Waiting For Sunrise - The Books Of Beginning AU

58. News From Pittsburg

"Oh, there they are," Kate murmured, even as she passed a platter of sandwiches to her brother. 

"Hooray," Michael said sarcastically. "Emma's back. What a joy."

Kate shot him an annoyed glare, but Violet, tucked at her side, giggled, as did Jake and Beetles from across the table. The group of Savages returning from a morning's worth of thievery filtered into the room and crammed themselves onto the benches for lunch. Abigail, Emma, and Rafe were among that lot, with the former two squishing themselves alongside Jake and Beetles, while the latter perched beside Violet, before leaning over the little girl to press a quick kiss to Kate's cheek. 

"We get it, Rafe," scoffed Emma, seeing this little display of affection. "You like my sister, but that don't mean you gotta kiss her right in front a' me."

Rafe just rolled his eyes at the girl and snatched up a biscuit from the basket set on the table, while the other children giggled at him.

"Rafe's gonna open a shop," Jake cajoled. 

"A 'I-wanna-marry-Kate-and-have-a-hundred-babies' shop!" Beetles finished the joke with equal glee.

"Oh please, we don't need any more kids, we already got the lot of you troublemakers," Kate quipped with a wry little grin. A chuckle rippled through the Savages gathered around, low and warm. 

(As predicted, the children had taken the news of Kate and Rafe's romantic entanglement quite well. It had been five days since they learned of it, and things had been going delightfully. They were all quite happy for their friends, and even happier that they could finally say all the jokes they'd been whispering for weeks now to the young adults' faces. Jake and Beetles in particular were delighted to make remark after remark, and it was clear they considered themselves genuine comedians. Abigail, on the other hand, had more sparse and sly jokes, but those had a tendency to make Rafe turn bright red and start stammering, a power that she reveled in.

Even Kate's siblings were getting in on the fun. Michael had been the very first one to get excited over his elder sister's new romance - he liked Rafe very much after all, plus this wasn't a total surprise for him; for a while now he saw that the boy adored Kate wholeheartedly - and he had quickly joined in on the jokes about Rafe being a lovestruck fool, much to the elder boy's amusement. Emma, on the other hand, had been stunned by the news, and, being Emma, had told Rafe if he ever hurt her sister, she'd bury him alive. She also told him that just because he was involved with Kate didn't mean he could boss her around more than normal. But she couldn't finish the sentence without cracking up with laughter and grinning widely at her friend, punching him in the arm and congratulating him and Kate, so it was clear her ire was just a facade to maintain her difficult reputation.)

"Am I counted as one of those troublemaking kids?" Violet questioned, poking Kate lightly in the arm.

Kate swallowed the bite of ham and vegetables she'd just eaten and then smiled sweetly at the little girl. "You're certainly a kid, but I wouldn't call you a troublemaker. We'll say you're the exception to the rule."

"For now," added Abigail jovially. "Vi's still just a little thing, she's got plenty of time to become a menace like the rest a' us."

Violet's nose scrunched up at that. "I don't think anyone can be as much of a menace as you lot," she said primly, pointing first at Jake and Beetles, who were attempting to hang spoons from their noses, then to Emma, who was sitting right next to Abigail and attempting to stick her finger in Michael's ear for some reason. Michael, for his part, was trying to fend her off by swatting her with both his hands, and his napkin.

"She makes a good point," Rafe said, causing Abigail to roll her eyes and Violet to beam wide upon hearing the praise.

(Violet had, just as Kate and Rafe suspected, been nothing short of thrilled to hear the news. She had spent a good five minutes alternating between crowing about how she'd been right about their feelings toward each other and demanding to know how they'd finally sorted things out. Once her curiosity was satisfied, she had thrown her arms around them and declared that she loved them both very much. She didn't say it aloud, but they could tell that part of the reason she was so excited was because this made her feel more than ever as if they were a family unit. It made her feel as though, with these new bonds of love, the three of them would never be parted - they would always have a home in each other.)