Gerald
Danica stood in the kitchen with her back to the counter, a paper bag holding a bottle under her arm. She'd left late, knowing Ares would be later. She liked that he was consistent. It was dark outside, and she could see her face mirrored in the window. She liked the commons quite a bit when it was quiet. Down the hall, Ares' footsteps announced his arrival far before anything else.
Lillian
Ares was very quickly making his way towards where Danica said they'd meet. He was late, due to lacing up his large combat boots and stuffing a bag with snacks, but whatever. Didn't matter to him, and he knew it didn't matter to her. 

The taller boy approached the kitchen, and then Danica, and barely stopped. 

"Cmon, let's go to the roof." 
Ares gave a light snicker, and placed an open hand to the side of his mouth, as if he was whispering. He had a stupid grin on his lips. 

Without much hesitation, Ares was already on his way towards the stairs. 
"Keep up, yeah?"
Gerald
Danica raised a brow at him with a smirk. A form of a wordless *Lead the way, you clearly have a plan.*

She rolled her eyes heavily and then followed.

"You underestimate me, Morales." 

Her sneakered feet easily tapped up after him.
Lillian
The two of them snaked their way up how they always did, they had been to the roof together before, and so both of them knew which way to go. 

Ares remained solidly in front, but made sure to look over his shoulders once in a while. 
He forgot how much he enjoyed Danica's company. 

...

Once up on the roof, cold air bit Ares' nose. It wasn't pleasant, but it wasn't unwelcome. The night had a way of being both at the same time. 

He threw his bag down, tucked his hands behind his head, and practically fell down against the ground with a large *Thump.* His head and hands landed against the bag, which cushioned it well enough. Giving a large sigh, he stared upwards. The same sort of dumb smile on his face. 

"So, whats goin on with you recently? I haven't see you around much."
His tone was relaxed, sure and steady. Quieter, calmer too, suited better for a conversation underneath the stars, but of course his bastard snark remained.
Gerald
Danica followed easily, her steps light and consistent. She kept up well, proving most of the checks unnecessary. She enjoyed Ares' company a lot too, having missed spending time with someone she didn't have to try to understand. 

...

Danica breathed a big heavy sigh out into the night, letting the cool air fill her lungs. She rarely felt cold anymore, but she still appreciated the sensation. She walked to sit a little more than an arms length away from Ares, comfortably folding herself into a sit. The bottle sat on the roof beside her. 

She paused for a moment. 

"Surprisingly a lot, but also not much. I'm keeping up with myself but as strange things happen around here, strange things have been happening. Remember that AI thing? That's been a whole fuckin' can of worms."

She pulled out the bottle and uncapped it. She wasn't lying, she really hadn't cheaped out on the quality.
Lillian
Ares looked over at Danica with a raised brow.

"Oh yeah? Like what." He shrugged lightly. "I stopped keeping up with that as soon as it happened."

Ares had a talent for being truly and completely unbothered.
Gerald
"It's a person. Isn't that *Fun.*" 

She takes a swing then hands the bottle to Ares, her nose lightly scrunched. Ares was easy to talk to. 

"It dropped some coordinates, so me and some other idiots went to check it out. Robbed a house. Blah blah blah, apparently the person is living in our heads now. We'll have to go get that sorted. Oliver has been doing things about it, he seems right."

She sighed. 

"This kid Dae-hyun is *So* Attached. I don't know why. I just want it to be *Over.*"

"What's up with you then? Unless you want to keep picking my brain but hey."
Lillian
Ares listened, nodded at the right time, gave proper responses in between. 

"Wow, that sounds like a lot of shit." 
He grabbed the bottle and took a small sip, running the back of his hand over his lips once he was done. 

"A weird AI thing is in *Our* Heads? Well I definitely haven't experienced anything— maybe my brain is too much of a mess for me to notice." He snickered. 

"Oh the kid with the cane? Yeah didn't he do the same thing when the Distortion happened? I remember him being *Soooo* Involved."
As he spoke he dramatically rolled his eyes— he didn't get it either. 

"Maybe it's a complex." He titled his head to the side with a teasing smirk, and gave the bottle back to Danica. 

"Hm. Whats up with me? Not much honestly. I've been staying out of shit." 
This was something Ares was proud of, he wasn't a hero.
"I mean, I did get something stolen from me by a... Fae? Owen said? I dunno didn't seem like too big of a deal."
Gerald
She made a face at that. It was, and she wasn't exactly excited about it. 

She laughed at his joke. 
"PFHH- hey maybe. I got sucked into some weird mindscape thing, but I *Totally* Kicked the kids ass, so." 
She seemed proud of herself. 

"Yeah, him."

"He was."

She was taken off guard by Ares' comment, laughing.

"I wouldn't doubt it, shit. It's kind of infuriating." 

She took back the bottle and placed it between them, then made a face.

"Getting acquainted with tinkerbell doesn't sound like *Not much.* You annoy her to death or something?"

She shoved his shoulder lightly. 

"What was up with that?"
Lillian
"I wouldn't doubt that. You're tough as fuck." He returned her pride, validated it. 

"Of course it's infuriating! That kind of shit gets old sooo quick. At first it's like, respectable or whatever, and then it gets really annoying."

He shrugged. "You can't rely on people who care more about saving some random person than you." 

"Like, does he even *Know* This," A slight stutter, "AI person??" 
He scoffed. 
"Sounds stupid, if you ask me."

Back to him.
The shove in his shoulder made him laugh. 

"Actually— yeah I sort of did." He snickered. 
"I called this random person on the bus batman 'cuz they were wearing this like poncho thing, and they got sooo pissed. Summoned rock people and whatever, but didn't do much to stop me. And then they fuckin stole the polaroid in my phone case!"
He sounded like it still annoyed him, but in a funny way. 
"Turns out the asshole just hid it in my *Mouth* Which was weird 'cuz like I didn't feel anything— but whatever I got it back."

"Wasn't even an hour out of my day though, whatever you're going through sounds like a lot more." His tone got slightly more sympathetic. Slightly.
Gerald
Danica smiled. 

She snickers at Ares. He gets her. She does care for Dae-hyun, and thinks he's a good kid, but Ares is right. 

"You can't throw yourself at *Everything.*"

Her brow furrows. 

"Yeah."

She rolls her eyes with him in agreement. 

"He didn't. None of us did–kid doesn't even have a body. Dae-hyun is kind, but really. It's not worth killing yourself over. I'm just too nosy for my own good."

She gave a dry laugh and took another sip. Unlike Dae-hyun, she felt she had the tough skin and ability to fuck shit up behind her if things went south. 

She laughs.

"Seriously?" 

The bottle is between them again as she waits for the rest of the story, laughing along when appropriate. 

"*Batman?* Uhg, I'd give you a piece of my mind too." She wasn't serious, and was snickering all the while. 

"In your mouth? PFH what?? Like the tacky coney island magic shows-"

She shrugged. She appreciated that Ares could be sincere without making her feel like a sob story.

"I suppose so. It's mostly just annoying, honestly. There's clearly a lot of missing information, and no one wanting to suck it up and just make sense. It's all *Ohh I don't want to tell you because blah blah* Bullshit."
Lillian
Seeing Danica laugh, as compared to her usually stone cold expression, was nice. Something in Ares sensed she needed a break. 

"Exactly." He nods.

Ares' face shifted into an expression that read a disbelieving sort of *'really?'* Whatever was going on sounded like much more bullshit than what it's worth. 

Although, a part of him deep down felt a twang of sympathy. This kid probably had a reason for what he did. Ares of all people knew how stupid you can act when you have something to prove. 
He didn't say this. 

He forgot about it the moment Danica started talking again. Maybe he'd remember if it was brought up again. 

"*OH CMON—*" He sat up when she said she agreed with the stupid fae person. 
"It wasn't even that bad! I didn't even say it to their face."
Ares moved his hands a lot when he talked, he had a point to prove. 

His exasperation died with a light hearted laugh. 
"Whatever—" He said through a smirk as he laid back down. 

He remained staring up at the sky as she spoke. 

"Oh gross. That's so fucking annoying— and then like, they expect you to do something about it yeah? Without any proper information? Oh and then if you get it wrong it's your fault! Like fuck off, you're just making a guess based on the *Only* Information you're given."
He shook his head.
Ares sympathized with Danica. 
"... Stupid." The taller boy sighed.
Gerald
She really did. Increasingly, Danica felt she lacked moments to be herself. She was either working, working, working, or dealing with digital boy wonder. Calling it *Dealing* Wasn't fair, she knew that, but Ares made her feel at ease to blow things out of proportion for a moment. She needed to every now and then for her own sanity. 

The air smelled like fresh leaves. 

Danica laughed outright when he sat up, the sound catching in the air like a star skidding across the sky. 

"I'm kidding-" She spoke between laughs.
"Sounds dumb." She was smiling. 

One thing Danica appreiciated about Ares, was that even in the face of stupid laughs and calling everything dumb, he still had things to say. Things that mattered; that sat in your head like a new weight that bumped some of the pressure off other things. She paused.

"Yeah. You're kind of right. Stupid."

She looked at the sky. 

"Have you done things you regret?"

She had. She trusted Ares.
Lillian
"It *Was* Dumb, thank you."

Danica's laugh was a nice sound. Ares always had a soft spot for making people laugh; he was a storyteller at heart. Perhaps he wasn't any proper good at it, but he sure loved to talk, and that alone allowed him to consider himself a storyteller. 

"Of course I'm right." He shrugged sarcastically, his words spoken through a smirk with a joking tease. 

The sudden topic change made Ares look over at Danica for a moment, but he didn't appear uncomfortable. He didn't feel off-put by this question, not anymore.

"Many. More than I can count or remember." 
His joking tone had gone, but he didn't sound exactly somber. This seemed like a heavier question to Danica so he treated it accordingly. 
"What got me sent here might be my damn biggest..."

"...But yknow, what can you do about it other than move on. Easier said than done— and I totally sound like every therapist that's high off their ass, talkin' about self compassion 'n shit— but like, it's true. Nothing can change the past."

"However, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't still *So fucking bitter* Over some of the things I've done. Anger is a difficult thing to let go of, and I'm no saint. Far from it."
His tone was a hiss for a moment, but it quickly returned to his normal casual tone. 

Something about being able to talk so openly was cathartic. He had only ever expressed his *Feelings* With Owen, Finley, Valio and his two siblings back home. 
Now, Danica would be added to this list. 
He trusted her. She was like him. 

"...You?"
Gerald
Danica didn't laugh for no reason. She was a reserved person, she knew this, she brandished it like a champions banner, but Ares had a way of raising the right colours to make her feel like she didn't need to hold it as high. Maybe she didn't need to be apathetic if she wasn't being forced to be proper. 

She rolled her eyes at him playfully.

She looked ahead as he answered, letting the words float in the air like ships off to sea. They didn't need to stay trapped in the harbour, where she could keep them locked in her head forever. That served no one. She let them pass meaningfully. 

She twitched when he mentioned what sent him here. She'd never actually told anyone what had sent her. It haunted her. 

He spoke well, meaningfully. Ares Morales wasn't someone who spewed bullshit just to say it. Not all the time, anyway. And you could always tell the difference. He wasn't calling anyone 'Batman' in this moment. 

"Yeah."

She let herself be flooded with memory. She didn't often. 

"I'm not here for good reasons either." The low light bent around her, making her look like a mirage in the desert. 

"Still, moving on is hard. And I don't trust myself to not make *More* Dumb choices. Maybe I should just have some faith in the fact I only do what I feel is best, but I haven't always been right."

She trusted Ares.

"I'm very driven, and not very sensitive. Some people don't appreciate that."

She *Really* Trusted Ares.

"At least before I wasn't *Dangerous.*"
Lillian
Ares sat up, this conversation required a bit more conscious participation. He wanted to *Show* Danica he was paying attention. 
He stared at the sky still. 

He took note that Danica hadn't done good things either. 
"So, looks like neither of us are allowed to judge the other." He lightly joked, keeping the tone serious but not fully. 
"We are cut from the same piece of fabric." 
This fact was almost said with pride. 

He listened as she spoke, what she said was something Ares *Knew.* He still didn't trust himself despite his growth, he didn't trust his anger or his violence. He didn't know if he'd ever be how he was before. 

"Dumb choices are apart of life. You're learning like everyone else."
He spoke vaguely, he didn't exactly know comfort. 

"If it makes you feel any better, I think you're smart. I don't say that to flatter you, I mean it. I know *Stupid* People who do *Stupid* Things. You've made mistakes, sure, everyone has, but that doesn't mean you always will."

He looked at his hands briefly. 
The scars across his knuckles. He thought about everything he had done. He wondered if Danica had done worse, or if she's turn her nose up at him being *Too horrible.* He shook the idea. 

"Some people, most people, don't like me either. You'll find the one's who do— and you wont have to change for them. If I can, which honestly should've been impossible," He laughed softly, "You can too."

"Such is, whatever, yknow."
He shrugged. Didn't really know where he was going, he was rambling. 
He took a sip from the vodka between them.
Gerald
Hearing Ares say that they were the same made Danica's world feel a lot less dire, all in one go. She'd read and heard the off comments, but the true, proper, unbridled confirmation made her breathe easier. It was like a weight was lifted, like what you imagined a clear nose must be like when you had a cold. The world around her shifted out of mirage and into perfect clarity. 

She snickered. 

"You think?" She spoke with confirmation. She agreed. 

"Cheers to that. We must be a tough weave." Nothing wrong with a little back-patting. 

"You're smart too, Morales. When you're not being reckless on purpose, anyway." 

She was joking with that last part, she couldn't help it. She snickered. 

His honesty was appreciated, as always. Her brow furrowed as she listened, thinking. She didn't know what to say. As he spoke, she was clearly taking everything in with the appropriate importance. Danica was good at acting like she cared, because truly, when she did, she did. She also liked that she didn't have to be a perfectly solemn vessel when she spoke with Ares. There wasn't so much pressure to *Be* Anything. 

Memories of what she'd done that *Really* Mattered shook her again. 

"Do you think... Some things can never be forgiven?" 

She was clearly trying to probe what he would accept. Her fingers tensed, but minutely. She looked at his briefly, then back to the stars.
Lillian
"Cheers." 
He gave a genuine half smile that pulled the corner of his mouth up. A comforting sort of expression, for someone like Ares. 

The taller boy looked at her for a moment, and studied her face. He didn't see much, he didn't super understand emotions, but there was something to her words. 

"I've done *Horrible* Things. If I can get forgiveness, at least from the people who matter, then no. I think things can absolutely be forgiven."
Or he hoped. 

"Even then, who cares. I know the people who *Won't* Forgive me, don't matter to me anymore. People who actually care, care."

He shrugged. 
"Wanna test it out? See if I go fucking crazy over whatever's bothering ya?" 
That was the closest he'd get to saying, *'talk to me.'*
Gerald
Danica appreciated looking someone in the face. She'd been nervous, so she was avoiding it, but it made her feel seen, and like she was better able to understand. She listened to him speak.

She rolled her eyes with a smirk, but she could tell he meant it. Danica was quiet for a long moment, then gulped down a mouthful of vodka. The taste cleared her head as we wiped her hand with the back of her mouth. She was a heavyweight anyway, it'd be fine. Ares Morales had earned her trust. 

"I blew up a building."

"Thats what I'm charged with. Domestic terrorism." She didn't plan on ever letting another soul hear this. Her words felt like they weren't her own. She felt hollow. 

"They couldn't find any traces of a bomb."

"An arena in Manhattan had a perfect double-bed-sized hole blasted in it through four floors. The light could be seen shooting out of the roof for miles."

She pulled her knees up to her chest.

"I'd been angry that whole week. I easily ripped through reinforced concrete. I wonder what would have happened if I wasn't so alone."
Lillian
Ares gave her a look. One he rarely gave anyone. It was a deep sort of expression, one that sank past the surface of his tensed brow and tight jaw. One that drew empathy on the lines in his skin, and dotted his scarred face and hands with compassion. 

The cut on his cheek had scabbed over now. 

She looked like she felt so alone, so hopeless. Ares knew how she felt, down to the marrow in his bones. 

"It's just concrete, Dani." 
He said softly after a moment. 

"Blasting a hole in a building doesn't make you a monster. We're just... Kids in unfortunate circumstances, I suppose." 

*I wonder what would have happened if I wasn't so alone.*
The words sat with Ares for a moment. He was unsure what to say to comfort her. He didn't really know if she wanted that. 

"Would you do it again?"
He asked her. In a way that implied he knew she wouldn't, not in a million years, but he wanted to hear her say it.
Gerald
A pent up, sour feeling built in Danica's chest. It threatened to crawl up her nose and into her cheeks, bringing her lungs to a heave and her eyes to tears. She didn't let it. She bit at her cheek instead. Her arms around her knees were tense. 

She listened, face twisted lightly. Danica wasn't great at talking either. She nodded, appreciating that Ares didn't make her feel like what she had done was horrible. Or at the very least, not her fault.

"No." 

She was sure of that.

"Not if I can help it. No."
Lillian
"Then that's all that matters."
His voice was soft. 

Ares placed his hand on the upper part of her back, right on her shoulder blade. A sort of connection, for a few seconds he looked her dead in the eyes. 

"You aren't horrible for what you did, aight?"
He tilted his head down slightly, sort of questioning her. Less a look of solemn sympathy and more a look of *'don't be stupid,'* That still held compassion. 

He pulled his hand back, his rough palm returning to his side once more. 

"Hell, most, if not *All,* People have crazy ass, horrible things they've done, and not all of them are monsters."

"You aren't alone in your regret, but you also aren't alone in your actions. 
...
Hell, I'm *Right* Here. I *Get* You, Dani, I really do." 

The world seemed quiet.
Gerald
It wasn't often that people touched Danica. She didn't like it from strangers or from any random person, but she also suspected that people were just afraid of her. Like there was a bubble keeping anyone from making contact, lest she tear off their faces. She didn't want to tear off anyone's face. Not really anyway, not unless it was deserved. Ares' gesture let her know he wasn't afraid of her. She felt a little warmer. Her gaze was warmer. 

Danica felt seen. 

She didn't love hypotheticals about people she didn't know, but she understood what Ares meant. 

His last words made Danica look at him very hard for a few moments. She knew his story wasn't a favourable one either, but she didn't yet know it. It was fair for her to ask in return. If he didn't trust her back, she'd feel very foolish for all of this. 

"...Do you?"

"Why are you here, Ares?"

Her tone of voice was understanding, like she didn't pitty him for being like her.
Lillian
Immediately Ares knew the reassuring gesture meant a lot to Danica. He was glad, he could feel she needed it. 

Then the question came. He knew she'd ask. 
The story of how Ares got sent to Newton's Cradle was one he had told before, but only *Once* Before. To Finley. A very well known fear stung within him once again, his eyebrows tensed. 
*Finley forgave him. They understood.*

He sighed. 

"I... Burnt half a girl's face off. Clean off, melted, could've sworn I saw bone."
His voice was quiet, slightly unsure. It was odd to hear from someone so confident and certain of himself. 

"We were childhood friends. Her name is Jocelyn. She got a crush on me in middle school, hated that I didn't like her back, so we stopped talking and I thought that was the end of it—"

He paused. 

"—Until in high school, she said if I didn't date her, she'd tell the entire school I was gay. *I* Didn't even know I was gay at the time— she just, wanted to get back at me. She wanted revenge, I guess."

"This obviously pissed me off, so I went to smack her, and of course..."

His voice shook slightly. Despite having told someone this before, it never got easier to relieve what it *Felt* Like to do that. To hear her scream, to smell the ash and burning. Ares shivered. 

"My powers manifested right there."

He closed his eyes. 

"I ran away from her. Ran away from all of it, as soon as it happened. All I heard was her yelling. I regret not staying to help her."

Ares looked over at Danica, he was quiet, the gaze on his face was pained. It was hard to hide how much this hurt him.
He hoped this display of vulnerability would give the one beside him comfort. 

"So yeah... You... Aren't alone in doing some *Bad shit.*"
Gerald
Danica listened carefully. *He did understand, and she understood him too.* Their situations were different, but it was like he'd said: same fabric. They could have easily swapped positions if the stars were just slightly different. Each were so capable of destruction. 

She looked at him, and her eyes were kind. Not pitying, nor crying, but stable. 

"You didn't mean it. And you were provoked. I was provoked too, and there's nothing I could have done to change what was going to happen because of it."

She remembered the feeling of burning. Like her soul was lit ablaze, and how it ripped itself from her with a power she had no way of controlling. In that moment, she was going to burn no matter what. Ares was the same as her in that. There was no jumping back out of the boiling water. 

She placed her hand against his shoulder, mimicing what he'd done for her. She wasn't good at comforts, but she hoped enough that showing they weren't that different was good. They could burn in solidarity from now on. 

"We get each other."

Her hand went back down.

"Thank you, Ares."
Lillian
Ares sat and listened to what Danica said. He heard the way each of her words resonated, echoed in the space. How even though she sounded rather apathetic her words dripped with emotion; it was alive in her, it was present. She understood him more than most did. There would always be a part of Ares that was far away, too close to the sun, but right now he was here. With Danica. 

Her hand on his shoulder made him feel fifteen. It was a raw feeling, a wound that never really healed. Yet it felt, almost like closure. Perhaps finally a scab was finally beginning to show. 

For a moment, Ares just looked over at the one beside him. His expression was blank, slightly troubled looking, thoughtful. Telepathically he attempted to communicate how sorry he was that she had to experience all she did. That she had to grow up like he did— that they had to be older than their age. A level of twisted maturity to cope with obstacles presented, a sort of expectation that never fully sheds— a molt always stuck on a limb. There was no amount of apology that Ares could mutter that could properly tell Danica how much he wished she never had to experience what she did. 
Instead, he just turned his head off towards the distance. Staring at the blank sky. 

"We get each other." 
Ares repeated. 

"Thank *You,* Danica."