Maritza had to shout over the loud noise of the marketplace they stood in. She was unable to keep the huge smile on her face as she looked around and soaked in the familiar atmosphere -- the bustling streets and sweltering heat she had craved when she had been in Ireland. Of course, due to her ability she couldn't feel the heat, but still, she had missed the Mexican sun.
She was definitely dressed for the weather -- denim shorts and a black bralette that showed her figure and pierced navel, and black sandals. She found herself dressing more for Quinn now, though, of course, this style of clothing was one she'd be wearing anyway. Now, she just hoped he liked what he saw.
They'd been an official couple for a week now and Maritza couldn't have been happier. She had the boy she wanted more than anything and she was home. Everything was going well for once.
Seeing that Quinn was practically dying, she swiped a bottle of water from a stand as they made their way to the bus station. "I'd have paid for it but we need the money to get to my house," she murmured to Quinn, pressing the bottle into one of his hands and taking the other one with her own. She made a conscious effort to cool her skin down, though.
Soon they were on a small shuttle bus that would take them out to her house. Maritza settled into place beside Quinn, still smiling broadly as she looked up at her wonderful boyfriend.
"I really appreciate you coming with me," she murmured, kissing him on the cheek. "It means a lot to me for you to have come."
"Sure," Quinn rolled the water bottle he had yet to open in his hand and smiled softly at her. The water had gotten warm during the time had been holding it in his hand. His throat was growing dry but he had yet to take a sip. It had to do wth the fact that he was such a goodie two-shoes that he put off drinking from the bottle.
It was strange to him how she could so easily steal, not so much her skill. He swallowed down the saliva in his mouth and fixed his cap on his head securely, keeping his eyes on the floor of the bus. He had a lot better things to worry about than his distaste for the place they were in.
Like the fact that he was meeting her family so soon. They weren't even on the 'I love you' stage but he wasn't worried about that part, they were still pretty young for that. But it would be sure to more than awkward when she brought back home a complete stranger not only to them but their way of living.
He was afraid it wouldn't go over well, not only in their end but his too.
Maritza could tell that Quinn was nervous but she couldn't really blame him. She had lived in the cartel lifestyle for as long as she had been alive in general. He had not. He had had a very different upbringing so, of course, this would be new and scary for him. But she was going to be there, the entire time, ready to help him if needed.
She held his hand for the entire bus ride, making a conscious effort to cool her skin down to a normal temperature so she didn't worsen his heat. She also didn't blame him for not drinking the water she had stolen. Crime was a significant part of her life, not his.
The de la Fuenta household was on the outskirts of the city, so they had to walk for a couple of minutes from the closest bus station and to the compound they lived in. Since her mother was so prolific and successful in her line of work, the family was rich, and that was evident by the huge collection of houses they lived in. There was one main house, and behind it were many smaller houses -- for the smaller families of the eleven main children.
Maritza hadn't informed her family that she was coming home, but only because she couldn't. They changed numbers every month, and even if she had known the number, she had no phone to call them. So it was going to be a surprise.
Maritza took the spare key from its hiding place and used it to unlock the front door of the main house. It was quiet and she held a finger up to her mouth to signal Quinn to stay quiet, too. She helped him out of his jacket and other covering layers of clothing and checked the time on the clock on the wall.
"They'll all be having dinner," she whispered, pointing down the hall to where the dining room was. "Are you ready?"
Quinn's nerves were wracking from the start and they only got worse the closer they had gotten to the de la Fuenta household. And he could easily say that it wasn't just because of he was feeling at the idea of entering his girlfriend's house for the first time, no, that was only what had started it. His nerves had only increased because of his paranoia that had came with his schizophrenia.
Luckily, despite being jittery and fearful, he was well grounded when holding Maritza's hand. She was a comfort he never had until he met her and was able to touch her even a little. He wasn't sure if keeping her hand in his during this was the best first impression but he didn't let that bother him. Besides, ruining their grounds unintentionally would be much worse.
He squeezed her hand tightly for a moment and exhaled through his nostrils. Then he nodded his head. "Yeah, as ready as one possibly can be in this situation." He'd probably never be ready when he was like this but he sucked it up and went with it. It was something he'd been doing his whole life.
And with that he followed Maritza down the hall of the house, which was pleasingly cool, immensely so compared to outside, to where her family resided.
When Maritza opened the dining room door, her entire family was seated, and they were eating and talking loudly. There was a large table with her mother at the head, and her siblings and their spouses surrounding the matriarch. There was a smaller table in the corner for the little ones.
Maritza's place was set.
When she walked in, there was a moment of silence as all the adults took in her presence. Then, they all started shouting and cheering with glee at exactly the same time. Maritza beamed from ear to ear as she was smothered in hugs and kisses from her ten siblings, practically being suffocated with their love, as they reunited with the youngest. Maritza felt like she was going to cry -- she was home, with her family, who she loved more than anything. She was finally home.
"You're back!"
"Oh my god..."
"We missed you so much, firefly."
"Never leave us again."
Then it was her mother's turn. Maria de la Fuenta was a gorgeous woman in her early fifties, and she was crying when she approached her youngest daughter and pulled her into a hug. She may have eleven kids but she felt their absence if one of them was away. It had killed her to see her baby be taken away, but now that she was home, all Maria could feel was elation.
"I missed you so much," she whispered.
"I missed you too, Mama." Maritza pulled away to take Quinn's hand, and then gently tugged him into the room. "This is my boyfriend Quinn."
It was obvious that immediately her brothers and brothers-in-law didn't like Quinn. But that was to be expected. Her sisters were a mix between confused, proud and suspicious. Maria looked somewhat blank, as if she didn't know what to do with the situation.
One of Maritza's little nieces, Allegra, ran up to Quinn and wrapped her arms around his legs. "He's tall," she giggled. Maritza's sister Catrina, Allegra's mother, tsked the girl but she ignored her.
Quinn blinked twice, standing in place awkwardly when watching Maritza be embraced by her family. He would be lying if he said he was a little envious of the scene. He had never once received anything like that before from so many people. His family was so tiny in comparison and he was only really close with his sister, Lucy, who he'd probably never see again.
Still, he was happy to see her with her family again. And when he thought he couldn't feel any more awkward she introduced him. He stilled and became nothing but a stone statue with all eyes on him. His stomach did a flip and not the type that made him feel pleasant like when he touched his girlfriend.
The Irish boy didn't blame any of them for feeling what they were. After all, their sister had only just returned and came back with some strange European white guy as her boyfriend! He'd be pretty weird about it too.
Quinn was feeling uneasy.
"Um, hi." Was all he could think to say. What was he supposed to say, anyway? He glanced down at the girl holding onto his leg and blinked once. "Thank you."
Allegra giggled. Maritza leaned down, picked up her niece, kissed her on the cheek and held her on her hip as she assessed her family's reactions to the knowledge that the baby sibling now had a boyfriend.
The first one to properly react was her eldest brother Diego, who took a step forward and gave Quinn a wary look before looking down at Maritza. He spoke, and he did so in Spanish, and Maritza was pretty sure he thought Quinn didn't know the language.
"Riza, are you sure this is a good idea? You can't know him very well and anyway, he could rat us out --"
"Quinn wouldn't do that," Maritza interrupted in English. She was looking at Diego but addressing her entire family. "The only reason I'm even here is because he helped me get out." That was a bit of a stretch but it was also true.
"He won't rat us out, he knows I would kick his ass if he did. That place I was taken to, the hospital, its full of people with powers like me. And Quinn reads minds so you speaking Spanish won't do anything."
Diego glanced up at Quinn at that comment and looked at his mother, who was now standing with her arms crossed over her chest as she pondered what to do about the situation.
"Mama --"
"We'll talk about this after dinner," Maria said, and her word was final. "Get Maritza and her boyfriend some food, please, Catrina."
Catrina and the second-oldest son Marco's wife, Sofia, left the room to go to the kitchen and there was a bit of shifting around so Maritza and Quinn could sit beside Maria at the head of the table, as Maria requested. Maritza's closest sister and best friend Marisol sat on Quinn's other side as if to protect him from the slightly less friendly siblings. Catrina and Sofia came back with two large bowls of ceviche -- which was prawns with a fresh salad and other toppings -- and two glasses of Coke. Everyone settled back into their meal.
"Just so you know, I'm on both of your sides,"
Marisol murmured to Maritza and Quinn. "Riza's not a baby anymore."
"Thanks," Quinn mumbled and offered a small smile to Marisol to show his appreciation. He picked up his eating utensil and dug into his food. He could easily say it was delicious, in his own home they were always eating seafood, he loved it. So he was more than happy to eat the ceviche with the prawns.
He raised his gaze, quieted his mind and looked at the rest of Maritza's family. Her family was big with in-laws and siblings, he was also curious as to if her grandparents lived in the compound as well. The family he ever knew as his mother, father and baby sister. Having so many people you could call relatives was foreign to him.
Meeting any of their eyes was an impossible task for him to do, no he refused to. And not just out of being bashful but of being respectful of not reading their personal thoughts. He found looking individuals in the face made it easy to focus in on them. He moved the tip of his shoe to touch Maritza's just to have some form of a contact with her during dinner.
Dinner in the de la Fuenta household was not a quiet affair. Once everyone had gotten over the initial shock of the Irish boy's presence, and his relationship with the youngest, the chatter resumed and most conversation took the form of loud Spanish remarks. Maritza easily integrated into the conversation as if she had never even been missing, leaning around Quinn to talk to her siblings and leaning down to whisper to whichever niece or nephew ran up to her.
She kept her hand on Quinn's thigh the entire time, to keep him calm and grounded.
When the meal was over and everyone had consumed the red and green jelly for dessert, Maria instructed Sofia and the other wives to clean up. Usually Maritza would offer to help but she was told to sit back down when she tried to stand up. Once the table had been cleared, all the wives and children left, and now only Maria, her eleven children and Quinn were left at the table.
The silence only lasted a few moments.
"Tell us what happened when you were taken," Maria said quietly to her youngest daughter.
And so Maritza described everything. How she had been taken to Ireland, to the hospital, the prison-like environment they were kept in. She explained how she and Quinn had come to find out the truth, how the organisation had broken them out of the hospital and how she had been tested at their home base.
All of Maritza's brothers and sisters seemed furious upon learning how the baby sibling had been treated. Maritza gripped Quinn's hand under the table as Diego looked at Quinn.
"So your mother is a puta, pretty much," he said bluntly.
"Diego," scolded Maria.
"How do we know he's just not going to take her again?" Marco mumbled to no one.
"Piss off," snapped Maritza. "He wouldn't do that."
Quinn silently traced tiny invisible circles into the table with his finger as Maritza explained everything. He had hoped she would have kept out the bit about his mother because that felt like more trouble than it was worth. Besides, he didn't need to be reminded about how awful she had been, he knew, she was his mother. It only made it hurt more that some part of him knew or hoped that she wan't a bad as she was.
There was still so much none of them knew.
He disregarded Diego's comment and almost rolled his eyes at Marco's. That one suspicios ticked him off a little. He would have remained hushed during the whole conversation if he could but clearly that was not a possibility. He pulled his hand out of Maritza's and clenched them tight in his lap as he sat up.
"Firstly, don't associate my with my mother's actions. Just because she had comitted horrid things, does not mean I follow in her path." He huffed, uncurling his fingers slowly. "Secondly, I would never do that to her it's not even the smart thing to do, no fool would take her, some bad ass chick, across the world to a home full of cartel members just to drag her back."
"Thirdly, how do you know I won't? The same reason I know you'd never betray your family, because I like her, a lot, maybe even love." God, love was such a huge and seriuos word he didn't even know why he blurted it out. "So, I'm loyal to her."
Everyone was silent when Quinn spoke. No one cared when he called them cartel members because that was what they were, but everyone reacted a little when Quinn said that he maybe even loved Maritza. Her brothers' eyes widened and they glanced between one another as if wondering what to do. Her sisters smiled a little, glad that the baby had found someone who loved her. Maria remained expressionless.
Maritza herself became so overwhelmingly happy that her hands heated up and scorched the placemat they were resting on.
"Sorry."
Maria ignored that. "Okay ... you can stay."
Maritza's eyes lit up with happiness and Diego's and Marco's darkened with irritation.
"But, you both have to stay with Marisol. Riza, you don't get your own house until you're eighteen."
"Yeah, yeah, I know." Maritza jumped up and wrapped her mother in a tight hug. "Oh, gracias, Mama!"
"Shh..." Maria patted Maritza's arm until she let go and looked at Quinn. "You have to earn your keep, though. You can help Maritza with the children."
Maritza's main role on the compound was to look after her little nieces and nephews, babysit them while their parents were busy. Quinn would be helping her do that. Maritza was overjoyed.
With some muttering, the siblings seemed to give in. Diego and Marco got to their feet, said goodnight to Maritza and Maria and left the room. Maritza chatted with her sisters and other brothers for a little while before the large family separated for the evening and Marisol was leading Maritza and Quinn across the compound to her own large-ish house. On the way, Maritza put her hands on Quinn's shoulders and used the leverage to pull herself up so she sat in a piggyback position on her boyfriend's back.
Quinn stumbled forward one, two, three steps. He had been startled and not by Maritza's sudden hop on him, but her inquiry. Slowly, he brought his arms behind his back, over her legs and interlocked his hands to support her weight. It also helped that he wouldn't choke if he did so.
To the questioned at hand, he tilted his head to the side slightly. "I mean ... " He began, unsure of how to answer her. Love. Love was a very big word and he was well aware of it. She was sixteen and he was eighteen, they were both still very young. So, he wondered why on earth he even blurted the word.
The young Irish lad was happy she couldn't see his face from her place on his back. "I've never been in love before. I don't even know how it's supposed to feel." It was funny how people knew when they were in love when they've never even felt it before.
"I don't know if I love you yet, but I know I'm starting to." Bit by bit, little by little until he was all the way there.
It wasn't an outright confirmation that he loved her, but for the moment, it was more than enough for Maritza. She beamed and planted a soft kiss to Quinn's neck, which she then gently nuzzled her face against before tilting her chin up to murmur in his ear. "I definitely know I'm starting to love you, too."
The individual houses were set a certain distance behind the main house, and they all sat in a wide and loose circle with plenty of trees and vegetation between them. It didn't look like a place you'd commonly find in the Mexican desert -- her mother had lived in a lush and tropical environment so they had tried to replicate that here. Each house was large, with two stories, a verandah, little balconies ... it was like its own community. Maritza dropped from Quinn's back as they approached Marisol's front door and took a deep breath before stepping over the threshold.
She was home.
Maritza's spirits were lifted as she found her slippers beside the door, found her keys on the table beside them, found everything that indicated she lived here and not in that hellhole of a hospital in Ireland. Maritza took her outdoor shoes off and got Quinn to do the same before she put on her slippers and turned to Marisol. "Which room --"
"Don't be ridiculous, he can stay in your room," Marisol chuckled, ruffling Maritza's hair and kissing her on the forehead. Maritza glowed, both from the affection she received and from the confirmation that Quinn could sleep in her room. "Just don't let Diego and Marco catch you together."
Maritza rolled her eyes. Marisol announced that she had to go to sleep because she and Wyatt and Ruiz were going into the city early the next morning for business, so she had to go to sleep. She bade the two teenagers goodnight and went upstairs to her own bedroom. Maritza stopped by the kitchen to pick up a couple of bottles of Coke for the two of them and lead Quinn up to her own room.
It was like nothing had changed. There was still clothes all over the floor, still makeup scattered over the vanity table, still the unmade king-sized bed with the many teddy bears and stuffed bunnies filling up the empty space.
Still the hundreds of scorch marks all over the walls, floors and ceilings.
Maritza was visibly happy as she set the bottles on her bedside table and went around the room, picking up clothes in an attempt to make the place look slightly neater. She didn't want Quinn to think she was a slob -- she wasn't, she just had trouble choosing outfits sometimes.
Maritza looked up at her boyfriend. "I know this can be a bit ... overwhelming, to say the least. Just know that I'm here for you, okay? Always."
"Thanks." Quinn offered her a smile and spun on his heel, giving the room a good look.
He was actually a bit perturbed that Marisol had so easily agreed to let them sleep in the same room. They had just met, and they were teenagers, but he wasn't complaining. Maritza's room as a mess and he could care less, he was just happy to have a place to rest in finally.
The day had been long and brutal.
Quinn stepped away from the door frame and opened the window, colding his arms on the window sill and leaning forward. The fresh air was unbelieveable delicous and now that the sun was going down it was as hot, still warm, at least he wouldn't have to worry about sunburn. He turned back to Maritza who was in a rush to make her room decent at best.
"Thanks for taking me with you, for bothering me even when I didn't want you to, for liking me."
Maritza looked up when Quinn thanked her, and she was unable to keep the little smile off her face. "You don't need to thank me," she said softly, turning to dump the clothes in the hamper beside her bathroom door. "Besides, I probably would have just pestered you until you agreed to come with me anyway."
There was a knock at the door and in came Marisol with a stack of T-shirts and tracksuit pants, which she placed on the end of Maritza's bed. "Wyatt dropped these off for you," she said to Quinn. "He'd be about your size."
Marisol glanced at Maritza, gave her a look that said he's cute, good job, and left the room once more. Maritza blushed and fished a pair of her own pyjamas out of the drawers on the other side of the room to her bed and slipped into the bathroom after explaining she was going to change.
She came back out wearing a thin white camisole and blue cotton pyjama shorts, and she had no makeup on, with her hair in a messy bun. However, she still managed to be completely gorgeous. This was not something she was aware of, however, as she crossed the room to hand Quinn the spare toothbrush from her bathroom cupboard.
"I'll wait in here for you," she said, and began to work on removing the stuffed teddies from her bed and relocating them so Quinn had somewhere to sleep.
Quinn took his toothbrush and heap of folded clothes into the bathroom, instead of changing as he had planned, he decided to take a quick shower. It was there practically begging him to get in. The hot water fro the head helped to loosen his rigid muscles and he was sure to scrub off the dirt he had picked up today. Toward the end, he rinsed off in cool water.
It was refreshing and well needed.
He rejoined Maritza after brushing his teeth. But before he slid into the bed next to her, he took his medicine. Consuming it during the day was helpful but he was trying to wean off of it. So, the night was the only time he took it, to help him sleep and not disrupt the room he was in.
Shredding and disrupting Marisol's house was not on his agenda. "I don't think I heard a lot about how you grew up," Quinn noted, lying on his side, his head sinking into the soft luscious pillows.
"Oh, well, there's really not much to tell," said Maritza, shrugging. Once Quinn had joined her in the bed, she wriggled close to him so she could drape one of her thin arms over his waist and hold herself closely to him. She also made a conscious effort to try and cool her skin down, though, when the sun went down it would become very cold. That was what it was like in the desert. So maybe the heat of her skin would be useful to Quinn.
"My papa died when I was two, I don't remember him at all," she said. "That was when Mama had to take over things so I started to get babysat by Diego's wife, but whenever she was busy I started to get passed around between the siblings so I didn't get to spend much time with Mama." She sighed. She didn't hold anything against her mother, she loved and respected the woman. She just wished she had been able to have the same relationship with her as all the others had.
"Then I was seven and I found my ability ... Mama kept me close after that, she didn't want me to hurt anyone or for anyone other than family to find out about it. But, you know, people did, somehow, and I got taken once when I was thirteen. I think I told you about that -- I shot the guy in the foot and got home? Yeah, my brothers and sisters started calling me Houdini after that. Their little escape artist."
"Sounds like you've had an eventful life," mumbled Quinn. An eventful and dangerous life. He couldn't comprehend how she was to go through it and come out without a scar, or at least a mental scar. Especially so if she was so young. The girl laying beside him was a lot stronger than he could have imagined.
His fingers found her dark, long tresses and began twirling the strands around repeatedly. It had been a while since he was this relaxed, calm and able to lay in bed without a problem. The edge that had overtaken him earlier had dissipated long ago and now a blanket of fog fell over him softly.
Now, foggy but still very conscious he stared at the wall across from him, examining the charcoal burn marks. "When did you get control over it, your powers?" If she was four he knew it could not have been an easy task. He was eighteen and had yet to fully rule his own.
Then again, he had only recently realized it wasn't his mind going mad, but him the entire time.
Maritza knew that the life she had lead would have been considered dangerous and undesirable by many people, including her boyfriend. But it was the only life she had ever known. She couldn't imagine living any other way, and to her, whatever obstacle she came across was just a simple hurdle to get over. She didn't know any other way to live.
"Well, I'd say that I stopped burning everything I touched when I was around twelve," she said, snuggling even closer to Quinn so her forehead rested against his chest and she could feel his heartbeat through his shirt. "But it's tied to my emotions, so I still slip up from time to time." Quinn had seen that. More than once.
"Now, I can control it when I'm calm, enough to make pictures out of the flames and to conjure them at will. It's just when I get angry that I lose control." Maritza was lucky enough to have an ability that she could control, and one that she had always known about. She couldn't imagine what it was like in Quinn's position.
Maritza softy nudged him onto his back, and then rested against his chest as if he were a pillow. "I'm not annoying you, am I?"
Quinn didn't protest against being moved. He truthfully couldn't even if he wanted. The medication was slowly working into his system, taking over now. He was already worn out and now the drowsiness came next. He turned his head and tried to get comfortable again.
"Why would you be annoying me?" Quinn was truly mystified by what she had asked. Where had that even come from. Disregarding the fact that Quinn was naturally a very patient person and rarely disturbed, how could she possible vex him? She had a haughty temper, that never bothered him, not before and not now. He who was cool and she was not, they mixed well surprisingly.
Annoyance would mean that she was irritating him. And he was not irritated, far from it. He was serene he had been in a while, buried in the cushions of the mattress and pillow, snuggled against a smaller warm body and the drugs making his eyes droopy.
No, he was not annoyed. He was at peace, happy peace. This was weird in a way considering where he was and what type of people he was surrounded by.
