[drp] kindling (ezra + moms)

[cibarium]

you're not in trouble, promise

Leila smiled too. "I think you get that from Eve," she mused. "That's okay. I should probably get back to work, myself..."

shibrogne

 

[shibrogane]

you're not in trouble, promise

"Thanks," said Ezra, lifting the bag of burn care items. "I really do appreciate this."

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

you're not in trouble, promise

With a genuine friendly grin, Leila got up from Ezra's table and mindfully pushed her chair back in, tugging her skirt and apron back into presentable order before taking a look around the teashop to remember where she would probably be needed next. As she left, her hand purposefully reached out to brush her son's shoulder -- not squeezing it like she'd wanted to a minute ago, but still a gesture of tentative affection.

<It really is good to see you here. Eve wasn't just saying that.>

shibrogane

 

[cibarium]

on my mind

"Ezra, can I ask you something?" asked Eve, on another afternoon that saw him at Equinox.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

on my mind

"Of course," said Ezra. "What is it?"

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

on my mind

Eve looked down at the table for a second, smiling a little shyly before continuing.

"When you first saw me as a fox last year, you told me the form suits me," she said. "What did you mean by that? I've always wondered."

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

on my mind

"Foxes are guides, honored for their wisdom," said Ezra, after a moment's fiddling with his pen. (Of course he was doing homework. Why didn't he ever do his homework at home? WHO KNEW.) "They see through deception and react quickly to tricky situations. They observe, and wait for the best time."

He tapped the heel of his pen on his book. "The fox goes around obstacles, not through them. It acts at night and finds the path of least resistance, even when logically there shouldn't be one. It seems fitting."

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

on my mind

"That's how you thought of me?"

Stunned could barely describe the look on Eve's face. Her son had broken through half of the caution she felt about him in just a few short sentences, poetry in how he'd come up with them so quickly and spoken them so freely. She couldn't think of what else to say. Instead she smiled shyly down at her teacup while setting it back down on the table.

"I went and let it get cold again," she said offhandedly, mostly to herself. Cold tea for her was in the range pleasantly hot for most other people.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

on my mind

"You're my mother," said Ezra.

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

on my mind

"It takes some getting used to," Eve admitted. "Thank you, though. For telling me all that."

shibrogane