[drp] kindling (ezra + moms)

[shibrogane]

idle

"The burns itch," Ezra explained. It wasn't as bad as being on active, literal fire. He'd take what he could get. "I don't want to make any scarring worse, so I'm trying not to scratch."

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

idle

The fox tilted her head and made a canine grumbly noise (startlingly different from the human Eve in pitch, and yet the slightest bit recognizable as her in inflection). She probably meant to convey some kind of sympathy. Then Eve shuffled her paws purposefully and settled back to the ground in a grayish earth-toned spiral, her side leaning into Ezra's leg a bit as she fell into a nap.

shibrgane

 

[shibrogane]

idle

Ezra reached down to pat his mother on the head, very gently, sort of like clapping someone on the shoulder but with less force behind it.

Then he pulled a book out of hammerspace somewhere and started to read.

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

idle

Eve didn't protest the touch at all.



you're not in trouble, promise

Leila was doing the walkabout checking with other customers at Equinox when she made eye contact with Ezra, and a moment later she was close enough to stop at his table. She slipped off the practiced cheery service face to reveal something more subdued and troubled even though she looked glad to see him there.

"Hi," she greeted. "Eve mentioned you were here." Eve could catch him by scent still -- she and Ezra hadn't actually seen each other yet. "Can we talk to you for a minute?"

Friend waved his antennae at Ezra while sliding down a loose lock of Leila's hair. Cowabunga, dude!

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

you're not in trouble, promise

"I can leave," he said immediately. "I don't want to be a bother. It's quieter than the college cafe or the Starbucks."

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

you're not in trouble, promise

"Oh goodness. No, no -- that's not it at all." Leila started reaching over to give a shoulder squeezing but stopped the next instant, shuddering like a jammed printer instead. It felt about a hundred steps past what was appropriate now.

"You can come here, that's okay," she continued. "But we wanted to,um... let you know about something."

Eve had come nearby, and she was making some idle chat with another customer (maybe someone in her Pack) while waiting for Leila to signal her over to Ezra's table.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

you're not in trouble, promise

This seemed to confuse him. Ezra paused and put his pen (he'd been chewing on it) in his textbook (he always had at least three on hand, it seemed) and closed it. "Alright?"

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

you're not in trouble, promise

Leila looked relieved that the first step of the conversation was over with, and slid into the chair across from Ezra. Eve wasn't far behind. Clover padded intuitively ahead of her and sat under the table; a couple of seconds later she'd made space for herself as well.

"It's nice to see you here, Ezra," Eve greeted. She spoke a little stiffly, as she was much less sure of herself around their son than Leila was. "We wanted to let you know that we told Jeremiah and Algernon about you being our son... and that's something we should have talked with you about first. We're sorry."

"We really screwed that up," Leila continued with an apologetic little smile. "Next time we'll ask. If you want."

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

you're not in trouble, promise

Ezra tucked his feet back under his chair so as to not put Clover in any danger of getting stepped on. This seemed to be automatic. "That's fine," said Ezra. He paused. "I don't mind people knowing, as long as it won't get back to Sunny that you know." His reasons for that had already been discussed.

"They have their own concerns as far as parenting goes," said Ezra, mostly to himself. "I doubt they'll tell her." He fiddled with one of his napkins, tearing little squares off of it.

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

you're not in trouble, promise

Both Leila and Eve were visibly relieved by Ezra's answer.

Speaking of parenting--

"We also got you some things," Eve continued, reaching back and retrieving a small bag she had hanging somewhere on her chair. "For the burns, if you want to try any of them."

The bag was placed on the table, out of the way of Ezra's other things, for him to look through. It had a small assortment of simple care products like coconut oil and aspirin and creams for the itching.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

you're not in trouble, promise

Ezra looked down at his textbook suddenly as if it were incredibly urgent that he do nothing except contemplate the cover of Elaine Gould's Behind Bars, which claimed itself the new definitive work on notation. (Offset slightly was a sheet of slightly clumsy pages of composition.) "Um, thanks," he said.

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

you're not in trouble, promise

The moms exchanged a look at Ezra's sudden embarassment. Eve recieved a rapid string of thoughts from her wife that made her loosen up her posture a bit, a look of amusement growing on her face.

"I should get back to work," said the were-fox, leaving Ezra's gifts on the table and rolling away. Clover followed suit, trotting ahead of her charge with the same intuition she had shown earlier.

Leila remained at the table, peering with interest at Ezra's book and notes. "The Ezra we saw in the 60's, he was a musician too," she mentioned idly. Since Eve had mentioned a concert when they'd met at the library, this observation was a little redundant. "You have a string instrument, right? I think I heard you putting one away over the phone."

shibrogane

oops this is turning into a regular style RP dangit (shrug emoji)

 

[shibrogane]

you're not in trouble, promise

"A guitar," agreed Ezra. "I play a few other things, but guitar is my favorite." He looked at his burned hand and then set it on his thigh under the table. "It's a bit harder than it used to be. Not quite as dextrous as I was."

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

you're not in trouble, promise

"Yeah, Sixties Ezra did guitar too," Leila recalled with an interested smile. For all that Eve could be unreadable, the telepath's own feelings were always almost completely unambiguous in her face. "I was a band geek in high school, percussion. Kept up with the drums, until I moved here..."

Her gaze turned to a random corner of the table. "It would be nice hearing you play sometime, if you ever wanted."

shibrogne

 

[shibrogane]

you're not in trouble, promise

"I knew that," said Ezra, smiling to himself.

But at the request that he play, he looked away, too. "Once I'm better at it," he said. "I don't like... doing things I'm not good at when I know I should be good at them."

cibarium