vdistinctive | The loft above Luke's, Saturday morning

Eliot's clothes had all wound up in the general door to couch area, and it wasn't like he had any spares lying around (and trying to wear Hardison's would make him look like a kid playing dress-up), so after a quick shower (when did Hardison and Parker get all this hair stuff? And why was it all the stuff Eliot used?), he wandered out into the living room area in nothing but a towel to at least find his shirt before he got started on breakfast. (He'd learned early in his cooking career that you just didn't work with those kinds of temperatures without covering your chest. And aprons didn't count.)

And froze, grabbing onto the towel to hold it in place, when he spotted the twelve year old girl standing over by the door.

"The kitchen staff downstairs said you'd be up here," she said.

"Um," said Eliot.

"Why are you living with Uncle Hardison and Aunt Parker?" she asked.

"Um," said Eliot.

"You guys need to clean up in here better, Daddy." She nudged the crumpled pile of pants by the couch with the toe of her shoe. "Mummy would not approve."

Eliot rubbed his hand down his face. "Goddammit, Fandom."

[ooc: generally for the assortment of folks currently at or soon to be arriving at the loft, with bouts of slowplay on all sides, but also open!]

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"Sometimes I don't get it either," Parker admitted. "Rebecca. Um. If that's what your name is.... whyyy aren't you with your Uncle Nate?"

Joey shrugged. "Mummy and Daddy don't like to leave me alone with Uncle Nate. Not since that time we went to the park to play chess and he got drunk and we ended up stealing the Empire State Building."

"Hunh. Sounds like fun." Parker would've liked to do stuff like that with an uncle at that age. "Didja get a good price for it?"

Joey nodded. "A corporate take-down, thirty nannies granted full health benefits, and we saved a nursery school. And I got to punch the old guy who embezzled the nursery school money in the nuts! That's the part Mummy was mad about. Not because I hit him. Because if I hadn't then I might've been sold to a brothel." She shrugged. "He didn't actually sell people to brothels but Mummy worries."

"Oohhhh. And without back-up, if it was just you and Nate..." Okay, she could see that. And if Daddy was Eliot - really Eliot -

Nope. NOPE NOPE NOPE although you know, Sophie/Eliot mash-up had kind of happened once before when Sophie pretended to be him, and clearly, their kid turned out okay.

"So... you live with. Your Dad."

"And Mummy," Joey said. "In a lovely flat in London. And a condo near Harvard Yard. And a brownstone in Baltimore. And a farm in Kentucky."

That explanation came with four different accents. And at least as many lies.

"A brownstone in Baltimore?... Does Nate live in New York? Or were you just visiting?" Parker was starting to get the picture as the alleged facts sank in. "Where do I live?" Look, Rebecca-girl clearly knew her. And Hardison.

But, but, but... Eliot!

Parker kept her face blank though, and didn't let that escape at all.

Joey looked around. "Here?" she guessed. Look, you didn't make up lies about the person you were talking to. "But also your warehouse. Or Uncle Hardison's apartment."

"You know about the warehouse?" That was... good? Yes. It felt good. "Do you want breakfast? We have Lucky Charms."

Joey shrugged. "Well, yeah." She frowned. "Is this a test?" Her eyes went wide. "If I pass do I get to go on a real job?!"

"No." Parker made a face. Tests. Ugh. Wait, should she have said yes? ... "You can go on a real job with us when you can drive."

Because hey, they could always use another getaway car driver, and Sophie was a great driver!

"I can already drive." A tractor. That was just like a car, right? And anyway, this Aunt Parker didn't seem to know anything so she might as well see what she could get out of it. "And Mummy says I'm an even better grifter than she was at my age."

Parker smirked at her. "If there were cars on the island, I'd be testing that. Just to see." She cocked her head. "You know, I can see that." And the kid had been to her warehouse. Or knew about her warehouse. She was a good liar but she hadn't been *trying* to lie when she mentioned that. "We're not doing a job right now. I dunno, what do you want to do while you're -- here?"

Look, maybe they'd had plans with Eliot, but even Parker knew kids had to take priority. Somehow.

Joey shrugged. "What kinds of things are there to do around here?"

"There's ice cream. And a couple arcades. A park. A beach." Which was TOO COLD nope not going in the water again for a while. "Rock climbing! And cliff-diving, if you like that kind of thing."

Parker hoped you did? Yes?

Joey's expression lit up, and not just because she saw a chance to get Aunt Parker wrapped around her little finger. "Cliff diving! We should do that."

Mummy and Daddy never let Aunt Parker take her out to jump off things!

"Yes!" Okay, this could be cool! "I'd have to adjust one of my usual rigs for your weight and height, and we could test it off something not as high, and then do that later or tomorrow?" Yes! She could be the cool aunt! It would be great! It would be fine! "...and should I keep calling you Rebecca?" Heh.

"If you want to?" Joey said. "But I stole it from a radio show. Daddy usually calls me Joey. And Mummy calls me Josie. And they both sometimes call me Miriam but that's really only when they're mad."

"Miriam is so a mad-at-you name. Josie." Parker grinned. "I mean, Becca." Heeeee.

You know, as long as the guys were more freaked out than she was, this was gonna be okay.

The loft above Luke's, Saturday morning

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