Sunday morning, a time that Silvestro would usually be spending luxuriating in bed, absently petting Ruggine's warm fur while he still felt cuddly. She'd usually spend this time reading a book over coffee on her beat-up old couch, listening to morning radio for all those sinners out of church.
That was how she was meant to spend her Sunday mornings. Instead, on the 17th of February, Silvestro used her foot to nudge Quinto and Skull away from Amelia's fine china while they brawled on the floor. The two women were setting up the house for a small party for Quinto's seventeenth birthday, a cake cooling on the table waiting to be decorated and several bowls of fruit and snacks lining the table.
"They're meant to be helping," Silvestro muttered, staring down at the writhing pair.
"Oh, let them play," Amelia tutted, placing down a jug of apple juice.
"Play," she echoed.
Quinto shrieked as Skull bit his ankle.
Silvestro rubbed her temple; it was only eleven o'clock and she already had a headache. For some reason, she didn't think the rest of the day was going to go any better. After all, Skull had still to meet all of Quinto's friends.
"Amelia, I'm so concerned," she murmured, and all she got was a pat on the shoulder from the mother.
"I assure you; it never stops."
With one last sweep of the floor, windows cracked open and a lasagna melting in the oven, Silvestro slumped into the armchair in the living room. She scratched her chin as she watched Skull gnaw on a screeching Quinto's knee like an absolute fucking gremlin.
She didn't bother trying to stop either of them as Quinto started monkey-paw-punching the other in the stomach.
"Stupid bastard can't even come to a birthday party without making his face look like a grape!"
"You're just being a bitch 'cause you couldn't even match a foundation shade!"
"You BDSM-lookin' trollop!"
"Aw, did I hurt the birthday boy's fwewings~!"
Silvestro let her head fall back and decided to just disassociate until the other guests came. A foot smashed her in the shin and the mountainous woman released a shout of surprise and pain as she jolted awake.
Quinto and Skull froze on the floor and watched as the ex-militant got to her feet and towered over them.
"It was Skull," Quinto squeaked before scrambling off the floorboards and down the hall.
"You bitch, it was not!" Skull squawked before wheezing as he was grabbed by the collar and lifted off the floor. "Ah, miss Silvestro, it wasn't me I swear it was Quinto you've gotta believe me I'm a good kid I'd never-"
"Go get Quinto. Then both of you, go help Amelia set up. If I hear another squeak out of you two, I'll make you run laps until you drop."
"Yes, miss Silvestro."
"Good kid," she smiled and released him.
Amelia wiped her hands as she watched Skull streak past her and up the stairs where Quinto had fled before. Both women decided to ignore the subsequent sounds of warfare from above as they sat together on the couch.
"Got quite the Midas touch with those boys, Silvy," Amelia giggled.
"They're feral," Silvestro sighed.
Amelia didn't deny it, and simply shrugged, taking a sip of wine she had been nursing since Skull had walked through the door that morning.
Ruggine made a loud 'mirr' as he jumped up on Silvestro's lap, purring like a rusty lawnmower as he rubbed his face in her stomach. He flopped there on her thighs and stretched out, front paw flicking idly.
"…How the fuck did you get in here?" Silvestro asked, looking around.
Amelia blinked, "The kitchen window is open?"
"Who let you out- wait, dumb question."
The mother spun around and scooted along the couch, eyes wide and interested.
"Someone has access to your apartment, Silvy?" she purred, fingertips covering her mouth in a show of amused surprise. "Mystery fedora man!?"
"No."
"Scandal!?"
"No!" Silvestro hissed and Amelia draped herself across her lap, Ruggine barely disturbed by the accompaniment. "Ruggine has a weird stalker who likes to take notes on him. Keeps saying Ruggine's a 'feat of bioengineering'-"
Silvestro looked up and, through the archway, she saw Verde with his foot in the kitchen sink, trying to wriggle his way through the window. His clipboard was clenched between his teeth and he had two pens, one tucked behind either ear.
Amelia paused sipping her wine as Silvestro got to her feet, but didn't seem to see the unshaven scientist that was trying to crawl into her kitchen and was currently trying to untangle his coat from her beloved rose bush.
"Ah, you just hang out here, I'm going to see if those boys are in the kitchen yet."
"Hm? Sure," Amelia shrugged, before grabbing a grumbling Ruggine into her lap. "Oh hello baby, what a good, fluffy boy! What a handsome man!"
Silvestro crossed the entryway into the kitchen and stopped in front of the window, Verde not bothering to even halt his shimmying.
"What are you doing?" She hissed, keeping her voice down. "What the absolute hell are you doing!?"
"The Subject has entered a new environment and considering the high concentration of people, it would be an optimal environment-"
"No! Whatever you're about to do, no! Get out!"
"B-but, wait, I need notes on social adaptability with multiple persons in alien environments!" Verde pleaded as Silvestro started to push him back from whence he came.
"Silvy! Quinto! Guests are here!"
"Coming, Mama!"
"Shit, shit, out!" Silvestro hissed, giving one last push before slamming the window shut.
"Ah! My tie!"
"Shut up!"
"You okay, Silvy?" Amelia asked, sticking her head into the kitchen. "Are you coming to greet the guests?"
Silvestro spun around, using her body to block the window, squaring her shoulders.
"Uh, maybe in a bit?"
"Okay, it looks like they'll settle in the living room or the garden."
"Sure."
Amelia smiled before returning to gossip with the other mothers. Silvestro snapped back to the window and cursed when she saw Verde still scratching at the windowpane, wheezing pleads, black tie trapped in the lock.
"Oh, you stupid- the next Da Vinci, my ass. Stop gasping, you're not dying!"
Silvestro unwedged Verde's tie and the man pat himself down, murmuring the names of each body part, a frantic mental checklist that everything was still attached.
"It's a window, not a woodchipper-" the mountainous woman scolded with exasperation.
"Mama, we're going out into the garden!"
"Okay!"
Verde was in the backyard.
"Fuck! Leave! Wait no- In!"
Verde gagged as he was grabbed and ripped off his feet. He whined as he was dropped on the vinyl floor of the kitchen but stayed down when Silvestro pushed his head down.
"Oh my God, Verde, I'm going to kill you."
"Silvy!" Silvestro snapped up and kicked out Verde's legs from under him when he tried to get up. Amelia swung around the archway to the kitchen, looking far too lively now that she had more conversation partners. "Can you put the fruit bowl out in the garden for the boys?"
"Sure."
"Thank you~!"
Silvestro turned, full ready to kick Verde in the ribs-
"Where'd he go?"
0 0 0
Silvestro was on edge as she brought out the fruit bowl to the boys in the garden. She handed the food to one of Quinto's friends, the group all crowded together like some wannabe mobsters in a dark alley. They were side-eyeing the new addition of Skull, obviously thrown off by his loud appearance. Quinto even looked embarrassed to have been associated with him in front of his big, tough friends.
Skull himself looked unfazed and continued to rant about his latest stunt lineups. Talking in detail about the mechanics of landing a long fall and keeping your femurs attached to your kneecaps.
"It all comes down to timing and the angles, yeah? Make sure your joints aren't locked, all loose, otherwise, you're gonna have bones sticking out of elbows and that's never good for showbiz. People scream, kids cry, only the weird ones come back."
"Yeah, like you've wrecked yourself that bad," Quinto rolled his eyes.
Skull smiled. Full of teeth and crescent eyes, chain tugging at his lower lip.
The group of boys glanced at each other, disquieted by the wordless response from the purple boy. Quinto seemed unfazed, arms crossed and shoulders squared.
Silvestro's eyes snapped between the boys, sizing up the tension that seemed to be piling up upon itself.
"Play nice," was her short warning.
Skull's eyes slid over to her and his smile twitched into his usual happy snark, the boy giving an agreeable nod.
"Of course, miss Silvestro!"
She gave a curt nod before Ruggine's yowl echoed from the doorway and the feline came padding out into the garden. He purred and wrapped himself around her ankles, stump of a tail twitching in a pseudo sway.
"Rugg!" Quinto gasped and hit the floor, arms opening instantly as he pleaded for the rusty feline to leap into his embrace.
It had become apparent over the months that Quinto was a sucker for all things four-legged and fluffy, even if it spent most of its time gnawing on his ankles whenever he tried to play with it. It seemed that even the looming presence of his 'tough guy' friends were second to the rusty purrs of Ruggine the cat.
"Cat!" Skull cheered and reached to pet the creature.
Ruggine turned a huge eye on him and swiped at his hand.
"Ha! Rugg doesn't like you! Cats are great judges of character."
"Ruggine is a biased little shit," Silvestro corrected, suddenly thankful she had worn her thick pants today as said cat started using her shin as a scratching post. "Stop that."
Wait if Ruggine was here then -
"I'll leave him with you guys, make sure he doesn't decimate the wildlife," Silvestro uttered before turning tail back into the house.
She got as far as the back patio before she saw a flash of green. Verde was laid on the floor, half-hidden beneath the tablecloth of Amelia's trinket table. He was scratching down notes, a pair of binoculars with too many settings hanging from around his neck as he muttered about the possibility of colony bonding.
"Why are you still here?" Silvestro hissed.
Verde glanced up at her, "Notes."
"...Notes," she echoed. "Verde you have exactly 10 seconds to get out before you can start taking notes on how it feels to chew gravel."
"…But notes."
"Out."
Verde continued to look up at her as if she would somehow be swayed by his continuous flat stare. His version, she had come to find, of a minimal effort 'puppy eyes'. Silvestro put a hand on her hip, foot tapping impatiently.
"10," she began. "9…"
"The subject is engaging socially with individuals it usually doesn't! The infiltration of social groups in numerous settings is so important for skill development-"
"5…4…"
"This is by far the safest route of experimentation, the controlled environment of a suburban house party-"
"3..2…" Silvestro shifted her feet, her hand ready to grab the scientist cowering under Amelia's painted, potpourri jars.
"Notes," he said again in a tiny voice.
Silvestro grabbed the man by the collar of his crumpled green dress shirt and hoisted him onto her shoulder. She glanced around the corner before all but running out the front door, the women in the living room too busy taking jovial shots at their own husbands to take notice of the ex-militant booking it down the hallway with a man draped over her shoulder.
Verde gave a soft 'ooft' as he was dropped on his ass, followed by a whine as his two pens clattered across the cobblestone.
"You're grounded," Silvestro growled, "I gave you one rule, Verde: do not enter my friends' houses. You broke that rule. You're grounded."
The scientist refused to look at the woman scolding him, his fingers gripping his clipboard tight as he hugged his graphs and notes to his chest. He huffed and crossed his legs, glasses askew on his nose.
"Go home, Verde. Think about what you did. Your Ruggine privileges have been revoked."
"Subject 007 is my experiment!" He gasped.
"Ruggine is my pet and he lives under my roof."
Silvestro scowled before she shook her head and ran a hand through her hair, trying to ignore the pulse in her shoulder and how heavy her feet felt. It wasn't a sluggish heavy, though. It was the same strong, balanced heavy she felt when she was engaged, centred and solid that even the rocking of a boat on a rough river wouldn't knock her off her feet.
Verde tilted his head, still refusing to look in her direction, but appearing almost tempted. Instead, he scribbled something in the margin of his clipboard.
"The irregular expression again. Territorial, but solid based. Traces of Cloud? Abnormal, impure. Perhaps as a second expression-"
"Verde!" Silvestro snapped, bringing him to attention.
"Fine," Verde huffed, clicking his pen shut and tucking it away. "I'll just spend this time reviewing and organizing the data."
"Do whatever," Silvestro sighed before she turned and made her way back into the house.
"Silvy, you're stomping again!" Amelia called.
"I'm not stomping," the woman grumbled as she entered the living room with all the other mothers. She let out a huge breath and flopped down on the couch next to Amelia, who reached over and squished her face between her hands.
"You were. You always stomp with your big ol' boots."
"Gwet off."
The other mothers glanced at each other as they tried to smile. They kept each other in check, one of them nudging her closest seating partner when she noticed she was staring too pointedly at the loose hanging sleeve of Silvestro's coat.
Silvestro had never been particularly close to the suburban mothers of the area, sticking mostly to those in her apartment block and the store owners of her go-tos. Amelia swept her eyes across the room, taking in every face in a single motion.
"Oh! Ladies, let me tell you all about Silvestro's latest suitor~! The handsome and mysterious fedora man~!"
Works like a charm.
Amelia chose to ignore the ugly sound that crawled out of Silvestro's throat at the mere mention of the man, a grin stretching across her face as she watched red appear on the tips of the ex-militant's ears.
"Oh?" The group of mothers leant forward, looming like hyenas over the quivering carcass of gossip. "A mystery fedora man? Do tell, Amelia!"
"There's nothing to tell," Silvestro groaned, but Amelia shoved her out of the way.
"Let me set the scene, it was a foggy Autumn night-"
"Oh shove off," Silvestro scolded, getting a wash of laughter from the mothers. "It was midday, I went grocery shopping. None of that bullshit you're spouting."
"But Silvy, the drama!"
"I get enough drama from the stringbean, thanks."
"Stringbean?" One of them asked, a smile on her lips.
"That's her pet name for him. Aren't they the cutest!?" Amelia gasped, all but elbowing the mountainous woman to shut her up. "He came to visit her during work, and oh my gosh, he looked smitten!"
"He did not-"
"Smitten!"
Silvestro ducked her head as the women cooed, chiming in about how they met their own husbands and the romance of it all.
"Tell me when you're ready to get married! I helped plan Amelia's wedding," the woman closest to Amelia's side smiled, Rossi.
"Oh it was wonderful, Silvy, like a dream!" Amelia supported, before rounding on Rossi. "We should do it again sometime!"
"We should! My uncle has been renovating this old church, we could borrow it for a day or two, get all dolled up."
"It'll be even better without the slug there," Rossi smiled wide, "No offense in your taste in men Amelia, sweetie, but that man did not look good even in a suit. You're lucky Quinto took after you."
Silvestro took a sip of her drink as for the next five minutes each woman took a turn at ripping into the man in Amelia's past, picking on his appearance and attitude. They giggled to one another as they described every terrible detail they despised; Amelia looked pleased beyond compare.
Silvestro was at least relieved the attention had been taken off of her directly, instead the group more than willing to fill her in on the dirty details of 'Slug',
"We do need someone to fill in the spot of the husband..." Rossi hummed, at some point having produced a wedding planner album for them all to flip through.
"Silvestro looks like she could take that position easy!"
Spoke too soon.
Amelia gasped and clapped her hands, "Silvestro have you ever worn a suit?"
"...Kind of," Silvestro uttered, hiding her face behind the rim of her cup as eyes dug into every angle. "I've got my full dress uniform. The kind with the tie, you know?"
Rossi blinked before she produced a fan and began waving it aggressively in her own face.
"She's always loved uniforms," Amelia whispered with a laugh.
Silvestro dropped her gaze into her lap and scratched her nape nervously while Rossi's friends snickered at her.
"Speaking of," Amelia jumped, "Have you seen your mystery fedora man recently? You were hoping for a second date weren't you?"
"No, not since the last date," Silvestro admitted, before rushing when she saw multiple unimpressed eyebrows raise, "But he got a call last I heard so I'm sure he just had some work to do. He said he works as some sort of business proxy or middle man for big organisations. So he might be in a different province or country right now."
"I suppose you can't give him a call then," Amelia sighed, leaning heavily against the ex-militant's left shoulder.
"...I don't have his number, no."
"Did you give him yours?"
"No…"
Amelia stared, "Silvy, have you ever actually dated someone?"
Silvestro curled her posture, "...Kinda?"
The mothers shared a communal glance, and Silvestro suddenly felt like she was in the presence of a hivemind.
"I'll ask for his number next I see him," she conceded, and Amelia gave a sharp nod.
"Yes you will. Open communication is very important."
"Okay, okay," Silvestro eased off, before she got to her feet and stretched. "I'm gonna go check on the boys."
Silvestro stepped around the woman who continued to chatter about the latest drama in the Radcliff household; apparently, the eldest daughter had managed to catch her father with a woman that was decidedly not her mother and he had received a verbal dressing down that would be felt through generations.
The ex-militant followed the sound of riotous chattering and creative swearing to the back garden. She took a patient breath and stepped out - she suddenly wished that breath had been less for patience and more for prayer.
Once again Skull and Quinto were on the ground, tearing up grass and narrowly missing sandstone slabs as they slapped and kicked, pulling hair and elbowing stomachs. Something must have happened in the time Silvestro had looked away, however, for the rest of Quinto's friends were also locked in a heated scrabble, the mass of bodies moving opponents with each other.
Silvestro looked down as a purr got her attention, Ruggine groomed himself at her side without a care in the world.
"...You've just made me so suspicious of you," she said slowly. "Something about this is your doing."
Ruggine squinted up at her, looking pleased with himself.
"Boys!" She boomed and watched as they froze in place. "Come on in, it's time for lunch, you miscreants."
"Food!" Skull gasped and charged forward-
"It's my food, I eat first!" Quinto snapped, grabbing the other boy by his ankles and grinning like a little deviant as he slammed face-first into the dirt.
Silvestro rolled her eyes and turned on her heel, not bothering to give them the attention. She scooped up Ruggine who mewled and hooked his claws into her shirt as he rubbed his face against her shoulder.
"If you're not inside in 60 seconds I'm giving everything to Rugg!" She warned.
There was a collective gasp and the ex-militant let out a soft huff when all five boys went zipping past her. Skull and Quinto clogged the door as they fought for entry until the others kicked them through and went running.
"I think they're good friends now, huh, Rugg?" Silvestro asked her purring company.