AN: Facts about Cubic Zirconia after the fic. g

Description: Cutesy, very cutesy Blair as a kid-ficlet.

Disclaimer: Not mine

Buried Treasure
By Marns AKA Bumpkin
Rated PG

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Huanuco, Peru

June, 1974

Wild curls blowing in the wind off the river water, just turned five year old Blair was sitting on the sand inside the square his mother and her latest 'friend' had boxed out for him with stakes and string. His little legs were spraddled wide and he was sticking the tip of his tongue out the corner of his mouth in concentration. He was industriously but still carefully clearing away layers of sand and silt from his site with the wee little trowel and brushes like he had been shown, hoping to find something special.

He just knew he was going find something too! His mommy wouldn't have put him here unless there was something here for him to find. Nomi was a good mommy that way, and smart. She always letted him 'splore and figure things out for himself.

Blair looked over to where he knew Nomi was and scowled. He didn't like her new 'friend', Dr. Mister. He wasn't smart, like Nomi said he was. Blair shook his head, 'Nope, he was dumb.' Kept talking to Blair like he was dumb too. Like just 'cause he was little he didn't know how to figure things out. Dummy. He didn't even seem to realize Blair could read already either, cause he still tried to hide stuff by spelling the words out when talking to other grown ups. He just made Blair so mad!

Tingk

Pushing the loosened soil to the side Blair curiously peered into the hole to see what he might have hit to make the sound. A bright something glinted back at him.

Pretty.

Blair fished it out and used the front of his t-shirt to scrub the worst of the grime clinging to it off of it. When it was as clean as he could make it, he held it up to the light and admired how it sparkled.

Wow! He'd found treasure! Real, honest to goodness buried treasure!

His little face took on a calculating cast as he looked at the gem he held in his hand, and then at the hole he had been digging in. Then over to where his mommy was with the dummy, Dr. Mister. Nodding, he grinned. He had an idea, and it was a good one. He'd show Dr. Mister who was stupider, and it wasn't him.

x-X-x

Blair walked up to the man leading the dig, the man his mommy was playing with, and tugged hard on his pant leg to get his attention. When the man finally looked down at the tiny boy trying so hard to get his attention the little one piped up immediately, "I gots a deal for you Dr. Mister."

"You do, do you? And what might this deal be?" He tried to come off as sounding interested, but mostly he sounded irritated. Naomi was everything he ever wanted in a woman, except she came part of a package deal with her kid. And this kid in particular just seemed to rub him the wrong way from the start.

"I founds this in my spot - treasure, fer real buried treasure." Blair held up the cubic zirconia, it glinted brightly in the sunlight beating down. The multifaceted gem looked incredibly large in his tiny hand. Blair closed his hand around the bauble again and reclaimed the dig leader's attention, "An' dats not alls I founded - now what you gonna give me fer my spot?"

Naomi's current boyfriend, the leader of the dig, was patronizingly indulgent, "I don't know Blair, we'll have to see what else you unearth."

Blair was indignant, "Nuhunh, dats not how it works, yous gots to buy it now, 'fore you know what else is 'dere, notherwise its not a deal."

"Well then, how about you tell me what you want for it?" Impatience for the games he thought Blair was playing with him was really beginning to bleed though his limited acting ability.

"Dats not right neither, you're sposed to makes me 'n offer I can't r'fuse." Big blue eyes went from clear to stormy in the adorable face surrounded by riotous curls, the face itself turned decidedly mutinous as the chin pushed out pugnaciously.

Naomi, off to the side, was hiding her laughter as her young son logically argued his case against a Doctor of Archeology and seemed to be more than holding his own, much to the frustration of the aforementioned Doctor. The man in question was glowering down at the little waif who wasn't backing up an inch himself either. It was a stare-off, neither was flinching. The students gathered around were in the same boat as Naomi, trying desperately not to laugh.

Finally 'Dr. Mister' had enough. He frowned and said, "Look, I am a very busy man. I don't have time to play your little games. So I'll tell you what I'll do, anything that you find in your 'spot' over there – I will buy if, and only if, it's something related to my work. Is that understood?"

"Yeps, it's unnerstood." Blair replied and then groused, " I can speak Eng'ish y'know, been doin' it fer years." He kept grumbling as he stalked off to where he had his little stake set out. Naomi and one of the female students followed him, wanting to make sure he was going to be okay.

When she got there, the female student gasped loudly and then whispered something frantically to Naomi. Naomi, after all that had gone on before hearing what student said, finally lost it and started to peal out with laughter that echoed though the site.

Everyone wanting to see what the charming little boy's mother found so funny ran over. The hilarity spread. Then the self important Doctor of Archeology running the site, again found himself being dragged away from his work as he too was forced to wander over too see what was causing such a ruckus. When he got to the little stake he had set out for his lady friend's child his mouth fell open in shock.

The shock wasn't just because the child had followed every rule exactingly about excavating as he had been told. And the Doctor had to admit the child had been more meticulous than some of his university students in following directions, but due to what the child had unearthed. Buried Treasure indeed!

The sight of the perfectly preserved artifacts, had been exciting right up until the Doctor had remembered his deal with the little hellion. He groaned at the thought of how much he was going to have to give the child and Naomi out of his own pocket for making such a foolish deal.

Blair grinned at the man's groan. Looking up he caught the man's eye and said, "I tolds ya you shoulda made me 'n offer I couldn't r'fuse." Then he stuck his tongue out.

-End-

Post Author Notes: Okay, I know I took a few liberties here, seeing as if Blair was 5 for this fic, his being born in 1969, it made the year of this fic about 1974 – and cubic zirconia's didn't really even get started being used as a diamond substitute until about 1976, in Russia – and weren't commonly used anywhere until about 1980.