Morning in the Danon house was relatively quiet - for a house with cubs in it. Since the very first moments after the birth of the twins, it had been clear that Amber didn't do noise. Beryl had woken up to cry several times during the first night outside his da's body, and his brother had woken up to curl around him every time, but not once had there been more than a noncommittal grunt from the little male. Even as a toddler, when all other cubs had just earned a vocabulary and were chattering their heads off, Amber hadn't talked much. The twins had come to a happy agreement. Beryl talked, bounced,and did whatever else necessary to gain he and his brother attention. Amber fought off enemies.
For his part, Amber did a lot of work. Beryl, who was five now but always careful to remind anyone who asked that he'd be six soon, had an unfortunate attraction to trouble. It found him anywhere. Luckily for his parents, it was rarely anything truly dangerous, but there was a lot of cleaning every day as a result of spills, tumbles, expeditions, messy projects, and general accidents. In other words, their house wasn't quiet because Beryl had anything to do with it. This fact was caused by the balance between Beryl's energy and his twin's complete stoicism, and was only true in comparison. The majority of other Kindred homes had twins who were both bouncing fiends.
They had moved out of the city when the energy in a closed space became a lot to bear. Spruce had always had enough money to move on, but they had never really wanted to until Beryl came into his full racing powers and was zooming from end to end of the apartment twice a minute, tripping over something ninety-nine percent of the time and actually crashing eighty percent of it. Closer to Jessamine might be a good thing, they had decided, in case their little ball of kinesis should someday run out of luck, and so the had ended up searching out a suitable house in the country just beyond the outskirts of the suburbs. It was a good, medium-sized, no-neighbors-for-miles sort of place, with a couple acres of playing ground and a few more for the vegetable and flower garden Jade wanted, and the cubs loved it. Beryl liked the freedom it gave him; Amber liked being out of the way while his parents were trying to work. One thing the little male hated was being tripped over.
That particular morning, a scorching summer one of the kind that made a person feel that autumn was definitely not eager to follow, wasn't any different. Spruce left early for his appointments at the office while Jade got the cubs up, washed, and breakfasted, a little late since they were still worn out from their adventure-filled visit with their cousin the day before. Later, Jade would remember that Beryl had been a little more subdued than was usual, yet it hadn't been enough to worry him.
Today Beryl's da was doing the laundry, and Beryl was helping him, but it wasn't going very well. He hadn't meant to fall into the tub, and he really had listened when Da said not to eat the soap, but it tasted so... strange! It made a weird burny fuzz on the back of his tongue, and it kind of made the annoying achy spot on the back of his throat feel better, so he couldn't quit. It was only when Da threatened to skip his dessert that he managed to make himself.
It went a little better after that. He only splashed water once, and that was on the floor, not anything important like Amber or Da. Washing the mud out of the clothes was fun, because it was like watching a butterfly come out of its cocoon the way the greenish pond algae and the brown mud slid off to show the pretty colours underneath, and today, of course, the clothes were particularly full of mud. Fern had been over to their house the day before.
Beryl liked Fern. He wasn't quite sure that Amber did, but he was pretty sure. They were cousins, and cousins were supposed to like each other! Anyway, Amber had only pushed Fern in because he splashed water on Beryl. Amber did things like that a lot, and Beryl kind of liked having somebody who looked out for him so carefully all the time and would be there whenever he was scared of the dark or needed a drink or wanted somebody to read his books to while Da and Papa were busy. He had a quite a lot of books, and he had read every one to Amber, but Amber never got too tired of them to listen one more time.
It was turning out to be a good sort of a day, with hot sunshine everywhere and nice shady patches and big white cotton clouds up in a sky just as blue as Talé Onyx's eyes by the time they finished the laundry and put it in its basket to take it out and hang it on the line outdoors. Beryl and Amber weren't tall enough to reach the line yet, but they could hand clothes-pins and wet clothes up to their da, and they did this every time Da washed the clothes because even though Amber was really quiet and never said so, they both liked helping their parents. Amber's helping always turned out better, Beryl considered, pouting a little. Beryl's always ended up messed up or getting him in trouble. He hoped he would stop being so clumsy when he got bigger! If only he wasn't so clumsy, he and Amber wouldn't have fallen in the pond after Fern, and Da wouldn't have to wash clothes today.
This new house was good, though, because there was lots of room to make mistakes in. It was only a little way away from their grand-da Jessamine's big house, too! Not like being in the city, where all of them had to pile in the car and drive a long time before they could visit Tala Lupin and Tané Hemlock and their grand-da in the big house with the duck pond.
"Da," he asked suddenly, "what's un-hy-gee-nic?"
Jade turned around, his mouth full of clothes-pins,his hands full of wet clothing, and his eyes questioning. "Hm?"
"Mica said it yesserday," Beryl explained, spreading his own hands. Amber nodded impassively while selecting a few more clothes-pins out of the basket. "Said i' was like that to fall inna pond 'cause there's slime and fishes and stuff in there. He di'n't say what i' means, though."
Beryl's da pinned up a few more clothes so that his mouth wasn't full anymore, and Beryl waited while he finished, grasping in his two fists the rest of the pins he had gotten ready to hand over next. When his da's mouth was empty, he turned around and said intently, "Unhygienic? That means not healthy for you, like eating rotten things or not washing your clothes. Or taking a bath in dirty water."
"Like pond water?" Beryl asked meekly. Beryl's da nodded sternly, but his mouth twitched like it did when he was trying to not smile. He leaned down to take the clothes-pins Beryl had and the clothes Amber did before turning back around to the clothes-line so he could hang up more washing.
"Like pond water. Mica's right, it's not healthy for you cubs to be sloshing around in there. You'll get sick, not mentioning messy and cold. Which is why I tell you to be careful, and not fight with your cousins, understand?"
Beryl and Amber nodded, the former eagerly, the latter with quiet respect. "Yes, da."
"Good." Their da finally flashed the smile over his shoulder at them, his bright blue eyes sparkling like the little cutted glass lamp that sat on top of Papa and Da's dresser when the sun hit it just right; then his forehead pinched up in a question. "Neither of you is feeling sick, are you?" he said.
Beryl fidgeted. He didn't want to tell his da, because Da always got worried whenever one of his cubs was even a little sick, but Papa and Da had made him and Amber promise to tell them if anything was wrong. And not answering with a good, true answer was just as bad as lying! Amber had told him that. So he nodded, reluctant.
"My froat feels funny. But not a lot funny!" he assured hurriedly. "Jus' a little bit!"
Jade frowned. "You didn't swallow any of the water, I hope? No," and he sighed, "that would be too much to ask. You can't fall in without swallowing water, can you?" Beryl watched hopefully as his parent's lips curved back upward, and Jade, seeing where his eyes were, laughed.
"Don't look so pitiful, cub! I'm not mad at you."
"You were sad," Beryl pointed out soberly, but Jade shook his head no.
"I wasn't sad, just a little bit worried. I don't want you and your brother catching anything bad, little one, that's all. Next time, try not to play around the pond if you're going to splash, hm? You won't have a sore throat then. Well, I guess it can't be helped now. I'll get you some tea to help when we go inside, all right?"
Their da finished up hanging the last pieces of clothes, snapping a few of them straighter so they'd get good and dry, and when it was all just right he took his cubs, each by a hand, and walked with them back into the house. They left the basket out in the sun; it wouldn't hurt it, and it was easier than carrying it in and out when they would only need it again to get the clothes off into. The clothes-pin basket they left out next to it.
The inside of the house was hot and stuffy, but at least there were fans. The twins found a seat in front of the biggest one, Beryl sighing happily and Amber just quietly enjoying, while their da went off to search the medicine cabinet for one of their grand-da's herb tea mixes that would help a sore throat. Beryl wasn't looking forward to having to drink it. Some of his grand-da's teas tasted good, but the medicine ones were awful, even with sugar in them. Sometimes it was better if their da put milk in too, but Jade did not when there was the chance of it being a cold. Milk made the phlegm worse, Papa had explained, and their da didn't want them to get too sick.
It was too hot to cuddle with Amber, but he scooted close anyway, hugging the stuffed purple bunny he'd picked up on his way in instead. Hugging the bunny rabbit was like hugging Amber, because it had been a present from Beryl's Da and Papa and Amber on their fourth birthday, and Amber had picked it out for him specially. Beryl liked to hug it whenever he got scared or unhappy or just needed to squish something, like on a hot day like this one when squishing other Kindreds felt sweaty-sticky and not so nice.
"You wanna do somethin'?" he questioned, tilting his head up to look at Amber. "We could play puzzles."
Amber eyed him a minute, and Beryl almost got wriggly with discomfort under the sharp, eaglish stare, but it was Amber and so he didn't. Amber's nose scrunched.
"You're too tired," the other twin announced briefly. "You need a nap. 'll take i' with you."
Beryl felt his bottom lip start sticking out. "Aw, I d'n't wanna nap!" he called peevishly after the purposeful back of his twin, who had headed off into their little bedroom, presumably to get some pillows. Amber didn't turn around, and the small cub-bearer let a pout take over as he leaned back on his elbows, getting the smallest bit of comfort from the fan washing air over all of him.
He hadn't slept good the night before, and Amber must've heard it, but he didn't need a nap! Holding the bunny tighter, he told it all the reasons why Amber had to be wrong. One, he hadn't even yawned. Sleepy people yawned lots! Two, he didn't feel sleepy. His throat still felt funny, but he wasn't tired. Except for a little bit. But not a lot. And three... (here he yawned and hid it quickly from the bunny with a hand) he had to wait for Da to fix the nasty tea. Da would want him to drink it soon as it was done...
Amber was so... pushy sometimes! Just because Beryl was a little tired didn't mean that he needed a nap... Naps were for people who were really... really...
Sleepy...
