Homecoming

Who: Sean and Joshua
When: a little after eight
Where: the apartment

Joshua had set the alarm on his phone for around seven-thirty, but ended up waking up before it even, and lingering until eight. He'd turned it off so it wouldn't wake her, and just laid there for a while, looking at her face. It was so hard to get up out of bed. Because Lullaby was in it, and she was breathing softly and curled up to him. With the morning light coming in from the window, she was perfectly visible and -- most importantly -- alive. Just sleeping next to him like nothing had ever happened. He'd tried not to wake her up, but grace getting out of bed had never been his strong point, and the thunking had been more than enough. There'd been some quiet murmuring, and kisses. Wonderful kisses that had made him stay even longer than he really probably should've. It was glorious, and with promises that he would be back again later in the day, he left Journey's old house feeling absolutely buoyant.

He ran the short distance back to Tourville Apartments and was even too consumed in being absolutely happy to be nervous about Sean. And whether or not he'd known at all that Joshua wasn't in his room all night. In daylight, her concerns about not being able to make any kind of life again felt kind of far away to him. He loved her, he'd told her so, she was alive again, and everything else was detail. He started to climb into his open window, concentrating more on where he was putting his feet than what was in his room.

A hand grabbed him by the collar and hauled him bodily into the room. For a smallish man, Sean was unbelievably strong, especially when he was pissed off. Like now, as he dragged Joshua into the room and left him sprawling on the floor. "And where the holy hell have you been?" he asked, anger in his voice. "Out all bloody night and you didn't even take you phone with you. What the hell do you think you're playing at - you're lucky I didn't call the fucking police!"

That brought reality crashing back in, in rather uncomfortable ways. He hit the floor but didn't fight it, rolling on his back to look up at Sean. Well ... shit. This probably wasn't going to go well. "I was just out," he said, and it wasn't really hard to fake nerves when the angel looked like that. "I couldn't sleep, I went out walking." And that was partially technically true. "I did have my phone, I just ... had the ringer ... off." Which yes, was quite possibly a spectacularly bad idea.

Sean glared at him for a minute, all righteous fury. Sure, his job was to protect this lad but there were times that he really just wanted to beat some sense into him. It'd make his job a whole lot easier, anyway. "You're fucking stupid, you know that," he said, instead, not caring if he came across as rude. Joshua needed to have it upfront at times. "You know those streets aren't fucking safe - you of all people should know that, yet you go out and... You don't even tell me where you are! I don't want to have to give you a curfew laddie, you should be old enough now to be able to go out and live your life, but that means acting like an adult as well and showing some brains, rather than sneaking out and then climbing back in through your bloody window like some child. You're not a child anymore, Joshua - don't act like one."

He bit the inside of his cheek so he wouldn't grin with relief. A lecture, he could take. Being told he was a moron, he could definitely take. Sean was of course perfectly right, it would have been fucking stupid to just go out wandering in this town. It was good that wasn't what he'd really been doing, but of course he couldn't explain that. Lullaby didn't want Sean to know. And while he didn't think that could last for too terribly long, he'd try to respect her wishes. Which meant that lecturing was good, but questions weren't. That was what he would flail at. So he nodded and tried to look suitably apologetic. "I know, I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't think I'd be out that long, I didn't want to wake you. But ... yeah, sorry."

"Naughty children climb in through the window, Joshua," Sean told him, still highly annoyed. "Adults use something we generally call a 'key'. Don't try to bullshit me with fake concern - you climbed in through the window hoping I wouldn't know that you'd been out all night. Get this through your thick skull: I am here for you,. I am here to make sure you don't come to any harm. I am not here for the good of my health, or on some kind of holiday. If you go missing, I don't sleep, I don't rest, I will come looking for you and I. will. find. you. I've been out half the night looking for you, so fuck knows where you've been wandering. Don't do that to me again - if you do, so help me but I will nail your feet to the floor every night to stop you from leaving. You let me know where you're going, you leave your phone on so I can contact you. I want to let you have a life, Joshua - I think you should have one, but bloody hell boy, if it's between that and your safety, I have to do what I'm here for."

Okay so he did feel a little bad. He didn't know Sean had been out looking for him, though now that he heard so, that made sense. Really he hoped the angel would sleep through the whole him-not-being-there thing, but it hadn't turned out that way. It made it a bit easier not to grin and hop up to hug him, that was for sure. He didn't know how he was going to fake not feeling infinitely better for a while, outside of sheer avoidance. "I won't," he said. Then hurried to amend that. "Won't do it again. Will tell you and have my phone." There. Compliance. While he was looking up at him, he was wondering how badly Sean would freak out about Lulu being back. He wanted to think 'not much, except for the general freakiness of her being back from the dead', but it was hard to tell. She wasn't evil, he knew that much, no matter what she thought, and he thought that maybe Sean could be convinced otherwise. He really didn't seem the type to righteously strike down young girls -- even if they came back -- first and ask questions second.

Sean eyed him, sceptically for a moment. That? Had been far too damn easy. He'd expected the lad to at least attempt to argue back - he'd laid into him, after all. Called him stupid and foolish and who knew what else. And Joshua had just... taken it. "What's going on - where were you?" he asked, suspiciously. He wondered if he was just being paranoid, but that was his job, after all, and if Joshua was getting himself into any trouble... That could happen, he knew - especially when Joshua had been through the kind of trauma he'd experienced lately. He was grieving, he wouldn't be thinking straight, it would be easy for him to go off the rails.

... shit. "Out walking. Around the lake," he said. It was tempting to say Journey's house, to make it seem less like he was lying in his own head, but then Sean might get the idea to go check the place out. And unless he did it at night when she could hide, that was probably a bad idea. "Practiced throwing rocks into the water without touching them." There, look! He'd been using his telekinesis outside of the house where people could've walked up on him! Even more stupidity to be distracting. Maybe, hopefully. Something. "I just ... had to get out for a while." What he didn't want to do was use Sean's lingering impression that he was grieving to his benefit, 'cause that was just shitty, but if he had to, to protect her, he would.

Sean paused, frowning. "I looked at the lake," he said, ignoring the fact that it was a damn huge lake. "Look, Joshua - if you're in any kind of trouble, if there's anything I should know - tell me. I can help, that's what I'm here for," he told the lad. Okay, one of the ways he could help was by making it all stop, or taking Joshua away from the trouble, but he didn't need to say that. Vagueness was your friend in these circumstances.

Joshua stared at him, and was very tempted to spill it all. He wasn't a very good liar under the best of circumstances, especially to people he considered family, and Sean fell into that. Authorities were a different matter, but Sean ... he had to live with Sean. Not to mention the fact that he was practically bubbling over with joy that he wanted to share. But in the end, Lullaby's fear won out. Maybe eventually, but not this morning. "What, you think I jumped into a life of crime already?" he asked, trying to put some defensiveness in there. "I just went for a walk. I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but I'm not in any trouble. I walked around the lake, I threw some rocks, I sat for a while. That was all."

Well, there wasn't much to say to that, was there? Not when it was put that way. Sean didn't look happy about it, but he backed down, all but huffing. "Fine, well - see it doesn't happen again," he told the lad. "I'm not asking much, just... let me know, okay? You be fair with me, I'll be fair with you. Just because you have a guardian angel doesn't mean that you can't grow up, have some independence. I'm not here to stop you living." I'm here to keep you living. There's a difference.

Guilt crept in under the surface of his thoughts. He didn't like this. He wanted his theory confirmed for sure, that Sean wouldn't hurt Lullaby on his behalf. That it would be okay and they could work something out and she could even come and stay with them. He wanted to know that for sure, and have fixed one worry for her. But she was right, that knowing more would be better, so ... yeah, he'd try to keep this pretense up, even though he was already wondering how he'd get out of the house later on. He nodded his agreement to that arrangement, still on the floor. He'd been chided and torn a new one, and seemed to be getting away with the lie, so ... he wanted Sean gone now, so he could relax a bit and sleep.

Sean nodded, brusquely, never sure how to end this kind of thing. He was good at starting things, not ending them. He didn't really know when to stop, oftentimes he just kept on going until he'd realised he'd gone too far. He didn't want to do that here, so he took a step back. "Get some sleep," he said. "I know I'm going to - be here when I wake up," he added, a clear warning in his tone for that one.

"Yeah," Joshua answered. He thought that if he slept as short a time as he thought he might ... it was possible he'd be risking Sean-wrath again to wake him up and tell him he was going out. But that depended on how long the angel was going to sleep, and what kind of excuse he could think up in the meantime. But at least a few hour's nap would be good in the middle. He didn't move, planning to wait until Sean was out of the room to actually get up.

Sean nodded once again and then turned on his heel and headed out, going straight to his room. He just paused to strip off his shirt and jeans before falling into bed. It had been a very long night, but Joshua was home and he was safe. That was all that was important.