There was a lot of confusion when Bella read the notice that her brother was actually there. That couldn’t be, could it? Sure, she wanted him there, she wanted to see him again, but it’d been ages. Not just with being in Atlantis for two years, but even before that.
She quickly ran out of class and nearly sprint to intake. She looked around almost frantically before catching sight of him.
“Brent?” She asked, she still wasn’t sure this could be real.
“Bella!” He crossed the room quickly when he caught sight of his little sister, pulling her into a fierce hug that lifted her off her feet. It had been a long time since he had seen her, too long and he was incredibly happy to see her.
Pulling back after a little while she looked up at him. “Are you? I mean, I’m just so surprised to see you!” She really was, sure she’d kind of wished for him but Bella didn’t think he’d actually show up, that would be insane! “Are you okay?”
“Me, too! This is all really weird, but yeah, I’m great, I’m really glad to see you, Bella.” The concept of Atlantis being real and everything he’d been told was nuts, it was a lot to wrap his head around, but the bottom line was that his sister was here and that’s what he was focusing on for now. “How are you? Are you alright?” he asked, stepping back just enough to be able to really look her over.
Bella grinned. “Yeah, I’m good.” She said looking around. “Atlantis is a little bit weird and it can be a bit lonely sometimes, but I like it here.” If she didn’t she would have left forever ago.
“Come on, I can show you around,” she said. “Oh, and there are people that you should meet too!”
Brent nodded. “That sounds great,” he agreed as he wrapped a casual arm around her shoulders. “While we’re having this tour, you can catch me up on everything I’ve missed.”
Bella had showed him around the main parts of Atlantis, the things that were a little weird or different. She tried to fill him in as much as possible on everything that had been happening in Atlantis, she told him about Enzo, Damon, Daniel, and about the string of other people who came and went. She did her best not to make it sound as depressing as she sort of felt like it was.
They’d just gotten to the village so she could show him The Three Broomsticks and some of the other places that had come from different lands when some water dripped from one of the ice dams above landing directly on her bare skin. Bella had stopped worrying about most people knowing she was a mermaid, but her brother was different. “OH!” She yelped, “I need to go.” She mumbled out before running into The Three broomsticks and straight for the bathroom.
Brent felt terrible hearing about all the people who had come into Bella’s life only to leave her behind. She didn’t say it, but he knew it had been rough on her and maybe he felt a little guilty for being one of them. Even before Atlantis, he could have done a better job of staying in touch with her.
Following at a safe distance, he considered just giving her some space, but he decided against it, standing outside the bathroom door and smirking slightly as he called out to her. “Come on Bella,” he teased through the closed door after making sure no one else was too close by to overhear him. “Did you grow a tail in there or something?”
The words hit here, but she decided he must be joking as she frantically was trying to do everything in her power to get dry as quickly as possible. “What?!” She squeaked out. “That’s insane, of course not, I just,” she looked up at the ceiling and grimaced. “I just had to come here.” Smooth Bella, really smooth.
“Right,” Brent said, clearly not convinced. “You just had to suddenly run into the bathroom as soon as you got a little water on you.” It probably wasn’t the best way to hint to her that he actually knew her secret, but he kind of couldn’t help himself.
Bella was too focused on getting herself dry that she didn’t really registar what he’d said, she heard something about running to the bathroom but she didn’t really get the rest of it. “What?” Was all she managed.
“I’m coming in there,” he announced. He didn’t know if anyone else was in there, but assumed the bathrooms did have stalls for privacy and that Bella was likely not in one. Without waiting for her objections, he opened the door and walked in.
“What?!” Bella’s voice was up a few octaves. She didn’t really didn’t have a chance to stop him by the time the door opened. Her face turned red, or well, redder and she wasn’t even sure how to react she just opened and shut her mouth in shock.
“Bit ironic that I’m allergic to fish, isn’t it?” he joked as he grabbed some paper towels from a nearby dispenser to try and help her dry off. He was trying to be nonchalant as if it was no big deal and for the most part that was how he felt about it. So she grew a tail when she got wet. She was still his sister.
Bella almost wanted to jump, no she really wanted to jump but she was too shocked to move, he wasn’t shocked, which was weird. “How, I mean, when? No, when did you find out?”
“A while ago, I guess.” Brent shrugged. He couldn’t remember exactly when. It had been before the last time he’d seen her, but not really long before that.
“How?” There were a lot of questions Bella had and didn’t really know how she should feel. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I saw you change once, when we were still in Ireland,” he explained. They’d moved not long after that. “I guess I just didn’t know how to bring it up after that,” he added, shrugging. “Hey, sis, so about you being a mermaid didn’t seem like a good conversation for an email.”
“Oh.” Bella said still completely unsure how to feel about it, but she was drying off quickly now and switched back to having legs. Standing up she still couldn’t figure out how to react. “And I guess we didn’t see a lot of each other…” She let the thought drift off.
“Yeah.” He paused a little awkwardly for a moment. “I should have visited more.” Maybe it hadn’t always been his choice when he was younger and college had been busy, but he could have made the time. He could have managed it and he wished he had done so more.
Bella almost said yeah. But she managed to just nod instead. “Well, let’s get something to eat.” She said standing up and dusting herself off.
“Yeah, lets,” he agreed. He wouldn’t blame Bella for being angry he hadn’t visited more, but he hoped he could make it up to her now that he was here.