The Indigo Children

A mission somewhere in Fremont, Amencia, for the Minerva duo.

"You ditching son of a Minerva!" I screeched, lunging at my brother with my claws outstreched. His pale eyes went wide, but he caught my life-threatening hands with ease, and he looked like we wasn't struggling at all. "It's been nine years. Nine! You decide to show up after nine freaking agonizing years!"

"Oh, don't be so dramatic about it. I've been at least, five hundred kilometres away the whole nine years we're apart," he reasoned, the defending grip on my hand turned to a soothing rub when my eyes watered. He's different. He's heartbreakingly different.

"No texts, no calls, no letters- I thought you were dead."

"That's a bit to the extreme, little sis. It's Raphael we're talking about here!"

"I almost didn't recognize you," I said quietly, dropping my hands. Raphael didn't let go of mine, however, and he continued to rub soothing circles when I avoided his gaze. "You can cry if you want to. My uniform is black anyway," he offered.

"You're not taking my emotional moments serious enough, Raphael," I glared at him, locking eyes with the bluish-green orbs that stared back at me with equal amount of emptiness. He gave me a small apologetic smile before crushing me into a tight hug, his hands running up and down my back as I sobbed to his chest.

"You're fine now that you're with Peter Pan," he whispered, pressing his head on top of mine. A drew a shaky breath as I realized this was still the old Raphael I knew, only that his physical appearance had improved greatly.

And his wit, my god.

"Should I say hi?" I sniffled as we broke apart. Raphael's eyes were watery as well, and he laughed dryly, sniffing. "Yeah, you should."

"Hi," I hugged him again, circling my arms around his body tight as I could. He returned the hug, and I felt like I'm being crushed to pieces with his bone-breaking embrace, but it didn't matter anymore, as long as he's here with me.

"And the Minerva puzzle is complete," Tim Hurton mused and interrupted our moment. Raphael released me, but kept his arms draped over my shoulder as mine encircled his back. "Nine years of disappearance, and he's back,"

Raphael laughed. "I want to give you a manly hug now that I've returned, but I don't want to let go of my little sister," he stole a glance at me, smiling. I was busy dabbing my eyes with a tissue, shaking my head at the amount of eyeliner that wore off because of my tears.

Great, now I'm a parody of Taylor Momsen.

"That's okay, you can give me a hug after you hand over Carmin back to Lance," Tim suggested, sipping his wine. Raphael laughed again, but this time he whispered to my ear. "Are you and golden boy really together?"

"No!" I denied, but there was another voice joining mine and it was Lance's. Raphael raised his eyebrows and regarded a red-looking Lance with appraising eyes. "I like him. He has good skills, like what the rumors said."

"Well, I- she, um-I-"

"Expectations," I reminded Lance, and he smiled bitterly. He was uncomposed in public, for once, and it was an entertainment itself watching Lance stumble over his words when he and Raphael exchanged words about their abilities.

"Raph, don't scare him," I reprimanded him when Lance positively looked like he was about to blow up. "What are you talking about? I'm not scaring him," he said amusedly. Lance ran a hand through his hair and cleared his throat, and he shot me a desperate look hidden behind his bright violet eyes.

"You wanted to hug Tim?"

"If it's okay with you,"

"It's fine, as long as you don't run away to India again," With that, he gave me a smile before taking my hand off his body slowly. "Which dorm are you staying at? I could use hospitality. Last night, I slept in your car."