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Glass Houses [Closed] - Printable Version

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RE: Glass Houses [Closed] - megs - 01-11-2017

Anita considered going back inside and apologizing to Cain. It wasn't that she was actually mad at him. She was mad at herself and he'd been the unwitting target for her outburst. He was right, she couldn't stay mad at him forever. So often was he the victim of her misplaced ire that she assumed he was just accustomed to it by now. She waited, listening to see if her mother was going to come inside as well. Instead, she heard Owen go out the front door, so she lowered herself into a cross-legged position on the garage floor. She dug through her back until she found a metal cigarillo case lined with neatly wrapped joints and her lighter.

She hadn't specified what kind of smoke break.

Rylan’s eyes lazily followed a car as it moved down the street. When it turned the corner her sights settled on the blue Corvette parked in front of the brownstone. Her Corvette. Or rather, theirs. Hers and Owen’s. When he had driven to her apartment the night that had met - or, re-met, honestly she wasn’t sure how to think about the situation - she hadn’t been able to resist popping open the glove compartment and checking the registration. His name had been printed at the top. Along with hers. Julianna Hart. She liked the way it sounded.

She had been digging around for more proof of what he had told her. That they had been married and that he was the father of her children. Confirming his story was all too easily when she put effort into it.

A shift in the breeze brought a chill and she hunched her shoulders against it. Ears fell flat to the crown of her head as she pulled her jacket tighter around her. Holding the fabric closed with one hand she took another drag of the cigarette with another. A noise above her pushed her ears back to attention and she looked up to observe a bird walk up and down the power lines.

The door opened, but she didn’t turn around. She suspected it was Cain, coming to make sure she was back inside. Her tail slid across the porch to curl closer to her, too easy to be stepped on when it was laid out behind her in the dark.

An ear swiveled towards his voice behind her, before her head followed. She was surprised to find it was Owen that had come for her. She regarded him over her shoulder, blowing smoke to be carried off by the breeze. “Hey,” she replied, and his gentle tone drew a smile from her. Though there was plenty of room from where Cain had been seated she made the motions of scooting over to indicate she didn’t mind if he sat with her. She crushed her cigarette out on the concrete and pulled her sleeves over her hands as he settled next to her. She leaned on her legs and stared down at her feet, nervously tapping the white tops of her Converse together.

“I…” she paused, and took a moment to wonder if her following statement would be getting to the point too quickly. “I talked to Kama today,” she explained. “And Darcias. They confirmed your story. They told me everything.” She sighed.

RE: Glass Houses [Closed] - saronym - 01-22-2017

Owen moved to settle into the space she had opened up for him. He could tell by her hunched up posture and the way she hid her hands in her sleeves that the cold Boston air cut through her. Out of instinct, Owen slipped his arm around her and rubbed his hand briskly over her arm. A habit long trained in him as her husband.

He pulled her protectively under his arm and squished her tightly against his side as she confessed that she had confirmed his claims with her brother and sister.

Owen closed his eyes for a moment and smiled to himself. He peaked open one eye. “I’m trying to picture Kama’s posture of righteous indignation when you confronted him.”

Loosening his grip on her arm, he let his hand cup her shoulder lightly keeping her still under his arm. Owen sighed suddenly. “And your memories?” He asked cautiously turning his face towards hers. “Did you discuss that with them?”




Cain considered following Anita into the garage but he had enough of her verbal lashing for the day so he instead headed to his own bedroom, Daisy following close at his heels. Crashing into bed, Cain rolled over to lay on his back and arranged the pillows comfortably under his head while Daisy circled nearby trying to arrange the blankets with her paws and nose until she was comfortable. She flopped onto the bed and rested her head on Cain’s chest.

He scratched behind the dog’s perky ears and pulled out his phone to take a selfie with her on Snapchat. He sent the picture to Akiko with the message:

“parents are being awkward. so i’m staring @ the ceiling.”

RE: Glass Houses [Closed] - megs - 01-22-2017

Rylan, or rather, Julianna as she was to him moved closer when he slipped his arm around her. Thighs touching, she kept close to his side, siphoning warmth from him. She felt comfortable there beside him. He felt familiar. She laughed when he joked about Kama. “Well, you’re not wrong,” she replied. She pulled away from him slightly, and only momentarily, so she could wrap an arm around his back and hold him closer. “He was… so mad. Like all of this was my fault, and I was somehow making it worse. I don’t…” she trailed off to worry at her bottom lip with her teeth. “I don’t even know what to think of him anymore.”

She looked up at him when he turned to face her, broaching the subject of her memories as he did so. One corner of her mouth curved downward and she looked somewhat apologetic. “I couldn’t get any straight answers from them. Kama said to ask Darcias and Darcias said a lot of words about magic that I didn’t really understand.” She lifted her free hand to rub it over the bridge of her nose as her eyes fell closed and she turned to face forward. “They all seemed to imply that I need to talk to Elliot, and I…” she swallowed hard, dropping her hand back into her lap. “I don’t know if I can.”

Julianna smoothed her hand upwards towards his shoulder blades before she leaned away, pulling herself out of the protection of his hold on her. She inhaled deeply as she stood, brushing dirt from the bottom of her jeans as she moved to stand in front of him. She was fidgeting, shifting back and forth on her feet instead of pacing. A nervous Julianna could never hold still. “Before we get into...Elliot and all of that there’s something I need to tell you.” Julianna’s hands disappeared into the pocket of her jacket, she was toying with something in one of them. The crinkle of fingers rubbing over paper. One of her ears fell lopsided as she looked down at Owen.

She sighed. “Kama told me that you...died ten years ago,” she explained, casting her eyes away from him. She looked at the ground instead. “Ten years ago I was...pregnant.” She looked up at him again, withdrawing what she had been fiddling with out of her pocket. “I’ve been doing a lot of...digging into things now that you’re..back.” She unfolded the paper and held it out for him to take. “Nine months after you died my- our son was born.” The paper she offered was a birth certificate. Hart, Nicholas Owen was printed where the name should be. Other details littered the page. Sex, weight, length, time of birth, the usual. Julianna’s delicate signature was in the box where a mother’s should be. Owen’s was printed next to it.

She pushed her hands back into her pockets and waited quietly for him to process the new information.

Akiko looked to where her phone was buzzing on the kitchen table. A notification from Snapchat. She would have ignored it, if Cain’s username had not also popped up at the same time. Which was...intriguing. Cain didn’t usually text her, let alone use a social media app. She picked up the device and tapped the notification which opened up to a picture of Cain and Daisy together on their bed. The image made her smile, and she watched it until the timer counted down and whisked it away.

She deliberated on a response, setting the device flat on the table and returning to looking at flight prices on her laptop. She was considering taking a trip to her father’s ranch for the summer. Eventually, she unlocked her phone and opened Snapchat. She was still a little mad at Cain for all the reasons she had laid out before him so she only took a picture of the table that her phone rested on. Leaving just a flat black image in response. Over the blank canvas she typed:

“ur so dramatic. isnt that a good thing?”

RE: Glass Houses [Closed] - saronym - 02-01-2017

Owen turned his face away from her and let out the breath he had been holding when she admitted that she didn’t know whether she could confront Elliot. An ache in his chest replaced the hope that had set in him at the feeling of her body next to his. “I understand.” He said even though he didn’t. His wife had never explained to him the nature of her relationship with her twin brother. Or the severity of the relationship.

She pulled away from him suddenly, though he was reluctant to let her go. She stood and he was left staring up at her as she seemed to mark time on shifting feet. The sounds of paper drew his eyes to her hand where it hid in her pocket fingering something inside. He glanced back up in time to watch her ear fall against her hair and cocked his head wondering at what was bothering her.

“Sure.” He gestured with his hand inviting her to speak, though he was vastly unprepared for the news that she told him.

He certainly heard the words she was saying but they didn’t seem to register. He stared blankly at the birth certificate handed to him. The name of a son he’d never knew existed printed next to his. Deceased in parenthesis next this own name signaled that the baby was born to a shattered family. Owen wondered vaguely who had been with her during the birth.

Owen blinked up at the sky feeling the dangerous heat behind his eyes that threatened tears. Images of his wife, pregnant widow, entered his mind. He exhaled loudly through his mouth. His leg bounced nervously and Owen ran his hand over his face. An urgent thought sprang to mind pulling him out of the sea of grief drowning him. Quickly he wiped at a rebellious tear that had leaked from his eye and stood turning towards her.

“Where is he? What happened to him?”



Cain was left waiting anxiously for Akiko’s response. He put the phone down refusing to stare at it until he heard it vibrate. His resolve died down after just a few moments. Even though he knew he didn’t have a response back from her, Cain compulsively checked anyways.

He opened Instagram and scrolled through Akiko’s library of photos. His own face stared back at him in many of the pictures. No new posts since their “breakup.”

Akiko’s face didn’t greet him from Snapchat. He was stuck looking at a black rectangle with text over it. Cain scoffed aloud to his empty bedroom and quickly dropped his phone to the bed in frustration. He quickly snatched the phone back up and took a hasty selfie. Half of his face occupied the frame and his free arm decorated in colorful tattoos curled around Daisy. He kept his expression neutral but fixed the camera with a typical Cain-type smolder. His movement disturbed the comfortable canine who looked curiously at the phone and tried to lick it. The end result was a grumpy looking Cain holding Daisy who’s blurred tongue reached for the camera.

“Whatever. Look who misses you.”

He left it up to Akiko to gather that both of the bodies in the image missed her.

RE: Glass Houses [Closed] - megs - 02-02-2017

Julianna watched Owen absorb this new information with a silent patience. She was still in a way that seemed impossible for her. She didn’t fidget; even her tail and ears remained at stout attention. After a few moments she stepped forward and gently took the birth certificate back from him, folding it along old lines and tucking it back into her pocket. When his gaze shifted upwards, she cupped his face in her hand. She felt the instinctive need to comfort him in this small way, her thumb stroked across his cheek.

Her hand dropped back to her side, when his own pushed it out of the way and she took a step back when he stood. Julianna’s tail picked up a steady sway at her feet; his reaction, that single tear had left a deep ache in her chest. He turned to her and she stepped into the space between them, her hands settled on either side of his waist. She wanted to touch him. She looked up at him, ears pinning back as she cocked her head.

“What happened to him?” For a moment she didn’t understand his question. Then it occurred to her that he had been with her, and their other children and the information of his youngest son had been news to him. No one had mentioned Nicholas.

“Oh, he’s fine,” she reassured. “He’s in Macrilan. With Darcias at the magic college. She insisted that he start studying there when he came of age. She was very sure that she sensed latent abilities in him. Turns out, she was right. Nic, uh, specializes in healing magic. I hear.” Julianna paused and inhaled deeply. Her sights lifted higher to observe the star lined sky. She moved closer to Owen, arms curling around him in a hug, she let her head rest against his chest. “He’s such a good kid,” she continued, turning her face so the words weren’t lost against his shirt. “He’s smart, and clever, and kind.” Julianna smiled softly as she talked about the child. “He’s so curious. He wants to know everything. He loves to read, and draw. I hear Darcias has been teaching him piano.”


Akiko had just finished booking a plane ticket when her phone buzzed again. Checking it she found another snap from Cain. Huh. She hadn’t really expected him to respond, but apparently he was intending to keep a conversation. She tapped at the message, smiling at the picture but it faded at his response. Whatever. Typical Cain. Look who misses you the rest of it said and it wasn't difficult for her to figure that he meant both of them.

She didn’t reply right away, but shut down her laptop and closed the lid. She unplugged it from the wall and gathered it up, along with her phone and her planner. She hauled the mess of cables and electronics back into the guest room that she was borrowing from Holland and Aphrodite. The couple had gone out together for the night, and admittedly Akiko was kind of bored without them.

Dropping the armload on the bed she flopped down next to it, reaching blindly for her phone that had gotten lost when she’d dropped it onto the messy pile of sheets and blankets. Once located, she brought it to eye level and opened the app again. This time she took a picture of her face. At least half of her face. She surveyed the image: exaggerated frown, thick glasses, no makeup, blonde hair encompassing most of the frame. It wasn’t the most glamorous image of her but it would do.

“I miss her tooooo :C“ she typed back, deliberately misinterpreting his message.

RE: Glass Houses [Closed] - saronym - 02-20-2017

Owen listened with rapt attention to Julianna’s description of his youngest child. It was hard to move Anita from the position of his youngest to this new child he had yet to meet. The facts of the boy’s interests and talents was more than enough to fill him with fatherly pride for a child he didn’t know. Piano? Healing arts? Surely the child was a Hart.

“He’s at the school with Darcias?” He asked somewhat in disbelief. He scrubbed his fingers through his hair and huffed with agitation. He’d been on the same campus as the boy and didn’t even know it. Darcias hadn’t bothered to share the information with him. It made him wonder if he had failed to locate Julianna would anyone have bothered to tell him about his son? Offered to take him to meet the child? He certainly wasn’t surprised that Kama hadn’t said anything.

Owen was suddenly aware that he had fallen into silence while he ruminated on what he felt was poor treatment by the hands of Julianna’s siblings.

“I want to see him.” He blurted out with some urgency. He took Julianna’s hand away from his face and pushed her away from his chest so he could look her in the eye. “I want to see him. Tomorrow.”

He dropped her hand and his own fell loosely at his side. “How do I explain to him who I am?” He asked, heart sinking. He tried to imagine how he would have felt having his father back after he died. But it wasn’t the same. He had a connection with his father. Nicholas knew nothing of the father he’d lost.

Cain’s phone vibrated with another notification from Snapchat and he rushed to open it. He almost didn't care that her response had been somewhat passive aggressive. The corner of his mouth curled into a phantom smile as he stared at Akiko’s face until the timer ran out. He liked the familiarity of the picture. It wasn’t a curated image. It wasn’t over posed. She wasn’t done up. It was like an Akiko on Saturday morning before coffee. It made his chest ache painfully and he exited the app and locked his phone. He sighed loudly and dropped his phone on the bed. He scratched behind Daisy's ears.

He rolled out of bed and padded through the house to find his sister. He stopped at the fridge to grab a couple of beers before shoved open the garage door. He set the beers on the floor nearby to her and crouched down forcing her into a selfie with him. His arm around her shoulders, cheeks squished together, but he didn't smile just a cool smolder on his features.

“Look who else misses you.” He typed the message and sent the picture off before taking a seat on the floor and claiming his beer. He drank quietly for a moment.

“Akiko sent me a snap.” He said, almost bragging. “It even had her face in it.” The white elephant - the matter of their parents lingering out on the porch - was left unbroached.

RE: Glass Houses [Closed] - megs - 02-23-2017

Julianna looked up at him, wondering what it was about Nic being at the school that bothered Owen. He didn’t elaborate and she didn’t ask him to. Just listened to the steady rhythm of his heartbeat against his chest. Her ears fell when he gently pushed her away. They sprang to attention once more when his gaze leveled with hers. To her, he spoke in such a way that implied that she would deny him the chance to meet the child. The words were an unmovable expression of his desire. “Okay,” she agreed, softly, tail swaying at her feet. “I have lunch with him everyday,” she explained. “And tomorrow he has a free period after, so you can spend some time with him.”

Though she had been hesitant at first, the undeniable evidence that identified this man as her husband and the father of her children made her more willing to let him in. Not only into her life, but maybe, also into her heart. And his almost desperate need to meet Nicholas made her heart ache.

An ear fell lopsided, the hand he dropped disappearing into the pocket of her coat. She didn’t answer, because she didn’t have an answer. She was just now grasping that he was her husband, and the rest of her children already knew him. Julianna was also at a loss as to how they would explain the situation to their young son. “It will be okay,” she attempted to reassure him. “We will figure something out.” Her hand left her pocket again and she held it in the space between them. Offering - wanting - for him to take it.

“It’s cold,” she complained softly, a suggestion to go inside.

Anita jumped when the door opened suddenly. Not because she was concerned about being caught obviously smoking weed in her brother’s garage, but because she hadn’t been expecting anyone to come looking for her so soon. Her fluffed up tail twitched behind her shoulders as she lifted her head upwards and watched Cain move towards her from her periphery. She pursed her lips and blew a thick puff of white cloud into the already smoke-filled space of the garage in the shape of a perfect ring. She allowed her person to be manipulated by Cain, too high to immediately realize his intention. She stared back at his phone, holding the near-diminished joint away from him, and staring blankly at her own face on the screen. Her head was tilted slightly to the side by the weight of Cain’s cheek against hers.

She blinked, when the bright light of the phone was removed from her vision and adjusted her jacket on her shoulders. “Uh? Okay?” Anita replied with the obvious lilt of a question. It’s not that she didn’t care, she just didn’t understand why this information particularly excited him. Akiko sent her snaps all the time, so she didn’t see the big deal in it. “Why wouldn’t it have her face in it?” she asked, before another hit of the joint. Anita was also content to avoid the subject of their parents.

“She sends me snaps of her face all the time,” Anita continued, blowing smoke with her words. Her head turned one way and then another as she looked for her bag. After locating it, she pulled it into her lap and spent a few moments rummaging around for her phone. Having only one hand to do so and the mountain of contents within the purse made immediately finding the device difficult. She unlocked the phone and scrolled through her pictures until she found one of Akiko. “I saved this one the other day.” She turned the screen in Cain’s direction. An Akiko with pretty makeup and curled hair winked at them. “This was the night you didn’t go to sushi.” An unspoken accusation in her tone.

Akiko smiled at the image of Cain and Anita. She picked out the similarities in their features, high cheekbones, smoldering gazes, full lips, rounded chins until the picture disappeared. Anita was very obviously high, and Cain was very obviously noticing the absence of her attention. She sighed and let the phone drop onto her abdomen.

She considered whether she should reply. Akiko was admittedly, still mad at him for his behavior. Not just regarding the time he spent with Indigo, but also the way he hid things and lied to her. For the way he’d reacted the night she had confronted him. Akiko scrubbed a hand over her face, groaning beneath her palm. She picked the phone up again and quickly snapped another picture, it ended up a little blurry but she didn’t care. Her face in full, but her arm cut through the shot, covering her eyes and most of her nose.

“going to bed,” it said. "have fun.”

RE: Glass Houses [Closed] - saronym - 04-10-2017

Owen’s lips pressed into a thin line. He glanced down at his feet to avoid making eye contact. “Yeah. It will be fine.” He agreed though he didn’t really believe it. Nothing felt as if it would be fine. He already felt like less of a father to the children who had known him. He felt little more than sperm donor when it came to Nic. That’s what he’d been so far as the child knew.

Some imaginary figure.

Some supposed man who existed and combined DNA with his mother.

How would he fill the role of whatever the child had dreamed up for his father?

He rocked a couple of times on the balls of his feet before he took Julianna’s hand. “It is cold.” He agreed without having noticed it. She had always been more bothered by the cold than he. Fingers linked through hers, he pulled her through the threshold and escorted her into Cain’s home. From the foyer the voices of Anita and Cain could be heard coming from the garage to the side.

“I guess they’re getting along now.” Owen speculated, though he was unaware of the storm still brewing between the siblings. He rubbed his fingers along a few days worth of growth on his jaw as he led Julianna down the hall to the kitchen. His hand left Julianna’s and he leaned his backside against a counter top. Settling in, he crossed his legs over the ankles in front of him. A sort of lounging while standing position.

“Anita was upset with me, well more Cain, because nobody got around to informing her...that...you know.” He gestured to himself and shook his head. “I was just -” he waved his hand searching for the right words, and then reached for Julianna. His hands settled perfectly into the curve of her waist and he coaxed her to come to him. “preoccupied. Caught up with - finding you. I guess.”

Fingers locked together at her back just below her tail. The base of the furry appendaged rested on his knuckles. “I was being selfish. And Anita’s feelings were hurt, as a result.” That Owen would be selfish when it came to his wife wouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who knew him. And he knew himself well enough to acknowledge that as a weakness of sorts. One that had the potential to put his children behind Julianna. It was something he’d admitted to her the very day he’d been assassinated.

You are my wife. You cannot put me into a situation in which I might have to choose between prioritizing your safety or Anita’s. I am too fucked up for that and you know I am.

When it came to Julianna, Owen couldn't make rational choices. He remembered but she wouldn’t.

---

Cain wasn’t prepared for his sister’s lack of enthusiasm for what he saw as progress. He was left staring at the face of his girlfriend. Taking the phone from Anita, he examined Akiko. Full make-up and hair done. She’d done something cute with her eyeshadow. A look he hadn’t seen before. And he’d missed that one in favor of going out with Indigo.

His stomach flipped over and his ears fell flat against his head as he imagined Akiko sitting at home feeling hurt.

A notification from his own phone caught his attention. The conversation with Akiko was over. His stomach fell again. Panic gripped him and he felt for a moment that her saying goodnight was akin to the relationship ending. He didn’t send another picture but typed Goodnight in the chat.

He considered adding I love you but he had the sense to know needy Snapchatting his "on-break" girlfriend wasn’t the forum for saying what he hadn’t said in who knows how long.

RE: Glass Houses [Closed] - megs - 04-18-2017

Julianna followed Owen into the house, his hand large and warm in hers and she was comforted by the feeling. She liked it. Was finding more and more that there were things she liked about having him around. Things she liked about him. She wished she could remember all the things she had forgotten about him.

Ears swiveled to the pull of her children’s voices in the garage. She hummed at his observation. Anita and Cain sounded mostly calm for now, but she knew that could quickly change. They were both so sensitive in their own ways and knew exactly how to push each other's buttons. And to top it off they enjoyed driving each other crazy most of the time.

In the kitchen she briefly lamented the loss of his hands in hers, but she didn't protest, only stood awkwardly where he had left her. Still unsure of what kind of demands she could make of him, physically or emotionally. Her turn towards despair was short-lived. He reached for her and she eagerly moved into the space he drew her towards. She stood in front of him with her legs apart, feet in either side of his so she could be as close to him as possible. Her tail swayed idly across his hands that had linked behind her back. She settled her own hands on his waist, though there was a tentativeness in the placement, as if she didn't yet know it was okay.

Listening to him speak, her brow furrowed. Confused as to why he was so concerned about finding her, as she often forget that she was difficult to find. Never deliberately hiding, but not so forthcoming with information. “What...about Keiavan?” she asked softly, as he was the only child that had yet to be brought up in their time together. “I don't…” she paused, chewing her bottom lip with sharp canines. “I'm sorry… I don't know your...relationship with him. Does he know?”

Anita reclaimed her phone from Cain when it chimed off with a notification. She pushed the joint in his direction, hoping it would distract him from the brooding spell she could tell he was about to fall into. Also, in her current state she needed both hands to manage her phone and to reply to a text from Keiavan.

“Keiavan wants to know how we're doing,” she informed Cain even though her fingers were already typing out a response before she'd gotten an answer. Her tail swayed lazily behind her head. “I'll go ahead and tell him you're being a shit ass if that's cool.” Despite the phrasing she was not at all asking for permission. When the text was finished she tossed her phone back near her back and turned a bleary, red-eyed but somehow judgemental gaze on her middle brother. “So, whaddya gonna do bout Akiko?”

RE: Glass Houses [Closed] - saronym - 04-23-2017



Being reminded of yet another child he’d have to go through the whole emotional torture of informing about his recent return to the world of the living made Owen sigh through his nose. “I have too many kids.” He complained somehow tapping into kind of morbid sense of humor.

“To be honest, I kind of forget that Kei isn’t mine sometimes.” He explained while his hands briefly left the small of her back to travel around to her arms which he coaxed around his back. A little encouragement that she could be more insistent in her touch if she wished to be.

“Is it awful to say I don’t want to tell him right now?” He cringed as he said it. “I just - I’m tired. I don’t want to deal with it or anyone else. I’m exhausted.” He knew he was complaining and hoped it didn’t come across the wrong way.

“I spent the afternoon kind of spacing out and playing Cain’s video games. It’s nice to be distracted from yourself for a little while. You know?” His hands returned to their previous spot, locked just below her tail which swayed pleasantly over his knuckles.

“I have to tell Victoria, Darcy, Keiavan, and maybe Sanders, Kent, and Renton. I’m not sure if Holland and Aphrodite have told anyone, yet.” He sighed again and glanced at the television in the living room. A more fun prospect than dealing with emotions and family.

---


Cain picked up the joint with exaggerated care, squeezing the end between thumb and index. He pulled at it while his sister taunted him with texts to their older brother. His ears didn’t quite flatten against his head. They pointed to the sides in his agitation with his sister. His tail thumped slowly against the mat on the floor. She would ever remind him he was a screw up it seemed.

Whatever. He had her joint.

He leaned forward, opened his mouth, and blew the smoke in Anita’s face to be annoying before he shrugged one shoulder. “Yeah sure. Tell Kei also how you’re being a royal bitch and avoiding mom.”

Cain frowned at the joint before taking another hit. “I’m going to apologize and send her some flowers maybe. Maybe she’ll go out with me and we can make up.” He shrugged again and waved his hand in a dismissive and non-committal circle. “Something like that.”

It wasn't that Cain was trying necessarily to be disaffected about his Akiko woes. He just didn't want to keep answering to his bitchy little sister about his relationship. She was much younger than him (in his estimation) and had zero room to keep talking down to him about love and dating. He couldn't even think of a single person his sister had ever dated. Ever.

"What are you going to do about your chronic single-ness?" He shot back.

RE: Glass Houses [Closed] - megs - 04-24-2017

Julianna allowed her arms to be manipulated by him. They smoothed around his waist until her hands settled at the small of his back. Fingers curled into the fabric of his shirt there, unintentionally clinging to him. They flexed outwards as she heard the exhaustion in that fall of breath. Skirted upwards towards his shoulder blades as he explained himself to her. She leaned forward and rested her head against his chest, hugging him against her.

She listened to his voice resonate in his chest as she thought of her oldest child. A quick bit of math in her head revealed, “you’ve known Keiavan since he was six.” The realization seemed to catch in her throat, adding a cracking to her quiet tone. “Keiavan Hart,” she whispered as she turned her face to bury deeper against his chest. She didn’t know if she would cry. Didn’t know if she wanted him to see it if she did. Julianna wanted to ask if Owen loved Keiavan. If he had been a good father to him, but she resisted. She had too many questions that revolved around his feelings and at the moment he sounded too tired for her to want to question him.

Maybe later. Julianna felt like she could wait. She didn’t feel the pressure of the time that she had spent without him, but knew that if she had waited this long what was a little more time.

She tentatively looked at him in time to notice the way he looked towards the television. He looked emotionally drained. Gazing upon his expression seemed to transfer all of the exhaustion he was feeling to her, like they were connected somehow in a way she didn’t fully understand. “Come on,” she said softly, pulling away from him and reaching around take one of his hands. She turned away from him and use her grip to lead him through the house.

Releasing him when they need the couch, she dropped down on it, tail curling into her lap as she indicated he should sit next to her. “You don’t...have to do any more right now,” she said, looking up at him, green locking onto grey. “I can’t imagine what you’ve been through, but I get that you’re feeling overextended. Maybe... just being here is enough right now.”

Anita closed her eyes against the smoke Cain blew in her face. It was the least annoying thing he could think to do to a pothead, but smoke in the eyes still hurt like a bitch. Waving the wisps out of her face, she opened her eyes again and they instantly narrowed on her brother visage. “I’m not avoiding anyone,” she insisted. “Just because I don’t go running to her with my tail between my legs every time she shows up, doesn’t mean I’m avoiding her.” Brows lifted like she had made a point, when she had only told a lie that wasn’t convincing. “Besides, she knows where to find me. It’s not like I am hiding.”

Her laughter mocked his response as she took the joint away from him with no concern of whether he was finished with it. She wasn’t as interested in sharing with him when he was being a brat. They were both being brats and she couldn’t figure out which parent they had gotten the habit from. “That’s the lamest shit I’ve ever heard,” she mumbled, speaking over the joint on her lips. Still using her hands to correspond with the oldest Hart sibling. Keiavan was being unusually chatty. “Does Keiavan know about dad?” she asked quietly, gazing up at Cain as her tail tapped a rhythm in time with his.

“Chronic implies that it’s not by choice,” she explained, discarding of the spent joint properly and rearranging herself to lay down on the garage floor. Waves of dark hair spread out above her head, Maxillion genes on full display as she tucked her knees up and propped her ankle on one of them. “Between watching you and Akiko and our parents and Keiavan and Rose and what have you, why would I want to get myself involved in that?” She glanced away from her phone and up at Cain, she grinned like she had learned better than him by choosing not to get involved. To not have to think about anyone but herself. “Relationships are a mess, and I like my life as neat and tidy as it is.”

RE: Glass Houses [Closed] - saronym - 04-25-2017

Owen let Julianna get her fill of feeling him. He liked the way her hands moved over his back. They smoothed over him and seemed to spread a soothing effect over his whole person. She’d always had that effect upon him.

Owen lowered his chin to the top of her head when she hid her face against his chest. His own hands shifted around. One stayed at her lower back the other lifted to encircle her shoulders. He engulfed her easily with that one arm.

“That’s right.” He affirmed her math. “I adopted him not too long after you and I got married. He asked me to, actually. I never knew he saw me as a father until he handed me those papers.” Owen smiled involuntarily at the memory. That was all he shared and was content to just hold her that way for a few moments.

He let her lead him to the couch by the hand and sat down next to her where she indicated. Sunk down really.

She seemed content to just sit next to him, but he wasn’t. “Come here.” He repeated her words and slipped his arm around her shoulders. He pulled her under his arm into a position in which she was almost laying her across his torso and lap. Both of his arms encircled her. He picked up the video game controller, holding it in front of her body and started the game up again.

As he filtered through the menus to get into a match, Owen talked with his eyes on the screen. “We used to sit like this and play the kid’s games. We would stay up late into the night playing. We were as addicted as they were.” He laughed as his thumbs mashed at buttons. “There was this one game that only had two slots you could save to. I remember we were getting tired and I accidentally saved over Cain’s game. God. I thought he’d never forgive me. He woke us up the next morning asking what happened to his game and he had this look like murder in his eyes. Murder and also deep, deep betrayal. You would have thought we killed his beloved pet or something. Man that boy had some emotional eyes.”

Every now and then Owen glanced down at Julianna to see if she was following along in his story. To gauge her reaction as he shared the recollection. Did she remember at all? Was there any glimmer of familiarity in her eyes?

---

Cain forced out an exaggerated groan. “Whatever you say Anita.” He mumbled in response to her feeble lie about mom.

He shrugged and hugged himself when Anita asked about Keiavan’s knowledge of their dad. Cain’s tail slowly stopped tapping on the floor and moved to curl around his leg. Something he’d done since he was a child to comfort himself. “I don’t know. Maybe? I’m sure as fuck not gonna be the one to break the news to him. I got enough shit going on.”

Cain let himself fall back to the ground next to his sister. He laid staring at the ceiling with his arms out wide. He let his one arm fall over Anita’s face. Once again to annoy her.

“You’re not in a relationship for the same reasons you run away like a little bitch when mom’s around. Because that’s what you are: a scared little bitch. Always have been even though you fake all aloof and independent. You’re dying deep down for someone.” Cain didn’t care if what he said would be interpreted as cruel or perhaps too honest in a mean way. “Oh and by the way, you’re a fucking mess. What are you even doing with your so called ‘tidy’ life? Bumming around? Doing a bunch of drugs and shit. Real neat and tidy like. I'm sure dad'll be real proud. Real proud.”

RE: Glass Houses [Closed] - megs - 04-25-2017

Anita only hummed in response when it came to Keiavan because she wasn't going to go breaking the news to him either. Didn't feel like her place and didn't feel right to tell him in a text message in the middle of the night. “I'll just let mom and dad handle it,” she mumbled, easily passing off the responsibility like she did as often as possible.

She made a noise of complaint and pushed Cain’s arm off of her face. Her tail picked up an agitated sort of rhythm as he spoke. Dropping truth bombs on her as she focused on the ceiling. She frowned and wished she was still wearing her sunglasses as her eyes narrowed. She stared hard at the light hanging in the garage until her vision blurred and Cain continued to talk shit.

“I'm not a mess,” she countered as she reached over and slapped Cain right on the side of his face. Somewhat involuntary and entirely reactive. The angle was awkward, but there was enough contact to make a point and leave her hand stinging. She sat up quickly, her head spinning from the smoke, but she swallowed past the desert in her throat and turned at the waist to punch him in the shoulder. “Fuck you,” she said loudly as her blow landed. She hit him again, and would continue unless he did something to stop her. The short hairs of her tail bristled, leaving an angry ridge down the length of it.

“Dad wasn't here,” she said through clenched teeth like it was some sort of defense for her behavior. “You don't get to judge my life because it's different from yours. You’re not perfect, and I don't care how many people call you doctor!”

Julianna was pleased to hear that Owen had adopted Kei. The feeling displayed readily in her ears and tail; even though she didn't remember the exact moment the thought still spread a warmth through her.

She easily folded herself in his embrace. Stretching her legs out in the couch and cozying up in the new position. He felt so solid, supportive. Like someone she could lean on, literally and figuratively, and it didn't feel like he would crack under the pressure. She turned her face and leaned it against one of his arms that cut across her front. The controller resting just above her stomach.

She watched him go through the game from her periphery. Not really interested in the play through, more content to listen to him talk and enjoy their closeness.

Lifting her head a bit, she cocked it to the side, trying to recall something specific. “I...remember that,” she said slowly. She sort of remember. In fragments, pieces obviously missing. Her head dropped back against his chest and she laughed. “Wow. He was so mad. He wouldn't talk to me...to us for the rest of the day. At least until we promised to help him get back to where he was.”

Chuckling again, she cuddles closer to Owen, if that were possible. She rolled slightly more onto her side and nuzzled against his arm.

At some point, she had closed her eyes. It was very likely she had drifted to sleep, or at least that hazy sort of almost asleep point. But her ears twitched and her eyes popped open, rolling in the general direction of the garage. “Our children are fighting,” she said, and the words echoed in her ears, immediately summoning up a sort of deja vu. The phrase had come to her naturally, as if she had said it a hundred times before and it was possible that she had.

Anita’s intensifying volume could be heard through the house, and what could have very possibly been annoyed sounds of protest from Cain. Jules sat up and moved to investigate the scene.

RE: Glass Houses [Closed] - saronym - 05-10-2017

“Ow! Fuck!” Cain yelled with probably more drama than was necessary for the slap. Sure it hurt enough but his response could certainly be classified as excessive. His own tail bristled in response to the aggression, his ears pressed down against his scalp in defense of themselves.

“Fuck you! You’re a fucking mess!” Cain was shouting back at Anita even as she landed more blows on him.

He grabbed at her hands and held them in crushing grips with no consideration for her prior injuries. He was too mad to be considerate. “Yeah! That’s right! Dad wasn’t here and somehow people still call me doctor! Why? Because I managed to make something out of my fucking self instead of crying about my dead dad all the damn time.”

---

Owen had been focused more on the audio clues coming from the video game than anything else. He missed picking up on raised voices coming from the garage. That is to say until Julianna woke enough to point them out. His eyes rolled away from the game and he listened until he could ear the sounds of shouting coming from the other room.

He let the controller clatter to the center table and followed Julianna. He smelled the pot in the hallway leading to the garage. The door was cracked and when Owen opened it Cain was restraining his sister and yelling about having made something of himself despite his father’s demise.

The commentary stung. His breath caught in his throat and the air seemed to burn the inside of his chest. Burned Owen to the bone having to hear that. Because I managed to make something out of my fucking self instead of crying about my dead dad.

He was stunned in the doorway for a moment, a short moment of shock and pain before he was propelled into action. His body moved irrespective of his mind. It was centered on neutralizing the physical conflict that threatened his peace. A carryover from military training.

“Hey. Knock it off!” Owen warned as he clapped his hands together loudly to get their attention. He bent down to collect an angry Anita from continuing to lavish attacks on her defending brother. He plucked his daughter easily from the floor around the waist to set her on her feet. Owen then moved in front of her placing his body between hers and Cain’s as he yanked his son by the arm to a standing position.

“Ow. Fuck.” Cain complained trying to shove away his father’s hand.

“What is going on in here?”

RE: Glass Houses [Closed] - megs - 05-12-2017

Anita hissed at him when he grabbed her hands, and for a moment she looked like a full on feral animal. He crushed her injured fingers together and she lost it. Her eyes widened and her lips pulled back, revealing her elongated canines in an obvious threat. “You ran away first!” Her accusations were loud, they were full on yelling at each other. “You bailed as soon as possible! You left me and mom! And it was so easy for you, too. WASN’T IT? Just going off to college and pretending that you didn’t have a family that needed you!” She wrenched her hands away from him and continued her attack. “SO FUCK YOU, DOCTOR HART.” Owen’s warning clap did little to distract her. Open handed smacks were applied to Cain’s jaw and his chest until a strong arm around her waist easily plucked her off of Cain. Her tail fluffed and flickered behind her back.

She fidgeted in Owen’s grasp until he put her back on the ground. In which she immediately attempted another dive at Cain, but was intercepted by her father stepping in a pulling Cain off the ground. Julianna stood in the doorway between the house and the garage, watching the scene play out; tail still with her ears against her head.

“Cain is being a fucking dick!” Anita replied angrily with no filter or concern for the language she was using in front of her parents. “All fucking self-righteous with his fucking degree. Giving me shit and refusing to admit he fucked up too!” She moved to the side, away from where Owen was blocking her view of Cain, so she could give him hell to his face and reach out to smack him again. “He doesn’t care about anything but himself,” she accused, tail snapping wildly. At some point her glasses had fallen off her face, the furrow of her brow revealing that she was more hurt than angry.

“It's no surprise Akiko bailed on you!”