Suite in the Arms, Saturday Morning

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy knew that she was probably one of the very few who thought this way, but the weekend after prom was pretty much her favorite time of year. Certainly her favorite of all the weird tricks the island pulled.

So late last night, she and Dante had decamped from Limbo City to the hotel; Anders had an important surgery that was expected to last hours, but he'd promised to come along if he could. But for now, it was just the two of them and...well, however many happened to show up.

"Wonder who we'll get this year," Kathy murmured, looking out the window towards the park.

Comments

[rebelseekspizza]

"Probably someone cool," Dante said, stretching. He hadn't bothered to get up from the bed yet, though he had, at least, put on the one pair of boxers he owned for the occasion.

[spin_kick_snap]

So long as they'd been washed sometime between last year and this, that's all that she asked.

"Putting a lot of faith in your genes over mine," Kathy teased, glancing over her shoulder at him.

And, yeah, okay, biting her lip because Dante was pretty.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante winked at her, stretching a little more obviously, making sure she got a good view. "Hey, you do have nerd cool," he said. "My genes just shave off the nerd."

[spin_kick_snap]

She appreciated you, Dante.

"So you say," she teased. "You get nerdy in your own way, though."

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante gasped. "You take that back!"

[spin_kick_snap]

"You can't handle the truth?" Kathy asked sweetly, batting her lashes at him.

[rebelseekspizza]

"How the fuck am I a nerd?" Dante demanded.

[rebelseekskimchi]

Which was, of course, the perfect moment for a set of small 12-year-old-sized knuckles to go rapping on the door. "Hey, losers!" Evie yelled.

And then devolved into a spate of giggles.

[spin_kick_snap]

"That is definitely your daughter," Kathy said, poking Dante in the arm. "Possibly by some kind of weird cloning thing."

That wasn't stopping her from going to the door and pulling it open with a big grin. "Hey there, Evie-girl," she said with a happy, welcoming smile.

[rebelseekskimchi]

"Mom!"

She was also enough her mother's daughter: Evie glomped onto Kathy immediately.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Nice job playing it cool, kid," Dante said, grinning as he rose up from the bed, snatching his shirt off the floor.

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy wasn't complaining. Just the opposite; her arms were full of girl - even if Evie were hardly little - and very little could make that better. "She doesn't have to play," she informed Dante. "She just is cool."

AND COOL KIDS HUGGED THEIR MOMS.

[rebelseekskimchi]

"Da... rn right," Evie said, nodding against Kathy's chest. "You better watch it."

[rebelseekspizza]

"I'm real scared," Dante said, as he yanked the shirt over his head.

[spin_kick_snap]

"I heard that," Kathy whispered into Evie's ear with a chuckle and a kiss for the top of her head. But she didn't try to chastise or scold. A little bit of bad language - and damn barely counted - was hardly something to get huffy over, especially just for a weekend.

"I dunno," she said, raising her head to look at Dante. "I bet this one runs rings around us back home."

A mix of Li and Sparda genes? Dear lord.

[kirkwall_kidlets]

This wasn't Carys' first Fandom rodeo. Which was why she and Bastian headed to go get candy before wandering towards the Arms.

She knew her mom's rules about breakfast. And she was gonna eat! And make sure Bastian did, too! But processed sugar was still a rarity in Kirkwall.

So maybe an hour or so after Evie showed up, there was another knock on the door. Well, a brief tattoo of knocks, like more than one person was rapping their knuckles against the door.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Here come the rest of them," Kathy said, giving Evie a kiss on the side of her head as she slid off the bed to answer the door.

"Hello," she said, opening the door. And immediately brightened into a grin. "Carys!" she cried. "And--why, hello there. Who is this handsome fellow?"

[kirkwall_kidlets]

"Mommy!" Bastian barreled forward, wrapping his arms around Kathy's legs. "Mommy, you know me!"

[kirkwall_kidlets]

"No, we talked about this," Carys said with the long-suffering sigh of every older sister ever. "She doesn't know you yet. She's too little still."

[kirkwall_kidlets]

"Oh right." He looked up at her. "She doesn't look all that little to me."

[spin_kick_snap]

"But I am," Kathy assured him, kneeling down to give him a hug. "Even though it seems funny. So what's your name, little sir?"

[kirkwall_kidlets]

"I'm Bastian," he said. "And I'm not little. I'm much bigger than I was! There are lines on the wall showing how big I am!"

[spin_kick_snap]

"I stand corrected," Kathy said, standing back up. "And...speaking of not little..."

She looked at Carys, far older than the little girl who had tumbled into her life years ago. "Look at you, dearest," she said, a slight catch in her voice. "You're almost an adult now."

No older than Evie, surely, but Evie had shown up as an eleven year old. In Kathy's mind, Carys was still a little girl.

[kirkwall_kidlets]

Carys smirked. "Tell yourself that back home," she said. "Mom and Dad don't really think so, even though I keep trying to tell them that."

[spin_kick_snap]

"It's hard for parents to look and not see the little girl of yesteryear." Especially for Kathy since last year Carys had been a little girl! "Did you try the suggestion I gave you?"

At Carys' blank look, Kathy reminded, "When I suggested you do stuff without waiting to be asked in exchange for more freedoms."