For A Good Year

[Tess Abrahams]

The day came too early in California. Across the sea in a small room overlooking a stone courtyard full of sage and blossoming almond trees, her body was only just settling down to rest, soothed by the sweet sound of evening prayers that she couldn't understand but instinctively whispered her agreement to.

But the morning sun was forcing it's way across the bedroom in an insistent manner that couldn't be ignored. Tess Abrahams sat up, shoulders hollowing her chest into a cave as they slumped forward. Her brown hair, streaked through by the light, tumbled carelessly around her face and she sighed as she rubbed at her eyes with the heel of a tired hand. It took every ounce of willpower the young woman possessed to throw the covers back and step out on coltish legs, rather than surrender to her time-addled circadian rhythm and it's desire to collapse back into the blessed comfort of bed.

Her feet made husky whispering noises as she shuffled to the bathroom, which was miraculously empty. It was the only one on this floor and in an often-full house, it became as sought after and exclusive a place as a VIP lounge; gaining private access brought a giddy rush. Tess moved quickly lest someone wise to the fact that the head was perilously close to being occupied, shutting the door and depressing the little knob lock with a satisfying punch of her thumb. She set her bag of toiletries on the lip of the tub and twisted the shower on, letting the water heat as she stripped off sweat-dampened pajamas and kicked them into a corner to collect for laundry later.

Tess paused in front of the slowly-fogging mirror, surveying the smooth plane of her belly, the hollows above her collarbone, the tight draw to her face. She was more tanned than she'd ever been, skin burnished gold from months in the unforgiving Jerusalem sun. It made her look older; she felt ancient, much more than nineteen.

The mirror steamed over, erasing her reflection. Tess grabbed her toothbrush and stepped gratefully into the hot spray - and that was where any pretense of being efficient stopped. The notions she'd had about conditioning her hair and shaving her legs blew out past the flapping curtain on the back of a shower draft as she stood there, hypnotized into a trance by the soothing water pelting against her face.

It grew lukewarm, just this side of cold, before she turned the shower off, only a little guilt at having used up the hot water tickling in her belly. Tess toweled dry and dressed quickly, conceding to her fatigue by yanking on nothing more than a clean pair of bicycle shorts and a tank top, over which she pulled on a calf-length grey cotton robe, so old and loved that it had begun to fade into a checkerboard of threadbare patches. She twisted her hair into a towel turban and then slipped on a slim gold bangle that her grandmother had given her; it was engraved in foreign script.

LeShanah Tovah, Savta had said, slipping it over her hand before pushing her forward through to customs, for a good year. Maybe a prayer, maybe a prediction; it was a pretty bit of shine, nevertheless, and she'd worn it every day since returning.

The cool air outside the bathroom felt bracingly good and did just as much to revive Tess as the relaxing spray had, perking her up as she padded downstairs in bare feet to the kitchen of Rendencion House...

Where some blessed soul had made coffee.

Raising a fist into the air in a silent motion of victory, Tess set about fixing herself a mug of liquid magic.

[Aidan Fox]

Aidan Fox awoke to a full dose of last night's retribution. There was a point at which it just wasn't worth differentiating between headache, backache, stiff neck and shoulders, sore ribs and muscles - it would probably be easier to name the parts of his body that didn't hurt. And it wasn't just the strain of the physical exertion or the various collisions with relatively immobile objects. It was the constant, unrelenting tension of heading into mortal danger for hours at a time, knowing he was risking more than just his own life. That used to be a high for him. Maybe this civilian life was making him soft.

After a few false starts he curled upright and sat on the edge of his bed. He pulled up the bottom of his tank top to inspect himself and cursed at the sight of a bulging, blackened bruise that covered his ribs on his right side. Nothing was broken as far as he could tell, and he was lucky for that, but he'd have a hell of a time explaining that kind injury to Anna if she ever saw it. He'd passed off his sore shoulder and a couple cuts on his face as a mishap at the garage where he worked - more infrequently these days, of course - but any more workplace accidents and she was going to call his bluff, and worse, his boss. If Anna had even a guess about how Aidan was spending his evenings... well, aches and pains would be the least of his worries then.

Aidan willed himself up out of bed and began the torturous process of stretching and rubbing out his battered muscles. It was an investment in pain on the rest of the day - no sense in him lurching around the house like a zombie. Of course, there was only so much he could do on his own. He couldn't even use his own powers to apply heat because he couldn't burn himself. But a nice spray of hot water - yeah, that'd do wonders.

He grabbed a towel and a pair of faded jeans from his dresser and stalked off to the bathroom, relieved to find it unoccupied. The shower hissed on, and he stripped down, pulled aside the curtain, and stepped into the stream.

"GAH!"

---

Aidan thumped down the stairs about ten minutes later, shorter than he liked his showers but too long for comfort in this case. He was dressed in jeans and an old brown T-shirt, and he shivered slightly as he stepped into the kitchen.

His eyes lit up at the sight of a full pot of coffee on the counter. "Please tell me that's hot."

[Tess Abrahams]

"Scalding." Tess hummed reverently from her perch on the counter, hip pressed up against the coffee machine as she bowed over her steaming mug, face living just above it's rim to better appreciate the smoky, burnt smell of the grind. There was no point in sitting at the table - that would just put more distance between her and a refill.

She bent down so that Aidan could open the cupboard above her to fish out his own cup, eyebrows quirking at the pause in his breath that the reaching motion brought. It was an almost imperceptible hitch and his face remained impressively neutral but Tess had spent an obscene amount of time chatting with ice-bath ensconced teammates after gymnastics meets; the sport was a study in personal brutality and learning to read the body was the only way to survive it.

Casting a casual shrug in his direction, she slurped from her mug. "There're peas in the freezer, too."

[Aidan Fox]

Aidan poured himself a tall, pitch-black, volcanically hot mug and tipped it back as if it were Gatorade. When he came up for breath, the mug was two-thirds empty.

He gave Tess a reproachful look, steam curling from his mouth. "Um... thanks, but I think I already got a cold compress in the shower."

[Tess Abrahams]

"Ah, so that was you screaming. I though Jamie was watching Alien again," Tess smirked, enough caffeine flowing through her blood to hold the expression long enough for it to count.

There was a bag of Wonder Bread resting in the fruit basket atop a bunch of tired-looking bananas, the extra end of the plastic bag twisted and tucked underneath the loaf; clearly one of the boys had been the last to attack it. They never used the plastic clip to keep it closed, the way it was meant to be done. Tess hooked the bag with a finger and swung it over, shaking it until it untwisted so that she could pull a slice out. Sadly, the toaster was on the opposite side of the kitchen.

Folding the anemic slice in half, Tess dunked it in her coffee and then brought the dripping mess up to her mouth.

"Mm," she approved absently, offering the bag to Aiden. She swallowed and took another sip of coffee before asking thickly, "So what's up? You and Jake have a rough night at la cantina?"

[Aidan Fox]

Aidan considered the Wonder Bread and politely declined. Dipping anything into coffee only served to dilute the experience. Instead he went hunting for some instant oatmeal in one of the overhead cupboards.

"I wish. Nah, I got pulled into a game of streetball with some of the guys after work and bashed into a fence pretty good. You want any?"

He went ahead and filled a bowl with the dusty mix of dried oats and set the box beside the sink. "So what's up with you? I've barely seen you since you landed from... where was it, Israel?"

[Tess Abrahams]

Tess nodded in answer to both queries, smiling sheepishly.

"I've been in a cryogenic sleep since Israel," she said wryly, shaking out some oatmeal into the remaining dregs of her coffee. It was thick as cement to stir but the combined smell of Cinnamon Brown Sugar powder and java wasn't wholly unappetizing. "Time to get back on a schedule though, before it becomes ridiculous."

She selected one of the limper bananas from the basket and peeled away it's browning skin, hacking it into managable chunks with the edge of a spoon before plunking a few wedges on top of her oatmeal.

"Today is job day," Tess intoned sadly, face set in a grimly determined expression of resignation. Schlepping from one Help Wanted sign to another and deciphering the city transit schedule was not an appealing way to spend the day. She glanced at Aiden, an opportunistic gleam in her eyes. "Say... what are you doing after breakfast?"

[Anna Fernandez]

Anna breezed into the kitchen from the backyard, a basket of fresh picked tomatoes on her arm. She beamed at Aidan and Tess as she set the basket on the counter by the sink. "Buenas mañanas!"

She looked at the coffee maker, and added, "Oh, I forgot to leave a note, but I made decaf this morning. Can't tell the difference though, can you?" Anna busied herself in the cereal cupboard, sorting through the half empty boxes as she started her grocery list.

[Aidan Fox]

Aidan put up an eyebrow as Tess further explored the culinary possibilities of black coffee. Somewhere in there was probably the solution for a drinkable granola bar, but there was a limit to his curiosity at breakfast time. Soon he had his oatmeal buzzing in the microwave, and he'd just lifted his mug for another drink when Anna came gliding in.

"What? Decaf? Seriously?" He sent a look of horror in Tess's direction. "Well, I'm sure gonna notice the difference in an hour or two..."

Aidan sipped at what he had left, almost positive now that it lacked some integral virtue that went far beyond taste. "I mean, you made it, so it's your business, but... Why?"

[Tess Abrahams]

Tess coughed around a gummy mass of oatmeal rubber, looking down at her mug in horror. The D-Word was household blasphemy - in fact, she was pretty sure there was a command somewhere in the Bible about the gravity of contaminating one's body. What the hell was Hebrews about, if not the sanctity of properly preparing coffee?

Narrowing her eyes in suspicion, Tess regarded Anna carefully. "This isn't because it was on sale, is it? Because, Anna, some things are just worth the--"

A sudden thought cut her sentence short and Tess blinked, taking in the radiant glow that hovered around her friend. Anna was by nature a cheerful soul but this... this was different.

"Oh my God." With a clatter, Tess's spoon bounced off the counter and onto the floor as the girl stared with an open mouth and hesitant speculation at the dark-haired woman industriously rummaging through the cupboards. "Anna! ... Are you?"

[Anna Fernandez]

Anna blushed, betraying the answer before she could deny it. But it was time that it was out in the open. "Si." She grimaced goofily, and added, "I wanted to tell you straight away, but I haven't figured out how to tell Jamie yet."

She put an empty box of cereal on the counter, grinning at Tess. "So... yes. But if you need caffeine we had a donation of ten cases of Rockstar. They are in the garage."

[Aidan Fox]

Aidan set his quarter-cup down on the counter, now not even certain if it was worth finishing... maybe if he infused it with a jolt of Rockstar oh God now he was doing it.

He looked between the two women, who seemed to be sharing an epiphany. "You're... what, allergic? Catholic? Narcoleptic?"

[Tess Abrahams]

The kitchen suddenly echoed with an enthusiastic scream, floor vibrating with the sudden impact of 130 pounds of delighted woman hurtling off the countertop to envelop Anna in a fierce hug.

"I can't believe it! Oh my God! How are you feeling, are you okay?" Tess pulled back enough to study Anna's flushed face, feeling more energized than she had all week. "How far along are you?!"

[Aidan Fox]

"I mean, it's not Lent yet, is it, because I thought Easter was later this year."

[Anna Fernandez]

Anna hugged the younger woman tightly, and grinned. "About three months. Morning sickness is jus' starting to get better. I think some people," she tilted her head towards Aidan, "jus' think that I've had the flu forever."

She winked at Tess, "Los hombres son tan despistado, a veces."

[Aidan Fox]

"Yes, thank you, I do speak Spanish, I just don't speak fema... oh. Holy sh-- um... shnikes."

Suddenly decaf coffee was the last thing on Aidan's mind. Instead, it was as if the local stars were rearranging.

"Seriously, you're... wow, that's-- wow. That's great. Congratulations."

He hoped he just looked too floored to respond with Tess's brand of enthusiasm. Because he was.

[Tess Abrahams]

"You didn't know?" Tess stared at Aidan incredulously, waving an incredulous palm at Anna as if it were obvious. "How could you not notice, it's been months..."

She rolled her eyes. Anna was right - men were clueless.

Pressing a palm to her friend's cheek, Tess clucked fondly. "Do you need anything? We're going out - oh," realizing she'd yet to ask, Tess glanced at Aidan, "You don't mind driving me to check out employment opportunities, do you? I'll take you to lunch, after."

[Anna Fernandez]

"No, no, I don't need anything." Anna couldn't stop smiling, Tess' enthusiasm was infectious. Impulsively she pulled her in again for another hug. "It is good you are back. I need the back up against Jake and Aidan."

She pulled back and picked the incomplete shopping list off the counter. "I am going to the store with Jamie, though, is there anything you two want?"

[Aidan Fox]

Aidan took a moment to mentally resettle, at which point he realized he'd just been addressed in two questions. "Uh... no, no, I'm good, I was actually heading out anyway. Picking up some hardware. Um, listen, take your cell phone, and, y'know, call if you need anything. We won't be far away..." He shot an unsteady glance toward Tess. "Will we?"

[Tess Abrahams]

Tess shrugged. "Probably not. Nothing further than Kinney Heights, at least."

She made a mental note to pick up some peppermint tea for Anna despite her insistence that she didn't need anything. Tess well remembered her Aunt Michal's raging morning sickness and if the house senorita was experiencing anything like that, well... she'd need all the support she could get.

"I think we're running low on peanut butter but it's on sale at Ralph's and that's one of our stops, so," Tess sighed happily, squeezing Anna's shoulder before spinning away in a joyous fouetté en tournant that came to a graceful halt at the doorway. "I'll get changed into something respectable and meet you out front, Aidan!"

[Anna Fernandez]

"Okay, buena suerte Tess." Anna turned to Aidan, who was staring into his coffee cup. "I will call if I need anything. Do not worry about me, okay?"

[Aidan Fox]

Aidan met Anna's eyes and managed a smile. "Yeah, sure, no problem. Sorry, I just... wow. Jamie's gonna flip."

To say nothing of Jake - on second thought, it would be better to say nothing of Jake right now. He was the one resident who was even more protective of Anna than Aidan was, and Aidan wasn't sure he wanted to be in on that conversation.

Aidan finished off the last of his coffee to be polite and then charged back upstairs. He re-emerged with his leather jacket and schlepped out the front door to wait for Tess.

[Tess Abrahams]

The news of a baby - a baby! - brought with it enough hope to lift away even the most stubborn of discontent moods and Tess found her entire outlook on the impending day shifting to more optimistic ground. Anna was going to need support more than ever and not in a financial sense - though, Tess privately conceded, it was that much more important that she find a way to contribute to expenses now.

Bearing a giddy, secret grin she took to the stairs with a fluid grace that had escaped her for weeks. Her muscles rejoiced at the ease that had been lost to them, reveling in their old, familiar flexibility. In that moment it was as though nothing had ever gone wrong, nor could go wrong again.

Tess dressed quickly, driven by cheer to choose a festive button-down printed with bright yellow tulips that somehow managed to seem casually professional instead of garishly offensive. They weren't going to be going very far out of the neighborhood and so rather than bothering with khakis that would hinder rather than help her attempts, Tess tugged on a pair of jeans and then stuffed her iPod and it's cassette-tape converter into a pleasantly worn backpack, snapping an elastic band around her wrist in case her hair became a nuisance.

"This is ama-a-a-zing," she singsonged as she came skipping out of the house, striped orange Keds circling into air as she bent down and grabbed the top step, flipping her feet up into an arrow-straight handstand. When she was steady, she bent her legs over, lowering them slowly to the next step and then! Plunk, plunk, plunk - folded in a dizzying imitation of a slinky until landing on the cement walkway, upright.

Tess proceeded to the white Toyota truck parallel parked at the curb, smugly triumphant, and looked over her shoulder at Aidan as she swung her bag around to retrieve her music player. "What are your thoughts on Benny Goodman?"

[Aidan Fox]

Aidan couldn't help but gawk as Tess came tumbling toward the sidewalk in abject defiance of things like bones and gravity. The last time she'd swung through Los Santos, she hadn't been herself, so this was the first time he'd seen such a dynamic display of her talents. Would've been a chiropractor's nightmare for any Cirque du Soleil performer, but it was just an effusion of joy for her. Damn, he loved living with mutants.

"Works for me," he said, and he climbed into the cab from the driver's side and reached over to pop the lock on her door. The truck's engine sounded like an animal choking up a hairball as it revved, but the warm, dry air kept it reliable. He waited as Tess settled into her seat and punched up a playlist of swing music.

"So, where to first, madam?"

[Tess Abrahams]

"Marcelino's, on 5th," Tess popped open the dash compartment and rummaged for a pen, coming up with a cracked Bic that was tacky with escaped ink but still worked. There was a crumpled bunch of napkins balled next to the Toyota manual and she grabbed a few and cleaned up the ballpoint as best she could. From her knapsack in the footwell she withdrew a pocket notebook, opening it to a page of neatly printed possibilities, copied from the classifieds. School and lending a hand to keep things around the house running smooth ate up most of the daylight hours so she'd limited her options to restaurants, convenience stores, and a few advertised security positions; places that had nightshifts and where it was possible to pick up a double now and then.

It didn't have A/C or a compact disc player but the radio in the early-model truck still worked, as did the cassette tape player; whoever had invented cassette converters for MP3 players was a genius, Tess thought as she popped the tape in, wire leading back to iPod. The smooth notes of Memories Of You (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4k9ktxXUsD0) crackled from the speakers and floated through the open windows, out of place in a neighborhood usually echoing with thumping baselines that drowned out anything resembling melody. Senorita Aguilar looked up from her yardwork as they rumbled past, a soft nostalgic smile on her face. Tess twisted around in her seat to wave, hair whipping in the pleasant breeze born of forward motion.

"Do you guys play a lot?" she said suddenly, yanking at the stubborn safety belt that always jammed and made it impossible to do up. Tess glanced at Aidan's profile. "Ball, I mean. It sounds like fun."

[Aidan Fox]

"Maybe once or twice a month," Aidan said. "Most of the time everybody's in a hurry to get home, or to El Tiburón. Of course, if they knew I was a mutant, they probably wouldn't let me play at all."

He steered effortlessly through the tangled streets that made up the local neighborhood. There was no traffic to speak of this early in the morning, so Aidan goosed the truck past the posted limit 35. Not like there were any cops around to pull him over anyway.

"We ought to go down to the park on Orchard sometime. There's always someone balling there, and since the Tres Onces bagged it, people don't even mind mutants so much anymore."

He saw Tess's eyes slide over the speedometer and freeze over just a bit. Sheepishly, he applied the brake and just glided to the next stop sign.

[Tess Abrahams]

"The cost of speeding-related crashes is estimated to be $1,281 per second. Neat, huh?" Tess beamed. A satisfied glow of approval seemed to sparkle around her when the vehicle pulled through the four-way at a more modest speed.

The park sounded like a good idea. Maybe they could even make a field trip of it, go early and use the court before the serious pickup games started.

Tensing imperceptibly at the mention of neighborhood politics, Tess nodded. "Yeah, that'd be great. Jamie would love it, too. Girls vs. boys," she grinned toothily, "and we'll even give you pity points to even things up."

[Aidan Fox]

"No, see, you don't crash because you're speeding. You crash because you lose control. There's a difference. Anyway..."

He swung onto a one-way alley that would vomit him onto the main drag toward Huntington Park. "The team that has Jamie doesn't have to contend with giant zombie ninja robots. I guess that might be enough to make it even... unless Anna turns the court into a skating rink."

The truck nosed between a pair of fenced-in parking lots onto Modena Avenue, and Aidan hooked a left turn through a gap in the oncoming traffic that was, if Tess's sudden tension was any indication, smaller than she would have liked. The clustered houses gave way to businesses - a plumber's office, a laundromat, flooring, housecleaning, a smattering of stores and restaurants.

They rolled into the parking lot of Marcelino's Cucina during the rousing chorus of Sing, Sing, Sing. "Well, stop number one. Uh... do they have good coffee here, by any chance?"

[Tess Abrahams]

"Only one way to find out," although, really, anything was better than decaf.

Tess smoothed down her wind-tousled hair, briefly checking her reflection in the side mirror as she climbed out of the truck. The squat, family-style eatery was one of the more enduring businesses on the block, able to boast twenty solid years of serving bastardized Italian cuisine and cheap imitation limoncello to the locals.

Apparently it made just enough to stay out of the red, because the interior was a trip right back to the '90s, replete with exposed brick walls, plastic ivy plants, and tiny wrought-iron lanternas on every table, neon-blue bulbs thankfully still off thanks to the sunlight streaming in through the windows.

"You snag us a table and I'll get an application and some espresso," Tess said quietly to Aidan, glancing warmly at the hostess who paused in her texting long enough to acknowledge their presence.

She waited at the front, glancing over the sheaf of papers that had been fished out from under an outdated stack of menus, until the little cups of richly concentrated coffee were brought out. Those at least smelled authentic enough.

Tess tucked the application under an arm and balanced a saucer in each hand, weaving over to the little table where Aidan had set up camp. "What's the bet that they play Pavarotti at every dinner service?"

[Aidan Fox]

"Either that or The Godfather." Aidan sipped at the dark roast and scanned through the menu. "This wouldn't be a bad place to work if you can get in. Close by, good neighborhood..."

He trailed off and glanced up at the old seventeen-inch TV in the corner by the ceiling, which was showing silent highlights of the Lakers and Mavs. He let his mind wander as Tess filled out her paperwork.

Then, out of the blue: "You went to Cullen's, didn't you?"

[Tess Abrahams]

"Hm?" Tess was distracted, carefully inking her personal information into the inadequately-sized boxes provided on the application. She frowned at the contact request, struggling to remember the house landline number. "Uhhhm, yeah, for a few years. Why?"

[Aidan Fox]

Aidan shrugged. "I, uh... had some friends who went there. A while ago. Was just wondering how things were going there."

[Tess Abrahams]

She glanced up, nose crinkling in surprise. The crowd at Cullen's was pretty close-knit; if Aidan had ever visited, he'd certainly kept a low profile for she didn't remember ever seeing his face. But then, that life seemed like an age ago and her memories had blurred around the edges.


"It's been a while but things were... well, they were. I didn't leave on good terms but I kept in touch with my friend, Jacinda, for a bit and then, you know how things go, life gets busy..." Tess trailed off, a half-smile drawing her mouth into a crooked line as she thought back to the cluttered, cozy room she and her best friend had shared for years. "That's so funny; who'd you know there?"

[Aidan Fox]

"Oh, I was only there a couple days myself, crashed during the summer a couple years back," Aidan replied. "There was a girl named Banner Laverick, another who called herself Freight Train... and of course there was Professor Dupont, and Professor Rhee. I kinda wonder how they're getting on these days."

He looked oddly uncomfortable, as if he'd talked himself into a corner and was trying to walk back out. Aidan was notoriously tight-lipped about his past; around the House, most people let that go, since you weren't a mutant if you didn't have a history.

[Tess Abrahams]

The shift in Aidan's story didn't go unnoticed but she refrained from pressing further, though it required the reigning back of a well-honed interrogative spirit. Everyone had a right to their own history, especially when it was often the only private thing one could keep for themselves.

"If ever there was a group who could weather a storm, it's the folks there," Tess shrugged, lips pressed into a thin line as a volley of conflicting emotions wrestled in her stomach. One day there might come a chance to rebuild some of the bridges that had burnt when she'd left but whatever personal grievances the pliant woman carried, Tess certainly didn't harbor ill-will against anyone at the school. She hoped, as Aidan's curiosity indicated he did, that they were well.

A neutral silence fell between them and Tess finished filling out the paperwork, listing Anna as a reference at the bottom before tapping the sheets into order on the tabletop.

"Finito. Let's book it, Jeeves," she said, rising. The hostess looked grateful to see them go, leaving her with ample time to catch up on whatever social drama was being play-by-played to her mobile before the lunch rush hit.

As they got back into the truck she wondered at just what it was that had transformed his friends at the Institute to just 'a couple days' of hanging out. It was a strange topic to have brought up out of nowhere.

"Okay, so, if we head over to South Bridge there's a few places to check out within walking distance of one another," Tess scrolled down her list, as they pulled out of the gravel parking lot, oblivious to the deterioration of the passing scenery, "and then if you're not sick and tired of playing chauffeur, Ridge Creek Mall has a couple security openings. And a food court."

[Aidan Fox]

"Security?"

The levity in Aidan's voice was enough to net himself a look that could stop a charging water buffalo. He put up his hands and leaned back. "Okay, point taken."

Within minutes they were rolling down Modena with big band bawling through the truck's tinny speakers. Within another mile they left the commercial district behind and passed through a strip of old construction - factories with banks of broken windows, loading docks full of rusty shipping containers, a scrap dealer with rows and rows of cars laid out for parts. They had just crossed a border in the map that Aidan now carried in his head at all times.

"Roll up your window," he said, and from the sharpness in his voice it wasn't a suggestion. He cranked up the driver's side window, and the little cab closed up like a coffin.

They passed by a sparse parking lot where a half dozen young men were gathered, sitting on the trunks of their cars and smoking blunts. Two of them watched as the truck rolled by like hyenas considering a passing deer.

[Tess Abrahams]

The heat was stifling in the truck, dusty windows rattling slightly in their tracks as they rolled over pockmarked asphalt. Tess's hands curled into fists at her side, a muscle jumping in her jaw as they cruised past the bangers.

"Assholes," she breathed, uncharacteristic heat in her voice. A leering call drew her eyes over to glimpse a predatory sneer, though the music in the cab made indistinct noise of whatever the cholo riding center on his lowrider had said. "They think they can do whatever the hell they want."

[Aidan Fox]

"Problem is in this neighborhood, most of the time they're right."

They left the parking lot behind, but Aidan kept a watch on both sides of the road. He knew they would be watched from some of the tinted windows they were passing.

"These guys are the Barrio Boneyard," Aidan said. "They may be assholes, but they're not mutant-crazy like the Three-Elevens. Don't worry, we'll be out of their territory soon."

A door in a dusty shopfront suddenly slammed open ahead of them, and Aidan tensed on the wheel. Two grade-school-age boys came running out, staging a gunfight with their thumbs and forefingers and shouts of "Doosh, doosh!" Aidan spotted them in the side-view mirror as one of them went spinning dramatically to the sidewalk.

Aidan didn't relax until they turned onto the bridge over the one-ten freeway, leaving the Boneyard behind.

[Tess Abrahams]

Tess made a face. "I'm not worried."

They left the children behind, shrinking in the distance; they were still a few years away from packing their first real pieces but even the games they played were just honing the survival skills that would ultimately drive them to cast their stone in with one of the regional clicas. Chances were, they'd probably already determined the who and were just waiting for the when.

The passenger window creaked in complaint as Tess cracked it, letting some of the rolling heat in the cab escape into the perfect, clear-skied morning. "They're only right because people let them be right. Boneyard, Three-Elevens, La Raza... there's no difference, Aidan. They're all just a bunch of stupid kids playing war games."

[Aidan Fox]

He almost said Not the Elevens. They're different. He caught himself just in time to remember there was no way he could explain that.

"You're right," he said. "They're all stupid. But it doesn't matter. One disappears, another moves into the vacuum. You know, we're kinda lucky La Raza pushed the Three Elevens out of the neighborhood. They don't even notice the House."

[Tess Abrahams]

"Oh yeah, we're lucky alright. Trade one mess for another, that's progress," Tess shook her head, leaning forward to twist the volume on the stereo system down.

It would have been easier to just let it lie; he was right, in a sense. There hadn't been nearly as many dustups on Banyon Street since the shift in territory. But that didn't mean everything was fine. Slapping a bandaid on a cut only kept it out of mind.

"La Raza are even more entitled than the rest of them. Even hinting that we approve of their takeover is a slippery, dangerous slope. They don't need any more ammunition."

[Aidan Fox]

Aidan shrugged as he hung a left onto San Pedro. "Hey, I'm not saying I approve, just that we could be in worse shape. Besides, what are you gonna do? Anna's already giving some of those kids a home and a family. That's got to count for something."

[Tess Abrahams]

"Of course it does. And that's exactly why the neighborhood needs to start standing tall. This gangbanger business effects everyone. You know, I went to the community center on Wednesday night for that Neighborhood Watch meeting; do you know what they were doing?" Tess stared at Aidan, waiting until he glanced at her and shrugged before continuing.

"Eating empanadas and drinking coffee," the blistering disbelief in her voice suggested that it was more along the lines of a cardinal sin than a simple social habit. "Can you believe that? The neighborhood is falling apart and we've got the Los Santos Coffee Klatch meeting every week to lament it without ever considering their options!"

Tess shook her head, arms crossing over her chest as she stared out at the passing residential debris. "It's gonna be a heck of a lot different next week, you can bet on that."

[Aidan Fox]

Aidan felt as though a cloud of doom had just rolled over the truck. It was the same feeling he got whenever he heard the words, "This'll be a piece of cake" or "What could possibly go wrong?"

"Oh? And why's that?"

[Tess Abrahams]

"Because we're going to get organized. I've already talked to the local PD and they're going to come and run through what a Watch program should look like, help us set up contingency plans so that we can start holding these criminals accountable for their actions."

Tess looked determined. It had been an exercise in frustration trying to find a source of aid who didn't look at the problem through a one-sided microscope but eventually she'd been pointed in the direction of Ramón Aguilar, a sympathetic social worker and community member who had reliable ties.

"You should come," she suggested. "You're involved too, after all."

[Aidan Fox]

And there went the other shoe. It was all Aidan could do to keep from flinching.

"Ah... I don't know if that's such a good idea, Tess," he said with some hesitation. "I mean, your heart's in the right place. But I don't think this is the time to call attention to the House like that. La Raza's been keeping a low profile, and, frankly, we've got more immediate problems to worry about. Including the MRA."

[Tess Abrahams]

"There's never going to be a right time, Aidan," Tess was undeterred. She looked at him, eyebrows knitting in dismay. His vacillation didn't make any sense.

"It doesn't get much more immediate than in your own backyard. Something has to give; if we don't band together, it'll be us and not them and then things will really get ugly."

[Aidan Fox]

"No, Tess, I've seen really ugly, and it left town when the Tres Onces packed their bags," Aidan replied. "You might think they were no worse than La Raza, but that's just not true, not for us. Pushing on La Raza right now is just asking the Elevens to move back in, and we can't afford that."

[Tess Abrahams]

"What do you suggest, then?" Tess asked, palms flipping up in a gesture of empty collection. "That we do nothing? That we crack down on everyone but them? Explain to me what that's going to accomplish."

[Aidan Fox]

"It's going to keep the heat off of us," Aidan said flatly. "Look, if the neighborhood watch never stood up to the Elevens, why do you think they'll start with La Raza? Because they're mutants. If there's anything that can motivate a bunch of breakfast club busybodies, it's a gang of rampaging gene freaks. Sorry, but I don't want to be a part of that."

[Tess Abrahams]

"Fine, you don't have to be," there was more than a little heat in the young woman's voice, matching spots of colour rising high in her cheekbones. Tess said nothing else and a stiff silence fell over the small cab, punctuated only by the grinding thrum of the old engine rising to a whine as Aidan turned into a tarred lot that served as parking space. Tess was wrenching the door open before the tires even rolled to a stop, shoulders a rigid line as she hopped out and forcefully swung the door shut.

Dust rose in a plume behind her as she stalked a few paces from the vehicle, scattering impressively when she just as quickly performed an about-face and marched back like an incensed wasp.

"You know why people never did anything before?" Tess ground out, leaning in the passenger window. "Because they didn't think they could. These... yahoos have been running the show for so long that nobody stops to question whether or not it's right because it's easier to just believe that this is the way it has to be, that the lesser of two evils is somehow a win. It's not. And there's nothing wrong with helping people realize that they have another choice."

Incensed, she pushed away from the Toyota and didn't stop until she was in through the door of the corner market, bells above the frame clanging in a discordant chorus.

[Aidan Fox]

Aidan bore the invective with stoic restraint. It wasn't like he hadn't asked for it. After Tess had disappeared into the storefront, he stepped out of the cab and fished a cigarette out of the pack in his hip pocket. He lit it with a little spike of blue flame and leaned against the side of the truck to wait for his passenger.

[Tess Abrahams]

The clattering echoes alerted Eli Jackson to the arrival of customers and he gratefully stacked the last few cans of Campbell's Tomato Soup on a shelf, hefting the empty box under one arm as he made his way to the front of the convenience store. His mood improved considerably when he saw the long-limbed chick waiting at the counter; maybe working Saturdays wasn't such a bum deal after all.

"Hi there," he said smoothly, easing behind the glass-topped counter. Eli leaned over nonchalantly, elbows hiding the lotto tickets and bringing him just close enough to flash an open grin. "How can I help you?"

It was all Tess could do not to snap back at him that he could stop eying her up like a piece of meat. It wasn't his fault that Aidan was being a stubborn, short-sighted idiot. She managed a terse but civil, "Application please."

The dark look that marred her features must have been enough of a warning because with a fading smile and a nod, the boy turned around and began rooting about in a drawer, producing a xeroxed job application and a stubby pencil. He slid it across the counter where it was almost immediately snatched away.

"Thanks," Tess muttered, picking up the pencil and hunching over the tediously familiar page. Her hand pressed down hard as she wrote, just shy of leaving gouges in the thin paper.

There was nothing wrong with trying to make a difference - especially when it meant bridging the gap between their neighbors. Tess wasn't so idealistic that she didn't understand the prevailing attitude in Los Santos; it was no different from anywhere else. But becoming an active member of the community and proving that it didn't matter what you were in terms of being effected by neighborhood politics was the first step in building a common ground and that--

Her self-soothing inner monologue ground to a halt as did the knobbly pencil in her hand. Tess stared down at the application, lips pressed in a thin line. The colour in her cheeks was not induced from indignation, now.

Plucking up the paper with a trembling hand, she folded it over and shoved it deep into the pocket of her jeans.

"Hey, that's our pencil!" Eli called after her as she stiffly walked out. Tess ignored him; his voice was just a buzz, anyway. Wordlessly she returned to the truck.

"Let's go," she said to Aidan as she climbed in.

[Aidan Fox]

Aidan wasn't half-done with his cigarette yet, but there was no mistaking the unnatural brittleness to her movements or the ice in her voice - it was time to move on. Aidan pinched out the glowing end of his cigarette and dropped the stub back into the pack.

He stepped back into the driver's seat and started the engine. "No good?" he asked.

[Tess Abrahams]

Tess shook her head, staring out the window with arms crossed over her chest. It felt like there was a vice in her ribcage, compressing everything and forcing out every curl of air.

After a long moment she lifted her hips, hand delving into her pocket to retrieve the wrinkled application. Tess tossed it over to Aidan.

"Third box down, on the right," she muttered softly.

[Aidan Fox]

Aidan straightened out the crinkled sheet of paper against the steering wheel. His fingers stretched out the first box that didn't have Tess's spiky handwriting crammed into it:

Genetics (Check one)
[ ] Human
[ ] Mutant

"Oh, shit."

Tess's reaction was so strong he felt his guts clench in empathy. He stared at the damning little question for another second before folding the paper back over.

"I'm sorry."

[Tess Abrahams]

"No big deal," Tess shrugged gamely. "Who wants a crappy job at a rundown 7-11 knockoff anyway?"

The words sounded hollow even to her own ears. It shouldn't have mattered - which was exactly why it did. Genetics had absolutely no bearing on whether or not one was capable of running a register, stocking shelves, sweeping floors for pity's sake; it didn't indicate if she were honest or deceitful, industrious or slothful, whether or not she would be an opportunistic shift seeker who only bothered to show up when it fit within her social agenda.

A deadend worker bee position and they still wanted to know what sort of nucleotides were strung together in her cells. How was that for a kick in the pants?

It's not the first time and it won't be the last, warned an annoyingly cynical voice that sounded an awful lot like her father. Suck it up, kiddo.

Tess closed her eyes and let her head fall back against the seat. "You know what? It's too nice outside to be doing this; we can stop at the post office and get stamps, I'll mail out a stack of resumes. Let's just... drive."

[Aidan Fox]

"We can do that." Aidan put the truck into gear and pulled back out onto the road. The breeze from the open windows was enough to offset the rising heat of the day, and the morning traffic was sparse enough that the air still didn't smell like exhaust. Aidan could have driven this way for hours. Los Angeles was vast, a world unto itself, with a world's share of doubts and aspirations. It was no wonder that mutants had made a home here. Just about every people of the earth had, from the wealthiest to the most destitute. The metropolis was a patchwork of a hundred cities, languages, and landscapes sprawling generously between the San Gabriel Mountains and the Pacific coast.

They found their way to a park squeezed onto the concrete banks of the Los Angeles River. The river was a trickle this far into summer, but the park was still surprisingly green, and a fair portion of the neighborhood had turned out to make use of the weather. An open field had been commandeered for a football game, and the fenced-in swimming pool was alive with kids seeking an escape from the heat.

Aidan and Tess stepped into line in front of a taco stand that had set up to take advantage of the weekend crowds. Then they made their way toward the shaded picnic tables that stood in a cluster of pine trees off away from the noise.

[Tess Abrahams]

It was a few degrees cooler in the shade cast by the outreaching trees, just enough to make a difference as the air expanded with the promise of another relentlessly scorching afternoon. A creeping sense of peace surrounded the park, a simple innocence orchestrated by the smooth impact of pigskin against palm and the rasps of skateboard trucks gliding up and down the makeshift half-pipe of the river embankments and the delighted cries of children that cut off with distant, echoing splashes.

Tess had been grateful for the easy silence as they cruised, seeking solice from the mindlessness of it. Now she poked at the hand-shaped corn tortilla filled with black beans and cheese on her plate. A steam-wilted sprig of cilantro poked out helplessly, spreading itself darkly against the stark white paper plate.

"Sorry I snapped at you," she said suddenly, picking up a slice of jicama doused in hot sauce from the cardboard boat between them. Tess chewed on the radish-like spear and sent a ruefully apologetic glance to Aidan. "I still think you're wrong but you didn't deserve to have your head bitten off. It's a bad habit."

[Aidan Fox]

Aidan's own taco was dripping with the most potent sauce the taco stand had to offer. The stand's proprietor had watched in mounting horror as he'd applied it, and it wasn't until Aidan had taken a generous dollop of it on his finger and licked it off without so much as a sweat that the man relented and allowed him to walk off with what was now the culinary equivalent of a hydrogen bomb. The sauce leaked out the back of the tortilla every time he took a bite, curling up the clover underneath.

Aidan shrugged. "Don't worry about it. I mean, you wouldn't be you if you weren't fighting for something you believe in. We've got that in common, at least."

[Tess Abrahams]

She marveled at how easily he let the whole thing go. It was as though his shrug had simply tossed what would have been a justified feeling of having been unfairly blasted away, quelling any awkwardness before it took hold.

"Well," Tess dabbed at some renegade hot sauce that had fallen from his disappearing meal onto the table, "you've got free reign to tear into me if I ever get in the way of something you think is worth taking up. I won't even try and rebut it."

Genuinely bright-eyed now she folded the napkin, eyebrows knitting together as she studied her curiously tingling hand. "How are you not dead from that stuff? It's burning the skin on my fingers and I barely even touched it - ah!"

Without thinking she'd licked the irritated digits, hoping to soothe the red rash. Tess spluttered, eyes watering as she desperately chugged a can of Coke.

"Holy shit," she gasped, tongue lolling out. Her mouth was an inferno that put Dante to shame. "You're insane."

[Aidan Fox]

Aidan grinned through a mouthful of incandescence. Only a light sheen across his forehead indicated that he was eating anything spicier than ranchero sauce.

"It's a curse. I don't even notice jalapeños anymore."

[Tess Abrahams]

There was no point in finishing her own meal. The death sauce had effectively killed her appetite and even if it hadn't, her tastebuds were sufficiently numb. Tess pushed her plate over to Aidan; waste not, want not.

"Yeah, well, it might be nothing going in but later on..." Tess grimaced and shuddered involuntarily. "Good luck."

[Aidan Fox]

"No, see, I've got capsaicin glands in my eyes. When threatened, I squirt it at my enemies like a horned toad."

He managed to hold a straight face for exactly six seconds.

[Tess Abrahams]

She was half-a-second away from taking Aidan's yarn at face value when his expression cracked and he veered into a gleeful chuckle. Tess shook her head and tossed a slice of jicama at him; it bounced off his shoulder and into his lap before rolling off and dropping to the ground, adding further injury to the poor abused clover blossom below.

"You're a dork, is what you are," Tess grinned widely, his amusement infectiously coaxing a laugh from her. "A dork who tries to hide it by riding a motorcycle and playing contact sports."

The playful turn in mood seemed to settle into the surroundings and the heavy, manacled feeling that had persisted since the market faded, sinking into perspective until there was nothing but easy company on another summer day in East LA.