[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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[2muddysneakers.livejournal.com]

"Hey, what're you- Larkin, it's not really-" Eli was busy flailing and thinking that maybe he should grab her away from the closet when his mother came in, eyes wide.

"What is going on in here? Larkin, baby, what're you doing?" Amy hurried over and wrapped her arms around the little girl, pulling her away from whatever it was she was trying to kill. She glanced over at Eli, who was trying to edge out the door.

"Freeze, Elijah James. What'd you do?"

"Nothin'! We were fightin' Heartless, that's all, and Larkin kinda freaked."

Amy gave him a loooong look before sighing and letting go of her niece. "I told you that you could play with Igor if you asked and if you promised not to scare anyone else with him."

Eli grinned a little, then tried to pout. "Oops?"

[larkinciel.livejournal.com]

Larkin struggled at first, only thinking about making sure the terrible Heartless was dead. It took her a moment to realize that the threat was only a toy. And now Eli was in trouble, which was bad. If he was in too much trouble, he might not be able to play with her anymore. She'd just have to save him again.

"Don't be mad, Aunty Amy. Me and Eli were playing. See? I killed the Heartless! I'm a hero like you and Mama! An' I saved Eli's life!" Surely that would win some approval.

[2muddysneakers.livejournal.com]

"Oh sweetie..." Amy smiled, running a hand through Larkin's hair. "I'm not mad, just- Well, the yelling scared me for a second. I was worried about you two."

She gave Eli another look that clearly said 'Make her scream like that again and you'll never see a real sword for as long as you live.' Eli made a face, then bounced over to Larkin and threw his arm around her.

"She really was brave, wasn't she? If it'd been real it coulda eaten her Heart and everythin'!" ...Okay, so maybe that wasn't the smartest thing to say.

"She was very brave, and I think heroes deserve an extra dessert, don't you?"

Eli's face lit up and he nodded. "Yeah!"

"Good. Larkin, come down and have a couple cookies, and Eli...clean up your closet, and then go help your dad in the garden."

"HEY!"

[larkinciel.livejournal.com]

The little girl's face lit up in a huge grin. "Cookies! Eli, if a Heartless eat my heart will you beat it up and get it back for me? Ooh! If a Heartless eats my heart can I meet the Orgnazashon like Mama said? A Heartless ate her heart, did you know that, Aunty? I bet it was really scary! I'll give you one of my cookies, Eli, cuz you helped me find the Heartless before it ate anyone."

[2muddysneakers.livejournal.com]

"But dad's gonna make me work out there, not let me do anything fun like collect bugs or-" He broke off at Larkin's question and scowled. He didn't like that one, it made him feel all cold and sick.

"I'd beat that Heartless 'til it spit your Heart right back up! You don't need to be an ol' Nobody to meet 'em, they all got their Hearts back and we can bug some of 'em!" He crossed his arms, frowning. He didn't need any stinkin' cookies.

Amy reached over and ruffled her son's hair. She hadn't missed the way he'd tensed up at Larkin's questions.

"Yeah Larkin, I knew that. All that stuff was a long time ago, so let's not worry about it right now, okay? Let's go have cookies, and then you can help your dad, okay Eli?"

He shrugged. "Yeah, I guess."

shoooort tag

[larkinciel.livejournal.com]

Larkin held onto Amy's hand and tried to pull her out of the room faster. "Can I help too? It's not fun without Eli. I don't wanna play by myself."

Awwwwwww this kid

[2muddysneakers.livejournal.com]

She laughed and grabbed onto Eli's hand so he wouldn't be left behind.

"Yes, you can help. I'm sure Jalen'll find something for you to do. Maybe you can water the plants."

Eli stuck his tongue out at his mother's back. Watering plants was his job. Besides, Larkin would probably turn around and squirt him...but maybe he should let her. He really had scared her, and he didn't want her deciding she needed to tell her dad. He wasn't sure he had any really good hiding places. Hey, maybe he could hide at Aunt Ray's!

"C'mon mom, we want cookies!" He pulled his hand free and started pushing her out the door.

This kid is all Chase's fault. Let it not be forgotten.

[larkinciel.livejournal.com]

She seemed satisfied with this proposition and bounced along merrily. It was rather apparent that she did not need anymore sugar today, or this month. Either that or the mention of it had the same effect as the consumption of it. One could never be sure with small children.

((want to just sum things up here and skip to Jalen? I need more opportunities to make him melt.))

Indeed. We'll remind her at every opportunity. ^^

[2muddysneakers.livejournal.com]

After they'd had their cookies - two for Larkin and one for Eli (He was still being punished, after all) - Eli burst out of the back door into the garden, running across the grass to tackle his father, who was just standing up from inspecting a rose bush. The collision with his son almost sent him back into it.

"Eli! What's wrong, has she proposed yet?" Jalen couldn't help the smirk on his face or the teasing, but he blamed his wife for that.

"No, worse." The boy clung to his father for a moment more, then pulled away a bit and whispered, "I have to kiss her goodnight!" He stepped back and tugged on his father's shirt.

"Save me!"

Jalen shook his head, resting a hand on his son's shoulder. "I have a feeling you got yourself into this mess, and failed getting out of it. Sorry."

"Dad! She's evil! She's-" Eli turned back towards the door. Larkin would be coming through it any second now. "a girl."

[larkinciel.livejournal.com]

On cue, Larkin strode (as much as one can stride on very short legs) through the door. The delay had apparently been due to the retrieval of her blanket, which would no doubt end its day in the wash if she insisted on dragging it around while helping with the gardening.

"Hi Mister Jalen!" she sing-songed. "I'm gonna help too! I gotta protect Eli from the Heartless. There was a Heartless in his closet. Are there Heartless in the garden?"

[2muddysneakers.livejournal.com]

Jalen smiled at Larkin, then cast his son a look as Eli began to slowly back away. "Did you scare her like your sister?"

Eli scuffed a shoe in the grass, looking back at Larkin. "Only a little. She was really brave and beat Igor up with my pillow." He grinned slightly, then scowled. "But before that she got snot on my shirt."

He laughed as his father glanced down at himself quickly. "It's okay, mom cleaned it off." He pointed at the small wet spot on his shirt. His mother had taken the jacket away to wash it, muttering about needing to hide it better.

"No Heartless in the garden, or the house," Jalen told the little girl. "It's perfectly safe. Do you want to help dig holes for some new plants?" He motioned to a spade lying next to some potted blue flowers.

[larkinciel.livejournal.com]

"Kay." Larkin wandered over to where the tool was and stood there staring at it for a minute, rather suspiciously. She then glanced at Jalen, then swept her gaze over the garden.
Finally she picked up the spade and came back to stand in Jalen's shadow. "Where do the holes go?"

[2muddysneakers.livejournal.com]

"Hmm...what do you think about..." Jalen glanced around, then pointed to the space on the left side of the rose bush. "Right here."

Eli had begun to wander aimlessly while Larkin fetched the spade, and was now crouched beside a purple-flowered bush, talking to a small beetle on a leaf.

"She gets to dig, and y'know what I'm gonna have to do? Help dad prune the rose bush, I bet, and I'll get all pricked 'n stuff. You're lucky, you get to just scurry around an-" He glanced up to see his father watching him, an eyebrow raised.

"Want to help her? Or you can help me prune the..." Jalen smirked as he trailed off.

"I'll get the other spade!" Eli burst out, and ran to get it.

oh gods, the cute

[larkinciel.livejournal.com]

Larkin examined the spot he'd indicated with utmost care, scooting on her heels in a semi-circle around the area before she dared to disturb the earth with her spade. She was completely ignoring Eli's muttering, too focused on her Very Important job.
She buried the tool's blade in the ground and then looked up at Jalen again. "This okay?"

[2muddysneakers.livejournal.com]

Jalen glanced at Larkin as Eli ran off and nearly melted where he stood. This child was too adorable. He crouched next to her and patted her head.

"That's fine. Make the hole about this deep, all right?" He held his hands apart about a foot.

Eli came trotting back with his spade then dropped onto his knees next to Larkin and his father.

"'Kay dad, go away now! We have digging to do!" He reached over and shoved at him. Jalen laughed, standing up.

"All right! You dig, I'll go far, far away...over here by the poor beetle you abandoned..."

Eli grinned at the mock-rejected tone of his father's voice and jammed his spade into the ground next to Larkin's.

[larkinciel.livejournal.com]

The girls eyes widened as Jalen demonstrated how deep the hole had to be. A whole foot?!
This truly would be a mighty task.

Of course it didn't escape her that Eli was going to help dig her hole. This was significant.
She started working at the dirt, scraping a small portion at a time up and piling it carefully to the side.
"Hey Eli, wanna place House after this?"

[2muddysneakers.livejournal.com]

Eli was happily engrossed in freeing a worm he'd pulled up with his first spadeful of dirt, hearing Larkin's words but not really listening to them. He shrugged as the worm came free, dropping his spade to play with it.

"Uh huh, okay." This worm was pretty small compared to some of the others he'd dug up before, or the ones he'd seen on rainy days. Maybe it was a baby. He frowned. What if it was, and he'd taken it away from it's parents?

"Aw geeze." He muttered, carefully setting it onto Larkin's pile of dirt. Now he was gonna have to find it's mom and dad. Something about that kind of poked at him. Mom and dad...Didn't Larkin say something about-

"Hey! I don't wanna play House if I have to stay home and be the dad again! I told you, I get to go fight, you get to stay home!"

Okay, so that argument wasn't going to work. He'd tried it before, and his dad had laughed at him. Not with these women, he'd said, and Eli hadn't really understood, but he knew when his dad said stuff like that, his mom hit him and went and fought anyway.

[larkinciel.livejournal.com]

"Can't back out! You said 'okay' already!" She reached for the worm as if she wanted to push it off her dirt pile, then changed her mind and started piling dirt beside it instead. "We'll make the Heartless attack the house this time. Then you can fight." It was a perfectly fair offer, she thought, and he had no reason to reject it since she'd even been nice to his worm.

*snicker* From 'I'm the man, I fight!' to complaints about parenting techniques. Awe. It's Destiny!

[2muddysneakers.livejournal.com]

Eli grumbled a bit, scooping out more dirt to add to Larkin's pile. He didn't see any point in making his own, it was all going back to the same place. Besides, he was more concerned about finding the mom and dad worms.

"Fine, 'kay, whatever." He mumbled, nudging some dirt clumps aside with the blade. "But after the fight's over, the baby's goin' right to bed. You let him stay up too late all the time."

[larkinciel.livejournal.com]

"No way. He likes staying up! Don't you wish you could stay up late all the time? Hey, I have an idea!" The discussion had made her forget just how important her job was. The hole was getting sloppy.

[2muddysneakers.livejournal.com]

"Well yeah, but then I get all grumpy and don't want nothin' to do with you or Ashlyn or Lanie or-"

He stopped, shaking his head. Distraction, bad. "He can stay up late on Friday nights. That's what mom lets me do." He stuck out his tongue at her, then frowned.

"Your idea isn't to have twins now, is it? 'Cause I still think it's scary and all the baby poop would kill me." Eli shivered as he glanced down at the hole. It was uneven on the sides and not as deep as it should've been. He stuck his spade back in and began to haul more dirt out.

[larkinciel.livejournal.com]

She sat back, letting him finish the job. "Twins? No... but that is a good idea. Maybe he has a sister. Only he doesn't know..." Of course a little girl growing up in the House of Nerds had been exposed to Star Wars by now. Some might have argued that the movies were too violent for a five-year-old, but the reasoning was that she was just as likely to see her own family in as brutal a fight, so she might as well know what's what.

[2muddysneakers.livejournal.com]

Eli stopped his digging for a second and just stared at her. Then he shook his head and finished the hole before he dropped the spade to one side and stared at her again.

"I think we woulda told him about that. You don't have twins and then not tell 'em about each other!"

Well, not unless their father was Darth Vader. He wasn't about to admit that he actually found the idea kind of interesting. If he did, they'd end up playing House with two babies, and then what was to stop Larkin from wanting three?

"Betcha my older brothers never had to play house with girls." He muttered, picking his worm off of the pile of dirt. No mom or dad worms, so he'd have to put it back after the flowers were planted.

[larkinciel.livejournal.com]

"I guess..." Larkin stared at the hole blankly, apparently having lost interest in the conversation as well as the job.

"I don't wanna play house anymore. I wanna go explorin'."

[2muddysneakers.livejournal.com]

Eli grinned, tucking the worm into the hole. Exploring he could do. He leaned towards Larkin eagerly, dropping his voice so his father wouldn't hear. Jalen had been busying himself with some other gardening chore and Eli didn't want to give him a reason to come over...well, aside from the plants.

"Where? There's the Maw, and the Crystal Fissure, and we could go to the Bailey, and maybe even explore the castle!"

Any of the above would earn him a week long grounding if he went on his own. Taking Larkin with him, while not telling an adult? At least a month...if they got caught.