Birds sang high in the trees, the sun painting the sky pink and gold as the grass shimmered with dew. Sarvente stirred gently in her sleep, Ruv's quiet breathing stirring her hair as they lay in a mass of tangled limbs. The creak of a door opening had her bolting upright, still wrapped in Ruv's arms.
"Mom, it's time to collect - oh gross !"
Selever stood framed in the doorway, hands clapped over his eyes. "Please tell me you're decent..."
Sarvente blushed. "We aren't doing anything but sleeping!"
"Really? Because you guys are hella tangled up there and I'm a minor."
Ruv threw a pillow at the door. "Shut up or get out. I'm tired."
Selever cackled and darted out of reach. Sarvente sighed and extracted herself from Ruv's grip. "I'm going to go feed the kids and get ready for Mass."
Grumbling was her only answer. She stood and stretched, then plucked a pair of shoes from under the bed and made her way out. The soft rustle of turning pages and the squeak of cabinet doors opening greeted her as she wandered towards the sitting room and kitchen, snatching a wicker basket from the hall closet on her way. The kitchen was bathed in the combined light of the single light and the narrow window, and Selever was digging in a drawer by the back door while Rasazy was swinging her legs and reading Dante at the table, a bowl of oatmeal cooling in front of her. Selever emerged from the drawer with a crow of triumph, a pair of garden snips in hand and her worn canvas garden gloves pinched between the fingers holding the drawer open. He hip-checked it closed and turned to face her.
" Awful cozy in there, Mom," he chirped with a sly grin. She leaned against the door frame, arms crossed.
"Are you always this inappropriate?"
"Yes," said Rasazy, eyes still darting to and fro on the page in front of her. "Does Hell really have seven circles or are humans making that up?"
"Yes it does. Now I have to go to the garden and check what's good so I can make breakfast." She looked to Selever. "I take it you're coming?"
"I get early-morning gardening with you, Dad and Ras and I do the other chores while you lead Mass and do the church things." He passed her the gloves and snips and dawdled out the door behind her as she stepped into the greenhouse, already steamy and humid despite the early hour. Like he did this every day, he made his way to the first row of vegetables and began picking through, eyeballing the ripeness of the dangling eggplants and expertly pinching off the ready fruit. They made their way through the rows, the basket filling with ripe paste tomatoes and chubby cucumbers and round mottled purple eggplants and a damp linen bag of crisp leaf lettuce. As the sun rose higher Selever grabbed a hooked pole and strategically opened up the overhead windows, letting out the heat with practiced ease. It was almost peaceful, and Sarvente found herself falling into a rhythm with her son and humming quietly to herself.
"This is our family's favorite part of the church," he said suddenly halfway through the potatoes. She turned to him, surprised.
"Is it?"
"Yeah. Dad because it gives us food and you because it's peaceful. Ras and I grew up in and out of here all the time, because you guys are pretty much always in here when you aren't working or sleeping." He sat on the peeling white bench Ruv had dragged home one day and wordlessly put in the garden, legs kicking. "I joke we must have been conceived out here. You guys love this place."
Sarv snorted and wiped her brow. "That was almost nice."
"Don't get used to it, I have a reputation to maintain."
YOU ARE READING
Blindsided
Fanfiction[COMPLETE] Blindsided by parenthood after a freak accident, Ruv and Sarvente struggle to help their children get back to the future and navigate catching feelings. Based on the art by ALAS_toe69 on Twitter, concept: "What if? Selever time-traveled...