Welcome to Gaia! ::

To say he was happy to have his brother home for any amount of time was an understatement. Daily video calls, constant messages, and occasionally flying out to see him with Bell was hardly enough when he was used to spending countless hours near his not-twin.

Ruvik had kept Roman pretty up to date on things going on. Honestly he'd been kinda worried what Roman would feel when he heard about his ranking up in the magical hero category - they did just about everything together, wasn't that something they should have been doing together too? - but Ruvik had been reassured, repeatedly, that senshi-dom was kind of an individual journey with no concrete metric to measure one's progress by, so even if they had faced the same battles and same challenges, that didn't mean they'd be ready for extra power at the same time.

Honestly Ruvik wasn't sure he has even been ready when facing that big space dragon, but the cat said so, and who was he to question talking cats?

His magic was still unstable though. He wasn't sure how he was supposed to fix that.....


But none of that really mattered now - not while he had his brother home!


Bundled up in a stylish puffy winter jacket and snazzy scarf, Ruvik had his hands stuffed in his pockets and they waited in the line for the food stall. Whatever they were serving today smelled really good. Better than anything he'd smelled, food-wise, in a long time.

"Ah, man it smells so good, bro. Makes waiting out here worth it."

He took in a deep breath, the memory of warm home cooked meals, especially this time of year, filling him with fond nostalgia. He kind of wished he could cook like that, but between the three of them, they were lucky if a Stouffers lasagne turned out edible. But at least they weren't doomed to always order take out! Bell had cooks on call, and they were really good! It just didn't quite have the same feel as something made from the heart of a mum or grandma. You'd never hear him complain though! Anything beat ramen noodles every night.

When Roman mentioned coming home, Ruvik's eye lit up - sparkling like Caribbean waters, and his smile widened;
"Aw man, that'd be so great, bro!"

Ruvik, as much as he missed his brother, could not be happier that he'd been given the opportunity to live his dream. He was nothing but supportive - enthusiastically so! But he'd be lying is he said he wasn't looking forward to him coming home from it all. Sure - there would probably still be trips and time away if he had to think about it realistically, but nothing like these past months.

"It will be so great to have you back home again!"

Ruvik left out that it would be a huge relief too, cause keeping Bell satisfied was definitely a tag-team sport, but that wasn't exactly something he'd just make public chatter. And he knew Roman knew. The texts were there - all in good joking fun, of course.

The smells, comforting and nostalgic, were stronger as they got closer to the front of the line. Even though they were outside in the cold, it made him feel all cozy and warm.

"Bruh, you cook it, I'll try it, but I might have to stock up on the tums first," Ruvik joked playfully.

He couldn't imagine his bro getting too fat - maybe a light dad bod, if that. They were both simply cursed with such good looks, even that would have people thirsting. Not that there was any interest in that - Ruvik knew where his bread was buttered.

"Well, you know I got plans on starting that youtube channel talking about cinematography an' all that, so I've been taking some classes for how to put together videos an' all that kind of thing-" Ruvik began, going in to all his plans.

He was pretty sure he was only finally pushed in to doing it because Bell was, politely of course, telling him he needed to take his rants about modern movies to other ears, and together came up with a plan to really put his love and 'tistic geekery for cinematography on display for those who wanted to hear it.

"And Bell's is doin' good - Bell doing Bell things." Which was honestly kind of a mystery to him just what all she got up to.

He had already determined that getting her tech-literate was a Sisyphean task, so at least it wasn't like she was sitting around watching social media brain rot. She seemed to have a pretty basic routine of morning yoga, maybe some pole dance, some reading, and something or another about some modelling, fashion and design consultation, some things down at the performing arts center.... With the monetary freedom to do anything she wanted without having to have a job, the possibilities were really limitless.