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Right next to the strawberries was a white-haired man with a shopping cart and a little brunette girl with pretty pink hair clips in the shape of chrysanthemums. Pearls were strung between each clip; they jingled as she placidly chewed on an apple, blue-violet eyes staring around the store. Her hands were practically invisible behind her long sleeves.

Richter sighed and picked her up; she couldn't get out of his sight in this area, not if he kept a good eye on her, and a kid that young in a shopping cart as long as she had been would have to be horribly bored. Letting her stretch her legs couldn't hurt anything, and so he turned to the fruit grain and granola side of the aisle; was this the sort of thing Aife liked to eat? She was a good lay, but not that good-

Meanwhile, Eiji had taken a couple of uncertain steps closer to a fruit stand stacked with bright gold-green apples; the red one lay forgotten near the shopping cart. She reached up towards the apples, straining for the nearest, shiniest fruit. Her mouth opened into a tiny 'O'; the tiny child clearly wanted the apple lurking just a scant six inches from her fingertips.

A tall person intruded; she could have seen the tips of brown wings from the corners of her eyes, if she had bothered to look. Startled, Eiji fell back a few steps and stumbled, letting out a tiny squeak when she fell on her bottom. She didn't cry, but watched the Tall Lady put her hand on the apple and pause. Color rose in her cheeks- that was her apple, not the Tall Lady's apple. She would tell her baba about this!

After the pause, the Tall Lady picked up the apple and passed it down to Eiji, holding it out like an offering, like baba had held her dragon pearl.

Eiji gasped, her eyes going big and luminous in the fluorescent light. She had been about to give up and go back to her dad, but then this Kind Lady had reached down and given her the pretty ball! Eiji reached up and accepted the apple, tapped it a few times with a hand before setting it against her lips. Instead of biting it, though, she stared up at the winged girl. She blinked, solemn as a nun, and then she smiled, bright and sunny, and made an approving sound at the back of her throat.

This was good, she decided, maybe the Kind Lady would play with her? Baba was too busy. He didn't want to be bothered sometimes. It made her sad; she liked how her baba smelled, and his tail was soft and fluffy- not like hers! hers was scaly with soft fur.

With a questioning coo, Eiji proceeded to try to drag the Kind Lady over to Baba's shopping cart.

The Kind Lady went along with Eiji and when they reached the cart the little girl bumped into Richter and promptly fell again (luckily letting go of Casia as she did so). Apparently she was not the steadiest on her feet yet. "我的爸爸," she said, a sort of imperial Snap to it! tone in her voice, but it was only to catch his attention of course. If he could not understand her then she would make herself understood without words. Tae-hee could do it, so, so could Eiji.

Richter looked down at the two girls, momentary shock showing in his blue eyes. "Eiji, I don't think she's for sale," he said, a sigh in every part of the statement. "You should let her -" Eiji held up the apple, very solemn. He actually did sigh this time. "What did you do with the other one?"

She simply stared up at her Baba, then got back to her feet - the apple tucked into her sleeve - to hug the Kind Lady's leg. This was partially a display of I dunno what I did with the other apple but this Kind Lady got me this apple and it is clearly superior because it is YELLOW, and partially for support because she did not particularly like to fall, and she fell quite often! It was kind of silly, actually.

Eiji looked up at Casia and offered a shy smile.

"Clearly," said Richter in a dry tone. Poor little Eiji had landed herself a father who had never quite understood children and didn't particularly want to. "Give it here, Eiji, we have to pay for it before you can eat it." He reached down to take the apple, holding out one hand expectantly. Eiji clung to the Kind Lady a little tighter.

He sighed. "You'll get it back," said Richter, and in a stroke of genius he offered her the pinkish dragon pearl instead. Her face lit up like Christmas lights and she traded the golden apple for the pearl. Eiji shyly held it up to the Kind Lady for inspection, though this may not have been clear since she was completely silent as she did so. It still had the aura of show-and-tell, though.

"Eiji, you should probably stop bothering the nice girl."

She gave the Kind Lady a wide-eyed look. Did the Kind Lady want Eiji to go away? Really?...

"我的爸爸," said Eiji, suddenly shy but smiling in a pleased fashion as she cast a look towards Richter and then she patted the ball. "我的球." She twisted back and forth, eyes never leaving Casia as she did so. As she did, the ball shimmered in the fluorescent lights and brought out highlights of purple and yellow. It was Eiji's favorite ball for a reason, as she was absolutely sure the Kind Lady knew.

And then a big lady came over and tapped the Kind Lady on the shoulder. "否! 我亲切的夫人," decreed the brunette little girl, carefully putting down her ball and stomping over to Jane. It didn't look intimidating- of course not! But it was made downright adorable when she fell on her butt and whimpered a little bit. She didn't want the Kind Lady to go...

"I'm sorry," said Richter, leaning back a little bit. I didn't know she was yours was a thing a regular cad would say, and if anything he tried to be an extra-regular cad. "No, no, it's fine." He wasn't much more delayed than he would have been anyway, and he bent over to pick up Eiji's dragon pearl. "I'm sorry for allowing my daughter to sidetrack her."

Richter frowned and resettled his wings. Normally his daughter was much more... calm. Imperturbable. But then, she was an incredibly possessive child and maybe she thought Jane was trying to muscle in on her territory. He thought about that for a minute, then muffled a snicker. No way, babies weren't that intelligent, were they? "Eiji likes the attention, anyway," said Richter, making a valiant attempt to not hit on Jane. It was habit by that point, okay?

All the little brunette knew was that the Kind Lady really was kind. It didn't seem to matter that she'd fallen down and her baba hadn't immediately gone to pick her up. She had the yellow-hair Kind Lady, who the heck needed anything different? After a moment longer of whimpering, she reached up for Casia's hands with a beatific little baby smile and a sweet coo. Eiji couldn't get back up all by herself, so maybe the Kind Lady would help!

"If you're in a hurry," said Richter, trailing off to let Jane finish the sentence. He had one eye on his daughter, but she seemed all right, so he wasn't too fussed.

"Hm, no," said Richter, because it was his day off and he really had no where to be; London was visiting her aunt for once, and probably playing hide-and-go-seek in her cousin's tail or some such. "Richter Fabel," he added, when Jane introduced herself; "And Eiji," he continued, jerking his head towards the little dragon girl, who was now bouncing on the tips of her toes. Apparently, she was trying to be as tall as her new best friend, or something. Kids made no sense to him. To Casia, he said, "I think it's Chinese or Japanese. Definitely Asian, though; I don't know for certain."

Eiji smiled and pulled on Casia's hands; she wasn't trying to fall down, just expressing her enthusiasm for all things awesome and winged! She had a tail, did tails count for being awesome? In order to see her own tail, she had to try and look under her arm, which worked for a minute and then she decided she was not going to be able to watch her tail and hold on to the Kind Lady's hands also. She made a disappointed noise anyway, even though her priorities were clear because she had gone back to smiling up at Casia.