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 Posted: Wed May 27, 2009 1:17 pm
The only explanation that made any kind of rational sense at all was that his entire life he had been deluded into thinking that babies came from sex, when in actuality they came from some mystical mail stork. How else could he explain the little brunette child sitting in the crook of his arm, eyes closed and her head on his shoulder? He'd found her with the goddamn mail! And no one with security had seen anyone carry a child up to the ninth ******** floor, much less leave her there.
All he had for the girl was a name and a large, effervescent ball the size of a pearl. The little one, Eiji, had the ball clasped close to her chest while she dozed softly against his shoulder; the weight was actually warm and comforting, sort of like he had always pictured a little girl being (he could not imagine Reina ever being like this). This child would definitely be made of 'sugar and spice and everything nice', just like the rhyme. He was kind of sad that this wasn't the child he'd just sent away papers to adopt. There was more of a process than that, there were background checks and all to be endured, but the little girl had been there on top of the mail, sleeping contently in a small ball.
He got himself under control and knocked on Reina's door, possibly a little harder than he would have normally, but still within a decent decibel range. With a tiny child sleeping against his shoulder, he couldn't quite bring himself to call out. "我的爸爸," she sighed in her sleep, sweet and soft as cotton candy.
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Posted: Wed May 27, 2009 1:43 pm
Reina had long suspected that her brother had some sort of mystical sense of when she was indulging her little addictions and was on some sort of crusade to interrupt her <********>.
Seriously, didn't he have a harem of dumb bimbos to bother or some s**t? The woman sighed and unfurled her tired limbs from her ratty, old, unbelievably comfortable sofa and discreetly hid the triple-chocolate icecream beneath the fashionable and completely-out-of-place-in-her-apartment table sitting in front of said couch.
He better have a ******** good excuse for this. And it had better not have to do with her stupid-a** accounts or budgets or some other stupid s**t like that. Reina Fabel Was Not In The Mood For Stupid s**t, capital letters fully intended.
"What the <********>?" She just wasn't entirely sure if her brother, the King of Idiots himself, showing up on her doorstep looking slightly distressed and holding a kid that was very obviously not his own (for various reasons, but mostly because Reina would have ******** known if the idiot had gone and adopted the kid he'd applied for, if only because she'd threatened bodily harm if he even dared to think about keeping her out of the loop on this one).
"I repeat: what. the. <********> is going on here?" She hissed, keeping her voice low as to not wake the girlie sleeping on Richter but making up for it by adding her most menacing glare. It'd reduced lesser men to tears, and it promised hell if he didn't have a good explanation for this. "Were you so ******** desperate that you went and kidnapped someone's kid, idiot?!"
All the same, she held the door open so the two newcomers could enter and avoid the eyes of her snoopy neighbours.
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Posted: Wed May 27, 2009 2:07 pm
Richter didn't answer; not right away, at any rate. He stepped into the apartment, stopping a short ways. Possibly he felt guilty; he had promised to keep his twin up to date, but this was not his fault. "Don't talk like that around her," he said, very belated but with a parental fierceness that seemed a little out of place. "I found her on my doorstep." That sounded lame, and pathetic, and hopefully Reina would realize that he liked to tell lies that would be believed, such as of course you're my only one, baby.
"Seriously," he said, all earnest; it was easy to see, because if you knew Richter as well as Reina did it was simple to see when he was lying and when he was telling the truth. "She was right there on top of the notification letter from the adoption agency, with that ball and this--"
He held up for exhibition a note written in sloppy, feminine handwriting that still managed to look fairly calligraphic - Her name is Eiji was all it read. "This is all there was."
Eiji opened one very lilac-colored eye to regard, sleepily casting a judicial glance over Reina and then letting her head lean more heavily on Richter. Clearly the little girl had decided she liked him.
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Posted: Sat May 30, 2009 3:33 pm
Reina scoffed, disregarding her brother's sudden protectiveness. For ******** sake, it wasn't like the girl was going to up and adopt her vocabulary; hell, she didn't even look old enough to walk yet, although Reina would be the first to admit that her expertise didn't lie in toddlers.
She listened through Richter's slightly rushed words, making mental notes of how comfortable he seemed to be holding the little girl (and forcibly holding herself back from cooing and pinching the kid's cheeks for the sake of her tough-b***h reputation. And the less her brother had to blackmail her with, the better.), how comfortable she seemed to be holding onto the lout and the sheer miracle of Richter not having dropped the girl yet.
"Uh-huh. Notification letter?" She crossed her arms and gave him a level look. Someone needed to take charge of this, obviously. "Please tell me you brought it, or at least ******** read it and didn't just immediately run off with the kid and the note, leaving what could possibly be important s**t behind."
This whole thing needed more chocolate, seriously. Reina sighed and pointed to the sofa: "Sit. Has she eaten yet?" Hmm, there might be some bananas left in one of the cupboards (was storing bananas in cupboards even a good idea in the first place?) -- she could always mash those, and some bread would probably be okay too, wouldn't it? She could always mix it with a little water to make it more edible, 'cause kids were supposed to dig that mushy s**t, right?
"Is she even wearing a diaper? She better not crap all over my couch, you know." And it wasn't exactly cold outside, but from the looks of it they'd rushed here and it wasn't like that outfit was particularly warm, either.. A blanket might not be amiss.
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Posted: Sat May 30, 2009 6:51 pm
He frowned, thinking; he hadn't exactly done more than skim the letter before throwing it down on the kitchen table, grabbing the girl and hightailing it over to Reina's apartment. For Christ's sake, he hadn't even stopped to buy chocolate fudge (the ultimate bribe, as far as the women he knew were concerned). "No, I didn't, because it was a letter saying that they had an extreme backlog of applicants and wouldn't be processing me for another year or so if I was still interested."
Which he would have been if there hadn't been a little girl sleeping on top of the mail. "Er, no, I didn't think about that," admitted Richter with an embarrassed look at the baby he was holding close on his left side. He sat on the couch, and jumped when Eiji awoke with a vengeance at the jolt, her big lilac eyes watery as if she was going to cry. Thankfully, all she did was sniffle pathetically and give Richter the saddest injured look ever.
Now she was completely awake, though, and she squirmed free with her glowing ball. It rolled to the floor and she immediately lunged after it; she would have taken the spill, too, but Richter grabbed hold of her and groaned. "Yes, Reina, she's wearing a fu-- she's wearing a diaper, I checked."
As if to lend affirmation to this, Eiji hiccuped.
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Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 5:32 am
Reaching down with a grace that could only come from a lifetime of dancing, quickly grabbing the wayward ball before depositing the blankets she'd gotten from the closet on one end of the couch.
"Here you go, brat." She held the shiny ball out to Eiji, only slightly concerned that the little kid already had both her and her brother wrapped around her tiny little fingers. If Reina'd been a lesser woman, that hiccup would have had her 'aww'ing and cooing all over the little girl.
"And you didn't apply anywhere else, hmm?" As soon as the ball had left her hand she was up and in motion once again, this time only stopping on her way towards the kitchen to ask the idiot another question. Banana-mash was supposed to be easy, right? It didn't actually need anything other than bananas in it, right?
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Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 3:57 am
Eiji watched Reina with fascination, and the look she gave her aunt was nothing short of adoration when the pearlescent ball (which had hit the floor with a loud ting noise, like it was made of glass or gemstone) was returned to her hands. She reached out to Reina, but missed and flopped over onto her tummy despite her dad's restraining arm.
Pouting, she crawled back to her daddy's lap- it was an arduous trek, and when she was back in her spot she practically flopped backwards. "Agh," said Richter.
"Er, no. I didn't. That was the only..." He hesitated to say it. "...adoption center for normal children." Which Eiji was clearly not, but since the man was clearly besotted, the little dragon-girl forgave him that - or would have, anyway. "What are you doing?" Attempts to gather Eiji up so he could follow Reina were thwarted by the way the baby had gone determinedly limp, and seemed to have gained a hundred or so pounds- felt like it, anyway.
With another coo, Eiji smiled adorably and looked up at her dad through her bangs. He decided it might be better to just stay put.
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Posted: Mon Jun 22, 2009 3:21 pm
"I'm," she rummaged through her cupboards, trying to remember if she actually had any damn bananas. ********, wasn't everyone supposed to have s**t like this?! "I'm being responsible and trying to find something for your little leech to eat." She poked her head out of the doorway to scowl in his general direction for a second. Honestly, had the man no sense?
When she'd finally found what she needed - or thought she needed anyway, ********, it wasn't like she had to feed brats on a regular basis or anything: she just had to boss them around, make sure they didn't bruise themselves too heavily and didn't kill any of the other demonic munchkins. Anyway, when she'd finally found her s**t, Reina moved back to the couch (now cramped from holding so many people) to prepare something that'd keep the kid from unexpected keeling over and saddling her with having to pay bail for her slightly-suspicious-looking-brother. Something hopefully resembling baby food.
"So, what's the problem? Put up some posters, contact the government -" however useless they'd be, "- and if no one claims her, just keep her. Finder's keeper's, right?" ******** this s**t, nothing was going her way today. Reina frowned at the mess that was supposed to resemble something edible, but didn't. Really, really didn't. But what the ********, it wasn't like the milk had been that bad, and the bananas had only been a little green (which was supposed to be a good thing, right? Unless it'd been mold, of course.. Damn it.) and really, this day sucked a**.
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Posted: Mon Jun 22, 2009 10:20 pm
Eiji seemed to take offense to being called a leech - or offense at something, anyway, because she pouted and crawled under the pile of blankets on the couch, thereby freeing her father-figure to follow his sister into the kitchen while she attempted to chew on her toy.
"Reina," said Richter, his innate sense for Neatness rebelling at the sight of her attempt at mashed bananas, "perhaps instead we could go out? I do know of some places where you can find... strange children, besides the obvious." The obvious being the lab where the two of them had been decanted. He carefully removed the bowl and put it in the sink, washing it as he continued speaking. "When we left my apartment, Eiji couldn't even talk. Before you opened the door, she was speaking Chinese. So she'd got to have some kind of accelerated growth. We can start at the Liberty Center." Unspoken was Please come along oh god I do not want to do this alone, but it was clear enough in the undertones of his voice.
This preceded an angry screech from the baby in question. Her ball was rolling across the floor again, and she was staring after it, clearly enraged at its duplicity.
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Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 5:03 am
"I.." She paused, watching her brother's efficient movements with envious eyes. Damn it, why couldn't she have been the smart one? "Sure - fine, whatever."
She crossed her arms and stared at the Idiot for a few moments before nodding to herself, satisfied with what she saw. The moron wouldn't be able to do this alone, and what the hell, what was sisters for? Not that she'd ever tell him something like that (because knowing him he'd end up using her as a free babysitter for whatever brat he'd get) and ********, she was the one who'd complained about being left behind. Well, rather obviously, not this time.
"What the hell, I'm game. We good to go, then?" Reina eyed her dubious - now shiningly clean - attempt at making baby-food and resolved to mooch something off of the Center when they got there. Just in case the little brat didn't belong to them.
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Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 1:48 pm
"Yeah," he said, laying out a dishtowel and drying the bowl before putting it away. As far as he knew, the Liberty Center wasn't too far away, so he felt completely justified in just picking up Eiji from her spot on the couch (and then her ball when the dragon-girl showed every sign of keeping her teeth in his shoulder until he gave it back) and striding over to the door. "Well then, are you coming?"
The walk there went by quickly, perhaps more so than he would have preferred, but Eiji herself was quite pleased. Almost immediately upon arriving at the Nursery, she'd spotted her and started up a racket; when Richter didn't seem to be paying attention, she turned to Reina. Then Eiji pointed to the little girl who had caught her eye, and said, "Wo de meimei," as forcefully as she could.
Richter was too busy arguing with a Sister about the validity of proxy adoptions to notice.
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