75 Godiva Street, Sunday

[vdistinctive]

"I found more pillows and blankets upstairs," Eliot said, trying to carry a pile of linens taller than he was down the stairs without tripping over Val. "I bet with these we could make the whole living room into a fort!"

He tripped on the last stair, flinging the linens in front of him and tumbling into them with a big *fwoof*.

"An' I found a whole bunch of toy swords an' knives an' things," he said from the pile. "This place is so cool."

[ooc: for the tiny boyfriend in particular, but also open!]

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[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Cause I ask too many an' lotsa times people don't know how to answer 'em," Hardison replied, matter-of-factly. "Other times no one wants to answer 'em. An' then I'm a bother."

[vdistinctive]

"That's dumb. How're you s'posed to learn anything if you don't ask?"

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"That's what I asked!" Alec complained. "But good kids are seen an' not heard or somethin', I guess."

[vdistinctive]

"Ugh, they're those people. Those people are so dumb." Eliot straightened up and grabbed one of the cushions, tossing it up and down and spinning it. "So where do we start then, Mr. Architect?"

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Yeah, but they're my only chance of gettin' a forever home, so..." Alec went quiet, far more interested in building a cushion fort than talking about foster care. "We should start over in that corner," he decided. "The walls'll help support the rest of it. An' if we get it up really high, the top of the fort will be waaaaay over our heads!"

[vdistinctive]

"And we'll have to climb on stuff to get it that high!" Eliot liked this plan. "Or, you know, I will." Eliot flipped the cushion again and went over to prop it up against the wall. "So you're an orphan too? Like Parker?"

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Not really," Alec said, frowning as he figured out the perfect place to pin up the sheet. "My mom's on drugs unless she's in jail again an' I don't know who my dad is. So I'm in foster care. I was with a family for awhile, but it...didn't work out."

[vdistinctive]

"Were they mean? Sometimes the fill-in parents in books are really mean. An' the hero has to run away and join a pirate ship or dog sled through Alaska."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"They weren't mean," Alec said, squinting across the room to see where to put the counterbalancing cushion. "They liked church a lot. They used to have me go 'round door to door an' help talk about God an' stuff." He made a face. "I'd've rather joined a pirate ship."

[vdistinctive]

"Ew. Church is okay and all, but the people who go door to door always sound so dumb. You should totally join a pirate ship. Or go live in the woods!"

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Ew, why would I wanna live in the woods?" Alec asked. "There's bugs an' dirt everywhere! The city is a lot cooler, 'cept for the drugs an' gang members."

[vdistinctive]

"'Cause there's no adults to order you around and you can carve out a tree to live in and get a pet hawk and train it to hunt for you." Eliot had adored meta for My Side of the Mountain. To the point where his mother had started to worry he might try to run away and try it for himself. "There's bugs and dirt in the city, too. An' alligators in the sewers an' giant rats an' things. At least in the woods the animals live where they're s'posed to."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"How'm I s'posed to carve out a tree? Or train a hawk?" Alec asked. "I dunno the first thing about hawks! I'd starve to death before I even get get it half-trained! I'd be like Daniel in the lion's den, only I'd get eaten!"

[vdistinctive]

"You set the tree on fire," Eliot explained. "A controlled burn because burnt wood is easier to carve than live wood. That hollows it out and then you have yourself a little tree cave. And trainin' animals isn't too hard. You just have to reward 'em with food when they do what you want them to. Don't you ever read any adventure books? They tell you how to do everything."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"'M not allowed to play with fire. I could get hurt," Alec argued. "An' how'm I supposed to catch a bird anyway. They got wings."

Which was much better than admitting that most of what he'd read were religious books in his last foster family and what few books he could get his hands on while in care.

[vdistinctive]

"With a trap, duh. And you can get hurt doin' anything. You might as well get hurt doing something fun."

There were plenty of books scattered around this house that might be more fun. Except that trying to read them would probably just give Alec a headache.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Up close was okay for now. It was far away that made him squint and rub his eyes.

"Not if you're careful!" Alec said. "Besides, there are already lots of things that can hurt you. Ain't no reason to go out an' look for more. You'll just get yelled at anyway for not bein' more careful."

[vdistinctive]

"Yelled at by who?" Eliot asked. "There're no grownups around."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"True..." Alec was used to not having adults around, but they usually found out what you were up to and the consequences were generally impossible to ignore. "That's weird. Wonder where they are. If a kid gets really hurt, the grownups are all gonna get charged with 'dangerment."

[vdistinctive]

"That sounds like it should be a superhero name. Look out, bad guys! Here comes . . . Dangerment!"

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"You like superheroes?" Alec asked, perking up. "I do, too. I draw a comic! Hardi-Man!" Hardison was going to hate himself for this come Monday. "You wanna play superheroes?"

[vdistinctive]

"Who doesn't like superheroes?" Eliot asked, then added in a hopeful voice: "Outside?"

Outside was way more interesting than inside, Alec. Plus, you were much less likely to accidentally break something you got yelled at for later if you played outside.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"You don't wanna play in the fort when we're done with it?" Alec asked, situating another cushion. "It could be our secret base!"

[vdistinctive]

"We could do outside and inside," Eliot suggested. "This place has a pretty good backyard. There's a door in the kitchen." He pointed.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"No, no, I got a better idea!" Alec suggested, bouncing a little on his toes. "What if we connected the fort to the big window? We could go back an' forth that way!"

Anyone could use doors! But windows--only superheroes would think to go through windows.

Well, superheroes and thieves. But details.