[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 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.

[larkinciel.livejournal.com]

"Um." She stuck the tip of a dirty finger into her mouth, sucking on it while she thought.
"If we go to the Maw, you have to bring a sword. An' not a fake one." It didn't actually occur to her that he might not be able to carry a full-sized metal sword. "But I was thinkin' we could just sneak into the basement. That counts, doesn't it?"

[2muddysneakers.livejournal.com]

"I could bring my dad's sword! I know where he keeps it!" Eli was just a little too excited at the prospect of wielding a real sword, and his voice came out just a little too loud. Jalen was standing over them a second later, his eyebrows almost in his hair.

"Bring my sword where?"

"Uh...nowhere?" Eli tilted his head back and grinned at his dad. "Can Larkin and I go now? We got stuff we wanna do."

"I'll just bet you do." Jalen eyed his son suspiciously, then glanced at the hole. "All right. Larkin, keep him out of trouble...and Elijah? The sword isn't where you think it is."

"...Dad!" Eli groaned, smacking his forehead. Great, now she was his babysitter. He jumped to his feet before reaching down to grab Larkin's hand. "C'mon, before he changes his mind!"