced on me.”

She let out a small chuckle. “Speak for yourself, I knew air could be powerful. I’ll never forget watching Tomas pull the heat out of your arms not long after we met.” Nor will she ever forget locking onto Emre and hearing everything that happened with Suresh - a memory still plagued with negative feelings, the fear, but those were fading and she knew it was just the imprint of the memory, it wasn’t how she felt anymore.

“There’s nothing-- you know, there’s nothing much to do about it. It’s not like you need to lock us into a room and not let us out until we talk things out and make out or something,” Madi said, even though being locket in a room with Hazel wouldn’t have been the worst thing on the planet, to say the least. “We just-- we gotta take it at a pace that isn’t something too crazy, and just try to heal.”

Was Iyaz selfish for going into the heart tree’s fire? Madi pondered for a moment. “Honestly? Yeah, a little bit. But I think-- I think sometimes you have to be selfish to survive. He was drowning, especially since one of the figures in the tree graveyard looked like Peter. He had to do something for himself and be selfish about it and not think about anyone else otherwise he would have just kept on torturing himself and would have eventually turned around and gotten it out on the people around him.

“And I think-- I think the way he grew up and the way you lived your life are so different and so intertwined. Because you lived for him and did everything to make sure he had everything, and that worked. He had the best you could ever give him and he was free to make his own decisions and for the most part, he probably didn’t consider you the same way you always, always considered him. Making decisions for himself was natural for him, while your first instinct was always to make decisions with him in mind. And as far as I can tell, that was the goal - to give Iyaz everything he possibly could have and so he’d be able to live a better life than you and that he could make his choices - and this time, it was going into that fire, and yes, only thinking of himself while doing it. Himself and Peter.”

She reached over and nudged Emre a little bit on the side. “Of course he let you crash at his place, he likes you too. At least I hope he does, he’d be an idiot not to.” She’s never actually seen the two of them together, but they were good for each other. Kaz was good for Emre, Madi was sure of that. “The best mangoes. You say that as if you showered him in the most expensive jewlery. It’s-- it’s really nice. To see you like this, you know,” Madi couldn’t help but say, a smile on her face. “I like seeing you like this.”

“Okay, okay, I don’t need the very specific details of that,“ she shook her head. “The point I am trying to make is what you do now has nothing to do with Iyaz. You do things for others, you do things for yourself. And yes, you might need to find some long-term or constant goal that will fill the one to keep Iyaz safe, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. It doesn’t mean you don’t do plenty of things already that isn’t for Iyaz at all, you just need to realize it.”

“Right, yeah, trust you to spin my threat into a good thing,”  Emre snorted, highly amused by Madi volleying back.  It wasn’t new, but it was refreshing to return to this.  How they used to be.  Emre kissed his teeth in wonder.  “You know I never thought mates could just ‘go back to how it used to’ after things went sideways.  But honestly Maz.  Us having a laugh, you staying sober and making jokes…is brilliant.  We’re really bloody good at this whole friendship thing.  Bloody brilliant, us.”

Emre grinned a bit wider as Madi tutted at his crassness.  “Lucky you, having an air-attuned hook-up innit.  I reckon air-attuned is the best for that sort of thing, right.  Automatic sound-proofing.”  Emre brandished his hands at the proclamation, as if he was pitching a sale to Madi, about the appeal of Hazel. “You can shag as loud as you want - in public, even! - and no one will hear you.”

Having heard Madi humming before while working on the farm together, he didn’t think Madi was so bad at singing.  She could carry a tune well enough, but.  If it was something she was self-conscious about, then Emre wouldn’t push.  Instead he lightly suggested.  “You can shower, and I can stand outside and sing for you.  What’s that called, erm.  Serry-something.”  The word ‘serenade’ eluded him.

Madi had a story about Hazel of her own, though, something very sweet. Emre smiled and nodded.  “I told her that?  Probably because I’ve heard you singing to them innit.  Figured I’d give her a leg-up in seducing our Madi. And it worked, it seems.  You two doing alright, luv?”  Emre grinned.  Right - who’s voice did your bees end up liking better, then?”

As they got inside though, Emre’s joviality muted slightly, but yet not as much as it could’ve.  He just scratched the back of his head, and nodded along as Madi parsed it all out.  “Honestly I keep wondering if I miss my old home.  Suppose I miss my shower most of all, but the rest…?”  Emre shook his head.  “Is just Iyaz I miss innit.  I think of the little kitchen and I think of Yaz in there. I think of the main room and I see Yaz in his bed, whinging about this and that.  I look at the porch and all I imagine is Yaz coming up the stairs from a long day of doctoring. Is all just Yaz I see, not the house.”

And usually Emre would be content with that. With the grief and pain of losing Yaz, and immortalizing those memories, sharing them, obsessing over his loss.  But as Emre described this all to Madi, he felt more bothered than usual, and he wasn’t sure why. 

Still, at Madi’s offer, Emre pulled his lips in and bit them, staring at her with dark round eyes.  “Right.  Erm.  Might take you up on the offer soon but.  I asked - well.  I reckon I invited myself to crash with Kaz, innit.  In his cave grotto and, right. He was alright with it and all…”  Emre shrugged, feigning a masculine brand of nonchalance.  “Until I sort things out, mind.  That’s all.”

But he drained the juice in one long gulp, then motioned for a refill.  “A South Beach bloke named Wenzel took me up on living in my old house.  Good little man. I reckon he’ll make good use of it.  I’m not bothered, honestly I’m not. I think…is like…”  Emre frowned, trying to explain to Madi.  He took a couple plums, juggling them between his hands. “Without Yaz, I’m not…I’m not sure what to do. With - with my life. What I should do about it.”

Which was a natural segue way to Wren, and Emre slowly shook his head.  “Nah.  We’re not talking. Wren’s…I’m not sure what I can give her.  I miss her though.” Emre showed Madi the two shell bracelets on his wrist.  “This one says ‘brother’ in Arabic. This says ‘sister’.  She made them for us, innit.”

— ✿ ❀ ✿ —

Emre being happy that they were back to normal too warmed Madi’s heart a bit, even if he was the one who was more vocal about wanting things back to how they were and still being friends with her through all of it, even while she wasn’t on the same page about it.“Honestly? I probably wouldn’t have thought it was possible either, not at the beginning, but it’s really nice.

“I think-- I think maybe part of it is being here.” Did that even make sense? Madi wasn’t sure, but still, she elaborated. “Like, if we were out in the world, you and I could easily go our seperate ways and never see each other again, you know? But here-- here with the smaller confines and with all the crazy things the island throws at us, it almost feels like we are given plenty opportunity to work things out.”

The air attuned angle never really crossed Madi’s mind, not something she’s ever really thought of, but Emre had a good point about it. (Were they loud? Madi wasn’t even sure, she didn’t think it was a problem but then again, they’ve only hooked up inside at this point and this was an outdoor shower - the attunement use of it could get useful, yeah.) She couldn’t help but grin at him, though. “Are you speaking from experience?” she teased.

She gave a small chuckle, “You want to serenade me while I take a shower?” It sounded so ridiculous saying it out loud, and yet, it was such an Emre thing to offer, it made sense. “Maybe let’s just postpone that a bit, okay?” Her smile softened when Emre asked about Hazel. “I think-- I think we’re going to be okay. I know I thought it could never happen at some point, but I think-- I think we are doing okay and will continue to be doing okay.”

Emre just missed Iyaz. Madi wondered if there was anything that could be done that would actually help Emre with Iyaz being gone - she couldn’t think of anything, couldn’t see any solutions and she hated that. She just wanted to help him. “Hey, it’s going to be okay, you know that, right? Iyaz-- he wanted this. Just focus on that and the rest will solve itself when you least expect it.” That was probably no help at all, but she didn’t know what else to say.

She did light up a little, though, hearing that Emre invited himself over to stay at Kaz while he figured his own living situation out. “No, no, you should definitely stay with Kaz. That’s a better solution. You can use the shower here if you’re really missing yours, and then just stay with Kaz.” A pause and then, “So the wooing is going okay, I am assuming?”

Madi had no idea who Wenzel was, but that wasn’t that big of a surprise, really, what Madi focused on was how Emre didn’t feel like he knew what to do with his life without Iyaz in it. “Emre, on, I-- I get that it’s easy to feel that, and maybe outside of this island you felt like that was the truth, but it isn’t the case here. You still took care of Iyaz, yes, but you did so many other things.” But he would not believe her if she told him, so instead she asked, “Tell me all the things you did last week. Everything.”

Madi found Nick on the beach, near his home and headed right over. If this was happening in the real world, she’d probably have a notebook in hand with a long list, but alas, Madi learned how to go without notebooks while there was a shortage of paper and now that the bridge offered them a lot wider variety of options, she just didn’t seek them out anymore.

But she still had a list, nonetheless.

“The cave.” Yasuf raises one of his eyebrows and steps back from the bees, but he just offers Madi a quick glance before turning his attention to the bees again. “There’s a cave, too? Man, what is this, Alice in Wonderland?”

Honey’s always been an easy, kosher food, honey sweets, honeymelon, anything honey, he’s always loved it. “This your thing?”, he asks, completely disregarding her questions at first, while pointing at the bees and hives. It takes him a while to muster up the words he’s said a thousand times in the last few days, “Yeah, new here. New completely. Been here for like, what, a month?” He shrugs. Time passes different here, apparently, so maybe in the outer world, it’s been less than that. “I’m… not allergic.”, he quickly adds, “I love bees, actually. They yours?”

He pauses, then offers a hand to shake after a half-hearted salute, “Yasuf, by the way. Yasuf Mizrahi. From London. You know London? Apparently some people were born here.”

— ✿ ❀ ✿ —

Okay, so he was absolutely not from the cave and from the original South Beachers. And from his reaction, he was probably not from the jungle either. “I-- I want to say sort of similar to Alice in Wonderland, just-- different type of wonders, you know? Nobody is having tea and no queen of hearts attacking anyones. --Well, not yet anyway, with this island there is no way to know for sure, anything can happen, but it’s mostly-- well, it’s mostly this with elemental powers. When people make comparisons, they usually do it to Avatar. Well, at least the attunement part.”

She was rambling but really, what was new. It was probably not the best thing, considering he was new and unsure of things, so she should show some confidence or something, but she’s never been good meeting new people and rambling was the most natural reaction of hers.”A month, wow, yeah, that is-- you’re the freshest meat around here.” A wince. “Sorry, not sure why I said it like that, sounded way too weird, but you know what I mean. Hopefully. Going to stop talking now.”

At least talking about the bees was easy. “I mean, they are more of the farm’s and--” but she stopped because really, they might have technically belonged to the farm, but it wasn’t just that. “Well, they are the farm’s but also mine, too. I live over there,” she pointed towards the hut near them, “because I built this apiary up and to be close to them. I take care of them.”

@madibyrd​

“You did all the labour-stuff with me before we had to run off. I was just assembling it, innit.  And if you feel guilty every time you step into this bloody thing, I’ll come break it down one night and you can assemble it yourself, right.”  Emre pointed a warning finger at Madi.  “Don’t think I won’t.”

But Madi had a tease of her own, which Emre huffed in amusement for, and made a note to tell her later, about his current state of living.  “There you are - a thank you with only minimal guilt.  How does it feel?  And you’re welcome, luv.  Honestly I was just well keyed to see if I could build a shower better than my first.  I think I outdid myself.”

Emre slipped into the shower when Madi did, opening his arms lightly from side to side.  “Right, no showers together, what would the neighbours thing.  But?  Hnn?  Big enough for two…”  He poked Madi’s side, as she collected some water from the showerhead.  “You going to start singing in the shower?  If you don’t, I’ll start thinking I done something wrong.”

They stepped back out, and Emre agreed to some sweets, and a chance to just spend time with Madi.  “Erm, I should tell you though, darling.  I - I gave up the house.  Mine and Iyaz’s house, I let it go.  I couldn’t live in there no more, it just…too much.   Was staying with Wren for a bit but - right, well you know all that story innit.”

— ✿ ❀ ✿ —

“Real, life-sized lego set, my new shower,” Madi chuckled at his thread. “You do realize that actually doesn’t sound like a threat at all, right? You can take it apart and I can put it back together or we can put it back together and make a nice night out of it. We can cook together afterward, hang out. Drink some juice and nothing more.”

She wasn’t quite sure if she was teasing or being serious, but then she absolutely meant it when she agreed with Emre, “You really did outdid yourself, Emre. This shower is amazing. Didn’t think this kind of pressure for water could be possible around here - I’m going to be enjoying this a lot.”

Red creeped up her face at him suggesting how good of a place this was for shower sex. “Whether that is gonna happen or not is for-- well, for me and Hazel, and not you, mister,” she poked him in the side gently, “but thank you for thinking of my needs.” A pause and then she let out another laugh. “That sounded so stupid, but yeah, thank you. For all of it. And in return, I will absolutely not sing for you, not in the shower and not anywhere else because that would just kill your ears.”

She couldn’t help but think back on one of the first interactions between Hazel and herself, though. “Did you know she sang for the bees?” she asked, her voice a bit wistful. “Hazel, I mean. When everything snowed in, she was helping me build some walls to break the wind around the hive and apparently you told her the bees needed people to sing for them so she did. It was just so sweet.”

They headed in and Madi was getting the drinks and the fruit when Emre broke the news, and she turned to him in surprise. “Wait, you-- what do you mean you gave up-- and then you were with Wren and now--” she was just babbling, trying to process what he was telling her, and once it all sank in, she let out a sigh, “Oh Emre. Where are you living now? No, don’t answer that, you’re staying here, at least while you figure things out. I know this is a beach and it’s all hot and everything - at least for you - but you should not be sleeping at some random place.”

location: outside of Madi’s home @madibyrd

Emre was there putting the last touches when he saw Madi ambling up to her own home.  He popped out from behind the hut, to let her know he was there, and not some lurker.  Immediately, Emre rushed to assure her,  “I didn’t go inside.  I was just outside.”  In case the poor thing got embarrassed at the idea of…some Madi-reason.  Emre seeing her home slightly unkempt, or something adorably anxious.

Emre grinned, and pointed behind.  “I wanted to show you.  I finished your shower up for you!  We didn’t get time after Basil needed us, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it.  Hate leaving projects half-done…” 

He hoped Madi wouldn’t mind.  Maybe she wanted to contribute in order to feel justified for having it.  Maybe she didn’t like people doing things for her, like helping her.  But he was Emre.  Surely she’d make that exception, for her best mate, and allow him to do something nice.

“Fancy checking it out, darling?”

— ✿ ❀ ✿ —

It was towards the end of the day, Madi heading home thinking the rest of her night would mostly include some normal, daily chores and then probably passing out early, like most of her nights went. Most of her nights didn’t include Emre popping up from behind her hut as she approached it, though (maybe it could be a regular occurance again, now that they were okay again, she thought - not the popping up, just Emre coming over, the two of them doing things like they used to).

“You were just outside doing... what exactly?” Madi asked, because it didn’t even occur to her that Emre would finish up the shower for her. “Emre! You didn’t have to, especially not alone. We could have-- I wanted to-- at least you should have told me you were coming to work on it so I could have tagged along.” She never would have asked him to just do it for her, and he knew that. Probably why he didn’t tell her to begin with.

She let out a small sigh and gave him a smile, pointing her finger at him teasingly, “Just beware, one day I’ll sneak over to your place and build you something in return.” She was both joking and not at the same time. “But thank you, this is-- you really shouldn’t have, but thank you still.” She popped her head into the shower and let out a chuckle. “I’m not going to take a shower in front of you, even though you set up the privacy curtains too. But--” she did turn the water and let it pour out from the top, putting her hands under it and watching it soak for a bit. “This is going to feel so amazing. Again, thank you.” She nodded towards the inside of her hut. “Wanna come inside? I have some fruits and honey I could offer?”

It was easy for Madi to get sucked right into her work, and what was easier more than anything was getting lost in work at the apiary. She needed to move several hives that day and, probably thankfully, she was very late in the process when she noticed an unknown person walking around, getting closer to her and the hives.

Will couldn’t quite make sense of it, why someone would want to sit in a hot room and then jump into a cold pool of water. He could understand the first part, just not the last half of it. Then there was the nice warm bath she was describing, he’d been keen on it first, but then as he peered over he realised he couldn’t quite see the bottom. Which sparked fresh anxiety. “Blazes, you’s do it for fun?” Will yanked his hand out of the water and shook off the damp. “I’m alright ducky, don’t float! Sink right t’bottom if I go in there.” He’d never been much keen on baths though a few over the years had tried to convince him otherwise.

“Canna believe what seeing.” He said, straightening up and rubbing at his cheek as if to cement the reality in front of him. The world changed with a flash of light, or rather William did. He shrunk down to the size of an eight year old, not fully grown, brash and inevitably dirty. Always dirty. Willie rubbed his face. “EW!” He shouted at the girl stood next to him, a pool of water between them. He knew what was going to happen next and he wasn’t having any of it. “Who is you’s?” He asked, which as he jutted his little chin out felt like a demand.

“I int’t having no bath! Canna make me!” Willie jumped up, spying a shack he could hide in so he leapt for it. Except inside it was as hot as balls, as if someone had cranked up the bloody fire. Left a big fat log on it to burn all night long, and then stuffed it up with some more. At first Willie quite like it, he wiggled to lay down on one of the benches and folded his arms under his head. This was real nice. Except the whole place collapsed in and around him. Falling like a stack of cards.

— ✿ ❀ ✿ —

“Yeah, it’s all really fun, I promise. The sauna is not everyone’s cup of tea, but honestly never heard of anyone who didn’t enjoy a good jacuzzi. The bubbles and the hot water is really nice.” She couldn’t quite understand what made Willie suddenly pull back, but she gently added, “It isn’t a very big bottom. You can just-- you know, sit in there and enjoy it and still have your head and shoulders above the water surface. And it’s really nice, I do promise, you could try it and see--”

But she couldn’t finish the sentence, suddenly everything shifted around them and... but no, not everything shifted around them, no. It was Willie who shifted right in front of Madi’s eyes, almost as if the clock suddenly just turned back and he... was he shrinking? Is it stupid that she somehow never could imagine Willie any other side, and seeing him as a kid now - because that is what he turned into - just felt surreal. “What the-- so not just things can change, but kids too. Cool. Cool cool cool. Great. Fantastic.”

The closer the girl got, the more Emre could see how fit she was.  He granted a loose grin at her, and a long look up and down.  “Hello, sweetheart.  You alright?” he greeted her, then grinned a bit more at her Yank accent.  Some kind of tourist…although maybe they were both tourists, where ever this was.  

“Yazzer - Iyaz.  He’s my brother.  Tall bloke, about this high, and pretty.  Likely an absolute lost look on his face.”  Emre motioned to the girl.  “Sort of like your face looks right now if I’m honest.  I’m Emmy, by the way.  Who might you be?”

Emre looked around, then walked over to a coconut tree and hit the trunk.  SoIid, hard, definitely real.  “I don’t know what the fuck a virtual reality is, but it sounds like something Iyaz would well be into innit.  What - you mean like an amusement park, like?”

— ✿ ❀ ✿ —

The guy she found just had that sort of warm, kind, open face and Madi couldn’t help but smile back at him despite her confusion about what could have possibly happen. “Oh, sorry, didn’t-- didn’t realize it was your brother. Did not see him, though, I just-- this is going to sound strange, but I just woke up and I am not quite sure where this is.”

Which was definitely written all over her face, as he pointed it out, too. “I’m Madi, it’s really nice to meet you, Emmy.” So it wasn’t a virtual reality, where they were, at least not according to him. “No, it’s not-- it’s one of those fancy like-- you know you put on glasses and then you find yourself in a whole different world? I don’t know why I thought it might be that, maybe because Talia and I talked about it a couple of nights ago and I thought-- I don’t know, maybe she got one and I forgot about it or something. Surprised me with it without explicitely telling me she was getting me in one. It was just a thought.”

Madi was doing her best to reassure Lina that they would get out of this and Lina just hoped she was right. Madi was concerned for the baby but all Lina cared about was herself, getting out of this unscathed. But she had to be careful with her movements and attempts to get out. Maybe Madi would be to occupied trying to be a hero to notice Lina moving around in a way a pregnant woman never would but she wasn’t going to risk getting questioned once they got out.

There were a few things still intact that they could use to get higher up, so she was going to let Madi handle that. Lina decided to stand back, hand on her “aching” back, not wanting to push or move anything that might put strain on her and the baby. Her gaze drifted back up to the ceiling, because if anything was going to start breaking apart again, then she wasn’t going to be in the line of fire when it dropped. “Are you sure you can do that on your own?” she made sure to ask so it at least sounded like she might want to help, even if she might not physically be able to while ‘pregnant’.

Instead, Madi suggested that Lina try to make the ceiling opening bigger for them. Her brows furrowed as she considered how she was going to go about that. Safely at least. “I don’t want to tear the entire ceiling down.” Lina responded, shaking her head. “With the way this place is deteriorating, I can’t imagine a gust of air would be all that helpful to us.” Maybe once they were closer up she could she could get a chance to break the ceiling some more, but from down here that sounded too dangerous. “We need to come up with something else, or wait for it to break off more on it’s own.”

— ✿ ❀ ✿ —

“Oh yeah, don’t worry about me, I-- I had to move and carry really heavy stuff a lot. I-- I don’t really want to get into it, it’s not that important right now, just-- the ceiling, we can’t get through that hole,” Madi said,f eeling a bit awkward and sheepish as she moved the crates - the problem wasn’t how heavy it was, the problem was mostly the ankle and holding it properly, and finding the strategically easiest way to move it in a short time.

Thankfully at least the ceiling wasn’t caving in on itself extremely fast, while she moved the first crate close to the hole, it didn’t move - whatever was happening, it momentarily stopped. But Madi didn’t want to get overly confident about none of it happening again. “Yeah, okay, that makes sense, but we cannot get through just that. You especially, we need to be as careful as possible while also getting out.” Maybe she was worrying a bit too much, but could anyone blame her. Lina was pregnant and the parts of the hut were breaking apart. “And waiting for it to just break apart feels-- you know, like we’re just sitting ducks.”

location: some weird beach @madibyrd

Emre must’ve fallen dead asleep after all that unpacking and arranging and managing deliveries.  All to furnish their little flat.  It was a modest flat up in Wembley for now, but Emre figured it’d do.  An easy train for Iyaz to start at uni, big days for his little brother.  And Emre - Emre had a new job lined up that he started tomorrow, at the Punjabi Park deli around the corner.  Him, working a bloody cornershop, stocking inventory and like.  At least he was far away enough not to run into any of his old East ends mates in Wembley.  Hopefully.

But when Emre woke up, afraid he’d missed his alarm and was late for his first day, he wasn’t on his mattress.  Iyaz wasn’t in bed either.  This wasn’t even their bedroom, it was…a beach?  A bright, sandy beach, the sorts you see on holiday adverts.

Emre bolted to his feet, wobbly and a little unsteady as he called out.  “Yaz!  Yazzer!  Where the fuck is you?”  Looking around, Emre spotted a girl, and if he had a guess he’d say she looked as dozy as he felt.

“Oi!  Miss!  Miss,”  Emre called to her, waving.  “You alright?  The fuck is this place?”

— ✿ ❀ ✿ —

"What is a yazzer?" Madi mumbled to herself as she heard the voice before she saw the guy it was coming from. Was it some fancy expression describing what this place was? Was it a one word explanation to what happened to her? Was this some virtual reality or something?

Talia was excited to show her something, Madi remembered that, but the last thing she remembered was... well, it was passing out on Talia's couch, if she was being honest, not getting on a plane and going to the Bahamas or something. No beach for Madi.

“Bloody hell is saa-na?” Willie reiterated, scratching his head as the whole world seemed to change continuously around them. This box of a building that Madi seemed to recognise was joined by another, and then another. Then finally, by a sunken pit of sorts. It was all enough to tear his gaze away from the warehouse and the glimpse of the old home that’d reappeared there. This whole new world was far more interesting. Will probed at one of the doors to the boxes. “You’s know it?” He asked her, sparing her a quick glance before he yanked the door open. The handle was like nothing he’d ever seen but it was inside that really blew him away.

Steam billowed out in great swathes instantly bringing Will out in hot sweats as he stuck his head into the box. It weren’t just that, it had seats inside and all, a few funny looking robes were just hanging about inside. “Bloody hell, bugger is this duck?” She’d said her name just a moment ago, Molly…Murdy? “Ay’up! Mardypants come and look at this.” Will had hopped over to the next door quick as he could and opened it to find swathes of wood, with a hot wood fire inside. “Smart fellas got it nice and hot in here!”

Will carried on to stand at the edge of the sunk pit, which wasn’t just a pit but a bubbling concoction of what felt to be warm water. He squatted down and bobbed a hand back and forth through the bubbles. “What’s all this? You’s said that a saaa-na? Just a hot room int’t. Bloody nice in here though.” Will wanted so badly to strip right down to the nude and slip right into the water, he’d been averse to bathing, more specifically to the chore of it. But something about hot waters of a good hard day of graft hit differently now. He didn’t. Instead he crouched at the edge of the hot bath itching like an over-excited puppy to dive right in. “You’s reckon more of this?”

— ✿ ❀ ✿ —

Madi knew that Willie was from-- what did he say? The 20s? Madi genuinely couldn't remember what era Willie told her he was from, she just remembered it's been a long, long while. Decades at least. So yes, she knew that Willie could potentially not know what a sauna was.

And still, seeing his earnest, excited, curious and genuine reaction was pretty sweet and cute. Quite a different reaction to him that their first meeting.

"Yeah, I know what it is. Have tried a couple of versions, too - never thought I'd see one around here, but this is Meridium, I guess," Madi said and then needed a few more seconds to realize that what she said wasn't quite helpful at all.

"It's-- yeah, it's really hot inside," she said as he stated it himself too. "That's mostly the point of it. It gets heaten up to really really high temperature and then people go in there and sit there for 5-10 minutes and the heat makes them sweat and then they come out and and get into a cold pool of water right away to cool down. It has plenty of health benefits, it's really good for the body."

Will’s face lit up at the prospect of more, today wasn’t going to be such a sore day after all. Really, Willie never really questioned much anyway to begin with but the photo. Well that was enough to seal the deal with him this one time. Willie thumbed the photograph of Hector. The lad were a man grown in it, but that didn’t change much least not in Will’s eyes. “He were a water lad, good one too ducky. Littlest lad, he were fire! Lucky bastard I used t’ think, jealous of him.”

He bumbled along behind her, less interested in the boots and clothes, though they’d certainly be useful. As of right now Willie didn’t have anything to spare though he’d never had clothes to spare, and he didn’t much see the use of it. “Bloody hell! Axe be hiding in you’s house? Bit big t’ be hiding int’t duck.” He said with a wink, less salacious and more along the lines of overzealous friendliness. “What you’s name ducky?” Willie asked, still attempting to wrap his head around remembering all of their names, when there was far too many of them for that.

“Ay’up!” He grabbed a hold of her, tugging her towards him. Two steps ahead, thereabouts, a hunk of scrap had descended from the sky. “Bugger me! Nearly crushed us!” On closer inspection in resembled that of a building, but not like one that Willie had ever seen. “Tarnation…what t’ devils is that?”

— ✿ ❀ ✿ —

Willie seemed-- softer somehow as he was looking at the picture. Madi remembered something about his boys vaguely when he came into her home and they ended up fighting, but she was too drunk and too surprised and angry to really remember what actually happened and who this boy could have been on the picture. “Were they-- were they family?” she asked as he shared their attunements (she held back a wince at feeling lucky to get fire - she was working on getting better at things, at her relationship with fire).

She let out a small, awkward laugh, “There’s no way it’s been hiding there. My place--it got trashed when the dopplegängers were around, one of them trashed it, so if not before, then while I was cleaning it up, it would have come out. All of this just-- it appeared as if they were always there. As if-- as if you were still living in there,” she added sheepishly. She remembered how she freaked out on him when he didn’t even know she was living there - he hasn’t come anywhere close to her place since and she appreciated it and also felt bad about everything.