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Kat:
"Okay, I guess. Sort of boring though," she admitted. "When do I go back to school?" A weird question for a kid, but not if that kid had had enough of being cooped up. She could see Miranda at school probably and other friends too. Derek; Derek gazed back at his sister a curious expression on his face. Why was she staring at him? He shrugged slightly and headed down the stairs, with Julia's belongings in tow. Julia/Ingrid:: "I'll talk to Derek but since today's Friday anyway," Julia gave her a gentle but playful 'punch' under the chin and grinned "I would say Monday. And speaking of when it is.... it's time to get ready for bed. How about tomorrow when we wake up you help me go through my trunks to see what kind of goodies we can come up with?" Ingrid looked at them as Derek descended the stairs and looked at Julia as she started to straighten "That sounds like fun You'll have to show me what you find." Julia rubbed her nose again and grinned "We'll let you know." "And," she added a little sheepishly as she held out her hand for Kat "I'd give you a ride but I'm a mess." Ingrid chuckled, having noticed that as well and followed the two down as they made their way to the third floor. "I'll close this." she offered before shoo'ing them off "And meet you, Julia, in Derek's office after you get cleaned up." Julia nodded in agreement and swung Kat's arm slightly, just enough to be playful but not to hurt as she asked about what Kat's school was like, and heading down to the second floor and the 8 year old's room. Kat:
"That sounds cool, the part about going through the trunk I mean. Is there neat stuff in there?" She wasn't thrilled with the going to bed part, but on the other hand, maybe she could go see Miranda if everyone thought she was sleeping. Yes, going to bed was looking better all the time. Derek: Derek headed for his office setting Julia's things down in a chair. He figured it would take her awhile to get Kat in bed, so he might as well get some work done. He sat down behind the desk and began to sort through the growing piles of paperwork. Ingrid: Ingrid went by her room first and then on to Derek's office, having changed out of her habit and into, surprisingly, casual pajamas. She was grinning as she entered and extended her arms in a 'well, how do you like it' fashion and then sitting in one of the chairs "I thought I would change and be ready for when Julia was done tucking Kat in and cleaned up herself." She then tilted her head to the side, eyes gently humorous "And I have decided to practice the virtues prudence and patience where you are concerned, Brother. You should go get ready as well but I won't push to find out what happened.... quite yet." Which meant, as he well knew when she spoke in that 'older sister' teasing tone that she was curious to say the least and would hint for him to say something... but would respect his privacy..mmmm, to a point if he refused to speak at all and kept it to himself over a long period of time. It wasn't often that Ingrid felt this mischievous but then again, she did owe him for when they were children and he had a thing for tugging on her braids. Her gaze, so much like his, twinkled. Julia: Julia finished tucking Kat in and had left the door open just a crack in case Kat wanted to call out to them or wanted a little night light and then headed up to her room to shower and change. Her order from the catalog had started coming in and she slipped into a new pair of pajamas: dark blue faux satin and baggy. She put a matching blue scrunchy on her wrist in case she felt like sticking her hair up later and left the bedroom, wiggling her toes and grinning before heading toward the office. She wondered if Ingrid had told Derek it was originally a pajama get together when she had invited him but figured she'd be comfortable anyway. Derek:
Derek glanced up when Ingrid entered the room. He was a bit surprised to see her current attire, but he smiled and said, "Now you look more like yourself than you have in a long time." He turned his gazed back to his work and was signing a report when she mentioned him getting ready. "I am ready," he informed and turned to the next page. He did recognize the tone in her voice when she spoke again, and it made him look up again. "I don't have the foggiest idea what you're talking about," he told her, idly wondering how someone so nosy ended up becoming a nun. He always thought Ingrid would have made an excellent gossip columnist had that been her calling. Ingrid:
"You're ready in.. that?" she asked, shaking her head. He was still dressed in the day's 'business as usual' clothes. And she gave him a look that clearly said "Don't think you're getting off the hook that easily" before sitting back and teasing him "Yes, all that is missing from my little.. ensemble are the braids I used to wear but quickly got out of the habit of doing when a certain someone enter the 'tug braids' phase." "Perhaps you can talk her into another color of automobile." she commented suddenly, remembering Kat's question about going back to school. She knew she was probably throwing her little brother off balance by her jumping from topic to topic and usually she was much more reserved than she was now, but she felt as if she were on holiday and frankly, was finding it quite entertaining to see how well Derek kept up with it all. She did wish she had the skill in which Julia could weave through topics but she thought that she was doing rather well herself in an older-sister-payback-to-the-younger-brother kind of way, all in good fun of course. She could never be cruel to her brother. They were family. And she usually wasn't this nosey either, despite what Derek's expression was currently saying on the matter. The office doors opened just then and she looked up and grinned. Julia:
"I," Julia announced with a grin as she rubbed her fingers through her hair and entered, going to the chair with her things in it and going through them "am starved. Let's get this party going... oops unless you're not done with the work?" She looked at Derek curiously, a smile in her eyes as she looked between him and the paperwork "I can help if you'd like." Derek:
Derek looked down at his attire, dark (yet fairly vivid)
blue button down shirt, black pants and his belt and shoes matched.
"What's wrong with it," he asked curiously, finally putting down the pages he
held and resting his hands on top of them.. "Ingrid," Derek replied in a
much suffering younger brother voice. "That was forty years ago." It
was about this time that
Julia came in. Derek smiled up at her. "It's waited this long, I think it can wait another day." Julia/Ingrid: Ingrid grinned. Just because it was then didn't mean she couldn't tease him about it now. Julia returned the smile "I'll help you knock it out in the morning before I leave for Reese's Aunt's house." Then she looked curiously at Ingrid, having heard something about being ready in something... Ingrid casually motioned toward what Derek was wearing and Julia looked. He looked comfortable. And Julia definitely liked this look over his suit-untouchable fashions. Actually, she thought, trying to hide a smile and gaze that reflected it although she did catch Derek's gaze before looking back at his clothes, he looked good and said as much although not in the tone she was thinking it. "Come on then," she smiled and extended her hand out to him and then extended her other hand out for Ingrid and 'setting' the mood by mock whispering to them both "Lesson one of a kitchen raid. Sneaking around." Ingrid grinned at the 'adventure' and took Julia's hand "Sounds like fun although I'll have to remember not to try this at the convent." Julia chuckled and gently tugged them both out and then looking both ways. Most of the house was quiet aka 'asleep' and the floor looked clear. The food was downstairs in the kitchen. From there they'd go to Ingrid's room and Julia would pop back into the office to get her things. She had already dropped her violin off so didn't need to get that. Derek:
Derek nodded at Julia's offer of help and stood slipping
his hand hesitantly into hers. As they started down the stairs
he it suddenly hit him. All of this "raid" business and sneaking
around. "I knew you were wandering
around the house at all hours," he told Julia as the realization sunk in. Julia/Ingrid: She grinned unrepentantly but made sure to point out "Not when I promised you I'd sleep. I kept my promises. But a girl's gotta have a snack you know." She had noticed his slight hesitancy earlier in offering his hand and slipped a look at it and then at him, her gaze turned toward him so only he saw her expression but she silently offered to let it go. Didn't want to, but she would. There was a small mixture of uncertainty too, wondering why he had been hesitant. Was it that they were aware of each other in a different light or was he having second thoughts about even letting it go as far as it had.... Julia squeezed his hand, in a way to assure him. That and the contact itself. It felt good on so many different levels. They made it to the kitchen and gently released both of their hands, moving ahead to open the kitchen door and motioning for them to 'sneak' in. A thought came to her and she wondered if Derek was going to make a comment about it being his house.. why did he have to go sneaking around in it or something along those lines. Ingrid spotted the Chinese white boxes and whispered back to Julia "We need drinks." Derek: In answer to Julia's silent question, Derek tightened his hand around hers. It felt nice walking with her like that. He'd just felt rather shy about doing so in front of his sister. As they reached the kitchen he held chairs out for both Ingrid and Julia, then took his own seat, handing a pair of Ivory chopsticks to Ingrid and then a pair to Julia. He'd spent sometime in China on Legacy business many years earlier and had learned to use them there. To the best of his knowledge his sister had never even seen any, much less eaten with them. This should be amusing. Julia/Ingrid:
Julia's eyes lit up at the sticks. Hers were just
plain ol' black laquor.
She peeked over at Ingrid who were looking at them curiously and then grinned at Derek "I hope you have your face mask ready.. she might let one fly." Ingrid pointed one of the sticks at Julia jokingly at that "If I do, odds are it'll end up in your hair so I would take great care not to tease me over much." "Yeah yeah yeah," Julia replied, knowing a dead threat when she heard one, but she did grin and started passing out the white containers to each of them "Just don't try and eat rice with them.. that's what the spoon is for, and you should actually be able to eat something." She set some sweet and sour pork before her and a small container of sauce "I got things I thought you'd like but are fairly easy to snag with the sticks." "Annnd, got you your favorite." She then set Derek's containers in front of him and taking an appreciate sniff before mock whispering "If you find some things mysteriously disappearing while we eat... the dog did it." They didn't have a dog and she grinned, holding the chopsticks Derek had given her in a way that demonstrated positions of fingers against the utensils "Think pencils." Ingrid mirrored her posture and tried to grasp a piece of sweet and sour pork, smiling when she was able to and started to bring it toward the sauce, only to drop it with a plop into the sauce and look at it like 'you did that on purpose didn't you?' Julia tried to not laugh around the piece of lemon spiced chicken she was chewing on and covered her mouth, blue eyes alight with humor. Derek did chuckle. "It takes practice," he told her,
then took a bite of his own dinner. "And time, this could be a very long
dinner." He watched his sisters struggle and tried to give her some
helpful tips, every once in a while. He had to admit that this was very
enjoyable. More because of the company than the entertainment, but the
entertainment was quite nice. "The first time I used them," he admitted,
"I ended with most of my dinner on me."
Julia's gaze twinkled at that before suggesting to Ingrid "Pour some sauce on it and cheat by sticking one of the sticks into the pork, then grab it." Then she looked at Derek, asking even as she tried to stop
grinning at the mental image that popped up at his description "On you
huh?"
She clicked the chopsticks she was using with experience
"I learned how to eat with these before I even picked up a fork. One of
the kickbacks of having an Oriental babysitter at the time."
Ingrid listened with interest but was determined to get
this right and so did as Julia suggested - and grinned as it worked! She
was eating three pieces before another one slid down, but she got it right back
and ate some more.
Then she looked at Julia a little doubtful, having seen
noodles and rice "And you can eat that, " she used her sticks to point in the
box's direction "with chopsticks?"
Julia nodded once and grinned, taking another bite of
lemon chicken "Yup, sure can."
She put her container down and picked up the small one of
rice, having ordered a small order for each of them, and then opened it to show
Ingrid how. Pouring a little bit of sauce on it, she used it to help
'stick' the rice together and then, surprisingly the amount of rice able to be
eaten being a small teaspoon, Julia did just that.
Ingrid blinked "I'm impressed.. I'm using the spoon for
it, but I'm impressed."
Julia chuckled and winked before going back to the main
container "Thank you.... and I pretty much use a spoon too."
She peeked over at Derek, still grinning "And you?
All over yourself and what do you use to eat your rice with?"
Derek:
"These," he said holding his chopsticks up slightly. "It doesn't happen anymore, just that first time. Hunger made me figure it out pretty quickly," he added thinking over that trip. "And when I don't," he added, "I use a fork." Julia:
"Smart man. Now.. have you ever caught a fly with those
things?" she asked jokingly, remembering the karate movie from years ago when
some guy did it.
"Oh, look." she sat up straighter and looked at the
window "What's that?"
As soon as he turned his head to look she grinned and
snagged a piece of his kung po chicken, then whistled offkey and looked at
Ingrid who was barely able to restrain her laughter.
Derek:
Derek looked back towards Julia for a moment. "Nothing other than someone's very large imagination," he told her sliding the carton closer to her. Her small amount of thievery had been spotted due to a reflection in the kitchen window. "Why don't we use plates." he suggested. He
preferred it that way anyway. Julia/Ingrid:
Ingrid watched the two and could only chuckle as she tried
for another piece of pork.
"Ah, good idea. Easier pickin's." Julia agreed with
a mischievous grin as she set box with chopsticks inside on the table and went
to retrieve three plates. She stretched up and took three plates down,
setting them on the counter.
"Why don't we bring it upstairs so I can take a peek
through those photo albums?" Ingrid suggested. Not much into sneaking
around if one stayed in the kitchen to get caught by whoever decided on a snack
or was still working.
"Okey dokey." Julia moved to the next cabinet and, with it
being on the top shelf, snagged the little stool nearby and climbed it and then
on top of the counter to reach it "Note to self... hide the trays in a lower
cabinet so Dominic get the chance to stick them up here. Anything else
while I'm up here?"
"Don't fall?" Ingrid suggested with a humorous expression
"You used to climb trees, didn't you?"
Julia chuckled "Yup, now I just rock climb... course
haven't done it in a while... Derek don't we have a drink caddy somewhere up
here?"
Derek: "Actually, I was thinking you could have you're own," Derek said with a smile. He watched her getting the plates down and then....."Julia get down from there," he said running a hand across his forehead. Counters were not meant to be climbed on. How was he supposed to keep Kat off of them if Julia did the same thing whenever she pleased? "Yes, we do, but I do not know where Dominic keeps such things...AND...I'm not so sure moving this upstairs is a good idea." He glanced at his older sister, clearly concerned about her inexperience with chopsticks and the likely hood of food ending up all over the place. |
