2019-07-22 - Top 5 Favorite Dinosaurs

It's been less than twenty four hours since the date-not-date, and Kevin's phone rings with Magnolia's name flashing across its ID.

Kevin had sent Magnolia a couple of texts, but heard no reply except 'Duck.' That's just weird, but he still ducked and looked behind him, right there in the bullpen. Lincoln no doubt thinks he's crazy(er) now. When he gets the call, he's kicked back on his couch, watching the old Game of Thrones episodes, because clearly he missed something he should have caught the first time. He fumbles the remote, gets it paused with Dany and Jon giving each other moon-eyes. "Ugh." He has to turn off the TV too, reaching for his phone and thumbing it on, "Oh hey, Lia. I know it's way early for the three day rule," there's laughter behind his voice, "But I found something."

Magnolia's voice is quiet, almost hoarse. "Hey." She swallows down something thick and sour in her throat and does not speak again for a heartbeat. "Oh?" There's some hint of surprise, but to which question isn't clear. "I thought it wasn't a date." She powers past that. "What did you find?"

Kevin shifts on his couch, unbunching his pajama pants and leaning forward as he cradles the phone on his shoulder, "You okay, Lia? And you kept saying it was, I started believing." There's a pause, "I had fun though. I mean, it was really fun." Right! There was a reason he was calling her, "I mean, I'd rather not talk over the phone, but I guess there isn't a whole lot. You want it now?"

"Just... had a rough day," Magnolia's words are heavy, tired. She licks at her lips. She rests her head back against the fridge, cradling the metal bowl against her chest. She is quiet for a long moment before she offers, "I had fun, too. For a not date." She's obviously trying to say that it wasn't a date enough to undo all the times she said it was a date. Now she breathes out a little sigh, and she nods. "Yeah, sure."

Kevin laughs lightly, "Nope, no take-backs." Something about that apparently gives him a little swagger, because he leans back in the couch and kicks his feet in their fuzzy slippers up on the coffee table. "Glad you had fun though, Lia." And then there's business again, and he abruptly draws his feet back in, "So, there's good news, odd news, and not-so-bad news. The plot's never been a Native American Burial Ground that I could fine, but it was a speakeasy back during Prohibition. That's the good news," he clarifies, "Around then, there was this traveling oddities museum that came through town, promising treasure untold, and a little while after it left, the singer at the speakeasy lost her voice in the middle of a show and never got it back. That's the odd. I mean, a little odd. Last bit, the singer's long dead, but she's got a daughter in the area. I figured I'd go look her up, see if anything really was odd, just chase down all the last loose ends."

The no take-backs would probably have more of an impact on Magnolia if she wasn't hugging a bowl and trying to not absolutely puke her guts out again. She feels a clammy disquiet fall over her as she listens to the recap. She listens with a slow frowning tug at her mouth and brows. "Oddities." Something clicks. "Like cursed rings. Who is the singer? Or, well, who is the singer's daughter?" She licks at her dry, slightly puffy lips.

"Cursed what?" Kevin blinks, shifting the phone against his ear, but it's apparently a rhetorical question, "Okay, so cursed rings are a thing. That's crazy." There's a moment's hesitation, and then he adds "Lisa. Do you want more details on the phone Lia? You were kind of worried about other people knowing stuff about this before?"

Magnolia leans her head back against the fridge, looking up at the popcorn plastering of her shitty ceiling in the upstairs apartment of her office. She wipes her hand across the back of her mouth before she shakes her head. "I don't know, Cap. You want to come by, you can, but seriously... you'll probably not want a second not-date if you see me like this."

Kevin frowns at the phone, and shockingly for him, he's silent for a long moment. When he finally responds, it's with a frown in his voice, "Lia, are you sick? And trying to take care of yourself without waking up the kid?"

"Yeah." Magnolia closes her eyes as she sinks further on the floor. "Something like that."

"You a ginger ale girl or a Sprite girl? I'll pick some up on the way. You need Kleenex too?"

"Ginger ale," Magnolia replies, the answer bypassing her brain. She winces. "Kevin, you don't--" Then she sighs out a breath. "No Kleenex." She says nothing for a long moment before she gives him the directions to her apartment. Then she hangs up, with a mumbled promise to see him soon.

"Be there in a few." It's actually more like twenty minutes, but Kevin comes knocking on Magnolia's door with a bag under one arm. He sends her another text that says 'I'm here,' even if it goes to her dead cellphone. He waits for some sound on the other side of the door, the notes idly, "King of ruins the mystique if you're living over your work, doesn't it, Lia?" There's laughter behind the words, however, and he adds, "I've got ginger ale, saltines, chicken noodle soup, and popsicles."

Kevin arrives to the upstairs apartment above the Sneakers Investigations. It's about as crappy as to be expected because it wasn't actually meant to be an apartment, but has been shoved into the role gracelessly. The space was actually supposed to be an upstairs office. So, the front room looks like it had meant to be a receptionist area, and the kitchen is ill-suited for anything extravagant. Magnolia visited IKEA at some point and bought a lot of standalone furniture to try to make the space more like a home, and it does okay. Mostly.

She opens the door with a grimace like the wood-and-glass-inlay slab actually weighs a million pounds. She's dressed in sweats, some t-shirt she got from one of those themed 5Ks (Run S'More), and a loose sweater cardigan that is big and roomy. She's got the pallor of someone with a helluva a case of the flu, but there's more there. She's got a wonderful bruise on her jaw, too. So, she smiles a tremulous smile at Kevin and says, "Sup. You got the goods?"

Kevin shifts the bag in front of him as Magnolia opens the door, but the smile on his face dies a sudden death as he takes her in, "Holy shit, Lia. I should've brought like super-masks too." He hefts the bag, then nods in past her, "Go sit down and tell me where your pots, bowls, spoons, and glasses are. I also got you a giant thing of Purell." He didn't, however, stop to change, so he's still wearing plaid pajamas and a Legend of Zelda t-shirt. At least he's wearing shoes instead of his slippers. "Preeeeetty sure I'm not supposed to say this, but you look like hell. What the heck happened to your jaw?"

"What're pots?" Magnolia is ushered back inside when he advances on in, and she points him to the kitchen. "What're spoons? Is that some kind of sex thing? Kevin, this was not a booty call." She's too tired to put much feeling into that, but then she's shuffling toward the kitchen and pointing him into it. It really isn't much-- a fridge, lots of wire shelving and cheap cabinetry, and the oven looks like she got it third hand. It all works though. Mostly. For her part, she just shuffles past him to the tiny round table with the two chairs, and she sinks down into one of them before she tenderly touches the edge of the bruise. "Um. Okay. When I say that I ran into a door, I literally ran into a door. And then fell down some stairs." Beat. "I don't know what's going on. I didn't touch the ring, but apparently a tussle with The Green Mile and Tyler Durden means I caught the curse, too."

Kevin is usually pretty quick on the uptake, but this time he opens his mouth in shock, and then rolls his eyes, "Ha ha, funny girl." He puts the bag on the counter, pours her some ginger ale, Purell's his hands, and starts making chicken noodle soup. Leaning back against the cabinet alongside the stove, he eyes her sidelong, "I would not wear PJs to a booty call. I'm way classier than that." Because booty calls are all about class. "You ran into a door and fell down some stairs? Seriously? And... wait... you're back on the cursed ring again. And a fight with..." he parses pop culture quickly, "A big black dude and a scruffy, angry white dude? And you caught a curse from them? This is like... weirder than Gray Harbor weird, Lia." His brows knit together, "You sure you're okay? Fever?"

"Heeeey, you're cute," Magnolia says in honest appreciation that he picked up on her references. Then she sighs as she rests her head down on her table, the laminate cool against her cheek. "I don't know. I haven't exactly had time to sit down and puzzle it out. I pretty much started puking the second Byron picked me up, and I fever-dreamed my way through a client meeting, and now you're here." She then nods. "Fever, nausea, snot. This is worse than the first preschool cold Lark brought home."

"Yeah, tell me that again when you're not delirious, and I'll believe you." Kevin grins in response, then adds, "I'd normally be patting your back or your shoulder right now to reassure you, but I'm pretty sure if I share whatever you've got with the whole staff at the Gazette, we'll never copy articles from the AP fast enough to keep up with the online edition." The smiles broadens, "Besides, I'm pretty sure you said the migraines I get from help you are the best thing about me." Not exactly what she said, "But hey, I remember my dad trying to cope whenever he got the flu. Single parenting while you're trying not to puke's got to suck. So why don't you see if you can have some saltines or some chicken noodle soup, and you can have the other one for breakfast. If you're coherent enough in the morning, you can introduce Lark to me and I can get..." horror starts to set in, "...her... to... oh shit there's no school. It's summer." His eyes are wide behind his glasses, "So what's the plan there? I can take the kid for a little while, but... um..." She's never met him and he's got to do some work and... "you need rest. Maybe a doctor? Except you said curse. Do we need to like throw it into a volcano? The ring? The Green Mile and Tyler Durden?"

"I'm not delirious." Magnolia is definitely delirious. When Kevin promises he would give her some atta-girl shoulder pats, she just snorts at him slightly. "I don't think this is contagious the way you think it is. I think this has to do with Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. I didn't feel anything until Byron picked me up." She closes her eyes, breathing out a steadying exhale. She glances then up at him. "Alright. Saltines, and chicken-- " Her stomach lurches. "Maybe just saltines." When Kevin remembers its summer and so that means Lark isn't in school, she offers him an apologetic smile. "I got her in this summer camp program, if that helps, but no... no easy state-funded babysitters." Teachers are not state-funded babysitters! "To be honest, we can throw all three of them into a volcano just to be sure." Then she is getting up and shuffling around to get herself some saltines from Kevin's stash of goods. "Look." She takes a breath. "You should call Bennie. She's a friend-- " Again. "-- and maybe you two can trade off Lark Tanking."

Kevin looks to the pot of soup heating on the stove, stricken for a moment, then just shuts the burner down and delivers the saltines with the ginger ale, "So you think the two people that you got in a fight with gave you the flu?" He blinks, "Wait... and you got in a fight with guys you described as Green Mile and Tyler Durden?" He looks her green-tinged self over, then whistles softly, "Daaaaamn, Lia. Preeeeetty sure you just shot right past Princess to General." Did he just call her old? He hurries to add, "But still looking like the Princess!" Rubbing the back of his neck with one hand, he offers up a kind of goofy smile, "Well, we'll just have to find a volcano with some actual lava or something thing. And, um, I can show up again to get her to summer camp then. Or pick her up. My hours at the Gazette are kind of flexible. Yeah, I'll call Bennie about it." His brows draw together in worry, "You sure you're okay, Lia? Do you know if Byron got sick? I mean, I don't really want to have to go bring him all this stuff too, but it'd be a nice way to get an exclusive." He's probably joking.

Now a little dark cloud settles in over Magnolia, and it dissipates the otherwise sharp and sassy demeanor that she wears so often, and without much falter. She cuts a glance to him. "They threatened Lark. They told me if I didn't get in the car, they would come here, or find her babysitter's place, and they would make it clear that it was my fault. So, I got in the car. They drove me out to the middle of nowhere, threatened my life until I told them about the pawnshop and the box. Now I've got to make sure Lark is safe while also making sure that everyone else I care about is safe, too. So, yeah." She straightens up as she chews through a cracker, trying to take on a more casual, purposeful air. "I'm peachy." She'll use those very same words pretty soon in a text convo with her therapist, too. Peachy. Just. Peachy.

Kevin sits up straight at her response, a thunderhead building over his brows. He does not do physical bravery very well, at least not by instinct, but he does righteous indignation very, very, very well. "What the fuck?" He strangles the curse on his lips to keep his voice down -- there's a child sleeping nearby, after all. "That's... that's..." once more, Kevin is speechless, sputtering angrily, "Hell no. You get a look at their plates? Or how about good descriptions of them? I bet there are people in town who know just who they are. I'll... I'll..." His mouth works again, goatee bristling angrily before he settles on, "I'll eviscerate them in text. And if my editor won't print it, I'll sneak it onto the presses." He probably won't be able to do that.

Kevin pauses a moment, then gestures with both hands, laying out the headline in the air, "Cowardly Assholes Threaten Child Over Bling."

Magnolia pivots toward him, head canted to one side in a thoughtful expression. Even with the shadows around her eyes, and the slight stringy quality to her blond hair, she at least can cut a pretty serious look. "Kevin. Stop." She shakes her head as she steps forward. "I got a description, but the car was stolen. Already checked it. I kind of... recognized one of them. I can't say for sure, but I'm pretty sure I went to school with one of them. I was going to go through my yearbooks and see if I could recognize him-- Tyler Durden. Green Mile? He was weird. Super apologetic, just wanted me to make this easy for them. Guy took my taser." She's mad about that. "It will take me weeks to replace that thing." Then she sighs and shakes her head again. "Cap, sit on the story... please?"

Kevin's righteous anger fizzles out in the face of Magnolia's fierce reality, and he sighs, deflating and leaning back against the counter again. "Maybe a stun gun in the meantime? They're pretty cheap." He nods his acceptance of her request, "Yeah. I don't want to get you in more trouble." He shrugs a little awkwardly, "Look... we haven't really seen each other in, what's it now, a decade? You might as well not know me from Adam. But if you want someone to watch Lark when you can't? I mean... I don't have a taser or a stun gun, but nobody's going to think she's at my dad's place, right?" He hurriedly adds, "I won't feel bad if you say no. Like I said, you don't really know me. I just... that's some bullshit, man. Some seriously trope-y badguy bullshit."

Magnolia feels a tight laugh settle in, and then she exhales a slow breath as she nods. "Yeah." Her eyes search around her shoddy kitchen and its terrible IKEA furniture. It really, really doesn't look bad, but it's hard to ignore how cheap it all is-- all veneered particle board and cheap steel fixtures. She scuffs her foot on the ground, looking down at the toecaps of her socks. "Yeah, look. I think that's a good idea. Like I said, maybe talk to Bennie. She can stay at your place. She's a..." She looks up at Kevin. "Look, she's a good kid... smart, probably more observant than she should be, but she's smart. She'll stay out of trouble." She rubs a bit of saltine crumbs off her lips, and then takes a sip of ginger ale to wash down the dry crackers. "I don't really need a taser... I'm kind of a walking taser if I decide to tap into the Veil. Which, I guess I should-- I should have done it then. I should have zapped those fuckers right there, but... I do that, and I attract attention."

Kevin watches her as she looks around the kitchen, rather than looking at the shoddiness of its furnishings. Honestly, it's probably at least as good as what he grew up with. "Yeah, but I don't want to freak her out. The smart kids are the ones who notice what's going on around them." Says the nerd who noticed too much sometimes. Adjusting his glasses, he smiles a little, "If she gets to be too much, I'll throw her in front of some Sesame Street or something." He pauses, "I mean, she's not too old for that, is she?" And then he blinks, opening his mouth and closing it again. Walking taser? After a moment, he nods slowly, frowning in concentration. His voice blossoms in her mind, rather than coming from his lips, <<Yeah, you probably don't want to attract that kind of attention. But maybe next time when they threaten your life? They probably don't want to attract the attention of the authorities either.>>

"Of course she notices what's going on around her," Magnolia says with a light note. "She's my kid." Then, with a heavy sigh, she nods. "Yeah, alright. But no Sesame Street. She doesn't really like TV. Have her read a book, or draw. She likes those things pretty solidly." She is about to say something else, but then there's a voice in her head that sounds just like Kevin. She blinks in surprise, pivoting toward him with her mouth open. "Uh. Kevin-- oh." Then she closes her mouth. "Oh." She closes her eyes as she focuses on thinking at him with the words, <<I don't think they care about that. Have you always been able to do this?>>

Kevin's eyes widen as Magnolia nixes TV, but he leaves that be to watch her reaction. It's worth it. He grins broadly, shrugging a little helplessly, "No TV's pretty impressive. I can play games and read a book and draw. All that's good." He lets that sit, and then focus on the mental connection, <<I mean, not always. But for a while, yeah. I figured if you can be a human shocker,>> his eyes widen a little bit as he rephrases, <<stun gun, you might understand. And if the goons don't care about the authorities, maybe they are the authorities.>>

Kevin is probably going to have Lark watch TV. Magnolia is not dumb. Lark is probably the right age to start in on the Original Trilogy. Magnolia does not say these things. But they are there, just on the surface of her thoughts. She even glares slightly at Kevin as if she's knowing that he might be thinking it, too. Then she snorts slight at his telepathic response. <<I don't think they're the authorities. I think they are an authority, but not the-- pretty sure they would have body-dumped me if I didn't tell them what they needed to hear.>> Then she sighs out a breath, and a little thought slips free of that connection without Magnolia meaning, too. <<Some second date this is. Not-date. Second not-date.>>

Kevin watches her narrow her eyes, and then shakes his head slightly, <<No, I can't read your mind.>> Maybe he can, but he's choosing not to right now. <<Well, good thing you told them, then.>> The inadvertent thought, however, causes Kevin to laugh out loud, moving over to sit down in the chair opposite her, "I've had worse." He considers, then nods a little to himself, "I've caused worse. Once I accidentally knocked an entire bottle of red wine over my date's sunflower-yellow dress." Not just 'yellow,' but 'sunflower-yellow.' Color matters. "Besides, when you ask a guy out as payment for services rendered, I'm pretty sure that things are going to be a little odd anyhow." He chuckles, then pauses, "Or wait... was dinner not a date, and it became a date when I suggested dancing?"

<<Yeah.>> Magnolia's mental voice is a soft, whispering thing. <<Good thing.>> Then she is widening her eyes at the laughter, and she feels a blush try to gain ahold of her otherwise sickly pallor. She glances up at him before she scowls out a look. "I didn't mean to say that." She clears her throat before she nibbles a bit more on her saltine. "Yeah, well... it started out as a joke. But then it... look, it's okay, Kevin. It was a really stupid way to ask for a date, and I'm not even sure why I didn't just ask if you wanted dinner. Like a date." Then she takes a sip of her ginger ale. "But yeah, um... when you threw dancing in there, I thought you wanted a date."

Kevin lets the mental connection close, leaning his elbows on the tabletop and crossing his arms at the forearm. He nods along with her explanation, starting to open his mouth and then stopping and blink-blinking at her a little. Clearing his throat, he shrugs awkwardly, "It wasn't, you know, the clearest way to do anything. You know, for either of us." Shrugging again, he looks up at her from beneath the rims of his glasses, "So, um... honestly, I just thought it would be a way to get you a little fun. Like I said, Dad was a single parent. I know how rough it is." And then his smile flickers back into place, "But it wasn't a bad first date, was it? I mean, even if neither of us intended it as one. I'd totally go for a round two." And then he clears his throat, "If you wanted, of course. And this doesn't count."

"Kevin-- " Magnolia's voice takes on a werid cadence. "Look. I haven't dated anyone since I was twenty-one. That's like... seven years of being pretty much on the sidelines." She licks nervously at her lips, and it is unusual to see that bare and exposed demeanor settle into place. "My ex-husband... look, let's just say that it took a while to bounce back, and then I just wanted to be a good mom for Lark." She shifts a bit in her seat, so when she smiles at him, it has a slightly watery quality to it. "So, yeah. It was a good first date, even if it wasn't a date." She clears her throat before she takes a sip from the ginger ale again. "But yeah. A second date would be nice. Maybe when this ringfluenza clears up."

Kevin's eyebrows raise slightly, "Fancy that. I didn't date anyone until I was twenty-one." It's not quite true, but it's well within the realm of mild hyperbole, and delivered with a light smile. Clearing his throat, he rubs at the back of his neck, "I mean, if she's as awesome as you say, you clearly did a good job of that." He looks bashful then, scratching behind one ear and looking down and then back up, "Um, it doesn't have to have been a date." Some of his post-high-school confidence comes back, and he flashes a grin, "Sorry. You just said that a second date would be nice. So I'm pretty sure that makes that a date. Even if I didn't get a goodnight kiss." He blinks and holds up a hand, "Um... I don't think I need one of those while you've got the ringfluenza. That's a great term, by the way. If this spreads, I'm totally trademarking it."

Magnolia levels an amused look at Kevin before she takes another sip of ginger ale. Then she settles into a small smile, and she tilts her head to one side with a little brush of her forelocks back behind her ear. "Kevin, perhaps we could just fucking decide if that was a date or not so we can figure out if you're about to ask me out on a second date or a first date, but we need to get that tidbit squared away first." Then she laughs, and she presses her hand against her mouth as she does. She shakes her head very slowly, and a little touch of amusement tugs at the corners of her mouth. "Yeah. You don't want me to kiss you right now."

Kevin gestures across the room, "I know, right? That's what I was saying. I think I'm going to vote... Inadvertent First Date." Tilting his head, he suggests, "How does that work for you? I mean, I'm not going to say it's perfect, but I think it's our best bet." Her laughter causes him to smile, leaning back in his seat and tucking his hands behind his head, "I mean, it means I nearly struck out, but hey, that's just one at-bat, right?" There's a pause, and he tilts his head to one side, "That's how baseball works, right? Glad you're feeling better though. You sure you don't want some chicken noodle soup?"

"Alright. Inadvertent First Date." Magnolia nibbles on the edge of another saltine as she considers Kevin with those serious blue eyes. "Yeah. Just one at-bat," she agrees. Then she takes another sip of her ginger ale before she sighs out a breath. Her gaze considers him from head to toe before she begins to haul up to her feet. "Look, there's sheets and blankets in the cabinet, and... the couch is really quite comfortable." She hesitates. "If you meant it... staying the night?"

Kevin shifts uncomfortably under the examination, starting to flex his shoulders and arms, and then stops, clearing his throat and then looking about, "Uh..." Oh there, she's talking again, and he lets his arms drop, "Oh! Right!" He looks around, then stops, "Uh... I was expecting you'd just give me a call in the morning. But yeah. I can do that." He leans over to check out the couch, "Huh. Sure, that looks comfy enough. That going to be okay for Lark? Oh, yeah, you wouldn't have suggested it if it wouldn't be. Mama knows best." He stops again, "Uhh... yeah. That sounded way wrong. Totally didn't mean it that way. I have like an anti-mom-fetish. Wait, no, that sounds wrong too. Crap."

"Kevin." Magnolia takes a breath, inhaling in through her nose before she lets it out very slowly. "Chill. We're cool. I just need to go to sleep." She pulls herself up to her feet, and she touches his shoulder. "Stay or not. I'm cool either way. Lark will be, too. But you better have your top five favorite dinosaurs ready to go." Then she laughs softly before she picks up her ginger ale and her sleeve of crackers. "You're just a bit weird, Kevin." Then she starts to shuffle back toward the bedrooms.

"Compsognathus, Deinonycus, Styracosaurus, Ankylosaurus, and Pacycephalosaurus." Kevin has the list on speed-dial, as it were. He heads over to the kitchen, pouring the soup back into the container and tucking it into the fridge. "And yeah, of course I'm weird. All the cool people are. Don't worry, so are you." The ginger ale goes into the fridge too, then he adds, "You want to let me know where the blankets are, you won't have to get them down. I can tuck myself in. I've been doing it for at least ten years."

"She's going to love you," Magnolia says without missing a beat. Then she snorts slightly as she shuffles into the main living area. "I'm not weird." The protest doesn't have much heart to it. Instead, she's just adding to the conversation. She then turns slightly to him when he offers to get the blankets, and promises he can tuck himself in. She starts to chuckle then, shaking her head before she huffs out a breath. "Alright. Um." She directs him to the closet in the bathroom where he will find a set of old sheets, old blankets, and a couple of yellowed pillows. She clears her throat. "Sorry. I don't usually have sleepovers."

"Everyone always picks T-Rex, Apatasaurus, Triceritops, or Stegasaurus, but they're totally basic." Kevin follows after her toward the closet, stopping as she enters in that pro forma protest, "You're not? Well then we're totally not going to get along." He deadpans it nicely, then breaks into a grin, "I don't know that I believe you though. I bet there's a gold Star Trek uniform in a closet somewhere." Shaking that off, he amends, "Okay, maybe not in your actual closet. But in your head. I mean, what do you do once the kid goes to bed? Besides drinking wine, I mean. Pretty sure every single parent has a drink or two after the kid goes to bed." He takes down the sheets and pillows, "I'm pretty sure we established that when you said you hadn't dated in years." Blinking a moment, he considers that, "I mean... I guess the two don't go together, do they? Certainly not putting the other person on the couch." Laughing, he shrugs a little awkwardly, "I'm not so good at sleepovers either, apparently." Still, he starts back out toward the couch, setting the pillows down and shaking out the sheets.

"Uh huh." Magnolia looks amused with a quirk of her brows. Then she shoves the blankets and everything else into his arms with a warm smile. "No. I'm definitely not weird. And there's no Star Trek nerd." Wait, didn't she say she was one earlier? Whatever. Then she directs him tot he bed so he can do whatever bed-dressing he needs to do. Her arms crsos loosely at her chest. She's lingering, loitering almost. Then she realizes what she's doing and she steps back. "So, um. Just... make yourself comfortable, and there's... coffee in the cabinet, and Lucky Charms." Then she starts to turn. "Thanks... Kevin. Really."

"Too bad. Weird is cool." Clearly Kevin doesn't believe her in the slightest. He sets most of the bedclothes down, shaking out one sheet over the couch, and then another. Looking over to Magnolia, he reaches out when she steps back, aiming to touch her elbow briefly. "I don't need coffee. I only use it as a last resort, because..." he makes a disgusted face, "Ew." Smiling briefly, he shrugs a little, "Lia, I got this. No problem. Lucky Charms is a breakfast of champions. The only thing better is Eggos. Gotta start her slow though. You worry about feeling better, Lia. I can tank a kid for a little while."

Magnolia stands there, awkward. It is pretty unusual to see Magnolia so awkward. Then she starts to step backwards, heading toward her bedroom door across the living space. She hesitates at the door, hand on the knob. "Um, yeah. You got this." She offers him a little smile. "I'll, um... see you in the morning." Her teeth tugs at the edge of her lip. "Night, Cap."

"I'll be here, Princess." Because when you get referred to as Captain America, you sometimes have to go the step beyond Leia. But Kevin relents then, fluffing a pillow against his chest and then dropping down on the edge of the sofa, "Night, Lia."