Octavia and Loona laid hugging and watching the skies, it was a change of pace from Blitzo and Stolas' more aggressive style of respect. Loona was distant, knowing Octavia's interest in scope, but in no great depth.
Octavia murmured gently in Loona's arms, grappling for a position on Loona's upper torso and trying to keep an eye in a position where she could read the hellhound's moves, though the motive was even more unpredictable for her.
"So, what do you like to do?" Octavia said, hoping to cut through the air of tension and disappearing into Loona's silky coat.
"I dunno. I work, sometimes I get to shoot people." Loona said, choking up a bit on her hold of Octavia. "You fishing for some fault in that?" She added, pitching her head to stare in Octavia's eyes in a domineering manner.
"I get it what you mean." Octavia said, not breaking the stare. "What it feels like to have an obligation with no place." She added, a film of water visible in her eyes.
Loona always could swear she hated these kind of touchy feely moments. But with Octavia's ability to cut to the core of it all, maybe it was just the preamble that drove her up the wall.
"Don't you get all soft on me." Loona snapped back, stroking Octavia's beak and smiling.
Octavia lightly bit down on Loona's finger as it passed her over.
"Point taken." Octavia said, as if challenging Loona's more explosive inclinations.
"Follow me." Loona chuckled, as she moved towards the water, feeling the sun continue to beat down.
Loona started splashing around in the pond, the water was remarkably nippy for such a hot day. "C'mon!" She added gesturing to Ocavia standing on the shoreline. "It's lovely!"
Octavia trodded penitently toward the water, shivering at the contrast from the hot air as she threw off her top towards the shoreline.
Blitzo soon joined them, the hint from a distance seemed to carry more weight. Stolas threw off his own clothes down to his boxers attempting to swim towards them on his back in long even strokes.
"Shark attack!" Blitzo exclaimed, rising his head out from under the water and playfully biting Stolas' shoulder.
Octavia couldn't help but laugh, she felt a strange sense of belonging that for so long had been missing in her life. The return of this feeling didn't feel nearly as alien as she had assumed it would have been.
"Oh, no!" Stolas said in an overacted note of false terror, squirming gently as he floated in Blitzo's arms.
Stolas' feathers had a fantastic flowing motion in the water, bewitching Blitzo as he kind of sat there tracing out the flow around him.
Loona gave Octavia a knowing look, with a wink and a nod they started splashing Blitzo with water.
"Meatshield!" Blitzo said, ducking his head under Stolas as he picked him up from behind.
The group ran in all directions, chasing each other and dousing them with handfuls of pleasantly cooling water.
Blitzo was the fastest swimmer of the group, feathers and fur didn't do too well where drag was concerned. Sneaking up behind Loona he grabbed her arms back as Octavia and Stolas heaved water in their direction.
For all the time spent, it felt immaterial as the hour passed by, laughs and smiles were all around as the fight wound down as the group relaxed on the shallow coast of the pond.
"That was fun." Loona said, rising and shaking the water off of her body, everyone else followed suit as Bltizo laughed at how puffed out everyone was and mockingly did the same. Loona shot him a look as she backhanded him into the water.
Walking back, everyone stood arm in arm. Blitzo clinging to the left of Stolas, Octavia to the right of Loona, resting her head wearily on her shoulder.
Everyone sat around a nice rought iron table on the patio immediately outside the manor. Stolas fetched some towels from indoors and draped them lovingly around the shoulders of his guests; making sure to gently pinch Blitzo's cheeks as he passed.
"You, need any help?" Octavia asked in an unusually sunny manner, she had a slight lilt that Loona had grown far more accustomed to than Stolas or Blitzo's whenever they wanted something.
Octavia clasped her hands over Loona's shoulders, gently drying off Loona's fur as she explored her figure. Loona wasn't sure exactly which desires she was fulfilling within herself, it was a way both could test their mettle.
Blitzo eyed the pair cautiously, losing track of his hands he continued rubbing his hands up and down Stolas' head.
"Blitzy..." Stolas said, turning his head backwards, still covered in the towel.
"Oh, sorry..." Blitzo said, as he finally saw Stolas' puffy head and concerned look. He quickly started combing it all straight.
Loona had started drying off Octavia, she had a look of mesmerized pride. Loona's grasp was firm and comforting as she kept a still hand on Octavia's shoulder, combing through her hair.
Loona tied a small braid in Octavia's hair and nuzzled her gently. Octavia replied in turn tying a braid of her own. Trying to imitate the one Loona had tied in her hand.
Loona and Octavia hugged, in an effort to test the waters with both of their fathers.
Blitzo pulled Stolas in for a kiss, trying to eye Loona and Octavia, but slowly drifting into Stolas. His part, had it been played, was played perfectly.
It was an awkward end to a beautiful afternoon, Stolas went back to cleaning, a new air about him of a tranquil focus. Loona walked alongside him, helping him the whole time prepare the manor with the most gentle of care.
"Please Loona..." Stolas said resting a hand on her shoulder. "I believe you, but I want to know..." he said, his eyes going all glossy.
Loona fiddled with her braid, it felt good to have control over something for a change. "It's all good, bird-dude..." she said, managing to feign a more neutral position.
"You're so cute together." Stolas said, pinching Loona's cheeks in approval. Illiciting a slight growl from the hellhound.
Blitzo stood in the kitchen, he was still left in a stark loneliness as it hit him, he didn't really know Loona enough to trust her blindly. Or maybe that was just the nature of his inability to trust anyone.
"Hey, Blitz." Octavia said, sitting down across the counter.
"Exactly what I need." Blitzo thought to himself. "Hey, Via!" He shot back quickly.
"Need a hand with dinner?" Octavia said, sitting here in a robe she'd fetched from her room.
"That would be nice." Blitzo said, slowly coming around to feeling his jaded family man persona drain ever more slightly to accepting the situation. He kicked his feet sheepishly, unable to reach most of the cupboards on his own and not wanting to admit it, it was clear that Octavia was taking him into account by now.
Slowly the pair got out and prepared a simple dough, leaving it out so it could rise. The room was bathed in the fading late afternoon sunlight giving a slightly amber tint to the kitchen. Working alongside Blitzo, she felt comfortable seeing him eye to eye, standing on his stool.
Octavia walked over to the fridge, eyeing up and down what she and Loona had bought earlier that day. "Like, what do you think everyone wants?" Octavia said as Blitzo made a pot of sauce on the stovetop. Stirring and tasting it as he grabbed seasoning bottles with his tail.
"Loona likes meat, I'll take a bunch of mozzarella and basil if you have it..." Blitzo said as he hopped off his stool to help Octavia bring everything over to the counter. "What about you?" Blitzo said, standing next to her and tilting his head as he often did asking questions.
"Dad likes Italian sausage..." Octavia said, before trailing off laughing. "I suppose I shouldn't have been very surprised..." Blitzo stuck out his tongue and gave a forced wink after taking a second to consider how sincere the joke was.
"I think you're the extra cheese type too, dearie..." Blitzo said returning the sass.
"You're such a dork, I see why dad likes you so much..." Octavia said, returning to her more relaxed mode of apathy, still stained with a tinge of togetherness she couldn't help but show. "Pepperoni and cheese, I'm kind of basic... maybe some bacon..." she added before helping Blitzo carry everything back.
Blitzo had finished making the sauce and left it to simmer on the stove, he returned to the counter to help cut the toppings with Octavia. She had a certain air of unease with a knife, as if the more practical elements of the task eluded her.
"You should do it like this." Blitzo said, holding down some meat and placing his knuckles vertically against the blade. He cut downward in a flowing motion to demonstrate it to Octavia.
"Thanks." Octavia said, puffing her neck up slightly in a sign of appreciation.
"Loony, Stolas!" Blitzo yelled from the kitchen and through the halls of the manor, which had a much greater reverberation now that they were less cluttered.
Loona and Stolas returned to the kitchen as Octavia had finished cutting up the toppings.
"Oh, what's all this?" Stolas said splaying forward over the counter, his inquisitiveness was genuine due to his limited scope of cuisine.
Blitzo spread flour all over the surface of his side of the counter and threw some of the portioned out dough around. He liked watching Stolas' eyes seem to follow the motions of his hands, he was oddly smitten with the whole ordeal.
Octavia tried to follow the motions, there was a marked decrease in the skill present as she struggled to keep the flour off of her face as the dough came back down from the air.
Loona smirked as Blitzo dusted Octavia off with a dishtowel in a caring manner before he rolled out and started tossing the second set of doughballs together. Stolas hooted and clapped with the kind of smirk he always reserved for spectacles.
Stolas sat somewhat confused in front of the flattened dough before him, his gaze was darting back and forth as he meekly raised a hand towards Blitzo and gave him a darting look towards his plate.
Blitzo shoved his over to Stolas' side and whispered the directions to the befuddled owl.
"You know... We don't usually have stuff like this..." Stolas said, finally admitting to Loona's enjoyment that he had no idea what a pizza was.
After much coaching, everyone had prepared their pizzas and stuck them in the large oven.
They returned to the smaller table in the kitchen by the now sunsetting window and sat as Stolas uncorked a bottle of red wine and poured some into everyone's glasses as they waited for the pizzas to bake.
Blitzo and Loona cut up the pizzas and brought them over to the table.
"I made a smiley face." Stolas said, holding his pizza up to reveal a familiar looking impish face made entirely out of sausage bits.
"You're smashed, aren't you?" Blitzo said as Stolas beamed with pride.
"No, just absolutely intoxicated..." Stolas said, not skipping a beat as he leered at Blitzo.
"Nice horse, Blitz..." Loona said, looking over and trying to piece together some shape on Blitzo's pizza before just falling back on deciding it was probably a horse. "Hey, owl-dude, can I have some of dad's face?" Loona said, as she offered a piece of hers in trade, a pentagram made of whole pieces of bacon.
"We're quite the budding artists, aren't we?" Stolas said, gingerly drawing a talon across Blitzo's leg underneath the table.
Octavia sat kind of embarrassed, as if she was unable to grasp some sort of inside joke or family tradition. "It's... er... modern art?" She replied scratching the back of her neck but smiling towards Loona in a sign of comfort.
Laughter filled the halls once more, the manor seemed alive with a loving warmth that before today had been largely alien to it. In spite of so many social functions seen in prior years, the estate had always felt like a guilded cage to both Stolas and Octavia.
"Are you, feeling alright, Via?" Stolas said, clasping his hand around Octavia's.
"Yeah... It's just a little loud..." Octavia replied in a tender signal of the vulnerability she felt around crowds; crowds for Octavia generally being anything more than one other person. "It's alright, just give me a moment." she added, squeezing Stolas' hand back.
The group sat as they finished, watching the sunset from the window. The estate cut a swath through the surrounding area, but in all directions the signs of civilization, in whatever form it took, was finally visible.
In the fading evening light it all seemed aflame in a starkly beautiful way, a kind of burning stillness that invoked a sense of calmly fading as the day and night changed shifts. All motion in the distance seemed to still, just the still shapes of buildings was evident in negative space.
"Thank you both, for the excellent meal." Stolas said, pouring another glass of wine for himself as Octavia and Blitzo mockingly slid theirs in his direction. "And, the excellent company..." he added, filling their glasses and sliding the remainder of the bottle Loona's way.
Stolas cleared away everyone's plates and cleaned them up, eventually coaxing Loona into helping dry them in between sips of wine directly from the bottle.
"That was nice, you sure you're alright, kiddo?" Blitzo asked, giving Octavia an aside glance.
It was strange how the flurry of emotions that held her up when the group was together didn't come out at all when it was just Blitzo. Octavia didn't feel the need to blame Blitzo when they were alone, Loona was a comforting influence and Stolas had deep sympathies for her which she could finally put into perspective.
"It just feels, different... When we're all together..." Octavia said, rapping her fingers back and forth on the table as the trees heaved to and fro in the evening breeze. "I've never had that before." she added with a dry note of acceptance.
"I haven't either, at least not for a long time... It's a lot to take in, and you're never quite sure." Blitzo said, taking Octavia by surprise. "It's gotta be worth it..." he added looking up to smirk at Loona and Stolas trying to work together with opposing levels of interest.
"What the hell? Why not?" Octavia said, smiling at Blitzo as the sun finally fell completely. "A toast, to you." She said, raising her wine glass and clinking it against Blitzo's as they came to know the understanding they'd gained for one another.