Cheila was still stood in the kitchen, absent-mindedly stirring her mug of hot chocolate that was definitely no longer hot. Her attention was almost entirely fixed on the skies. Almost. The rest of it was vaguely amused by the constant tinkling sound of the teaspoon against the inside of her mug. She had quite forgotten it was her who was causing it. Most days, Lala might have commented on that, but she knew better when it was storming. Especially when she suspected her ward to be joining in with some of that storming, even if it was accidental. So the little bird turned her own attention to eating the crumbs Cheila had put on a small plate for her. For some reason or another that was beyond the air elemental’s current understanding, this lead her to stop the stirring, drop the spoon in the basin, and finally take a sip. She was not surprised that it was cold -- her hot chocolate was usually left until it was more of a lukewarm anyway.
“Did I clean the floor?” Even as she asked she turned to look; she did not want any mess from her having been outside to trail all over the kitchen. Anything to keep herself from thinking about recent events.
‘But not the bottom of your feet,’ Lala replied in a tone that seemed perpetually dry. The waxwing did not understand how Cheila could have cleaned the floor and yet the dirt had just dried on the soles of her feet. How had she not tread it everywhere? She did not seem to be bothered about them either, as she dismissed them with a mental shrug and then rushed out to tidy up the rest of the evidence (mess) that she had been out in the rain.
After draining her mug of not-hot chocolate.
She had just about managed to get fully dressed -- minus the shoes -- and was drying the ends of her hair with... the first towel that made its way into her hand when there was a knock at the door. For a moment, Cheila was torn. Should she wait and let someone else answer? She was, after all, a bit messy; she was hardly one to care herself, but she had found that others did sometimes. At the same time she really did not like the idea of leaving whoever it was outside on the doorstep in the rain if they were not the sort of person to enjoy storms as much as she did. Chewing on her lip, she quickly rearranged her hair -- which was still sort of damp, but never mind -- the way she did every day and made straight for the front door. It opened to the sound of stacked bangles and rain, a noise Cheila suddenly discovered she was oddly fond off, although the face on the other side was not one she had been expecting. At all.
“Oh-- Hello, Caelia.” Suddenly aware that the surprise was probably showing on her face and she really did not want it to, she replaced it with the smile that came with that little glimmer of being pleased to see her big sister and stepped aside to let Caelia in. “You know you could probably just walk in if you liked; you’re family,” she tried to say as lightly as she could, though it came out sounding just a bit hollow. Which was unfair, because she meant it. She just did not feel like meaning it sometimes. I’m a terrible sister. “Can I get you anything before the others catch up with you?” Cheila’s nose wrinkled. “Though I don’t know where they are.”
‘The storm is making her absent-minded,’ Lala put in. The elemental pouted slightly, but continued to try and pretend there was not any kind of annoyance in the back of her mind. Even though Barnabas had told her to talk things through. There was a reason Cheila did not talk things through -- people seemed to end up crying , annoyed or just very upset. And she did not want that. So she was just going to shuffle further back towards the wall so Caelia definitely had enough room to pass. While staring at her toes. ‘You forgot the shoes again.’