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 Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 6:58 pm
The boy brought his hand to his lips and bit his fingers as the two quarrelled. If this kept up, Lexi may put him through another kidnapping! This wasn't fair, honestly. He briefly wondered if Lexi would ever consider taking him away from Nio, and the idea almost broke his heart. He bent to look at Karma once the boy was tucked in, and sighed softly at the offer of food.
He was hungry, but..
"Miss, may I ask you a strange question?" He never did this before, and for good reason, but.. he didn't want Lexi taking anyone away from anyone, any more. Ever.
Honesty was always the answer!
He looked up at Baniru and smiled shyly. "Did you collect a shard of mirror and bring it into your home in the recent past?"
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Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 7:08 pm
She raised a brow, and a curious smile spread across her face. "That's kind of a long story. To make it short, I suppose so."
Baniru looked down at the little bundle of long black hair and mismatched eyes, and then back up to Asrafel, sighing.
"He's the little boy that broke my window and started this whole mess. Except he was a bit older..."
Wind blew coldly against the glass panes, as if confirming her words. It was as black as ink out, and thunder came rumbling from somewhere far off in the distance.
"I want to ask some questions from you as well. What's your name? And how did you happen to come across this run down motel all by yourself?"
He did look pretty young, after all.
Baniru was eyeing his wings. They were very pretty this time of night, with only the lamplight to reflect through them.
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Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 7:21 pm
Little boy who broke her window...? But that can't be.. it can't..
Asra sat on the edge of Karma's bed, reaching out boldly and brushing the boy's hair back from his face with a gentle and comforting touch.
He is one of us, there's no mistaking.
Asrafel looked up at Baniru with eyes older than the bright, young boy that held them should have. "My name is Asrafel, and I don't know how I got here. Honest. I don't know why, either." He looked back at Karma, and smiled.
"But I can guess.. I guess maybe I came here to make sure you didn't lose him. He's very special, you know."
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Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 7:36 pm
Karma gave a little giggle, trying to snatch Asrafel's hand away and beat it up for his own purposes. He liked this man. He seemed nice, and his ribbons were shiny.
She lit up, giving a wide grin. "You think so? Even if he is a little barbarian...this little kid was pretty nice when I met him the other day. He's quite the looker, no mistake about that."
It never quite connected in Baniru's mind to ask how he was special. Or why he was younger. The thunder outside rumbled deep into the haze again, hovering above with a sort of constricting, unmovable heat.
However, one question occupied her mind: Why was she was taking so much pride in the little brat? She wasn't his mother, his sister, his guardian or nanny. She didn't know his favourite foods, or colours, she had no clue why he was carrying a boomerang or why he had mismatched eyes.
She shook the question away. It was getting late, after all.
"Where are you from? Maybe I can give you a ride back?"
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Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 7:45 pm
Asrafel was more than happy to sacrifice his hand for the humor of the child. His face lit up into a smile, and he looked up at Baniru thankfully.
"Would you.. would you really? I don't know where we are though.. I live in Gambino, the residential district."
He gave the woman Nio's address, seeing as it was too late to go back to the Center now. There were often nights when he slept there instead of going home, but after a night like this all he wanted was his own bed, and maybe his mother.
"Is that too far? If it is please don't bother just for me, I can't possibly ask you to do any more than you've already done, it would be so rude.." He had no way of going home, other than flying - and he feared flying most of all now that it had stumbled him so far from home. Nevertheless, he could never impose on someone like this if it was any trouble, it just wasn't the way he was brought up.
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Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 7:59 pm
"That's not too far away, compared to Durem." she laughed a little. "It would be fine, Asrafel. If we go now, we can get there in an hour and beat the storm that's brewing."
She stopped, looking at the toddler. "...We'll take him along too then. Maybe you can help give him a name, as I'm not too good with those things."
Baniru stood up, dragging the now yelling toddler out of bed and away from Asra's hand.
The toddler didn't like that at all, apparently. The only word in his vocabularly seemed to be "NO", as that's all he shouted for the next five minutes.
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Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 8:05 pm
Finally, some good news. "Oh, I can't tell you how glad I am. Thank you, thank you thank you!" He hugged the woman from the side as she collected Karma from the bed, and made sure to stay near Karma's side as they walked off. The string of no's caught the attention of some passerby's as they made their way out of the room, and Asrafel rose his hand to poke Karma's nose softly, trying to get his attention so that he wouldn't fuss too much in his mother's arms.
"So there's a storm coming? I can only imagine what it would have been like if I had tried to fly home in that.." He whimpered, suddenly even more grateful to the woman. "If I had been allowed to fly home at all." He skipped ahead, suddenly full of energy despite the fact he hadn't actually eaten anything while at Baniru's house, like he'd intended. All that mattered was that he was finally headed home!
And there was LOTS of food there.
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Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 8:18 pm
Karma drew his head back with a flustered snort, confused. Who dared poke him? Him? Master of all fingers?
So he repayed Asrafel back by half chewing/half gumming his arm.
"Arararara!" he mumbled out happily.
Baniru walked over and unlocked the doors of a small, dingy brown car. The paint was peeling, the leather interior had been shredded, and the steering wheel had a sticky side to it. But it was this, or a taxi, and those were even worse.
She sidled into the junk on wheels, having passed little Karma to Asrafel long before she even hopped in the car. With some determination she stuffed the key into the ignition, kicked the door for good measure, and tried revving the engine.
It took four tries for the vehicle to fully start up.
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Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 9:19 pm
Asrafel wasn't used to getting rides in cars, so when he slid into the seat with Karma in his arms (and chewing on one) he thought it a grand vehicle. He supposed that it took a while to warm up, which was why it took four times before the car sputtered to life. With a grand whoop he clapped his hands in celebration of the car's successful start-up, and bounced Karma softly in his lap.
"How wonderful! I don't get to ride in cars much, I usually fly home or my father picks me up and we walk home. This seems like so much fun. What about you Karma, you've probably never been in a car before! Isn't this exciting?"
When speaking to the child his voice took a turn for the cute, gushing over the newborn. "But I suppose everything is exciting the first time around!"
The night had gotten so dark, and Asrafel feared even the idea of having to fly alone out there. Baniru was his new heroine of the day. She and Elle, that is..
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Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 9:29 pm
"..Karma, huh?" she looked over to Asrafel, grinning. "That's a good name for him. Hot dog! Then this will be one grand time, I assure you. Just make sure to buckle your seatbelt!" It suddenly dawned on her that she needed a babyseat for the little Karma. Eh, no worries this time around. It was just a quick drive. She revved up the engine and started out with a bang by flooring it. ~ Karma giggled at all the attention. He had never been in a car either, and this man who was holding him sure was a lot more fun than the mean lady. Plus he smelled like a mixture of baby powder and cologne to the toddler, and it made him want to just snuggle up and fall asleep. Unfortunately, as the car flew off a foot from the hill it cavorted off of, Karma would get no such chance.
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Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 9:42 pm
Asrafel blinked up at Baniru as she accepted the name that he (he?) had chosen (but how?). He didn't know why he had just called the child Karma, but it seemed.. correct. It seemed to make sense. It seemed..
It seemed like he was being toyed with again.
Asrafel let the brief moment of sadness wash over him, before his smile returned. "Oh, seat belt! Of course! Ah.. what's a seat be-AAIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEE~!"
He had no time to put on his seat belt, or figure out how to do that at the very least, as they sped off into the night. He groped around, looking for something that might be a belt, when he felt the cold of metal and tugged. There, it wrapped around them! It must be for protection, how brilliant! He looked for where he could tie off the other end, but the metal case glinted at him playfully, and he formed a little 'oh' with his mouth before clicking the seat belt secure.
He felt suddenly light, as light as he usually felt when flying, and looked up quickly to see that the car was in fact flying - but not for long. He wrapped his arms around Karma and closed his eyes as they slammed back onto the street, and let out a series of little squeals.
He supposed this was what a roller coaster ride might be like! Too bad he couldn't hold his hands up in the air like they do in pictures.
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Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 9:48 pm
She screeched around a corner, and threw her head back and laughed. "This is living, isn't it!"
Uhoh. Stoplights ahead. Hey, it was still yellow and she could enter the intersection going as fast as she was in seconds anyway.
Karma was giggling up a storm on Asrafel's lap. He clapped his hands over his head, signalling a loud "WHEEEEEEE", before yelling loudly: "No! No! Nononono!"
He was obviously having too much fun.
A few turns, run by stopsigns, and jumps-over-the-curb later, they were pulling up on the Gambino district. Not a cop had seen them, suprisingly. It must have just been lady luck.
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Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 10:02 pm
Things were starting to look a little familiar, despite the way everything sort of melded together in a mix of dark colors at the speed they were going. His stomach felt a little queasy, but he wasn't worried - it was empty. Besides, they were having fun!
Karma sounded like he was enjoying it much more than Asrafel, which made the older boy smile. It seemed everything would work out after all, or at least he believed it would. Was it so wrong of him to have a lot of faith in others, especially others so nice as Baniru?
No, of course not!
Suddenly he saw the streets unblur and for a moment he focused on the houses they had just passed. He turned his head quickly and almost got whiplash in the process, but for this he couldn't help it. He turned to look at Baniru, pointing behind him.
"Oh, we passed it~! Just now~!"
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Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 10:08 pm
"Crap! Hold on to the kid then!"
She turned the steering will completely in one direction, and the car screeched on a hairpin, two-wheel turn.
So much for puddle jumpers.
Karma gave out a delighted squeal. This was just the epitome of having a great time. "WHEEEEEEEE no no nono! Asra no!"
The car had almost flipped over, but at least they were driving in the right direction. And albiet a little bit slower than before, as they were driving close to the curb.
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Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 10:17 pm
Asrafel's stomach flew to his throat and remained there as he saw his (short) life flash before his very eyes. Well, that didn't take very long! This had gone way past the roller coaster, this was now becoming a life threatening experience! He had clung to Karma for dear life, if only because every muscle in his body had tensed the moment they went on two wheels.
"I don't think cars are supposed to do that.." Asrafel whispered out, more to himself than anyone else. No matter, as they were driving up on his house, which meant he would live through this experience yet! He pointed a shaky finger at the driveway to the large building, and started to pry his other hand off of Karma.
His skin was ashen, more the color of milk-doused cappucino rather than mocha, as he turned to Baniru with a wavering smile.
"That's my house, thank you.."
Well, he certainly wasn't hungry anymore.
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