Dragon's Tears

A Little Progress

I had soon dozed off myself, and woke to Teecie bouncing near me on the bed. I sat up groggily and looked at my watch. It was well after four. Time to start dinner. She picked up her bunny, which I was amazed to see was still breathing and bunny-shaped, despite my shoddy skills. Then she took my hand, and together we walked back to the girl's room. When we entered, Reni and Kali looked up from the dolls they were playing with. I was glad to see that Reni had thought to pack some toys for them all to play with. Kali jumped up and hurried over to Teecie.

"Did he hurt you, Teecie?" she asked, examining Teeice's arms and legs for marks, and looking at me out of the corner of her eye.

Teecie shook her head. "Look, Kali! Bunny!"

By that point, Reni had joined us. "Where'd it come from, Teecie?"

"Dorco gave me!"

Reni looked at me and grinned. "That was nice."

I pulled Teecie to the centre of the room. "Yes, well, it's time to start putting together dinner. I have salad makings and noodles. Could you two clear off the table and put things away while Teecie helps me?"

Reni looked at me oddly. "Did you already change Teecie?"

Oh. I'd forgotten that. "No...could you handle that for me, Reni? The third bag there has nappies and stuff..."

She smirked at me. "Sure, Dragon." She led Teecie off to a corner of the room. I was obviously going to owe her for this... I sighed, and began to pull out stuff for dinner. There was a pre-packaged salad, some noodles--fusilli, my favorite--and some pesto sauce. I conjured a controlled fire, and pulled out a pot that I'd left here, along with utensils and plates when I'd come before.

When the pasta was in the pot, bubbling away, I turned to see Reni leading Teecie back to me. Kali had yet to move. "Thanks, Reni. Teecie, do you want to make the salad?" I figured that there would be little she could do to mess that up. Her face lit up, and she grinned. I handed her the bag, and a bowl to put it in, and she sat on the floor, her face screwed up in concentration, trying desperately to prize open the bag. She tried pulling at the corner with her hand, and when her hand had slipped off the second time, she put the corner in her mouth and pulled. The plastic stretched, but did not give. She sighed in annoyance, then put the bag on the floor and sat on it. It popped open, and lettuce spilled out both ends. I hurried to help clean it up before she could put the now-dirty lettuce in the bowl.

Reni, meanwhile, had taken the dishes and set the table. Kali was sitting and glaring at me now. I ignored her, chatting happily with her sisters as the pasta boiled. When the noodles were cooked, I banished the water, and poured in the sauce. I stirred it a few times, then set it on the table. "Dinner's ready."

Kali didn't move. "Aren't you hungry?" I asked. She shook her head.

Reni put together a plate for Teecie, who looked at the food dubiously. "Not sketti!"

I smiled. "No, it's not spaghetti. But it's like spaghetti. And aren't the noodles funny?"

Teecie looked up at me for a moment, then picked up one of the noodles, covered in sauce. She sniffed at it, then touched it gingerly with her tongue. She looked at me and smiled then. "Nummy!" She popped the noodle in her mouth, then attacked the rest of her plate with gusto.

I turned to look back at Kali. "You should eat something. Look. Teecie likes it."

She wrinkled her nose. "It's green..."

I smiled. "It's called pesto. It's good. Promise."

She shook her head. "Well, at least have some salad."

She looked at me warily, and it was several minutes before she stood, grabbed the empty chair, and pulled it so that she was between her sisters. She took the empty plate and put three leaves of lettuce on it, then proceeded to eat them very slowly.

I closed my eyes. Not a good time to get pissed off. And she had good reason, I reminded myself. After all, she's upset at you, Draco. But at least she was eating something.

We finished our meal in silence, and I pulled out the box of Twinkies once more. I was gratified to see that Kali ate this, as well.

Kali and Reni cleared the table, and I cleaned everything with a flick of my wand. Then Teecie climbed up onto my lap and began to show me her "dollies."

"...Dis is Arel, Dorco."

"The mermaid?" Teecie nodded.

"But she has feet. Why does she have feet?"

"Usuwa."

"Usuwa?"

Reni had been sitting beside me and looked up. "She means Ursula. She's a witch in the movie. She turns Ariel human."

"Ariel...ah." I thought about this a moment. "So this is a story from a movie?" Reni nodded.

"It's called 'The Little Mermaid.' It's her favourite movie."

"So I see." Teecie had slid off my lap during this conversation, and was now back with an armload of new dolls to show me.

She dumped them all on my lap, and proceeded to tell me each doll's story. When she had finished, my mind was reeling. But there were still a handful more on the floor. I was rather surprised when she ignored them and proceeded to play with the ones she had shown me. "Teecie, what about those over there?" She looked up at me, then at the dolls I was pointing at.

"Dose Kali's."

"Oh." I glanced at Kali, who had stayed as far from me as she could the entire evening, glaring the whole time. "What are their names, Kali?" She simply glared at me, so I stood up and walked over to the dolls. Her eyes were on me the entire time. There were three girl dolls and a boy doll. The boy was entirely plastic, hair to feet, and looked vaguely like Cedric Diggory had, blonde hair and all. The girls each had different colored hair. One had long black hair and Asian features, and I was sharply reminded of Cho Chang and fourth year. I picked up the last two. The first two had obviously been muggle-made, as they were made almost entirely from plastic. But these two...they were obviously wizard made. One had mousy brown hair and a healer's uniform. I put her aside, and focused instead on the other. I wondered if this had been Reni's doll first. She had long, wavy blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes. She wore a green Quidditch uniform, and held a miniature broom. I looked up at Kali.

"Is this your favourite?"

She glared harder, her eyes nearly slits, stomped across the room, and snatched the doll from my hands. "Don't touch her!" She grabbed up the other three dolls and hurried back across the room to get away from me.

So much for trying. I sighed, stood up, and dusted myself off. Oh, well. Time for bed, anyway. I pulled out the sleeping bags and set them up for the girls again. "Come on, getting late. Everyone into bed."

Teecie looked up, and I could see the thought before she spoke. "'Tory, Dorco!"

I nodded. "Once you're all ready for bed."

She grinned, ran to her bag, pulled out her nightshirt and began to change. Reni went over to help her, then took her nightgown into the bathroom to change there. Kali remained on the floor, ignoring me. And I'd thought that Teecie would be the difficult one?

When Reni emerged from the bathroom, she looked at Kali, walked to the bag and pulled out another night shirt, then went to her sister, pulled her up by the hand and pulled her into the bathroom. Well, at least I had help. If I'd had to deal with these two alone... I settled down next to Teecie while we waited for her sisters to come out of the bathroom. When they did, Kali took the bag furthest away from me, while Reni settled on top of the middle sleeping bag. I raised an eyebrow. Did she think she was going to get to sleep on the bed again tonight? She just grinned.

Teecie pulled on my sleeve. "'Tory, Dorco!"

"Yes, yes...So, 'The Little Mermaid,' huh?" She nodded happily, then snuggled down into her sleeping bag. "Once upon a time there was a mermaid named Ariel. And she lived all alone..."

"No, Fownder, and Suddew!"

"What?"

"Flounder and Scuttle. They're her friends."

"Ah, okay. Ariel had two friends, Flounder and Scuttle, and they all spent their days swimming in the water..." I broke off at the girls' laughter. Even Kali was snickering this time. "What?"

"Scuttle's a bird," Reni said between gasps.

I continued the story in this vein for several minutes, being interrupted by either annoyance or laughter in each case. Finally, I'd had enough and let Reni finish telling the story.

"And they got married on a big ship, and everyone was happy. The End."

I sighed. At least that was over. "Okay, so, snuggle in. Time to sleep."

Teecie grinned at me, pulled her bunny, which I could see was now beginning to turn back into a pillow towards her, and dropped off immediately. Reni had already tucked Kali in by the time I turned towards them, and so I said, "You too, Reni."

She shook her head and grinned. "Nope. I want to sleep in the bed again."

I tried to glare at her, but her grin was so wide it was catching, so I raised an eyebrow instead. "And why should I let you?"

"Because I did a lot today. I deserve it."

"Fine, but after tonight, you sleep in here, got it?"

She grinned, then followed me to my bedroom.