Adventures in Babysitting (Devs)

[Midori Hawkins]

Tory bonded easily with people, much to Midori’s surprise. He’d always been close with Eli, of course, but he adapted to just about anyone, with a few minor (and one major) exceptions. Devon seemed to have struck a special chord with him, though, because he hadn’t stopped talking about it the entire week prior to the visit. Midori wasn’t sure what it was about him, but if Tory was happy with him, then she wasn’t going to complain. “Oh, it was a huge help. I don’t even want to know what he’d have been like in the middle of all the boxes. ... Knowing Zach, he would have roped Tory into a water gun fight and we’d have had to deal with two wet children.” Still, the affection in her voice was clear. Yes, Zachary was a pain, but he was her brother, and therefore it was acceptable. “Pets are sort of like kids. Dependant, usually happy to see you, and full of love. ... Or teenage angst, in Uno’s case.” She couldn’t help the little laugh that escaped. “Thank God I have a good ten years or so before that starts up.” Hopefully, Tory wouldn’t be a raging ball of teenage hormones. Why couldn’t his sweet nature grow up with him? Was that too much to ask? ... Probably.

Missing Devon’s discomfort, Midori just smiled as he kept working. “It’s still nice of you.” With that, she picked up one of the messier cookies and bit off the hat, content to finally relax a little. Moving was always stressful, regardless of who was moving – you or the person you were helping. Being away from Tory all day, it was also nice to see him, even if he was dead to the world sleeping and hadn’t noticed her return. He must have been busy, being so sound asleep. She didn’t even mind it would probably result in a rather early morning tomorrow.

“Mn, the trolls? They don’t really stop being weird. You more or less get used to them, especially after they sing, so they stop being weird that way. The reindeer is pretty great though. Tory keeps calling him Seven, because he can’t quite grasp the whole ‘Sven’ thing. And he loves Olaf, the little snowman.” Oddly, the movie sort of made her think of some people’s reactions to meta humans. Elsa was, for meta purposes, a cyrokinetic, and in a world where no one else had powers? Of course she was scary to them. It made her wonder if the stories in history about witches and the like were no more than stories of early meta humans. If that was the case, it was quite sad.

Now wasn’t the time for sad. “He’s always liked coloring, and now he’s starting to get the drawing thing down too. Keep his early work – could be worth fortunes when he’s older.” Because Devon was clearly the keeper of all Tory’s early work at the moment. She was half suspecting a whining fit when he saw a handful of his Olaf drawings coming home with them, rather than staying with Devon. “Oh, sure. Um. What can I grab you out while I’m in there?” She’d be a terrible guest if she didn’t ask, right? Right. Still. She was looking forward to dinner, and despite the challenges of getting a sleepy toddler into a car seat and into the house without disturbing him much, she was still happy with how the day had gone. Devon really was a life-saver.

[Devon Wentsworth]

A fond smile crossed Devon's lips, and he nodded as he fussed the vegetables around. “Water fights are always awesome, but I see your point. Wet cardboard is never fun to have to deal with. I'm glad I could keep him out the way for a bit.” Devon could kind of relate to Zach though. He vividly remembered the time Cade had asked him to help sort out the buffet for his best friend's wedding, which Cade had offered to do as his wedding present for the happy couple. To this day Devon could not remember quite how he had managed to convince said happy couple to have a marble-patterned wedding cake instead of a traditional plain white one; but he had just bought a pasta machine and he wanted to use it to try out blending icing colours, damnit! In the end they had been thrilled though, so that was all that mattered, surely? “I'm sure Tory'll still be great. I mean, it'd be a pretty dramatic personality shift if he started being a right brat one day. Usually the worst teenagers were pretty bratty kids anyway, right?”

Bottling his discomfort and still singing in his head to keep his thoughts distracted, Devon made sure the veg was just about done and then added then noodles, since they would only take a couple of minutes. After wokking (was that even a word?) them into the veg and chicken mixture, Devon fished two plates and a tupperware dish out of the cupboard and set them down on the workbench before retrieving cutlery and setting it out on the table. He couldn't remember ever actually using the table for eating but hey, first time for everything!

Smiling as Midori spoke about the movie and how Tory pronounced 'Sven', Devon chuckled softly. “Yeah, he said that a couple times while we were paintin'. Pretty adorable really. I'll have to give it another watch at some point, and try not to fall asleep again.” He still couldn't quite believe that he had managed to nod off while supposedly watching Tory, but the kid had dropped off too and Midori didn't seem to mind so he wasn't going to get too worked up about it. “I'll just have a beer, thanks. I'm not goin' anywhere tonight, might as well unwind a bit, ey? Help yourself to whatever you want.”

As Midori fixed the drinks Devon finished off the stir-fry before dishing it out; some onto each of the two plates and a smaller portion in the tupperware tub so Midori wouldn't have to mess around sorting food out if Tory was hungry when he woke up later on. All in all, Devon considered this a rather successful day. No one had gotten burned or fallen down the stairs or swallowed paint or been mauled by a pissy cat or anything else unpleasant. Maybe he could do this 'grown up responsibility' thing after all.

Ha. That'd show Cade.

~ Fin ~