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Backdated to like.....March? I think? Right around there? Mid-spring, let's say.


Blarney hummed to himself, bouncing slightly in the cold, as he waited. He’d texted Halia a little over an hour ago, asking her to accompany him on his patrol. In the time since he and Halia had gone from more-than-friends to friends-again, Mason hadn’t seen much of her. He actually hadn’t seen any of her. Not in person.

Mads had, though. That was almost as good as him seeing her, except it didn’t have the warm and fuzzy feeling that actually seeing her, with his own eyes, gave him. He didn’t know how long he’d be in the doghouse; to hear Mads talk about it, he thought it might be forever. He might have broken one of his best friends, because he couldn’t get himself to feel the right feelings for the right person at the right time.

But he’d - well, if not forgiven himself (could he ever?), he’d put it behind him. He was forcing himself to look forward, forcing himself not to dwell on the events of the past year. There had been so many of them, and they all rocked him like he was the tiny metal ball in the world’s most overwhelming pinball machine, but - well, things had settled. At least a little bit. He had magic. He had a slightly larger stick, now with a fancy stone attached. He could handle himself.

And he had been. He had been going on solo patrols since he and Halia had broken up. He’d thrown his energy into school and superheroing and that was all, going radio silent on all other fronts. At least until he’d thought he might be okay to text Halia again.

When he did, he got no reply. Or, if it was a reply, it was one or two words and brooked absolutely no follow-up conversation. Every time he tried it was like ice shattering through his heart again. He’d screwed this up royally. But at least Halia was letting Mads talk to her, and he got some information out of her, occasionally. Nothing specific, but Mads did take pity on him recently and told him that Halia was starting to - maybe - look a little bit like her old self again. Maybe. So he’d given it a little more time, and then he’d sent The Text.

Can you come patrolling with me, please? Simple, no frills, no pleading, no I’m sorries. Maybe the thing to do was just - move on. Put it behind the both of them. Figure out how to be around each other again.

She had responded with a thumbs-up emoji reaction to the text. No actual words, even. So he’d sent her the time and location he’d meet her at, and then he hurried to get ready so that he wouldn’t end up being late to his own reconciliation.

…Assuming she showed up. If she blew him off…

Well, he might deserve it. But. Still. There was only so much rejection a boy could take, and dang it, he missed his friend! He wanted her back in his life, and to be in hers - just in a friends way. Eventually, she would have to see that was the best thing for them both, right? Right?

Well, if she blew him off…he would forgive her, because he didn’t want to actually be in the doghouse forever, and if he wanted any chance of getting his friend back, he would just have to take whatever punishment she might mete out. Including standing him up for patrolling.

…But he didn’t think she’d do that. Not really. It was Halia. And more to the point, it was Aruna - Aruna who had saved him from his very first youma interaction, just about a year before. Time had both flown and dragged. Funny how that worked.

lena roze
The screen of Halia's phone had lit up as it chimed in a familiar tone. Mason. She sighed softly and reacted to his message with a thumbs up, knowing she couldn't keep hiding forever. If it was anything else, she would have declined. But senshi stuff? That was her duty. A duty which she took far too seriously at times

Sighing softly, she got up off the couch at her grandfather's house and started pulling her shoes on. She gave him a quick hug as she said goodbye, giving him the brief explanation of “magical stuff” before leaving. She knew it would take time to drive all the way back home, but she also knew that Mason would still be there waiting even so. That was something she really did love about him, too. That she could always count on him to wait as long as it took for her to get to him.

Shaking her head, she tossed her bag inside the door of her apartment and locked up behind her before finding a nearby place to power up. Feeling the magic settle over her, Aruna took to the rooftops and quickly made her way towards the designated meeting spot. Jumping down as she arrived, she landed before Blarney in a flutter of skirt fabric. She didn't smile, not really, though her expression softened at least a little.

“Sorry. I was out at my grandpa's place so I wanted to drive my car home before coming out.”

Blarney felt her on his little internal radar before he saw her. He didn’t know it was her, technically, but he knew it was a powerful third level Senshi, and that they were heading his way, so he could only hope.


When she appeared, Blarney felt his stomach unclench, all the anxiety giving way to relief as a huge grin spread across his face.

“No worries at all,” he said quickly, too quickly maybe. “I’m–” he caught himself; what was he allowed to say to her? He didn’t want to hurt her feelings or make it worse somehow… “I appreciate you coming out,” he said, instead of what he’d wanted to say, which was ‘I’m so glad you came’ or maybe ‘I’m so happy to see you’, or–any one of the gazillion thoughts that immediately ricocheted through his mind.

Was he allowed to ask about her grandpa?

Probably not.

But she was here. She was here and he could see her for himself. He resisted the urge to take her hand - just to make sure she was solid, not a hallucination or something - and instead gave her another wide smile.

“You ready to get going?”

lena roze
The grin Blarney gave her made her heart ache and her stomach twist, but she shoved it down. Duty came before feelings. Her duty as Aruna was what was important here, no matter her feelings towards the situation. She could fall apart again about things later, in the safety of the solitude of her planet or the hay loft at the barn. She was fine for now.

She didn't miss when he cut himself off, didn't miss the change in whatever he was going to say. A pang of something made her heart ache, but she shoved that down too. Guilt had zero place in her brain right now and she refused to entertain it.

“Yes. It's getting closer to Starfest, so it isn't a bad idea to get in the habit of having a patrol partner for the rest of the year, by the way. Starfest, Halloween time, and winter all have anomalies and non-youma related monsters. No matter how strong we are, backup is always encouraged.” She sounded almost reserved as she spoke, though the shudder as she thought about some of the past unsavory encounters she had this time of year was unmistakable. God she wasn't looking forward to the upcoming nonsense, but she knew that she would need to be on guard and help out those she could regardless.

“Do you have any particular route or area you wanted to keep an eye on?” She glanced at Blarney before looking around the area. She didn't feel any chaos presence, no agents or youma making her skin prickle, but that didn't mean there weren't any further out.


Blarney groaned, overdramatic and playful, when she mentioned Starfest. “Believe me, I know,” he said. He was coming up on a year since he had awakened; it felt like too much time and not enough, all at the same time. But that also meant that it was about a year since he had met Halia, and that filled him with a strange sort of bittersweet nostalgia that made him want to go give her a hug, but he resisted.

He shook his head in response to her question. “I figure casting a wide net can’t hurt,” he said, which was true, but also ensured that they could have as much time as they wanted to talk. It also kept him from getting pinned down to a certain area or time.

“So let’s go,” Blarney said, swirling his shillelagh over his shoulder with a smile. He picked a direction at random and started heading in that direction. He was still keeping an eye out, and paying attention to his internal radar, but mostly he kept his attention on her. She looked - tired, and Blarney felt a pang of guilt. His fault.

“Seen any big spooky guys lately?” Blarney asked, deciding that it was, for the moment, better to stick to magical talk until she was - hopefully - able to relax a little bit.

lena roze
“I awakened during Starfest. It always makes me a little extra twitchy.” That first year had been traumatic in so many ways for the then freshly awakened senshi, and she did not relish the thought of anyone else experiencing anything remotely close to that.

Nodding, Aruna followed him with a swish of skirts and click of heels. Despite her smaller stature, she matched his pace easily. Where anytime before, she would have been close enough their arms brushed, she maintained nearly an arm’s length of distance between them now and held herself in a rigidly perfect posture.

The question about enemies made her snort, however. “No. Thankfully. I did come to the aid of a Cosmos knight recently though. First stage facing off against a low level Agent. Also first stage, from the feeling they gave off. Been helping them off and on lately.” Honestly Windsor had been a godsend to her. There was something remarkable about the Cosmos Page that felt like a genuine breath of fresh air to her.


“Ooh, Cosmos?” Blarney said, genuinely interested. He was glad Aruna was still getting out and meeting people - according to his sister, Halia was spending a lot of time out of Destiny City, either with her grandfather or on Aruna. Which was fine, of course; in a way it was better that than her holing up in her apartment all by herself, but Mason still worried about her.

“Classic Aruna, helping out dumb newbies,” he teased, gently. “What’s the Page’s name? I’ve been trying to figure out a way to help out new Pages in a broader sense. Well, me and another Knight, Halle, do you know him? It’s just crazy that Knights wake up and know nothing and nobody,” he tsked lightly and shook his head. “So we’re trying to figure out how to reach out to more new Pages, help get their feet under them. You can give that Page my info. If you want. I’m sure you have it totally under control, though, not trying to overstep or anything–you helped me out, so it’s not like you don’t know what you’re doing.” Blarney gave her a hesitant smile, a little sheepish. Honestly, he didn’t know what may have become of him, if not for Aruna and Halia.

lena roze
Blarney was rambling. She felt an ache in her chest knowing she was the reason he seemed to be anxious, but she pushed it down. “Windsor. They're really fun, and they learn quickly. Had a sparring match with them and as a treat afterwards they bought lunch and I took them up to Aruna.” She shrugged, focusing on the path ahead rather than looking at Blarney. “Next time I meet up with them I'll pass your information along. I'm sure they'd appreciate knowing more knights.”

She sighed softly and ran a hand through her hair. “I've been meaning to meet up with some third stage knights I know and see if they might have any ideas. Senshi are easy to connect with, since there are mauvians to awaken them. Knights are trickier. I'll ask some of them if they might have ideas, since they've been around for a while.” By that, what she really meant was she would likely go chat with Basiluzzo and Stromboli next time she went to see her family, but somehow name-dropping her cousins felt awkward now.

As they walked, Aruna’s gaze turned skyward and her mind drifted in the lull of conversation, keeping her hands clasped behind her back as they walked so she wouldn't reach for his hand out of habit. It felt strange, being this close to him yet so terribly distant, and she very much did not like it. But it was necessary. She wouldn't force something that wasn't there, no matter how desperately she had wanted it. She wasn't that selfish.


Blarney nodded, mentally cataloging the name - Windsor, Cosmos - and moved on. He let the silence stretch out between them, and he willed it to be a comfortable one, but of course when you try for a thing like that it never happens and just stays awkward out of spite or whatever. He was just about to let out a big sigh and throw his hands in the air and either yell or give up or some other third thing when he spotted it.

A playground.

“Look!” Blarney darted over to the playground and scurried up the ladder with his Knight-granted speed and dexterity. He turned and beamed at her, obviously having momentarily forgotten that they were supposed to be awkward and weird with each other. “C’mon!” He was so caught up in his joy he didn’t even notice the tiny bright white light that had appeared out of thin air and seemed to follow him in a lazy loopdiloop.

Blarney dashed away from the edge and crossed the wobbly rubbery bridge, laughing in spite of himself as it wiggled under his feet. “Oh my gosh. ‘Runa! They have monkey bars!”

lena roze
Aruna watched as Blarney took off and smiled in spite of herself, shaking her head in mild amusement. He was also so care-free seeming like this, like he wasn't part of a literal life and death war of good and evil. Sometimes it made her almost envious.

Leaning against a lamp post, she watched him dart up the play structure. When he beckoned her to join him, she arched a brow in response. “I'm not…..I'm not sure if heels are the best idea for that?” It was an excuse, and a weak one at that.

Hearing Blarney call her by a nickname made her heart squeeze just a little painfully, but she sighed and walked over to where he stood by the monkey bars anyway. “I've…never actually played on stuff like this before.” She looked up at the bars that were, admittedly, for someone shorter than her but still decidedly above her head. “Can't be much harder than climbing around at the barn though, probably…”


“Then lose the shoes!” Blarney scoffed at her. He knew that they could take off accessories and still stay powered up. There was absolutely no reason not to play a little, other than the fact that they were both supposed to be working and that Evil could crush down on them at any point. But they both had their internal radars - it wasn’t like Evil could take them by surprise. It would be fun! And they both needed some fun.

So, pulling up his gangly legs, Blarney zoomed across the monkey bars, laughing with delight the whole time. “This is amazing! I was always pretty good at monkey bars ‘cause of cheerleading, but even then I wasn’t able to go so fast!” Blarney laughed again and shook his head, catching sight of the strange, metal pole with what looked like a speaker coming out the top.

“Ooh, go find the other one!” Blarney said, running over to the structure. “It’s on the other side of the playground somewhere. This was as close as we got to magic when we were kids,” Blarney said, and held his face close to the hollow and said, loudly (because, to be honest, the hollow tubes did not actually work so well at conducting noise), when Aruna was positioned at the other speaker, “Hi Aruna! See how silly I souuuund,” he added, dropping his voice playfully low. “I’m the King of the Playground!”

lena roze
The suggestion of taking her boots off made Aruna’s face scrunch as if she smelled something nasty. “Hard pass on that.” She did, however, find the other end of the tube and laughed as she heard him through it.

Shaking her head with a smile, she jumped up to the top of the play structure and eyed the slide thoughtfully before launching herself down it. Skidding onto the ground, she laughed before picking herself off. “Okay, okay, bad idea. Don't do that.” She brushed her skirt off and walked over to sit on a metal structure, only to yelp as it moved.

“Crap!!!” Once the alarm passed, she laughed. “Oh it's a merry-go-round! How cute!”


Blarney jerked to attention when she yelped, briefly worried she’d managed to find a woodchip Youma or something, but no, she just - had never been on a spinner before, apparently? Gosh, and Blarney thought his life was sheltered.

“Yeah! Watch this!” Blarney darted over and caught one of the metal spokes. “Hold oooon!” Blarney warned, and waited for her to be actually holding on before he started running, speeding up the merry-go-round faster and faster, faster than any regular human could possibly have spun the thing, and then he jumped up onto it and let out a wild cackle as it nearly flung him back off again immediately.

“This is amazing!!!”

lena roze
Aruna yelped and held on tightly as the equipment spun rapidly. “I think this might be-!!!!!” Before she could finish, she felt herself get flung off, landing nearby with a thud.

Laying on the ground in a pile of skirt, Aruna blinked up at the sky as she tried to reorient herself. It had been a while since she got tossed like that and it left her mildly dazed.


“Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!! ‘Runa!!” Blarney tried to stop himself, but the force was, in fact, too great, and he went flying too, though admittedly in a less dramatic fashion, and landed a few feet away from her, rolling in the dirt until he came to a stop, dizzy, but no less concerned.

“Are you okay?? Oh my God I’m so sorry!” Blarney tried to struggle to his feet, wobbled, and instead crawled over to her, worry etched on every inch of his face. “Are you okay?? Please be okay, please be okay–”

lena roze
Aruna blinked at him, taking in the appearance of his bewildered and concerned face, and couldn't help herself as she burst into a fit of laughter. She covered her mouth with the back of her hand but it was about all she could do. It had been a very, very long time since she had laughed this hard, and if she was less exhausted and emotionally drained, she would have been mortified that tears were rolling down her cheeks.

“Oh my god are you okay?” She managed to get the words out in gasps between laughs, and she wiped at her eyes with her palm.


“What? Of course I’m okay! Are you okay?? Hals…” The fact she was laughing was mostly reassuring, but couldn’t sometimes hysteria from a concussion result in uncontrollable laughter? Blarney had no idea, but it sounded right. But she wasn’t bleeding - and if she’d hurt her head, he probably would’ve seen blood, because head wounds tended to bleed a lot (he should know).

Blarney calmed down a little bit, his smile returning, if somewhat sheepishly. “I guess if I’m okay you’re okay, since you’re, y’know.” He gestured vaguely at her, especially the foofiness of her skirt, the wings, which - were those part of her body now? Or just her outfit? Blarney had questions but he wasn’t going to ask them now.

Instead, he just rolled onto his back, looking up at the sky above them. “Thanks for comin’ out with me, ‘Runa,” Blarney said, still looking at the stars. “I missed you. I missed this.”

lena roze
“I am, in fact, pretty durable.” She smiled as she wiped the tears from her face and simply lay there with him, staring at the stars. It had been a while since she had actually felt this close to being at peace.

Blarney's words made her smile falter, however, just ever so slightly. Her chest aches a little, but it was nowhere near the pain it once was. “Me too……” The words came out softly, more a murmur than anything. Because she truly did miss him. She missed her best friend more than anything. But she also knew it couldn't go back to the way it was. At least not yet. Not when she still felt this way. “I'm…..trying to get my head out of my a**. I promise.”


Blarney chuckled softly and let out a sigh. He didn’t want to say it, buuut… “Okay,” Blarney agreed. “As long as it comes out eventually.” Blarney gave her a little smile. “I can wait, and I’ll be here whenever you’re ready.” Blarney gave her another smile, then looked back up at the sky, letting the silence linger on for a few moments before he hoisted himself back up to his feet.

“C’mon. We said we were gonna patrol, and I’m pretty sure my sister would kill me if she found out I was messing around on a playground instead of actually finding people to help, so…we should probably actually patrol, yeah?” Blarney extended his hand to her, the motion intentional - he had to help her get used to being friends again, and this was one way to do it.