Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 58th cycle. Now cycle 59!

"Rules of the House"
(Older) Quinn/Spencer (OC), Sophia (OC: Nellie V.)
Trinity series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

Spencer had made it all the way into the kitchen, starting the coffee and putting bread in the toaster before he saw the figure sleeping on the couch. He'd just left Quinn, who was asleep in their bed, so… He approached and, under the short dark hair, he recognized the face of their neighbor and overall benefactor Sophia. He wasn't about to wake her, so instead he went for the one he could awaken. He returned to the bedroom, sitting on the bed and leaning over to press a kiss to the side of Quinn's head. She reacted, resettled, but didn't wake.

"Miss Archer, a word?" he spoke at her ear. Of all things, he knew this would work. After a moment, her eyes opened. She looked up, saw him, smiled.

"Morning," she stretched to kiss him.

"Something you need to tell me?" he asked her, in his 'American' accent, and now she knew what he wanted. She sat up, rubbing sleep out of her eyes.

"Come with me," she got up, pulling him out of the room, sneaking a look into the living room before pulling him into the bathroom. She shut and locked the door, moved to the shower and turned it on.

"What are you doing?" he asked, and she held a finger to her lips.

"I had to bring her here," she whispered. If he wasn't standing so close to her, he wouldn't have heard her, and he guessed that was her intention.

"Why?" he whispered back.

"Well you know how I told you about how I started in this thing I used to do?" He nodded. "Last night I caught her on what I'd call the early stages of doing the same."

"Are you serious? Her?"

"I know, shocked the hell out of me, too. I saw her skulking out of her house, something told me I should follow her, so I did… and after I'd followed her for a while, I saw her climb up a tree like she was a squirrel in a past life, and then she opened a window and broke into someone's house."

"Always the quiet ones," he frowned.

"That's what I said, too!" Quinn went on whispering. "I made her get out of there. She says she does it because she's bored, tired of being the smart girl." Spencer gave her a look, and Quinn nodded. "Exactly what I thought. I wasn't going to let her just go home after that, so I brought her back."

"Now what are you going to do?"

"I don't even know. I didn't think that far. I told her if she ever got 'that bored' again she should come to us, so we might be seeing more of her."

"That's alright."

"You can't tell her I told you about this."

"I won't," he promised. "Are you going to tell her about…"

"About who I was? Who we were? I don't see how that would help matters."

"We could scare her with our scars," he smirked, and at the look that got him, he shook his head. "That was a joke."

"The less she knows the better, for all of us, including her."

"I know," he assured her. When there was a knock at the door, they both jumped.

"Sorry… Hi…" Sophia's voice sounded, hesitant. "I kind of need to go, if…"

"We'll be out in a minute," Quinn called out, turning and reaching for Spencer's shirt, tugging it over his head.

"What are you doing?" he whispered, confused, especially as she continued to strip him off before doing the same for herself.

"We're in here, the door's locked, we can't give her any reason to ask questions," she pulled him into the shower and made him stand under the water.

A minute later, the bathroom door opened to 'Allie and Tommy' wrapped in a robe and a towel respectively, hair dripping down their necks. Sophia's gaze turned away, awkwardly smiling and nodding as her two hosts passed by. Spencer looked like he'd been spun around for a minute before being let go.

Once they had dressed again, they joined Sophia, who was now back in the kitchen, fixing toast. "They were going to burn," she revealed, sliding the plate to Spencer, like this was any day back at the diner. "I'm sorry if I… interrupted," she almost blushed, turning to the coffee machine.

"Don't worry about it," Quinn told her, looking to Spencer with a small smirk. It was all she could do not to actually start laughing.

"I should probably get home anyway," Sophia shrugged, though she snuck a glance at Quinn, who shook her head. "Maybe I'll just stay for breakfast," she sighed.

"I'll take care of it. Go on, it'll only be a few minutes. My turn to serve you," he bowed his head to their guest. Quinn nodded for Sophia to follow her back to her room, and she closed the door.

"How long are you going to keep me here?" she crossed her arms before herself.

"I just wanted us to touch base this morning, to make sure what we talked about last night is clear for you," Quinn told her.

"I don't see how it could not."

"Sophia, I'm serious. I care about you, and I don't want to see you throw your life away."

"A little over dramatic?" the girl frowned.

"Maybe," Quinn admitted. "But it's like I said. It starts small, and then…"

"And then I go all Ocean's Eleven, is that it? Look, it's not like I'm trying to get myself arrested."

"I mean it, Sophia. You get 'bored' again, just come over, we'll do something." The girl sighed.

"Fine, I know. And I also know I probably sound a bit ungrateful but… I'm not," she turned back to 'Allie.' "Guess what I'm trying to say is… thanks… for not telling on me, and for… everything else."

"You're welcome," Quinn bowed her head.

"Is Tommy okay with me being here? I mean I know I kind of… interrupted you guys," she bowed her head again.

"Don't worry about him," Quinn promised.

"Don't know why he started coffee and toast and then just went away from that to…"

"Yeah, sorry, that's on me," Quinn cut her off, giving a shrug.

"Right…" Sophia breathed, looking away. "I'm just going to go see how breakfast is looking," she left the room, and Quinn bit back a laugh. Maybe this would be beneficial for all of them.

THE END

A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.
In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are
always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!