2021-03-18 - A Secret in the Garden

The fog is thick in the small backyard. The trees and shrubs that line the fence keeping it contained seemed draped in white and wispy cloud. Overhead is just thick gray. The first flowers of spring seem to be washed out by the miasma. Morganna is asleep in her room, but Kailey has the baby monitor with her.

An easel with a large canvas has been set up. Already a layer of pale gray has been laid down as well as the ground cover. Quick and light pencil sketching outlines the most prominent features of their normally unimpressive backyard. Bushes are not always trimmed and the flowers planted have spread wildly in their bed with dandelion allowed in their midst. But even these bright yellow flowers seem to be draped in silver. Which Kailey is doing her best to capture with acrylic paint.

"You letting the world see our backyard?" comes Everett's deep voice comes from the patio. He flings the tea towel over his shoulder with one hand while the other hand pushes the french door open a little further. Enough for him to duck under as is his habit. Cinderella brushes past him quickly, giving the man an excited rasped bark as thanks before making a run around the backyard, just to make sure it all looks the same, smells the same before finding a corner to mark as her own.

Getting pushed by the excited animal puts a sour expression on Everett's face but for a second while he closes the door behind him and wanders over to the canvas, to Kailey's side and behind her to look at the progress, wiping his large hands again from clearing tonight's dinner.

Kailey glances over a shoulder at his voice with a warm smile. "I guess? I just thought it was so beautiful draped in the fog," And sure she has a picture of it too for working on the painting later. As he comes up behind her she pauses to lean back against him, head resting against one should as she turns to look up at him. Reaching up to stroke one of Everett's cheeks fondly.

Our among the bushes the deaf dog borks again in her raspy way at something. The kind of barking that normally gains attention quickly. But only when the sound of growling comes does Kailey turn from gazing lovingly to peer at what has the dog's interest. "Does she have another possum cornered?" She asks worriedly, dropping brush onto her little side table where palette and paint and other arty things rest.

His reaction to the cheek stroke is a little belated while his green eyes dart and search the canvas, he signifies that he's done with a quick up-twitch of his eyebrows, scans the backyard and the fog as it touches everything. The swing of his head brings it down to Kailey to whom he smiles, and wraps one arm around, low to tuck his thumb into her hem. The other settles the tea towel on his shoulder, then reaches for her face while his smile widens.

"It's thick enough something could reach out and pull you in," he murmurs before his large palm covers her lips. With thumb and middle finger at her jaw, he gently tilts her head back while leaning down, his long hair spilling over from his shoulders to make a silky curtain as his lips find hers and claim them. With lip covered teeth he finds her lower lip, gently bites before suckling her between his lips to trace her captured flesh with a slow pass of his pointed tongue.

"All the better to eat you in secret, my dear," he murmurs when he releases her from the kiss, his lips a scant breath from hers. The sounds of the dog in distress and Kailey's reaction to it makes Everett groan throatedly in discomfort while he lifts his head and does his own barking at the bushes, "Hey! Hey, Cockblock! Give it a rest!" Turning his focus back to Kailey, he lowers his chin and narrows his eyes just slightly, "I'm sure she'll be fine for," he lingers on that word for a moment, "what, three minutes?" This question followed by a goofy grin and waggling of his brows.

Kailey's eyelids drift lazily closed as Everett leans in. No lipstick today to smear on his lips and teeth and she leans up and into the kiss. Her own teeth grazing that thick and nibbleable lower lip of his. Something they have in common there. From her rises a giggle when he threatens her like the big bad wolf he is. "Oh my," Comes the comment with her mirth.

The cockblock has no clue she is being yelled at and keeps barking and growling. It is certainly an annoying and distracting thing. Kailey gives the dog another worried look, but the canine doesn't seem like she will be on the attack. So her eyes turn back to Everett's and she slowly spins in his grasp so she is facing him. Slowly her hands rolls up his shirt, and towel, and up around his neck. The better to pull her up for another long kiss.

Kailey's fingers playing through his hair she says, within the confines of the kiss, "Should I run from the big bad wolf then?" Her voice is a teasing purr. Their bodies pressed together as they are, arms about another, would make it hard for her to do that. The dog continues to raspy bark and growl at the bushes. Did that bush just shake in response? The dog leaps back with a yelp and then resumes her bark and growl. "Mmm?" Kailey's eyes peek open and she turns her head slightly to peer at the fog filled backyard. It is growing so thick Cinderella is disappearing into it.

With her turn around, his big mitts slip down and capture the curvature of her buttocks in his palms before there's a rough squeeze and pull upwards, certainly to help her lips and his meet. And when she pulls back to ask the question, Everett looks over his shoulder once again towards the growling bush and then back to the distraction in his hands. "Mm, never before have I had such a sweet and succulant dessert, that at the baker's oven would make me a complete pervert," he murmurs a quick poem and wiggles his brows again before baring his teeth and snapping them at the air.

With Kailey's attention drifting off in that direction again, and Cinderella's noise, Everett pulls himself from the tight embrace to address the dog, "I swear by all that's holy, I will wear you like a coat," he says aloud as he disentangles himself from his love, and starts to storm off in that direction. He's heard muttered because fog amplifies sound, "... she fuckin' bought that dog just to piss me off..."

Kailey is reluctant to let Everett go even after she showed worry. Her hands sliding down and along Everett's torso as he turns to go after the mutt. "Aww, she doesn't know. Just put her inside," Kailey says as his threats make her partly pout and partly scowl. After a seconds or two of pause she follows after the large man, reaching into a pocket to pull out her vape. Taking a long pull as she frowns into the fog as it goes to swallow up even the larger man. "Ev?" She calls as she hurries her steps in the way he had just gone.

Flashbacks to a corn field grip her and her hands fly out into the fog to try and find him by touch. The fog has begun to have that 'feeling'. Goosbumps rise on her arms and a chill shivers down her spine as it feels like the mist is touching her back. Cold and moist it leaves little droplets along flesh and clothes alike the longer someone stands in it. "Ev," There's a worried tone in Kailey's voice, but it sounds weird in the fog. It shouldn't be this thick. She should have reached the bushes already. "No no no no," But he can still hear her. And the damn dog that has gone from barking to whimpering.

The dog is what Kailey finds first. Which is somewhat odd since Everett was heading for the Dalmatian. Cinder yelps and Kailey lets out a surprised cry as she trips over the unfortunate canine. "Oh! Oh Cinder," Only by bending down right in front can she see the dog and vice versa. Even the house has been swallowed up by the Glimmer mist. Taking another pull on her vape she signs to the dog. 'Good girl. Go home.' But the dog casts about, nose sniffing, and then whines again. The dog is also lost in the fog with them.

Before the fog consumes him, dish towel and all, Everett's heard muttering to himself once again, "oh, I'll do something with her," doubtless dark thoughts while the fog's white tendrils seem to swirl, reach out, and accept the big man who's left following in the direction of the dog, last heard giving her strange barking at the shrubbery.

And wandering.
And wandering.
And...

Everett stops and looks around suspiciously. Spying only fog, he recalls how long he must have moved, how large the backyard is based on how many times he's mowed the back lawn. The equation to his math is quick: Everett tilts his head back and slaps his right palm over his face before pulling it down his kisser, tugging his eyelids open, pulling his lips while he emits an equally long moan.

Tentatively he tries, "Kitten?" once he's done blaming himself for walking, literally, into it.

Why does his voice seem like it is so far away. Kailey frowns into the fog as she hooks her fingers into Cinder's collar. Walking bent over as the dog bends to sniff and then begin heading in one direction. "Ev?" She calls out louder and the dog whines. But her nose leads them to Everett's side.

Releasing the dog's collar she switches her grip to Everett's waist. Kailey clings there, burying her face against his chest. Taking that precious moment to inhale his scent before she looks up at him and then around. Cinder, having found the part of her pack, whimpers at the big man alpha and leans against his leg, tail between her legs. "I think the fog's alive."

Again. Stupid sentient fogs and mists and things. With a sigh Kailey casts about as she reaches to twine her fingers into Everett's bigger hand. About the same time the voices start. Hard to make out the mutterings and they seem to be coming and going. "Why'd you walk into the fog?" Now is probably not the time, but she does sound put out. Never mind it was the dog being a cockblocker that was really why they were here.

"Who ... out ... Hello? ... stay behind ... ... run ... ... tell you ..." The voice is vaguely female.

With the call of his nickname again, Everett looks in the direction it sounds like it came from. And then another direction. He rolls his eyes expressively to himself and a second later, he starts reaching into his front left pocket. Fingers finding his phone, he's about to pull it out, still not replying, when the family dog parts from the fog, pulling Kailey with her. Everett's hand pauses, then pulls out of his pocket empty, his expression turning slightly relieved from the usual harsh glare it carries when he doesn't have reason otherwise to smile.

Arms open to accept the human female into his personal space, the dog's leaning not yet acknowledged. Everett nods softly, "Yeah, I've had this happen to me before. Not fog, exactly. Well, sorta. But it was a corn maze, you remember that right?" he asks, while the hand that had moved for his phone wraps around Kailey's waist, accepting her close. While she smells his chest, he bows his head and nuzzles her temple with his jaw and hugs her tight briefly.

His hand squeezes hers softly before Everett bends down a little. The fog echos with the thumping pats he gives Cinderella, followed with a smoothing stroke of the area. Maybe the most affection he's shown the dog that was bought to take his place. While giving the dog affirmation, Everett murmurs back, "You said she probably caught something," he pauses, "and she was barking up a storm, I couldn't get my game on," he adds winking while he stands up straight. Then looking around, he hears the sounds of someone, something else, and squeezes the hand in his tighter.

"Kailey, this is no time to play around," Says the voice in the fog and it makes the woman's hand tighten sharply. Kailey almost ducking behind Everett with eyes wide and staring in the vague direction of the voices.

"That's..." Kailey's voice is trembling and soft as she stares and clings to Everett like the island in this swirling fog that he is. For once her own grip on his hand may be painful as her nails dig into flesh without realizing it. Her other hand balled into a fist and nails digging deep there too. "...My mom's voice."

"NO! Kailey!? Where are you?! The fog is dangerous, stop playing around!" The voice calls out partly angry and partly scared. There is the echo of a child's laughter. The fog swirls nearby and a child's form dashes past with blond hair in pigtails. Kailey makes a noise in her throat and stares at the child who stops to peer up at the two of them with emerald green eyes. The adult Kailey is a frown statue curled up against Everett and staring down at herself.

"Who are you?" Ask the fog-born child-Kailey with all the innocence and curiousity one would expect. Then the child gasps as her eyes spy Cinderella. "You have a doggy!" Says the four year old with excitement. And the poor deaf dog peers at this child who smells like fog and pack and yet shouldn't be. There is uncertain whining that the dog probably doesn't even know she does. But still she leans forward to sniff at the extended fingers.

At her reaction, Everett gives Kailey a curious glance at the unspoken sentence then, returning the hand squeeze, assumes his new role at protector. Or shield. His attention returns to the fog, but only momentarily, for when the sentence is finished, Everett's focus swivels, and quickly at that, back down to the woman hiding behind him, his eyes wide as saucers.

He can't help it, his other hand combs through his hair, pulling the long strands back over his shoulders, then tugs down on the neck of his white, tight t-shirt. Preening before meeting the parent, real or otherwise, however minimal it is, when the little girl appears Everett's caught off-guard for a second before he grins his lop-sided, right-heavy grin. "Oh my god," he says while looking at the little girl, "You're too cute." He slowly drops down to a knee, his empty hand rising to Cinderella's shoulders, stroking along the Dolmation's spine. "Yeah, this is Cinderella. She's a special puppy, want to pet her?"

If he had a white, windowless van he couldn't be any more of a creeper. Or anymore oblivious that he was being creepy. Like a concerned parent, he tilts up his head and offers reassurances that, too, probably could be taken poorly.

A deep bashful voice booming from his chest, "Kailey's over here, Colleen." Not giving thought about how he would know the child's name, or her mother's. Just another occupant lost in the fog.

Cha-cha-cha-cha, ka-ka-ka-ka.

The older Kailey is frozen with wide eyes and her fists clutch up against her chest. Meanwhile the delighted squeal of her younger self echoes weirdly in the fog. With permission given the little girl, probably four years old, rushes forward to wrap arms around a confused dog. "PUPPY!" She is absolutely delighted in snuggling and loving on the canine.

There is silence for a few seconds after Everett's call. And the answer isn't in words but the billowing and spreading of the fog like a knife a second before the invisible wall slammed into and picked Everett up by the belt of his pants. "GET AWAY FROM MY DAUGHTER DEMON!" Yells the angry mother that storms from the swirling fog to snatch up a young Kailey. Who is confused and starting to cry. Not knowing why her mother has become so angry or yanked the Nice Dog Man away.

Still the older Kailey is frozen and staring. Lips barely parted with an expression of confusion and fear twisting her face. Her breaths are jerky and spaced in such a way as to be holding her breath and only taking one in quiet gasps. Staring at that face that is hers only younger and the other face, the face of her mother, flushed and angry.

"Mama?" Kailey's words are soft and yet loud in the fog. Impossibly loud. And Colleen's green eyes snap to her and she frowns.

"STOP IT! I'm done with this...this...THIS!" The woman uses one hand to swat at the air, indicating the woman, dog, and hanging Everett. And when she does the man is dropped the seven feet to the ground suddenly. "You tell James he can go to hell!"

"Who?" Kailey manages the word and manages to sound more like an owl than a person.

Really, by all rights, he should have seen this coming. First impressions: he's mastered them. As Everett smiles lopsidedly down at little kiddo Kailey being excited to see the dog he's always been less-than-impressed with, Everett runs thick fingers over the doggo's right ribs to encourage her continued passivity.

Thusly distracted, Everett is yanked from both adult-Kailey and puppy suddenly, his trunk preseeding arms and legs as he's lifted, hovering in the air, practically wearing his jeans under his armpits. With her simple gesture, he's tossed, landing on the ground with a second sound of impact as air escapes his lungs before the dishtowel has finished fluttering to the ground.
Everett lays there for just a second longer. Long enough to hope someone got the number of that truck.

When he raises, it's with a long groan, holding his sternum with his left hand and squinting the same side-eye. A grunt of pained discomfort escapes his lips first, "Your mom's a hell of a lady," he wheezes, stroking his chest. A question hanging in the air until he gives it voice unabashed, "Who's James?" he asks, pulling his pants back down casually reaching back to pull his underwear from inside his small intestines, then dusting off his knees. With a normal dog, he could call it, but with Cinderella, he has to wait for her to look in his direction before double-tapping his thigh to call her over.

Kailey is finally unfreezing as her other self is whisked away. Though each face has tears, confusion, and fear on them. Matching even if only for age. "Mama?" They both echo, pain thicked in the older one's voice, as the fog swallows the pair once again. Cinder cowers against Kailey's leg whining in that deaf way she has.

Two things hit the woman at the same time. One, she was no longer behind or anywhere near Everett. Two, she's not sure she can stand anymore despite Everett's whooping. For several long seconds she stares hopefully, fearfully, at the fog as it begins to thin and clear back on the backyard. "Mama!" She says a little louder as it becomes apparent they are not going to see the other pair again.

Suddenly able to move and speak again Kailey is on her hands and knees, waving at the mist as if that might solve anything. Cinder? She is much smarter. When she sees the house she runs for it and is through the cat flap almost as fast as the cats. So that is how she's been managing to get out still? Damn that dog is limber. Kailey whirls from watching Cinder run off to search the brush of their small yard for Everett. It isn't hard to find him as the fog thins and she moves towards him, "James...it's...one of the names she called my dad when I asked about him," She says in a dreamy and confused fashion.

"She had other names for him too?" Everett asks, brushing off his tokus, stopping the action when the fog thins enough for him to be able to make out the greenery of the backyard, turn his head and see Kailey looking at him patting his own behind. His hands come down, his posture returning to a natural state quickly before, with down tilted head and certainly not from embarrassment, he spies the dishtowel he'd used to dry the dinner dishes.

On his way back to Kailey, he scoops the linen quickly and uses it to wipe his hands before returning it over his shoulder and offering his left hand for Kailey. "If it's any consolation, my mom had a nickname for my Dad too. Only she called him Lucifer. Which," his demeanor turns prideful, his nose uplifting, "I suppose makes me the Anti-Christ, lucky you." When his hand is taken, she's given a soft squeeze.

Cinder's escape didn't go unnoticed either as he murmurs, "Remind me to replace the cat door with one of those magnetic ones, so Cinder can't escape."
He lets a second pass and then adds, with a slowly creeping grin on his lips, "You were a cute kid. If Mew turns out to be half as cute, I'm going to have to buy a shotgun."

Kailey moves quickly to not only take Everett's hand, but crash against him in a trembling hug. "Ev...I...I..." She tries to talk and just keeps making noises instead of words. Shaking her head the young woman sucks in a shaking breath as she puts on a false smile for the man looking genuinely amused. "Hahahaha," The sound is a little on the neurotic side as she clings tightly to his hand.

"Sh-she called him a devil, b-ba-bax-baxstard," Kailey studders over her words as she works through her words, "Aa...asshole and...stuff. But also called him Jimbo and..." He can hear and feel the deep inhale that she finally manages. "Jimmy once when she seemed fond. But I dunno any hic anything else," Nervous hiccups interrupt her words, but they're audible.

The sight of the house has her slowly scooting towards the building. Clinging to Everett and he can tell her knees are wobbling. "There's another thing though..." She says with a glance back at the fog, fearful and hopeful, "I remember -this-...I mean, not this like now this but then this." Oh yeah that isn't confusing Kailey-girl.

He's a man easily led, especially by her, and when they get to the patio door, he slides it open with his free hand before making room for her to cross the boundary first. "Well, whatever the case, Jim-jim's not here. Just you and me." Following her inside, Everett gives a glance outside before the door is closed, then he wraps his arms around her and gives her a tight embrace. Once he pulls her from the comfort of his arms and keeping his left paw to calmly soothe her by stroking her back.

A lean into her, Everett leaves a kiss on her forehead before leaning back while he pulls the tea towel from his shoulder and leaves it on the back of a dining chair within arm's reach, "Yeah, I remember this too, 'cuz we just did it. Or," he slows, then points a meaty finger outside, "do you mean like a little girl, meeting a big nice man with a dog in a fog bank and didn't warn me, I mean him, that your mom was totally going to go she-bear on him for, like, no reason? 'Cuz I think she gave me the wedgie to end all wedgies," he adds, trying another joke while he continues the reassuring touching.

Kailey stops shaking within the tight grip of Everett's hug. He is there, she is there, they are in real space again, and her breathing has slowed down a lot. "I mean little girl," She says with another little hiccup. "I mean...it's hazy and all this it just...reminded me. I remembered." Her voice is quiet and vaguely muffled against his chest but audible. As is the little giggle his comment gets. "She always was good at that. Um...not wedgies exactly though I guess more than one person got flung from me in that way. Are you okay?"

Is he ok?
Should couldn't have asked a more offensive question, judging by the way his head tilts back and his expression momentarily changes to confusion. He could be bleeding, dragging a leg, holding a dismembered arm, and his answer would be the same. To her.
"Pfft, yeah, I'm fine. I'll just be spitting up pieces of my tightie-whities for a few days, is all."

She gets a kiss on her nose before he pulls his head back a little more, and jerks a thumb over his shoulder, "you want to keep painting or should I bring your things inside? Hopefully the stuff you do remember, you remember fondly. Yeah?"

"I think...I think I need a hot shower," Kailey says after a brief pause to consider Everett's own question. Brows furrowing ever so slightly and just as quickly vanishing with that kiss. Her lips turning up into a somber sort of smile. "Yeah, bring my stuff in. Clean the paint off my brushes and...meet me upstairs?" Her voice lilts of the end with her hopeful little question. Gently she tugs at his white shirt, pulling down and stretching the neck, so she can go tiptoe to press a hot kiss low on his neck.

"I was liking where you were going till the fog and dog interrupted. Or did you mean...back then? I dunno...I...just remembered it. And I'll think about it later. Now? Now I need a hot shower and snuggles." And those two things together with these two? Well it is gonna lead to other things. And the Veil doesn't usually shove it's nose in twice in one day. Usually.

The first mention of the hot shower has Everett's brows wiggling, halting with the inventory of chores he has to do before earning the right to join her upstairs. "Hercules' own twelve labors, huh?" he asks as his t-shirt is pulled. With a little resistance so be can ask the question, Everett's hands slide around her hips to grab her from behind, fitting her into a tight embrace while he first offers his lips, then neck when he notices that's her aim and a throaty aroused sound that follows the lips on his throat.

"Hmm?" he asks, when she continues, his brain had to switch gears again, and the soft shake of his head and cascade of long hair that follows, helps. "Yeah," he murmurs. "Snuggles." His lips pull into a smug smile as he pulls away with reluctance, and looks around, spying Cinderella on the sofa. "Cockblock," he mutters under his breath, giving Kailey's behind a possessive smack before he pulls the patio door open again, telling the woman with an uplift of his head, "See you upstairs. I'll be the guy holding the towel."