InsaneJournal

Truthfully, if it were not for Nana Mama, T.J. would never lock his doors to his home or the greenhouse. He was already taken advantage of to his face, so it was a wonder that he had yet to be robbed. He didn't know how to live his life without trusting other people wholly. He just couldn't. But he supposed the donkey had a point when she scolded him for leaving the door open. 'If that's the only legal way you two boys are making any money, don't you think that you ought to protect the plants inside? Whoever decides to rob you blind won't be as courteous to them as you are.' He loved his familiar, even though he thought she was a little paranoid at times, but rather than force her to nag at him all afternoon, he locked the door behind him with no complaint. Which might have also been because he was a little too preoccupied at the time. Since breakfast that morning, T.J.'s thoughts had been with Toby and their house guest for the next... well, he wasn't sure how long Emyli was going to be staying with them. Nor did he mind. He was troubled only by how worried his best friend was. It was clear to the earth elemental that Toby cared for Emyli deeply, more than he was willing to admit even to himself, and seeing her hurt had scared Toby more than he could say it seemed.

He wanted to spend some time with Toby, really give the squirrel an afternoon to distract him from his worries. He had an idea that could only be considered brilliant; he was sure they had some kind of chocolate fondue machine in the kitchen somewhere, and he would grow all of Toby's favorite fruits just so they could chill out and dip it in the chocolate and stuff their faces. Of course, Emyli was more than welcome to attend if she felt up to it. T.J. just thought it would be a nice gesture for his friend and so he was elbow deep in the soil behind the house working his mojo on some strawberries, blueberries, bananas, and pineapples. His clothes were soiled from his time in the dirt... not just this day but the day before too. He was so busy thinking of how pleased Toby was going to be that he was surprised when Nana Mama's voice sounded in his head again. 'Just so you know, boy, someone just broke into the greenhouse. You'd better get in the house and call the cops right away.'

T.J. wouldn't call himself a brave man necessarily. In fact, when he met his familiar it was all he could do not to be terrified, but he legitimately couldn't understand why someone would break into the greenhouse unless they needed something from inside. And who better to give them a hand than him? Besides, that way he could keep track of what was taken and he could work to replenish their stock if need be. Ignoring Nana Mama's insistence that he was a damned fool and if she wasn't locked behind the fence she'd run over and bite him on the rear, he walked carefully to the greenhouse. He was sure he heard her mentally calling Toby and demanding that he call the police because T.J. was too stupid to do so, but still he walked on. He tested the door gingerly, finding that it was undamaged but certainly unlocked, which was not the state he had left it in to begin with, and entered the greenhouse. At first glance he didn't see anyone and nothing seemed to be missing. He was nearly convinced that Toby had fed Nana Mama some of the last batch he grew for them when he heard a soft clicking sound. Leaning, he found the source was a young woman sitting on the floor knitting. At least, that's what someone else would have seen. What T.J. saw made his jaw drop and his heart not only skip a beat, but trip over itself and fall flat on its face.

He didn't know her name or where she was from or even why she was there, but he was awestruck. It didn't even matter that she'd broken into his greenhouse.

"U-um, hi." His voice was soft and his words had this tendency to sound like he was trying to swallow them. He really didn't want to disturb her; she was quite possibly the most beautiful creature he'd ever seen.

Toby had returned from the park shortly after noon. The space had been helpful, as well as meeting the red-head in the park. True, it hadn’t put him back to 100 percent, but it had certainly done him good. Just as he had with breakfast, he made enough food to feed a small army – grilled cheese to be exact. Once again he ate with T.J. first, this time making sure to steer away from the topic of all females, before bringing a plate into his room for Emyli. He stayed with her long enough to make sure that she ate and then gave her another dose of Oxycodone to put her back to sleep. Even if it had only been a day, the fact that she was healing put a lot of his worries to rest.

He was fully prepared to spend the rest of the afternoon with T.J., but his friend more or less shooed him away from the back of the house. Toby liked to compare T.J.’s version of working on a surprise to a child making something for an adult; sure, he knew what the elemental was doing, but acknowledging it before he was supposed to would have disappointed T.J. So he busied himself with running around the front yard as a squirrel since he had missed the opportunity to do so earlier. Toby was in a tree, toward the top few branches, when Nana Mama started yelling in his head. The unfortunate thing about the donkey not being his familiar was that he couldn’t give her a sarcastic retort with his thoughts. His only choice was to yell back at her, something he was incapable of doing as a squirrel. Toby wasn’t inclined to the same rose-colored glasses way of looking at the world the way T.J. was. He knew that people were underhanded, greedy, and self-centered; most of them didn’t have a problem screwing others over if it meant getting something out of it in the end. That was why Toby handled most of the dealing.

He had barely made it back into the house to shift and grab some clothes before Nana Mama was screeching that he needed to hurry up and call someone before T.J. went and got himself killed by the intruder. Something told him that his friend’s familiar was now resorting to exaggeration to get her point across. “Dude, can you tell that her that I am not her property to boss around,” Toby groaned as he pulled open the door to the greenhouse and came up beside T.J. “What’s goin—” His words were cut off as his eyes traveled to where his friend was looking. He too was caught up in awe of the beautiful girl knitting in their greenhouse. His hand grabbed on to T.J.’s shoulder to pull him closer so that he could whisper in his ear. “If you’re gonna call dibs, you better do it now.” Even if he was still talking to the elemental, Toby’s eyes never left the girl for a second once they landed on her.

'I swear, if I could get out of this pin, I'd march over yonder and bite you right on your rear, you foolish overgrown man-child!' Even though her voice was a mixture of exasperation and concern, T.J. chose not to respond or really acknowledge Nana Mama at that moment. It might have been because he couldn't tear his eyes away from the redhead in his greenhouse, but the fact that he didn't want to look away played the biggest role in his ignoring his familiar. Whether it was a second or an hour before Toby entered after him, T.J. had no idea. Because on top of her lovely auburn hair, fair skin, and a smile that made him want to melt like chocolate, she had a voice that made his heart skip a beat. His tongue felt swollen and he never knew it could be so hard to swallow. Truly, it was a miracle he had not fallen to his knees. He didn't ignore Toby's voice, though. He tried to say that he could tell Nana Mama anything he wanted but that didn't mean she'd listen, but all that came out was a throaty grunt. As far as 'dibs' went, he just gave a slight incline of his head to show he was listening, which might have also been an affirmation if he thought enough to really speak.

When she spoke again, T.J. gave himself a mental shake. He was better than this! It wasn't every day that he became tongue tied over a pretty face. Normally, he was very kind to the girls he met and was friends with and he would even wait before he really started flirting with them. This time, though, he was completely captivated by Moira and the fact that she had said something about the forest made him like her even more; how could she be a bad person? Clearly her intentions were good. His familiar was just paranoid. Finally finding his voice, T.J. wasn't sure what she meant about property. "What?" His brows came together at her question, but then he shook his head and grinned. "Oh no, he was just saying... nothing." He swallowed and then added quickly, hoping that the change of subject would leave Toby's concept of dibs forgotten so that she wouldn't get offended. "My name's T.J. and this is Toby. We own this place," he gestured to the greenhouse with a slight wave before he took a step towards her, his head tilting a bit so that he could get a better glimpse of her. "It is nice and warm in here." Some might call it muggy, even with the cooling temperatures outside. "Who are you?" He asked with a gentle smile.

'I swear you younguns are as useless as tits on a bull. When she stands up and murders the two of you, I don't want to hear your bellyaching.'

T.J. didn’t really have to call it; Toby could tell by the way he was making goo-goo eyes at the redhead that his friend was taken with her. Honestly, he was finding T.J.’s reaction to the strange woman in their greenhouse incredibly amusing. Even when he was at the top of his game, T.J. tended to tickle Toby with the way he regarded the females he was “in love” with. It wasn’t that Toby believed in treating women poorly, it was simply that he didn’t believe in bending over backwards and sacrificing everything for their whims. He crossed his arms over his chest and watched his friend with an entertained smile as he approached the girl like she was some kind of skittish animal. Granted, those knitting needles looked as though they could do some damage, but she was so small that they didn’t seem to have much to fear. “That’s right, I’m Toby, the were-squirrel. And this fine specimen of man is T.J., the elemental.” Hey, T.J. may have taken it upon himself to introduce them, but there was a right way and a wrong way to sell yourself to someone new. In any case, Toby had a responsibility as his friend’s wingman, even if some would argue that this was not the time to try picking someone up.

Toby didn’t follow suit with T.J. when he took a step toward the girl. Instead, he leaned back against one of the tables and watched the scene unfold. At least until Nana Mama decided to start yelling at them again. “Teege, will you please tell that donkey we are not going to get murdered?” He was rubbing his forehead as if the familiar had done some kind of damage by invading his head space. It didn’t really bother him, but that didn’t mean he would want her to have access to his thoughts 24/7 like she did with T.J. When he looked up, he made eye contact again with the girl still sitting under the shelf. “Right? You’re not planning on murdering us and burying our bodies in our own greenhouse. So we’ve got nothing to worry about!” The last few words he spoke at a louder volume, as though Nana Mama would be able to hear them from her pen instead of gleaning them from T.J.’s thoughts.