2020-05-24 - The Mind Within

Kailey had been in the garage working on art most of the day. Preparing things for the art gallery and forthe start of the tourist season. It was the end of May after all. Before she had slipped into the shower to wash off paint and sweat she had sent Everett a text. << pls pickup super meat pizza with olives and some martinellis? I have something I want to do tonight. With you. So don't dawdle? <3 >>

(TXT to Kailey) Everett : you want to do something with me? hubba hubba. i'll get your pizza. and i got your meat right here, hot stuff.

Kailey emerges from the shower to that message. Laughing she replies as she dries off, shaking her head. << I like your hot Italian sausage. Extra cheese. >> She sends it off and a second later adds, << It's baby stuff, not sexy stuff. Sorry to burst your bubble. 😉 >> From there she dresses and grabs a pair of cups and paper plates from the kitchen. Retreating to her room to wait for the gentle giant to arrive. Sorting through old photo and putting them into an actual album.

(TXT to Kailey) Everett : extra che-- ew. 🙂 but baby stuff can be sexy too. i'll be there in a bit, kitten. 😻

Kailey smiles at the text as she types out, << Yeah. I prefer chewing on your neck. 😉 See you soon. In my room. >> It is sent and then she rolls her eyes. Of course she's in her room. Stupid. But photos continue to be gone through. She picks up one and it's a polaroid. Showing a young woman that is not Kailey, but with family resemblence. Early 90s by the clothes and hair and taken at a bar. She peers at it for awhile before carefully setting it aside. A thoughtful expression on her face as she sorts through the pictures while waiting.

Sure enough, a little more than a half hour later with no more communication from him, the front door opens and then closes non-too-gently. There's a pause before his voice booms up, "Hey! Someone in here wanted juicy steak?" His contribution to the dinner left on the kitchen's island, the pizza box open while he puts plates down next to them. Paper towels to follow. Little does he know she's already gotten things set upstairs.

"Hey, bring it upstairs!" Comes Kailey's voice a minute later. She had to carefully extract herself from kitten and photos to make it to the door and open. A moment later her feet are on the stairs and she is rounding the corner. "I grabbed stuff. Picnic in my room," She says with a grin, eyes going from baby-daddy to pizza and stuff already out. "Oh, forgot towels though." Then she is turning around smoothly in her knee-high rainbow socks and heading back upstairs. Today she is dressed in a scoop neck maternity tunic that comes down to her thighs. Beneath it she wears, you guessed it, yoga...capris! They help show off the socks you see.

Pausing, Everett looks down at the boxes, and repeats the instruction, "Bring it upstairs?" with a dismayed tone. A slight put upon exhale, before he closes the pizza box again and puts the plates on top. He leaves his thoughts to himself rather than vocalizing them, and leaving the paper towels on the kitchen island, he takes the roll with him. Now his load has multiplied, it's more awkward than heavy.

Hearing her voice at the top of the stairs, Everett brings his load with him to the bottom, and looks up while she's heading back up the stairs. "What about Bean?" He tsks and shakes his head slightly before he follows her up the stairs. It's about half-way up before he can't resist the view anymore, the weight shifting to his off-hand, so he can steal a firm squeeze from her behind. Then he gasps. "Flerken! Bad cat," blaming the squeeze on the kitten.

Kailey lets out a laugh as Everett grabs a handful. Glancing back and down with an amused smirk and bright eyes. "Brat," She tells him fondly, pausing to reach out and boop his nose. Then steal the roll of paper towels to 'lighten' his load. She's helpful? See? And with her burden she heads for her door. In which a kitten sits and yawns cutely. As if to ask, 'What are you guys up too?' Kailey squats down to scoop the kitten up in her other arm and heads inside. Kitten is dumped on top of the dresser and the towels the foot of the bed.

The photos have been recontained into a single small pile, the photo box, and album sitting on her bedside table. She crawls onto the bed near them and, of course, Flerken leaps from dresser to bed RIGHT in front of Everett. Moving to gallop over and claim Kailey's lap. "I wanted to show you something. And, well, try something too." A pause as she says, when he opens his mouth, "Not -that- kind of thing to try."

"I can't help it," he says, sounding so very defensively, brows and shoulders raised, nose wrinkled from the boop. "I see a moving target like that and my hands just move by themselves." The grabbing hand gives two small pats before he shifts the cargo back to both hands. He takes a look at what's been going on in the bedroom before he slides the cargo into the bed, pausing when the kitten steals that space for a second.

It's a good thing she interrupts him, because open his mouth he does. And impish grin, and pause. He even glares at her with wicked intent, only this time it's not the try that brings his attention. "Oh? You're going to show me something are you?" Standing erect, he shirks of his leather jacket, dropping it to the ground. "I got something I'm going to show you too," he adds, thumbs hooking to the front of his jeans, as though he's going to unbutton the bottonfly next. Instead, beneath his usual tight t-shirt, he flexes his pecs: right, left left, right, grinning broadly.

Kailey scoots on the bed to make room. So when she looks up Everett is putting on his display. And is it any surprise she starts to giggle and laugh. "Oh you, c'mere!" And she crooks a finger and pats the space next to her. The pizza's smell has enticed Flerken who is snizzing and pawing at the box. "You'll get your bits in a minute, little miss, just wait," She chides the kitten. The album is picked up and set at her knee. Opened up so that the pages can be looked at. It is, in fact, an album with pictures. All of them seem to be travel pictures. Tourist and not-so-tourist places. But almost always a different place, different motel, different pool. Pictures of a little blond girl and her mother. Though mom was almost never seen. A few photos are sloppy. As if taken by a child.

"Ba-da da-da. BAH-DA-DA-DA!", vocalizes Everett, twitching a pec with each note scored. He lifts his arms after the invitation and puts his hands behind his head to interlace his hands as he continues the burlesque show without the removal of anymore clothing. His tease continues maybe half a minute more, before he gives it up and grins broadly. "Ok. Let me give Bean some first. We don't want her to starve and waste away." The furry kitten is moved out of the way with one hand, the other putting plates down. Collecting a paper plate, Everett opens the box, just a crack, enough to get two slices and sliding them on paper plate before the box is closed on little furry paw.

Now with the kittens attention, Everett brings the paper plate onto of the proper plate and puts it on the dresser so he has hands free while he gets a couple of paper towels. "Be right back," and out the door he goes, mindful of the kitten, to keep her in the room.

He's not gone long, coming back with lipstick marks on his cheek, his departure announced by Cinder's barking. When Everett comes back into the room, he scoops up Flerken, and brings the little starving beggar into beg, next to Kailey, close enough his broad shoulders rub hers while he settles in. "What's that?" he asks, looking at the pictures, putting the kitten down on his lap and forcing pets on her.

Kailey has helped herself to a slice of pizza in the meantime. Tossing a bit of sausage to keep Flerken busy and out of her food. It's a decent tactic. Everett scoops her up and introduces her, once more, to the source of the food. Kailey's slice in danger she literally is having to hold it over head at Flerken starts demandingly meowing. Trying to claw her way up Kailey to the piece. "C'mon, Fler. Here," And she plucks a piece of sausage from it, waves it under her nose, and tosses it onto the floor. Kitten follows.

Now she can turn her attention back to the album and Everett. "It's...me. As a kid. Some pictures of mom too...though maybe you'd like to see 'em?" She shrugs one shoulder. The first page are baby pictures. Almost all of them taken on the god-awful floral coverletts of motels throughout America. One of the picturesin the back of a truck with a blond woman holding her. (http://mzone.mweb.co.za/residents/adamskat/michclaudia.jpg) It's blurry and the woman is wearing glasses and a hat. Next to it is another picture. The same woman but with shorter hair. This one is in the center of all the other pictures. (https://media.baselineresearch.com/images/75438/75438_small.jpg)

Watching the interaction between Kailey and Kitten, Everett smiles a little, then wipes his right hand over his chest and helps himself to a slice. Without plate, but with paper towel underneath incase anything falling off, has somewhere, maybe, to fall other than into sheets and leaving a greasy stain. "Oh mah gof, yef," he says around a bite when asked if he wants to see, his attention falling to them right away. His mouth clear by the time her mother appears, Everett licks his left forefinger after throwing another sausage crumb to the ground (two can play this distraction game), he points at the woman, "There you are!" He looks up from the pictures with a laquid smile, "You've had a baby before?"

Kailey rolls her eyes and smirks. "Idiot," She says with all fondness. "That's my mom. Colleen," Her voice is a little soft and her smile fading to something more muted as she looks at the picture. "One of the better picture of her I have, I think," She says before reaching out to turn the page and take another bite. The next two pages consist of toddler pictures. Many of them seem to be on sandy beaches. Around her mouthful she says, "Pretty sure this was the California coast. All different beaches and parts." Hey look, it's her and her mom looking through some binoculars at the Sutro Bathes in San Francisco. And another picture of toddler Kailey in one of those toddler swings looking extremely skeptical.

"Yeah, but I'm your favorite idiot," he adds before nudging her gently and turning his focus back on the picture, sneaking another bite between kitten preoccupations. His lower lip pushes out a little before he nods, chewing. And when he swallows, he adds, "I see the resemblance. Right in the beautifuls." Turning his hips, Everett rolls his lower body, sliding his socked legs over hers and strokes with affection. He returns his attention down to the collection when the page is turned, hen looks up to the page-turner and then back down. "So? What brought you to think about this stuff?"

There is a moment of quiet as Kailey turns the page. The question hanging and her gaze going a little distant. She chews, takes another bites, swallows, and only then does she answer. "Family?" She says uncertainly. "Or rather my total lack of conception of what it means. And I guess...I'm trying to understand it. Maybe understand why mom did what she did, beyond being crazy. I've been going through the pictures she left. There wasn't much, but she just loved taking pictures. Most of it is of nothing. Or, well, landscapes. Buildings. Broken down places. Things that weren't important." At least she thinks so. "I tossed most of 'em." She looks down at the next page and keeps turning, eating her pizza with small and thoughtful bites. Feet happily enjoining with his own. A bit dwarfed as is to be expected. "I guess I finally am willing to look at my past. I want to know. Just because I didn't have a family doesn't mean she shouldn't," And she drops a hand to her belly, glancing up at Everett then with an almost sad kind of smile. And sauce on her chin.

"Family is a good reason," he says, nodding, not yet lifting his eyes from the pictures. "But I don't know if she was, you know, crazy. I think she was just. Scared. Having a little girl and having to run away from the things we have to run away from, you don't think that makes me scared?" He looks up then, his brows arched up. "You know what scares me the most? What if our baby Dreams? What if she Dreams in you? What if we put her down for a nap? And what if she doesn't come back." He lets that sink in for a second before he continues, "If I gave that more thought then it might scare me enough to want to take my little girl and run away and flee to a place I thought might be safe, never knowing if anyplace I stopped at was safe."

He wipes his fingers on his jeans even though he curls his fingers and strokes her facing cheek with his knuckles. "She's going to be ok. She's got a Mom AND a Dad who loves her and would do anything for her. And I think maybe Bean and her half-sibling too. That's a lot of eyes on her. And I don't hear a lot about babies just disappearing. We're going to be fine. So, I don't think she was crazy. As for the picture," he nods his head down at the collection, "I think they were important for her, so I wouldn't throw them away. Maybe they were important places to her, like places with thin Shrouds, or thick Shrouds. Or maybe there's just a certain beauty to the destruction of things. Or," his voice takes on a tone of defeat, "maybe they mean nothing. I just don't want you to regret having thrown them out, later."

Pausing his speech to eat, he looks up in time to see how she's worn her pizza and smiles. Silently, he holds a finger up while he keeps chewing. Then his hand lowers and opens. Thick fingers coil around her neck, past jugular and jugular, he holds her by her neck, trusting that's enough to keep her still as he leans in and... tastes her chin with a probing lick.

"I already do. I threw a lot of them away as a surly and angry teenager," Kailey says with that same sad smile. But there's less sadness. Oh sure, there is glimmers or fear and worry in those green eyes. She's thought those same things he puts into words. And for a moment her free hand goes to her belly. Just resting there for a moment. So when his hand touches her neck she glances his way and closes her eyes. Expecting a kiss and not a lick of her chin. There's a startle noise and she jerks back with a bark of laughter. "EV!" She protests and wipes at her chin with the back of her hand. But she is smiling again when her eyes go to the pages.

"You might be right. The more I think about it, the more I really think she was just running from Them and the Dreams...but she also seemed drawn to them. I have memories of doing all these haunted house tours with her. From very young. It was something we always would do..." Kailey pauses to tuck away a couple more bites, slowly turning the page. Showing off more of her childhood. This page has her dressed as a fortune teller for Halloween. "I don't...exactly remember when I learned how to do things. I do remember always being able to get a sense of people. Their feelings..." She trails off to take another bite of pizza. "When did you first notice things?"

A surly, angry teenager? Everett smiles softly, taking another dab of her chin, with a throaty sound of approval before he lets go and pulls back, "Mm. When was that, a couple of days ago?" She's so young. "What? You had something on your chin. Don't blame me." Putting the paper towel on his lap, the large man puts his left arm around her shoulders while he follows her gaze and when she speaks again, Everett looks to her and purses his lips. "Hm. Mmm, maybe she was looking for thin points? Places where she could use her," his right-hand wiggles, "magic. Or places where she wouldn't forget. If you're too few and far between them, you'll start forgetting what you know. People like you, it takes awhile. And those like Bean, it's almost right away." He pauses, seeing one picture of a little fortune teller, "Aww. I hope our Niblet looks that cute."

With her last question, Everett looks over at her, the confusion is plain on his face. "What do you mean?"

Kailey leans into that snuggle arm. The better to give Everett a peck on the lips. Before it's back to finishing off her slice of pizza. Finger held up while she does so. Wiping her mouth with the napkin she then more comfortably snuggles against him. "She will," She tells him with a little pat to her belly. That is answered with a kick a moment later. Making her snort in amusement. "I mean...when did you first realize you could do things that others couldn't?"

He lifts his slice and takes a bite while she gets comfortable, chewing while she squirms. His eyes look towards the collection of pictures until he hand goes to her stomach and she pats herself. Putting his pizza down again, and once more using his jeans as a napkin, Everett slides his arm over, interlacing his fingers gently with her own, then bringing both hands down to settle and stay on her belly. Her big, round belly.

When he swallows, Everett murmurs, "Sometime around when I started lifting five hundred pounds and it wasn't tiring me anymore." With her hand in his still, he flexes his bicep twice, "Pow-pow."

Kailey watches Everett move about, adjusting herself in turn. Their hands laced together she lets her eyes drop closed for a moment. Just taking it all in and existing. It doesn't last but a few seconds before those eyes open again. "Super strong man," She says as she reaches with free hand to poke at the bulging muscle of one arm. But then that hand reaches up to tuck some of that long, black hair back behind him. "I told you I wanted to try something right? I want to...well, not say 'Hi' because she doesn't know words yet. But...share with her how much she is loved and wanted. By both of us. Since we can...I can...why shouldn't we right?" So that was the thing she wanted to try!

His head turns, eyes close, offering to stroke her with his cheek while she plays with his long hair, "The strongest," he murmurs with a self-contented tone. He listens to her offer, and when it's made, his eyes open, distaste in his eyes. "You're not going to go poking in my brain?" he asks, knowing she knows he doesn't like that. "You know I don't like that." Everett's fingers squeeze, squeezing hers before he strokes her. "You know if she can even do any thinking other than tugging on that cord to ask for more pizza, that she knows how we feel about her." He smirks, pursing his lips, "'Sides. Who knows what that'll do to her. She might come out with a super big head, super-powers, or," he lingers, "... special." His green eyes roam down to their hands. "I don't want to hurt her. And the Specters. They're drawn to you finger-wiggling. I dunno..." his tone is uncertain, but it isn't a no. He could be convinced.

Finger-Wiggling. It makes her smirk but her expression has turned fairly serious. His words seeming to make her think as their hands rest, joined, over swollen belly. Each feeling a soft pushing from within followed by a roll. "I don't want to hurt her either," Kailey says after a seconds pause. "I don't think any earlier would be of any point...and maybe I shouldn't. But...we've also gone through so many dreams now. More than when I wasn't pregnant for sure...Like you said, there aren't very many stories of missing babies here." She bites her lower lip at that point, worrying it in thought. "I wish you would trust me. I can't -see- anything. Just feel your emotions. Or talk to you and you to me..." She says it very softly, quietly, whistfully. "I just...I want to share with you things. Feelings. My feelings. My heart. It's...it's...it's...." She stutters a bit and then growls in frustration, shaking her head forcefully. "Never mind, sorry, don't mind me..." She says softly, turning to hide her face in the crook of his neck, letting out a breath in a soft sigh.

He quick to say as much, "I trust you. You can't think otherwise, Kitten." Everett turns more, having to release her hand for fear of losing his pizza between them when he starts to slide from his lap. Letting it go on the pizza box, naturally to Flerken dismay. Laying back into position, he gives her back his hand, squeezing her hand with his as he rolls to lay beside her, his body facing hers. "It's just. I told you. I don't want you. Either of you," he casts his gaze down, then across, perhaps meaning child and Bean, "do know about some of the things I did. I. I know my past's behind me, I just don't want anyone to. You know. See it. Or know about it." He draws breath, "You'll never think about me the same if you do. And that scares me. Losing you."

The hand on her stomach moves, petting the mound, "Either of you. But I trust you, pizza breath. You wanna do this, I'll do it with you." He pauses, his lips quirking a little to hold back the smile.

"But I can't see or know those things, silly," Kailey says as sits up slightly to avoid pizza spillage. "And...I know you trust me," She says with a whince. Before a rough chuckle almost makes it way past her lips. She leans in and nuzzles her nose against his. "I love you," She tells him before tilting her chin to kiss him too. Tender and sweet and loving. "Just think about her. Okay? The feelings being a dad gives you," She says when she withdraws, her fingers squeezing his over her tummy. There's another rolling beneath the flesh and muscle there.

"Eww," Everett says, wrinkling his nose, smiling softly. "You love me? Gross. Girl cooties, icky." His foolishness quiets as she leans in, his gaze drawing to her lips when he believes he knows what's coming. Welcoming her lips with his kiss, at least he can be serious when there's a call for serious, his head tilting gently, following her lips when she pulls back. He's not done, not yet. The strand she pushed behind his ear falls free to tinkle her cheek as his movement to keep the kiss going nearly has him laying on her. Save his left arm where he braces his weight, keeping him from crushing her.

"Mm. Delicious. That's good pizza," he murmurs, nuzzling her nose with his. "I always think about her. And you." He looks down at the movement, and smiles, "She's swimming again. How about we call her tadpole instead," he asks before looking up.

Kailey makes a soft sound and her eyes flutter almost closed as he presses that kiss. When he does pull back her lips are parted and she is breathing heavily. Eyes all but closed. "Ev,,," She says it softly, reverently, her mind slipping in to sense his mid-kiss. Slowly the smile curves on her face and those green eyes open, vibrantly green. With her hand she cups his cheek and she thumb strokes that strong cheekbone of his. "Whoa...you know that song? Your love is like a tidal wave?" She asks him before landing on more little peck. Her gaze drifts downwards to her stomach. And she stares for a good long moment. After about ten seconds she frowns. Then pouts. And finally looks back up. "Well...okay. Mmmm," She looks vaguely embarassed and perplexed, rubbing her belly. "I guess maybe I -can't- share with her...but I can with you."

Suddenly she moves to kiss him again. That connection she had tapped into to view and feel his emotions still there. Only this time she sends her own back along it. It's warmth and it's a pressure and tingling just below the chest spreading out warm and gooey. It's safety. Its loving. Its caring and tenderness. It's needful and lustful and a little scared too. All woven together to be presented to him as her lips press to Everett's. And her hand goes to thread through his silky black hair. The heartsong, as she would call it, passed on in a way no words could rightly describe.

Shaking his head, slowly, gently, Everett murmurs, "I don't think I do, baby. All I know is that I like being entangled with you. Lounging on a flat, soft surface. With that stupid cat eating my pizza slice," his affectionate tone turns accusatory, his head turning to look ever so slightly over his shoulder. Yeah, he sees you, cat. A cursory look to the fuzz-butt draws Everett's emerald eyes back to Kailey's. His emotions, his current emotion, is as easy to read as his face.

On the outside, he presents as a strong man. But few, a precious few know that beneath that, beneath the man that's quick to anger, that can lash out suddenly, is a man with the heart of a poet. And not in a jar, but his own heart.

One that feels too much.
That angers too much.
That loves.
Too much.

The tingle along with her hand still holding his, the sense of another using their Glimmer, and then Everett murmurs back, between the soft pressing of his lips, pulling of her bottom lip, the one he enjoys playing with.
"I love you too."