fandomtownies | The Perk, Saturday morning

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The Perk, Saturday morning

Daniel yawned as he pushed open the door. His phone call to Sam (in Colorado) last night had gone on later than he'd been expecting. He suspected that might have to do with the different time zones, and also that she needed an ear to bend about everything.

Now he needed to talk to the Sam here (this was complicated) but he wanted coffee first.

And maybe he'd sit down and read the paper while he was at it.

[[ooc: For starting Daniel torture omg. Will be slowplay to start at least, as mun has own form of torture today in the shape of clothes shopping. Woes]]

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"Daniel! Danieldanieldanieldanieldaniel!" Janet ran on her wee little legs into the Perk and climbed into Daniel's lap and gave him a ~~totally platonic, people OMG!~~ wee little glompy hug and then she clung to him. "I want coffeeandchocolateandamuffinandhihihihi!"

Janet had eaten a lot of jelly beans for breakfast.

Daniel froze.

Absolutely and utterly froze.

There was a small child clinging to him.

"Uh, hi?"

"Want a jelly bean?" Janet offered Daniel one of the special red jelly beans. And ate a couple herself. "Hi, Daniel!"

Daniel took one automatically. "Haven't you had enough?" he asked, frowning as he looked down at the sorta-familiar little girl.

"Nuh-uh!" exclaimed Janet, shaking her head back and forth wildly. "This is breakfast." She was fidgeting uncontrollably by now, because she'd had a lot too much sugar. "Breakfast is s'posed to be yummy! An' I like breakfast, an' then I came here because I wanted coffee and chocolate and I couldn't figure it out in the room and YOU'RE here!"

Somewhere in there, Janet had to have taken a breath. Right?

"No coffee for you!" Daniel said horrifed. "Where are your mom and dad? Or responsible adult in charge of you?"

"Coffee, coffee, coffee, COFFEE!" chanted Janet. Yep, still fidgeting. "An' chocolate? Responsible is BORING, an' I'm in charge of MYELF!" And she gave him another hug. "But you're funny, Daniel."

Something somewhere clicked in his head.

"Oh my God. Janet?!" he exclaimed, suddenly standing up and pushing the chair back across the room.

Janet was dumped to the floor and promptly started wailing.

Daniel winced.

"There, there, it's okay," he said, looking around him rather scared. He hesitantly patted her head.

Janet had just fallen to the floor. Patting her head wasn't going to do any good. She wailed even louder, swiping at the tears in her eyes with the back of her hand.

Daniel flailed, and looked around the room before hesitantly picking Janet up. Sitting her on his hip, he gently stroked her hair. "There, there, it's okay," he said softly. "I've got you now."

Janet hugged Daniel tightly and sniffled a few more times. "You didn't know it was me," she whimpered.

Maybe he'd buy her coffee to make it all better?

"I'm sorry, I didn't recognize you," Daniel said, trying not to think how weird this all was.

Janet pouted at Daniel. "But it's me an' I've known you forever an' ever an' ever an' you--" She brightened suddenly. "Do you wanna play? I wanna play! An' we're gonna go to the park later, me an' Liz an' Sammie an' Izzy an' Maureen an' everybody! But not Marty because he's dumb."

"I'm sorry, honey," Daniel said. "I was up very late last night." He suddenly looked very scared. "Uh, perhaps not right now. But I'll take you to the park soon so you can play with your... friends."

Daniel had a very, very bad feeling about this.

Janet pouted some more. "Do you wanna play later?" she asked. "Liz an' me are gonna feed the black licorice to the ducks 'cuz it's icky!"

"You know, I'm not sure black licorice is good for ducks," Daniel said. "And I'll play with you later. Maybe we could watch a video?"

"It's gotta be good for somebody!" Janet frowned. "But it has no nutritional value." She prounounced 'nutritional' extra-special-carefully. And she thought Daniel had boring videos, but she didn't wanna be mean and say that to him. And anyway, he was trying. ~~And somehow the fact that Daniel has no idea what to do about Janet is really nothing new. Some things never change.~~ "And we can play later." She nodded lots and started trying not to look like she was thinking of taking Daniel's coffee and drinking it.

Being six, she didn't really have any concept of subtlety.

Daniel moved his coffee cup across to the other side of the table.

"Yes, for somebody," Daniel said. "Somebody human, who's not a duck. And you're right about that. So maybe you should cut down on your candy and have something more nutritional?"

Janet pouted again. Because it wasn't fair that Daniel was trying to keep her away from coffee.

"Do you like black licorice?" asked Janet hopefully. "But candy is yummy!" She reached into the pocket of her jeans and pulled out a crumpled dollar bill, her keys ~~even though she was too short to reach the lock to her door right now~~, and a couple of pennies. "What can I get for this much that's nutritional?" she asked. Maybe she wouldn't tell Daniel about all the candy she still had stuck in her pockets.

"No, not really," Daniel admitted. He looked down. "Well, you could get some fruit or we could go back to my apartment and I can make you something healthy to eat there."

"Nobody likes black licorice," she said, like she was telling Daniel the biggest secret in all the world. And then she beamed up at Daniel. "You could make me something healthy to eat. You make yummy food. Can I have coffee too?"

"No. Absolutely not. No coffee until, uh, you're old enough to, uh, vote?" Daniel finished off lamely. "But come on, and I'll take you back for dinner."

"If I pout at you, will you give me coffee?" asked Janet, pouting at Daniel. "Or let me vote?" She grabbed Daniel's hand. "Okay. What are you gonna make?"

Daniel? Might have gone slightly weak in the knees there. Not that he'd admit that to anyone.

"No, sorry. Not for pouting, not for nothing," he told her. "I don't know. What do you fancy?"

Janet had a weetiny person's sense of weakening adult resolve, and started pouting even more. Her lower lip even started wobbling.

"Just a little bit? With milk? And sugar? Pretty please?" She looked at him very hopefully. "I want pancakes! With maple syrup!"

"Maybe," Daniel conceded. "But only if you eat something healthier than pancakes and syrup."

"Like what?" asked Janet, her wee little eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Can I have pancakes and maple syrup too?"

"Maybe tomorrow morning for breakfast," Daniel said, not even realizing the implication that he'd be making her breakfast. Maybe she'd be her normal age tomorrow and this would all be a thing of the past. "Well, you could have soup and salad?"

"Soup is good! What kind of soup?" asked Janet. "And salad too, but not with icky color cheese dressing. And pancakes on top!"

"No pancakes," Daniel repeated. "And how about vegetable soup?"

Janet stuck her tongue out at Daniel. "Does it have yucky lima beans in it?"

"No. No yucky lima beans," Daniel promised.

Janet beamed at him. "Okay, then, veggie soup sounds yummy."

Daniel almost sighed in relief. "Oh good. Come on, let's go then."

"Okay," said Janet happily, tugging on his hand and trying to run ahead of him out the door.

Daniel held onto her hand tightly.

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The Perk, Saturday morning

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