Who: Aidan, Aya, and Max Where: Somewhere else When: Mid-morning, Monday, June 18th Status: In Progress
It was almost noon when Aidan finally got his ass out of bed, feeling especially lazy for no particular reason, but once he was up, he was itching to get out and do something fun. Something exciting. Something that made his adrenaline spike, that gave him a high that couldn’t be found in a bottle or a pill. He’d thought at first that everclear would be enough, or would maybe calm the itch a little, but instead it made it worse. Except now he was buzzed and looking for trouble. He knew he should wait until it was night at least, everything was easier under the cover of darkness, but it felt impossible to wait. He roamed the house, looking for Aya, hoping she could take him somewhere fun. He never had to twist her arm when it came to things like this, but tracking her down could be a pain in the ass.
Aidan bounded into the kitchen, hands drumming on the doorframe as he entered. “You seen Aya?” he asked his brother. She tended to make herself scarce around his sister, but the rest of his family was fair game.
Max was standing by the kitchen window, finishing up a sandwich when Aidan came in and he looked him over for a second before replying. "Yeah, she ducked out that door to god knows where for a new outfit," he said, narrowing his eyes in thought. It didn't take a genius to see Aidan was feeling wired and that aligned pretty perfectly with Max's mood. He had plans today and he hadn't meant to involve anyone else but... "We're gonna go shopping. You wanna come?" The smirk on his face said pretty clearly that they were not going shopping, at least not in the strictest meaning of the word.
Aidan groaned when Max said Aya had disappeared to go change, not sure if that meant in another room of the house or in another city completely. She could be anywhere and he wasn’t sure he could wait for her to come back, since that could potentially be hours. But then Max continued on and Aidan grinned. On any other day, he would’ve been put out that Aya had gone to Max for a bit of fun over him, but not today. It meant she was coming back and he wouldn’t even have to hijack their plans, seeing as how he’d been thinking of doing the same damn thing. “That’s exactly what I was thinking,” he said. “Did you have a destination in mind?” He hadn’t figured out what he wanted yet, but knew he wanted something big.
"Gonna let Aya feel it out," Max replied. "Did you know she kinda knows what's behind a door before she opens it? Double creepy and so handy." He finished his sandwich and grabbed a couple of beers from the fridge, offering one to Aidan. "I've got itchy fingers today, I just... I want money. I want to buy a bike, I want to sink my fingers into something." He wrinkled his nose in his emphasis on 'something'. "You feel me?"
"No need to be dramatic about it," Aya said from behind him as she walked through the kitchen door, her long black hair currently hidden by a pixie-cut blond wig to match her pretty sundress. "Don't go digging your fingers into anything without gloves on either." She pursed her lips, glancing at Aidan. "Are you coming too?"
“I’m aware,” Aidan said, his voice tighter this time as jealousy spiked in his veins. It wasn’t a familiar feeling for him and it made his heart race as his hands clench into fists at his sides. Aya was his familiar, or whatever she was, and he didn’t need his brother to fill him in on what she was capable of. His itchy fingers suddenly wanted to punch Max, but he held back when Aya suddenly appeared, all blonde and sunny. “Yeah, I’m in. Thanks for inviting me.” There was a bite to his words that he didn’t intend and he took a deep breath in an attempt to calm himself. “Let me grab my gloves.”
"Don't dawdle," Aya drawled at him and stepped back to let them both pass her as Max claimed he needed to do the same. She could almost feel the wrongness sparking off of them and was highly aware something was affecting both of them but honestly she enjoyed it. She could always stick them in a maze of her own making if they got out of control and she wanted to see what exactly this would lead to. She pulled on a dainty pair of gloves herself, kind of enjoying looking so different from her usual dark style. It'd be fun to mess with people like this and she hoped she'd have the chance to do just that.
"Anywhere you wanna go?" Max asked as he grabbed his gloves and started walking backwards back to the kitchen. He could sense the irritation but it didn't bother him, nor did he really care. He was used to flares of annoyance, he was Caden Lucas's friend after all, and if anything it kind of tickled him today, rubbing his brother the wrong way. "Anything special you want?"
What Aidan wanted was for Max to fuck off and have Aya to himself, but he didn’t say so. Instead he pursed his lips together and tried to decide what he wanted to steal, since that would help drive them to a particular destination. Aidan wasn’t very materialistic, he liked to steal for the fun of it, not because he needed to, but today he felt the desire to go big. “I dunno. Diamond earrings,” he snorted, pretty sure that would be stupid in the daylight. At night it would be easy. “Maybe a new phone or TV. New boots. A car.” Cars were always a bad idea, but damn if he didn’t want one.
Max had no idea how big Aya could handle in the terms of doors, could she do garage doors? That'd be insane. Nobody would look for a stolen car from Seattle or something in Point Pleasant, they could switch the plates and... It was insane and probably a bad idea but now he really wanted to do that. "A car," he drawled with a delighted grin just as they re-entered the kitchen. "Fuck yeah."
"Fuck no," Aya said, getting the gist of what they were talking about and absolutely not. "No cars, you're both overdosing on whatever the hell is affecting you. Or maybe you're both stupid, that makes sense too." She patted Aidan's cheek, smirking up at him. "Today I call the shots, since I'm the only one with any sense."
Aidan wasn’t sure what she was talking about—he’d had a drink or two, which was a horrible breakfast, but he wasn’t high. He’d done enough that he knew what that felt like. This was more like a craving, an empty hole inside him that needed filling, and the longer he ignored it, the worse it would get. His eyes narrowed as she patted his cheek, but his lips turned up at the corners, the tiniest smirk. “What do I get then?” There was the thought that he wanted her, but stealing a car was more feasible. If he wanted to get laid, he’d have to go elsewhere.
"I haven't decided," Aya muttered and went up on tippy toe to plant a small kiss on his lips before she turned to strut back to the kitchen door. "I'm guessing you're ready, you're both too boring to dress up for this. Pity, you'd be cute in a dress." She shot Aidan a grin over her shoulder as she opened the door to a dimly lit hallway with an atrocious carpeting. "Coming?"
It was such a little kiss, but it calmed Aidan down a tad, assuming that Max didn’t get one too. He should at least have some perks to being Aya’s… person. Aidan didn’t even know what to call himself. He just knew he wasn’t her keeper—if that was the case, he was failing miserably because he couldn’t keep her anywhere. He could barely keep track of her. “I’d look ridiculous,” he said, following after her. Whatever it was she wanted today, he assumed it would be fun. She always took him to the most interesting places. “Where are we?” he asked, keeping his voice down as he set foot on the carpet.
"Rich people with such bad taste should be jailed," Aya said with a roll of her eyes before she slipped on a pair of sunglasses. "It's someone's house. It smells like money. Is there a system in place? Cameras?" She didn't really worry about one of those alarms, they could slip in and out long before the security people came around and it wasn't like anyone would see them leaving.
"Just some rich person, huh?" Max asked and he wasn't sure he liked that. He looked around the hallway for any signs of who this might be but there was only abstract artwork in this section of the house. It was tempting to open doors and see what was inside those rooms but Aidan was the one who'd know whether there were alarms to be worried about.
Aidan put his hand on the wall as he felt his way through the house’s electrical circuits. He’d learned how different types of currents felt over time, but it always took a second when he couldn’t actively see where the cameras were placed, if any. The place was huge, that much was clear to him. “Motion sensors in the foyer and master bedroom. Alarms on the exterior doors and windows. It looks like the cameras are all outside. If I fry the sensors, the alarm will go off, but I think I can just disarm the whole thing.” Aidan’s tongue twisted in his mouth as his fingers traced little circles on the wall. “Done,” he grinned over at Aya and Max.
Max laughed and all but pounced on him, ruffling his hair. "That's my boy!" he said excitedly. "Master bedroom sounds important, do we wanna start there?" He looked around for the doors most likely to lead there, it was often easy to tell with houses like these, these kind of people loved to show off and make things look important. "Ooh, I bet there's a safe. Let me try my hand at it before you go magic it open, okay?" He gave Aidan's shoulder a little squeeze before he all but bounced down the hallway toward the door that looked the most important.
“Sure, if you can find it, have a go at it,” Aidan snickered. Safes could be hit or miss in his opinion. Some people might store jewelry in there, but he doubted they were going to find blocks of gold or anything wild. It was more than likely important documents, things that had to be taken to a bank to be cashed in, even stock certificates. Aidan wanted something more tangible. His attention turned to Aya. “Anything specific you’re looking for?” he asked, since she’d been the one to choose the destination. Maybe she wanted some heirloom jewelry, or maybe she just wanted to raid another woman’s closet. He had no idea and she was too hard to predict.
For Max it was more about the challenge. He loved breaking into things and Aya had made that part a little obsolete with her door magic. After prison he wasn't eager to actually do it but he kind of missed climbing and crawling his way into somebody's house. Today he just didn't care, he wanted to steal something, do something crazy, have a lot of fun and this was his idea of fun.
Aya shrugged. "I'll know it when I see it," she said with a little smirk and looked around for something of interest before she grabbed Aidan's hand to pull him along after Max. She couldn't break into safes, they were made of weird materials that didn't yield to her nature so she was curious to see how a mere human might do it. Only when they entered the room, Max was nowhere to be seen and she had to wonder if he was stupid enough to use the bathroom during a very illegal house entering.
Aidan let Aya pull him along, his fingers itching to pocket something, though he wasn’t all that sure what he was looking for. He wanted something valuable, but different—something more than just a babble, which this house seemed to have in droves. He kept his eyes peeled for just the right object, while he let Max hunt down the safe. Except when they followed Max into the next room, his brother seemed to be gone. “Where’d he go?” he asked with a little frown. As tempting as it was to wander off alone, it was best to stay together in a situation like this, since Aya was the only one of them that could open a doorway to their escape. He was pretty sure Max knew that as well, but as he stepped up and peered into the attached room, he was nowhere to be found. “What the fuck?”
"Where'd who go?" Max asked from the small room he was standing in. It was obviously a safe room of some sort and there was cash, food and all sorts of personal valuables here so it was a little weird it had just been open. He looked out at his brother and Aya, both of them frowning as they looked around and decidedly not answering him. "Guys," he said sharply, spreading his hands questioningly. "Did I piss you off or something? Why are you ignoring me?" He gave them a second before he rolled his eyes and walked out of there. "I get it, you're very funny, now check this-"
He didn't get to finish his sentence. Aya jolted when he suddenly re-entered the room, pointing at him almost angrily. "How did you do that? Is that an illusion?" She stalked past him to pat the wall he had just walked through and it was solid, no illusion or trick, though she thought it felt a little weird for a plain wall. Steel? "How did you do that?" she asked more insistently, glaring at Max who was now looking between her and Aidan with a very clueless expression.
Aidan physically jumped when Max appeared, his eyes big and round, but then his brother had just walked through a fucking wall. He followed Aya to the wall, expecting it to be some kind of a hologram, and the fact that it wasn’t was extremely disconcerting. He was a witch and he couldn’t do that, so he had no explanation for why Max suddenly could. “What she said,” Aidan said, looking to Max for answers. “Since when can you walk through walls?”
"Is this a joke?" Max asked because to him, there was no wall there but he did hear the sounds of Aya and Aidan's hands as they patted the empty space between them and the room so that had to be a trick of some sort. "How are you making that sound?" he added and waved his hand at the space, almost expecting to feel something solid but of course there wasn't anything. Now that he looked at it more closely it was a little weird that there was nothing there. Everything in the bed room was well maintained and clean, but it looked like a part of the wall ahd decayed or broken away, leaving a bit of a mess around the edges.
"There's a wall," Aya hissed at him, not liking the implication that she was playing a trick when she actually wasn't and feeling like she was the one being played. "How are you going through the wall?"
“Wait, are you telling me you can’t even see the wall?” Aidan asked, pulling out his phone and taking a quick picture of it. In the picture, the wall was there, and he held it up for his brother to see, hoping that if his eyes were betraying him, that maybe technology would pull through. “Can you see it here?” he asked. “‘Cause there’s a wall, and we both see it,” he said, pointing to himself and Aya. “And you fucking walked through it like—like it’s not there.” Freaking out felt reasonable, even if the time and place could cause some problems. Aidan had disabled the alarms though, so there shouldn’t be anything to worry about.
Max sidled over to him to see the phone better, frowning as he did so because the whole thing seemed stupid. Until he saw the picture. There was definitely a wall there in the picture, a solid wall that looked just like every other wall in the room. He looked between the picture and the actual area a few times, licking his lips as he tried to wrap his mind around what he was seeing. "There's... no wall there," he muttered. "It's like it's broken." He walked toward it again but this time he didn't dare to step beyond where the wall should be, afraid it would come back and he'd be stuck inside that secret room. There had to be a door around there somewhere, some button or something but he didn't want to risk it just yet. "It's like the floorboards are kinda rotten in places," he added. "The carpet just ends here." Which now that he was looking at it more closely didn't make a whole lot of sense. It looked wrong, how had he not picked up on that? "You seriously don't see anything?"
Aidan watched his brother, the panic subsiding a touch when Max began to take his concerns seriously. It was a relief that Max could see the wall in the picture, because it meant whatever power was controlling his vision didn’t translate over technology, but it didn’t explain anything else. Either the wall wasn’t real, and to Aidan it felt extremely sturdy, or Max had gained some kind of ghostly powers, allowing him to move through solid surfaces. Aidan was versed in a good amount of magic, much of it stuff he never had a need to use, but he’d never come across something like this. If he had, he’d have already been using it. “I see a wall,” he said, running his gloved hand along it so that Max could see him do so, even hear the scrape of the leather on the plaster. “A normal wall, just like every other one in the room. Have you ever seen any other walls that look… like what you see here?”
Max had to think about it, frowning at the wall that wasn't there for him as he racked his brain for memories of weird doorways. He almost didn't remember, he'd been so drunk at the casino that the details of the thing escaped him but in hindsight it was weird that he could just enter a room full of chips. "I think so," he mumbled and if only he knew what that meant. Had the casino room looked this decayed as well? He cautiously ran a gloved finger over the edge of the opening, studying the inside of the room before daring to step inside again. There was a switch and if not for Aidan's magic, he might not have dared to press it but he knew the alarms were off in a way that a non-magical burglar couldn't guarantee. He couldn't see the wall moving when he pressed it, could only hear the light swish as something changed and the room was open to his brother and Aya.
It looked completely different to them. One moment there was a wall, the next it was sliding aside and they could see Max again but the room he was in wasn't decayed at all. It was small but clean and there were all sorts of valuables stacked on the shelves, from cash to jewelry as well as some paperwork that didn't interest her at all. She let out a little 'hah!' before joining Max in there, giving Aidan a delighted grin. "I don't know what the hell is up with you but at least it's useful," she told Max and grabbed a golden necklace off the shelf, fastening it around her neck.
Aidan gasped softly as the wall opened up to them, revealing what looked like the inside of a walk-in safe. It made his mind spin as he tried to reason out what had just transpired—could Max see hidden passages and walk through them unaided? That seemed awfully specific. Or were there other walls, solid walls without doors, that Max could walk through as well. He couldn’t feel any magic in his brother, but that didn’t mean anything. There were all kinds of non-witches with weird abilities. “That’s so weird,” he said with a little laugh, cautiously stepping into the little room to look around. “Now I wanna go find more walls for you to walk through.”
"I'm not seeing everything in this room," Max said, still trying to figure out what the hell was going on with him. "This side looks totally ruined." He gestured at where Aya had just picked up jewelry that he didn't see until she was physically holding it. "This is so fucking weird." He knelt down and stroked the wall, his glove coming away with oily dust so it wasn't just a glamor - no, obviously it wasn't just a glamor, he'd walked right through a wall. "I'm kinda freaking out," he said deadpan, then let out a little laugh as he wandered out of the room again. "I'm gonna check the safe." It would give him something else to focus on but honestly, at the moment he kind of just wanted to go home where none of the rooms looked wrong and he'd know instantly if anything changed since he'd grown up there.
Aidan kept casting sideways glances at Max, his attention caught between the new little room and the odd abilities his brother was displaying. He wanted to give him answers, or at least some kind of explanation, but he had none, and that was more troubling than anything else. He watched as Max examined the wall, the dust on his hand seeming to appear out of nowhere. Whatever Max was seeing was real—it just wasn’t visible to Aidan’s eyes. Or Aya’s. It was a valid reason for Max to freak out. “Don’t go far,” he said as Max left to find the safe, far more concerned than he would have been five minutes ago. As soon as his brother was gone, he turned to Aya. “Can you feel anything extra from him? Anything… not quite human?”
Aya shrugged, far more interested in all the shiny things and cash in there than she was in some human drama. Had she noticed? Not really, but now that Aidan asked she could sense that there was something off about Max. She'd always thought of him as a simple human being but now he was something more. The whole thing was dramatic enough without her divulging all that to Aidan though and since she wasn't sure what Max was it wouldn't be helpful either. There were too many kinds of creatures in the world for her to memorize what all of them felt like and she wasn't sure if she'd felt someone like Max before. Then again he'd been off in some hell dimension for months so it wasn't really surprising and shouldn't be to Aidan either. "Is this my color?" she asked jokingly as she held up a pair of expensive looking earrings.
Aidan was feeling off balance, torn between an intense desire to fill his pockets with shiny things and the need to take care of his older brother. There wasn’t much he could do for Max—he didn’t know what was going on with him or why, and he didn’t seem to be in any obvious danger, but the last time something weird had happened with him, he’d tried to suck the family dry of energy then ended up in an alternate dimension. It felt natural to worry, and it made it difficult to give a shit what color Aya’s earrings were. “Sure,” he frowned. “Pretty sure anything expensive is your color. And if they’re not, we can sell them for something that is.” It might not be as fun to actually buy them, but it was easier than hopping houses until she found something she liked. “Think I should check on him?”
Aya liked his answer because she absolutely agreed that expensive things looked good on her and she was twirling around picking up more things when Aidan asked about Max. It amused her a little how he'd still ask for her opinion when she so obviously did not give a shit about anyone in Aidan's family. Aidan was different, they had this weird magic bond between them and she had no idea what it meant or how his well being affected it. But Max? He could be fun but that didn't mean she cared about him. "If you want," she said flippantly, more than content to stick around in this particular house for a bit. It had a secret room! One she hadn't even felt the presence of so that was both a little annoying but also very exciting.
Aidan knew that Aya didn’t give a shit about the rest of his family, that she only tolerated or entertained them because they were his and that pissing them off would piss him off, but sometimes he forgot because she seemed to care about him. He knew on some level that was because they were bound together, and that he was probably better to her than whomever had come before, but he sometimes wanted it to be more than that. He trusted her more than he should and liked her more than made sense. Of all the things he’d stolen, she was the most difficult to understand. “I want to,” he said, pocketing a watch before heading out to find his brother. “Don’t leave without us!” he warned, though he didn’t think she would.
It was tempting to leave the boys behind, if only for a minute to make them panic a little, but Aya wouldn't do that. She'd have her fun with some other poor sucker, someone she didn't need to rely on for anything. "I'll make sure to collect my baggage before I go," she said in a sing-song, shooting Aidan a teasing smile before he left.
Max wasn't so much having a go at the safe as much as just staring at it when Aidan approached him. He wasn't trying to work it out or making a plan, his mind elsewhere completely. He was a little startled by his brother's presence, sitting back on his haunches and looking up at him. "I'm fine," he muttered but he wasn't and he knew it. This sudden new ability of his wasn't just walking through walls and the filthy smudges on his gloves were there to prove it so what the hell could it be? He didn't like the ideas he was having, like the one that said he was slowly fading back to the other side. Fuck, he'd kill himself if that was the case. Only probably not because he was a coward.
Aidan rolled his eyes at Aya, but decided it was worth it to trust her in this instance. If she fucked him over, it would only come back to bite her. He found Max staring blankly at the safe and came to stand beside him, leaning up against the wall. “Doubt it,” he said simply, but didn’t try to push yet. He had no idea what was going on in Max’s head, but he didn’t think it could be good. Max had grown up around witches, had seen them push the limits of what was possible, so the fact that this shocked Aidan couldn’t be a good thing. He was worried about his brother, about what it meant to suddenly have new powers, especially since the last time Max had had abilities, they’d included sucking all the energy out of him and the rest of their family. That didn’t seem to be the case this time, but it still felt dangerous. Anything was possible.
"Peachy keen," Max sighed but he knew he wasn't fooling anyone so he rose to his feet to face Aidan. "I just don't want to go back there. If that's what this is. Some fucked up collision of realities." The parts of the room that had changed hadn't felt like the other place, not as gross, just dirty and broken down in a different way. But still, it felt like somewhere else now that he was sober enough to actually pay attention to it and what if he was now going to slip between dimensions without having a damn say in it? "Don't tell the fam, not yet. I don't want Shayna Mae to get all worried."
Aidan frowned, displeased with that entire line of conversation. If something was pulling Max between realities, then the rest of the family definitely needed to know. The longer it went on without them aware, the less time they’d have to help Max. They hadn’t been able to do anything last time, in large part because by the time they realized there was a problem, Max had been draining their energy to the point of exhaustion. He didn’t want to see something like that happen again. “I dunno,” he said. “If that’s what this is, they might be able to help. Maybe at least tell Knox.” He didn’t like being the only one to know something. It came with a sense of responsibility that he wasn’t used to having and really didn’t want. “It might be nothing. Just… some weird side effect from your time spent there.”
Max rolled his eyes, not even trying to hide his frustration at that suggestion. There was nothing that witches could do, there'd been a whole bunch of them involved with the January madness and that hadn't done jack shit for anyone. On some petty level it almost made him smug to know even they had their limits but since it only hurt him in the process he couldn't exactly enjoy it. "I'll tell them, but I don't want to deal with them worrying right now so keep your mouth shut." He could already picture their faces when they found out, the worry and sadness etched into their features. It just made him want to punch something, make them mad instead, he was sick of pity and worries, maybe it was time to leave home again.
After the year they’d had with Max, finally getting home only to lose him again within weeks, Aidan felt like his concern was valid. There was a chance they couldn’t do anything to help, but they wouldn’t know if they didn’t even know it was an issue. He was still mildly pissed off that those involved in banishing his brother to that hellhole hadn’t come to them for help—as far as he could tell, there’d been only one witch involved and he’d clearly been in over his head. Aidan didn’t know Nic Castle well, and he’d always seemed friendly enough, but the whole thing had soured Aidan’s opinion of him. Maybe he’d helped save them all, but he hadn’t saved Max. Aidan wasn’t keen on something like that happening again. “I’ll give you a week, unless things get worse. If they get worse, you tell them now.” He didn’t care that it might piss Max off. He’d rather he be pissed at him than gone.
Max grunted with frustration. "I'll remind you I'm your older brother, not the other way around," he said and poked Aidan firmly in the chest. "And as a grown-ass man it's my fucking problem to deal with so just keep it to yourself and don't be giving me a time limit on my own shit." He'd forgotten the excitement of the safe now, what he really wanted to do was drink until he passed out and not have this conversation so he turned on his heel and headed back to find Aya as soon as he'd spoken, ready to get home and not be stuck in this house with that weird spot of Other in the corner. "Not a word!" he added over his shoulder. He'd likely ask his family for help when he was ready but right now he felt cornered into it and he didn't like that one bit.
Being the youngest O’Reilly, Aidan had bent to his brother and sister’s will for most of his life. They didn’t bully him, but they expected him to listen and obey, as if the years they had on him made them so much older and wiser. The older Aidan got, the more he saw it for the bullshit that it was. Max’s finger poking him in his chest lit a fire in Aidan’s eyes, igniting a fuse within him that wanted to blow something up. Tear something down. Prove that he couldn’t be pushed around, even if he’d been the one pushing. He’d only done it because he wanted Max to be safe, as well as the rest of the family. Secrets like that were the kind that got them killed. “I’ll say whatever the fuck I want,” he snapped back, heading back to Aya as well. It was time to leave and he was inclined to trip the alarm just to ensure he got his way.
Max was usually a bit better at manipulating people. His usual method was to smile and sweet talk and reason his way out of trouble. He knew this approach was more likely to get Aidan to actually spill everything to their sister and yet he was too pissed off to backtrack and fix it. Leave it to family to get to him like this. "Mind your own fucking business!" he snapped as he stalked after Aidan, stopping short when Aya stepped out in front of him.
She hummed, looking at him with disapproval that only fuelled that irritation inside him even more, then muttered something about going home before she physically shoved him through the doorway to the hallway. Only it wasn't the hallway, he was standing in their kitchen and the door in front of him did not lead to the house he'd just been in. He wasn't even sure if he was furious or relieved about it, Aidan could really get under his skin and when he was this worked up he didn't feel like dealing with his tiny girl-creature either. He'd gotten his wish, he was home, he could get drunk. He was still pissed as all hell about it though.
Back in the house, Aya turned to Aidan, crossing her arms over her chest and giving him a knowing smirk. "Do you want to go break something? I know a place."
Aidan caught up just in time to see his brother vanish through a doorway, effectively washing his hands of the situation for the time being. He was going to assume it was home. Aya had a mischievous streak, but so far she hadn’t been cruel. He hoped Max noticed that it was Aidan she stuck with, that she was with him, even if she entertained herself with Max from time to time. His smirk mirrored hers, that desire to cause chaos flaring up further. He loved how the objective had changed, yet they were still on the same page. He could always depend on Aya to find an outlet for his more destructive tendencies. It was a suitable distraction and he jumped at the opportunity, happily forgetting about his brother for the time being.