Salene and Ryan:Morning:Their Room

[_salene_]

The day had been long, so many things had happened, Salene could hardly remember it all as she headed upstairs from the hospital. Her right hand rubbed at the back of her neck, the tension in it so tight it was giving her a headache. She'd had enough of those lately, and she'd just wanted it to go away, completely forgetting to check if the Cafes

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[_salene_]

He jumped, in her arms, and this woke her up, fully alert, wondering what had happened, what was going on. Brady was right there, giggling about food, and then Salene realized Mouse was sitting behind her, over her shoulder. Ryan insisted that Brady go find her Mommy, and Salene pressed another kiss to Ryan's shoulder before letting him go. "Because her best friend's Mommy is in here," she reminded him, rolling over and looking at Mouse with a sleepy but happy smile.

Her arms spread out, suggesting that Mouse give her good morning hugs, "Come here girls, come on Brady, we can have cuddles before breakfast can't we?" Truthfully, Salene was not ready to crawl out of her bed, even though she knew fully well what was going on today, another very long day, hopefully only eventful because of the events planned, she could seriously do without half of the drama that happened yesterday. There would be no better start to a day than to cuddle her two most favorite little girls, unless Patsy and Cloe could be 10 again and come for cuddles, and if Flower decided to join them, but no, Mouse was her heart, and Brady was her little princess, and this would be more than enough.

[tribal_mouse]

Mouse looked over as Brady hurtled onto the bed. "We were hungry," Mouse said, with a smile at Salene, "Cause I went to bed without dinner. Like the Pokey puppy, only not cause I was bad. I was sleepy. The wedding was pretty. When are the decorations getting taken down?" Mouse chattered happily at Salene. When Salene opened her arms, Mouse leaned in. "Cuddles are the best way to start morning!" Mouse agreed giving Salene a big hug. Yawning, Mouse looked at Salene.

"I dreamed I got to ride whales. They were flying in the air. I wish that I could actaully see whales, but I can't cause they are out in the ocean. How did those people see the whales for that movie? Did they get to swim with them?" Mouse shrugged her shoulders, "Whales are neat." She finished with a smile and another hug.

[_brady_]

Giving Ryan a tiny bit of a pout it was all forgotten when Salene asked for cuddles, and Brady simply dove over Ryan, into the space between them, snuggling down against Salene, her little head on Salene's shoulder and her arm draping across Salene's upperchest. Across from her was Mouse chattering on about puppies and whales and decorations, and Brady ignored most of it, yawning a little before snuggling down into Auntie Salene's shoulder again, her eyes lazing shut a bit. She wasn't tired, it was just comfortable, and it felt all warm and safe in here, even if Uncle Ryan was grouchy, like Lex.

"Auntie Salene? Mommy makes the breakfast," she declared, slightly confused. She didn't know why she said it, but she remembered, Mommy made lunch yesterday so Mommy makes breakfast today, that's how it worked. Her big blue eyes looked up at Salene with question, waiting for a clarification, on breakfast, on whales, on decorations, on everything.

[tribal_ryan]

Ahh..right, Mouse was in there too, Ryan hadn't even noticed her until she began going on and on about things, and he listened vaguely to her but had learned long ago how to tune out noises, especially kid babble. Brady crawled over him to get to Salene, scrambling across his hip so quickly her little foot knocked him in places that reacted badly to such things, and he growled, curling up a little into a ball.

The pain was obtuse, it just seemed to throb painfully everywhere for a short while, but it had missed vital parts and simply been in the same delicate area, so Ryan was able to breathe through it rather quickly. Turning onto his back as he came back from the moment, now rather grouchy thanks to that, he heard Brady and Mouse bombarding Salene with questions and observations, and he couldn't help to be distracted by it all. Rolling onto his other side he cuddled up to Brady and Salene, wrapping his arm lower, across Brady and around Salene's small waist, he could almost reach all the way across to encompass Mouse, his hand resting gently on her hip.

"Whales are neat Mouse, you're right. I think they must have special cameras that can go underwater for that, cause the whales can't come up here," he ended with a yawn and a groan, relaxing back into his pillow and letting his arm lay a bit heavier across Salene. "All this talk of breakfast, I'm starved," he realized, his right hand, which happened to be squished between his body and Brady's, reaching down to rub at his stomach a little, as if that would cure the grumbles. "What do you think your Mommy is making Brady?"

[_salene_]

Everyone joined in the cuddles, even Ryan eventually, and Salene felt warm and loved and safe and, just at home. The soft smile invading her face could not be wiped off or lost in this moment, even if it did feel like this could be the last time she got to cuddle Brady. Such a horrible thought, but it was true, wasn't it? She'd certainly have to talk to Trudy about that, but right now her mind was here, with the girls and the man she loved.

Mouse asked a slew of questions, and then Brady asked her own, before Ryan chimed in with his version of the answers. "Ryan is right Mouse, they must have had cameras that went under water, and you're right, they must have gotten to swim with them, isn't that exciting?" It was nice to see her take an interest in the whales, even in this day and age when they couldn't offer as much in the way of education as there used to be. But that did make her think, schools were a good idea, and she should look into getting those started again. Perhaps if the kids had somewhere to go, something good to do, they wouldn't be fighting so much.

"The decorations have to come down today, actually," she interrupted before Brady could talk of breakfast again. "I'll need help, I had volunteers come in to put it all up but not to take it down, but it seems to me that demolishing it should be a lot easier than putting it up, don't you suppose?"

[tribal_mouse]

Mouse listened patiently as Ryan and Salene talked about the cameras used for filming the whales. They sounded kinda interesting, but they were probably all gone now. She wrinkled her nose as she thought about it. "They got to swim with them... it probably was exciting cause whales don't eat people so you don't have to worry. There are these big... um... things that eat people in the water. The video mentions them. But I always fast foward through that part because its scary..." Mouse tried to remember what they were called, "I think it was a type of whale...They were big too." Shrugging her shoulders, she sat up. "My favorites were the Blue whales. They are really big." Mouse held her arms far apart, "like bigger than I can open my arms... even bigger than... like Ryan can open his arms." She paused, tapping at her lip with her finger.

"Do you think that perhaps there is more stuff about whales in the market?" Mouse felt her tummy rumble and looked up at Salene and abandoned her earlier thoughts of whales. "I'm hungry, can we go see if Trudy has started breakfast?" Giving a small yawn, Mouse wiggled down and off the bed with a small thump. When her feet hit the ground she realized that she'd left her boots in her bedroom. "I didn't put my boots on this morning," she grinned, "I'll put them on after breakfast."

[_brady_]

Brady tilted her mouth in thought at the question of Mommy and breakfast, "I don't know!" She said it almost as if she should and didn't, it perplexed her. "I go check," she decided, sitting up, paused only by the sight of Mouse wiggling down off of the bed and talking about going to check. "You go check," she decided, laying back down and snuggling against Salene and Ryan. It was warm and cozy here, soft and safe, and if Mouse was excited about breakfast like Ryan was then she could check.

"I'ma go see Cloe," she suddenly decided, remembering that she hadn't seen much of her lately. If Brady was going to leave the Mall soon she wanted to be sure to play with each of her friends, old and new, before she left. She wanted another tea party with Patsy, and something with that Flower and Willow too, and Aunt Amber and the baby, Uncle Bray, Salene too, Auntie May, and Ellie, oh there were so many! But first, Cloe, because she was ...Cloe!

Wriggling down off of the bed, pausing to grab Bear, Brady turned around, "I'ma go see Cloe," she declared again before turning and running off.

[_salene_]

Mouse was actually astounding Salene with the information she knew about whales, it was amazing, had she really learned that much just from a video? Could they find more videos? It'd be a good start in school if they could, as long as they had electricity they might as well take advantage of that. She began imagining all kinds of things she could teach kids with the old resources of the old world, things she couldn't teach them just on her own, probably things no one else knew much about either.

"Wow that's really big, cause Ryan can hug like you, and Cloe, and Patsy, and me, all at the same time!" Salene gave Ryan a wink and smiled at Mouse, "I don't know, there might be more about Whales in books, we might have some of those, we can give it a try though. It never hurts to look, but I can't today. We have the trial, and I don't want you going alone. Maybe you can ask Dax to take you, he's got Market duty today," at least, she thought he did, she had scheduled him today to keep him out of her hair during the trial planning. Dax was a nice guy, but sometimes he was so overprotective she wanted to poke her eyeballs out.

She was about to tell Mouse and Brady to go check on breakfast, but Brady took off to go see Cloe, "No running!" she called after her, not sure that she heard it at all. Sighing she looked back at Mouse, "Yes, we can go see about breakfast, why don't you go ahead and go check, I need to get dressed and I have to talk to Ryan about something first," she offered, giving her a wary smile and shifting her gaze to Ryan for a split second.

[tribal_ryan]

Brady and Mouse were vying for the cutest moppet and it was about to make Ryan's heart explode. It was all too cute! Mouse and her whale fascination, Brady and her stunned declarations to simple questions, he felt his heart swelling with love and happiness. This was what he'd always wanted, this moment, kids waking him and Salene up in the morning, then she'd get up and make breakfast, or maybe he would, and they'd have a quiet day at home.

It all came crashing down around his ears quickly, he knew that wouldn't happen, this was the City, this was the Mall, things never went quietly, or peacefully, and there was a trial today for the murder of one kid by another kid. His heart hurt at the very thought of it, it wasn't the first kid to kill another kid, heck the Loco's in their day had done some horrible stuff, lots of people in this city had been crazy, messed up kids, doing bad things to other kids. But this time it was their trial, Ryan didn't even understand why they bothered, couldn't they just punish him? He'd done the crime, they knew it, wouldn't it just be easier to take him outside and flog him for everyone to see? That'd be one way to set an example.

Ryan was pulled out of his thoughts by the escaping of a Brady and Salene's call after her not to run. "Where's she going?" He looked confused, his eyes shifting to Salene, then to Mouse, then back again. Wait, Salene had something to talk to him about? The pit of his stomach fell out, that didn't sound good, and all he could do was give Mouse a sheepish look, nodding at her to do as Salene asked.

[tribal_mouse]

Mouse paused in chattering at Salene as Brady began to talk about going to visit Cloe. Without a second, Brady turned and dashed out of the room. "Maybe I should Dax if he'll take me with him, cause I've watched that other one a lot." Mouse nodded to herself and then shifted from foot to foot. Salene was asking her to run to kitchen and she'd be along shortly. "Ok, I'll go see if anyone is making food yet. But I'm not getting dressed." Ryan was still lying in bed next to Salene and Mouse gave him a small smile before turning and scurrying down the hall to the kitchen.