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 Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2026 6:45 pm
Hot Cross Buns were driving her a little mad at the moment. Talia had tried a few different recipes, and none of them…were as tasty as she wanted them to be, and by this point, she was blaming the fact that it was the fault of the buns in general, and so today. She was making sticky buns. No crosses, dough drenched in karo syrup, the raisins plump and juicy rather than sad in dough that was too dense to really…enjoy.
The downside was that there were a lot of dishes to do, and the karo syrup was so sticky it was proving difficult to remove from the pan. And the spatula. And…everything else she had gotten it on.
It had spilled, okay? And she was paying for her sins by being elbow deep in hot, soapy water, scrubbing with vigor.
The sticky buns though? They looked, smelled and hopefully tasted perfect.
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Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2026 6:45 pm
It was raining outside, but almost cold enough that it could have been snow. The house was warm, a mixture of the hardworking heater and the product of Talia’s kitchen adventures.
Julian hadn’t been down from his room in hours.
His absence wasn’t entirely uncommon; if the weather was nicer, it would have been easy to think he was just out taking a walk or doing something around the city. It was the perfect weather to take a nap–and Julian had proven over the summer that he was particularly prone to bouts of drowsiness. Though he’d mostly fallen out of the habit of falling asleep around the house since it started last summer, it wasn’t hard to imagine he might have fallen asleep at his desk.
He was usually quiet, so the silence from his room wouldn’t have solved that mystery, anyway.
The house had been busy up until about half an hour ago, but now it felt empty. Everyone had dispersed. Maxim was in the kitchen with Talia, hoping she’d stop washing dishes and just let him lick them clean.
At some point, his eyes dropped from her back to the kitchen entrance. He didn’t lift his head but he watched eagerly. On and off, for nearly two minutes, his tail would intermittently wag, stop, and then start again.
If Talia hadn’t noticed before, she must have when Julian entered the kitchen, opened his mouth, and then left.
He came back a moment later, but this time his head was down, and he went straight to the fridge.
Something was inherently off about him; he didn’t present with his usual warmth or soft, pleasant greeting. He didn’t wave, or quietly announce that he was walking behind her. Didn’t ask if she wanted something from the fridge. Didn’t even offer to help with the dishes.
He opened the fridge and stared into it. He wouldn’t find answers there, but he looked anyway.
Maxim was always sensitive to anyone behaving oddly. It started with Evan and then spread to everyone else. His ears folded back and he pushed himself up from the floor to stand next to Julian, tail wagging slowly as he looked up at him. Julian didn’t meet his gaze–didn’t even pet him.
Maxim waited a few seconds, and then huffed. Then grumbled. Then stepped on his foot.
Julian hadn’t reacted to any of it.
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Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2026 6:49 pm
The first time Julian had entered, Talia had half turned to see him, but before she could get a word out, he had vanished again. Maxim was clearly trying to take his life in his hands…paws in begging for the baked goods today, raisins were not puppy friendly but…
Just as she was about to say that, yet again to the dog, Julian came back in again and made his way to the fridge, which. Made sense. Teenagers got hungry. She got hungry but.
The dish she was working on was too long for the sink, and really, that was lucky, for she was able to move her body slightly so that she kept Julian in her peripheral vision, scrubbing slowly, trying not to make too many noises splashing, as though it would spook the boy.
She watched as Maxim grew more and more frustrated and nearly smiled, would have smiled if Julian hadn’t…ignored the dog. That just.
Wasn’t like him.
And after a moment, trying to think of the right words to say, she finally just decided on; “Hey kid, if you’ve got a few minutes mind helping me dry?” Talia kept her voice as light as possible, pretending that she hadn’t noticed that anything was off.
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Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2026 6:49 pm
Without pulling anything from the fridge, Julian closed the door. It took him a few seconds more to actually speak, and when he did it was like all her words hit him at once. “Oh, um–yeah, sure.”
Maxim was still standing on his foot, but Julian scratched behind his ears and rubbed his face.
It wasn’t enough to convince the dog to move, but Julian carefully maneuvered from underneath him with an apology before joining Talia at the sink.
He rolled up his sleeves which, like most of his sweaters, were too long. Julian always washed his hands before doing dishes so he worked around Talia to do so, and then when he dried off, he began to dry the dishes she had out already.
“Um, do you know if Zac’s around?” he asked, in a failed attempt to sound casual.
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Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2026 6:52 pm
At least he was responsive. That…was something. Talia continued scrubbing the pan, pausing at the question. “He went out for something, he should be back in an hour or so–is…there something I can help with? I don’t have to wash these right now.”
And really, this one would do good with a nice long soak anyway.
She bit back the question of ‘are you okay’, because really, anyone with eyes could see that he wasn’t but…
“If you wanted to talk or something, I’m all ears, and trapped in karo syrup so…can’t go very far and promise not to run away!”
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Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2026 6:52 pm
"Um," Julian said, and held the silence. Maxim stared at him for so long that he needed to sit down. His eyes never left Julian, even if he could only see his back.
"Well," he said slowly, a few seconds later, "I mean, I wanted to talk to you too, it's just..."
He practiced with Zac. He didn't call it that, but there was something predictable about Zac that just made it easy. Well, easier. He didn't really worry about hurting Zac's feelings. And Zac had never been mad at him.
Julian had seen Zac mad--the way he stomped around, or slammed doors, or berated bad drives on the road. Although, he'd stopped doing that when Julian was around, probably because Julian was the type of driver to go exactly the speed limit when Zac wanted to go nine over. And he didn't slam doors when Julian was around, and the last time he'd done it, he'd seemed surprised to find Julian around the corner and apologized for startling him.
Zac still stomped around, but Julian never had to worry if Zac was mad at him because Zac usually, in his abrupt, begrudging way, would tell him exactly what he was mad at, and then sulk off.
With Zac...
Julian found it hard to imagine hurting his feelings, or upsetting him.
Zac made it seem like he was generally unflappable, and Julian hadn't made a problem yet that had gotten under his skin.
With Talia...
Julian found himself terrified of hurting her feelings, and he didn't want to upset her, ever.
It was different. It wasn't that he didn't care about Zac--because he did, a lot--but he could imagine telling Zac bad news. Even if it made his heart spasm erratically, and his stomach tied itself in knots. He could imagine Zac’s steady look, lips curled slightly downwards while he waited for Julian to find the right words. He could imagine Zac’s shrug, or his dismissiveness, where Julian worried too much and Zac didn’t worry at all.
Zac was good to practice with. It didn’t feel like there was anything to lose.
But this felt like jumping into the deep end right away. He didn’t know what to say, or how to word it. He didn’t know what was worth saying. All he knew was that he didn’t want to hurt Talia. He didn’t want to seem ungrateful, didn’t want to worry her, didn’t want to disappoint her.
His mind was already catastrophizing all the way this could go wrong.
He’d already kept her waiting for an answer for what must have been a minute. Julian realized he'd been staring into empty space for long enough that his eyes burned, so he blinked quickly.
There was a smile on his face, but he didn't put it there. His hands were shaking, but he couldn't figure out why. Adrenaline, probably. He didn't feel happy, or scared, or anything, really.
The voice in his head was trembling, whispering, screaming. The voice that came from his mouth was pleasant, and conversational, and entirely too steady to have been his own.
"I think my mom's coming back into town soon."
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Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2026 6:55 pm
Talia waited, she kept her eyes focused on the soapy water and continued to scrub, though maybe not as passionately as she had been earlier. She wondered if he was going to finish saying…he wanted to talk to her too...but...
She didn’t press. Didn’t pry, and just waited for him to speak but, the words he came out with were so jarring, she very nearly dropped the dish. She didn’t. That would have spooked him horribly, but she did manage to count to three and turn to look at him, frowning slightly, both at his tone, and at the words, it. His smile looked wrong, but Talia shoved back the words of concern that she wanted to say, instead.
“Oh yeah? How’d you find that out?” That was a good, neutral response. Maybe. Hopefully!
And she was able to turn back to her sink, freeing a spatula from the sticky mess and placing it on the counter. It was ready to be dried, but Talia’s mind was spinning.
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Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2026 6:55 pm
Julian was letting all the cold air out of the fridge. He could imagine what Evan might have said to Riker, or Zac. His hands were freezing. He wasn’t hungry, he just didn’t really know what to do with himself.
He closed the fridge and drifted to the pantry, leaning in to peer at the less perishable foods.
“I saw it online.”
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Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2026 6:56 pm
Talia nodded, fumbled for a spoon and began to scrub it, then nodded again. “And…are you feeling okay? That’s…a lot to take in, yeah?”
A lot to think about. She had no rights to Julian though…the woman was…not a threat. She couldn’t be. Talia wouldn’t allow her to be but…
“Thank you for telling me.” She hoped that was…okay to say. Big…things…deserved…reassurance? Maybe. Hopefully. Good lord she was out of her depth and honestly, kind of also wished Zac were here.
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Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2026 6:56 pm
Julian’s shoulders eased briefly, and then tensed again. He leaned into the pantry a little more.
“Um, yeah, of course. I mean, I would have told you sooner, but I just found out. I mean, earlier today. And I thought–um, well I’m going to ask Ms. Terry about it. I was sort of–I mean, she hasn’t said anything yet, so I’m not really sure what’s going on with things. But I’m okay.”
He stood on his tiptoes briefly but dropped flat.
“I’m excited.”
His teeth were chattering, so he gritted his jaw closed tightly.
“I mean, it’s still a few weeks away, so that might be why. Um, early April, I mean. Maybe Ms. Terry was going to tell me the next time she stopped by? But, um, I don’t think I can wait that long. I was thinking about calling her to ask. I thought she was supposed to tell me when she heard something, so, um–well, I mean, she knows what she’s doing. I’m probably just being impatient.”
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Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2026 6:58 pm
“I…can imagine.” Talia drew in a slow breath and let it out as silently as possible. “If you want to call her, that’s well within your rights, Julian, she’s your caseworker and she’s here to answer any questions or anything.”
The warm water was starting to agitate Talia and she removed her hands and moved to try them on a dish towel before picking it up and starting on the dishes that sat there.
“It sounds like it’s a bit overwhelming…can I make you some tea or something? You sound like you’re cold…”
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Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2026 6:58 pm
The chattering stopped almost immediately. “Oh–no, I must have just been in front of the fridge for too long, sorry.”
He stayed leaning in towards the pantry, but rested his shoulder on the wall and tugged down his sleeves before crossing his arms over his chest tightly.
“It’s not overwhelming.” Then, he seemed to doubt himself, and glanced over his shoulder at her. “Is it? –Are you? I’m sorry, I’m all over the place. Do you–can I help with the dishes? I should have asked when I came in, I’m sorry. My mind was totally somewhere else. Tea–did you say you wanted some?”
He returned to the pantry, pulling out the tin of tea, and then hurrying to her side.
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Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2026 6:59 pm
“Oh my sweetheart no, no I’m fine. I was worried about you…”
She hesitated and drew in another breath, letting it out with a bit more gusto this time. “You’ve got a lot on your mind, I understand that. I’m good with the dishes, that one pan really needs time to part ways with the syrup I baked into it, and my fingers are all pruny so I should take a break anyway. If…you make the tea I’ll serve us up some buns? I…”
Talia grimaced slightly. “I might have gone overboard. But what else is new…though…I think you should call her, you know. Ms. Terry. I’m sure she was just waiting until the two of you met again.”
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Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2026 6:59 pm
Julian blinked once, a few seconds after she’d finished speaking. “Worried?” he asked, like he misheard. “No, I’m good. I’m very good.”
Good enough that he had a pot of hot water brewing in that same breath, and he’d gotten down two mugs in preparation, too.
“I don’t think you went overboard. Food always goes fast around here. Not that there’s not enough of it,” he insisted, because there was. He wanted for nothing here, he wanted–needed–her to know that.
“You’ve always done such a good job taking care of me. Of everyone, really. I mean–nobody else I know gets to come home to a kitchen full of–well, anything they could dream of.” He looked around the room. Even when the rest of him faltered, his smile never did.
He’d called Terry before, and texted when it wasn’t anything too important. Sometimes with questions, sometimes with updates. He was careful; he didn’t want her to think he was needy.
But, this was important.
Talia couldn’t answer this, or Zac, or Soleiyu.
Tonight, probably. Before it got too late. But it was hard enough finding the words with Talia. He didn’t know how he was supposed to talk to Ms. Terry about it.
Having Talia’s encouragement…
Helped. It did.
He sucked in a deep breath but it didn’t fill his lungs, so he stood up straight and tried again. That didn’t help either, but he smiled reassuringly all the same.
“I hope you like her. My mom, I mean. She has a lot of friends. I think–I mean, you two could be friends.” He spoke quickly, like he was trying to say all the right things before he ran out of breath, only he couldn’t tell how much air he had left. “But I mean, you could be friends with anyone. I bet she’d like you a lot. I hope–”
Julian stuttered over the words. There was supposed to be a sentence there, but the words dissolved on his tongue, leaving him there with his mouth open and not sure what was supposed to come next.
“I hope,” he tried again, but the same thing happened, and then a third time–with more desperation, he said, “I hope this won’t change anything between us.”
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Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2026 7:00 pm
The fact that Talia was able to keep her face blank was a testament to well. It was a testament to something. There was absolutely no way in any universe that she would ever become friends with that…woman. She would just as soon go and marry Faustite.
Okay…ew. Maybe not marry Faustite, but…whatever.
Her eyes grew warm again and she swallowed. “Baby. This will never ever change things between us. Nothing could ever stop me loving you, and what I said before? About this being your home, it’s true. For as long as you want it to be, this doesn’t change that either. Nothing will.”
If she could just…reassure him that he would still have a home. If she could get something to really stick...she wanted it to be this.
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