Companion to earlier Untitled Fic
I wrote this as a companion to my earlier piece found Here. I wrote most of it ahead of time, but I finished/edited during today's fic chat. I'm still tossing around the idea to write Rei's version of this situation but we'll see. It's a little WAFF-ier than orginally intended, but it's still a draf. Please let me know what you think!
“You followed me,” it came out as a statement, not a question.
“What are we doing here?” he asked calmly.
“You followed me,” she repeated, turning her violet gaze on him, “What the hell are you doing here?”
Forcing down his frustration, he raked a hand through his golden curls, “I’m trying to understand you firebird. I’m trying to help us.”
“What us?” she scoffed, looking away, “We broke up yesterday.”
“I never agreed to that,” he told her, coming around the bench to sit beside her, “We had an argument, fine, whatever. It’s not something to break up over. You can’t just take off when you don’t want to talk to me.”
“Don’t flatter yourself,” she said quietly, however, she made no move to get away from him.
He decided to take that as a good sign. The pair sat in silence for a long time, watching as children ran around the playground across the way. Finally, he could stand it no longer. “What are you doing here?” he asked, a quiet desperation creeping into his voice, “If you’re not avoiding me then what is it? Why won’t you let me in?”
For a moment, it seemed as though she hadn’t heard him. Inwardly, his mind hovered on the brink of defeat. She was broken, he knew; but he loved her in spite of, or maybe because of it. He had been hoping that that would be enough but she kept holding parts of herself back and he couldn’t understand why.
“I want to.”
Her voice startled him out of the melancholy he was wrapping around himself. “I want to,” she repeated, “But...If you knew, if you saw...”
Leaning closer, he drew her hands into his. “I’ll still love you. We can’t change the past. Whatever came before, I can handle it. It’s part of who you are.”
She studied his face intently before pulling her hands away. “Wait here for a bit,” she asked, “Please. Then we’ll talk.”
He nodded in agreement; hope bubbling up in his chest. She gave him a tiny smile as she stood, retrieving a package from the ground beside her that he hadn’t spotted earlier. Surprised, he watched as she made her way over to the picnic tables beside the playground where she was welcomed with a big hug from the older couple who seemed to be in charge of the horde of kids running around.
Intrigued, he never noticed the older man talking to a young child and handing her a plate. He was too focussed on the two women who now seemed to be deep in conversation.
“Hi,” a tiny voice piped up beside him.
He broke off his stare to find a small child seated beside him. She was adorable with sunny blonde curls tied into pigtails secured with frilly pink bows that matched the dress she wore. Sparkly pink sunglasses completed the ensemble and had him wondering what parent would inflict that much pink on a child. “Hi,” she repeated, “I’m Keiko. It’s my birthday today. Did you bring me a present?”
He chuckled at the child’s forward manner. “Well, Happy Birthday Miss Keiko,” he said genially, “But didn’t your parents teach you not to talk to strangers?”
She seemed to ponder this question quite seriously before answering. “But you’re not really a stranger. You came with Rei-chan and Daddy told me to bring you some cake!”
She finished up by presenting him with a slightly smooshed piece of heavily frosted goodness on a Dora the Explorer plate. Accepting it with a smile, he set the plate down beside him before returning his attention to Keiko; who now sat watching him curiously, little legs swinging back and forth.
“Does Rei-chan always come to your birthday?” he asked tentatively.
Keiko gave him a bright grin and nodded enthusiastically. “Uh-huh. She always brings me good presents too. Not like Auntie Emi, she always gives me clothes.”
“Aunts like to do that,” he agreed, his mind racing, trying to put together pieces of a puzzle that he wasn’t sure existed.
“Auntie Yuki always gives me books,” the little girl continued on blithely, “But that’s okay because I like books. I can read them all by myself.”
“That’s really impressive Keiko,” he replied, “Especially for someone as young as you.”
Keiko’s lower lip jutted out in a definite pout, “I’m not a baby. I’m five years old today.”
“I’m sorry,” he apologized, “You’re practically all grown up.”
Placated, Keiko brightened up, “Mommy gave me a big girl present. I gotta take really special care of it. Do you want to see?”
Taking a quick look back at the two women, he noted that they were still engrossed in conversation before he nodded at Keiko.
She gave him a toothy smile before reaching around her neck and fishing out the pendant that was hidden beneath the bodice of her dress. Holding it way from her so that he could see it better, she proclaimed, “See? Isn’t it pretty? Mommy has one too, so I have to take good care of it and not trade it to Hina for one of her dolls like I did with our goldfish.”
An odd shiver crept up his spine as he examined the familiar looking pendant. Flipping it over, he found that there was an inscription on the back.
Unsettled, he looked back at the women by the picnic tables before returning the necklace to the antsy child.
“Hey Keiko,” he said, keeping his voice as light as possible, “How do you know Rei? Is she part of your family?”
She shook her head, “Rei-chan’s mommy’s friend. But she’s always busy so she only visits on my birthday and soon, it’ll be Christmas and she’ll come and bring me another present then!”
“That’s really awesome,” he told her.
“’Course, if you come along again, you can’t forget to bring me a present too, ‘kay?”
Laughing, he ruffled her hair.
“Are you Rei-chan’s boyfriend?” she asked, tilting her face up towards him, “Are you going to marry her?”
“You’re a sharp kid, you know that?” he said wryly, “And yeah, I hope so.”
“Then its okay that you didn’t bring me a present this time,” she told him firmly.
“Oh yeah? I’m forgiven?”
“Uh-huh. You’re Rei-chan’s prince. So now she won’t be sad anymore. Daddy is Mommy’s prince and they are all silly together sometimes.”
“What if she doesn’t want me to be her prince?”
“Why not,” she questioned in as grave a tone as a five-year-old could muster, “Are you a bad prince?”
“I was,” he admitted, “But I’ve reformed.”
“What’s reee-forrmed?”
“It means that I said I was sorry and I tried to make up for the bad things I did when I was a bad prince.”
“As long as you say you’re sorry, everything will be all right,” she informed him, giving a sage nod.
“That’s very wise of you,” he told her.
A small, sticky hand reached over and patted his. “Don’t forget,” Keiko urged, her other hand pushing up her sunglasses to rest on top of her head, “You’re Rei-chan’s prince. You’re going to protect her from the bad things and live happily ever after.”
With that, she hopped down off the bench and ran back to where her party was waiting. He could do nothing but sit there and stare at the spot where she had been, his mind fixated on the violet eyes that had been hidden underneath the sparkly pink glasses.