Gabriel sits on the ground beside one of the floor to ceiling windows, and leans on a beanbag, hot tears welling up in his eyes again. He wraps his arms around himself and shivers.
Cage nods. “Okayyy. Why is he bleed- wait! He was being all snuggly? Gabriel snuggles??” He whispers back.
Ryder goes to follow Gabriel but stops when he sees Silver follow after.
Ill talk to him later. I’m sure he wants her.
He turns to Kissa. “Ah, wow. The drama.”
She rolls her eyes. “Tell me about it.”
Violet surveys the group and purses her lips.
I smoothed everything over so..
She heads back upstairs, sneaking into her bedroom.
“Ben?”
Be peeks out of the bathroom, slipping his shirt over his head. “Hm? What happened?”
Silver inched into the room, around the furniture blocking Gabriel's beanbag from most of the room. Slowly she came over to him and dropped down on her kneels in front of him. "Do you still want to snuggle?" she whispered.
"Apparently??" Miki squeaked. "Like he was all wrapped around her with all his arms and kissing her neck. The only way I got him to stop was to threaten to tell Ben they were making out. Hey!" she turned and smacked Ryder's arm. "Did you know Gabriel snuggled?"
Ryder takes his arm back to rub it, but doesn’t flinch or gasp. “Yeah, man, he’s a pro!” He excitedly claims.
Kissa sighs.
Oh my word.
Gabriel puts his arm out and takes Sil, pulling her onto himself and wrapping his arms around her, pressing his lips and nose on the top of her head.
Yeah.
Violet let’s her hair back down with a sigh and Ben exits the bathroom. “Ah, well Gabriel was found. He got in a fight of sorts, but he’s fine. Don’t worry about it right now. We’ll talk to him after he’s rested.”
Ben nods. “I figured it was about Gabriel.”
She looks up to him, blinking. “Anyways. Everything is smoothed over now.”
He smiles and takes her hands. “Mm, good to hear.”
Miki blinked rapidly at Ryder and then turned to Cage. "The things you learn. I never would have thought Gabe to be the snuggling type. OR the type to snuggle as a distraction to get his way."
"Oh!" Silver squeaked as Gabriel suddenly pulled her onto the beanbag with him. But she quickly curled up on him, nuzzling her face in his neck like he had done to her in the woods, and wrapping her arm around him to bury her hand in his hair.
Ryder opens the fridge, surveying the contents. “He’s a brat. But his hugs are the best soooo…” he picks up a thing of strawberries to judge it.
Cage sighs. “Any secrets about Kissa?”
Ryder grins, looking back to them. “Tons.”
Kissa lets out a very small squeak, as if she’s afraid that he’ll say something very fast before she can get her hand over his mouth. She races to him, placing both hands over his mouth, making him stumble backwards and laugh.
Gabriel fidgets with one of Silvers feathers with a finger as his hands stay placed on her back.
I didn’t mean to raise my voice. Or push you away in the forest.
Silver, I’m tired.
This is all I needed.
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!
