ic U-Haul

[alderwitch]

"That's fine," Talya said, her tone easy and relaxed. While she might have been merely placating, living with the blonde ex-spy had given him a great deal more insight into the micro-twitches that betrayed her emotions. At the moment, she was genuinely at easy, largely unconcerned with the location of the pistol in the new apartment and far more occupied with saying good bye to, if not a home, then an era of her long life.

 

She paused before answering the final question, her blue gaze flicking over the roses that hadn't been transplanted to Min's garden and the unassuming two bedroom that had hid her secrets in Freedom City for almost eighty years. Silently, she reached out to lock the cottage door. When she turned back, it was with a small, private smile. "As I'll ever be."

[April]

Meanwhile at the recently remodeled apartment above the Espadas School of Self-Defense and Swordsmanship! Minerva Espadas (though she preferred Min) was busy looking through the boxes Talya had already brought over.  Singing a song she heard a long time ago Min was doing her part to move Talya in while still keeping an eye on the kids (though Eden was doing her part to help move her Mum in) and reflected, not for the first time, on the good fortune that had some recently come her way.

 

The dryad's sharp hearing picked up the sound of the moving truck, and pausing at the closet with one of Talya's gowns in hand she smiled at Eden.  "They're back, my little peony.  Why don't you get the door for them?"

[Gizmo]

Unloading the back of the truck into the school's first floor went much faster than the reverse without having to worry about what might shift about in transit and in short order an assortment of boxes were stacked tidily by the stairwell to the apartment above. "Won't be long," Erik promised as he bent over to kiss Talya on the cheek before jogging back out to the truck to drive his mother back to her house. Having an extra pair of hands around when it came time to get things done was a definite fringe benefit to their arrangement he reflected as he stepped outside, leaning back to wave to the flowers overflowing from the second storey windows onto the top of the school's sign, blowing them a kiss.

[alderwitch]

"Do be careful. Try not to end up dealing with too many muggings on the way home." Talya replied with a small smile and said her cordial farewells to Gina as well, a touch warmer than usual as the tension had begun to ease there. Talya left the boxes where they were for the moment to head for the stairs at Eden's gleeful welcome.

 

"Mum! Mum! Mum!" Talya's heels clicked swiftly on the stairs despite the expansion of her waistline, certainly audible to Min's advanced hearing. 

 

"Don't jump this time, dearest. We'll have to wait a few more months before I'm catching you mid-flight, I'm afraid," Talya's caution was gently affectionate and she ran her hands through Eden's dark hair as her legs were swiftly glommed by toddler hands. Absently, she smoothed Eden's hair back and set about restoring it into a neater pony tail. "Have you been helpful while we were gone?"

 

Absently smiling at Eden's chattered updates of what all she'd missed, Talya nudged the little girl back into the apartment and towards where her partner was unpacking. She paused to greet Min with a kiss once Eden had come up for a necessary breath, "Oh, you've been productive, haven't you. Thank you."

[April]

Min tucked a strand of white hair behind one of her ears and smiled at Talya.  "Eden has been a tremendous help," she confirmed while the bespoke child tried on some of Talya's shoes that the two hadn't put away yet.  Min chuckled and shook her head a little while Eden stubbornly tried to figure out how to move in heels, the height and the fact that the shoes didn't fit making that difficult.

 

"When she isn't admiring your shoe collection," Min added with a grin.

[alderwitch]

"And Mia's napping?" Talya clarified even as she laughed and took a step forward to offer her fingertips for Eden to balance on, "I'll teach you how to climb walls in heels, my little love, but not until you're a bit older, I think. We'll learn to scale them first without."

 

Despite her pregnancy, the ex-theif was light on her feet as she bent towards the toddler and when Eden stumbled in the high heels, Talya used the grip on the little girl's hands to swing her up into the air. "I think you've grown just since I left this morning," Talya teased with the easy laughter that few outside of the Espadas household got to see - the genuine smile rather than the practiced, almost taunting grin. Turning her gaze to Min once she'd settled Eden against one hip - a task that was growing more difficult by the day - her blue eyed gaze was warm and affectionate, "I thought I was supposed to be the one nesting."

[April]

Min chuckled.

 

"Seems the thing to do," she said with a grin.  "I tried, I really did, to ignore the restlessness but I couldn't and so I won't and here we are."  The dryad had become animated as she spoke, gliding swiftly across the room as she redoubled her efforts to get everything of Talya's sorted into the agreed upon spots.  And then moving and readjusting things a few times only to put them back how they were originally found.

 

She stopped, looked at Talya and blew a lock of hair out of her face.  "I blame you," she said, the smile and love in her eyes taking any bite out of the words.  "Well, Erik too.  Mostly Erik."  She grinned impishly, the looked past Talya's shoulder.

 

"How did it go with Gina?" she asked softly.

[alderwitch]

Talya was perfectly at ease with Min putting things away, clearly far more content to play with their daughter than fuss over whether the shoes were organized by style or color or merely tossed into spots at random. Her lips curved in a small smile at Eden's cheerful, "Daddy's fault! Daddy's fault!" with the toddler glee of not really knowing what the conversation was about but delighted to participate regardless.

 

"Musn't wake Mia, my love, she'll be ever so cross if worked early from her nap," Talya reminded, pausing in her games to glance up at Min's final question. The smile that softened her features was the small, soft smile that few outside their family were privy to. Talya didn't talk much about the tension with Gina but even with her polished veneer, those that loved her could catch glimpses of real regret when around the Espadas matriarch. 

 

"She's coming around, I think," Talya said simply, leaving out the matriarch's concerns that Talya might vanish. She had a feeling that Min would be staunchly loyal and that wouldn't exactly diffuse the tension. The guardian could be rather direct to the discomfit of her more mortal family. "She loves you and Erik very much, and the girls, and most of the world has seen only the image I've crafted. Any mother would be concerned."