Episode 121: Brunchlunchmess (Talise)

Telling Rhyss about the kids was the hard part. Now Talise just had to entice her two year olds that having a fourth dad-figure was a good thing. She was turning into her mom, except worse because at least her mom tended to have more than one pregnancy by a guy. Her dad had lasted years – well over fifty. Then her real dad, the one that had died in the war, had lasted long enough for her and Ach, plus Nim and Terren, to be born plus die in a war after saving the two kingdoms. Then there was the Konrad stuff.

She needed to stop comparing everything. She just felt like she was her mom on a fast track to how many dads can my kids have land.

The thing was, it didn’t matter in the end because Niels was forever. He was the guy she had elixired to and she had no regrets. Even seeing Rhyss, which kind of sucked and felt like she hadn’t really gotten closure with, didn’t change that. Niels was forever.

Which meant she could do this. She just had to find Rhyss, where he was supposed to be, and amazing some interest in Rhyss out of her little Rhyss bombs.

She knocked on the door, with a confused Ella and Jax beside her. Niels was going to come too, but Emma had decided to cuddle with a poisonous spider. She was sleeping now, so Talise still did the meal, but she would have to get back to Ms. Tries to Die soon. It was for the best anyway, because Jo was recovering from breaking her leg (from climbing the roof, again).

The door opened, and the towering, very Zero like, body showed up and his hands pressed down his legs the way they did whenever he was nervous. He smiled, too. “Hi.”

“Hi. I brought people. This is Ella.”

Rhyss crouched down to her and stuck his hand out. “Hi, Ella. I’m Rhyss.”

Ella buried her face in Talise’s legs and hugged her. Talise crouched to her level and ran her hand down Ella’s back and around in circles. They probably looked dumb, the two of them crouched down in the hall, the twins hiding behind her legs.

“Did you know,” Talise said, “Rhyss makes pretty paintings? I bet he can show you some.”

“No!” Ella spat out. She buried herself more in Talise, shoving Jax out of the way.

Rhyss stood up and took a step back, into the apartment. “It’s fine.” He put his hand on the door, so they would know they could come in, and so she led them both in.

“This is Jax,” Talise said as they passed him. “Can you say hi, Jax?”

Jax looked up at Rhyss. ‘Hi.”

“Hi, Jax.” He kneeled again, once the door was shut. ‘How are you?”

“Good,” Jax replied. This was the way in – Jax would tell Ella it was okay. Things would go well, after a few visits at least..

“What do you like for lunch?” Rhyss asked.

Jax almost replied when Indigo came over.

She wished they had done this elsewhere, even if it was more familiar for the kids. Ella detached from her leg and went to hug Indigo. She glanced over at Rhyss before picking Ella up, and then held her a bit between them.

Okay, maybe Indigo was a good idea.

“We have… sandwiches, pizza, and something sauteed.”

Talise swallowed her laugh. Indigo often referred to sauteed as a flavor. It must have been part of the weird cooking Zero did. She didn’t even know what half the words meant, aside from edible and delicious. Plus, one time she told the kids they were having lamb and Emma talked about the newborn lambs in the barn and every kid cried. It was bad. Sauteed was a better word for most food, even if it was vague. Ella was becoming too conscionable for animal terms in her food. At least Nell was around, if she ever gave it up.

“Enchimaladas,” Jax said. “Chicken.”

Ella shook her head.

“Or pizza is great,” Talise added. “He likes pizza.”

The last thing she needed now was an excuse to leave. Ella was already looking at Rhyss more and calming down from her shy.

“Yeah,” Jax replied, in that same nothing tone Rhyss used. The tone that was just agreeing without much behind it. Like a word, used when you were supposed to use words but yeah was all that came to mind.

Rhyss moved toward the kitchen. “I can get it.”

Jax followed, like a little shadow that promised to be just like Rhyss someday.

“Do you want to sit at the counter?” Talise asked Ella.

She pressed her head against Indigo’s shoulder. “No.”

“Can you tell me what’s wrong? Or are you just being stubborn today?”

She hoped Rhyss heard that. Any snippet of who she was would be something; a hint at how to connect.

“I want Daddy,” Ella demanded, in a whiny voice that made Talise feel bad for Rhyss and bad for Ella and guilty for not trying to find him, not asking neighbors more and… just guilt for giving up on him, even if that was reasonable at the time.

She had to make this work, for Rhyss. He was one of the best caretakers she knew. He took care of his mom and that was a thankless, sometimes heartbreaking job. He would love kids. It would be good, once it wasn’t weird anymore.

“We’re visiting with someone special. Can you try and get to know him?”

Talise was almost certain anyone who got to know Rhyss would like him. If they didn’t, they had personality flaws.

“No.” She watched Indigo struggle to catch the weight of Ella as she made herself as heavy as a rock. Once she was rebalanced in Indigo’s arms, she passed her off to Talise, who took her to the couch and kneeled on the floor. “Ella,” she said, as softly and mom-lovey as possible. Her mom was so good at that tone, and she hoped she was channeling a fraction of it. “You know how Niels is your daddy, and Ach is your daddy, and Spence is your daddy?” And I have serious men problems.

Ella turned her body so that her legs ran up the back of the couch and her hair flowed off toward the floor. “Yeah.”

“Well, Rhyss is your daddy too.” Kind of the most important one. “He’s been gone for a long time, but he is very important.”

“He smells like astringent,” Ella claimed.

Ach needed to stop teaching her kids words she hardly knew. I mean, she knew them, but they were the kinds of words she wished she didn’t have to know. Elesarian and basic english and basic danish were enough.

But, she had an idea.

Rhyss did smell like astringent, because he smelled like his paintings, and his paintings were amazing little pieces of who he was and how he saw the world. She loved his paintings. She hoped Ella could learn to, too. Plus, Spence did art and Indigo painted and it would be familiar.

Talise stood and swung Ella into her arms. “You know what he smells like? Come on.”

She carried Ella to Rhyss’ bedroom where canvases were scattered, some painted and some waiting to be filled. She took her toward a painting that was set to dry.

Ella’s eyebrows furrowed but she leaned closer and she smelled it, then looked up at her confused.

“Rhyss smells like blue poppies and yellow grass and big brown mountains in the sky,” she said.

Ella’s face softened. “Okay.”

This would work, for Ella. Better than Jax, but the combination would be good. “So every time you smell him, imagine what he smells like. Maybe he smells like little fish at the bottom of the ocean or a lake with the moon shining on it. Maybe he’s just a house in the woods or a pathway up a hillside. But you have to ask him to find out.”

They would have something special, that would bond them forever. Even when she was five thousand years old she could ask him what he smelled like that day, and he could tell her about his paintings. Maybe she would like painting, maybe she’d just like the stories.

She had to remember to explain to Rhyss what Ella would be talking about when she asked.

“Okay,” Ella said again. “I can.”

That was a word she rarely heard. Can. She waited a second, for the ‘not’ to be added, but it wasn’t. She led Ella back out toward the living room and kitchen. “You know what else he likes?”

“What else?”

“He likes Tacos. He likes music. He really likes Niels’ music. He likes games too, and a ton of things but you’ll have to find out for yourself.”

“Are you going to make other new daddies? How did you find this one?”

Oh how she hoped not. Niels was it for her. Niels was her forever, maorkel, for evigt.

She loved the finality of forever in danish, two words said so firmly there was no questioning them. She loved her family, even if it was chaos.

“I met him before I met Niels,” she explained. “He is the last daddy you will ever have. He’s the daddy you can see when you look in the mirror, like the way you smile and the way you flop when you don’t want to go somewhere.”

“Does he flop?”

“Yup,” she said, remembering one day she wanted to go get tacos and enchiladas and he wanted to stay inside and watch movies or have sex (or both, in reverse order). She looked up at him and smiled. “Someone is ready to meet you.”

Jax was sitting beside Rhyss, both at one of the chairs that lined the kitchen counter. Rhyss pulled his pizza away from his mouth and set it down. “Okay.”

Talise set Ella on the counter between Jax and Rhyss, and Rhyss turned his attention to her for a moment. “Pizza? Sandwich? Other stuff?” He got up and moved around the island. Ella turned to watch him.

“Some of bread?” she requested.

“Sandwich? Okay.”

“No! Some of bread!”

Rhyss looked at Talise. “Sandwich – dry. Hold all the middle parts.” She sat in the chair beside Jax. “How are you?” she asked him.

Jax looked at Ella first, “Good.” Then he looked at Rhyss, “Tall.”

Rhyss was tall. She missed his height sometimes, and how his hugs enveloped her. She also liked that Niels was basically the same height as her.

Rhyss handed Ella two pieces of bread stacked ontop of each other, “Good?”

“Thank you,” she said, punctual and with a nod. She bit into the bread, eyes locked on Rhyss.

“Do you want to ask Rhyss what he smells like?” Talise prompted.

Ella swallows and took a sip of water, which still baffled her. How could a two year old be so over polite? Ella set the cup down, which at least caused a small splash of water on the counter. Then she looked up at Rhyss, “What do you smell like?”

Talise mouthed, while Rhyss watched her, “What did you last paint.”

“Um,” Rhyss started. “Like mountains in the winter with a waterfall.”

“A water?” Ella asked.

Talise leaned across the counter and dangled her hand over the sink. She let water fall from it. “Like this.”

“Ohhh,” Ella said.

“Ohhh,” Jax immittated. He crawled onto the counter and put his fingers in the waterfall she was making.

“Am I…” Rhyss began. He took a step toward the counter. “What are the rules?”

“Are you what?”

“Nevermind.”

“What did you smell like yesterday?” Ella asked before taking another bite. Talise moved Jax back to his chair and studied Rhyss as he answered and the tension in his shoulders held him together.

“The same thing. And sawdust. I’m trying to fix a house.”

It had been a few years, but she took a stab at Rhyss and what used to be his predictable mind. “You’re allowed to take them there, if that was the question.” She looked to Ella and Jax, who had been all over Elesara and Babylon and some of Sylem, mostly the safe parts where Xander had security. “You both love trips right?”

“Where?” Jax asked, eager.

“I have a couple of houses in another realm. Do you like the ocean?”

“Tide pool! All slime,” Ella shouted.

“It’s a good thing,” Talise assured him. “She has water.”

“Stars?” Jax asked.

“I bet there are starfish there. Do you want to go soon?”

“I fish?” Ella asked.

Ella meant can she shapeshift her legs into her green scaly tale, which would mean Jax would want to, too. “Maybe not today, but someday,” she assured Ella.

“Do you want me to come?” Talise asked Rhyss.

“If you want, yeah. I won’t ever take them to Clovercrest. I know it’s not safe.”

“Didn’t stop me,” she teased. “If you ever want guards, I have some. But thanks. I trust you with them; you’re their dad.”

“Do I need, should I,” Rhyss stumbled through his words, hands searching for something to do that wasn’t nervous but was uncertain. They settled on filling Ella’s cup with water. “The guards with them?”

It was an eloquent sentence, for sure.

“If you agree, I promise they can be discreet or social – whichever you want. You might get along with Corban.”

They could go to music stores and find a non-Niels band to listen to between Chainskull Death albums. At their current rate, there would never be another one.

“Yeah?” Rhyss asked. She heard Jax in his voice, now that she knew to look for it. “What’s he like? I mean, I can.”

Talise sighed in relief. This was going to be easier than she thought and the kids would be safe but allowed to explore wherever they wanted. She didn’t want Rhyss to feel restricted or like he was less than her in the equation. She wanted him to be free to have whatever relationship he wanted, and Jax and Ella offered. She still loved him, in the end. He would always be one of her favorite people.

His fiance really needed to come home, though.

“I’ll have him come with us, and you can decide if you like having him around. No hard feelings if you don’t.”

Indigo had backed off of the kitchen stuff once things settled, even though she was still in the living room, but Sawyer hadn’t gotten the memo.

“Hey Talise,” Sawyer said as he opened the fridge, scanned the contents, and closed it.

“Hey, Sawyer, how are your… birds? Frogs?” She asked. She was almost certain worms or centipedes would be next on his project list.

“That works,” Rhyss stated. “Is that what we’re doing now? Or  later.”

Now, she wanted now. But first, Sawyer had to be Sawyer.

“They’re good. I’m twelve.” Sawyer looked at her.

“In a minute?” Talise replied. “You are,” she said to Sawyer. “Did I forget a present?”

She knew she hadn’t, because Spence always kept her up to date on his family’s birthdays and if he failed, Bruno kept everyone up to date on everyone’s birthdays and other important things like anniversaries.

“If I say yes will you get me one?”

“Present?” Ella said, sitting up and leaning closer to Talise. “Can I get one?”

Talise shook her head to Ella, then studied Sawyer. He had put on a clean shirt, which was rare.

Then she realized she had dated two of four Lavesque brothers. “Did you know,” she teased. “Undines can bond as early as twelve?”

“Yeah, I heard that,” Sawyer replied. “I have excellent leadership skills and I’m good at persuasive arguments and  taking care of things.”

Talise laughed at the dating-resume. “No, Sawyer. But you know…. Jo is almost the same age as you. Only a few years behind.”

“She’s like… ew no.”

Sawyer reached for a box of cheesy things and tucked it under his arm.

“Like seven years younger?” she said, knowing she didn’t need to push it. She should have just shut up.

“Yeah. And she’s a little kid. I’m just about an adult.”

“When I was twelve, you were like five…” Talise pointed out.

“So? My mom’s like ten million. My dad wasn’t five until she was like nine million nine hundred and fifty. Eight? Seventy? Something like that.”

“Maybe you should work on your math a little,” Rhyss pointed out.

That was something she loved about Rhyss. He had never gone to school and he wasn’t taught well at home (because his mom not-mom Nora didn’t teach him, she just didn’t let him go to school) and he still was smart. Maybe not honed in sharp, but he had base intelligence and she knew he had a lot of potential.

While she admired Rhyss, Sawyer scoffed. “I can’t believe I buttoned my shirt for you.” He stormed off.

Talise and Rhyss shared a silent laugh. Then Talise looked to Sawyer before he vanished into the hallway. “Hey Sawyer! I heard a girl has a crush on you, at school.”

Nell had been talking about it, to Indigo, the other day. Some girl that liked to come over but was trying to hide it from her friends. Twelve-year old crush stuff, but apparently she had a major crush worth warning Indigo about.

“Ready to go?” she asked Rhyss.

“Some girl wants to crush me at school, you mean,” Sawyer said over his shoulder.

They both laughed again.

“Yeah. Sorry about… that.” Rhyss apologized. He wasn’t used to Sawyer yet, but soon he would see he was another example of amazing Lavesque offsprings. Not date-him awesome, but still awesome in his own way.

Rhyss looked back at the kids. “You want to paint with me sometime?”

“Yeah!” Jax exclaimed. It was a bit shocking, because he was silent and sometimes just exploded to life. Rhyss seemed surprised too, but he smiled at the response.

“Done,” Jax declared, pushing his plate toward the sink. Rhyss caught it before is crashed and broke in the basin. “Stars!”

“Maybe,” Ella argued.

“Guess it’s time to go,” Talise said anyway. Ella just wanted to be first, since she was born first and thought that meant she was supposed to do everything first. Jax was good at the twin thing, except he was oblivious to Ella’s hierarchy based life.

“It’s a nice beach,” Rhyss promised. “Private and everything, and it’s on a bay so the water’s pretty gentle.”

They all moved toward the door and she made sure Corban knew she was off on some adventure. He felt almost bad, because he was off duty, but she was hopeful that the two would get along and it would be worth the interruption. Plus, she promised (also by dragon) Jace could come too.

“Anytime, really. I don’t mind. I always wanted you involved,” Talise replied.

Rhyss clenched his hands a little and stretched them out then wrapped his arms around her. “Yeah, but still thanks.”

She missed his hugs, and the way his palms felt against her after a debate. He’d probably have fire soon and the then she would lose that, the sweaty feeling. She had already lost him, as a serious boyfriend, though. It was just how things had gone.

Talise backed out of the hug, after probably twenty seconds more than a friendly hug should have lasted. She didn’t need Niels AND Rhyss to die because of the bond and elixir.

She didn’t regret the bond or the elixir, either, they were good. Adjustments were hard, but she could manage it.

She opened the door and called to Julius. If she was going to leave the realm, she wanted him with her. The five of them departed for the ocean. She told Niels, and hoped he would join them. Either way, Rhyss was here and alive. He was being a dad. This adjustment, the kids part, was good. Things were good. And if she died, and didn’t come back, her kids would still have too many parents. And maybe even a mom, if they found Emily.

It was hard to imagine not seeing them again, but like her dad before her, she wanted to ensure they had everything in the world she could give them.

And worst case, at least she’d get to meet her dad. Rhyss was an opportunity to give her kids something she had never had. She’d never regret including him – Dad number 4 for her kids.

A thought lingered in the back of her mind as they walked toward the conference room, about wiccans and fives. She felt anxious, and hoped it was a meaningless (and powerless) worry. Sappy thoughts about her dad were a better use of her time.

She wouldn’t have to miss him much longer. Her kids would never have to miss Rhyss. She was, so much, just like her mom. Somewhere out there, maybe this upcoming thing, she’d have her own war of the Dells to fight, her own future to pave. Just like they did. She promised herself she’d be ready.

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