Avi didn't know who he was preparing himself to battle with but one thing for sure was it wasn't anyone like he expected. Before the dark shape even collided with him, he could recognise that scent from earlier; sweet, like flowers blooming on a summers day, fresh and bright and full of life. Kirstie was graceful as ever as she swooped towards him, delicate wings spread wide, the paper thin blades sparkling dimly in the darkness.

Why? Of all the people!

There was nothing graceful however about how she smacked into Avi full force and sent them both propelling towards a clump of trees at a truly alarming speed. In fact he was very worried that they were both just going to smack straight into one of the trunks but somehow, and much to his relief, Kirstie managed to reposition her wings so their trajectory was angled upwards, sending them at a slightly reduced speed to perch onto a branch.

Both were breathing heavily once they landed, although Kirstie was the only one who had any right to be out of breath seeing as she was the one who had just carted off two fully grown men like it was her day job. No matter his feelings towards her, Avi wanted to scream and shout at the girl for coming after them, he wanted to berate her for the ambush that scared the life out of him; but the moment his eyes adjusted fully once more and he took note of her picture-perfect face again, all previous words of anger vanished from his lips. Still, that didn't mean he wasn't extremely annoyed with her.

"What are you doing here?" Avi growled, his voice coming out tight as he clutched to the bark with his fingers, struggling to shift his body weight as he feared the branch he was sat on wasn't going to hold out much longer.

Kirstie whipped her head around to him, silky hair strands smacking him lightly in the face. She gave him the once over and shook her head in frustration. "What does it look like? Idiot," she said, her words still sounding melodic no matter how angry she also was right now. "Second one coming down Scotty," she called out and then gave him a surprise forceful shove off the branch.

Avi was grateful the fall was brief otherwise he definitely would have embarrassed himself by screaming like a little girl before a pair of strong arms caught him and placed him gently on the ground. He leapt away and spun to face a pair of grinning lunatics - aka snake boy and lilac eyes - the latter of whom had yet to change costume from his performance, giving the illusion that he was still standing shirtless in the cold night.

He felt a warm hand on his shoulder and an equally warm voice spoke into his ear. "That was different, wasn't it?" As always Kevin managed to find the light in the situation, although as Avi checked to make sure his friend was unharmed he noticed the older boy's eyes were slightly larger than usual, and his breathing had quickened too. No, Avi was not impressed by this little ambush at all.

"I still say you should have let me try to catch him," Mitch squeaked out to the blond boy, oblivious to the glares Avi was sending his way.

Scott shook his head adamantly, his eyes shining out eerily brighter than everything else in the vicinity. "But he might have hurt you," he told him seriously. Mitch merely laughed and slapped him on the arm, something Avi had noticed he was prone to doing.

Maybe that's why Scott's so well trained, he decided in amusement before clearing his mind of any more dumb thoughts and interrogating the two.

"Why the fuck did you pounce on us?" he questioned through gritted teeth, putting himself between them and Kevin just in case they decided to drag him off again.

"You ran away," Kirstie answered instead, nimbly jumping down to join them just as Mitch had opened his mouth to provide some sort of smart ass answer, and pulling a torch out of Scott's pocket, providing light for those who didn't possess night vision.

"Of course we ran away," Avi stressed. "You really think we were going to stick around in that madhouse?" He pointed in a general direction, although he had lost all bearings of his location. Judging my Mitch's belittling grin he assumed he had pointed completely the wrong way.

"I would like to put forward that my friend's views do not represent that of the two of us." Hey! We're meant to be a team. By all means Kevin was allowed to disagree with him - he definitely had done a few minutes ago - but in private, not in front of these lot.

"Do you hear yourself?" Avi asked his friend, still unable to understand why Kevin felt such loyalty towards them already. Had those extra days he had been conscious discovering his new ability and whatever else really affected him that much? "These lot," he waved his hand at the three, mainly Mitch, "they've brainwashed you," he insisted.

"Last time I checked we didn't have anyone who could do that," Kirstie said calmly, retracting and folding her wings inwards so they were invisible from the front, crossing her arms defiantly in front of her, waiting to hear Avi's argument.

The older teen didn't need any more encouragement than that. "You can't stop me from leaving," he told her. "I don't give a damn if I signed a contract, that don't mean shit."

He heard Mitch sigh and knew the boy was probably rolling his eyes. "I told you girl. We wasting our time with this kid," he said in his usual know-it-all manner, the tone that always made Avi want to tear his hair out. "Just let him be caught by one of the organisations," Mitch carried on. "I'm sure they'd have a lot of fun dissecting this ones brain."

Avi wondered why out of the five of them stood here, they were all looking at him like he was the crazy one. At the moment I'm the only sane one!

He took a step towards the younger teen, aiming to try and intimidate him into keeping his mouth closed for more than five seconds. "Just shut the fuck up you little–"

"Avi!" Kevin tugged at his elbow, concerned Avi was actually going to get physical.

"Guys!" Kirstie called out in annoyance, although it did little to help calm either boy.

Flitting his gaze from Avi to Kevin, Mitch slid over to Kevin's other arm and latched onto it. "I like this one though," he confirmed, leaning his head against the broad shoulder. "Can we keep him?" he asked, batting his eyelids at Kirstie.

Kevin looked down at the small boy. "Can you be serious for one moment please?" he begged, finally getting tired also of the teen's frustrating antics.

"Don't try talking to him Kevin," Avi grunted. Even someone as sensible as the twenty year old wouldn't be able to get a word of sense out of the little snake boy.

Everything's just a joke to him.

As if to prove his point, Mitch immediately set to bouncing around the two, aiming pretend punches in Avi's direction. "Why?" he sang out. "Kevin here would probably prefer more sophisticated chat than the repetitive monotone bullshit he gets with you." He gave the older boy a sneer. "Oh Kevin!" he cried out, flapping his arms about melodramatically in Avi's face. "We have to run away from the scary bad people Kevin! Listen to me Kevin, I know everything Kevin. I'm always right!"

He finished his little mocking impression by leaping backwards, which was just as well, as Avi had given up on patience and made a lunge at him, a snarl building up in the back of his throat.

"Come over here and say that snake boy," he challenged the teen, who was still just grinning manically from ear to ear at him.

Mitch only wiggled his eyebrows cheekily. "Want me to finish what I started earlier?" he hissed back, flexing his body, ready for a scuffle if Avi offered up one.

The older boy clenched his knuckles, feeling them click one by one. "Gladly." He wouldn't be so outdone by the snake this time. He knew what to expect and whatever other entity he had within him was definitely getting stronger. Plus normal Avi was no novice fighter, heck that had been his reputation as a little kid, the youngster who would send you to A&E if you messed with him or his best friend. Mitch may have had the benefit of being the more experienced in his ability, but at the end of the day he was just a scrawny teen.

A scrawny teen who deserves having his ego knocked down a peg or two.

"You two are just being stupid now," Kirstie muttered from beside them, utterly unimpressed by their behaviour.

Neither however was willing to back down now, both eyeing each other up, waiting to see who was going to make the first move. However as it turned out, neither did make a first move, as gradually Avi felt a calm sensation wash over him, eliminating a great majority of his anger and annoyance at the teen and also calming his earlier rabid fear. Still not looking away from Mitch, he noticed the younger boy was experiencing similar effects as his muscles relaxed and the light-hearted glint returned to his eyes.

Within a minute the two were over the need to fight and kept the battle limited to sending each other the occasional demeaning glare.

"Are you two quite done yet?" Kirstie asked, now both were a lot calmer. Avi nodded and looked towards her, wondering if she'd had anything to do with ending the fight before it had even started, but then remembering there was someone else present who was the much more likely candidate on that front, despite having not said a word since they had first met up again. Taking in Scott's appearance also, Avi could visibly see the boy looked drained, like he was the one who had just been in a fight.

Avi sent him a grateful look. Thanks for that...I guess. He didn't know if aiming the thought towards the blond would have any effect but Scott jerked his head up and gave him a small smile as he did so, so Avi figured that the sentiment had got through at the very least.

"Relax girl," Mitch drawled, returning to a more relaxed stance next to his boyfriend. It still feels weird to think of them as that. "I was just toying with him."

"I'm cold." Scott simply said and Avi noticed he was still only wearing a white tee and denim shorts, with nothing on his feet, just as he always had been. Not very practical attire for a midnight stroll.

Mitch leaned against his side, linking his small and slender hand with the blond's larger one. "Well if you insist on wearing the same thing everyday babe," he gently pointed out.

Scott shrugged. "It helps."

The small teen wrapped his arms around the other boy, still holding onto his hand. "Yeah well I'm cold too," he remarked. "And I'm the youngest so you're all meant to take care of me! Helpless, weak, innocent!" he cried out.

"Have never been used to describe you," Kirstie told him with a smirk.

"You don't feel cold. You're cold blooded."

"Shh," Mitch slapped the blond's arm again. "Play along dumbo." It didn't surprise Avi that snake boy actually had snake blood. He definitely acts cold-hearted whenever he's around me.

"Why did you sneak up and snatch us like that?" Avi asked for the third time, although this time it was more in confusion rather than rage.

Kirstie gave him a soft smile, small rings of light from the torch shining in her eyes, and Avi's breath once again hitched as she gazed at him, an feeling he couldn't identify rising in his chest. "We wanted to make sure you didn't run," she explained. "We wanted to at least talk to you before you charged off into the night." She laughed slightly at the last bit and Avi found himself smirking a little despite everything that had occurred. This girl just had that effect on him.

"And you thought suddenly ambushing us was the best way to achieve that?" he questioned, still at a loss for the three's tactics. "What if I'd hurt you?"

Kirstie laughed again, the melodic tones ringing out in the night.

"What?" he asked, dumbfounded.

"Honey, you're not going to be hurting any of us any time soon," she said in amusement, walking over to him and brushing his jacket down of imaginary dust. "In case you hadn't noticed we are pretty adept when it comes to using our abilities."

She looked up and met his eyes. It was strange. Avi had never been a big fan of eye contact, a human interaction that was more intimate than words could ever be, but with Kirstie it just felt...it felt natural.

"This is an old tree." They were interrupted when the boy who would never understand the problems with eye contact stated his observation of a nearby pine he had wandered over too, his hand placed firmly against the rough bark, fingers lightly tapping against it.

"Any good memories in it?" Mitch queried, giving the boy a fond look as he stood mesmerised by the plant life. "You should introduce it to Kevin. Maybe they're distant cousins."

"Can you?" Kevin asked, eyes widening with intrigue as he walked over to a potential new family member.

"No," Scott shook his head with a small grin. "He's just being silly." He titled his head inquisitively at the dark skinned boy. "There is something about you though..." he murmured and Avi could sense his friend's curiosity rising in excitement at the mysterious words.

He sighed. It was clear to him now that for Kevin there was really only one option. "I get it Kevin," he told him. "You want to stay here and I don't have any problem with that." He would miss the boy like hell but was sure his friend would be fine. People at Circo Di Freak were already charmed by his disarming personality and he would have no problem fitting in. Maybe Avi was just going crazy and that woman was a perfectly nice lady, but he couldn't stick around with her. However with no concrete proof to convince Kevin to leave he didn't know what else he could do. He just hoped his friend would be alright.

"But I'm not staying around any longer," he went on firmly. "So just let me go please," he pleaded to Kevin's distraught face.

Mitch walked over to them and Avi expected more snide remarks, but the boy ignored him completely this time, just taking Kirstie's arm and whispering in her ear. "Kirstie c'mon leave him, he ain't worth it."

Kirstie however wasn't about to admit defeat so easily. "We don't give up Mitch," she said, placing a hand tenderly on the teen's cheek. "You more than anyone knows that."

There was a moments silence while the two smallest members conversed silently, until Mitch's frame sagged and he went back to Scott, Kevin and the tree.

"Hug me," he instructed the blond in a small voice. Scott obeyed immediately.

With those three out of the way slightly Kirstie switched her focus back to the main runaway, placing a hand on his arm, and this time she had on a "no bullshit" expression. "Listen I can see that you like to try and act Mr Big and Tough but I can also tell you are a man of principle," she speculated, finding his eye line once more. "And I know that you can't walk away now, not when you're looking me in the eyes, without offering up some kind of explanation." She raised an eyebrow. "Am I right or am I right?"

Avi huffed a laugh out. Who are you and how do you know me so well? She was right. He wasn't a total asshole and couldn't deny her the truth when she was directly asking for it, no matter how much she may judge him for it.

He sighed before accounting what had caused him to bolt earlier. "That lady who did the bird thing," he began slowly.

"Eva?" Scott put in.

"Yeah whatever," Avi shuddered in memory of the woman looking at him. "She's...she's no good." He knew that was a pathetic explanation and Mitch confirmed it.

"Ooo spooky!" the young teen giggled, wiggling his fingers in front of him jokingly.

"I'm serious," Avi retorted in adamance, re-finding his words. "As soon as I saw her I just had this horrible sensation in my whole body that told me to run, that she was danger and I should get out as soon as possible." He could feel his body shaking and felt Kirstie's grip on his arm tighten. "Her eyes..." he shut his own to try and remember exactly what he had seen. It wasn't pleasant but he needed to focus right now. "When I looked into them" he continued, eyes still tight shut, "there was just this feeling inside me, almost primal, that urged me to run. It's like I could reach out and sense what kind of person she was, and all I could see was darkness."

He finished and opened up his eyes. Kirstie was staring directly ahead, her gaze somewhere around his neck, an unreadable expression on her face. Everyone was quiet.

"Sensual." Mitch eventually broke the silence in typical fashion.

Avi managed to ignore him for once, speaking directly to Kirstie. "I'm telling the truth," he insisted.

She nodded hesitantly and twisted her head to the blond. "What d'you think Scott?" she asked.

The silent boy jumped slightly at being called out. "I...I don't know," he stuttered, shifting awkwardly on his feet. "I haven't seen anything...but that doesn't mean he's not right."

"I know what I saw," Avi said firmly.

"That does sound kind of bad." Finally Kevin was starting to realise his friend hadn't gone completely insane.

"No shit," Avi replied, glad he could have another go at talking Kevin out of staying. "Kevin, I know you think I'm being reckless here and I know that being reckless pretty much sums up my whole life, but I...I care about you and I want you to be safe. That place isn't safe."

Kevin regarded him seriously, and Avi could tell he was considering everything carefully, just like he always did. He waited anxiously for his friend's decision for he knew it would be his final one. "One woman, out of how many?" Kevin spoke up after a while. "What about the others? The ones who've been nothing but welcoming to us. What about the kids Avi?" He tried to appeal to the younger teen's softer side, the one that only Kevin knew he had. "You think all those kids have this evil darkness within them?"

"No," he replied instantly. Of course they didn't. All the kids he had met were just kids. Hyper little pests but just kids all the same.

"But you want to leave them with this woman around?" Kevin asked rhetorically.

"I–" Avi had run out of stamina, any arguments he made now seemed invalid. Talk about between a rock and a hard place.

"Hey dumb and dumber," Mitch broke the silence that followed once again. "Either make up your minds to fuck off or not, or I will do it for you."

"Let me try and make this decision easier for you Avi," Kirstie spoke up. "Because at the end of the day your choice really does hinder on one crucial factor."

Avi narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "What's that then?"

"Do you trust us?"

Well I can't exactly answer that properly, can I? "My senses may have been heightened but I still don't think a day is enough time for me to judge the character of about eighty people," he said to her.

"Yes," Kirstie replied, rolling her eyes. "But I'm not talking about them, I'm talking about me," she explained. "Do you think you can trust me?"

Oh, that's different then. Avi certainly felt a connection with this girl, one that he had never experienced before. I guess you could call it trust? He definitely didn't not trust her anyway, but then again, he had only known her a day.

"Do you trust me Avi?" Kirstie repeated her question.

After a moments hesitation he slowly nodded. "Yeah."

She smiled, looking relieved, and spun him around to the other boys. "And what about Scotty?" she asked.

"Yeah," he said again. He suspected the tall boy didn't even have a bad thought in him.

The blond's face lit up at his answer. "Thank you," he said, thoroughly pleased.

Kirstie too was satisfied with his reply. "Good," she smiled at him.

"Hey! What about me?"

"Mitch. Quiet." Kirstie held a finger out towards the youngest and to Avi's great surprise the snake boy did as he was told.

Taking his hand in hers she told him earnestly: "And I trust that you were telling the truth about how you felt," she declared, honesty seeping out of every syllable. Trust. That's not an emotion many people have expressed towards me in the past. But then he had never really done much to earn it from anyone apart from Kevin.

Kirstie carried on, still holding his hand gently: "And I'm asking you to come back with me so you can tell Lucian about it. He'll know what to do and I'm sure he'll be greatly appreciative," she assured the wary teen. "And I know you think the whole 'there's organisations after us' is a load of crap but believe me when I say my brief encounter with them is one I wouldn't wish on anyone. You're both safer with us and like it or not Avi you're one of us now, and we stick together. It's a bit of a messy fit and there's superglue running down the sides but it's still one object." She smiled. "We're one entity. One big freaky entity, and we'd like to know if one of us has gone rotten."

He was captivated. Throughout her whole speech he had been unable to look away. Even in the dim light of where they were stood it was as if Kirstie was painted in fluorescent colors. When she had smiled those rays of colors from every end of the spectrum had shimmered and gone running in all directions, painting the empty air around him.

Avi decided it was quite possible that he had been drugged earlier as well.

"So, Avi Kaplan," Kirstie dragged him back to his current reality, eyes wide as she popped the final question. "Will you come home with us?"

Interesting choice of words there. Home. What was home for him? Home had never been the numerous foster placements or his current shitty apartment. Home has always just been...he glanced towards Kevin, who was awaiting his answer just as nervously as Kirstie, and realisation dawned on him. Home has always just been Kevin. Wherever Kevin was, that was his home, because Kevin had been the only family he could remember having.

And now there was this girl, Kirstie, who he hadn't even known a full twenty four hours, and yet at times it seemed like she was someone he had grown up with. Could she become part of what made home for him too?

There was only really one way to find out. And so he took a deep breath and gave a short nod. "Okay," he eventually agreed, and the tension that had been hanging around the group immediately began to disperse.

"Yay," Mitch unenthusiastically quipped but it was clear the youngest was satisfied with how things had panned out.

Kirstie was practically beside herself with happiness. "Thank you!" she exclaimed, pulling Avi in for a brief hug. "Let's get going then," she urged. "Us three will be in enough trouble for skipping after show work so we better not spend any more time out here. C'mon lovebirds," she instructed Scott and Mitch, who were still both wrapped tightly in each others arms.

Scott took the lead in navigating their groups way back, somehow always finding the best path even if he did occasionally stumble or knock his head on a low hanging branch a few times.

Avi walked up beside Kevin and put an arm across his shoulders. "Sorry for bailing on you earlier man." He couldn't believe he had been prepared to just march off and leave his friend stranded on his own in the dark.

"That's alright," Kevin gave him a friendly shove. "Sorry for not making you feel safe," he replied and Avi shook his head in fondness. There was nothing his friend could have done earlier that would have made him feel safe enough to stick around with that woman.

He felt better now though; knowing that he was being taken seriously and his fears were going to be addressed by the man in charge, the gaffer as Mitch liked to call him who was, as Avi had witnessed beforehand, a very powerful man.

He batted away Kevin's concerns. "You know that's always been my job. Brains and brawn, that's us."

"Yeah," the older boy chuckled. "You keep telling yourself that."

Avi allowed Kevin to stroll on ahead to ask Scott some burning questions he had about the trees. He was happy to keep his own company for a while, admiring the back of Kirstie's head from a distance and trying to work out how her wings seemed to have vanished completely from his sight.

He wasn't allowed much of a respite however as he was interrupted rudely by a little figure sidling up just behind him and hissing quietly in his right ear. "Hey Avi, wanna hear a fun fact?"

"What?" he tersely asked.

The snake boy giggled, his breath tickling against Avi's cheek. "I requested for you to room next to me earlier on. That way we can have secret late night gossip and hair-braiding sessions!" Mitch announced in glee, his cackles growing louder as he sensed Avi's body stiffening in blatant horror.

"And," he continued, voice lowering to the deepest Avi had ever heard it go, "it gives me prime position to make sure you don't do anything stupid again, kid," he emphasised the last word, doing his very best to belittle the older boy.

And before Avi had a chance to retaliate in any way, the small teen had snaked off again, catching up to the others, only sending one last mocking grin Avi's way.

Avi glared back. Now that boy...that thing definitely didn't represent any idea of home. He was so caught up in his frustration that he failed to notice Kirstie had stopped to wait for him, and didn't realise she was beside him until he heard her melodic laughter.

"Oh cheer up!" she teased and gave him a wink that harked back to the show. "Maybe if you're good we can see about switching your room so you're next to me," she suggested with a smirk.

Surprisingly, the mere thought of that cheered him up massively, and he carried on with a bounce in his step.

Sorry for the long wait, life has just been pretty hectic lately!