Ryder scoffs at them.
“Ha. If you thought Kissa snuggling me was inappropriate you should’ve-“
Ben puts his hand up to cut him off and Ryder goes silent.
Violet told me to let them be. But… Gabriel is like an actual animal and Silver is like an actual child. They don’t think before they act.
He puts his hand out to Silver. “C’mon. Let’s find something to eat.”
And get you away from this vampire.
Cage gasps, moving the controller although that does nothing to move his character. “Miki, careful! You about shoved me off the cliff!”
Silver's jaw dropped a little and she stared at Ben in even more horror. Slowly she got off the beanbag, but she didn't take his hand. "You're not gonna kill us?" She whispered.
"What? What cliff?" Miki asked, leaning forward to see better. "Oh. The one I just walked off."
A little offended she didn’t take his offered hand, Ben huffs. Kissa blinks her eyes open and he gestures for her to come as well. “C’mon, you too.”
She rubs her eyes and stands.
Whats going on? Where are we going?
Cage sighs. “Miki now I have to wait till the next checkpoint to have your help! Look at all these monsters! I’m gonna diiEEEE!”
Silver took a deep breath and slowly stepped forward, wrapping her arms around Ben in a cautious hug. He hadn't answered her question about killing them, so she took that as a tentative no, they weren't gonna die.
Miki flopped back against the couch. "I'm soooorrrrrryyyyyyy. I asked if you wanted to just play on your own. You know how I am. Why do you even want me to play with you? I'm completely useless except for quality mocking. You know this."
Cage aggressively presses buttons, trying to make his character run as fast as possible to the nearest checkpoint. “Aaaaaaah Miki not now! I need your help!”
Ben gives Silvers head a small pat, accustomed to the random awkward hugs from her by now. “Alright, let’s go. Cage made… something. I can smell it. I’m sure he’ll let you have some.”
Kissa drearily wanderers our of the room, leaving the two of them behind and turning invisible on the way.
Ryder raises an eyebrow, then looks to Gabriel.
Is it just me, or do all of you have really weird relationships?
Gabriel furrows his brow.
Let go with it’s just you.
"Oh yes!" Silver cried, remembering. "He made me Thai food!" She bolted out of the room and into the kitchen. "Cage! I'm sorry I didn't get you a rat but Ben said you made my food?"
"You can do it!" Miki cheered him on. "Oh no, look out. CAGE, DON'T–okay you made it, good job. Oh, hey, Sil. Ben didn't kill you?"
Ben walks to the doorframe then pauses.
What am I doing? I just leave like this and they’ll think this is fine.
He glares at the floor for a second.
Gabriel looks to Ryder.
You thought he was just gonna walk out, didn’t you.
Ryder cautiously stands and offers his hand to Gabriel.
Hurry, we’ll walk out fast before he has the chance to turn around.
Gabriel takes his hand and stands, but not before Ben turns around, still glaring.
What do I even say? What’s in my power to do at this point??
Ryder glances between Gabriel and Ben, half expecting Gabriel to go invisible.
“Is this between you two oooor…?”
Glaring, Ben looks to Ryder. “Stay.”
Cage gasps, pausing the game.
“Yeah Sil! It’s in the fridge to reheat. Can you still get us that rat though? Please?”
Kissa wobbles through the living room invisible and still half asleep to get to the stairs.
What is wrong with them ugh. I don’t even wanna know why they want a rat. Probably cause they wanna be like Gabriel or something stupid.
Silver opened the fridge and gasped. "I love you so much, Cage. You're the best." she took out one of the containers and hugged it. "Yeah, I'll find you a rat. We can go looking tomorrow." she glanced back toward the library. If Ben is getting Gabe in trouble without me…
Miki turned around to watch her. "So… what happened in there?"
Silver rubbed her forehead and glanced between her sister and the hallway to the library. "I… might have kissed Gabriel. And Ryder ratted us out."
Cage grins. “Wow, savage move.” He stands, walking to the kitchen to grab a snack. “Ben mad?”
Kissa drags herself up the stairs, rubbing her eyes.
Ew. I can’t believe I was in the room while they were kissing.
Make this quick, I’m sure Sil will come back soon.
Ben sighs, trying to find what to say besides what he already has. He looks to Gabriel.
This kid- what do I even say?
Ryder bites his lip and runs a hand through his hair, fixing it.
Is he gonna say something orrr…???
“You just don’t want us snuggling alone in a dark room, right?” Ryder finally speaks up.
Ben and Gabriel maintain eye contact and Ben gives a small nod.
“It seems to be a serious issue for you to follow very simple, reasonable rules though.” He angrily states.
Ryder takes a step back. “Assuming you’re speaking to Vamp cause I just got here.” He mumbles to himself.
Miki grinned. "And Gabriel didn't run away?"
Silver shook her head. "No. I thought he would though." to Cage she said, "I mean, he's Ben, so yeah. Of course he is. But I'm not sure how much he believes though because we were invisible. It wasn't even super involved or anything. I kissed him for like maybe thirty seconds before Ben walks into there and then Gabe and I were like, 'we're dead now'. But like, Ryder and Kissa were right there? So we weren't alone and it wasn't anything bad." she sighed and set the tupperware on the counter. "But it's Ben. So. You know."
Miki nodded. "You better go rescue your boy before there's nothing left of him."
Ben finally breaks eye contact with Gabriel to look to Ryder. “Yes, but I don’t want any trouble out of you either. I know you all know each other, and you’re all friends or whatever, but I still have rules. And if you’re in my house, you’re following them.”
Ryder gives a nod. “Alright. What kind of rules?”
Cage makes himself a sandwich. “How angry did he sound? He didn’t get you in trouble this time it didn’t sound like.”
Otherwise you’d be a whole lot more upset.
Silver grabbed a bowl and dished up her food. "He was like really quiet? Which could mean he's even more angry or like… he's trying to be calm?" She groaned and stuck her food in the microwave. "He's probably blaming it all on Gabe even though it's literally all my fault." She trudged out of the kitchen and back toward the library.
Miki came into the kitchen and poked at Silver's food. "Relationships are tough. I guess. I've never been in one."
Gabriel, unfazed, still watches and stands still.
Wait for it.
“First, there’s the obvious. You shouldn’t be alone with them, especially if nobody knows where you are. And don’t kiss? You can hold hands, I don’t care but-“
Ryder puts a hand up. “I think these rules are for Gabriel, not I. You misunderstood. I have no intention of kissing or touching or being alone with in any romantic way at all. I swear. If I do any of those, it’s either an accident or not romantic.”
Ben squints at him. “Alright. No being alone with my girls or snuggling up to any of them. I mean it.”
Ryder raises his hands in defense. “Your house your rules! I’m good with it. Can I leave?”
Cage sighs. “They’re not all tough.” He claims before taking a bite of his sandwich.
Silver leaned against the doorway and crossed her arms, overhearing Ben's rules. She gave Gabriel an apologetic look, while trying not to laugh at his blase attitude.
Miki shrugged. "Yeah, I guess if you don't have someone like Ben getting in the way, it wouldn't be so bad." she shook her head. "Poor Silver. They really ever do anything bad. I don't think Gabriel knows how to be bad, and Silver has too much conscience to do anything, even if the idea occurred to her."
Cage shrugs. “Hey, at least she’s got a dad to freak out over her, yeah? He’s not evil and I wouldn’t say he gets in the way. And he is getting better, I think. He sets basic rules and you follow them. He doesn’t freak out over Robin and I.”
Ben looks more concerned now than angry and furrows his brow.
What? You can’t-
He closes his eyes right for a second then reopens them. “Go. Fine. If I catch you like that again you’re dead.”
Ryder nods, smiling. “Yeah, I believe it.” He waves, “I’ll be on my way now, bye.”
He walks pass Silver, seemingly unbothered by the fact he was leaving Gabriel alone.
Gabriel sighs.
“I’m sorry.”
Ben looks back to him. “I don’t believe it. If you were sorry you wouldn’t keep blatantly doing what we agreed you wouldn’t. I won’t bother you if you don’t get all touchy.”
Gabriel glares at the ground. “I wasnt-“
“Weren’t you??”
Miki rolled her eyes. "Cage. You're a boy, that's why. If you were Ben's sister, he'd freak out over you like he does over Silver. Also he knows you can't do anything bad either. You think it's gross that Ben and Vi are married, for goodness sake."
"Dad." Silver interrupted, her voice a warning tone. "If you're gonna get someone in trouble for this, at least be fair and yell at both of us. I was the one who kissed him, anyway."
At the sound of Silvers voice, Ben tenses up.
Are you kidding me? Can I have just a second with him to talk things out?
He turns to glare at her.
“I don’t care who did what at this point, I’m talking to Gabriel.” He states in irritation.
Gabriel huffs, taking a step back and turning invisible.
Not this again.
Hearing Ben’s voice raise to more than a calm and quiet tone, Ryder jogs into the kitchen.
Geez, man. I wouldn’t have been in on it had I known it was against the rules.
He leans on the counter.
“Any other rules I should be aware of?”
Cage nods, dropping his conversation with Miki. “A lot. But I can’t remember most of em.”
Silver glared back at him, but pushed off the doorway and turned to leave. "Okay. But then come talk to me too. Don't blame it all on him." and she walked away.
Miki grabbed a knife and scooped some peanut butter out of the jar and ate it. "Yeah. Basically before you do anything, think 'would Ben freak out about this?'. The answer is always yes."
Cage giggles. “Omg no. It’s not half as bad as we make it out to be, I promise. It’s not all eggshells around him. Just don’t…. kiss people.”
Ryder nods. “Yeah I wasn’t involved in any kissing.”
Cage shrugs. “Don’t really touch a girl.”
Ben watches as she leaves, relieved, and turns back to Gabriel.
Violet pulls her hair up with a sigh and Bobby pins it in place before heading out of her room, already knowing the first place Ben would go was the library to check on the kids. She heads down the stairs.
"Except me." Miki said around a mouthful of peanut butter. "He doesn't care about me. I don't count as one of his kids."
Silver came back to the kitchen, lips pressed together in frustration, and snatched her food out of the microwave.
Miki glanced up as Vi came down the stairs. "Hey. Ben found the kids snuggling in the library and I think he's roasting Gabe. Also, I'm sorry we kept interrupting y'all."
Ryder puts a finger up. “In that case, I have a perfect solution for Gabriel.”
Cage pauses in horror. “Oh no.”
“No no, this is a good one! He’s not allowed to kiss Silver, right? He can just kiss Miki, and Miki can kiss Silver. Brilliant.”
Cage gags. “That’s worse than my ideas! What’s wrong with you??”
Violet shakes her head a bit, regretting coming down in the middle of that conversation.
“You’re fine, Miki. And I’m sure the boys are adult enough to work something out civilly.”
Miki snort laughed, causing peanut butter to go up her nose, and choked while fanning herself. "It buuuuuuurns" she whispered.
Silver turned around, bowl of hot Thai food in her hands, and stared up at Ryder. She opened her mouth several times, but nothing came out, until finally she just glared at him and walked away into the living room.
"Oh my word." Miki coughed. "That was the most painful thing I've ever experienced. BUT RYDER. Can you even imagine??? Imagine with me, for one moment, Gabriel kissing… anyone other than Silver. Just imagine. Also, for the record, he barely even kisses Silver. She's usually the aggressor. Also can you imagine either of them being okay with the other one kissing me? Yeah, no. But thanks for trying." she patted him on the arm consolingly.
Ryder shakes his head. “Your just mad you didn’t think of it. And you think Silver’s the first person he kissed? Think again.”
Violet decides against pouring herself a glass of water, and instead pours herself a glass of wine.
Oh my.
Cage chokes. “RYDER. Omg, you’re making me sick!”
Miki froze, blinking at Ryder, as Silver slowly retraced her steps and planted herself in front of Ryder again.
"what." she asked, voice so low it was almost a whisper.
"Ooooooooh boy." Miki said to her peanut butter. "This is gonna be… something."
Violet takes a big sip (fancy for ‘gulp’) of her wine and heads back upstairs.
Ryders eyes widen and he stands up straight, arms off of the counter.
“That- no that’s not what I meant. We were like eight. Calm down.”
Cage stands. “Wow! Look at the time! I’m gonna go call Robin, byee.” And with that he quickly stands and exits out the backdoor.
