Babysitting the boss's daughter!

[Tanya O'Douette]

"By that time, I could just invite you out to breakfast! One I would actually remember!" she couldn't help but throw in those couple of lines with a giggle, all too aware of her father's food promises to Hoch that were always broken.

She appeared happier now, at least she felt a bit happier now. Everything still felt a little surreal to her but that was something that the next day or two would help her get over. For now she gave Hoch an appreciative smile and felt oddly comfortable.

"That is sweet of you, though, and I appreciate that. I appreciate you doing this as well, Mr. Kreatur. You're a real gentleman," she moved smoothly as she spoke, giving him little room for reaction as she leaned in and gave him a sweet kiss on the cheek.

[Hoch Kreatur]

If Hoch could have reacted he probably would have tried to stop it, not because he was afraid it meant little more than something of appreciation but because Morgan would have his head for it if he saw Tanya kiss Hoch, even if it was just on the cheek! Hoch chuckled nervously as he glanced around, suddenly feeling like he was being watched or something... he was being paranoid, of course.

"Haha, oh m'lady I think you've had a bit too much juice!" He joked as he set aside his own drink, "But really, to me you guys are my family. I'm always happy to help."

[Tanya O'Douette]

"I almost feel bad for you, it's a very 'special' family we have," Tanya said with a shrug, "everyone's always fighting somebody in our home. We rarely have quiet family dinners, and trying to get us to all get together to do anything is like placing a handful of different wild beasts in a cage together and expecting them to get along. Those troubles are easily set aside when someone harms one of us. We tend to function better as a family when there's a threat somehow. How weird is that?"

[Hoch Kreatur]

"Eh, sounds like family really." Hoch shrugged. Her story was a bit of a extreme when compared to most families, but there was still an underlining resemblance, "Granted the dangers that present themselves to you are a bit extreme than a mere bully or financial dilemmas..."

Now that he thought about it, they wouldn't exactly win family of the year... or even rank in the top thousand. In fact they were a pretty awful family when you REALLY think about it all!

"The fact that you guys all come together when there is danger truly shows that you all care for each other. The danger cuts through all the bullshit of trying to show it, I reason."

[Tanya O'Douette]

Tanya placed her chin in her hands as she thought about it. She loved her family, even if her sister and brother were the most annoying little brats in the world. Her parents bickered all the time, and depending on how much patience her mother had really determined how much they fought. Her mother was the most baffling of them all, but maybe that was because in a lot of ways she saw similarities between herself and her mother. The woman never shared much for her thoughts, she just spent a lot of her time working, mediating problems at home and then whatever went on between her and her father. Gillian wasn't known to say everything on her mind, and it worried Tanya sometimes because the odd time something did come out of the woman, it wasn't always what she would have expected. She still remembered vaguely overhearing her mother telling a friend that Aria was the only child out of the three of them she had planned to have. Tanya knew well enough that she was an accident, but her younger brother was a puzzling one to her. Tanya wouldn't dare ask Gillian about it for fear of her finding out that Tanya heard it, but she oddly felt as though she didn't want to ask her father about it, either. Something about that one was amiss.

Tanya wouldn't put it past her that it was an unconditional love they seemed to have for each other but it definitely was different than most families she'd heard of.

"I'm glad you're part of our family then, Mr. Kreatur," she said with a smile and a bit of a chuckle, "Daddy says strength comes in numbers."

[Hoch Kreatur]

Hoch grinned, his mind drifting briefly back to his blood family in Ellusia. He sometimes missed them, talking with his sibling or taking morning walks with his father, they were basic people content on where their life was... Hoch wasn't like that, he wasn't like most Dwarv Minors who happily became personnel slaves of the Imperial family after delivering many victories in the war to cement his power. His father warned him about how the taste of gold would drive him towards his end, but dammit the taste was too good to give up!

He shook his head of those thoughts, "Well, it's getting late. You can use my bed and I'll take the couch." Hoch said, pointing over towards the door that led to his room, "At least until we get the 'okay' from your dad." Hoch figured Tanya was warn out from all the excitement, and the brief thoughts about his own family left Hoch with a bitter taste in his mouth.

[Tanya O'Douette]

Tanya nodded. She was admittedly tired, though she didn't want to sleep quite yet. It was probably better for her though after what had happened tonight. She wasn't sure what would have happened to her tonight if her father and Hoch hadn't shown up, or what would have happened if, at worst, the two men would have been killed instead.

Tanya didn't want to think of the possibilities, what was important was that she was fine now. Just one more problem to get through, that was all.

"I suppose I should let you sleep. You are the 'old man' afterall," she said teasingly as she rose herself from the couch, "but if I'm using your bed I'll be the one to make you breakfast. I insist on that."

[Hoch Kreatur]

"Of course!" Hoch said with a clap of his hands, "I was hoping that I wouldn't have to make anything in the morning! You make the food I'll get the juice!" Making breakfasts were part of Hoch's schedule, but certainly he wouldn't mind being made something... he appreciated it when people appreciated him.

[Tanya O'Douette]

Tanya offered Hoch a polite nod as she was left to go lay down. She couldn't sleep right away, so she lay on top of the covers and stared up at the ceiling for awhile having a back and forth messaging session with her father on her phone. He scoffed at them drinking juice (he personally was more of a wine or hard liquor kind of man) and made little jabs about them being "two little girls at a sleepover" but she took it all as light-hearted joking. She asked him how much longer he would be, and he answered 'soon', that things were moving along a lot better than he expected. He would let her know when he could come collect her.

Until then she waited, hands folded over her stomach as her thoughts drifted over the evening again. Again and again, and every time she found herself coming to Parker with the most conflicted of feelings. She wasn't sure if she was upset or if she hated him, though logically so she told herself she shouldn't care. When Tanya really thought about it, feelings aside, Parker really was just a scumbag and always had been. The first time he had been trusted to drive her home was the most terrifying experience of her life (until tonight, anyway), and he had been told the rules very clearly by Periot then, too.

"Take her straight home. Don't stare at her, don't talk to her, and for all of our sakes don't touch her in any way..."

Things were fairly new between Periot and her father, she remembered. That was why that was so important to him that Parker listened. He was a nice enough man, though a bit too nice to fully understand why he was told to do exactly as he was ordered to do. Tanya was used to a routine, she was surrounded by criminals held on a leash by her father and so the routine needed to be followed. So when Parker started making friendly chitchat she felt awkward and told him to stop. That was another word Parker didn't really understand either, now that she thought of it. He'd read her body language as being sad or uncomfortable, so then he'd taken a completely different route and then he stopped the vehicle at the top of a hill, at a lookout point away from any major streets and nearby homes and businesses.
It was kind of funny now that she remembered it, the sun was setting and in Parker's mind he felt the view that they had would have helped calm her--it really was beautiful, he had the right idea at heart. But at the time, he didn't realize at this point he was a strange man, deliberately disobeyed orders, and took the two of them alone to a point in the city where help was inaccessible and Tanya panicked, freed herself from the car and ran down the road. Parker ran after her, but he had a lot of reasoning ahead of him to try to coax her back into the car with him. He was damn lucky Tanya didn't say anything to Morgan then.

Parker always followed Tanya like an excited puppy, always happy to see her. Her father would have been angry at both of them if he knew how much she actually had snuck out with him, and that she'd even been to his place before. He always tried to get more out of her than she wanted to give, she wouldn't kiss him but he tried anyway, among other things when he managed to get that far. She really should have known that a guy who took "maybe" as "yes" and "no" as "maybe if you keep trying" wasn't really worth the time, but she went along with it anyway. She liked to think that it was because despite whatever he did to try to persuade her into things, when she drew the line she had her father to threaten him with. Parker always understood that consequence easily.

Tanya closed her eyes and softly giggled to herself. Hoch was sweet for listening, though these were things that she felt were still best kept to herself.

'I shouldn't miss Parker. He was trouble from the beginning, he only lasted as long as he did because of me. I don't think he should die, but Dad will make the best judgment...'


She felt like she'd barely closed her eyes when she jolted awake, mostly because her fairly boring dream suddenly took the form of the vivid memory of her being trapped in the back of the gang's van again. She hated that feeling, being locked in a cube of space and screaming for help but no one's listening. She had no gun, if she had it was the only thing she could defend herself with but even that was gone. Tanya felt tears roll down her cheeks. What was a girl supposed to do in a situation like that?

She took a deep breath and wiped her eyes, it was over and there was no point in letting it bother her now. She turned her head and saw that there was daylight out now and immediately she grabbed her phone. No messages from Parker. 'That would mean he's...'

Oddly enough there were no messages from Morgan, either, which puzzled Tanya a bit. She thought he would have at least replied to her last one, and he'd mentioned he wouldn't be much longer. It wasn't quite like him to not keep her updated but that also she figured must have been for a reason only he knew of.

Tanya tiptoed out of the room, peering around for any movement from Hoch. She wasn't sure if he would be awake or not, but as she remembered she had a breakfast she promised him.

[Hoch Kreatur]

The silence of the early morning was suddenly broke when a light humming sound buzzed through his apartment, "Tee.Tee. TEEEEEEE." the loud buzzing sound of that juice maker suddenly turned on, pouring a cool glass of juice into the cup below. Hoch leaped up from the couch, giving a small grow as he rubbed the back of his head, clearly suffering from sleeping on the couch for the night. "That inferno machine. If I didn't like the drink so much I'd throw it out the window."

Hoch reached for his phone, one of the first things he ever does in the morning, turning it on and looking for any messages... to his shock, there was absolutely none. "Odd..." Hoch summed up before glancing over at the kitchen, his thoughts now turning towards the juice awaiting him. It was then he suddenly remembered that he had a guest and his neck suddenly craned towards his room, where he spotted Tanya. He ran his hands through his hair, adjusting any loose strands back into their place before addressing her in a rather sluggish voice, "Good morning." 

[Tanya O'Douette]

The juicer startled Tanya though she worked hard to try to stifle the yelp for fear of potentially waking up Hoch. It appeared even he, too, had been moved by the machine. Relaxing herself Tanya gave Hoch a pleasant smile, noting that the poor man could have probably done with more sleep.

"Good morning, Mr. Kreatur. Would you like me to grab you something?" by now Tanya had awkwardly felt as though she was over-staying her welcome, and as such she preferred to try to at least be of some use to the man rather than pose as the annoying guest. Though of course that also begged the question...

"Have you...has Daddy said anything to you yet? I think he was busy, so I haven't heard from him."

[Hoch Kreatur]

"I'm alright," Hoch responded as he yawned. Glancing briefly back at his phone as she questioned if Morgan had sent him any word yet, it wasn't like Morgan to text him in the morning but given the events that had occurred last night he had expected some sort of confirmation that everything was okay. "No, though. I've got nothing..."

His mind started to drift to possible scenarios; the biggest possibility being it still wasn't safe, but even then Morgan would have probably informed Hoch on the progress of things. The other likely scenario was that after the completion of the mission Morgan decided to relax with his good friend mana, which still was unlikely given how much he treasured Tanya he'd want her back home as soon as possible.


"I'm sure everything's alright, he's probably just very busy..." He was tempted to turn on the news, in case he was perhaps caught by the army or something. Not that the news would be talking about anything other than a cargo ship full of mana sinking.  

[Tanya O'Douette]

"Of course."

Tanya smiled, somehow hearing Hoch say that her father must be fine seemed to be good enough of a confirmation for her. The only thing on her mind then was her family at home. She hadn't thought to let her mother know last night she was going out (for obvious reasons), and the plan as she knew it originally was for her to return home before morning so ideally her mother would never know she'd been missing. Had her father taken care of that, too? She hadn't been given orders on that either.

Tanya pulled out her phone and looked between it and Hoch. Without thinking much of it she dialed her house number and pieced together an emergency alibi while she waited for someone to pick up on the other end. After numerous rings, she gave the clock a highly confused stare and hung up the phone.

"Mum isn't picking up. She and Matty are usually up by now..."

Her father was one thing, but it was still a little too early for her family to be out. It was too late for her mother at least to be still sleeping as well, and as such the distress showed in Tanya's features as she glanced at Hoch, however much she tried to hide it.

"Those men from last night...you don't think...no, maybe not. Maybe I should try again. Mum might just be busy also, that's all. I need to find your cooking supplies!"

She jumped subjects quickly enough, mostly to keep her mind on a more positive track. She even practically leaped into the kitchen at that moment to dig through cupboards just to keep herself busy.

[Hoch Kreatur]

While Hoch's words may have been enough to calm Tanya, it made no reassurance to Hoch at all. He combed back his hair once more as Tanya let to the kitchen, his mind going over the many things he should be doing. "I'm going to go get ready for the rest of the day. If you have trouble finding anything just call me..."

He quickly escaped to his room, darting into the bathroom and closing the door shut. He flipped on the tv that was hanging from the wall and scrolled to the new channel, hoping to catch any clue to what had happened last night. 'Damn, I should have been there with him!' Hoch hissed, suddenly regretting the decision to stay in. He didn't want Tanya to worry about anything that was going on, so Hoch decided now was a good time to take a shower while waiting to see if anything was on the news about him.

[Tanya O'Douette]

As Hoch had earlier predicted it had seemed that most of the news recently was centered around the Ice'ly cargo ship, stuffed to the brim with mana, having a rather costly and unfortunate sink. The city police and the military had a very busy night dealing with the ship cleanup and the investigations. Elsewhere seemed like minor enough news, a gang fight that broke out with the destruction of a drug lab in the process, usual petty robberies around all parts of the city, and several deaths. Just when it might have seemed that all was well enough, Morgan's name eventually cropped up as part of a 'Thelotian man rushed to hospital after being shot down while entering his vehicle at x time last night' kind of story. It was briefly skimmed over just like the rest so the team could cover the cargo ship again, but he was in there.

In the meantime, a loud crashing of metal sounded from the kitchen as a sign that Tanya had found the pans alright. Finding food was easy, finding the tools was not. Once she had both, she oddly enough presented a great skill for putting together a meal efficiently and with flair. In the minutes Hoch had been gone Tanya hadn't yet heard anything from her family but as she got into getting everything ready, she figured she might as well wait until afterward to try again.