Room at the Arms Hotel, Saturday Early Afternoon

[glacial_queen]

Breathing hard, Karla let herself fall onto Warren's chest, unable or unwilling to hold herself up any longer. "And good morning to you, too," she said with a tired chuckle, nuzzling her face into his neck. "I take it you weren't too tired from all that dancing we did last night?"

And what dancing it had been, too.

"I recover quickly," Warren replied, not bothering to hide the little smirk that was tugging at his lips. "But it seems to me like you recuperated well enough from the dancing, yourself."

"You give me plenty of reason to keep up." Karla pressed a kiss to his jawline and reluctantly convinced her body to roll to the side so Warren could shift about if he wanted to. He was okay with laying on his wings given suitable motivation and distraction--which she was happy to provide in abundance--but she hated to keep him pinned down longer than necessary. Especially since he was so generous in his agreement of when it was necessary. "Though I will admit, I'm about ready to fall back asleep for a little while longer. We were up late and--" she yawned "--then someone felt the need to wake us up early."

Ish. For Karla, quarter past eleven on a Saturday was early, all right?

"I forget that you're part bear and feel the instinctive need to hibernate on weekends," Warren teased, taking that invitation to roll over and shifting his weight about, his wings splaying out behind him with not much in the way of grace or style. There had been plenty of grace and style at the dance. This morning was for being close, gentle teasing, and appreciating having Karla all to himself after the unwelcome reminder that Prom had given him, that his time as a high school student was nearly over. "Can you ever forgive me?"

"Maybe I'll be in a more forgiving mood after my nap," Karla replied, languorously stretching her legs while Warren kept her tucked neatly against his side. The sheets and blankets had long since been kicked off the sides of the bed, but he was enough to keep her warm anyway. "It will almost certainly require groveling in the form of room service. And possibly a little more of what woke me up in the first place."

Shameless? Damn right.

"But not until I've slept for at least another hour." She grabbed her watch off the bedside table, the only item that had survived an early wing-buffeting. Eh. They'd put that clock back before they left. And Warren would pay for the lamp's replacement. "Barely noon? Make it an hour and a half."

"Really, I wouldn't complain if we just stayed like this for the rest of the day," Warren admitted, one of those gracelessly splayed wings rustling about for a moment before folding around the both of them. "I can think of worse ways to spend a Saturday."

Kayla Worthington	Kayla called in her phone and checked the time. "It's not even quarter after noon yet. Ten goldmarks says Mom's still sleeping. It's probably the day after prom. We'll be lucky if she's up before three." She folded her wings back and leaned against the wall. "Let's just go back to the Perk. I'll even stop teasing you about your ridiculous facial hair while you're flirting with the barista."
Collin "Nommy" Worthington	"She's a cute barista," Collin countered, adjusting the coffee tray in his hands and smirking at his sister. "And you just want to head back so that you can have Mom's coffee, too. I'm on to your scheme, Kayla." After being her brother for fifteen years, it probably wasn't a huge shock that he knew her by now. Really. "And the facial hair is dignified. Just because nobody else in the family can grow it doesn't mean I should be expected to shave it all off, you know."
Kayla	"You just know that if we go in there, she's going to try to drink mine," Kayla muttered. "It's only fair." Of course, their mother's coffee was only fair game because Dad's was strictly off-limits. Mom yelled and sulked and bitched if she didn't get her coffee. Dad just got scary. "And you keep telling yourself that, Collin," she added, vanishing the 'Do Not Disturb' sign from off the doorknob. It wasn't there, so it no longer applied to them. Worthington logic was special, okay? "Maybe someday you'll find someone who looks at your ‘beard’ and even believes it."
Collin	In fairness, Worthington logic tended to skip a generation. Either that, or they'd picked it up from their mother and had appropriated it under the family name. "I think I stood a pretty good chance of getting the barista to see things my way," he decided, ruffling his feathers and putting his nose into the air for a moment before setting the coffee tray down in mid air, and raising a hand to knock at the door. "Room service!"
Karla	Karla groaned and opened one eye to glare at Warren. "I thought you put up the Do Not Disturb sign," she said. "I specifically remember telling you to do that." For this exact reason, in fact.
Warren	And Warren, in turn held up his hands in a sort of 'I surrender' pose. "I swear I did," he replied. "Remember, right after I set you on the bed and then went back into the hall for a moment?" He could remember it vividly, because he'd mostly wanted to just lock the door and growl menacingly at anybody who had the gall to knock while they were otherwise occupied. Possibly while mantling over her. But nooo, he had to go and put the sign on the door, instead.
Karla	There was a dreamy smile as Karla did remember that, though another impatient knock on the door sent that smile fleeing. "Well, either you forgot or they're ignoring it," she pointed out. With a poke to his side for good measure. "Go send them away." Obviously she couldn't do it. She was naked.
Warren	Which, of course, Warren was also. But he was also less prone to grumbling, and so he pulled himself out of bed, groped about on the floor for a moment in a tired search for his slacks, and then with one foot in his pant leg, he grabbed one of the sheets from the floor and tossed it onto the bed. "We're busy," he informed the person on the other side of the door as he hopped around for another moment, trying to get both legs into yesterday's suit pants. "Isn't there a sign?"
Kayla	Kayla held out her hand to her brother. Of course, it had been a pretty easy bet to win. "Nope!" she called. "There's no sign out here!" Poor Warren. He had so many years of this ahead of him. His children had learned to pick locks at an early age, just so they could say with all truthfulness that the door had not been locked when they opened it.
Collin	Collin, meanwhile made a face as he handed the money over to Kayla without much complaint. Really, he should have had less faith in his parents, after all. Apparently they hadn't changed all that much, over the decades. "No sign," he agreed. "But there is coffee." Of course, now that he was down a few bucks, he was kind of hoping that their parents would turn the coffee down so that he could have Warren's Americano. Naturally.
Warren	Through the door, the pair would probably hear, at least faintly, the zip as Warren did up his pants. And then a moment's silence before he turned to Karla, thoughtfully. "They know the password." Look, even if there wasn't a password, there was coffee out there. And somebody needed his Americano in the mornings in order to live, damn it.
Karla	Wait, they said 'Gabriel'?" Karla demanded, wrapping herself up in the sheet since it was obvious that Warren was going to open the door. "How did they know about that?!"
Warren	"Uh, I said password, not safeword," Warren countered, blushing a little bit. And if there were gagging noises coming from the other side of the door after overhearing that one, well, he was going to tactfully ignore those. "They said they brought coffee."
Kayla	"In fact, we have a double-shot Americano here," Kayla called. They knew their father well. "I sure do hope it doesn't get cold out here while we wait. It'd be a shame to throw all this caffeinated goodness away." The evil was inherited from the distaff line.
Warren	Oh, there was no doubt about that in the least. "Americano," Warren reported. "I'm opening the door to see who it is." This was going to be rich.
Collin	"Kiss kiss!" his teenaged children chanted in unison as he opened the door.
Warren	Warren stood there for a moment. Took in the sight of the two teens in the doorway. The blonde hair. The wings. The catchphrase. "It's for you," he decided, finally.
Karla	"Well, tell them I don't want any," Karla muttered, wrapping the sheet more securely around herself and joining Warren in the doorway. "No, thank you, we're still--" The word 'sleeping' died on her lips, unsaid, as she gaped at them. Weetiny children were one thing. Teenagers--teenagers who looked to be almost as old as she was--were another. "No." And now she was closing the hotel room door. "It is far too early in the afternoon to deal with this right now."
Kayla	From behind the closed door, they could hear their mother's incredulous, 'It's for me?!' Kayla turned towards her little brother, eyebrow raised. "This would be less weird if they looked even slightly different," she said. "Right now, this could pretty much be any morning back home."
Collin	Collin listened to the conversation through the door for a moment, and then turned to Kayla and grinned. The grin, he'd definitely learned from his mother. "Well, then I don't see any reason why we should do things any differently than we do back home, do you?"
Kayla	Wickedness and mischief in equal measures? Karla’s grin for sure, oh yes. "Not at all, dearest brother," Kayla said, flashing him an identical smile. "Not at all." She slipped her arm through his and jauntily passed through the door into the hotel room. "Mom! Dad! It's afternoon!" she yelled, in the best imitation of her younger self. "Time to wake uuuuuuuup!"
Warren	Oh god, they were in the hotel room and calling him Dad. ... Please, do pardon that deer-in-headlights look? "They got this from you," he informed Karla. Lovingly.
Karla	"Since when do I go into anyone's room and demand they wake up," Karla said, taking his comment in the most literal fashion possible. Also while looking terrified. And clinging to Warren with one hand and the sheet with the other.
Kayla	"Christmas," Kayla supplied helpfully. Her parents argued over which one had passed along that definition of helpfulness. "Most of the days of Winsol, actually."
Collin	"Birthdays," Collin added, helpfully. "And that one time that my dog got into your shoes." See? Totally helpful.
Karla	"...You have facial hair." For once, Karla wasn't using her incredibly sneaky(tm) 'let's change the subject before I have to admit I'm wrong' conversational technique. She was staring at her son's (aksjhasdaadsadjksaddAadsadljksadka) facial hair. That he was growing. On his face.
Kayla	"Well, we only call it that when we're being polite," Kayla snarked. "Usually, we tell it like it is and say he smudged something on his chin." Hell's fire and Mother Night, it reallywas like being home.
Karla	"Nommy, you're too young to grow facial hair!" Karla continued to object, ignoring the obvious fact that he wasn't. "No. I don't believe it!" Mostly, she didn't believe there was a her somewhere in the multiverse old enough to have children old enough to grow facial hair.
Collin	"Big topic of the day," Collin mused, ignoring his sister's laughter at the long-discarded nickname. "How little Nommy grew up and hit puberty. I am holding your coffee hostage, you know." He liked the facial hair! It kept him from looking too much like his father, now that he really only looked a handful of years younger than he did, and all. "I'm plenty old enough, too. I'm fifteen." A beat. "... Why, how old are you guys?" He wasn't sure he wanted to know, now.
Warren	... Nineteen." Nearly twenty. Dear god. Warren was nearly twenty. And still no sign of facial hair in sight. Why did his son get stubble?
Karla	"...Seventeen." Darkness have mercy. She was as close to Nommy in age as she was Warren. She was going to blindly reach for that coffee now. And hope that they'd slipped something stronger in it.
Kayla	Her daughter wasn't handing it over. Instead, she was staring at her mother, looking sort of appalled. "You can't be seventeen!" she yelped. "I'm seventeen!" And that was just wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.
Collin	"Which makes me... still the youngest. How is that even fair?" Couldn't their mother have the decency to at least be fifteen, too? Come on!
Karla	"You are not seventeen!" Karla told Kayla. "You just--aren't allowed! I'm your mother and I said so!" There. That should help.
Kayla	"Oh, well, that just fixes everything, doesn't it?" Kayla said, throwing up her hands. "I'm a different age because my seventeen year old mother said so, while wearing nothing but a sheet and a post-coital smile!"
Warren	"Oh god, they know what 'post-coital' means." Warren was kind of wishing that there was something stiffer than Americano in that tray now, himself. "You're not supposed to know what 'post-coital' means." That ought to clear everything up.
Collin	"Right," Collin laughed. "Because growing up with you two for parents makes that at all possible."
Karla	"And just what is that supposed to mean?" Karla demanded. She wanted to rest her hands on her hips, but Kayla's crack about the bed sheet had her clutching it in fear of it falling.
Kayla	"That the two of you are over forty and still act like horny teenagers," Kayla supplied dryly. "We've all learned to walk very loudly when approaching shadowed hallways or curtained alcoves just in case."
Warren	Warren was quiet for a moment. He really couldn't picture himself over forty, try though he might. Nope. Still couldn't. "... You're making that up, right?"
Collin	"If Charlotte and Henry are here this weekend, you can always ask them for confirmation," Collin offered. "Or any of Aunt Momoko's brood, or Sin or--oof!"
Kayla	"Spoilers," Kayla reminded sharply, removing her elbow from his side. "The rules, remember!"
Warren	"There are rules?" Warren's eyebrows were creeping up a little. "When did we lay ground rules about spoilers, anyhow?" And could he punch himself for doing so?
Karla	"I bet they were your idea," Karla grumbled at him. She was still grumpy about his ‘It's for you’ comment.
Kayla	"The rules are pretty simple," Kayla explained, looking oddly serious. "No spoiling the future for you guys. You know that, for our universe, you two get married and have two adorable mutant Blood children. But there's a lot of stuff that happens otherwise that you don't get to know in advance." And if her eyes darted down to her mother's legs, swathed in yards of cotton, they were back up before anyone but the most sharp-eyed would be able to notice.
Collin	Collin didn't look down. But then, he'd been so young when certain things had happened, the sight of his mother standing was simply the way things were, and the reasons behind the silence were more of the same. "I'm pretty sure that's just the way you're used to things around here anyhow, isn't it? When in Fandom, no spoilers? You never know whose reality you'll break by trying to save it?" The road to Hell and all that stuff, right?
Warren	Warren didn't seem completely at ease about the selective silence, really. But at least he did see their logic. Kind of. "Though now you have me worried that there's going to be something to save."
Collin	Eheheh... Oops. Collin turned a faint smile toward his father, and offered him a shrug that was just as much in his wings as his shoulders, noting idly to himself the way it had Warren staring as though he'd never seen anything quite like that gesture with his own eyes. "Maybe. But when isn't there?" Fair point, Warren. Fair point.
Karla	"I was kind of hoping things slowed down a little once we graduated," Karla said wryly. "Faint hope then?"
Collin	"Well, I don't know," Collin countered. "What have you guys got planned for after graduation, again?" Nothing terribly slow, if he remembered family history (The Pre-Nommy Years) correctly.
Karla	Karla gave that question some thought. Let's see, there was her Offering, claiming her place as Territory Queen of Glacia, a civil war, Jaenelle taking her place as Queen of Ebon Askavi... "I don't suppose you'd believe a relaxing retirement in Hawaii?"
Kayla	"I'm sure Captain Chiba will be thrilled to hear it," Kayla snorted.
Warren	"Well, it's good to hear that he's around for a while," Warren offered, cracking a bit of a crooked smile. "Vacations wouldn't be the same without him spoiling us rotten."
Collin	"Or us," Collin agreed, his grin playing a broad counterpoint to the reserved look on his father's face. "I'm pretty sure Captain Chiba is from a long-lived race, transplanted to Earth, and he just never told anybody." He stretched, something that included his arms as well as his wings, and then settled into a grin. "So. Now that you two are up and you've got your coffee," or, well, they were close to the coffee, which still hadn't been handed over, "come on. Let's get some breakfast." Lunch. Whatever.
Kayla	A shower," Kayla said, looking back at their sheet-clad mother. "Or rather two, so that you don't get distracted. Again. And while you're getting dressed, we can figure out where to go for...food." Lunch, Mom. It was totally lunch by now.
Karla	Face bright red, Karla gathered up her sheet with all the dignity she could muster and headed for the bathroom. "I have no idea where they get it from," she muttered, loud enough to be overheard.
Warren	And Warren, for the most part, just contented himself to take his Americano from the tray and to sit down on the edge of the bed. They got it from their mother, of course. And he wouldn't have it any other way.

[Preplayed for lack of availability! Post co-written with the wonderful not_a_parakeet. Open for more AU!kidlets, with a HUUUUUUUGE SP warning, as I am busy like a busy thing this weekend]

Comments

[potentia-gloria.livejournal.com]

It would be some time before there was another knock on the door. Aindric, unlike the whirlwind that just stopped by, was patient - and perfectly willing to sit quietly and observe until it was time to move in.

He rapped on the door with two knuckles and waited, sitting down beside it.

[wingdwitchling.livejournal.com]

Kayla poked her head out of the door, looked down, and sighed. With the Jewel around his throat, it wasn't hard to guess who this was supposed to be. Or, rather, what he was supposed to be.

"Mom!" she called over her shoulder. "You've got another one!"

Then she offered the kid a smile and opened the door wider to let him in. "She still hasn't had her coffee yet."

Which, if this was another child of Karla's, probably explained everything.

[potentia-gloria.livejournal.com]

The expression on Aindric's face made it clear that he knew exactly what that meant, thank you very much.

He rose up onto his feet, brushing at his trousers to banish any awkward folds that might have come into being while he was sitting on the floor. "I should have brought a thermos after all," he said. "Or someone should've had a talk with the hotel staff."

Possibly whoever this was. Way to fail, Kayla.

[wingdwitchling.livejournal.com]

Kayla raised an eyebrow at that, looking a lot like her mother and scarily like a younger version of Aindric's. "We brought her some," she said, somehow feeling judged by, what? A ten year old? "But then Mom had to take a shower."

She sipped a cup of coffee with the Perk's logo on it. "I decided not to let it get cold. Waste of good coffee and all."

[potentia-gloria.livejournal.com]

"Because that's going to end really well," Aindric said, his eyes sliding to the cup.

He brushed past Kayla a moment later. Loitering out in the hall wasn't really what he'd been planning to do.

[wingdwitchling.livejournal.com]

"It's not like it's Dad's," Kayla said philosophically. And eyed the tiny, dark-haired kid. "Well, my dad's anyway. Whose kid are you?"

Cause she was going to go out on a limb and assume this kid wasn't Warren's. Impressed with her powers of observation yet, young Wiggin?

[potentia-gloria.livejournal.com]

He was mightily impressed by her ability to notice he wasn't blond! Except not really.

"Whose are you?" Aindric countered, pulling up a chair. There were a great deal of situations where a sane person wouldn't go around announcing they were the Hegemon's kid - or the Queen of Glacia's, for that matter.

He generally considered himself a sane person.

[wingdwitchling.livejournal.com]

And wingless! She'd noticed that, too!

Kayla tapped her Jewel and looked at the one the kid was sporting around his neck. "I'm guessing we share one parent in common, at least."

He'd known about the coffee, too.

She grimaced at the furniture--very little of it had been designed with wings in mind--and sat on the couched, perched fairly far forward so her wings wouldn't get smushed.

"My dad's name is Warren," she said. "Yours?"

[potentia-gloria.livejournal.com]

Aindric weighed his options. On one hand, he still didn't feel like letting on the significance of his father's identity - much too dangerous. On the other hand, she had given him an easy out by using her father's first name.

Which sounded familiar somehow, but not enough to place it.

"Peter," he said. If she wanted more details, well, she was out of luck. "So I suppose that makes us half-siblings."

[wingdwitchling.livejournal.com]

"Peter?" Kayla asked. She frowned, trying to place his father's name, too. It didn't sound particularly Kaeleeran and while she knew most of her parents' friends well, there had never been an Uncle Peter in the mix.

"Huh, must be one of those weird timeline things," she said. "Not ringing any bells for me, either."

Give her time. It would eventually come to her. Along with gales of laughter at her mother's expense.

[potentia-gloria.livejournal.com]

Even if there had been a Peter, he would have denied usage of the term 'Uncle Peter' on pain of death (probably his own).

"Or someone took a wrong portal," Aindric provided. "I don't think it much matters when everyone seems to have shed a few years along the edges."

From what he'd observed so far on his way here.

[wingdwitchling.livejournal.com]

"Really..."

Hmm, that had the potential to be interesting. To Kayla, her mother looked pretty much exactly like her present counterpart. That was, however, due to the regular infusions of her father's blood to keep the witchblood at bay. But how would she look in the future when she was with the wrong person someone else.

"I've had run-ins with people who've gained a few years as well." Like Lena and Berto and what was up with that? "To me, Mom looks pretty much the same as she always does."

[potentia-gloria.livejournal.com]

"I haven't seen her yet," Aindric pointed out sensibly. He did look puzzled, though. "But she's hardly eighteen anymore."

Sorry, mom.

[wingdwitchling.livejournal.com]

"She's still seventeen here," Kayla said sourly. Kayla did not approve of having a mother who was actually the same age as she, never mind just looking like it. "But what I'm saying is that she looks the same today as she does in the future when she is my mother. I'm guessing that doesn't hold true for you?"

From his comment, he was guessing his mother didn't look like a high school student, even well into her forties. Or thirties. Or whatever.

[potentia-gloria.livejournal.com]

"She looks all right for her age," said Aindric, who was starting to wonder whether this girl was trying to coerce him into insulting his mother-- and what possible motive she could have to do so. "But she certainly doesn't look like a seventeen-year-old. Why would she?"

[wingdwitchling.livejournal.com]

"Because Dad's healing factor counters the effect of aging," Kayla answered matter-of-factly. Which, of course, didn't answer how Karla was getting the benefit of that, but there was a spoiler warning in effect. "It rejuvenates people on a cellular level."

[potentia-gloria.livejournal.com]

Well, that was giving Aindric all the wrong ideas about why this Warren person was in Karla's life. "I didn't realize she had gotten that vain."

[wingdwitchling.livejournal.com]

"Hey!" Kayla said, shooting Aindric a dirty look. She and her mother didn't always get along, but it wasn't because Karla was that horrible! "She and Dad were married long before that became necessary," she snapped. "To save her life, thanks much!"

Way to insult your own mom, Aindric.

[potentia-gloria.livejournal.com]

Way to imply she'd basically been getting mutant blood beauty treatments before, Kayla.

Aindric frowned as he ran that through his mental archive. What could have happened that his mother would need that kind of treatment? He looked-- well, a little genuinely confused.

The rest of his face was employing the kind of calm it employed in the face of people yelling at him.

[wingdwitchling.livejournal.com]

Which was actually the clue Kayla needed. She was from looking annoyed by the kid to thoughtful.

"Let me guess. That's your impassive face," she said. "Uncle Ender has one just like it!"

Beat. Process.

"...Doesn't Uncle Ender have a brother named Peter?"

This was amaaaaaazing.

[potentia-gloria.livejournal.com]

Aindric pulled a face, then sighed. Well, the jig was up-- depending on how much Kayla knew. "He's my actual uncle," he pointed out. "So whatever you're thinking, yes."

Just don't go usurping any titles now, Kayla.

[wingdwitchling.livejournal.com]

Please. Kayla was a Queen in her own right. And a Worthington. She didn't need a stupid title like 'Hegemon.'

Whatever Kayla was thinking could basically be summed up by the long bout of laughter she released right then. Mother rarely spoke about Peter, but when she did, it was rarely complimentary. And when even those few times it had been, it had been a grudging kind of complimentary at best.

"Mother and Peter Wiggin?! From the stories everyone tells, how in the Darkness did they stop trying to throttle one another to even think about conceiving you?"

[potentia-gloria.livejournal.com]

Hegemon? Well, that wasn't an inherited title. He was rather more concerned about her claiming any of his relatives.

Even if it involved relatives he didn't see much of.

"They didn't," Aindric said. "I think they just found a different way to throttle." Which had made the 'when a boy and a girl really... uh...' sex ed conversation a little awkward.

[wingdwitchling.livejournal.com]

Hey! Kayla could call him Uncle Ender if she wanted to! He and Uncle Ben had been a part of her life for as long as she could remember.

...Even if it was more due to the number of stories her mother told them than actual trips and visits to spend time with them.

Details.

"...That is a horrifying thought," Kayla said, wrinkling her nose. Even if she had no idea what this 'Peter' looked like, she didn't much like the thought of her mother creatively throttling anyone other than her father, okay?

She glanced towards the bathroom door, making sure it was still closed and then put an aural shield up around them anyway. "So...what can you tell me about your life--what is your name? I'm Kayla."

[potentia-gloria.livejournal.com]

Aindric crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall. "I'm Aindric," he said, "And I'm not sure I'm comfortable sharing much more with you than that."

Information was power, after all.

"Unless you'd like to share first."