Alisha and Harley, Backdated to June 19

[om_vault]

Harley has a close call with Alisha in a hallway.

Harley was wandering the mansion anxiously again. There was still no word on River and Laura, and every day the waiting got worse - how could they possibly expect her to focus on something as useless as homework?

She was on one of her more common routes through the halls with empty rooms, a walk that she usually had all to herself. Taking a corner sharply, Harley almost bumped into a girl leaning against the wall on the other side. Harley brought her hands up defensively, but managed to stop without hitting the older girl. Barely.

"Oh, sorry!" 

"Shit, get off me!"  Alisha lifted her hands and a knot formed in her stomach.  It didn't go away, even when she realized that the girl hadn't actually touched her.  "Don't you watch where you're fucking going?  Smacking into the wrong person -" Like her. "- here could be dangerous." 

"I'm sorry! I didn't know you were there!" Harley protested, clearly alarmed by this response. For once she hadn't actually run into someone and she was still in trouble. "I'm not dangerous, I promise!" Maybe that would help?

"And if I were?" Alisha asked with an arched brow.  "I've only been here a few days and I already know better than to go around touching random strangers.  Are you new or just fucking clueless?"

Harley wilted, shrinking away from the girl. No one had ever spoken to her like this before, and it made her want to hide again.

"I didn't mean to..." she offered weakly. "And I wasn't gonna touch you..."

"'Didn't' doesn't mean 'couldn't.  You came close."  She was only a kid, Alisha reminded herself, but she didn't want to think about what might have happened if a kid had touched her.  It would be as bad, probably worse, than if someone her own age touched her.  The kid had to learn to think before she leaped.

"What's your name?"

"Harley," she mumbled, sulking a little. She didn't know what else to say or do - clearly she shouldn't try and shake hands. 'Sorry you hate me but welcome to the school' also didn't seem right. So she tugged at her oversized t-shirt, wondering if the girl would let her leave.
 
She was just standing there looking like Alisha had just kicked the shit out of her favourite puppy and finally Alisha sighed.  "I'm Alisha.  How long have you been here, really?"

Harley offered her a tiny, hopeful smile - or something close, anyways. "Since April, right after I got my power. It's freaky, right?"

"Very," Alisha agreed.  Freaky powers for a now freaky girl.  Ugh.  "First new rule, watch where you're going.  Second new rule, no touching people you don't know.  It can get awkward here."

The blonde nodded obediently, if a little absently. She thought it better not to mention how many people she had already run into around here. And that time she flew into Damon. Yeah, awkward for sure. After a pause, Harley asked cautiously, "Um, why are you back here? Not that it matters! I just usually have this area to myself..."

"Because some of us haven't been here as long as you have, yeah?"  And maybe she'd been sticking her nose where it didn't belong, but if this girl was here, it was a place she could stick without getting it bitten off.  "I was looking around the campus."

"Are you looking for something specific? I bet I can help, I've been almost everywhere I think," Harley offered helpfully.

All right.  It seemed as if she was going to have a tour guide.  "What is there to find?" she shot back.

"Um, there's a music room around the corner. The library's cool if you like books," which Harley clearly didn't, but whatever. "There's a sun room that's kinda nice?"

"What in the hell is a sun room?"  Did that mean that you could get sun without going outside?  That might be nice except that there was a breeze outside to counteract the heat.  "Never mind.  What else?"

Harley winced a little at Alisha's tone, but kept talking nervously. "Um, the gym is really big, it has everything. There's a giant swimming pool, too. And dance rooms, and the danger gym. There's the kitchen if you want to cook or get snacks. Outside there's a lake, and stables! And the boathouse too." Harley sort of forgot that there was so much here. She took a moment to be impressed that she could actually locate most of these things. "Lots of just empty rooms, too."

Alisha's eyebrows rose.  "If there are so many empty rooms, why do we all have to have roommates?"  She would have preferred living on her own for practicality's sake if not because her roommate was a bitch.

Harley's face crashed through so many emotions at once that it was hard to tell what had happened. Finally it settled on truly, powerfully sad. "My roommate's missing..."

Alisha had heard something, but she hadn't really paid attention to the specifics.  "How in the fuck does someone go missing from this place?"

"They were in New York at a concert..." Harley wasn't making eye contact at all anymore, rubbing nervously at her arm. "Someone took them..."

Okay, Alisha hadn't been here that long, but she'd heard of one person being experimented on, one person being shot, and now more than one person who'd been - still were - kidnapped.  "Fuck--this--place," she said slowly.  "Come on, kid.  Let's get you, uh, hot chocolate or something."  She'd have suggested spiking it if she knew where to get the alcohol.

"This is the safe place," Harley said quietly, her voice trembling as she tried to get back in control of her emotions. She nodded down the hall towards the kitchen and started walking in that direction. "That's why we're here."

"Sure," Alisha said, thinking about what could have happened if the kid had run into her.  "Safe."

"Safer than out there..." Harley had wrapped her arms around herself. "Pietro says we protect each other here."

Alisha had to bite her tongue against answering.  There was being a bitch and there was being cruel.  If she continued trying to bring reality to the girl now, it would just be cruel.  "Come on.  Everything's better with hot chocolate.  I bet they even have marshmallows."