The Twofold Houses 5: Rebuilding

[Gullara]

[Serious Talk]

"Sure, that garbage just needs to be emptied." Sakura points at the can in which she tossed all the waste. Meanwhile, she goes back over to Malachi and starts to put on his new diaper. He kicks his legs and fusses a bit. "Someone needs a nap, don't they?" She coos. When the task is done, she's going to take the baby boy over to put him in his crib.

Meanwhile Laurana peeks her head in to see if it's safe yet, still wearing that exaggerated expression.

[Shadowcaller]

[Serious Talk]

Cessie don't need to hear more as she had done this dozens of times. As she walks after Sakura she is leaving a small orb of magma behind that seems to have come through the small of her back somehow. The orb quickly expands and takes a form not too different from the sorceress herself but made out of magma and then sets out to take out all the waste, just as Sakura asked Cessie to.

"Anything else I can help with while I'm at it?" She inquires softly as she watches Sakura take care of Malachi with a smile on her face.

[Gullara]

[Serious Talk]

"Nope, just about done." Once the diaper is done, Sakura leans over to pick her son up. She carries him over to his crib and and lays him down. She gives him a kiss on the forehead and makes to leave the room, grabbing Laurana by the hand on the way out. "That was easy. Let's see if it lasts for more than ten minutes." She gives Cessie a wink.

[Shadowcaller]

[Serious Talk]

"Tell me about it. I'm glad my children aren't that young anymore." Cessie speaks quietly as she watches the little one doze off into slumber and then follows Sakura and Laurana out of the room. "I don't envy you. Though, yet I have a feeling I will miss this once the children grow up."

[Gullara]

[Serious Talk]

"I can hardly even imagine that right now." Sakura laughs. "I don't know how I'd fill my day otherwise. They keep me busy. Dontcha, dontcha?" Sakura tickles Laurana's tummy, prompting a fit of giggles from the little girl.

"Oops, oops. We gotta be quiet. Babies are sleeping." Sakura puts her finger up to her lips.

"Babies sleeping." Laurana agrees, putting her finger in front of her lips too.

Sakura nods to the stairs and leads the way back to the main floor. Once they reach the bottom, she turns to Cessie again. "So did you just come over for a visit?"

[Shadowcaller]

[Serious Talk]

"I have enough to keep me busy, that's for sure." Cessie then giggles as Sakura tickles Laurana.
But she soon nods, she already knew there were babies sleeping. But while all this was cute and fun, she had come here with a purpose in mind...

"Not quite, I wanted to discuss something with you." A beat. "In private." She looks down at the little girl besides Sakura. "Unless Laurana minds of course."

[Gullara]

[Serious Talk]

"Oh, sure. Cassie's outside with grandpa Sarget. Why don't you go out and play with her." Sakura puts Laurana down and steps open to open the door for her.

"Okay! Bye bye." The little girl says cheerily before heading out to join her siblings.

Sakura leaves the door open and turns back to Cessie. "Oh, how long have you been holding that?" She reaches out to take the sock Cessie's been holding. "I can't get Cern to put these in his hamper to save my life. Anyway, what's going on?"

[Shadowcaller]

[Serious Talk]

"I had to clean up a bit before I went up the stairs." Cessie admits as she crosses her arms over her chest casually.
"You really should hire some help Sakura, or ask Adir to have some of his relatives help out around here. Most of them must be pretty experienced with large families."
She gently closes the front door and if there is somewhere convenient to sit on nearby, she will do so but will otherwise remain standing.
Then the sorceress takes a deep breath. "But anyway, it's about Jezebel." She pauses, feeling rather silly out of sudden. "I've... initiated a relationship with her."

[Gullara]

[Serious Talk]

"I can't really bother people to take care of my home." Sakura waves her hand dismissively. That'd be so weird, wouldn't it?

Of course, she doesn't linger on that topic. Not with this bombshell being dropped one her. "What?" She certainly looks stunned. "Like, a romantic relationship? But she- I didn't think- When did this happen?"

[Shadowcaller]

[Serious Talk]

Cessie would never understand Sakura's hesitation about hiring help, or even just taking the help from relatives.
But yes, she couldn't hold them to that topic after admitting that.
"Just a day before the Riverside invasion. I would have told you earlier but so much have been going on for me following that." A beat. "And, yes... a romantic relationship."

[Gullara]

[Serious Talk]

"What? That long? And you never told me?" You're in for it now, Cessie. "I can't believe it. We've talked plenty since then, and you never mentioned it once? I mean I knew you were spending time together, but not this. Why didn't you tell me?"

[Shadowcaller]

[Serious Talk]

"Technically, even longer than that. I just wasn't sure until just then, and even after that it took me time to feel comfortable enough to talk to anyone about it. You're the first besides Jezebel herself that knows, Sakura." She pauses for Sakura to take in that. "Is that a problem?"

[UncleWolf]

[Disturbances]

"They don't want to play with me." Jillian pouts.

"Yeah, we don't wanna play with her." "Tell her to go to her room." "Come on, get her out of there." The older kids insist.

Jillian crosses her arms and huffs. "Garn says I can stay."

Disturbances

Aha! The true villains have been revealed. That admittance makes Jezebel quirk her brow at Garn, silently telling him "Huh. So that's how it is." before she looks back down at Cora and Bastion. "Alas, it seems Jillian has conquered the fort rightfully. I'm not going to take the fort away from her just because you want it instead. But, how about this?" She asks, stepping over to the selection of toy swords to pull out three of them. "I will act as Jillian's champion, and if you two can hit me not only will I find a way to get the fort for you, but I'll even bake pastries for you. I may not be a great cook, but even I can manage that." She declares, offering Bastion and Cora each a "blade". Even if the two couldn't do it, she'd still bake something. She had her phone, Charles could always walk her through it.

Date Night

While the sorceress is all smiles when she noticed Jezebel shivering, and will allow to pulled into her lap, but she does clear her voice when Jezebel mentions that they would be late for their reservations. "You don't have to prove anything, Jezzy. I experienced what your hands can do." She puts her hand on the former daemons chest. "So let's save that for later, alright? We got reservations after all, then we would have all the time in the world."

Date Night

Jezebel visibly struggles with making a decision about what to do, especially with Cessie's hand on her and being on her lap. Eventually she wrangles in her desire and lowers the car window a bit to get some cool fresh air in to take the edge off all the heat she's feeling. "You're right." She says after letting out a breath and smiling. "We'll have plenty of time after the date to have more intimate fun." Mostly she says it to reassure herself that it wasn't a dream of some sort.

[Shadowcaller]

Date Night

Cessie raises her eyebrow at Jezebel's reaction, finding it amusing that she was apparently struggling with the decision. Touching her lovers cheek, she smiles knowingly. "If I had known it would be that difficult to pull yourself away, perhaps I would have though differently. Or at least gotten out of your lap." The sorceress giggles. "I'd prefer something more roomy than the backseat of a car though so let's have that dinner now, shall we?" She did consider Jezebel's libido charming, it was more than she was used to from her former partners which always was refreshing. Not that it made her feel attractive.

[Gullara]

[Serious Talk]

"No no, it's not a problem. It's just..." Sakura waves her hand in a vague,m agitated way. "I just thought we talked about everything, and you were hiding this from me."

[Disturbances]

"No! What? It's our fort. We made it!" Cora insists. She's not at all happy about this development. Jezebel was supposed to help.

Bation gives Jezebel a critical look before adding after Cora. "What kind of pastries?"

Meanwhile Jillian peeks her head out of the fort entrance and watches the three of them.

[Shadowcaller]

[Serious Talk]

Cessie almost seem to shrink as she talks, folding her hands and pressing her legs together. Which is really the opposite of how she usually acted. "I was always planning to tell you, Sakura. I just needed time to really come to terms with it. I wouldn't have even know what to tell you at the start. I had to explain what I was going through to myself before I could talk to you about it if that makes sense. It was quite the leap and there are still parts of me that feel uncomfortable about it." She looks up at Sakura, having been staring at her hands as she talked. "And that's why I'm talking with you now. You're my best friend and there is no one else right now I could discuss this with." She smiles.

[Disturbances]

Garn frowns. "You will not fight." He tells the siblings, not leaving any room for discussion. Garn was quite unmovable, both in sheer weight and opinion.

[UncleWolf]

Disturbances

"Either jam filled or honey." Jezebel decides after a moment of thought. "Do you three have any favorites? I'm not sure I can make anything complicated, but I'm sure there's something we can do." And no, of course this had nothing to do with her being peckish herself. Why would anyone think that? "But if you three can't decide, then I'll have to let Garn decide. And I don't think any of us want that."

[Gullara]

[Serious Talk]

"Aw, Cessie." Sakura steps forward and wraps her friend in a hug. "Come on, tell me everything then!" Sakura takes Cessie's hand and tries to lead her to the living room so they can sit. "I never knew you were even attracted to women." She says once they've sat. That's the biggest question mark here.

[Disturbances]

"I like honey." Bastion decides after a moment of thought.

"No no no! I just want our fort back!" Cora raises her voice and stomps her foot. She's not so easily swayed it seems. Jillian ducks back into the fort when she sees her sister's temper flaring.

[Shadowcaller]

[Serious Talk]

Cessie returns the hug and already looks more relived as she sits down in the living room in the armchair facing Sakura.
"I- I'm not." In her first response however once they're seated. "Jezebel is just... special. I've never really felt anything like this for another woman before. But as we talked and she kept showing interest in me it felt like I wanted to make more of it. It could never happen with anyone that wasn't like her." The sorceress pauses, swallowing hard. "I'm in love with her. I can feel it." She nods to herself. "I would never have taken it this far otherwise."

[Gullara]

[Serious Talk]

Sakura giggles and folder her hands under her chin. "Well it's pretty surprising, but I'm so happy for you. I can't believe I didn't notice sooner, though." She did know that Cessie and Jezebel were spending a lot of time together, but she didn't make that leap. "I guess I'm going to have to get to know her better now too."

[Shadowcaller]

[Serious Talk]

"I suppose. You don't really know one another all that well, do you? Jezebel was, ah, born in privilege like me with everything that comes with that, so it's easy to relate to what she's gone through." Cessie smiles, now looking more relaxed as she leans in a bit closer to Sakura. "And... she's completely crazy about me. Can barely keep her hands off." Her smile only gets wider as she shares this information. "Just the fact she can feel that way despite me not dressing provocatively just feels amazing. Just to be with someone who appreciates you for who you are without feeling you have to change, like it was with Harnel." Just the mention of his name in that context is enough to make Cessie frown for a moment. "But that feeling is making me jittery all over. It just was such a long time since I was with someone like that you know? And she's such a intelligent and sophisticated person. Extremely graceful." A beat. "A bit like Adir I suppose." Not exactly the kind of comparison she would normally make as she didn't consider Adir to be even near the level of Jezebel, but she had to give Sakura something she could relate to and Adir was also physically strong, and tall...

"She's tall too. Though..." Cessie grins. "Not the same difference that there's between you two."

[Reinholdt]

[Frescot Family Phone]

"U-tau-ron." Lucy sounds out the name, struggling a bit with it. Sakura gives her a confused look. "I don't know where daddy is. Ask mommy." Lucy holds up the phone.

"Very good, sweetie." Sakura leans over to peck her daughter's cheek before taking the phone from her. "Hi, this is Sakura." Her voice raises as she starts speaking into the phone. Bad habit. "I'm sorry, I don't recognize your name. How do you know my husband?"

[Frescot Family Phone]

There's a moment as Ilpholin has to lean away from the phone. "Wait, what? Who was I talking to? Uhh... we met at Watchtower I guess? Sakura, it's Ilpholin. I need to know where Adir went."

[Gullara]

[Frescot Family Phone]

A beat. "Wait what? Ilpholin?" How is that even- "He's with Wenomir and some other people from Vigil. They went to save you from Amen. Where are you?"

"What's wrong, mommy?" Lucy tugs at Sakura's skirt, looking worried.

"Oh, it's okay, sweetie. Go sit at the table and finish your snack, okay?"

[Serious Talk]

Sakura laughs. "Well that's a bit unreasonable. He has to bend over half the time." He can certainly be graceful, though, when he's not acting like a goof. "Wait wait wait, have you two slept together?" Sakura has a conspiratorial little grin and shimmies closer to Cessie.

[Shadowcaller]

[Frescot Family Phone]

Cessie nods, a faint blush showing. "A couple of times." A beat. "Before the invasion I mean. She's been recovering for a while now."

[Gullara]

[Serious Talk]

Sakura grins even wider. "Oh my goodness, really? So it's really really serious then." She giggles. "I'm kinda curious what it's like to be with another woman..." Sakura looks toward the entrance to the room, her hearing alert for a moment. No sign of any interruptions incoming. "Tell me all about it."

---

Several minutes later, Sakura and Cessie finish that chat. The dryad's face is flushed and she she quells the giggles and laughter that ensued during their chat. "Well, I'm so glad you found someone you're so happy with." She says, getting back on track. "So when's the wedding?" She asks with a cheeky grin.

[UncleWolf]

Disturbances

"Well, if you three come with me to make treats, then afterward the fort would just be first-come first-serve, wouldn't it?" Jezebel reasons, looking thoughtful. It got Jillian out of the fort, got them all sweets, and gave Cora a chance to get to the fort before anyone else. It'd be a win-win-win, wouldn't it? "If you'd like the fort to yourself, that's fine, but Jillian? Bastion? Would you two like to help me with the pastries? You two would get first pick of them then. As long as we don't make too big of a mess or spoil dinner, we should be fine."

[Gullara]

[Disturbances]

Cora crosses her arms and gives everyone involved a baleful look. It doesn't appear she's appeased... Jillian, though, sticks her head out again. "I want some too." She leaves the fort and goes over to join Jezebel. "I want jam." She declares.

[Reinholdt]

[Frescot Family Phone]

The reply is too rapid, too urgent, as if something Ilpholin feared was true had just been confirmed. "I have to go."

There's a very high chance that Sakura just outright gets hung up on, unless she replies in a swift and unexpected manner.

It's quite rude really.

[Gullara]

[Frescot Family Phone]

Unfortunately, Sakura doesn't manage to get another word in. She stares at her phone in disbelief for a moment, but then collects herself to dial another number...

[Shadowcaller]

[Serious Talk]

Cessie smiles back, but Sakura can tell that her friend suddenly isn't feeling it. "I'm... well, I've been trying to avoid thinking about that honestly. I don't know how I would even go about that. My, ah, my family would need to know and there would have to be a lot of... planning involved in that."