A Very Quiet Part of the Beach; Very Early Saturday Morning [10/05].

[what_big_teeth]

Yesterday had been an absolute riot of emotions for Eleanor, from the nervousness from talking to Kamala's parents to the elation of declarations of love, and then the shock of seeing that Luma and Rhys and her mother had come, and all the complicated turmoil that came along with that. On the one hand, Rhys was doing slightly better; they weren't sure whether it was time or distance that improved it, but even what little progressed he'd made, it had been marginal, and it was very clear how tied he was to her for purpose. Things were going well at the new house; the legal issues had been 'mostly taken care of,' according to Luma, though she wouldn't elaborate and Eleanor wasn't sure she wanted her to. But they were settling, they were making things work, and it seemed everything might be...okay.

Not great. Definitely different. But okay.

All the things that Muneeba and Yusef had brought her were still waiting in the dorm lobby for her to take to her room, because she'd spent that evening in the hotel with her family, mostly just talking (debating?) with Luma about her being there, until their mother, softly and gently, asked them to keep it down so she could sleep, a deft way of telling them to shut up already in her gentle and circuitous way.

And so they did, and that morning, with Eleanor now there to instruct Rhys to help, they decided to make it up to their mother by taking her down to the beach, where she could slip into the water, and the red polyps that lined one side of her face began to open and breathe and drink in the salt water hungrily as Aurora sighed in relief, closed her eyes, and just enjoyed being there. Eleanor went in with her for a while, though Luma stayed on the stand, always with her excuse of it being too cold, and they shouldn't leave Rhys by himself, anyway, and they didn't want to risk that simply telling him not to drown would be sufficient enough to keep him safe in the water, too.

But, eventually, Aurora wanted to be alone, too, so Eleanor went and joined her sister and her cousin, one looking out over the ocean with a deep, thoughtful frown and the other with a vacant, lifeless expression. Eleanor settled in between them, and for all they had to say to each other the previous night, a silence settled between them.

For now. Eventually, no doubt, the bickering, the debating, the appeals would start again, but for now, it was just the quiet sunrise and the fathomless depths between them. At least until it became late enough in the morning that Eleanor would start to worry about people being out and about, though they'd brought Aurora's veils and her tub, so if she was feeling like she wanted to risk socializing, they could.

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[slothbabyproductions]

Kamala was over at Stark Industries today when she did a full stop when she heard handwavily on the radio that Eleanor’s family had shown up for the weekend.

Kamala immediately excused herself to go in a private room to send out a text.

Hi! I heard on the news that your family is in town. U OK?

[what_big_teeth]

And it was funny, too, that they were just finishing up their little beach excursion and Luma was probably about to spend way too long in the hotel bathroom getting ready to potentially head over to Stark Industries when Eleanor saw Kamala's text.

She started to type out a yeah, but deleted that and went with I think so instead.

Additionally, she added:

Luma wants to meet you, so we were about to get ready to come over to the open house. Would that be ok?

As she pressed send, a part of Eleanor just hoped that Kamala said no, because then she could make up an excuse that she was too busy with everything at the open house, but she felt bad for feeling that way, too.

[slothbabyproductions]

There was a bit of hesitation on Kamala’s end when she say the. “I think so” part of the message. Was that a good thing or a bad thing?

Of course you can visit! I’d love to meet her!

[what_big_teeth]

There was more hesitation on Eleanor's end as she listened to the sound of the shower being turned on and looked over at Rhys, who had just been sitting there, looking expectantly at her, and her mother, who just looked calm and at peace after her swim, and then she looked at her phone and frowned, wondering if it would be a good idea to include certain details or if she should just rely on Kamala to be able to put some of those details together.

My cousin Rhys will be with us, too. My mother is also here, but she doesn't do well in public. I know she'd love to meet you, too, but you might have to come visit at the hotel for that.

She could probably warn Kamala about the polyps before then. A new nervousness started to knot in her stomach, but she reminded herself that strange things weren't new to Kamala, she dealt with aliens and superpowers and even things (sort of) like Eleanor herself with Flerkins. It wasn't like she was going to just stop loving her because of her mother's oddity.

The empty husk of a man she'd turned Rhys into, however...

...but that, she felt, was probably pretty important for Kamala to understand.

[slothbabyproductions]

I’m 100% on board on meeting your family. Don’t worry! It’ll be fine!

Kamala may not be able to read minds, but she knew how Eleanor worried. And she hoped that this would make her feel better.