lunch with the kids // Roo!

[Ever Goodman]

There hadn’t been much work lately, which left Ever at home, Rumourless when she was at the daycare, with nothing to do but sit around and watch porn and think about her all day. This was the case today as the young man glanced away from the television screen and out the window; dark eyes absent as they watched the gray clouds roll across the winter sky. With a heavy sigh, Ever shifted on the couch and scratched his chin, casting his empty stare at the clock on the wall instead. It was barely lunchtime he discovered with an audible groan. Still half a day to waste and he was already bored out of his mind. Maybe a shower would move me. Ever thought and rolled off the sofa with so much effort it was as if he weighed a thousand pounds. The shower hardly stirred the uninspired male, who hadn’t even the energy to pleasure himself (on of his favorite pastimes, especially in the shower!) Ever turned off the spray and climbed out, swiping a hand across the hardly steamed up mirror to gaze at his undressed form. He pushed out his gut and poked it with a finger, laughed and then sighed boredly again. Self amusement was out of the question. After dressing in jeans and a long sleeve grey thermal tee-shirt the amnesiac flopped on the couch to flip through the channels again. His growling belly at least motivated the man to turn off the boob tube to wander into the kitchen for food. Ever stood before the refrigerator; door open, staring at the bare shelves for at least seven minutes before the idea struck him. An impish smile curved up his lips, and a throaty chuckle escaped him to echo around inside the quiet apartment. Hurriedly pushing his feet into his work boots and shoving his keys into his pockets without even bending to tie the laces, the forgetful hunter pulled the door closed behind him and started off on foot to Rumour’s work; making a quick stop first along the way. A knock reverberated on the door to the classroom before a boyish face pushed it open and peeked around. It was utter chaos; glitter flying everywhere and kids running around with multi-colored streamer paper sticking to the bottom of their little shoes and in their hair. Ever laughed, finding his girl friend’s surprised expression on the other side of the room before he came all the way in; greasy paper bag in tow. “Hey sexy.” He said in a whisper when he came up behind to sneak a kiss the children would not see. But of course a few did, and a string of giggles and ‘ewwwwwws’ erupted from the group she had been helping with a messy art project. [bg=#856363][atrb=border,0,true]

[rumour]

Rumour blew a piece of hair from her face in a somewhat exasperated manner and decided that glitter was apparently going to become a permanent fixture in her wardrobe. Other than the clothes she had bought out of sheer paranoia when she had first started seeing ever again, Rumour wasn’t sure if there was anything left in her wardrobe that didn’t have some form of stain on it, be this from glitter glue, paint wars, or kids with jammy fingers. Still, even though the job was tiring (especially on the practically anorexic girl) as one little girl called Amy presented her with her finished piece of macaroni and glitter, rumour decided there was nothing else she would rather do. Sure, she was in no state to have her own children any time soon if ever... but she got a nice warm feeling out of looking after these children, and knowing that they were having a far better childhood than any she could have ever dreamt of.

Standing from her knelt position at one of the table, Rumour turned to another and gave a little wave to the other nursery nurse who was dealing with the much smaller children, the babies and such, at the other end of the room, tucked neatly and safely away from this warzone Rumour found herself, were the bullets were crayons and the grenades were made of glitter- one of which just happened to explode over Rumours head as she sat down to help a little boy with the glue. Fabulous. This was going to take hours to clear up off the floor, let alone out of her hair when she got home.

Maybe she could hoover it out... it was a good thing really, that Rumour had reverted back to caring as little about the way she looked as she had when she was blind. She looked back on the corset wearing girl trying to win back the affections of a man who had called her a monster with distaste now.... not that the corsets didn’t come out occasionally, once the curtains had been drawn of course.

So, you might imagine her surprise when said man poked his head round the door, looking up with an arched brow at the intruder on art and crafts time, the look of confusion soon turned to a smile when she realised who it was, straightening when he came over and kissing him back, despite the various sounds of disgust emanating from many of her kids. ”Well hey yourself.” She smiled, looking up at him. ”I’d watch yourself, making the kids go ewe like that. As if you can’t tell, there’s a bit of a claim war going on here. The blue glitter is the boys, the pink is the girls.”

Turning back to the kids, she glanced at the clock. ”Right you lot. Wash your hands, i think it’s time for lunch” Grinning, she looked back at Ever. ”You wanna give me a hand with the ankle biters?”

[Ever Goodman]

Ever lowered his lips to the crown of Rumour’s chocolate hair before sliding out of her arms in order to set the bag of food on the desk. He turned to scoop one pink glitter and paint covered crumb snatcher up onto his hip while he noogied one covered in blue; wincing when the hand he pulled away was covered in something red and sticky. “I hope no one is trying to claim you." The young man feigned a serious tone and arched a playfully villainous eyebrow towards another little boy; this one whom he’d known to have a crush on his beautiful caregiver. Ever nodded in response to his girlfriend’s request and loosed a quiet chuckle of her pet name for the kids. The pair had made a game of coming up with mischievous, but harmless monikers for them, and it never failed to pull a chortle out of his throat. “I hope you really don’t mind that I crashed the party.” Ever turned back to Rumour with an anxious expression that made him seem more like a nervous teenager than a grown man. “It was getting to be that time and I was starving and since you skipped supper last night I figured you might be too.” Ever started to lift his free hand up to rub the top of his head but paused, remembering the yuck on his fingers. He rubbed it on his thigh and shoved it into the pocket of his blue jeans instead, bending to let the little girl down to wash up before perching himself on the writing table. His eyes flickered around the room before coming back to rest on Roo’s pale visage, and the whisper of a smile turned up one corner of his mouth. “I brought burritos and soft tacos and there are some cinnamon churros at the bottom of the bag for dessert.” Ever’s sideways smirk turned into a full fledged beam as he lifted a teasing brow at her. “You can’t have dessert unless you eat lunch. Unless of course the dessert is me.” [bg=#856363][atrb=border,0,true]