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Amélie had plans for the evening, and Aidan was sleeping over at the home of a friend. That, however, left Giulia in need of some human companionship of an age that wasn't 6. Giulia was far too young to try and stay home by herself- however willing the spirit, the body and mind were far, far from ready. As such, Amélie had called in some favors, and those favors had called favors, and there was a younger girl who had a need for some extra money who was going to be coming to watch the girl.

The 'city' house was much smaller than the home that they usually resided in; it had been purchased by Jada when she turned 18, and usually was rented out. The story of why she had stopped her attempts to sell it wasn't known by Amélie, but the convenience was undeniable. It would be an excellent one-time situation, this; Giulia had few enough babysitters lined up. Having someone new to add to the list for when Jada and Amélie needed some assistance in caring for the twins...

Giulia waited on the couch, staring at the interloper in her living room, kicking tiny feet while Amélie tidied up a few things. Rapidfire questions were forming in her mind, and her rosebud lips were parting, dangerously. Preparing the onslaught-inquiry.

Giulia tilted her head, considering the girl who was in front of her with big, round blue eyes for a few moments. Her little legs swung, and she smiled after just a short period of time. "I like your dress, Rory!" Pretty hair, and pretty eyes, and a pretty dress!

Nanny was stepping out the door with a wave, and Giulia waved a goodbye, straightening her spine. "How old are you Rory? I'm six." Giulia was very proud of her age. "Do you know how to cook? What kind of movies do you like? Do you play with dolls? Do you like kitties? How do you feel about puppies? Can we go to the playground? Do you go to school? How good are you at math? Will you do my homework with me? Do you want to play dress up? Do you like dolls?"

She rose, bouncing up off the couch and pulling out the movie of her choice. "You can read books to me, right?"

Giulia watched Rory, considering. It was hard to tell if someone would read good stories by just looking at them. Maybe Rory was more of a doll-player? Or maybe she liked cars! Or playgrounds. She wouldn't be able to take Giulia to the zoo; it was evening, and Nanny wouldn't be gone that long. Rory was younger, not all wrinkly and stuff, so it meant Nanny wouldn't be out any later than 10.

Which, potentially, left Giulia two extra hours to be awake past her 8 PM bedtime.

Which meant cookies. Which meant baking. Which meant maybe she would finally be able to convince someone to finish watching The Hobbit with her. Which meant-

Ten years was a lot of years. Her brain caught up, and she tilted her chin, nose wrinkling. "You don't look old," she said accusingly, "But sixteen is older than me and Aidan in one."

Two questions at a time? Giulia considered. Rory could cook, so there was that. "What kind of movies do you like? Can we make cookies and have pizza for dinner?"

It wasn't often that Rory got to babysit, let alone babysit children who were raised with a nanny and were capable of rapid fired questions of a certain caliber that could throw her off. Still, she thought that she was capable of handling young Guilia's enthusiastic and curious nature.

"I like most movies but superhero ones especially." Rory's favorite movie was Winter Soldier after all. "But I like anything where the princess gets to be her own hero too." That was important, establishing that girls could be heroes too.

"Well, let's see what the kitchen has before we make any commitments to pizza." Even though pizza sounded like a great idea.

Taking Guilia's hand she led the girl towards the kitchen, mouth open and posed to address the cookie making comment when she caught sight of the large orange maine coon.

"Bob!" She hissed in a shrill voice. "What are you doing?"

His mouth was full of casserole when he heard his name being yelled by a very familiar voice. The sudden startle sent his head flying up, crashing into the top of the shelf above him with a loud THUNK.

The noggin' bonk confused him for a moment, at least long enough for the little squirt to yank him out of the casserole and into her tiny little arms, toting him around like a ragdoll. Bits of tuna that he'd tried to hang on to dropped to the ground in a little tumble and Bob mourned the loss with a pitiful, sad little yowl.

Glancing up from the girl swinging him around, he gave the babysitter a look that said, "If you don't stop this ride, you'll be cleaning up after it."

Giulia's delight was loud and squeaky and borderline screechy, and most importantly, her happiness was unrepentant. Her little mouth squishing to the top of orangey-black-star-kitty's tuna-covered head. "No sadness~" she cooed to him, "We'll get you the very best kitty snacks like pizza! And cookies!" Giulia knew for a fact that star-head kitties could eat things like that, even if she couldn't tell them that she knew. Did Rory know this was possibly a magical kitty? Giulia would have to protect the secret. No one could know there were magical kitties.

It was a dilemma. "You have to be a GOOD kitty," she told the orangey cat firmly, blue eyes very very very stern, like the kind of face Jada made when she and Aidan had been really naughty. "Cause bad kitties don't get to share the pizza and cookies Rory and I are gonna be having, and I know sta- silly kitties like sweet yummies and cheese and chips."

Where the chips would come into play on pizza, she didn't know yet.

Rory's touch to her shoulder got a big smile. "I guess," she chirped easily, content that now, surely, the orangey kitty would be just as good as all the other kitties she had met. Well, except the bad yoh-mah kitties, but they were special cases, and not at all cute like this kitty. "Do you like pepperoni?" Giulia didn't need to do much more to 'put down' the massive cat than open her arms; he was probably bigger than she was, almost, after his fluff and tail.

"We can get our pizza and put in the movie, and then not move until we fall asleep or have to make the cookies."

"That's right Giulia, bad kitties don't get any treats." She said in a matter-of-fact tone, grateful that the little girl had complied and released her feline friend even as she went about picking up the dish from the floor and depositing it in the sink. From there she fished out paper towels and some cleaning spray.

"Bring the garbage can over, would you?" She asked, glancing at her little blonde friend as she went about trying to clean up the mess that Bob had made all over the kitchen floor. It took several more paper towels than she would have liked because the casserole smeared across the kitchen floor, but in the end she had it all cleaned up.

She'd wash the dish later, after she got Giulia settled with dinner and the movie. "I don't eat meat, but we can get two small pizzas. One that's just cheese and one with pepperoni for you?" It was an easy compromise, with the food money that had been left behind enough to make two pizzas work.

"What movie do you wanna watch?"

At the sight of the smaller cat's appearance, Bob's fur naturally began to bristle in concern and alarm. While he knew he was far more advanced and clever than some dumb little housecat, it didn't mean that a dumb little housecat couldn't take advantage of its natural fangs and claws to run the ginger cat out of his newly acquired territory.

Hissing as only he knew how, the Maine Coon moved to slide his way between both legs of the babysitter, using her height as protective cover against the spitting, snarling cat above.

This Castor fellow clearly did not like home invaders - well tough cookies for him - Bob wasn't about to vacate the premises, not when there was talk of pizza afoot!