SHOT in the Back

Karl gave her a smile, and wrapped some noodles around his fork. "Andrea...here comes da airplane." He said with a bigger smile. He started to move the fork towards her mouth.

It still got closer and closer to her.

Andrea's face turned red in embarrasment. "I'm not a child-"

Her mouth was open and the forkful of noodles entered, making the rest of her words muffled.

"Hehe," Karl grinned at Andrea. He quite enjoyed that,a nd then glanced down at Max, seeing that he was having troubles apparently. He tapped the boy and then twirled the fork around the noodles to show him.

Andrea pouted/scowled, yet her face was still quite red.

Max watched his father do the fork twirl carefully. He then went back to his own plate and copying the twirling. However evr the twirl went a bit to fast, causing a few noodles and saw to hit the boy's face.

"Noodle attack!" The boy screeched.

"It's alright Maxie, it's alright, you just spun it a bit too fast...slow down, alright?" Karl suggested to the boy, showing again how to do it. And then he pulled the noodles off of the boy's face. Slightly chuckling. "Like mother like son..."

"Shut up." Andrea muttered, giving her husband a glare. Karl would pay for that later, he would indeed...

Maxie gave a grin. "Mommy is funny!"

Andrea bowed her head slightly in shame, before returning to her noodles.

"I think I'm in trouble now, eh, Maxie?" Karl asked once they saw the glare from Andrea. He then rubbed the back of his head. "I blame the media?" He asked with a light chuckle. Wrapping more noodles around his fork and taking a bite of them.

"That is the scapegoat. Accept your wrongdoings like a man!" Andrea decreed, poking Karl in the side. Max seemed to be finally getting the hand of the twirling technique and began to eat his noodles slowly.

Karl giggled alittle when Andrea poked his side. Since he was always ticklish around there. "So mean! I still am blaming it!" he said, once he had calmed down a bit. "Ah...so much better." he said, laughing once more and then nodded.

"Fine fine, I will one day."

Andrea leaned in and gave the man a kiss on the cheek. "Fine, you're forgiven then."

When the to kissed Max made a face. Did his parents have to get so lovey dovey when he was eating?

OOC: xD Ah Max. You're my favourite character now.

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"Well, we should finish our meal quickly." Karl said, scooping up some more noodles, with a grin. "It's always good to be having fun in hard times, eh?" Then he remembered that Max would need new toys for the ones that he had lost.

If I ever find out who did this, I will kill them myself...

Bakura hummed to himself, having turned on the radio to listen news after the explosion had been heard not so long ago. His meeting with Prescott had been finished and the doctor had kept him well informed on the progress of things for the next stage of his plan.

Putting his feet up on his desk he tucked his hands behind his head, chuckling to the announcers reports on the attack. Marisol clearly had changed over the past four years if such an attack had everyone so on edge and terrified, a few years ago it would have been shrugged off and kept on going about their day.

Humming, he twisted in his chair and picked up his phone; "Rachael, my dear girl, could you please been as so kind as to get Ms. Pierce on the line just now, I have a few things I'd like to talk to her about."

Carlotta found herself watching Andrea's family again. Even with the wars over, this was a side of people that Carlotta had never fully explored. Back when she was a child, her parents had never acted that way, and now that the war was over and everyone had left her behind, she'd simply accepted that these fairytales were something she'd never have.

But back then, Andrea had been the same way, or so Carlotta had thought. Back then, Andrea had given up her future to live the life she'd always known... But Andrea had escaped that and now had...everything.

She poked at her noodles, not really hungry since the ice cream cone she's had. Still, Karl was a good chef, so it'd be a waste to leave them. She ate another bite.

"I can get groceries if you'd like, Andrea," Carlotta said. "Just give me a list of things you need. Also, we have a small grocers - just basic supplies - near here in the compound. You don't have to lock yourself up in the house. You should probably just restrict yourselves to the inner compound where they'd be stupid to attack. And I wouldn't let Max out of your sights."

Andrea looked over at Carlotta with a look of relief. "That would be awesome, 'Lotta. Thanks. I forgot how many utilities the compound had. It's been a while since I've lived full time in it..."

"This was Mommy's house?" Max's eyes widened. It was really big.

"Ah, sort of..." The woman tucked a couple of strands of hair behind her ear.

"Yes, Uncle decided to spend these past years expanding - rebuiliding utilities that were destroyed during the wars but also sponsoring new projects. We've got a small garden near the HQ now, as well as a library. An elementary school is being built, but with recent events...I don't know what's going to happen to it."

"Dom brought the garden back?" Andrea said, amazed. After the previous head's wife's death, he decided to pave over the previous garden. When I was little I was so mad at him. I stomped into his office and screamed my head off.

Carlotta, who either wasn't old enough to remember back then or hadn't been born yet, didn't know about the previous garden. But she nodded anyway. "Yeah, I guess. He says it's a shame to leave an empty lot there, and it'd be a nice place to have a picnic."

"We'll have to use it before it gets too cold out then." Andrea replied happily.

Max meanwhile was almost finish with his plate, his belly getting full. "Do you have toys?"

Carlotta, meanwhile, had polished off half of the plate and was looking downward at it, unsure if she could finish. She pushed the noodles around the plate to see if she could arrange it so that it looked like she had eaten more.

"We don't have any toys now," she said to Max when he asked, "but I could buy some if you really want." Irony, she thought, when she'd only hours ago been critiquing the absurdity of children's toys. "Which reminds me, if anyone wants compensation for what happened to your home, Myrrh can take care of it," she told Andrea and Karl.

Then turning her attentions back to Max, she continued, "But you know, when I was your age, I didn't play with any toys. You wanna know why?"

Max sighed, trying not to hide his disappointment on there not being any toys. Before the hous eblew up he couldn't take any of his own...

"That would be appreciated." Andrea nodded to Carlotta.

"Why?" Max asked, curious.

"No problem," she said as she stared Max straight in the eyes to convey the seriousness of this confession. "I didn't play with toys because I didn't need them. Whenever I got bored, my mommy and daddy would always hold me tight and show me how to do something new. I'd play with friends instead of toys because I knew they loved me."

This was a lie of awesome proportions - it was common knowledge that her family had been rather dysfunctional, but Max wouldn't know this. Carlotta had actually read a story in a book that went something like this, and it sounded like a good thing to say.

Max stared at Carlotta, then he stared at his parents.

"...I dun gettit."

Andrea sweat dropped. Our son appreciates the materials of life, doesn't he...

Carlotta sweatdropped also. "Your son appreciates the materials in life, doesn't he...?" she said to Andrea.

"It's more fun to play with people than by yourself," she summarized.

"You noticed?" Andrea replied with a smirk.

"But my toys are my frr-weinds!" Max replied to Carlotta, banging his little hand on the table. Why didn't grown ups get that?

Carlotta wisely refrained from pointing out that if his toys were his friends, his friends were dead. Somehow she suspected that wouldn't go over too well.

"I'll buy you some toys," Carlotta promised. And they'll definitely be sensible toys, unlike the ones I saw today, she added silently.