The Meaning of Life Who: Brianna/Flynn Where: Downtown Summerlin Entertainment Center When: Before the 'Swap Plot' Content Warnings: Mild
Flynn returned from the rental booth with two pairs of ice skates, one much larger than the other. He spotted Brianna sitting on a bench next to the rink and took the spot next to her, handing her the skates before leaning over to untie his shoes and slip them off. They were at the Rock Rink At Downtown Summerlin, a seasonal recreational pop-up located at 1825 Festival Plaza in Las Vegas that ran from Thanksgiving to the new year. The outdoor rink was surrounded by benches, various vendors selling everything from hot pretzels to cups of steaming cocoa and alcoholic beverages for the adults. Multi-colored string lights were strung over artificial evergreens decorated with dangling round ornaments, and still more lights looped overhead in a criss-crossing pattern. It wasn’t exactly the Rockefeller Plaza rink in New York City, but it was a nice slice of the holidays in the middle of Vegas, and it was pretty at night. The temperature hovered in the high fifties, but the air around the rink was a lot cooler in order to keep the ice solid. “Have you ever skated before?” Flynn asked Brianna, setting his shoes aside and sliding his feet into his skates. He had chosen a black ice hockey-style pair for himself and began the task of securely lacing them up.
“Because you should know that I did Peewee hockey when I was eleven,” he grinned, sitting up straight once he was finished. “So if you need some tips and tricks, I’m your guy.”
Brianna smiled as she slipped her foot into the hire boot, thinking to herself that she might send a message to Jeeves to send her boots. She had made sure to wear two pairs of socks, and silently breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the hire skate boots looked rather new. She figured that was thanks to being so early in their short season of the rink being open.
As she tied off her laces she put on a slightly innocent expression. “Well I haven’t been skating in… a while, so you’ll catch me if I fall?” she asked, standing up and pulling her gloves back on before smoothing her hands down her coat.
Flynn raised an eyebrow, regarding her carefully as he pretended to think about it. “Hmmm, I don’t know,” he said, his tone obviously teasing. “It depends on if it’s a funny fall. I might just watch and laugh.” He removed the safety covers from the blades and stood up from the bench, shifting his weight to check how his feet felt in the skates before offering Brianna both of his hands in assistance. “I’m just kidding, of course I’ll catch you,” the medium assured her, his grin turning to a smile. One of the colored spotlights that were rotating over the pavilion swept over them then, bathing them in a green glow.
She watched his smile turn from teasing to reassuring, and felt something inside her chest flutter a little. She returned the smile as she took his hand lifting one foot then the other, to remove the covers. “OK, just no posting any videos online, OK?” she said with an exaggerated sigh as she placed the covers on the bench, next to his, and looked up at him. “Deal?”
He led the way to the gate that opened up to the rink and served as entrance and exit. Flynn held onto one of her hands while using the other to unlatch it and walked out onto the ice. Skaters of various ages and abilities swept past in circles. “I wouldn’t do that,” he told her, and he meant it. And then he grinned as he let go of her hand and started zig zagging slowly, joining the flow of people and looked at Brianna over his shoulder. “At least not without your approval, first.” He checked to make sure the path ahead of him was clear before turning to face the brunette fully, gliding backward as he watched her. “Need help?”
She loved being on the ice. From the time their father first took them to the rink, with Nanny and Jeeves riding with them, she had taken to the ice like the proverbial duck to water, frozen in this case. And she was fairly sure her love of the movie ‘Frozen’ and in particular the character Elsa, was somehow tangled up in that memory. Why she hadn’t told Flynn she wasn’t sure, but she had eagerly accepted his invitation to go skating when the seasonal rink opened, and had been glad it had been over text messages just after Thanksgiving that he’d asked her, so she could maintain an air of quiet enthusiasm for the invite, rather than the eager excitement she actually felt. And if she was honest with herself, the excitement was equal parts the venue, and the actual invitation.
She pushed off gently, feeling the ice move beneath the blade, the surface still relatively smooth. The perfect stillness, while moving effortlessly, appealed to her more than she could understand why, and she gave Flynn a smile as she simply skated steadily after him. As she came closer she reached out her hand to take his arm, simply enjoying the sensation of being back on the ice. “I think I’m OK for the moment,” she said happily, the music playing over the loudspeakers almost a waltz currently. “Have you come here before?”
Flynn moved and turned so that he was alongside her, looking down at her skates as she glided over the ice. He had a sneaking suspicion that Brianna was a lot more competent than she was letting on. He increased his speed slightly. “No, not this particular rink,” he answered. “I used to go to the Las Vegas Ice Center when I was younger. I liked organized sports up until a certain point, but it was hard to concentrate on them enough to go anywhere with it.” He flashed her a resigned sort of smile. “And by the way, just so you know, I’m on to you.” With his free hand, he gestured to her feet and grinned. “And I’ll prove it. Try and catch up with me.”
And with that as her only warning, Flynn sped off down the rink, carefully weaving past slower skaters.
She had been about to say he could probably have put his own team together but he zipped off down the ice. Her lips and eyes narrowed a little as the competitive side of her rose, but she actually managed to keep it under control and instead she put her hands out as if to rebalance after he raced away, and leaned forward a little. She took a few tentative steps, pushing steadily along the surface, slowly straightening back up while keeping up with the slower skaters, passing a few, following him around the rink.
After he passed Brianna a few times, he wondered if he had made a miscalculation. Flynn came to a snowplow stop next to her and looked at her questioningly. “Sorry, I thought that would work,” he commented, though still not entirely sure if she was trying to playfully hustle him. The medium reached out for her hand and entwined his fingers through hers. He glanced over by the rink railing where onlookers gathered on the outside, holding cups of steaming cocoa and watching the skaters. “Do you want to know something I’ve always kind of wanted to try?” he asked her, a mischievous note edging into his voice.
Her eyes followed his glance across to the spectators and she looked puzzled. “No, what have you always wanted to try?” she asked, a little cautiously, given the tone of his voice.
Flynn’s grin grew at her apparent cautiousness, pulling her a little closer as they skated along. Going in circles was fine, but there was enough room on the rink to play around, and he found himself in a good mood. His attention was fully on Brianna and the ice. “Have you ever watched pairs skating?” he asked, his tone a little too innocently curious.
Her head angled as she looked at him, giving a mock roll of her eyes. “Who hasn’t? It’s the best part of the winter Olympics!” she replied, wondering what he was going to do.
He led them over to an unoccupied patch of ice toward the center of the rink. Flynn was outwardly confident, but inwardly he hoped this wouldn’t backfire. “Okay, so I’ve never done this before,” he told her. “But I think it will work.” He let go of her hand so that he could put both of his around her waist, and Flynn lifted Brianna in the air while completing a simple, conservative revolution on his skates before setting her down again. It wasn’t really impressive, but he thought it was pretty successful for a first try. “Now I can cross that one off the list,” he told the brunette with a triumphant smile.
It was a bit of a surprise, and she did let out a small yelp, but it was also exhilarating, and Brianna almost found herself getting swept away in the moment of the lift, especially as he’d time it to a rather climactic piece of the music they were playing. But the surprise kept her firmly anchored in the moment, and her hands clutched at his forearms instead of reaching out as her back might have arched. As he placed her back on her skates she laughed, sliding her hands down his arms until they were in his. “Oh wow, that was…” She laughed again, and almost gave in and admitted the truth. “So you’ve never done a lift before, and you decided it was the right time to try it?” she said, laughing but with her own mischievous glint.
His hands lingered on her waist as he laughed, too, glad she wasn’t upset or annoyed. Flynn’s grin remained as he watched her face carefully, noting the way she trailed off but decided that he would circle back to that in a bit. “Well, I figured since we’re already here and you insisted on pretending like you can’t skate...,” he told her, his tone light and playful instead of accusatory. With one hand, he reached up and tucked some of her hair that had come loose in the spin behind her hair, and then he suddenly felt something in his stomach swoop, like cresting a tall hill in the back car of a rollercoaster. He had to swallow before he could speak again. “You didn’t finish your sentence,” Flynn pointed out, meeting her eye. “That was what, exactly?”
“I never pretended…!” Again she didn’t finish her sentence, but this time it was an outside influence that drew her attention, and that of a few others on the edges of the rink, and on the ice itself. A tinkling of a piano introduction to the new track starting on the sound system floated through the cold air above the rink and she looked up into Flynn’s eyes for a few seconds, smiling. “Let me show you,” she told him, giving his hands a squeeze before releasing them and gliding away, backwards, eyes still on him until she finally turned and started skating. The song was one she adored and had sung and hummed to the point of almost being ostracized by her friends. As had many. There was no pretense now, just Brianna weaving through some others on the inside track, eyeing where gaps were, who else might also look for the spaces, and judging where she could show Flynn what this song meant to her.
For almost four minutes Brianna relived the memories of being that freshman in her first year of college. She’d felt like she was hiding who she was, wishing she could sing the song at the top of her lungs and have everyone realise what the song meant to her, what she could do, and who she was, but instead she had just performed it in her head while her body moved to the music, choreographing her own moves and performing them with the emotions she’d kept hidden, instead just releasing them through the dance on the ice. Finally, as the song reached its crescendo she turned back to face Flynn, cheeks flushed with the exertion, and eyes bright. Sauntering across the gap between them, mouthing the words, ‘the cold never bothered me anyway’. As the last strains faded away she allowed herself to glide the last few feet, reaching and taking his hands and looking up at him. She was panting a little from the effort, and while she felt exhilarated she also felt nervous at how he would react.
Flynn watched, surprised, as Brianna skated away from him. He moved over to a spot where he wouldn’t be in the way and could still keep an eye on what she was doing. It took him a second to identify the music that was playing over the rink’s sound system. It wasn’t hard to make the connection between her sudden outburst of activity and the song, and he leaned against one wall of the rink while he watched the brunette skate her heart out. When she came back toward him, the medium moved to meet her.
“Wow,” he told Brianna, shaking his head slightly in surprise. “You were hustling me.” Flynn broke into a grin and took her hand and moved them off to the side so that they could talk. “You looked really into it.”
The psychic’s eyes were still bright and cheeks flushed with the exertion as she felt his hand take hers, her gloved fingers curling comfortably around his. “Not exactly hustling,” she laughed, angling her head to one side and adopting an air of coyness. “I mean I didn’t fall over, or go all wobbly and fall into your arms,” she teased, putting on an act of losing her balance and grabbing a hold of him to regain it, just like was taking place not far from them. Her hands felt the solid strength beneath his jacket and lingered a few moments as she slowly straightened up. “Like that,” she added, giving him a knowing smile and wink.
“I might, however, have failed to mention our family membership at the Skating Club of Boston? And the lessons? And actually getting to meet and have a lesson with Kristi Yamaguchi?” she laughed coyly.
He immediately reached out and placed his hands on her shoulders without even thinking about it. When she straightened back up, Flynn smiled. “No, I must have missed when you mentioned all that,” he told her dryly. She really was something else, he thought to himself. A combination of demure with flashes of mischief, not to mention the opinionated side he saw come out that night over dinner in Le Breeze, and then again at Lux. It wasn’t easy to admit to himself, but he had come to care about Brianna a lot in the very short time they had known each other. There was a self-protective instinct to deny it or turn away from it that probably stemmed from the baggage of his past. But he was tired of defining himself by that. One hand reached up from her shoulder to brush the back of her neck as Flynn looked back at her.
“You’re sneaky, you know that?” he asked her, laughing softly. The medium moved a little closer to the brunette.
Again her head tilted as she looked up at him. And again she felt something flutter in her chest as she felt the touch of his hand on her neck. “I’m sneaky?” she replied, her slight feeling of breathlessness having nothing to do with her recent bout of physical exertion. “Sneakiness by omission?” she asked, a little absently as her free hand came up and rested on his jacket.
He shook his head. “Nope. Sneaky like I didn’t realize what was happening until just now.” Flynn gave her a cryptic smile, his gaze dropping to the hand that Brianna placed against him. “Would you like to get something to drink?” he asked her, gesturing with a nod over toward the vendors. “Or do you want to stay on the ice? You know, since the cold never bothered you anyway.” His tone was teasing as he delivered that last sentence.
Her smile widened, it wasn't a hard decision for her. "Come on, your turn to catch me!" she called over her shoulder as she skated away, weaving through the other skaters until she found some space in the centre again. The feeling of freedom, the sound of skates on the surface of the ice, the refreshing bite of the cool air, so rare in the desert city, all took her back to the time she would go to the rink to skate herself to the point of fatigue. But now, instead, it was a feeling she hadn't allowed for so long that was propelling her across the frozen surface. Exhilaration was feeding her smile, and speed, and she couldn't hold back a happy laugh as she came out of the curve and headed along the straight stretch.
Flynn was once again left slightly reeling as Brianna rushed off without much warning. He trailed after her, wondering if she meant ‘catch’ literally and, if so, that he wasn’t about to make a fool of himself in front of her and a rink full of people. “You mean like from a jump?” he asked her with a dubious raise of his eyebrows as she sped by him.
She heard his question and laughed, imagining how nice it would be to be caught in those arms and hands. But she shook her head as she called back over her shoulder, "not yet!" With a teasing grin and wink. She jerked her head, encouraging him to come after her, slowing a little as she approached the bend again. She reversed so she could see him, then reversing again so she didn't collide with anyone.
Well, that was a relief. Flynn realized what she meant and skated toward her, having to put on a little speed to catch up. When he did, he tapped her on the shoulder and turned so that he was in front of her, facing her. “Found you,” he told her. There was something he was debating in his head as he looked at her, it was clear from his expression. A look of determination seemed to settle over his features, and he moved to close the space between them. “What are you thinking right now?” he asked her quietly, one hand reaching up to brush invisible fuzz away from her shoulder. He smiled.
Her eyes met his and the happiness was clear on her face. ’How happy I am, being back on the ice, here, and being with you...’ As she was pushing this toward him she placed her hands on his chest and leaned into him,
He let one hand come to rest on her hip, watching her reaction in case he needed to remove it. The words floated past Flynn in a buzzy sort of haze, and it was a good answer, one he didn’t realize he had been really hoping for until he ‘heard’ it. “Well, I’m glad I could help you be happy,” the medium told her out loud. Anyone who would have been eavesdropping on them might have been slightly flummoxed by this exchange; Brianna standing there silent and him responding to a statement that only he could hear.
Truthfully, there was a nervous tilt in his stomach and he realized that the one thing he really wanted to do at that moment could change the way they interacted with each other from then on, depending on how it was received. “I’m kind of nervous,” he admitted. “Because I don’t want to mess this up.” Flynn gestured between them. “But I’m worried that if I don’t go for it now, I’ll regret it later.” With his other hand, he reached up and slid his hand next to her face, his fingers reaching into her hair.
She couldn’t hold out any longer, and the shields she’d been holding onto crumbled at seeing the expression on his face, hearing the nervousness in his words, and her own desire she’d been suppressing. “You won’t,” she told him, her fingers curling in the lapels of his jacket.
Flynn ducked his head, the hand on her hip pulling her closer. It seemed longer than it actually was, the time it took to close the remaining gap between them. His fingers slid further into her hair, his thumb tracing up the side of Brianna’s neck as his lips met hers. Despite her reassurance, his heart still thumped somewhere in the vicinity of his throat. He was only slightly aware of the people around them.
It had been so long since she’d been kissed she had almost forgotten how it felt. And she almost forgot about the rather inconvenient toe pick on the front of her skates, just as she was about to rise up onto her toes to meet him. Instead she pressed her mouth against his, letting go a soft gasp as a couple of skaters passing them let out a few cries of encouragement, and one of half-panic as they were nearly ploughed into, and pulled her head back far enough so she could focus on him. Her eyes didn’t leave his as she nudged and directed their glide out of the traffic flow and to a stop in the free space in the middle. Once there she gripped his lapels harder, holding onto him as she now rose up as best she could in the skates, and murmured, “now where were we?” as she brushed her lips against his.
Nervousness gave way to amusement as he followed Brianna out of the flow of traffic. Maybe he should have put more thought and consideration as to their surroundings before he instigated the kiss, but Flynn found it hard to focus on that as her fingers clutched his jacket. He wrapped one arm around her as he slowly deepened the kiss. After a few indulgent moments like this, he pulled back and looked into her eyes with a pleased smile on his face. “Okay, I think we should probably go over there,” he told her, nodding toward the bench where they had left their shoes behind. “I don’t want to cause a pile-up.” More people were coming out onto the ice and besides, he wanted to take his time.
Flynn wrapped his fingers through hers and led them toward the rink exit. Laughing, she nodded and drew beside him as they skated across to the gate, a little colour brightening her cheeks when a couple of wolf whistles sounded from the same source as before as they skated by. Stepping over the rink edge, a hint of nervousness running through her, their fingers still interlaced, she felt a twinge of the old familiar sadness at that first step back on ‘earth’ as she’d used to call it. From the smooth, effortless gliding across the pristine white ice to the heaviness of skates on rubber compound had always brought her back down with a thud.
But this time that realisation was quickly dissipated, and she looked at Flynn’s hand holding hers, and then up at him and smiled as they headed toward the bench seats. And a whole new realisation started to arise.
Once they were at the bench, Flynn sat down and motioned for Brianna to join him. Once she had, he turned to face her. His fingers smoothed back her hair and settled on the back of her head as he leaned in again, repeating the same kiss but on solid ground now. This time, he did what he had set out to do and lingered, silently marveling at the way her mouth fit around his. His other hand swept up her back, over the fabric of her coat, pulling her closer.
Any awkward fumbling, or tugging was not even a blip on the radar as her gloved hand reached up and cradled his face. And any nervousness that had built up in the journey from her ice world to this quickly vapourised as she felt his mouth against hers again, reaffirming how amazing it had felt just a few minutes earlier. His hand cradling her head felt like a new sort of shield, one she didn’t have to work to maintain, and she responded to the soft pressure, letting herself relax and enjoy that sensation of freedom as the kiss deepened. All she could hear was the sounds of skating, the music floating around them, and their breaths. Her other arm moved from between their bodies to around him, freeing up that space and letting her lean in closer until there was no space between them.
After getting lost in their own little bubble for what was an indiscernible amount of time, Flynn pulled back enough so that he could speak. “Hi,” he said, the corners of his mouth turning up as he brushed a thumb over her lower lip.
“Hi yourself,” she replied, eyes bright as she inhaled much-needed air, the old saying ‘coming up for air’ making her smile widen.
Up close like this, he could see hints of green in her blue eyes. “I promise I wasn’t angling for that when the evening began,” he told her, “but I would be lying if I said I hadn’t pictured myself kissing you before.”
“And I hadn’t imagined it would be ’that’ nice to be kissed by you,” she admitted, her smile now a little coy as her eyes darted from his eyes, to his lips, and back again. “I mean, I imagined it would be nice,” she continued, a momentary tease in her voice that dissolved as she finished with, “just not that nice.”
Flynn laughed, though he affected a wounded look as he shook his head slightly. “So you’re saying I undersold and over-delivered. Got it.” He leaned down to untie the laces on his skates before straightening up again. “How would you score it? From one to ten.” There was a mischievous gleam in his eye now as he watched Brianna closely for a reaction.
She put on an act of appearing to think for a long moment, tapping her finger against her chin as she eyed him before leaning down to unlace her first boot. “Well, if you insist,” she said, looking like she was having to calculate a score. “Taking into account the location, the atmosphere, the timing,” she said slowly, the other skaters who’d wolf whistled earlier passing by on the ice, “and the encouragement from the crowd, I’d have to give it a good solid 5.3,” she finished. She quickly realised this might be taken as being out of 10 instead of the figure skating maximum of 6. “Out of 6, that is, because we are here,” she pointed out, indicating the rink.
“Oh, wow,” Flynn remarked with a slight air of disbelief. “Yeah, for a moment I thought you meant 5.3 out of 10 and I was about to run away in shame.” He grinned and pressed a quick kiss against her forehead before swapping the skates for his shoes. “So a near perfect score.” There was a brief look of smugness that he allowed himself to indulge in. “I wonder what I need to do to get to a 6.”
The psychic slid her foot out of the hire boot, wriggled her toes for a brief moment before pulling on her ankle boot, then starting on the other lace. “I have to leave you something to strive for,” she answered with an air of nonchalance, a twinkle of teasing in her eye as she looked across at him before returning her attention to the long laces.”And those final few points? They’re the hardest to come by!” she added, laughing happily, wondering for the briefest of moments if it would even be something he’d want to do. The warmth from his lips on her forehead had lingered for a few seconds, and the happiness that came with it was as clear as a bell to her. And it had been the same during the kiss. She could still feel the warmth, the tentative request, and the acceptance of her admission as the kiss deepened.
“You’re right,” Flynn agreed, his grin deepening as he nodded and swept his gaze over her briefly but noticeably. “I’ll definitely keep that in mind.” He tightened the laces on his sneakers and looped the skates together for their return back to the rental tent.
But she couldn’t dismiss the faint lingering fear that this could all come crashing down, something she felt deep down, despite how different this had felt to her. For all she knew that difference could be just because of her own changes, the shifts in her abilities, the strength and control she now had of her shields. And there was no denying the changes since the last time she’d felt this way, since she’d allowed herself to get this close. She’d spent so long distancing herself from her feelings, and those of the people around her, burying any attraction she might have felt, pushed away anything that might have led to intimacy. Those fears were still there, still circling around her bubble of happiness, but right then she chose to push them away instead. She chose, for the first time in a long time, to let herself be happy. And she couldn’t help but wonder what that might end up being like.
She finished unlacing the other skate and it soon joined its partner on the bench beside her before she tugged her ankle boot on. As she did she stole a glance across at Flynn, watching his profile as he finished up. She thought for a moment, then asked quietly, “do you ever have any ‘visitors’, when you’re… with someone?”
He looked up at her thoughtfully, his smile taking on a different edge while he figured out the best way to word his response. “When it happens unintentionally, it’s because I’m not focused on anything in particular,” Flynn explained quietly, in case any passersby were near them. Not that they would have any idea what they were talking about, it was just a habit. “So when I’m with someone, I’m really focused on that…someone.” He gave her a sideways glance. “And hence, no unwanted visitors.”
As he spoke she watched his face, the thought going into his words, the honesty of his answer. There was no doubt, and no duplicity, something she found reassuring. “So I need to make sure I keep your focus, hmm?” she replied, giving him a sideways glance and wink. “Challenge accepted.”
Flynn scooped up both their skates by the laces, making sure the blade covers were in place, and stood up from the bench. He offered his hand to her in assistance. “What makes you think you don’t already keep my focus?” the medium asked her with a slight tilt of his head, the grin morphing into a knowing smile. Okay, so at this point he was blatantly flirting. He wasn’t even trying to hide it.
“Well, a girl likes to think that’s the case!” she answered jauntily as she took his hand and stood up, smiling up at him, but a sudden pang of past experience crept its way into the bubble and she winced a little. “Sometimes experience has taught them otherwise,” she heard herself saying before she could push it away and shut it out.
His expression turned serious at her last statement, and he gave Brianna’s hand a gentle squeeze. “You mean in past relationships?” Flynn asked, quietly curious. “You don’t have to answer that if you’re not comfortable,” he added, leading the way to the skate return. He dropped each pair in its designated spot before turning to her.
As they’d walked across to return the skates she’d silently berated herself for letting that slip out, not having wanted to let any of her past influence the happiness she was feeling right now. Her teeth were worrying the corner of her bottom lip as he returned the skates, but she quickly cleared her face as he turned back. “Yes,” she admitted quietly as they started walking together, her hand reaching for his again, fingers interlacing, the simple action helping her to keep that bubble going. “But I don’t want to think about that right now,” she continued, realising it was a little like when he’d not wanted to tell her about what happened at his father’s house. “Maybe one day, just not today,” she added, hoping he would understand.
“Of course,” he answered immediately. “Consider it tabled.” Flynn pulled her close as they walked, flashing her a smile to let Brianna know that they could talk about it whenever she felt ready. He wasn’t going to press the issue. “So, what next?” he asked her cheerfully, glancing at the row of vendors waiting to be patronized. “Thirsty? Hungry?” He gave her hand another squeeze.
The sense of relief she felt when he’d so easily accepted her reticence to talk about it was immense and she gave him a grateful smile and squeeze of his hand. Then blinked as she looked from his face to where he’d indicated, not even sure at first what was there. “Oh! Umm…” She had no idea, but was pleased to feel the cloud of butterflies she’d felt earlier were at least now settling down and flying in formation. And the skating and cold had given her an appetite as well. “I’m hungry, but I’m a bit of a novice when it comes to what’s available? What’s your favourite?”
“Well, there are the vendors here, plus restaurants further in the plaza,” Flynn told her, gesturing down the promenade that branched off from the skating area. “Or we can go somewhere else,” he offered. He pulled out his phone and looked up the official website for the Downtown Summerlin center and found a list of the food offerings available. He handed it to Brianna for her to browse. Now that they were away from the rink, it wasn’t as cool, and he found himself unzipping his jacket as he waited for her to find something that interested her. The medium didn’t really care where they went, his head was still slightly reeling from earlier. Flynn had been sincere when he said he hadn’t planned for the night to go that way, but he couldn’t say that he wasn’t pleased that it did. “Anything you want.”
As she scrolled through the options on his phone she stopped at one she recognised, Public School 702, and remembered the galaxy suspended from the ceiling. “Oh! I’ve been here, and it was good.” She showed him the phone screen, the restaurant selected. “I went there recently with Brian, the manager from Lucky’s, as we’re looking at expanding Le Breeze’s microbrewery and looking at themes, and whether we should go …” She stopped mid-sentence, both talking and walking, and stared at Flynn.
“Oh my god! That’s it! We should go with gnomes!” she said, a smile spreading across her face as she looked up at Flynn, happily realising he would know exactly why. “Of course! Why didn’t I think of this before! A gastropub, with a forest theme, and oh wow, it would be great either summer or winter…”
Flynn looked at the menu of the restaurant she indicated, his head snapping up when she began exclaiming about gnomes. He lowered the phone and watched her with a smile as Brianna explained her idea. “I mean, I think you would be on the cutting edge of gnome-themed establishments,” he told her. “Definitely eye-catching.” The medium looked up the walking directions toward Public School 702 and linked his arm through the brunette’s. “Oh yeah, I meant to ask earlier...how long have you been working at Le Breeze now?”
The ideas had been piling up on top of each other almost similar to how they sometimes found the younger gnomes when they’d napped, their recovery from the alcohol-induced stupor taking a little longer than the older two. She caught herself as she heard Flynn’s voice seemingly drift through the clutter, clearly audible above the rest of the hubbub happening in her head. Which made her smile as she looked up at him. “Oh, Le Breeze? I started there almost directly out of uni, so about four years? A little over now,” she replied as they continued walking. She had unzipped her jacket but still had her gloves on, and she reached for his hand again as they walked, following the directions Flynn had found. “I had started working for the owner when I was still studying, and she liked my work, so offered me this role as soon as I finished.”
“It’s pretty lucky, finding a job you enjoy fresh out of college,” Flynn remarked as they walked, passing various stores and restaurants. Downtown Summerlin was large and expansive, and busy even on a weekday. They weaved through the foot traffic. “You said the owner knows about your particular — “ he broke off as someone passed them on his left. “Talents?” Flynn tried to imagine sitting down with his boss at the truck stop to talk about his own gift. He didn’t think it would be all that shocking. The man would most likely even be bored. It wasn’t anything flashy or something that could be used to boost profits.
Brianna nodded, smiling as she remembered the first time Cass had approached her, back in her freshman year when she was in the offices of the student newspaper, the Crimson. The recent arrival of her mentor in town had given her the opportunity to learn more about the expansion plans of the consortium, and discuss how they would affect her, and Le Breeze. They were scheduled to meet again to go through details on the different areas of the business, and the latest developments with her abilities.
“Yes, she’s who introduced me to Radek, and without their support, and help, I don’t know how I would have coped,” she admitted, looking up at Flynn, knowing it was something she felt even more grateful about when she had learned how he had had to cope with everything on his own, and feeling how isolating that had been for him. She gave his arm a squeeze. “She’s actually in town at the moment. If she has time, would you like to meet her?” she asked.
Flynn was somewhat surprised by the offer, though he wasn’t entirely sure why. He shot her a smile. “Is that like meeting your family?” he asked, giving her a playful but scrutinizing look. His eyes widened as if just having had a dawning realization. “Will she approve of me?” He put a hand over his chest in concern and waited for Brianna’s reaction.
Brianna blinked as the question made her pause, staring at him, and realising that in a way it probably was how it sounded. Though she didn’t think she could possibly come up with two women from completely different ends of the spectrum. She’d looked at the immortal as a mentor from just a short time after getting to know her, but in many ways she was a mother figure to her she’d never knowingly looked for. Brianna thought for a moment, suddenly unsure as to whether or not Cassandra would even see herself that way, as it wasn’t something she’d thought about before. “Well, she is a little protective,” she replied with a teasing wink, then gave him a slightly wry smile, realising that was possibly an understatement. She also realised it was far too soon to even suggest it, let alone joke about it, so she shrugged lightly as they walked. “You don’t have to, she’s here for a few weeks, and it was just a spur of the moment idea,” she added, not wanting him to feel any pressure at all. “And I can’t think of what she might find to disapprove of, unless you’re keeping some deep dark hidden secret!” she laughed, eyeing him sideways, grinning, then pausing, looking at him with mock seriousness and asking, “you’re not… are you?”
He pretended to squint and look up to his right, his free hand pressed against the back of his neck. Flynn feigned being deep in thought for a long, silent, drawn out moment before shaking his head emphatically. “Mmm, nope, not that I can immediately think of,” he told Brianna. “You know my secret, and it’s really not that secret anymore,” Flynn mused as they approached the escalators that led up to Public School 702. As he stepped on to the moving conveyance, the medium turned around to face the brunette and let his arms wrap loosely around her waist. “Now, there is an absolute treasure trove of embarrassing secrets, but you’ll have to learn those the hard way,” he grinned. He brushed his fingers lightly over her right temple. “No cheating.”
Edging up one step Brianna found it easier to see his face, meet his eyes. His lovely, deep warm brown eyes she found herself staring into for probably a few seconds too long. And the touch from his fingertips lightly across her temple sent a small thrill through the butterfly squadron that caused a few to break formation. She smiled, and hitched an eyebrow upwards. “Embarrassing secrets, huh? A treasure trove you say?” As she said this she brought her still-gloved hands up between them, now comfortably within the circle created by his arms around her waist, and lightly wriggled her fingers. “And finding them with my hands tied behind my back?” She leaned in, her hands now resting on his chest, until she was lightly brushing her cheek against his as her lips came as close to his ear as she could and whispered, “challenge accepted.”
Flynn raised his eyebrows, regarding her with an expression of surprise, but he was still grinning. He looked over his shoulder and stepped off the escalator, making room for Brianna to join him. “Well, I wasn’t expecting that,” he told her. “But I definitely don’t hate it.” They were greeted by a host stand and given a small wait time, so Flynn led them off to the side until a table was ready for them. He reached down and tugged at the bottom of her coat.
“One thing I have to say, and you please take note of this,” she said, looking down briefly, slightly puzzled as his hand tugged at her coat, then looking back up at him, head cocked to one side. “I certainly hadn’t expected this visit to the rink to be so… challenging?” she teased, recalling their earlier conversation about keeping his focus, and now finding out his ‘treasure trove of embarrassing secrets’. “I mean I love a challenge, it adds a certain … purpose, don’t you think?” she continued, leaning into him a little as she smiled up at him. “The opportunity to achieve a goal, and the enjoyment that comes with doing just that.” She pressed her hand against his chest, again enjoying that feeling of strength beneath her gloved palm. “Should I be setting you some?” she asked, the broad smile topped with a small twinkle of teasing in her eyes. “Just… to you know, keep you focused, and all?”
He looked down at the hand she pressed against his chest and decided to play clueless. Flynn glanced over Brianna’s shoulder to make sure their table wasn’t available yet before looking back at her. “Well, I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself,” he told her, nodding. “But I think you might have to be more specific. What kind of challenges were you thinking of?” He leaned against a wall, one hand still resting lazily on the brunette’s hip. With his other hand, he picked up one of the menus and pretended to browse it. “What happens if I lose?” The medium peeked up at Brianna.
The expression on Brianna’s face told a story of studied concentration, slightly exaggerated, as if a lot of thought was going into the answer. “I’m going to get back to you on the challenge,” she informed him finally, “but I think the important question you should be asking is what happens if you achieve it. Shouldn’t it?”
The menu lowered, and Flynn gave her a thoughtful look before shrugging noncommittally. “Sure, you’re right,” he told Brianna, and there was somewhat of a wink in his tone as the host came and let them know a table was ready. “We’ll have to come back to that,” he added as the pair of them were led to their seats.
As she walked she wondered if she had gone too far, the sudden onset of concern brought about by her knowing she could come on a little too strong at times. She had to remind herself that just because she liked a challenge, it wasn’t always what others were looking for, or particularly interested in. And one of the problems with letting herself feel happy and comfortable was it didn’t always match the other person's expectations.
There was a fair bit of conversation happening at other tables, and the music that was playing ensured people were comfortable talking at normal volume. Finally they reached their seats and she thanked the person, noting their nametag from her peripheral vision out of habit. “Have you been here before?” she asked, eyes running down the menu, remembering what she’d tried last time.
As they walked to their table, he noted the way Brianna seemed to become quiet, and worried that he might not have been obvious enough about playing around. He hadn’t meant for her to take him seriously. He picked up the drink menu first, his eyes scanning over the long list of beer and spirits without really taking anything in. “No, I’ve never been,” Flynn told her, glancing up from the plastic menu. Her eyes were cast downward as she looked at her own. An amber ale called ‘the Kilt Lifter’ caught his attention. He set the placard down. Someone came by their table and filled two glasses with water, and he thanked them before turning back to Brianna. “So I do this thing where I try to act nonchalant when really, my brain is moving at like a hundred miles per hour,” he began to explain, figuring just diving into it was the best option. “And right now, the common denominator between all those thoughts is you. Like how do I hang onto this? Because I’m getting ahead of myself and wondering when I’ll inevitably mess it up.” The medium gave her a chagrined expression.
She looked up from the menu as he started to speak. As she’d been walking, and then staring at the plastic sheet, unseeingly, her own mind had already worked through her over-enthusiastic destruction of whatever it was she expected in her delusion that she could have any sort of normal relationship. Her gloved hands lay cradled in her lap as she sat there, the galaxy in her peripheral vision. The squadron of butterflies had lost against the armament of experience, and the battlefield lay deserted.
As the words he was saying battered against the barriers she’d started to build again she gave a small nod and smile. Underneath she wanted to know more, to reach out and touch him, to know what was really going on in his head, but she also knew how badly things had gone in the past when she’d done that, and how disconcertingly familiar his nonchalance had felt just a few minutes earlier, a reminder of the usual path her relationships would follow.
Her words, when they came, reeled off calmly, as she felt like she was sitting up on one of the planets suspended from the ceiling, looking down on herself, planet-her carrying all the swirling emotions, earth-her able to react without concern of being too emotional. “It’s OK,” she heard herself saying as she lightly tugged at the fingertips of her gloves, removing them and dropping them in her lap, her hands resting on top of them again. “I know I go overboard with the challenge thing. I blame it on being a twin, always having someone to compete against. Don’t worry, I won’t hold you to anything.”
Okay, there was definitely something different about the way she was acting. Flynn didn’t need to be a mind reader to know that. He picked up the glass of cold water and took a sip, mentally following the liquid down his throat where it settled in his stomach. His thumb flicked at the top edge of the menu as his eyes traveled over the table, taking in the rolled silverware, the condiments on the table, until finally lifting to study Brianna’s face. “I’m sorry if I made you feel bad, or…” He mentally searched for the right word. “Or self-conscious or anything. That wasn’t my intention.” How did they get from kissing each other to here? He tried to retrace the conversation and the only common denominator he could come up with was his own idiocy. “You know I like you, right? In case I wasn’t clear enough.” Flynn chanced a small smile. “If you don’t believe me, I can always show you.” The medium raised an eyebrow and looked down at his hand where it rested on the table next to his glass.
Brianna’s head lifted and looked across the table at him. A rather huge battle was taking place inside her as planet-her wanted to reach out and take a hold of his hand and ignore the embedded concerns of earth-her, and if she was honest with herself, earth-her wanted this to be different too. Without realising it her teeth were worrying the bottom left of her lip as she processed. Her gaze rose from his chest to meet his eyes, and that’s when the honesty she saw there started to calm the turmoil she’d created for herself and she slowly lifted one hand from her lap and lay it on the table. “Are you sure?” she heard herself ask.
“I’m sure,” Flynn told her. There wasn’t a hint of reluctance or hesitation in his voice. He could see hints of an internal struggle on Brianna’s face and wanted to help. He reached his hand across the table and placed it in hers, meeting her eye.
Tentatively she edged the barriers aside, her eyes moving from his face to their hands as she uncurled her fingers and felt the warmth of his skin against hers. The warmth spread, seeming to melt away the chill that had developed inside her during the last few minutes. And that warmth continued to spread as she realised it was coming from him, and him remembering their first kiss, her smiling as they talked over dinner that first night, and his nervousness waiting for her to open the gift he’d given her at Lucky’s. Slowly her smile returned as she let out a breath she hadn’t even realised she’d been holding and she closed her fingers around his hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. And that’s when she also felt his fear, the image of her walking away at Lux, the trepidation he’d felt when she had started to pull back, and his reaching out now to try and prevent that.
“I’m sorry,” she told him softly, hesitating briefly before finally continuing. “It’s been a long time since I’ve … let someone close, and no, that’s no excuse, and it’s not you, it’s me…” and even as those words left her lips she realised how terrible they sounded and rolled her eyes at herself. “Oh that is not what …” She stopped talking, inhaled a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Thank you, for letting me see. It’s nice to be able to trust someone, and have that trust returned.” Her fingers gave his hand another squeeze as her smile returned. “Thank you.”
He returned the squeeze of her hand, feeling mostly relief at first that things seemed to be getting back on track. Flynn smiled good-naturedly when she broke out the ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ line. Mostly because it was very clearly both of them and their past issues coming into play. “Of course,” he told Brianna. “I won’t tell you to trust me, but I will say that I’ll do everything to keep your trust, however this turns out. And whenever you’re not feeling sure, we can always just…” The medium lifted their entwined hands slightly. “Deal?” Flynn glanced up as a server approached their table to start their orders.
The warmth from their linked hands was as great a comfort to her as what he said, the flow of his true feelings reinforcing his words as he spoke them, and she felt that fluttering sensation again as he made the offer. “Deal,” she agreed. She followed his glance and looked quickly down at the menu again, her mind kicking into ‘organising mode’ automatically, knowing how much the waitstaff appreciated a clear and concise orderer.
“If you’re happy to share with me I’d like to try the Truffle Mac & Cheese, the Empanadas, and the Barbacoa Beef Chilli? And a glass of the Malbec?” she told Flynn as the server reached the table.
Flynn nodded, setting his menu down. “Yeah, that’s fine with me,” he told her. He hadn’t really looked at the food, anyway, and had no idea what he was going to order. He repeated the items Brianna had listed to the server, adding in a beer for himself, and handed the menus over. When they were alone again, he toyed with the edge of his napkin as he tried to get his thoughts in order. It was a bit of a rollercoaster of an evening, emotionally, though not necessarily in a negative way. “I meant to ask before, but it got kind of pushed to the backburner,” he began, looking up at her. “Your twin sister, is she…” Flynn tried to find the right wording. “Is she gifted, too? I don’t remember you saying if she is or not.” Ever since the night at Lux, finding out he wasn’t the only person in his family tree who could do what he did, he’d been sort of fascinated by the idea that such a thing could run in families.
Having taken a sip of water Brianna nodded as she lowered her glass. “You could say so, yes, even though it wasn’t obvious at first,” she replied, turning the glass where it sat, until the sides lined up satisfactorily to her. “And in a completely different way to me,” she added with a wry smile. “She’s the athletic one, always climbing trees and running and winning all the sports awards. We had this huge tree outside our nursery window and she would spend more time climbing it, sitting in the branches, watching the birds and describing them to me, and I would be sitting in the window seat, looking them up and reading out where they were from,” she recalled. “And then warning her to be careful of a particular branch as she’d try and climb after it to get a closer look.” She picked up the glass and took another mouthful as the memory of her sister falling through the branches flickered in her mind. “She didn’t always listen to me in the beginning.”
He listened intently, quickly noticing that a pattern was becoming apparent, the more he learned about Brianna. “You like taking care of people,” Flynn remarked thoughtfully. “And looking after them. Your sister, Gabe…the gnomes.” The corner of his mouth only twitched a little bit at the latter. “Probably more I don’t even know about.” A moment later, their drinks were set before them, the dark red wine for her and a foamy pint for him. The medium switched out the water for the beer. “It must have driven you insane when she didn’t listen.” Flynn took a pull from the cold glass.
A wry smile crossed her face as she thought about what he said.
“I think I’m glad that I didn’t grow up with a sibling,” he mused. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, sometimes I think it might have been less lonely. But at the same time, I think I would have just freaked them out.” Flynn paused, then smiled. “Assuming they weren’t like me, that is.”
“Maybe, maybe not.” She remembered when Juliet first met the hunter who’d taken her twin under their wing and started to introduce her to what her future could hold. “Sometimes, when you’re learning about what it is, they’re able to be a sounding board, and usually less ready to tell you you’re crazy, or whatever, because they’re not an adult with all the stuff that goes on in adults’ heads,” she suggested. “Though our father wasn’t ever surprised, by either of us,” she mused, “like he knew it might happen.” It had always been something that she and Juliet had taken for granted, that their father had accepted without question what his daughters became. It had only been since he’d left for Europe, to spearhead the company’s expansion there, and establish a new research facility that she’d sometimes wondered whether his research was purely into pharmaceuticals, or if there was something else.
“I’m sorry you had such a difficult time,” she continued, after a few seconds, “I can’t imagine how hard that would have been, with what you were going through, and not having anyone to explain, or talk to about it.”
“Oh, no,” Flynn replied quickly, shaking his head and setting down the pint glass, the foamy top sloshing around as he did so. “I’m not trying to make it about me. What I mean is, I don’t think having a sibling would have made much of a difference for me, personally. But I could be wrong.” He felt sort of like he was floundering, trying to find the ‘right’ way to explain how he felt, without seeming like he was trying to undermine Brianna’s own experiences. “I know you’ve had a difficult time, too. Just in different ways.”
She was a little surprised and immediately wanted to reassure him. “Oh, believe me, I’ve been pretty damned lucky in so many ways, there’s not a lot of things I’d change,” she quickly replied, “and we all have bad experiences, right? Otherwise how can we truly appreciate all the good things?” Her fingers slowly twisted the stem of the wine glass, the lights on the ceiling reflecting rings on the surface of the red wine as the vibrations of the movement caused ripples. “I guess one thing’s for certain, until someone invents a time travel machine we can’t go and change what’s happened so far!” she said a little whimsically, lifting her hands and shoulders in a light shrug of acceptance. She looked at him for a moment, then asked, “what would you change, if you could? I mean, if we could go back in time, would you? And what would you change?”
Flynn’s brow furrowed slightly as he contemplated that. What would he change? “I don’t know,” he told Brianna, somewhat at a loss. “I think I would worry about changing anything. You know, like cause and effect. What if I made something slightly better for myself, and inadvertently made things way worse for someone else?” At that moment, their food arrived, the plates and bowl of chili steaming hot. He thanked the server and unrolled his utensils, mostly to bide time while he got his thoughts in order. When they were alone again, he spoke. “If I could change something about myself, though, I think it would be the way I used to see people,” the medium admitted. “I used to — and I guess I still do sometimes — dip in and out of this sort of nihilistic mindset. Like…” Flynn paused and glanced upward. “If death isn’t really the end, does that make life matter more or less?”
Cutlery in hand and poised as she eyed the dishes, then lifted her gaze to Flynn’s face, Brianna thought for a long moment. “That’s...hmm. This is an interesting question.” As she pondered the concept, trying to imagine what it might be like to speak to the dead, she loaded some of the pasta onto her fork, raising it slightly to allow it to cool a little. “Have you ever… asked? I mean, have you had conversations with any of the … ones you’ve … had visit?” She was trying to word it in case of any eavesdroppers, hoping the general hubbub of conversation, clinking cutlery and laughter would make it almost impossible for anyone to listen in. She carefully lifted the forkful of food and popped it in her mouth.
Flynn used his fork to spear one of the empanadas and deposit it onto his plate, waiting for it to cool somewhat before he tried picking it up. “Some are more willing to talk than others,” he explained, leaning back in his chair. “Or I guess I should say, more able to talk. Sometimes I’ll come across a spirit that is really angry, or in a lot of distress, and they can’t communicate clearly. All you can feel is that energy, and if they hang around too long, it becomes like an infection.” He realized he was going off on a tangent and refocused on Brianna’s original question. “But the sense that I always got was that…what I can tap into is like a waystation of sorts, between life and whatever is after. I don’t know if some choose to stay in the middle or if there’s no choice in the matter at all.” Flynn picked up his beer and took a long sip, his gaze briefly distant before he met her eye again. “And I could be completely off base. But I don’t think they have the answers, either.”
Brianna smiled as listened to him talk, noticing all the nuances that animated his face as he explained, feeling the fears she’d had rise up earlier slowly dissipating until they had no hold on her and the earlier happiness returned. “Well that in itself leaves us with that interminable question still to be answered, what really is the meaning of life?” she laughed, and the discussion continued…