((ooc: Continued from She was cute before she was cool.))

It was the third time they'd watched it, or maybe the fourth. It was definitely the third bowl of popcorn.

I know you
I walked with you once upon a dream...

Maxine wasn't even paying attention to it anymore—she could have done the dialogue by heart, anyway. This was her favorite movie, but she had far more important things on her mind: relating the injustices of yesterday.

"...And then she made me help her find her stupid arrows. I think she shot them into that bush on purpose. But I said, 'I'm not getting poison ivy because you missed the target,' but then she said—"

I know you
The gleam in your eyes is so familiar a gleam...

She had suffered all manner of atrocities yesterday, at the hands of her inept babysitter. At that hands of Gawain's sister. She made sure to recount them in full: she knew how much siblings liked to hear the dirt on each other.

"...So I put it in her dresser when she wasn't looking. I don't think she even found it yet, which is so funny. You need to promise not to tell her—"

Yes, I know it's true
that visions are seldom all they seem

"You need to promise me, okay?" The redhead girl said. "That you won't ditch me again. She's just so... so..."

Maya wasn't like Gawain. Gawain could be kind of a... well, a boy, but Maya was worse: she was one of those girls who thought she was a boy. She dressed like one, and acted like one, and had a whole drawer of sports bras.

But if I know you, I know what you'll do
You'll love me at once
The way you did once upon a dream

The redhead had talked herself out. There were only so many times a girl can watch Sleeping Beauty before getting a little... sleepy. She curled up against Gawain's arm, her breathing slow and deep, as the credits started to roll.

If Gawain was still awake--and if his arm was still awake--he might notice that little Maxine was getting a little bit heavier.

There was something uncomfortable about the couch.

Gawain grunted and tried to roll to his side. How did he end up falling asleep on the couch anyway? He had to stop doing that. It was bad example for the Mansion students...

The rolling just did not want to happen. Something was weighing him down.

Angua was not allowed on the couch.

What the...

Opening his eyes, the young knight saw red. Firey red. Moving up and down with every breath he drew.

... oh crap.

"Maxine?" he whispered, stiffling a yawn "Maxine ya really should be in your own b... wait. Maxine?"

The redhead girl felt a lot... heavier. Not to mention... longer? Instead of being tucked against his arm like in the slowly returning images from last night, she was definitely... all over the couch.

All grown up in a single night.

"Maxine..." poke "... please don't freak out on me" poke "... but I think ya're back to normal."

Poke.

"Maxine?"

She was covered in dust. It was on her face, her hands, the back of her neck. It was a light brown; the same color of the parched ground. It stretched out in all directions, broken only by the shallow pits dug around them.

"Careful Rex, the femur of an archaeopteryx is a delicate thing."

Octosaurus Rex held a brush in each of its eight tentacles; it was poised over the newly excavated skeleton, dusting off eons of dirt with painstaking dedication.

"Maxine?" An intern researcher said from behind her, "Maxine ya really should be in your own b... wait. Maxine?"

Her own 'b'? Oh, of course.

"The brachiosaur is already on its way to the museum. Don't—hey!" He poked her. How dare some grad student poke her?

"... please don't freak out on me."

And again! With the poking!

"...but I think ya're back to normal."

Stop. That.

"Maxine?"

"Stop that!" The redhead said, sitting bolt upright, her sleep-mussed hair forming a wild halo around her face. "What school are you from, Berkeley? I'll have you off this dig faster than you... can say... good morning."

"Oh."

Oh. She was... where was she? On a couch. With Mirror, somewhat pinned under her. Which didn't make any sense; after all, she'd gone to sleep in her apartment, and had... the strangest dreams. She was a kid again, but still doing the news, and talking about paleontology, and then she was a paleontologist—

...Except that the first part of that dream had been... awfully realistic. And had ended with her, and Gawain, on the couch, falling asleep.

"I don't freak out," she said. Which, if she remembered right, was a fact they'd already established.

>>"Stop that! What school are you from, Berkeley? I'll have you off this dig faster than you... can say... good morning.... Oh... I don't freak out,"

Okay, so the first part of that made a whole lot of no sense. Gawain blinked, the girl must have had the strangest dreams. Berkeley? Really?

"I don't think I could get into Berkeley" he grinned, sitting up too now that most of her weight was off him. Not like she weighed too much.
Thank god she was not a telepath.

"So, had nice dreams?..." he tilted his head, looking at her curiously "I mean... what's the last thing you remember?..."

Alway a good question to ask when a girl wakes up in your b... er, couch.

A reporter quickly hones her eye for details. For discrepancies from the norm. The little signs that point to the true story.

Fact one: She'd woken up draped all over Gawain, but he wasn't putting any real effort squirming his way free.

Fact two: She'd woken up draped all over Gawain, wearing clothes that felt three sizes too small, but which lacked any sort of feminine appeal. In a word: not clothes that she would have picked.

Fact three: She'd woken up draped all over Gawain, wearing clothes that felt three sizes too small, but the boy wasn't blushing. Or smirking. That could only mean one thing: he had more important things on his mind.

Either she didn't remember the evening at all, or she remembered it only all too well. And honey, the fuzz on her mind didn't feel like any hangover she'd ever had. But a reporter never puts words in her source's mouth. She lets him dig his own hole, and fills in the dirt after him.

Her green eyes narrowed to cat slits. "What's the last thing I should remember?"

>> "What's the last thing I should remember?"

Mind games. She had them. Gawain smirked (it was long overdue) and settled for the inevitable. Mind games it is. He had just seen the woman as a child, he was not succumbing to the unsaid threats so easily.

"Well, let me see. The last thing you should remember would be you falling asleep on the couch with me. Does that ring a bell?"

There was definitely a bell ringing somewhere in the distance. It sounded suspiciously like a church praying for a departed soul...

How old was he, now? Sixteen? Seventeen?

Too to young to gamble, too young to drink, and too young to try playing coy with her.

The last thing she remembered... oh, falling asleep on the couch with him definitely rang a bell. There were a few details he seemed to be dancing around, though; that just made her all the more certain that they were true. Maybe she could refresh his memory a bit.

The redhead scrunched up her freckle-specked nose. "I remember... we were watching a movie." A finger came up, to tap at her chin. "Sleeping Beauty! That was it. And I was... I was... leaning on your shoulder, like this." Demonstrations always helped a girl remember. She wiggled around a bit, just to be comfortable while she thought. "We've... spent the last few days together, haven't we?"

Her voice wasn't like honey; more like... ginger.

"I remember..." Nose scrunched; finger tapped; shoulders wiggled. She met his eyes, and grinned. "I remember you getting owned by a twelve year old."

>>"I remember... we were watching a movie. Sleeping Beauty! That was it. And I was... I was... leaning on your shoulder, like this."

Snuggling happened. Gawain shifted, trying to get as comfortable in the situation as a snowball in hell.

>>"We've... spent the last few days together, haven't we?"

"Yeah." he looked down at Maxine trying to guess how much of this was mind games and how much she actually remembered. In her case, it was probably half and half on a lucky day.

>>"I remember... I remember you getting owned by a twelve year old."

"Wh... hey!" Gawian protested, wiggling away enough to glare down at her from shoulder height "I did not get... you remember everything, don't you."

Of course she did.

"I did not get owned" he declared, poking her in the chest "I was babysitting your bratty ass for three days, and I did a damn good job!"

>> "I did not get... you remember everything, don't you."

If she'd had any doubts about these memories being real, that had just settled them. If he had any doubts about just how much she remembered, the grin on her face should clear them up.

"I'll give you this: you lasted longer than a few other babysitters I could name. I think," she whispered, like the most confidential of secrets, "it's because I had a crush on that Gawain boy."

She sat back up and stretched her arms over her head, long and slow. "Can't say I cared much for that Maya girl, though. Man, what a tomboy." She twisted to look at him. "Honey, you and me need to go shopping. Your bra drawer looks like your prude of an older boy bought things for the sister he never wants to get a date."

>>"I'll give you this: you lasted longer than a few other babysitters I could name. I think, it's because I had a crush on that Gawain boy."

There was a point where the mind games had gone too far; this point was somewhere between now and five minutes ago. Gawain blinked, mouth slightly open. What Maxine just said was all kinds of wrong. Not to mention disturbing. She was thirteen, for god's sake!!!
...
Also, with the stretching. Gawain gulped and looked away.

>>"Can't say I cared much for that Maya girl, though. Man, what a tomboy. Honey, you and me need to go shopping. Your bra drawer looks like your prude of an older boy bought things for the sister he never wants to get a date."

"Wh..." he blinked, forgetting to keep looking away for a moment. Now that was just not nice. "Like hell I'm goin' bra shopping with you! Maya's fine the way she is."

There was something missing from that claim. Conviction? Truth? Femininity?
Oh.
Folded arms.

"And I'll let you know, I have a girlfriend."

By the way.

"I'll let you know," the redhead replied without missing a beat, "that she didn't pick you for your keen fashion sense."

Speaking of: as cute as it was that she could make him blush as easily as when he'd first tumbled out of her mirror, the boy was a boy. And she was an upstanding adult citizen, wearing too-tight clothes on a couch in a high school. She wasn't worried about the innocence of the underage eyes that might walk in on them; she was more concerned with the camera phones underaged eyes carried. Any publicity that landed her on the cover of a trashy celebrity magazine was bad publicity.

...Actually, making the cover would be a big step up in the world. She hadn't made it past page nine yet.

"Now, are we going to keep couch snuggling until your girlfriend comes huffing in, or are you going to help a girl raid your closet?"

>>"I'll let you know that she didn't pick you for your keen fashion sense."

Oh burn! Gawain gaped at Maxine, still not sure he could believe his eyes and ears. Was the redhead really messing with him after he babysat her bratty behind for three days straight and kept li'l Maxie from getting herself killed or severely injured?...
Women.
Wo.Men.

>>"Now, are we going to keep couch snuggling until your girlfriend comes huffing in, or are you going to help a girl raid your closet?"

"What, my closet with the awful fashion sense?" Gawain frowned, standing up from the couch "You don't want to get caught in those clothes, Maxine. I'm sure you can do a lot better than that."

Turning around, he walked towards the door of the living room. There must have been other students waiting around patiently for their turn to use the couch.

"Gawain, if you want to keep me out of your pants, you're going to have to try a better line than that," the redhead teased with all due snark.

Taking care of her for the past few days was neither here nor there: she'd been a kid, and he'd been guest-starting in her life as a responsible adult. Adults had to take care of kids; that's just how it was. She'd have done the same for him if he'd turned up all chibified on her doorstep. With big hazel pre-adolescent eyes, staring trustingly up at her from a baby-fat face...

There was a very particular grin on her face as she trailed him out of the living room; it wasn't one he should try scrutinizing too closely. Suffice it to say, if their positions had been reversed, Maxine would have taken a lot more photos.

Speaking of.

"Hey. Did you take pictures of me while I was like that?" If he had, she didn't remember it; then again, her younger self wouldn't have recognized a camera phone if it had been clicked in her face. If he hadn't, he'd missed out on some serious blackmail material. Though blackmail would imply shame... "Did you?" She asked again, more closely. Because if he had, there serious calendar potential. Maybe it was time to diversify her product line: the Bone Bikini calender was as hot a seller as always, of course, but some people preferred the women on their wall with a few less... sharp edges. The only shame in all this would be missing out on the marketing potential to exploit her own childhood. It was too bad she'd only gotten on air the once—

Maxine stopped, quite suddenly and completely.

"...I went on air. You let me go on air."

Live. Unedited. A blush spread over her cheeks, darkening her freckles to a mortified brown.

She distinctly remembered something about dinosaurs.

>>"Gawain, if you want to keep me out of your pants, you're going to have to try a better line than that,"

"If you wanted to get into my pant's, there is no way I could keep you out."

Two could play this game.
Gawain hoped he was one of them.
Maxine had been thinking.

>>"Hey. Did you take pictures of me while I was like that?... Did you?"

The young knight smirked as he walked towards his room, and left the question unanswered. Whether she liked the idea or not, and you could never know with Maxine, at least he could take childish pleasure in annoying her with silence.

>>"...I went on air. You let me go on air."

"As if I could have stopped you" Gawain chuckled "Me and the king and all the king's horses. You looked adorable on camera anyway."

She always did.

The redhead narrowed her eyes over bright red cheeks.

"Up the stairs, mister."

Up in his room, it took many a drawer before Maxine found something presentable. Presentable, and that she could actually fit in. She ended up in a pair of Maya's pants; Gawain's were too big. As for a shirt... she managed with one of Gawain's. Maya's were, ah, too small. After formalities were taken care of: there was frog-marching to the nearest computer, and a trip to YouTube.

At the end of it all, Gawain was right: there was no way to keep her out of his pants. And she did look adorable.