Illryia had been . . . off putting, to say the least and to say it as nicely as possible.
She was out there somewhere, able to put on a Fred-face whenever she so pleased. Which, come to think about it, is probably the only way an Old One dressed in armor with hair and skin and eyes like that could get around without drawing too much unwanted attention. Unless the Smurf wanted the attention, but chances are Illyria would have been on the news a few times had that been the case. "She was," he tried to think of something positive to say and came up blank, "definitely not you, that's for sure."
I'm really back. No one knows how or why, but I'm here for good.
It didn't seem odd at all that Gunn leaned forward and hugged her, at least not to Chuck. "Let's keep it that way this time, huh?" They'd been close before, and since then they'd remained friends. When she and Wes had become a thing, he had told the ex-Watcher not to hurt Fred under penalty of "or else." He tried to be there for her, even if it wasn't in a boyfriendly fashion. Really, though, if nothing else, coming back from the dead was cause for celebration.
Gunn grinned, leaning back from the embrace with Fred long enough to fire off a wave in Veronica's direction. "Girl must be packin' some serious heat for you to be pulling out the swear words." He threw a few punches at the air, then laughed a bit to himself, bringing one hand up to rub at the back of his head. "I used to be able to dish it out a little, myself. Kind've rusty, now, though you didn't hear that from me. I'm Gunn, by the way." He glanced at Fred out of the corner of his eye. "None of that Charles stuff from you, too." For Fred, it was something she had always done and he wasn't about to try and change it now.