group
Ben glares. “You’re downing my wine??”
Ryders eyes widen and he quickly downs the remaining of his and Miki’s wine.
Ben looks up at the stairs, “she wh- don’t drink anymore and stay still!” He demands before running upstairs.
Miki picked up the corks and pounded them back into the bottles. "Seriously. If you drink any more, that's on you." she put the bottles in the fridge and closed it decidedly. "I actually can't remember what my threshold is."
group
Ryder sighs. “It was gross anyways.”
Cage sits back. “I’m surprised he didn’t kill you guys first. You okay Mik? Ryder?”
Ryder nods, “you think a few drinks of wine is gonna make me loopy?”
“Uuuuh, that was like three glasses counting how much you drank of Miki’s.”
Miki patted Cage's shoulder. "Yeah, I'm okay, kid. I didn't have that much. Him on the other hand." she surveyed Ryder. "The only other Kavi we've seen drink anything was Gabe, and he turned into a creepy silent monster."
group
Ryder looks at the hallway, then to Miki and Cage. “Yeah, no. I don’t imagine he’d have any tolerance at all. Where’s Kissa? I wanna give her some.”
Cage shakes his head. “Nononono.”
Miki launched herself at Ryder and grabbed his arm with both hands. "No. Ryder. Ben will actually murder you, and I will not rescue you."
group
Ryder raises his eyes brows and shoves her off. “Okay, okay! Relax. I don’t know where she went anyways.”
Ben jogs back down the stairs, holding Vi’s bottle of wine in his hands, and slips it back into its place. “Augh, how much did you two drink?” He looks them over, worried.
Miki held up a finger. "Ryder poured four drinks. Very full. I drank… half of each of mine. He had the rest." she nodded decidedly.
group
He furrows his brow at Miki, confused as to why she was acting tipsy after one glass and Ryder was still fine after three.
“Ah, um, no more wine. You have to ask before you have any wine. I’m serious.”
Ryder nods. “Yeah, okay. Aren’t we all adults here though?”
Ben glares. “No, Kissa is only nineteen.”
Ryder rolls his eyes.
Miki nodded in agreement. "He just wanted a taste and I made the very bad decision to trust him." She pointed a finger at Ryder. "Kissa is a monster and you don't give wine to monsters."
group
Ryder steps back, a little offended. “Excuse me?”
Ben waves a hand. “Don’t listen to her. Miki, go sit down. I’m not kidding.”
Cage giggles. “Mik, are you okay?”
Miki frowned at him, pointing to herself in confusion, but slowly walked around the counter and slid into a barstool. "Sitting." she announced, blinking at Ben expectantly.
"She'll be fine." Silver suddenly called from the living room, not turning her attention away from the TV. "She just gets weird but she's harmless."
group
Ben furrows his brow. “You know this how? Miki, how irresponsible are you?”
Ryder chuckles. “No more wine for Miki.”
Miki shook her head. "No, no, no, no. I am… very responsible. I've only drank like…" she tries to count on her fingers and then turns to Silver. "Sil, how many times have I drunk?"
"Four to my knowledge, including now." Silver responded.
group
Ben shakes his head. “I don’t care, just don’t drink that much in my house. You either Ryder. Do encourage this.”
Ryder scoffs. “I thought she’d be fine!”
Cage laughs and shoves Miki. “Oh my word. Too bad we can’t finish our video game since Sil is watching…” he leans over to see the tv, “trash. You’d be so fun to video game with right now.”
Silver promptly shut off her soap opera and reopened Cage's video game. "Miki. Come here."
Miki slid off the barstool and marched over to the couch, plopping down beside Silver. "Sitting." she announced again.
Silver planted the game controller in Miki's hands and pointed at the screen. "Play." to Cage she said, "She'll do pretty much anything you tell her when she's like this."
"That," Miki said, holding up one finger. "Is because I am a nice person."
group
Cage giggles and takes his game controller. “You’re not a nice person, stop kidding yourself.”
Gabriel, invisible, settles down in the other side of Silver. “Why is she like this? What happened? She’s all… wonky.” He whispers.
Ben huffs again and runs a hand through his hair, then turns, mumbling Russian, and heads upstairs
"I am the best person!" Miki cried, offended.
Silver started as she suddenly felt and heard Gabriel beside her, but she relaxed and leaned against him as she watched Miki repeatedly try to walk into a wall. "She and Ryder had some wine. Ryder filled the glasses all the way full, so even though she only had like one cup, it was a really big cup." She found his hand and wove her fingers between his.
"Why?" Miki yelled at the screen. "I want to go… there! Why can't I…? Who put that wall there? Cage, move that wall."
group
Cage giggles. “Miki, that monster is gonna kill you!”
Gabriel nods. “Mm.” He leans his cheek on the top of her head.
Ryder raises and eyebrow, then heads towards the couch, squatting beside the side of the couch Gabriel is by.
“Hey, wanna come to Dio’s with me when I leave?” He whispers, turning himself invisible.
"AAHHHH!" Miki shrieked and whipped her character around, beating the monster to death without a weapon again. She paused, breathing heavily. "Oh my goodness." she whispered. "That was close. Why are we playing this, Cage? This is dangerous?"
Silver leaned her head back against his shoulder, feeling his heartbeat against her back. She glanced over when she heard Ryder whispering.
group
Gabriel is silent for a second. He puts his other hand over the side of the couch and Ryder takes it almost subconsciously. “Is this a yes?”
Gabriel sighs. “Kissa would wanna come. I don’t think Dio wants her, she doesn’t like him and gives Lackey…. issues.”
Ryder nods. “Yeah, she can stand it for one night. You seem stressed though. You could chill there without anyone to worry about or stress over.”
Gabriel stares off into the distance.
Sounds nice.
Cage continues giggling. “Just help me to the next level!”
Silver listened to them talk, even though she couldn't see either of them. Instinctually she felt jealous and annoyed that Ryder was trying to take Gabriel away, but she also knew he was right; Gabe was stressed, and he and Ryder had a deep friendship from before everything happened. She sighed and looked back at the video game screen. It would be good for Gabriel to get away to a quieter house like Dio's and spend time with Ryder.
Miki fake cried and helped Cage beat up all the monsters along the way, still somehow not acquiring any weapon.
group
Ryder squeezes his hand. “I gotta go soon though. It’s getting late, and I don’t want Dio to have to drive super late.”
Gabriel turns to look to him.
“… yeah. I’ll come.”
Ryder smiles and stands, gently ruffling his hair.
“Anything you wanna bring?”
He shakes his head and stands with a sigh. “Sil will you tell Ben please?” He quietly asks.
Silver nodded, standing with him and kissing his jaw. "I'll let them know. Have Dio text me when you get there so I know you're safe. I love you."
Miki flopped back on the couch as they reached the safe spot and gasped for breath. "Cage, whhhhhy are we playing this game? It's so exhausting and dangerous! And there are no weapons. Why does this game have no weapons?"
group
“It has weapons, you just didn’t pick any of them up.” Cage rolls his eyes. “Next level, c’mon.”
Ryder presses his phones to his ear, leaning on the wall beside the door, calling Dio.
Gabriel nods. “Thank you. I’ll make sure you know when I’m headed back too.”
Miki squinted at the screen. "I didn't see any. You have to tell me when there's a weapon. I can't see them."
Silver wrapped her arms around Gabriel, resting her cheek on his chest. "I'm sorry I got you in trouble."
–
Dio's phone chimed and he set down his book to pick it up. With a sigh he answered it. "Yes, Ryder?"
group
Cage sighs. “One to your right, Mik. That huge gun.”
Gabriel kisses the top of her head. “You didn’t. Don’t worry about it.”
“Eyyy, can you pick me up please? I’m bringing Vamp back with me and he can’t fly. His wings are… less than great right now? Not to mention some medical conditions. He’ll behave I promise.”
"Wait!" Silver gasped and looked up at Gabriel, grabbing his arms. "You never told us why you got shot!"
"That's a gun?" Miki asked, leaning forward. "I thought it was… a dog or something."
–
"Is he alright?" Dio asked, tossing his book aside and crawling out of his chair. He pulled his phone away from his ear and texted his driver to ready the carriage. "Did something happen?"
group
Oh great.
Gabriel sighs. “Can we talk about it later? Please? I’ll be here tomorrow.”
“Yeeessss?” Ryder answers. “Looks like he was knifed but he hasn’t talked about it. Violet already bandaged everything.”
Cage rolls his eyes. “A gun. Not a dog. There’s a difference.”
Silver grimaced and glanced over his mostly healed wounds. After a minute she nodded. "Okay." she relented reluctantly. "I just…" she rested her forehead on his chest. "It's okay. Be safe."
"Ohhh! I see it now!" Miki walked her character over and picked up the giant gun. "Now we win everything!"
–
"Good." Dio nodded even though Ryder couldn't see him. He struggled into a coat and shuffled out the door and into his carriage. "I'm on my way. It's about a forty minute drive over to Benjamin's since he's on the far side of the city."
