Babysitting the boss's daughter!

[Hoch Kreatur]

Tick. Tick. TEEEEEEEE. The alarm that was connected to a small little juice machine suddenly burst to life, echoing across the apartment before unleashing a dark liquid into the cup below. Hoch had it set for 9 PM, he always enjoyed a drink before going to sleep and the machine provided a freshly squeezed, ice cold fruit drink right on time. Unfortunately, Hoch wasn't home, he evidently forgot to turn it off or perhaps felt he would have been home on time.

It would be another ten minutes until Hoch's car pulled up along side the massive skyscraper. Hoch's driver turned off the car, stepped out and opened the door for the two of them to exit. "That will be all for now." Hoch said towards his driver, dismissing him for the night. Hoch didn't plan on leaving Tanya's side, if something were to happen to her he'd never forgive himself, nor would Morgan...

"You've been here before, right?" Hoch asked Tanya, "I've only lived here for a year or so, but I'm sure I've invited you and your family here during that year?" He scratched his chin in thought as they entered through the lobby and into the elevator. Hoch simply shrugged, "Well, perhaps not. Anyway you're going to love the view from my place, it's truly something to admire!"

[Tanya O'Douette]

Tanya was silent through the drive to Hoch's place, a lot of her attention seemed to be on playing with several strands of her long hair and staring out the window. She was a very timid girl for the most part, eyes always on people she was unfamiliar with and easily startled by even the slightest, house-settling bumps in a building.

With Hoch, she felt almost as much at ease as she was with her father. Most of that was probably because she knew that Hoch could get ahold of Morgan at any time if he needed to, but it was easy to see how quickly the girl changed going from one environment to another, she was a lot more generally cautious when she was separated from Morgan.  Tanya couldn't remember a meaningful time that she'd been to Hoch's new place, it wasn't something that until now she hadn't been really required to remember, she felt.

She followed the shorter man into the elevator, hands still twisting and pulling her hair over her shoulder the whole time as she examined the box they stood in. She wasn't the biggest fan of elevators because they seemed to give her a 'trapped' feeling in the worst of times, but that was also only when she being the very scared, shy little girl that she was. In the right light, the elevator was one of the easiest forms of escape for her. She actually really liked heights.

"I'm...sorry for inconveniencing you, Mr. Kreatur," she spoke, her voice was very soft but she made eye contact with him and tried to be very polite.

[Hoch Kreatur]

Hoch stared over at Tanya, not saying a word as he examined the state of her. She was clearly uncomfortable and perhaps in a bit of shock from all that had happened, who wouldn't be though?

Hoch shook his head and laughed, "Don't worry miss Flyn. If I wasn't going to entertain you I'd probably just go to bed. I'm old like that... going to bed at nine, who does that?" Hoch laughed as the elevator reached its floor. "Come on, we're almost there." Hoch led Tanya down a couple of halls before reaching his door. He slipped his key out and reached to unlock the door - unlike his offices he had a lower door handle!

"Alrighty, welcome to my humble residents m'lady." There was nothing 'humble' about this place, the furniture was hardly anything the average Thelotian would have - from a leather couch imported from the Land of the Independent to the very latest gadgets, it was truly an apartment fitting of the Thelotian elite. Hoch stepped in, sniffing the air he snapped his fingers, "Oh man, I left my juicer on!"

Dwarv Minor's noses were incredibly trained for the smell of anything sweet, so while the smell of the cold fruit drink was invisible to Tanya it was about as potent as the smell of coffee for Hoch. "Make yourself comfortable, please! Turn on the tv, or uh, I got some books over on the shelf!" He said as he shuffled into the kitchen, "OH, do you want anything to drink? I got some really tasting fruit drinks."

[Tanya O'Douette]

Tanya blinked, watching him zip about her trying to be the very best host. She smiled, she was grateful he was being as accommodating as he was given the circumstances.

"You don't look that old, Mr. Kreatur," she replied airily, a little laugh escaped her as she took a seat on the couch. She seemed to have relaxed a little bit now that they were indoors.

"I will drink whatever you are willing to offer. Is there anything I can help with?"

[Hoch Kreatur]

"Haha," Hoch cackled from behind the kitchen counter, "Being a Dwarv Minor doesn't have a lot of benefits, keeping my youth is one though!" He wasn't that old, that was a lie. Dwarv Minors keeping their youthful looks? That was actually true, you could be sixty and still look young!

He took the one cup off the machine and slipped another in, clicking the on button it poured what was left of the juice into another cup. "If you don't like this juice I have other things! This is grape juice, I also have apple juice, strawberry juice, pineapple juice, blackberry juice... and what else... OH and watermelon juice but that's really only for hardcore juice drinkers."

He came walking out of the kitchen with two cups in his hand, resting them both on the coffee table in front of the couch, he pulled himself up and sat against the cushions. It felt good to sit down in his home again.

[Tanya O'Douette]

Too many choices. Hoch was trying to be too good of a host, Tanya thought.

"I'm fine with this, thank you," she said sweetly, giving him a polite nod as she took one of the cups in her hands. She found herself glancing out the window, noticing how high they sat up from the ground. Oddly enough, it felt very comforting. In her own home they were close enough on the second floor that someone could climb up and break in. This view quite exhilarating, something that stirred an urge in her to dance or...or something. She wasn't sure but she wished she'd brought along the costume she'd stashed away in her closet at home, she would have to remember to try out a few gadgets when she decided she was...well, prepared enough to take on a skyscraper. That was the only thing that really brought her down at the moment, knowing that with her experience she'd probably still be killed.

Tanya whipped her head back to face Hoch, her black hair falling softly over her shoulders and she gave him a playful smile and a giggle.

"I would ask how old you are but I don't want to come off rude..." she spoke over the lip of her cup, giving the fresh juice a deserved sniffing before she took a small sip.

[Hoch Kreatur]

"It would be very rude, wouldn't it m'lady?" Hoch teased as he brought the cup to lips, letting the sugary juice dance around his lips before swallowing a small gulp of it. "I remember back when I served the El family - eighteen times removed from the Emperor of Ellusia - everybody in that household were brought up with the greatest of respect! Nobody ever asked a Dwarv Minor their age, much less spoke a word to any of us."

He winked at Tanya to let her know he was merely teasing her, "I'm twenty five." He set the cup down, giving a great sigh before glancing back at her. His curiosity could not be held back any further, he had to ask...

"What happened tonight?" He questioned, letting it linger there for a moment before adding, "O-of course if you don't want to talk about it, that's fine! Too hard to bring up or simply not wishing to discuss that type of business, I understand completely!"

[Tanya O'Douette]

Tanya was willing to shrug off the first comment he made about her enquiring about his age but then as he went into his service in Ellusia she began to think that she might have struck a nerve with him. She stared at him the whole time over her cup and held it close, and seeing afterwards that he was only joking relieved her. Regardless, perhaps it was best she didn't poke into something like that again.

She'd taken another sip of the juice when Hoch asked her about the evening before he and her father showed up and immediately the girl seemed to tense up again. Setting her own cup down she reached suddenly for her phone, mumbling, "Oh yes, I need to do this..."
If Hoch could see it from where he sat, she was busying herself with deleting messages that her phone exchanged with an unknown number earlier.

"S-sorry, Mr. Kreatur. I...you're willing to tell me your age, I could do at least this much," she gave him a sheepish smile, "I was at home. I got a message from...s-someone to go meet them. I snuck out and..."

She bit her lip.

"Well, they were waiting for me it seems."

[Hoch Kreatur]

This was Morgan's daughter, right? Her ability to lie was just downright shameful to the family's name! Morgan seriously work on that...

Hoch stared at Tanya with a dull face, "You know, I'm not one of your dad's spies. I don't have to tell him everything I hear. So you don't have to worry about me ratting you out. By the Emperor, I would sneak out of the estate all the time; mostly to hook up with the local girls from the village below... ah, they didn't exactly think I was handsome or anything but they liked the fact I worked around the Imperials! I somehow suspect your story isn't too different... not about the sneaking out to be with girls or anything, BUT you know, perhaps it is!"

Careful Hoch, now you are sounding old AND creepy.

[Tanya O'Douette]

She didn't think she was that obvious, and at the same time it wasn't quite the right story. Tanya closed her eyes and squeezed the phone in her hands, breathing in and out very deeply for a few moments. When she finally spoke again her eyes were still closed, but she seemed way calmer than before, like somehow she'd just shifted gears in her mind.

"It's not me I worry about," she said slowly, opening her eyes and staring down at the table in front of them, a look so serious in her eyes it would kill if it could, "though...I don't think it matters much anymore. I don't want anything more to do with him."

Tanya sighed and looked back to Hoch with a conflicted look on her face, one that tried to smile but distress was evident in her eyes as she spoke.

"So fine. It was Parker, you saw him. If you've met him before you'd remember him as the 'runt', or one of Periot's little friends. He's not very well-handled in combat, he's not very strong, he's not very bright, but if you put him behind the wheel of anything he knows his way around it better than anyone you could possibly imagine. He's not well-liked in Daddy's little 'elite' roster because it's all he can really do, drive well and drive fast."

For a moment she paused, a smile just as devilish as her own father's creeping onto her features as she set her phone down onto the table and folded her hands in her lap.

"Daddy doesn't like any of them even so much as looking at me, and very few are allowed near me. It hasn't been well-received by many that Parker is allowed that as well, someone so 'dumb' and 'useless' in the midst of competent fighters and smarter thieves but Daddy felt it necessary that someone with his particular skillset be someone we keep close. He knows our family. He's trusted to drive me many places alone because he's good at it and better under pressure.

And that's how it started. He's not much of a charmer, but he knows the city very well. We would take detours, he would show me some of the interesting sights around the city. Nothing ever went on, we would just go for a drive and that was it. I kissed him once, after we tore through the busiest streets in the financial district on his motorbike. He only got that from me because the whole time he was only one wrong move away from killing one or both of us and he told me he only did what he was good at and shined brighter than every star in the sky when he did it.

So we started talking, more about us, perhaps trying to edge our way into a secret kind of thing together. Daddy will never accept him, and the first moment he finds out anything could be going on he'll kill Parker, I'm sure. I don't know what happened tonight, Mr. Kreatur. He messaged me to meet him, he hid around the corner and I snuck out to him. We got no farther than that park you found us in when all of the others pulled up in their van, thanked 'the runt' and grabbed me."

Tanya picked up her cup again and finished off whatever was in it in one go. She looked at Hoch with a sad and grim expression as she finished her tale.

"He apologized a lot as they locked me up in their creepy van. Apologies don't mean anything in Daddy's line of work, though."

[Hoch Kreatur]

Hoch stayed mostly silent as Tanya spilled everything. He felt a bit sorry for Parker, only a bit though, mostly because Hoch himself thought Tanya could do better than some random fool tagging along with her father. However, he couldn't shake the feeling that he needed to comfort her in somehow.

"I'm sure Parker will be fine," Hoch said with a shake of his head, "Well, I mean, Morgan is probably going to give him a good talking to, BUUUUUT it's reasonable that he COULD remain mostly unharmed."

For Parker's sake Morgan better not know he led her to being kidnapped, otherwise that kid will never even have the dignity of being buried. He'll probably be flushed down some toilet!

[Tanya O'Douette]

Tanya sighed.

"Parker will be lucky if he's alive by the end of the night. Is it terrible for me to say that it's his own problem? And I wouldn't be surprised?"

She bit her lip. It wasn't like she wanted the guy dead. He was fairly physically attractive, he was a very nice fellow to her. It hurt more that she felt like she couldn't let go of his betrayal that easily though, regardless of his excuse. He did what he did, and because of it she really didn't want him anymore. She didn't want her father to kill the guy, but it was something she knew her father wouldn't be above doing.

"He and I could never work out anyway. It was going to happen sooner or later," she tried to smile. It felt weird to have someone to share this with. She couldn't tell Aria anything because she was a damn brat, and for many, many illegal reasons she had very few others in her own social circle to speak her own thoughts to. She didn't even trust a personal journal.

[Hoch Kreatur]

Hoch stared at Tanya with a rather sad look. Here was a girl, so devoted to her father that she herself had absolutely no friends, nobody she could trust. She kinda reminded him of himself, really.

"Do you know why Dwarv Minors have such large ears?" Hoch began, directing the lady to his rather massive ears that stuck out. "It's the very reason why the Imperial family keeps us as their closest, well, uh 'slaves' basically. We have such long ears because we hear everything and say nothing. SO what I mean," Hoch began, trying to convey a rather straight forward point, "If you need to discuss anything my ears will always be ready to listen. Be it about your day, the people in it or what happened last night on 'Thelotia's got talent', I'll be here."

[Tanya O'Douette]

Tanya felt she could relate to the 'hear everything and say nothing' part, it was almost like the role she played for her father in his little 'business meetings'--she remembered things, very important things. Names, faces, numbers, places. Half of his aliases were kept organized by herself. She was expected to know many things, and yet play like she knew nothing at all.

She studied the Dwarv Minor carefully, pursing her lips for a moment in thought as she tried to purposely think of the most inconvenient time that she perhaps would like someone to talk to.

"And what if it was at 3am on a weeknight?"

[Hoch Kreatur]

Hoch squinted his eyes a little at the thought of being awoken at 3 am. By that time he was all snuggled up in his bed, and there was nothing better than a warm bed on a cold Thelotian night!

"Yeah, sure. I mean, I might not completely be awake but by the Emperor I'll try!" His thoughts drifted towards his bed, warm, comfy... whoa, stay focused Hoch, stop thinking about your bed!