A home isn't just a house

[futures_of_ash]

Who: BPRD team
When: A few months after Liz joins as a youth.
What: Making the newest oddball feel welcome!

"Why do I gotta share my room?" Rachel huffed softly. Sure, she was old enough to know better than huffing and using words like 'gotta' but this was just weird. Hellboy didn't have to share when Abe joined them, and she wasn't sure what to do now that she HAD her own territory...

Bruttenholm arched an eyebrow at her, holding it until she sighed and corrected her grammar before chuckling, "because my dear girl she needs a...friend."

"You don't just cram people together and expect they'll be friends!"

"Don't I?" he asked drily.

Ah. Well. Yeah. "Still why?"

"Because, Rachel, she can't hurt you. We have two people who are fireproof naturally here and one of them should not have a young lady living with him. Not to mention the cats tend to swarm in his room and not yours."

He had a point about crispy kitties really. Knuckleheads would just scream for Hellboy if Rachel wasn't awake and then there'd be all kinds of trouble wouldn't there be?

"And more, dear, she there will be things she won't tell therapists, deep guilts and fears that they are not qualified to handle. You're a reassuring person to sleep near, you sooth dreams and you talk to people when they don't realize they're listening. You've helped all of us in one manner or another and now a little girl needs our help, and your help."

He always knew how to kick the knees out from under the crazy huh? She sighed and tugged on the sleeve of her jacket fitfully, "she could hate me you know."

"That I very much doubt," he chuckled, taking her hand and patting it gently before walking them toward the cafeteria. "I doubt it indeed. Even Hellboy did not manage after all."

Hellboy who was smirking at her over a stack of pancakes and mouthing 'bunkbedsss' at her. Asshole. Stealing his plate it was! "You're just annoyed you won't outvote the girls by default now!"

"Uh huh, you tell yourself that," he smirked, stabbing half the stack on the contested plate and gulping them as a matter of course. "I'm just glad I'm not babysitting!"

"So you're volunteering if I have to be gone?" she smirked. "you know that's how pop's brain works, be a snot..." get the job! Not that she expected this was suppose to be like babysitting but...

"Nah, if they're sending you out I'm already in the field!" he smirked.

Fine, teke covering all the nearby food it was while she glared! Granted, he had to bend eight or nine forks in annoyance before he was rolling his eyes, "fine, I'm sorry, you're not second rate you're just not me!"

Yeah, her erstwhile brother had an ego. "Watch it monkey, I am keeper of your sociaaaaal life!"

"Ouch!" he mock-glared, "you wouldn't..."

"Would, Kate's not really your type anyway, you don't need a night out with her to prove it..."

"Hey now...how's that even going to work if you've got munchin duty?"

She shrugged? "Double date, Abe and I take her to the movie next door but you have to buy snacks for us!"

"We're dating now?" Abe asked, settling at the table curiously.

Hellboy smirked, side-eyeing the blue boy and opened his mouth only to have Rach stick a pancake in it yes. "Discussing how to still let Hellboy have dates when we've got Liz living here with us. We can take her to other movies right?"

"Oh yes of course, if you don't think that would make the Professor worry..." about an unchaperoned Hellboy! He knew he was the buzzkill in such things, Hellboy said so all the time!

"Hmmmmm, point," she mused, "well, you can stick to Hellboy I'll take her to other flicks?"

"Ah, maybe that will work?" he mused, turning an equally thoughtful look on Hellboy. Yes, the boy was going to figure out how to bribe him wasn't he? There was likely movie theater beer in everyone's future at this rate! "Then I certainly won't mind," he smiled. Yup!

"So that's one aspect worked out, another being fire of course, gonna be a tricky few weeks teaching her control you know?"

"Ah...I'll...wear my suit?" It helped against heat and flame to a degree?

"I wouldn't let her hurt you," Rach snorted. "I can multi-task!" Abe was one of her back of the mind always get a shield up at need people!

"Babysitttter," Hellboy snickered, kicking her under the table.

Yeah, screw it, she was throwing the next pancake at him, "more just no one be afraid or yell? I know I was jumpy, I didn't like when people judged and she's younger than I was..."

"Of course not," Abe blinked, horror stricken, "it is a harsh ability, especially for a child, but it is not WHO she is, from what I read of her she's a good child..."

"Thanks, figured you'd understand," she grinned at Abe, "mainly saying it out loud for monkey."

"Hey, I like fire!"

"And teasing like a jerk!"

"Only you," he smirked. "And the handlers." Jerk, right.

"You push her buttons and I'll teach her how to tickle you to death," she promised grimly. "And how best to water balloon you."

Abe glanced between the two then laughed, "she...would Hellboy, you must admit. And then you would pout in front of a new girl..."

"He looks cute when he pouts at least, she'd probably end up wanting to hug him..." Rachel laughed, finally getting a pancake smeared in chocolate and peanut butter in her mouth.

"Hey, hey, I doubt pout! And you guys are ganging up, Abe you're suppose to be on my side!"

"I am," the fish man smiled, "I am preventing future suffering of course!"...yeah, Rachel didn't manage to hold in the giggles. At all, a fact that made Abe grin as he smeared relish and old egg on his pancake. "Besides, sides are silly, we're us." Obviously.

"You say that now," Hellboy sniffed, "But then when there's another girl, and trust me, I know girls..."

He knew girls indeed.

Well, Rachel knew the dark edges of fear and discomfort? When Liz joined them she was so locked in her own shell Rachel had to look at her to see her as a person instead of a knot of tangled emotion and pain. Ah poor pup...

...not that she ever called anyone that here but she thought it. Some habits died hard after all and the pain was closer to that she'd known in her first world, little though she cared to think on those memories now. Dreams were a better key than day to day, just a quite, flame wrapped figure waiting on the edges of the girl's nightmares until curiosity made the dream-self notice her, flame and all. Sure, this was the girl's mind, he thought all flame was bad and hurt anyone near, but there Rachel stood, tearing that belief down night after night...

That was the start. Then it was a matter of introducing fun. Flame was beautiful and warm as much as it was terrible at times, she the created a came between them, first it was like dodgeball, toss a handful of flame and try to catch it or you were out if it hit you! Bonus points if you managed to hit or hide behind Hellboy (and only Hellboy)! Then it grew to tag where flame joined hand to hand training so the girl was as much a weapon as she was a girl with her ability. There was an importance in being able to cause specific harm with flame after all, flame so intense it did precisely what you intended and no more...

...Liz had an adoration for blue. It was her favorite flame color. A way she decided to be different from Rachel when they stood next to each other, and maybe echoing the boys as Red and Blue amused her!

In kind Liz introduced her to current music and trends, dressing like someone in the eighties and nineties instead of the sixties so to speak. And whispered confidences into the night when they could sleep. Hell, she had more pillow fights with the girl than she did the boys and that took doing given how long she'd known the other too! And even better...no nightmare crisped and charred the posters on the wall. No heat melted the eyes of the bear Liz slept with (though less as the years went by). The day the girl got her shooting cert well, she dragged Rachel off for a night of giggles and pixie sticks, babbling about plans for the future!

Obviously they had to split up and look after the boys, after all two fire people together just really burned stuff but could be a great asset with other abilities right? And now she was almost field certified entirely she could take Red and Rachel of course took Blue and maybe they'd even get married! A plan that had Rachel giggling like an idiot and staring at the girl because it was such a sweetly silly idea wasn't it? Something Rachel had never really learned to do was be optimistic about the future or to plan even silly things more than a week or two out, and Liz...showed her that. A cleaner, brighter flame in their world hmmm?

She wasn't sure she was suppose to tell Hellboy that the little girl that wasn't so little anymore had a crush on him. Hell, not even Abe had an answer for that one, there were logical arguments either way? One way, it was a confidence. The other, well, Liz really liked Hellboy and she really didn't want her sib-type to hurt the girl by accident or teasing.

Hell.

Right, so it was cornering him in the lockers one day, Liz still thought men's and women's signs still held some power so it was a safe place! "Hey, monkey!"

"HEY TOWEL!" he yelped.

That was funny yes. "Relax it's just me, so..."

"...so? You're in the lockeroom! Did you lose a bet?!" He could accept that with dignity right?!

"...nah," she snorted, leaning on the metal near him and sighing, "so Liz turns eighteen tomorrow and she really likes you."

"I know, I already got her a gift and you shouldn't come in here just to che-what?"

"Like likes," she nodded. "Fair warning okay?" Just...saying?

"Um?"

"That's all I got! I...don't know what to do so thought it better you knew right? Just don't be stupid!"

"...your in the men's locker talking about stupid," he grumbled, ducking his head to hide the sudden thought on his face.

"Yeah yeah. Age difference, some, not by much factoring you, so with how slow you age, what, four years difference? Five? Trust me she calculated it!"

"She...did?" Okay that was....

"Yeah. So. I'll go and let you put pants on," she snorted.

"Yeah you do that," he grumbled. "And...thanks?"

"Don't say that, I mean no idea what happens now I haven't checked!"

"...don't do that," he asked softly.

She sighed, shrugging her jacket higher, "won't. Gotta live as you gotta live sometimes. I only look ahead for Pop."

"...good. Yeah, that's good. You think she likes...scifi?"

"...you've known her nine years now Hellboy! Geeze, if you don't know that one..." she snorted, stalking toward the door.

"I'm gonna tell Abe you were in here and missed him coming out!" he called after her, laughing.

"I'll tell her you're gay if you do!"

"HEY NO FAIR!"

She smirked, making sure the door slammed so he knew it was safe but...yeah. Sure. So...things were going to change huh?