Spinning Fate's Threads

Kallipso: Your wait for more is over.

Tazzy: You had to know he'd react badly to something like that. And you just want to see our pretty and innocent little Abel wedged between two hot redheads. Damn, now I do too. For shame, making me think bad (er worse) thoughts. BTW, you might like Just Another Day At The Office in the Weiss section. Just a thought.

Miss Murder: There will be a little more fight and bite in this story. Speaking of stories . . . still waiting for updates on yours?

DarkCrusnikMagician: Don't worry, all the twists from the previous story will be untangled in this one. Of course, that doesn't mean I'm not going to add new ones. ~evil smile~

To everyone reading, I hope you enjoy.



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Cain was dreaming. He knew that but he also knew what he was seeing in his mind was a memory as well. He knew he’d been roughly sixteen at the time. He’d gone to one of his favorite hiding places, the small alcove that looked out one of the ports, to think. Abel had pushed him away. Again. No matter what he said or did nothing seemed to get through to the other boy. He sighed, putting his forehead against the cool glass and listened to the approaching footsteps. Definitely not Abel, distinctly female, not Lilith or Seth because the cadence was different. Had to be either Blaze or Circe.



“Cain,” Circe said uncertainly, peering around the wall of the alcove to look at him. He remembered she had been around fourteen or so at the time. “Are you okay?”



“Doesn’t matter.” He didn’t bother to lift his head, just scooted over a little to give her room to sit beside him on the small, padded seat.



“Look, I know Abel is hard to get close to . . .” Circe began.



“I don’t know what I’m doing wrong with him, Circe. I try to get him to at least talk to me about something other than whether he wants toast or pancakes for breakfast but it never does any good. Sometimes I think he really does hate me. You don’t have that kind of problems with your brothers, do you?”



She laughed. “No. I have the opposite problem with my brothers. Like them being entirely too overprotective.”



“I can kind of see that though. Since you’re the only girl in the family.”



“It’s annoying. Just because I’m a girl it doesn’t mean I can’t take care of myself. Look at Mama and Aunt Star they can fight off nearly anything or anyone in the universe. Or look at Blaze, she’s a girl and she's perfectly capable of taking care of herself and then some.”



“Blaze is a very scary girl,” Cain said with a mild shudder.



“True. The only boys any of them will let me near are you and Abel.”



“Gee, I feel loved.”



She slapped at him playfully. “You know what I mean. At this rate I’ll have my tattoos before I ever get a kiss from a boy,” she said forlornly. “Anyway, I have to get going. Blaze said to come and make sure you were okay before we left.” She stood up to leave but he grabbed her hand and stood as well. He wrapped the other arm around her shoulders and pressed a quick kiss on her lips.



Cain’s eyes shut tighter as he woke, trying to hold on to that fragment of memory. His hands clenched around the sheets for a moment and a low growl seemed to come from a deeper part of him. “Mine.”







Circe sighed and moved carefully through the dark garden. She had been restless and unable to sleep so she’d come into the garden hoping to ease her mind and nerves. Things had been strange since she had channeled Lilith to talk to Abel. She felt nervous and jittery, which was not at all her normal state of being. Her fathers were worried, she could tell. Oracle was worried about her general spacing out for no reason and Reicher was worried about a thousand and one things that he wasn’t letting get through the shields. She had, however, caught a glimpse of his being worried about her former connection to Cain. That was odd to her since she hadn’t seen Cain in close to a thousand years, literally.



She rounded a turn in the garden to find one of her father’s sitting on the bench. He lifted one arm as she approached and she slid next to him, putting her head on his shoulder.



“You should be resting,” Oracle said, kissing her temple.



“So should you,” she pointed out to her father.



“Probably. But my husband is the biggest blanket hog on this or any other side of the world.”



She laughed. “Why does that not surprise me.”



“It shouldn’t as much as I’ve complained about it over the years,” he said, before turning very serious. “Are you going to be all right?”



“I’ll survive, Dad. It’s just the residuals are really strong and hard to shake. Too much highly charged emotion in too short a time span.”



“That isn’t what I meant. I was talking about Gun and Abel getting closer. I’ve seen it and so has your mother. You had to have as well.”



She shrugged. “You and Mama see everything. Nothing I can do about it. He isn’t interested in me romantically, never has been. As you well know he wasn’t really my first choice, just the safer one. But I think he and Gun will be good for each other. I guess it’s just loneliness kicking in. Especially now that Taka’s found someone again. I guess I’m not really sure of anything anymore since so much is changing so fast.”



“You were never good with change. Unfortunately, you get that from me. Are you coming back in or are you going to stay out here for a little while?”



“I think I’m going to go dance. It might help clear my head.”



“That is another thing you get from me.”



“So, what did I get from Mater?”



“The temper,” Oracle said with a smile. “Don’t stay up too late.”



“Yes, Dad,” she said sarcastically. “Night.”



“Night,” he said, leaning down and kissing the top of her head.



She watched him walk away before grumbling, “So not fair. I’m surrounded by beautiful men and all of them are friggin’ related to me.” She started to wander deeper into the gardens, unaware of the two sets of eyes following her.