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 Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 12:15 pm
“I wanna go to the zoo!” Taki whined, tugging on Calder’s sleeve and trotting to catch up with the significantly taller man. “I don’t wanna go to the pool!” The expression that followed this statement very clearly emphasized the point. The calico-colored cat ears almost disappeared they were pressed so closely against his head, lost in the scruff of hair that was now falling into the cat-colored eyes, green and yellow, as alert as any feline. The tail lashed unhappily from side to side.
Calder just sighed and ruffled the boy’s hair patiently, holding the towels and bag that held sunscreen and other odds-and-ends in the other hand. “You’ll like swimming. It’s not like taking a bath, you know.”
“But it’s wet!” the little cat-boy cried out in the middle of the street, loudly. “I don’t like waterrrr.”
Calder had to stop, because Taki had plopped down in the middle of the sidewalk, eyes welling with toddler tears of distress, thumb stuck defiantly in his mouth. The Sidhe glanced around, embarrassed with the scene the boy was making, but he knelt down beside him. The Liberty Center was getting fuller by the day, it seemed, and a few of the other parents paused to stare, eyes wide.
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Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 1:07 pm
Riley loved the pool~! Well, that is to say Riley loved anything that had to do with moving around. Kicking a ball, playing tag, you name it. So it wasn't really surprising that once she was released from the car seat she made a dash towards the familiar building of the Liberty Center. She laughed openly, thinking of how she'd make the biggest cannon ball ever-She stopped, her feathered "ears" twitched with curiousity. Look at that strange boy crying!
Victor came up behind her, finally having caught up to her at his comfortable walking pace. Seeing her attention caught he looked over with mild interest to see what was going on. Hmm? Wasn't that the man who had given him and Kai information on adoptions again? Calder wasn't it? "I'll be right back," he informed Liam, who had appeared in his silent way with the bag carrying towels and pool toys.
Vic drifted over to Calder and Taki, Riley following curiously behind. "Everything alright?" He asked, offering a smooth, friendly smile.
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Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 3:19 pm
"Hello, yes, everything--" Calder stopped mid-sentence and shot a second glance up towards Victor. "Oh. Hello again." He smiled warmly up at the man, and promptly hefted Taki by the arm to his feet, not roughly, just firmly. Taki stopped crying at the sudden firmness in Calder's motions, and stared up at him with still-glittering eyes, thumb blocking speech.
"Everything's fine, Taki just doesn't particularly appreciate the water. I've been hoping to change that..." He sighed in resignation. "It doesn't seem to be working." He waved vaguely over towards Liam and Riley. "So, you did go through with it? How has it been working out for you?" Taki's free hand groped at the pinky closest to him, small hand grasped with the ease of practice in the much larger one.
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Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 3:28 pm
Hmph! The grown-ups were talking again. How boring! Riley decided that if they were going to be all...well...grown-uppy then she might as well check the other kid out. She walked over to him, her silver eyes staring at him as she carried out her inspection. The only thing she really found odd were his tears. "Why you cry?" she asked bluntly, looking rather perplexed. Um...was his brother taking him home and he didn't want to go?
Victor smiled warmly, appreciation reflected in his gaze, "Yes...and I thank you again. It's been going better then I had imagined." He put a large hand on Riley's head, ruffling her hair slightly. Hm...the child didn't like water? Taki was it? "Taki...why don't you come swim with Riley? I'm sure you'd both have a lot of fun." Perhaps having another child with him would ease his fears a bit?
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Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 10:42 am
Taki scooted so he was standing halfway behind Calder's leg. "No..." he mumbled around his thumb, ears pointing forward as curiousity fought his shyness as he looked at the little girl that stood across from him. His tail started twitching of its own volition, to all appearances, and he tilted his head at Riley. "Don' wanna swim..."
Taki looked up when he heard his name, eyes widening at Victor. He wasn't as tall as his papa Calder. Calder chuckled slightly at Taki's expressions, flitting across his face as quickly as they could appear. "He seems to think that a pool is a bit like a bath... Which he despises with a passion..." Taki was tugging on his 'papa's' pant leg.
"Don' like water. I don' wanna go." The thumb had dislocated itself from his mouth, and he pouted up at Calder. When the Sidhe didn't seem to pay him any attention he stared beseechingly over at Riley. "I just wanna play on the swings..."
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Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2007 12:58 pm
Victor smiled a little, looking amused. He didn't like baths, mm? He couldn't say he could help much in that area...Riley loved them. Well, loved part of it anyway. Perhaps that was because she had a wide array of boats and submarines in which to play. And she had quite the affinity to splashing. "Pools are much more fun," He assured the young boy kindly, "There's no soup, no wash cloths, only toys and clean water."
Riley stared at Taki with the most skeptical, puzzled expression one could find on such a young face. Then, as if reaching a conclusion, she pointed a daring finger at him. "Chicken!" she accused, for no real apparent reason, "Pool is fun! Swim and splash and dive and float-!" she went on to demonstrate on dry land each of which she spoke of, as if teaching a lesson. "Fun!" she said, this time with a grin, as if she had probably set him straight now. "Come play now!" All problems were solved now, right? He had to come play! Swings could wait.
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Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2007 6:25 pm
If there was one thing that could overcome Taki's dislike of water, it was that he was being called a chicken. By a girl. His ears flattened against his head, eyes narrowing, tail lashing unhappily behind him. "Not a chicken!!" he shouted, then broke away from Calder and ran towards the pool entrance. He turned around once he got to the door, sticking his tongue out at Riley and scowling at her. Nobody called him a chicken.
Calder chuckled, managing to supress the laughter that wanted to come out. He just hefted the bag of towels and toys and gestured vaguely towards the entrance, glancing over at Victor. "Well, I guess that's our cue to go follow them. And compliments to your little girl... What's her name?"
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Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2007 6:36 pm
Liam had already wandered over to the door wisely, watching the two toddlers with a careful eye. He moved around Taki and went in, so that when Riley chose to dash inside he'd be there to supervise. There would be no drowning on his watch.
Riley only continued to grin and laughed, running over to Taki. Standing just out of his arm's reach she stuck out her tongue at him and pulled at the lower lid of her eye. "Nya~! Chicken!" she taunted triumphantly before whiring and racing inside. He had to come in the water! If he didn't, he was a chicken and that's that!
"Riley," Victor said, smiling a little as his eyes followed the two children. Well, he supposed that was one way to get the little cat-boy into the water. He made a mental note to talk to Riley a little bit more about manners though-calling strangers names and pointing at them was hardly polite. But fighting for the little sparrow-girl to be well mannered was a loosing battle.
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Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 4:06 pm
Taki shouted out after Riley, and slid through the door a mere moment after her, tail bottle-brush poofed and a scowl set on his face. After just a moment that he spent tossing sandals and a tee-shirt aside, he was leaping in after the sparrow girl. It seemed that the moment he was up to his chest in the water, all the insults seemed to have no effect, and he let out a pathetic yowl that was eerily catlike.
"Well, she's certainly got spunk," Calder observed with a chuckle, dumping his things in a chair as Taki made his leap into the water. He was just bending to get the boy's other things when Taki's complaint silenced most other conversation. "Oh dear..." the Sidhe mumbled, and trotted over to the edge of the pool, kneeling. "What's the matter, Taki?"
"Water!" he whined, and waded back towards the edge, clambering out and dripping across the concrete. He more or less waddled to the chair, tail wet, skinny, and hanging limply off the edge of the chair, arms crossed, a pouty expression fixed on his face.
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Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2007 12:52 pm
Riley had jumped in, making a nice splash in the procress. But when she resurfaced, which was rather quick due to the fact that she was in the kiddy end, she saw the little cat-boy getting out and wailing like a baby. "Of course it water!" Riley grumbled, puffing up her cheeks in displeasure at his lack of enthusiasm. "You swim! You have fun!" Geez, what was wrong with that kid? It wasn't that hard to understand, right?
"You can say that again," Victor agreed. He turned his head at the child's sudden outburst. Poor little guy really wasn't used to water, hu? He made motion to Liam, who was sitting at a table with their things and some of his own for work. "Liam, pass me the water ball," he said simply. He was met by toss of a red and yellow, water absorbant ball. He then turned, throwing it with a nice pitch, "Oi, Riley, catch!"
The little girl lunged at the object, missing due to not having paid much attention. She was rewarded with a splash in her face as it met the water and then in turned fished around to find it again in order to return it. She paused for a moment though, looking thoughtfully over at Taki as her feathered "ears" twitched. Hm...
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Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2007 7:31 pm
"Shut up," Taki mumbled poutily over at Riley's taunting calls after him, ears pinned back against his head, practically making himself a personal stormcloud. He had pulled his knees up to his chest, tail curled around his feet, still dripping.
"I'll get you ice cream if you just go swim for today..?" Calder bribed, tone not giving any illusion that it was otherwise. "We don't have to come back at all, if you don't want to."
"Don't wanna." The boy was almost completely in a fetal position, head even pressed against his slightly damp knees. "Water smells funny," he added after a moment, lifting his head slightly to gaze over at Riley, wondering how she could possibly enjoy being up to the neck in water.
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Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2007 7:40 pm
"Catch!" Riley shouted out of the blue, throwing the ball straight at the chicken sitting in the chair. She was surprisinly accurate for one so young. Well, she might not have tact or brains, but she had a good arm. The ball was only slightly wet, so it didn't make a huge mess when it reached the cat boy. Riley stood expectantly in the water, staring at him as if there were no other possible course of action for him. "Play," she told him. Look! The chicken didn't even have to get in the water!
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Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 10:41 am
Riley's surprisingly good aim managed to hit the very small target of Taki's forehead, where it was poking out from behind his knees. Even if it wasn't very wet, it still splatted slightly, hair damp where it had hit. His eyes were wide with shock when he raised his head, and he glanced from the ball that had rolled onto the concrete to Riley, brows creasing and ears flattening again.
With a warrior-like and rather fierce cry, he snatched the ball and clambered towards the pool, tossing it at Riley and missing her head by mere centimeters. "That's wet!" he protested, but was edging slowly closer to the pool's edge, tail lashing in his childlike irritation.
Calder scowled slightly, but watched without making a move, glancing over at the sparrow girl's caretakers. "Will they be all right?" he asked, nodding towards the two youngsters.
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Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2007 2:36 pm
Taki's "attack" only made Riley grin widely, and for a moment she looked more like a lion and less like a sparrow-child. This was more like it! She waded over to the ball, splashing about in her hurry. Picking it up she whirled to face the cat-boy again, sizing up the distance between them. Then, with a gigantic swing of her arm she tossed it back at him with a confident cry, "CATCH!" Finally this was starting to resemble a game.
"They can't do any harm," Liam said simply, his logic ever ticking like a clock. He didn't even pause in his work, "At least, not at their current level of physical and mental maturity."
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Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2007 4:38 pm
Taki managed to catch the ball in midair, this time, but it made a squelching noise and dumped an impressive amount of water on him. His ears swiveled back in displeasure. But, he was almost smiling as he shouted wordlessly and leapt towards the pool, tossing the ball as he flew through the air.
The ball was headed right towards Riley, and soon after, a flailing boy landed with a massive splash beside her, water going in all directions.
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