Who: Ira, Ori, and the Moorens Where: Mooren Apartment When: Monday night, March 29 What: Staas and Ori finally meet, and conspire to make Ira's life miserable. Warnings: The Swear Jar would be full, I'm sure, if Ori had to pay into it. With just Staas, it will probably be 2/3 full. Rating: Pg-13
Staas had left work just a little early on Monday, first stopping by Candi's and then retrieving the kids from Little Sprouts at four-thirty, and ushering them home as quickly as possible. He reminded them as they walked of the Fancy Dinner! they would be having, featuring Mr. Ira and Miss Ori as their guests. Alida, especially, was excited, seeing this as a chance to show off her unique flair for fashion in an elegant setting. Theo just wanted to know if Kitty was coming too.
As soon as Staas got home he set the pastry box on the counter and removed the steaks from the refrigerator, letting them warm up a bit as he ushered the kids to their room. He considered a full bath, but decided against it in the end, knowing the time limitations. Still, scrubbing off the dried bits of paint that their teachers had missed (mostly because they were hidden by clothes. How’d they become adorned so beautifully in the first place, Staas would likely never know) took a lot of time, and he wasted several minutes on a mark on Theo’s cheek before realizing that it wasn’t paint but marker, which would only wear off with time. There were also marks on his neck and wrist, green and orange, respectively. The one on his cheek was bright purple, and curved up when he smiled.
Alida, who had been a much simpler clean up, had already run from the bathroom to her closet, excited to be Fancy! When Staas and Theo joined her, she was already struggling to pull her pretty daisy tights on, with her large polka dotted print dress laying on her bed. Staas eyed the combination for a long moment, and casually asked, “Meisje, wouldn’t you maybe rather wear your pretty pink tights with this dress?”
“No,” she answered simply, twisting and turning every which way in order to get the daisies on straight.
He smiled and didn’t fight it. Whatever. Not like Ira wasn’t used to her crazy combinations by now. And maybe Ori would get some new project idea out of it. “Come here, baby,” he said, sitting on her bed. He did his best to straighten out the pattern on the tights, making sure they went up her legs completely vertically. He helped her with her dress next, but backed off from fastening the last two buttons when told, “I can do it myself, Daddy!”
He went over to help Theo instead, who was much easier to dress in terms of opinions, but much more difficult in actual fact. Staas finally managed to get the kid’s Moroccan-inspired shirt tucked into his khaki pants after what seemed like ten minutes of squirming, and had to bribe the boy into the blazer by promising the hat would be next. “You gonna haff a hat too, Daddy?” Theo asked excitedly as the tiny plaid driver’s cap was perched on his head.
“I am. Of course I am. It’s a Fancy Dinner! remember?”
“I’m gonna have my puppy barrettes,” Alida exclaimed from her bed, where she was slipping on her shiny purple-ish ballet style shoes. “On top of my ponies.”
“You want ponytails?” Staas asked, unsurprised, but hoping he could get them fairly even this time. It was always a crapshoot. Alida nodded and completed her outfit with her sparkly pink sunglasses. “Oh, baby, we’re staying inside. You don’t need those.”
“It’s part of my outfit,” she explained.
Fearing for her eyesight, and her shins should she bump into anything, Staas bargained her down to wearing them for their guests’ arrival, but taking them off once dinner began. Once Theo was appropriately shod as well, Staas sat them in front of the TV in his room, while he took a quick shower, then quickly dried and styled his hair. He changed his lip ring to a very shiny dark silver one, added eyeliner and a hint of bronzing to his lids, then made his way to his closet. He quickly put on his best suit trousers, which he was well aware did great things for his ass, and even managed to make his legs look long. Longer, anyway. He decided to go with mostly black for the evening, buttoning himself into a black shirt and carefully fixing a shiny black tie with thin red stripes running diagonally across it around his neck. Shoes and socks were next, then his suit jacket, and a black fedora with a jaunty red accent ribbon around the base.
“Fancy enough?” he asked his children while doing a slow twirl for them.
“You haff a hat!” Theo squealed. “I haff a hat!”
“You look very fancy, Daddy. Very pretty.”
“Thank you, baby girl. Want to do your hair now?”
She nodded and they trooped into the devil ducky bathroom, where Staas sat on the closed toilet lid and did his damnedest to make her two ponytails even. He didn’t quite make it, but they were pretty fucking close. He adorned each one at the top with her little pink plaid Scottie Dog barrettes, and she put her sunglasses back on with pride.
He moved them to the television in the livingroom next, and put himself in the kitchen, but not before removing his suit jacket and hanging it carefully on one of the diningroom chairs. Then he rolled up his sleeves, slipped into an apron, and got to work. First he pounded the steaks with a mallet, flattening them slightly, then he sauteed the mushrooms and onions in butter and Worcestershire sauce, carefully watching the clock. He didn’t want dinner ready at six, as the flambe part of the meal came last, and he wanted Ira’s eyes on the kids when Staas created large flames. So he kept the sauteing vegetables on low heat as he sauced up the steaks. He waited to put them in the pan, however, and instead set the asparagus to cook on another burner.
When a knock sounded at the door, Alida shrieked and stood up from the couch, carefully straightening her dress before running to the door. She was just dying to meet Mr. Ira’s sister, because she was a sister too. She dutifully stopped at placing her hand on the knob, however, and waited for her Daddy’s nod before calling, “Who is it?”
Staas, apron off and jacket on and buttoned, stood behind her as Theo came running up to join them, grin wide underneath his jaunty little cap and purple marker stain curling up against his cheek.