[Log] Eli & Larkin

[2muddysneakers.livejournal.com]

Eli climbed a little farther up into his favorite tree before peering through the leaves. The seven-year-old let out a sigh of relief at the empty field in front of him. Good, she hadn't followed. If Larkin tried to kiss him one more time today, he was sure he was gonna to turn into a toad. Or a bug. Or- His face wrinkled up in disgust. Maybe I'll have to marry her. Ew, yuck. Cooties were bad enough.

He'd just hide up here for a little while, until he was sure she'd gotten distracted by something else.

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[larkinciel.livejournal.com]

The field wasn't empty for long.
The tiny girl didn't bother with stealth. Eli couldn't hide forever. She just stomped across the field with a blanket tied around her neck like a cape. Her mom always fussed about the 'cape' getting caught on something and choking her, but it wasn't enough fuss to make Larkin stop. Not like, say, the time she tried to climb out the window (of the third floor), or when she made a sculpture out of the stuff in the kitty box.

So she marched (read: shuffled) along, looking quite scary (read: obnoxious) in her fluffy cape. She would not falter, oh no. Eli was in for it. How dare he run away.
She contemplated stepping on a grasshopper or two while she was out here.

[2muddysneakers.livejournal.com]

He'd let himself relax against the trunk of the tree, humming to himself and considering asking (actually, more like putting on his best puppy face and pleading) his mom later if he could learn how to fight with a real sword, instead of the wooden one his dad had given him when he was just a baby. Of course she'd say no, again, but it couldn't hurt to keep the idea right in front of her. She'd realize what a good idea it was eventually, he was sure. Just like how aunt Ray had realized what a good idea it was to teach him how to make smoke bombs!

Giggling, Eli shifted position and swung himself off the branch, hanging by the backs of his knees. Everything looked so weird upside down. The sky with its drifting clouds, the base of the tree, the field...

The small girl with her blanket cape storming towards him...

"Ack!" Eli struggled to swing himself back up before she reached him.

[larkinciel.livejournal.com]

Eli was very lucky. Larkin had been looking off to the side, distracted by a rustling in the grass. It seemed she hadn't seen him... but she was making a bee-line for the tree.

She knew it was his favorite tree. He'd bragged about it. Having lost track of him earlier, she thought she'd gotten here first, and she had a plan.
She fumbled with the knot in her blanket, untying it and then looping it around the trunk of the tree. There, now he'd know she'd been here and would be scared off. It was genius!

Except....

... She couldn't just go and leave her blanket behind.

She'd known that all along (not really). She'd never miss such an important detail (besides the ones Eli could probably list in every other plan she'd had).

Without losing a fraction of determination, she plopped down on the opposite side of the tree. Now if he came along the same way she had, he wouldn't see her. Of course, she wouldn't see him either, but that didn't seem particularly important.

She plucked at a few blades of grass. He'd be along any minute now...

[2muddysneakers.livejournal.com]

Eli was frozen in his hiding spot, hugging the tree and frowning down at Larkin's head. By some miracle she hadn't caught him, but now it looked like she was gonna stay. How was he supposed to get away from her now? Maybe he could jump and run for it, he mulled. He was faster than her, after all. Mostly. Except when she tied his shoelaces together in knots. He found himself glancing down at his lucky red sneakers, just to be sure that she hadn't managed it somehow.

Nope, sneakers were okay. So...

He continued to watch her for another few moments, hoping she couldn't hear him breathing...and then his stomach rumbled. Eli almost groaned. If she looked up, he was running.

[larkinciel.livejournal.com]

"One... two... tree..." She was practicing her numbers by pulling up one piece of grass at a time (mom would be so proud) when she heard the tree growl.

She was pretty sure that wasn't supposed to happen.

It was startling enough to make her bounce away, then scurry back and grab her blanket before looking up--

"Eeeeliiiii!"

[2muddysneakers.livejournal.com]

"Um, hi?"

Yep, running would be good. Eli let go of the tree and jumped, landing hard on the ground. Ow, ow... He scrambled to his feet and took off, waving behind him.

"Bye Larkin! Gotta go eat lunch!" And find somewhere else to hide, definitely. Like maybe the magic practice room. He wasn't allowed in there, but maybe that didn't apply when he was being chased by a cootie-covered girl.

He didn't get very far, though. Not even halfway across the field, he tripped over a small hole, or a rock, or something that was no doubt conspiring against him, and fell into the tall grass. He lay there for a second, contemplating whether it was worth getting up or if he should just surrender.

Maybe surrender would get him lunch faster. Naw.

[larkinciel.livejournal.com]

Too late.

If he hadn't hesitated, he would have easily escaped. Larkin was short even for her age (mom said she'd been born early, "just a little too eager to see the world") and running while dragging a blanket wasn't as easy as it looked.

But Eli did hesitate, and then there was a Larkin on his back.

"Eli! You scared me! And you ran! And you cimbed a tree! Yer mean!" She thumped his back with her fists for emphasis - though not very hard. Larkin was good about hitting (which was to say she only hit Eli too hard about once a month. It was his fault anyway. After all, he was mean.)

[2muddysneakers.livejournal.com]

"Hey, cut it out! Get off! I only ran away 'cause you slobbered all over me!"

He twisted around, trying to throw her off his back, but she clung like a leech. She wasn't even that heavy, so it should've been easy. Maybe if he just played dead?

Yeah, right.

He stopped struggling and folded his arms so he had something to thunk his face into other than the ground. His muffled voice came drifting up a moment later.

"I'm sor- Get off! I want my lunch!"

[larkinciel.livejournal.com]

Why was he making such a fuss? She didn't like it when people fussed. It upset her a little... even if she was still grinning because she'd caught him.

She let him go and sat up, tugging at his elbow as if to help him up. "'Kay, but you haveta share dessert."

[2muddysneakers.livejournal.com]

Wow, did that really work? Or maybe it was because he'd started to say he was sorry. Eli grinned a bit as she climbed off, then got to his feet as she tugged at him.

"Okay, but I get the biggest piece! I'm gonna be the special Mage, remember? I'm gonna know all sorts of cool magic, and I can poke around in people's dreams and fix 'em and everything!"

Right now about the only poking he did in anybody's dreams was in his sister's, but Larkin didn't have to know that.

[larkinciel.livejournal.com]

While he was busy talking she tied the corner of her blanket around his wrist.

Double-knotted.

Then she gave it a good hard yank in the direction of home. "'Kay, let's go."

[2muddysneakers.livejournal.com]

It was probably a bad thing that Eli was so busy boasting about himself that he didn't realize he'd been tied to Larkin until she yanked on him and he almost fell over again.

"Hey! What'd ya do that for, I'm not goin' anywhere!" Not right this second, anyway. But he let her drag him along, sticking his tongue out at the back of her head. Girls, jeeze.

"Y'know what?" He said suddenly, trying to undo the knot one-handed. "I think you need a boyfriend. Y'know, someone nice, and maybe with lots of money, and his own house!" Eli laughed. That pretty much ruled him out.

[larkinciel.livejournal.com]

"You are goin' somewhere. Yer goin' to lunch. Also yur my boyfriend," the five-year-old stated matter-of-factly.

Maybe it was the fourth-succubus in her. Larkin didn't know what a boyfriend was for except sharing cookies and kissing, but she liked both parts. She didn't know why Eli was so against it. His mom kissed him plenty, didn't she?

later that afternoon...

[larkinciel.livejournal.com]

After lunch, Larkin was dragged away by her mother for reading lessons. Being notoriously sentimental, Song had insisted on going to earth in search of the books her own mother had used to teach her, and had been pleasantly surprised to find that the Dear Dragon series had been re-released. Larkin's lessons thus consisted of reading stories like "A Friend for Dear Dragon", "Happy Birthday, Dear Dragon", and "Go to Sleep, Dear Dragon".

Once her mother was satisfied with her progress for the day (and had sneakily thrown in a few basic math questions), Larkin was set free...

But now she had to track down Eli. Again.

Oh god, this was too cute not to do.

[2muddysneakers.livejournal.com]

The little boy in question was standing on his bed, waving his wooden sword around, his mother's favorite purple 'Refugee' jacket hanging loosely on his thin frame. He liked this jacket, she'd worn it a lot when she was fighting, and it had the marks to prove it. There was a claw mark from a Wyvern on the shoulder, a random burn pattern on the back, and another set of claw marks on the left arm from a Neo Shadow. They had all been repaired long ago, but with a different fabric so the tears and burns were visible. He wasn't sure if his mother had done that to show off, or if she just couldn't find fabric that matched. A lot of his jeans were like that too, with different colored patches on the knees.

Maybe it was just a mom thing.

"Take that, foul creature!" He jabbed his sword at thin air. "You'll never win, not when you're fightin' against the Great Warrior Mage Eli!"

Another couple stabs, and he jumped off the bed, circling around to crouch behind his desk chair. These were tricky villains, he'd have to be careful if he wanted to save his stuffed Ladybug. He eyed it from where it sat on the shelf by his door.

"I'll save you, never fear!" Eli yelled, and dashed forward into the fray against his enemies, brandishing his sword.

my reply isn't worthy, but I really have been in class all day

[larkinciel.livejournal.com]

Aha! He wasn't hiding. In fact he was being loud enough to hear from the other end of the hall.
But Larkin's head was tired from making sense of the alphabet, so she didn't come prepared with any clever schemes or sneaky devilry. Instead she just popped her head through the door suddenly and asked, "whatcha fighting, Eli?"

S'okay. Learning is fun! Except when it's math. >>

[2muddysneakers.livejournal.com]

The Great Warrior Mage was just about to deca- decapi- what was that word again? Behead the evil monster that was keeping his beloved Ladybug away from him when he was suddenly attacked from the side by the shriek of the dreaded Larkin Dragon.

"Ack!" He whirled to face her and tapped her on the head with his sword. "Begone, creepy creature!" Then he frowned, lowering the sword. That was kinda mean, she wasn't all that creepy for a girl. His mom said that Lilith was worse. 'Course, his mom had never said that to him, but Eli was good at listening at keyholes.

"Sorry. Just playin'."

I never have to take a math class again! ...probably.

[larkinciel.livejournal.com]

The tap was so light that Larkin didn't know what he was apologizing for. She was about to pounce on him, but...

Sure it hadn't hurt, but if Eli thought it had, then maybe she could get something out of it...

Despite the delay in which she looked at him blankly, it was quite convincing when her face slowly scrunched up and her eyes began to water (she'd learned that squeezing her eyes shut very tightly could make it look like she was crying).

"ooooOOOOWWW!" She clapped a hand to her head and sat down to really sell the act. "Eliiii hit meeeee!"

If I ever go back to college I've got at least Algebra 1 & 2 waiting to suck out my soul.

[2muddysneakers.livejournal.com]

"....Wait, what?"

Dropping the sword, Eli blinked in confusion as Larkin began to whine. His first thought at that moment was, 'Oh boy, what if mom comes in?' quickly followed by 'What if aunt Song comes in?' But when Larkin sank to the floor, crying and wailing that he'd hit her, his next thought was a lot more disturbing.

"You're not gonna tell your dad, are you?" Uncle Josi was nice to him, but Eli always felt that he might not mind tossing him into a gummi ship bound for parts unknown if he ever did anything to Larkin. He dropped down onto his knees in front of her, patting her shoulder.

"Don't cry Larkin, I'm sorry! It was an accident, I didn't think I hit you that hard! I'll give you all my dessert for a whole week if you stop cryin', okay?" He flailed for a bit, wondering what else to offer her. Maybe she'd want Lanie as her own sister? Then he could bug his parents for another boy.

"Um, y'know, I could always- um-" He glanced towards the door, surprised no one had come running yet. How did his mom make him feel better when he had a headache? Oh yeah! Rising up on his knees a little, he carefully put both hands on either side of Larkin's face to keep her still, then gently kissed the top of her head where he'd bopped her. Letting go of her, he sat back down on his heels and stared at her, biting his lip.

"Okay now?"

*dies of cuteness overload*

[larkinciel.livejournal.com]

Woah. That was unexpected.

Had he really....?

Oh, this was just too good. She could hardly keep her act up anymore.
She sniffled (it may have been an attempt to hide a giggle) and, with fake caution, slowly unfolded from her huddled up position and hugged Eli good and tight. "It's okay..." she mumbled, still managing to sound sniffly. "I won' tell... an' I'll eat all yur dessert... an' you haveta kiss me goodnight." She snuggled up real close and managed to get some snot on him.

Eli muse: O__o What did you make me DO?

[2muddysneakers.livejournal.com]

"Uh...sure."

He patted her head, looking for a way to detach her without setting her off again, when his brain caught the last bit of her sentence.

He had to what?

"No more kisses! That was a special one 'cause you were hurt, I'm not gonna kiss you goodnight! Then you'll always want one, and I'll die before I ever grow up!" Eli started to push her away and caught a glimpse of the snot on his shirt...and part of his mom's jacket.

"EW!"

[larkinciel.livejournal.com]

He didn't have to worry to much about getting free. Larkin wasn't very good at holding still, and backed off of her own accord as soon as he started pushing her away.

She was oblivious to the goo she'd left behind, assuming his exclamation was an emphasis of the kiss issue.

She put on her best all-purpose pout.
"If you don't, I'll tell Daddy..."

[2muddysneakers.livejournal.com]

Eli got to his feet, holding the stained bit of shirt away from himself. He frowned at her, then stuck out his tongue.

"So tell! It's blackmail, and I'll tell my mom!"

That'd show her. Real trouble there, trying to blackmail his mom's precious little angel.

[larkinciel.livejournal.com]

Larkin stood up with him, frowning. She was having a little trouble putting these pieces together.

"But then we'll both be in trouble! What if they don't give us any dessert? Then you can't pay me back!"

Dessert was very serious business.

[2muddysneakers.livejournal.com]

"Well..."

He glanced down at his shirt, than at the jacket. Maybe he could wash it before he gave it back? But the last time he'd tried to wash anything on his own, his dad ended up with greenish pink t-shirts that would barely fit a Moogle.

"Yeah, I don't wanna get in trouble." Eli frowned, scraping his sneaker across the floor. "Okay...I'll kiss you goodnight tonight. But that's it! No more!"