Taking flight

[farfrom-tree.livejournal.com]

After that scare of thinking Nura was in the pods when she'd actually been running mazes for GLaDoS, Devlin was glad to have some time to spend with his surrogate mom/grandmother/whatever.

Devlin, clingy?

...Yeah, that pretty much cut to the heart of it.

"So, anything you wanted to do?" he asked. "Or any place we're going?"

Comments

[foreseen-future.livejournal.com]

Nura laughed with the wind in her hair and her adoptive-child right there with her. She dived down in the air, eyes closed, heart racing, feeling so alive that she just had to let out a loud laugh. "Having a good time?"

[farfrom-tree.livejournal.com]

"Totally!" Devlin answered, a bright grin on his monstrous-looking face. "It's great!"

[foreseen-future.livejournal.com]

"I'm glad!" she threw her head back, going into free-fall. "Now let's have some fun! Before a fun-crusher arrives fresh from the Caves of Grindwump country, all right?"

[farfrom-tree.livejournal.com]

"Definitely!" Devlin agreed, going into a steep descent behind her.

[foreseen-future.livejournal.com]

They continued like that for a while until they reached the area the park was located in. Nura righted herself in mid-air, and started to slowly descend. She landed next to the bench, the wind still lightly blowing through her hair. She looked up at Devlin, watching to make sure he landed all right.

[farfrom-tree.livejournal.com]

Devlin's landing was a little bumpy, but he managed to get into a low crouch as he transformed back, taking a moment to stretch out his human form a little bit and give his alien muscles a break.

"That was great!" he said. "Anything else I should know?"

[foreseen-future.livejournal.com]

"Yes." Nura promptly walked over and scooped him up into her arms. "You need to work on your landing. Otherwise, you did quite well." She placed a kiss on the top of his head.

[farfrom-tree.livejournal.com]

Devlin gave a sheepish smile, which quickly turned into the "Aww, MOM!" look of embarrassment when she kissed him.

"Thanks," he said.

[foreseen-future.livejournal.com]

She set him down, ruffling his messy hair. "Maybe even try shifting back to human form while right near the ground."

[farfrom-tree.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, that could work," he admitted, thinking about it. He did know how to control his landings from hoverboard accidents, so switching between forms to smooth out his landing might be just as easy.

[foreseen-future.livejournal.com]

"Who taught you to first fly, Devlin?" She put her hand gently on Devlin's shoulder.

[farfrom-tree.livejournal.com]

That slight pressure on his shoulder helped keep him calm as he admitted, "My dad. A little bit, anyway. He was in and out of the Null Void when I was little, and when I was eight, he was locked away for good--supposedly, at least. I taught myself everything else about my powers."

He managed to smile. "At least until I got here and learned what else I could do."

[foreseen-future.livejournal.com]

Nura had to suck in a breath when she heard the mention of Devlin's father. She wondered what kind of man he'd been (though according to Ben and Devlin, Kevin hadn't been much of a man, than a nasshat who turned into a zorker).

"You've been a good teacher, then, Devlin. I'm sure Ben is very proud of you."

[farfrom-tree.livejournal.com]

Aw, now look what you did! Devlin shuffled a bit, blushing faintly. Getting praised meant a lot to him, and even more from his close friends and family.

"Thanks."

[foreseen-future.livejournal.com]

"Hey, no prolem, kiddo." She pulled him to her and gave him an affectionate squeeze. "Next time, we'll just go a little faster. And later on, we can challenge Ben to a race...and see who wins." She patted his shoulder. "Won't that be fun? You can beat your own father at a game of speed!"

[at-a-peak.livejournal.com]

Devlin grinned, feeling a little cocky.

"Yeah, that'd be great!"

[foreseen-future.livejournal.com]

Nura put her hands on her hips, looking deeply at Devlin. She was quite confident that he'd grow to be a very strong and powerful young man, with defense and promising future. "Just don't rub it in his face when he loses, all right? I have enough rivalry between Ben and May!"

[farfrom-tree.livejournal.com]

Devlin laughed. Yeah, putting up with Ben at his worst was a hassle.

"Okay," he promised. "Unless he really needs it, though."

Because yes, they sometimes did need to deflate his ego a little bit.

[foreseen-future.livejournal.com]

"Hey! Hey! Be nice!" she ruffled his hair again, laughing full and loud.

"It's going to be worse when Querl, May and I move into the house next to Ben's!"

[farfrom-tree.livejournal.com]

"I will, I promise!" Devlin laughed.

Hearing the second, he admitted, "That's kind of a scary thought."

Oddly enough, he didn't feel anxious about them moving. Probably because he knew they'd alway be nearby. Besides, he liked rooming with Negi, even if his friend had that bad sleepwalking habit and sometimes always crawled into the wrong bed in the middle of the night.

[foreseen-future.livejournal.com]

Nura shook her head, giggling. "No. No. The real scary thought is Querl's face when he finds out my plans!" She looked quite pleased with herself.

[farfrom-tree.livejournal.com]

Devlin laughed harder, a mischievous look on his face. "Good point. But what he doesn't know can't hurt him...yet."

[foreseen-future.livejournal.com]

"Ohhhh, you'd think so!" She giggled. "Querl doesn't take surprises that well. And if he knew about the virus outbreak in the City a while ago, he'd be against it all together." She shrugged her shoulders. "And Ben and I have already cleaned away most of the rubble and fixed the doors and windows."

[farfrom-tree.livejournal.com]

Devlin managed not to flinch at the memory of the virus. He'd learned to stop kicking himself over it, once he'd accepted that he was too sick to control himself, but it wasn't a happy memory at all.

"Yeah," he said. "So he'd never know, right?"

[foreseen-future.livejournal.com]

"As long as no one brings it up before it's too late for him to say 'no'." She'd been sneaking around quite a bit, lately. Which wasn't all that hard, since Querl was usually somewhere else on science or engineering business, and didn't as many questions about her day, other then how it had been. "We still have to ask Ed to help with the construction of furniture."