Yo Ho Ho and a Carton of Milk [Yearlings] {kheft}

Juniper just sat on the bed, cool as a cucumber, and watched Julyan have his mental meltdown, perfectly at home where she was perched. Her expression didn’t look the slightest bit abashed, or embarrassed at the boy’s state of undress.

“Nope, I was listening to you. You talk in your sleep.”

Now that he had abandoned his bed, she stretched legs out, kicking back and stealing the pillow to tuck behind her neck. A large piece of buttered bread appeared in one hand, where it had been secreted to on her person previously was a mystery, but she took a large bite. Chewing with deliberate motions, Joon muttered around the mouthful, “Oh, also you drool.” The sunny smile following the comment was impishly exaggerated in proportions. Her eyes travelled down his mummified form to land on a spot where the sheet sagged and a splotch of polka dotted undies shone through with malicious brilliance. If possible, the Cheshire cat grin grew even larger.

“Some fancy duds you got there.” When Julyan simply stood in silence, she shrugged and chucked the last bit of bread into her mouth. “Mmmm. You should thank me, y’know. You’re gonna have the best alarm clock in the District.” One hand waved airily at what appeared to be a sad heap of cogs, wire, and small bits of bent metal on the bedside table where a functioning alarm clock previously sat. “You don’t wake up so good. I’ve been sittin’ in here for an hour listening to you, and you never so much as opened a lid. So I decided to fix up your clock, it was in a bad way. When I’m done it’ll have you out of bed in no time!”

The wide smile was back, and it seemed to be near a permanent fixture on the young girl’s puckish face. Lashes fluttering outrageously, one hand reached to pat the warm space on the bed that Julyan had occupied before his rather hasty exit. “You can come back to bed if you want, don’t mind me. I’ll be invisible.” With that she proceeded to sprawl out, gathering up the tiny pile of clock bits and begin tinkering with them. A small spring trapped between her two fingers gave a protesting creak as it was pulled to and fro, in time to odd snatches of song that she began whistling with obnoxious clarity.

Joon whisked one of those head-mounted magnifying glasses from…again, somewhere, and popped it on. The comical apparatus gave the impression that her eyes had expanded to dominate half her thin face. The now bug-eyed girl glanced up as Julyan joined her, perhaps a little surprised that he had taken her up on the offer? However, she accepted it with the perfect equanimity that she always seemed to exude. With the added weight, the small mattress tipped them both towards its center, old springs sagging and turning what should be a flat surface into something more resembling a hammock. Clinking bits of metal went sliding across the sheets; Juniper threw an arm across the spot, trying to carefully herd all of the escapees back into their respective piles.

"Thanks for fixing the clock, I guess. Did you really have to wake me up this early on my off-day though?"

Her shoulders shrugged once in reply, then, as if to further the odd image she cut, her face suddenly darted inches away from Julyan’s, her magnified eyes peering at him unblinkingly. Then, she…sniffed—her small nose crinkling up and taking a large whiff from the side of his neck. She sat that way a long moment, almost nose to nose with the bed’s rightful occupant, not a sound uttered. And then she was gone again, sprawled over the majority if space provided on the mattress, even letting her legs flop across Julyan’s to further spread-eagle. Without looking back at him, she buried her nose once again in the indecipherable guts of the alarm clock.

“You shouldn’t have changed out of those shorts, they made a statement, very…very…” She waved a finger around in a spiral, “Pulchritudinous. Also spotty, I like spotty. Spotty is good.”

Deft fingers darted from part to part, pulling, tweaking, notching them together, and then, with small grunts of displeasure, tearing them apart again. A particular spring warranted particular enmity and was sent pinging across the room like a small missile, ricocheting off one wall to collide with the window in a squeal of metal on glass. Joon licked her upper lip in concentration. Several small metal rods found their way behind one ear, and various wheels and cogs were secured between her lips, springs looped over fingers like abstract jewelry. Around the metallic accessories, the occasional mumbled note of a tune escaped, garbled and nearly unrecognizable save on the moment or two when she removed the parts for use and warbled the off-kilter verses.

“Said cabbage to…fishcake who lay on one diiiiish…
I’m big strong cabbage…you only fool fiiiish.
Yeeeeaaaaaaho! Little fishy…don’t cryyyy, don’t C-ryyyyy!”

The half assembled clock fell from Joon’s hand as she flopped over backward, nearly falling on top of Julyan. Her stomach gurgled loudly in the shocked stillness following.

“Foooood…ungh…I’m shriveling up!” The loud complaints accompanied her random flailing, and clock parts bounced off the edge of the bed to disappear in directions unknown. “I’m booooored, lousy clock! Doesn’t even taste good.” A pink tongue poked out at odd angle made a small swipe across the hunk of exposed metal. Her grimace marked it as decidedly NOT food. A pause, and then the skinny girl rolled over, still bedecked in her headgear, the pink tongue making an appearance as she took an experimental lick across Julyan’s bare arm.