A Room at the Arms Hotel, Saturday Morning

[smilestopscars]

Ezra had had a pleasant NPC encounter or two, yesterday. But in the end, he'd gone to bed alone. Which meant that now he was also waking up alone. And, he was actually pretty okay with that. Especially now that the tug of the pollen had abated. He had a comfortable bed all to himself, and nowhere he really needed to be anytime soon.

So he wasn't in a rush to get up.

Yet.

[ooc: Oooopen for everything that these weekends usually entail!]

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[foxmeetsrebel]

And Tiger clung to him fiercely, like he'd been holding it together until this point and now it was falling apart.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have gone," he mumbled, "I got out the portal and I was all alone and I knew you were here but--"

[smilestopscars]

"Hey, shhhh, it's fine," Ezra told him, shifting onto his knees because this felt like it might take a moment, and he didn't want to topple over. "I know this is a weird thing. But everything's okay."

[foxmeetsrebel]

"Can we get dad, dad?" Tiger said in a small voice.

[smilestopscars]

"Yeah," Ezra replied, rubbing a soothing, light circle against Tiger's back. "But you're gonna have to remind me what I call him. Because there are so many dads on this island right now, and I don't want to get you the wrong one."

[foxmeetsrebel]

"Dante," Tiger sniffled. He wanted to make a joke about it, pretend like he wasn't upset, but he couldn't think of anything.

[smilestopscars]

Sometimes, you were all out of jokes, and it was completely fine.

"Thank you, darling."

Good thing he at least had his phone in the pocket of his robe. (He also really needed to get dressed at some point here.) It meant he could still hold on to Tiger while he called Dante.

Ring, ring.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Yo, what's up?"

Dante was sitting in a room full of kids. He didn't have time for full greetings.

[smilestopscars]

Whereas Ezra used his to establish something of a casual air. "Hello, darling," he said. "I have a very brave Tiger and a fairly surprised fox situation happening, and we're going to need you to come over."

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante ran his fingers through his hair. "Kathy mentioned something like that," he said. "Right. I'm on my way."

Getting up already, actually.

[smilestopscars]

"We'll be here," Ezra told him, rattling off the room number not too far from where Dante and the rest were staying, before hanging up the call.

"Dad to the rescue," he told Tiger, ruffling his hair a bit.

[foxmeetsrebel]

"Fash'nably late as always," Tiger mumbled.

See? Jokes.

... Not that it stopped him from clinging to Ezra's hand right up till the point that Dante knocked on the door.

[smilestopscars]

Ezra wouldn't fault him for that. Nor did he pry his hand away as he got up and headed to the door. Surely Tiger could follow along just fine.

"Hello, Dante. Welcome to the party."

[rebelseekspizza]

"I was expecting a little more confetti and balloons," Dante joked. His eyes dropped to the kid. "So, you've got to be Tiger--"

He couldn't even get finished with that sentence before Tiger's hand was in his and tugging him into the room. (No, he hadn't let go of Ezra's hand yet, either.)

[smilestopscars]

Ezra snorted as he reached out to close the door again, before the chain would tug him too far from it to do it at all.

"Yes, this is Tiger."

It was almost everything he even knew about the kid so far.

[foxmeetsrebel]

"Sorry," Tiger muttered. He self-consciously dropped both hands at once, fidgetting. "I just don't like being alone."

[rebelseekspizza]

"It's all right," Dante said, squatting down until he was on Tiger's eye-level. "You been alone a lot, kid?"

[foxmeetsrebel]

"I was for a little bit," Tiger said, voice so quiet it was almost inaudible. "'Cause mom and dad..."

[smilestopscars]

Ezra didn't say anything.

But he did put his newly-free hand lightly on Tiger's shoulder, at a bit of a loss for what else to do.

[rebelseekspizza]

"'s okay, you don't have to say shit," Dante said, glancing up at Ezra. "Anything you wanna do today? We can grab some ice cream, or something..."

[foxmeetsrebel]

"There's gonna be food," Tiger said, reaching to grab Dante's coat to pull him in closer. "Let's just wait."

[smilestopscars]

"Meat is coming," Ezra offered by way of explanation. "We put in an order for some steak."

A fair bit of it, actually.

[rebelseekspizza]

"I guess I can stay for steak," Dante mused. "And hanging out with you. How about we sit down, huh?"

Tiger didn't need to be told. He was tugging Dante and Ezra along to the bed at great speed.

Dante shot Ezra a wry look, somewhere along the way.

[smilestopscars]

Ezra's answering look was some subtle shades of helpless, because that had to bleed out somewhere, and it couldn't do so anywhere Tiger could actually see it.

It was only for about half a second, anyway, before his expression shifted back into something easier.

"Is sitting mandatory, or is lounging also allowed?"

[foxmeetsrebel]

"Lounging's okay," Tiger decided, bouncing onto the bed.

[rebelseekspizza]

"There you go," Dante said, grinning, like the awkwardness and the helplessness of it all didn't touch him. "Ez, go forth and be Ez."