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.

[open!]

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"I want grilled cheese too. Artisanal! With peppers and pickles and... ketchup." Yeah, that sounded good. "And then ice cream."

"One grilled cheese with all the stuff, one grilled cheese with peppers and pickles," Kenzi said with a grin. "And chocolate milks, I'm guessing? Maybe some fries?"

"French fries!" Eliot cheered. "And d'ya have any hushpuppies?"

"People eat dogs?" EUGH, ELIOT. And she thought you were cool!

"They're not dogs, they're just called that," Kenzi said very hastily. "They're kind of like-- uh, potatoes? Eliot, can you explain them? And then Cookie can make 'em for you."

"They're not potatoes," Eliot said, exasperated. Ugh, northerners. "They're deepfried cornbread." He looked back at Parker. "An' I heard they eat dogs in Asia. But I wouldn't. I have a dog. Back home and I got one here!"

"You have a dog?" Parker's voice was full of longing. She ducked her head a little, and then said, "I'm not going to Asia. But maybe I want to try that."

"Allright, full order of all that, and then we'll see about strawberries and ice cream." Kenzi grinned at them both, and put the chocolate milks in front of them. "Feel free to blow the straw wrappers all over the place."

"It's no fun if you tell us to," Eliot grumbled. "An' yeah. I got one at home who likes to follow me around everywhere and the place I woke up this morning there was another dog who followed me around almost all morning! Her tag says her name is Valentine and she b'longs to the house I woke up in and no one else was there so I figure that means the house is mine now and so the dog must be, too."

Parker was directing a suspicious look after their hostess, 'cause had she planned that? She still blew her straw wrapper away, but it was only half-hearted.

"I want a dog. I just have Bunny." She blew bubbles in her milk - ha! - and then said, "I woke up in that apartment upstairs, and I knew it was my place 'cause Bunny was there with me. I don't think I'll go back to the foster care people. This place is funner."

Eliot nodded. "All the orphans in books end up escapin' their orphanages and goin' on adventures. You should do that."

"They do?" That made her sit up straighter, looking a little proud of herself. "What kinda adventures? Like climbing stuff and..." What would they put in books? Parker wrinkled her nose. "And going to zoos? Or something?"

She wasn't going to way that she wasn't exactly an orphan. 'Cause it was one thing to have dead parents, not parents that ran away first.

"Even better! They join ship crews and fight pirates or go to India or discover they're secretly princesses."

Eliot read everything that had adventure. Most of the books had boy protagonists, but he liked a lot of the ones about girls better.

"I'm not a princess." Parker knew that for sure. "But I could be a pirate. Or, or!" Ooo. "Join the circus?! And do the tightrope?!"

She and Bunny would be amazing at that!

"You read a lot, hunh?"

"My town's pretty boring. I wanna go travel around to the whole world. I can't do that yet, so reading's almost as good."

"Hunh." More slurping of her chocolate milk, as Parker considered that, chewing on her straw. A thought occurred to her. "But you're not leaving away, right? 'Cause Valentine would miss you. And we all just got here." And so far it was pretty cool.

"Duh! I only barely started explorin' this place. This is the first time I've been -- anywhere!"

Parker grinned around her straw, nodding hard. "The woods, and I saw some good climb-y rocks from that roof too. And the boats!" Those had looked neat. "There's a not a lot of grown-ups here. I like it."

"There really aren't!" Eliot crowed. "The hostess lady's like, the only old person I've seen!"

Sorry, Kenzi.

Hey, twenty-one was not old! It wasn't! It was minimum legal drinking age in all countries! That's all.

"Maybe this is Kid-land. That would be awesome." No stupid rules. Nobody telling her what to do. No one trying to hide Bunny. "We could stay up ALL NIGHT."

When you were under 10, 21 was ancient.

"We should totally do that! You can come over to my house and meet my dog!"

Parker's face lit up like it very rarely did, but this offer was too good to pass up. "Okay! I will! After we we climb everything." She nudged Eliot again, this time with her elbow. "You're okay, Eliot."

"Thanks! You're really cool too, Parker. I'm glad I met you."

"Two grilled cheeses with hush-puppies and french fries," Kenzi said, setting down their food with a small smirk. "And we've got Neapolitan ice cream and strawberries, if you finish most of it."

'Cause that was a really huge mound of fries, guys.

"Awww, yeah!" Eliot cheered, immediately grabbing a hushpuppy and just as immediately dropping it because it was too hot. "Thanks! You're pretty cool for a grown-up."

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