The Twofold Houses

[Arkhosia]

[The Shed]

"It's not, particularly healthy, no," Calanthe admits. "I would not have these marks in the first place if it weren't unwise." Her eyes drift down, as if considering the unnatural veins tracing their way up her forearm. "I could... potentially heal these, yes, but I don't see the point in it. These marks aren't entirely permanent - they fade away, just like any other manner of scar or bruise."

Feeling a warmth creep into her cheeks, the witch smiles, appreciating Adir's remark. "Healing a wound like this I can certainly do, though, with a source to help - and I would not want to worry your family, even if I would find it hard to turn down the two of you doting over me." She offers a gentle smile.

[Gullara]

[Bedtime]

"My, is someone on the run again?" Calanthe coos, appearing just before the doorway. She's carrying Finian in her arms, gently rocking the sleeping child on the way to his crib. "I would follow your mother's instructions, Kissa. When you get to be Lucy's age, the tooth fairy won't be happy if you've not taken care of them."

[Bedtime]

Kissa stops short when Calanthe appears and cranes her head up at her. "I'm getting jammies." She claims.

Sakura sighs and chuckles to herself. Calanthe can hopefully manage this for a moment while she gets Malachi's teeth cleaned.

[Arkhosia]

[Bedtime]

"I'm sure your jammies can wait until you've brushed your teeth to Sakura's satisfaction," Calanthe offers, smiling calmly. "Once you've done that, you'll be able to slip into the comfiest jammies we have - and then, perhaps your mother could permit me to tell you a story."

[Morty]

[Woblin Sleepover]

"Woow. I didn't know mushrooms were in so much danger." Tuskfang certainly sounds concerned for their safety. "Do you want us to protect you?"

[Gullara]

[Bedtime]

At that Kissa's eyes light up. "I want a story!"

"Then you better get back here and keep brushing." Sakura prompts. At that the girl turns and steps back up on the stool. She scoops her toothbrush up from where she dropped it on the counter and goes back to her attempt at brushing.

In the next few moments Sakura instructs Malachi to spit out the toothpaste, wipes his face, and then settles him on the floor. She then proceeds to help Kissa with her brushing.

That leans Malachi to toddle over to Calanthe. "What kinda story you gonna read us?"

[Murkus]

[The Shed]

"Well, at the risk of cancelling the doting, for now," Adir presents his hand, palm up, fingers spread away. Baring his own arm to her. "Just use me for your source."

[Woblin Sleepover]

"We would never! Frescots are friends of all growin' things!" Cern declares. "We can totally protect you, if you want." Tuskfang has the right idea.

[Arkhosia]

[Bedtime]

"Hmm, that's a wonderful question," Calanthe muses, putting a finger to her chin. "We could read The Breeches again, of course, or How to Spot a Best Friend. After a second, she pauses, a sly smile creeping onto her lips. "Oooor, perhaps I could share something a little... spookier?"

[Arkhosia]

[The Shed]

Calanthe reaches out nervously. She does not, however, stop at Adir's arm - instead, she misreads the situation, clasping his hand and pulling him closer. Hands raise slowly, soft fingers brushing over cheek and side of the face. Her left thumb takes a careful position by the outer crease of the stag's right eye, the right finding it's mark beside the corner of the mouth.

Pausing, the witch meets his eyes, the pale green staring into Adir's ice blues. She swallows, hesitant to take the next step. "This... will not be terribly comfortable. Are you sure you are willing to do this?"

[Woblin Sleepover]

"Oh, that would be delightful," C lauds, and one can almost picture the rightmost mushroom lurching up in joy at the declaration.
"Still, we can take care of ourselves," The other mushroom assures. "We are quite poisonous, and we can endure getting gobbled. Mushrooms like these are only our fruiting bodies, not our full selves. We are safe as long as the mycelium is not disturbed."

"Nor the roots of our trees, which are quite important for us to survive. Although... is it not hypocritical to protect us from the other creatures?" The third mushroom suggests. "By protecting us from the insects and animals, you are hindering their own survival." A beat. "Besides, it can be beneficial if certain animals eat us. Should the poison kill them, there may be more nutrients for us in our location."

[Morty]

[Woblin Sleepover]

Tuskfang is silent for a moment, weighing these important questions.

"I dunno if we should protect them. It's, uh... the circle of life. Stuff eats other stuff."

[Gullara]

[Bedtime]

Malachi's eyes go wide. "A spooky story?" He asks.

"Hopefully not too spooky." Sakura remarks over her shoulder. She doesn't need the kids having nightmares after all.

[Arkhosia]

[Bedtime]

"Only a little excitement," Calanthe assures, looking up to Sakura with a wink. "Would that sound fun to you, Malachi? It'll be like we're gathered around the campfire just before bed."

[Gullara]

[Bedtime]

Sakura smiles back at her. She's just wrapping up with Kissa, and then she says to both the kids. "How does that sound? Do you two want to hear a spooky story?"

Malachi nods eagerly. "Yeah! I wanna!"

Kissa looks a bit more uncertain. "Um, yeah me too!" She ends up agreeing.

[Arkhosia]

[Bedtime]

"Alright, then we have a deal," Calanthe announces, clasping her hands together and looking between the two toddlers. "So! Let's all get our teeth properly brushed and our jammies pulled on then, shall we?"

[Murkus]

[The Shed]

Adir wobbles forward, startled. Calanthe slides her hands onto his face. The rabbit will definitely feel a little heat buildup there. This isn't at all what he expected when he started to make this offer, and for a moment he's very confused about Calanthe's intentions.

Looking right into her eyes doesn't help. He lets out a short wisp of pale vapor. Then, through it all, through these strange feelings and the trepidation, he smiles. Brilliantly, foolishly, effortlessly.

If ever he went to his death, if it ever came to that for his family or for the sake of some grandly noble cause, he'd go smiling. Just like that. Smiling and laughing his rich fool's laugh and worrying not a bit, knowing his life had been well spent. Not a speck of fear or worry shows in his eyes.

"Pain and I are old friends. We play poker on Saturdays," he jokes. He lifts a hand and gently places it on Calanthe's shoulder, right up against the base of her neck. He squeezes reassuringly. "Hit me." He closes his eyes, gifting her his trust.

[Woblin Sleepover]

"Just like in the Lion King!" Cern exclaims. Unfortunately his frame of reference for this is pretty narrow.

"The mushrooms even get a better deal of it than most things, since they just regrow, or spread other places," says Gwydion. "Do you want us to... I don't know... throw some food scraps and things out here, maybe?"

[Gullara]

[Bedtime]

With the tooth brushing complete, that's just one more task before story time. The toddlers lead the way, hurrying toward their room. "I think they might be a bit riled up now. Hopefully they'll calm down soon." Sakura remarks to Calanthe with a giggle.

When the adults enter the room behind them Kissa is already peeling off her dress, while Malachi is pulling the dresser open where he knows the pajamas are kept. At this age the kids are already pretty adept at changing their own clothes. At least when there's nothing too complex involved. "I think you can get ready. They'll join you soon. Do you want me to take Finian?"

[Arkhosia]

[The Shed]

Seeing her employer red-faced and awkward does cause a tinge of warmth to creep into Calanthe's cheeks, but she mostly ignores it, an oddly youthful bashfulness in her eyes subsumed by something much more cold and clinical even as she bites her lip to bury the gentle exhale Adir's touch on her shoulder stirs forth. "As you wish," she simply responds, closing her eyes in turn.

There's a sudden stillness in the air around Adir, a gentle, insidious frost that seeps down from within his face and wraps around his very bones. The sensation is cool, almost numbing - then it suddenly constricts into stiff, chilly needles that prick into the flesh, aching joints like ice flash-frozen in a lock. A moment later and it all speeds up through the chest towards where the witch has touched, parching the throat and stinging the eyes dry. Ruby-black vapors stream from the tear ducts and lips, then coil round tawny arms and seep into dark veins.

When her touch finally departs, it leaves behind a lingering fatigue, as if the frigid tendrils had stripped from his bones all the energy buried within them. While it fades quickly, the effect is enough that Calanthe moves ready to intercept, catching the man if he stumbles.

"I - I'm sorry. That was... more than I intended to take," she apologizes, studying Adir's face with concern even as frostlike veins scrabble out from the fresh seam of the cut seem to knit flesh together and dissipate. "Not a kind of spellwork I've practiced in quite a long time."

[Arkhosia]

[Bedtime]

"Well, let's hope my plan doesn't backfire," Calanthe responds with a little chuckle, falling into step behind Sakura as the two children run ahead of them. She smiles. "And yes, that would be quite helpful. Although he is far too adorable to hold," she remarks, carefully returning Finian to her mother's arms.

Calanthe returns a short while later, dressed in a simple white nightgown and a pair of ankle-length socks with bunny faces on them - a birthday gift from one of the Frescots. She smiles at the assembled audience over an old and spooky-looking tome she cradles in her arms, concealing a much slimmer storybook pinned against her chest. "Well now, is everyone ready for a story?"

[Arkhosia]

[Woblin Sleepover]

"Well, it wouldn't be as good as beating all the nasty little beasties off with a stick, buuuut I think it would suffice," 'C' relents.
"...Er, yes, I suppose. A, what is a 'lion king'?"
"No clue, sorry."

"Dears, lunch time is nearing fairly soon. Shall we leave our new friends to their business?" Calanthe clasps her hands and looks over at the three children, a rather pleased smile on her face. While wasn't exactly the kind of direction she'd expected the conversation to take, she certainly wasn't going to complain about the result.

[Gullara]

[Bedtime]

The twins are waiting on Malahi's bed when Calanthe returns. They make space for Calanthe to sit between them. "Yeah!" Malachi agrees readily. Kissa nods vigorously.

Meanwhile Sakura's seated herself across on Kissa's bed. She sways slowly from side to side with Finian in her arms. She greets Calanthe with a broad smile.

[Arkhosia]

[Bedtime]

Calanthe dims the lights to a rather cozy temperature before she sits down, positioning herself in such a way that Kissa and Malachi are facing towards her without being able to peek at the book's contents. The hefty leather binding creaks, and she flips through a few pages as if trying to find her place.

"Now, let us begin the story of... The Ghost of the Wounded Finger," the witch announces, dropping her voice into a lower, spookier register and looking between her audience with gleaming eyes. She truly did live for the theatrics.

[Murkus]

[The Shed]

Adir's musculature visibly tenses as the effect takes hold. The cold, that's not so bad. He holds Winter inside him. But the pain... well, she wasn't kidding. His heart races, and the stag grits his teeth.

The energy is forcibly dragged out of him like an exorcism for an angry spirit, leaving numb exhaustion in its wake. His knees fold for a second as he struggles to keep his balance. "Goddamn," he mutters through his teeth.

Calanthe helping him is good. He needs somebody to lean on. But the stag is heavy. Calanthe probably can't fully hold him, and Adir sways forward. She might find herself pressed back against the wall beside the sink, Adir in front of her, moving his hands from the bun to the wall at her sides to give him more solid support. He looms over her there for a few seconds, just gasping out white vapor until his eyes finally flutter open.

[Arkhosia]

[The Shed]

Calanthe never was particularly strong - there was a time in her teens where she'd been pretty keen on learning to fence, yes, but the muscle definition and training habits had worn away over the years, and even then she might not have been fully prepared to counter Adir's bulk from a position like this. So what happens next isn't much of a surprise.

"Ngh!" Calanthe's eyes widen and she rapidly shifts her hands to Adir's front, struggling to fully counteract the slow but inevitable way the towering man sways towards her. She stumbles back, startles when her mostly-bare back flattens against the drywall - and then snaps her gaze up towards Adir, eyes wide and ears back as breath catches in her throat.

The witch swallows it down, too frozen in the moment to pull her hands away as she becomes vaguely aware of a warmth creeping into her cheeks. "...Adir?"

[Gullara]

[Bedtime]

The two kids get cozy with blankets and pillows and lean against Calanthe's legs as they settle in. As Calanthe begins their eyes wide and they lean in intently. Kissa hugs a plush spark to her chin and rests her chin on it. They're ready to listen!

[Arkhosia]

[Bedtime]

"In a small town not far from here," Calanthe begins, "there was an oooooold abandoned house. The kind that no one ever went near, because everyone said that something terrible had happened there. They said that when the moon was full, and the night was quiet, just like tonight, one could even hear voices calling from within the house."

"One day, a group of friends were sitting in a coffee shop, and someone asked what the scariest thing must be. One by one, they went around the table, suggesting the things that scared them the most - that is, until a person by the name of Rowan spoke.

'I’m not afraid of anything!' they boasted, beaming with pride.

“Oh yeah?” one of their friends asked. "I’ll bet that you aren’t brave enough to spend a night alone in that old abandoned house!" And Rowan swallowed, knowing all the terrible rumors of just what could be in there. But they did not want to admit they feared the house - and so, they agreed to sleep there that very night."

Calanthe lets the implicit dread of such a decision hang in the air, looking between the audience before turning a page and continuing. "As dusk began to settle, Rowan arrived at the house alone. They checked every room, dreading the way the floorboards creaked under every step - and yet, they found nothing unusual. So they chose an upstairs bedroom, spread out the sleeping bag on the floor, and tried to sleep."

[Murkus]

[The Shed]

After just a breath, the moment is over. He lets out a long one though, the cold shivering into the air as it leaves him. Then his hands scrape off the wall and quit corralling her, and he swings back a step. "Sorry, Calanthe." He opens his eyes, sees the state of her.

He smiles sheepishly and repeats, "Sorry. I didn't expect it would, uh, take so much out of me." She did say she didn't mean to take so much, but he could have been more cautious. "Should have sat down or something first, huh? Just being macho and stupid. But hey!" He leans forward just a smidge. "It's all gone!"

[Arkhosia]

[The Shed]

"I- erm, no, it's fine," Calanthe attempts to wave off, returning an awkward smile. "I was just... erm, worried I'd hurt you somehow. Are you sure you are feeling alright?" She watches the man step away, trying to keep the way she studies him entirely clinical and not at all linger on the wonderfully cheesy little smile on his face - which gets a little difficult when Adir leans in to study her right back.

"U-um, yes, it... all feels better now. Shouldn't even be a mark left behind." The witch turns her cheek to better offer Adir a look at the site of the cut - which is, indeed, entirely knit together by now, a lingering mote of melting frost the only sign of the wound. It contrasts wonderfully with the warm hue in her face.

[Murkus]

[The Shed]

Geez, she's really lit up. Adir didn't mean to make the bunny blush so much here, but he can't complain about the way it accentuates her looks. He wants to comment, but... He doesn't want to make her uncomfortable, either. Even with how awkward some of it was, they're both still pretty comfortable, he reckons. Which honestly might be a sign of how well the two get along.

Maybe too well. Geez, what am I doing?

And before he can stop himself, he affirms, "Nope. Just as pretty as ever."

This damn mouth of his. He looks down at himself as a distraction. Checks his arms for those funny dark veins. Momentarily parts his vest to look down along his bare stomach. Glancing at his sides and his hips where they poke out a little from his jeans. "Uh, what about me? Still pretty? I'm feeling okay, seriously, but... should I be looking for bruises or something?"

[Arkhosia]

[The Shed]

"Comfortable" certainly is a fair way to describe how Calanthe has felt around Adir thus far. There's something about the Frescot family as a whole, whose energy seems to set her at ease and bring a smile to her face. She's fit into the family so well that one could be mistaken for thinking she had always belonged there.

This does, of course, does not stop her from blinking in surprise when those words slip out of Adir's mouth. She swallows as he shifts his vest to better inspect himself, trying once again to keep her gaze from straying anywhere outside of analytical. "No, you look very pretty -erm, very fine. There shouldn't be any marks, at least not externally. Maybe light soreness and bruising where my fingers touched and around the mouth and eye. Minor side effects at most."

[Murkus]

[The Shed]

Adir grins a little, brightly, amusedly, as Calanthe declares him to have retained his good looks. He lets himself relax a little. He hadn't said anything so bad right? And nothing that was untrue! "Well, if you say so." He drops his vest. He reaches up and rubs his jaw, then lowers his hand to the swell of his chest. "Minor, huh? Damn. Sakura hates it when I get scuffed up fighting. That's how it'll look."

"Say, um, I think I got some beers in a cooler around here," Adir glances around the shed for where he left it. "You want one? And we can finish up."

[Arkhosia]

[The Shed]

"I don't particularly like concealing the truth from Sakura... but if that's how you'd prefer to pass it off as, well, you are my employer," Calanthe responds, giving Adir a playful little look. "I'll just have to assure her that I gave you plenty of grief for being so careless when I first saw such a dreadful bruising."

The witch steps away from the wall with a brief pep in her step, happy to have a change of topic distract from the rather personal atmosphere that had built up between them. She nods and offers the gentlest shrug. "I suppose one wouldn't hurt. Just one, though - I am not making the same mistake I made last time, as bad an influence as you are."