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It was just for a moment— he swears, he only turned around for a second to answer the door – someone had dropped by, incessantly knocking on Aphmau's front door. And usually, especially if he's taking watch over the girls, he'll ignore it. They can always come back later, and if it's important it's Dante's voice ringing through the wood (no longer is he afraid to take up too much space like he was when he was fresh from the academy, and he makes that very apparent). But this knocking, it just wouldn't go away. He ignored it, endured it for a long seven minutes until Alina was starting to get fussy over it, whining about it making her ears hurt, that's when he decided enough is enough and he'll simply just have to shoo them away; and for something so ridiculous, too. "I heard Lady Irene was in these days! I had to come see for myself— the matron herself! Is she here?" what an annoying lot.
But he couldn't have stayed that long at the door, waving them off. Not more than half a minute, surely. Trying to be polite as he could about, despite his face carved into an annoyed scrunch (he never was good with his facial features, even in the years the helmet had slipped from his grasp), but it seemed to ward them off well enough – that, and the fact that his scraggly beard and blonde curls were decisively not the soft and round features of Her Lady Irene. Either way, it wasn't a very long interaction. So why? Why is that when he's bounding back up the stairs, worried that maybe something had happened to the girls, that this was all just some distraction so that poor little Alina could get snatched up and whisked away to the Nether, did he instead open the door to find a mess.
"… I see you've found your mother's paints…"
It seems Lilith-Garnet, clever girl she is, opened the door to her mother's room and had gotten into her paints, bringing them back to her sister so that they could… do some interior decorating. As the kindest way he could put it. The girls' only reaction was their cheeks rounding further in broad smiles, looking up at the man who was much more nervous than they were about this situation. The walls were littered with hand prints, the girls were littered with hand prints, ranging from intense reds and oranges to pale blues and purples, it would almost be beautiful it wasn't so… disastrous. The wallpaper was ruined, their clothes unsalvageable, hair a muddled mess of drying and matting paint… and most important… it was expensive. These are fine pigments, if he recalls, they were a gift from Zoey from last they saw of her, a belated birthday gift for the Lady, something to "relieve her stress", knowing it to be very hard to raise young children, especially ones who are so eager to learn and explore. Oh the irony of the situation was not lost on him, no.
Their giggles did nothing to dissuade his upset though, a heavy sigh sinking his shoulders as he knelt down to grab the wells of paint and haphazardly discarded lids, picking them up much to the girls' dismay.
"nOooO!" Lilith had screeched at him, a terrible noise that had his ears ringing as she ran over to his side, smacking his armored arm, trying to pull his hand away from her fun.
"Ow— don't hit me." Garroth scolded, turning his head to her – it didn't actually hurt, he could hardly even feel it through the layers, but it was important to teach them to not get the things the want through such mean ways. However, it was hard to keep up that tone as he was met with the saddest look he's seen; worse than Grey Wind, begging him to let Brian keep him. Even her lip was quivering, sniffles already shaking her small body.
Another heavy sigh, this one gentler.
"It's okay, Lilith." He sets the pods of paint down, carefully reaching out to offer her his hands. "These paints just aren't for you. They were a gift to your mother from her friend, you're not allowed to use them."
Her hands we balled against her chest, tears swelling in the corners of her eyes, like dams ready to burst at any moment. And he's such a weak, weak man.
A relieved breath left Aphmau as she finally returned home as the sun was setting across the horizon, closing the door behind her and leaning against it for a moment just to get the pressure off of her feet for a little. As much as she would've loved to have stayed outside for a little longer, watched the sun set over the beach of her home, she just could not stand to be outside with people flocking her any longer. She snorts a little at her own pun before pushing herself back up onto her feet properly now. Now that she's gotten a minute to settle, she can hear it now: the telltale sign of children's giggling and laughter, hushed talking between the two girls. Sometimes a deeper rumble accompanying afterwards. What were they up to in there…
She's swiftly taking her shoes off as she bites her lip in excitement, quietly stalking up the stairs to the girls' bedroom. She didn't want to alert them to her presence, in case they were in the middle of something embarrassingly adorable she would be able to hold over Garroth's head for the next few weeks, something to tease him about and keep them occupied over their long voyages across the seas together. Carefully, she's pushing the door open as silently as she can, cracking open enough to see—
A sharp gasp gives her presence away, all three sets of eyes turning to look at her from their guilty stances: Garroth, laid across the floor on his back being actively painted (on what little space was left on him) by the girls, Lilith next to his chest as she paints flowers over his breastplate, Alina taking to his feet to finger the paint across in what looked like… perhaps one was a… hoof? And the other… a cat paw? And Garroth's poor face, his beard was a bright green and his hair had thick streaks of red and pink in them, his cheeks with small hand prints in yellow and blue, lips a striking red ("like mama!" as he recalls Alina saying, feeling her round fingers draw across his mouth, trying very hard not to cringe).
"… I can buy you new paints…" Aphmau couldn't help but burst into laughter.