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Noah was in the process of wiping down the last few tables when a small child dress up like a cartoon character ran in screaming for 'Uncle Noah'. And it was goddamn confusing.

His brow knitted and he tried to hide the sense of unease he felt, but he did ask "Um... do I know you?"

Hey, he had a lot of siblings who had a lot of kids.

Harley was less confused and the mutt who had been sprawled out on the tile floor of the diner violating a million health codes jumped up, tail wagging fast enough to knock over a stool, and tackled the chibi senshi with gleeful abandon. It had been so long since he slobbered on someone besides Noah.

Noah had to freeze and nearly drop the haul of cleaning supplies he was toting around when the strange cartoon kid powered down into his cousin's kid.

"Uh... You...?"

And she just went on conversing like that was no big deal.

Yes, obviously he shouldn't have a dog in a food service institution. But Noah decided to roll his eyes and pretend the opposite. "If he decides to go work the grill, I'll be sure to get him a hairnet. He destroyed my apartment when I left him home."

Man he was not a fan of this dog. If his sister was going to drop an animal on him, why couldn't it have been a trained animal?

"I don't know, haven't seen her since she left the mutt at my place. Said her new apartment didn't allow dogs, but she didn't give me an address or anything. Hasn't visited since."

Which was unsettling, considering the way she had suddenly dropped their Tuesday lunches with no warning a few months ago.

"Are you going to explain the whole costume poofing... thing or what?" He DID ask, but somehow he felt he should be more worked up. But he wasn't. Wow, he was getting desensitized.

Noah's mouth stretched across his face in total unamusment. Everyone was too goddamn weird lately.

But as far as taking the dog, he just picked up his plastic basket of cleaning supplies and went along his business with a short "Nope." As much as he talked about being annoyed with the dog, he had no mind to get rid of him. Besides, when it cooled down maybe he could just tie him up outside and he can... scare away customers. Well it's not like very many people were eating at this monster magnet of a burger joint anyway.

Noah wasn't feeling exactly patient after a long day and hearing a kid make promises and attempt to jerk him around like a tiny adult wasn't sitting well with the poor, exhausted guy.

He'd finished cleaning and grabbed a left over basket of fries to slam on the counter and pick apart with an obvious air of annoyance. And the way he spoke made it obvious his long fuse was getting short. "No. Where's your dad?" If Lorenzo was sitting in a car outside laughing at him he was going to stomp right out there and give him a lecture on how ******** exhausted the peons who don't get to sit around in suits all day are when the day is over.

Harley was blissfully oblivious to the conversation and had only managed to stop drooling on Istas to notice Noah had food, making him leave her alone to go put his front paws up on a stool at the counter to beg.

"He's gonna be pissed," Noah said flatly between shoveling fries in his mouth and pausing to carefully arrange swirls of ketchup. And he was totally going to tell on her.. if Lorenzo called him, which seemed doubtful. No reason to get involved in this mess this late if it was still possible for her to go home and pretend it never happened.

He watched her eyeing his fries and casually started to pull things out to ply her with her usual chicken fingers when she started rambling about something she was going to confess that he could never tell her dad.

"Uh, let me guess, your Hannah Montana," He said sarcastically as he looked around for a salt shaker refill. He just had it somewhere...

"You've been unplugged from the Matrix. You killed a man just to watch him die." He went on, obviously not thinking too much of whatever 'grave' secrets a preteen was keeping.

Noah currently dusting a basket full of fresh chicken fingers with a touch of salt as Istas tried to impart all the seriousness a twelve year old possibly could into her very exhausted uncle.

He did roll his eyes at the fact she seemed to only get the Hannah Montana reference. Kids these days.

And then she shouted and powered up and she was back to being dressed like a cartoon character again. Well, ANOTHER cartoon character. Sometimes he wondered what the hell her mom was thinking with some of her outfits.

He nodded a bit when she mentioned fighting crime and held up the chicken fingers. "Honey mustard or ranch?" Maybe it was the exhaustion or just an overdose of being attacked by monsters and rescued by crime-fighting girls but he had reacted like she'd just told him she'd secretly taken up baseball or something. Because the world stopped making sense, and he was too tired to have a complete meltdown about Istas joining in that non-sense making. Maybe later when it sunk in.

"And why do you need to talk to Zia? Because she's been covering your monster fighting a**?" Now it was Istas' turn to be on the wrong end of a scolding look.

"Kay," Noah grabbed a ranch cup from the storage cooler under the counter and slid the basket over to her. He seemed more uppity about the fact she was sneaking around than fighting crime.

"So, Zia covers for you, and your parents have no idea where you are?" He summarized, putting one hand on his hip and leaning the other elbow on the counter.

"You are in so much trouble, kid." Though probably not, as Noah was not looking forward to having to deal with frazzled parentals. He could still play the part of responsible adult, though.

"Well, Zia's got a new cell phone, she hasn't given me the number yet, but I could probably shoot her an email. Don't expect a response tonight, though."