MHA #6, Saturday Morning

[firstofitskind]

So last night had not exactly gone the way either Verity or Liam had been expecting it to go, to be honest. Which was not to say it was bad, exactly. A little awkward, possibly. Maybe a bit frustrating. But not bad.

But while Verity had been - well, 'startled' would be putting it gently - regarding what had happened instead of actual sex, she'd still asked Liam to stay over. They'd fallen asleep together, content with the idea that they'd talk about things tomorrow. As well as do some things that weren't talking.

Liam being Liam, he'd woken up after a couple hours and slipped out to the living room to do a bit of reading without disturbing Verity's sleep. The mice, naturally, had taken his appearance to mean that the Invocation of the Sacred Law of Food For Privacy had drawn to a close, until he pointed out that he didn't really have the authority to make such decisions.

... Have you ever seen a disappointed mouse face? Because that's what Liam had to deal with, several times over. He'd ended up placating them by ordering a delivery of a couple Mooby Burgers (the only place open at that absurd hour).

Eventually, he headed back to bed, because waking up with Verity was something he'd come to enjoy on the handful of occassions they'd managed it so far. What he wasn't expecting was to be woken up by small, insistent voices.

"Hey," he muttered. "Thought we had a deal, guys."

Yeah, this wasn't the mice, Liam.

[ooc: for the girlfriend, some small children, and the talking mice.]

Comments

[firstofitskind]

Okay, the awkward silence was... concerning. But Liam decided not to press that for now.

"We can come back to that," he said. "What're your names?" Because that would also be useful information to have.

[nextoftheirkind]

"Tyrus," the boy introduced himself. "And that's-"

"I can say it myself," the girl hissed. "Just 'cause you're bigger doesn't mean you always get to-" she trailed off, because oh yeah, there were things that she wasn't really supposed to talk about. "I'm Hayley!" she concluded brightly. "We were gonna make breakfast."

They hadn't gotten very far. Mostly because of the lack of anything breakfast-y (beyond that possibly spiked coffee) in Verity's kitchen.

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity's kitchen barely had anything suitable for adults, never mind children.

...And make that probably-spiked. Verity was clinging to her mug like she was waiting for someone to take it away from her and the coffee wasn't even done percolating yet.

"Hayley?" Verity asked, brows furrowed. "And Tyrus?"

[nextoftheirkind]

"Hayley Sarah," Tyrus explained. "And Tyrus Alexander. Kincaid-Price. So we have an official last name the Covenant doesn't know about when we're not using Price."

[arboreal_priestess]

"They really are my kids," said Verity, like the possibility hadn't actually occurred to her until right that moment. "Son of a--" She stopped herself, since there were little ears right there.

And took another sip of her Irish coffee which had yet to have any coffee in it.

[nextoftheirkind]

"Mommy was gonna say a bad word," Hayley informed Tyrus and Liam. You know. In case they'd missed that.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Who said Mommy was going to stop at one?" Verity murmured, finally pouring some coffee into her mug.

...And one for Liam, because she wasn't the literal worst.

[firstofitskind]

Liam did his best to hide a smile at that, accepting the cup of coffee gratefully.

It was then that he noticed Glimmerbug and Aurelius, still patiently waiting on the table.

Liam had made a point to get reasonably familiar with Verity's colony, and he was fairly certain these two didn't belong to it. "I see you didn't come alone," he observed.

[arboreal_priestess]

Glimmerbug and Aurelius looked at each other in obvious delight.

"The God of Distant Stars is wise and observant," Glimmerbug said, giving him a little bow. "I am the first initiate in the worship of the Flamebright Priestess."

"And I for the God of Missing Time!" Aurelius added.

[firstofitskind]

Not gonna lie, that... raised more questions than it answered, actually.

"How does everyone feel about breakfast?" Liam asked the room at large. Again, not that there was anything suitable for a meal in the apartment, but they had an island full of restaurants to choose from.

Part of him was certain he should be freaking out, more than he already had, at the idea of having children of his own; especially the kind who showed up so suddenly. But it was also... nice. Not just the idea of no longer being the last of the Kimera, but to imagine possibly building a future with Verity. He hadn't given the idea too much thought until now, since they'd only been dating for a few months, but... yeah. Nice. Definitely.

[arboreal_priestess]

"I...should go put pants on," Verity muttered, realizing that she was wearing last night's underwear and Liam's shirt. "Hold that thought?"

And, you know, maaaaaaaaaaaaaybe have a very tiny freakout in her bedroom. NBD.

[firstofitskind]

Liam hesitated for a moment; pants seemed like a good idea, and he did need to reclaim his shirt, but should he be leaving the children alone in the kitchen?

The same kitchen they'd been alone in before he and Verity had woken up. Clearly they'd be fine. So that decision made, he followed Verity into her room and closed the door behind them.

"Hey," he said quietly as the door clicked shut. "You okay?"

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity was pacing wildly in her room when he came in, several mice watching avidly from various perches, no doubt viewing all of this in fascination. Whole catechisms were probably being born from this moment.

She rounded on him, her whole posture screaming FIGHT! and took one, two, three determined steps towards him--

And as soon as she was in arms reach, all the hostility bled from her posture and she just kind of slumped over, clinging to him for dear life. "I'm freaking out pretty bad," she confessed.

[firstofitskind]

Liam wrapped his arms around her and held back just as tight.

"Understandably," he said, pressing a kiss to her forehead. Understandable, even if he was... not freaking out perhaps as much as he should. "It's not every day kids just show up and claim to be yours. Ours."

[arboreal_priestess]

"And they're real," Verity said, "they're really real. The mice have given them names! They've given you a name. You're part of the Price Family Pantheon now, don't you see?!"

Possibly not, Verity, you were just kind of babbling.

"I came to this island to see if I could make it as a dancer, to see if I have a future outside of cryptozoology. And now I'm seeing my future all laid out for me, from the guy I'm apparently going to marry to the adorable little kids we're gonna have." She buried her face in his chest. "Jesus Christ, we haven't even really had sex yet and now there are two kids sitting at my breakfast table thinking their mother is insane."

[firstofitskind]

And Liam, who'd never had a family to speak of, had seen a future where he did. He'd been so focused on the idea of finally belonging somewhere that he'd missed why that could be scary.

"Verity," he said softly, "Look, I know I'm the last one to talk about this sort of thing," being as he was the product of eons-old prophecy, "but the future is hardly set in stone. Just because they've shown up doesn't mean we have to run off and get married tomorrow."

[arboreal_priestess]

"Good," Verity said, with possibly more emphasis than was truly needed. "Look, Liam. I like you. I really, really like you." Heck she might even really, really, really like him at this point. Who knew? "But I am so not ready to run out to Vegas and have Elvis officiate our wedding, okay?"

[firstofitskind]

"And I like you. And this thing we've got going between us. I'm not interested in rushing into something neither of us is ready for either," Liam said. "Besides, we haven't even made that trip to the Isle of Ikea you keep threatening me with," he pointed out with a small smile.

[arboreal_priestess]

"That's true," Verity said, giving him a wobbly smile. "And everyone knows you can't be seriously involved with a man who only has a chair."

She let go of him, taking a few steps back to compose herself. Verity didn't do vulnerability well and it was a weird feeling on her.

"Those poor kids," she said, ruffling her hair. "We'll be lucky they didn't high-tail it out of here when they had the chance."

[firstofitskind]

"Where would they go?" Liam pointed out as he rummaged around on the floor for the pants he'd discarded last night. "It's not a very big island."

[arboreal_priestess]

"You wouldn't ask that if you've ever seen what Antimony gets up to," Verity said, shimmying into a pair of jeans. "Besides, I don't want them to feel like I drove them away or something. They seem like good kids, they don't deserve that.

[firstofitskind]

Liam resisted the urge to point out that if they were good kids, they probably wouldn't be getting up to the kind of things Antimony gets up to. He only knew Verity's sister via stories, after all, so that sort of judgement wouldn't be entirely fair.

Now fully- if somewhat over- dressed, given the fact that his only clothes here were the same ones he'd worn to the dance last night, he nodded towards the door. "Shall we?"

[arboreal_priestess]

No, but they could get up to entirely worse things because they were just kids and didn't know better!

Probably? Verity didn't really spend a lot of time with kids, to be fair.

"Yeah," she said, pulling on a sweatshirt. Overdressed Liam might be, but she still ended up giving him an admiring glance as she got off the bed. The kind that suggested she still very much remembered what their original plans were for the weekend, even if they'd been suspended for now. "Let's go make sure I haven't scarred anyone for life. Or that my kitchen hasn't."

She went to leave, then paused and hugged him. "Thanks."

[firstofitskind]

"Anytime," Liam said, giving her a quick squeeze back. "Maybe we should be hoping that the kitchen survived," he added, remembering what he and Verity had been like that weekend where people had turned into children.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Oh god," Verity said, dashing through the door.

Only to discover the not-creepy-really tableau of their children sitting on the floor, surrounded by almost every mouse in the colony, who were hanging on their every word.