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 Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2006 7:15 pm
Windows were wonderful contraptions, whether it be to let a nice breeze in on a warm day or to light up a room during a day without electricity. They also made it possible for little boys sent to time-out in their room to sneak outside. Gavin toddled his way across the grounds once again. He'd had to conquer the stairs, but anything was better than a boring time out. Mommy probably wouldn't figure out he was gone until dinnertime anyways.
But where did he want to go? His tummy grumbled a bit. Because he'd started messing in Mommy's 'work room,' she'd sent him to his room without lunch. Now he was hungry and miserable. As his toddler mind wandered through his possible options, they landed on one particular memory.
Root beer float.
Not nearly as tasty as Hamlet's dog food, but it was definitely a good alternative. He thought he was closer to that building anyways. After another few flights of stairs he'd found himself in front of Natalie's doorway. His wings quivered as he panted for breath, having not walked that far in ages. There was a reason Mommy tried to put him in a stroller, he just wasn't made for walking.
Gavin stared at the doorway for a second, pondering what to do next. Following the motions he'd seen Mommy do, he banged on the door with his tiny arm. Knocking, that's what that was called. Maybe if he was lucky someone would actually be home.
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Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2006 7:30 pm
There came, from behind the door, the sound of male voices. Loud male voices. They were arguing over something... but whatever it was couldn't be made out.
Eventually, though, one of the boys came to open the door. And when the door swung open, there stood Stephen - tall, blonde haired, looking sheepish.
He looked around for a few moments, then looked down.
...
Um.
"... Hey Matt? Matt, we may have a problem."
Matt hurried over, cursing and dusting himself off. "Natalie ho- oh. Oh. Little kid. LITTLE KID. Get it away!" He backed up a few steps, nervously. "Did Nat get turned into a little... thingy? Or something? Stupid mages. Never know what they're doing."
Stephen glared at Matt. "Like a certain somebody I know," he muttered, then knelt by Gavin. "Uh. Hey. Heya. Who're you?"
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Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2006 7:35 pm
Gavin looked at the two with a bewildered expression. Maybe he'd gone to the wrong apartment. It would be understandable, considering it wasn't like he could count how many floors he'd climbed. He usually just did it by memory and assumed he'd always be right.
He looked at the kneeling one with wide orange eyes like he always did when he was confused.
"Gavin," he replied, slightly uncomfortable talking to tall strangers. "Natly home? She have root beer."
Might as well explain the purpose of the journey. Even if Natalie wasn't home, maybe these guys would feed him. New friends, possibly. New friends were always a good thing, even if they were at least five times your size.
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Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2006 7:40 pm
Blink. Blink.
".... Oooooh. Nah, Natalie's not here." Actually, they weren't supposed to be there. At all. And Natalie couldn't find out. But Matt had wanted to practice picking locks (the better to get into hot girls' dorm rooms), and they wanted to see her new pad without her yelling at them and throwing s**t.
Looks like they'd been saddled with a kid.
"Uuuh... root beer? I can see if she has any. Come on in. What's your name, kid?"
Stephen smiled a little, unsure of how to act.
Matt cowered behind the couch.
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Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2006 7:45 pm
"Gavin," he repeated again. Maybe he didn't hear it the first time. However, they were going to let him in and get him a root beer float. He smiled and darted inside the apartment. It had been a while since he'd been here, but most of it looked familiar.
"What your name?" he tilted his head back so he could see the man's face. If these guys were going to be his friends, he'd have to know their names. Like Osha, Ina, and Haki. Names were an essential step in friendship, he'd learned. For a moment he also blinked at the guy behind the couch. Why was he scared?
"What his name too?" Gavin pointed. If he could actually form the sentence, he'd ask why the guy was behind the couch, but that took too many words.
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Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2006 10:55 pm
"Right. Gavin. Right. Got that. Okay, Stephen, time to screw your head back on."
"It was never on in the first place!" came Matt's voice from behind the couch.
Stephen chucked a conveniently nearby (sealed) box of pins over at Matt. As a series of yelps and curses errupted from Matt's hiding place, Stephen closed the door and smiled down at Gavin.
"I'm Stephen. The-" he paused. Perhaps calling Matt an 'asshat' in front of a little kid wasn't a good thing. He'd probably repeat it.
"The thing behind the couch is named Matt," he said, then headed over to the kitchen. The sooner this kid got his drink, the sooner he'd leave. Right? Natalie could get home at any time!
"So. Uh. How do you like your root beer?" Stephen didn't know about the floats yet, so he was really just thinking in terms of in the can or in a glass.
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Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 5:16 am
Woah, woah, woah. Gavin paused for a moment, his mind blown to bits by this information. Stephen? He already knew a Stephan, and this guy wasn't him. Matt he could handle, but a Stephan and a Stephen was just too much for his brain.
"You dun look like Stephan," Gavin said innocently. Mommy always said lying was bad. "Stephan have brown hair."
Maybe the world was playing some kind of joke on him. How could two Stephan's possibly exist? Momentarily he forgot about the paradox to answer the next question with an emphatic,
"Root beer flo' ! Wit ice cream!"
Duh. How else did people have their root beer?
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Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 6:38 am
Blink. Blink.
Matt provided the answer this time.
"Steve-en," he corrected, slinking out from behind the couch and eyeing the tiny terror uneasily. "Not Steff-ahn."
Stephen nodded, rolling his eyes, then set about rooting through Natalie's fridge. Leftovers, leftovers, leftovers... did the girl ever actually cook? There. Soda. And beer. And soda.
Oh, he was tempted to make an actual BEER float for himself, but he didn't want the kid to get it mixed up. Plus Nat would probably notice the missing alcohol. And Matt and he would would probably screw more stuff up around the apartment if they were buzzed.
So.
Getting the root beer and finding some sort of ice cream (rocky road? Eh, it'd have to do), he set about making the float.
Having never actually MADE a float, though.. well, he wasn't quite prepared for the foamy overflow.
"s**t!" he yelped, then swore again for swearing, then just groaned and shut up. He dumped the thing in the sink, and tried again.
Matt, meanwhile, was approaching the little kid uneasily. Not only was it a little creature, but it had wings. "So. Uh. Where's your mom, kid?"
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Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 9:36 am
"Steeeeven," Gavin parroted, trying to grasp the pronunciation. Names shouldn't sound so similar like that, as that just confused him. When Haki takes over the world, he'll have to suggest this name thing to her. It would be the least she could do, considering he was her 'hero.'
At Stephen's outburst, Gavin blinked. Blink. Blink. Cue proverbial light bulb.
"s**t," Gavin chirped with a smile. He'd learned a new word. It was fun to say too. "s**t. s**t. s**t."
He'd have to tell Mommy when he got back. He paused from repeating his new word for a moment to answer Matt's question.
"Mommy home," he said simply, as if it were obvious. "Home by big plants."
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Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 10:37 am
"Oh sh- SHOOT!" Stephen yelped, clutching the root beer float in horror. This was not good. This was not good. If Natalie got wind of this, she'd never talk to them again. Or save their asses. Or generally be their hot female friend.
"Uh. Uh. Gavin, I have your root beer. But. But - if you want it, you have to promise me you'll never say 's**t' again. At least not until you're bigger."
Oh, the dreaded 'until you're bigger'. He'd always hated that. But seriously - this was a problem.
"Does your mom know you're here?" Matt asked, carefully taking a seat on the couch and staring at the little monster. "How far away is she?"
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Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 10:42 am
"How much bigger?" Gavin asked with curious eyes. He liked that word, but he wanted root beer more. He made grabby hands for the glass. "I won' say it no more."
Food was definitely more important than cool words in his mind. Plus he could have fun saying it later in his room. When Matt asked another question, Gavin was starting to get a bit flustered. He could hardly hold one conversation, much less two at once. Still reaching up for the root beer, he attempted to answer.
"No. Home by..." he paused, trying to remember the word. "Garden."
With one of his hands he pointed in the general direction of the other building, as if the two guys could envision it through the wall.
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Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 10:47 am
Stephen fought down the urge to scream 'Bitchin!' but common sense (something he had slightly more of than his accomplice Matt) shut him up.
He pursed his lips. "Hmm. When you're... up to here-" he gestured about 5'6" on his own body - "on me. Then you can say it all you want."
Hopefully the kid wouldn't grow for a long time.
Stephen put the root beer in the kid's hands, hoping the rocky road tasted good with root beer. Hm.
"Oh," Matt said, trying to remember. Had there been a garden? If there was, it wasn't right by Nat's place. Hm. "Do you know how to get home?" Because they very well couldn't show the boy where to go when they'd be just as lost themselves.
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Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 4:30 pm
Gavin squealed in delight as he took the glass in his own hands, taking a huge gulp. He'd been slightly disappointed that he'd have to double in size before he could say that cool word again. Maybe it was some unspoken rule or something that only grown ups could say it. Stupid adults and their special priviledges.
After taking another huge gulp, draining nearly half the glass, he let out a loud burp before responding.
"Don' know," he said with a thoughtful expression. Did he know his way back? It was easy enough to head toward all the big bushes and trees, since the apartment was somewhere near there. However, walking all the way over to this building left him exhausted. Maybe he could follow Haki's example and get them to do the hard part for him.
"Take me home when done?" he looked up at Stephen with large eyes, the kind that Haki used. She always got what she wanted when she used the adorable look. Though he wasn't a little girl, maybe it would have the same effect with these guys.
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Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 5:20 pm
Well, apparently the kid didn't mind what flavor ice cream it was. Stephen watched, smiling slightly. Hey, he could be a bit paternal if he needed to be!
"Hm. Well. See, we're not supposed to be here. And we don't want your mom finding out, or Natalie. So it'll have to be-"
"A secret spy operation!" Matt proclaimed, jumping off the couch and landing crouched, doing his best to look like a ninja.
"... Ninjas and all," Stephen said, nodding.
They'd shirt ninja.
Oh yes.
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Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 5:26 pm
Gavin giggled at the two older men. They acted sillier than Osha or Ina, and that was saying something. However, he only understood every other word they said.
"What's a nin-ja?" he asked curiously, wondering what exactly Matt was doing. Whatever it was it looked like fun. He took another sip of his float, this time sucking in some of the ice cream. Mmmm...just like at that friendly man's place with Hamlet. These people sure knew their ice cream.
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