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 Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2016 10:58 pm
“Y'know where to find the stuff for that better'n I can, baby girl,” Mordekai smiled back at the two Raevans from his vantage at the stairs, and he mouthed a quiet 'thank you' to Anita for bagging their food before pacing the remainder of the way upstairs. Aina hummed after Cruz's deep rumble, a comforting sound to her ears; she had noticed the difference, but Cruz was still Cruz, even after growing a belly and looking a little older.
“Jerri too,” the pomegranate nodded, flustering a bit; if she had to admit it, she forgot about the older Petit a lot – probably, she thought, because he was so quiet, which was awfully disappointing the few times she had the chance to speak to him. She wasn't going to let the thought drag her down, though, and Aina led Cruz to the stairs, head bobbing a little as she thought on his question. “I'm gonna tell 'em.... about all the fun stuff we did!” Aina replied, looking up at Cruz. “Does that sound okay?”
Before they proceeded up the stairs, Aina paused, waving the hand holding up her water bottle at Anita. “'Nita! Um, d'you need any help?” she asked, beaming, “Do you wanna write to 'em too?”
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Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2016 10:59 pm
Cruz beamed at Aina's suggestion. They had only just arrived but it was a fair bit of fun had already, not to mention their playtime before leaving the apartment. ”Mhm!” The croc agreed with another swing of their arms. He looked up at Aina's water bottle, then toward his guardian – she laughed, with her back to them.
”Thanks, I got it though! Almost done.” The second question gave Anita pause. She turned to look at both raevans, an uncertain smile blooming into a full one when she made her decision. ”Yeah, sure! Let me just finish up here. You guys go ahead.” She wasn't entirely sure what she wanted to write but, like Cruz, it had been entirely too long since she saw either of them and wanted to at least say hi, let them know she was thinking about them.
With that settled, Cruz grinned. He held his own chilled bottle against the crook of his neck and gently urged Aina up the stairs with him despite having no idea where they would be going once they reached the top. ”Should we ask Momo, too?”
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Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2016 11:00 pm
“Okay, 'Nita!” Aina smiled, waving at Anita. Tugging at Cruz's arm, she began their trip upstairs once more, beelining from the hall to the corner where Jill's room was. At Cruz's suggestion, she nodded. “Mhm!”
Mordekai was visible from the open door of Jerri's room, where he was rearranging a forgotten wardrobe cabinet to its assumed spot on the wall – looking back at the Raevans, he grinned, carefully placing the cabinet down. “'Ey, guys!”
“D'you need help, papa?” Aina asked, poking her head into Jerri's room, which was colored a light teal and decorated with game posters. “D'you wanna write something to Jill an' Jerri, too?”
“Can you write somethin' for me?” he rested against the cabinet, “Somethin' 'bout seein' 'em soon?”
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Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2016 11:01 pm
The croc giggled as he was pulled along, eyes wide and eager. He took in all of the details of the Petit house and, while he knew obviously everyone's living spaces would look different he really felt it between Rebecca's and Duncan's which was a little surprising to him. Compared to their apartment, Jess' townhouse was still comfortably lived in and decorated with somewhat similar flavors but while Duncan's house felt homey and relaxing Rebecca's felt a little stifling.
That tune changed with the sight of Jerri's room. Cruz's brows raised at the posters lining the walls; mostly Nintendo things, of which he was quite familiar, but Team Fortress and Battleblock Theater were scattered among them. Even if he didn't know every name shown, it was a nice change of pace that Cruz appreciated and he beamed at Mordekai as they floated near.
”Sure can,” Cruz rumbled through his smile, ”and you can sign it so they know it's from you.” He wondered if maybe that would be the amount Anita contributed as well, with how occupied they both were.
Cruz tugged Aina's hand to redirect them back to their task. Mordekai was clearly finishing something up and the sooner he and Anita were done, the sooner they would all be out on the beach. Jill's room wasn't far off from Jerri's as it stood. While the décor was wildly different from her brother's, it still struck a more comfortable cord in Cruz than the rest of the house – it helped that he was fond of the color choice. The walls were all pink and decorated with cute furniture.
”Does she have paper in her desk, maybe?” Cruz asked once they were inside. Something about this scenario reminded him of a time before Aina was born, where he and Jill crept into Mordekai's room to look for a friendship bracelet.
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Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2016 11:02 pm
“S'all I need! Thanks.” Mordekai extended a wave at the two Raevans – Aina, nodding, floated along with Cruz to a more recognizable space in the townhouse – Jill's room.
Even without Cruz asking, Aina directed them both toward Jill's desk, humming. “Mhm!” she replied, smiling with just a hint of mischief at sneaking into Jill's room while she was unaware. The Frei began pulling out a few of the drawers, and a lot of it was neatly arranged trinkets, diaries, and novels. Everything smelled pleasantly of dried roses from a wreath hung up on her bedside window.
“I found it,” Aina announced, pulling out a small and impressive stack of fresh stationary from the drawer at the very bottom. She handed it clumsily to Cruz, humming while she grabbed the jar full of pens from the table, pulling out her usual glittery blue pen. Proudly, she held it up for the crocodile to see. “I got one at home, too,” she beamed, as if pens were the rarest accommodations in the world.
She floated to the window seat, setting a few pillows down on the floor for them both to sit there. Just outside Jill's room was the view of the hills and streets and the coast poking out overhead – Aina breathed in the ocean air, eager for sun. Glancing back at Cruz, she held onto his arm. “I dunno which paper to use,” Aina hummed, “Cruz, can you choose a really pretty one?”
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Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2016 11:05 pm
Cruz took the opportunity to peek into the drawers as they were opened but felt grateful that the little pomegranate frei wasn't quite so brazen as Jill in rifling through things. They weren't here to make a mess, not like they accidentally had with Mordekai's box of trinkets on his own desk back then. Ideally, Jill would be none the wiser of their little exploration when it was all for a good cause.
The croc cheered when Aina located the paper and took it eagerly despite both of their fumbling. While she went off to retrieve something to write with, Cruz began to sort through the stationary but looked up as his attention was called. ”Ooh, that's a nice one.” He smiled and joined her at the window. It was a really nice day today and he, like Aina, wanted to feel the sun on his skin and the salt in the air.
”Yeah,” Cruz grinned as he turned his attention back to the paper. He flipped through with his thumb, just giving each kind of stationary a short glance. ”She has really nice ones.”
The sound of some dishes being rinsed and loaded into the dishwasher down below at least told them things were progressing. Once they were finished, there would be nothing to do except feel the wind in their hair and smell the ocean. Jill's stationary came in all kinds, many as pink as her room but others looked frilly or fun; stars, stripes, hearts, all kinds of floral patterns, sparkles, clovers, sea shells, they were all so nice. In light of their planned adventure today, Cruz retrieved one of the beach themed papers and held it up for Aina to inspect. ”How 'bout this?”
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Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2016 11:06 pm
Aina watched intently as Cruz sorted through Jillette's array of stationary, leaning ever-closer to him as the seconds passed. By the time he found a suitable one, she was leaning against his arms, her recently trimmed nub of a horn poking gently into his skin.
“Ah!” she brightened, reaching out for the stationary – it was perfect, and she was eager to write, gel pen at the ready. Mid-reach, she hesitated, pulling back her hand as she pressed the gel pen thoughtfully to her lips. She knew what they were writing about, but she didn't quite think on how. Brows knit, she stared at the floor, wings twitching as her gears turned.
“Hmm....” Tapping the gel pen against her cheek, she slouched, then turned to hand the pen to Cruz. “Can you write somethin' first?” she asked, smiling sheepishly, “I dunno how to say 'hi' right...”
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Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2016 11:07 pm
He leaned with her, just pressing gently back against her in silent approval of the contact. Even the little poke of her branch wasn't unwelcome, as it was too dull to dig into his skin. They both straightened up; Cruz chuckled at Aina's excitement. He organized the stationary by tapping the bottom of the papers against the floor and set them aside. When he looked back, there was a pen close to his face.
”Sure!” Cruz took the pen in hand, as well as the sheet of decorated paper. ”You don't?” He smiled back, more curious than anything. ”Then let's see... um.”
The pen hovered over the first line of stationary as hesitant as Aina had been. ”What about...” Cruz stuck his tongue out in concentration, brows furrowed. ”Hi, Jillijerri,” the mistletoe raevan recited as he wrote, though the strokes of the pen more accurately read Jill and Jerry despite the latter's misspelling, ”Sad we missed you but happy to write. Hm?” He stopped there to check if that was alright with Aina so far.
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Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2016 11:09 pm
“Mhm!” Aina nodded, approving, and leaned forward to read Cruz's writing, her nose nearly pressed against the stationary. She hummed, pleased at how especially pretty the gel pen looked with the pastel blues of their ocean paper, then uprighted herself to think on the next few lines – with Cruz's help, they came to her quickly.
“You should tell 'em to play with us soon! 'Cause I've been havin' sleepovers here a lot! We can go to the beach together, an', um,” she bounced, tugging on Cruz's arm, “We're gunna go to the beach today, an' the next time we see 'em, we can give 'em a bunch of pretty shells and rocks an' stuff! And- and we can paint 'em together!”
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Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2016 11:12 pm
His handwriting was legible but far from neat, though compared to certain holiday and birthday card messages from years ago it had definitely improved. At Aina's suggestion, Cruz perked up and nodded. ”I never had a sleep over with 'em,” he mentioned while setting the pen to paper again. Before he started writing, he pulled it back in time so as not to make a big scribble with the little one tugging on his arm.
With a giggle, the croc nodded along. The mention of painting shells drew an intrigued ooh from him, which he nodded to all the more. ”Yeah, that sounds nice!” He had an assortment of pretty shells and rocks he had found in a small container in a drawer at home, so Cruz thought he was a pretty good authority on neat looking beach treasures. Once more, he spoke aloud what was written.
”Since we can't play today we gotta make sure to play soon! We're gonna go to the beach today and have an adventure, maybe we can all go on an adventure soon too. We'll find pretty things for you and then we can make them even prettier together.” There was a slight pause, as Cruz remembered another detail. ”Momo misses you both and wants to play soon too! Maybe we can all paint stuff together.” He leaned the paper closer to Aina for her to inspect, a couple clumsy misspellings present but nothing that would be difficult to decipher. ”How's that?” They still had to get Anita to write something too, or at least give them a message to write for her.
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Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2016 11:13 pm
Aina's head bobbed enthusiastically as she watched Cruz write, content to watch and hear him recite the contents of their letter. The mention of the beach didn't help curb her enthusiasm at all, and by time Cruz finished again, she was bouncing in her seat. As much as she wanted to write this letter to Jillette, she was aching to be outside.
“That sounds really good!” she replied, smiling; there were a lot of ideas on what to write next floating in her head, now, and she extended her hands out to Cruz. “Can I write somethin' too?” she asked, flustering a little; “With the blue pen? An' then we gotta get Nita to write somethin'!”
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Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2016 11:14 pm
The renewed enthusiasm in Aina to write something herself brought a chuckle out of Cruz. He didn't hesitate to hand the paper and pen over with absolutely no fuss. Aina's recollection of Anita's contribution was well met; Cruz grinned and nodded, his own enthusiasm bubbling to the surface. ”Should I go get her now?” The croc didn't imagine there was a lot for Anita to clean up in the kitchen, but then he wasn't sure just what Mordekai was up to that was occupying him either.
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Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2016 11:15 pm
Aina quickly took up the paper and pen from Cruz, leaning forward to lay the stationary flat on the window sheet cushioning. The Frei was immediately occupied by scribbling down her own thoughts when Cruz asked her a question, she didn't seem to notice. Thankfully, Mordekai peeked into the room just moments after, one hand against the door frame while he poked his nose into Jillette's room.
“Y'all almost done?” Mordekai asked, though his answer was quickly answered by the sight of Aina writing. He laughed. “Oh. Okay-- I'll be downstairs?” he asked, taking a few careful steps away from the door.
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Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2016 11:17 pm
”Ah--” Cruz glanced to Mordekai when he appeared. The croc waved absently as he looked back down at Aina, completely entranced with her own writing. ”Okay.” It seemed like the little one hadn't heard either of them, with how into the letter she was, and so as Mordekai began his retreat Cruz smiled a bit sheepishly at him as he followed suit. ”Think she's excited,” he chuckled with a short glance back, ”We wrote what you said to.”
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Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2016 11:18 pm
“I can tell,” he laughed, waiting a step into the stairs for Cruz to catch up. Once he did, Mordekai was quick to pace down the flight of stairs, grinning and kissing the Sigel on the temple when they reached the kitchen once more – “Thanks, Cruz,” he replied, though it didn't seem like nearly enough. With an affectionate hum, he hugged him, lifting the Sigel up easily under his arm. “Aw, you're the cutest damn thing, y'know that?” he laughed, picking Cruz up against his shoulder as unassumingly as he would with Aina. “Wanna see the sky a little better?”
Grinning, the blond walked the remainder of the way to the kitchen, beaming at Anita. “Aina's finishin' up an' we're ready to go! I forgot 'bout puttin' together like halfa Jerri's room,” he flustered, leaning forward to kiss Anita on the temple, “Thanks for cleanin' up.”
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