Ezra was shoving a tin of shoe polish and some brushes into a cloth satchel when Erina practically stomped toward her sister so fiercely that he flinched from his spot on the floor.
"I know you took it, Eleanor!" Her black hair swayed loosely around her shoulders without the ribbon to tie it in place. "I've never let anyone else borrow it. That was my nice silk ribbon!"
Ezra sighed through his nose. Erina always picked at least one loud fight with Eleanor every day. There was little more than a thin wall or two to separate the Fitzes' two rooms from the rooms of their neighbors, so the neighbors would probably overhear their silk ribbon drama, just like the Fitz family often overheard their squabbles.
"I. Didn't. Take it. For the last time," Eleanor hissed through gritted teeth, her brown eyes somehow colder than Erina's blue ones. If Erina's temper was fire, Eleanor's was steel. They were different that way.
"Then who did?" Erina put her hands on her hips. "The fucking bugs?"
From the other side of the room, Elaine gasped at the language. "Ooo, Mom's not gonna like that." They covered Elias's ears, who was enraptured by a roughly-hewn wooden horse toy (or was it a dragon?).
"Watch your damned mouths." Their mother's sharp voice pierced the fighting as she tied on an apron. The slight lilting, sing-song quality of her accent somehow added to her sternness at best and made her shrill at worst. "You'll not cuss under my roof. You might be the eldest, Erina, but you aren't above a good welt." She turned her fire-and-steel gaze to Eleanor. "And that goes to you as well, cyw."
"But I...!" Eleanor sputtered for a second, but finally clamped her mouth shut. "Yes, Mom."
"If you want to keep fighting like dogs over a bitch in heat, wait until I've left," their mom growled, "which shouldn't be long now." Their mom tied a pocket to her waist, the last step to her morning routine, while muttering, "All this fighting over a silly ribbon... Absurd."
She shot a glare at Erina and Eleanor as she stepped toward the door. She was shorter than Erina, but somehow had them both frozen in place (although Erina's lips were pursed like she was about to burst with some snarky comeback. It didn't matter how many lickings Erina got; it only seemed to fuel her fire).
As their mom opened the flimsy door, she turned back toward Erina. "Try to keep Elaine in sight. They've been prone to wandering lately. Don't want them to drag Elias with them if they get in trouble." As she walked out, she said, "Caru chi i gyd."
"Caru ti hefyd," muttered the siblings in unison. Their mom always said caru chi i gyd as she left and they always responded with caru ti hefyd. To him, it felt something like "See you later," or "Stay out of trouble," and "You, too," but Ezra didn't know enough of the language to know exactly how the words translated.
The quiet remained after the door shut until their mom's footsteps became faint. Mornings like these were the easiest for Ezra to slip away from. The Fitz household was loud; no one would miss him for a while (Edmund had already been gone for two days and nobody seemed worried). He was good at sneaking around, and, if anyone asked, he would show them his shoe polish and tell them he was off to shine shoes for coin.
It wasn't a total lie, at least. If the pickings were slim, he'd pull out his shoe polish and hopefully earn enough to at least buy a bit of bread from the bakery.
"I still think you took my ribbon," Erina said hotly, "to impress that beau you've been seeing."
Eleanor stiffened, her face going red. "You're one to talk about beaus."
Erina's face matched Eleanor's shade of red. "What are you saying?"
"Puh-lease." Eleanor rolled her eyes in a way that made it seem like she wasn't an entire five years younger than Erina. "Like we can't tell. Sneaking out all the time, all worried about the way you look. You're an open book, sister."
