Third floor common room [Sunday afternoon]

[makemyownway.livejournal.com]

It had taken most of yesterday for it to sink in that Cade had no real supervision. He had spent most of the morning jumping on his bed until he'd catapaulted off if it and landed in his closet (...he'd pretend he meant to do that...), and was now looking for something to eat in the common room.

He levitated a box of cereal from the cabinet and sat down on the sofa, eating it by the handful.

Life was astral when you were three.

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[shippedtomaine]

At nine Emma had already gotten into the habit of stashing anything that would keep in her bag with her blanket, so she hadn't starved yesterday while waiting for some new caseworker to show to go with the new digs (which they hadn't), but now that was gone and she was hungry so she'd gone in search of something to eat.

She watched the tiny boy on the sofa with a far-too-jaded eye, this might have been the nicest group-home she'd been shipped to but it was also the least supervised.

[makemyownway.livejournal.com]

Cade gave her a sticky smile. "Hi. Want some cereal?"

[shippedtomaine]

"Hey," Emma said, giving him a brief smile, because he was pretty cute. Enough that he'd probably get placed pretty quick.

"Sure, kid." You never turned down free food, unless you thought it'd make you sick.

[makemyownway.livejournal.com]

"It's over in that cabinet," he said, pointing.

Because even at three, Cade was big into what was his.

[shippedtomaine]

Emma...was not surprised. Not really.

She headed over to the cabinet to see what she could find.

[makemyownway.livejournal.com]

"The chocolate one is good," Cade offered.

[shippedtomaine]

"Is it the one with marshmallows?" Personally Emma thought marshmallows in cereal was kinda weird, but she'd never gotten to try it and she wanted to.

[flickofthewrist]

Through some miraculous miracle, Flick hadn't been turned into a kid this weekend and he was really thankful for that. He didn't need the trauma of his childhood returning to beat him down.

Most everyone else seemed to be the size of garden gnomes though so he pushed any sadness that wanted to bubble up at none of these kids being Jude down and wandered into the first common room with a kid in it he saw.

Maybe he'd know the kid and could hold this over his head later.

"You sharing?" he asked, glancing at the cereal box and the the small child.

[makemyownway.livejournal.com]

"No," Cade said, "but there's lots more over there!"

[flickofthewrist]

Smart kid.

"What if I wanted yours?" Flick asked, just to see what the little guy would say. "Grass is always greener and all that."

[makemyownway.livejournal.com]

Cade turned great big green eyes on him. "Tough."

[flickofthewrist]

"Smartass," Flick said, amused. "I could step on you like a bug."

[makemyownway.livejournal.com]

"I can kick you really hard," Cade countered.

[flickofthewrist]

"Yeah, maybe you'd even be able to react my foot when you did that." Because he was very, very small. "And maybe you'd kick me hard enough to even get me to notice! Maybe."

[makemyownway.livejournal.com]

Cade glared at him, then hopped off the sofa to kick him straight in the shin.

Hard.

Cade always was a violent guy.

[flickofthewrist]

The only thing that probably saved Flick's shins was that Cade was still small so a hard kick with a small leg stung but didn't send him to the ground.

He still hissed and glared at the kid. "You want me to kick you back, kid?"

[makemyownway.livejournal.com]

Cade's face crumpled up as he started wailing.

[shippedtomaine]

Emma looked eyed the tall boy suspiciously. Older kids either ignored younger kids, or pushed them around, especially when adults weren't watching.

Looking out for them came a distant third.

[flickofthewrist]

Years spent with his kid brother look after him (and feeling guilty that the roles weren't reversed) meant Flick wasn't one to really push younger kids around.

"What's up?" he asked, giving the girl a two fingered salute. "You here looking for food too? That's the reason I'm awake and here."

[shippedtomaine]

Emma still didn't trust him, but he didn't look like he was lying.

"Yeah," she said. "Looks like there's more than enough here." Which was a change.

[flickofthewrist]

"Not something you're used to?" he guessed, keeping his distance from her. Didn't want to scare a kid. He wasn't a monster (or maybe he was but he was denying that). "When'd you last eat?"

[shippedtomaine]

"Yesterday." She'd made those granola bars last the entire day.

Her non-committal answer was belied by her stomach choosing that moment to growl. Loudly.

[flickofthewrist]

Yeah, the noise coming from her stomach made one corner of Flick's mouth turn up into something resembling a smile.

"Sounds like you're pretty hungry now" he asked, nodding at the kitchen. "Wanna help me find some decent food?"

[shippedtomaine]

Emma thought about it and nodded. "Okay."

She could always kick him in the shins if he tried anything.

[flickofthewrist]

"Cool." Flick headed into the kitchen, already pulling the refrigerator open to peer inside. "You hungry for anything in particular?"

Food was probably just food for her, though. It'd been that way for him when he was younger.