thedarkfields | [Text]

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Hey people. All this nonsense talk of dreams aside...

I'm looking to hire some one for a few hours, light work, nothing illegal, at least its only vaguely illegal. You're end of the deal would be on the up and up. Must be a good shopper and willing to look the other way.

[ All this typed up on one with one hand while he wrestled a small girl he had tucked up under the other arm down the sidewalk and right past the world's least observant cop. She was tiny and wearing only a potato ack that had been fashioned into some sort of dress, a street kid who even while she was being carried away very few paid attention to. ]

Oh, also female. Very important that you have to be female. It will never work if you aren't. I've tried.

If you are interested send a prompt reply otherwise I'll have to think up something else.

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Concerned for the state of my soul, I think. Too many friends over.

They would love me. I can't even go near a Church.

If this doesn't work you could take to dressing like a nun. You wouldn't have to worry about any more marriage suggestions.

No thanks! I might catch fire.

[he positively beamed when he saw the little girl. Well! He could tell that she had had a hard life. Well he had seen many children that had and it was in the eyes. But she had cleaned up nicely even if she looked ready to steal anything not nailed down which was fine. He doubted she had a proclivity for books]

I'm sure cook has a little feast set out for you, dear girl, if you care to go to the kitchen. Cookies and cakes and milk and all manner of lovely things. [and cook had and actually delighted to create for children so it all worked out. In a minute his butler would bring the tea things with a dash of spirit should Mr. Crowley like to imbibe.

He winced a little at the question]

Well, in fact, yes. Well not sleeping but you know, relaxing. Catching up on my reading and that. I ought to get out of bed and do things. I ought to be productive. [he sighed] There is so much to do. [but bed was so warm. He sneezed delicately in a hanky and fixed Mr. Crowley with soulful blue eyes]

It would probably be better to avoid it.

It’d probably cramp my style downtown, too.

I don't think they're bad people, they're just bored because their kids moved out.

I do like cookies and cake! I think. We never have those... but the milk we steal from old Miss Hanger's cow is good!

[ She took off for the bedroom door, only stopping once she reached for the knob just in case that other guy, Crowley decided to stop her running off again. To her surprise he didn't. He merely nodded and gave a word of instruction to the butler. ]

Just keep Annabelle in sight. She has this bad habit of trying to slip away with things. Brat will steal this place blind if you let her and I don't want to have to chase her down again.

[ She was a handful but one that skipped quiet happily down the hall after the Butler to where ever the kitchen was in this huge palace! ]

What's to do? You live in the lap of luxury. If I were you I would stay in bed all day, eating bon bons, washing them down with some vino, and listening to radio shows.

Idle hands are God's playthings.

[ He would have said the devil's playthings as the quote actually went but this family seemed to play for the other team. ]

Ha!

I'm sure they'd love a project.

Annabelle will be a project! I figure she has been living on the streets for years and she has gotten very good at stealing anything that isn't nailed down. And she runs off if you aren't watching her.

Hope they can handle that much trouble.

They've lived next to me since '21, I think they'll be okay.

If they can handle you they can handle anything?

I can be the North Side’s second biggest problem.

In that apartment block.

Assuming they actually take to her.

Well, fingers crossed. Can't imagine anyone’s given a damn about this kid from day one and that's something I'm positive she could get here. She might hate it at first, but that's life.

[Also maybe Chloe could train her to steal from the guys who leave love letters at her door. Not even for income but just because it would be funny.]

How else do you expect to earn a kid's trust in three seconds?

Oh well it doesn't matter if a few things go amiss. I certainly can afford to replace anything needful. Though I do appreciate you trying to break her free of her habit.

Annabelle is it? What a lovely little name. You know, Mr. Crowley, you seem to have a way with children. [he chuckled a bit at the man's words.]

There is plenty to do. So much to do. You have no idea the expectations that are on me from my family and myself. But in the grand scheme of things, I oughtn't complain being as blessed as I am.

That aside Mr. Crowley. [he patted the bedspread] How did you acquire her. Tell me everything.

I wish I had thought of that about five city blocks ago. It would have saved me a lot of trouble.

I doubt she would hate it, orphan kids always want some one to pay attention to them...

[ He always had. ]

But she won't understand it. Not at first. It will take patience to get anything but thievery out of her.

[ For a few pennies or some sweets Annabelle could become the greatest love letter theif of them all! ]

[ He had a rough way of speaking to kids. Crowley assumed that's what Fell meant by that little giggle but this here was a rough kid. Rough kids understood rough talk. He ought to know as he used to be one himself not that this was information he was ready to volunteer.

That little welcoming pat of the bedspread did look inviting and he found himself, a bit too eagerly, climbing into bed beside Fell to take up residence on his extra set of plush pillows. ]

She and a group of her friends snatched some lettuce from me a few weeks ago. This is payback for that. Snatched the little brat off the street when she was alone and now I'm going to domesticate her. We've already found a pair of suckers that might be willing to take her in.

[ He practically sank into the down of the pillows as he turned to lean an elbow against them to better take in the adorably wholesome face of his host. ]

You didn't ask me up here to talk about the kid though did you?

[not so wholesome as all that! A flush pinkened his cheeks at Mr. Crowley lying so close. He had meant for the man to sit, not lounge like a serpent upon the duvet and pillows. What would Bartlet the Butler think of this. Well he was a man of discretion so probably not much but goodness, how bold]

Oh well, your poor lettuce. Surely that's a small infraction-- but on the other hand, a life on the streets is such a hard one. I do wonder if she'd be able to leave you so readily. [he might find it difficult...

He pushed those thoughts from his mind and sank himself into the pillows, a bit further still so he was looking up at Mr. Crowley, tracing his eyes over the angle of his jaw and the shadow where his hair fell against his neck]

Whatever else might I have called you up for but to give accounts of your shenaniganery? [he clicked his tongue] Surely you don't suspect I had an ulterior motive.

[ Hopefully the stuffy Butler would be thoroughly scandalized! Crowley would take a good deal of wicked joy out of sending one of the straight-laced servants awkwardly scooting back out of the room. ]

Why wouldn't she? Nice older people, they will likely spoil her rotten... what more could a kid want?

[ That faint blush of color in Fell's cheeks gave him a healthy glow that seemed to even pinken his lips, daring even more boldness which for the moment lay very carefully restrained. ]

Since you didn't show up for New Year's drinks ay my place I wondered if I was going to fast for you. Am I, Princess?

[ This time the nickname felt a good deal more natural owing in no small part to the regal setting they found themselves in and the feathered ruffles of Fell's nightwear. ]

Or maybe you've grown bored of all this predictability and could use something more reckless?

Sometimes it's easier to reject something so they can't take it from you.

It's nice of you to be doing this.

Freedom for one. But well, who knows. I bet once she is safe and happy she will find freedom in that as well.

[he was secretly glad he wouldn't have to share Mr. Crowley with her, though he wouldn't begrudge it of course. Though, sharing. He wasn't doing a very good job of even spending time with him.]

Oh well, I unfortunately had family business to attend to in town. I received quite a lashing for shirking my duty. My cousins, you see, are very formidable and I do not want them to come over and 'check on my progress' . Why, they'd never leave. By the time I remembered it was well past midnight and I was quite exhausted, Mr. Crowley.

[he smiled thinly and tugged and adjusted Mr. Crowley's collar absently]

I'm afraid I won't be very good company to you.

She will have freedom from want. No more going to sleep on an empty stomach in some freezing cold back alley. A home. Every orphan wants to feel like they belong some where.

[ He certainly had as a youth which was why he had made up all those lies about his rich family, his inventor father and his beautiful, practically an actress mother. It was a fantasy life that he had never actually had.

Crowley's smile was a good deal warmer, very nearly predatory, as Fell tugged away at his collar straightening and preening it like they were an item or something.]

Why not?

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