milliways_bar | (no subject)

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Tonight, Parker marches into the bar wearing black pajamas printed with bright little neon voodoo dolls. They suit her mood oddly well.

She’s also carrying the pillow and comforter from her bed. And a large grey cat darts ahead of her, joining in the strategic retreat. As the door to her room back at ranch swings shut a faint bass beat can be heard.

Two o’clock. Two o’clock in the frickin’ morning. And after three requests to keep it down, if anything the music has gotten louder. It’s only mid-June, and Parker has had it up to her standing-on-end hair with this year’s batch of summer employees. Employee housing is starting to feel like a freshman dorm.

Milliways is nice and peaceful by comparison.

Parker doesn’t even bother to get a key and go upstairs. She makes for the nearest unoccupied sofa and flops down with her bedding. Hoss jumps up with her and begins to turn in circles, making a nest in the comforter.

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Scorpius won't ask.

He just stifles a laugh and is soon placing a magicked cuddly-toy Porlock next to Parker and patting her on the head.

(He also gives Hoss a scritch or two behind the ears.)

For a moment it might seem as if the comforter is lumpy, but no one is home. But then a head topped by very tangled hair emerges.

Parker squints at Scorpius, then squints at the stuffed.....whatever the hell that thing is.

"Scorpius? Are you mocking me?" she asks.

But one corner of her mouth turns up, indicating that she doesn't find the situation that annoying, really.

Him? Mocking?

"No, never. Just tucking you in," Scorpius says with wide-eyed innocence.

"Do you need a bedtime story too?"

Parker raises an eyebrow.

"Do you know Goodnight Moon?"

Scorpius grins.

"Uhm. I'm afraid I don't. Would Bar have a copy?"

"Doesn't she have everything else?"

Except weapons. And live animals. Which is a good thing, because turning loose weasels packing AK-47s on her housemates actually sounds pretty good to Parker tonight.

"Everyone should know about Goodnight Moon. Especially if you ever have kids. It's like toddler valium."

"I'll be having nine," Scorpius replies with some enthusiasm, "so I best be familiar with it. Be right back, then."

He pats her on the head again.

"Keep the Porlock safe."

"Yeah. I'll do that."

Parker, in turn, pats the....she's still not sure what the hell it is...on the head.

"Hey!" she calls a after him a moment later, once her brain catches up. "What do you mean you're having nine?"

Scorpius doesn't stop to answer. He just laughs his way to Bar and is still grinning when he returns with the book in hand.

"This the one?" he asks, showing her the cover.

"That's the one."

There's only one Goodnight Moon.

"And when you say you're having nine kids, are you just trying to turn my hair white, or have you had some sort of freaky Milli-glimpse into the future where you saw yourself as Captain Von Trapp?"

He waves of her question with another laugh.

"It was just, uhm - It was something I'd joked about with Albus, that's all."

He gets comfortable on the floor besides her couch and opens the book.

"Am I supposed to do any sort of special voices with this?"

Parker raises her eyebrows, but doesn't comment. Even though the mental image of a future Scorpius covered over in children is kind of delightful.

"Nope, no real voices to do. It's all narration."

Parker hitches the comforter up under her chin.

"You do this a lot? You have a secret life as a super nanny that I haven't heard about?"

Scorpius turns pink. Just a bit.

"No. They just - They like that sort of thing, right? Voices and being silly."

"As a general rule."

Parker sounds amused.

"You don't spend a lot of time around little kids?"

"Cepheus is two. Or three? He's Mia's son, and I'll see him if he's about in Milliways, but I don't - I was an only child and my cousins are unmarried, so - No, not really," he says, shrugging.

"Though, the First Years seem awfully small now..."

Ah, yes, Cepheus. That has to be a little strange for Scorpius, Parker thinks.

"First Years are, what? Eleven or twelve?"

She props her head up on one elbow.

"I earned most of my spending money in college by babysitting. High school, too. And the ranch seems like it's crawling with little kids most of the time."

"So, I have to ask. Nine? Just an arbitrary number?"

"Because Albus is part-Weasley. His family is huge and so we've got a quota to keep."

He glances at Parker, grinning and mostly joking.

"Do you want children of your own?"

"Oh, yeah. I've always wanted kids," Parker says. "Probably in a few more years. I mean, not even married yet. But I do want kids."

"Kids. Plural. I didn't find being an only child all it was cracked up to be."

Parker looks curious.

"So, if you an Albus--and tell me if I'm treading into way personal territory, here--say if you two wind up living happily ever after and want a ton of kids. Do you adopt? Or do wizards have.....some sort of....magical work-around?"

Scorpius stares at her, eyebrows raised.

" - Magical work-around?"

"Well.....you know."

Parker makes a sort of ballooning motion in the area of her abdomen.

"Unless someone in your world has come up with a spell so that you can literally grow babies in a cabbage patch."

"Not that I know of," he exclaims, choking back a laugh.

"I, uhm - I don't know what we'd do. And it's not an issue yet. Maybe in a couple of, er, years. If we wind up living happily ever after, as you say."

Parker giggles, too.

"Hey, I had to ask. Virtually every woman I know who has had kids has said that they wished men could know what pregnancy and childbirth feels like. I thought, who knows? Maybe some enterprising witch made it happen."

She shakes her head grinning.

"Guess not, then. But like you say. Plenty of time to think about it."

"I'll let you know if anything develops."

And if he starts to have dreams about being pregnant and waddling around, she'll also get an earful from him.

And she will laugh.

A lot.

"Does Albus have a lot of siblings?" she asks.

"Two. A brother and a sister. But, I haven't met them."

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