Knock, Knock, Knockin' on Rupert's Door

Rupert had a very comfy couch.

Maya passed out before her head met the pillow, not even the déja vu could keep her awake in the strangely familiar apartment. Last time she was here, she almost got shot, got fed instead, and had to clean up the bathroom. When she returned in the wee hours of the morning - this time with a proper invitation - the same Ruperty cleanness ruled the place. Flipsy (being properly introduced now she couldn't help but giggle sleepily at the name) was more than happy to see her and climbed all over her sleeping form, judging from the amount of dog hair in the morning.
Five shots, a night of dancing, and meeting Rupert again - combined, it was more than enough to make Maya fall into a dreamless sleep reserved for the innocent and the thoroughly wicked. Not nearly enough hours later she woke up with puffy eyes and a bitter taste in her mouth. It wasn't a proper hangover but it was as close as you can get with being not drunk. Well, at least she was still Maya.
Tumbling off the couch she walked to the bathroom, dragging her backpack behind her; Rupert was apparently still asleep, which meant she could have a decent bath without him bitchin' about it. Locking the door to keep Flipsy out she spent almost a whole hour soaking in the bathtub. It was friggin' Heaven. She washed smoke and dirt out of her hair, and brushed her teeth lazily, half asleep in the hot water...
Distinct yapping from outside. Did Flipsy want to come in? Damn. If the little... dog wakes Rupert up there's gonna be hell to pay. Maya climbed out of the bath tub with a heavy sigh, water dripping from her hair, and wrapped herself up in one of the bigger towels she could find. She stopped at the bathroom door, one hand on the doorknob, listening.
Did somebody just knock?...

A wicked grin spread out on the trickster's face. Rupert having a visitor?
Too good to be true.

The sight that greeted Tarin when the door opened was really nothing more or nothing less than he’d expected when he’d knocked. Except for the near nakedness…that caused a look of intense distaste to cross Tarin’s face, followed by a slightly smug grin. “I see the regrowth is going pretty well.” he commented dryly, taking a step back in defiance of the other man’s superior height. Tarin would not look up at Rupert, “And I have a name, we’ve been over that.”

The creature who had produced the yipping wormed her way out into the hallway and Tarin looked down, “Hiya pup. I’d bend down to pet you, but I don’t think anyone deserves that view this early in the day and your daddy is apparently a fan of near public indecency.” He’d forgotten how cute Rupert’s dog was. The silence was stretching now and that left the reason for Tarin’s visit,something he wouldn’t have normally asked of the ex-cop standing in front of him. Despite everything that had happened, it was still hard for Tarin to ask Rupert for anything. There was nothing else for it, though.

“Uh…Lee and I have to leave the country for a while. We’re still kind of new at the pet owner thing and we did a terrible job making arrangements for Axel.” Tarin paused, letting the words sink in, “We didn’t realize how long the isolation period is for taking animals out of the country, and none of the
boarding places we called have space available for the amount of time we’re going to be gone.”

That was all well and good, but it was just background information, Tarin hadn’t gotten to the asking part yet and it was sticking in the back of his throat. He took a deep breath, “Lee and I were wondering if you’d be willing to take care of him for us? He kind of knows you and you’ve got experience with small dogs…I wouldn’t normally ask…but we’re kind of between a rock and a hard place.”

>> “I see the regrowth is going pretty well. And I have a name, we’ve been over that.”

Rupert took this stunning opportunity to scratch at the back of his boxers, and practice his deadpan stare.

>> “Lee and I were wondering if you’d be willing to take care of him for us? He kind of knows you and you’ve got experience with small dogs…I wouldn’t normally ask…but we’re kind of between a rock and a hard place.”

“Dog sitting.” Rupert said. They wanted him to dog-sit the pup he had met once, while wearing the body of Tarin’s wife. From the drunken haze of those memories, Rupert seemed to remember it was small, cute, and had acquired a taste for scotch after he’d started sharing. There may have been some yelling from Tarin and Lee in that regard, and possible liquor confiscation: he seemed to remember slapping Lee (who was wearing his body), but he couldn’t recall if that had been before or after he’d poisoned their dog.

“You want me to dog sit.” Rupert repeated. Just to confirm.

>> "Rupert? Why didn't you tell me we have a visitor?..."

He turned his head slightly; the slow, mirthless movement of a man who just couldn’t be asked to care.

There was a teenage girl standing behind him. Of course there was. A teenage girl clad in water, skin, and—less noticeably—a towel. As women went, she was about as attractive as a plank of wood. An underage plank of wood.

“Because, honey buttons,” he droned, “the sooner he leaves, the sooner we can get back to our orgy. When’s your brother coming back, again?”

>>“Holy shit…Surely in a city of 8 million people…you could find one woman over 18 who would go home with you.”

Yeah, that was exactly the kind of reaction Maya was aiming for. Whoever the guy in the door was, he apparently knew a thing or two about Rupert, and it made the whole situation much more fun. Embarrassing someone in front of the pizza guy was not nearly as good as embarrassing him in front of a fr...
Nah. We wouldn't wanna venture that far.

>>“Because, honey buttons, the sooner he leaves, the sooner we can get back to our orgy. When’s your brother coming back, again?”

Honey Buttons had to admit, the old man had guts. As trickster to trickster. He deserved respect.

"He's not gonna be back till tomorrow, so ya're stuck with me old man" she grinned as she walked over to the door. She was really, really tempted to slap him. Not on the face.
But even a trickster has limits. Drawn by survival instincts.

>>“Do you run some sort of boarding house for runaway women that you’ve never told me about? I didn’t know you had such a kind heart.”

"He's a big softie, never let anyone tell ya otherwise." she nodded in a cheerful manner.

Being half guy, Maya usually was anything but bashful. She made sure the towel covered anything it needed to cover, but she didn't really care beyond that. If the guy was not comfortable seeing her he should not go on a beach either.

"Nice to meet ya, Tarin. I'm Maya. And yes I know."

“Hmmm. That’s probably because she’s at home. Try the house phone next time.” Tarin said, completely unruffled by Rupert’s attempt to rise his ire. There were other thing the medium could have said to make the situation even more awkward for Rupert, but the very nature of those comments would have made it awkward for Tarin as well, so he abstained and looked at the towel-draped kid again. She really was very young.

The snort was enough to convince Tarin that he’d been spot-on in his assessment of the situation. Rupert had taken the girl in off the street. It was more than a little contrary to his usual night time escapades…that was if the ex-cop was still paying vigilante mutant exterminator on his nights off. Tarin didn’t dwell too much on that, it was too hard to wrap his mind around the fact that he was standing in the entryway of the same man who’d held a gun to his head and not pulled the trigger…twice.

Rupert looked back at the kid, and Tarin realized with some chagrin that the girl was of a height with the cop. Not that he’d ever had short man syndrome or a complex about his height, but after being around Lee so much, it was starting to be a shock to be in the company of tall women. The look Rupert was giving the girl could have frozen ice…more….though and Tarin winced in sympathy. He’d seen that look before. Bartering breakfast for less nakedness, Tarin wondered if Rupert was including himself on that deal…

“I hope you’re planning on washing your hands before cooking…” Tarin muttered, remembering the earlier boxer scratching, as Rupert invited him into the apartment. Tarin acquiesced, moving over the threshold and far enough away from Rupert that he could bend and pet the dog without meeting Rupert Jr. He hadn’t forgotten the second part of the statement from the cop, but the answer was a little difficult to come by.

“Well…that’s the thing. It’s going to be a couple of weeks at least. We’re going out of the country. Lee’s taken on some consulting work with this lab company that also does a lot of humanitarian work overseas. It would appear that Romania is going through some of the same things we went through a few years ago..” Tarin explained, editing here and there and casting a sideways glance at the kid.

“Lee’s got some unique perspective on that particular situation.” he finished quietly, brown eyes shifting from the former camp director to the little dog. “So we’re going to see what we can do to help.” That was all Rupert was getting, in fact, it was all anyone was getting and what could be easily found out by anyone who put any effort into it. Or anyone who knew how to use twitter. Slate was a riot sometimes.

“But, to answer your question…a few weeks. We’d leave all the food and everything of course…if you’re even still interested in listening. I know how you feel about…certain causes…and I understand. We‘re not asking you to hop on board…Axel just needs somewhere to stay.”

A couple of weeks. At least. Rupert washed his hands, and pulled eggs and milk out of the fridge as he listened. And a green pepper. And—after a little consideration—a tomato.

>> “Lee’s taken on some consulting work with this lab company that also does a lot of humanitarian work overseas. It would appear that Romania is going through some of the same things we went through a few years ago...”

Consulting work. Lee had. Why didn’t it surprise him, that Lee was wearing the dress pants in that relationship. He sliced the pepper and tomato finely, and cracked the eggs; along with milk, everything went into a bowl for stirring. Half of the tomato stayed in reserve, for filling.

>> “Lee’s got some unique perspective on that particular situation. So we’re going to see what we can do to help.”

He dragged out a pan, a spatula, and olive oil; flicked on the stove. A ‘unique perspective’? What that a unique way of saying she’d been in the Camps he’d supervised? Way to talk around the subject, in the presence of innocent ears.

Speaking of which: the kid was back, in a shirt that said it all.

>> "Happy now? I can lend ya a shirt too if ya need one."

That grin got a steady frown in return, as he poured the bowl’s contents into the pan. Brat.

>> “But, to answer your question…a few weeks. We’d leave all the food and everything of course…if you’re even still interested in listening. I know how you feel about…certain causes…and I understand. We‘re not asking you to hop on board…Axel just needs somewhere to stay.”

>> "I wouldn't trust him with a dog. He spoils them rotten, ya know."

He needed a synonym for ‘brat’. Also: a shirt. “I’ll think about it,” he told Tarin, stepping around the counter.

The omelet could mind itself for a few minutes. Even if Maya there was a Gawain at heart, she was still a young girl. At the moment. And that meant he needed pants, too, damn it.

Be right back.

Rupert was gone, gone to find a shirt and his dignity. The latter didn't seem to do well against the two of them. Maya grinned at their guest. She started to like the guy.

>>“So kiddo, what’s your story? You’re too young to be running away from a stupid husband... And don’t let him fool you…he’s really almost chipper this morning.”

A curious expression flashed across Maya's face - it curiously resembled the face people make when they accidentally swallow a live frog. Husband?! Where the heck did he get that idea?...
A moment later, the frown was gone, and the girl leaned back in her chair, propping one foot against the side of the table. No she was not wearing shoes. Duh.

"Well, what can I say, true love does not care for age." she grinned, rocking back and force "Rup 'n' I, we're just meant for each other. But... ya know, people tend to get all judgmental and sh**, so here's the official story..."

Flipsy didn't give a damn about Maya clicking for her. Tarin seemed to smell much better. Whatever.

"... I fell out of his bathroom mirror one fair mornin', an' after him pointin' a gun at me an' threatenin' to blow my freaky mutant brains out, we became friends, and now I'm crashing his couch 'cause I've got nowhere else to go, an' I'm hung over like hell. He feeds me, an' I clean up, that's how it works."

Summing it up nice and clear, Maya folded her arms over her less-than-impressive chest, and tilted her head.

"So, what's your get-out-of-Rup's-apartment-alive card?"