group
Cage rolls his eyes and turns on the game system. “Wow Miki. Okay do you wanna be princess or blonde guy?”
-
Ben looks from Ryder and Kissa to the bean bag.
One thing at a time.
He glares back at Ryder.
Deal with what you can see right now.
How do i even deal with this???
Gabriel stays completely still.
We move or make a noise, we die.
"Well, if I'm the Link dude then that makes you the princess so…" Miki laughed. "I don't care. But I'll be the girl if you don't want to be her."
–
Silver's heart pounded in her ears, but she almost didn't dare to breathe. Slowly she mouthed, "Whatever happens, I love you." to Gabriel.
group
Ryder and Ben maintain eye contact and just stare at each other for a few minutes, and Kissa stirs, giving a small sigh in her sleep.
“Y- you need something?” Ryder nervously asks, a little worried by the expression on Ben’s face.
Cage chooses the princess. “Here. Cause I’m real life I’d be the princess and you’d be the crazy sword man.”
Silver slowly glanced over toward Ryder and saw how Kissa was curled up with her arms around him. Well, at least Gabriel and I won't die alone.
Miki snort laughed. "This is true. I'm the farthest thing for a princess ever." She picked up her game controller and crammed another mouthful of crackers in her mouth.
group
Cage takes a handful of crackers. “Do you think Ben is gonna kill them all? It’s sad that only minutes ago he liked Ryder.”
-
Gabriel turns to look at Ryder and sticks his tongue out at him.
This is what you get for throwing us under the bus.
Ben runs a hand through his hair and he turns around and leaves the room, much to Ryders relief, but he turns right back around and walks in closer, standing by Ryders feet.
“Okay, no, I’m not okay with this, get her off of you.”
Ryder sighs. “Serious? She’s sleeping, you’re gonna wake her up?”
Ben glares. “No, you are.”
"Well, he hasn't set anything on fire or killed anyone yet." Miki said through her mouthful. "Which means he's probably gonna do both in short order." the game started and Miki spammed her buttons, promptly getting herself stuck in a wall.
–
Silver grinned and pressed her lips together. He deserves to be caught between Ben and Kissa since he ratted on us.
group
Cage turns to glare at Miki. “Why’d you do that? How am I supposed to get you out of there? That’s a fricken wall mik. Don’t jump at it.”
“Why?” Ryder questions.
Ben’s eyes widen, feeling a bit challenged.
“Because I told you to? This is inappropriate. Stop.”
Ryder raises an eyebrow. “Inappropriate?” Despite not agreeing, he peels Kissa’s arms off of him and pushes her gently to the side. “Happy?”
Ben nods. “Yes. And she didn’t even wake.”
Ryder kicks the bean bag, making Gabriel lose his balance and tumble to the floor, still invisible.
"Uuuuggghhh, I'm sorry." Miki groaned. "I thought I was walking out and then that wall got in my way." She spammed her buttons again and somehow jumped out of the wall. "See? There. All good."
Silver gasped as Gabriel tumbled over her. Her feet got pinned underneath him and she held her breath, staring at Ben.
group
Ben watches the bean bag shift and hears Silver gasp.
Oh my word.
I thought he was messing with me.
“Alright you two, turn visible now.” He demands.
Gabriel quickly repositions himself, so he’s sitting on the left side of Silver, and gives her a glance before turning them both visible.
Ryder squints at them.
-
Cage watches in utter confusion, but decides not to question and begins collecting coins and fighting monsters instead. “You amaze me.” He states, “with your craziness of course.”
Silver sat up straight in the beanbag, hands in her lap, and held her breath, waiting for Ben to murder them all.
Miki batted her eyelashes. "Why thank you. Whoa, rude!" She yelled as something attacked her. "Die die die!" She cried as she beat the monster to death without a weapon.
group
Ryder scoffs at them.
“Ha. If you thought Kissa snuggling me was inappropriate you should’ve-“
Ben puts his hand up to cut him off and Ryder goes silent.
Violet told me to let them be. But… Gabriel is like an actual animal and Silver is like an actual child. They don’t think before they act.
He puts his hand out to Silver. “C’mon. Let’s find something to eat.”
And get you away from this vampire.
Cage gasps, moving the controller although that does nothing to move his character. “Miki, careful! You about shoved me off the cliff!”
Silver's jaw dropped a little and she stared at Ben in even more horror. Slowly she got off the beanbag, but she didn't take his hand. "You're not gonna kill us?" She whispered.
"What? What cliff?" Miki asked, leaning forward to see better. "Oh. The one I just walked off."
group
A little offended she didn’t take his offered hand, Ben huffs. Kissa blinks her eyes open and he gestures for her to come as well. “C’mon, you too.”
She rubs her eyes and stands.
Whats going on? Where are we going?
Cage sighs. “Miki now I have to wait till the next checkpoint to have your help! Look at all these monsters! I’m gonna diiEEEE!”
Silver took a deep breath and slowly stepped forward, wrapping her arms around Ben in a cautious hug. He hadn't answered her question about killing them, so she took that as a tentative no, they weren't gonna die.
Miki flopped back against the couch. "I'm soooorrrrrryyyyyyy. I asked if you wanted to just play on your own. You know how I am. Why do you even want me to play with you? I'm completely useless except for quality mocking. You know this."
group
Cage aggressively presses buttons, trying to make his character run as fast as possible to the nearest checkpoint. “Aaaaaaah Miki not now! I need your help!”
Ben gives Silvers head a small pat, accustomed to the random awkward hugs from her by now. “Alright, let’s go. Cage made… something. I can smell it. I’m sure he’ll let you have some.”
Kissa drearily wanderers our of the room, leaving the two of them behind and turning invisible on the way.
Ryder raises an eyebrow, then looks to Gabriel.
Is it just me, or do all of you have really weird relationships?
Gabriel furrows his brow.
Let go with it’s just you.
"Oh yes!" Silver cried, remembering. "He made me Thai food!" She bolted out of the room and into the kitchen. "Cage! I'm sorry I didn't get you a rat but Ben said you made my food?"
"You can do it!" Miki cheered him on. "Oh no, look out. CAGE, DON'T–okay you made it, good job. Oh, hey, Sil. Ben didn't kill you?"
group
Ben walks to the doorframe then pauses.
What am I doing? I just leave like this and they’ll think this is fine.
He glares at the floor for a second.
Gabriel looks to Ryder.
You thought he was just gonna walk out, didn’t you.
Ryder cautiously stands and offers his hand to Gabriel.
Hurry, we’ll walk out fast before he has the chance to turn around.
Gabriel takes his hand and stands, but not before Ben turns around, still glaring.
What do I even say? What’s in my power to do at this point??
Ryder glances between Gabriel and Ben, half expecting Gabriel to go invisible.
“Is this between you two oooor…?”
Glaring, Ben looks to Ryder. “Stay.”
Cage gasps, pausing the game.
“Yeah Sil! It’s in the fridge to reheat. Can you still get us that rat though? Please?”
Kissa wobbles through the living room invisible and still half asleep to get to the stairs.
What is wrong with them ugh. I don’t even wanna know why they want a rat. Probably cause they wanna be like Gabriel or something stupid.
Silver opened the fridge and gasped. "I love you so much, Cage. You're the best." she took out one of the containers and hugged it. "Yeah, I'll find you a rat. We can go looking tomorrow." she glanced back toward the library. If Ben is getting Gabe in trouble without me…
Miki turned around to watch her. "So… what happened in there?"
Silver rubbed her forehead and glanced between her sister and the hallway to the library. "I… might have kissed Gabriel. And Ryder ratted us out."
group
Cage grins. “Wow, savage move.” He stands, walking to the kitchen to grab a snack. “Ben mad?”
Kissa drags herself up the stairs, rubbing her eyes.
Ew. I can’t believe I was in the room while they were kissing.
Make this quick, I’m sure Sil will come back soon.
Ben sighs, trying to find what to say besides what he already has. He looks to Gabriel.
This kid- what do I even say?
Ryder bites his lip and runs a hand through his hair, fixing it.
Is he gonna say something orrr…???
“You just don’t want us snuggling alone in a dark room, right?” Ryder finally speaks up.
Ben and Gabriel maintain eye contact and Ben gives a small nod.
“It seems to be a serious issue for you to follow very simple, reasonable rules though.” He angrily states.
Ryder takes a step back. “Assuming you’re speaking to Vamp cause I just got here.” He mumbles to himself.
Miki grinned. "And Gabriel didn't run away?"
Silver shook her head. "No. I thought he would though." to Cage she said, "I mean, he's Ben, so yeah. Of course he is. But I'm not sure how much he believes though because we were invisible. It wasn't even super involved or anything. I kissed him for like maybe thirty seconds before Ben walks into there and then Gabe and I were like, 'we're dead now'. But like, Ryder and Kissa were right there? So we weren't alone and it wasn't anything bad." she sighed and set the tupperware on the counter. "But it's Ben. So. You know."
Miki nodded. "You better go rescue your boy before there's nothing left of him."
group
Ben finally breaks eye contact with Gabriel to look to Ryder. “Yes, but I don’t want any trouble out of you either. I know you all know each other, and you’re all friends or whatever, but I still have rules. And if you’re in my house, you’re following them.”
Ryder gives a nod. “Alright. What kind of rules?”
Cage makes himself a sandwich. “How angry did he sound? He didn’t get you in trouble this time it didn’t sound like.”
Otherwise you’d be a whole lot more upset.
Silver grabbed a bowl and dished up her food. "He was like really quiet? Which could mean he's even more angry or like… he's trying to be calm?" She groaned and stuck her food in the microwave. "He's probably blaming it all on Gabe even though it's literally all my fault." She trudged out of the kitchen and back toward the library.
Miki came into the kitchen and poked at Silver's food. "Relationships are tough. I guess. I've never been in one."
group
Gabriel, unfazed, still watches and stands still.
Wait for it.
“First, there’s the obvious. You shouldn’t be alone with them, especially if nobody knows where you are. And don’t kiss? You can hold hands, I don’t care but-“
Ryder puts a hand up. “I think these rules are for Gabriel, not I. You misunderstood. I have no intention of kissing or touching or being alone with in any romantic way at all. I swear. If I do any of those, it’s either an accident or not romantic.”
Ben squints at him. “Alright. No being alone with my girls or snuggling up to any of them. I mean it.”
Ryder raises his hands in defense. “Your house your rules! I’m good with it. Can I leave?”
Cage sighs. “They’re not all tough.” He claims before taking a bite of his sandwich.
Silver leaned against the doorway and crossed her arms, overhearing Ben's rules. She gave Gabriel an apologetic look, while trying not to laugh at his blase attitude.
Miki shrugged. "Yeah, I guess if you don't have someone like Ben getting in the way, it wouldn't be so bad." she shook her head. "Poor Silver. They really ever do anything bad. I don't think Gabriel knows how to be bad, and Silver has too much conscience to do anything, even if the idea occurred to her."
group
Cage shrugs. “Hey, at least she’s got a dad to freak out over her, yeah? He’s not evil and I wouldn’t say he gets in the way. And he is getting better, I think. He sets basic rules and you follow them. He doesn’t freak out over Robin and I.”
Ben looks more concerned now than angry and furrows his brow.
What? You can’t-
He closes his eyes right for a second then reopens them. “Go. Fine. If I catch you like that again you’re dead.”
Ryder nods, smiling. “Yeah, I believe it.” He waves, “I’ll be on my way now, bye.”
He walks pass Silver, seemingly unbothered by the fact he was leaving Gabriel alone.
Gabriel sighs.
“I’m sorry.”
Ben looks back to him. “I don’t believe it. If you were sorry you wouldn’t keep blatantly doing what we agreed you wouldn’t. I won’t bother you if you don’t get all touchy.”
Gabriel glares at the ground. “I wasnt-“
“Weren’t you??”
Miki rolled her eyes. "Cage. You're a boy, that's why. If you were Ben's sister, he'd freak out over you like he does over Silver. Also he knows you can't do anything bad either. You think it's gross that Ben and Vi are married, for goodness sake."
"Dad." Silver interrupted, her voice a warning tone. "If you're gonna get someone in trouble for this, at least be fair and yell at both of us. I was the one who kissed him, anyway."
group
At the sound of Silvers voice, Ben tenses up.
Are you kidding me? Can I have just a second with him to talk things out?
He turns to glare at her.
“I don’t care who did what at this point, I’m talking to Gabriel.” He states in irritation.
Gabriel huffs, taking a step back and turning invisible.
Not this again.
Hearing Ben’s voice raise to more than a calm and quiet tone, Ryder jogs into the kitchen.
Geez, man. I wouldn’t have been in on it had I known it was against the rules.
He leans on the counter.
“Any other rules I should be aware of?”
Cage nods, dropping his conversation with Miki. “A lot. But I can’t remember most of em.”
Silver glared back at him, but pushed off the doorway and turned to leave. "Okay. But then come talk to me too. Don't blame it all on him." and she walked away.
Miki grabbed a knife and scooped some peanut butter out of the jar and ate it. "Yeah. Basically before you do anything, think 'would Ben freak out about this?'. The answer is always yes."
group
Cage giggles. “Omg no. It’s not half as bad as we make it out to be, I promise. It’s not all eggshells around him. Just don’t…. kiss people.”
Ryder nods. “Yeah I wasn’t involved in any kissing.”
Cage shrugs. “Don’t really touch a girl.”
Ben watches as she leaves, relieved, and turns back to Gabriel.
Violet pulls her hair up with a sigh and Bobby pins it in place before heading out of her room, already knowing the first place Ben would go was the library to check on the kids. She heads down the stairs.
"Except me." Miki said around a mouthful of peanut butter. "He doesn't care about me. I don't count as one of his kids."
Silver came back to the kitchen, lips pressed together in frustration, and snatched her food out of the microwave.
Miki glanced up as Vi came down the stairs. "Hey. Ben found the kids snuggling in the library and I think he's roasting Gabe. Also, I'm sorry we kept interrupting y'all."
