Home [Not So] Alone - Closed Tag

[Jackie Vick]

When it was announced that Mitch was going off for another conference for the whole day [Saturday is family day! Jackie thought angrily to herself] Jackie was in a very sour mood for the rest of the week until he mentioned that she would have a princess for a baby sitter. Now come on, how was Jackie supposed to resist that?

Sour mood lifted, Jackie locked herself up in her room drawing up plans for her and her babysitter. Of course, she would make compromises if her princess babysitter wanted to do something else but really...Jackie was just excited to meet someone who was either really a princess or dressed up as one.

When the day finally came, Mitch was getting ready to go for the conference and Jackie kept bugging him about when her babysitter would be arriving. And when the bell rang, the little brunette practically slid down the railings in her haste to open the door.

What she saw made her eyes sparkle. A tiny girl in a blue smock dress and a white apron was standing at her doorstep with a wide smile. "Oh. My. God." Jackie gasped, her hand flying up to clasp over her mouth.

Dream. Come. True.

[Misato Hazukashi]

Babysitting paid the bills, and Moe absolutely loved little kids. It was no surprise that James had passed his name around - the tiny brunette was a reliable and good sitter. He never brought Vincent along, for obvious reasons, and he'd even invested money in getting a special bag full of goodies that were suited for kids.

When he'd received the call from Mitchell to babysit his daughter, he'd written down all the things the little girl had liked, then dressed up like her favorite disney character. Walking around town like Belle was a little embarrassing, but the boy had a bag full of goodies that he was sure the little girl would like. Colouring books, playdoh, disney story books and a big thick manual called "How to be a Princess".

When he got to the address, he rang the bell and smiled. Jackie was ADORABLE! "Hi there, I'm Moe." The boy offered his hand to shake and grinned. "And I am your babysitter for this evening." He added, with a little dainty bow.

"I have a bag FULL of goodies!" He added, handing it over for Jackie to look at. "What do you want to do first?"

[Mitchell Vick]

Obviously Mitchell felt terrible about missing out on an entire Saturday in favor of a conference, but there wasn’t much he could do about that at present. He was obligated to go primarily because he was giving a talk and it wouldn’t do to skip out on his own presentation. That wouldn’t be very professional at all. Elliot, in true teenage boy fashion, hadn’t minded much, instead opting to call one of his friends and disappear for the day. Jackie, however, was less than pleased. So Mitch did what anyone would do in this situation:

He bribed his daughter with the promise of Disney princesses.

He’d heard about Moe from the grapevine of Parents Who Have Need of Babysitters (which, no, wasn’t an official club, but really should be). Moe was a very responsible—albeit a little odd—teenager who took to dressing very elaborately and was very agreeable to dressing up like a Disney princess for Jackie. So basically, the small teenager was nothing less than a godsend.

Mitch was just finishing up tying his tie when Moe rang and Jackie got the door. He came into the room to see them both already interacting well, so Mitchell took his opportunity to slip out the door.

“All right, Jellybean.” He kissed Jackie’s forehead briefly, “Be good, do everything Moe asks you to.” He smiled gratefully at the teenager, “Can’t thank you enough. The emergency contact numbers are on the refrigerator, if you need anything, do give me a call.” He checked his watch, “And I’ve got to run. See you all at seven.” He turned to Moe, looking a little frazzled, “If I’m later or earlier, I will call ahead. Thank you again.” And with that, Mitch hurried out of the door.

[ooc: the extent of Mitch's involvement! Have fun and try not to burn his house down! ^^]

[Jackie Vick]

When Jackie finally composed herself enough to be coherent, she greeted her babysitter with a huge grin and an enthusiastic wave. "Hi," she squeaked. The bag was ignored as Jackie pulled Moe in and just stared in awe at the pretty girl standing in front of her.

Not even her dad calling her Jellybean could snap her out of the world she was building herself right then with a practically real life Disney princess standing in front of her. "Bye daddy." She said dreamily, waving distractedly as her dad left, leaving her with her very own Belle.

"Oh my gosh, you are so pretty." Jackie said breathlessly before hurrying up to her room. "I hope you don't mind, I've got a few things planned for the day. But if you have other plans, I'm totally up for it." Jackie babbled, all the while stealing glances at the pretty girl who was probably just a head taller than her.

Once in her room, Jackie left the door open and pulled out her sketch book. "I hope you don't mind but I'll be sketching stuff down every now and again. But gosh, you're just..." Jackie breathed in sharply before laughing. "I'm sorry." She blushed, covering her face with her sketch book in embarrassment.

"You're really pretty." Jackie whispered behind her book.

[Misato Hazukashi]

Moe was delighted that Jackie seemed to like him already. He knew some kids resented babysitters and generally thought they were evil or trying to boss them around. Maybe it's because Moe is such a mild mannered little thing, but he's never come across a tantrum yet.

"Thank you sir." The brunette said softly as Mitchell left, nodding his head before coming inside and letting Jackie take him upstairs to her room. "Aww, thank you. You're very pretty too." He chirruped, setting the bag down in the corner of the room and feeling a little sweep of joy that Jackie was clearly an artist in the making. In fact, his eyes lit up and he clapped his hands together with delight.

"You draw?" He said eagerly, emptying the bag of goodies on the floor. "I do too!" He did blush with all these compliments from the little girl, and chewed on his lower lip to conceal a distinctive rush from all the flattery. "Well, it's up to you. I have a book full of activities based around being a princess... there's playdoh and some story books..." He ran a hand through his hair and then smiled brightly.

"I can draw with you too, if that's what you want." He added meekly, still lip chewing. "Or we could play dress up."

Moe is especially good at dress up.

[Jackie Vick]

When Moe said she was pretty, Jackie blushed before denying it. "No," she shook her head as they went upstairs.

Moe's reaction to Jackie's passion was met with another big blush. She didn't usually advertise her love for sketching but this was just too big an opportunity to pass up. "Really?" Jackie's eyes sparkled when Moe revealed that she too drew. That just sealed the deal. She was Jackie's favourite person in the world. After her dad. And Elliot.

As Moe took out all the things from her bag and said she could draw with Jackie, the little girl nodded enthusiastically. "Yes please. We could just do that for the rest of the day." She grinned widely as she grabbed two pencils and an empty sketchbook for Moe. "If you don't have one." Jackie said, handing a pencil and sketchbook over to her.

"Maybe dress up for later." Best. Day. Ever.

Jackie's pencil flew across the piece of paper, her eyes darting from the paper to Moe. "So, what do you mostly draw?"

[Misato Hazukashi]

"You are!" Moe insisted, smiling over at the little girl and then setting down next to her. For a moment, Moe wondered whether Jackie would further like it if Moe got out his big pretty pixie wings, but he decided to wait - despite knowing her dad, Mitchell, was a Meta human. Maybe Jackie didn't like them? He didn't want to scare her.

"Oh thank you!" He said brightly, taking the sketchpad and paper and tapping his lip. "I draw anything really, I want to be an interior designer when I'm older." His eyes sparkled. "So I could make pretty rooms, like a big sparkly princess one with golds and pinks and a big four poster bed." He laughed and pulled his hair from his face, then sat and pondered what to draw.

He wanted to make Jackie happy, so he decided to quietly draw her in a princess outfit with a little pet dragon. "Next time I come over, I'll bring my special pencils and paints and we can use those." He assured, peeking over his new friend's shoulder.

"I also thought maybe I could bake something for lunch, what's your favourite food ever?" Moe asked brightly, moving the pencil over the paper with slow, deliberate strokes. Maybe if Jackie wanted to play dress up he could get out his wings and make a pair of paper wings just for her?

Then they could be fairy princesses together.

[Jackie Vick]

At Moe's insistence, Jackie blushed and gave her babysitter a smile. "Thank you." Not used to being called pretty, the thirteen year old decided to change the subject and was thoroughly comfortable with the other girl taking the lead.

"Oh wow, that sounds awesome." Jackie grinned up at Moe, her pencil still moving across the paper. A semblance of a face started to appear on the plain piece of paper. She wasn't half the artist she wanted to be yet but Moe was so easy to draw! "I'm so totally going to hire you once you get your business running!" She enthused at the possibility of having Moe design her a princess room, not at all worried that she could very easily outgrow her princess phase at any time.

Jackie beamed at the thought of having nice stationeries to work with. Not that she wasn't happy with what her daddy bought for her, which she was, but it was still nice to have new things to work with. "Yes please. That would be so cool. Daddy needs to have more conferences!" Jackie joked, not really meaning it. But really, if the alternative for not having her dad around was Moe, she could try and deal with it.

Perking up at the thought food, Moe's question was met with a huge grin. "Mac and cheese. It tastes soooo good baked. Daddy makes the best baked mac and cheese. You should totally come over for dinner when he makes it!" She exclaimed, her fear of talking too much flew out the window, replacing the usually shy girl with the girl her dad and her brother were much more used to.

"I mean, you don't have to make baked mac and cheese obviously. I'm good with anything." She beamed up at Moe before turning back to her drawing, wondering if Moe should have a pretty gown like a normal princess or a short funky one with wings like a fairy, like Tinkerbell.

Out of curiosity, Jackie looked back up, tilting her head slightly to the left. "Which would you prefer, wings or a pouffy long dress?" she asked, her eyes wide with question.

[Misato Hazukashi]

"Would you like to see some princess magic?" Moe asked gently, leaning forward and pausing in his drawing. It would be nice to get his wings out - they were so painful in his back and he didn't want to get sore while he was taking care of the sweet little girl. Clapping his tiny hands together, he got up and made up some sort of magic word. "I wish to fly!" He squeaked, before unfurling his wings carefully.

Settling back down on the bed, Moe laughed a little and tucked his hair behind his ear. "Of course! What do you want your room to look like?" He looked eager, pausing in the drawing of Jackie to get out another sketchbook, full of designs, fabrics, swatches and wallpapers. "Maybe I can work on your room to start off? Then you can tell other people about me." His eyes lit up and he hovered his pencil over a blank page in his design book.

"Hmm, I can bring some over next time and we can draw something together! Have you ever used oil paints before? Or gouache?" The brunette tilted his head, then quietly began to draw the layout of Jackie's room, before shaking his head and leaving it behind him to finish the original drawing of Jackie - the dragon princess. After a few silent minutes, Moe turned the page round and laughed. "It's you!" He beamed, pointing at the dragon. "You're a brand new sort of princess."

Of course, when Jackie mentioned mac and cheese, Moe had a quiet thought. He'd not really made something like that for a long time - preferring the food he normally ate back in Japan. "Well... how about I make princess food? Cupcakes and ..." He trailed off. What DID princesses eat? Cute little sandwiches. But that wasn't a proper dinner. "Ooh! Do you like Spaghetti and meat balls? Like in Lady and the Tramp?"

When he was asked the question, Moe blinked, then tapped his knee in thought. "... A pouffy long dress please." His eyes sparkled. Jackie was officially adorable.

[Jackie Vick]

Jackie's eyes widened at the mention of magic and she nodded. Despite having seen so much of it from Elliot and her dad, she was still always in awe of people who could do things she couldn't. Jealous? Not really.

Anyway.

"Oh yes, please." She breathed and her eyes widened even further when the wings started to sprout from behind Moe. "Oh my gosh Moe they're so pretty! You're a fairy princess!" Jackie squeaked, her hand moving across the page in a tizzy as she tried to incorporate Moe's wings into the drawing.

She looked up at Moe when she asked what Jackie wanted for her room. "Could you?" She was suddenly torn between concentrating on Moe's drawing and the ideas already spawning in her head. "I will definitely tell everybody I know about you. Definitely." Jackie nodded as she sifted through all her ideas to get a ready picture of what she wanted her room to look like.

"No! I'm not that talented yet. I've only just used my pencil." She waved her pencil around with a little shy grin. When Moe concentrated on her drawing, Jackie did the same. The wings were hard to draw but she tried her darndest. Looking up at Moe's drawing of her, Jackie's eyes sparkled at the dragon. "Oh wow, that is so awesome! I can keep that right?" Her smile hopeful.

At the mention of food, Jackie shook her head. "Oh I don't mind an-" that was until Moe mentioned Lady and the Tramp. "That would be brilliant. Yes please!" she enthused and rapidly sped up her drawing process and grinned at the end result. A pouffy dressed Moe with wings.

She handed Moe the drawing and looked at her expectantly.

[Misato Hazukashi]

Moe breathed a sigh of relief as Jackie's reaction was good, and giggled softly. He continued to sketch the perfect picture of Jackie and the dragon, before laughing brightly. "We'll make you some wings later so you can be a princess with me, okay?" He asked softly, stroking through the girl's hair fondly. Kids were so adorable.

Once the picture was fully finished and Jackie was happy with it, Moe returned to his other sketchbook and flicked through the samples of wallpapers and floorings, then flipped open the other books he had for interior design. "Okay, well, what sort of colours do you want?" The boy asked warmly, passing over the samples and tilting his head. "If you see anything you like, point it out and I'll talk to your daddy tonight."

"And I'll draw it out all pretty and get it designed up." The pixie explained. "Then I'll send it to you and get discounts on the stuff you want." Moe was practically fizzing with the idea of beginning his interior design career with designing the most adorable girly bedroom ever.

When Jackie passed Moe her drawing, Moe put his hand on his chest. "Oh that's beautiful! Thank you." He swooned, pushing the drawing into his bag so he could take it home and pin it onto the fridge. It was his first little bit of gift art - aside from when Vin drew a stick man with a big penis and handed it to him. "And of course you can keep it! It's you." He laughed, tucking his hair behind his ear and then pondering where there could be some big paper for making wings.

After a few moments of rummaging, Moe gave up and laughed. "How about we get started on these cupcakes, Jackie? Do you have sprinkles? Else we can go to the shops and pick some up."

[Jackie Vick]

The prospect of being a winged princess had Jackie just jumping around in excitement. In her head that is. She was always so embarrassed to outwardly show her happy emotions. But she did lean into Moe's hand and smiled. "Yes please." She grinned up at Moe and continued with her sketching.

But the opening of Moe's sketchbook completely derailed Jackie's concentration and soon enough, she was picking out designs and samples and squealing over felt walls and furry lamps. "That's super awesome, thank you Moe!" Jackie practically glomped Moe from the side, squeezing the other girl gently, completely unaware of the absence of girl parts.

Glad that Moe liked it, she tore it out and handed it to her babysitter. "You're so easy to draw." Jackie nodded earnestly. Her smile widened when Moe said she could keep the drawing and she rummaged through her desk to find the folder she used to keep drawings from other people. "Do you mind terribly signing it at the bottom? I like keeping people's autographs. Just in case they become famous some day." She grinned.

"Oh I've got rainbow sprinkles!" Jackie closed her sketchbook and kept her things where she found them and grabbed Moe's hand to pull her down to the kitchen. "Daddy lets me have a whole section in the kitchen just for my baking supplies. Not even Elliot can touch it. Not that he would. He doesn't even go near the kitchen if he can help it." Jackie giggled before presenting Moe with her pantry filled with a few boxes of instant cookie/brownie/waffle/pancake mix on the days when she was too lazy to make things from scratch. Among other things.

It was also where she kept her beloved Kitchenaid mixer and other baking supplies. "Okay, so what kind of cupcakes do you have in mind to make?" Jackie asked as she pulled out all the equipments and mixing bowls, excited she had someone just as enthusiastic about baking as she was.

[Misato Hazukashi]

The fact Jackie was so grateful was so lovely, and Moe hugged her gently in return, jotting down which samples and pictures the girl wanted. Soon enough he had a catalogue of ideas written down, and he hummed to himself happily. After a few quick sketches, Moe turned his design portfolio over for Jackie to look at. "How does this look for starters?" He asked with a smile, pointing out the sketch of a princessy bed with love hearts in brass.

He did blink in surprise when Jackie asked for his signature, and he carefully did it in lovely loopy handwriting, before jotting down the Hiragana and Kanji underneath too. It was a habit he really couldn't break no matter how long he'd been in the USA. "There, is that better?" He asked sweetly, setting his sketchbook back in his bag now he had an idea of what Jackie wanted for her room.

As Moe was tugged downstairs, he beamed brightly at all the cooking ingredients the girl had kept aside. "This is perfect!" He shouted excitedly, taking all the bits he needed for their cupcakes and dinner, and putting them in organised piles on the kitchen counter. "I was thinking we could make strawberry vanilla swirl cupcakes. My mumma taught me how to make them when I was little." He explained, running his perfectly manicured fingernails over the kitchenaid with a little breathless sigh.

"I want one of these at home but my boyfriend says he can mix things better with his arms." Moe pouted, shaking his head. "It's silly, he makes a mess everywhere and eats all the batter." The brunette put his hands on his hips, then looked down at Jackie fondly. "I'm glad you like to cook! Sometimes I have to put a DVD on for people who don't like it, but I like doing it together with someone." He nodded, then began checking he had everything ready.

"Have you ever had homemade pasta noodles?" Moe asked curiously, spotting a pasta mill over in the top cupboard. "We can do that too if you want?" This was where Moe was at his most comfortable - or at least, one of his favourite places to be. There was enough stuff to make everything the pair of them wanted, and he couldn't stop grinning.

Leaning down, he whispered. "I think you're my favourite." And with that, he gave a tiny wink.

[Jackie Vick]

As Moe started on the sketch, Jackie found herself growing oh so excited, hoping her father wouldn't be too opposed to her changing the entire layout of her bedroom. She was sure he wouldn't mind. He was such an awesome daddy. A rough sketch was presented to her and Jackie looked it over once before adding in her own ideas. When she was done, the room looked perfect.

"There. That's what I want." Jackie said, all too comfortable with Moe to realise she had basically changed up Moe's idea. Not by too much but it was a change all the same. She just hoped Moe didn't mind. "I...I hope you don't mind...I wasn't unhappy with what you have or anything but I thought I could add...things." She offered Moe a little smile.

With the sketch of her and the dragon signed, she slipped it into her folder and kept it in her drawer once more. "It's perfect. Could you teach me how to write like that?" Jackie asked politely. Oh Jackie was in love with Moe, she was just super!

Glad her other passion was appreciated, Jackie felt like she was on cloud nine. Her babysitter was just so super amazing. They both shared common loves and she was even dressed as a Disney princess. Daddy made good.

Giggling, Jackie wondered how someone thinks they can do mixings well with their arms. "Your boyfriend is silly," she responded earnestly, meaning no harm whatsoever. "Well, I want to learn how to properly cook. Like daddy does but I'm just really content with baking. I leave the cooking to daddy most of the time." She nodded with a smile as she grabbed the stool she always used whenever she baked. She was still growing so things were still a little too high for her to reach.

"I haven't! Daddy usually buys the ones in packets cause it's easier for him to dump them into one place and be done with it." She giggled once more. She loved her daddy, really. "I'm none too fussy about how it's cooked. I'm sure whatever you make will turn out awesome, Moe." Jackie grinned, tilting her head to the side slightly.

When Moe whispered into her ear, Jackie blushed and thanked her. "I think you're my favourite too!" The little girl laughed at the wink before getting the proper mixing bowl to get the baking going.

[Misato Hazukashi]

Moe didn't mind at all that Jackie had added her own ideas, it just meant that the design would be more perfect and suited to her. "No no, don't apologise, it's just what I needed to make sure it was perfect." He smiled gently and gave a thumbs up to her, before wondering how much it would cost to get everything for the room.

"Sure, it's Japanese." Moe explained, tilting his head. "It's my native language, but I've been in the USA for a long time now." He admitted, sighing a bit. "My mum and dad and my little brother are back in Japan, I miss them sometimes." He nodded, then yawned, touching his lips thoughtfully. "It's a difficult language to learn but you're smart, I bet you'd pick it up really fast." He added with a big smile.

Moe definitely agreed that his boyfriend was silly. Vincent was, well, thick as two short planks and that was the nice way of putting it. "I can cook lots of foods from my home country and picnic food." He laughed a little, offering Jackie the flour to measure out. "Some of them take a long time to learn but it's worth it." Moe said with a chuckle, cracking eggs into the bowl. Checking the book he'd brought down with the recipe in, he flicked through the pages and made a note to add the vanilla essence to the eggs after they were whisked.

"I'll see how we are for time after we're done with the cupcakes." Moe added, thinking about how long it might take to make spaghetti. "Shall we save some dinner for your dad?" He asked curiously, tilting his head. He was sure that Mitchell would like it if he could have some carefully made supper with cupcakes.

"We can definitely make our own meatballs though! That'll be fun." He giggled, checking for any shell in the eggs before giving them a good whisk by hand to get them started. "Here we are, is the mixer ready?" He smiled, feeling happy to be making something with someone so likeminded.