(Untitled)

[flowers_on_skin]

They say that, short of having somebody die, moving is the most stressful thing that you could do in your life. Eostre hadn't found it particularly stressful, but only because she'd spent the day in the kitchen with the girls and the air conditioning and let the boys do the majority of the heavy lifting

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[m_pinocchio]

Working with help, it's still amazing how fast it's all come together. But he'd had help, and then there had been days where he'd done little else but work on it, because it kept him from thinking too hard. And then it hadn't been that it was a distraction, but that it made him feel centered and whole to watch it forming under his hands.

And now he stands back a few yards and watches her with it. He's giving her space. He's built it, or at least part of it, but it's not his. He doesn't need to introduce himself to it.

He glances up; the trunk looks almost as though it's splitting the roof, moving up through the house and impaling it as it does so. But it's stable. Built to last. There's still work to do here and there, details to see to, the roof to finish and some carving over the door he wants to try, but the structure itself is there.

And now she and they are too. So he watches her and them in silence.

[flowers_on_skin]

"This is the house that your daddy built for us, and your brother, and no harm will ever come here." She kissed one girl's head, then the other. "No harm will ever come to us here. I promise. I'll end anyone who tries."

She looked up at him as she said that last part, and, for a moment, there was no warmth at all in dark green eyes.

A promise made. A promise kept.

[m_pinocchio]

He meets her gaze, sees it, everything in it. He nods. Understands. Very little frightens him now.

He steps forward, slow, like he's ready for her to tell him that she needs more time. "Think we got everything," he says quietly. "You need anything else?"

[flowers_on_skin]

"Just you," said Eostre, turning towards him with the girls in her arms. "I imagine that Abby and Tom will be along soon enough. Lords only know where Peter's gotten to."

[m_pinocchio]

He smiles, slow and quiet and barely there. "You want me to take one?" he asks. "Or both." They're both staring at him with solemn blue eyes, as though they understand what's happening, somehow.

"He had a nightmare the other morning," he adds. "Peter did. In the kitchen." What his tone says without actually saying it is I'm worried.

[flowers_on_skin]

"You can take both of them, if you want. I need to change anyway."

Her mouth tightened at the mention of Peter.

"It happens. Sometimes, he crawls into my bed in the middle of the night. We don't talk about it. Or we try not to."

[m_pinocchio]

He reaches out his arms for them. He wonders how long he'll be able to do this, scoop them both up effortlessly into his arms this way.

"Didn't seem like he wanted to," he says. "Said it was windows. Afraid of getting locked out. Poor kid." In his voice is obvious sympathy, though he's not usually one for showing it. Nightmares are things he understands, and he understands what it is to dread your own dreams. He feels less of that now, but it's still there.

"These windows don't lock. That's what I told him."

[flowers_on_skin]

She passed both the girls over easily, feeling that peculiar and entirely familiar flutter in the pit of her stomach when she saw him holding their children."

She nodded.

"I tell him the same thing every time," she said. "No locks on my windows, no bars on my doors."

[m_pinocchio]

It seems unfair. He's earned his nightmares. If he's haunted for the rest of his life by a few ghosts, it's something he can handle now and no more than what he deserves. But Peter shouldn't have fear follow him around like that. It isn't right.

"Maybe the new place will help," he says, looking it over again as he shifts his daughters in his arms. "What d'you think?" he asks Mack. "Does it... meet with your approval?"

[flowers_on_skin]

Flo burbled happily and Mack just hiccuped and spit up on Mike's shoulder.

"Looks like the jury's still out on that one, love."

Eostre arched an eyebrow, her mouth tight around a smile.

[m_pinocchio]

Mike glances down and sighs. Being a parent has at least given him an even higher tolerance for bodily fluids. At this point it's barely an annoyance.

"Ungrateful child," he says with mock bitterness. "No Christmas for you this year."

[flowers_on_skin]

Eostre did her best not to laugh. She really did, but there was something very funny about it.

"Oh, goodness."

[m_pinocchio]

He glares at her, not in the least bit serious. "Thanks. We'll be here all week." He looks up at the house again, absently wiping Mack's mouth with the sleeve of his shirt.

"Came out well," he says. "Not sure if I should be proud or not, but... yeah. It's good." He's built enough huts by this point to have some notion of what he's doing, but this is the first place that he's essentially designed, and while his skills as an architect are a bit lacking...

It's definitely something.

[flowers_on_skin]

Eostre applauded with her free hand against her thigh.

"Very good, very good." Flo laughed, and Eostre looked down at her. "I think you've got a fan-club for life, daddy."

She turned and looked up at the house.

"It'll do, love," she said, a small smile curling the corner of her mouth. "It'll definitely do."

[m_pinocchio]

Which is high praise, from her. He feels a warm flush of pleasure and he smiles, unguarded and slightly crooked. He can't put his arms around her, them being otherwise occupied, but he steps closer to her, close enough to brush against her hip.

"You need to christen it," he murmurs.

[flowers_on_skin]

"You always get so upset when I actually bleed on things." She swayed towards him, bumping him with her hip.

"I was just introducing ourselves instead."