the storm inside | kitty (boyxboy)

23 | The Human Emporium

"Hey, so I'm going out, help me take care of Tavvy, okay?"

"Another date with Ash?" Ty groaned. Usually Julian, Emma or Mark would be at home to help, but this time, they had all gone on a mission. "This is the fourth time this week!"

But Dru was already gone, and he was stuck at home with Kit and Tavvy. A dangerous combination which could cause a deadly disaster of food fights and shattered plates.

Too late. Kit had stumbled out of their room sleepily, rubbing his eyes. "What are we doing today?"

"Babysitting Tavvy. Dru went out with Ash."

"Oh god... okay. I'll go wake him up. Make breakfast for us?"

After much effort, Ty had finally grasped the basics of cooking. He was very proud of it. "Got it. Good luck waking the little imp up!"

He saw Kit roll his eyes and stomp up the stairs. Then, Ty got to work, humming under his breath as he pulled out the ingredients to make pancakes and waffles. Something nice to start the day, at least.

After a while, he heard a whine, turned around, and broke off into a grin. Kit was half-dragging, half-pulling Tavvy down the steps. He appeared to be in distress, so Ty walked over and brought Tavvy to the dining table.

Tavvy promptly plopped down, dutifully picking up the utensils that Ty had carefully set earlier. Ty brought the plates out of the kitchen as Kit took his seat. Removing the apron and wiping his sweat, Ty sat down too and began eating.

He noticed Tavvy pushing his food around, and said, "Don't be picky, Tavs. What did Julian say?"

"'No playing with your food. No making weird vampire faces. No spelling out "Simon sucks".' I know! You guys bore me to death. Besides, why does Kit get to do it?"

Kit abruptly looked up, a sheepish smile on his face. Ty could make out S-I-M-O on his plate, pieced together from bits of waffle and pancake. He wrinkled his nose, frowning at them.

From the looks of it, he was babysitting Kit too.

"Okay," he said, taking a deep breath to calm himself from exploding. "Just eat, okay? Put your food in your mouth with your fork and spoon. Chew it. Swallow it. Repeat."

Almost instantly, as if synchronised, they put their food in their mouths, but instead, they stuffed their forks and spoons in too.

In between chomps, Kit muttered something that sounded like, "I think metal isn't supposed to be eaten."

They spat their forks and spoons out, making retching noises.

"I zink I shwallowed a twooth," said Tavvy. "Blwegh."

Ty facepalmed, something he had been waiting for ages to do. "Okay, are we done with breakfast? All metals removed from your digestive organs? Good. We're going to start with practical traini—"

"I don't want to do more twaining! I want to pway!" Tavvy stomped his foot.

Ty held his hands up. He knew he could never win an argument against this monster. Instead, he reached into his pockets for a temporary tooth, because he always kept one just in case someone did something stupid, and fixed it in the gaping hole in Tavvy's mouth.

Then, he shoved both of them towards the living room. "Alright, what do you want to do now?"

Tavvy grinned, immediately turning around to arrange the furniture in the living room. Ty looked at Kit suspiciously. Kit shrugged. Minutes later, Tavvy turned around, his face now sombre. "Welcome to Octavian's Emporium of Humans. What may I get you?"

Kit choked. "'Emporium of Humans'? Where did that come from?"

"Here." Tavvy waved a hand at the mess of cushions and blankets. "I'm selling these humans."

Kit mumbled something like "great", and then he walked over to a human-cushion-lookalike and picked it up. "How much will this one cost?"

"His name is Jack. He will cost you ten bucks."

"Fantastic... I'll take Jack," said Kit, looking very much creeped out. "Discounts?"

"No sir, Jack already is on discount. Original price was five bucks," said Tavvy, pulling out a calculator. "So, total will be fifteen dollars?"

Ty looked on. He decided that he was living in an asylum and he would not interfere in the matters of the mentally unstable.

"Whatever happened to his math," muttered Kit, reaching for his wallet. He pulled out a slip of paper and pen, scribbled "fifteen dollars" on the paper, and handed it to Tavvy. "Here."

"Thank you very much, sir," said Tavvy, tucking the "money" into his jeans pocket. "Come again soon! I also have Audrey, Clarabelle and Jennifer up for sale. All coming at twenty dollars each!"

"Is that supposed to be cheap?" asked Kit.

"Yes," Tavvy said seriously. "If you buy them somewhere else, they'd cost ten dollars. If you want, I can sell them all to you for a hundred bucks total."

"No thanks," Kit said, backing away slowly. "I'm good."

Then Tavvy turned to Ty, asking him, "You want a human too?"

Ty shook his head furiously. "Definitely not. Wouldn't want to deprive you of your stock, would I?"

"Such kindness," muttered Tavvy, pulling out a notebook. "I should create a 'Tiberius' soon. Oh yes, that reminds me! I have Julian and Emma up for sale too!" He gestured vaguely at a heap of cushions, one black and one golden. "You guys want one? They're limited edition."

Just then, the door was opened, followed by giggling as Dru stepped in. "By the Angel, we should totally watch that next time."

Then she shut the door and turned around. Her jaw seemed to hit the floor. "What have you been doing?"

"No," said Ty, narrowing his eyes at her. "What have you been doing? You said you'd be coming back only for dinner. It's not even noon yet. Why are you back so early?"

Dru threw her bag on the sofa, not bothering about Tavvy's protests that she was squashing his merchandise, and simply shrugged. "The movie wasn't available."

Ty seemed to relax. "Okay. Then you can babysit Tavvy while Kit and I do training."

With that, he dragged Kit to the training room, throwing knives at the bullseye just for the sake of noise. He lowered his voice as he walked over to pluck out the knife he had just flung.

"Dru told me she would be back by around six in the evening. It's now ten in the morning." He raised a finger. "She also said she would be bringing Ash back to visit us." A second finger flew up. "And she said that she was going to the newly-opened theme park." The last finger flew up. Ty leaned forward, as if expecting Kit to say something.

"Okay," Kit said. "So? She could have changed her plans."

"No," said Ty. "Did you see how she was throwing her bag onto the sofa and ignored what Tavvy was doing?"

"Well, maybe she was tired?"

"Dru, not matter how tired, would never do that." He stood up and opened the training room door, and Dru nearly fell over. Obviously, she had been eavesdropping.

Ty raised an accusing finger, and his other hand crept instinctively towards the dagger tucked inside his waistband. "I expected a better performance. Because clearly, Annabel Blackthorn, you are not my sister."

***

Don't forget to vote, comment and follow me!

Have a great day!

~𝔂𝓸𝓾'𝓻𝓮 𝓵𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓭, 𝓭𝓸𝓷'𝓽 𝓵𝓮𝓽 𝓪𝓷𝔂𝓸𝓷𝓮 𝓽𝓮𝓵𝓵 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓸𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻𝔀𝓲𝓼𝓮~