A change in the tide

Who: Christer and Annabell
Where: the park
When: afternoon

She’d called him and left him a message to meet her at the park, but Christer had missed the call while working, too caught up in renewing to even notice his phone ringing. By the time he called it quits out of exhaustion and checked his phone he was already worried he’d missed her. That wouldn’t bode well, not with everything making her as nervous as it did. Leaving his work he made his way towards where to Annabell said to meet her, hoping he wasn’t too late.

Annabell hadn't waited. She had a lot to do before he showed up at the park and she needed to get started. So instead of waiting longer for Christer, she decided to head to the park right after she'd called him, to the spot she'd told him. She probably needed to get there before him anyway considering she had work to do and she wasn't sure she wanted him seeing it yet.

So Annabell was seated, having scoped out the area that Hayley described for the flowers. The kinds of flowers were up to her but after asking what it was for, Annabell decided of a variety, centered around white lilies. And she'd gotten the lilies up, having grown them from a small plot of ground right in front of her. She was moving on now to the yellow flowers, thinking that the left side would go from red to orange to yellow, meet at white in the middle, and then hit green and blue and finally land at violet on the other, right side.

Christer found her easier than he expected to, opening his mouth to say something as he got to where she was he fell silent. He knew what she was, he’d put it together after knowing another earth elemental in his travels and work, but he’d not seen what she could do. Suddenly, the way the plants reacted to him turned to him and brightened in his presence seemed to pale as yellow flowers sprung up with no effort. He was quiet as always as he joined her, not saying anything, just sitting next to her.

Annabell hadn't heard him so when he sat down beside her, she caught something out of the corner of her eye and she jumped. Gasping, hand to her heart, she turned and relaxed as soon as she saw Christer. Until she realized that she was mid-creation here and he had just sat down beside her. "...Hi," She said, hoping the hesitation wasn't in her voice. "Didn't expect you to be here so soon."

When she jumped, he jumped, reaching out to catch her arm, trying to be reassuring that he wasn’t going to hurt her. “Hi,” he said, no hesitation in his voice, even if he thought there might be some in hers. “Thought I was late.” He moved his hand from her elbow to her hand, holding it for a moment. “They’re beautiful,” he said nodding towards the flowers. He reached out to touch one, watching it turn into him perking even more as he made contact.

Annabell held his hand, watching the flowers turn to him. Just like they had with Emmit. Turning back to the flowers, Annabell nodded. "They are," She said, watching them critically. They looked so different when he was here from when he wasn't here. It was incredibly strange to see just how different it could be with the arrival of someone new; of just one person. "Hayley requested flowers here. Can't let my cousin down."

Christer nodded, looking back to Annabell. “What are they for?” he asked, voice quiet, watching her the same way he’d watched the plant.

Annabell was glad he wasn't asking her about them or how they'd come up. Or the fact that there were still small little sections of the ground where she'd dug into the dirt, equidistant from each other, for the rest of the flowers. "...A memorial. For Hayley's friends. They've apparently been through a lot."

He nodded again, watching her eyes. “Hayley’s been through a lot too.” He looked behind them seeing the stacks of wood, but more just taking in the space itself, how it felt. They’d done well with the spot they picked, free of most of the bad energy that lurked around the park, but also in good health as well. Turning back to Annabell, he tilted her chin towards him, kissing her lightly. “You should finish. I can help too.” There was little to be renewed, but he could do his best and bless the area a little, something that wouldn’t wear him out too much.

"...You can help? I'm not sure..If you think there's something you can do, then by all means go for it, but I just..need some time to finish this here." She felt a little odd, like he'd stumbled onto her secret and she couldn't take it back but he wasn't asking. The kiss had been nice but it started her thinking on what her cousin had said. That she could smell someone on her, someone new. Someone like Christer. And it was just a lot to think about so she stood up carefully and glanced back at him.

Christer shrugged on shoulder, getting up as well. “I can help in my own way,” he explained. He knew about her, maybe she should know about him. “It’s what I do. Cleaning areas.” It wasn’t the same with Emmit but she had to know about Emmit right? What he was? “Like how you can make things grow, I can clean away the bad.”

There it was. The stop of her heart, that drop of her stomach. He just nonchalantly said it, dropped it out there in the open, and it had her eyes wide. Luckily her back was turned to him so he couldn't see the way the panic grew on her face. "...what?"

That left him confused, the way she reacted and Christer moved forward, touching her elbow lightly in hopes she’d turn. “I clean things. Renew is the term.”

Annabell shook her head. "No no..I mean..ok, but..about me. What you said about me." She glanced at him but didn't really turn yet. This was going to end badly, she could feel it. He must have seen. He must have been there and seen it like she was hoping he hadn't.

“Did I get it wrong?” he asked. He’d only met one that he knew about and he’d seen some of what he’d been able to do but that didn’t mean he had it perfect.

She was still and silent for a moment but shook her head. "I don't know...don't know if I'm ready to..." To tell him about it? But he'd already guessed and was there really a point of keeping it hidden now that he knew? And then something else hit her. "Wait, what? You can clean things...You can take away the bad?" That didn't make sense. How did one do that? There was too much going around in her head right now for it to really form cohesive thoughts. "How?"

Christer nodded, confirming her questions about him. When she asked out he shrugged a shoulder. “It’s a ritual. A blessing.” It was what he dd, what he’d always done and what he was good at. Pollution, fire damage, bad energy of different types, all of he wiped away then moved somewhere else to start again.

"A ritual..." Annabell was freaking out a little, really freaking out, and it was starting to concern her that he wasn't freaking out about what he thought he knew about her. "O-ok, so...there's a blessing involved? I'm sorry, I just..don't understand." Probably because her mind was so far gone right now.

Shaking his head, Christer took her hand. “You don’t have to. It’s just what I do.” What he was capable of and what drove him deep to his core. “Just like this is what you do.” He nodded towards the ground, where her flowers had already come up.

"I don't...Christer..." She sighed, running her free hand through her hair. She had to admit it now, she had to. He knew. And it felt so odd, admitting it when she wasn't ready to just yet. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes. "I'm...I do more than this..as an earth elemental."

His eyes were understanding, gentle. He nodded slowly. “I guessed,” he explained, squeezing her hand again. He had to wonder why she seemed so upset about it, why she looked so anxious. It didn’t change things. If anything it made him more aware of some of the little things about her.

Annabell felt her head hang a little and finally she had to sit down again, needing the strength the flowers could give her. It wasn't much, it was just a little, but she needed it. "And I need things like lists. And time. And stability." She explained, glancing at him. "Because of what I am."

Christer sat with her, so he could see her face. “Which I understand,” he told her, even if it was written on his features. He wasn’t usually one to say things that could be conveyed without words.

Annabell took a long moment to just think about it, to think about the situation and what was happening. "And you aren't freaked out? About any of it? Not my lists, not the flowers, not anything?"

He smiled a little, shaking his head. “Depends on what’s on my list,” he told her, almost joking. Shaking his head again he shifted to something more serious. “No. Should I be?” He’d met an elemental before and it wasn’t shocking. It wasn’t like he was run of the mill human. He’d grown up in a different world. Something like that wasn’t going to freak him out.

Annabell shook her head. "I don't know, Christer. I don't...this isn't how I wanted to tell you. This isn't...it was supposed to be different." She sighed, running a hand through her hair. How and when she would tell him already had a list and there were many different options.

“Tell me how you would have instead,” he said gently, staying where he was, still holding her hand. He didn’t see anything wrong with the way he’d found out, the way he’d figured things out, but he could see she was anxious about it.

She shook her head again, not sure how to feel about this yet. "On my own time. After I knew for certain how you'd feel about it." Though she could never really know for certain, she could definitely know more than what she'd know today. "I would have told you..." Well, maybe it would have been a lot like this, but she hadn't expected it and it was just freaking her out.

“I feel fine about it,” Christer promised her. He wasn’t worried about what she was, nor did it bother him and he wanted her to know that he wasn’t worried. It wouldn’t change things. “Promise,” he added for emphasis, something he rarely did but he felt like she needed it.

Annabell took a deep breath, thinking she was going to need a long night to think about this alone. "So...show me what your ritual means." What did that make him? What was this ritual anyway? What did this mean?

It was only fair that he share the information with her, and it wasn’t like she hadn’t dated one angel. He had to guess she knew about Emmit, everything about Emmit seemed to scream angel. The hard part was that there was little to show her. He tilted his head to one side trying to sort out how to explain it. “It’s internal, little to show,” he told her nodding towards her flowers. “Emmit can do similar.”

Annabell felt herself stiffen again. what did she say? What did she say to that? How was she supposed to react because Christer wasn't supposed to know about Emmit. Which meant that their 'old friends' status really meant they were old friends. Old friends. She decided to play dumb because otherwise, what would she say? She only knew one thing to not say and she was not going to see it. "...So what does that make you?"

Christer raised an eyebrow at her, watching her features. Did she not know about Emmit? Maybe she didn’t. She hadn’t mentioned it though she’d reacted like he touched on something. “Same as Emmit,” he said finally. It was rooted in how they met, crossing paths and recognizing each other for what they were. What he hoped he wasn’t doing was giving away his friend’s secret as well.

Great, so now he was playing the same game as she was. And then she had to realize that Christer, too, was an angel. And that was the reason she'd broken up with Emmit. How could she be with Christer when she'd called it quits with Emmit for them being the same thing. "Will I...Will I be able to feel a difference in the area once the ritual is over?" She asked, unsure otherwise how to handle the situation.

It was interesting that she didn’t react to the admission, that she had not comment or nothing to say about it. Christer half expected her to say something so much that when she asked about renewing the area he didn’t properly register the question right away. Once he did, he was quiet as usual, considering if she would or not. “Maybe. You’re more in tune with the area than most would be.” Maybe not. Maybe she’d just feel the overall ease of the place that sometimes people felt. The area though was healthy enough that what Christer did wouldn’t make a huge difference.

Annabell looked back over at Christer and sighed, hanging her head. "I'm sorry...Christer, I wasn't expecting this today. It's...a lot. This is a lot." This is exactly how she felt when she and Emmit had ended and she didn't want this for her and Christer. She wanted to be different. So she took a deep breath and nodded. "How about...you do what you do and I do what I do. And we'll give it a shot."

Christer reached forward, tilting her chin so he could see her eyes. “I know it is,” he said gently because he did realize that it might have been moving too fast for her, especially with the way Annabell operated. “But it changes nothing for me.” It didn’t. He still liked her, more than he expected and he still owed Emmit for introducing them. “We can do that.” Christer leaned in and kissed her lightly, holding her close even after he pulled away.

Annabell felt herself lean into him and close her eyes again for a moment. This was what she wanted, just the two of them here despite it all. Sighing as she pulled back, she looked up at him and caught his eyes. "Let's do that." She wanted time to think about it, time to let herself accept it, and maybe seeing him at work would help.

Christer nodded, understanding still showing in his expression. He kissed her once more, still gently, and then pulled away and got up. They could do this, just work together and maybe she’d ease with everything a little. At the end he’d walk her home, just to prove she wasn’t scaring him off in anyway. He gave her one more small smile, just for her, then moved a few paces away, sussing out what might need to be cleaned and going to work.