Laura didn't completely understand everything that was going on between Alicia and Marcus at the house, but she understood more now than she might have a couple months ago or even a year ago. Living with two people for well over a year in a fuctional relationship helped her understand those sort of things, and she also understood and remembered Alicia and Marcus' relationship after living with them for two months in their fantasy worlds. Life had been a lot different there in many different ways, and one of the biggest ways was they felt and acted around each other. From what she could tell on the surface, Alicia and Marcus didn't always really like each other very much.
She knew it was more complicated than what it actually appeared, but she still could hear them bickering sometimes. It wasn't even about big things, but just little bickerings here and there. They did seem to try to limit any arguments when she wasn't around. The bickering itself didn't bother her, nor did the fact that circumstances were different here. A lot of things were different here than how they'd been in Breckentale. Some parts she liked and some part she didn't, but that didn't mean she couldn't help change the parts that she didn't.
It was after the Halloween party that the idea hit her. Marcus had been walking around the house, and she'd caught sight of the tattoo on his leg. A pineapple tattoo. The conversation they'd had when she'd following him into his work came back to her about pineapples and why he'd ever want one on his leg at all. Something about being welcoming. He seemed to like the idea, and so had she at the time. Why not see how that worked in practice?
The pineapple was easy enough to pick up at one of the stores. How she was going to give it to one of them was a little harder. Since Marcus was the one with the tattoo and knew about the welcoming thing, she opted to give the pineapple to Alicia. On behalf of Marcus. Without telling him that she was going to do it. Instead of writing out the note herself, Laura decided to have one of the trainers at the zoo to write it up for her just in case one of them recognized her handwriting. The pineapple was hidden in her backpack on the way home, and she smiled to herself when she realized that she'd beaten everyone home for the day.
Slipping into Alicia's room, Laura sat the pineapple up against the pillows of her bed and tucked the edge of the note under it. The note read: 'Saw this, thought you might like one. -M'. Whether or not that was something he'd actually write didn't matter, but it was the best thing she could think of that wasn't stupid or gave away too much. Looking at it on the bed, she grinned wide and covered her face with her hands to keep from laughing. A moment or so later, she heard the front door open up. Not knowing who it was, Laura darted quietly out of Alicia's room and slipped into hers and shut the door. Carlos the goat was waiting for her to let him out, and she didn't want anyone to know what she'd been up to.
Maybe it would help, maybe it wouldn't, but it couldn't hurt, right?