#w.zarina01

[containatrocity]

"Yeah well usually my best friend's coworker doesn't get violent food poisonin' fifteen minutes before a shift an' we have time to go get breakfast so everybody has plenty a' time t' clear out of the house and I don't have to recognize that my high school friends were probably not bein' completely facetious when they said my dad was their type." She makes a face, turns green, briefly- then sighs. "Yeah- but hey, I'll let you make your great escape, let's not tell dad about this, shall we? He'll find some way to make it weird and I don't-"

It seems as if trapping her permanently in a hellhole town where everybody knew her name was not, in fact, the only punishment Wren had seemingly earned in a past life, because it's just as she's about to disengage, for the sake of both her and Zarina, that her father appears from upstairs, a pre-roll between his lips, and little more than a towel between himself and the world at large- he's not noticed either of them yet, singing some country song to himself under his breath before he swivels from his place in the kitchen- and his cigarette drops out of his mouth onto the counter. "Ah, hey, Babybird! You're- home! and Z you're... still here?" He looks a little caught off guard, stunned for a long enough moment that he doesn't take stock of his own state before Wren slowly lifts a hand to cover her eyes.

"Yeah, Shay got called in so I came home a little early. Dad can you... Do something about yourself?" Duck looks around the kitchen silently for a moment, before he pulls the fridge door open and stands behind it. It doesn't do much to hide the fact he's got a mess of hickies across his neck and chest, but it does, at the very least, remove the fact he's in a towel from the equation. "You are.... so embarrassing."

"I didn't know you were going to be home! I sure didn't know Z was still gonna be here- I woulda put on pants at least! You uh... conversin'?"

"Yeah, about the absolute chopjob you did on my hair." Duck looks a little embarrassed, rubbing the back of his neck. " Her theory was 'with a blindfold' though, mine was 'like it was the rope at the gallows an' it was about to drop you' so the jury is still out on how badly you screwed it up."

"I told ya I was real sorry." He murmurs. "I've only ever cut your brother's hair, and he just kinda... gets it clippered." He sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. "This is uh, I'm gonna be real honest- not how I wanted this whole exchange to happen."

"How'd you want it to happen?"

"Preferably never, and if it had to happen, definitely not with me in a towel. Uh, Sorry about this, Z." He finally manages- He's clearly just as uncomfortable about this as the two women are, upper chest vaguely flushed red. "I can uh- I'll go put on pants."

"yeah, good start Dad..." She sighs, Duck vanishing into the laundry room and shouting behind him. "Well hey- I was gonna make breakfast anyway- I can just make a double batch a' pancakes an' some extra smoothies-" He appears again, dressed with the towel around his shoulders. "I uh. Feel right awful, you missed breakfast with yer friend, Wrenny, and I don't like t' send Z on 'er way on an empty stomach." He offers- and Wren would really like to tell him no- vanish into her room.

There is something to be said about Romero men, and the pitiful puppy eyes they'd been blessed with, though, because Wren simply sighs. "Sure, Daddy." And drops herself down in a stool at the island.

As much as she wanted to, Zarina was not about to misrepresent who she was or why she was there, especially not to Mal's adult daughter who was clearly smart enough to figure that out for herself. However, she wasn't sure if Wren outright stating that she didn't need to act cool with it made things better or worse. Feeling suddenly a tad underdressed in her open dress shirt over a black silk slip, she quickly fastened some of the buttons and then stood there in awkward silence, almost wishing that she still had Brute to pet to distract herself with something. As it stood, the poor girl was carrying the entire weight of the conversation between them.

"Yeah, the first time I was here I basically got tackled to the floor trying to leave," she recalled, letting out a short, tense chuckle as she looked over at that behemoth of a dog. "But he's grown on me enough that I've started factoring in enough time to pet him when planning when to leave. Usually works pretty well, except... Today..."

Clearing her throat, Zarina decided to return to the conversation she'd started earlier. "I'm sorry, I can't get over how the... Did your dad cut your hair with a blindfold, or..?" God, it felt weird to refer to Mal as someone's dad, even if she knew logically that was exactly who he was. "Listen, if it were me, I would 1) never stop giving him shit for it, and 2) swing by the salon to see if someone there can at least salvage it a little. I'd take you myself, but I don't... You know. I don't do that." Smooth. "I should go."

[containatrocity]

On any typical day, Wren likely wouldn't have been home this soon. Shayla had to go in to work- one of the other rangers getting sick from food poisoning and not exactly useful as a desk admin for the morning- and instead of sitting around in her friend's house without anything to do- and the possibility of being forced to talk to her moms, she'd elected to just walk home- well aware that at minimum, her dad would still be asleep, and Robin would still be at his friend's- which would at least give her an hour or two of peace and quiet in her bedroom.

What she hadn't expected, as her key found the lock to the front door, was that Brute wouldn't be braying her return at the top of his lungs like usual- the dog instead distracted by a woman in her twenties- who, given Brute's quickly wagging tail and insistent nudging of her leg- had been around her father enough to earn the dog's unwavering fondness. "Hi." She offers in response, hanging her jacket by the front door- the "Romero" patch on the chest a hell of a give away of exactly who she was, if the fact she looked the near-spitting image of her father hadn't been enough of an indication. "Brute. Platz." She insists firmly- the dog ambling off to settle on his bed in the corner.

"You don't have t' act like you're cool with this whole thing, Dad having a whole adult child has been weird for his uh... friends, since time immemorial." She winces, however, when Zarina notices her haircut. "Yeah, well. that's his fault as much as this awkward little meetin'- Dad cut my hair off 'cause Robin got house paint in it a week 'er two ago, we don't exactly have the supplies to wash it out." But she surely wouldn't be as bad off as she is if an actual hairdresser had made the fix. "Definitely wasn't my idea, but it was this or making it worse somehow tryin' to sleep with it in there. Dad insisted 'it'll grow back' but he's not had to worry about a bad haircut since th' marines." she listens through the house for a moment- the sound of a shower running upstairs confirmation enough for why Duck hadn't appeared when the front door opened. "Brute trapped ya at the door, yeah? Dad trained him in german. Platz. Sitzen. Runter. Harder for a home intruder to call him off if they can't remember what 'go the fuck away' is in a language not many folk 'ere speak. And he's always been real opinionated about people leavin' him without payin' their dues- ain't that right, big fella?"

The dog's tail thumps against the wall behind his bed, gray muzzle dripping with slobber and big brown eyes leveled on the humans across the room- clearly only staying because he's been told to, not because he has any interest in being out of the middle of the exchange.

WHERE: Main House, Romero Property WHO: Wren Romero ( @containatrocity )

Zarina had overslept. She had managed to get up before Mal, but she had still stayed for longer than she had planned; and that was accounting for the fact that she now wouldn't have to navigate having breakfast with the man. Getting dressed, she pulled her bed-tousled hair into an artfully sloppy bun on her head, before leaning down to give him a quick kiss goodbye. "Good mornin' sleepy, I'm heading out," she said with a playful smile, throwing in a wink for good measure. "Thanks for last night."

As she made her way to the front door, she realised that she was a little sad that she wouldn't be getting her smoothie. Not sad enough to stay for longer than needed and risk running into The Kids, given that she already had to account for the time it would take to give Brute pets before he stopped blocking the door, but sad nonetheless.

Of course, she should have known that on the one day that she took a little too long to make herself scarce, his daughter would be getting home earlier than usual.

"Uhm, hi," Zarina greeted, stopping in her tracks and looking for all the world like a deer in headlights. "You must be Wren. I've heard so much about-" She paused, only now seeing the absolute atrocity that was the young woman's new haircut. She had never met her before, of course, but she'd seen her around enough to know that it didn't used to look like that. "Oh my god. What happened to your hair?"