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!]

Comments

[rebelseekspizza]

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.

[smilestopscars]

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."

[rebelseekspizza]

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."

[smilestopscars]

Ezra relaxed a little, too.

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

[foxmeetsrebel]

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

It had even been alive!

[smilestopscars]

"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.

[foxmeetsrebel]

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

[smilestopscars]

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

[rebelseekspizza]

"Never thought about having a bunny as a pet," Dante mused. "They seem jumpy."

[foxmeetsrebel]

Tiger took the bait without realizing what it was. "They are," he said, nodding. "But they're also really cute? And Bart sniffles a lot when he eats, and then he hops around and sometimes he just sits there and lets me pet him."

[smilestopscars]

"That does sound very cute," Ezra mused. "Also like something that might tick the hares off, but I don't know for sure."

That might have been a pro. Who knows?

[foxmeetsrebel]

"I've only seen them once, they seemed nice," Tiger protested. "I bet they'd like Bart."

[smilestopscars]

"Probably," Ezra agreed, half because anything else seemed mean. But also half because he kind of figured Sid would act grumpy at Ezra about getting a pet bunny while still being pretty taken with Bart.

He was also actively burying the urge to ask about 'once'.

"They do like cute things," he added lightly. "Just not being told they're cute, themselves. Which is nonsense, because being cute is an honor."

[rebelseekspizza]

"One that Ez here only gets to experience when he's fuzzy," Dante sighed, grinning.

"He is really cute when he's fuzzy, though," Tiger said, wide-eyed.

[smilestopscars]

"That is one hundred percent correct," Ezra told Tiger, ruffling his hair. "Unlike your dad's opinion, which I'm going to ignore because it's too early in the day for me to deal with such an insult. I'm cute always. Forever."

[foxmeetsrebel]

"'s okay," Tiger said, leaning in to stage-whisper, "I think he thinks you're cute too."

At least the way that was phrased got Dante to laugh.

[smilestopscars]

"He better," Ezra decided, trying to reach over and flick Dante on the nose. "Only fools don't."

[rebelseekspizza]

"He's got a big ego, is what's going on," Dante retorted easily.

[smilestopscars]

"I have a healthy ego," Ezra returned. To the kid, he added, "And I highly recommend it, Tiger."

[foxmeetsrebel]

"How do you even get a healthy ego?" Tiger wondered.

[smilestopscars]

Sure, kid, ask the complicated questions.

"By believing in yourself," Ezra replied, after chewing on it for a second. "And having others believe in you too. Which both your dads do, I'm sure, so you're already well on your way."

[foxmeetsrebel]

"Yeah, but you're already cool," Tiger said plaintitively.

He swung over to attach himself to Ezra's chest again.

[smilestopscars]

"But I wasn't always," Ezra pointed out quietly, like it was a secret.

And maybe it sort of was? It wasn't quite his style to admit to being anything less than fabulous, after all.

"At one point I, too, was just a kid. Like you."

[foxmeetsrebel]

"Nuh uh," Tiger told him, wide-eyed.

He had a hard time picturing it.

[smilestopscars]

"It's true," Ezra told him with a solemn nod. "I was but a wee foxlet, and it's hard to be cool when you're tiny and you don't know much of the world yet, and your environment keeps changing quicker than you make friends."