THEN
Twigs snapped under foot as Ethan pumped his legs further uphill. Down the treeline, Cole threw his back against a trunk, peering around it as Ethan swung over a fallen log. He threw up a hand signal, shaking his head at Ethans answer. The whistle they both heard froze their movements.
Cole slid down the trunk, missing a hit by inches and thrust his sword up to block the next.
"Ethan did you catch that move? Rookie is growing up." Anna flipped her sword to her back as Ethan himself struck out.
The wooden swords from Cole's tenth birthday sang as the three of them chased and dodged around the forest in the late August heat. While the majority of their summer break had been spent earning as much as they could save for their respective moves, they still found time to remember the silly.
After their birthdays the silly had turned towards move crunch time. Though she first received countless rejections both within and outside her chosen field, Anna finally heard from a gallery needing a receptionist when theirs went on leave in September. While she was hoping her internships would land her a gig as a curatorial and gallery exhibition assistant, Anna was determined it could be the next step now that she would be getting her foot in the door.
Cole was sent an offer as assistant photographer for an event planning company in New York City, which lit a fire under Ethan now that both had dates in mind for leaving. While he planned to go in with Cole on an apartment in Brooklyn so he'd have a place to land in between jobs, Ethan didn't want to stay there long. He was beginning to feel like he couldn't fully process the breakup with Caroline until he was separated from the other two. Even though he knew they understood and he could tell them anything. Still, Ethan began applying in earnest to bouncer gigs in LA. Figuring if the other two were going to be in New York, he might as well be as far away from the temptation for the familiar as possible.
With their days together dwindling though, they spent as much time as they could just them three.
Now Ethan whistled out a breath as they reached the river.
"I need in." He proclaimed and toed off his trail shoes.
Anna checked her watch. "Ceecee specifically said we were to be at Holm House by four."
"And its barely after noon now." Cole pointed out.
"Yes but." Anna let an oof when Ethan and Cole's shirts hit her in succession. Yet, she automatically began folding them. "But then we'll hit the Grand for lunch, inevitably get yelled at for dripping…..you two will only have to shake in the yard and be back to suave. My hair is going to be the size of a blimp….."
"Remember when everyone and their mother thought she was the bad influence out of all of us?" Ethan asked Cole and began walking backwards towards the river bank. Both emptying the pockets of their shorts.
Anna huffed and would have resisted the bait, but it was so good to see some humor come into Ethan's eyes. However wicked. So she swaggered towards them both, ditching her shoes on the way.
"Yeah! When did you go soft?" Cole added and let out a whoop as Anna made a grab for him, only to meet empty air as he jumped into the river.
Anna felt herself be drawn over Ethans shoulder as he made a grab of his own and her half hearted growls turned to laughter as they jumped in together and joined Cole.
There was the obligatory dunking, splashing, pebble tossing before Anna quirked an eyebrow and raised her hands above the water, creating a small wave that she operated with her will. Cole relented enough to glance around quick before retaliating with a wave of his own that blocked hers. Before either could form another move, Ethan jerked his head at the broad tree above and had leaves raining down in a swirl.
Just as the break of cool water was needed, these moments were needed too. They needed to be reminded how their abilities were a part of them and not just a weapon to be wielded. They weren't only the cause of pain. They were something to be accepted and at the right times, celebrated.
And there was comfort in the knowledge that if they had never found out they had these abilities, they would still be exactly where they were right now. Three best friends, sharing the worry and the excitement of the next chapter in their lives.
They dodged the obligatory glares as they dripped down the halls of the Grand for sandwiches and a change of clothes. The apartment in the Grand was already looking a bit dimmer as Anna had begun packing her belongings and what items Phillip had insisted be passed down.
Despite Anna's cautions, they made it to Holm house before Cecelia could porch hover. They did not however beat Phillip, which was the main issue. Pacing a path on the back deck, he raged.
"You raise a child. Clothe them, feed them." He extenuated each word with a wave of his arms. "Put a roof over their head. And when the crunch time comes for their leaving the nest, who is it they want to spend time with?"
"Probably the ones that kept her sane." Ethan ducked and dodged the halfhearted swipe Phillip sent him.
"It will be remembered, mark my words." Phillip wagged a finger and accepted the water glass Cecelia handed him, patting her hand. Much of his theatrics were to help to cheer her up, even if she responded with an eyeroll.
"You're just worried you're going to start feeling like the old man you are with no youngins under foot."
Phillip scoffed at Anna. "What dribble. I'm eager to put my feet up and not have music blaring at all hours."
"Aren't you the one that got the last few noise complaints?" Cole reminded him.
"Only when I'm preparing for a role. It can't be helped that my old man hearing requires a higher volume."
"Phillip quit bugging those kids and give me a hand over here." John called from the grill.
"I did my job already boy." Phillip wagged a finger towards the kitchen.
Ethan winced as he got up to help his father instead. "Good gravy, who let him cook?" He muttered to John.
"The Simone gumbo you ingrate!" Phillip raged.
The light hearted jabs and laughs that followed carried into the night. The hodgepodge barbeque turned to smores and excited chats for the future. Of course the three were at the center of that, but they weren't the only ones starting a new phase of life.
Cheers erupted when Cecelia announced she would be joining John on his bands next tour for several weeks. The look the two shared put a warmth and hope in Ethan he hadn't felt since Caroline had left. Sometimes, people find a way.
Phillips plans were not so shockingly for a move of his own. He would still be keeping the apartment at the Grand and traveling back and forth, but was also migrating to the east coast for a spell. While Anna was eager to find her own home and way, she was relieved her papa would be splitting his time amongst a few theatre crews only a couple of hours from her town or where Cole would be in the city. While Phillip was often just as wily at eighty two as he'd been decades before; Anna still felt worried about losing time with him.
For these summer nights though, they all did their best to keep the worries away.
"Hey, you get that thing outta here." John kicked at his sons foot next him at the fire pit.
Ethan looked up from his phone with a sheepish grin. "Sorry, some old buddies from high school are in town. Guess the tavern will be a bit active tonight."
"We should go." Cole said and earned an eyebrow raise from Anna and a delighted grin from Ethan. "What, we took in the bars in the city, we should hit the one in our own hometown at least once. I mean." He gulped at Cecelia's blinks. "Now that I've joined the twenty one club."
"Right." Ceecee rolled her eyes. "Be that as it may, I think Cole is right, you three should go over. Leave us old folks to our fire and go be young."
Anna raised her hand. "And if we'd rather be an old folk?"
"Precisely why you should go Anna Jane." Phillip answered and made a shooing motion. "Get. Be merry."
"I'll post bail if we get a call, but would prefer the phone doesn't ring tonight." John said with a wink to Cecelia.
"And on that traumatizing note." Ethan grabbed the back of Cole's shirt and tugged while Cole reached over for Anna's hand.
Opting to take advantage of the rainless day turned night, they walked rather than driving. The three were weaving about as they danced and laughed their way down the sidewalks that became shoulders. Swinging in to the tavern Anna held the door open for the boys, crossing her eyes at Ethan as he snickered his thanks for her gallantry.
There were glances from some of the regulars. When in Forks the three tended to do their best to blend, or at least only be regarded as town eccentrics. Being associated with the Grand helped that cause, as Ethan's being half Holm granted acceptance. It was their involvement with the Emissary that tended to earn questioning looks. While some of the safe houses around the country had alternate cover stories, Jeff found the Forks one was small and least occupied enough to be believed as a private home. Although his and the changing occupants limited town participation was bound to spark curiosity.
Before they could get too self conscious, Ethan leaned over the bar and ordered a round of shots.
Turning away from a former classmates point and stare Cole sandwiched between them. "I'm only doing one."
"Whatever you need to tell yourself." Anna perched on a stool automatically rubbing the tension in the back of Cole's neck.
"Oh look whose woken up." Ethan sneered at her. "The town assumed bad influence returns."
Cole huffed. "I don't know why I'm not the town assumed bad influence."
"Mmmm. No. Too CW." Anna decided. "Can't assume the trailer park kid is going to be bad in the years of our lord 2000-2012."
"So the somewhat transient has to fit the bill?"
"I am the unknown." Anna shimmied her shoulders.
"Plus she's stacked and was married at nineteen isn't doing any favors." Ethan knocked back his shot and then jerked his chin. "Speaking of."
Anna glanced down the bar and sighed as she saw Sylas finishing up a steak sandwich with his favored bottle of Dr. Pepper. The nostalgic image made her sigh turn to a smile.
"Tanner." Anna called to the longtime bartender and slid him a five. "Send another round down to the Mr. please."
"How are you doing with all that?" Ethan asked. "Taking one last spin before the move?"
"God that's romantic. Are you going to give one of the several girls from our graduating class that are currently ogling you a whirl?"
"Pff they're looking at Cole. Little brother came back from college pretty."
"There is no lie. Maybe I'll lean into the assumed bad influence role," Anna hopped down so her high ponytail swung. She wiggled her brows and hips to Cole, "And seduce him on the dance floor."
"Dance with him if you have to dance with somebody." Cole half heartedly shoved Ethan towards where Anna was already spinning. Their hands clasped before she completed her first turn and even over the line dance style music Cole could hear their laughs.
"That's a sight that never gets old." Sylas said as he leaned against Anna's empty seat. "How's it going?"
"We got kicked out of Cece's so we could pretend to be young."
"Sounds about right. You're failing at it though."
Cole's head fell back with his sigh. "Fine."
Though Cole hesitated when he saw Anna join a line of the women, Sylas clamped a hand on his shoulder in encouragement as their steps joined the others. Ethan's grin spread as he took Sylas's shoulder himself. As Anna spotted them her heart swelled before she was tugged away by a pair of actresses from the Grand. That night the glances that landed on those four were not those of dismissal or disdain, or even curiosity. They were envious.
The night grew as dances shifted to drink breaks and then cheers when Cole flirted with a girl who used to be in their class. Sylas tapped a beat on his heart when Cole gestured from the girls friend to Ethan and waved him over, and rose himself to drag Ethan over.
"Well that's me ditched." Anna grinned after the boys. "Tanner, we'll close it out."
After paying the tab she glanced back to see Sylas step away from the flirt session, looking across the room at her. Anna felt her hands grow warm with the urge to slide over the nape of his neck in her old habit. As Sylas's quiet smile bloomed and he shrugged a head tilt in the direction of the door, Anna's answering nod had him crossing the room in half the steps. Her laugh carried as Sylas lifted her for a spin towards the exit. Feeling Anna's hand find the back of his neck Sylas's sigh only had a moment of release before their lips met and he was nudging the door open with his hip.
Ethan watched the exchange and let the memories warm before he turned his attention back to Cole and their dancing partners for the night and the feeling of being young.
After sneaking into an empty room at the Grand to have a dance of their own, Anna lay on the floor, catching her breath. Her head was pillowed on Sylas's chest, a familiar comfort as it rose and fell in tune to her own. A doubt soon crept into her head. How could a place that felt so right be a place she would soon be leaving?
She sat up, leaning her back against the mattress they hadn't made it to.
"Can you be objective for a moment?"
"Anj, I can't remember my middle name at the moment."
"Har har." She flipped her legs over top of his.
Sylas looked up at her and bit off a sigh as he felt around for a disregarded shirt.
"There. Now I can be objective." He added as he tossed the shirt at Anna.
"Funny, funny guy." But Anna tugged on the shirt that Sylas had been wearing while he reached over for his boxers and ran a hand down his face.
He sat up and ran a hand up her calf. "What's that brain wigging out on? Am I listening or discussing?"
"Discussing. The move."
"Nerves are normal but moving about isn't something you're new to. I would hope this one would be exciting for you."
"No, it has been. It still is. I can't say it doesn't feel right, it does."
"That's a benefit of this move being all your choice and about your future. No one elses. You're not having to follow along with a plan, you're making it."
"Maybe that's part of the issue. Its an unfamiliar sensation."
"Anna it's a good thing. Its what you deserve."
"I deserve my own choices and path, yes. But I haven't switched off the part of my brain that feels married. This is the first big choice that you're not a part of. Paired with the boys won't be there. That Caroline isn't involved with any of us. That makes me doubt I guess."
Sylas nodded. "I'm going to cross from discussing into lecturing."
"Goodie. Bring it on."
"It's a big change but one I think you're ready for, even if you don't feel it right this second. You're not miserable here, of course you don't feel a hundred percent certain when you're in a home you've always known and feeling what you feel for me. Now, when you're there and building a career and life for yourself, if it doesn't feel like the right fit then you'll figure it out. You'll find where you want to be. This isn't a spur of the moment decision though. You spent most of your college years working for this exact goal. You've always been clear sighted in what you want, this is just the first time you're able to act on it."
"In regards to feeling married" Sylas waited for her to look at him before continuing, "I made a lot of the calls in that department. Not just with the call to separate. I asked you to marry me even when you wondered what the rush was. I will never regret that or believe it wasn't right for us. But maybe this is where we were too young, it kept us from experiencing our own independence."
"Because neither of us had enough of that in our childhood." Anna gave a playful shove. "I don't feel like I missed out on anything. But maybe you're right that I would if I didn't go through with the move."
"I can't tell you how to do it, cuz fucked if I know how, but now is your time to switch off the part of your brain that is always thinking of the boys, of me, of the emissary, of Philip, and everyone else. Be a twenty two year old moving into her own place and do the next thing that feels right Anj. It doesn't have to be more complicated than that."
He stiffened with regret but it had to be said. "Still be careful, none of us are in the position to let our guard down completely. But we have a right to live amongst the rest."
"You can say that, but you don't think we can do that together?" Anna grabbed his hand before he could push up to stand. "Let me say it once and I'll never bring it up again. I haven't pushed or asked since you walked out that day in the city. Give me that."
Sylas nodded, twinging his fingers with hers. "I'm sorry. Of course, go ahead."
"I know you think you stopped something terrible happening by separating. And maybe you have. But maybe I'll be hit by a bus. Maybe I'll get sick. Maybe you will. And we would be apart. Or enough time would have passed and we'd be with other people. So this last time I need you to tell me you're sure."
Her voice broke surprising both of them. "Because I'm leaving Sylas. We're all leaving and I need you to be sure."
Sylas pulled her over his lap and close to him, tucking her head under his chin while they both shook.
"I know what I can live with and what I can't Anj. That's what I'm sure of.
Choices. They both had so little of them in their lives. Even when she didn't agree, it wasn't something she could take from him. So they took the night into the early morning to just be. Quietly moving across the familiar halls to raid the kitchens. Just as they had done summers ago as children. And it was unspoken that it would likely be the last.
They weren't together the rest of the three's time in Forks. Neither she or the boys made many appearances with the Emissary, but they shared enough of their plans with Jeff to make everyone somewhat comfortable.
Anna's focus was with Philip, Cece, even Brance. She bought her many many years old Toyota off of Marigold as she had purchased herself a retirement gift in the form of spanking new mini Coop. They had lunch after Anna picked up the car, and was amused to find out Marigold was headed out east now that the Grand was in capable hands. Anna wondered how often Marigolds path would cross with Philips, and decided it cheered her just fine.
Almost too soon they were packing up Ethan's car and Anna's for the threes drive across country. They'd be stopping at some sights along the way as a farewell to summer and a quiet one to each other. It wasn't a day any of them looked forward to. Even with the promise they wouldn't go more than three months from seeing one another, it would be an adjustment.
Cole was taking the first leg of the drive with Ethan as they both assumed right that Anna Jane would need to feel her feelings while shriek singing along on shuffle to her loaded iPod. She waited to press play for when they were out of the town proper, following behind where she knew the boys were arguing over radio rights as they pulled out from Holm houses driveway. She swallowed the tears that threatened as they passed the Grand, and meeting their first stoplight of only three stoplights, she saw Sylas gassing up his own truck.
She should have known he wouldn't stay in town long after they left. Couldn't. He turned at the toot of Ethan's horn and saluted him and Cole with a cheeky grin. As his eyes shifted to Anna's car and her, they darkened. Still, his salute became a tap to his heart as he mouthed words Anna couldn't quite catch. Was it love you, or thank you? Anna found either deserved the same answer, and mouthed back "forever."
As they drove on and soon passed the town sign, Anna clicked her iPod and heard the opening line of "turn around" from Total Eclipse of the Heart. She burst out laughing and turned to the next song. Laughter filled Ethan's car as well as they found The Boys Are Back in Town on a classic rock station.
No matter what the music gods had to say about it, the three were on their way.