Sometimes it's just not that simple

| Kyle Simmons Merlin | | 30 Eternal | |Traveling Salesman Sorcerer of Legend |

[peekbelowthesurface]

Well if they were polished long enough      [ barely hiding her growing grin, she tries (and fails) to inconspicuously try to peer over his shoulder at whatever this ‘surprise’ might hold ] I don’t see a surprise. I think you’re trying to get me out of here for another reason entirely. What’re you up to, SImmons?

[rememberedthroughtime]

He spent plenty of time polishing them, they never got any shinier. Trust me, I know. {He shifted to continue hiding it, using his height to block her in whatever way his lanky body deemed fit to contort into.} It's a surprise, Carmine. How many times am I going to have to say that before you believe me?

[themissingking]

'Course he is. 

[rememberedthroughtime]

I hear a hint of doubt in your words, do you really want to test me?

Need I remind you which of the two of us is currently in the process of hiding a dead body by himself?

[peekbelowthesurface]

Perhaps someone told her there were shiny jewels in them. [ she looked at him curiously, growing more curious by the minute ] A surprise?

[rememberedthroughtime]

Oh there were jewels, all right, but I wouldn't exactly call them 'shiny'. {He points at her, raising a brow} A surprise means a surprise, Gills.

[themissingking]

Once is a coincidence - twice? Maybe he hates us. Wants to keep mom and Petey to himself. 

[rememberedthroughtime]

Well, that's always been a given, even before you were a twinkle in their eye. He simply refuses to come to terms with the fact that Petey is, and always will be, mine.

[themissingking]

He put glue instead of milk in my cereal once by mistake. Couldn’t talk for a week and I still won’t eat Lucky Charms.

[rememberedthroughtime]

Once fed me curry that was part red acrylic and part graphite shavings. Still haven't been able to figure out if he did it on purpose, or it really was an accident.  Devious, that father of yours.

[peekbelowthesurface]

Unfortunately for you, I am not her. Not all of us are as interested as being queens as they in being told the truth. Now fess up.

[rememberedthroughtime]

All things said, she was far more interested in getting into Lancelot's pants. {If his words are a little bitter, they're hidden by the unrepentant grin on his face} And there's no truth to be told, if there's no truth being hidden now turn around and leave before you ruin the surprise.

[themissingking]

Who pissed in your cheerios today? Was it dad?

[rememberedthroughtime]

Y'know, I wouldn't put it past him...and now I won't be able to eat cereal here for a few days. Great.

[peekbelowthesurface]

Remind again      when was the last time that line worked?

[rememberedthroughtime]

Guinevere.

[themissingking]

Mom’s gonna be mad you stained her carpet again.

[rememberedthroughtime]

Not the first, nor will it be the last, now up. I've got to get rid of the evidence before she comes back.

[themissingking]

Really? Looks like it to me.

[rememberedthroughtime]

Wipe that smug grin off your face, kid, and help me move the body.

[peekbelowthesurface]

Want to try that again?

[rememberedthroughtime]

You...look like a queen?

[rememberedthroughtime]

This isn't what it looks like.

[themissingking]

"Oh because that’s so much better." With a small sigh he stood back up, restless and filled with something he couldn’t name, filled to the brim and spilling over, a thousand thoughts swirling. In a quick move he’d taken off his shirt and tossed it aside, going for an old discarded one of his fathers, something warm and a hundred years old and exactly what Aiden thought he wanted. Pausing with nothing but sleeves on he looked at Kyle, brows knitting, more than a little peeved. "Hey. I know you don’t get out much but c’moon."

[rememberedthroughtime]

Knocking down another tower of pigs, he wrinkled his nose and let a hand dig into his hair, mussing it up a bit as he absentmindedly played the game. His focus entirely on the phone in his hands, and not on younger man pacing about the small area. It took a great amount of effort for Kyle to realize that Aiden was talking to him, dragging his eyes from the game and looking up to where he'd paused, and expectant look on his face, saying he'd heard nothing Aiden had said, "Hmm?"

[themissingking]

Finding his way into the warehouse, it doesn’t take him long to find Kyle, fiddling with an ancient looking phone and seemingly lost in space. Aiden wasn’t far behind, his head in the clouds or rather the stack of papers stuffed in his drawer, applications to grad schools and job offers, things he didn’t know if he wanted or places he didn’t want to go. Plopping down next to the older man he let the couch swallow his spine, the old thing more of a home than any house or piece of furniture in the world. “Are you playing Snake, old man?”

[rememberedthroughtime]

"Psh, snake?" Kyle hadn't moved as he'd felt, rather than heard, the younger Hammond from entering the warehouse that had always felt more like home than the apartment he had. His eyes were glued to the screen, tongue peeking out the corner of his lips, as he let out a snort and wiggled to get more comfortable in the old couch. "Snake is so 1982. I'm playing Angry Birds."

[rememberedthroughtime]

[themissingking]

In an attempt to keep himself from cracking a grin he bit the inside of his cheek, snorting off a chuckle as he watched Kyle enter him room, an ethereal presence floating about and leaving his life everywhere he looked. Aiden was glad, it would be something to hold onto, something to remember when he began to forget the sound of Kyle’s laughter, lifetimes between the brief meetings. “Maybe you should tell them to play harps instead. Tough strings and long arms make sloths happy creatures.” 

[rememberedthroughtime]

"Tried that once." Kyle was wandering, touching things, lifting a few into the light from the window beside Aiden's bed to get a better look, forgetting about the formality of boundaries. Not that he'd ever been one to respect them regardless, he could turn the world to ash if he wanted, he was allowed to touch people's things if it interested him. "They ended up butchering Twinkle Twinkle Little Star so terribly I banned them from all string instruments for all eternity. It's woodwinds or brass instruments for them until they learn the proper way to strum an instrument that doesn't make it sound like the seven levels of hell have come up from underneath the ground and unleashed its Furies. Now koalas, they have a gift with the harp you wouldn't expect from eucalyptus addicts, but it makes it more interesting to see who will play and who will grab onto the nearest arm or leg and attempt to gnaw it off."

[themissingking]

It wasn’t a surprise anymore when footsteps on the staircase didn’t belong to his parents but rather to the disappearing act that was their best friend. He’d almost come to expect it, the slow languid steps that began at their front door, meandering through the house as if memorizing every crevice and content before slowly making it’s way up the stairs sometimes. Sometimes not. Sometimes the footsteps would exit the way they came, the candy drawer exploding from being filled beyond capacity, nothing more to signal the brief visit of the lingering ghost of a man.

Or a ghost to Aiden at least. 

Lips quirking up in the oddest of smiles he didn’t raise his head much, shrugging a single shoulder while his fingers never stopped their gentle strumming. “S’what happens when you practice for a few years.” 

‘Chancing a glance through his lashes, the boy turned man raised a brow, so much like his father and mother rolled into one it nearly frightening. “They’re at the gallery if you’re looking for them. Should be home by dinner.” It wasn’t an invitation but at the same time it was, Aiden never sure when Kyle would disappear or reappear again. 

[rememberedthroughtime]

"A few years is a few years is a few years. A sloth could practice a guitar for a few years and still not be able to master a basic chord, and do you know why?" Brows risen high in expectation, Kyle couldn't quite keep the slight grin from his lips, but the rest of him was very serious as he waited for the span of a moment before breaking it. "Because they have claws." 

Grin bright from his own idiotic joke, hands lifted to mirror the claws on sloths' hands, Kyle pushed off of the door jamb and ventured a step further into the room, looking around at all of the things that had changed, and the things that hadn't. "I've always felt they'd be better bassoonists, but they just won't listen."