It feels like it's been a thousand years (Gavin/Mari)

Marilyn avoided leaving England for obvious reasons. If she'd thought there was a lot of press on her tail there it was ten times worse in her school's area. She'd been abducted from here after all. So it wasn't like she was itching to return (she had her wand at hand the entire time just to be safe) but She'd promised Jake she'd try to get better AND the witch did need to pick up some things from her old home. Nobody was there anymore. Her Mothers had already moved to New Zealand as had her sisters, Marilyn had convinced them to move out of safety reasons.

So there she stood, on the street where she'd apparated to (so noone could trace her house) wild curls in a bun to stay out of her face, scar on her cheek prominent in the light, her neck and shoulders visible and even more heavily scarred.

There she stood when she found herself looking straight into the person she'd not seen since the abduction from their train ride home.

Gavin hadn't had much reason to head back into Greenswitch since he graduated from Salem, but on this particular day his wandering mind urged him to go and explore the town. Looking at it through the eyes of an adult was totally different than they way he'd seen it as a kid coming here to get away from school. There were so many memories in these streets, some good...some not so much. He paused in front of the train station and gave a heavy sigh, this was one of those places that gave him some bad memories. Every time he walked by it hr thought of Marilyn and her disappearance. Logical he knew that it wasn't his fault, but having been one of the last people to see her he couldn't help but feel a little guilty.

Of course he had heard about her escape from Guantanamo, it had been all over the news...it'd be impossible to not, and he'd wanted to reach out to her, but for the life of him Gavin couldn't figure out what to say to her. It'd been so long since she'd been gone, and so much had changed. Gavin was almost content to remember how their friendship had been, than to risk things having changed to much between them. Finally moving away from the station wanting to get away from the depressing thoughts Gavinn turned on his heels and made a beeline for the pub.

he wasn't expecting, on his way there, to come face to face with the very person he was just thinking about. For a moment Gavin thought she was a figment conjured due to his guilt. But the moment he was close enough he knew she was real. "Mari...you...you're...here." He stuttered out his voice caught in his throat. "I've been wanting to reach out to you...I just didn't..." slowly he trailed off knowing he was making excuses. His eyes found the ground in shame as his cheeks flushed. "I'm sorry."

Marilyn stood like a deer in headlights, unmoving ad wide-eyed, before the boy- no, man, that one once been the person she shared everything with. Her dorm, her thoughts her dreams. She wondered if he still had her journal, the one she'dfilled with words that expressed what she wanted to feel. She'd left in in the compartment that day...
When she'd escaped the last thing she'd wanted was to see anyone. She'd refused all visitors. Jake was the only one who got through and that only because he was just as stubborn as she was. She just couldn't bear another reminder of the life she'd lost. The dreams she could no longer see, the things she could no longer feel... She had been afraid that seeing anyone from that life would end her.
But that was then. This was now. This was Mari, Auror in Training, the person that can hang out with Jake and goes to a Fighting Club. She was different now.
And Gavin was stammering in front of her and now all she could think to do was step forward and hug him.
So she did. She wrapped her arms around his neck (Thank Merlin Jake let her practice hugging on him) and buried her face in his shoulder.
But she refused to speak just yet, preferring to stay in this moment. The moment where he hasn't heard her wrecked voice. He hasn't seen the extent of the damage.

The hug surprised him a bit, and Gavin was feeling emotional as it was so it was no surprise that he felt sparks of electricity jumping off him the moment Marilyn wrapped her arms around her neck. Thankfully ever since the night his powers almost killed him, he'd been working even harder to learn how to control them so he was able to pretty quickly reel it in. He pulled away to say something to Mari, anything but found himself chuckling instead. The brief contact of their hug had been more than enough for his ambient static to take a hold of her hair. With a smirk he pointed over at the nearest reflective surface. "You're hair's all poofy hun. You really should brush or something before you leave the house."

This reminded the redhead so much of the night they first met in the Belladonna common room, the night their friendship began. He wondered if Mari ever thought about, about how a meeting that appeared to be nothing more than random happenstance could have such a great impact on your life. There was no doubt that information along those lines would have been in her journal, but Gavin had never opened it. Couldn't bring himself too--it just seemed too private. But he had kept a hold of it in hopes of one day returning it to it's owner.

"I've missed you Mari," Gavin whispered after a bit, "so so much."

Marilyn didn't look at her reflection, she didn't really like to. It was getting better, but not very quickly or very much. The ex-belladonna gave him a tiny smile at his quip though. But only briefly. The witch was being confronted with a lot of conflicting houghts. Like the urge to run for the hills. The memories of their time at school togther. The time after the first attack that had left her unconscious in the hospital wing. Waking up to see her best friend there waiting for her. Waking up a year and a half later, in Mungo's after escaping, to her Grandparents voices threatening paparazzi outside the door.

But now, right now, he was speaking to her. Admitting that he'd missed her.
Oh no, oh no, emotions, Marilyn didn't do emotions anymore. So instead of choking up like she would have before she took a deep breath, avoided eye contact and spoke a simple, "I missed you, too, a lot." her wrecked voice felt even more obviously out of place than usual. "What are you doing here?"

He frowned softly when Mari didn't fire back with a smart ass comment after his joke about her hair, but he chalked it up to her being shocked at bumping into him randomly. Though the thought of the Mari he knew that would have hassled him was gone and changed during her time of capture, but the red head chose not to think about that. Until he heard her voice and his attention was drawn to the scar on her neck. Just as soon as he noticed it though Gavin looked away, the Healer in him wanting to question her about it, but the human being in him knowing that he shouldn't.

"I actually don't know why I'm here," he muttered out after a few moments of silence, "I just felt like I was supposed to be here today."

This. This was why Mari hadn't wanted to see anyone. He didn't look at her, he was thrown off by her changed nature... but she wasn't all changed, she just had more walls than she had had before the capture. It took time, so much time, and effort, to get her to act even remotely more like herself. Well, at least to get her to act comfortable. Who knows what 'herself' even means anymore.

However her coping mechanism wasn't avoidance, it was dark, dry humour with a hint of bitterness, a way to distance herself from the real severity of things.

"Souvenirs." she gestured to the crossed scarring that covered her shoulders and ran up her neck and left facial half, also referring to her voice; her eyes emptier than they usually were.

"Yeah well I hope you gave the bastards some in return," Gavin spat out in a tone much harsher than he ever would have used before. Marilyn wasn't the only one that had been changed over the years. You don't see the kind of things Gavin saw working with the relief effort in Spain and hold onto all of your innocence. Where he previously believed that there was good in everyone, he now knew that some people were just pure evil. Wanting to change the subject before he started to get angry, knowing that an emotion induced electric burst was the last thing he needed right now, he blurted out. "I still have journal...I never told anyone about it...Always felt like your private thoughts and emotions didn't need to get rummaged through in some evidence locker."

And then he remembered where it was and groaned internally. "The only problem is it that it's hidden at my parent's house...and I haven't exactly been on speaking terms with them since I came out."

"Yeah well I hope you gave the bastards some in return,"

"Well, I killed them." came out in a deadpan before she could think about how possibly that may not be a very good way to answer someone. Her gage for what was appropriate socially and what was not was horrendously out of tune since her escape. Which was often so with people who suffered from such severe PTSD; it had made her moral compass skewed and made social situations like this where her past was staring her in the face absolute nightmares.

"I still have journal...I never told anyone about it...Always felt like your private thoughts and emotions didn't need to get rummaged through in some evidence locker."

"I don't want it." Mari said quickly, "Thank you" she managed to remember to say, "But it's okay, I can't...I can't see it yet."