"Yep, mum. I understand." A 13 year old with slate-gray hair, blue tinted in the lowlights, stretched his arms up. The clock on the wall blared an obvious 4:56 in its chopped up red lighting, and the grandfather clock stood wedged into the corner, forever frozen at 12 o'clock sharp. "Bedtime is 7:30, no later than 8. He doesn't like to drink anything but water with his dinner and hates any type of cheese but American on his sandwich. I think I have it, mum." Ienzo Lane was babysitting his mom's best friend's little boy - five year old Myde Tourne.

His mother smiled and gave him a quick hug, causing Ienzo to wrinkle his nose a little. "Come on mum, it's not like he's the devil or somethin--" He cut off as the doorbell chimed, and his mother jumped a little before turning to go answer it. Ienzo, slipping onto the couch to slump down against its comfy blue cushions, could pick out the idle chit chat of his mother and Mrs. Tourne. He popped his knuckles - a bad habit of his - before reaching over to pick up a book. This could take a while...

--

About ten minutes later, they had finally left, and now came the moment of truth. Even though their parents were best friends, the two had never meant because normally Ienzo spent the summer at his father's, but his father was on a business trip so he was stuck with his peppy, protective mum. Offering his hand to the five year old, he smiled or at least tried to. It probably came up like a bare curl of his right side of his mouth, but still showed his light dimple. "I'm Ienzo. Who are you?" He asked, adding in a false cheeriness to his voice.

Now, Myde was a cute little boy with chubby little cheeks, huge blue eyes, and strangely spiky hair that seemed to have so many cowlicks on the top it stuck straight up, but the rest was petty straight. He was kind of tall for his age... and Ienzo was short. He regretted that about himself, but he forgot about his muses about his height as the little boy brightened up a huge smile, showing a missing front tooth. "Myde Turn! Myde Turn!" He giggled, taking Ienzo's hand and squeezing it tightly. Ienzo smiled a little wider this time t the thought. He knew that Myde's last name was actually pronounced 'torn', but the young boy said it as turn. It reminded him almost as if he was saying 'my turn! my turn!'.

"Nice to meet you, Myde. Now, are you hungry now?" He asked the five year old. That spikey head bobbed up and down and he repeated, "Yep yep yep! Hungry hungry hungry hippos! Hippo hippo hippo hungry!" like a broken record player. Ienzo grinned. This kid's enthusiasm was contagious. "Come on them, let's head to the kitchen." He said cheerfully, going into the kitchen, where he pointed to a chair. "That's your chair, Myde. I've already made a sandwhich for you - ham and cheese, right?" He went to the refridgerator to pull out his and the boy's sandwich while waiting for his response.

"Yay! I like ham and is it american cheese because that's my favorwet!" A hint of his childish lisp - most likely because he had only one front tooth as well - and Ienzo nodded, giving the boy his sandwhich after cutting it into four triangles. "I hope it's good." Ienzo said, and Myde just giggled, having already stuffed his mouth with a big bite of one of the triangles.

Ienzo himself had just a simple mayonnaise and cheese sandwhich - he had used the last of ham for Myde, and he hated salami and bologna which was all they had left. He finished his quickly, remembering to get Myde a glass of water, and then after they were done it was about six already. An hour and a half left of babysitting, and then he could stay up a litle later and finish his latest vampire book before waiting for his mom to show up... But what to do until then?

"Do you want to play charades?" He asked Myde, who was occupied with their cat, Phish. Myde looked up, his blue eyes sparkling, and shook his head. "Tag! I betcha can't catch me!" With that, the boy sprinted. Now.. Ienzo wasn't sure if his house was child safe, and took off after him.

--

Twenty minutes later, the two had finished running around.. And oh lord, Ienzo hadn't done that much running the whole summer! He was tired and layed down on the couch, with Myde sitting cheerfully on his stomach. "Hey, what's your favorite movie...?" Ienzo asked, hoping it was something easy to the eyes like maybe Beauty and the Beast or something. Myde grinned his toothy little smile and clapped his hands together, swinging his feet over the edge of the couch. "Little Mermaid! Ariel and Sebashun!" The blond giggled, poking his babysitter.

Ienzo groaned. He hated that movie.. but oh well. Myde never was that quiet anyway, so maybe this would shut up his incessant talking that had gone on all the time they had been there? "Do you want to look for it in the cabinet?" He asked the boy, and he jumped up and went to the nearest cabinet, opening it up even as Ienzo shouted, "No!" A whole bunch of horror and vampire movies spilled out... with a little too much detail into the front photos. Ditzy as he was, though, Myde paid no mind and moved onto the next cabinet, which was luckily more organized since it was basically untouched. It had all the kiddie movies in it.

"Banzai!" Myde shouted, and Ienzo jumped up, but just saw the little boy holding the movie above his head like Lady Liberty with her torch. He laughed, and took the DVD from the little boy to slip it into the player. He flipped on the TV and put the DVD in, hearing the familiar sound of credits that abruptly got cut off as he pressed the menu button. "Yahyahyahyahyah!" Myde exclaimed quickly, words bumping into each other like a train wreck as he climbed back on top of Ienzo to watch the movie.

--

When the movie played its final credits, the two boys were already fast asleep together on the couch. The mothers entered the house to find Ienzo halfway off the edge, one arm wrapped protectively around the sleeping Myde, who was snuggled into Ienzo's chest.

"We'll have to do this again sometime..."