smilestopscars | A Room at the Arms Hotel, Saturday Morning

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A Room at the Arms Hotel, Saturday Morning

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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"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.

"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.

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."

"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.)

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.

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

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

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

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.

"'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..."

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

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

A fair bit of it, actually.

"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.

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?"

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

"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."

"Oh thank the fox gods," Ezra sighed, right before slumping over into a sprawl on the bed. "I was worried there, for a second."

Dante reached out and patted him, as Tiger scrambled to drop his head on Ezra's chest. "Aw, poor baby."

It got a giggle out of Tiger, so rote as the joke was, he considered it a success.

Ezra did too. He was also lazily but easily draping his arm around Tiger, because that, he knew how to do. Every family he'd ever had had been more or less just a giant cuddle pile. Just ask Lock and Ava.

Which was probably why he tried to catch Dante's hand and pull him in.

"Being horizontal when nothing else is absolutely necessary is the grownup option to take, how dare you suggest otherwise."

Dante laughed softly, but he went along with Ezra, curling up against Tiger on the other side, his leg brushing against Ezra's.

The boy seemed to relax as he did so. Thank fuck. "Don't listen to him," he said. "He's just lazy and hates exercise."

Ezra relaxed a little, too.

"You say that like it's a bad thing."

"He likes running around sometimes," Tiger added. "He got me a bunny!"

It had even been alive!

"See? I got him a bunny. That's not lazy."

He hoped it was a live one, since this wasn't one of his fox kids.

"I named him Bart," Tiger said, "Though I think he might be a girl."

"Enh," said Ezra, waving a free hand dismissively. "I'm sure Bart the bunny doesn't mind, either way."

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