Momoko's Apartment, El Paso, Texas, Saturday

[weldedtomyspine]

Saturday morning cartoons started way too early. Milagro "wasn't into that kiddy stuff", but she was still up early enough to watch some shows from that time block. Which meant she was up before Jaime. Which meant that there was no way he could sneak out of the house without her noticing that something really weird had happened over night.

He knew because he'd tried.

Unfortunately, girl!him was shorter than boy!him. And had a different center of gravity. And that had been enough to cause him (her?) to misjudge how easy it would be to step over the pile Milagro's stuff had made on the floor when she tossed it there after school on Friday, and falling down was loud enough to hear even over the corny-joke-and-laughter that signaled the end of whatever episode Milagro was watching.

Once she'd finally stopped laughing, Jaime had managed to swear her to secrecy, but she'd managed to extract some pretty extravagant promises for it. It would be worth the price if she didn't mention this whole episode to anyone, though.

With Milagro's silence purchased, all that was left to do was to dash off a quick note to his (her?) mother that he (she?, ugh, this was confusing) was heading over to Momoko's for the weekend to deal with some weirdness that had arisen, possibly connected to Fandom.

Not too much later there was a knock on the door of Momoko's apartment, and the person doing the knocking wore baggy pants, a shirt that was clearly too large (neither of which managed to conceal that said person was female), and an expression that practically dared anyone to laugh. Or even smile in amusement.

[Available for calls or texts or whatever, if people like.]

Comments

[heromaniac]

"Eh? Why? Where are you going?"

[weldedtomyspine]

"I'm sleeping on your floor." Duh.

[heromaniac]

Momoko eyerolled. "Elena totally gets that look from you, you know. And you're not sleeping on the floor. There's no room when I make up the futon. You can share."

[weldedtomyspine]

"There's plenty of space!" she objected, already feeling awkward enough without tossing that into the mix, thank you very much.

For the record: there was not plenty of space.

[heromaniac]

"Am I in the wrong apartment? Because there is totally not enough room. You're smaller but not by much." Momoko leaned in against Jaime. "I'm also not going to listen to you complain all night; I have work tomorrow."

[weldedtomyspine]

"I wouldn't complain!" Which was true. Jaime would be utterly silent curled up in the corner, uncomfortably trying to sleep.

[heromaniac]

"You'd Jaime-complain!"

[weldedtomyspine]

"What? What does that even mean?"

[heromaniac]

Momoko folded her arms and puffed out her chest. "You'd do this. With your face stern. And declare you were totally fine, if you say anything at all, even if you ended up sitting up all night and not sleeping at all."

"When you do that, it's totally worse than actually saying anything out loud."

[weldedtomyspine]

Jaime reached up and rubbed at her face. "I don't even know if I have a stern face anymore."

No denying the other bits, though.

[heromaniac]

"Well it is a very cute face," Momoko chuckled and reached out to take Jaimes chin, trying turn his face to look at her. "But since you're still you, I bet you do."

[weldedtomyspine]

She didn't resist, letting Momoko pull her face around. "Hmm?"

[heromaniac]

"All I have to eat in the whole house is cake," she lied, testing his ability to be stern. "And I spent the last of my money on comics yesterday."

Totally straight-up lied to his beautiful face... Would it be okay if she didn't let go of his chin?

[weldedtomyspine]

Momoko earned herself a sigh. "You better not have."

[heromaniac]

Slightly frustrated was cute, but not getting Momoko his stern face, so she plowed on...

"I thought maybe it would be okay. I get paid in a few days; I can totally not eat anything but cakes until then." She shrugged. "The latest issues came out a bit early this month and you know how I am."

[weldedtomyspine]

"And what about the emergency supply of pasta I put in your pantry?"

[heromaniac]

Ah. She'd forgotten that. Hmm.

"I'm out of water?" she tried.

[weldedtomyspine]

"That's what I thought." And there was that smirk. It didn't look quite the same on a girl's face, though.

[heromaniac]

"I was trying to make you make a stern face." Momoko eyerolled fondly. "But your smirk is totally cute, too, so I'll settle for now." And keep holding his chin. Oops?

[weldedtomyspine]

That got an eyeroll. "You're a bit obvious when you do that sometimes." Sorry, Momoko. "I mean... out of water?"

[heromaniac]

"I was desperate. I did good at the start, though, right?" She did let go of his chin now, but only because that way she could boop Jaine's nose. "You believed me a little. I saw that worry line on your forehead."

[weldedtomyspine]

Jaime raised a hand to rub at her forehead, then paused. It felt weird having such slender fingers.

[heromaniac]

"SEE!" Momoko hooted and fell against her, all smiles. "You totally believed me a little!"

[weldedtomyspine]

"Did not," she mumbled, not really sounding upset. Just off-balance.

[heromaniac]

"Totally did." Momoko gleed as she reached for Jaime's hand and threaded their fingers together. "It's weird, you know. You're still you. I can feel it on the inside... but it feels so different on the outside." She held up their joined hands, running her free hand over the fingers that today were so different. Hmm. "Still slightly dry but the skin isn't thick," she mused.