Welcome to Gaia! ::

Tanz couldn’t sit still. He hadn’t been able to concentrate on anything all day. Takan. His new best and only friend was coming over to spend the whole night with him. He needed to get all the blankies off his bed and into the living room. All the pillows were already there when Shiri and he got home to change for work. They were going to eat dinner in the café then his father would let them go up and watch movies when they wanted to.

Neil hasn’t come back to work since this morning. Otto tried to go after him, but he needed to cover for Shiri when he went out to run to the bank. When Shiri and Tanz got back Otto grabbed his coat and left promising that he would make sure that Neil wasn’t dead and had a place for the night. So he wouldn’t be coming in for a while. Not that anyone but Otto would treat him with any sort of kindness.

Tanz had finished up neatening up the café an hour ago and now he was just pacing. Well, pacing as much as he could. Shiri let him put on some music and he was dancing and stomping while the few customers were talking in the opposite corner of the restaurant.

Monkey was sitting in his booth leaning to the side where his ears and two front legs were quickly taped together.

Humming and dancing along to the bells Tanz tried not to think about that it could be minutes or even hours until Takan comes to sleepover.

Whenever the bell by the door rang Tanz always dropped whatever he was doing to go greet the newcomer(s). He had run into the people three times, been patted on the head and called cute thirteen times, and glared at and told to slow down nine times. That was over twenty times that it could have been Takan.

Tanz was starting to think that he should take his father’s advice and sit down for a while. But he wanted, needed to stay moving.

When the bell above the door rang for the twenty sixth time Tanz made a run for it.

Too bad there happened to be a pulled out chair and stack of dishes in his way. Tanz just saw that it was indeed Takan and smiled brilliantly as he went crashing down to the floor face first.

Trying to pick himself up too quickly just led him to flopping down onto his butt when he got dizzy.

He just waved and smiled at Takan whole holding his nose, unable to say anything in his excitement and unexpected pain.

Tanz giggled, he was so happy he was vibrating.

“They do that sometimes.” He said patting his nose to make sure no lasting damage was done. As soon as he found out that he had no major injuries, Tanz wasted no time in tackling his friend. Shooting off questions at lightning speed.

“What do you wanna do now? Are you hungry? Thirsty? Do you wanna watch movies? Build castles? Go outside? Help out my dad? Play with Monkey? Go to the Park?”

Tanz paused and looked at Takan, hoping he didn’t scare him too much. Shiri always gives him a weird look and blinks at him then asks him to repeat everything slowly.

Tanz thought it would be a great idea to summarize what he just blathered out.

“What ya wanna do now?” If he had a tail, Tanz would be wagging it.

Tanz tried to feel hurt by Takan not wanting a hug, but when he grabbed his hand everything was all better. Nodding to his best friend Tanz started to walk him to his booth in the back.

“We’ll have lunch then. I didn’t eat either ‘cause I was too excited.” As they got closer to the back of the restaurant a booth was now visible with a stuffed monkey sitting gingerly on top of a worn pillow. His two front legs were hastily taped on with one of his ears laying next to him on the table.

Tanz crawled into the booth; scooting all the way to the end before turning to the boy he was holding hands with.

“This is Monkey.” Tanz pulled the pillow closer but didn’t dare touch it incase something else happened to him. “He’s the reason why I was so sad this morning, but when I got back Otto and Collan tried to fix him.” Smiling he pulled Monkey so he was out of the way but still within reach if he wanted to try to hold him again.

“Daddy doesn’t make the food, that’s Quentin’s job. But he is really weird, so daddy takes the food he makes to the people who ordered.” Tanz scrunched up his nose trying to think about the foods he liked the best. He really liked orange juice, but that wasn’t a food.

“What kinda food do you like? Dad can get Quentin to make anything, as long as it isn’t too complicated or weird.” Tanz stumbled over ‘complicated’ he just learned that word earlier in the week. Swinging his legs back and forth he hummed along to the song that was playing through the speakers in the back of the café.

“Sammiches are always the best.” Tanz nodded to himself. There were just so many combinations that would taste good. He always tried to order a new one when his father would let him. “I just had a grilled peanut butter for breakfast yesterday. It was really yummy. I liked it better then the melted cheese one.” Nodding Tanz looked up when his father walked up to them. Beaming at Shiri when he smiled at them.

“So you guys want some lunch then?” Taking out his pad on habit he smiled awkwardly at them. He would not admit that he was jealous of Tanz making a friend so quickly; his kid just had the right personality.

“What would you like to eat Takan?” Tanz turned to his friend and then to his dad. “Quentin will make anything right?”

Shiri blinked and nodded. “He brags all the time that he can make most things, but I don’t know how much of that is true.”

Tanz pouted. “He serves a lot of noodles doesn’t he?”

“All kinds. We have cream sauces, tomato sauces and a bunch of cheese sauces. Any combination of veggie, meat, pasta, and sauce would be fine.” Shiri directed his answer at Takan, as Tanz always asks for the ‘white and green stuff’ which was a creamy cheese and asparagus pasta.

Shiri nodded and quickly wrote down Takan’s order then turned to his son. “Now what do you want to eat?” He knew that Tanz would most likely buy something similar to his friend, if only to copy him.

“I want the flat stuff with the al-freder sauce.” Tanz totally butchered half his words, but he was so happy that if he had a tail he would be wagging it.

Then Takan’s comment made him blink. And realization made his eyes widen.

“Does that mean I will turn into an orange if I keep drinking orange jucie!” The horror was hard to hide in the young child’s voice as he looked to his father and best friend for guidance. Tanz didn’t want to be a fruit for the rest of his life.

“But why would I eat babies?” Eyes wide and horrified Tanz tried to think of a way that eating babies would be okay. Eating adult things weren’t bad, but if there was good things to eat why would people want to eat little ones. Were people going to come after and try to eat him? Tanz tried not to freak out.


“I’ll be right back.” Shiri whispered as he tucked his note book in his pants and walked to the rowdy group of people that just walked in.

Tanz held onto the hand that Takan grabbed with both of his. “I promise that I will never eat babies if you don’t want me to. I don’t want you to hate me.” Insecurity made Tanz burrow his way into Takan’s side so the warmth and presence of the other boy would make his heart stop racing so much.

Bringing his head up from where it was burrowed in his friends shoulder Tanz blinked. “Why would I eat baby chickens…?” All this talk about eating babies had Tanz’s stomach rolling around. He was almost a baby. Why would anyone want to eat him?

Noticing that he was a lot closer to Takan then he thought he backed up a scoot but still held the hands in his grip. The soft thanks made Tanz smile. He didn’t know why, but he thought that Takan didn’t say that a lot, so Tanz felt special for being able to hear it.

Looking around for something to talk about his eyes landed on the bouquet of flowers on the table closet to the booth and Tanz gasped. He knew the perfect thing to talk about. Stretching to look around for his father while still holding on to Takan’s hands was a hard task, but Tanz was able to defeat it when he spotted his dad all the way across the room, he grinned to himself. Tanz wasn’t allowed to talk about Ron when Shiri was close by.

Looking at Takan like he had a huge secret to tell, Tanz got real close and whispered as softly as he could, which wasn’t that low, but what else was a five year old to do?

“Wanna know a sekret?”