Outside of Moscow: a dacha in the countryside, 9am local time

[mparkerceo]

Parker is dancing to her iPod on the back porch, wearing Casimir's shirt.

No, he's not getting it back.

She's also making a few phone calls to friends today. Some people she IM'd earlier this week and so she doesn't need to talk to now

Comments

[needsaparrot]

Xander didn't call back at 1 in the morning. He would've if the message had been Help, I'm in trouble! or more likely, knowing Parker, Everything's fine and you can yell at me later, but since it was neither, he waited until human people on Eastern Daylight were actually awake.

"Paaaaarker... Why don't Russian people sleep when normal people sleep?"

[needsaparrot]

"Yeah, except the difference is I care what his parents think." Xander slid one socked foot over his knee and laned back. "New topic pleezkaythanks? They haven't blown up the school again yet; we're not done putting it back together from the last time."

[mparkerceo]

"Cool," Parker said, entertained. "Ooo, hey, do you put it back together shirtless?"

[needsaparrot]

"The school doesn't wear a shirt, no."

[mparkerceo]

Parker's pout was probably audible. "Xaaanderrr. I'll get Isabel to take photos," she threatened. "She already sent me one of Constable Fraser in a sweaty tank top, yay."

[needsaparrot]

"I may have taken my shirt off once."

[mparkerceo]

"Yay! I'll bet Bridge has pictures. He won't share, though." Parker grinned and leaned back in her lawn chair. "No bad craziness there since the guy with the knife?"

[needsaparrot]

"No bad, that I know of," Xander agreed. "Apparently a bunch of the pets turned into people last weekend. Jeremiah stayed froggy, though."

[mparkerceo]

"That would have been entertaining. A big purple guy telling you he wants flies," Parker said, amused. "I miss the weird. Here it's all politics, and all Russian all the time, as you'd expect, and God, Xander, I think I'm homesick."

[needsaparrot]

"Russian? In Russia? Surely you jestski." That was funnier in Xander's head, if anyone cares. "Yeah, I read you on that one, Parker. Even in Sunnydale, there's no weird like Fandom weird."

[mparkerceo]

"Exactly. Here, nothing's weird, just-- alienating without being alien, and foreign in the sense that my dad and his bigwigs are planning stuff I don't approve of, but there's no way to let on. And I can't even get attached to anything here, because we'll be gone in three weeks." Parker sighed. "I hate getting used to this again."

[needsaparrot]

"You'll be at Oxford in the Fall, though, won't you? That's not all that far away."

[mparkerceo]

"True. October. And I'll be there for three, maybe four years." She sighed. "That'll be better, I guess. And enough closer that I can visit you guys, sometimes. And the time zones won't be quite so crazy." Parker grinned. "So I'll have to find other reasons to call at 1 a.m."

[needsaparrot]

"Drunk-dialing is always a good excuse." Especially when the incoming phone has a recording function.

[mparkerceo]

"I have never... wait a minute." Parker paused. "Okay, I drunk-dialed Angel and Logan once. Logan laughed at me a lot. If you and Bridge would be nice, I might consider calling you to be very precise and rambly at you."

[needsaparrot]

"When is Bridge ever not nice?" Xander riposted immediately, significantly leaving himself out of the equation.