Easter Comes Early

Posted on Sun Sep 29th, 2019 @ 8:26pm by Lieutenant JG Shaille Levine & Warrant Officer Koh Ottasu

Mission: If You Like Pina Coladas
Location: Meria Colony

The gardens had only been a short walk from the hotel, a walk that Shaille had enjoyed taking with Koh. Despite the few odd glances they received from others around them, the down time was definitely relaxing, but despite the intent to relax, Shaille found herself feeling anxious.

As they entered through the overhead archway that acted as an entry to the gardens, she could feel Koh's hand tightening around hers and stopped walking. "I'm not nervous," she said with a grin. "Well, maybe just a little." She laughed suddenly looked up at him, her hand moving to rest lightly on his face. "Remember, it's only Mikayla and the kids, Noah can't get here until tomorrow. But they will love you, just as much as I do," she said quietly.

In truth, she had no doubt in her family's ability to openly love and accept, regardless of differences, but it was even more important to her now that this remained true.

Koh went over the names again, a few times in his head but once or twice out loud. To him, the names were odd. They sounded weird against the throat. Sounds he didn't make in day to day parlance. It had taken him a little practice in front of the mirror to get Shaille's name right, but that was a priority.

Looks like he'd be practicing again. "I'm a little nervous too, but there's that quaint human saying... We got this." he smirked, leaning into her touch, "I hope they don't mind if I mess up their names the first few times." he figured he'd get the embarrassment out of the way now.

"I'm sure everything will go fine. Just in case, though..." and in accordance with ancient Earth law, he knocked on a piece of wood to ward off bad luck.

Before Shaille could even formulate a response to his superstitious action, a pair of near identical screams of delight echoed in the gardens around them. The two screams belonging to the two near identical four foot nothing blondes that were racing across the garden with the speed and excitement that only eight year old girls could exhibit.

The twins barreled directly into Shaille, almost knocking her to the ground with their excitement. Regaining her balance, she crouched down and pulled them into a tight hug before looking back at them. "Where's your Momma? Don't tell me you ran off on her?" she chastised gently.

"Maddison! Chloe!" The voice called out from somewhere behind a hedge.

"I have them Mikayla," Shaille called back, standing up and taking the girls by the hands. "Come on, where did you monsters leave Momma?"

No sooner had she finished speaking, a rather frazzled looking woman appeared before them with two more smaller children behind her and an impossibly small baby in her arms. She looked at Koh, smiled warmly and offered him a one armed hug and a "Koh, right? Welcome to the family. Be a doll, hold this one for me?" she asked, depositing the baby into his arms before crouching down with the other two. "Stay with Aunty Shaille, or so help me, there will be no ice cream, no candy, no amusement park, nothing. As soon as your Daddy gets here you can all go straight back to the ship, understood?" She cast an apologetic look at both Shaille and Koh. "I just need to find Zeke," she offered. "I think he wandered off when he saw the playground." With that, she was gone.

Shaille turned to Koh, biting back a laugh as she look at him. "That..." she said, her voice light with the laughter she was trying to hide," was Mikayla."

Koh leaned into the offered one arm hug, a little confused until it was all over. "Yes. Thank you, it's a pleasure to meet you." But then, came the child. Ts'usugi infants and newborns were especially fragile, so he held the child with all the care and concern given to the infants of his people, unaware that human children were slightly more resilient. Slightly.

"Mikayla, you say?" he smirked. "And who are these?" he motioned with his head towards the two eight year olds in Shaille's presence, before looking down at the infant bundle he held in his arms. "And who do we have here? A child of the stars, born wandering?"

Shaille laughed, watching Koh hold the baby as if it were about to shatter at any moment. "The twins here are Maddison and Chloe, they're eight now. That's Taylor, she's six and Dylan is two... Zeke is four, he's the one that Mikayla has gone back to find, and you've got Liesel, she's brand new, aren't you beautiful girl," Shaille said, leaning in toward the baby and running fingertips along her soft cheek. "Just four weeks old, can you believe it?" She smiled, turning her attention back to the other four children who were all looking at Koh holding their baby sister, some with wide eyes, some showing uncertainty, but all most definitely curious.

Crouching down again, Shaille drew all four of them into a squishy hug before she looked up at Koh and smiled. "This is Koh," she said, offering the introduction. "He's my special friend, so you all need to be nice to him, okay?"

Almost instantly Maddison and Chloe broke into peels of giggles, glancing at each other and giggling again, though it was Taylor who finally spoke, closing the distance between them and Koh, tugging insistently on his sleeve. "Mommy says we have to be nice to you because Aunty Shaille loooooooooves you," she said cheekily. "And you're NOT the Easter Bunny so we aren't allowed to ask you for chocolate." The final words were spoken with a pout before she stepped back to her younger brother who was still staring at Koh, eyes wide, an almost starstruck expression on his face.

The Son of Ts'usu watched Shaille ruffle the infant's cheeks, and smirked. Then he turned to the quartet of children, "It's nice to meet you." Koh said with as friendly a smile as he could. "My name's Koh, family name Ottasu. I'm a fighter pilot." he had to resist the urge to mention that he worked for the Easter Bunny, or knew the Easter Bunny. No point in being mean to the kids. At Taylor's insistence and his commentary, though, Koh chuckled. "Well, I mean you should be nice to people without a reason, but I can't think of a better reason to be nice to someone than Love." he said, casting a quick glance over towards 'Auntie Shaille', before looking back to the kids.

Shaille smiled, standing back up and reaching out to carefully take the baby from Koh, snuggling the tiny infant carefully in her arms and cooing at her softly before turning her attention back to Koh again. "Sorry," she murmured softly. "They can be a bit intense at times, and they all take after my brother, so they're a bit mouthy, but I love them anyway." She smiled before turning her attention back to the kids. "Alright, I think Momma said she was going to the playground, how about we go find her? I think I can see the climbing frame over there, then you monsters can run and play."

As they started walking, Taylor fell into step behind Koh, sliding her hand in his before looking up at him. "Your hands are all fluffy," she said matter of factly. "Are you fluffy all over? Do you like carrots like bunnies? I don't like carrots but Momma says I have to eat them. Do you have guns like Aunty Shaille? She won't let me play with her guns. She told me I'm too little..."

He gave a smirk, and let her take his hand. "Yeah, I am fluffy all over." he chuckled, "And, where I'm from we don't actually have carrots. I was introduced to them when I came to this part of space... and no, I don't like them." he chuckled again. He paused, considering his next answer, "I do have guns, but nothing like she's got. I come from far away. Far far away."

With that sentiment the little girl leaned back behind Koh's back and stuck her tongue out in the general direction of Shaille, who was walking with the baby in one arm and the two year old boy holding her other hand. "Daddy told her she could show me but she won't until I'm thirteen." She leaned back and the tongue stuck out again before she snapped upright and smiled sweetly at Koh before continuing her onslaught of questions. "My friend Macy had a bunny once. It was fluffy too, but it was a white bunny. Then they got a brown bunny, and then they had lots and lots of bunnies, and then they had no bunnies. Do you have a pet bunny too? That would be funny," she finished with a giggle before finally looking up at Koh expectantly, waiting for answers to her questions.

"You know, I've heard that my people bear a resemblance to creatures called bunnies, or rabbits. It's weird, and I've seen a picture of a rabbit. They do bear a striking resemblance to rabbits." he chuckled again as they talked. His tone was level and fair, he didn't mock her questions, nor did he think her 'quaint' for asking. "I don't have any pets. See, in the Navy back home you might have to move around a lot from one ship to the next. Wouldn't be fair of me to keep dragging it around, so... never got one." he then gave another moment of thought, "You have to wait until you can properly appreciate a weapon." he pointed out. "It's when you don't respect a weapon is when accidents happen."

Koh then gave a glance over to Shaille, "She's got a healthy inquisitive streak." he chuckled. Clearly, he was having fun.

"Yes, and it regularly gets her into trouble," Shaille replied with a pointed glance at the youngster.

As they walked into the playground, they could see Mikayla crouched down, face to face with a 4 year old boy who was clearly unhappy at being spoken to. His arms were folded across his chest and his bottom lip stuck out in a pout as he listened to what ever chastisement coming his way from his mother. With both of them glancing toward Shaille, Koh, she pulled him in for a hug, kissed his cheek and let him go play.

Shaille smiled down at the twins. "Go on, go play. Look after your brothers and your sister," she said before her now free hand slid into Koh's. "Why don't we sit over there in the shade?" she asked softly. "We can wait for Mikayla there and the kids can play."

As they started walking, she squeezed his hand gently. "I'm sorry, they can be a bit full on, I forgot to warn you," she said with a smile. "I don't know how Mikayla keeps up with all of them."

He gave her hand a squeeze back with a smile once it was, for the most part, just them. "They're children, they've never seen anything like a Son of Ts'usu before, so they're full of questions and wonder. I think the younger brother was still trying to process what I was the whole time." he said with a chuckle as they made their way to take a seat. "As for how, mothers do. Back home, urban families are relatively small but when you get to the rural regions, families can be nine or ten strong." he paused, "Family gets as big as it needs to be. Maybe one or two more but, well, like I said, mothers manage."

He spared a glance to the infant in Shaille's care. "Cute little puff."

"She's precious," Shaille said with a smile before looking up at him. "But you're cuter," she said teasingly as she leaned into his shoulder. "Mikayla will take them all home for naps soon, we could go back to the hotel," she said with a coy smile. "Grown ups can 'nap' too, right?"