[Gift] Pillow Fort

Normally, Kyanite was good about knowing when to call it quits and rest from a project, or at least change his perspective so he could get new ideas – but something about this one was really getting to him. It wasn't necessarily that he felt a lack of confidence in his skills or how the clock was turning out – rather, this client in particular was far fussier than anyone he'd ever worked with.

He did have a policy of charging more if a client was too demanding – or even outright dropping clients who didn't respect his work. But Kyanite was determined he'd be able to get through this one. Somehow.

He may have been holing up in his house for almost two weeks on end, for this.

When his living room phone went off, Kyanite almost didn't notice until Turnip came around to nip him on the arm. Disgruntled, Kyanite figured he might as well give his joints a rest and went downstairs to take the call.

It better not be a sales pitch. Kyanite thought, Turnip in one arm – and took the phone off the wall.

“What.” Kyanite said, flatly. It was a little past 9 PM – late, but not too late.

“Kyanite! Good to see you're alive- ow ow ow, hey, stop it!” Rowe's familiar voice came through the line. Kyanite raised an eyebrow – the two had reconnected some weeks ago and ever since, he'd run into other buns as well (new and old alike). There was some kind of scuffling noise over the phone as someone forcefully took over the phone from Rowe.

“Hey!! Moony!” Kyanite flinched as Anna's voice came over the receiver. “You still owe me for the INCIDENT!”

“My name is Kyanite, thank you. And your tail is fine, we both looked.” Kyanite said, scowling at nothing in particular. He could've sworn he heard Turnip almost snicker from its place in his arm. By the demons, this rabebe had quite the sass at times. There was some more shuffling as the phone was apparently passed back to Rowe.

“Ahem. Anyway, by pure coincidence I ended up stumbling across Anna's store. I may have made the slight mistake of mentioning that we know each other – sorry.” Rowe said, sounding sheepish. “Anna had quite a lot to say about you.”

“Did she now.” Kyanite said.

“I can hear you, Moony!” Anna shouted through the receiver, causing Kyanite to temporarily hold the phone a little further from his head.

“What do you two want.” Kyanite said, feeling a little exasperated. If Rowe and Anna were suddenly chums now that was all well and good but Kyanite failed to see how it had anything to do with him.

“Well, I was thinking about holding a sleepover of sorts at your place. Given the time of year, it'd be great to make a nest – a pillow fort, if you will – and just take a load off.” Rowe said. “You... haven't exactly been taking breaks, have you?”

“What's it to you?” Kyanite said, gruffly. “I... I mean, how could you tell?”

“Great, that's settled then!” Rowe said, not elaborating. Anna could be then heard, saying: “I'm coming over because I want a word with you!” as if she were asking to speak to the manager.

“Wait, wait, do either of you even know where I live.” Kyanite said, sighing.

“... some instructions may be nice.” Rowe said, after a pause.

“Right, right. I suppose I could do with a distraction or two.” Kyanite said.

- - -

Kyanite managed to get a little more progress on his current project before one of the other rabebe – Corn, this time – floated over to cluck at him like a stern hen. The lunar rabebe had taken it upon itself to be some sort of doorman and tended to alert Kyanite to any guests that would show up. If it was just some door-to-door salesperson, it was also clever enough to ignore those.

“Thank you, Corn. I shall be down shortly.” Kyanite smiled, patting Corn on the head. Corn made a whistle-like noise, drifting in loose circles around Kyanite's head. Turnip had been napping on the worktable while Kyanite fiddled with his carvings – at Corn's arrival, Turnip woke and made chattering noises. Corn whistled back and bobbed up in down in the air. Of all seven rabebe, it seemed that Turnip got along best with Corn. With the others, Turnip tended to have an air of superiority for some reason. According to Hutch, apparently even imps had a pecking order among packs of the same kind.

Currently, Kyanite wore a turtleneck over loose slacks – Turnip could theoretically fit into the turtleneck, but it was a bit more awkward – so he settled for putting Turnip on his shoulder for now. Corn drifting along after him, Kyanite made his way downstairs to get the door.

“Hello!” Rowe greeted Kyanite warmly – he was holding a large bag of snacks and wore a little backpack. Anna had some sort of large blanket wrapped around herself like a big cloak.

“Moony!” Anna hissed. “I hope you have good cushions.”

“It's Kyanite.” Kyanite said, frowning. “Just don't touch my clocks.”

Why did I agree to this, again? Kyanite thought, as the two buns went into his house. He led his companions through the main hall to the living room, where he had two couches set up. He wasn't really one for guests for casual reasons, but he did like to have a comfortable place to sit and talk to clients when they were discussing the details of commissions. The couches were set up in a sort of L shape – one couch (being shorter) forming the short leg of the L, and a low table sitting opposite to the longer couch. To one side of the couches and table was Kyanite's fireplace – which was currently unlit.

“You have a whole room just for rabebe? Wow.” Rowe said, glancing further down the hall at the rabebe enclosure. “How many of these little guys do you have?”

“... seven. It was... largely unintentional.” Kyanite said, motioning to Corn who was following him around like a glittery wisp. “Turnip was the first one.”

Turnip, from its place on Kyanite's shoulder, yawned and sneezed in Rowe's direction. Rowe made a sort of watery eyed expression, clearly enamored by the rabebe.

“Seven?? What are you, trying to imitate Hutch?” Anna scoffed.

“Well, I think they are enjoyable little creatures.” Kyanite said, huffing. “Anyway. What was it that you wanted to talk about?”

Anna seemed to start to try and aggressively go off on some kind of tangent – but just as she took a deep breath, she paused, expression comically intense for her sudden silence. Kyanite gave her a sideways look and crossed his arms.

“You forgot, didn't you?” Kyanite said.

“Shut up!” Anna said, flustered. “Anyway!! Where are your cushions? This fort is going to be lame if you don't have enough good cushions.”

“I have a closet full of plush pillows and the such down the hall, by the rabebe. I'll... be back, I have some things I'm getting from my room.” Kyanite said, motioning to the hall. “Do not follow me into my room.”

“I'll stay right out there and guard the snacks.” Rowe said, making a saluting motion. “Hey, do we want to get a fire going?”

“Dunno, that seems like a fire hazard, if we're going for a big fort.” Kyanite said.

“You're a fire hazard.” Anna said, from down the hall.

“I- that doesn't... okay, so I do work with wood, but that doesn't make any sense.” Kyanite sputtered.

“Heh, kids.” Rowe said, taking a seat on the couch and relaxing for now. Kyanite went over to his room, cautiously looking behind him to make sure Anna wouldn't follow him or anything. She looked too preoccupied with raiding his closet for cushions- “I found Moony's plushie stash!” -oh, bugger. It wasn't the most embarrassing collection out of all of them, Kyanite supposed.

Kyanite wasn't exactly secretive about his plushies. On one hand, he did have a bit of an image to maintain – but on top of that, his bedroom – the one place he adamantly refused to let anyone else see – wasn't exactly... up to code, compared to the rest of his house. While clients and the occasional friendly bun would see an almost immaculate house (even if a bit cluttered from the immense collection of carvings and artwork), they would never see the mild disaster that was Kyanite's bedroom.

This was where he liked to indulge in one of his lesser known habits. While he was more than capable of cooking for himself, Kyanite still had his days where he just felt like eating takeout and easy junk food. And while his room wasn't exactly littered with trash, it did have a number of empty chip bags among other things that Kyanite simply couldn't be bothered to throw out just yet. His current project being such a drag had made it so that the situation in his room was a little more severe than usual.

Of course, as luck would have it, while Kyanite was picking out cushions to take out, Anna had gotten impatient and had come over to either complain or poke. She stuck her head through the doorway, snickering suddenly and nearly startling Kyanite into his bun form.

“This is how you live?” Anna said. Kyanite gathered as many cushions as he could reasonably carry in one go (Turnip still somehow balanced on one shoulder), and rushed out, shoving past Anna. He kicked the door back closed with a hoof and glared at her. Corn looked like it had been trying to dissuade Anna from coming over, but was too small to have much of any effect.

“Not. A. Word.” Kyanite hissed. Anna snorted but didn't say anything.

The trio ended up amassing quite the formidable pile of cushions, pillows, and even plushies – truth be told, Kyanite had never really made anything like a pillow fort and was at a bit of a loss as to where to start. Rowe was looking at the pile (which was, surprisingly taller than him) and nodding to himself and mumbling unintelligibly.

“This is definitely more than enough. Awesome!” Rowe said.

“Oh, there's definitely more in the bedroom. They just might have crumbs on them.” Anna said, snickering. Kyanite made a face and elbowed her softly.

“Well, anywho – here's how we'll make the best pillow fort.” Rowe said, gesturing excitedly. “We'll need a really strong foundation and supports – that's where all the firm cushions come in. And then on top, we can have some of the softer pillows as a roof sorts. And then we'll pad the floor layer with some nice squishy pillows – boom! Perfect for nesting.”

“You really had to drag a stranger over for an elaborate nap time, did you.” Kyanite said, though he had to admit to himself that this whole procedure had been a little fun.

“It's all about the company! You need to get out there more, Kyanite!” Rowe said.

“I'm in my house.” Kyanite said.

“You need more house guests in here! All this space, and all these cushions – think of all the sleepovers!” Rowe said, beginning the fort construction. Kyanite made a neutral sound but contributed to the fort as well – he had always been a more solitary bun. It wasn't an unusual choice of life – but he supposed he could do with a bit more noise and socializing here and there. Not that he was lonely, or anything, oh no. He had seven rabebe for that – plus two egghels. And he regularly visited Hutch when he could. That was social enough, was it?

As even Anna joined in on building the pillow fort, Kyanite couldn't help but wonder. He had a fairly decent life going on, but what was it that he wanted for himself? Why? Not to mention, he did have the whole personal journey going on, with his odd dreams, and the theory that he may have been something else in another life-

“Rowe. What was your real reason for doing this?” Kyanite said, interrupting his own thoughts.

“You hadn't shown up in town for nearly a month. I was getting a bit worried.” Rowe said, poking his index fingers together. Kyanite swore internally – more time had passed than he had thought. “I thought it wouldn't hurt to call you up and check in on you.”

“And you thought a sleepover would be a good idea.” Kyanite raised an eyebrow.

“I'll admit, that one came up in conversation with Anna. Bit of an on the spot decision, I suppose.” Rowe said, rubbing the back of his neck. “How did it come up? Er... I'm not too sure. We did talk quite a lot, this evening.”

“Normally my manager would get on my case for that kind of thing, but I sold quite a lot today.” Anna said, sounding proud. “So they have no right to complain!”

“... right. But, a sleepover?” Kyanite was still not quite following.

“It's the ultimate form of comfort!” Anna said. “Look! It's a bit crooked, but it can fit all three of us, yeah?”

Kyanite stepped back to look at the pillow fort from a few feet away – it was surprisingly massive, with the roof curving up a little in a dome shape – Rowe had ended up pushing the couches off to a side to make room for the structure. Corn floated over to the top of the fort and came to a rest in the middle, looking a little like an ornament of sorts of a fancy, sparkly weather vane. Turnip pulled at Kyanite's collar, waving its stubby little limbs.

“So, that's it, then? Nap time? Why all the snacks? Wouldn't that get crumbs everywhere?” Kyanite said.

“I've actually brought something for that!” Rowe said, pulling a sheet out from his backpack. “We can have a designated snack zone, in the fort. That way, we won't worry about dirtying the cushions.”

After a bit of fiddling, it seemed the pillow fort was just about completed. As Rowe put the snacks out in the snack zone, Anna swapped to her bun form and zipped into the fort, diving onto some of the plushies. Rowe took a seat to one side, still in doll form and Kyanite – being rather small – stepped inside in doll form, shifting his hooves into feet so that he was less likely to accidentally tear any of the pillows. Almost immediately, he face-planted into the floor of the fort, feeling a nap coming on. Turnip climbed up onto the top of his head, turned around in circles a couple times, and also settled down for some sleep.

“Well, I guess the two of us will be having snack time for now.” Rowe said, chuckling. “What would you like, Anna-.”

“I remembered what I was going to say!” Anna suddenly said, smacking her fists lightly over Kyanite's back. “Wake up, asshole!”

“Let him sleep for now. He needs this.” Rowe said, stopping Anna just as Turnip woke and was about to nip Anna's hands. “Try to save it for later, maybe?”

“Hmph.” Anna crossed her arms but begrudgingly let Kyanite be. As the two buns feasted on their snacks, Kyanite – unaware of everything – slept deeply, nestled comfortably in a sea of pillows and plushies.