Janie (H)

“Exactly. It’s like a beer hat. World’s greatest invention. Hands free.” Xander was a firm supporter of anything that made things easier, and therefore made him lazier. “Yeah good idea, they look tired out to me. Sure.” He took one of the leashes, pushing himself to his feet. “Damn, I think my legs fell asleep.”

Janie put the dogs back on the leashes, taking the two that Xander didn’t before standing up after him. “You gonna be okay to walk?” She asked with a bit of a laugh. “Because you don’t have much of a choice, I mean... I can’t carry you, or anythin’.”

“Too far?” he asked, in mock horror. “Clearly you don’t keep up to date with fashion trends. Umbrella hats are popular as hell right now.” He watched with a grin as Jasper travelled over to them, looking oblivious as to why he’d been told off. “Rocky ate a bee once. Whole face started swelling up like that girl from Willy Wonka.”

“I guess it would keep my hands free to walk the dogs in the rain,” she laughed. Janie gently pet Jasper as he sat in between her and Xander. “Which is exactly why I don’t want him stickin’ his nose where it don’t belong,” she said to the boy, though she was looking at Jasper as she spoke. With that, Milo made his way over to them and sat down, apparently having had enough play time for now. “I think maybe we should get ‘em home.” She looked between the dogs, and then over to Xander. “You wanna walk ‘em back to Chase’s with me?”

Trying to dodge the noodle and failing, it hit Chase’s shoulder and flopped to the floor —- which caused an excited stir from the dogs, all trying to get at it at once. Letting out a chuckle at the sudden uproar, he shook his head before looking back up to Janie. “Now look what you’ve done, you stirred up these beasts.” Reaching over to the carton of noodles, he plucked a few out with his fingers before tossing them in Janie’s direction, which resulted in his pack scurring over to her for the apparent flying food.

Laughing, Janie ducked her head under the table to watch as the dogs crowded around Chase, all trying to get the noodle. “By the look of it, you’d think they haven’t eaten in weeks,” she joked, straightening back out just as he threw the noddles at her. One of them hit the blonde square in the face and the other fell into her lap and onto the floor. “Oh no,” she chuckled brushing the rest of the noddles onto the floor and into the crowd of dogs as they all surrounded her. 

“You think?” He grinned. “All the more reason for me to stay here a while.” He leaned back, watching the dogs with an amused expression. “I don’t think things can get cooler than that. Except wearing one of those golf hats with the rainbow umbrella. Winning combination right there.”

“Oh no,” Janie laughed, shaking her head. “Now, that might be goin’ a bit too far.” The blonde watched as Jasper got in to something at the far side of the park, and quickly whistled to get his attention. “Hey!” She called to the dog. “How many times do I gotta tell you? No eatin’ random things you find on the ground!” Jasper looked at Janie as she spoke before running over to her and sitting down. She chuckled a little and gave him a quick scratch behind the ears. “It’s okay, just be careful.”

“Two more dogs. Jeez, I think I’m in heaven,” he laughed, running a hand through his hair. “You should get one of those belts, y'know the ones where you can strap like, fifty leashes and take all the dogs out together? You’d look pretty cool with one of those,” he teased with a grin.

“Yeah, and if you stick around long enough, I bet Chase will adopt like 100 more,” Janie laughed, though she wouldn’t be surprised if she went to his house one day and found a new dog among all his other ones. “Darn right I’d look super cool.” She grinned at him. 

Fighting back a yawn, Nani strolled slowly through the grocery store. She had been low on supplies for the house for a few days, and Finn had been busy doing other projects to really notice. So, after a long night at the club, the stripper found herself pushing a cart down the little aisles–on the hunt for quick meals to make before work.

With a small basket in her hand, Janie wandered through the grocery store, picking up things as she went. She didn’t really have a list of what to shop for, she just grabbed things she wanted as she saw them in the aisles. Stopping at the shelves which had cookies, Janie reached up to the top shelf, trying to grab a box of Chips Ahoy, which turned out to be just a little past her reach. “Oh, c’mon,” she muttered to herself, still trying to reach for the treats. 

“What can I say?” he asked, grinning cheekily. “I like to take what I can get. Reminds me of my dogs back home, and keeps me up to date with these little balls of cute,” he added, nodding towards the frolicking dogs. “Two birds, one stone.”

Janie smiled, looking over at the other dogs as they played. “You’ll have to meet the other two soon,” she commented, looking over at Xander. “I would’ve brought them along, but five dogs is a lot for one person,” she chuckled. 

Xander laughed, locking his pinky with Janie’s. “Videos too, yeah? Or there’s no deal. I need my daily fix of dog videos.”

“Videos too?” Janie repeated, pursing her lips together. “Hmm... Yeah okay. I can do videos, too. You drive a hard bargain, Mr. Lawson.”

“I suppose I can do that,” he grinned cheekily. “S'long as you promise to text me photos of the dogs whenever you’re not working on the next space shuttle.”

“Alright, alright. I promise I’ll send you pictures of the dogs every day,” she laughed, holding up her pinky. “I pinky promise.” 

He laughed, nudging her back. “Oh don’t worry, I’ll definitely remind you. I want my fifteen minutes of fame. I’ll be texting you every day ‘till I get my name in that magazine.”

“But, you’ll also text me everyday because you wanna talk to me, right?” Janie laughed. “Otherwise, I might just make up a name, and no one will ever know it was supposed to be you.”

“Hey, I’m happy to be the motivation behind you becoming a hot shot engineer. Just remember to mention me in your People magazine interview once you’re famous, yeah?” he joked, grinning widely.

“Don’t worry, I’ll try not to forget you,” Janie nudged Xander with her elbow. “I don’t think I’ll be gettin’ any interviews, but if I do, I’ll definitely try to remember.” She smiled at him teasingly. “Maybe just send me a text every once in a while, to make sure I still remember.”

“Hey, I’m happy to be the motivation behind you becoming a hot shot engineer. Just remember to mention me in your People magazine interview once you’re famous, yeah?” he joked, grinning widely.

Janie grinned back at Xander, nodding her head. “Absolutely,” she chuckled, nudging him gently with her elbow. “But what about you? What do you wanna end up doin’?”

“Spaceships? Holy shit, do you know how cool that would be?” he asked, a childlike excitement lacing his words. Everyone loved spaceships. “I bet there are plenty of jobs for people like that, I can’t imagine they get a lot of applicants who are actually smart enough to build rockets.”

Janie smiled widely at Xander’s apparent excitement and she let out a light laugh. “Well, I’m not sure if I could actually build rockets, but it would be pretty cool,” she agreed. “I feel like I have to try now, though... just for you.”

Smiling at her approval, Chase brought the container back and put one on his plate, along with some lo mein. As reclusive as he could be, he really did love the company of others, especially Janie. “You should stop by more often, I have it every night,” he joked, picking up his chopsticks to gather a bundle of noodles.

At Chase’s joke, Janie rolled her eyes, though a wide smile still managed to make its way onto her face. “Boo,” she heckled, picking up a noodle and flicking it at him, laughing as she did so.”I should try to come over more often, though. It gets lonely at my place sometimes.”

“What kinda machines?” he asked, getting more interested. He was a guy, there was an innate magnetism between himself and huge engines. Not that he knew much about them. Just that they looked good. “Like planes, or racing cars? You could totally do that.”

Janie laughed a little at Xander’s suggestion and she shrugged her shoulders. “Planes, trains, racing cars, spaceships. I guess it doesn’t even have to be somethin’ that moves people. I just wanna build things.”

Sitting that the table, across from Chase, Janie picked up various containers one by one, putting a little bit of the food from each on her plate. At the man’s suggestion, she smiled and took one of the egg rolls, immediately taking a bite out of it. “There are good,” she mumbled with a full mouth, nodding her head. The blonde took another one and set both of them down on her plate before picking up her chopsticks are carefully picking up some noodles and popping them into her mouth. “I miss havin’ dinner with you,” she said, swallowing her food. 

“Damn right it would,” he laughed. “You could totally charge what you wanted to. People pay big money for anyone who can actually get the job done. Most mechanics I’ve met do the bare minimum so you have to keep coming back.”

“Maybe that can be a fall-back if the other thing I wanna do doesn’t work out,” Janie said with a laugh, continuing to watch Jasper and Milo as they played together. “I wanna build machines instead of just fixin’ them all the time,” she admitted, glancing over at Xander. “I dunno if that’ll ever happen, but...” She shrugged.