I rose before my alarm and left Piper to sleep. I crept to the bathroom, closing the door, and cranked up the hot water in the shower. Stepping in, I felt the invigorating warmth from the spray and took my time soaping up and rinsing the lather away.

I heard splattering beside the stall and thought I must have left the shower door open, the spray surely flooding the floor. Finding the door in place, I realized I was not alone in the bathroom.

Piper was seated on the toilet, panties down at mid-thigh, her midnight hair a rat's nest around her face and neck and shoulders. She paid me no mind. I covered my genitals with my hands and stammered, "P-Piper... Uh... I'm in here."

"Uh-huh," she replied, not looking at me, "but I needed to tinkle."

I shook my head, stepping further back in the stall, trying to hide my naked body as best I could. Her pee continued to flow strongly a moment, then trickled, then stopped. I looked away as Piper spread her thighs and started pulling tissue from the roller.

"Can I shower, too?" she asked while I stared at the back of the stall.

"When I'm finished, of course."

"Oh. I'll wait then."

By 'wait,' Piper meant that she would stand next to the shower stall, her panties tossed out into the room beyond, her body completely naked.

I didn't really know what to do, and to make it worse, I'd forgotten to bring clean clothes into the bathroom. "Uh, Piper," I said, hoping to solve a couple of problems at once, "could you fetch my bag, please? I need my clothes..."

"Umm... okay."

Piper walked out of the bathroom, her slender, bubble butt jiggling as she went. I slammed shut the water knob and quickly jumped from the stall, grabbing a towel and immediately wrapping it around my body. It barely covered me fully, but at least my genitals were no longer exposed.

The girl returned with my bag and I didn't look at her naked body as she passed it to me. "Thank you," I told her, "shower's yours."

Turning her attention to the stall, Piper paid me no more mind and I quickly left the bathroom and ensured that I fully closed the door behind me after I stepped out. Taking a deep breath, I quickly dried myself then put on boxers, slacks, and a collared shirt before I heard the shower stop.

I kept myself busy with repacking my dirty clothes in my bag. Piper strode out of the bathroom. She wore a towel, alright, but it was folded around her hair and not her body, the young girl's genitals and flat chest again fully exposed. I buried my eyes in my bag and ignored her completely as she began to dress.

- - -

The flight to LAX was bumpy. I had given Piper the window seat since she'd seemed really interested in being able to see out, so I was in the middle one. Thankfully, despite it being a last-minute booking, the flight was not quite full and we lucked out with no one on the aisle. I tried to relax a little, but the turbulence made that very difficult. It didn't seem to bother Piper as much as it did me.

She kept her earbuds in the whole flight, listening to something on her music player. Whatever it was, she didn't share it with me. In fact, after we boarded and she'd expressed an interest in the window seat, the girl completely ignored me, which was just fine as far as I was concerned. I was feeling more than a little unbalanced by what was going on, by how unaware the girl seemed to be about her state of undress, or mine, in the hotel room. I knew this was not going to be an easy few days trying to integrate the child into my apartment. I'd have to set up some rules, that was certain.

Plus, beyond the next few days, I didn't know what to do with her. I had to travel on Monday to Hyderabad, India for a big city-wide celebration which was going to last three or four days. I was to take photos of the revelry as well as some official shoots with the mayor and assorted dignitaries. Was I supposed to just leave Piper alone in my apartment? That hardly seemed right, but what choice would I have? I'd be working the whole trip, and my company was not going to pay for the girl's travel expenses the way it did mine.

And what about school? It seemed that Veronica was homeschooling her daughter, in a way. They travelled a lot to attend competitions. On the long cab ride to my apartment, Piper didn't really know what her mother did for a living. They seemed to have a decent cash flow based on all they spent on costumes and travel, but Piper just shrugged when I asked if Veronica had a job like mine.

I had a lot on my mind, to say the least, and no simple answers to my questions. The cab dropped us off in front of my building, and I paid the fare which was enough to have bought another plane ticket. I shouldered my bag and took one of Piper's suitcases inside, the girl following behind with the other.

Immediately, I regretted not cleaning up the place before I'd left. My apartment was small, a single bedroom, compact living room, a bathroom, and a combined kitchen and dining area. I was on the ground floor, so instead of a balcony like the units above me, I had a small concrete patio in the back. The inside of my apartment was cluttered. I'd left in a hurry to go to Dallas, the remains of a partially-eaten pizza still in a box on the couch, soda and beer cans on the beat-up table nearby. Dirty clothes were thrown over a chair or on the floor, more, I knew, in my bedroom. Hell, I was a bachelor who spent little time at home and never invited anyone over. I wasn't used to worrying about having the place be presentable.

Piper didn't seem to pay the mess any mind. I told her, "I'll, uh... Let me straighten up the bedroom a bit. You can use that. I'll sleep on the couch."

She shrugged and sat her suitcase down beside a chair in the living room, then plopped down and kicked her legs a bit while I disappeared into my bedroom. I shuffled dirty clothes into a hamper, picking up tissues from the floor which I'd used to clean up after masturbation sessions, burying those in a small trash can under plastic wrapper from a pack of boxers I'd recently purchased.

I yanked off the sheets and tossed them on the floor near the hamper, thankful that I had a second clean set available. Those settled on the mattress, I made up the bed and came back into the living room.

Piper was flipping through a magazine, and it took me several seconds to realize, to my horror, it was an issue of Barely Legal, a pornographic periodical featuring legal teen girls which I received each month in the mail. "Shit," I muttered without thinking, "Piper... you shouldn't be looking at that..."

She looked up at me, "Why? It's just naked girls..."

"Because," I told her, yanking it out of her hands, "you're ten and this is stuff meant for adults."

She shrugged, "I've seen naked girls before, you know."

I flashed back to the room full of half-dressed and nude young girls weeks earlier. "I'm sure you have, but this is different. I'll just put this away. Don't go looking for it, okay?"

She shrugged again as if there really was no big deal in having seen eighteen and nineteen-year old girls with their legs spread and sexual intentions clear in the images. I put the magazine in a big box of such things I kept under the bed, taking the box to the closet and burying it behind stacks of some of my childhood toys, photographs, and other memories I hadn't looked at in years. I made a mental note to find a more secure hiding spot in my storage bin in the apartment building's basement.

"Let's get your suitcases into the bedroom, okay?" I picked up both and took them in, Piper following me. "Don't really have room in the dresser. You okay with working out of the suitcases for now?"

She replied, "I usually do, cause, you know, we travel a lot. I'm used to it." Piper walked around the bed and looked at the bare walls in the room. "You don't decorate much, do you?"

"No," I answered her, "I'm not here all that much. I travel a lot, too."

"Oh. Like when I met you in Tokyo? You're a photographer? What's that like?"

"Uh," I replied, "I dunno. I like doing it. Photography is my hobby, really, so it's pretty cool that I get to do it for a living."

Piper asked, "So what all do you photograph?"

"Lots of things," I told her, "weddings, celebrations, big corporate events, that sort of thing. Sometimes more private stuff, too, but that's more rare."

"Models?"

"Sometimes, yes. Usually adults, though, or at least older teens. The Tokyo assignment was my first with child models."

"I like being photographed," Piper told me, jumping up on the bed and bouncing on it a bit. I could hear the squeaky springs protesting loudly, "will you take photos of me?"

"Right now? Uh... Maybe later, Piper. How about you and me order a pizza and then let's talk a bit."

"Oh. Talking..."

"Yeah," I replied, "we need to go over some rules, I think. I don't know how long you're going to be here, but let's be sure this is going to work for both of us, okay?"

"Okay..."

- - -

The pizza arrived an hour later. I'd mostly hidden myself in the bathroom, showering and remembering to bring my clothes inside this time. Piper didn't come in, thankfully, and I got a chance to shave and felt a little refreshed from the whirlwind trip to and from Dallas. The girl had declined my offer of her own shower, telling me she would do so later.

I asked her what she liked to watch on television and she shrugged, "I don't watch much, really. Just stuff on Netflix on my computer." When she showed me her 'computer,' it was a mid-sized tablet instead.

"So, what do you watch on that?"

"Cartoons. Movies."

"Anything you want to watch? I've got Netflix, but I don't have any cable or anything." There'd been no point in paying for services I wasn't home to use. Netflix I could access most everywhere.

She shrugged, "I dunno."

I flipped on the television and opened up Netflix, searching through movies for children and settling on something I hoped would be a reasonable diversion for an ten-year old, an animated movie featuring talking dogs and cats and a unicorn, for some reason.

We dug into the pizza and Piper ate ravenously. She seemed to be less sad than the day before, but I knew the girl was likely hiding her real feelings. Given the child was a model, she had a lot of experience wearing masks around adults. I wondered if she would trust me enough to open up, at least a little, if she was feeling particularly sad or lonely. The thought of her doing so also scared me quite a bit. I had no idea how to handle anyone else emotionally, adult or child, and I doubted I would be very good if she chose to talk about her feelings.

I let the movie play out and it was clear that by the end, Piper was getting sleepy. I didn't want to turn in for the night without having talked to her about our rules.

"So," I began, turning off the television when the credits began to roll, "let's talk."

"Mm-kay."

"A few ground rules."

"Mm-kay."

I said, "Just to avoid... people snooping too closely, if anyone asks, you're my niece, okay?"

"Why?"

I chuckled lightly, "Well, because if we tell people you're the daughter of a woman I used to date and barely know and who just left the country all of a sudden, they're gonna wonder why you are staying with me and not in the care of family."

Piper shrugged, "Okay, I guess that makes sense. Uncle Patrick, then?"

I laughed. "Uncle Patrick, yeah." I nodded to the side. "Trash gets put in the garbage can in the kitchen unless it won't fit, then it goes out on the patio in the big bin. Recycling here is most everything. Paper, plastic, metal, all that. I've got bins on the patio for those, too. Please be sure to keep things picked up."

She chuckled, "Like you do?"

"I wasn't exactly expecting company..."

Piper looked a touch upset, "Oh..."

"Clothes you've worn go in the hamper, either in the bedroom, or the one in the bathroom. I'll do laundry tomorrow, so be sure you get all the dirty stuff out of your suitcases."

She nodded but said nothing.

"And... if I'm in the bathroom, you're not to come in, okay?"

"But what if I have to go?"

"You'll wait."

"But what if I really have to go?"

"Then knock and give me a chance to make myself decent. I don't want you just walking in while I'm showering like you did in the hotel, okay?"

She seemed not to understand the big deal I was making out of it, but Piper nodded anyway.

"You'll change your clothes either in the bathroom or the bedroom, with the door closed, understood?"

Her face scrunched up, "You really don't like me being naked, do you?"

"Not particularly, no. Little girls and men they don't know shouldn't be undressed in front of each other."

"Why not?"

"Cause," I stammered, "it's weird..."

"It's not weird to be naked..."

"No, it's weird for me to see you naked, and it's weird for you to see me naked..."

"Why?"

"Because it just is!" I was growing frustrated.

"But your magazine had naked girls, too. You like seeing them, right?"

I grumbled, groaning, "That's different..."

"Why?"

I blurted out, "Because I'm jerking off to them!" I immediately regretted what I'd said. "Gah!"

"What's jerking off mean?" Piper asked innocently.

"Nothing. Forget I said it." I took a deep breath, then calmed a bit. "The point is... don't be naked in my apartment, okay? Not where I can see you. That's all I'm asking."

Piper tilted her head as if considering my request to be rather odd, then she said, "Fine."

"Tomorrow, I'll see if I can phone your mother and get some answers. I'm not sure what to do beyond the rest of this week. I have to travel to India on Monday... I can't take you with me..."

"What? Why?" Piper looked distraught and a little angry.

"Because," I tried to explain, frustrated again, "I'm going for work. I've already got my ticket... I won't have time or attention to drag a child along with me!"

Piper fumed, her eyes misting over. "So, what... I just stay here, alone?"

"I don't know, Piper. I'm sorry I yelled. This is difficult for both of us. I've got a few days to sort things out, okay? We'll figure out something..."

She crossed her arms and looked away from me, clearly trying not to let her tears flow. "I wanna go to bed."

I nodded, "I already changed the sheets. The bedroom's all yours."

Before I'd even finished the statement, Piper was on her feet and stalking into the room, closing the door firmly behind her.

I leaned back on the couch, letting out a long sigh.

What the fuck had I gotten myself into?

- - -

I woke in the night, groggy, to an unusual sound coming from my bedroom. My back ached, the couch not the most comfortable of sleeping berths. I listened in the darkness. It sounded like Piper was crying.

I crept to the bedroom and knocked softly, "Piper? Are you okay?"

"No..." she cried plaintively.

"Can I come in?"

"Yeah..."

I opened the door and saw Piper sitting up on my double bed, blankets drawn around her body, her head in her hands. She was crying openly.

"Shhhh," I whispered, sitting on the edge of the bed, "what's wrong?"

"I'm lonely!" she blubbered.

"I'm here," I told her, "everything's okay..."

She shook her head, crying, "I never, ever sleep alone! I miss Mommy!"

I gently touched her shoulder and to my surprise, Piper leaned over to me, putting her head on my thigh, wrapping her arms around my body. She continued to cry and I lightly held her shoulder.

I didn't have any experience with moments like this. Should I try to cheer her up? Keep telling her things would be okay, even if that might be a lie? Did I hug her? Did let her just cry herself to sleep?

For a few minutes, I just sat quietly, Piper's head in my lap, her tears wetting my inner thigh. I'd forgotten I was only wearing boxers, feeling really uncomfortable at that realization. Thankfully, I had on a pair with buttons in the front, keeping the boxers from opening like some of my others would have done.

I stroked Piper's shoulder, feeling really bad for the girl. "Anything I can do?" I offered gently.

"Don't leave me alone tonight," she pleaded, looking up with red, puffy eyes. "Please? Come sleep in here with me?"

I gave in, "Alright. I'll grab a blanket and pillow and sleep on the floor next to the bed."

She looked disappointed but Piper nodded anyway. I went back to the couch, grabbing what I needed and putting on the shirt and sweatpants I'd taken off just before trying to sleep earlier. It was awkward enough without me being in only my boxers, too.

Back in the bedroom, I froze when I saw that Piper was now standing over the edge of the bed, straightening the covers.

She was completely nude. Her small, heart-shaped bottom was towards me, spread slightly as she smoothed out the blanket.

I looked away and decided not to bring up the rules just then. She had more important worries on her mind, and I didn't want to be a total asshole to her when she was still crying. Instead, I made my way to the other side of the bed and laid out a blanket. I hadn't run the vacuum in weeks, probably. I knew it was a little gross to lie down on the bare carpet.

I waited until I knew Piper had gotten under the covers and stopped showing her naked flesh, then smiled at her as she looked down at me. The bed was low to the floor, just the way I liked it since I was a kid, so she was only a little above me as I stretched out on my blanket, pulling a second over my body.

Piper had stopped crying, thankfully. She rested her head on the pillow, eyes on me as I looked back at her. I heard her say, "Thanks, Patrick..." Piper hung her arm over the side of the bed and reached for my hand. I let her take it and hold it there as her eyes began to close and she grew calm and peaceful.

- - -

My back and arm were sore when I woke around dawn the next day. I'd held Piper's hand long after my muscles began to ache from holding the position. The girl hadn't moved that I could tell, her face still pointed at me on the floor, her arm still hanging over the bed, inches above where my hand had fallen away at some point.

I crept out of the room and into the bathroom, relieving myself before washing up, brushing my teeth, and touching up my shave a bit.

I had little decent food in my apartment. I wasn't home enough to regularly buy normal things like eggs or milk. I had some cereal, though, which I usually just ate dry. I realized this was no way to feed a child and decided I'd go get breakfast while Piper slept.

I wrote a note and left it on top of one of her suitcases, letting her know that I would be right back.

I didn't own a car but I lived close to an area with shops, grocers, and cafes, including a decent bakery. I bought four glazed donuts, two cups of fresh fruit, and an oversized cinnamon bun, along with a bottle of milk. The clerk filled the large mug I'd brought with fresh, steaming coffee which I then sipped all the way back to my apartment.

Inside, I saw that the bathroom door was closed which meant Piper had gotten up. Setting bags of food and drink on the kitchen counter, I walked to the bathroom and rapped lightly. "Piper? I'm back."

"I'm pooping."

I started to reply a couple of times, not really sure what to say. "O-kay... I brought breakfast... if you're hungry."

"Kay," Piper replied.

She came out moments later, thankfully wearing clean, green leggings and a long t-shirt which covered the tight bottoms all the way to her knees. Piper had combed out her hair and it was really beautiful when not all tangled and messed like it had been since I'd picked her up in Dallas. Just like her mother, I thought to myself.

"What'd you get us?" the girl asked as she sat on one of the basic wooden stools along one side of the kitchen counter. I told her what I'd bought and she seemed happy for a change. "Mmm. Sounds good. I'm hungry."

"Good. Let's eat up. We've got a lot to do today."

While I split the cinnamon bun in two pieces, Piper grabbed a donut and shoved half of it in her mouth, a muffled, "Mmmm..." coming from her throat. When she'd swallowed and washed her big bite down her throat, "What're we doing today?"

"Laundry, for one. And calling your mom. Do you think she'll answer?"

Piper shrugged and chewed on the other half of her donut while I took my first bite of the cinnamon bun. "I dunno. She always answers when I call, though, uh, she's not usually gone, like, ever."

"You two are always together?"

"Pretty much, yeah. Always."

I thought it a bit odd, to be honest, but perhaps with all the travel and moving from place to place, it made sense that mother and daughter maintained contact everywhere they went. It really made me wonder, though, how Veronica was paying for everything if she didn't seem to go to a job somewhere, but her daughter, who said they were always together, had no idea what her mother did for a living.

"Why don't you try once you finish breakfast? We need some... guidance... I think."

"Okay." Moments later, Piper pulled up her cell phone and punched her mother's call button. It rang a few times, but eventually went to the woman's voice mail. When the tone sounded, Piper said, "Mommy, it's me. Where are you? I'm with Patrick in Los Angeles," she looked at me, "Los Angeles, right?"

I nodded, "Close enough."

"Yeah, Los Angeles," Piper said into her phone, "and, um, Patrick wanted me to call you. I miss you, Mommy! Please call me back!"

As she hung up the call, I could see the girl getting a little emotional. "We'll keep trying, alright? Nothing more we can do right now. Just keep your ringer on, so you can hear it go off when she calls."

Piper nodded, leaving the phone on the table right under her chin, the girl's head resting on her hands and hanging low.

"So, laundry sounds fun, right?"

The ten-year old narrowed her eyes and scrunched up her adorable nose, "No..."

"You might be surprised, I think. The place I go to is right down the street, and there's video games and a pool table."

Piper shrugged, "Sounds okay, I guess."

- - -

She helped me gather up our collective laundry in the sack I used to carry clothes back and forth, a second clean one for the return trip hung over my shoulder. Piper's dirty clothes consisted of several days worth of leggings and t-shirts and underwear. I wondered what travel schedule Veronica's abrupt need to disappear had interrupted. I asked Piper where they had been when her mother had decided to leave, and the girl told me they'd just arrived in Dallas, but the child didn't have a show there. She didn't know why they were in Dallas, nor where they would be going next, only that she had a competition she had to be at in Berlin in a couple of weeks.

Piper pleaded with me again to take her to Berlin, and I deflected, not committing to anything. I knew that after my Hyderabad assignment, I'd almost certainly be going to New York for an art gallery opening. I'd asked for that job as soon as I saw it on the schedule months earlier. I had a thing for art galleries, and I loved being around when they opened, or when they unveiled famous collections for the first time.

I'd gotten a reputation as a worthy photographer of paintings and drawings, and it had even been requested by the new gallery's director that I be assigned to their opening. My supervisor, Marilyn, sometimes procrastinated on assignments to the point of concern for those of us trying to hit tight schedules all over the world. But I'd grown accustomed to such things, and she still had a couple of days before the assignment would need handed out. I sent her a quick text message that morning to remind her that I had been requested for the gig, but I got no immediate response.

Whatever I was going to do with Piper, the girl was tentatively in my care. I had no answers as I grabbed fistfuls of dirty clothes and shoved them into the industrial-sized washer. Piper herself was over at a pinball machine after I'd given her some quarters. I looked down to realize I'd just wrapped my fingers around several of the girl's soiled panties, streaks of light and dark brown on the fabrics, patches of crusty white, one pair a little moist. I threw the underwear into the washer quickly and tried to ignore the residual sensations of dampness still on my fingers.

- - -

I sat on a stool next to Piper as she played some sort of rolling-running-tumbling video game. She seemed to be rather good at it. We'd spoken little, and I'd been sure to thoroughly wash my hands after touching her soiled underwear, still absently wiping them against my jeans an hour afterwards. I couldn't completely wipe the sensation of her moist panties from my mind.

The bar next door had opened up, and I'd bought a beer to bring over while I waited, a soda in a glass bottle set aside on the high, narrow table behind us for Piper. I sipped my beer slowly, not really sure what to do next.

My phone rang. It was Marilyn. "Hey," I answered.

"Patrick, good. Got a moment?"

"Sure. News about a gig after Hyderabad?" I asked, sure that she was telling me about the art gallery assignment.

"Yeah, I have some, but it's not what you'd hoped..."

"Oh?" I felt disappointment creeping into me.

"Milton died yesterday."

"What?!"

"Yeah. Heart attack. His widow called us this morning."

Milton had been on assignment in Thailand, I remembered, the old, old man somehow able to leg it out well into his eighties, traveling as much as I did. I had wondered for months when it all would catch up with him, and it seemed that moment had finally happened.

"Damn sorry to hear that," I replied.

"Yeah, listen. You're still going to Hyderabad, but I can't send you to New York the week after. I need you to cover Milton's assignment instead."

"Okay," I said, not happy to miss New York, but I was a reasonable man and I knew the loss of Milton meant some sacrifices while the company adjusted. "What's the job?"

"You did the ModelLight competition in Tokyo by mistake, right?"

"Yeah," I replied. Marilyn had never exactly explained about how I'd been given an assignment which should have been Milton's, but I hadn't pressed her on it either.

"Well, there's another one in Berlin in two weeks. I need you to cover it. Same plan as Tokyo."

Berlin. I looked at Piper, the girl's back to me as she concentrated on her game. "Yeah. Okay.. sure. I'll do it, of course."

"Great. Thanks, Patrick. You're a lifesaver."

"Hey, Marilyn, quick question."

"Quick one..."

"What's the company's policy on... dependents? You know... when an agent needs to take them with him?"

"You knock up someone recently, Patrick?" Marilyn said evenly. She was the type that would blurt out comments such as that one and rather than being a joke, she had intended it as a serious question.

"Err, no... Uh... I've got my... niece... for a while. I can't leave her behind next week, and I've got no one I trust to leave her with..."

"Sorry, you're on your own for that one. We won't pay her way. Sorry. Anything else? I need to make another call."

"That's all. Thanks. Email me my itenerary." We had a portal we used for such things, but I always found it helpful to keep a copy around in my inbox.

"I always do," Marilyn replied before the call was dropped.

I waited a moment, no longer sipping my beer but taking a long, heady swig, pondering the change of plans. "So, Piper..." I said to the girl when she finally ended her game.

"Huh?" the ten-year old replied, spinning around on her stool.

"Seems you're going to get to go to Berlin after all."

Her eyes lit up, "Really?!"

I nodded, "I've been assigned to photograph your competition."

"Oh, great!" she exclaimed before wrapping me in a tight hug which made me feel just a little more uncomfortable when an older woman paused folding her clothes nearby and stared at us as if we'd done something wrong.

"Still not sure what to do next week, but... I suppose you're going to have to come with me. Can't leave you here..."

Her grin was as wide as her face, those lovely young lips curling up and showing off her perfect white teeth. "I've never been to India!"

"Well... we're not going to have a lot of time to enjoy it. I'll be working the whole time, sunup until well after dark. Think you can keep up?"

"Oh, sure. I'll keep up," Piper smiled, "I dunno if you can keep up with me, though!"

I returned her smile and finished my beer just in time to gather up our clothes from the dryer.

- - -

After dropping by the cafe next to the bar for sandwiches, I shouldered the bag of clothes while Piper tried her mom again on our walk home. She left it on speaker phone, so I heard the automated message tell the girl that the phone number she'd called was no longer in service. I felt my stomach lurch, but when Piper looked at me with mild horror, I just shrugged and told her, "Could just be network issues. I'm sure she'll have it back on soon. Don't worry."

Piper was worried, but she didn't reply. I knew better than the lie I'd told, but what was I supposed to say? Your mom has disappeared and did not have the decency to let you know how to get in touch with her? I might have lied to the girl, but I thought it was going to hurt her less than telling her the truth I suspected, which was that either Veronica was intentionally out of contact, or, perhaps, something had happened to her.

I dumped the clothes on the bed once we were back, Piper's mind clearly on her mother. Mechanically, she helped me separate her things from mine. I saw her draw aside her panties, causing my thoughts to flash back to the dampness I'd felt on one pair, an image I flushed away as quickly as possible. What was wrong with me? She's a fucking child!

"I don't see any of your outfits, Piper," I told her after seeing her stuff clean clothes into her suitcases.

She froze, then turned back at me in a panic. "Oh, no! They're at home! I totally forgot!"

"Where's home?"

"Miami!"

I did a little math in my head. "I have to be in India by Wednesday morning, that's why I was leaving Monday, early. I can change my plans and we can drop by your house Sunday night, fly into Miami and out of there to India."

Piper nodded, "Yeah. Okay."

I didn't voice my concerns, but if Veronica was in some kind of legal trouble, or worse, her house might be under surveillance. Or worse. I hoped I wasn't putting Piper, and myself, at risk by going there.

While Piper used the toilet, I tried calling Veronica from my phone but got the same result. The number had been taken out of service. I groaned and without thinking, sat on the couch, pulled my little box of paraphernalia out of its hiding place under a cushion, and started crumbling pot into the small bowl in the glass pipe.

I froze when I heard the bathroom door open. Piper didn't notice at first, and I slowly tried to put away the pipe and box. She stopped in front of me, then looked to where I'd not yet stashed my gear. "I know what that is," she told me, "Mommy smokes that all the time."

Veronica and I had gotten high a few times when we'd been dating, so it wasn't really a surprise except that she did so where her daughter had seen her, apparently.

"I... uh..."

"I don't mind," Piper said, "I like the way it smells."

I nodded a time or two, feeling rather guilty, but that didn't stop me from sparking the bowl as soon as Piper went into the bedroom. A couple of tokes in, I was feeling more relaxed and stashed the box again, leaning back on the couch and trying to figure out what to do next.

Piper came out of the bedroom wearing only a pair of lavender panties, her tiny little nipples a dark-red and somewhat erect. "Piper..."

"What?" she replied, "I'm not naked."

"No, but..."

"You said not to be naked. I'm not naked. I'm not undressing. I didn't break your rule. I need to stretch out."

I caught my protest and allowed that, technically, she was doing what I'd told her. Panties over her genitals and bottom did qualify has her not being naked, but the problem that rule was meant to solve was only lightly mitigated by the thin, light-purple fabric covering her private parts.

When I said nothing more, Piper looked around and asked, "Where can I stretch and practice?"

"What are you going to practice?" I asked.

"My routine. I don't see a pole anywhere. Guess I have to make it up."

I didn't really have anywhere terribly suited for such activities. "We can clear out the dining table, I guess, to give you some room. Let me sweep and mop in there first. Can you stretch on the bed or something?"

Piper shrugged, "Suppose," then went back into the bedroom, her little bottom swaying within the panties as she left me staring a little too long at her backside.

I cleaned up the old tile floor in the dining area after pushing the table and chairs back against the wall. It wasn't much of a space, but it was all I had to offer. "Piper?" I called into the room, "It's cleaned up and cleared out for you."

She returned, and I watched as she began doing slow bends and stretches, flexing her thigh muscles, soon standing on one leg and drawing the other up so that she was doing an impressive standing split. Her panties were a little loose, and I saw a hint of her genitals where one of the leg holes had flared out a little. As usual, I looked away as quickly as I was aware of what I was seeing.

I decided to busy myself by giving the apartment a thorough cleaning, dusting, gathering loose things, vacuuming. It gave me a chance to ignore the limber, adorable young girl currently spreading her legs and wearing next to nothing in my dining room.

After working through the bedroom and bathroom, I came around to check on Piper. She had a broom in one hand, bristles on the floor pressed out from the way she held it down firmly. Piper had her panty-covered crotch right against it as she leaned back, her other arm reaching well back behind her, knees bent. She gave the broom a few deliberate grinds, then spun away from it, her eyes closed. On through the routine she went, spinning and swaying and rising up and down the broom's wooden handle, simulating the points where she would have climbed or slid down a real pole.

I had a hard time looking away, mostly because she moved so effortlessly. Piper was a natural dancer, fluid and flexible, turning the simplest shift of her arm into an almost-sensual display of motion. She never noticed me watching, at least not until I looked down in surprise to realize I felt a little tight in my jeans and saw my crotch bulging out. I'd grown hard watching her, and, naturally, that's the moment Piper chose to break away from her routine, open her eyes, and cast a curious glance in my direction.

She didn't seem to notice my bulge and I shifted so that my body was hidden behind the edge of the living room wall. "Watching me?" she asked.

"Y-yeah," I stammered, trying to smooth out the front of my jeans without her noticing, "you're really good, Piper."

"Thanks," she told me, "I practice a lot."

"Where'd you start learning to dance like that?"

"Mommy taught me at first, then I took a few classes... a few times."

"Well," I said, "you are really, really good. I'm surprised you didn't win in Tokyo."

Piper straightened up and put the broom handle against the wall, then shrugged, "That's normal. I never win..."

"Never?"

The girl shook her head, "Nah. It's always one of the inside girls."

"Uh... inside girls?"

"Yeah, they like, do private competitions or something. I dunno. Mommy won't let me go to them. If I don't do those private ones, I can't win, I think."

I remembered the red flags I'd seen and heard at the competition in Tokyo. I began to wonder if the inside girls were being taken to somewhere to perform, privately, for men, possibly nude, possibly doing more than just dancing or singing. It troubled me, to be sure, but at least it sounded like Piper had not been down that road yet.

"Well," I said, trying to take my mind off the sorts of things little girls and dirty old men might be doing in the private shows, "keep at it. I'm sure you'll win one day."

"Can I do the private one in Berlin?"

"Err... I don't think that's a good idea, Piper."

"But I really want to win this time!"

"I know," I replied, "but if your mother said no, I have to stick to that. She doesn't want you to go for a reason..."

"But why? She never gives me reasons!"

I swallowed, debating what to say, "My guess is... those girls... the ones who perform in private... they're doing something... sexual... with the men."

"Ummm, something sexual?"

"Yeah, uh, maybe I shouldn't say any more..."

"But I want to know!"

"Later," I told the girl, trying to put off any need to explain more. "If you're done practicing... how about putting on some clothes and helping me clean up in the kitchen?"

Piper pouted a moment, standing with her arms crossed over her exposed flat chest, one leg cocked out slightly. The damp spot in her lavender panties was so obvious I almost missed it. Darker purple there made it clear the girl's sweat, or possibly her more intimate wetness, had soaked through the crotch. I felt myself stirring and staring again despite my strong desire to look away.

"What?" she asked when my eyes froze on her panty-covered crotch. Piper looked down, then back at me, "What?"

"You should, uh... make sure to put on... uh... clean underwear..."

Piper looked down again, then grabbed the top edge of her panties with both hands, pulling them out from her body and looking inside. "Oh... I got them wet. It's not pee! They don't stink, I promise!"

I nearly choked at hearing her words. "Well... uh... they're soiled... sweat, I guess... uh... please change them before you put on clothes..."

The last thing I wanted in my head right then was the knowledge that this pretty little girl had soaked her panties, whether sweat or something more mature in nature, it didn't matter. I was clearly confused and off-balance to even think about such things and I was very relieved when Piper ended her protest and disappeared into the bedroom, closing the door behind her.

- - -

The kitchen took some time to get clean since I had us take everything out of cabinets and the fridge to wipe away the weeks and months of dust and dripped sauces and other such things a bachelor tended to overlook and ignore. Piper didn't complain, seemingly content to be distracted from her current situation.

After we'd both showered again, we walked down the street to get some dinner. I didn't ask Piper if she'd put on clean underwear. I didn't really want to know. We talked a little about living in Miami, but like me, Piper and her mother spent little time at home, so the girl had little to say about the city itself. They'd called other places home in the months and years since Piper had been doing modeling competitions, including Detroit, Phoenix, and, most recently, Delaware Beach. Just like Miami, Piper had little to tell me about those places.

"But you've never lived anywhere else?" she asked me as we neared the Italian place I was taking us to dinner.

"Just around LA. Never really had the chance. I grew up nearby, went to UCLA, got a job with a company based around here. Got a better job with a different company out of Venice, which is close by. I moved to my apartment to afford my own place, and since I travel for work so much, I don't really need to move anywhere else right now."

"Oh," Piper replied, "have you been to Miami?"

I thought back through my last couple of years, "Don't think I have, no. I've been to Jacksonville for a conference, once, but that's about it."

"Oh," she repeated. "Do you think I should try Mommy again?"

I cringed, knowing the result she would get. "Not right now. I just tried myself a bit ago. No answer." It was worse than no answer, of course, but I didn't remind the girl of that fact.

"Oh," she said for the third time, "maybe tomorrow, then?"

"Tomorrow. Ah, we're here," I told her, opening the door and following her inside. Piper had chosen another pair of tight-fitting leggings and I was beginning to wonder if the girl had any idea how revealing those outfits were on her. From the front, the fact that she wore panties kept the indentation of her vulva from being seen, but her bottom was traced perfectly, including the way the fabric drew up between her cheeks and formed a deep wedge through her buttocks. I wondered if I should talk to her at some point about what men might see and think about, then shuddered to realize that it would be an awkward conversation I'd rather avoid. Piper was used to men, and women, seeing much more of her given the outfit she'd worn in Tokyo, the one where her vulva, reddish-brown flesh and all, was visible through the fabric. A shapely but well-covered backside was nothing compared to that.

- - -

Piper went to bed after dinner once I'd' promised that I would sleep on the floor again when I was tired. The truth of it was that I was already tired, but I didn't feel quite ready for sleep. So, once I was sure Piper was settled down for the night and the light was off in the bedroom, the door closed, I did what I often did when at home and trying to get some sleep: I turned off all the lights in the living room, inhaled a few hits of cannabis, and flipped open my laptop.

My source material regularly alternated between online porn videos and the more classic magazines like Barely Legal. Sometimes I was in the mood for the old school format, but given that I'd stashed away my collection in a place I couldn't get to without disturbing Piper, I decided to head to PornHub and surf a few new uploads, settling on a scene where a pigtailed, dark-haired eighteen year old was bent over a chair, being fucked hard in her cleanly-waxed pussy.

I put in my earbuds so that the sounds from the video couldn't be heard, then unbuttoned and unzipped my jeans, pulling my cock out through the opening in my boxers. The scene was hot, for sure, but I couldn't help seeing images in my head of the wet spot in Piper's panties. Why was I so interested in that? She was a child! Couldn't I just focus on the deliciously-wet teen getting hammered by a big cock? I tried to ignore the lingering thoughts about Piper and her panties and stroked my dick rapidly, shutting out everything else.

Just a minute or two later, I tensed up, grabbing a tissue with my free hand, and covered the tip of my cock just as I started shooting my load. A few seconds later, I was awash in mild pleasure, some confusion as well from the way my thoughts came back to seeing Piper in Tokyo, her little vulva so clearly visible through her outfit. My penis twitched a couple more times, then I pulled out my earbuds, stopped the video, and tossed the tissue onto the table.

Piper was standing in the bedroom doorway, eyes staring right at where I was tucking my penis into my boxers. "Uhhhhh... Piper!"

She blinked a couple of times, "Whatcha doin'?"

"Uh.... Nothing... Uh... Just watching a movie..."

Piper took a few steps towards me while I hastily tried to yank my jeans back into place. "What movie?"

"Nothing... something for adults... that's all..."

"Why?" the girl said, sitting right next to me as I slammed shut the laptop.

"No reason, uh. Thought you'd gone to bed..."

She shrugged, her eyes glancing down at where I continued to fumble with my zipper, "Couldn't sleep. Whatcha doin'?" she asked me again.

"Nothing," I repeated, finally yanking my zipper up, "just, uh... you know... getting ready for bed."

"Oh... so you're gonna come in and sleep on the floor again, like you promised?"

I nodded, nerves jangling. "Yep. I promised, right?" I managed a nervous chuckle.

"Yep." Piper's eyes narrowed, "I think you have snot or something on your hand..."

I looked in horror to see a big, sticky glob of cum splattered on the back of my hand. I grabbed the discarded tissue I'd just used to catch my load and wiped myself clean, "Yeah, I... uh... sneezed..."

Piper wrinkled her face, "Eww, gross... Were you sneezing in your pants?" she said with humor.

"Uh, huh? No... uh... like I said, just getting ready for bed... that's all..."

"Cause," she told me, "there's some on those, too."

As fast as possible, I wiped the white cum from the front of my jeans. "All better...?"

She leaned down close, far too close for my comfort, then leaned back, "I don't see any more..." Then she looked at me and tilted her head, "Were you about to pee?"

"What?"

"You had your wiener out. That's how you pee, right?"

"Uh..." I decided her assumption was better than the truth, "Yeah. Was gonna pee..."

"On the couch?"

"What? No... in the toilet."

Piper pursed her lips, "Well that's just strange to me. If you're gonna pee in the toilet, you don't need to take out your wiener here first."

"Yeah, I..." I let out my breath, "Look, I'm really tired and I want some sleep. Let me go... pee... and wash my hands and all... I'll be in with you in five minutes, okay?"

She grinned at me, "Okay."

I felt my stomach finally start to calm down once Piper was finally out of sight. I'd have to be sure that the next time I felt the urge to masturbate, I closed myself in the bathroom first. I was lucky Piper knew too little about sex, apparently, to understand what she'd just seen.

- - -

I stretched out on the blanket, groaning already in discomfort. Like she had the night before, Piper reached out her hand and I held it while she fell asleep. She was a rather kind child. It was kinda of sweet the way she wanted me to hold her hand. I wondered if she missed her mother so much that she would have accepted anyone's kindness, not just mine. I supposed it really didn't matter. I was what she was stuck with for the moment, and I was beginning to grow fond of the girl. I wanted her to know some peace, and if that meant letting my arm cramp up to give her just a little support, I felt willing to do it.

Patrick, Male, 25

	- Narrator, professional photographer

	- 5'9, beige skin, 165lbs, muted-brown bangs

Piper, Female, 10

	- Child model

	- 4'7, tanned beige skin, 90lbs, blue-green eyes, straight raven-black hair