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At some point in the chaos, Persephone had disappeared. Blue had mourned the loss of the woman who had helped to raise her. But as more time has passed, the easier it's become to live here without feeling the ache of missing people back home. Sure, she still misses her family almost every day. She especially misses Moira Sargent. This is the longest she's ever been away from home and her mother and it hasn't always been easy. But Blue's lucky. She knows that she's lucky. Each of her raven boys are still here. As long as she has them in her life, Blue knows that she's at home.

Since it's return, Blue has spent a good amount of her time cleaning up Monmouth. She doubts that the warehouse home has ever been so clean. At least, not since Gansey had originally moved in. The big difference between the Monmouth here in Itinere and the one back in Henrietta is that this one is her home. She had moved in shortly after arriving here and has yet to move out. Even the appearance of a 300 Fox Way on one of the random blocks in town hasn't gotten her to budge. She had tried for all of one night but it's just not the same without all of the women that lived in the house with her.

So she cleans. And cooks. And continues to work her part-time job at one of the cafes downtown. She rides her bike around town and spends enough time at the beach that she suspects that she might be getting a tan. As lives go, it's not a bad one. Especially given that whole end of the world thing that nearly happened a couple of months ago. Blue's not complaining. But there's still one thing that she wishes she could do above anything else and that's kiss Richard Gansey III. Dating a boy, let alone your true love, is difficult when kissing will never be an option.

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Gansey misses Henrietta and Cabeswater. He even misses Helen and his mother, but it's been a number of years since he spent much time with either of them. He's happy enough here because he's got his friends. The whole end of the world thing had been interesting, but he's grateful that it's all returned.

Lately, Gansey has been pre-occuped with the idea that Cabeswater is much, much bigger than they had thought and what that means for Adam. He's concerned and he's started a whole new journal for this place. He's trying to help Blue keep the warehouse clean, but he gets distracted. He's also been working on his cereal box replica of Henrietta, which seems more important now than it ever has. HIs insomnia still plagues him so when he does sleep it's at all hours of the day and night.

He wakes up from a marathon sleeping stint, finds Blue gone (not an unusual occurrence) and decides to go find her. He pulls on his khaki cargo shorts, a lemon yellow collared shirt and sunglasses. When he finds Blue at the beach, he takes his boat shoes off, carries them in one hand and walks through the sand toward her, sitting down on the beach. "Finished with work? Or didn't go in today?"

She had spent her whole life in that house on 300 Fox Way. She had spent it surrounded by eccentric, independent women who had helped mold her into the girl she is today. To say that Blue doesn't miss those women would be a lie. But for those same sixteen years of her life, she never had friends like the friends she has now. It's as all-encompassing a relationship as any she's known with family. So while she misses Henrietta, there is also no other place Blue would rather be than with these boys.

Of course Gansey's been preoccupied. He wouldn't be Gansey if he hadn't found something new to investigate and distract him from day to day life. Blue doesn't mind keeping Monmouth clean. Someone has to do it and she doesn't trust either Gansey or Noah to be all that great at it. Maybe it's a little sexist of her (okay, it's very sexist), but she doesn't care. It's not like she has school to go to on top of her odd jobs here.

When Gansey sits down beside her on the sand, she moves to rest her head against him. This is safe. Resting her head against him can't possibly lead to kissing. "Slow day. They didn't need me to stay past my shift."

Not that she's made a habit of that.

It feels right somehow, being here together. Maybe there's nothing else right about this place, but that is. He worries about Blue sometimes being separated from the women at 300 Fox Way. He knows how close they all are. He's not entirely sure that they're enough, he and the boys. He hopes that they are.

It is his natural state of being. He appreciates what Blue does even if it's something he's generally too distracted or too pre-occupied to do himself. Occasionally he cleans Monmouth back home, but it's generally because he's expecting someone to drop by.

He smiles when she rests her head against him and leans his head against hers to keep from kissing the top of her head. He's not entirely sure what all the rules are to this thing. "My good luck then." He lifts his head to look at Blue. "Care to take a walk along the beach with me?"

Nothing will ever capture the dynamic of life at 300 Fox Way and Blue doesn’t want it to. She always wants her home to be unique in whatever memories she has left to make. She always wants to remember the eccentric women there as the people who raised and influenced her for the first 16 years of her life. Life among the Raven Boys should never be like life in that house had been. It should - needs - to be its own thing. And perhaps it’s them, perhaps it’s the all-encompassing nature of this friendship, but it is enough. They’ll always be enough.

She wishes she knew the rules. She wishes she knew if it’s only a kiss that she initiates which would doom her true love or if a kiss he starts is just as equally fair game. She wishes she could know if it’s just his lips Blue’s forbidden to kiss or if it’s every inch of skin that’s off limits. Blue has so many questions that she had never sought answers to. Then again, up until she had met and fallen in love with Richard Gansey III, those answers had never seemed necessary.

At least there’s one thing that Blue doesn’t question and that’s her love for him. She’s fallen, fast and hard and completely. When he suggests a walk on the beach, Blue doesn’t hesitate to agree. “Always,” comes the answer as she slips her hand in his.

Gansey can understand that. Not only does it create a separation between her childhood and her adulthood, but it also keeps her childhood home special in her mind, as it should be because Gansey can only imagine how wonderful and special growing up there had been. He used to love to go to 300 Fox Way and just be a part of that place. Yes, they're enough despite missing others from home.

He wishes he knew the rules as well. He likes to tell himself that he would be satisfied with the limitations if he knew that not everything was a no. Of course, he also realizes that that might very well be a lie, but he tells himself that anyway.

Gansey has never really questioned his love for Blue. it's always been something that just was the way that Ronan is like his brother and Adam and Noah are his best friends. It's been that way from moment one with all of them, like they were puzzle pieces clicking into their proper places. This time, he doesn't reach to help her up, simply lets her take his hand as she wishes and gets to his feet. He leads the way down the beach at a leisurely pace.

And she'd like to think that he'd be welcomed back anytime. If they ever manage to make it back to Henrietta. Having all the Raven boys in the house at the same time might be psychic chaos, especially when Blue is there to make everything louder, but she likes it anyway. Face it, she just likes being around the boys wherever they all are.

Blue won't even pretend that she'd be satisfied with the limitations if everything was a no. She can't kiss her true love without risking his death. Even if he could kiss her on the forehead, that wouldn't be enough. Not with Gansey.

Once she stands, she slips her hand back into his. As they walk down the beach, she begins to swing their arms gently. Her eyes close for a few seconds as she takes a deep breath of salt air. She hears the gulls somewhere in the background and the way the waves lap on the shore. Gansey's hand is firm and warm in hers. The world is alive around them. It's perfect.

"Do you miss Henrietta?" she finally asks, finally breaking the silence. Her eyes open to look up at him, lips pursed together in thought. Home isn't something they've talked about much since arriving here. Still, she's curious.

Would it be arrogant of him to say that parents usually like him? Though, the psychic chaos might be reason enough for the women at Foxway to kick him out. He's grateful when they do allow him to stay. He's grateful for that as well because he feels much the same way. They'd spent so much time at Nino's because of Blue. The pizza had been a bonus.

She's far more honest than he is.

It is a relatively perfect moment, one that seems to have a low chance of being ruined, which he appreciates. This isn't a stolen moment, or one they can't speak about with their friends around. That's nice as well.

He takes a deep breath at her question and ponders it a moment before nodding. "Sometimes. Henrietta is the first place I've ever been that felt like home. However, as corny as it sounds, I've come to realize that home has a great deal more to do with the people around you than a location and I think perhaps that's always what made Henrietta feel like home."

Is that an actual answer, Blue? You decide.

Ronan wanders into Monmouth sometime after Adam has gone to work. He rolls the motorcycle that Adam built him into the first floor that's mostly unused and stomps up the stairs to the second, main floor. He's got a bag of chips in one hand and is eating them. He goes to the fridge, gets a can of soda out and goes back into the main room. He grunts at Gansey, who's pouring over his notes then goes back down the hall to where Blue's room is. He opens the door without knocking and schlumps over to throw himself down on the bed.

"Everything come back clean and smelling weird or did you do that?" He doesn't mean this as an insult. He's merely curious.

There is a benefit to living on the second floor instead of the first one: motorcycles are too heavy to be brought up stairs. Unlike some of Monmouth's other residents, Blue works hard on keeping the warehouse clean and motorcycle tracks definitely defeats that purpose.

When Ronan barges into her room (without knocking which, at this point, isn't much of a surprise to her), she's curled up in her desk chair reading. She rolls her eyes at him in response, both for the way he plops on her bed and his pointless question. "What do you think?"

Fair enough. If Ronan could ride it up the stairs, he would. It stays in Adam's garage when Ronan isn't riding it. It's one of Ronan's most prized possessions because Adam built it for him. It's not a dream thing or a wish thing. It's a real thing.

At least she knows what to expect from him. He seems to consider her response for a moment. "I think you made it smell weird," he tells her with a sharp, sarcastic grin.

“What you’re smelling is fresh air,” she contradicts with another roll of her eyes. Blue recognizes that smile on Ronan’s face. She’s seen it often enough. It means one thing and one thing entirely: Ronan Lynch is being an ass for no other reason than because it comes naturally to him. “And the lack of dirty laundry.”

"Fresh air smells like the barns," he responds in return. "Yeah, 'cause we want Dad to have sixty three thousand colored rich kid shirts to choose from. Let it pile up and maybe he'll dress like a normal person for once."

Not that that's his strategy. However, it works for his desire not to do laundry.

Lucy doesn't have a set schedule. She likes that about her life. She works at the Houndstooth part of the time. She shops like it's her job and she spends a lot of time on the beach in a bikini, getting a tan. That's where she runs into Blue. She's stretched out on a lounge chair, earbuds in, drink in hand, book off to the side half read. She catches movement to one side and pulls her earbuds out, looking over at the girl who'd sat down on the sand next to her.

"Amazing day for sunbathing," Lucy comments.

Blue's intention isn't necessarily to spend time sunbathing as it is to just enjoy a life by the water. The ocean seems endless, not at all like the lake near Henrietta. She's found it hard not to be amazed. It's the perfect place to catch up on her reading. Really, Blue can't ask for any better background noise when she's at the beach.

She wears cut off denim shorts covered with various paint splotches and a tank top with a beaded fringe that looks like it probably came out of the '70s. Dropping her backpack on the sand, she follows suit a few seconds later and stretches her legs out in front of her.

"Or an amazing day to read," she says, pulling out her own book from her backpack. "There aren't many better views here."

Sometimes they're the same thing. Lucy sometimes wonders just how endless this ocean is. She doesn't think that it would let them sail to anywhere besides Itinere, but she hasn't a boat so she doesn't know that for sure.

Lucy smiles a little at Blue's comment. "If that's your thing, totally," she agrees. Lucy reads, but she's not an avid reader. When she does read it's usually trash sort of novels. She gives the view a look, nods in agreement then looks back to Blue. "What are you reading?"

It would be something amazing if they could cross the ocean? Or travel along the cost to see what might exist past Itinere’s shores. Sometimes Cabeswater seemed endless in such a way that Blue wouldn’t really be all that surprise to find out that she never truly left Henrietta but only stumbled upon some extended part of the forest she can’t yet leave. Blue has so many questions that she unfortunately suspects might never be answered.

“Don Quixote,” she answers, closing the hardcover and turning the book so that Lucy can see it. “I met a man claiming to be him a few months back.”

Lucy suspects they'd find out they were just going in a circle. She knows the City worked like that and there are some things that are the same here in Itinere. As for Cabeswater, Lucy hasn't any idea what that is or how it works.

A smile curves Lucy's lips. "Fictional characters are always the most fun to meet. So what do you think? Was it him? Or was he crazy? You can never tell in a place like this."

Adam, of course, had felt Persephone's absence too. He's angry at this place for taking her away and angry at himself for not stopping it. Surely there could have been some way to keep her here. Or maybe he really isn't all that important or powerful to have any effect on her coming and going. She'd been here for a little while, and somehow that in itself just seemed like Persephone's way.

Usually he avoids being around Blue by himself. Things just tend to get awkward. He gets on Blue's nerves in some way or another. He gets defensive. Then things devolve into an argument that leaves him feeling unsettled. When he catches her riding a bike past the garage he works at, Adam thinks to just let her go on by. That would be the easier route. But something compels him to make sure she's okay since Persephone isn't here anymore.

Adam hops onto his own bike and speeds after her, catching up and riding alongside her in silence. Should he bring up Persephone? Should he bring anything up at all? Or should he just be here so she knows he's here even when he's difficult to be around? He chooses the latter. One step at a time.

Even if they had known that someone (something?) intended on sending Persephone away, Blue's not certain that they'd be able to do anything about it. Oh, she would have wanted to try. She would have fought as hard as she could but in the end, what good would it have accomplished? She has no illusions about where she standsi n whatever heiarchy exists. Or that Persephone's disappearance easily could have been at the woman's own whim. Regardless, knowing any of this doesn't make it any easier.

Though she sees Adam on a regular enough basis, whenever he and Ronan come over to Monmouth, they're rarely alone in the same room. Her reasons are much the same as his. No matter how hard she tries not to, she always seems to find some way to get under his skin. Or he does the same. They're just not good at this friend thing, are they?

But she hasn't given up trying yet. Blue's heard someone cycling behind her for a little while now. When Adam finally catches up to her, she slows down her pace so she can wave without losing her balance. One step at a time. It's a good plan. There can't be any harm in quietly biking together for a while. Right?

Her disappearance highlights the fact that any of them could disappear at any time, at least it does for Adam. That's a bothersome thought. Getting them all here had been rough, not because he doesn't care deeply for them, but because he and Ronan had been here long enough alone for something to change between them. Adam didn't know how to handle that change in front of people he knew, maybe, Blue, especially.

The idea of losing them? His mind can't really handle even the thought of it. Maybe they would all be happier back in Henrietta. But Adam selfishly wants them here if he has to be here too.

When Blue slows her pace, so does Adam. They bike side by side for awhile in silence. He's fine with silence. Adam has always been the quiet sort unless he really has something to say. Right now it's about just being around Blue without fighting with her or letting his mind play games with him. He's trying.

Eventually though... "I made Ronan a motorcycle." Random conversation. Safe topics. Motorcycles. It works.

It highlights the fact just as clearly for Blue. But she refuses to let that distract her from living her life. There are enough things that can happen back home just as easily to separate them. She'll do her best to stay here for as long as she can. Leaving the boys behind just seems wrong. She knows that Adam and Ronan have been here for longer and that it's built something between them that hadn't been there before. That's okay. If anything, it makes her feel a bit better about the way she feels about Gansey.

Selfishly, she wants them all to stay here just as much. She wants them to stay together as a group either here or in Henrietta. The place doesn't matter. What matters is that Blue has her raven boys all together.

It's not so bad biking alongside Adam. It's actually kind of nice, almost peaceful in its way. She smiles at him every now and then to reassure them both that things can go smoothly between them. When he breaks the silence, Adam's only rewarded with a bigger smile. "I've seen it. You do nice work, Adam."

The longer they ride, the easier it gets. Whatever tension is on Adam's side starts to ease bit by bit. Maybe he needs to try to spend more time with Blue and not less. He's been backed off for awhile just because they seemed to be arguing all the time. Maybe they need to spend more time. Maybe they would argue less. Maybe arguing is okay as long as they're all together.

Although, when Blue smiles like that, Adam is reminded of how beautiful she is. Part of that beauty is that she doesn't even realize it herself. That's fine. Adam has never thought himself lovable before, not until recently, with Ronan. Blue is beautiful. Adam is lovable. The grass is green and the forest is full of trees.

"I was worried he wouldn't like it. You know, because it's not shiny or new." It's all different colors and hodge-podge parts put together. Rustic and a little dirty, like Adam is. But still, Ronan liked it.

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