Accord // AU

[birdsbirdsbirds]

Back from a trip to the abyss, and things have already settled back into normality. It's so strange how whole years will just slip away like old blankets and discarded gloves as soon as the surroundings are different.

It's actually kind of... jarring. The most interesting thing today? The sound of crying coming from the kitchen. He'd only meant to go in to get a sandwich or something but, well, if someone's having a dramatic breakdown, who is he to ignore it? Or something.

Whatever. He'll just go take a look. Maybe it'll be interesting.

Comments

[prevenge]

If a little girl crouching in a corner of the kitchen with her back to the cabinets counts as interesting, then sure, this must be absolutely fascinating. Her face is in her hands, and all that is smushed against her knees, as she cries. Adult Rin cries secretively, as quietly as possible, absolutely miserably. Baby Rin cries without giving a fuck about any of that.

Her parents are going to yell at her. Her parents will yell so much. At her. The longer she's gone the worse it's going to get, and she doesn't know how to get back. This is catastrophic. This is cataclysmic. This is the worst thing she could ever possibly imagine. Very bad. Much terrible.

Wow.

[birdsbirdsbirds]

Robin enters the kitchen expecting something a little more dramatic... but is quick to spot the child crying near the cabinets. And that... something about her seems strangely familiar, but he can't remember the last time he's seen a child around the tower.

So, sure. He'll invest. He's curious, and he gets a little closer. About five feet away, he'll crouch down and look curiously at the girl's sobbing little face.

[prevenge]

It's okay. She doesn't need any help. If he wants to leave the tiny, whimpering scrap of a child to snot into her hands in the kitchen, that will be okay too. She probably won't get killed or anything, right?

Give it a few more seconds. She devolves into sniffling and vague whimpering and then, guided by some sixth sense, peeps up out of her hands for a brief half second.

Then she GASPS and teeters. Who is this person?

[birdsbirdsbirds]

"...hello."

Robin raises one of his hands to send a short wave her way. Hello, small child. Why all the tears?

[prevenge]

... She blinks at him. She's breathing a little unevenly, a shuddery in-and-out that goes quick. She raises a hand after a second and wiggles her fingers at him in return, but she can't say anything else.

Oh no. A stranger. An adult. What should she do? This is really hard.

[birdsbirdsbirds]

Well, she returned the gesture... that's a good start, right?

"Are you okay, kid?" he tilts his head a little, looking at her curiously, "Why are you crying?"

[prevenge]

Oh.

Perhaps this adult is friendly.

She actually straightens up a little, without standing up. She starts talking, and it's all still garbled, kind of a panicked rush. Maybe he can understand some of it. "Excuse me! My name is Rin Asano! I'm the heiress of the Asano Dojo! I'm lost." She carries on, rattling things off desperately. Her address comes out in a hurried scramble of words - probably none of which are comprehensible. She finishes up with: "My mom and dad are gonna be so mad if I don't come back! Please help me and I'm sure they will give you a reward!"

... A lot of it comes out, past the tearful squalling, in a sing-songy rush the way kids who have memorized things by rote recite their little speeches.

Then she stares at him, tearstained and expectant.

[birdsbirdsbirds]

To be fair, he takes in the entire explanation with little more than raised eyebrows to show how flustered and incomprehensible she sounds. He ends up raising his hand towards her, kind of like one would hold their arm up casually towards a strange dog.

"Hey, hey..." He manages a smile for her, "It's going to be okay, okay? Nothing bad's going to happen here, so we'll figure out what's going on."

[prevenge]

She takes a couple of deep breaths and finally stands up. "Okay..."

The reassurance is nice. But there are still a lot of questions to be answered. "Who are you? And..." She glances up. Tears are welling, but none fling themselves off the precipice yet. "How come you got white hair?"

[birdsbirdsbirds]

"My name is Robin," he introduces himself, giving a small version of a bow where he's crouched down in front of her. He's happy to answer her questions... even if the second one is surprising and sudden and strangely on-point.

"...my hair's just like that. It's got some white in it. What's your name?"

[prevenge]

"My name is Asano Rin," she says politely right back, although she gives him a bit of a strange look. She had no idea that he didn't understand that little speech. Lucky, she accepts his explanation for the hair with no further questions, mostly because she's on to her next-most important point: "And I told you that..."

Forgive her, she's kind of a brat.

[birdsbirdsbirds]

"Oh--yes, I'm sorry," he agrees, even though her previous speech was barely understandable, "You're right. Asano Rin, it's nice to meet you."

He'll forgive you. He's very forgiving of things that aren't old enough to know better.

[prevenge]

"Okaaaay..."

He's forgiven in turn for understanding absolutely nothing of what she said. Now her thumb is kind of sneaking up towards her mouth. She needs some kind of security blanket here, okay.

She'll just tell him her address again. In a clearer voice, slightly more calmly, she rattles the whole thing off once more. When she's done, her thumb pops into her mouth and stays there. Yep.

[birdsbirdsbirds]

It rattles around in his brain for a minute. Rin Asano, how funny. That sounds just like the name of a girl that he'd known back in the--

And all of a sudden, he realizes--in the middle of her giving her address--that that's why he recognizes her. It's the wrong age, but the hair, her eyes, the foreign place she's describing, it all reeks of the girl from the end of the world. Smaller, younger, but...

"Oh... Huh..." What else can he say? Why is she here now, like this?

[catamight]

And while they're getting acquainted, there's the little telltale squeak of the kitchen door.

--But it's quickly interrupted by a little gasp. And then there's only a pair of wide almond-shaped eyes peering through a tight gap in the door.

Oops.

[prevenge]

She leans over a little to peek at who this is. Then she looks at Robin and points with her free hand towards the door. Hey, that's a thing that he needs to look at... maybe?

[birdsbirdsbirds]

You got it, kid. He pays attention to where she's pointing (though he'd heard the noises long before), tilting his head in that direction instead.

"...Is someone there?" he asks, still confused about the current situation, "Don't worry, we're friendly."

[catamight]

"I'm sorry--" Quickly and quietly chirped, as he lets the door slip shut between them. That's okay. He'll just be over here. It's fine. He's sorry.

Sorry.

...But he doesn't go anywhere after that. Standing awkwardly, aprehensively just on the other side of the doorway, he's not guessing that anyone can sense that he's still hanging around.

[prevenge]

"There's a kid there," Rin says helpfully to Robin. She takes her thumb out of her mouth long enough to say this. Her mind just clicks along to what seems like the most likely explanation to her strange little self: "Maybe he's lost too."

[birdsbirdsbirds]

"...I think you're right," he humors her, squinting at the door. He has a strange feeling about whoever's going to be on the other side of it. And, following that feeling, he decides that the best course of action is to give the kid a direct command.

"Come in," he says, since he knows he can hear them, "Let us see you."

[catamight]

Funny enough, it works.

Like magic, the door squeaks open again after a minute. In shuffles a sheepish creature with long blondish hair and pointy little ears. He looks like he's done something wrong, and he looks very sorry about it.

He keeps his head down and hands tucked mostly behind his back--fingers still hanging onto the edge of the swiveling door, holding it lolled open while he fidgets in place.

And he doesn't say anything. He just waits.

[prevenge]

Rin sticks her thumb back in her mouth. After a second, she raises her hand and wiggles her fingers at the new kid too. And she looks at Robin. What is the grown-up gonna do?

[birdsbirdsbirds]

"Hey..." he waves similarly, another friendly little gesture. Unlike with Rin, he recognizes this kid right away. Does it make any sense? No. Would it help either of them to be confused and try to explain that he knew them in another time, in their futures? No. no. Of course not.

"Are you scared? Come over here."

[catamight]

The kid doesn't answer the man's question, because admitting that he's afraid seems like it would be a terrible idea.

However, he's fearful over the fact that he's lost, not that he's being confronted by an adult that he doesn't know. He hasn't developed a healthy fear of strangers yet. No one has given him a reason to. So, he finally releases the door and lets it swing closed behind him, shuffling away from its protection and toward the strange man.

[prevenge]

She stops sucking her thumb to talk to this guy. She doesn't actually move, but she's curious.

"Hi. Who are you? What's your name?"