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 Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 2:47 pm
Mr. Slinky did not like to dance.
No, little Tepin found, Mr. Slinky did not like to dance at all.
She scowled at him from across the room, perched in her favorite chair, feet pulled up to avoid any surprise attacks. He glared back at her from the kitchen, tail flicking in aggravation. His eyes were wide with a challenge; ‘Just try to catch me and make me dance again, I dare you.’
The supposed tabby-mix was a good kitty, it was the truth. But even good kitties have dignity, and they most certainly do not enjoy dancing to cat food commercial jingles. It didn’t matter if they were “delicious nya~” or not. There were limits. Those limits had been crossed.
The cat blinked, his tail whipping back and forth against the linoleum floors.
She blinked back, her lip jutting out angrily.
She liked her new pet kitty more-- Varu would dance for her, if she asked him.
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Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 3:03 pm
It had been a while since they'd broken this thing out, and it took a little bit of struggling - but Valeriu managed.
He stood, proudly, before his inflatable pool squeezed into their tiny, fenced, concrete backyard. Lawn chair? Check. Towels? Check. Sydni's floaties? Check.
It was the perfect day to chill in some water. Warm and dry, with the sun heating his skin to the point where Valeriu was half-tempted to just lay down in that chair and sleep for the rest of the day. But no! He had a job to do.
He filled the pool with water. Kept a careful watch on the wrathful hose while entertaining Sydni by putting her little sandles on her feet. Hefting Sydni into his arms, he deemed the pool filled, pushing the backdoor back open to stick his head into the cool interior of his home.
"Tepin! The pool is ready!" He'd noticed, recently, how his accent was fading the more he spoke with others. He still struggled with pronouncing his w's correctly, and probably always would - but it was getting better.
Sydni tugged at his hair, reminding him that she wanted to put her floaties to good use.
"Don't forget the sunscreen!" He added, ducking his head back out. He frowned down at his baby sister, and she frowned back up.
"Fine, fine," he caved, setting the girl carefully into the water, "There." She gave an experimental splash, pleased - and then just as pleasedly splashed him in the face.
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Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 3:18 pm
“COMING!” She called from her spot on her chair.
She glared back at the cat. The sentiment was mutual. With one final raspberry shot to the critter, she bolted out the door to join the others.
Tepin was all too pleased to model her suit. It was a light sunflower yellow, and-- gasp! Two pieces! She felt like such an adult, beaming down on the bright orange flowers that decorated the top of the tankini. If she stretched out tall enough, her belly button would show!
Heehee, she really felt too cute, wearing something like that! Valeriu had really gone out of his way to make her comfortable, and she really appreciated his efforts and care. It was the little things that made it so special; like the fact that he had sat out (in the hot sun) simply to inflate the pool so that his girls could enjoy it! Those were the tiny things that she couldn’t help but smile at.
“I don’t need sunscreen,” She informed him as she crawled into the pool, feeling a little too mature for her age, “I’m not gunna burn. I’m too tan!”
It was true-- over the weeks, her skin had turned a light mocha, even without the aid of the sun. Small changes here and there; her hair was growing out, the dark roots becoming more and more prominent, and the light band on her face had steadily gotten all the more darker. Thank god, Tepin thought to herself, that these had come gradually; it’d be pretty hard to explain to Varu if she suddenly changed.
Oh, that was right. Her god did expect her to explain that to him. Because for some reason, not all of her changes would be gradual.
The girl grumbled, lowering her face into the water and blowing bubbles of resentment. Stupid God. Stupid powers. Stupid changes. Stupid Game.
This stream of thoughts were, fortunately, interrupted by a quick splash to the face by Sydni.
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Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 3:30 pm
"That is v'hat all kids say," he grinned, before his serious face came on. "But even if you do not burn, there is still a risk of cancer!"
That said, he dragged both his girls over to his side of the pool, determined to cover their faces, shoulders, backs and arms with a swathe of sunscreen. "And I doubt you v'ill not burn. Even tan people burn!"
Tan people like Valeriu. Tan people like Valeriu who, while stranded in the jungle, fell asleep on a rock above the river and woke to pain and burns.
"And you v'ould then cry to me about how badly your burns hurt, and v'hat v'ould I say? Put on sunscreen," he nodded, rubbing the stuff carefully over their noses. He paid special attention to their backs, the places where the bathing suits did not protect them from the sun's wrath.
"There! All done. You see? That did not take too long." He released them back into the waters, making himself comfortable on the lawn chair. Sydni was all too happy to be let go, giving her over-protective brother a dirty look before her legs furiously pumped her in a dog-paddle around the pool, taking great care to send up a splash everywhere.
Valeriu took it in stride. Flicked the water off his ears, brushed off his swim shorts, and folded his arms underneath his neck.
Mm. Sun. Sun was good.
He yawned.
Sun was very good.
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Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 3:59 pm
“I’m not going to get cancer!” She tried to protest, but against the serious kitty face and the accompanied dragging, Tepin was helpless against the smears of sunscreen that coated her. She hated sunscreen! It was gross, and slimy, and it smelled bad, and you would smell it the entire day and that just sucked.
“And I wouldn’t cry!” Her protests continued, glaring up at him past the white smudge that had once been her nose.
As soon as she was free, she ducked low into the water, rubbing furiously at her limbs and face. Hopefully this stuff wasn’t waterproof, and she’d be free from the icky, sticky, slimy, stinky goop! Sunscreen was stupid! She wasn’t going to burn! She wasn’t stupid! Only stupid people stayed in the sun long enough to burn!
Psh! And Varu! Laying in the sun like that… if anyone was going to get burnt- it was him!
With a mischievous little smile, she quietly snuck from the pool. She’d teach him a lesson, alright.
In an instant, he’d find himself sprayed down by the family hose.
Revenge was sweet.
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Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 4:07 pm
She would never learn. Valeriu knew all, and saw all, that went within his home. Cracking an eye open, he watched as Tepin bee-lined for the nozzle of the hose.
He smiled, stretched, yawned again, and subtly pressed his heel down against the length of the hose that wound around the pool and past his chair. Tepin could try. She could try - and fail.
He smiled wider and closed his eye again, soaking up the sun, ears attuned to the sounds of Sydni's giggling and Tepin's sneakery.
His tail tip flicked.
Peace. He had it. For now.
At least until Tepin got a face-full of hose-water, that is.
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Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 4:29 pm
SPLASH!
Face-wet-ick-grahh!!
The hose dropped from her shocked hands, wriggling on the ground like a dying worm. Water sputtered worthlessly onto the cement ground. Incredulous, she glanced down at the offender. Why didn’t it spray? That wasn’t very fair!
Sulkily, the hose was turned off. Her brilliant plan! Ruined by insubordination! It wouldn’t be accepted! Some revenge would have be had on that darn hose!
“Hey, Varu!” She frowned, hands akimbo, “Why aren’t you gunna swim too?”
At the very least… She could try to dunk him!
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Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 4:58 pm
He wasn't laughing at her misfortune - he bit his lip, trying to stifle a smirk and failing miserably.
Blinking both his eyes open to the glare of the sun, he squinted at her, looked at the pool, and then sunk lower in his chair.
"Maybe," he considered. He loved the water - but this chair. It was so comfortable and so warm. He stretched out a bit more, half tempted to roll over and let it warm his back as well. "I'm too big for the pool," he finally decided, waving off the water in favor of curling up in the chair and closing his eyes again, scratching at an itch on his tummy before falling limp again.
Valeriu was a lazy cat, and would take any chance he got to lay out in the sun in his shorts. He wiggled his toes, quite obviously lifting his heel off the hose and folding it back over his ankle.
"Don't mess v'ith the hose, by the v'ay," he added with a teasing hum. "It is not a creature to be tampered v'ith."
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Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 5:21 pm
That…. Jerk….!!
It was him! He was the only that made the hose stop working! She glared daggers in his direction, arms crossed against her chest as she learned against the wall of the pool.
Apparently she leaned back a little too far back-- the pool toppled over , spilling water en masse onto the cement. Flabbergasted, the girl clawed at air, trying to right herself and stop the pool from complete emptying!
She failed. They now had a barely filled pool and a fairly flooded backyard. And Tepin? She had a toddler on her, tugging at the girl and glaring unappreciatively. Well, there went their family pool outing.
Alright-- that sucked. She knew it. But she still couldn’t stop the steam of laughter that erupted from her. It was funny, actually!
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Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 5:30 pm
He couldn't help it - he laughed, too, breaking into chuckles and barks of laughter, peppered with hilarity and snorting, clutching his stomach and curling up for breath.
But while he was busy cracking up at Tepin's slip-up, he leaned too far.
And there went both chair and Valeriu, tumbling to the ground. He blinked in surprise, stunned at finding himself face-to-face with cement, before breaking into laughs again.
Sydni glared at Tepin, and at Valeriu, screwing up her face. The water was gone. Her floaties? Useless! Her brother? Useless!
"Varuuuuu!" She waved her floaties in exasperation, trying to get the chuckling boy up and on his feet and back to filling the pool.
Honestly. They could be such children!
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