What Are You Doing?

Lunch Time

(A/N)French/Spanish used in this chapter
Mon amour- My love (French)
Pequeña- Little one (Spanish)

let me know if this needs correction as I used google

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I was sitting on the living room couch petting Muffin, a calico cat that me and Antonio got about a year ago. I was wondering when he would come back from his appointment as it was almost noon and we planned on driving our taco truck to one of our usual spots. Then the door opened and I turned to greet him only to see him holding hands with a little girl that doesn't look older than 7. She was thin and covered in dirt.

"Mon amour" I started to say, moving Muffin aside and standing up to walk closer to them "Who is this?" I said, voice calm and not holding anything but confusion and slight concern. I looked down at her and she tensed. Why was she here? I don't mind that she's here I just want to know why. Antonio wouldn't bring a random child home without a good reason.

"This is Zoe. I found her- well more like she found me when she attempted to pick-pocket me" I was kinda surprised at that. A little girl pick-pocketing Antonio? Not something you hear everyday. "And she doesn't have anywhere else to go as she was living on the streets. I knew you wouldn't mind helping me out with taking care of her until we can figure out what to do" he finished saying, lightly squeezing Zoe's hand. She didn't look up the entire time we talked just stared at her shoes.

Her story sounded awfully familiar to me. She shouldn't have to live like that, I did as a teen and it was awful. And she's just a child! It's a miracle she hasn't died out there. How long was she hungry and cold?

"Of course I would help" I said with certainty. I looked down at Zoe for a moment and crouched to meet her gray eyes. "Hello Zoe. I'm Dominique, Ricardo's husband" I held out a hand to her, it would be best if we used our government known names for now as I'm sure that there's going to be a lot of paperwork involved to help her. "How about you take a bath while we make you some lunch?"

She looked up at me then down at my offered hand, thinking for a moment before nodding talking my hand and asking "what can I wear after I shower?" She still sounded a little unsure but that's to be expected from being on the streets. "I'm not sure what we have that would fit you but we can look" I said standing up and leading her to our closet, digging through to find the smallest things we have. Muffin eventually got off the couch to see what we were doing. Zoe seemed to like Muffin by the way her eyes wouldn't leave the cat, even having a staring contest with her and slightly smiling when Muffin blinked. In the end I gave her one of my old pajama shirts because Antonio's would just swamp her small frame. This shirt had a bunch of cute personified food on the front like a smiling taco and a dancing bowl of soup.

While Zoe was in the bath we went to the kitchen to make lunch and talk about the situation. We decided to make sandwiches as we didn't feel like doing a lot of effort right now.

"So what's the plan?" I asked as I started grabbing various items from the fridge. "I obviously don't want her living on the streets and we don't know if she has any family she can go to or if said family is shit or not" he nodded and grabbed the bread and peanut butter from the pantry. "It's probably best if we wait a bit before asking her questions as she's still a little cautious but I think she likes Muffin" He smiled at the little detail, setting the bread and peanut butter onto the counter. We don't know if Zoe is allergic to peanuts or not so we'll just have a few different options for her.

We continued to make the sandwiches and Zoe got out just after we finished. The shirt we had given her hung well below her knees and because my shoulders are wider than hers the shirt only covered one shoulder while the other side hung low on her arm. Now that she was clean I could see that, even though still wet, her hair was lighter than I thought it was because of all the dirt that was on her. I could also see that there were very faint freckles on the bridge of her nose. She looked pretty damn cute.

"Hey pequeña, are you allergic to peanuts or anything in general?" Antonio asked, placing the sandwiches we made for ourselves on the table before turning to Zoe to hear her answer. "I don't think so" she said looking at what we made with curious gray eyes. "Good to know. We made you a peanut butter and strawberry jelly sandwich but let us know if you would like something different. It's not a bother" he said placing her sandwich on the table and gesturing for her to sit in the chair in front of it. She stood there for a few moments before sitting down and taking a small bite of her sandwich. "Thank you" she said.

"What would you like to drink?" I asked her, opening the fridge "We have water, orange juice, milk and apple juice" I pulled out the orange juice for myself and set it on the counter while I waited for her answer. "Apple juice please" she looked a little excited if the light in her eyes were anything to go by. I guess she likes apple juice. I poured both our juices and water for Antonio and sat down at the table across from Zoe. Our table only had 2 chairs but Antonio was happy to lean against the counter and eat his sandwich.

It was quiet while we ate which I didn't mind. Zoe seemed to like the sandwich as her head was swaying left and right as if there was music in her head. Maybe there was music as I know I've done that a few times. But her eyes looked lighter than the cold gray ones when I first saw her.

When we were finished Antonio did the dishes as it was his turn while I led Zoe to the living room couch. Muffin was laying across one of the armrests and promptly moved over to us to get pets. I was mostly petting her as she sat on my lap. Zoe held her hands like she wanted to pet Muffin but was stopping herself. I gently took one of her hands and put it on the cat and moved it down her spine. I moved her hand a few times down Muffin's spine before I let go and she was petting Muffin on her own. She looked happy, her eyes shined and she had a small smile on her face.

"Her name is Muffin" I said after a few seconds of quiet petting "We got her a year ago and she's one of the laziest cats I know" I smiled fondly. "Do you like cats?" I asked. She paused petting Muffin for a moment, her smile fading as she thought about it "I don't know. All of the cats I found didn't stay long" she smiled again, continuing her petting "But I like this one"

"I'm glad" I smiled down at her, shifting so that we were sitting right next to each other and Muffin laying across both of our laps and getting pets from both of us.