Twelve
Victor's doorbell rang.
Miles from the town proper and not one for company, he moved to scare the shit out of whatever moron had thought it was a good idea to irritate him.
Instead of finding a punk hightailing it to the road as he expected, he found The Kid on his doorstep. Victor slammed the door shut before she could speak.
Victor let his head thunk forward onto the doorjamb and growled to himself. After brief consideration, he wrenched the door open again a moment later.
"Get the hell in here."
Laura trounced in without a word, taking in her surroundings.
It was a far cry from the one room cabin he'd grown up in. His current sanctuary was two storeys tall and had running water, which supported the biggest goddamned bathtub he could fit in the available space.
Space he had in abundance, but none of it was suited to a half-pint runaway.
"How in the hell- Why in the fuck?"
Victor rubbed his temples and opted for the first question.
"How in the hell did you get here?"
"I am good at hiding and finding," the girl replied, simply, too engrossed in peering down the hall. Victor stepped in front of her, blocking her view.
Had the brat just said she was playing a game of cross-continental hide and seek? He needed to step up his game if his most private abode had been unearthed by a precocious second grader.
Victor moved on to his next line of inquiry.
"Why in the everloving fuck did you come here?"
The girl shrugged and pushed past him, following her nose to the kitchen where he'd been preparing dinner.
Victor growled.
"Get your ass back here! I'm not done talking to you!"
"Food!" Laura shouted in response.
Victor followed.
She wasn't as scrawny as she had been three months prior, but she still looked like she could stand to eat more. And if the girl somehow trekked over two thousand miles...
Victor shoved a plate in front of her.
He could always yell at her stupid little ass after dinner.