Chapter 26

-Brian-

I looked over as Lisa practically sagged onto the couch next to me. "You okay?"

"Families..." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before continuing. "...are exhausting."

Thinking of Aisha, I opened my mouth to object. Then I closed it again silently as I actually thought about Aisha… and Mom. Exhausting really failed cover it.

"Exactly." Tired as she was, she still managed a pale shadow of her usual smirk. "I'm so glad I don't bother with mine any more." Her voice rang hollow, but I knew better than to push.

"How did it go, anyway?" I asked. "I can tell she didn't try to stop you, at least." That had been my biggest concern about Lisa's plan, but she insisted on going ahead with it anyway.

"As well as could be expected," she said, her grimace softening a little. "I don't think she'll move back home, not with the PRT watching her house, but hopefully she'll be in a better mood now."

The way her smirk returned at the end always meant she was up to something, I'd learned that a long time ago.

"So why did you do this? Besides the 'kindness of your heart'?" I air-quoted.

"I'm still not sure what she did to scare the boss," Lisa shrugged. "Which means I don't know if it'll last. Might as well have her on my side just in case when he gets ideas, right?"

I raised an eyebrow at her. She responded in kind before speaking.

"Don't worry so much, even if she does object when she finds out, it'll only be my problem," she waved off the unspoken question.

"If you say so," I told her. I wasn't entirely convinced Lisa knew what she was playing with here, but what was done was done. I went back to looking through furniture for my place. It'd still be months until I could try to get custody of Aisha, but preparing ahead of time could only help.

Especially if Mom's recovery falls through, I thought bitterly.

"So how's Aisha been doing?" Mom asked, fastening her seatbelt.

"She's been well," I said. "She's not even complaining about school anymore." I decided against telling her that the reason for that wasn't any newfound interest in academics, but stalking skinheads, of course.

"That's… good to hear. I kinda missed having her around the house, though. Could you tell her to come back?"

My first instinct was to say "no", but I paused to think.

Reasons not to: I don't trust her yet, and if Aisha's not careful with her power, she might out herself.

Reasons to: With her power, Aisha should be safe staying with Mom, and causing trouble now could make it harder to get them to grant me custody.

Mom looked at me expectantly.

It all came down to one simple fact. Neither me nor Mom could make Aisha stay at the place if she didn't want to.

"I think," I finally answered, "that it would be best to ask her."

"...You're right," she said after a long pause. "She's still using the same cell number, right?"

"Yeah."

Mom pulled out her phone and called Aisha. I couldn't help but notice that she answered faster than she did my calls.

"Hey, Aisha… Look, I'm sorry… I want to talk to you, okay? Are you at your brother's place? Good, I'll see you there." She hung up and turned to me. "She's waiting for us at your place, it seems. Take me there."

Fuck. The apartment still had a bit to go until it was in presentable condition. Aisha, what did you do?

Mom got out of the car first while I made sure the car was securely locked. This might have been one of the "better" neighborhoods, but that was by Brockton Bay standards. We brushed past some girl on our way upstairs. Mom seemed to be startled by her for some reason, but calmed down a few steps later. I unlocked the door, getting ready to weather whatever Mom's reaction would be.

"Wow. You've really done well for yourself, Brian."

That's not what I expected. I looked through the door too, seeing the place far cleaner than it had been when I left this morning. And I'm sure that sofa wasn't assembled yet.

Aisha waved at us from said sofa, game controller in her hands.

"Hey, Bro, hey, Mom. 'Bout time you showed up."

"Tall, Dark and Dorky's there already?" Alec's voice came from the TV the game was hooked up to. Those, of course, weren't there in the morning either.

"Oh, shut it, Alec," Aisha said, smirking at me. I could clearly see that she spent too much time around Lisa lately. "So, what'd you want to talk about, Mom?" she asked coldly.

"I… I wanted to say sorry. I know I haven't been a good mother lately," – I could tell Aisha had the same 'no, really?' reaction to that – "but I want to try again. Do it right this time. Please, Aisha. Come back to me."

My sister feigned thoughtfulness for a moment. "I don't know, I quite like it here," she said, looking around.

"Please, Aisha. I don't want to be alone. And… I'm still scared. I still see her when I wake up at night. Please?"

I didn't know whether I wanted to be angry at Taylor or think that Mom did bring this on herself, but… no.

"...One month," Aisha said after a long pause.

"What do you mean?"

"One month. I visit regularly. I don't stay, but I visit. No drugs, no new boyfriend. If you can stick to that, I'll move back in. Deal?"

I could see Mom chewing over that one for a bit. What seemed like five minutes later, she breathed out slowly.

"Okay, Aisha. I promise. Now please, drop by tomorrow?"

"Alright. After school, then."

"Thank you. Now, Brian," she turned to me, "do you have any coffee?"

"Get some for me too!" Alec's voice chimed in again.

I slipped past the skinhead trying to blindly swing a baseball bat around and headed for the one behind him, spraying gunfire around. He was so far off the mark he was honestly more of a threat to his fellow idiots, but nobody on my team was bulletproof, so he was still a danger. I lined up a solid blow to the wrist, and his gun clattered to the ground. Not that the loudly swearing man heard it fall, or was heard by his fellows. A few more punches put him on the ground, and I kicked the gun aside to get back to dealing with baseball bat guy.

I turned around, and blinked. I'd only been expecting to see one head there…

A second of dumbfounded staring later, he collapsed to the ground, and the cape that stood behind him stood to her full height, licking her lips. It wasn't hard to recognize her, even with the new dress suit and skull mask on her face. Taylor waved at me with a sheepish smile, though the effect was somewhat altered by the fangs of the mask lined up over her real ones. The lower lip and chin were uncovered, and a few stray drops of blood were trickling down.

"...T-Cass, what are you doing here?" I hissed quietly.

"There is no need for silence in this shrouded realm of yours," she answered. I didn't even have it in me to get worked up about her ignoring my darkness because of course she could do that. "I have come to offer aid - but perhaps words fly better when leaden bees don't?"

Damn it. 'Just roll with it' had been a reaction I'd been forced into far too often lately, but she was right.

"...Fine. You can handle yourself in a fight well enough, I suppose - help me take care of them, and we'll talk at the loft," I ordered, and she ran off with a mock salute. I shook my head before rejoining the fray myself.

I don't even know if she's a bad influence on Aisha or the other way around anymore...