Room 218, Saturday Morning

[wwiii]

"Huh."

Warren hadn't really expected last night to go quite the way that it had. Being caught at Karla's door had been unexpected, but not entirely unlikely, considering how long he'd dithered in the doorway. Coming in to talk... made sense. It had been a long time coming. The conversation to follow that is still being played out had been a long time coming, too.

Staying up so late to talk that he and Karla had just both kind of zonked out together? That was the part he really hadn't seen coming.

"... Huh."

But he didn't really mind, either. And he didn't particularly want to wake Karla up, so there he was, blinking up at the ceiling, kind of trying to work his head around it, a bit.

[Muwahaha, I'm a dirty room-modder! For the girlfriend and any wee ones that might come running along!]

Comments

[glacial_queen]

Karla...didn't really want to wake up, either. Not just because she was sleepy and not a morning person until her third cup of coffee (Christmas didn't count, there were presents), but because she was feeling all warm and snugglesome and there was a nagging sensation that suggested that full consciousness was going to ruin all that.

So instead she was just going to wrap her arms around Warren a little more tightly (lalala, I'm not thinking about whatever I'm s'posed to be thinking about...) and bury her face in his chest and hope that this could go on just a few minutes longer.

[skycrawlers.livejournal.com]

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The peaceful morning--and Karla's clinging to the shreds of unconsciousness--was rudely interrupted by the sound of a fist pounding against the door. But the intrusion didn't stop there.

"Mummy!" A piping voice called through the door. "Mummy, I know you're in there! I can sense you!" Then followed the sounds of a whispered conversation outside and a small red-haired little girl poked her head through the wood of the door. "Mummy, there are some dreadful children--" she stopped, catching sight of Warren. "Who's this?" she demanded, screwing up her face angrily. She stepped inside and pointed at the male her mother was cuddled up against. "Where's Daddy?!"

[wwiii]

"... Huh?"

See, there were some words that just about summed up every situation. Ever. This would be Warren, sitting up about as well as he could in his somewhat rumpled suit, to stare at the little girl.

"Who am I?"

Who was that?

[glacial_queen]

"You're Warren," Karla supplied helpfully into his chest. Dammit. There went any hope of more snuggling and--

Wait. Had she just heard a tiny voice calling her 'Mummy'? Hell's fire, Mother Night, and may the Darkness have mercy. Maybe she was still dreaming?

Please let her still be dreaming?

Karla cracked open an eye and glanced down to see a...rather familiar face glaring up at her. "Jaenelle Mara?!" she sputtered. "But it's not prom!"

[wwiii]

"You know her?"

A pause.

"Prom?"

Wasn't it after Prom last year that everybody else had little kids show up? Okay, that kind of explained things, here. Except for who this kid was, maybe, and why she didn't know Warren to see him. Uh. Not that Warren was really expecting to be a dad, today. He hadn't had any children last year, either.

[skycrawlers.livejournal.com]

"No and it's much colder here than it was last time," Jaenelle Mara agreed, ignoring Warren entirely. Fortunately, she was Glacian. She knew how to deal with the cold. "But I'm here anyway Mummy and there are two awful children following me and they say that you're their Mummy and I still want to know who this is! He's not Daddy!"

Jaenelle Mara did not look at all best pleased with discovering Warren in her mother's bed.

"I don't like the look of him," she sulked.

[wingedwitchling.livejournal.com]

Oh, no sulking! Nommy (whose real name was Collin, but it wasn't like he went by that name. That was his in-trouble name, and otherwise, he was Nommy) didn't much like sulks, unless they meant that he got the candy, or the toy, or they somehow managed to work in his favor otherwise.

And that was why he was going to attempt to counter the power of the girl who had just called them awful (but she was a smelly liarface anyhow) by quite literally launching himself across the room with a battle cry of "Mommy! Daaaaaddy! We found you we found you guess what we're going to go to school here too like you did and we're going to learn all sorts of things and can I go hunting for gremlins later? Pleeeeease?"

Incoming small child at way-too-early-for-this O'Clock!

[liliceflakes.livejournal.com]

Henry had somehow managed to escape his parents, and he wasn't sure how long that was going to last. So as soon as he got down the hallway, he used his brain the way Mama had taught him to see if there was anyone he knew that he could play with.

So that was what led him easily to 218 where he banged on the door with an open palm. "Uncle Warren! Aunt Karla!"

[glacial_queen]

Was it wrong that Karla's first thought was 'Thank the Darkness?' There was a small child in their room and he wasn't calling her 'Mommy.'

"Hi there, little guy," she said, privately wondering if she'd ever be able to get away to shower and change out of her dress. "Who're you?"

[liliceflakes.livejournal.com]

"Henry, 'course," he said with a giggle. "Mama and Daddy were silly like that, too. What's wrong with grownups today?"

[wingedwitchling.livejournal.com]

"Henry!" Nommy flung himself off the bed and fluttered towards his best friend. Henry was much better than the stupid Elizabeth who was Kayla's best friend. "I don't know! Maybe they're all playing a game?"

[liliceflakes.livejournal.com]

"They're bein' dumb," Henry decided, then immediately looked chastened. "I mean silly!" he corrected, looking around as though Sookie was going to scold him. "Not apposed to say people are dumb, 'cause Mama says not to 'sult people."

[glacial_queen]

"That's because you're mama is very smart," Karla said. There. That sounded all smart and parental, right? "Nommy, I hope you're listening." Yeah, she'd seen that wet-willy Warren had averted, don't think she hadn't. "Who is your mama, darling?"

Someone close enough to call them a 'Aunt' and 'Uncle' at least.

[empathic-fire.livejournal.com]

Elizabeth decided to go looking for Kayla (but not stupid Nommy) and teleported into room 218, giving fair evidence of one side of her parentage, at least. "Auntie Karla! Uncle Warren!" she said. They were the right colors, too. Hey, for some values of Warren that could be a concern.

[wingedwitchling.livejournal.com]

"Elizabeth!" Kayla grinned and waved, beckoning her over to the increasingly crowded bed. "Did you find Auntie Raven and Uncle Jono? Are they all silly and confused, too?"

[empathic-fire.livejournal.com]

Elizabeth pulled herself up next to Kayla. "They are, and Daddy isn't blue!" she said. "And he's talking in my head like Auntie Emma."

[glacial_queen]

"Wait, wait, wait, wait," Karla said, holding up her hand. "Your daddy--Jono--is blue?!"

Say what?

"And of course he talks in your head. That's how...he talks. Isn't it?"

It was barely sunup--or so it felt to Karla--and she already needed a drink.

[empathic-fire.livejournal.com]

"Nooooooo, silly, he talks with his mouth," Elizabeth said. "He said he's in disguise now! He's playing dress-up. But not like the kind with Mommy."

[glacial_queen]

Hello more information than Karla probably ever needed to know. Not that she wasn't going to file it away and use it to tease them both later, but still. More information than was strictly required.

"Let me get this straight," she said slowly. "In the future, your daddy is blue and has a mouth? And is called Jono? Like, short for Jonothon Evan Starsmore?"

Maybe Raven had taken up with a different Jono? Who went to school here...?

[born-inna-kiss.livejournal.com]

Much like her half-sister--that neither of them knew about--Rook just teleported into the room, nearly landing on a small red-haired little girl that was clinging to her Maman's hand like a lifeline. Not that Rook spared the little girl even a moment's though.

"Maman!" she cried, throwing her arms's around her maman's neck. "I was so worried--and Step-father?!" She looked at Warren in delight. "Maman, you found him! You got him back! I am so pleased!"

And since times had been very trying for so long, and Rook was still very little, she did what any little girl might do in a similar situation--she burst into tears as she hugged her maman.

[glacial_queen]

There was a crying little girl in her lap. One that teleported in with a blue gem attached to forehead, calling Warren 'Step-father.' Hell's fire and Mother Night. Still, there was a crying little girl in her lap and Karla couldn't just ignore that, no matter how insane the circumstances might be.

Exchanging a confused--and apologetic--glance with Warren, Karla freed her hand from Jaenelle Mara's and wrapped her arms around the dark-haired little thing. "Hush, little one. Hush. It's okay. I'm here. So is Warren. Everything's okay."

[born-inna-kiss.livejournal.com]

Rook clung to Maman's neck and buried her face in her shoulder. "I was so scared Mother had gotten me somehow," she whispered. "I did not know where I was, but this is not the Keep. But you are here and Step-father and I am just so happy that we are a family again."

[wwiii]

"Again," Warren echoed softly, biting his lip as he reached out to place a hand on her arm.

The poor girl had been through hell, it looked like.

"You're safe here, okay? We won't let anything happen to you."

[born-inna-kiss.livejournal.com]

Rook grabbed Warren's hand and clung to it. "I have missed you so," she said. "I am so glad Maman got you back somehow. And I promise I will be a good girl and will not go wandering. We will all stay at the Keep and help Maman recover and I promise I shall be so very, very good," she sniffled.

[wwiii]

Oh, in a couple of days, Warren's heart was going to break when it came time to send this girl back.

For the time being, he simply turned a concerned glance toward Karla, wrapping a wing forward around the both of them.

What do you say, in the face of that?