[Tiana squeezes Uncle Hunter’s arm, chortling at his response. Now how could Uncle Hunter run out of clothes – “But it doesn’t explain why you have it! Unless, you accidentally traded laundry with someone else and they have your laundry hostage! Aetherea, is that it, Uncle Hunter?! Is someone holding your judge robe for ransom? Your suits for a bounty!”
Tiana jovially lets go to start an improv scene, yes-and-ing herself to fill the roles of several nefarious clothes-stealers and personified victimized clothes. She gets into the headspace of a tattered but loyal sweater then returns to her non-clothing persona self, answering her Coolest Uncle’s question with measured ease, an Anderson twinkle in her eyes as she winks and replies, “I’m dressing up for a secret – well, not really a secret; I’ll be going on a date with my beautiful, amazing girlfriend and… I wonder if she’d notice I changed a little for her? Not that like, I wanna be a completely different person… but I like putting in, hmm, maybe a little effort to see how she feels about this or that – omigosh, I’m sorry~ ahaha, I’m like blabbering on!”
Tiana does blabber on, flouncing around. She pulls Uncle Hunter’s hands, both of them, when he also gushes about NYADA. “Oof, Uncle! Hunter! You fellow NYADAphile, I should – no, I ought to get you one of our newly designed green with purple dashed hoodies, no, no, our purple with green dashed hoodies. Perhaps a nice silk scarf. It’d be a perfect spring touch without having to go florals,” she pinches her face in a very Hummelian sniff.
“But! But! Now you mention it… won’t you tell me about your times in school with dad and papa, please~ Uncle Hunter, were they so obnoxiously together or what?” Smirking as she plots a little light blackmail to use against her parents, she rubs her hands conspiratorily before dropping the facade altogether as part of her jest. “Or you know, I’d love to hear anecdotes here and there! Dad always embellishes everything and Papa says ask your father as if he’s not my papa!”
Tiana has brought her uncle to the fountain, one of her top twenty favorite places at NYADA, and sits down on its effaced stone ring. She pats the spot next to her cordial and warm like the sunlight swimming in the water.]
[ Hunter laughs along with Tiana’s bit, very easily as he follows her down winding pathways. He forgets to worry that she might notice how well this particular shirt might fit into her godfather’s closet, and then decides to carry on with not worrying rather than delicately masking worry. “Oh, I think that’s a mystery for another day. It’s so nice out, it’d be a shame to populate the day with quests and matches with laundry thieves and whatnot.”
He smiles just a touch as Tiana rambles on about her girlfriend, and tells her not to apologize when she does. Usually hearing these kinds of things wasn’t his style -- certainly he normally wouldn’t have been interested to hear Blaine Anderson gushing about Kurt Hummel if he were back home. But, then, maybe it was the good weather... Hunter happened to be in just the right mood to hear it all, every smushy detail.
“Well, all of that sounds incredible. My wardrobe could use a little sprucing up,” He smirked, and glanced down at his leopard print shirt all over again -- getting startled each time he did, of course. “And maybe something a little more me.”
As they reach the fountain, Hunter is glad to take a seat beside Tiana and just take some moments to process, reflect. He wonders what to tell her, briefly, but then simply begins from the beginning. “Well, I didn’t meet your ‘papa’ for a long time. I’ve known your dad almost all my life -- seems like it. Him and I were good friends when we were very young, and then... well, Bloodline politics happened. I rejected him, it was my fault. I saw him less and less. Then we reunited at NYADA, and... again.” He took a breath and looked outward from the fountain, realizing that this was probably not the story Tiana wanted to hear. “I just never... when I was your age... wanted to open up to what he believed in. Compassion. And love, mostly love.
“Your fathers always seemed very much in love. Almost every time I’d seen them together. But, you know, I’ll never forget... one cold, winter night. I was throwing a party with the woman I thought I was going to marry, and your fathers showed up together, in front of two hundred people who would have liked them better apart, and they just... danced. Like everyone else. I envied the courage, knowing they would have to face the consequences... and dancing. Just to dance.” ]
