weldedtomyspine | Room 322 [Sunday morning]

It was a relief to find that Mei was smart enough to go to the Trooper station when lost. Though she did show her age when told by her parents that she had to leave behind some book about cows because it didn't belong to them. Two pieces of licorice from Momoko's pocket, however, quickly stalled any imminent tears and Mei was carried out of the station with no complaints.

There were many complaints, however, from Sophia and Elena. About how long it had taken, how they hadn't gotten any candy or cocoa, that it was cold, how hungry they were and how they didn't want to eat anything but papa's pancakes. "With choc'aty chips! The right way!" reminded Sophia, swinging her papa's hand as they quickly walked back to the dorms. Luckily, Jaime was able to find a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips in one of the kitchens, as well as a pancake mix.

Breakfast over ("It's late, so it's really brunch!" corrected Elena, as she smeared her pancake into the syrup.), there was clean up and then a trip back to Momoko's room to feed and torture poor Moshi, and then trooping down to Jaime's room to watch a movie, since he no longer had a roommate. After the movie, was a trip to buy actual clothes, shoes, and coats that worked for the totally not-El Paso weather (bye-bye rainy-day-cake savings) and then an argument about dinner. Momoko was out-voted and it was take-out from Ching Tai that escorted them back to the dorms and to Jaime's room for another movie.

It was during the second movie that Momoko had the hardest time. The rest of the day there had been Thing To Get Done, but now? In a darkened room, with nothing to do but hold Mei asleep in her lap, let Sophia leaning heavy against her, trying so hard to stay awake, and watch Elena tugging on Jaime's arm asking some question about how some machine thing on the screen worked? It was hard to not think about how nice it was, how relaxed, how comfortable...

Which was more than she could say about her situation right now. Momoko frowned and shifted, trying to fall back asleep despite the thump-thump, thump-thumping noise her pillow seemed to be making, and the sound of girlish giggling and a phone being dropped.

"Shh! Careful, silly! You'll wake them and we'll get in trouble!"

[You guys know how this works: door closed, post open.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

hijas_kawaii

All three girls stuck their tongues out at exactly the same time in a perfect imitation of Momoko that nearly caused Jaime to have a coughing fit trying to suppress a laugh.

Elena then turned to her momma and looked totally innocent. "Nothing!" And just like that, her hands were behind her back.

From:

heromaniac

"Elena." Momoko knew that look. Knew it.

From:

hijas_kawaii

Elena turned big, innocent eyes on her momma. From who she'd learned the technique.

From:

heromaniac

There are always two, a master and an apprentice.

And guess which was the apprentice? Totally not the one holding out her hand for whatever it was and looking so mom-like she'd scare herself if she could see it.

"If you're hiding it, you totally know better." Whatever 'it' was.

From:

hijas_kawaii

ELena opened her hand, letting the phone fall mostly-silently onto the bed behind her. Than she held up her empty hands and continued trying to look innocent.

"Nothing!" she repeated.

From:

heromaniac

And had that worked when Momoko had tried it over her mother's favourite (and SOMEHOW broken) Goranger action figure when she was little?

No.

Momoko kept her hand out.

From:

hijas_kawaii

"'omma, 'ook!" Mei declared, pointing at the bed.

From:

heromaniac

"Thank you Mei, but I would hope that Elena was grown up enough to tell or show me herself."

Sophia was giggling, "Elena's in troooouuble!" And was rewarded with a brief look from her mother.

From:

weldedtomyspine

Jaime's attention also settled on Elena. "You know better than that," he told her, trying to sound stern.

From:

hijas_kawaii

Elena's face fell at the idea of not being 'grown up' and she nearly cried when Jaime'd chimed in.

She reached behind her for the phone, handing it over slowly. "Sorry."

Edited Date: 2011-02-14 05:14 am (UTC)

From:

weldedtomyspine

Jaime walked over and knelt next to her.

"And just what were you up to with that, young lady?" His voice was firm, but not critical now.

From:

hijas_kawaii

Elena wibbled. Someone didn't like her papa being mad at her. "Calling people."

From:

weldedtomyspine

"And why didn't you just say that?" he asked in the same tone, lightly placing a hand on her shoulder.

From:

hijas_kawaii

"Cause I'm not s'posed to use the phone without asking first an' I didn't wanna get in trouble." She looked up, still just this side of tears. "But you and momma was asleeps and it was Sophy too but I didn't let her use it by herself and we're not s'posed to wake you up so we couldn't ask and I'm sorry!"

From:

weldedtomyspine

Jaime hadn't ever really thought about how hard it would be to stay firm with a little girl who could make expressions like Momoko's, but it was incredibly difficult.

"What was so urgent that you couldn't wait?" Jaime asked, fighting the urge to pull her into a hug and reassure her that it was all okay.

From:

hijas_kawaii

Elena wouldn't mind that, really! It was totally better than papa being mad or, worse, disappointed.

"We... were bored," which she knew now wasn't enough to break a rule and then lie to momma about it, but it had totally seemed like it then!

From:

weldedtomyspine

His hand squeezed her shoulder lightly. "And who did you call?"

From:

hijas_kawaii

"Aunt... I mean Miss Dinah. But she didn't answer!" Would that help her case any? She gripped her nightshirt, twisting it in her small fingers. "You woke up before we could call tía."

From:

weldedtomyspine

Jaime was about to say something when a thought occurred to him.

"What is my sister's number doing in your momma's phone?"

From:

heromaniac

Elena looked at him with a confused expression on her face and Momoko felt the need to chime in. "Jaime, I've met Milagro, remember? But who's Tia?"

She didn't remember meeting a Tia, let alone having one in her contacts.

From:

weldedtomyspine

His attention was on Momoko now. "Met her, sure... but when did she give you her number."

His eyes narrowed. "'Tia' means 'aunt'.

From:

heromaniac

And now Momoko was the one lying about the phone.

"We went shopping together, remember? Do you think I'd go somewhere with your little sister and not have a way to contact her if she got separated?"

Since Momoko didn't have super awesome alien scanning abilities and all.

From:

weldedtomyspine

That... sounded reasonable, actually. Jaime found himself nodding.

But then Elena's eyes widened. "That's not fair, momma! You haveta tell the truth."

"Yeah!" Sophia agreed. "That's your tricky face!"

From:

heromaniac

Momoko was caught off guard at the wee tiny accusations. Mei even climbed out of her lap to stand and clasp Momoko's cheeks, searching her eyes for a moment before frowning at her. "Momma, no lies. Papa says'a rule! /¿Want inna corner?/"

"Totally not fair!" She was so changing the rules in the future so that she could lie.