[NPC]

((OOC: Lacey Uliel and Iskrani the wyvern, both played by Emma))

“Yeah, I know, mom, I'm standing right here. No, I'm right there, right now. Yeah, I was just about to knock on the door when you called me.”

Lacey Uliel peered at her vague reflection in the window of Kiel's living room to push a stray lock of platinum-blonde hair back into its bun, taking the opportunity to also check out her baby brother's decor. Her heels clicked as she took the three steps back to the front door, reaching out to knock twice but pausing as her mother demanded details. “Mom, listen, I can either stand here and describe the front yard for you or I can see if he's in... Yeah, yes, I'm knocking right now.”

Turning to look at Ani over her shoulder, Lacey rolled her eyes, an affectionate gesture that the wyvern seemed completely oblivious to. The dragon would much rather be bathing in a cool mountain lake and she'd said as much, but Kiel hadn't been in contact for a couple of days and then suddenly texted Chloe to say he'd been "sick" so naturally their mother was at panic stations. Since Tullia, their mother's dragon, was unavailable, she'd sent Lacey instead, as if she didn't have better things to do than check up on her baby brother.

The battering she gave the door made her concern obvious, though. “Mom, hang up and let me deal with this, then I'll call you back. Well, I know you want to know he's okay, so do I, but I can't very well give him all those hugs you guys sent if I have a phone in my hand trying to talk to you, can I? Besides, I haven't seen him in even longer than you, so I want him to myself for a little bit.” Holding the phone at arms' length, she yelled out, stepping back to stare up at the second floor windows, wondering if Kiel really was okay. It would be just like him to text home saying he was fine now just to stop them worrying, then faint on the bathroom floor or something equally unmanly and embarrassing. “Kiel! Kiel, open the door! Come on, unless you want your mother to send the whole clan to come get you, you better open this door!” Holding the phone back to her ear, Lacey continued in her normal tone, “There, are you satisfied? Now Kiel and his whole neighbourhood know I'm here.”

[Kiel]

Kiel was sorta kinda freaked out and not really sure what to do about it. Like, since that whole thing a couple of weeks ago, he'd been trying to convince himself that, like, wanting to kiss his boss was some weird aberration caused by his illness or, like, Zeph's girly hair. He'd totally been talking non-stop to try and cover his awkwardness, and things had kind of gone back to normal, you know? Zeph, at least, seemed totally oblivious, which was cool. At least Kiel didn't have to embarrass himself by talking about it.

Bam bam bambambam!

Kiel froze, a hand in his pocket as he rummaged for a snack, paint spatters covering his clothes and hair and face. He'd got more on him than on the wall, but he was happily making progress and, like, burning off his energy since he'd had, like, oodles of the stuff since he got over his cold. It was Saturday so, like, he wasn't expecting anyone to come over, but he immediately recognised his sister's voice.

“Laces!” Dashing over to the bedroom window, Kiel peered outside, shielding himself behind the second-hand curtains so she couldn't see him. “Like, oh man, I knew I shouldn't have said anything about being sick. Dude!” Jerking back when he saw Ani looking straight up at him, Kiel went into panic mode. He loved that she'd come to check up on him, but her doing so meant that, like, a whole ton of problems had just dropped on him. Like, she'd want to know what he'd been sick with, then she'd want to know how he'd gotten a cold, then she'd want to know all about his training and Zephyr and she'd figure out Kiel was being weird and it would become this whole thing and he'd end up getting fired or something and it'd be all his fault for letting her in.

“Kiel! Kiel, open the door!”

“Argh! Wah, whaddo I do? Oh! Hahahahaha, I'm a genius, man, for sers.” Delving into his pockets, he found his COM and texted his boss.

“Dude, man, you gotta save me! My sis is here! ”

¤ Piper Kin ¤ Dafont ¤ Ian Somerhalder ¤

[Zephyr]

Zephyr was in the back room of his smithery cleaning his dishes from lunch silently. Well, he was silent. Derina had discovered a mirror and was singing to herself, as far as Zephyr could tell. It was a bit loud, but about the same annoyance level as Kiel's prattling so Zephyr endured it absently as he completed his chores. He was wearing jeans and, strangely enough, a plain black muscle shirt. He'd taken to wearing more clothing around Kiel for the past two weeks or so, since the incident when they were both sick. He didn't want to complicate an already complicated time for the young boy. Besides, Zephyr'd grown used to having the kid around, and definitely needed the kid's assistance at the store. The last thing he needed was Kiel quitting due to... tension.

He was just about down with the dishes when he received Kiel's text. It was midday on a Saturday, Zephyr wasn't supposed to see Kiel again until Monday morning. After about two minutes off fiddling, Zephyr was finally able to read the message. “Save... what do I know about family?” Zephyr wondered allowed, taking a trick out of Kiel's book. After another few minutes of not being able to figure out how to respond to the message, Zephyr relented and attempted to call him. “Call Kiel Taskel,” Zephyr said to his COM after hitting a few buttons. “Please repeat the command,” it responded before promptly receiving a flurry of impacts against the counter. “Dammit, call Kiel!” he ordered the phone, smashing more buttons at the same time. Finally it started dialing.

“Kiel? What do you mean 'save you?'” He said the moment the sound of Kiel answering was heard.

Piper's Boutique :: Dafont :: Flames :: Owl

[Kiel]

Zeph wasn't gonna help him. Like, it had been kinda stupid asking him, really, so, like, he figured he ought to face the music. There wasn't much point in trying to fake his way through it 'cause, like, Laces knew him too damn well but, like, he could totally try. If he admitted he'd been sick, then she'd start fussing over him and tell his mom, who'd try to get him to go back home, and then his dad would start in with the whole (and he even faked a deep voice in his mind) "you're not ready to fly the nest" thing.

So, rushing down the stairs so it sounded like a herd of elephants were stampeding through his house, Kiel threw open the front door and, like, tackle-glomped his sister to death. “Laces! Dude!” Squeezing one last time for good measure, Kiel stepped back. “Dude, I missed you so bad. How's Chlo and mom and everybody? Does Addy still have that caterpillar on his face? Hey, Ani, how's it going, man?” As he said this, he threw up his hand in salute to the dragon who now had her jaws wrapped around the dead trunk in his front yard. “Oh man, how're the kids, man? Do they miss their Uncle Kiel?”

He was only saying as much as he normally would, but he was talking so fast his words were kinda colliding. Most of it was excitement 'cause, like, he really had missed Lacey and wanted desperately to catch up (even though, like, Chloe filled him in on a daily basis by text and he called his mom every weekend), but her being here meant a world of trouble for him if he couldn't, like, cover up what had been happening. Such a mess, man, but maybe she'd just pass off his hyperactive speech as just being Kiel.

“Oh, yo, man, lemme get that,” Kiel said, barely pausing to breathe as he held his COM up to his ear, and stopping his sister mid-sentence. He hadn't put it away, so, like, it had barely rung before he answered it.

“Boss!” Acting surprised wasn't all that hard, actually, 'cause, like, Kiel had totally thought Zeph would just ignore his text or something. “Hahaha, yeah.” Pretending Zeph had just asked him to come in to work instead of trying to clarify his text, Kiel slumped his shoulders and let out a sigh. “Whaddaya mean I gotta come in to work? Aw, man, can't it wait 'til, like, Monday or something? Fiiiiiiiine. Yeah, I'll be there in, like, twenty minutes or something.”

Hanging up, Kiel gave Lacey a glum look. “Sorry, sis, I gotta go. If you'd, like, told me you were coming I coulda, like, turned it off or something but, like, yeah, I can't lose my job, man. Thanksforcoming, I'mfinebye!”

Slamming the door shut behind him and not bothering with any of his stuff, Kiel darted around his sister and headed for town. As he rushed past his sister's dragon, he muttered under his breath, “Yo, Ani, thanks for not ratting me out, man.” She probably hadn't kept mum when she'd spotted him in the bedroom window because she liked him, but 'cause, like, she was lazy or something, but she'd be censored if he ignored it.

¤ Piper Kin ¤ Dafont ¤ Ian Somerhalder ¤

[NPC]

((Lacey Uliel and Iskrani the wyvern, both played by Emma))

“Easy!” Lacey cried eagerly as the door was flung open and she was squeezed, glad she'd had the foresight to tuck her COM in a pocket. She hugged back just as hard, smiling at Kiel's enthusiasm. She'd forgotten how infectious his energy and cheerfulness was, but it could be a little like standing in front of a raging inferno.

She yanked off his hat to ruffle his hair, just because she knew he hated that and because he was like a cute little puppy she couldn't resist petting. She didn't expect to get a word in until he'd calmed down so didn't even try to speak until it seemed like the barrage of questions was over for a moment. She barely got into her first reply when his COM went off and Kiel started edging out of his apartment. Lacey peered at him, narrow-eyed and arms crossed, a foot tapping. He must think she was completely stupid.

“Easy...”

He always did this. He just didn't get that he couldn't act, and that pretending things were all spic 'n' span was what actually gave him away in the first place. Something very fishy was going on here, something her baby brother didn't want her (and by extension the rest of the family) to know about, and that piqued Lacey's curiosity.

“Hey, I know!” she called as he skipped past Iskrani. “I'll go with you. You know mom would kill me if I visited and didn't meet your boss, especially with an opportunity like this. How can I say no?” Giving him her best "I'm just concerned about you, baby brother" smile, Lacey click-clacked hurriedly across the yard, knowing she couldn't afford to give him time to dash off. “Ani, would you mind staying here for a while, or would you prefer to come back for me later?”

“I'm perfectly happy right here. I may go for a swim. It's not a mountain lake,” the wyvern chided telepathically, “but the water looks nice.”

“Thank you, Ani.” Inclining her head formally, Lacey hurried to catch up with her brother, tucking that stray strand of silver-blonde hair back into its bun.

[Kiel]

“Ack.” Kiel skidded to a halt just shy of the road into town as Lacey's voice caught up with him. Damn, he'd really thought it would work, but Laces had that implacable "I represent both our mother and our father so I'm going to be a hard-ass" look on her face. “You don't need to come all the way out there, man, I'll be back in, like, a few hours. I mean, like, you know, we could go out to dinner or something or, like, you know, you could totally come back another day.” A day when he was better prepared and had, like, an awesome cover story.

It was more than just "I was sick and didn't call home for help", here. His whole life on the mainland was threatened if Lacey found out he was, like, crushing or something on his boss. She'd understand more than any of his family how confused he was. She'd see things about his feelings that he couldn't, and worm her way in to unpick the tangled mess of his thoughts. She'd, like, see things Kiel was afraid to know. Like, what if it hadn't just been an aberration, man? What if he really was crushing on Zeph? What if, like, there was more to it than that? 'cause, like, the guy'd been so nice to Kiel, if he'd been a girl, he'd have been totally infatuated by now.

Suck, suck, suck!

But he couldn't blow her off. He was lucky she hadn't started prying into his mind already (and even though he didn't have any kind of mental shield, like, at all, he was familiar enough with her telepathic fingers to know what she felt like when she was rooting around in there since, like, she'd used him as a test dummy, like, a lot when she still lived at home), but if he, like, tried to get her to stay away from Zeph she'd be totally curious about why and then she'd be in his thoughts faster than he could say "I'm hungry". Which ordinarily wouldn't be so bad, 'cause, like, Kiel pretty much said everything that came into his mind anyway, but he was kind of nervous about what was underneath the surface.

“Okay, man, but, like, hurry up, okay? Work's, like, on the opposite side of town and I don't wanna be late or, you know, like, something.” It was kinda hard to lie about not wanting to be late when he'd made the whole thing up.

And how was he going to explain this to Zeph, man? Dude, the guy was gonna freak. "Oh hi, boss. Don't mind if I invade your living quarters on your day off, right? Oh, and I totally brought my nosy sister, too." Yeah, no.

[d=white]((RP continued in Zeph's smithy. House thread still open.))[/d]

¤ Piper Kin ¤ Dafont ¤ Ian Somerhalder ¤