MacLeod: Reforged: Called Home

A minute and a half of running was all that it took for the two of them to make their way to team RRYD's old dorm room. Revan unlocked the door with his scroll and let her in first. She skipped into the dorm room with four empty beds, a hammock, a wardrobe, two duffel bags, and a footlocker. The second duffel bag belonged to Kirina, as she had moved into Revan's dorm when the school year ended.

Revan opened the footlocker near the team's wardrobe and dug through its contents. In it were mismatched non-perishable food packs of various sorts, ceramic bowls and varied eating utensils. He dug through the footlocker and found two water bottles, two Instant Ramen bowls, and two pairs of chopsticks.

Kirina smiled and sat on one of the beds, cross-legged, as Revan prepared the food across from her. He filled the bowls with the water and snapped his fingers. Black-blue smoke shot off of his fingers and passed through a red Fire Dust crystal he left on the side table, which passed some of its energy to the smoke, which traveled to the bowls and boiled the water, cooking the noodles and powder broth.

Kirina found always found this Semblance trick amusing, like with many things, seeing the black and blue smoke glow red and boil the water.

"Can you make fireworks again?" she requested.

"No," Revan answered. "Nae tonight."

She pouted. "Awww. Oh well. Can we eat it yet?"

"In a minute, Kiri."

After a seemingly long minute of letting the noodles soften, Impatient Kirina took the bowl and chopsticks from Revan and started slurping the soy-based brothy noodles.

Revan did the same with his bowl, only slower and looking at Kirina lovingly. As he looked at her, he remembered the fun times they had over the past few months; their first case, where Revan experienced her silly antics firsthand, the lunch the following Monday that served as their first date, his first encounter with Kirina's devious brother, and the many times the couple's relationship was in peril. Would he really want to let those experiences go? But with the Áinfean growing ever so closer to harming his treasured companion, he may have to.

MacLeod nearly shed a tear as Kirina finished her bowl and drank the broth. She yawned. Her eyes grew dreary.

"Tired already?" Revan asked and checked his wristwatch. "It's nearly eight, but..."

She nodded, slowly. "Not enough sweet... in that sweetie... And the soup is... warm and yum..."

Kirina was right. The majority of the sugar was in the cherry filling within the dark chocolate. She giggled. "Heh... The noodles are like someone's... squish...ies..."

With those parting words, she curled up into a ball and fell asleep, just as usual.

Revan sighed. He remembered Kirina in that same state the first time they met. Only then, she was drenched in the blood of gangsters. This flow of memories was stopped by an electronic ring from his scroll.

Who'd be calling us? Revan wondered. Students who stayed in Beacon's dormatories during the End of Year break were probably in the city, Riona returned to the Northern Kingdom for a few weeks, Yadira was called back to the Southeast Isles until further notice, and Dresden was staying with his family in the city. It could have been someone on his team, but when he opened his scroll to check who was calling, it was his former roommate and partner, James Holmes.

Revan tapped the mail icon to play the message. The deep estuary accent of Vale's best detective spoke:

"Pack up. Head to the flat. We need to talk. Could be dangerous."

This message was processed in Revan's mind with some scrutiny. The Detective was always direct and brief, but Revan had not heard from James since the Vytal Festival. Was the breaking of the silence for an important reason? It had to be. "'Might be dangerous.'" typically meant that something might be happening, always. But did Revan really want to move from the campus now? Kirina was asleep and never wakes up unless sugar is introduced to her bloodstream or morning comes. He shook his head. MacLeod always new Holmes to be a serious man, so he walked into the team's wardrobe to change his clothes.

Within ten minutes, Revan; dressed in jeans, a blue t-shirt, and his leather boots, packed away the last of Team RRYD's property in his large duffel bag. He placed his bag next to Kirina's, and opened the wardrobe one last time to don the last of his gear. He put on his black leather mantled battle coat; with the blue Celtic pattern around its edges and wool body and hood, and clasped it with the three small belts over chest his, then his leather vambraces and fingerless gloves, and finally his dark brown stetson.

Revan looked at the dreamily sleeping Kirina. He had no desire to wake her, so, slowly, he managed to get her on his back so she could still sleep on their way to the apartment. MacLeod picked up the bags and walked out the door, taking one last look at his team's dorm.