[hr][i][h1][color=springgreen]Rori Aherne[/color], & [color=salmon]Haruka Takashiro[/color].[/h1]
[sup]([@FernStone] and [@tsukune])[/sup][/i]
[hr]
[b][code]Rosemaple Lake, Roseview_[/code][/b]

Rori was just a tiny bit nervous about today. Well, maybe a bit more than that. They'd organised to meet with Haruka at the same cafe that they were meeting their brother, but about half an hour earlier.

They stood outside a small cafe in Rosemaple Lake. They were earning a few weird looks from passers by, probably normal people, but for once Rori was able to ignore it as they concentrated on checking their phone every few seconds. They didn't know what to expect from their brother.

They also sincerely hoped he didn't somehow turn up earlier than Haruka - and fortunately, Haruka had showed up before Conor. he was dressed in a peacock-blue checkered dress shirt and a pair of dark jeans. It wasn't particularly crowded today, so he was able to find a decent spot to park his bike before jogging to the cafe.

"Hey," he breathed when he finally stopped before Rori. "You left your house before I could go and fetch you."

"Hi," Rori grinned with a slight wave. "Yeah, sorry, I kind of felt like flying... It's a bit relaxing, you know?" They shrugged, clearly a bit more nervous than they normally where. After all they hadn't seen their brother in years. "Want to go get a table? I told Conor that we'd meet him inside."

"Sure," Haruka gestured after Rori with a smile, noticing the girl's apparent nervousness. "Mind if you can tell me a bit about your brother - Conor - while we wait for him?"

Rori nodded and headed in, quickly finding a table with enough seats for three. "Well, I haven't talked to him in years. I got on with him most out of all of my siblings; the three older ones were like my parents." They shrugged. "None of them liked metahumans. I haven't talked to Conor since I got all the feathers so I don't really know what he thinks about that. He's probably fine with it if he's contacting me. He was nice five years ago, quite quiet... so not like me." They smiled slightly. Of all of Rori's siblings Conor had been the best. They were sure he hadn't changed too much. "We used to skip church together. Our parents were never too happy with that."

As Haruka listened to Rori, he was reminded of his relationship with his twin, whom he hadn't seen for quite some time. "That's good to hear," he said, refraining himself from the urge to give her a pat on the head. "But... any idea why your brother suddenly wants to meet up with you?" Then he added, "Well... I'm wondering if it's something urgent that he has to tell you, face to face?"

"No idea," Rori shrugged. "He said it was because he was in Baybridge and had just moved here. There's probably a reason but I don't know it-" Rori stopped talking as they looked over at the door, and noticed a short teenage boy standing there. He'd grown a lot (and was taller than Rori), but they recognised him.

He obviously recognised Rori too, even with the completely different hair colour and style - and the whole wing thing.

"Hi, Rori, it's been a long time," Conor smiled slightly as he reached the table, before politely nodding to Haruka. "I'm Conor, nice to meet you."

"It's been a long time, hi, Conor," Rori mumbled. A long enough time to make it difficult for her to figure out how to talk to him.

Haruka gave Conor a smile before introducing himself,  "Haruka. Nice to meet you too." Then he stood up. "I'll go get some drinks while you guys can catch up with each other first. What would you two like to have, by the way?"

"I'll have a coffee, thanks," Conor responded first.

"A diet coke for me," Rori smiled, slowly going back to their more vibrant and less nervous self as they got used to the fact that Conor was here and alive.

"Alright." Haruka nodded, acknowledging their orders. "It's my treat, so don't worry about the bill." With a quick wave, he left for the counter.

"So why are you in Baybridge?" Rori waited until Haruka had gone to get the drinks before asking - not because they didn't want him to hear, but because they assumed that Conor was more likely to say if Haru wasn't around.

"Well Saiorse's moved here with work, and mum and dad thought it would be good for me to come with her," Conor responded, though he didn't seem quite sure with his answer. "It's through the church, you know, so it was easy enough for me to move."

"Does Saiorse know you're meeting me?" Rori remembered that their oldest sister had never particularly liked Rori, even before the gender and powers shit had surfaced.

"Oh, yeah, she suggested it actually."

"Really... why?" Rori was a bit confused. They had thought, and mostly hoped, that Conor's reason for texting them was because he had wanted to spend time with them - or become more friendly. They hadn't even considered that other family was involved.

"She says that she wants you to be a part of our family again," Conor shrugged with a smile. "Also..." 

Just then, Haruka was back with the drinks, causing Conor to stop mid sentence. He passed the diet coke to Rori, the standard coffee to Conor, and he had hot latte for himself (he had decided against drinking alcohol in front of them, who were clearly underaged).

"Thanks, Haru," Rori smiled as they took the diet coke. "What where you saying, Conor?"

"It's nothing important," Conor responded awkwardly before thanking Haruka for the coffee.

"Conor was just saying that my older sister is also in Baybridge," Rori spoke to Haruka now. "She's way older than me, but it'll be nice if I get to meet her too!"

Haruka would have said something encouraging to the (seemingly) cheery Rori... if it wasn't for the expression on Conor's face. Something didn't feel right, and he realized that he actually knew little to nothing about Rori's background or family, even after months of interaction with her. "Oh, I see," he responded, uncertain. "Um, so... are you here together with your family just to visit Rori and Max?" he asked Conor, hoping the boy would warm up to him. "Or...?"

Conor shook his head. "Me and our older sister, Saiorse, have moved here - it's for our work. I thought it would be nice to meet Rori again."

"Max wants to meet you again too," Rori put in with a smile. Well, Max did because she was suspicious (as per normal). But she wasn't going to tell him that.

"Oh, that's nice," Conor didn't look all too thrilled at the idea of that. "So, uh, how do you two know each other? You're friends, yeah?"

Haruka turned and gave Rori a wink. "Well... you can say that our friendship didn't quite start off the 'normal' way." The memory of their first meeting easily put a smile on his face. "I met Rori when she - sorry, [i]they[/i] - were in bird form. A kestrel, actually."

"Oh, really, so you don't just have... wings...?" Conor's eyes widened as he look at Rori. Rori hadn't actually told their family the full extent of their powers - after all they hadn't exactly been accepting of it. "That's certainly a new way to meet people, I guess."

"Yeah, I can change into birds, it's no biggie," Rori shrugged, grinning at Haruka. It had been a pretty awesome meeting. "Thing was he didn't even realise I was a person till later - was still super nice to me!"

"That's good."

Haruka scratched the back of his head, sheepish. "It's kind of embarrassing that I thought Rori was just a really smart kestrel that could understand human language, and has a strange liking for cheese." He laughed. "Sh-- They have great musical sense too. It's quite an experience to be able to perform duets with them in public, a partner whom I can harmonize well with." His friendship with Rori had been great; it was still complicated with Jennifer, there was a bit of improvement now that she was beginning to open up to him. However, he hadn't been in touch with Wendy ever since the last time he met her at the Academy library months ago.

That aside, he was under the impression that there was a lot more to Rori's family than whatever the teens had told him. Haruka gave Conor a sideways glance; he couldn't blame the boy for his apparent awkwardness, obviously wanted to say something but was forced to hold his tongue because a stranger - an outsider - was around. He might be getting along well with Rori, but that didn't mean Conor would be as willing to put his trust in him. Still...

Haruka took a sip of coffee, then he sighed. With Jennifer, he had to stop being overly polite to her because he knew he would be running away from her as much as the girl was from him, but with the Ahernes? He didn't want to jeopardize his relationship with Rori, but this conversation was going nowhere.

"I have been wondering..." Haruka began slowly. "Not that I want to poke my nose into your family situation, but I can't help feeling it's something that is weighing you two down." He leaned forward, staring into their eyes. "It's like... there's a wall between the two of you." Then he dropped his gaze. "...And it's a really thick wall."

"Uh, well, it's nothing really-" Conor began, trying to awkwardly walk away from the subject and not respond to Haruka's questions.

"My parents hate metahumans," Rori cut off Conor to respond bluntly. "That's why I don't live with them 'cause they were going to sell me off to some group for experimentation, I think. Conor was only eleven at the time so he didn't really contribute to that. We have three other siblings, though, and they were becoming like our parents in that way. Also our parents brought us up very religiously. That's probably why there's a wall..." They tilted their head slightly, turning it to look at Conor. "I doubt our parents, or other siblings, like metas anymore than they did five years ago?"

"They don't," Conor didn't look particularly happy that Rori had put it all out - not necessarily because he didn't want it known, but he just would have rather the topic had been avoided.

"They're still part of the same church?"

"Yes."

"Are you part of it now, Conor?" Rori was less cheerful than they'd been before, almost serious. While on the outside the church their parents had gone to had seemed nice, it was more of a cult than anything.

"I am- but, Rori, not like them. I wanted to talk to you anyway and I really don't know why Saiorse pushed for it."

Rori shrugged and turned back to explain to Haruka. "Our parent's church is massively anti-meta, but it's small so it hasn't done much harm... yet. But it preaches bad stuff."

Haruka watched the tense exchange between Rori and Conor quietly. He thought about what Rori had said, and he couldn't help being concerned for her. With the heightened anti-Meta tension around the world, which was getting worse due to the assassination of political figures by a mysterious person who called himself the 'Black Hound', Rori's relationship with her family might have gotten worse than before.

"This church that you are talking about... can you tell me more about it?"

"I don't know much about it, apart from some of the things it said - when I got old enough to know I started trying to skip going," Rori shrugged, turning to look at Conor.

It took Conor a moment to respond. "Well, they're like a normal church. But they're more anti-metahuman than most and... the church believes that all metahumans should be 'purified.' I don't really believe that," he looked increasingly nervous as he talked, "but I didn't get a choice about joining. A branch was only recently set up in Baybridge."

Haruka stared at Conor - they had already set up a branch here? Even though this church didn't seem like the Pure to resort to terrorism, he felt that spreading such extreme belief in Baybridge with high Metahuman population would worsen the anti-Meta tension in this city... which meant that it would bring more trouble to Shizuka and Rori's cousin Max, who were working for RAVEN.

"Why are you still with them, then?" Rori frowned at their brother. They didn't like the idea of the church having set up in Baybridge - it had been bad enough in their small hometown. "You can always come stay with me and Max."

Conor shook his head. "I can't. That's why I wanted to talk to you."

"You have something you want to say." Rori stated. Conor nodded, glancing at Haruka. "Haruka's a close friend of mine, Conor, you can trust him."

Conor hesitated before finally speaking. "I just wanted to tell you to be careful, Rori. The church has found a way to make metahumans normal again, and our parents want that to happen to you."