Miki snorted. "I'm sure Kissa has LOADS of secrets and Ryder knows them all. Hey, Mango. We got lots of Kavi food in the pantry."
Silver sighed, sinking deeper into him and settled her wings over them like a giant blanket.
"I'm sorry." She whispered.
Ryder shoves Kissa’s hands off, his excitement melting away just seconds after it had appeared. “Waaaait, what do you think is Kavi food? I’m worried cause I know what Gabriel eats. And I don’t want that.”
Kissa makes herself invisible and claims a stool.
Cage furrows his brow. “Gabriel eats?”
Dont be.
Gabriel sighs, giving her head a small kiss.
I was confusing and hurtful.
Im sorry.
Miki raised an eyebrow. "Well. Kissa tends to eat our food, so the Kavi food is like…" she goes over to the pantry and opens it, pointing the an entire shelf stuffed full of trail mix, dried fruit, nuts, and crackers. "Sometimes Gabriel eats this. Silver buys it for him. I thought all Kavi ate stuff like this."
Silver took in a deep, shaky breath, fighting to not cry. From the panic of finding Gabe injured, feeling like he didn't want her help, or just from him holding her now, she didn't know. Slowly she began to stroke the back of his neck with her thumb. "I missed you."
Warm tears run down his cheeks as he calms, and he hums “mmm.” Quietly just to let her know he’s heard her, although he’s falling asleep.
Ryder steps back, gagging in dramatic disgust. “Ew, no. Gabriel eats weird things like bugs, and Kissa eats weird things like-“ he turns to look at Kissa, reminding himself she’s their. “Like banana chips. Gross.” He turns back to Miki. “Y’all got something good? Whatcha got cooking Cage? For me?”
Cage sighs again. “No. This is for Silver. And most of it isn’t even finished. So back off.”
Silver inched her head back until she could see his face and gently wipes the tears off his cheeks. "Go to sleep." She whispered, even though he was already mostly gone. She sniffled and stroked his hair again, feeling as his breathing and heart rate evened out.
Miki rolled her eyes. "Cage is making Silver nasty flaming murder Thai food because my sister is crazy and likes to burn off her taste buds."
Gabriel passes out, finally asleep, and subconsciously snuggles closer to her. The rain taps at the window and you can hear a small hum of window outside as well.
Ryder ignores Cage and steps closer, leaning down to smell the food.
“Ah, smells amazing! I’ll eat basically anything. Can I have some?”
Cage swats at him with a spatula. “No!”
"Ha. And tell my emotional sister that you ate her beloved Thai food? Would not recommend, my muscular friend." Miki advised sagely. She closed the pantry and stepped between Ryder and the stove, roughly pushing him away. "Do you want me to help, Cage? Or just ward off the scavengers?"
Silver tucked her head back under his chin and shifted slightly, so she could see if anyone came in the library, but soon her own eyes grew heavy and slipped shut.
Cage stirs the contents of the pot and huffs. “Just keep him away. He’s too big for me to fight off.”
Ryder gives a loud, “HA!” And puts a hand on his (own) chest. “Like Miki could take me down! I’d like to see you try.” He teases.
Kissa goes to say something, but stays silent in thought.
The house is oddly quiet, even with them arguing. Where Violet and Ben? And shouldn’t Gabriel and Silver be arguing right now?
Miki raised an eyebrow and looked Ryder up and down. "I'm tougher than I look, thug." she put her fisted hands up in front of her face like she was ready to box him.
He chuckles and ruffles her hair roughly. “Alright, Trash. Okay.”
Cage gasps and turns around. “Heeeeey, only I can call her trash!”
Kissa rolls her eyes. “Oh please, we’ve all called her trash.”
Miki holds her finger up and opens her mouth to argue, but pauses as Cage and Kissa interject. Finally she nodded in agreement to Cage and looked up at Ryder. "He's right. Cage is the only one who can call me trash affectionately." she added, cutting a glare at Kissa. "You haven't earned that right yet, Mango Man. You gotta find another name for me."
Ryder itches his chin, thinking of something else. “Uuuuh, Red?”
Cage gasps again. “No! Only Ben calls her Red!”
Putting his hands up defensively, Ryder apologizes. “Okay okay, not Red, not Trash. Hmmmm.”
Cage turns to stir his food again. “It can’t be mean.”
Ryder nods. “Ah. Okay. What about Idiot?”
Cage looks over his shoulder to glare. “What part of ‘not mean’ do you not understand?”
Miki snort laughed. "Okay, 'idiot' is a given, Moron. You have to come up with something creative. Like Dumpster Child or Racoon or something."
He shakes his head. “No, to me those two are givens. What about-“ he cuts himself short and looks to Cage then Kissa. “N- nevermind. Bad idea. What about… oh c’mon, why can’t I call you Trash? You are trash!”
Cage turns around completely again. “I. Said. No!”
Miki patted Cage consolingly on the shoulder. "Sorry, Mango. Cage came first and if he doesn't wanna share his nickname, then he doesn't have to." she punched Ryder affectionately on the arm. "You'll come up with something."
He rolls his eyes dramatically. “I’m sure, im sure.” He heads off towards the hallway and Kissa perks up. “Where are you going??”
He shrugs. “I dunno. I’ve only been in the living room and your room.”
Miki sighed and leaned against the counter. "Okay. Your food is safe. Now what do you want me to do?" she asked Cage.
Cage shrugs. “Where are Gabriel, Sil, Ben and Vi? It’s so quiet in here.”
Kissa gets off her stool and jogs to catch up with Ryder.
“The two of em have been silent so I wanna to check up and make sure they’re being good.” Ryder teases, turning to enter the library. He leans on the door frame with a grin.
He really did get himself a girl. Looky there.
Kissa stares in disgust.
Why her out of alll the girls on the planet. Why.
Miki crossed her arms. "I mean Vi came out of her and Ben's bedroom all sneaky when Silver came screaming for her and I think that's where she went back so… she and Ben are probably getting all steamy. And Sil and Gabe are probably taking a snuggle-nap somewhere, since both of them obviously need naps and apparently Gabriel snuggles, so. Yeah. Our house is full of love birds."
Most of Silver and Gabriel were hidden by Silver's grey wings tucked over both of them, but both their heads and most of Gabriel's legs were visible. Silver still had head head tucked under Gabriel's chin, half of her face smooshed into his chest so that her breathing came out in quiet grunty-snores.
Cage gags. “Omg, nasty. We live with these people. How?”
Ryder scrunches his nose up after a sec. “aw, what the hay, I’d love a snuggle.”
Kissa grabs his arm and shakes her head.
“I’m telling you, she’ll turn into some kind of banshee if you touch either of them!” She hisses quietly.
He shoves her off. “You jealous? Wanna come with?”
Her face flushes pink. “No!” She whispers.
Dont offer me to come snuggle you!
Miki laughed. "Oh my word, Cage! And you have a girlfriend and everything!" she ruffled his hair. "Just wait until you grow up and then you'll understand."
(sil's legit not gonna move or do anything until ryder bothers them XD)
Cage shivers. “Mik, I am grown up.” He sighs, “do you think if Ben and Vi had kids, they’d be elementals? I know we’ve talked about it before, but would that scientifically actually work? I dunno if this stuff is like, in their dna or genetics or whatever.”
Psh.
Ryder approaches Sil and Gabriel, making sure the two of them are asleep before he settles down beside the bean bag on Gabriel’s side, be careful to be silent and not touch Silver. He lets Gabriel’s wings lay across him and pulls his own wings up behind him.
The sound of the rain and wind and the dark, cool room make it easy for him to feel tired and he snuggles his head near the back of Gabriel’s neck, but doesn’t put an arm around him because he doesn’t want to risk touching Sil.
Kissa’s face is still red and she hurriedly turns herself invisible and heads upstairs.
Miki frowned and propped her chin on her hand. "Honestly. I think probably not. Cuz you guys were all messed up from the bad guys experimenting on you, but I don't know if it's like, changed your DNA to the point that you would pass it on, you know? Like. If I… if I… if I got my arm chopped of. Like my kid wouldn't be born without an arm, because it didn't change my DNA to be without an arm. But your elemental stuff is definitely more… fundamental? to your being? than just getting your arm chopped off. So I don't know. But if I was betting, I'd say no."
Silver twitched suddenly and gasped in her sleep. She stretched her leg out and her foot brushed against Ryder's knee. Frowning, she blinked her eyes a few times, vision blurry from sleep. "Mmmmmm." she moaned, rubbing her eye with her knuckles.
Ryder moved his leg away and hides his face behind Gabriel's back.
What even? How did she already notice me!?
Cage nods. “Yeah, I get that. That makes sense. It’s kinda sad though.” He stares for a second at nothing. “I dunno. It’s a sad thought that the whole elemental power thing would end with… us.”
Silver lifted her head, shaking herself a little, and squinted toward the door to the library. I thought I felt someone… With a sigh she buried her face into Gabriel's chest again and squeezed him closer.
Miki pursed her lips, watching Cage. "Yeah. I guess." she finally said, and scuffed her shoe on the floor. "Do… do your powers mean that much to you? Like… the whole torture thing aside. If you had the chance to just… not have powers anymore. Would you want to give them up? Or would you rather have them now that you've experienced them?"
Cage stares blankly. “I like this better than what Ben says our life was before. Is that bad? Our life sounded like.. hell. I like this better. I like having a family.” He looks to Miki. “I don’t know.”
Ryder stays completely still, lips pursed. He relaxes after a second.
Geez, I just wanna go to sleep. Don’t freak me out kid.
Miki nodded. "Yeah. That makes sense." she rubbed her cheek and looked at the floor again. "I like having a family too. Family is much better than hell."
(she fall back asleep)
Cage stands stalk still for a second, staring at the ground again, but then he suddenly closes the space between him and Miki and wraps her in a loose hug.
Im glad I have people. I would hate being so alone.
“I don’t wanna think about life without all the elemental trash. I wouldn’t have met you guys.”
(They’re all asleep XD omg I cant wait for Ben to see this)
Miki wrapped her arms around his neck and squeezed him tight (like tight hug not tight choking him). "Yeah. I guess it's all good just for that at least. I thought–" she propped her chin on his shoulder. "I always thought losing Silver was the worst thing that could ever happen and every day I wished she hadn't been taken away. But. But if she hadn't been gone then I wouldn't have you and she wouldn't have Gabe and everyone so… it was worth it. Just for that." She blinked rapidly as sudden tears stung her eyes.
(everyone is gonna die)
“Gabriel and Kissa wouldn’t have been able to escape their nasty home and the nasty bad guys.” He sighs, trying not to cry. “I know all the nasty in between years were bad, but i wouldn’t change it because I like where I am now.”
He huffs, still holding in tears, and turns his face to rub it on Mikis shoulder.
Kissa bolts back down the stairs quietly, and rushes to the library doorway to stare a little again. They were all asleep now, all cuddled.
She bites her nails and stares. Gabriel has his arms around Silver and she’s partially on top on him, snuggled into his arms, and Ryder is on the other side of him, asleep with a hand in Gabriel’s hair.
Oh my word! Ben is gonna get you all in trouble!
Ryder blinks his eyes open and gives her a sleepy smile that melts her heart.
Sure you don’t wanna join?
She backs away from the doorway and into the kitchen.
I don’t wanna die. Noooo thank you.