Bath time

From "Discards"; a universe alteration of "Camille Langlais (No. 191)" where, instead of Red and Angelique collecting the FBI in DC and heading to China, they head first to Pittsburgh and Angelique stays with Team DriftSci.
[The plane lands in Pittsburgh]
"Miss Angelique, this is Chuck Darling. She'll be looking after you for a few hours while ensure everything is in order with your collection." 
"It's lovely to meet you!" chirps Angelique. 
Ms Darling makes something of a smile. 
.
Kirra would not call Jackson to come pick up her and Angelique--Lab Monkey things are kept very separate from Courier things.
Please note Kirra and Angelique will most likely be using public transport as Kirra thinks cabs are a waste of money and she can't drive, and since /she is looking after Angelique, she carries her on and off the bus despite Angelique pointing out she can walk. 
The suitcase probably appears at the house upon her return in this UA.
.
The front door opens.
Jackson glances up from his data model-in-progress.
Door closes, footsteps shtump up the stairs—heavier than usual?
Jackson shoves numbers around.
They lie there like slugs.
He sighs.
Chuck shtumps in, curly-topped anklebiter on her hip. "Have a kid." Dumps—Jackson barely ditches the tablet in time—the blonde bean in his lap.
"Uh, hi?" He smiles. "I'm Jackson."
Chuck shtumps out.
"Hello, Jackson! I'm Angelique." Tilts her head. "You seem nice."
Jackson preens. "Thank you, Angelique." Leans close. "Can I tell you a secret?"
Angelique snuggles close.
"I /really like babysitting and, when I was younger, all I wanted was to be a dad and build toys."
"Really?"
"Yup!"
.
Chuck lets herself into the washroom, closes the door gently, turns on both faucets, and takes a deep breath.
Logan, in bubble bath up to his nose, drags his eyes away from his ereader, [sighs], and returns to his book.
"Why. Kids." Chuck glares at the soap dish. "I mean, oh my fucking god, what the fuck is with these people? What is it with them and small children? What the fuck about me says 'this person will do a wonderful job with my small person'?"
Logan rolls his eyes, sets his ereader on the [tub edge].
"I do /not want them! Stop /sticking me with them!"
::You done?::
To his reflection, "And what's with your brother /liking them?"
::He's not right in the head.::
Crosses her arms. "I am taking /no responsibility for that kid."
::Good thing you have Jack.::
"'least he's good for something."
::Whatevs.:: Picks up his ereader.
Chuck huffs, turns off the faucets, shtumps out.
[Kirra goes off to sulk over the fact no one is taking her intense dislike for small, delicate, squishy things seriously.]
.
Jackson, on the other hand, is having a grand old time. When it's close to bath time and upon getting permission to host (yay! swimsuits!), lets Angelique loose to paw through Logan's bubble bath stash. When he realizes she has feathery additions humans tend not to have, manages to only blink before mostly not croaking if they need to stay dry or something.
"What would you like to do tonight?"
Angelique ponders.
"Games?" offers Jackson. "Snacks? I can read you a story?"
Angelique looks down at herself. "Can I take a bath? I feel all icky from the plane."
Jackson thinks. "Do you have a swimsuit?"
She frowns, then brightens. "Maybe the Dragon packed one for me!" Wiggles down, shoots—
"Angelique!" Jackson lunges.
—from the den and down the stairs.
Jackson huffs, heaves himself to his feet, trudges after.
In the foyer, a pile of clothes scattered about an open suitcase and a beaming Angelique waving something purple and ruffly.
"Found one?"
"Yep!" Holds up a flat box. "Crayon soap, too!"
"Awe/some! Onward!"
"Onward!" She sprints up the stairs, past Jackson—
"Turn left! First door on the right!" he hollers.
""Thank you, Jackson!""
"You're welcome!" Jackson finishes the stairs, heads for his room.
Logan's already there, halfway into one of the bright green tees his penpals sent.
"Can I raid your bubble stash?" Digs into his dresser, pulls out his bathers.
::Anything but the inbox.::
"Gotcha. Thanks."
Logan salutes, pads out.
.
"Holy sh—" Jackson rubs his eyes, croaks, "You—" Clears his throat. "You have wings."
"Yep!" She spreads and flutters them.
Blinks. "Can we, uh, get them wet?"
"Uh huh! They take for/ever to dry, though."
"Good thing we have lots of towels, then."
Angelique beams.
Jackson shakes his head clearer, lifts a bin from the closet. "Logan says we can use some of his bubble bath to make this extra special."
Angelique squees as he sets it on the floor and pops the lid. "It smells so /good!"
"Yea, he only keeps the really good stuff." Jackson turns, twists the faucet.
""Ooo!""
Jackson checks the temperature, finds it perfect, closes the—
""Ackk!"" Angelique coughs, sputters.
—whirls. "What happened? Are you okay?"
"This tastes like soap!" she says indignantly, glowering at a small jar of sugar scrub.
"Because it /is soap. Really good-smelling soap." Jackson fills a plastic cup with water, passes it to Angelique. "Swish that around your mouth and don't swallow."
She does.
He lifts from under her arms, holds her in front of the sink. "Spit it out."
She does.
"Still soapy?" Sets her on the counter.
"Still soapy."
"Then keep drinking and spitting 'til your tongue feels pretty normal."
Angelique nods and starts the process again.
Jackson pats her head, digs his mobile from his pocket.
Captain_Jack:  On a scale of cheerios to us beating up kaiju with a jaeger, how weird is a winged kid in our washroom spluttering because she thought your vanilla nutmeg cookie scrub smelled good enough to eat?
snikt: 2
snikt: Maaaaaybe 2.5
Captain_Jack: Thought so
snikt: You still making eyes at rapunzel is a 6
Captain_Jack: Fuck you
snikt: <3
.
Meanwhile Angelique is having a blast tracing Jackson's scars with bath crayons and interrogating him about his prosthethic.
Inner freakout and bath over (read: bath water = cold), he wraps himself in his housecoat and Angelique in three towels (one full sized and two of the hand variety)—
Jackson skips-ish into the den, a giggling Angelique on his good hip. "[House meeting!]"
Logan spins away from his monitor.
Chuck glowers into her tablet.
"Can we keep her?"
"Can you keep me?"
"Hell no," says Chuck.
::I really don't care.::
Jackson peers down. "Would you like us to keep you?"
"Yes, please!"
"And /I want to keep you, which means—" He makes a show of counting, then brightens. "—three votes—"
::Two and a half.::
"Two and a half to one!"
Angelique and Jackson cheer.
Logan rolls his eyes, spins back to his screen.
Chuck slouches deeper into the sofa.
Lightcap pokes her head into the room, asks, "What's the happiness about?"
"We're keeping me!" chirps Angelique.
"We're keeping her!" cheers Jackson.
Lightcap considers, then, "Chuck, do we still have that child-size Pons lying around?"
Chuck makes a face.
"Chuck?"
Chuck scowls. "Yes."
Lightcap sparkles, twirls down the hall. ""Data!""
Angelique tugs Jackson's lapel and, when he leans closer, whispers, "Is she a wizard?"
"Uh, no?"
"Is she a mad scientist?"
"Yes--but she's the good kind."
"There's a good kind?"
"She's basically harmless and happy as a clam so long as she has hypotheticals and brain scans."
"What's a hippo-tentacle?"
"A thing that may exist but that we're not sure if it does—like if you put a cat in a box with poi—with a portal but we don't know when the portal opens, so the cat's box in the box and out of the box—it exists in two places at once."
"Why don't you just go look at the other portal?"
"It ... opens into a magical dimension we can't see in to."
"How do you know the cat's safe?"
"It's a magical cat?"
Angelique nods, settles in his arms.
"That's a paradox, dummy," mutters Chuck.
.
Angelique frowns, fluffs her feathers again. "They're still wet." 
"Should I find a hairdryer?"
"Really?"
"Really really!" Jackson excuses himself, digs around the bathroom with no success, tracks down Caitlin, finds one in a box in her bathroom closet. 
Angelique stretches her wings, extends every feather, and a little bit after Jackson's fully air dried under his housecoat, she shakes her shoulders for a final time and tucks them back into place, but--
"You are so /poofy!" Jackson squees. 
Angelique frowns at her reflection, resettles, but remains insanely fluffy, then: "Will you brush them, please?" 
"Sure thing, just let me throw on clothes." 
She nods. 
Jackson zips for his room, dives into his PJs, tears back. "Would you like clothes, too?" 
Angelique shakes her head. "The broken bits get stuck and they itch." 
"Alrightee then." Jackson scoops her up, towels and all, grabs Chuck's brush, heads for the living room. "How 'bout a movie?" he asks, nestling her among the throw cushions. 
Angelique shifts, looking at something to his left. "Gotta Friend 'em All?" 
"Sunshiney Rainbow Friends meets Pokemon?" 
She lights up. 
"I have the movie /and all the shorts."
Angelique bursts into sparkles, nearly rolls herself off the couch. 
Jackson sets up the TV, plunks on the couch, pulls Angelique into his lap and arms himself with the brush, and ... "Uh huh." 
Angelique queries. 
"Not quite sure where to start." 
Angelique can't help him. 
Well, the tips are as good a place to start as any; he fluffs some of the feathers with his fingers--
Something whacks the back of his head. 
"Wha?" Jackson twists
Chuck glowers, arms crossed, rolled up magazine in hand. "You're doing it wrong." Shtumps--snatches her brush from his hand, smacks him over the head with the bristle side, shtumps from the room. 
"Apparently I was brushing wrong," says Jackson. 
Chuck returns with a hair clip, a big towel, and a rolled up cloth ... thing. She sits, floats the towel down over her lap, beckons Angelique. 
Angelique crawls--
Jackson scoops her back up, deposits her in Chuck's lap. 
Chuck unties the cloth thing, unrolls what is actually a couple rows of labeled pouches with a zillion combs. 
"Where'd you get that?" 
"The suitcase." 
"Right." 
"Hand towel." 
Jackson hands one over. 
Chuck drapes it over Angelique's shoulders, pulls her hair free, plucks up a wide toothed comb, and works each knot free until it shines yellow-gold in the light, then she gathers it, twists it up, and pins it out of the way with the clip. 
"That ... that is very smart," says Jackson. 
"Shhh!" hisses Angelique. 
Jackson backs into his corner of the couch, contrite. 
Chuck runs her fingers a few times quickly through Angelique's left wing. 
Bits of feather float out. 
"Lean forward. Please."
Angelique folds herself in half, chin resting on her crossed arms. 
Chuck digs her fingers into that same wing, near Angelique's shoulder, and scratches fiercely. 
Angelique just about melts into a puddle. 
Chuck moves up a few centimeters, repeats. 
[Angelique melts into a puddle. 
Chuck takes a bit more care with the tip, curling her fingers and scooping through the down, and then she plucks a medium width comb from the pouch. 
"How do you know all this?"
"None of your f--" Deep breath. "None of your business." 
"Okey!" 
Sunshiney Rainbow warbles. 
"I got--I was stuck, and I could either be bored or I could preen birds." Shrugs. "I preened crows and I got really good at it."]
.
Eventually Angelique gets lonely for her siblings and departs.
After some time has passed, Liu quietly and awkwardly offers a chance to meet another youngster (probably asking Jackson first). Cue Elanora v2.0.
Category:Ficlet
Category:No. 191