& who are we now?

"Squirrel?" She questioned, brows creasing for a moment in confusion before she let out a laugh at the realization. "Oh, a squirrel. Of course." She acquiesced, her own blue gaze following his to the dog who's attention was fully on the offending squirrel— his owner seemingly forgotten in the hunt.

"You sure?" A hand stayed at his side as he peered up, "I was thinkin' I might just... live here now." A low raspy, humble chuckle caught in his throat. A glance strayed towards Hercules and then snapped back to the hand that Sahra kindly extended out to him. Emil sighed, laying on just a pinch of drama before he reached up and his hand took hers. His other pushed him up from the grassy hard ground and with Sahra's assistance Emiliano was up on his feet. He wobbled slightly, and hands on his hips he bent over trying to catch the breath that'd been knocked out of him in the fall. "See boy, showin' your true colors today." A raspy laugh escaped as Emil did his best to regain composure and straighten out to his normal stature. "Will you stop acting like you've ever hunted anything but your own shadow a day in your life?" The grumbled words were muttered with a few steps towards the husky, a treat pulled out to help summon the four legged companion away from his pursuit. "He wouldn't know what to do if he caught it," with another attempt at a laugh he shot a look to Sahra. "At least you got a free show, huh?"

Lia had thought she'd been happy before. At few points during her relationship with her ex would she have said she was unhappy, but it had only taken a few weeks with Emil to realise just how happy she could truly be. Every day since Halloween, she had smiled, she had felt special and more times than not, a blush was on her cheeks just from seeing his name pop up on her phone screen.

His hands had come up, settled atop where Lia's rested on his chest on instinct, but as she spoke they dropped to his sides. Still a little dumbstruck. Emiliano blinked down at her. His breath hitched in his throat, unable to form words. Her initial reassurance about the case was quickly overshadowed, the way Lia spoke was tinged with an all too familiar remorse. Logically, he knew she wasn't necessarily wholly wrong. It was a worst case scenario and the doubt that colored her soft emotional voice seeped into Emil. Spreading like a disease. He'd been so sure it couldn't matter, but the quiet what ifs started to creep in. Could something like that happen? Could his affections for Lia and their petty exes cost him his second chance with Isabel? "You don't want to see me?" His voice came out in a hoarse whisper, the reality of the situation taking a little too long to fully sink in. Doubt was such an awful, contagious thing. It never took much to spark a train of thoughts and internally spiral.

Here's a music related ask meme to hopefully get the creative juices flowing! Please ensure to send at least one ask to everyone who is participating for each of their characters!

Lucas chuckled with Emil's words, "Nah, I get it," if he hadn't had a beer in his hand, he would have lifted them in a mock surrender. "I know what you mean and that doesn't mean I'm calling you useless either," he grinned at the other, though only for a passing moment. Lucas shifted, watching as his friend let out a long and elongated whistle. "Shit, man," he followed suit, letting out a whistle of his own. "Sounds like you need a night like this." To let off some steam, "I'm afraid to say things are going good, I don't want to sound like I'm bragging," he half-joked, "but yeah, I can't complain and Sahra and I are getting back together if you can believe that." @emilmoreno

"I do," Emil agreed with a nod. "Having the custody hearing put a pause on my relationship, that's just the cherry on top man." He took another drink and slowly shook his head. A warm lopsided smile tugged at the corner of his lips, unable to help but chuckle. A hand extended out to pat Lucas on his shoulder, an encouraging gesture. "That's great! Don't be timid. I want ta hear you're doing well! Misery doesn't need company." Sometimes it was nice to commiserate, but he definitely wasn't going to begrudge his friend having a better turn of luck. Especially relationship wise. "I can believe it, but I might be biased. Who wouldn't want ta' be with you?" The man leaned and nudged Lucas with his elbow.

Thank Allah for dogs. Hercules was the perfect distraction—the perfect excuse to pull herself together, or at least attempt to. Seeing Emil like this was hard enough; seeing him while her head was a little fuzzy from too many drinks was… probably a recipe for disaster.

He wasn't ready either, a fact Emil was entirely sure of the second her voice wavered with emotion and the age old urge to reach for Alara made his hand twitch awkwardly. It left him with a quiet unease. Listening felt a bit like watching a trainwreck, frozen in place. All he could do was try to remember how to breathe.

She'd come to the park with the full intention of going for a run— her full athleisure outfit, water bottle in hand, and phone tucked into a band around her bicep and headphones tucked into hear ears proof of that— but when she'd gotten there there'd been an ice cream truck and well, her entire plan got derailed. Instead, she found herself listening to her running playlist as she sat on a bench and worked on the large vanilla and chocolate swirled soft serve cone in her hand.

"Squirrel." Emil huffed the single word in explanation, uttered in half a groan. The still present awareness of how hard he landed wasn't quite enough to spare him the embarrassment that'd follow suit. Hazy blues blinked up, realizing that he knew the woman who'd apparently been witness to his foolish ordeal. Worse yet, she was one of Lia's closest friends. "Yeah, I think i'll survive..." a hand lingered at his back and his head rolled aside to break their eye contact and look ahead through the park greenery to where Hercules was. "Thanks for the concern, bud." The man's exasperated sarcasm was entirely lost on the husky who had its front paws on the trunk of a nearby tree. Emil sighed. "I'll jus' lay here and debate my life choices for a second." He winced, pretty sure there was a stick or something jabbed into his left side.

Kit let his headphones rest around his neck and listened to the other gentleman talk. Even the mere mention of batting cages made Kit's ears perk up like a puppy in a toy store. "Oh, shit. You play ball, too?" he asked, leading the man over to an empty treadmill.

Emil couldn't help but match the other man's easy enthusiasm, "Yeah. Yeah. Well, I used ta. Now I just yell at a screen an' coach t-ball." A humble gruff chuckle colored the admittance, "batting cages are still good for stress." That and, when he had company, going to local games and eating his fill of ballpark concessions. As Kit explained he didn't have to toy with the speed settings and everything else, Emil offered a thankful nod. "Right, I think I ought'a be able to manage that much." One hoped. A surprised bark of a laugh caught in his throat, "Sí, hablo español." It was a detail he wasn't sure people always caught onto. "An' I teach my daughter. Ella es hija única y muy consentida." Or, well, he liked to think Isa was spoiled. As of late that was harder, but if luck was on his side all that would blow over soon enough.

Lucas chuckled with Emil's words, "Do you think they should start scouting from your tee-ball league? It might save us all a little bit of heartbreak." He said with a shake of his head. He glanced up at the screen, only partially watching the post-game interviews before turning his attention back to Emil. The loss didn't sting, not as much as it could have but Lucas had that was because of the number of ingested beers. "I'm glad you could make it out," he said, nudging Emil lightly with his shoulder. "Been a minute since we've both gotten to yell at the television like it offended us," he joked with him, laughter pushing his lips into a smile. "How've things been with you, man? It's been a minute." @emilmoreno

"Yeah, it has!" Emil agreed just a little too loudly, like his voice was still trying to carry across the bar to let the television know he was disappointed. "It's good to get out. Be out. Do something a' bit useless." A raspy, alcohol tinged laugh sat in his throat and Emiliano rolled his eyes at himself. "Not that spendin' time with you is, just mean a beer and the game." For emphasis, his shoulder collided harmlessly with Lucas' in friendly affection and good-humor. "How've I been?" He echoed, a low elongated whistle parted his lips. "A bit of a ride man, to be honest. Always is these days." At least, the world had a way of making it feel that way sometimes. "Ex drama, ex-wife drama, gettin' called into the school for Isabel... there's a list." Another tipsy sort of laugh parted his lips but it was a tired sound. "You?"

Logic told her that Emil's ex wife had no clue that it was something that had already been on Lia's mind and that she had no clue it would get to her in the way that it had. Maybe she just an annoying knack for getting to a person without really trying.

For him, it did feel a little out of the blue— as if maybe, somehow, he'd learned nothing in these years to pass and was as willingly hopeful and naïve as he'd ever been when it came to the prospect of being with someone romantically. It took one kiss, on Halloween, and Emil hadn't stopped to worry all that much since. Even if the situation with Alara left an awkward sour pit in his stomach, he'd still been pretty full steam ahead. Slowly, for Isabel, for some sense of hopefully not running Lia off, but a steady forward march towards incorporating her into his life. "But..." his brows dipped, mind catching slowly up to the circles his date seemed to be doing in her own head. "None of that matters." At least, it didn't to him. Emiliano could assure her that much. "None of that reflects on who you are." It shouldn't. The court of 'public opinion' was always swayed a little easier in the grand scheme of things. "You're one of the most genuine people I know, a' course you'd be a good influence. If I was worried, I wouldn't have introduced you to my daughter." The subtle quiver of her lip left him tongue-tied, quietly annoyed that it didn't feel like he was allowed in the moment to just close the gap and sweep her up in his arms like he wanted to. "I don't... need ta' be told that." Emil exhaled slowly, doing his best to keep his frustration from leaking into his tone. "Obviously there's a lot resting on this trial for us, and most importantly Isa. That's... that's why I have been working so many extra hours, to assure I'm financially stable. That I have character witnesses." He couldn't help himself from listing off a few of the items, a list, the countless ways he'd tried to curate his life and make it bulletproof on the stand. "If you're really that worried, I can talk to Reina, but I don't think your personal history needs to be a factor here Lia."

“It’s lovely to meet you, Amaia, have you and Isa got some fun plans for the evening?” She was awkward and honestly, she didn’t like Amaia from what she had heard from Emil, but the adorable little girl they shared had gotten under her skin and she be damned if she was anything other than nice to her mother. “I have been meaning to thank you actually, so it’s lucky you’re here.” A small frown wrinkled Lia’s forehead as she looked back at the woman before glancing towards the stairs to see if Emil was coming back. “It’ll be a lot easier for me now that he has you. I mean, you’re hardly a stable influence on Emiliano with your lifestyle, are you?” Lia wanted to respond, but before she could, Amaia continued. “We’ve all seen the video, Lia, do you really think a judge would agree that it’s a stable environment for a child when their dad’s girlfriend is plastered all over TMZ every other week? So like I said, thank you.”

A crease formed between his brows as they dipped, a subtle concerned sort of confusion etched into his features while Lia fidgeted on the spot. Soft blues steady on her, only slightly relieved when she continued. "I... what? " Surprise was evident in his tone. Emil would love to say he handled it with grace, but shock came first. Stood there and blinking at her like a fool. Admittedly his first instinct was to just say no, but Lia looked genuinely upset and he didn't want to give an answer that might seem like a brush off. "I've never really thought about it," he admitted. "Did I say somethin' to make you think so?" Emil stood there, trying to trace back their evening for a misstep. "I... don't think it should be," which he supposed didn't necessarily mean there wasn't a chance it could come up. Amaia had twisted things against him originally, brought his character into question. "But we're not..." he didn't really know what word to choose, so he just let it trail off. It seemed flimsy. He didn't think even if Amaia wanted to be petty she could really prove Lia was around enough to have an impact.

Kit was almost happy that he wasn't in the middle of his calf stretches when Emil came over to him. A handsome man in front of him while he was in a compromising position? Didn't seem like the way to go.

Emil's smile grew and a warm amicable laugh escaped him, quick to shake his head. "No, no, no... you're good man." A final raspy, humble wisp of a laugh fell into the air between them. "I've never really used the gym here either." Nor did he necessarily foresee it being a new hangout going forward, he'd been a jock in every sense of the word but this. Lifting weights in a room full of sweaty people just never clicked. "I was here for a class that got canceled an', well, I'd normally just be here for that or ya' know the batting—" he cut himself off, "That's not relevant." He thumbed towards the machine his water bottle was currently claiming, though luckily several were open anyway. "I know you said you're new in here too, but any chance you're better with the—" he talked with his hands and gestured again, "treadmill. It's one of those touch screens, an' i'll be honest I'm not enough of a gym rat to be up ta date on something with more than an 'on' button."

Travis leans back in his own, identical plastic chair, his arms folded like he’s either trying to make himself look smaller or maybe he's just holding himself together. Either way, Sadie's school (his former one) hasn’t changed one bit. It still smells like cheap cleaner and sweaty adolescence.

There was something particularly jarring about the juxtaposition, about how much more mature and wise he'd expected his father to be when he was the one in this chair. And now, here Emil was, barely sure sometimes if he should really be considered a proper adult. All he could do was let a chuckle part his lips and nod, feeling the odd circle of life irony sink in. "Honestly, I was due— she's not usually much trouble." Given their relationship, there was a solid chance once he was filled in on the details he'd find the whole thing funny or side with his daughter. However, Isabel was creeping into the realm of being a 'teen' or at least a pre-teen, and with the looming custody battle some of the stress was bound to make an impact on his daughter. Guilt settled in his stomach at that, "My ex-wife got the call, and she wasn't heavy on the details. Think she stomped on some kids foot? A boy. An' knowing what some of us were like at this age, I'm not sure I'll be able ta blame her." Emil sighed and shook his head, clearly a little bit amused despite the disruption to his workday. Worry was the only thing that sat and gnawed at him enough to make his shoulders heavy and dull the potential humor of it. "How 'bout yours?"