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“Daniel Fenton I will punt you down the stairs so hard your ass will bounce all the way into Lake Michigan!” Ellie shrieked somewhere inside what could possibly be described as a cabin at a stretch, two stories tall and scraping the cloudless summer sky.
“No you won’t!” Danny shouted back, a door slamming shut followed by running footsteps and what Tucker assumed was probably an ectobeam striking a window. A brief sort of silence was immediately followed up by a flurry of shouting as he edged his way down the decaying porch stairs and then burst into a sprint. Danny might have more clones than a jellyfish could shake a stick at, but that didn’t mean Tucker had to get involved, thank you very much. He was an only child for a reason. He didn’t do the whole sibling ‘will murder you for a cool looking pine cone but will also slaughter anyone who even looks at you wrong’ thing. If he’s going to die for something, might as well be a cool piece of tech.
Speaking of…
“Absolutely not,” Ellie said because apparently the Fenton children, even the artificial ones, have no sense of love nor wonder nor willingness to help a poor, sad little Tucker who forgot the charging cord for one of his devices and somehow didn’t have the right adaptors for once.
“But Ellie,” he wheedled, wavering it in front of her eyes. “Please? I’ll make you that grilled cheese you like.”
“You already owe me two,” she said like the merciless goddess she could probably be if she got the idea into her head enough to.
“Every cool rock in my collection,” he offered next because clearly the stakes needed to be raised.
“Almost all of them are quartz,” she said.
“First off, rude,” he said. “Common doesn’t mean not cool, Ellie, be more open minded. Second, how the fuck did you know that?”
“I know a lot of things,” she said, fifteen and at this point well versed in making people, namely Tucker, grovel. “I’m not a charging cord, Tucker.”
“I know this,” said Tucker, dragging his cap lower on his forehead. “You have made this painfully clear many times, literally. But you see, I have a great reason for why I need you to charge this for me.”
“And that is?” she asked, shoving her hands in her pockets.
“I forgot the charging cord,” he said, “and I was gonna teach Ella how to use this.”
His hail mary. His ultimate trump card. If anything was going to work, it was this. Sure, he had to hope that the youngest clone would not fucking squeal that this was never an arranged plan until this exact moment. But hey, Tucker could spare a bit of time away from his iPhone if it meant that Ellie charged it for him. Yes, he had his Blackberries, yes he had his Japanese phones and Nokias and his LG Prada, but this was an iPhone . Tucker wasn’t a betting man, but he would put money on the iPhone changing the world, thank you, even if he was forever a Nokia man at heart after three and some years of Danny’s superhero bullshit. Also, Tucker just wanted to play with his new toy. All that to say, use Ella as a trump card, let her play with it a bit, and he was in the clear with a charged phone. All she had to do was say—
“A phone,” said Ellie with a sort of unimpressed manner that sent all the hopes blossoming in his chest to ruin.
“Yes,” said Tucker because he could totally still salvage this.
“Tucker, this is low even for you.”
Rude.
“I won’t tell Danny it was you who broke his moon lamp,” he blurted out, because if he’s going to hit low, might as well go below the belt.
“Oh you son of a bitch,” Ellie hissed, snatching the phone from his hand. “Fine! But you owe me.”
“Technically, I think this makes us even,” he started and then waved his hands frantically as she let the phone slip halfway down her hand. “I mean, I totally do. I so owe you. I owe you so much that I will worship you as queen and goddess of the electricity gods, all hail your mighty electric core!”
“I hate you,” she said, passing it back fully charged.
“Aww, I love you too,” he teased, snagging it and shoving it in his pocket. “By the way, I think I just saw Danny fly towards the beach with one of those giant inflatable hamster balls.”
“No fucking way,” she breathed and took off like a shot, leaving Tucker alone with his sweet, sweet cellphone and probably only a little bit of a favor indebted. Worth it.
An entire chorus of shrieks came up from the beach as he hopped up one desiccated step to another mysteriously soaked one, headed for the nice air conditioned kitchen. He’d go check out the beach when it was less likely that someone would get drowned.
…or electrocuted.