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001. out there in the sun | beneath the sky // open post
Take a prompt, take some time, drop in whenever you like.
Take a prompt, take some time, drop in whenever you like.
Take a prompt, take some time, drop in whenever you like.
Take a prompt, take some time, drop in whenever you like.
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He focuses his attentions on the boy, and smiles.]
You can go now, Alan. We'll talk more later.
[There's the Deer In Headlights Look, of course, of a boy who originally thought that he was in Deep Shit then realized that he was free to go. Then another look, this time directed at Maggie.
A hand on Alan's shoulder, however, is more than enough to get him going. Aidan watches the boy leave, then turns back to Maggie.
He's not going anytime soon. He has all the time in the world to fix this.]
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Weren't you afraid, Mama?
The first time I saw Aidan? No, not really. But the second time, yes. You have to understand, sweetheart: I was a newly Changed fox, and anything bigger, anything that big, is a predator you learn to either trick or respect.
And with Aidan... let's just say I felt like a toothpick he could chew on.
She's wiping furiously at her eyes then, walking without direction until she nearly trips on one of the plates sitting quietly on the field, and snaps to attention--
--to find her eyes fixed on a pair, in the distance, that she knows ( she does, she does ) better than her own. ]
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So he's keeping his attentions focused on Maggie. To ask her if she's okay is an insult: she's as proud as her mother was, and - in some ways - always has been. So he's moving, crouching right in front of her. Watching, and waiting.]
I think you and I need to talk.
[No need to order this one around. She needs to come around all on her own this time.]
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I'm tired. [ Not really. ] That's only why I'm sitting.
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I know. Want me to sit here, or sit with you? The view is nice, either way.
[That last bit, he owes to Hikaru. His brother(?) did always tell him that he has to be more charming...]
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She shrugs, a careless, do whatever you want gesture that speaks of resignation more than anything else.
Can't stop you, she mutters inwardly. All I am is a toothpick anyway. ]
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He's also bringing out his pack of cigarettes, and holding it up to her with a questioning look.
Does she mind? Because if she does, he won't.]
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[ She doesn't talk about him. Stopped, after that first time after they'd come home to a house cleaned down with a smell that pinched her nose, and she'd asked, quietly why the bags were packed. Stopped because of the way her brother had gone sheet-white and swayed, sliding bonelessly down into the pillow he favored over their couch. ]
He called Mama filthy for-- [ she scrunches up her face, she's never understood the phrase, never wanted to ask lest she be looked at as if she was stupid ] --'keeping the habit.'
[ When she looks up at the Dragon, she asks with her eyes. So much is lost on her -- on Renae -- words that make very little sense together than they do when taken apart. ]
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[The statement is quiet, just as he's thumbing out a cigarette. Hand-rolled tobacco, 100% natural. He grows it on his own; gardening was, after all, something Setsuna had taught him to do.
Lighting up, then, taking a drag, and respectfully blowing the smoke away from Maggie's direction.]
What do you think of this, though?
[It was important to let the girl know that she could speak her mind, feel what she wanted to, and do what she had to, provided that it did not hurt anyone - most especially herself.]
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Their mother wistfully ( sadly ) turning a pack over in her hands before she bent forward to press an open palm to her forehead, or outside on the porch, wisps of smoke winding up as she looked to a moon that wasn't always there. ]
It made her sad. But sad and quiet was always better than the nights she'd go run.
Belated edit because hahaha, OCD...
He used to know everything whether he liked it nor not. Now the knowledge comes to him on a Need to Know Basis.
Somehow, he's all right with this.]
Where did she go whenever she'd do that?
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The woods. [ Maggie offers simply, calmer now; more sad and uncertain than she was minutes before.
Her hands come up to wipe at her eyes again, but this time, she finds that it's harder to fight the tears when they just fall anyway. ]
Sometimes, we'd hear her. But it also wasn't her. Out there.
[ Plaintive whines. And the following silence. ]
And then she came home one day and asked us if we wanted to go in a hike.
[ Then, softer: ] And if we wanted to see what we could grow up to be.
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[And he's quietly giving her a handkerchief. It's an acknowledgement of the fact that she is weak: it's an acknowledgement that she needs this moment to herself, and that he is there for her for as long as he needs her to be.]
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She doesn't wipe at her tears, just holds the square fabric between two sets of fingers and worries at the smooth texture.
When she finally speaks, the words are accompanied by a shrug, and her voice is so very small. ]
We always knew. [ She takes a breath. ] But it was different.
[ She smoothes out the handkerchief over one knee, remembering how her mother had asked them to both sit down on the leaf-strewn floor of earth in the middle of the forest. The way she'd been their mother one minute, a fox the next, padding over on four tiny feet and settling across her lap and Renae's.
Her face turns up to the Voidseeker again. ]
Do you think we will? Be like her, one day.
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[He smiles.]
Yes. I believe that you'll both be okay.
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She drops her head. ]
Did he mean it?
[ She can't wrap her voice around an I'm sorry just yet, especially since the apology isn't supposed to be for Aidan anyway. But her body language, the way she feels so terribly small speaks enough. She'll have to make it up to her classmate.
And to Renae. ]
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[If he didn't, well... Aidan wouldn't have stepped in at all.]
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And then, softly: ]
I'm sorry, sir.
[ For being a selfish brat. For not being smart enough to realize when someone wanted to make friends. For making such a fuss that you had to step in. ]
Mom's going to be mad.
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It's all right. I'll make sure to have a word with your mother about this, just to clarify things.
[And about a number of other things, of course. But Maggie doesn't have to bother herself with that.]
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--before she leans in, her forehead bumping his arm. ]
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Tell me when you'd like to go back. I'll speak to your teachers for you.
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I have to say sorry to-- [ she frowns, hard, remembering. ] Alan.
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[Standing up now, and taking just one moment out to brush the grass off of his pants before turning around and offering his hand to his companion.]
Shall we?
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There's only a moment of hesitation before she pulls herself to her feet -- and the slightest tilt of her head in her brother's direction, before the motion is aborted and her full attention is back on the Voidseeker.
And because all is well now, she peers up at him. ] Do you really eat mean little children?
[ It's a... thing. Among the older students. She's seen Renae go livid at the idea of it, a total affront to the fact that her brother is in awe of the Dragon, head to tail.
She does shrink a half-second after she realizes she might have spoken out of turn, and blinks up at him with a tense and apologetic look of welp. ]
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Now, in an incredibly serious tone:]
I'm sorry, but I'm afraid that I do.
[But if there's one thing he can't erase, it's the warmth in his eyes.]
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