Closer To The Sun [Poly] [Bi]

8 - Nora

Q.O.T.D – Do you have a favorite place? What is it?

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🏔️ . 🌼 . 🏔️

"Rory!"

Nora dropped everything and ran to hug him. Rory's attention was still on Shea when he noticed Nora, and his face broke into a wide grin.

As Nora's arms squeezed around his torso, Rory waved at Shea to say, We'll talk later. She returned the wave and she disappeared down the street with her friends, casting a last inquisitive glance at the reunion.

Every spring, Rory warmed up for the summer hiking season by busing down to New Mexico and tackling about 250 miles of the Continental Divide Trail from Silver City to Grants. The first year he did it, he was a junior in high school, and he had to get special permission from his teachers. That turned out to be a piece of cake because one, all of Rory's teachers had loved him, and two, as a town known to produce skiers and rock climbers and base jumpers, Soledad, Colorado took its outdoor recreation extremely seriously, and three, no one had expected Rory to go to college. As soon as he got that high school diploma, barely scraping by in some of his classes, Rory had been out and exploring the western United States.

As Nora predicted, Rory was already wiping tears from his eyes. To be fair, so was she. And for some reason, so was Lucy. Charlie had come up front to check out the commotion, and she was rolling her eyes at all of them. Despite having been part of the Buchanan family for decades, she did not understand their propensity to cry at the drop of a hat.

It had been a handy skill in drama class. Less handy when it happened randomly in math class.

Hugging Rory felt like hugging a baby tree. Rory's long backpacking trips had turned him from a once-stocky kid who played lacrosse and basketball to a paper-thin boy who could get lost behind a streetlamp. He was lanky and willowy, and every time Nora saw him, she swore he was somehow smaller. He was at least a foot taller than her, but they probably weighed about the same.

"Lu-lu," Rory said, ruffling Nora's hair, and immediately the spell was broken. She pushed him away and had just enough time to laugh before getting crushed into a hug by Charlie and Lucy.

"I thought you weren't supposed to be back for a few days," Charlie said.

"I hit a PR," Rory said, flexing unimpressively. "Aaanndd I forgot my spare cell phone battery. Sorry I didn't call."

Rory had a personal style that was ten years out of date. But given that he spent much of his time miles outside of civilization, there was hardly anyone around to comment. Nora had never met someone else who appreciated nature so dearly, and yet wore so much black. His hoodie was ripped off at the sleeves, and he wore quarter-inch silicon gauges that Nora was surprised didn't get stuck on trees when he was hiking. But she knew that the trail was Rory's natural habitat, and he moved through the uncleared alpine landscape like a leaf on a river. She'd made the mistake of following him up enough trails to know that.

"Did you move into my room while I was gone?" Rory asked, leaning an elbow on Nora's shoulder.

"Yep," she said. "Guess you're on the couch now."

"You could always pitch a tent in the backyard," Lucy suggested.

Rory rolled his eyes. "You have no idea how old that joke gets, Mom."

They went inside and Rory scavenged through the cabinets for food. He built himself a double-decker sandwich and decked it out with relish, mayonnaise, spicy peppers, and three different types of meat.