Nope - Firestarter Chronicle AU

[that_cost]

Charlene Roberta McGee was in fact, not at all a girly-girl. She did not get upset at snakes or bugs, she didn't freak out at horror films much (anymore). She was kind of a tough nut to crack in that regard. Unless you happened to be a foot long (okay so maybe more like 6 inches), two headed (or maybe just both ends looked the same), multi-legged thing that ran across her kitchen counter in her and Andrew's tiny apartment in China. Then? Then, she'll shriek and drop what she was trying to cook for dinner.

"Nope! No. Not today." This can be heard through their very small apartment as Charlie hastily TK's the mess into the garbage, cleaning up quickly as she grabs her jacket.

"Andrew? Andrew, I can't cook in here. Not right now. We're hitting one of the stalls in town for dinner."

She refuses too stay in the kitchen another second. What if that thing had friends?

Speaking of that thing, it's no longer on the counter and is in fact scuttling rapidly from one end of the apartment to the other, so in all likelyhood? Andrew will in fact see what's causing Charlie her distress. Charlie tries TKing a few books at it, only to miss each time and before she can set it on fire? It disappears.

"Oh, son of a motherfucking bitch. Where did it go?" She was going to kill it before leaving, don't get in her way.

...or probably just TK it out the window and pray she never sees it again. She just has to find it first.

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[reluctantheroing]

Andrew had been in their small bathroom with the awkwardly placed sink (for some reason the mirror/medicine cabinet was placed on a wall beside the sink instead of over it brushing his teeth. He had a little habit of needing to check his teeth in the mirror after every few brush scrubs so leaning into the mirror repeatedly quickly became a pain in the butt. He's in the middle of his little toothbrush dance when he hears Charlie call out to him. Confused by what she's saying, he spits into the sink (after checking his teeth one last time), washes out his mouth and toothbrush and heads into the kitchen...

...Just in time to see an unholy abomination skittering across the kitchen counter.

"Ew, what the hell is that?" You see this? This is Andrew shrinking back in disgust instead of trying to kill the thing. The Apex Predator himself will not even touch that thing with a ten foot telekinetic pole.

"Oh my god, Charlie...it's gone." His eyes immediately scan the floor - mostly the area near his feet - to make sure it's not anywhere near him. "Charlie - it's gone. Where did it go?"

Andrew she doesn't know that's why she's cursing.

[that_cost]

Charlie does not answer with words. There's a shrug and a worried look as she starts crouching to peek under furniture. Their bed. The one chair at the tiny table. Everywhere she can think. Everywhere she can imagine that thing disappearing to. The more time she spends not seeing the thing, the more she worries. Is it in their bed? Is she going to find it in their tiny shower?

When she turns to ask Andrew if he sees it, a shadow passes across the floor and sits It startles Charlie who briefly finds herself thinking 'oh god what now?'. From the shape of it, it's the bug. Looking up, she sees it hanging out on the ceiling light.

"God damn it. Andrew? Can you open the bathroom window?" With hardly a thought, Charlie uses her telekinesis to pluck it off of the light, much to the bugs annoyance. It actually starts hissing, Charlie going a bit pale at the sound.

"Hurry up with the window!"

[reluctantheroing]

Andrew follows her "oh god what now" look to the shadow, face still scrunched up in disgust as his gaze slowly rises to the light. His face is a mixture of disgust and fascination as Charlie TK's the thing, startling him out of his revere when it moves.

Ewww...

He's wordless as he backs up, waving at the bathroom door to open it wider, the window sliding open seconds after. Andrew is pretty much backed up into the wall at this point. It's not even that he's scared. Just...really, really, really grossed out.

"Get it out, get it out-!"

[that_cost]

Two grown children with unlimited powers at their fingertips, and neither of them can handle a god damn centipede. Charlie's TK shove is a bit hard and the thing hits the wall of the apartment across the alley pretty loudly, but Charlie doesn't care. She just waves the window shut and looks at Andrew for a moment, face pretty reminiscent of the one she'd make when she watched one of Andrew's most loved horror films.

A look of pure "what the shit was that and why was that a thing?"

"Oh, my God. I'm not sleeping for a month. Or ever." This, however, is said with a relieved laugh as Charlie gives a mild shudder.

"Jesus Christ. This apartment is definitely something." That was their tenth bug this week. But she's grateful for it, for many reasons. One of which, she's grinning at.

[reluctantheroing]

Andrew's eyes were not getting any less wider as the bug was TK'd out the window. He winces when he hears it slap against the wall outside with a thud. He swears, the bugs in this place will be the death of him.

"We're going to need to like, seriously bug proof this place." He lets out a relieved laugh of his own as he moves to lean against the counter, as if just surviving a true harrowing experience. "I don't care if we have to douse this place in stinky bug repellent."

[that_cost]

"Can we make a date of it?" So much teasing from Charlie, leaning against the counter, too, with her arms crossed over her chest and a grin on hr face. "We can set up a bug bomb or two, hang out on the roof for a few hours. Oh! I know. I wonder if we can buy portable hammocks somewhere?"

She's actually serious about this, too. She doesn't want to find another centipede or it's family and distinctly recalls a shower being interrupted by what she was sure was Mothra. That thing had been huge.

"In the mean time, let's go get food. I'm really keen on getting out of here."

[reluctantheroing]

"We should totally make a date of it." Honestly, he used to be too afraid to try new things. He was always insistent on staying in his comfort zone and who could blame him? He got so little comfort day to day he got it where he could. But since all that stuff happened in Seattle, since leaving, since this new...life, so to speak, he has learned to embrace these new things. Truthfully he wouldn't have been able to do it without Charlie.

He's already moving to where his sneakers are by the door. He's still in pajama pants but one of the things he loves about this little neighborhood is that no one really gives a crap. "Seconding. Maybe by the time we get back we can forget we were invaded by alien bugs."

[that_cost]

It's chilly out so charlie grabs her jacket and pulls on her sneakers, pulling the door open and listening down the hall. They had a few neighbors Charlie liked to avoid and she was listening for any sounds they may be making, trying to pick up on emotions coming from the other apartments. There's a slight tilt of her head as she 'listens', poking around with one of her newer abilities. But very carefully. Too much pushing and it's a nosebleed.

"Okay. No one's home."

Thank God. She'd rather not deal with the partying college students across the hall or that one very angry old lady who likes to shout that creaking steps upset her very old and amazingly obnoxious Yorkie.

Still, Charlie may possibly just sort of do a float-jump over that one creaking stair, just in case the old bird really was home and the only reason Charlie wasn't picking up on anything was she was asleep.

Once she was at the door, she looks at andrew. "Left or right?"

A left turn brought them to the slightly seedier part of town, but Charlie had a love of this one hole in the wall place that sold some impressively hubcapped sized pancakes. A right turn brought them to the shopping district with the various food carts.