Welcome to Gaia! ::

Psyche walked out of the grocery store and blew on his hands. Below could get somewhat cold in the winter months and it looked as if a storm was on its way in. Truthfully he wanted to be quite wrapped up in his nice house but alas he ended up coming down with a caffeine headache and all of his tea and chocolate had been used up on the last headache. He had planned a quick jaunt in, but had meet an old school friend and ended up talking as they did their shopping.

So here he was bundled up against the elements as much as he could, trying to get home with his soda before the rain rolled in. What followed next was almost a comedy of errors; apparently the road he often took to go home had been closed off in the time he had been in the store and while he was backtracking the storm had unleashed all of its furry. As a now rather quite wet and irritated nixie, he rushed under the first building awning he could.
“Okay universe I understand this is a lesson never to forget to restock your tea and chocolate” psyche muttered to himself.

“We have tea.” The voice startled psyche and after making sure his heart didn’t leap out of his chest, he turned to see a rather middle aged imp standing in the now open doorway. Sounds of children laughing and playing drifted from inside the building and psyche’s gaze quickly darted to the door. Ah the orphanage, well that would teach psyche to pick random buildings.
Well he hadn’t expected of all places to end up here but they did have tea. Truthfully he also missed being around children. Back when he lived with his family as the oldest it had been his job to look after the younger ones. Decision made up; after all it wasn’t as if anything truly important was waiting for him back home he nodded.

“I would love to have some, if you don’t mind terribly” Psyche replied switching his face over from his irritation to somewhat charming. No need to take his ire for the weather out on the imp.

Psyche followed the imp through the waiting room, handing over his sopping coat as to not drip all over the place and to give it a chance to dry, and accepted a towel to dry off the rest of himself. Weeks later he wondered if the next destination had been planned. He wouldn’t have put it past the imp. Instead of going straight to the kitchen for that tea, the imp decided to go the long route and walked right through the craft room. The sounds of playing and laughing he heard earlier suddenly stopped as everyone in the room paused to stare at him.

“Why were you out in the rain without an umbrella?” one of the youngest asked. As if that was the needed signal suddenly the whole room exploded into sound again.

“Are they staying here long? What’s their name? Why where they out in the storm? Is their hair as soft as it looks? Are those freckles or tiny star markings” was the outburst of questions aimed at him. The caretaker just laughed silently. Psyche wondered if that was secretly their cackle. Still it was weird to be the center of attention for the whole room.

Well that wasn’t true. He had all the children’s attention, all the children except one. In fact said child stared at psyche, gave a disbelieving frown and darted out of the playroom. Psyche wondered what exactly he had done to earn such a look. He had really only just entered the room. Maybe they just didn’t like Nixie? However he was quickly distracted by tiny little hands grabbing his own and dragging him off to play.

The next few hours he did in fact get tea which was a life saver, but he also spent it as a lovely dress up doll, The ogre in a version of hide and seek, and the leader in teaching everyone how to make wonderful sunset winter pictures with watercolors.

Yeah that wasn’t an adventure he wanted to elaborate. Soon enough he was finally able to escape into the waiting room again. The storm had died down a little bit, maybe enough to brave going home again.

It was then he heard a tiny scoff, and he turned to see the child from earlier. Said child was sitting in one of the waiting room seats glaring at him.

“Have I done anything to you?” Psyche couldn’t help but find himself saying.

“You existed and you’re the type to lead people on” was the unexpected answer.

“Hardly… sure I wasn’t planning on coming here today but maybe if you bothered to stay in the playroom and got to know-” Psyche started.
“Why bother getting to know you. You aren’t going to stick around. No one sticks around. They just show up for the holidays put in their volunteer work and then when school or work picks up again we see them maybe monthly… maybe never again. I’m tired of getting to know people and watching them leave me or picking someone else. Can’t be hurt again if you never let anyone else in” was the response.

Something in those words tore at Psyche. He remembered a little boy he had left behind. He had wanted to grab his younger brother when he left his family but there hadn’t been enough time and he had been so young himself. Eos must have thought he left and abandoned him as well.

“Maybe you shouldn’t just give up. If you feed despair of course it’s going to win” Psyche countered before grabbing his jacket and storming out into the rain. It hadn’t been the best reaction, and it was a bit childish himself but staying in that room looking into those accusing eyes had brought up things he didn’t want to acknowledge.

He also hadn’t said goodbye to the other children, and it was that mostly that had him waiting until after work to come back. The children were surprised and the child from earlier huffed before disappearing out of the room again. It was a common pattern every time he had a little bit of free time. He would show up play with the kids and make snarky comments at the waiting room child before he left.

“Why do you keep coming back? If it’s to make a point from those words during your first night don’t.” was aimed at him about a month of him visiting.
“Maybe the first time was to prove something, that and I forgot to say goodbye to the others, but I generally like spending time with children. I actually even want my own family and like I said before if you bothered to stay in the same room as me.” Psyche replied before once again stepping out onto the street.

Truthfully he had been thinking about the child’s words. It seemed to be a habit as he walked home. He had meant really to start volunteering at a familiar shelter or something but when he showed up the children really did seem to beam. Adopting all of them was definitely out of the question but if he could help the orphanage and spend time with the children then
So of course once he had started to actually get a routine, he fell sick and missed a month. The next available day he was feeling better psyche left work early and practically ran over to the orphanage only to find out that waiting room child was already there today. He sighed and stared at the child.

“You came back? I thought that I had.... I mean the other kids were all sad and.... why?" Psyche blinked, was the child actually sad he had been gone?
“Well because I am volunteering here. I was only gone so long because I was sick" psyche explained. For once since his whole start here he got a nod before the child ran out the door. Well that part wasn't entirely new. Suddenly the door opened again and they stuck their head out. Psyche just blinked at them.

“I’m Zion by the way" was the hesitant voice before they popped back into the hallway and disappeared. Zion huh, the admission of the name caused a smile to flitter over psyche's features. It almost felt like a small victory.
“They don't look it but Zion truly missed you this last month" the imp caretaker replied interrupting his thoughts.

“really but all we do is..." psyche trailed off frowning. Hadn't he been saying that the child, no that Zion had reminded him of his brother. Eos would have done the same thing, pretending to be indifferent and mean just to keep from showing how much they did care.

“I won't answer because I see you figured it out yourself. Still I hope you feel better" was the response.

In a slightly more melancholy mood he entered the play room again, only to find Zion there this time. Well he had been saying that the freshling should stay in the room. In fact the entire time that he played with the other children Zion stayed watching him. It wasn't a onetime occurrence either. For the next two weeks whenever he popped by Zion always stayed in the room watching him.

Finally around the winter solstice Zion actually started participating, laughing with the other children and even speaking in non-harsh tones for once at him. They even joined in adding ornaments to psyche's hair. Of course they almost had an evil smile. It was one of the more fun days of psyche's life.

“You look like you want to ask me something?" Zion asked after a week of them participating with everyone. Psyche frowned wondering how he should phrase it. The change had been well unexpected.

"No it's just well…" Psyche started. However Zion seemed to know what he was trying to say.

"You want know about my change in attitude? When we first talked you said not to feed the despair. So I haven't been. I still think you'll leave eventually but you are trying and I can give you that. You know you were right I should have stayed in the play room. See you next time” Zion replied with a smile and darted away. Psyche had a matching smile as well.

When he had ended up here that fateful storm, he hadn’t been planning to stop at the orphanage, hadn't planned on getting attached to the children. He hadn't realized he had been looking towards his arguments with Zion. It wasn't the best start but he still wanted to prove the child he could stay. He would need to see the imp about tea and adopting. He wasn't sure he would be approved living in his own but if he was then he would talk with Zion. Ask if the child wanted him to stay around. Still he knew that no matter how the process ended up turning out he would still come back here and volunteer. Maybe that lack of tea had been the best thing for him.

“See you next time and onwards Zion” Pscyche said to the open room.