She came over to him, taking Sage from him gently and kissing the baby's cheek. "Sage takes all of our breath away," she said sweetly, watching her with adoration. Sage gurgled, clearly delighted to be in her sister's arms before leaning forward and hugging her, burying her head in her neck. June laughed softly, seeming at peace.
She looked up at him, rubbing the baby's back. "It went fine. You're free to work," she said lightly, sitting next to him at the table. "I'll show you around in a bit. Have you eaten?"
She gave him a small smile and Rosalind piped up as Finneas served them some oatmeal. "Are you two married, June?" "Yes," June replied matter-of-factly, looking over at her younger sister. "While I was gone, I met a boy, fell in love with him, and married him without inviting any of you, and now I'm lying about my recent betrothal." Rosalind nodded while Finneas cracked the first smile Zerras would have seen from him. "I knew it," she agreed. June grinned, bouncing Sage on her knee. "How is everyone?" she asked, tilting her head as Finneas sat down. "Finn?" Finneas glanced up, his brow furrowing. "I've been studying pulley systems," he said, resting his head on his hand. "I think I could get an automatic fence opening system to let the cattle out to the fields." June tilted her head curiously. "How would it work?" Finneas seemed happy to talk about it, beginning to chatter about the mechanics almost excitedly while Juniper listened carefully, offering Zerras his bowl of oatmeal. He would smell elements of cinnamon and apple inside. It smelled delicious.
Zerras felt... relaxed. He enjoyed keeping company with the family and listening to them speak and their lives. He ate his oatmeal quietly, looking at peace.
He would see Rosalind nudge Miller and Miller nudge Rosalind back as they finished their food, a secret little wrestling match while Finneas and Juniper talked. June seemed to be listening intently to Finneas, and Zerras would get the impression that this was a rare thing for Finneas to be listened to so carefully. Sage fell asleep against June, her fingers curled in her sister's shirt. Rosalind spoke up after a minute, looking at Zerras curiously. "What are you going to do here, Mr. Z?"
Zerras looked down at her curiously. "I'm going to help out in any way I can, he told her. Why do you ask?"
"Just wonderin'," she said, finishing her toast and beginning to stack the plate. "June is tired a lot, so I think you're gonna be a lot of help."
The rest of the table began to stack the plates, cleaning up the places that they had been sitting at. Finneas took Zerras' plates easily. "It's alright," he said with a small smile. "June should show you around. Some of the chores have begun to stack up. I tried to keep up, but..." He looked away, looking a little sheepish. June came over and planted a kiss on the top of his head. "I'm so proud of you, Finn," she said gently. "We can take it from here."
They left the family behind to clean up, closing the door to the house as they headed out to the barn. Juniper exhaled, looking up at him. "That wasn't so bad, was it?"
She looked up at him with a smile as they entered the barn. "I'm not going to have you do anything, obviously," she said, climbing up to the loft with ease and grabbing some hay for the horses. "But I figured we could talk for a bit."
She set the hay into the pulley system, and the bucket slowly lowered into the horse's trough. She did the same with the cows, except on this bucket, she grabbed the rope and slid down, landing in the cow pen before vaulting over the gate with ease, going over to the chickens. "No, Z," she said gently, grabbing a pail of chicken feed. "It's fine."
