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 Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2011 12:25 pm
It was shopping day again! Yay! Millicent held onto her mother’s hand, humming happily to herself. She was going to stop by the Antique store to see that big scary—er, that nice guy who let her have the pig! She had something special for him and it was wrapped up and tucked into the bag slung across her shoulder.
Yup yup! He would be excited, anyone would be excited to get what she was going to give him! It was a bright shiny new lightsaber toy one of the purple ones, the ones that had been so rare back when it was the fatter ones that the stores sold, but purple was pretty, and she thought that Mr. Jett would like it.
Her mother waved to her when they reached the Antique store and slipped across the street to look inside at some clothes for work, leaving Millicent to run inside the dusty store, looking around happily. “Mr. Jett! Are you here today! It’s Millie! I brought something for you!” Her voice was loud, full of excitement and enthusiasm. “Mr. Jett? Hello~?”
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Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2011 2:52 pm
It was a good thing Jett didn't have any customers in the shop right now; he'd have been embarrassed with some little girl greeting him like that. "I'm here," he called, setting down the box he'd brought in from the back; they'd sold a good few pieces earlier in the day, and the empty shelf space made the store look a little bare. He set the dusty box atop the counter and peered at the girl.
"...Millicent?" he inquired, rather surprised that the girl had come back to the antique shop. He looked at her questioningly, brushing his hands off on his pants.
Hair tied back in a low ponytail, it was only slightly clear that he'd been doing heavy lifting, but at the very least, at least it looked like he was actually working today.
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Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2011 3:47 pm
The child smiled and waved at the older boy. “Hi! How has your week been, Mr. Jett?” Hers had been okay, besides meeting that awful bad guy…Remarque or whatever. She had made a new senshi friend and started a team of food! They were going to be delicious, she was sure.
She skipped over to him, then gave him a quick hug, laughing happily. “I brought you something, Mr. Jett! I told my mom about how you gave me the pig, and she thought I should give you a gift too! She also said thank you for making me take her to dinner! She was so happy!”
Millicent reached into her bag and drew out the strangely shaped package. It was clear she had wrapped it herself with a mixture of Christmas and birthday wrapping paper. “Ta da! I got it for you with my allowance money, Mr. Jett! I really hope you like it!”
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Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2011 3:57 pm
Jett seemed a bit stunned by the girl's reaction; he hadn't hugged her back, if only because he hadn't been expecting her to be so forward. He wasn't exactly a very touchy-feely person in the first place, though he excused Millie since she was just an over excited child. Still, with too many questions at once, though.
"You didn't have to do that," the male said somewhat awkwardly as he looked at the present she held. Really, she didn't have to. He hadn't expected anything in return. In the back of his head, he questioned what this mother of hers must think of him, though he supposed he really didn't want to know.
Typically, older males befriending young females was never anything good, though Jett hadn't ever expected Millicent to come back, so he definitely didn't have any ulterior motives.
Carefully, he took the package off her hands, gave it a look, flashed her a somewhat amused smile, and then unwrapped it, mindful not to blatantly tear into the colorful paper.
A toy? A lightsaber.
For a few seconds, he wasn't entirely sure what to say. "....Thanks," he said slowly, looking over the toy and wondering what exactly he was supposed to do with it.
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Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2011 5:23 pm
She just beamed when he took the gift, smile growing larger—if that were possible when he opened it. “I knew you’d like it! I just knew! I gave you purple, because the purple ones are the coolest, and you’re the coolest grown up I know, so I thought you’d really like the purple one! Now we can have lightsaber battles, don’t worry if you don’t know how to use it yet, I can teach you, you can be my padawan. I’m going to be a real Jedi Knight soon, so I’ll need a padawan to help train.
Millicent said all of this in one long breath then drew in another, seeming slightly winded. After a moment she just laughed though. “But, yeah! I’ll help you learn how to use it someday if you way, Mr. Jett. We’re friends now, you and I, so I’ll help you out.”
She knew she was doing him the most awesome favor ever, and was expecting the most amazing result. Maybe he would hug her as well~ Or…maybe he’d give her another pig! That would be nice~
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Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2011 5:40 pm
Jett still didn't know how to react. "Well, now," he said, trying to think of a way to tell her, 'Gee, thanks, but I'm not really the sort of guy who plays with toys anymore' without hurting her feelings. Clearly she had put thought into the gift, and the only reason he'd humored her so far was because he was somewhat sympathetic towards her family situation.
"...Yes."
He didn't want to be a padawan. Star Wars was cool and all, but...he wasn't going to beat on this little girl with the gift she'd given him. "...Purple's not bad, it's cool. You clearly put a lot of thought into this, Millie. And you sound like you've already made plans to come visit me again," he said, and though it was a question, he had cleverly phrased it not to be such an obvious question. He didn't want to develop some sort of unhealthy relationship with this girl in the form of a very odd friendship.
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Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2011 7:30 am
Millicent nodded vigorously. “Yes! Yes! I’m going to visit again, and we’ll go outside and have a lightsaber battle…I’d say we could do it in here but we might break stuff. Once I broke a lamp and mom wasn’t happy so she started me on some fencing lessons so I’d have more self control. I thought that was very smart of her. I like to fence.”
She smiled then rocked on her heels, looking around the store. “You have any new pigs, Mr. Jett? Or any Star Wars antiques? Is Star Wars old enough to make antique things yet?” The child looked around once again, smiling when her eyes fell upon something shiny, skipping over to it. “Oh~ This is pretty!” It was a small hand mirror, and it was rather pretty, a silvery color, with what looked like amethyst's in the handle. It was dusty, but still quite lovely.
"How much is it, Mr. Jett? I think my mom would like it."
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Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2011 8:12 am
Jett watched the girl with the mirror and almost moved to pry it away from her just to make sure it was safe. He decided against it--decided to put a little faith in the girl. Instead, he rested his elbows on the counter, placing the lightsaber atop it. "Most women like to get pretty gifts, so she'd probably like it. It's kind of expensive, though. Usually mirrors get sold pretty fast. We only got that one a few days ago, but a few people are interested in it. Be careful with it," he said, unable to resist the urge to give her a warning, at least.
He propped his chin up into the palm of his hand, stooping a bit as he watched her. He wasn't sure they had any new pig items; they weren't entirely popular to begin with. Star Wars was not old enough to be an antique, and even if it had been, he didn't want to encourage her to like it any more than she already did.
Deciding he didn't want to give her the chance to pout about the expensive mirror, he noted, "Are kids allowed to fence? You're tiny. I can't see you breaking anything."
...But he really didn't want to tempt her to.
"You sure your mom thinks it's a good idea for you to keep coming back and visiting me, though? Why aren't you playing with kids your own age...?" There wasn't any mockery, just curiosity in his tone; she didn't seem like a bad kid, though he wondered why she insisted on being his friend.
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Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2011 11:05 am
Millie looked at herself in the mirror and fixed one of her braids, smiling, before sighing and placing the object back down on the shelf. When he mentioned fencing, she wrinkled her nose. “Of course kids are allowed to fence. I mean, I’m ten now, so I’m not a complete little kid…there’s one famous fencer…and I can’t remember if it’s a girl or a boy but their only six! Isn’t that amazing? I think. I think their six…”
She shrugged then laughed. “Yeah! Mom said it’s okay. She’s across the street looking at clothes today. She says she wants to meet you sometime soon to make sure you’re a good person like I say you are. She trusts me though, so it’s not so big of a deal.”
Millicent just laughed and twirled around slowly eyes looking for something new to play with. This store was just completely full of treasures. She really couldn’t help but like treasures.
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Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2011 12:22 pm
Keeping his eyes on her, Jett stood up. "...Your mother wants to meet me?" he asked, not really pleased with that. Seriously? He did some little girl a favor, and now he was being punished? "I guess she can come by whenever she wants," he mused, glancing around the place. "...What, exactly, have you been telling her?"
He glanced down to the lightsaber, rolling his finger along the plastic and trying to figure out where the hell he was supposed to keep this thing if he never had any intention of using it. He had seen movies--'The sword is an extension of your arm' and all that jazz. Except. Jett was rather fond with his arm as it was now. He didn't want an extension. It was a little late in the game to pick up play sword fighting.
He wondered what his own mother would think if he sat her down for dinner and explained that some little girl was stalking him and trying to get him to be her padawan. Though, a part of him was curious as to how seriously she was taking the whole Star Wars thing.
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Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2011 5:28 pm
“I told her that you gave me a pig and let me keep all my money and that you weren’t as big of a jerk ghost man as I had first thought you were. And I told her that you were nice and that we were friends now. She thought it was nice of me to be friends with an old man, so she’s happy.”
True, Millicent’s mother thought Jett was a kindly old man who ran the antique shop, and if she would have seen Jett, she would have had a very large surprise, but, that was the story of another day.
Millie smiled. “So, you’ll be my padawan, right Mr. Jett? I’m excited to train you!”
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Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2011 5:52 pm
"I'm not old," Jett snapped; he was very prideful that he was in the prime of his life, so took mild offense that some girl had the gall to call him old--it didn't matter how young she was. "And I'm definitely not going to be your padawan if you keep giving me weird nicknames."
He hadn't quite forgotten some of the other titles she'd addressed him with upon their first meeting, and now that she was calling him 'old', it really wasn't making him feel any better. "Stop calling me 'Mr. Jett', too. Just Jett. Or else I'll start calling you some weird name, too."
He glanced at the light saber again--and added, "And--going back to the topic of padawan. What's in it for me? If you can give me one good reason....fine," he agreed, severely doubting the girl's ability to come up with anything particularly moving.
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Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2011 11:21 am
“Okay Just Jett. You need to be my padawan so I can help protect you. Lightsabers are effective against all the monsters that are running around this city…some of the monsters even look like piggies, Jett…”
She seemed sad and sighed. “I want to make sure you stay safe, so I’ll help you use your lightsaber so you can defend yourself against the monsters and the bad guys that are all over the place! I don’t want anything to happen to you ‘cause you’re my friend.”
Millicent looked up at him and then just gave a smile, hugging him again. “So please be my padawan and let me teach you?”
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Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2011 12:13 pm
It wasn’t exactly the point Jett was hoping she’d make, but he couldn’t deny that it seemed like she’d at least put thought into it. Not like some plastic toy was going to defend against any sort of monster or anything—and it wasn’t like he wasn’t fit to beat the s**t out of anything that bothered him. Especially if he was running around as Remarque.
Jett might have been able to argue such a point—and then she hugged him.
And Jett couldn’t say no.
“Fine,” he said with an exasperated sigh; he didn’t know if he was supposed to be hugging the girl back or if there was some law on not touching little girls that weren’t related to you in any weird way, so he just held his arms up as if touching her any further would give him the plague. “Just not while I’m working. I mean, I get breaks and all, so I guess we could just do it then. But you’d have to do it while I walked to get lunch or something, or wait for me to get back,” he said, very near to squirming as the child hugged him.
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Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2011 1:56 pm
The little girl let out a happy laugh, pulling away from Jett and nodding. “Okay! Then I’ll come back some day on your lunch break…or I’ll wait around for you until you get your lunch break! Then we can train!”
She was bouncing with excitement and laughed again. “I can’t wait to train you, Jett! It’s going to be so much fun…but lots of hard work too! You should practice some without me, okay? I’ll teach you to be the best Jedi ever! I promise! Cross my heart promise!”
Millicent lunged forward and gave Jett another hug, before pulling away. “I gotta run now, Mom’s prolly getting worried about me! See you soon, Jett! Don’t for get to practice now!”
The child grinned, then ran from the store, already planning how she would teach Jett to be a great Jedi.
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