Welcome to Gaia! ::

He had been told to bring her in once a stage, and he figured this was as good a day to do it as any, merely because Layla was experiencing cabin fever.

Sure the snow had been fun the first couple of days, but on the third he noticed she looked at the door irritably and spent most of her time in their small houseboat, looking at random things and complaining about how bored she was. Once she had almost discovered the closet where he kept his weapons, so Marcus had done the most logical thing.

He brought her to the lab. He wasn't sure what they were supposed to DO there, but he figured someone would tell them sooner or later. Which was why he was wandering around, looking at pictures on the walls with Layla by the hand.

He hadn't bothered to go to the front desk. The longer this took the more likely she was to forget about the secret latch she had found in the kitchen.

"Papa," Layla said, tugging at Marcus's hand. "Papa, there's someone. We can ask her, right?"

"Hmm?" he said, glancing down at his daughter.

"See?" she said, tugging harder on his massive hand, hers far too small to wrap around more than a few fingers. She pointed at the woman that had just looked out. "There's a lady. We should ask her." Then dragged with all her weight, not budging his until he gave into her grunts.

"Fine," he said. "Ah... scuse me," he called out. "We were told to come here. Just not what to do when we got here."

"Uh huh," she said with a nod, looking up at him thoughtfully. Something about him... smelled like a friend of hers. "Reyn!" she proclaimed, breaking into a bright smile. Literally bright. The lights from overhead caught on her silver teeth and gleamed.

"He's not Reyn, darlin," Marcus said. "Reyn's a lot shorter... and has more feet."

"Oh, right," she said. "Sorry, mister."

"Oh reeeaaallllyyy," Marcus said. "Layla, you want to meet your other Papa?" he asked the little girl.

"Okay!!" Layla said, not seeming bothered by the crashing noises at all. "Let's go see him!" She tugged at Marcus's hand, trying to get him to go over to the other room. "Bye bye Reyn's Papa!" she added with a wave at the pixie.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," Marcus said as she tugged harder, following her without any hesitation.

"That's him?" Layla asked Marcus.

"That's him," he agreed, eyeing the large dragon thoughtfully. It would be interesting--nah. Not when the dragon had obviously sold his soul to whatever this little program was. He was no better than a caged monster at the zoo, now.

"Why's he yelling so much?" Layla asked, pressing her ears down with her hands. "He's noisy!" she shouted to be heard.

Layla blinked at the creature, then burst into a beautiful, shiny smile. "Hi!" she said. "You're very pretty!"

"Nice to see you, too, Hazij," Marcus drawled. "And here I came to let your daughter meet you. But if it's a problem--" He stopped, almost groaning at how happy Layla was to be meeting the Asian Long. It looked like they were stuck there.

Layla giggled happily, hugging as much as she could. Obviously she was smitten with the Asian Long.

Marcus was clearly thinking it over. "You won't hurt her," he agreed. "But I don't see that keeping you from yelling at her, since you seem so intent on it at the moment. Nobody yells at my little girl."

"It's okay, Papa!" Layla said. "He's just noisy. It's probably because his head's so high up he thinks he needs to yell to be heard."

"If you say so, darlin," Marcus drawled.

Asian Longs, Marcus thought with an inward snort and a nod. "I'll take you at your word, ma'am," he said before heading out the door. He was actually more comfortable with Hazij than he was with Nami, but he'd never tell either of them that.

"My name is Layla!" Layla announced happily, enjoying the cuddling. "That was my Papa, and that's my Papa, too!" she told Nami, pointing up at Hazij. She was as bold as brass and twice as shiny.