The Park, Sunday Morning

[1000yearstoolate]

"I don't think you should dig holes in the lawn!"

Uelin and Zephyr was doing just that, and Seivarden wasn't sure why she had offered to take Amaya's brat with her. No, she knew, Uelin has insisted, because they had been working on something that would really impress their mother, and they needed ice cream while doing it.

Seivarden had got them ice cream.

Issabeth was standing nearby looking up att Issa sitting in a tree.

"You were right. She used to climb up trees."

She took a few photos, laughing. "My friends will thing these pictures are fake," she said with a laugh, then turned her head to look at Seivarden. "We have more tea, don't we? Otherwise I'll get some more, but that barista was really rude."

Seivarden didn't really know why but she felt so happy.

Then: "Wait, no, you can't practice on the flamingos."

[Open park!]

Comments

[somethingwithturquoise]

"There you are."

Summer, who Seivarden had very likely seen coming because she was hard to miss right now with a small redheaded boy with cat ears loping along beside her and babbling consistently like a very animated stream, approached, and the kid shut up as soon as they did, bumping into Summer's hip a little in an attempt at a near-cling, peering around her to grin somewhat doofily at the other adult.

"Hi, Mom!" Issabeth called out, and Summer quirked her chin up in a cool acknowledgement back.

"S'up, I.B.?" she asked. "You wanna go get pancakes with me and your half-brother Turk, here?"

The little cat-eared boy waved excitedly. "Mam says you gotta get pancakes on Sunday!"

"That's right," Summer agreed with a firm nod, her attention then shifting over to Seivarden, "so I'm borrowing Issabeth for pancakes. It's practically a tradition."

That had happened only once so far because she'd only had the one kid before this year, but that was how traditions got started, right? It just seemed the thing to do, take her kids to go get pancakes on Sunday.

Then her chin quirked toward the other two, who had clearly stopped what they were doing, trying to look subtle about it, as they stretched their ears to try to eavesdrop better.

"And whose are they? You've clearly been busy. Also...." Yes, she was throwing a lot of things at you, Seivarden, but there was a lot going on, okay? "You don't happen to know where Cait Sith actually lives, do you? Does he even live anywhere? The only place I could think of was possibly the back room at Caritas, but no luck there."

What? It made sense to her in a weird way.

[1000yearstoolate]

"You have a kid with a cat?"

She really wasn't judging, it was just more unexpected than Issabeth.

Who said: "Pancakes, sure." And returned the phone to her pocket. "Sounds better than being blown up."

"Uelin and Zephyr won't blow anything up."

Seivarden really hoped she was right.

[somethingwithturquoise]

"I make no promises!" Zephyr called out cheerfully from where she and Uelin were working on...something, which made Uelin duck her head and cover a probably slightly worrying giggle.

Summer had to grin a little at that. She didn't know who the hell that was, but she had spunk, and she liked that. She passed a cool glance over at Seivarden.

"Trust me," she said, "the kid with the cat is the less weird and gross and baffling of the two."

But quietly. She didn't want to give their poor kid a complex or anything about how she was clearly a marginal possibility thanks to the scientifically proven fact that there were infinite dimensions of infinite possibilities, including absolutely terrible ones. She'd been there before herself, and it hadn't been fun.

[somethingwithjello]

"They're totally going to blow something up," Issabeth said.

[1000yearstoolate]

"So, squirrels and cats," Seivarden replied, also quietly.

Louder she said, to Issabeth: "So, pancakes. We'll probably be here for a while and you have my phone number if you get tired of your mom."

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Squirrels and cats," Summer murmured, with a snort, "are at least cute and tolerable."

[somethingwithjello]

Issabeth, meanwhile, tried to hide a grin at that; she mostly failed, but she had tried. A little.

She only got to see her mom every once in a while, after all; she doubted she was going to get tired of her the course of a meal.

She had doubts about the other kid, but Uelin had been fine, so maybe?

"I'll let you know," she assured her mother, with the tone of someone who did not think it would be a problem at all. "As long as you promise to record it when they do blow something up."

[1000yearstoolate]

"I'm anyway going to do that unless Amaya shows up," Seivarden began, when something came flying through the air towards them. She ducked.

"Hey! You could have hurt someone!"

There were limits to what she would allow, and she strode over to where Uelin and Zephyr were looking at their project, a bit disappointed.

"It wasn't supposed to do that," Uelin said with a sigh.

[crumble_and_shine]

"I tried to tell her that she was tightening it too much!" Zephyr said, somewhat whithering, as she looked up at Seivarden. "It's important to make sure it has some give!

"But that's okay!" She brightened significantly as she smiled a Uelin. "Our mother always tells me that mistakes are how we learn, so now you know!"

[double_edge_swords]

"She tells me that too," Uelin said, a little defensively. Then she picked up one of the pieces.

"Maybe we should turn it this way."

[1000yearstoolate]

Seivarden smiled a little.

"I hope you know what you're doing," she said, well aware that they didn't.

Still smiling, she turned to Issabeth. "I'll see you later then. Maybe we could find a good entertainment to watch."

[somethingwithjello]

"Yeah," Issabeth smiled back eagerly, which she hoped did a good job of covering the fact that she was trying to get going quickly, because, even if it was her mom before she was her mom, visits from her and spending time with her was kind of rare and she wanted to take advantage with it. She spent time with her mother all the time, there was nothing really that special there. "That sounds really great, Mother! We can make popcorn, too, right? Bye, Uelin! Bye, Zephyr!"

She mostly just wanted to throw in that last part, but would have felt bad not including his actual sister. But Zephyr was around her age and seemed interesting, even if she did seem to annoy her mother a lot. Maybe because she annoyed her mother a lot, and, well, Issabeth was thirteen, and Zephyr was a little bit older, so...

[somethingwithcatears]

"Bye, Uelin! Bye, Zephyr!" Turk chimed in, repeating after Issabeth jauntily, even though he hadn't really met them, but he liked them already, too, and it just seemed the thing to do before heading off for pancakes!

[crumble_and_shine]

Zephyr giggled a little bit, waving a gauntleted hand to see them off, too, and then turned her attention back to Uelin and the project. "I think that might be a good idea," she said, "but just don't turn it the other way too hard, or it'll be the same thing, only in the opposite direction, and your other mother will yell at us again."

You know. The other mother that was standing right there.

[double_edge_swords]

"She's just worried," Uelin whispered, loud enough for Seivarden to hear.

[1000yearstoolate]

Seivarden smiled, shaking her head a little. She pulled out her phone and texted Amaya.

Did you tell them they could blow things up?

They weren't blowing things up, but still.

[special_rabbit]

Now there was a text to make a person facepalm and also wonder if they'd missed the sound of an explosion because they were too busy enjoying the peace and quiet that came with banging steel with a hammer and not dealing with children for a little while.

No, I did not.

It may have been mildly implied, but that was completely different.

Why? What happened? Is everyone okay? Does something need to be fixed? How many fingers are gone? I thought you said you were all going to the park??

[1000yearstoolate]

Not yet, but something came flying through the air. Summer took Issabeth and left.

Maybe Seivarden needed reinforcements. Maybe she just wanted to enjoy hanging out with an unexpected temporary family. She wasn't sure herself.