RP:Legos and Beer

Summary: What an awkward encounter between Alvina, Hudson and Lita! It seems like Hudson ends up in the doghouse again. (Also Alvina is spilling the beans on Lita's present! GASP!)

Cenril: Alvina and Hudson's Home

Lita got the address from Meri, or at least that was how it happened if anyone asked. She was carting a six pack of beer and thinking how she should probably stop bribing Hudson with beer for favors. Did that make it more or less awkward? She was probably over thinking it entirely. But being apart from civilization for a month or two usually meant she had to remember how to play nice with others again upon her return. Not that the last few days had afforded that opportunity as of yet. Which led her to Hudson's doorstep in Larket. Again. Beer in hand, steeling her nerves as she knocked, trying to be mindful of the fact that he had young kids. (Why wasn't 'kidlings' a term?- Not important.) She was barefoot as usual, wearing a dark blue tunic that was a size too big for her and so was cinched at the waist with a wide black belt. The shorts underneath weren't quite visible beneath the hem of the tunic, which fell to mid-thigh and left the rest of her legs bare. She held up the six pack as Hudson answered the door and when he took it from her she'd lean up on her tip-toes to kiss his cheek with a smile. "We really probably should stop meeting like this." she was teasing of course, and stepping past him into the front entrance of the home, admiring the swanky joint, assuming the decorating was Alvina's. "But I need a favor."

Hudson lives in Cenril now, actually, in the Calabasas-ish part of town, literally his next-door neighbors are the Easts, i.e., famous rapper Kanze and his wife Kam, whom everyone and their mother has seen nude several times now. Alvina is out, some wedding stuff with her girlfriends. Hudson's on daddy duty right now, watching his daughters play with the Hollow version of oversized toddlers' legos. (He has a strong interest in observing this - he wants to avoid stepping on them later.) He assumes, upon hearing the knock at the door, that Alvina's too lazy to fish her key out of her oversized bag, but to his surprise it's Lita. "Hey!" he says the word with surprise, feeling, as she presses a kiss against his cheek, no small alarm: he doesn't know when Alvina will be back. This... will not be a delightful surprise for her. Or perhaps it's fine, because their daughters are here, chaperoning? The decorating is actually not even Alvina's, they paid some gay dude at a fancy place a small king's ransom in order to achieve what's going on here. "Mommy, play!!!!!" comes a small voice from the living area. There's a shuffling noise, and "It's not Mommy, sweetie," says Hudson, reaching down to catch his daughter as she nearly collides with his leg. He picks her up, and she looks at Lita like she's seen an alien. Then she promptly buries her face against Huds, who grins. "This is Luna. Luna, daddy and mommy's friend Lita," says Hudson, mostly to his child, who won't look un-hide now. Fine, be rude, kids, man. Her sister toddles into view moments later, but upon spying Lita, hangs back, with understated interest. "I'm Harper," she says, as if tentatively. She is holding a very ratty stuffed giraffe and has a sort of feral pridefulness about her. Hudson is conscious that Lita didn't come here to hang out with toddlers. "You guys, daddy has to talk with Lita for a second." He jerks his head toward the living area, meaning she should walk with him while he deposits his brood back with their playthings.

Lita is a little to the realization that *cough* Meri's *cough* directions have landed her in Cenril, not Larket after all. It all blurs after a while. Another suburb of mansion-houses all prettied up to look uniquely different and the same all at once. It's dizzying. Lita is wondering if she might have stepped on proverbial toes about coming here after all. Maybe Hudson had told Alvina after all? She swallowed hard, realizing she hadn't thought that out, her brain already having separated business from pleasure and this trip was about business, after all. But even their roles were reversed and she was Alvina, she'd have given herself a good black eye. Or tried. Before she can comment or question a miniature version of a human comes waddling into the room and Hudson is scooping the thing up from the floor and talking to it as if it's not some alien thing. Okay, right, he has kids. It takes Lita a moment to register this, blinking, the memory of a child's cry somewhere in the back of her brain. It's only when the second twinlett announces her presence that Lita finds herself back in reality, lifting a hand to tuck a stray curl behind her ear as she follows after Hudson, pausing to crouch down next to Harper, flickering a glance to the girl's giraffe. "Hi Harper," she drawls softly. "What's your friend's name?"

Harper looks Lita right in the eye, her gaze flicking to her sister, still huddled against their father. "She's Luna," she says, as if this were an unpleasant admission that Lita had slowly pulled out of her, like someone snaking a clot out of a drain. Harper has a bit of a tone problem. Hudson palms her head, jerks his head again to signal to Lita that they can get moving and have a seat in his living room. "Come on, weasel," he says to Harper, who reluctantly gets a move on herself and just bounces away like she's done with them, k bye. Luna permits herself to be carried. Their living room is awash with sunlight, which filters in through a gigantic glass skylight. There are baby toys all around, including a large lego castle that appears to be mid-assembly judging by the instructions that are spread out on the floor. It is apparent that in some areas the twins have improvised (in truth daddy was the only one following instructions). Hudson deposits Luna, who very suspiciously eyeballs Lita before resuming lego play with her sister. "Have a seat, I'll get a bottle opener," he tells her. The kitchen is open floor plan so it only takes him a moment. Sitting beside her, he opens their beers and acts like this is an ideal situation, them chilling in the vicinity of two apparently quite garrulous lego builders. "Alvina is doing some wedding stuff," he says, casually, like it's not weird. It really isn't that weird. "Lita painted your cribs," he tells Luna, who grunts at this information and presses two legos at him until he grasps the meaning of her request and pulls them apart. "She knows by the way. It's fine," he adds, once that's done, leaving it at that level of detail. Was it fine? He'll will it to be fine. He drinks from his beer and makes eye contact with Lita to let this information sink in. "What do you need?" He looks meaningfully at the glass doors that open out to the pool. Maybe she's here on business that can't be discussed in front of toddlers. "We can go outside by the deck for a second if you need?" he suggests.

Lita lofts a brow at Harper's repitition of her sister's name and stands to follow Hudson into the living room. Kidlings weren't her thing. Maybe at another time, in another life, if her son had been hers to raise and she hadn't spent a lifetime chasing some fantasy of being a mother. She'd missed out on her chances for this- cribs and legos and stuffed giraffes. Even in her years in Hollow her experience with kids had been non-existent. Finn had dragged his littlies off to some unknown island before they'd been born and that had been that. She was almost entranced watching the twins now, leaning with her hip against the arm of the couch and the six pack in hand, balanced against her knee. Hudson flitted away for a bottle opener but Lita wasn't paying that much attention to him anyway right this second. She was trying to imagine Hudson and Alvina as kids and which ones did the twins look more like. She was likely squinting a little at them upon his return and she'd take that opened bottle with a murmur of thanks, taking a drink. And then Hudson said something. Alvina knows. Knows. Like knows-knows? She blinked, took another drink and they slid her attention sideways from the twins back towards Hudson, stared at him for a minute in silence. Took another drink. Everything felt like it took longer to process lately. Alvina knows. And it was apparently fine. And then Hudson was changing the subject again. Right. Business. What did she need? Something stronger than the beer she'd brought. A good night's sleep. She had a hunch the question wasn't exostential though. "An introduction to Valrae." She blurted at last, like ripping off a band-aid. Better to be blunt, apparently. She could have gone to Meri, really. But Hudson had offered, months ago now. And Meri had already done so much for her- was doing so much for her. She didn't want to ask the woman for something else.

The girls have an easy rapport that makes complete sense only to them and a little sense to their parents. Case in point: Harper is mashing a lego against the side of the wall and Luna stops her, giving her only a wide eyed look. (The kids look more like Alvina, at least in coloring.) Hudson thinks he sees a frisson of panic in Lita's gaze about Alvina knowing, and he quickly tilts his head, lifting his chin in the universal gesture for 'yeeeeep: that.' He drinks casually afterwards, and then nearly chokes and sprays on Lita in response to her question. "Val...Rae," murmurs Luna thoughtfully, as if the word held all of Lithrydel's secrets. She looks at Hudson and Lita for approval. Hudson winces a little. "Yes Lunabear," he says to Luna, because to tell her not say that word is to make it the hottest word of all time. His gaze shifts back to Lita, and he offers her an easy smile. "Yeah? Alright," he says. "She can't come into Cenril because of some legal issues," like she's literally a fugitive because she went to jail and then escaped but, legal issues, whatever, "so I can arrange a meeting in Larket." He's locked eyes with her, and he lifts his eyebrows. Luna is gesturing at Harper's giraffe: "Val...Rae." "No," says Harper. This is her favorite word. This sequence repeats, the second time with a more forceful no. Harper is busy making a pile of red legos. She says as much to her sister: "Busy." Hudson seems relieved that the giraffe won't be named Valrae, at least not this moment. "Want to tell me what this is about?" he asks Lita.

There's an instant pang of guilt in Lita's stomach as one of the little kidlet girls repeats the witch's name and she wrinkles her nose in what might have evolved into an apology at another time. Now she just took another pull of beer, a vain attempt to drown it. One of the kidlings was collecting red legos for some reason. What was red? Strawberries? Apples? Why couldn't she think of anything other than foods? The duo were distracting at best but in a nice way, a way that made you stop thinking or caring about the rest of the world. She had an image in her head of Hudson sitting for hours and watching them play, like nothing else mattered. There was the repeat of Valrae's name and Lita hoped that wasn't going to become a thing. She chewed at her lower lip. When Hudson posed his question she turned her eyes downcast to stare as her index finger tapped against the neck of the bottle in hand. Maybe it was the result of having been gone for so long. Apparently that was an issue all its own. Maybe it was the twins being older and present. Maybe it was that Alvina knew. But whatever commraderie they'd shared at one time felt far away now, behind walls and distance and she wasn't sure how to get back to it. Even if she'd wanted to tell him something more than nothing, how much could she trust him with now? How much would he tell Alvina? As selfish as it might have been, she'd liked those secrets- some little piece of someone she could keep to herself. She reminded herself to breathe and furrowed her brow down at her beer, picking idly at the label on the bottle. "Larket's fine. Or anywhere, really. I'll meet her." Her voice felt hoarse and she cleared her throat, took another drink. "And you don't have to be there, if you don't want to come, or can't. Just need a time and place." Another drink to finish the bottle and it settled heavy in her stomach. "Also, I'm linin' up a buyer for those eggs. Sorry it's taken so long. I'll make sure to get your cut to you. And for this meet, of course." Business. She could do that. Nerves of jello-steel.

If Hudson could read Lita's mind, he'd agree. When they're not having tantrums, watching the girls is a mindless activity, and sometimes indulgent, like right now, before she'd arrived, he'd... literally been playing legos. That had been pretty cool. He's not thinking about that now, though, or the fact that Luna thinks the word 'Valrae' is a cool and good word that she should say, he's interested in why Lita wants to meet with his ex-paramour. Business or pleasure, in short. He drinks from his beer and watches the way she visibly hems and haws and seems to retreat into herself. It changes everything. He remembers that time they'd caught a ballgame and she'd gotten up and bolted after he'd mentioned Valrae. There's a little of that Lita in the Lita of right now. Look how she tries to maneuver around him, slippery Lita. "I can be there, though it's not like .. she's really nice, well, I'd like to make the introduction," he is stumbling over his response a little too, the weirdness is infectious. When did it get weird? It has snuck up on him, he could have sworn a moment ago it was fine, a surprise but fine. His conviction that things have taken a strange turn is reinforced by her turning to the subject of the eggs. He doesn't need the money, of course not, his operations have him flush with cash. He'd done that to live a little, and hang out with her. He looks at her like she's the cat about to vomit on the rug. (There is a cat who lives here... she hides perpetually because of the children.) "There's no rush," he brushes off her insistence. "Is everything good?" he asks, abruptly. "It's happening again. That moment at the baseball game."

Lita had felt cornered at the baseball game. Now she felt exposed. Both times she'd felt vulnerable, out of control, struggling to keep her composure. She's avoiding looking at Hudson directly, feeling defensive and protective and maybe a little pissed off. He'd told Alvina. Which she wouldn't have minded at all except that her name was involved now and she didn't know Alvina well enough to know what repercussions might come next or what damage control might have to be done later and she hadn't been back in town long enough to try and suss out that information. Or known she would need to. She nodded briskly at his mention of wanting to be at the meet with Valrae. "I would prefer it if you didn't stay the entire time. The client who's hired me is a rather private person." She realized then that her problem was she didn't trust him. Maybe she'd trusted him too soon to begin with but, once someone saved your life a couple times that trust came fairly easily. Maybe she should have bugged Meri to set up this meet after all. "Peachy." she smiled a little at his question about whether or not things were good. "Busy, but alright." She shifted a little against the arm of the chair she was leaning against, bent forward to hand him her empty bottle, hopefully in exchange for a new one. Part of her wanted to run from the house, back to the island, back towards something safe and sane. But they'd been friends once, hadn't they? She owed him more than that. "How are you? Seems I've missed out on a lot the last couple weeks, tell me everything."

Hudson accepts more legos from one of his daughters and assists in detaching them, as apparently this simple task is hard for toddlers. He nods slowly as she explains about the privacy her client wants, there's a weirdness about the way she'd voiced it, but there's still a friendly light in his eyes because putting the two of them alone together is what he'd tried to accomplish before. He notices that she'd avoided his reference to the baseball game. Maybe he can reset things, she's asking how he is, perhaps the weirdness had come from his sudden reconciliation with Alvina. He hadn't pegged Lita for being disappointed about that, but maybe he's obtuse. It could equally be that she's heard a bit about his real self from Meri, he's not sure when it became weird that he wasn't honest with Lita, but he feels it acutely now. Ugh. (He's still off the mark, but he's ignorant to that.) "Alright then, this'll be fun," he says, warmly, about the meeting with Valrae. He gives Lita a fresh beer and drinks from his, he's working a bit slower. Maybe because he needs to stay a little sober to get this lego castle completed. (That is not a thing.) "Things have been a little crazy," he admits candidly, watching Lita. He gestures around him. "I've been pretty dead to the world, just... caught up in it," that's his way of apologizing for whatever has caused the strangeness, he still hasn't a firm idea of it. He rises from the couch and moves to open the sliding door that leads out to the pool patio. "Come out with me for a second," he says, the subtext that he'd like to talk away from small people who literally repeat whatever with no appreciation for how awkward it is. Tiny tattletales. He can still watch and listen to them from outside with the door cracked, though there's a bit more privacy. Best to meet all these things head on. "Are we OK?" he asks her. He thinks back to how jauntily she'd presented herself, and then how guarded she'd become. Maybe he's imagining it, and she's fine/he's projecting? Women were a head trip. Had the strangeness happened immediately upon them interacting? A thought, different vein from his earlier theories, pierces him: maybe it's about Alvina knowing. He jabs wildly at the cause: "I'm sorry, I didn't want to tell Alvina, she randomly guessed it and my face was bad."

Lita was quiet, content to listen and watch Hudson un-stuck legos for the kidlets. The second beer was balanced on her knee, the glass cold against her bare skin but she didn't drink from it just yet. And then he was leading her outside and she was a little curious now, brow furrowed as she watched him. She could almost see the gears in his head trying to work out what had happened. Which was a strange sensation. She'd assumed Hudson, as a businessman, would appreciate a healthy separation of business and personal matters. But he was trying to, what, salvage their friendship? Maybe she owed him that honesty more than she thought. She chewed at the inside of her lower lip and with a little sigh lifted her beer for a drink. "I'm not mad that you told her." she almost blurted after his apology. She didn't want him to feel bad that Alvina knew. She knew he loved Alvina, knew what it meant to love someone. "I'm mad that she knows it was me. I don't have a contingency plan for that." Her voice softened, the words trembling slightly and it wasn't anger in her eyes as she looked up at him but fear. "I've worked really hard in my line of work to control who knows what about me. And you might know her but I don't and trust me, that thing about hell having no wrath like a woman scorned, well!" she scoffed and took another drink of her beer. "I'm not saying anything will happen I just," she swallowed hard, "I don't like not having a plan in place, I don't like the unexpected. And come on, you're supposed to have a better poker face." That last bit might have been a little more teasing.

Hudson's eyes go wide as Lita clarifies her position. "Oh no no no," he is trying to verbally scramble. She thinks that she was 'the other woman' in some sense. He can see her working herself up about it. "Lita, no," he tries to stop her with where she's going with this. He shakes his head. Harper smushes her face up against the glass door, it's a little cute. "You weren't, um, Alvina and I weren't together when that happened, we didn't do anything wrong. She knows that too, she's not mad at you, like at all, it's fine that you're here and stuff," he reassures the woman in front of him, ignoring the face-print shenanigans happening on the glass. In truth Alvina might be a little weirded out by her being there, but maybe also comforted by the fact that whatever had happened with Lita was so apparently fine and chill that Hudson isn't trying to sequester Lita, like she's patient 0 of some terrible crime of the heart. Like he had with Valrae. Also about his fibbing: sometimes you cover for the person you're with, because you love them and exposing their vulnerabilities is not kind. Sort of the same principle underpinning why he doesn't like kissing and telling. "And she's not going to say anything, or cause problems with your business, she is so not like that, trust me, it was a little deal," he reassures Lita. He exhales, oh boy what a thing, have to set the record straight there. "I can talk to her if you want," easier said than done, he's not sure he can deliver on that, even. "But Alvina is kind of... I don't know, not the kind of person," he sags a little, doesn't want to insult her and say that she's the kind of person who keeps up appearances, who doesn't want to be known as That Poor Woman. "It's just not a thing," he settles for saying.

Lita wasn't at all worried about feeling like 'the other woman'. She'd been that- and worse- before. It happens. She was worried that Alvina might say something to someone about that husband of hers who had a dalliance once with Lita and then later down the line she might lose some business to having intervened somehow or cause problems in their relationship. Not that she knew anything about what kinds of circles Alvina might run in but she assumed they were in some ways parallel to the ones Hudson lived in, which were certainly parallel to hers. Lita was more worried that at some point, one drunken night with Hudson would turn into bad for business and she didn't want it to be one more mistake on record. She was quiet, let herself relax a little as Hudson explained. "Please, don't say anything about it. I don't want to make it something if it's not." In her head she was already working on some sort of possible contingency plan but that was just the way her brain worked. She'd have to take him at his word for the kind of person Alvina was or wasn't. Aside from seeing her with Hudson at Larket's royal wedding, she'd never met the girl. Even there they hadn't been introduced. She leaned back against the deck railing, let the tension roll from her shoulders as she looked down. She felt ridiculous. She felt like a girl. "I'm sorry if it caused problems." That she caused problems. Even though he said they'd been broken up... "But I'm glad you guys are good." She meant that. As much as she could. She might have given up on finding happiness in her own love life but that didn't mean she wished the same fate for the people she cared about. And somehow, in all the drama, Hudson was someone she cared about. "I'm glad you're happy." She meant that, too. Not just for Hudson and Alvina but for the twinlets, too. They were pretty adorable, even Lita wouldn't deny that. She lifted her beer, took another drink. "So-" she crossed her right ankle over her left and lifted her gaze to meet his again. "when can we meet up with-" she remembered the kidlets' repetition of the name and thought better of continuing to use it. "-well, you know..."

"It's not a thing," Hudson is quick to reassure Lita, now that they're both containing the problem. Now that it's been identified! His hand cuts through the air, dismissing that it had 'caused problems.' (Haha, well. This happens, in relationships, little jealous dust ups weren't uncommon, certainly not where he and Alvina were concerned, there's history there that goes well beyond Lita.) "No no. Everything's good," he reassures Lita. That is true, no lie there. He offers her an encouraging grin as she says she's glad he's happy. "Yeah, well, me too," he says, humbly, like aw shucks, as if he'd just lucked out on it. Sometimes it can really feel that way. He sticks his tongue out at Harper, who is still flattening her face against the sliding door. Luna is standing sentinel by her, not willing to join in on this activity, probably because it's ridiculous. Hudson studies the girls before swinging his gaze back to Lita once more. "I'll send her a note and let you know," he says, which is a vague answer but all he can provide as he keeps a careful distance from the witch (oocly she is taking some time off due to a death in the family, so unclear when it would be but we'll make it happen). "You know," he continues, carefully, "I've been wanting to tell you for awhile, your ah, girl Meri knows, Lita... I'm the guy who makes all the purple dust that's being sold in Cenril. The money from the dragon egg thing, that's ah... take your time, we're," he gestures at the ridiculous house, which cost a fortune, "fine. I did that to help you."

Lita knew already that Hudson had lucked into his relationship with Alvina. How else would a guy like him have gotten a girl like that? She smiled a little at the thought but kept the jab to herself for now. She flickers a glance towards the door where one of the kidlet girls is trying to mash herself through the glass. Or something. Her sister is less amused and Hudson seems to think this behavior is normal. Her smile faded a little when Hudson started in on the having wanted to tell her something for a while now, and then Meri's name was involved and she felt a surge of protectiveness bubble through her. A slow smile tugged across her lips at his admission and she nodded. "I know," she admitted. And then clarified, "I mean, I didn't know. I assumed. Arent a whole lot of big players in Cenril and between you spending money on baseball, the lavish house in Larket, and now this," she lifted a hand to gesture at the house and pool around them. "I put two-and-two together." She shrugged a little. "Just," she didn't want to tell Hudson to be safe. He probably heard it enough from Alvina and it wasn't much her place anyway. But he had helped her. More than once. She didn't entirely understand why and she furrowed her brow slightly. "Why did you help me? Not just with the dragon eggs but before, when I painted the twins' cribs and at the baseball game."

Hudson had wondered if Lita knew, and he greets this revelation with a lift of his eyebrows and steadied gaze. As she explains, his mouth curves into a lazy smile. "This doesn't seem the humble abode of someone who makes medical reagents?" he jokes. It's a relief that she knew. "I'm working on seeming more legit," he adds, sheepishly, thinking about the architect plans that he's been ignoring in favor of all the other things going on in his life. He drinks from the mouthpiece of his beer again. Her question inspires a shrug. "Because we're friends, duh. Let's go back in, it's hot as balls," he says playfully, adding silently, via the laughter in his gaze: '...and because dudes like helping pretty girls, duh.' Now that the weirdness is dissipating, he waves them back in. Also he wants a fresh beer, he's killed his first finally. He shuts the door to the patio, shutting out the creeping summer heat. Perks of being wealthy: you can spring for magical cooling for your home. He picks out some cheetos-like snack from a cupboard and, opening the bag, offers some to Lita. He also gives one to Harper. "Don't tell mommy I gave you this trash food, daddy will be in trouble," he warns her, as she begins gnawing away and getting cheese dust on her person. There are several Harper facial prints on the sliding door now and Hudson takes a second to admire them. Luna has resumed playing quietly with the lego castle, probably secretly plotting just how she'll tattle on him and Harper for cheetoh-gate. It's clear which of the two took after which parent in attitude. "Living the dream," says Hudson to Lita, perhaps sensing that hanging out with toddlers isn't her first choice of activity. He smirks wryly. "Is this about what you pictured? Have I lost all my cool cred?"

Lita managed a playful snort as she rolled her eyes at Hudson's use of the word 'humble'. Hudson did not -do- humble. Hudson did loud and proud and in-your-face and then played it off as if it had all simply been the result of a little luck. She follows him back inside and wanders towards the lego castle monstrosity as he opts for a fresh beer and junk food. "I tried that whole legit business thing once with the shop." The shop was mostly legit, in the fact that they were actually a respected and reputable tattoo shop. That just wasn't the whole story. She shrugged bare shoulders and found a spot on the floor amidst the block toys, careful not to disturb the kidlet currently working on the castle's contruction. She should probably learn their names- or at least which was which. She wrinkles her nose a little at Hudson's offer of food and settles her beer between her legs, as she's now sitting cross-legged on the floor, leaning back against the couch. She picks up a pair of legos from the floor and pries them apart as she'd seen Hudson done earlier. Lifting one, almost in question to the Luna kidlet, as if she needed permission to add it to the castle. Assuming Luna wouldn't start screaming if she tried to help, she'd add the lego to the top of the castle someplace, probably ruining Hudson's whole intention of following the actual directions. Her smile broadens at Hudson's question about 'cool cred' and she's glad that weirdness between them is dissipating. "Please, daddy-o, you never had cool cred." she teases, adding another lego block to the castle.

Alvina’s accidental meeting had ended, which means she found her way from the center of Cenril’s market district back home. “Damn,” She mutters on the front steps, hands lodged in her bag for her set of keys that she can’t find. This bag ate everything. With a silent prayer to whoever the god of locked doors was, Alvina turns the knob and finds it unlocked. Relief washes over her face as she steps into the living room, mouth open with a wide smile to announce her arrival. “Mom’s home!” Luna had previously given Lita silent permission to put the lego atop the tower but when she hears the door, she’s off like a shot towards the non-alien version of her mom. Harper stays in place, eyeing Lita while she works on getting the cheeto dust off her thumbs. Her and dad had a DEAL, or so Hudson thought. “Moooommy,” Harper waves her orange hands at Alvina, while remaining plopped on the floor by Lita. Alvina scoops Luna up and twirls her around. They have a little moment; it’s kind of gross/ adorable so it takes Alvina a minute to see Lita. When she does, the bard’s face freezes with indecision. Indeed this is the same woman she remembered seeing at the wedding in passing, beautiful raven curls spilling over her shoulders. Her eyes dart from Lita, to Hudson as a giant question mark forms over her head for all to see. What the heck is going on? Obviously, it’s nothing too heinous, because the twins are involved. Alvina lets Luna down, to toddle back to the lego tower and refits a tense smile on her face. There’s no need for formal introductions and yet it seems important to do so. “Hello there,” She deposits her bags on the other end of the couch, giving Hudson a peck on the cheek and avoiding the six pack and various legos to find a seat beside him. “Am I interrupting the castle planning committee? Complete with snacks, I see.” She beams at both adults and children before shrugging of the strap of her satchel so it mixes with the other discarded bags. Her own hair is loose, curling abundantly around her cheeks and shoulders, the crimson threads standing out against her navy blouse and white skirt. Her feet boast little white flowery sandals that wrap around the ankle, the details visible as she crosses her legs and smooths her long skirt down modestly.

Hudson grimaces at being called daddy-o. "Please no," he says. It's then that he hears the keys outside the front door and is looking for Alvina before she in fact appears. There's literally nothing to see here. They're playing with legos and eating cheetos and drinking beer (well, the adults). He. Hadn't quite expected Alvina's face to turn to glass at that moment though, she usually is more like an Olympic gymnast in how she always lands on her feet in any social interaction. Ah, but it had only lasted a moment, there's the Alvina he knows. "Hi baby," he says warmly to Alvina, so that she doesn't get all Destiny's Child Say My Name about the situation. "You .. I think maybe .. not sure if you've met Lita? She was in the neighborhood and had a work question for me. Lita, this is Alvina, my fiancé," he tries to casually introduce them. He's been anticipating this in his mind ever since Lita arrived. The timing had been ideal. Harper is seizing the opportunity to put her entire wee arm inside the cheetos bag, and Hudson catches her before she can manage to spill the entire thing onto the carpet. She begins to wail, because it's a grave injustice that she can't spray cheetos everywhere, or something, and Hudson promptly scoops her onto his lap. Luna seems a little uncertain, like should she be also crying, is this a cause that's worthy? "Oh nooooo weasel. Here we go," he complains, kissing Harper on the head. She squirms free and crawls onto Alvina's lap, evidently full of hate toward her father because grave injustice, etc. "They were being so good, this is our first meltdown of the day," he informs both Alvina and Lita, in case either are inclined to think he's a monster for his role in causing it. "How was your stuff?" he asks Alvina. "Do you want a beer?" he adds, knowing the answer is no.

For a moment, Lita's glancing around, looking for a back door she might be able to run out of before Hudson's wifey (who else would be walking through the door without knockin?) can spot her in the living room. Not that anything is going on, it's just that fight-or-flight response lets her live another day. She's awkwardly not sure if she should be watching Alvina or continuing to play with legos, despite the fact that the kidlets have now been distracted by other things. Sheesh. She takes another drink of her beer and lifts a hand to wriggle slender fingers at Alvina in greeting. Hello, awkward smile. She opts to returning dark eyes to the block castle and as everybody else settles on the couch behind her head, she feels like an unnecessary fifth wheel. "Don't do it," she says to Alvina as Hudson offers a beer. She leans her head back against the side of the woman's knee to look up at her, Alvina and Hudson and kidlets suddenly tilted in the field of her vision. "It's disgusting," she continues about the beer, despite that this is her second bottle. But apparently showing up places with whiskey made you look like an alcoholic. Apparently. She turned right-way-around again, took another drink and resettled her beer between her legs as she reached for more legos to pry apart. Yellow. She was subconciously constructing multicolored pinnacles atop one of the castle's towers. Because she could.

Alvina wiggles her fingers back at Hudson's introduction. "Happy to have you," she says in Lita's direction, before the other woman goes back to building. Harper flops in mom's lap and rubs her orange powdery fingers on her white skirt. "Ohhh what is it? Is Daddy being the worst?" She soothes Harper by finding her giraffe and having it kiss all over her red face. Luna stands in place, fingers in her mouth and eyes wide on the scene before deciding to try and find her stuffed cat. It's soaking wet, having been 'drinking water' from their real cat's bowl with the toddler’s supervision. She hands it to Lita expectantly, without saying exactly what she wants. Luna waits a minute before pouting and sighing overdramatically and trying to kiss Lita's cheek in a demonstration. Obviously kissing ties the whole together. "No thanks, on the beer. I'm being advised against it." Her smile is still tense, just between her and Hudson. Lita hopefully won't be able to tell Alvina still has a little aura of apprehension about all this. It's not like she's envisioning some inappropriate situation or anything! It just feels weird to meet someone this way. Then, randomly, she turns to Lita and asks "You know Meri, yes?" Not much of a real question, she'd just been out with Meri and Khitti and Meri had MENTIONED Lita. "We were just looking at Violin's in the Last note. She's thinking about getting one for the tattoo parlor, as decoration, she said maybe. I told it her it was a good idea, but then Khitti suggested painting it all black and tattooing the violin. Isn't that genius?" She spun her gaze around to Hudson as well. This is a normal conversation. "Am I interrupting work discussion?" She asked, eventually, after throwing out this weird bit of dialogue.

Hudson is wondering if he and Lita come off as obviously day drunk and assembling legos, because lol, it's kind of the best but Alvina must be secretly rolling her eyes. He notes that Lita has picked up on the color coded theme and is thus likewise indifferent to the Actual Instructions of the lego castle, nobody cares but him. Of course Alvina's mom-exorcism immediately resolves the fit Harper's pitching. And of course Luna seizes the moment to prove that she is The Good Child, overcoming her earlier shyness with Lita to spontaneously kiss her. Huds winces. That's cute but maybe Lita doesn't want to be baby slobbered. Consent is still a thing toddlers don't really understand. Also ever since Hudson has become a father of girl children he's lived in terror that some guy will be a rapist and sees pretty much everything through this lens. His girls will grow up and understand consent and also know how to punch a guy in the D if necessary. "Did Lita want you to kiss her?" he asks Luna, who is A LIAR because she nods and looks at Lita and then her mother for confirmation. Alvina still seems a little fragile, and then, out of nowhere, she erupts with this remark about Meri. Why hadn't he thought of that? "No no," he reassures Alvina. "Not interrupting, we were done and just literally drinking and playing legos. Living the dream basically. Meri and Lita work together, I thought you were doing wedding stuff or did I get confused?"

Lita wasn't blind to Alvina's apprehension. She was choosing to ignore it outright. There was beer. And legos. And she was being prodded with a wet stuffed cat that she had no idea what to do with, blinking idly at the kidlet who'd just given it to her. She clearly did not understand the connection. People under the age of being-able-to-legally-drink were mostly foreign objects to her. And then she was being slobber-kissed on the cheek which was apparently a thing. Wait, was this the same kidlet previously kissy-facing the glass door? She can't remember. Fantastic. She moves her beer from her lap to behind her (between her hip and the couch) and opens her arm for Luna to crawl into her lap if she wants. She's still holding the wet cat thing, which she'll give to said kidling as it settles in front of her. Lita seems to think this is at least acceptable, despite the fact that she still feels awkward about the entire thing and isn't quite relaxed as she resumes playing with legos, completely intent now on destroying Hudson's attempt to follow the directions. She's prying legos apart and giving them to Luna, pointing to the pinnacles she's building so the kidlet can build the legos with her. Color-coding legos is an acceptable pasttime. Lita is debating decorating the shop with legos when Alvina mentions Meri and a violin and she might have twitched slightly. "I've known Meri for a few years now. She runs the shop mostly these days, I just own it, sometimes show up for work." She was mostly joking. But all the talk of violins made her miss her own and the rush of memories is sudden. Luna is squirming a little, nudging her knee with a pair of legos she hasn't been able to separate and it takes Lita a beat to blink the world back into focus. Right. She parts the legos, which Luna immediately mashes back together. "I have a violin, though. It's made of ivory though so it's not black but it would mean Meri wouldn't have to buy one." She didn't say anything about the wedding plans, mostly because she wasn't the type. Her own wedding had been on a private beach, sans guests, and the only decoration they'd bothered with was Hanan insisting that she'd go 'all out' and wear a fancy dress. "Where are you guys getting married?" She asked, trying to play nice and be a part of the conversation.

Alvina looks at Hudson with surprise. “Meri was part of the wedding stuff I was doing. I just asked her and Khitti to be bridesmaids.” Now there's an awkwardness here that maybe only Alvina feels but as a woman, she has often endured the stigma of bridesmaid offers and lack there of. Lita, realistically, will not care about not being invited because this is literally the first time they've met right? Or will she feel some outside vibe, like Alvina's rubbing the wedding in her face? She really isn't. This interaction with Luna softens Alvina towards Lita. If Luna liked her, and Lita was tolerating their children...she's probably a good egg. Hudson did not have a good track record with picking the best companions, evident by his job that Alvina still did not completely approve of. She was a little do-goodie sometimes, too much so for her own good. “Oh dang it, I forgot to do the thing.” The thing being if Alvina wanted to kiss Hudson, she had to loudly ask his permission and could only do so when he said yes. They were working on healthy boundaries. A work in progress. “I think Meri wanted to use a different violin so you could still play yours, if I remember the conversation right.” She smiled at Lita, through strands of her crimson hair. It's genuine now, her shoulders slack and she's a little more at ease with this scene than she was before. There's no reason to hold onto any of that useless information she knows. They weren't together so it didn't matter right? “Do you have any tattoos?” She asks Lita, shrugging at Hudson if he gives her a face that tells her that's a rude thing to ask a near stranger. “I think Meri is trying to talk up the process a little. And I don't think we've set a date just yet but likely soonish.” Subconsciously, her hand falls across her stomach, while Harper snuggles her face into her giraffe and seems pacified to just exist in the same space as mom for this glorious and shining moment. The moment ends when she crawls off Alvina, towards Hudson, for some cheeto debris. “Noooo” She whines preemptively assuming he'll move the bag away. Sometimes kids are smart.

Hudson hasn't paid attention to the wedding guest list in awhile but had assumed Lita is invited, he doesn't have that many friends (so he thinks, Alvina probably doesn't agree). Now is the first time it occurs to him that perhaps she became uh, trimmed, due to recent revelations that did not please his bride to be. Hmmm. He'll ask her later, clearly Lita is fine/Alvina can once again ascend to sainthood and overlook his uh, ways. After all, surely she can see this is a sweet interaction with Lita and Luna. More so because Luna is the quiet one. In his book it's going a bit above and beyond to pretend that this cat plushie isn't a little tattered/gross. He didn't know that Lita plays violin but opts to not mention that, it might jog Alvina's memory about what he does know about Lita. Which is maybe (definitely) more than she'd prefer he know. He does indeed shoot Alvina a strange look from behind his beer as she asks about Lita's tattoos and then talks about the wedding. Well, she's trying, he reminds himself. That's not exactly subtle about her stomach, but he also doesn't mind, maybe even feels a little pleased with himself, like he's a wizard or something. Damn right. Harper crawls onto him, and he is one step ahead of her, moves the cheese curls to the other side of his body. "Nope," he says to her. He realizes that Lita had asked 'where' and Alvina had answered 'when,' do he decides to contribute to this Wedding Discussion because he knows this one thing. "We are thinking of having it at the St. Rexis by the beach," he says, referring to Cenril's newest and fanciest luxury resort. "At least that's one of the leading contenders and it's big enough to contain all of my mum's friends." He likes the look of quiet concentration that Luna has as she works on a single color spire (or really just a lot of legos stacked together, it's probably a compliment to call it a spire). Then Harper is squirming again and says, "No, busy, daddy," like he's annoying her and keeping her from important business by cuddling her. He allows her to climb off of him. She's just jealous that Luna's playing legos and wants to build a competing spire in another color. OK then. He thinks about commenting that Lita met that Noah pitcher Alvina has an endearing crush on but then he'd have to explain they went to a ballgame and even though it was fine and chill and a friend outing ehhhhhhh maybe not! He decides to just make fun of himself instead, "I think choice of venue is one of the few things I'm sort of in charge of. Sort of. Other things definitely not in charge. My suggestion that Cubbies' Kris Bryant marry us was not well received for some reason."

Lita had less than zero qualms about talk of bridesmaids and not having been included. Negative qualms. She was grateful not to have to endure some tailored poofy dress that was the color of pink a cat would vomit up after having eaten too much salmon. Though she was definitely commissioning portraits of Meri in said dress! She was grinning, already planning such deviousness in her head. Lita missed Alvina's smile, distracted by the fact that the kidling in her lap is now trying to attach legos to the stuffed cat. Lita has her arms around the kidlet and she takes the legos in one hand and cat in the other, making the cat do a little dance as it attaches the legos to the castle. Luna squeals with a delighted peal of laughter which makes Lita relax a little too. Luna is reaching for more legos and dumping them on the stuffed cat, amused that it can apparently build castles. Lita is sort of only halfway listening to the Wedding Discussion now, having been caught up in this sudden need for legos and puppets, seeing Kidlet Girl #2 climbing off the couch to build legos with them. "I have three," she manages in response to Alvina's question about her tattoos. One on the insides of both wrists, a black spade and a dual triquetra. The name scribbled across her collar bone was mostly hidden by the blue tunic she was wearing and then, "Four, sorry." she reached her left arm back (the one not holding the cat-puppet) to gather raven curls and tug them over her shoulder. "Meri did my most recent one." She said proudly. It was an infinity symbol across the back of her neck, with a lotus flower interrupting the top-left loop and a flurry of feathers falling from the right hand side of the piece. There were a few stars sprinkled in with the feathers, too. It was all black ink and precise line work. And then Lita was listening to Hudson talk about where the wedding might be held. She knew the Cenril resort by name but hadn't stayed there. She definitely had no idea who Kris Bryant was and was not as keen to pick up on the fact that Alvina didn't know about their baseball outing. He'd said she knew everything-everything, after all. "Is that the greek-god-blonde one that signed my cap?" This was clearly a better description of the pitcher than his actual name.

Alvina felt a pang of guilt that Lita is the only one in the floor with the girls. Should she be down there too? Or would that be weird? Best to leave it alone in cast the girls erupted, then she could swoop in. How Lita is touching that gross cat is beyond her. Alvina didn't even want to touch it and she knew it was just water. Did Lita like kids? Maybe she’d want to babysit? That’s a rude question, so Alvina won’t ask. She admires Lita’s tasteful tattoo and wishes for a moment she had a tattoo. It looks cool but she bet it hurts quite a bit. “What do you think of tattooing my scar?” She asks Hudson, drawing a thin line across her stomach playfully. Then Lita moves in to talk about a handsome baseball player signing her cap and she’s immediately jealous. “Was that Noah?!” She fans herself, giving Hudson a silly look before connecting some invisible dots. Why would...Hudson know who signed her cap? “Do you - like baseball too Lita?” She’s eying Hudson now with a private ire. Had he used the season tickets she got him to take another woman?! After they did the date night there and she ate a gods be damned cricket, for the love of Sven is this really her life? “Here, let me…” She offers politely to take Luna from Lita, who fusses at the upheaval. “Blocks.” Luna fusses, trying to squirm her chubby body away. “Blocks, Val Rae!” The toddler cries, and that’s when Alvina freezes, back turned with Luna twisting wildly in her arms. Why in the seven hells did Luna know this word? There’s no keeping her face composed, so she hikes Luna up on her hip with the authority only a mother can compose before straightening her spine and rolling her shoulders back. “Time for a bath, I think.” She tells Luna, and subsequently the other two adults present in the room. “I’ll come back for Harper next. Lovely to meet you Lita.” And like that, without chance or pause, Alvina moves to another part of the house to interrogate a fussy toddler about the words she’s learned while molding her impossibly limber frame in and out of clothes and bathtubs.

Hudson tries not to be too interested in Lita's tattoos, that might cause problems. He watches the lego assembly instead, and then shoots Alvina a skeptical glance when she proposes tattooing her scar. This is like a test. "You don't need to tattoo your scar," he says, thinking that's the right answer. And then Lita and Alvina, like a train about to derail, surge ahead into the subject of baseball and Alvina's giving him looks and he knows he's in trouble. And then Luna explodes with Valrae's name, in the most unhelpful diversion of all time, and Hudson nearly chokes on his beer. Collecting himself, he nods in a very natural and agreeable manner, like total chaos hasn't just erupted, it is just conveniently the case that it's bath time. "OK, she's getting upset, yeah, best do that," he agrees lamely with Alvina's retreating figure, waiting for her to have shuffled out of the room before turning to grimace fiercely at Lita. "Daaaaaaddy," Harper draws out his name like she knows, or something. More than likely she just is picking up on the static and wants a cuddle. He sighs into the mouthpiece of his beer, gives Lita a beleaguered look that suggests that their visit has concluded. "It's fine," he sighs, getting up to see her out. He waves a hand with defeat. "I just gotta..." explain to Alvina that Luna knows Valrae's name for benign reasons, not because Valrae has been to their home, or anything. "Thanks for the beers, I'll send you a mail."

Lita understood that Alvina's question about tattooing a scar was not hers to answer. But the question about Noah, she glanced over her shoulder at Hudson with a shrug. She was about to explain that she didn't know much about baseball, that they'd gone as friends and she'd lucked herself into some contest but she could see Alvina drawing her own conclusions about the situation and Lita's mind was suddenly blank for words. She didn't want to make things worse by saying the wrong thing! Alvina was gathering the kidling from her lap and Lita just watched, setting the stuffed cat thing amidst the legos. And then Luna erupted with that mother-of-all-wrong-names-to-say just then. She could practically see Alvina's face knit into a mask of 'I'm trying to be nice but don't be here when I get back' and Lita was not about to argue with that. She stood once Alvina left the room, gathered up her beer and when Hudson shot her an exasperated look she felt guilty. But she hadn't done anything and he'd said he'd told her everything! Everything meant everything! She handed Hudson the beer bottle and reached out to land a half-hearted punch to his shoulder. This was not how she'd wanted her first meeting- or any meeting- with Alvina to go. "Fix it." She practically hissed from the doorway as she took her leave. Not just his relationship with Alvina but any chance she might have at being a friend to the woman in the future. She was friends with Hudson. She didn't want to jeopardize that by ostracizing his soon-to-be wife.

Maybe if Lita hadn't known about Valrae, she'd just chalk Alvina's sudden departure up to the impatience of a tired mom who's got a lot on her plate and doesn't need to be surprise-entertaining. But Lita knows about Valrae, and so she knows now that Hudson's in trouble. It makes him feel low, he doesn't want to talk about it because he's on Alvina's side even about it (little does she know!) and it's just embarrassing all around to be fighting with your woman in front of your friends. Especially when the fight is about something incendiary, and what's more incendiary than your two year old saying your ex mistress's name for no apparent reason. He nods dumbly in response to Lita's counsel. "Yeah," he says tiredly, waving at her as she goes. "See you..."