thick and unruly hair, chewing mints, coffee and energy drinks beat water any day, unsolicited advices, secretly geek but proudly Greek, unreadable handwriting, crying over the library of Alexandria when drunk―just generally crying when drunk. Cursing medieval monks in the middle of the night, the sound of metal crutches on the floor, self deprecating jokes with a bittersweet layer of truth, poetry with shirts buttoned the wrong way― shirts unbuttoned all the way. Romantic with a capital R.
Born in Greece to unknown (and supposedly deceased) parents and raised at an orphanage.
Has cerebral palsy due to prematurity, affecting his legs. Uses mobility aids such as forearm crutches to walk and also a wheelchair.
Adopted by the incredible academic and adventurous couple Dr. Jasmine and Richard Bailey at age 6, has lived all over the world growing up, especially between Egypt, England and Brazil.
Attended Cambridge University and led a very bohemian, lewd life. Drank a bunch. Made a lot of mistakes. Disappointed his parents and never reached his full potential.
A prodigious polyglot from infancy, has made translation his entire career.
Had a long term girlfriend who said no to his proposal, causing him to leave London to Providence Peak, where his family is currently residing. He's been in PP for about two years now.
Has recently found out that his mother is actually alive and well living as a nun in Greece.
Is having surprise twins out of wedlock! woohoo (due Jan/'24)
PERSONALITY
"Mansplain, manipulate & manwhore."
Dramatic and tragic, exaggerated and excessive, passionate, caring, sensitive, charming and eloquent, daydreamer and a visionary, procrastinator, chaotic, internally insecure yet externally confident, impulsive and genuine, self-deprecating and self-critical, troubled
INSPO.
Lord Byron . Percy Shelley . Cyrano de Bergerac (Cyrano) . Randall Pearson (This is Us) . Matt Murdock (Daredevil) . Jay Gatsby (The Great Gatsby) . Dmitri Karamazov (The Karamazov Brothers)
DETAILS;
Theo Andreas Bailey was born prematurely in Greece and grew up at an orphanage in Athens. Due to his early birth and lack of proper medical care, he has cerebral palsy, affecting mostly his lower limbs and making him dependent on mobility aids, mainly forearm crutches and orthosis, but also a wheelchair.
He was adopted at age six by the Baileys, this insanely academically accomplished couple, who took him to England and would later adopt a baby (Aslihan). He struggles a little with his adoption --- he thought of himself a little like damaged goods, too old and too much trouble with his medical history, so he felt like he had to prove his worth. He kept putting pressure on himself to do better, always.
He was super skilled and insanely smart from an early age, picking up easily on multiple languages, but it backfired. The pressure built itself to the point where he started having panic attacks and seizures, which he (stupidly) tried to hide, again, not wanting to cause any trouble to his loving family.
Once he was a student in Cambridge, things changed drastically. Instead of chasing achievements, now he would drink too much, party too hard and neglect his studies. He was wasting his potential, everyone knew it --- he knew it. He did get a Masters and a PhD, though, in anthropological linguistics, because that’s what Baileys do.
Contrary to his family, he barely uses his degrees and expertise. He works as an academic translator and lives an essentially empty life, hopping countries, drinking too much and not caring about a lot. He says it’s the ideal life and yet, deep down, he does that out of fear that by having a real job, in real academia, he would be bringing back his old habits and that way triggering his seizures and panic attacks.
He came to Providence Peak after his sister and parents did. He’d been recently dumped by a long term girlfriend and is a little broken-hearted still. He had a mid-thirties crisis back in London when he looked at his life and saw nothing of substance there.
Recently found out that his birth mom is alive and a nun back in Greece, which shook him up a bit
Got Dylan Westwick, his good friend, pregnant with twins due in January 2024. They're having a baby boy and girl. Their relationship status is still very confusing, they're still trying to figure it out.
Wesley followed and was just by his best friend side. Always there to offer his support, just in case. The snow always made the ground muddy, which made his mind go back to how muddy the ranch could get after rain. He chuckled to himself when he and his siblings would run and play in the rain, getting muddy and carrying it into the house. "I bet but I got," he replied back looking at the other. Wesley looked around and would admit that this was a great view. "I think it's amazing. It has an amazing view," he answered smiling as he looked at his best friend.
Theo smiled, nodding. "I think so too. I'm thinking about having all this incredible deck where we can enjoy the view with a nice glass of wine and the sunsetting right over there..." He felt like the hike there had been worth it just to daydream a little. "Us, the babies, our dog... I think this will be incredible." He'd yet to find a contractor, or an architect, and all of those technical things, but he had a dream. And the dream was to move in before the children were two. "Although... Well, I've been thinking about Dylan and I a lot..."
She couldn't help but laugh a bit at Theo's reaction to her comments, Dylan happily let him clean her hands though, thanking him as he helped her. "I promise to be better about it." She shared with a smile, knowing she should do a better job than she did, not wanting her children to grow up thinking that being strong was to do it all on your own until you couldn't mentally or physically take it anymore. Dylan grinned at the teasing remark even though there was some truth to it. Once the babies were in the stroller, she started taking off the carrier. "Well, how would you like to explain it to the IRS then? Yes tax accountant people, I want to spend the rest of my life with my best friend and we are living together and raising children together as life partners and now we're getting a dog together?" She offered the explanation grinning as he seemed to like her idea of kismet. Dylan returned his kiss happily, cupping his face in her hands as she gives him one more kiss before moving back to finish off the food. Offering Theo some of the food, she hesitated as he started with the remarks about Aslihan's siblings and she chewed slowly before her brows furrowed when he told her that she had been getting to know Asli's siblings. "My love, you are still her sibling too. But I've only met Safiye once and it was in the hardware store when I was gettin' things for our house. It was a pretty brief conversation. I thought I told you 'bout it." She scanned her mind, figuring that she must've gotten distracted pretty soon after she got home and forgot to tell him about the talk she'd had at Room Services. "Most of our talk was about her wantin' to get to know you, no one is leaving you, Theo. I love you and I'm not going anywhere."
"There's a box for that in the tax forms, isn't there?" He smiled, looking away, suddenly very shy. He should do something about that box check. Soon. But it needed to be perfect, it needed to be... Not talking about taxes or doing diaper changes. He wasn't a brute---Theo had the soul of a poet. A Romantic. He tasted her lips one more time before taking a bite of her food. "Well, it's just that everyone seems to love them. They just show up and then- well." He felt like a child throwing a tantrum this time, so he bit his tongue. "Well, I'm glad she wants to know me. I need to know her too. Who knows what kinds of heartbreaks they can put Asli through? I'm not blood, but I'm her oldest brother. I worry." And I envy, and I get jealous. He sighed. "I love you too. I hope you don't dig out old passions either. I don't know how many more new loved ones I can take." He joked, cleaning his own hands and nodding with his head. "Let's see the dogs, shall we?"
-> -> -> ->
"What? He looks like Lord Cerberus, honestly. And I sort of hate that dog." Theo said when they passed by the french bulldog. "My parents insist on calling him their son, and I couldn't be more offended." He looked around, searching for the pups. "Over there. Let's take a look. Seems like they have fluffy, small dogs that won't occupy the post of favorite offspring anytime soon."
“that i do. that i certainly do.” it was impolite to eavesdrop, saul had been repeatedly told that his whole life, but he couldn't stop himself (not that he tried very hard). when it came to his job, he had to be incredibly detail-oriented, which included paying attention to not only his client, but the rest of the court room as a whole. he had to know what was going on around him in order to play the game, so it was hard to turn it off in his personal time. besides, it stopped him from looking at his phone and obsessively playing hexa sort whenever he had a free moment. “i still randomly quote the woman i overheard yelling at her boyfriend to 'fall into a ditch and roll down the hill forever' outside of a bar in... i think it was 1998.” saul laughed at his own memory, then nodded along as theo brought up the sad state of wages in america. “i commend them. i deal with the public enough with my own job, i can't imagine the sort of bullshit they have to deal with day-to-day. getting into a little spat with your coworkers is probably just stress relief.” saul never worked a minimum wage job himself, but being a lawyer had its own set of troubles, especially when it came to clients. “the teacher's lounge definitely has the best pancakes in town, so i'm willing to put up with some kitchen brawls. what about you? what'd you get?”
"Oh, the things I've done for a good gossip... Would probably put me on a neighborhood creep list. I hate not knowing the full story, I'll turn into a Sherlock Holmes to figure it out." He sighed, amusedly, remembering all those sweet moments scratching that itch of curiosity. "But humans are naturally curious, aren't we? It's nothing but a part of our nature. It's what makes us humans." Theo said, excitedly, sipping at his coffee. Gloriously strong. The babies had trouble sleeping last night. "I only deal with individual clients, as a translator, and that's bad enough." He made a face. "And most times I don't even deal with them in person, which is somehow worse." Theo hadn't translated in a while, though. With the babies here, the only thing he was staying up late for was diaper changes. "I got coffee... Very strong, Brazilian beans. I really need the caffeine. And... the pancakes too. You won't regret it, I promise."
"Ooh, interesting, I would say I'll learn it but I struggled enough to learn ASL" she admitted. Emily had learnt sign language late so it hadn't been so easy but she was starting to become a bit more natural with it. She laughed lightly when he suggested that he was the diversity quota, "I mean, that sounds like a great gig," she laughed. "I mean we better, otherwise we'll just call them out for lack of inclusion," she declared, "between us we are disabled, deaf and queer so..." she laughed. Emily never really took her deafness seriously, it had taken time to really accept it as part of her identity but now it was just a thing, like being blonde and liking women.
"It's only useful if you're practicing, so I'd say keep doing what you're doing. If the necessity arises, then you'll pick up on it pretty fast." Languages with no use were doomed into oblivion, even inside someone's head. He laughed when she went along with him. "Exactly! What kind of ableist assholes would they be if they don't get us a pretty gold medal for doing our very best with what little we have?" He joked, feigning indignation. Theo had been disabled his entire life; there'd been a time there when he'd be shy about it, during his dreaded adolescence, but he'd grown out of it. "We deserve it!"
Theo tested the uneven ground with the tip of his crutches before walking forward in the muddy, grassy hill, minding the roots and the dry leaves and making sure he didn't face plant the mud. "This is tricky," he said to Wesley, frowning. The first time he'd been there with the old man who'd sold him the land, it hadn't looked this challenging. After a slow, careful walk, they finally made it to the tree-less spot by the lake. "Okay," Theo sighed. "This is where we'll build the house." The view was stunning from here. "What do you think?"
"This taco is definitely givin' me inner peace right now." She teased with a grin and a wink in his direction. The babies did seem rather restful and Theo did make a very good point that it should be okay. "Alright, alright. Could you pass me the sanitizer wipes so I don't get taco juices on the twins?" Dylan shared with a soft laugh, not wanting her hands to be dirty for the transfer. "Thank you for caring about my back but together they're not even thirty pounds yet combined, I promise I'd let ya know if I was hurtin'...two hours later." She knew that Theo knew her far too well to be trying to act like she was someone she was not. And Dylan was very much the type of person to suffer until it was unbearable in order to keep others happy. She was aware of the ridiculousness of it, but it was just something she had a hard time dealing with. Smiling as he shared that they went by their own order of operations, she nodded in agreement. "And it's a timeline that we don't have to explain to anyone else." Which included the fact they still had no label for what they were to one another other than their sweet nicknames. She did call Theo her partner to people from time to time, but it wasn't something they'd actually talked on. "Hm, I'm thinkin we're gonna get whatever dog looks like the dog that will be part of our family. I just know that we'll have a feelin', don't you? I feel like that's definitely a romantic notion you'd hop on board with." Dylan grinned over to him, wishing right now she could lean over to kiss him, perhaps once the twins were back in their stroller. "Oh no, he said that if she was here, she'd be tryin' to buy a whole litter. I was wonderin' why I didn't see her. So, he's gotta be the strong one for today." She shared with a smile before finishing the last bite of the taco and holding out her hands for him to wipe them off with a wipe as she chewed.
Theo rolled his eyes, then used the hand sanitizer to clean Dylan's hand himself. "Yes, that sounds exactly like something you would do, wonderwoman." Then they moved the babies into the stroller. He worried about her, being the one doing so much of the heavy lifting all the time; carrying both babies at the same time was virtually impossible for him if he wanted to move at the same time. Seeing Dylan doing all that did make him feel slightly guilty, but at least he could help with these reminders. "Oh, I'm pretty sure we have to explain it to the IRS, eventually," he chuckled, lowering his eyes. They hadn't talked about any of it yet, and it was eating a hole inside of him. "You're right, I definitely like the idea of finding ourselves the perfect dog that's bound to us by the threads of fate." He kissed her, preparing to move into where the dog adoption stands were. "I didn't see her either, but I don't see her all the often, she's always doing things with her siblings, you know." Theo tried to hide the face he made, like smelling something spoiled, and shook his head. "You've been pretty intimate with the Aksoy's too, haven't you?"
"Deal," she smiled. "French sign language, nice, I do not know any of that sorry." When he mentioned taking classes she smiled, "they run some classes at True Colours, and also an informal ASL chat session," she explained, "that's what I go to, it's a good chance to practise, it's a mixture of all abilities." Emily still wasn't a hundred percent fluent, she hadn't been signing all her life like a lot of deaf people, she'd come to it late. "I'm pretty sure you have to be good to make the rowing team," she countered, "is rowing a respectful sport or can I trash talk the other teams?" she asked.
"It looks a lot like ASL, when it comes to syntax and some of the words." He said, shrugging. As a linguist, he'd been more than eager to learn it, but the thing with languages is that they fade away if they're not used. "I should show up one of these days." He said. Theo chuckled. "Oh no, I'm sure I was their diversity quota, which is why I always got a medal in the end, regardless of how far behind I made it to the finish line." Theo smiled. "Sometimes I'd actually take the opportunity to smoke some weed by myself in the middle of the lake. They couldn't get to me there." He confessed, laughing at the good ol' days. "Do you think we'll get a medal?"
She's late. God, she was nearly an hour late. This wasn't like the woman at all, not when she has spent three decades mastering the art of multitasking and time management. Richard and Jasmine had always instilled in her to keep her word and promises. No matter how important they are, no matter how big or how small: she must keep her commitments, to honour and cherish them all. No matter what. Realizing that she was late to seeing Theo at his place, she had sped from Sultanim as quickly yet carefully as she possibly could. Things ran longer during her time with her sisters, and while she hoped that her brother would be understanding, she knew that she needed to make it up to him. Making a quick stop by Cheers!, she grabbed her brother's favourite spirit and a bottle of ouzo before making her way to him. Though, as she exited her Jeep, she stared at the house before her nervous as she juggled the two bottles and her bag. God, help me, she prayed before making her way. Knocking lightly on the door before opening it. "Theo?" she called out. Making sure her voice wasn't too loud, in case the twins were asleep.
Theo had just managed to put the babies to sleep, in one of those rare occasions they did so at the same time. It seemed to him like both Leda and Lysander liked their me time with mommy and daddy, so they liked to take turns. And when they didn't, they were waking each other up by crying, so they didn't have to be alone in their misery. Theo could sort of understand where they were coming from. He too liked company. With Dylan out for a gallery emergency, he felt too alone. Asli had promised to come, and he wondered why she was taking so long. He walked to the kitchen and got himself a nice cup of coffee. His head snapped up when he finally heard his sister coming through the door. "Over here," he said, leaning against the counter. "I was getting worried—what happened? I'm sure your new siblings are fun, but..." He said in a tone that he hoped sounded more teasing than bitter. "Well, you were missing on some great heated up coffee Dyl made this morning. The twins are asleep—for now. So you also missed about five exciting diaper changes." He chuckled.
When Theo had made room for her to enter, Safiye had been taken slightly aback by the gesture. After a run-in with the mother of his children Dylan, she had tried to move forward with a more open mind. Maybe Theo didn't absolutely despise her...maybe he did, like Dylan had implied, misunderstand her. In the name of good faith, she shuffled into Asli's home and took a step to the side immediately. His halfhearted joke had not gone over her head but she swallowed the discomfort and chose to chuckle back at him. "Yeah, well, it's kind of a little craft project I thought you guys could do—you know for the upcoming Pemberley House." She was filling space by talking, simply rambling to get through the interaction and any intolerable silence. "Right, right...Asli.. Yeah, I thought she said she would be about home by now yesterday. Some thing must have come up." Not awkward at all. "I–I'm doing good, you know. Just, uh, keeping myself busy. How 'bout you?" 'Breathe, Saf,' she had, had to coach herself.
"Pemberley House. You've been talking to Dylan, haven't you?" He hoped he didn't sound too accusatory. But it did strike him the wrong way that not only the Aksoys were penetrating the Bailey house, but also the Westwick-Baileys. Which was a ridiculous thought, but a thought nonetheless. "I'm sure craft projects will be... welcome at the new house. We can have a wing dedicated to all that." He felt oddly jealous of Safiye knowing their projects and plans when he knew very little about it himself. "I mean, she would usually let me know. Our parents were always very adamant about punctuality and commitments... Didn't stick with me, but it worked with Asli. She's incredibly reliable." Theo said, placing the basket on top of the coffee table. "Oh yes? Do you like the city? Here, have some tea I made as I waited." He attempted to take the acidity off his voice this time, without the sarcasm, else Safiye might decide she thought he was a complete arse. Sometimes you need to dose things. "Dylan is back to work, as you know. I'm not. We're making it work."
"Oh you know ASL, perfect, I'll sit at the back, that work for you?" she asked, that way she would be able to see any important signs over his shoulder, and she didn't mind using her voice even with her processors off. "Hey, no judgement here, anything is better than nothing," she grinned. "Oh shit, you're the real deal," she said, "I feel like now I should warn you that although I am highly competitive, I have zero skills when it comes to this particular sport."
"That works, don't worry. Tap me if you don't understand something and I'll fingerspell it for you." Which was a lazy alternative he wasn't so happy with; he loathed nothing more than to not be fluent. It was a matter of pride to his polyglot self. "I'm considering taking classes soon. I'm mostly familiar with french sign language, and it's not very useful here." He shrugged. "Oh, I rowed, it doesn't mean I was particularly great at it. We can use the competitiveness."
After feeding the twins and a little enlightening chat with Elijah, she headed back to the nice little corner she'd found placing the cover over the twins, realizing that they were asleep now and she was nervous to move them to the stroller without possibly waking them up in the process and not being able to get them back to nap. She smiled at Theo when he appeared with food, she lifted up the little blanket for Theo to see for himself that they were indeed napping. "Yeah, but I think I'm gonna have to keep them in the carrier 'cause I'm worried that they'll wake up if we put 'em in the stroller." Dylan confessed as she looked at what all he brought back. Everything looked delicious even if it was a bit mismatched. She grabbed up one of the tacos and started eating as she listened to Theo's comment. "Well, my precious, people usually get dogs before babies, because they plan to have a family and see a dog as a first step. And we already made a family that we'd be welcomin' our new dog into." She pointed out to him with a soft laugh of her own. Considering Dylan and Theo expressed romantic interest in one another six-ish months into already being pregnant with his children made it a little more difficult to go about that way. "Of course I think we're capable! Now who is out here sayin' that 'cause I'd love to give them a chance with the twins for thirty minutes and see what they think." Dylan had confidence in the two of them and when talking with Eli, she realized just how much she was settled on the idea of getting a dog today. "Did ya know that Eli is here? I saw him after I fed Leda and Sander. I think he's tryin' to practice self-control in not gettin' another cat." She shared with a soft chuckle before taking another bite of taco, shutting her eyes in food bliss for the moment.
Theo smiled at the sight of his sleeping babies, breathing against mommy's chest, "They look like nothing in the world could disturb them. When have you last felt this kind of peace?" He asked with a longing sigh and a smile. He couldn't remember the last time his mind wasn't overwhelming with all sorts of thoughts. Although the first time he held Leda could be the closest he ever got to it. "Well, let's give the stroller a chance. You can't go around carrying both of them all the time." He adjusted the baby carriage, getting things out of the way, so that they could move the babies. "It's not good for your back. They're getting bigger. Plus, I think they're tired enough they'll sleep through it." Disturbing their sleep cycle was the last thing he wanted to do, as a parent. Babies were demanding, and irritated, when things didn't go their way. "Oh, yes. We follow our very own concept of timelines." He laughed, although it sort of bothered him how most of that was his own bloody fault. He could've handled things differently. "Right? That's what I think too. Do you think we're getting a tiny pocket dog, or a pony-sized dog the kids can mount?" He amused himself with the thought. "Is that right? I haven't seen him around. That man needs my sister to say no to another cat, although we can't exactly trust her to do so."
Dylan bit her lower lip at his very good point, but she also very much wanted to say that no they were for certain getting a dog today. "Well I guess we'll see? See if any of the dogs here are y'know what we are hopin' for and if they'd be a good fit for our family." She offered as she moved put on the twin carrier while Theo was distracting Leda, her little hand gripping onto his now. Dylan was still on a mission to learn Greek as well so that way she could help in Theo's bilingual goal. She smiled at the statement and then moving her into the other arm so she could get the other strap on her shoulder before plopping Leda into one of the carriers. Before moving to scoop up Lysander from the stroller as he had been a little less fussy but now he was clearly just as hungry as his sister. "It's okay Sander, it's okay." Carefully putting him into the carrier next to his sister she let out a small sigh that the first step was over. "Whatever has the shortest line honestly, you can choose for me, y'know I like most things." Dylan wasn't too picky but definitely was hungry enough that whatever was quickest would be good to her. She moved to give Theo a kiss before grabbing the diaper bag. "Thank you my love. I'll be right back, and who knows maybe by the time I get back they'll already be snoozin'." It was very wishful thinking on her behalf and for both their sakes, but she also was just happy to be here in general and the excitement of the idea of them possibly getting a dog today felt like they were already making their forever home ten times better.
Theo made his way to the food; he couldn't make his mind between the tacos and the sandwich, so he bought both. They'd take it back home and eat it for dinner if they didn't manage to eat it. As Theo carried the food on his lap back to where Dylan had found a spot to feed the twins, he couldn't help but feel a strange kind of nervous taking over his body. He'd never had a pet himself. They travelled far too much, and had too much to worry about already. Then he was too irresponsible. But he'd always wanted a pet, he'd just never had any space for it. But now... Well, he was finding out his boundaries were far more stretchable than he'd thought possible. That he was capable, too, of managing a full life. "There we go." He said, parking next to Dylan. "I didn't know what to bring so-- Are they asleep?" Theo took a quick look at the babies. "I was thinking about the dog and-- it's funny. Pepole usually get dogs before babies, right?" He chuckled, "Do you think we're capable of raising a puppy, Westwick? They can be more challenging than twins, I hear..."
Carmen, intrigued by Theo's admission of his unfamiliarity with baseball, smiled warmly as she listened to his musings. "Well, you're not alone in that, Theo," she remarked with a chuckle, nodding in agreement. "American sports can be quite the enigma, especially if you didn't grow up with them." As Theo expressed his desire to share the experience of attending a sports match with his children someday, Carmen's heart warmed at the thought of family bonding. She herself had always been a family person, and she loved the idea of bringing her children anywhere she could. Her wife too in the off chance that Mei was off work and actually able to. "That sounds like a wonderful plan," she replied, her eyes softening with empathy as he mentioned his little ones being too small to join them that day. "I know they'll be happy to attend anything they can with their dad, just like mine are." she smiled, looking at her children, admiring how much she enjoyed having them with her. "And yes, I'm Carmen Carrillo," she confirmed with a smile as Theo addressed her, extending her hand to shake his. "It's nice to officially meet you, Theo. Bristol here told me she ran into a nice man with some cool crutches and I've been hoping to find out who the man behind that mysterious meeting was but it looks like I finally put a face with it, yeah?" she smiled. "You seem to have been a huge inspiration to B here." @theobailey
"Exactly. I'm not used to anything more sophisticated than eleven guys running after a ball; if the ball hits the net, it's a point. Simple. Straightforward." He was always genuinely puzzled by other sports, so he'd find entertainment by focusing on other things, such as talking to people and bonding. "I really do hope they enjoy going out with their old man someday. They're too overwhelmed to do it right now." The game was loud and messy, and his babies far too young. Theo found it the perfect opportunity to do something with just Dylan. "Nice to meet you, Mrs. Carillo. But I must say Bristol's are far cooler than mine; I should probably get some stickers on them or something." He chuckled. He'd never been too wild with his mobility aids, fearing looking childish and being treated like less of an adult for it. He should get more bold now though. Theo smiled at her comment on being an inspiration. He usually hated tha term, but those were one of the few situations where he'd take it, when talking to children with CP, like he'd once been. He didn't know many people like himself. "I'm glad to hear that, although I was quite the rebellious teen, so you will probably regret the inspiration part in a few years." He joked, laughing.
SETTING: April 7th | outside Aslihan's home, on her way to Sunday brunch
AVAILABILITY: closed for @theobailey
Safiye tapped her foot nervously whilst waiting for someone to answer the door after ringing the doorbell. Arms full with an impromptu Easter basket she had attempted to throw together for both Asli and Theo's children, she had thought of nearly everything. Except that maybe her sister wouldn't be home. After several missed calls to her sister, whom she was sure was up to her own sort of Easter festivities with Alex and Rhia, Safiye had thought maybe her surprise would still be at least worth dropping off. But when the door was answered, a tightness formed in Safiye's chest. "Oh– Hi Theo," she practically mumbled, "I was actually bringing a little something to say happy Easter. Actually, half of it's for you, Dylan and the twins."
Theo had answered the door upon the suspicion that his sister had forgotten her keys. He'd been waiting for her to get home for about an hour now, and she wouldn't pick up his calls either. So he was left thinking two things: she was having a good time with Elijah, or with her... siblings. God, even the thought of it made him slightly sick. Imagine his surprise when one of said siblings was at the door instead of her. And good god, did they look alike. "Oh, Safiye. Hello. Asli is- god knows where." He wheeled back to allow enough space for her to walk in. If he'd been on his feet today, then maybe he would've looked through the magic eye and seen her there and then perhaps he'd have the choice not to answer the door, but now it was far too late; they were left with that awkwardness for company. He looked at the baskets she was holding, raising his eyebrows. "Oh, that's awfully nice of you. Get them through their hearts, right?" He joked, though not completely unseriously. "So great. I'm sure Dylan will love it---the twins too, I'm sure. Someday." He scratched the back of his head. "I wonder where Asli is." He mumbled. Now they had to small talk, didn't they? "Uh- how are you... doing?"
She smiled at Theo's offer, relieved that she had someone to ride the race with. Emily was athletic and competitive but she had no partner to go with. "Oh I am in," she grinned, "though I didn't bring the waterproof covers for my cochlears so I won't be able to hear you, is that alright?" she asked. It was an oversight for sure, but she certainly wasn't going to risk thousands of dollars of equipment just to make things easier for him.
"It's alright." He said, moving forward to reach the renting table. "It's a good opportunity for me to practise my ASL." Theo was a language enthusiast, but he'd focused on french sign language, and eventually british, rather than american. "Plus, my signing isn't so fluent, so excuse my dexterity." And he hated that, but he had physical limits too. "I was in the rowing team back in Cambridge. The one thing that could ever make me wake up early. Well, aside from the twins now."
