fandomtownies | Outside Luke's, Saturday afternoon

After spending much of the morning flinging himself full speed up and down the stairs around the island with Val leaping after him frantically to keep up/probably yelling at him to be more careful, Eliot decided it was time to spend some time relaxing.

So he picked an awning he rather liked, shoved a battered copy of ~~meta for~~ Treasure Island down the back of his pants, and climbed up on one of the outdoor tables to get into reach of one of the supports.

He loved reading. He especially liked to do so in extremely awkward and hard to get to places. They made it way harder for Gertie to come bug him and get him in trouble for not playing with her.

He lost his grip trying to swing his legs up around the support beam, and barely managed to break his fall by grabbing onto one of the closed umbrellas leaning against the wall. Momentum carried him and the umbrella down to the cobblestones with a thud, and he lay there for a moment staring up at the awning.

"Ow."

Then he grinned, jumped back up, and tried it again.

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Eliot would recommend trying to land on the awning rather than the bushes. But then Eliot hadn't shown the MOST sense yet, today.

"Oh. People are dumb." She did seem pretty weird, but mostly in a cool way, so. "What's foster care?"

Parker gave him a look of surprise, then admitted, "It's when you don't have a mom or a dad and they put you with another family. With other kids, sometimes. And the family doesn't really like you but they get paid to take of you." She looked from the awning to the bushes, then back. Then grinned at him, and stuck one leg out over the edge. "One. Two--"

And jump down to the awning! And almost roll off it!

"AHhHHHHH!"

"Like an orphanage?" There were lots of orphanages in the books Eliot liked to read. "Watch out! Grab the umbrella!" Then he followed after her, because that looked like fun.

The awning would never be the same again.

Parker made a grab for the umbrella and caught it with one hand, then managed to get her leg around it before she fell off the awning. Then she slid down it with only a few small "ow"'s at the friction. She was laughing when she landed, and then laughing more when she saw that Eliot had followed her. Ha! She knew he was cool!

That poor awning was sagging and had muddy footprints on it now.

And ripped, once Eliot put his foot down in the wrong place. He fell through up to his knee, managed to grab onto the side of the awning, and in a move almost smooth enough to look deliberate, flipped over the side support until he was dangling by both hands, low enough to the ground to be able to drop without more than a roll to soften the landing.

He stood up, dusted himself off, and checked to make sure his book had stayed in his pants this time. "That was definitely more fun than the fire escape."

If she were a different sort of girl, Parker would have given Eliot a hug or high-five for that. As it was, she gave his shoulder a light shove, and grinned sideways at him. "That was way cool." She grinned wider, then gave the awning a speculative look.

Nah, it had had it. No trying that a second time.

"Let's go find something else to jump off!"

Edited 2015-11-21 23:35 (UTC)

"Okay!" Eliot shoved back with equal force. She'd started it, right? His stomach growled. ". . . And maybe find some lunch."

He'd already eaten lunch (poptarts he'd lifted from the Quick Stop). But he could eat a second one.

Parker gave the Diner they'd been jumping off a considering look. "I have some money I found."

Under the mattress. Where Older Parker could reach it when she wanted to.

"We should get lunch here."

"It's only fair," Eliot decided. "Since they let us climb on it."

Or didn't come out and chase them off, which was the same thing.

Outside Luke's, Saturday afternoon

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