New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

"Hihihihi!"

She skipped away, like the little devil she apparently was, and Alex had to run after her. Violette beat him to the building entrance, almost getting stopped by the doorman, until he saw Alex running behind and recognized him.

She ran to the elevator that brought up to the penthouse and stopped in front of it. She couldn't get in without Alex's pass, so she had no other choice.

"Okay, bye!"

Alexander caught up to her in front of the elevator, where she was waiting for him, phone extended towards him. She was sporting a devilish grin as Alex took his phone back.

"What did she want? And more importantly, what did you say to her?"

"Nothing important!" Violette chirped.

Alexander clicked his tongue, reading the blatant lie. He resolved himself to call Kary back once he was inside his penthouse.

He stowed his phone away, before swiping his keycard to open the elevator doors. Once in it, he entered his biometrics on the pad and waited for the elevator to start moving.

Violette stood beside him, humming and rocking back and forth, seemingly proud of herself for whatever shenanigan she had just pulled.

"Please never run from me like that outside. The city is dangerous for a girl your size and age."

"Okay!" she answered, still smiling widely.

She obviously barely even heeded his warning, and Alex could only shake his head. He guessed this resulted from her suddenly having much more freedom than usual, and she was testing where the boundaries were.

He had no experience raising children, so all he could do was improvise to the best of his abilities. He would try to keep her safe as much as he could.

As the elevator reached its destination, and the door opened, she zoomed into the penthouse, barely taking the time to take off her shoes at the entrance.

*Sigh*

'What did I get myself into?'

Alexander took off his shoes before carrying the grocery bag to the kitchen, where he unpacked it. And then his intercom beeped.

He wondered who it was this time, as he walked to it to answer.

"Hello."

"Hello again, Mr. Leduc. This is the reception desk. We have a delivery man here, with a delivery for you from a certain Richard Bellemare."

"Can you ask what the delivery is?" Alex asked, slightly worried.

After asking the delivery guy, the receptionist looked back at the camera.

"He says it is some sort of pod the kids use for gaming these days."

'So her father decided it would be an extended stay. Hmm.'

"Alright. Send it up."

After saying that, he hung up and waited for the man to reach the elevator with his oversized crate. Once the man was before the doors, he buzzed them open so he could come up.

What annoyed him was that the delivery man was alone. This pod was substantially heavy, and there was no way he could bring it upstairs on his own.

Richard had probably done this on purpose, as petty revenge for getting punched in the face. Alexander clicked his tongue, pulling his sleeves up.

He could have called a serviceman from the building to help, but the fewer people who came into his home that he didn't know, the better. Once the elevator arrived, Alex greeted the delivery man.

"It goes up the stairs. I will help you."

The delivery man looked a little surprised that such a rich young man was willing to break a sweat with little ol' him. But he didn't refuse the help.

After a back-breaking ten minutes, they finally pushed the crate up the stairs. They wheeled the dolly it was on into Violette's room, where the man installed the pod.

Alexander gave the man a hundred-dollar bill as a tip.

"Thank you for helping me, sir," the delivery man said, taking the bill with a wide smile.

"Sure thing. Have a good day."

The man shook Alex's hand before stepping into the elevator again. The apartment was back to two occupants.

Alexander went to take a quick shower. His little chase from earlier and the weight of the pod had worked up quite a sweat, and he felt sticky.

"Violette. I'll go take a shower. Your pod was delivered and installed in your room, but for now, do you want to watch TV?"

"Do you have the anime channel?" she asked, over excitedly.

Alexander chuckled as he set the TV for her. Of course, he had the channel.

He was an avid anime watcher himself. How could he not have that channel?

She almost aggressively grabbed the remote from his hands once the channel was set to choose her favourite anime. He laughed and let her at it.

He rapidly went upstairs, to his room's shower, where he was sure not to be disturbed, and went to wash up. While he was in the shower, he swore he heard his intercom ring, but only briefly.

When he popped his head out and screamed across the house, asking what it was, Violette shouted back that it was a false dial.

Alex frowned at the answer.

A false dial? in this building?

He highly doubted it. So he hurried up and finished washing and getting dressed again, with fresh clothes.

As he was getting dressed, he heard the elevator ding.

'Who the hell is coming in here? I didn't buzz anyone up.'

He only had a pair of pants on, but that would have to do for now. His still-wet hair dripping on his face and shoulders, he ran back downstairs.

When he got to the penthouse entrance, he came face to face with someone he wasn't expecting here.

Staring at him, mouth agape, was Kary. She was looking at him, shirtless, with his half-toned muscles twitching.

"Kary. I wasn't expecting you. Who let you up?"

The woman was completely silent, her mouth still cracked open, staring at him, her cheeks beginning to flush.

"Kary?"