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Elst came in with everyone else, walking carefully to avoid shifting Aoi too much, whilst thoroughly ignoring the floramancer’s insisting he could walk just fine. He watched everyone settle, and set Aoi gently down on the couch Misha had cleared. A soft mumble from the Essentic voiced the question; “Why’s no one eating…” And Elst took over from there.

“Ah, excellent idea, you’re all free to eat as much as you’d like…I have wine as well.” Yes, perhaps this could break the ice…

As things went about, Aoi simply shifted to face the back of the couch, seemingly to take a nap, covering his face with a pillow. Internally, he was simply focusing on shifting to a much lower gear, to lower fuel consumption here; he hadn’t anticipated having to stay with everyone else for a while longer. In fact, his plan had been to go collapse in his room. So much for that.

In the background of the living room, a sleek black cat, not one of Elst’s, was enjoying a mellow stroll over towards the kitchen. Humans and their drama, sheesh…

Elst allowed the brothers to continue with their bickering, leaving the living room to fetch the wine. He saw the odd black cat that was slinking around, but seemed to ignore it for the moment. He spent a moment in the kitchen, thinking quietly, before heading to the walk-in pantry, walking along to the far back wall, giving it a firm shove in a particular spot.

A doorway was revealed as it swung inwards from Elst’s push, rather well hidden in the seams of the wooden wall, and Elst went inside, disappearing down a stairwell. Within a few moments, he reappeared bearing two bottles of wine, both white; one bottle of Pinot Grigio, and another of Sauvignon Blanc. He’d learned recently from Josev that both wines were versatile with different foods [he now kept a cheat sheet of food pairings in the kitchen], and overall just very flavorful, so he figured they were good choices. He closed the ‘secret’ door before returning to the kitchen.

The kitchen was a quick stop for Elst, carefully taking several of his nicer glasses from the refrigerator where he had been keeping them chilled; this was one of the situations where his vines’ ability to hold things became very useful. He was soon back in the living room, bearing both wine bottles and the glasses, proceeding to set them on the table central to the furniture.

“Here’s the wine…pinot grigio and sauvignon blanc, both nice and tasty…I can get red wine as well, if you wished…”

Elst glanced up at the adults in the room, nonverbally inquiring as to who wished to have any of the wine.

Aoi, still on the couch, squirmed weakly in protest as Misha bestowed the energy into him; mumbling some vague comment or another as he turned somewhat away from the inevitable infusion.

He was nonetheless grateful.

My my, look who's not so different from Rugovin at all. Uncomfortable with weakness? Check. Even more uncomfortable with receiving help they believe they don't deserve? Double check.

Nah, Misha wouldn't fall for it. As long as his brother didn't work himself into a potentially unhealthy funk like 'that one time' almost so long in the past, there was no need to point out his every character flaw and fuss about every minor inconsistency in his logic. Nobody's perfect, and he wasn't putting up a fight, so no harm done. Good bro, just take what I give you and take a break ne, enjoy that, yeah, there'll be cake tomorrow, try not to have a hangover.

Leaving Aoi to turn away from the action for a while, Misha let his attention be carried back to the local sitcom playing out amusedly. My, my, would you look at that, sister-dear has enough energy to spare for an honest gigglefit.
The bunny wasn't really sure why, but seeing her so mirthful made him somehat wistful. Why couldn't she always be this way hmm... Life is beautiful, how could it be that she, and Aoi, and so many others kept on tangling themselves up so badly in the bad things. Oh well, it was already a relief to find the dredges of the earlier trauma being washed away by this mercifully unleashed, naturel bout of banter and goodwill.

Both Bane and Vin had been forced to cut short their brotherly exchange of snark, first by Timka's intervention, and then by Rhian's merry snickers. Neither of them appeared to be able to quite figure her out, and they glanced around somewhat miffedly. Is she mocking us now?

Elst's offer came as a welcome way out of having to come up with an appropriate reaction to the giddy laughter, and the tall man had their attention fixed securely on him right away.

"Hm. ...anything to your own taste, Elst?" Banning sure tried to be considerate, with half a mind realising they had made his home into their temporary crisis camp for today.

Rugovin looked from Bane to Elst and back then. Yes, he had to agree with that, but... letting him choose? Honestly? Goodness, his little bro had a lot to learn about the living plant if he believed giving him such an open choice would yield a clear decision within the next five hours. At least he'd intended it well. To avoid a fuss though, he subtly gave Timka a nudge, andgave a short head-jerk towards Elst when she looked up from her tray in response. Don't make him do this alone lady, if you don't mind.

It took a moment of somewhat confused pondering, but once the kittiecat got the idea, it wasn't much effort to fix the potential problem.

"Say love, why don't you give us some of that blanc, I heard it was really fine. And take one for yourself as well, ne." Her tail curling up, she smiled at him warmly. Go do your thing, hm, the boys could use a bit of niceness indeed. They better appreciate it, nuh.
She actually hide a smirk when, upon glancing aside, she found Banning merely nodded to what she'd said. Foolish hawk had no idea of the communication going around and seemed to only be agreeing to the fact that this was indeed, in fact, genuinely, truly, honestly, a good wine. Oh yes, and Elst naturally best take his share. One rarely encountered such a naturally good man, let's not abuse his hospitality.

That left miss Longway to look after Rhian a bit again. Aw, are you serious dear?

"Stay the night? Lass, in your condition we'd allow you to stay all week." she chuckled lightly, reached over to softly brush her fingers through the flutterby's hair. She'd really need to have a chat with Ellandra again sometime... She'd been so busy lately it felt like ages since they'd last encountered each other. With her children to take care of, the situation might be mutual.

"Don't you worry hmm. Speaking of which, it's indeed getting time for our two two-year olds to go get some sleep. Maybe I should get you and Aoi to bed... You can always use the guest room if you like." she glanced over at Aoi as well when she said that.

"Or mine~" Misha tossed in, cosily chipper.

Rhian let out an enormous yawn as she listened to the drone of voices going on around her. Everyone's words were growing indistinct and distant as the fuzziness of sleep began to claim her. She did manage to make out that she could stay as long as she needed, and that she wasn't going to be alone. The flutterby gave a little sigh, her thoughts turning to Lauss and to others she hadn't been able to help, along with those she had been able to help - and how few they had been in comparison, how little she'd done...

But she was too tired to take that train of thought further in any direction right now, so let it drift and fall away from her as she let her eyes fall closed and fell into the sleep of the truly weary.