Violette's warning was met with raised hands and a smirking surrender. "Have mercy." He caught her hand at his shoulder as she passed, gave it a light squeeze and settled when the two had gone.
Family was a funny thing. Sacred and of paramount importance, but the concept was a little more foreign to Nik than most. He'd not grown up in it. It was something he'd learned, not something he instinctively felt. These were good people who he knew and loved, but not well enough to be entirely at ease with them. There was no comfortable quiet for hours at a time, no silent understandings that came from a lifetime of mutual experience. So he fidgeted like a hyper aware cat, polishing off his beer while Bitsy's sing song voice carried from behind them.
"Seems she's got her hands full with Bitsy, lucky for you," Violette had a stiff upper lip, but she didn't seem the sort of have familial murder in her, anyway. "She's been having fun with the poppy. What about you?"
Orion's assessment of Lucia had him chuffing a quiet note of humor into the mouth of his bottle. "She's a champion at awkward staring." He wasn't sure if anyone else made moonshine in the cirque, but best not to study a compliment for cracks.