ic Count Your Blessings

[Gizmo]

"Where do I want to start. Well!" Gina folded her arms across her chest and gave the three other people still in the kitchen the sort of look that called into question why the FCPD had ever bothered issuing her a sidearm. "I knew something was going on with her but-- What am I even looking at, here?"

 

Erik stepped in closer to Min's other shoulder, unconsciously mirroring his mother's posture as he folded his own arms. "You know her name, you can use it. Look, I'm the only one you should be mad at, I should have had this conversation with you before now, I just--"

 

"Thought it would be better to wait until we had an entire house full of company?" the Espadas matriarch interrupted, keeping her voice low but no less severe. She and her son at least appeared to be in agreement over the target of her ire; most of her attention was split between glaring at Erik and glancing behind him toward the entrance to the kitchen and the room full of people beyond. Talya slowly began to wonder if Gina was intentionally avoiding meeting her eyes.

 

"Yes, obviously that was my master plan, hear my evil laugh," Erik shot back sarcastically, tossing his hands up in the air. "For some reason I wasn't super eager to talk to you about this."

 

"So don't talk." Gina raised a hand to silence the dusty drown haired man and with some reluctance shifted her gaze to the two standing women. She let out a long breath and asked in a less aggressive tone, "Explain this to me. Help me understand."

[alderwitch]

Talya paused, standing next to Min with her hands lightly clasped in front of her dark skirt. Her crimson lips flattened into a thin line briefly in mute dismay - as close as the poised blonde ever actually got to looking uncomfortable in mixed company. 

 

"It's my fault - at least partially," Talya said, the words slow and measured as she went to deflect some of the blame from Erik's shoulders. "I have been avoiding this step and while I imagine some reluctance is discomfort, at least in part its been to give me time. Something, one would think, I have nothing but a surplus of."

 

Taly's smile was brief and humorless - a flicker across her features before they smoothed out. She hesitated for just a moment, her hands lifting to gesture almost helplessly towards Min with her fingertips sketching pointless circles in the air as the usually glib thief groped for words. "It's a relationship," she settled on before shifting to the topic of the girls, as she gestured towards the living room and the excitement over chocolate before dinner. The ex-spy's voice dropped, as if she didn't want her words to carry outside of the room. For the first time, some of the strain of the conversation showed through on her elegant features, "One that I have already promised to be present for the long haul."

 

Not in so many words, but in actions and subtext, certainly. It wasn't, perhaps, the most romantic of declarations but truths never came easily to Talya's lips. Her blue gaze cut to the side, towards the yams as she avoided meeting anyone's eyes. "Now, perhaps I could scrub the vegetables?" Talya asked Min with a very thin veneer of humor, clearly at her personal limit for emotional conversation. Privately, Talya was mentally giving herself significant brownie points that she'd not vanished from the kitchen to avoid the scene entirely.

[April]

Recognizing Talya's limits, Min gave her a small nod and let her go.  She did feel some regret at forcing this situation, but only because of their current stress, and her lingering touch as she let Talya go promised to make up for it.

 

"Talya is far too willing to accept blame or criticism if it deflects from those she cares about," the white-haired woman told the Espadas matriarch.  "But she is not deserving of that criticism, and I couldn't let it continue."  She looked over at the woman in question, giving her back a brief smile.

 

"She is good for us, and good for the kids," she continued.  "And I like to believe we are good for her."

[Gizmo]

"You make it sound so reasonable," Gina groused, unfolding her arms so she could wheel herself forward slightly, adjusting her chair into a position where she could continue to watch all three of them at once after Talya moved to the counter.

 

"Well--!"

 

Erik's mother raised a hand to mime shutting his mouth, which proved as effective coming from her as actually pinching his lips together. "Si, hilarious." She regarded them in silence for several moments and it was clear from her expression that it was best if no one spoke until she did. Gina wanted to object on a instinctual level but she wasn't one to blurt out words without thinking them through. Her biggest concern had naturally been for Eden and Mia but Min had addressed that head on and it was hard to deny that the girls adored Talya already. Whatever they were doing it was apparently working at least for the time being.

 

That didn't mean she had to be particularly thrilled about it. "You know, tu hermanita doesn't do this to me. She meets a nice girl, they do things in order, they date..."

 

"They adopt an extra-dimensional moppet..." Erik supplied with a broad grin, the tension visibly leaving his shoulders. Complaining aside if his mother could joke about their situation then they'd crossed the biggest hurdle.

 

Glaring, she continued to mutter, "You tell your kids to be themselves, to follow their hearts. That you decide to listen to... Let me at least help you with those, Talya; don't want you ruining that lovely dress with dishwater after all of that."

[alderwitch]

Talya didn't comment aloud but she did glance over her shoulder to give Min one of those small, rare smiles that looked so very little like the polished and practiced ones she showed the world. Silently, she stepped to the side to allow Gina to join her at the sink, making sure the woman had a comfortable position before she rolled her sleeves up to turn her elegantly manicured hands to labor. "There's a reason that I favor black, Gina, it is extraordinarily forgiving to my antics as well as flattering my complexion."

 

Her humor was light, easy as she answered the woman - not yet relaxed by any means but Talya gave very good impressions of 'relaxed' when she wanted to. Her smile was small, amused, as she added, "Erik has been suffering under the realization that he's become the responsible one of late. It's, apparently, very distressing although I can't imagine how it's a surprise. He's been working with Chris for ages now, after all."

 

She turned her head slightly to acknowledge Erik with that gentle jibe as well as give both of the Espadas a very small nod to promise that she really was fine. It was all very new to have support unasked - new, but all the more precious for that. "If you want to ensure that Steve isn't somberly handing out truffle after truffle, I think we have this?"

[Ecalsneerg]

Chris and Liz stayed resolutely on the couch. They had no intention of going in there. None whatsoever. So they just settled down to watch the kids eating chocolate and listening to the Frozen soundtrack. "See, it'll be easy. You can corral a kid with music and chocolate."

 

Liz smiled wryly. "I'm not sure that's a solid long-term solution. We presumably have to feed it properly."

 

"What does healthy food look like?"

 

"You know all the aisles you don't go into? Like that." She punched Chris lightly on the shoulder. "I'm not listening to Frozen over and over, though."

 

"Eeeeeh. I read some thing where kids learn faster and better if they rewatch and relisten to the same stuff over and over. Think of it as karma. You're stupidly smart. You were probably much, much worse." His eyes went wide. "Oh god, and we were hoping the kids would be like you."

 

Liz's facial expression echoed Chris's. "Wait, so we get endless Frozen, or have to keep whitewashing the ceiling tiles? Oh, come the hell on. That's just... oh, that's not fair." She leaned back into the cushions more and smiled faintly as the kids played. "Worth it, though?"

 

They sat and talked quietly together for a while, trying to ignore the next room, before the quiet and distinct lack of shouting and hurling things and suffering of Erik because he said something really dumb. Chris sidled across the room, trying to keep out of the eyeline of the doorway. No way in hell was he going in there. He just wandered over, shuffling over next to Steve in a sidelong hustle. "Well. This is awkward, Steve." He glanced over his shoulder. "I'm waiting for the gunshots. Do you hear gunshots?"

[Fox]

Mara had opened her mouth to protest the dessert-first policy, both as a general stance and a dubious view on the tactic, but having found herself in the overwhelming minority there she wisely relegated herself to grumbling and the acquisition of a small snack of her own while they waited for the kitchen drama to run its course.

 

There was, however, only so much canned Frozen someone with a perfect memory could endure. As soon as she had an opportunity, between tracks and before Yolanda could attempt second helpings, the engineer had sought the young girl's permission in producing both Yoyo's smaller guitar and a full-size, deeper-toned number for herself out of whatever dimensionally-twisted place she kept such things. It wasn't much of a concert - more a practice session, really, playing careful backup to some things her moppet had been practicing, but to her it was - with a quickly-datalinked apology Vince's way - better than anything the local DJ had on hand.