got a secret side in plain sight when & where: july 20th, midafternoon, henrietta, virginia closed to: @mitch-nom
There really was no explaining what exactly Mitch was about to walk into. Lailani had shifted from foot to foot, her fingers fluttering to her only-recently-healed temple, searching for some way to warn him as they approached 3 Blue Robin Ave’s rickety old porch that clearly had not been fixed up despite Marv’s insistence she’d get to it eventually. Lailani remembered being around eight the first time she’d heard that promise made.
One step before the deep green door (freshly re-painted, interestingly enough), Lailani turns to Mitch, her mouth open like she’d found something to say. She hadn’t really, but now she has to try. “My family is... a lot,” she offers quietly, lamely, with a little twist of her hand that adds nothing to her words. She could look for more to say, but there simply may not be anything, and in any case it’s been years since she’s had the chance to visit. Nothing looks as if it has changed, but what does she know? The door opens right then in a gust of incense smoke before anyone has a chance to knock.
Nikki is in the doorway then, their permanent bedhead a surprisingly nostalgic sight for her. From their exhausted glare, the sentiment doesn’t appear shared. “I told you,” they call over their shoulder into the house’s depths. “She brought someone with her.” They’re muscled out of the way by an older, smilier, far more confident version of Lailani who immediately crushes her niece into a hug, not a care in the world about privacy or powers. “What a lovely surprise! Although we did see it comin’, but you know. We’ve missed you so much!” Eliza’s eyes flash when she catches sight of poor Mitch standing alone just behind them. “And who is this? A little young for you, no?” She’s neither quiet nor subtle, and Lailani’s blush is fierce.
“This is Mitch, and he is a friend,” she mutters, but it hardly matters. Eliza has already yanked the boy into her arms and then into the house. They’re headed straight for the kitchen. A gaggle of mismatched shoes is lined up in the crooked hallway, directly in their path. Lailani follows, waving at familiar faces and ducking under curtains, around stray tables, dodging the clutter like she never left. Or like it hadn’t moved over the past near-decade, who’s to say.
She finds Mitch being coerced into a chair at their cramped kitchen table across from her grandmother, who smiles at him with a gleam in her eye and accepts Lailani’s kiss on her cheek with a contented sigh. “Your mother is with a client, but she’ll be done soon enough. I like your friend.”
Lailani heads for the stovetop, pouring herself some tea without further ado and then taking the seat beside Mitch. “His name is Mitch at the moment.”
“Welcome to the house, Mitch at the moment.” Carmen reaches across the purple tablecloth, pats his hand. Every line around her eyes and lips serves to accentuate her sharp, knowing expressions, like age has given her the ability to look directly into a person’s being. For all Lailani knows, it did, and she mostly uses the power for good. “Think of it as yours now. We won’t have it any other way.”
Eliza has already hopped back and forth between eight different cabinets and the table, seizing the moment to lean in over Mitch and pinch his cheek like she hadn’t just met him. “What can I get you, skinny thing? I’ve got tea at the ready, and food will do you good.” Lailani sips from her cup, watching Mitch from the corner of her eye. A smile threatens to tear across her face but she suppresses it as best she can.
“He’s not picky,” she says with a sudden small mischief. Her next words are hardly formed before Eliza is setting five separate plates in front of Mitch. “Bring him anything, he needs to eat anyway.” Perhaps at some point she would get to introducing him to each of them, or explaining the point of the visit, or giving him a second to breathe, but... Well, she never has the upper hand quite like this.