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Watching the twins silently, the pink and green SM relaxed considerably when Adam simply curled up, and as far as she could tell, became rather docile.

Surprised at the question, Tourmaline blinked and opened her mouth once before closing it to think, chewing on her lip in the mean time. "Well," she began, "I don't know what to compare it to... I've... Well I've never been able to change." Frowning slightly, her eyes drifted towards the flecks of metal visable on her arm.

"Thank you," Tourmaline murmured when he complimented her colors, obviously happy for the subject change. "I like lots of colors, it's more fun that way..."

That reminded her that she needed to go shopping, and that would require Babcia.

Slush murred in approval with the scritches, content to listen and be pampered rather than participate in the conversation. For now at least.

Tawn, without thinking, had let his hand fall to his wife's thigh, and was caressing it gently as she spoke. It felt to him like he'd been married to Sarabi all his life... and not a single thing about that bothered him. On the contrary- he was as much in love with the woman as he'd ever been, if not more. He couldn't imagine life without her- and without the two boys before him.

"Yes," he said, finally jumping into the conversation, although jumping back a bit, "We've been looking for a house. We're getting to the point where it's more of a 'find the perfect place' than just trying to afford something- anything bigger. I would love to move out of the city, though. Something about the boys being raised in such an immense atmosphere- I worry about them. ...Do you ever feel that way about Tourma? That maybe being in such a huge place will.. dwarf her, somehow?"

Princess Tourmaline was, of course, not dwarfed in any way, shape, or form at the moment. In fact, her ego was steadily becoming larger with Dalton's continued compliments.

Her hand moved to her face so that she could trail her fingertips over the metal that was visible under her left eye. She didn't look too happy about it, but then again, her hand was covering a great deal of her face. It would be hard to tell because of the hand.

Dropping her hand back to her lap, Tourma simply glanced over towards her father's metal arm. "I'm mostly metal... Or so my parents think..." She trailed off, not really knowing what else to say on the subject.

Slush made sure to whine lazily as he was moved, but soon settled back comfortably with the resumed scritches. His tail absently flicked against Isto's stomach as the SM verbally agreed with his husband, "They just didn't feel right... You know?"

A warm flush creeped up into Tawn's cheeks- and he wondered if the others could see it, even through the darker hue of his chocolate skin. Sarabi was never shy with her affection- she'd always been the more... well... physically outgoing of the two of them. But having the slight woman sitting on his lap, her delicate arms about his neck, Tawn, though he kept most of it inside, wanted to grab her up and hug her and spin her about the room with a laugh. Even with two children, he sometimes felt like he and Sarabi were kids again, playing in the lake outside the old SMHq.

In the meantime, as Tawn happily let his wife speak for the two of them, Adam had just about had enough, and he scoffed at his pink brother.

"Oh come on. She's not a 'your highness'. You could pin her to the ground with a magnet." It was vicious... and would probably warrant quite a scolding, but for the moment, he'd forgotten all about his parents' presence.

The anthro SM was almost to the point of comfort when Adam's comment cut through her self control like a hot knife through butter. Her eyes narrowed dangerously at the little, fluff of soon to be dead meat. For a moment, she debated what to do in silence, glancing over at her parents out of the corner of her eyes to see if they were paying attention.

Isto's look told her all she needed.

And in one fatal and surprisingly inconspicuous swoop, Tourmaline had snatched the offending runt from the bean bag. It was no use trying to wriggle free, the colorful girl, thanks to her father, was quite strong, and she wasn't about to let go of the offending Skullmonkey. In fact, the moment he was in her grasp, she quickly whisked his skull off and covered his mouth.

She couldn't let him cry for help now could she?

"Just because you're a boy," she began in a sickly sweet tone, "Doesn't mean you can be such an a*****e."

One could thank Grandma for such lovely language.

Her eyes glanced around, and soon fell on a roll of duct tape across the room. Grinning, she indiscretely ambled over to it an picked it up with her free hand before going outside the back door.

From the inside, the only sounds that could be heard were the faint noises of duct tape being unrolled.

When she came back in about five minutes later, she was lacking Adam and positively beaming. The young Skullmonkey was duct taped upside down on the outside of the door. In fact, he'd look like he was in a giant (relative to his size) cocoon of duct tape with only his tail and head peeking out from either end. His muzzle was also taped shut, enough so he could breathe but not enough for him to tattle.

Sitting down most lady like on one of the bean bags, Tourmaline patted her lap in case Dalton wanted to come sit on it.

Slush, having noticed Isto's brief period of attention elsewhere than him, was watching the entire time, but like his husband, didn't do anything. Besides, he made sure to watch only out the corners of his eyes and continue to react normally to the scritches.

Like he'd ever stop enjoying those.

Tawn had heard Adam's first statement, and it had flushed the poor man to the core. A part of him knew that Adam didn't understand the... gravity of the remark he'd made, and how it would affect not only Tourmaline, but also her father... but the rest of him knew what an affront it must be to the metallic pair, and his veins seeped with embarassment. He would have leapt from the couch and demanded Adam apologize immediately- to be followed with a long talk about hurting other people's feelings when they arrived home- but his wife hadn't heard the comment, and as she continued to talk, his attention followed her words. So the man didn't see as his son was wrenched from his bean bag and scurried outside to be taped to the door. He did notice, however, when Tourma plopped back into her beanbag and his other son crawled into her lap.

Tawn put a soft, silencing hand on his wife's arm, gently wrenching her away from conversation.

"Where did Adam go?" He turned to the children.

"What happened to Adam?"

At the sound of the offending creature's father, Tourmaline simply shrugged and turned her attention back to Dalton, tailtip flicking absently. She didn't know what to say at first, but soon she came up with something, "He made quite a rude comment about me being metal and then I think he went to the bathroom..."

Kind of the truth...

Only not really.

Slush raised an eyebrow at the reactions, and at Tourma's explanation. This was going to get interesting fast.

Tawn furrowed his brows. He was not an angry man- not by any stretch of the word. If anything, the fluffy-haired father was the ultimate sweet gentleman- grown from a child who would have rather died than be given a disapproving look from his mother. But there were times that he became- like any other- frustrated with his offspring, and took charge.

"Dalton, your mother and I are serious. Where's Adam?" He gave Tourma a look as well- though, as she wasn't his child, he wouldn't dare even dream to say a word to her.