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 Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2005 6:05 pm
Lenore held up the glass vial curiously, watching with fascination as the liquid within splashed against the clear sides. Running a thin finger over the tightly-corked top and across its smooth, cool sides, Lenore looked up again at Deimos and smiled slightly.
"P'sent fo Len?"
Lenore held the vial up for Crow, her smile growing wider.
"P'sent fo Len!"
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Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2005 6:13 pm
Deimos felt his pride well up as he saw that she had enjoyed his gift. He had truly hoped she would.
"Now we both give presents. Now we friends, yes?"
Deimos said exitedly. He still remembered how thier second meeting ended in Lenore crying and being carried away from him. He didn;t wish to repeat that.
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Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2005 6:29 pm
Len nodded eagerly, grasping the vial and looking up at the black feather in Dei's hair.
"Len an' Dei f'ends," she said solemnly. Examining the contents of the vial again, she admired its brilliant color and how the shaft of moonlight that came in from the window made it sparkle and shine. Aware of how closely Crow was watching her and Deimos, she looked up sternly at her guardian, holding the pendant close.
"Len keep," she said in a voice as stern as her expression.
Crow held up her hands in defense as Len gave her "the Look".
"Jeez, make me the villain, why don't ya?" she said mildly, rolling her eyes. Picking the baby up again and placing her carefully back into her playpen, Crow turned and looked down at Deimos.
"What d'you say we take you home before Jizzy gets too worried, huh Deimos?"
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Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2005 6:36 pm
Deimos face fell, he'd just snuck out. WHy'd he have to go so soon? He crossed his arms fiercely and shook his head.
"Me no go. Me stay with Len!"
He exclaimed loudly. He'd just arrived. He wanted to play with Len, especialy now that she'd called him a friend.
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Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2005 6:51 pm
Surprised at the strength in Deimos''s voice at his protest, Crow nodded with a slightly bemused smile.
"Okay, okay, you can stay for a bit. We''re going to go for a walk at the cemetary in a couple minutes, if you want to come with us."
Lifting Lenore out of the playpen and setting her again by Deimos''s side, Crow bustled off to find Len''s travel blanket (seeing as all the coats Crow had bought her had been torn fairly to shreds), leaving the pair to themselves.
Lenore still held the vial in her hand as she sat beside Dei quietly, looking out the window to see the moon and silvery stars that flecked the inky black sky.
"Walkies with Len?" she asked, referring to the nightly treks to the cemetary she and Crow took.
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Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2005 6:56 pm
Deimos was extactic. He hadn't expected to win this argument. If this had been Mother, she'd have denied him outright. Feeling empowered by his victory, Deimos turned back to Len, nodding.
"Yuppers.. I go walk with Len.."
He said, reciting the word his mother used so often. Yuppers. Goodness, after he'd said it, he realized how terrible that sounded coming from his mouth.
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Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2005 7:07 pm
Crow came back fairly quickly, wrapping Lenore up in the thick thermafleece traveling blanket and pinning it closed with a couple safety pins. Looking Deimos over, she went back to the closet and dug out one of her own fleecy sweaters and offered it to him.
"It's a bit chilly out, so you might need this," she said casually, setting the sweater down beside him before strapping Lenore into the cushy stroller Crow had rather dishonestly nicked from a baby supply store window display. (Hey, money had been tight at the time. It wasn't her fault they'd left the thing right out in the open, was it?)
Lenore bounced cheerfully in her seat, snuggling into the warm depths of her blanket.
"Dei like cem'try," she burbled. Oh, he would! It was a lovely place - the flowers and trees were so pretty, and the graves were so ornate and big! It was Len's favorite place to be, and she was eager to share it with Deimos.
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Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2005 8:04 pm
Deimos eyes the sweater for a moment before clumsily putting it on. His head remained inside the jacket for a while as his arms flailed about for the sleeves. Once he had it on, he walked alongside Crow, though he was really more interested in being with Lenore.
"What a cem'try?"
Deimos asked, upon hearing Lenore use the word. He'd never heard it before, let alone ever been to one.
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Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2005 9:30 am
Crow hesitated before answering Deimos.
"A cemetary is where dead people go to be buried. There are lots of big stone statues and tablets called gravestones all over the place, and they've got things about the people carved in them about the people under them. Stuff like their name, when they were born, what they were like, that sort of thing."
Kneeling down to roll up the sleeves of Deimos's trailing sweater, she glanced over at the still-bouncing Lenore.
"And Lenore really loves to go there at night, doesn't she?"
Lenore smiled widely.
"Cem'try! Cem'try!" she screeched, kicking her feet and laughing.
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Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2005 1:24 pm
Deimos shivered slightly at the prospect of a place where dead people were buried and in his mind there flashed the picture of a very old woman, limp on the side of a street. A split second after, the woman was gone and he was left staring at Crow as she rolled up his sleeves. He shook his ehad slightly, as if ttrying to get soemthing off the top of it, and then comepletely returned to reality.
"If Len like, it must be pretty, like Len."
Deimos said, his voice slighty tamer than usual, his mind still wondering about the old woman..
((*points to Deimos' backstory*))
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Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2005 1:53 pm
Crow was momentarily caught off guard by the change in Deimos's tone. It seemed as though the thought of visiting the cemetary bothered him a bit...
Maybe I really should bring him home, she though with guilt, thinking about how angry Jizzy was likely to be at her if she found out she had taken Deimos without her knowing. Leading Deimos and wheeling Lenore out into the quiet hallway, she locked the door to the room behind them and stowed the key in her pocket.
"C'mon, gang, lets go." she said cheerfully. Pushing the door that lead outside open as quietly as she could, she gave a guilty glance back at the hallway, as thougb wishing Jizzy would appear to scold her and reclaim Deimos.
As Crow steered the stroller into the cool night air, Lenore felt an overwhelming sense of happiness. How she wished that the sun wouldn't rise again, that it could stay night forever. Things were far more interesting at night, anyway - everything was far more mysterious and pretty in the moonlight.
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Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2005 2:14 pm
Deimos' head gazed back at his room before he looked forward. Jizzy wouldn't notice. She slept a lot at night. She had good reason too, Deimos took quite a bit out of her, but he didn't really know that. He walked alongside Lenore's strolle, glancing at her occasionally. The old woman was gone from his midn now.
"Len likes night, yes? I do too.. It much nicer."
Deimos said, absentmindedly, though his normal defiant tone returned.
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Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2005 5:37 pm
Lenore became very quiet for a second as she considered Deimos's question.
"Len like night. Yes. Len not like day." she said neutrally, thinking hard about it. She wanted to tell him more about how she felt, but found she didn't have the words to say it. Wishing she could communicate better to him, she settled back into her stroller and looked up at the brilliantly star-spangled sky.
The walk to the cemetary was quiet, the path deserted and lit only by the waxing moon. Crow pushed the stroller along pensively, rather glad to have Deimos's company. The cemetary itself was a serene, though sad, place. But the path made Crow terribly uneasy - it brought to mind horror movies she had watched far too often too late at night that set her nerves to tension.
Looking down at Deimos, she smiled as he ambled along in her too-big sweater.
"Deimos, why did you sneak out of your room to give Len that necklace?"
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Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2005 6:28 pm
Deimos pondered for a moment. He looked up at the sky as he thought, the sleeves rolling back down his arms naturally. He ended up shrugging.
"In one of mother's book, uh.. 'equilent exchange'.. Something for something just as important. Len give me feather, I give Len present."
Deimos tried to explain. He felt a chill rushed past him and he was suddenly very glad to be wearing Crow's sweater.
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Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2005 6:09 pm
The exchange Deimos spoke of sounded particularly familiar, but Crow decided not to comment as they came upon the wrought iron entrance to the cemetary. Pushing the stroller past the open gates and onto the smoothly paved pathway that snaked through the graevyard, she went along until she came upon the usual path through the newer graves that looped around back to the enterance.
"We're gonna make the visit a bit quick tonight, okay Len?" she said, peering down the moonlight-dappled pathway.
Lenore looked around the cemetary contentedly. Something in her new this was where she belonged, instead of cooped up in HQ. She was in her element here, whether she consciously knew it or not.
"Short walkies?" she asked, glancing over at Deimos. They usually stayed for an hour, visiting the graves and laying flowers on some of the more neglected tombs. Surely Deimos was the reason they had to leave early. Gripping the vial pendant tightly under her thick blanket, Lenore gave a sigh. She supposed losing time in things she loved to do was another catch to this "friendship" thing, but she would get herself used to it. After all, Deimos hadn't been forced to be nice to her.
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