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 Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2007 8:08 pm
"And Papa has this really cool thing that has shiney lights and maybe he'll let me show you!" Taki said, gasping it all out and not pausing to breathe as they walked along behind the English teacher.
"Stop and look both ways," Calder reminded, pausing at the streetcorner, and looked both ways, not really noticing that Taki didn't. It was understandable that he was excited, after all. It was the first time he was having someone over to their house. Irelia... Well, Calder sort of imagined Irelia as a sister to Taki (they grew up together, after all).
"Oh oh and he has cool clothes maybe I can show you those..." Taki looked pleadingly up towards the sidhe, who nodded faintly once, though whether it was really in reply to Taki's question wasn't clear. "We don't have a TV though, Riley... But we can do lots of other stuff! We could go play tag outside later and then we can have macaroni and cheese for dinner."
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Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2007 8:18 pm
Riley trotted along happily beside Taki, seeming rather thrilled to be coming along, not to mention that they were walking. Driving was cool, at least when Mikael or Runeh was doing it since they went fast, but since she wasn't doing the actual steering she liked walking better. She grinned at Taki, sharing his excitement. She, like the cat-boy, was too distracted to look properly when crossing the street, though she seemed the type to race across even when she was paying attention.
"Pssh, TV's boring anyway," she assured him, since most of the time it was only fun when Mikael watched a cool movie about pirates or something. "Tag'll be fun but I bet you won't catch meee~!" she grinned boastfully. Running was her favorite thing to do, whether it was done for a game or just for the heck of it. And she was pretty fast too.
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Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2007 8:28 pm
"Prollynot. But I bet if we played hide and go seek, you'd never find me!" he retorted, scampering across the street as soon as Calder said it was okay. "Have you ever played pretend? Maybe Irelia will play with us! She's my neighbor, but she's like us. She's good at pretend, and she knows a lot, for not being in school yet."
Calder stared down at Taki. Why was he never this talkative at home? Or anywhere else, for that matter? Good goddess. "We're almost home," he announced, and fished in his briefcase for his keys.
"It's fun to dress up and pretend you're something else, you ever done that? Irelia taught me how. Papa lets me use his stuff sometimes." Taki was walking backwards now, to talk to Riley, and would have fallen if not for Calder's quick reflexes as the boy tripped over a crack in the sidewalk. It didn't do more than make a gap in the boy's talking, though. "Ohboy some of the people at the apartments are so wierd, I like to watch them when they go outside and sometimes they leave their doors open, and you can see inside. But other times they cook things that make the halls smell funny."
"Taki! Don't spy on the neighbors!" Calder chided, and turned up the sidewalk to the apartment building, pulling out the keys, but pausing to shoot a reproachful glance down at Taki.
"Whaaat? I just look. They leave the doors open, and Irelia said that they want other people to see what they're doing..."
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Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2007 8:39 pm
"I bet I'd see your tail poking out somewhere!" She said with a smile like a fox, not a sparrow in which her genes reflected. Giving his tail a little tug before he turned around, she kept up her quick strides to keep up with them without a problem.
Her feathered ears twitched at the metion of the other game. "Pretend?" she asked, sounding as if the question was silly, "Of course! I like being a pirate, or a knight, or a police man or~" She jumped up over the crack Taki had tripped over. She had to giggle at his fall, since...well...she was usually the one smacking her head and knocking things over. Of course, she probably shouldn't have laughed so soon, for she took a step too far sideways and sort of ran into a bush, the one with the prickly type of leaves. "'ey! Ow!"
She quickly recovered, obviously not unused to taking a bit of roughing up. "Looking in on people?" She asked curiously. Trying to do that where she was living was pretty easy, since many of the other military men didn't care much about privacy either. But most of their rooms looked pretty much the same. "Maybe we could see if any of them are super secret spies," she suggested, thinking along the lines of cops finding spies in strange buildings like on the shows Mikael watched.
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Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2007 8:47 pm
"Pirates is fun too! Ooh, let's go find some secretspies tonight! I bet Irelia would want to help! We could use her book of secrets!"
"You will not," Calder said sternly, popping Taki smartly on the top of the head. "You won't go looking for spies, either."
"Aww... But Papa..." He dropped it, rubbing the top of his head, and shrugging in apology back at Riley. "We can still play pretend," he whispered, and grinned conspiratorially.
The elevators were still broken, it seemed, so they started the trek up the stairs, and finally Calder was opening the door at the end of a hallway, shoving it open and ushering Taki in, then offering it to Riley. "Do you want anything to snack on or to drink before you go off creating havoc and destruction?"
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Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2007 8:56 pm
Riley gave Calder and openly sulky look at being denied the ability to find spies. Older brother Mikael would have let her...and Runeh wouldn't have only let her, he would have helped. Though she saw Taki's grin she didn't catch the meaning behind it, not really being the type to read between the lines, and meerly nodded, "Yeah, I 'pose."
She did, however, seem to perk right up at the mention of food. Riley loved food. Well, any edible really. Maybe it was because she was used to eating so much simply to retain her weight. Whatever the reason, Calder seemed "forgiven" for the moment by the offer. "YES!" And Calder's guess on their activities was most likely true. Whether she meant to or not, Riley did seem to cause a lot of trouble.
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Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2007 9:03 pm
Calder fully expected that the three would create mass panic in the apartments... Taki would find a way around the forbidden spy-hunting warning, he was too smart for his own good, and too determined, thanks to one little girl across the hallway...
Almost as if on cue. "Hey papa I'm gonna go see if Irelia wants some food and juice and if she wants to play!" Taki said, practically shouting in his excitement, and was out the door and knocking on Asher's apartment before Calder could open his mouth.
He sighed faintly, and glanced down at Riley. "Would you like some apple juice and teddy grahams? I think we have cookies, too... Or veggies, if you'd rather have those..." He was already poking around the kitchen, pulling out three plastic bottles of juice and fishing for boxes of goodies in the cabinets, revealing cookies, the promised teddy grahams, and some caramel dip, which were promptly accompanied by apples that came out of the fridge. Calder managed to ignore the cat boy's antics in the hallway.
Taki was shouting at the door at the top of his lungs, said door not having been opened the moment he knocked, and therefore taking too long. "IRELIAAAAA! MISTER ASHEERRR!"
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Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2007 9:16 pm
Irelia was watching re-runs of Rainbow Brite when she heard someone yelling outside. With barely a glance at Asher, who was covered in clay from head to toe (something about making something for "someone special") Irelia ran to the door, and opened it, spotting Taki, and screamed happily.
"TAKI!!! LESGO!" Irelia grabbed on to Taki's hand, and through the door in to her apartment.
"I got a lot more stuff to dress up with! Wanna play?"
Asher looked up from his pot (his seventh try today. It had to be PERFECT) and smiled at Taki.
"How are you Taki? Does your father know you're here?"
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Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2007 9:31 pm
"Hi Mister Asher," Taki said, sticking his heels into the carpet, and looked at Irelia. "Actually yeah but Irelia I have a friend over and she's from school and I said that she should meet you and we're gonna have snacks and then go play if you wanna come," Taki said in one breath, and then paused. "You should bring it over and we can all dress up and go play outside or in the halls or something."
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Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2007 9:53 pm
Asher nodded to Taki. If his child was even just a tiny bit more polite... but oh well, she's sweet in her own way.
Irelia smiled at Taki and raced in to her room, dragging her dress up chest over to where Taki was waiting.
"Here! I have lots of stuff in her now! We can be anything... Do i know your friend?"
Irelia asked.
"Guess WHAT? Someone on the floor above us is CRAZY. She thinks she has ninety cats but she only has one!" Irelia giggled.
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Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2007 9:58 pm
Taki paused, and looked down at Irelia, eyes going wide. "Really? Ninety? I bet we could make her think I was one of 'em. Do you know Riley? That's my friend from school. She likes to run and play pretend, and she came up with a really great game that we should play."
Ahh, childspeak. Incoherent to everyone over fifteen years old. "And and I can help you carry that... Mister Asher, can she come over and play?" He asked Irelia's guardian, eyes wide, ears flattening, pupils dilating in the ever-deadly cute-kitten face. "Please."
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Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2007 10:09 pm
Asher laughed at Taki's face. At least he tries to butter him up before running off and doing what he wants.
"Go right ahead you two, as long as you have Calder's permission. He should be aware that Irelia is coming... if he isn't, send her back here."
Irelia squealed in delight.
"RILEEEYYYY!!1 She's my friend too, but you guys are older than me."
Irelia stopped and bit her lip.
"Why do you guys want to play with me? I'm still a baby." Irelia's eyes started to tear up and she fell to the ground, crying quietly.
Shocked by the silence of the normally loud Irelia, he rushed to the sink. His hands were covered in clay, and Irelia wouldn't take too kindly to having to have a bath when she could be playing.
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Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2007 10:17 pm
Taki's eyes widened as he turned down to the crying Irelia as well. She'd never done that before. "Uh uh... uh... But... you're not a baby. You're just a little bit smaller than me and her, and you have good games to play, and what difference does it make if we're different ages because I still like to play with you..." Taki said all in one breath, plopping down on the floor beside her, looking at Irelia for a very long time, then peering up towards Asher in distress.
He'd cried before, but he'd never seen Irelia crying... Not for something like this. "Don't cry..." Taki pleaded, and it seemed like the crying was going to soon be infectious.
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Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 8:20 pm
"How about all of it?" Riley suggested with a wide smile and a twinkle in her eye. Food didn't stand a chance against her stomach, no sir. She was about to reach up and take a bit of the snack he was setting out when her feathered ears twitched at the sounds coming from next store. With an exasperated frown she turned away from the ever-so-tempting meal and scampered over to the door.
She came to the other apartment when the conversation had come crashing down to leave Irelia in tears. "Oi! Whatchya crying for?" She asked, blinking curious silver eyes. Despite her phraising, her tone didn't have an accusation in it or anything. She honestly wanted to know why her friend was crying. She...didn't really know what to do with tears, really. They didn't come up much at her home.
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