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[closed - Caden]

April hasn't been to California in a good, long while, and even though she's no longer wanted in the state thanks to Robert, she's still a little wary about returning. There are people in California she's screwed over in an especially impressive manner, people she knows would love to see her and call the police and send her to prison for a very long time, and while she doesn't think she's going to run into any of them -- especially not with the state she left them in -- there's still a part of her that's prepared to look around every time they're out somewhere.

But she isn't so nervous that she's found an excuse not to come. If she did, she's sure Caden would have been disappointed, but he'd probably also understand. She doesn't know many genuinely good people, but he's certainly one of them and if she told him she wasn't feeling well or if she explained she was nervous, he'd have accepted it and gone on his own. She knows that.

But she's here. Wary or not, she's here. And it really is all fairly exciting. She's never been one to care much about fiction; books and movies had never been all that interesting when her life had been the way it was, but this is different. This is something Caden has written and now she's getting the chance to see how it's going to be brought to life in a different medium. And he's happy, she can tell.

She doesn't know how long they're going to stay, but she had asked Coop for a week off and he'd seemed happy enough to give it. After that, she'll see what things look like.

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This is incredible.

Caden wasn't really sure what to expect when they arrived in Los Angeles, but it definitely wasn't this. They met with the director and the stars of the film for lunch, actors that have won big awards and are always splashed across glossy magazines. Caden was contacted for his final approval, but it's different to see them in person. The female lead has dyed her hair a dark red, just how it was described in the books, and he can actually see his character when she looks at him. It's a little surreal.

He and April spend the whole day on set, being given tours and basically treated like royalty while they watch scenes being filmed. Caden is completely enthralled, watching the scenes play out with his mouth slack in awe. This is his story, his characters, being brought to life and acted beautifully. It's completely amazing, and humbling.

April is there at his side the whole time, smiling indulgently, and Caden is overjoyed to get to experience all of this with her. By the time the car finally drops them off at the house they're staying at in Malibu, Caden is exhausted and content. More than that, he's so incredibly happy.

"Wow, wasn't that something?" He says as he toes out of his shoes. He flops down onto the sofa and reaches out to take April's hand, pulling her down gently onto his lap. He grins and gives her a quick kiss. "I'm really glad that you're here."

He's so excited about the entire process that it's hard not to feel just a little bit of that excitement herself. Having made a career out of reading the emotions of others and riding them along like a wave has made it easier for her to tune into Caden's as well, but she always does what she can not to use her powers and her criminal life as something between them. But sometimes he just makes it so easy. He feels so much that she can't help but feel it, too.

"That was something," she agrees, letting out a soft laugh as he tugs her into his lap. "I guess I'm really going to have to read this book, huh?" She's skimmed through a few of his and while she'd never consider herself much of a reader, she's done her best for her. "I like how I got treated like someone famous, too," she teases. "Like I was someone who mattered."

Because while she knows she matters to him, she doesn't matter to this film. They really only want to keep Caden happy, and so they treat her well, too.

"You haven't read it?" He gives her the strongest, saddest puppy eyes that he can muster for a moment, but then he grins teasingly and laughs a little. It doesn't really bother him that April hasn't read his books. It's sort of nice that her liking him has nothing to do with his profession.

"Hey, of course you matter," Caden admonishes, reaching up to tuck her hair behind her ear. "I'd be surprised if they didn't hit you up to cameo as one of the succubi. You could totally be a sex demon."

He's teasing, but April really would look at home on a movie screen. She's beautiful in a way that doesn't quite seem real, and Caden smiles as he pulls her down for a kiss. "What should we do tonight, hm?"

"I could talk my way into any starring role I wanted. It's sort of unfair for sirens to be movie stars, don't you think?" she asks innocently and if that's a pointed comment about Corrine, she doesn't think he's going to judge her for it much. For the most part the sting has faded. She and Les have seemed to find a middle ground, a way to begin building some kind of friendship, and she's grateful for that, but she holds a grudge well and she's holding one against Corrine. The way the other woman had behaved when she discovered April was Robert's daughter, too, is still a fresh enough memory. That she'd been dumped for her hadn't helped matters much.

"Hm," she says, tilting her head. "I don't know. What do famous authors who are having their books turned into movies do for fun in a town like this? I've never been here before, you're the expert."

And it's nice to be able to say that and to have it be the truth. She's been in California before, many times, but never in Malibu.

Caden snorts at the dig at Corrine, reaching up to put his hand over his mouth and shake his head, though he doesn't disagree. His feelings towards Corrine are complicated, but he's more than happy to not have to spend time with her.

He laughs again at her question and curls a lock of her hair around his finger as he pretends to think. "Drive fast cars and spend too much money on food?"

But maybe a fancy dinner wouldn't be so bad. They could get dressed up and go to that place up on the cliff with the killer view and order expensive wine and pretentious food. He's about to suggest it when the door bell suddenly rings, and Caden looks up at April in confusion.

"I wonder who that is." He lifts her off of his lap and sets her back on the sofa, leaning in for a quick kiss before heading for the door. He isn't expecting anyone, so he's doubly surprised to open the door and get an armful of bubbly blonde.

"Surprise!" Caden laughs and grabs his sister by the shoulders, pushing her back to get a look at her smiling face.

"Callie! What are you doing here?" He had mentioned to his sister that he was going to be here, but he made no mention of meeting up with her, and she said nothing about coming down.

"I wanted to see my big brother," Calliope says with a roll of her eyes. "You know, the one who had to move all the way across the country."

She hugs him again and then freezes as she looks over his shoulder. It's then that the shock of seeing his sister wears off enough for him to realize that April is still sitting on the sofa. Caden bites his lip and spins slowly on his heel, shooting April an apologetic look behind Callie's back.

"Oh my god, this must be April." She goes over to the sofa and holds out her hand with a bright grin. "I'm Calliope. It's so nice to finally meet you!"

This is not something she's prepared for.

April has spent her entire life making sure not to get too close to anyone. She's never had family -- and she would still consider that to be the case -- she's never really had any close friends, she's always been the only person she could rely on and it's been easier that way. Because things like this send her to a place where she's completely out of her element and for a moment she panics, worrying that not even her siren powers and her talent with adapting to any given situation will help her here.

This is Caden's sister. Family. Real family, not the sort of haphazard joke that claims to her family now. Les was easy enough, she'd known there would be no hope of this, but with Caden comes his family and she has no idea what to do with that. It's as far out of her comfort zone as she thinks she's ever been.

But she rises smoothly to her feet and she's wearing a smile when his sister crosses to the sofa with her hand held out.

"Hi," she says, shaking the offered hand and she's certain her smile doesn't look at all forced. Hi is about as far as she gets, though, and she looks to Caden, a little lost as to what to do next.

"Oh my god, I thought for sure that Caden was exaggerating about how gorgeous you were," Callie starts, as open and unguarded as ever, "but he totally wasn't. You make me want to get some hands on some paints like crazy."

Callie laughs and finally lets go of April's hand, looking back at her brother and wiggling her eyebrows. Caden rolls his eyes and comes over to drape his arm over Callie's shoulders, pulling into his side. "Please don't hit on my girlfriend."

"I mean, I'll try," Callie says, watching as Caden moves to go over and put an arm around April's waist and kiss her temple. "You guys are cute. I'm gonna go wash up real quick and I'll be back!"

She skips off towards the hall with a backpack slung over one shoulder, and once she's out of earshot Caden turns and looks at April nervously. He knows how April can be, and he never would have sprung anything like this on her. "Hey, sorry. I had no idea she was coming. Are you okay?"

He gives her a tentative smile and knocks their shoulders together playfully. "But hey, I spent a whole day on a boat in the middle of the ocean with your dad. Dinner with my loudmouth sister might not be so bad."

There's a part of April -- the part of her that feels like a cornered animal -- that wants to point out she never asked that of him. She never expected Caden to spend any time with Robert when she herself barely knows him at all, but that isn't fair and she knows it. He'd done it for her, whether she'd asked him to or not, and Caden hadn't asked her to do this either. This is as much of a surprise to him as it is for her and so she takes a deep breath and then nods.

"Yeah," she says. "Yeah, it's fine." She's a con artist, after all, she can fake her way through absolutely anything. This is far from the most trying situation she's ever been in, although it is the most foreign in a lot of ways. She doesn't want to have to fake her way through it, but knowing she can if things take a turn toward awkward makes it all a little easier.

"She's certainly... friendly," she says, tilting her head up to give Caden a smile. "Far cry from my sister." Corrine is friendly enough, too, but April just doesn't like her.

"That's a word for it," Caden says a laugh, glad to see that she's reacting well enough. "She calms down after awhile. She's just very excitable."

The look on his face his nothing but fond and he shakes his head in amusement, wrapping an arm around April's waist and looking down at her. He loves his sister early, and wants every minute with her that he can get, but he also doesn't want to make April uncomfortable. "Are you okay with her coming to dinner with us, and then I'll lock her in the guest room on the other side of the house?"

He laughs and leans down to kiss her temple, muttering against her hair. "I'm sure she'd be more than willing to tell you any number of embarrassing stories about me."

She wonders what that's like. To have a real family, people to love, to care about, people who aren't essentially strangers that stir little in the way of emotional response. She's most like Robert and therefore likes him more. Bach is alright, he amuses her more than anything. Her feelings toward Corrine are far from friendly and the rest of them might as well not even exist for all the consideration April gives them. And so she wonders what it's like, but she's also not interested enough to try and change things.

"It's fine," she says, looking up at him with an amused smile. "I'll be fine without the embarrassing stories, but if she feels the urge to tell them, I'm certainly not going to stop her. It's only fair, I guess, given the disaster that makes up my family and how much of that you've seen."

And yet she really doesn't consider them family. Not even Robert, whose company she generally enjoys.

Edited 2015-07-16 20:36 (UTC)

"Hey, I kind of enjoyed that fishing trip with Robert." He wrinkles his nose. "Well, sort of. He seems to really care about you, which I know doesn't make up for anything, but-- yeah. I mean, if my dad suddenly showed up acting like he gave a shit, I wouldn't really buy it either."

He shrugs awkwardly, knowing that it isn't really his place, and he comes over to rest a hand on the small of her back. "But I'm sure she'll embarrass me at some point. It's what she does."

Caden kisses April's cheek and looks up as Callie comes back into the living room, changed into a sundress with her hair swept up off of her neck. "I need to up my style game next to April here. So, should we get dinner? Courtesy of my incredibly generous big brother?"

"Sure, I know just the place," Caden says with a laugh, looking between the two of them with a fond smile. "Shall we, ladies?"

It's not that she doesn't believe Robert has relatively good intentions or that she's still angry, but it's been such a long time that she generally doesn't see the point. None of her family members tried to help her when she was being shuffled between foster homes and so she had learned to take care of herself. Now it just doesn't seem necessary to have someone watching her back all the time.

She smiles, though, when Callie comes back into the room and nods her agreement to Caden's question. There's every chance she's going to find this difficult, but she'll try to make it work for him.

"You know just the place, huh?" she asks with a small, teasing smile. "Another restaurant filled to the brim with celebrities? Since you're such a big shot now?"

"Oh god," Callie says with a laugh. "I can't believe you're famous. That's so weird."

She flutters her eyelashes and leans in to hook her arm through her brother's, while Caden looks down at her with a vaguely moody expression. "That's not to say that I don't enjoy our shopping trips, big bro."

"Uh huh," Caden says with a roll of his eyes, but he smiles as he holds his hand out for April. "It's a place up on the cliff. Reservation's for two, but I'm sure they can find a booster seat somewhere."

Callie laughs at him, but she leads the way out of the house. Caden locks up and then unlocks the rental car, opening the rear door and very pointedly looking at Callie until she slides into the backseat. Then he opens the passenger door for April and gives her a sunny smile, obviously pleased.

He's so happy that April can't help but smile back, even though she still isn't entirely sure where she fits into this scenario. She slides into the car, her hands in her lap, and she doesn't look nervous, not outwardly, but inside she's scanning her options, trying to figure out what to do and who to be. If she starts to act unusual, Caden will notice for certain, but if she's entirely herself, it's going to become fairly obvious that she's uncertain.

This is part of why she's never done anything like this before. Family makes her nervous. She's met the families of men she was conning in the past, but none of that had been real. That had just been a job and things with Caden aren't even in the same universe as those situations.

For the first time, she's genuinely nervous.

"He's treated like royalty on the set," April says, addressing Callie, though she doesn't turn in the seat. She looks up at the rear view mirror, choosing to look at her that way. "All they want is for him to approve."

"Well, they should," Callie replies, leaning forward between the seats as Caden pulls out of the long driveway. "If they want to make a movie half as good as the source material."

"Aw, Calliope," Caden says with a grin, but he's blushing slightly. "Was that a compliment?"

"Don't get used to it." Callie pushes his shoulder and sits back, and Caden looks over at April with a grateful smile, reaching over to rest his hand on her knee. It doesn't take long to get to the restaurant, and Caden parks in front of the valet stand and gets out, handing the keys over before coming around to open the passenger side doors.

They head into the restaurant and Caden tips the host so he'll make an extra spot on their reservation, and they're shown to a table near the window overlooking the ocean.

"Wow, this place is romantic," Callie says as she sits across from Caden, leaving the spot next to her for April. "I'm a jerk, huh? Sorry for messing up date night."

"It's okay," Caden assures her, laughing a little and reaching for the menu. "I'm sure I can find a way to make it up to April somehow."

Callie gives April a genuine smile and looks at her as she reaches for her own menu. "Good. So, April. Caden says you work at a cute vet's office? That sounds like a nice way to earn a living. Cute guy and puppies?"

April doesn't care much for the puppies -- it's not that she dislikes them, she just doesn't love them the way a lot of people do -- but working for Coop has been great right from the beginning. "Caden's talking about how cute Coop is, huh?" she asks, giving him a sidelong glance that's more amused than anything. "I mean, he's certainly not wrong. Maybe ask him how many times he's caught Coop doing naked yoga. They're neighbours, after all."

She's never caught Coop out there, but she's willing to bet Caden has. Not that it bothers her at all. It's more funny than anything.

It hasn't escaped Caden's notice that April keeps easily shifting focus away from her and onto something else, and he wonders if Callie will pick up on it or not. For now, her eyes seem a little glazed over as she imagines a hot guy who saves puppies and does naked yoga.

Caden gives April a speculative look and then turns back to Callie with a smile. "Many, many times. He's rather shameless."

"Well now I have to come visit," Callie says, propping her chin on her palm and smiling mischievously, eyes gleaming. "Maybe he'd prefer the younger, cuter Carter."

"Oh god," Caden says dramatically, looking over at April with concern. "Coop is going to screw my little sister."

"Probably," April agrees with a bright smile, because Callie is absolutely gorgeous and she doesn't think Coop is especially adverse to sleeping with his friends or his friends' sisters, so long as everyone has the same understanding of the situation. She likes that about him, that he's honest and transparent, but still respectful without stepping over boundaries. There aren't many people like that.

It's probably why she trusts him to the extent she does, one of the few people in her life she can count on.

"But he's a good guy," she says. "And a good boss. He gave me all this time off to come with you to California, remember?"

"That is true," Caden says with a put upon sigh. Really, he adores Coop, and he and Callie are two consenting adults. Whatever they get up to if such a situation were to arise is none of Caden's business. As long as he never has to hear about it, he's good.

The waiter comes over and Caden orders a bottle of wine and his dinner, waiting for the ladies to do the same before handing his menu over. Once the waiter is gone, Caden takes a sip of his water and looks at them both, unable to keep the smile off of his face.

"It's really great to have you both here," Caden says happily, reaching over to rest his hand over April's just as Callie flicks a piece of bread at his face. "Okay, I take it back."

For the most part, April does her best not to appear like she's studying them too closely, but it's a strange thing to witness. Her entire family is such a disaster that she genuinely can't fathom what it's like to not only have contact with a sibling, but to genuinely like them and have good memories of their life growing up.

She has a few memories of Angela, but she also hasn't seen her sister in so long that she isn't even sure if her is Angela anymore. If one of her half-siblings flicked bread at her, she has no idea how she might react. Possibly just try to leave as soon as possible.

She feels a little bit like an outsider watching them, but she's felt that way most of her life and it's familiar. Comforting in a way. "You take it back?" she asks with a teasing smile. "I'll be on the first plane back to Siren Cove in that case."

"No, not you," Caden says with a laugh, reaching over to rest his hand over April's wrist. He smiles at her fondly, squeezing her wrist and then pulling back when the waiter brings the wine. He pours out three glasses and leaves the bottle, and Caden lifts his glass in a toast. "It's nights like this that remind me just how lucky I am."

He gives them both warm smiles and then takes a long sip of his wine, savoring the taste before setting it down. He asks Callie about her art and lets her ramble about her latest show, giving her the spotlight for a moment to take it away from April. He's just so happy to see her, and that this seems to be going well. Callie and their mother are the most important people in his life, and it pleases him to see her and April interacting.

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[closed - Caden]

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