Nana giggled again as I shook the rain from my hair.  “He was probably up on the roofs, watching us arrive and being all brooding.”
I clutched my heart as if I’d been shot by an imaginary arrow.  “Nana, you wound me.  That has to be the most terrible defamation of character.  I thought better of you.”

“It’s not defamation” cut in Prue “if it’s true.”

“Yeah,” interjected Efren, the willow thin man who had now stopped looking around the store.  Anything of value had already been looted long ago.  “Sneaking about, spying on the girls, it’s not creepy at all.”

Of all those present, I found Effren the hardest to get along with.  Without a doubt, we’re better off for his skills.  Effren is an honest-to-goodness wizard, turfed out of fancy wizard school for crimes as yet undisclosed.  His uptown upbringing and attributes rarely mesh well with the locals, including me, tending to rub folk up the wrong way.  It might be all wizards, - what do I know? – but he also seems to not really understand social interactions and often takes things way too far.  I try to remember that he’s doing his best to fit in and at the end of the day his is a wizard, and that’s worth a few sacrifices.

I flashed him my best cheesy grin.  “Maybe I was sneaking about spying on you.  That’s not creepy at all!”

Before Effren could come up with a response, or indeed figure out if I was serious or not, we were interrupted by a deep rumbling laugh.  The last member of our team, Buster, was enjoying the interaction.  Twice the size of most men, Buster was a powerhouse, massively muscled and also able to take a beating that would flatten anyone else.  The green tint of his skin suggested that he had some Troll heritage, which probably explained why he was able to bounce back from all but the most serious injuries.
Buster was a simple fellow, and had been on the receiving end of a pretty hard time before we’d taken him in.  Slow wits an unusual physique and green skin all made fitting in very difficult and Buster had faced no small amount of bullying and idiots trying to prove something.  Unfortunately for most them, Buster tended to violence once riled.  Most never made the same mistake again, but it didn’t help Buster’s social situation.

For us, it was really very simple.  We spoke nicely to Buster, included him in everything, stood up for him if anyone started on him and made sure he got a fair share of any proceeds.
For his part, he didn’t always fully understand, but he was glad to have found a place.

Nana rolled her eyes and turned away; she didn’t like any friction.  Effren was about to spout some doubt ill-conceived come back, and nobody needed that.