“Not sure that’s something you should admit so easily.”[break][break]

No matter her reservations, or her irritation over his relentlessness, Calla did feel reassured by his words. And the arm that slipped around her waist. An extra measure of security, because ultimately she’d take his flirting over falling down to the concrete below.[break][break]

Calla did, in fact, lean forward to reach for the nest again. Her focus was meant to be on snagging the bundle of twigs and feathers and knick knacks, but when Liam spoke again, she found her gaze flickering back to the gold of his eyes. “I know which one you’re talking about. I do live here, you know.”[break][break]

She sighed, forcing herself to look away and not fixate on the lack of space between them, or the linger scent of cologne on his clothing. “You’re persistent, I’ll give you that.” Another grumble as she reached again, this time successfully snagging the nest with both hands.[break][break]

Letting go of her stubborn resolve was not on Calla’s agenda. She did have work to get back to. What she also wasn’t about to admit was that she was nearly finished with said work, and he had been helpful, obnoxiously so or not. Little peeps from the nest made her look down, and there were a few surprised baby taillow for her to peer down at–a tiny smile ghosting across her mouth in spite of herself.[break][break]

“I’m literally wearing pajama pants, so I’d need to change,” she added bluntly, finally daring to look at him again once she’d steeled herself. “That’s not a yes.” She studied him, teeth sinking into her bottom lip in deliberation. “Help me relocate this to that tree over there, and put me down already. Then I’ll decide whether or not to humor this ‘little adventure.’”

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] Liam Cassius m: cuckoo in the nest [break]


[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-bulbasaur"]

“Doesn’t matter if you like it, it’s my name regardless,” she muttered back, ignoring the heat that burned her ears at the minor compliment. Honestly.[break][break]

This was getting much too ridiculous for her tastes. It was just the dizzy spin of the big height affecting her thinking and reactions. Nothing else. It would be proven as soon as her feet were on solid ground again, she was sure of it. Then she could scurry back to her apartment and hide away again, and there would be no ruffians on birds around to use corny one-liners or say they liked her name.[break][break]

They drifted down smoothly, and though it still made Calla’s stomach launch up into her throat, it was appreciated that they were at a lower elevation again. “Liam,” she called back over the rush of wind, testing his name for herself, “how’d you forget so fast?”[break][break]

Soon the power pole and the offending nest was back in sight, and feeling confident, she let go to lean for it when the corviknight lined itself alongside it. Maybe she was a little too confident, because in the effort she felt herself slip sideways, fingers just out of reach. The tilt was enough to startle her, and Calla latched onto him again—convinced she really would topple off. How embarrassing.[break][break]

“Closer.” The grumbled word accompanied by an embarrassed huff over both the blunder and her short arms.

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] Liam Cassius m: cuckoo in the nest [break]


[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-bulbasaur"]

“Wasn’t waiting,” she returns, shoulders rising and falling in playful taunt. “You’re just a slowpoke.”[break][break]

Her sundress is already soaked far past the hemline, fabric sticking to her skin where it doesn’t catch and float on the water. Eyes narrowing, she watches him follow suit, then glances at the shirt sailing away behind him, and for a moment brief reservation flickers through her— as fun as he is to be around, he is still her boss.[break][break]

Is this unprofessional of her? Even if it’s only a brief reprieve from work for the sake of entertainment? Those doubts get swallowed up, though, at the point blank claim.[break][break]

“What’d I do to deserve that??” Calla takes a few more skittering steps back and hopefully out of reach, heels sliding in the wet sand underfoot. Despite the protest there’s a laugh that curls through her words, weaving itself in place.

[attr="class","ooc"]URIAH BLACK [break]
mission![break]
valor: helping hand[break]

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-bulbasaur"]

His lack of a response is telling. Ugh, she shouldn’t have humored him.[break][break]

“Then I trust Klaus,” she shot back, slowly releasing one hand from her death grip to chance patting feathers directly in reach. Then just as quickly, her hold on Liam returned, just as vice-like.[break][break]

“We’ll, are you gonna tell me yours?” She could just call him weirdo or something to that effect. She would have preferred to remain resistant, or barter more. But the longer they remained in the air, the more her stomach turned over. [break][break]

Calla’s brows pinched together, scowling up at him over the cap of his shoulder. “Fine. Calla, Cal. Whichever.” Her arms tightened again, though that time around it was more like a directive than an act of fear. “Okay, there. Nest now.”
[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] Liam Cassius m: cuckoo in the nest [break]


[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-bulbasaur"]

She finds she doesn’t have an answer to this—only an exasperated laugh as she shakes her head, hair catching around her shoulders. She kicks water back at him, less effective in the endeavor.[break][break]

Again, this need to prove she’s capable of fun.[break][break]

“I’m not worried,” she says primly, chin tipping up as her arms fold. The coy turn to her smile returns, and she steps backward further into the water, braced against the chill as it sends goosebumps over her arms. Still watching him through squinted eyes. “It’s just a little saltwater.”[break][break]

Calla glances up over his shoulder for a fleeting moment—toward the rows of tents, but it seems as slow as ever, so she carries on.[break][break]

“Taking your sweet time for the one with the big ideas.”

[attr="class","ooc"]URIAH BLACK [break]
mission![break]
valor: helping hand[break]

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-bulbasaur"]

Her mouth dropped open. And if she wasn’t holding onto him for dear life, she might’ve smacked him on the arm. “Did you drag me all the way up here just to use that line?”[break][break]

In spite of herself, heat flared in her face again as her expression twisted in a stubborn pout. She couldn’t hold his stare, though. Calla looked away, annoyed over the fact that she was holding onto him the way she was, and that he had the nerve to hit her with that devil may care grin in a way that made her stomach twist.[break][break]

“Why shouldn’t I?” she retorted, “I don’t even know you. Who says you aren’t about to dangle me by my foot?” It was an unexpectedly vulnerable realization. And vulnerability never failed to make Cal bristle.[break][break]

Still, she felt a thrum of relief as the corviknight began to drift downward, much slower than it had risen high into the air.[break][break]

He was met with a grumbly hum. “Fine, deal. Nest first, though. Then names.” Names plural, she had said without thinking. As if she suddenly cared to know his as well.

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] Liam Cassius m: cuckoo in the nest [break]


[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-bulbasaur"]

“Sounds like he missed out, in my opinion.” Cal shrugs. As ambitious as she is to succeed somehow, she can’t imagine distancing herself from her twin for the sake of it, either.[break][break]

Plus, who would want to forego time with someone like Uriah? He’s fun, even around a curmudgeon like her.[break][break]

A fact he quickly proves in the wake of the shock to her system from the cold. She’s still adjusting to it when the tide recedes and returns, making her dance in place a bit as her skin numbs.[break][break]

She whirls around to look at him, with a disbelieving grin and a laugh twisting through her singular question, “What, like this?”[break][break]

But it’s not a quick, flat out rejection, is it?

[attr="class","ooc"]URIAH BLACK [break]
mission![break]
valor: helping hand[break]

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-bulbasaur"]

“What do you mean in a sec??”[break][break]

The words were hissed out through practically grit teeth—nearly right by his ear from how close she’d tucked herself in a means of protection from the height. And then he laughed as they twisted higher still, which elicited another shriek from Calla (much to her annoyance.)[break][break]

This interaction was going to leave her with a headache, she just knew it. Could feel it brewing at the back of her skull.[break][break]

“No! I just wanted to move the nest!” she huffed back, glaring daggers at him. Though it was a forced defiance, for the sake of continuing to be stubbornly contrarian. Because when she looked out over the cityscape, she added in a reluctant grumble— “I suppose it’s real pretty up here, fine…” In fact, a sense of awe had bubbled up, she was just too obstinate to admit as much freely. [break][break]

Oceanic eyes drifted back to him when he twisted back. Strands of snowy, windswept hair clung to her cheeks, but she wasn’t about to let go to brush them away. Cal instantly held tighter around his waist, stomach dropping and heart hammering away. “Don’t move so suddenly! You’re gonna make me fall.”

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] Liam Cassius m: cuckoo in the nest [break]


[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-bulbasaur"]

“Was he away a lot?” It feels like a redundant question to ask, but she does so all the same. And really, she can commiserate, albeit in a different way. It’s just always been her and her brother– and nothing to really gain from familial absence.[break][break]

“It was, at one time.” Calla’s glance floats away, shadowed by everything left behind. But that’s far too dreary for a day as bright and warm as this one.[break][break]

Calla hums, considering her response. “I like it just fine, all things considered. It’s been better here.” Though any place might’ve been better.[break][break]

Warmth gives way to the chill of dampened sand as she edges along the shoreline. The ebb and flow of the water rolls in, and the frigidity of the water lapping at her ankles makes her freeze up, “Agh, coldcoldcold,” tumbles loose unbidden, before she can hold her composure.

[attr="class","ooc"]URIAH BLACK [break]
mission![break]
valor: helping hand[break]

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-bulbasaur"]

“Fair enough, they’re a formidable team.”[break][break]

A smile flits across her face, and Calla squints against the sunlight as she looks up at him.The fact that he’s no longer sitting in a chair only emphasizes how much smaller she feels standing next to him.[break][break]

Though that realization quickly fades when the conversation tilts toward an edge of nostalgia.[break][break]

“That sounds nice. Peaceful. Your whole family?” She’s never been to Canalave, so she doesn’t really have any sense of quality, but then again, she’s not been to most places.[break][break]

Following suit, she slips off her sandals and lets her toes sink into the warm sand underfoot. “We never really got to do that, though I guess we went to Cinnabar once or twice.”[break][break]

But that was ages ago.

[attr="class","ooc"]URIAH BLACK [break]
mission![break]
valor: helping hand[break]

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-bulbasaur"]

There’s time, then. They can step away and then come right back, easy as that. Even with her habit of being a stick in the mud, Calla can’t fully deny the appeal of walking along the shoreline as opposed to being stuck in a booth.[break][break]

This will at least keep them from settling into a dazed slump from sitting all day long. Because of course she has to find some practical reason for stepping away as they are.[break][break]

“Cute mudkip,” she remarks as the little Pokémon practically pancakes out on the tabletop.[break][break]

“You hang out here too, Turnip,” she instructs her bulbasaur, who has quite comfortably plopped himself in the shade under her chair. One ruby eye slivers open in acknowledgement, then falls shut again.[break][break]

Smoothing out any wrinkles in her skirt, Cal wastes little time in moving away from the sea of tents. The persistent limp in her step not slowing her down due to years of familiarity. “Way better than sitting around and waiting.” A quiet remark as she kicks up a small puff of sand. “Think they’ll send someone to come looking?”

[attr="class","ooc"]URIAH BLACK [break]
mission![break]
valor: helping hand[break]

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-bulbasaur"]

One shoulder lifts in a half-hearted shrug. “It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.” Or so she says. It’s all a matter of opinion. Fiercely independent as she herself is, Calla isn’t so sure she’d want to be compared so plainly to a parent who was never really a part of her life.[break][break]

That is her, though.[break][break]

“If those are my orders, then.” She makes a show of pulling out the work phone she uses to track appointments and meetings, clearing out what was left. Finger hesitating over the screen for the event they’re currently at when Uriah speaks again.[break][break]

She hums, eyes sliding up and away in a show of deliberate thought. “Hmm, probably not, though. This is pretty important for visibility. But..” She isn’t always a stickler, and she doesn’t have to prove that to him, to anyone[break][break]

But maybe she wants to. Just a little bit.[break][break]

“You did say it won’t be busier until later.” Her glance drifts toward the stretch of beach not occupied by vendor tents.

[attr="class","ooc"]URIAH BLACK [break]
mission![break]
valor: helping hand[break]

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-bulbasaur"]

Even though she’s one half of a twin set, as the oldest Cal is used to caring. Though usually in her own brusque, tough sort of way. It is strange, though, that he earns it so easily. But she’s not wholly in the mood to analyze it.[break][break]

“What, you mean you don’t want to hear ‘You look just like your father!’ at every possible turn?” she grins, obviously amused by the way her eyes crinkle at the corners.[break][break]

Calla sits back in her chair, decidedly pleased with their arranging. Or really, in defeat because she’s not sure how else to truss them up. Her brows lift, and since there’s no one milling around looking to buy anything yet, she twists in her seat to better face him.[break][break]

“Like…for real? Like for today, or..?”

[attr="class","ooc"]URIAH BLACK [break]
mission![break]
valor: helping hand[break]

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-bulbasaur"]