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Violet pauses, giving Silver a sad smile and kissing her forehead. “No, Love. Thank you for helping though.” She turns back to the soup, continuing it.
Cage rolls his eyes. “You basically live with us for two years. You don’t already know this?” He throws a toothbrush at her. He turns, pausing to admire his own teeth in the mirror.
Silver nodded, giving her a quick hug, and went over to the basement door and jogged down the stairs to the training area. You wanted me to start training more, Ben, she thought. Let's see how this goes.
Miki stared at him for a moment before making a face. "And that's NOT gross to do in front of another person?? See, this is why I get so confused. Civilized people don't make sense."
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“IM LOOKING AT MY TEETH, HOw is that gross?? Are they gross Miki!? Omg ARE THEY YELLOW!?” He leans over the sink, getting as close as he can to the mirror. “I can’t teeeeelllllll!”
Gabriel sits quietly in the far left corner of the basement. His wings are fully visible, a rare sight, and one is pulled over his leg as he inspects it and dries blood from a few cuts. The other wing is sprawled out to the side, small scratches and cuts covering it as well. His shirt is removed, a few scratches across his chest and his hair has three leaves embedded in it.
Miki groaned and rolled her eyes, turning to scrub the shower and not lookat him. "I don't know?? It just seems like that would be gross and rude if leaving the sink unwashed is gross and rude. CAGE, SOCIETAL RULES ARE SO WEIRD. Living on the street is so much easier."
Silver stopped atthe bottom of the stairs and took a deep breath, glancing around the basement. It was so familiar, almost more comfortable to her than her own room. She slowly stepped toward the middle of the room and sat down on the floor, unsure how to experiment with the idea she had.
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“Living in the street isn’t nicer though. I’d much rather live with my rich brother, to be honest.”
—
He slowly moves his wing out of the way to care for the cuts over his midsection, and it makes a soft scratching noise as it moves across the floor, gathering dusts in the wounds he just cleaned.
"Well, I mean, yeah." Miki agreed. "I'm not saying I don't prefer to live with your rich brother too. But it's easier to live on the street. No one cares about manners. And 'rude' is when someone pulls a gun on you, not leaves a dirty sink behind them. It's just not as complicated."
Silver had just closed her eyes and tried to ease her breathing when she heard–and felt– a skitter on the floor. With a gasp she jerked around toward the sound and saw Gabriel sitting in a far corner, half hidden by the shadows.
"Gabriel!" she breathed, letting out the air in her lungs and trying to still her pounding heart. "You scared me."
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Cage bites his lip. “Yikes. Yeah, okay. I’m pretty sure I’ve lived on the street before but I don’t know.” He shrugs. “I was probably like 5.”
Gabriel jerks his attention to Silver, his eyes wide a stick falls out of his hair with his sudden movement and he stares at her.
H- Hi.
"WAT." Miki squawked. "Tiny Cage was a street baby???" She smashed her cheeks with her hands. "Awwwwwwww. Actually," she let go of her face and returned to scrubbing, her voice normal again. "I don't believe you. Ben probably kept you in a gazillion dollar nursery til you were like ten."
"Gabe…?" Silver said, squinting and moving closer, scooting along the floor to avoid getting up and walking. "Gabriel, what are you… are you hurt?" she asked, voice peaked with concern as she got a little bit better look at him.
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He pulls his wings closer to himself, dusty blood oozing from the small cuts. “No. I’m fine.” He quietly states.
Cage bursts out laughing, gently hitting Miki’s shoulder. “HA. No nonono, you don’t understand. Clovis, mine and Ben’s older brother took care of us. And we ran from family in Russia to live in Germany. Or… at least that’s what Ben says. I was too small to remember, but I remember Clovis okay.”
Silver frowned, feeling the injuries on him more than she could see them. "Gabriel, you're bleeding. What happened?"
Miki rolled her eyes. "Okay, same difference. Your Clovis brother brought you to Germany and kept you in a gazillion dollar nursery until you were ten. You were still a tiny baby Cageually Stan human and couldn't ever have lived on the street. You would have died."
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“I would NOT have!” Cage argues. “They took good care of me!” He starts to scrub the toilet. “I think at least.”
Gabriel considers turning invisible, but for once he decides against it.
“I’m fine.” He states again, his voice quiet and uncertain this time.
“It was.. nothing.”
"Weeeeeell," She surveyed him, face skeptical. "You still think it's okay to look at your teeth in the mirror in front of people so… I wouldn't say they did the greatest job ever."
Silver groaned and scooted closer, trying to see better without cornering him too badly. "Gabriel, really. How do you get… what, leaves? Sticks? In your hair and—why aren't you wearing a shirt? Gabriel, what did you do?"
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Cage shoots her a pretend glare. “Haha. By the way, what do you think is holding Ben up?”
He sighs, acting as if he’s given up and will give her a real answer, “you wanna come?” He asks.
Miki shrugged. "I told him to call us if he died soooooo… he called Violet. But he never listens to me so he's probably fine."
Silver frowned, more confused than ever. "Come? What? Gabriel, I want to know why you're bleeding."
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Cage nods. “Nobody listens to you, Mik.” He points out casually, still scrubbing the toilet.
Gabriel stands, reaching his hands up and stretching despite the cuts. He offers her his hand, blinking.
"Ah!" Miki cried, placing a hand over her heart. "Rude! I listen to me! Silver listens to me! Sometimes! YOU LISTEN TO ME OR YOU WOULDN'T BE TALKING TO ME RIGHT NOW."
Silver stared at him for a moment, mouth slightly open, before she gave up with a resigned shake of her head and accepted his hand. "Okay. I'll come. Where are we going?"
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Cage starts to giggle in the middle of Miki talking. “OKAY OKAY FINE. Some people listen to you!”
Gabriel takes her hand and they both turn invisible. He slips his finger between hers and silently leads her up the stairs and out the back door into the cold yard. He pauses, looking to her with a hint of guilt in his eyes.
“Please… please don’t tell Ben.” He quietly asks.
Miki huffed and turned away, attacking the shower with her scrubby with renewed vigor. "We're not friends anymore."
Silver stared at him again, a frown of utter confusion wrinkling her brow. "Gabriel, I don't understand. What did you do?"
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Gabriel lets go of her hand and spreads his enormous wings behind him, the wind brushing over the tattered and scarred skin. He leaps into the air and stops a little over the house and looks down, motioning for her to come.
"Oh, my goodness." Silver whispered to herself, spreading her wings and rising to join him. "Yes?" she said as she reached his side. "Gabriel, where on earth are we going?"
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“Away.” He whispers. He pulses his wings, moving forward quickly while the wind catches his hair and burns his cheeks and ears with its freezing hands.
Violet pats her hands on her apron. “Robin should be here soon and the food is almost done. You kids should wash up.”
Silver grinned, giving up on getting answers out of him–like he ever gave her answers???– and followed him, enjoying the opportunity to stretch her wings and feel the wind on her face. It was cold, biting and nipping her nose and her ears and her fingers, but it had been too long since she'd been able to fly in the open air under the sun and the sky. She lagged behind him, dipping and twisting, catching air currants and dancing with the wind.
"CAGE, ROBBY WILL BE HERE SOON." Miki shrieked, finishing the shower and gathering up the cleaning supplies to put away. "Text her and see how far away she is!"
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Cage shrieks and finishes up the toilet, washes and dries his hands, then pulls out his phone to text her.
Two minutes pass and his breathing gets heavier. He starts to lower into the forest below, planting his feet on a strong, high branch. His wings flop to either side of the branch and he leans his bare back against the tree trunk.
"Hey, hey," Silver said, landing beside him and realizing how hard the flight would have been on him. "Gabriel, you're all cut up and bleeding and you just flew like three miles. Please tell me what's going on before you pass out."
Miki took the cleaners back to the laundry room and put them away. "Oh, please tell me Silver and Gabriel didn't disappear. Robby needs the full experience of our family. Just Vi and Cage and me are not enough for tonight."
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Kissa leans over the railing. “IM not family??? hmmmm??”
Violet points towards the basement door, not bothering to look up from the soup. “Silver is downstairs. I’m sure Gabriel will show up.”
He sleepily stares into her eyes, blinking slowly. “I like to get away. To actually feel free and not caged.” He leans his head forward, looking down at his hands. “It’s not… uncommon to land on a- unm- branch too thin.” He runs a hand through his hair, peeking through a few strands to see her face.
Miki waved a hand at Kissa, not even looking at her. "YOU'RE the one I'm scared of Robby thinking is a good representation of our family. We need Gabe and Ben to balance you out."
Silver watched him, a slow smile spreading over her face.
He fell out of a tree.
He fell out of a tree.
She pressed her lips together to smother her grin and settled down beside him. "Yeah, this is nice. How… How often do you do this? Get away for a while?"
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Daily
He sighs and leans back. “Often.”
He looks over the darkening, cold forest and sighs. “It’s nice here.”
Kissa sticks her tongue out at Miki, turning around and stomping back to her room. Violet stirs the soup.
“Remember to be relaxed. Robin is a guest but she’s kind and not judge mental.”
Silver smiled again and shifted closer lowering her head to rest on his shoulder–careful to not touch any of his bruises or cuts. "It is." She sighed and took in the trees and nature around them. "It's so beautiful."
Miki flung herself on the floor in the living room, closing her eyes. "Hmm, yeah. Relaxed. Got it. Man, I worked hard today. Cage, you better propose to this girl! I cleaned the whole house just for her."
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Cage giggles, flopping down beside her. “Miki, I’m a freakin freak. Why would she marry me?” He laughs, taking the matter lightly, and gives Miki a small nudge.
Gabriel looks down to Sil and rubs her arm- not out of affection or anything at the moment, just because he noticed her new coat. He strokes it, looking intently. “Where did you get this? It’s so nice.”
"I don't know. You're pretty normal. Gabriel is a real freak and Sil's head over heels for him." She turned her head to survey him. "How long have you been together? Ten years? That girl knows about your powers and followed you to Spain. You better marry her, Cage, or I'll hit you."
"Oh!" Silver said, voice spiking with excitement. "Ben gave it to me! Last night. He said he got it made specially to fit me. Look, there are wing holes!"
