xavier.

“I’m sure I will.” Talia nodded at Xavier with a faint smile. She never really did stuff like this as a kid, so it was nice to get the experience. Her family was definitely unconventional, and her father thought it was more valuable for her and Jake to train rather than take the family out for fun. She couldn’t hide her mix of confusion and disappointment when he said he packed up, but it quickly turned to relief when he said he was looking for his own place. Of course it was a little weird to see him now getting an apartment alone when last time he was in town they had just moved in together, but she was slowly starting to get over that awkwardness. And she was definitely happy for him. The resentment for him leaving town had definitely faded away by now. She was just glad that they were still able to be friends after all of that, because she really did miss him. “That’s awesome. I’m sure the bank would be lucky to have you working for them.” Her eyebrows furrowed though when he mentioned his coven and she turned to give him a look. “You still haven’t told them that you’re not coming back? Don’t you think that’s like.. maybe the first thing you should’ve done?” She knew they probably weren’t gonna be very happy about it, but still. 

“It’s not a dream job, but I need to somewhere again here. I don’t want go back to my previous job when I was here either.” As long as he dealt with computer systems, he knew it would be a fine job for him. Sometimes he forgot he was still young and most twenty-two year old’s do not have their life figured out. He had to remind himself he was on a good track in terms of his age and where he was in his life. Someday he would be able to pursue the doctorate degree he wanted. Xavier could feel her stare when he admitted not telling his coven yet. He knew how much of a bad idea it was to keep putting off. He ignored calls from the elders in the coven everyday. If he ever did pick up, he would tell them that he was still working out everything for his family. He felt guilty using what had happened as an excuse. He knew he had to face up to his choices. He just didn’t want to lose the connection. “Yes, I know I should have. But Tal..I just know it’s not going to go well.” He sighed, finally admitting that out loud to someone. “To be apart of the New Orleans coven, you have to live in New Orleans. I’m already an outsider because I wasn’t born with any connection to it. If I tell them..I’m not going to have a coven anymore.” Xavier knew how being alone as a witch could be.  He pulled into the parking, turning off the engine of his car. “It’s fine, I’ll do it eventually. This week. Let’s just kayak now.”

“I dunno, I might have to strap a life vest on you if that’s the case. Cause I’m trying to focus on kayaking, not playing lifeguard.” Talia teased back at him with a small smirk, feeling a little bit like her normal self now that she had something else to focus on. The guilt was definitely still there, but being with someone who had no idea made her feel slightly better. There wasn’t any pressure. There never usually was when it came to Xavier. She rubbed her eyes for a moment to try and wake herself up a bit as she blinked and leaned back into the car seat, nodding at his question. “Yeah, it sounds like fun. I’ve never gone. It can’t be that hard though, right? It’s just rowing?” She’d seen people do it on tv, so she figured it couldn’t be much different from that. She couldn’t hide her smile at the mention of the twins. “We’ll have to take them sometime. One for each of us.” She chuckled at the thought of her and Xavier trying to keep them in line with one of each of the twins in their boats. It’d probably be a disaster. “What’ve you been up to? Did you finally unpack your stuff to stay?”

“Yes, it’s not too hard, you’ll get the hang of it quick.” Xavier had no doubt that she would able to how kayaking works. It wasn’t a hard task unless the water as rough to maneuver. He could already imagine how much of a mess it would if they brought the twins. He imagining yelling at each other from their respective kayaks. They would have to wait their turn or until their friendship was better repaired. He didn’t want to force his family onto him even if he knew they were close to her. “Actually, no, I packed up.” He told her, making a turn on the street they were passing. “But not because I’m going back to New Orleans.” He quickly said to clear that up. His mind was completely made up. He was staying in Beacon Hills. “I found a new apartment for myself. I love my family, but I miss living in my own space. I landed some interviews too. I’m hoping to get a job with the bank as their security analyst. I have the interview this week.” It sounded like everything was going well with him, but he knew it wasn’t the truth. He still yet to face his coven. “It would be perfect if I could just tell the coven though..but it’s fine, I’m sure it’ll be fine.” At least that’s what he kept telling himself. 

@ofmagicgenes·

If Talia had known four weeks ago how things were going to play out for her, she wouldn’t have agreed to go kayaking with Xavier at the nearby lake just outside of town. He claimed he just wanted to get some use out of the kayaks his family had, and she wanted to rekindle their friendship, but now that she’d had her entire altercation with Lydia and the orderly near Eichen, she wasn’t feeling up for much. Let alone going out and kayaking all day with her ex-boyfriend. But she knew she needed to stop sulking, as hard as it was, so she didn’t end up cancelling on Xavier after all. She figured it’d be a good chance to try and get her mind off of everything. Of course it was probably pretty evident that she wasn’t feeling great, but she was trying her best to not get in her head about what she’d done. Otherwise she’d spiral again and it’d be a shit show. So once Xavier picked her up in front of her apartment, she got into the passenger side and raised her eyebrows at the kayaks strapped to the top of the car. “So you’ve done this before.. right? And you can swim?” She didn’t remember them ever swimming together before, but she wanted to be sure before they went out there. She also was teasing him a bit as she buckled her seatbelt.

Xavier was happy to be hanging out with Talia. They were moving forward on becoming closer friends again. He hadn’t seen her much after he preformed the protection spell on her mind. He was just glad that this time they would not have to be fighting any supernatural creatures. They would just be heading out to kayak. He waited for her seatbelt on to drive off to their destination. “Actually no, I can’t swim at all. Will you help me if I drown?” He replied back with a joking tone. “Of course, I know how to swim. I have done it before but only like..once. And it’s been a while, but like I said, I can swim.” He laughed, shaking his head. “How have you been?” He asked, looking over to her for a moment. If he was honest, she looked tired like she hadn’t been getting a lot of sleep. He wouldn’t point it out though to be respectful. “You excited to go kayaking? When I told the twins, they got so mad that I wasn’t taking them.” He laughed, shaking his head.  

“Analyze myself?” he asked after a moment. He had no idea what Xavier meant but he was definitely open and willing to learn. “What does that mean?” Stiles wanted to know as much as he possibly could about it all because there was a lot to it. Not to mention that the more he knew would only benefit supernaturals in the future. “But I would like to check out your grimoire. If only to make sure I know what it is and what it’s used for…in case that information is ever needed.” Stiles smiled softly at Xavier. “I am glad I ran into you today. Don’t think I just want to hang out and talk about witches or whatever. We could hang out and do whatever, too.”

“I guess analyze is the wrong word.” Xavier laughed. “Just learn the different types of spells and what is commonly used in them. Some of really simple materials like salt or literally water. Others involve like super rare herbs or magical objects. It’s crazy how much variety there is.” It still amazed him when he read through spells how other witches were able to come up with them. “Yeah, you definitely can, I have like 3 of them. One that use to be my grandmother’s, one that got passed down to me from the NOLA coven, and I’ve started my own for the spells I’ve made.” His was the most empty since his spell creations were only beginning. “Yeah, we can hang out whenever Stiles. Just text me.”

“Yeah, and it even almost smells like Axe and sweat in here too. Exactly what I’d imagine.” Mia laughed softly, but it was definitely bittersweet. She felt terrible that she didn’t get to meet him before she got to town, and she’d always wonder what would’ve happened had she got there earlier. It’d probably always haunt her. Which was why a spell to directly contact him sounded perfect. It might help with that feeling of emptiness that she felt when realizing most of her family was dead. But it was pretty clear that Xavier thought it’d be a bad idea to mess with that stuff now. As badly as she wanted to. “Is it like.. I can actually see them? Like when they reach out to me?” She asked curiously, not sure if he’d know the answer. But then again she tried to hold her excitement back as she nodded at him. “What basic spells could we start with, then?”

“Yeah, you can see them, it’s pretty cool. And we’ll get there. You’d want to contact Nate, wouldn’t you?” He asked her looking directly at her. Xavier didn’t blame her. He would do the same if she was in her position. A part of him hoped that when she did try to contact him that he could be there to be able to talk to his best friend one more time. But he understood if she would rather have the moment for herself. “When I first started, I use to do a lot of my magic with plants and learning how to manipulate to help me in the fight. I don’t know if that would really help you though.” He laughed. “Check the front of the journal, those are probably the spells that Nate started with.” The information in his journal would be more useful to than his words. He only became a witch after Nate was a necromancer. He couldn’t remember his starter spells at the moment. “Wait, do you want to get started on them today? You don’t want to wait after today?”

“Too many.” Lydia visibly cringed at the thought. She had been tormented with a ton of those weapons. Tasers, knives, guns, at one point Lydia couldn’t even keep track of what they used to try and beat her. She didn’t want to focus on that too much though. Lydia wanted to be able to contribute to their plan as much as possible. “I don’t like the idea of splitting up either but I know the place better than you do.” Lydia sighed. It wasn’t really a good thing that she knew Eichen well, but she was glad Xavier didn’t. “Maybe you can use a sleeping spell?” Lydia suggested before looking down at the paper and quickly trying to sketch an outline of the building. She wondered if Stiles had a real blueprint back from when he was trying to get her out of there. That would definitely be helpful if he still had that. “Not really that many exits. Which isn’t surprising.” Lydia said as she pointed the map in Xavier’s directions. “But if you really don’t want to split up then you can try to use a sleeping spell on the people at the front desk? We can get in and out before any of the orderlies come down. They are usually on the second and third floor and don’t stay in the main entrance too often.”

“Yeah, I was thinking of sleeping spells too. They’re effective and it wouldn’t make any loud noise or raise any suspicion.” They would still have to be quick in their movement just in case anyone else tried to check on the people in the first floor. “I say we try staying together, I think we would feel much better if we did, or at least I would feel better knowing you weren’t in their offices alone.” His mind was thinking of the worse situations and he didn’t want them to become true. Xavier would never forgive himself if anything happened. “Okay, when do you think we should go? Or how soon do you want to? I know you said you have to talk to Stiles.” The sooner they got the information, the sooner he could work on helping her get her banshee abilities back."Whenever you ready, you just let me know."  

@ofmagicgenes·

Faye was a curious person by nature. Factor in her being practically cut off from society for nine years of her life and that just amplified her curiosity. And Beacon Hills was the perfect place to wander around. There were so many abandoned homes and buildings that Faye wanted to explore. Which she usually did when the rest of the Accetta’s were sleeping and she could sneak out of the house. Was it risky? Absolutely. It was worth it to Faye, though. She had already looked around two broken down buildings and was on her way to go to the preserve when she noticed someone behind her on the street. It wasn’t the middle of the night yet but it also wasn’t the time of night where people were typically walking around. Faye couldn’t help but worry and she made a quick turn down another street. When the person behind her also turned, Faye wasted no time giving them a peace of her mind. She immediately turned and went up to them, shoving them into a nearby wall. Her eyes glowed bright blue unintentionally. “Did Angelo send you?” Faye growled, keeping her elbow tight under their chin, but not tight enough to the point where the other person couldn’t breathe- not yet at least.

Xavier was out for a night walk. He always went out for a walk when he felt stressed or pressured. Tonight, Xavier was feeling quite stressed. He had been contacted by one of the witches back in New Orleans. They were wondering when he was coming back. He still couldn’t give them a straightforward answer. He wasn’t ready to face the consequences of his decisions. He was grateful their coven had accepted him, but Beacon Hills was his home. But he didn’t want to lose the connection to the power of the ancestors just yet. He was only beginning to learn so much about creating his own spells. Maybe he was a bit selfish. He just wanted to clear his head and possibly think of ways of how he was going to break it to the elders. He was going through a number of scenarios in his head, not really paying attention to where he was walking toward. He was thinking through scenario number ten when he was shoved into a wall. Werewolf, he noted seeing the girl’s blue eyes. He didn’t know who she was though. “Who the hell is Angelo? And who the hell are you?” He said harshly. His hand grabbed her arm and he sent of shock of electricity to make her let go of him. “Don’t come for me again..I can do worse than that.” He warned her. It seemed to be a miscommunication for him if she thought he was someone this Angelo person had sent. “I’m just on a walk.” He lifted his hands up in surrender.

Lydia would have to tell Stiles. It was a big decision and a plan that could be dangerous. She also knew she’d be going no matter what though. Lydia wasn’t exactly the type of person who took no for an answer. Mostly because she also knew that Xavier would try to go no matter what and there was no way she’d let him be alone. “I’d definitely prefer the less people that have to come, the better.” She didn’t want to get additional people involved and risk them being hurt but Stiles needed to know. Lydia listened as Xavier asked questions and she tried to think of a helpful answer. It was hard to put herself back in the mindset of being in Eichen, but she knew the more information that she could provide the greater the chance they made it out of this unharmed. “Directly through is risky.” Lydia began. “There’s too many of them and they’re armed with so many weapons. The best bet might be trying to subdue them. Do you have paper?” Lydia asked, deciding it might be helpful to draw out a map. “I can show you the best entrances, exits, side doors..” Lydia trailed off. “I wouldn’t want us to split up but if you can subdue them I can make my way through the place faster.”

“Agreed. Less chance of being, less chance of anyone getting hurt.” They could easily agree on that point. Xavier was just hoping it went smoothly. They had a better chance if they thought it threw. “They have weapons? This is suppose to be a place to help people?” He scoffed, shaking his head. With every detail he learned, he hated this place even more. “Yeah, let me grab some paper.” He opened one of the drawers in the living room which he knew would have a notebook. He opened it to a clean page and laid it out for Lydia. He grabbed a pencil and handed it over to her. He stood behind her so he could watch her draw the layout. “Splitting up? I really don’t think that’s the best idea..” Xavier said, not sold on the idea. He didn’t want to risk them getting Lydia again. He would feel better if he was there with her. “What if you run into some of them? We should stick together unless absolutely necessary.” If he had to stay back and fight them off while she ran off to grab the file, he would do it. 

“I suddenly feel like I knew him, just being in here. It feels very.. nostalgic, somehow?” Mia laughed quietly, wishing she could’ve gotten to town earlier and got the chance to properly meet her brother. It really sucked that she had to just do this through looking at his room. It felt wrong. There were so many papers everywhere, and she could tell all of them were similar, with different types of spells on them as she picked some up and continued to scan them. When he mentioned a spell to communicate with the dead, she perked up and turned to look at the paper he found. She couldn’t help but laugh at the name of it, but then her smile faded as she started to think about it more. “So you mean there’s a way for me to channel what I’m seeing and actually do it willingly? I’ve seen spirits before but it’s never warranted. It always seems to be random.” She was gonna try something similar at the graveyard, but she didn’t even know where to begin. “I tried something similar the other day, actually. I mean I just went to his grave and sort of hoped I could hear something, but I got nothing.. I didn’t know there was a specific spell for it.” She took the paper, not really addressing the warning she got as she instantly seemed eager.

“His room actually sums him up pretty well. So it makes sense. It has a lot of stuff that were important to him. Even if he kept it kind of messy.” He grinned. Was it weird that he felt glad that Mr. Sinclair had kept his room as it was? It felt like a part of him was living on through his journals and even through Mia. Xavier watched Mia get excited over the spell he found. He could tell she was eager to learn--a great sign--but just really hoped she would start with more basic spells. Who knows what could go wrong if she didn’t preform that spell properly? “Yes, I’m pretty sure Nate helped me communicate with someone once. I know sometimes they did come to him randomly like you said, but that spell does allow you to contact them directly. But again, don’t try it now. We can work up to it, I promise.” He wondered if she wanted to contact Nate or someone else important in her life that might have passed. “I think it depends if they want to come forward for something like that? But don’t take my word, I’m not too entirely sure.” 

Mia could tell there was a lot of similarities between her and Xavier’s powers, but also a ton of differences too. It was kind of frustrating that there weren’t any other necromancers in town like there were werewolves to be able to help her, but she really did have faith in Xavier. And Lydia too eventually, if the two of them ever made up. They both seemed to know the two different sides of Mia’s powers, which she desperately needed help with. “That.. sounds like something he might say, actually. Even just looking at him I could tell you he probably had messy handwriting.” Mia laughed softly as she glanced over to the pictures on the wall again, smiling faintly as Xavier shared the memory. It was really nice that she got to meet friends of her brother, even if she felt terrible that he was gone now. She looked around the room and found some papers with various doodles and what seemed to be latin on them, then raised her eyebrows. “I.. kind of can?” She laughed quietly as she tried her best to read it, as hard as it was. “Post ..tenebras?–.. spero lucem..” As soon as she finished saying it, a glowing light emitted from her hand, and she furrowed her eyebrows in confusion as she examined her hand and then chuckled a bit. “There’s a note above this one that says ‘human torch spell’.”

Xavier watched as light emitted from her hand. He looked over her shoulder to look at the spell name Nate had written down. “He would name it that.” Xavier laughed, shaking his head. He looked down and spotted a pile of papers on the floor. He picked up from the ground and recognized the latin words. “I think some more spells on some of these too.” He said, trying to straighten out the papers since they were quite crumbled. They might have been papers that Nate just pulled from his backpack. “Woah, I think this the one who we use to communicate with people who were already dead..” He said as he continued looking at trying to confirm. He tried to look for a name just like the one had found. He saw it scribbled in a corner. “Spirit Whisper spell.” He grinned laughing. “This is definitely one of the more complicated spells, requires a lot of energy and magic. Don’t try to do this one anytime soon, okay?” He warned her against it. Still, he handed her the piece of paper for her to keep. 

“It’s fine with me.” Mia nodded, not wanting Xavier to feel weird about asking, since he seemed worried about crossing a line or something. As much as she mourned the fact that she never got to meet Nate before he passed, she didn’t know him. Not in the way where she was super sentimental about going into his old room. It was a strange feeling, but definitely not necessarily grief. It made sense that her dad left the room, since he didn’t seem like the super emotional type. Not that he was heartless, but she could definitely tell that he liked to focus on his work instead of his emotions most of the time. Similar to the way Nate did with lacrosse. She looked around slowly and examined everything with Xavier, feeling odd that no one was living in the room anymore. It felt like a weird time capsule of his whole life, just closed away. There were pictures up on a bulletin board of him and Lydia playing beer pong, and one of him and Xavier camping presumably in the preserve. He looked so happy and carefree, and that did make her sad to look at as she frowned slightly and looked over when Xavier mentioned the notebook. “He had a journal?” She mumbled curiously as she walked over to it and gently took it from Xavier, deciding to flip through. She immediately made a face at the handwriting and couldn’t help but laugh softly. “Jesus, did he write this when he was five? It’s like chicken scratch.” She teased.

“Yeah, he would write down his spells. This is actually pretty perfect for you to have now.” Xavier mused as he watched take the book from his hands. If he was going to help her, they could go off Nate’s journal. He was glad he asked about the room. He figured he could help teach her control but in the areas of spell he wasn’t so sure. Even if they both worked off magical energy, he didn’t know their spells as well as he did witches. Xavier laughed at her comment. “Yeah, he did write very terribly. I’ll never forget that.” He had teased her brother about before. “Nate would just try to claim that I should know that people with messier writing tend to be smarter because they have too many thoughts at once. And I just told him straight up he just had bad handwriting.” He liked sharing these memories with her. It reminded him of the good times with his friend and Mia could learn about her brother more through his memories of him. “There’s probably more around here. I remember him just writing on random pieces of paper.” Xavier said as he turned around and looked for anything else. He saw the picture of them in the preserve and smiled. “Didn’t even know he had this up..” He surveyed it for a moment before moving on. “Are you least able to make some sense of his writing in there? If not, I got pretty good at it.”

Mia nodded as she grabbed a glass for Xavier and filled it up too before walking back and handing it to him, then she took a seat on the loveseat next to the couch. She still wasn’t used to living in such a nice house, so she was definitely still adjusting. Most of her foster homes consisted of people who clearly were just cashing a check from the government for themselves instead of using it to actually take care of her and other kids she lived with. She’d gone through several, several houses. It only got worse the older she got. She noticed Xavier looking down the hall and also found her eyes glancing in that direction, and then he asked her about Nate’s room and she furrowed her eyebrows. “I uh, I don’t know.. I haven’t really been in there.” Her dad just turned the guest room into her room, and usually that door was closed so she never thought anything of it. She stood up from the seat though and raised her eyebrows at Xavier. “We can go find out, though?”

“Yeah, yeah, if that’s okay with you?” Xavier knew Mia didn’t have a personal connection to Nate because fate didn’t allow them to meet but it still felt like he had to ask. He took a sip of his glass of water before placing it on the table nearest to him. He got up from his seat on the couch and walked down the hallway with her. “I hope it’s not locked..” He knew statistically that parents who loose children tend to lock away room of their child who has passed. It can be painful to enter in a room full of memories or be reminded that someone was missing in their life. But Mr. Sinclair might have been in the other end of the spectrum who cleaned out the room in its entirety to be able to move on. His hand grabbed the door knob and turn it opened. Nate’s room looked exactly like it did a couple of years ago. “Your dad left it just as it is..” He examined the room, walking around. His lacrosse gear was in a corner. His motorcycle helmet right next to his backpack. His eyes landed on a familiar book on a dresser that Xavier had seen Nate carry around. “Oh my god, how could I forget..” He mumbled mostly to himself as he grabbed the spellbook. “Mia, your brother had his own spellbook and journal or other little notes whenever he learned about himself as necromancer..there’s probably some things here that could help you.”

Lydia knew if Xavier had been upset after going through something traumatic- or any of her friends- she would’ve completely understood. It was just incredibly hard for her to apply those same rules to herself. Regardless, Lydia appreciated Xavier telling her that everything was okay. She wasn’t embarrassed to cry in front of him either, like she was with most people. Her and Xavier had been through a lot together. He’d definitely seen her cry when she was younger and Jackson had said something hurtful to her. He was also the only person who could really understand how hard it was when Nate died. Lydia didn’t think either one of them would have gotten through that without each other. She couldn’t help but roll her eyes when Xavier said he’d go alone. “You know me better than that.” She replied. “There is nothing that could ever stop me from going with you.” Lydia would do anything in the world for her friends. She didn’t care how traumatic going back there might be. Xavier was not doing that alone. “We go together, alright?” Lydia had managed to calm down slightly. “But I understand that we need a plan first. I also need to tell Stiles. He might not want me to go..” Lydia began. “Or at the very least he’d want to come too.” She could not just go there with Xavier without even telling Stiles. Lydia would never.

“It was worth a shot.” Even if he tried to suggest the plan, he knew he was crazy if Lydia would actually let him do it alone. Xavier didn’t care how reckless it would be, but he would do it. It wasn’t just for anyone, it was for someone he considered family. “Okay, we’ll do it together. And you can tell Stiles too. If he wants to join us, he can. If he doesn’t want you to go, we’ll have to convince that this will be helpful to getting your banshee abilities back.” Xavier still didn’t know Stiles too well. They were just only starting to get to know each other. But he knew how he much cared for Lydia. It would take some convincing to just allow the two of them to go if Stiles wouldn’t be able to join for some reason. “What do you think would be the best way to do this? Directly through or too risky? I could use magic to subdue them..Or like find a way to sneak in?” Xavier was wasting no time trying to come up with a plan. He wouldn't want them to rush them in, but it wouldn't be bad to get some ideas going. He hoped Lydia would stop him if it was too much.

“I know, I just.. I was kind of being a jerk, honestly. And I feel bad and really want to apologize but I just don’t know if there will ever be a good time for that. She seemed pretty upset.” Mia was of course curious as to how exactly Lydia lost her powers and what all happened, but it was clear that Xavier wasn’t going to mention it at all, which was fine. It wasn’t really her business anyways. She smiled faintly when he reassured her that he also rambled, which was a relief. She hated feeling so embarrassed about it, but he didn’t seem bothered by it at all. “Everything’s going okay, besides the newfound powers. I’m really grateful that my dad’s still here for me to live with. I’m hoping eventually he decides to adopt me, but ya know. As long as I’m living here it doesn’t really matter.” She walked over to the kitchen and grabbed a glass, then looked over to Xavier. “Did you want any water or something? We have sparkling and regular. I think my dad keeps the fridge stocked with beer if you want one of those, too.” It was a lot more than she was used to in previous foster homes, that was for sure.

Xavier was glad that Mia was adjusting well in her life. He knew Mr.Sinclair was a good man. “I’ll just take regular water, thanks.” He chuckled softly at the fact that she was offering him beer. He wasn’t a beer guy--or a drinker at all really. Xavier took a seat on the couch as he saw Mia head into the kitchen. The couch sat in the room in a place which allowed him to see the hallway. His eyes landed on the door of Nate’s room. He couldn’t remember what he had done that last time he was here with Mia’s brother. It made him feel a little bad that he couldn’t remember. He wondered if the bedroom was still the way it was or Mr. Sinclair had cleaned it out. “Hey Mia?” He called out to her, not allowing himself to let this thought go without an answer. “I don’t want to intrude but..do you if that room is still Nate’s bedroom?” 

“And maybe each time one of us dies, the powers just get stronger in whoever has them next.” Mia theorized, wondering if she was actually onto something or if she just sounded crazy. Thankfully it didn’t seem to be the latter, which was relieving to hear. She did want to look into it, and Xavier seemed like the person who could help with that. “It’s kind of impossible to trust myself when I have no idea what I’m doing,” She admitted with a soft sigh as she glanced at Xavier and shrugged slightly. “I just.. Lydia was going to help me, actually. And then something happened– I don’t really know. But we got into a huge fight and I don’t think she wants anything to do with me now. Which is fair. We both said some pretty nasty things.” She paused as she glanced at Xavier and frowned again. “I don’t mean to ramble, sorry. It’s just been stressing me out. So I’ve been trying to practice on my own but then I just get more stressed because I feel so out of control all of the time. I feel like the kid from the Sixth Sense.” She couldn’t hide her small smile when he admitted that they were friends, glad to hear that he didn’t seem freaked out by her. It didn’t take long to get to her house as he parked and she laughed at his statement. “I didn’t think that until now, actually. Now I’m debating letting you inside.” She teased with a small smirk as she got out and opened the front door for him.

“Try not to take it personal, yeah? I don’t know what have might been said but she’s just going through something. I don’t think you two will always be on the fence like this, just give it some time.” Xavier knew he sounded pretty vague but he wouldn’t disclose anything else to the girl. It wasn’t his story to tell nor would he share anything that had been trusted to keep. He knew eventually that the two would be able to be friends again. He switched focused on a different subject, not wanting her to dwell on that. “Don’t worry about the rambling. Once you get to know me more, you’ll see I do plenty of that too. Need to remind to shut up cause no one cares to hear about some random I learned about or how I finished building some coding program.” He grinned at her. If they were going to be around each other more because he was going to be helping her out, Mia was bound to eventually go off-topic about something that interested. He just hoped he didn’t bore her when he did. As they walked into her house, he noticed it looked pretty much similar as when he was last here. “How have you been transitioning to Beacon? I know you said your dad’s traveling alot, but everything going well?”

Lydia let out a sigh of frustration when she heard Xavier saying no. Realistically Lydia knew he wasn’t just going to let her leave his house and go back to Eichen house. Lydia understood that- she wouldn’t let him either. But she was so messed up these days, nothing was making sense anymore. She just continued to engage in reckless behavior without caring about what could happen to her. “No, we don’t know that. I could..” Lydia opened her mouth to speak but she didn’t have anything else she could say. Xavier was right; there was no plan and they managed to torture her while she was a banshee. They would definitely be able to take her as a human too. Tears of frustration overcame Lydia as she shook her head. “Shit, I’m sorry.” She rarely cursed but there were no other words in that moment. “This is so pathetic.” Lydia swallowed the lump in her throat and wiped a few tears away. She was just so desperate, and so lost without being a banshee. “But Xavier, I would never ask you to go to Eichen. It’s not worth you risking your life over.” Lydia cared about Xavier a ton and she would never put him in harms way willingly. She’d be lost if anything happened to her friend. 

Xavier went to pull Lydia into a hug to comfort her but he knew he couldn’t do that. He could overstep his boundaries when she had gone through something so traumatic. His best bet was using his words and helping her through this in the way he could. “Lyd, it’s not pathetic. You’re allowed to be angry and upset of everything that’s happened. Don’t ever say sorry about this.” If there was a spell he could do this instant, he wish he knew it because he could see her pain in her eyes. “You’re not asking me, I’m offering to and I’m not changing my mind.” He shook his head, standing strong on this decision. It would be risky, but he could protect himself now. Lydia had been able to see him yet with his new experience. “If we plan this out, we can both get out of there okay. I promise that neither of us will get stuck. I will make sure of it.” He sure as hell wouldn’t leave the place without his friend. “If this is too much for you to go back..I can go myself too. They don’t know me. It might be safer.”

Mia knew that it made sense that sometimes power could just inherently be stronger, but she just found it hard to believe that she of all people was more powerful than someone like Nate. Based on what she’d heard about him, he seemed to be pretty great with his powers. Then again, she was sure there was bad moments. There had to be. “I was kind of wondering the other day about the logistics of all of it. Like.. when my mom died, Nate got his powers afterwards. And now after Nate’s gone I have mine. I was wondering if maybe they pass on through each person. Like.. would I have even woken back up from dying if Nate was still alive? Or would my powers not have activated?” She was rambling, but she couldn’t help it. It was all something she was very curious about, especially if she wasn’t just going to be able to ignore what she was. She was the type of person who wanted to know everything she could. She nodded at his words as she sighed and glanced at him. “I know. I just.. can’t help it. I’m sure that’s exactly why I’ve had these outbursts recently too.” She admitted with a frown as she nodded again. “I would really like to get out of here, please. I… We can go back to my house, if you want?” It felt weird to be able to have her own house now to invite people to now that she was living with her real dad, especially one that was so nice. “I’m sure you know my dad works out of town a lot and he’s in like.. Vegas right now, I think? So we could just talk without him trying to bother you about how he’s glad I’m making some friends. Not that I’m assuming we’re friends.. Or don’t want to be friends.”

“I think that could actually make sense, Mia. We could try looking into that. I know it’s possible with witches. That’s how I believe I might have gotten my powers and my father didn’t even have a clue of this world.” Besides genetics, this had been his theory. In his grandmother’s journals that he had found, she hadn’t known any of siblings or her parents to have magic just like her. He never fully looked into it because he just accepted being the only who was a witch. “Just need to slowly work on controlling that power. Your emotions definitely affect how your powers are. You can let them get out of control when something like this happens. I know it’s hard not to panic, but you just got trust yourself.” It wouldn’t be something she would gain immediately. It was a process. How could she trust herself if she didn’t think she would get control of her powers. “Yeah, we can head back to your house.” He chuckled at her stumbling over her words. Mia definitely reminded him of his younger self. She might ramble as much as him. He didn’t do it as much anymore; mostly when he was thinking out loud or extremely nervous. “I would hope we are friends, Mia. We’re the only witches in town.” He smiled at her. Xavier gestured her to follow her towards his car. They walked out of the preserve and he was glad that he had come out here today. He didn’t have to ask her where her father lived. He knew exactly where the Sinclair household was; he had been there with Nate. He parked out in front of the home, turning off the engine. “Uh, by the way, I know the way because of Nate..not because I’m a weirdo who knows where you live..”