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 Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2009 10:24 pm
Adrian was beginning to get the hang of child-raising. Or at least, the part about not hovering too closely to one’s child. Constant supervision was unnecessary and having Yuuka learn from her mistakes was nothing to be ashamed of. Still, he didn’t like to see her disappointed or hurt. Don’t all parents? The boy was just clumsily making his way towards the parenting approach that suited him best. He would find it all in due time, right? Right?
While he mulled this over, he took Yuuka out with him while he was sent to buy groceries. Adrian stepped out the door, grumbling to himself as the child scent hopped down the front steps of the house. Taking her small hand in his, the teenager led her towards the marketplace. When the duo arrived the brunette was surprised to find the state that certain shops were in.
Still the middle of November and already a few of them were decked in Christmas decorations, donning dark green wreaths and twinkling lights. Already Adrian could feel the holiday atmosphere.
Intrigued by the decorations, Yuuka tugged on her guardian’s sleeve and inquired, “Adrian, what’s all the lights and stuff for?”
“To celebrate Christmas, it’s a holiday,” he answered briefly.
She nodded her head and as Adrian began shopping, Yuuka let go of his hand and wandered a little ways away to a nearby toyshop, admiring the decorations and dolls it had.
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Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2009 2:26 pm
What one pair of shoppers admired with wonder and appreciation, another pair met with mild indignation and annoyance.
"Barely after Halloween and we're already onto Christmas," Han-hui griped. "Middle of November and all we get is pies and turkeys, and all the fall decorations are gone with Halloween. Halloween, then Christmas. Can't Thanksgiving get any love?"
A short, white-haired boy listened quietly her side, following her while letting his eyes linger on the lights and festive garlands.
As if thinking better of her outburst, the black-haired woman blinked a moment and turned to her young companion. "Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas just as much as the next person. The food, the snow, the lights, and... It's just that... well..." Her footsteps stopped as she trailed off, sighing heavily as she looked over the cheery shops, and the boy stopped beside her, tilting his head to look up at her. Then Han-hui smiled apologetically. "Sorry, never mind that. So long as we celebrate in our own way, and so long as I get my pumpkin pie, it's all good. Right, Kaleb?" She winked at the boy, resuming her former pace.
Kaleb smiled back, walking with her, quietly humming along with the catchy holiday music that filtered through the glass doors of the shops.
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Posted: Sun Nov 29, 2009 9:49 pm
While Yuuka distracted herself with the wide array of toys and trinkets that the shop displayed, Adrian took the chance to continue his grocery shopping with his mind at ease. He was confident that the child would not carelessly wander far from him. She was not the type to be disobedient. That, and toys were a great allure that many kids could not resist. Adrian could not deny that, having been easily enraptured by toys when he was a child himself.
One by one the items on his list were checked off. Once finished, the young lad strolled to the shop that Yuuka had glued herself to. With armfuls of brown grocery bags Adrian entered the toy store. Chiming bells signaled his entrance and the green-haired girl turned towards her guardian, beaming.
A doll in her small hands, she skipped over to him, raising her arms to show Adrian the plushie. “Daddy! Can I get this doll, pretty please?” Yuuka asked in a cute voice, innocently tilting her head.
The brunette awkwardly stood there. “Eh . . . ah, when I get my allowance!” Boy, that sounded lame. However, Adrian was still underage and living with his parents, that part couldn’t be blamed. Yuuka pouted, but reluctantly agreed and set the doll back in its place.
As they walked out of the shop he accidentally bumped into a woman and child passing by. He stopped and apologized, sheepishly smiling. “Oh, I’m sorry!” For some reason an unknown force possessed him to look up and noticed a sprig of mistletoe above them.
This was ironic, he hoped the woman didn’t look up too.
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Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2009 1:30 pm
In spite of herself, Han-hui found herself caught up in the music along with her young charge. She hummed along to the parts she didn't know, and sang the few words of the choruses she did. "...I don't care about the presents underneath the Christmas tree..." Smiling absent-mindedly as she sang, she let her dark brown eyes wander over the holiday shops, taking in the colors and feeling the cheer seep in more by the minute. "...More than you could ever know~ Make my wish come true~ All I want for Christmas is you!" Abruptly she felt something smack into her arm.
Han-hui swiveled around to see where Kaleb was but quickly shifted her gaze to the young man who was apologizing. Her brown eyes blinked and she apologized as well, her cheeks coloring in embarrassment. "Ah, no, pardon me! I wasn't paying attention to where I was going..." Her free hand came up to brush her hair behind her ear as if to draw attention away from her blush.
Kaleb, who had been a step behind, came up on her other side and peered from around his guardian up at the other pair. Being short, as children tend to be, he had to crane his head up a bit to see the man's face. Curious, as children also tend to be, he followed the man's gaze up past his head and noticed some kind of plant hovering in the doorway. He had simply assumed it was part of the holiday decorations, but he tugged gently on his caretaker's sleeve and pointed at it. "What's that, Hanna?"
Looking up, Han-hui felt the blush rush back into her cheeks and inevitably glanced back at the stranger. It wasn't that he wasn't nice-looking, but he was a stranger, after all, and seemed a bit younger than she. She gave a nervous laugh. "Bit of holiday cheer, huh?" she said. "Seems a bit silly for a shop like that to have that there."
Still curious and not having gotten an a straight answer, Kaleb asked another question. "Why's it silly? What's it for?" He stretched up on his tip-toes to try to get a closer look.
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Posted: Fri Dec 04, 2009 8:35 pm
Adrian’s gaze darted between the woman and the dangling plant. Throwing her an uneasy grin he answered, “No, no, it’s alright. I wasn’t very attentive to where I was going either.”
As his eyes wandered towards the young boy, he noticed the child staring directly at the mistletoe. His lips pursed and he gulped, secretly hoping that by some miracle the white-haired lad would not ask what Adrian silently knew what he was going to inquire to his guardian. Then the child innocently tugged on the woman’s sleeve and asked the exact question that was lingering in the teenager’s mind. When she looked up, Adrian mutely looked away, face burning red. It wasn’t that he minded kissing her. However, Adrian did not even know her name. Plus, two children would be blatantly watching and the idea made him uncomfortable.
“Quite right. I’m surprised such a shop would have a sprig mistletoe,” he said, falsely laughing.
When the boy brought up the question once more, Adrian awkwardly shifted. Eyes glanced at the woman, wondering if she would explain. The case was, however, that Yuuka beat her to the punch line.
“Oh, I know what it means! There’s this funny custom where people have to kiss when they’re under it. I remember reading all about it,” Yuuka proudly answered. “And! And! Since it’s mistletoe, it’s the scent that I’m from.”
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Posted: Sat Dec 05, 2009 9:51 pm
Her cheeks still glowing with awkwardness, Han-hui glanced between the child at her side, the young strangers before her, and the sprig of mistletoe which had led to this predicament. As the man laughed, she briefly wondered at the possibility that she had been hoodwinked into some kind of practical joke. Her eyes widened anxiously when he glanced back at her, as if expecting her to answer Kaleb's innocent yet troublesome question.
Han-hui sighed. She supposed it wasn't the worst thing Kaleb could've asked about. At least it wasn't "the talk" just yet. She had just resigned herself to explaining the mistletoe when the young man's little companion piped up. The dark-haired woman stood stunned for a moment, then giggled nervously.
"It is a pretty funny custom. I'm not sure where it came from, but it just seems a little silly to just go around kissing strangers and..." She paused. One word in particular the girl had said snagged in her mind. "Wait, 'scent'?" This time, Han-hui's gaze focused on the young girl with the green hair. "Mistletoe is the 'scent' you're 'from'?"
Kaleb, who had been about to ask why a plant made people have to kiss each other, suddenly smiled at the green-haired girl. It was something in the back of his mind, something he couldn't quite remember, but something struck him as all too familiar about her.
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Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2009 12:49 pm
When Yuuka had innocently yet carelessly stated that she was from a scent, Adrian began to panic. Children born from scented candles were an illogical idea, but apparently it was true. Since it was so mystifying, the boy was assuming that it would be best to keep it a secret and restricted to those who had bought similar candles. Who else would be able to easily accept the existence of those like Yuuka? Most likely she would think that the pair was cuckoo.
Adrian awkwardly laughed and patted Yuuka on the shoulder, furtively throwing the child a “Don’t speak another word” look. Turning back to the woman, without a beat he explained, “Children these days, what wild imaginations they have! Please excuse Yuuka, she’s been babbling this scent nonsense for a while now.”
The lie was easy to pull off. Making lies were, more often than not, easy for Adrian. He hoped this time around his false words were convincing enough to satisfy the woman. She was older than he, and most likely wiser and more knowledgeable than Adrian. Perhaps she would see through the deception and perhaps she would not.
Hoping to change the topic and safely lead the conversation away from the idea of scents, Adrian added, “By the way, I don’t believe I’ve introduced myself yet. I’m Adrian, and this is Yuuka.”
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Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2009 5:53 pm
Quirking a wary brow at the young man, Han-hui curled her arm around her little white-haired companion's shoulders. Her eyes narrowed briefly, and she glanced down at Kaleb, who looked back up at her, still grinning from ear to ear as if he knew something she didn't. Even if she didn't know for sure, Han-hui suspected she had a pretty good idea of what kind of things were going through the man's head. Those feelings were no strangers to her.
When she turned back to Adrian, her expression was clear, a sincere smile accompanying her own introduction. "Nice to meet you. I'm called Hanna, and this is Kaleb." She gestured to the boy at her side, then paused for a moment, wondering how to broach the topic on the tip of her tongue.
Kaleb piped up. "I think I know Yuuka. From a long time ago." Han-hui stared down at him. Kaleb hadn't been a child more than a few months. "A long time ago, huh? You think you've met Yuuka somewhere before?" She smiled back at Adrian, remarking, "Kids. I guess when you're so young you think everything's a long time."
The white-haired boy leaned a bit toward the child across from him, hoping to catch a whiff of her Scent. There was just something about her. "So that's what Mistletoe smells like!" Han-hui tugged at his hand. "Hey, Kaleb, that's kind of rude. Remember, we had that talk about space." His green eyes sparkled a little, although he stepped back obediently. "But Yuuka smells like Christmas, too!"
Han-hui paused, glancing at Adrian from the corner of her eye. "Everything smells like Christmas around this time of year, Kaleb."
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Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 3:47 pm
The woman cocked a dubious eyebrow at him, but his expression still held firm, refusing to budge and reveal its falseness. Adrian was panicking inside his mind though, running around in circle and hysterically shouting, wondering what to do. She was suspicious. She was onto them. Could the boy manage to outwit an older woman? Someone who was already beginning to see through his farce, no less. ‘Just make sure to keep you cool. She won’t find at as long as you’re calm.’ Adrian told himself. “Hanna and Kaleb? What nice names.”
If it had just been Adrian, perhaps he could have done it without a problem. However, Yuuka was accompanying him too, and was not conversed in the art of lying and knowing when to shut her mouth. As Kaleb spoke of knowing the green-haired child from a long time ago she blinked and tilted her head. Yuuka became pensive as she delved deep into her mind, wondering if the boy’s words were true. Finally grasping a fading memory, a memory before her actual birth, her eyes sparked with recognition. She clapped her hands together, mouth agape. “Oh yeah! I remember that time! Way, way back then. I’m so glad to see you again!” she joyfully answered.
She too, leaned forward and sniffed, catching his Scent. Giggling as Yuuka rested a hand on Adrian’s shoulder, she chirped, “You smell just like last time! Ummmmm. What was the name again? Uh . . . Uh . . .”
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Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 10:56 pm
Kaleb beamed. "My scent is called Sparkling Angel. My friend Remi said it smells like winter and the forest."
The words were out of the boy's mouth before Han-hui could stop him, and she sighed a little. Kaleb was seldom out of sight or earshot, no matter where they went, so if he had met anyone, especially another Scent, Han-hui figured she would have known. "Hm. I don't remember seeing Yuuka before, but children can be pretty stubborn about things."
"I never saw Yuuka before,"
"...Wait, what?"
Kaleb looked up at his guardian, who now had a very puzzled expression on her face. "I never saw Yuuka," he repeated. "I just have this feeling like I know Yuuka, from even before she was Yuuka and from even before I was Kaleb."
Han-hui's eyebrows lofted. These Scents were mysterious, indeed. There was always something new to learn about them. "What does that even mean?"
Smiling, Kaleb stepped to Yuuka's side and sniffed at the air around her. "I think maybe we sat together once."
The woman's eyebrows rose even higher. "You... sat together?" She crossed her arms, puzzling over the boy's words. "Before you were Kaleb." That would explain why she'd never seen the green-haired girl before. "You mean before you... grew up into a big boy? So... like you were together in the shop or something?" It was the only plausible explanation she could conjure.
Turning his pearly white grin back to his guardian, Kaleb said, "Maybe. I think it was something like that. Probably." He inhaled the girl's scent again. "We sat together for a while and smelled like Christmas together. Probably like me and Remi."
Han-hui turned to Adrian, a dry grin on her own face. "I doubt I understand any of this any better than you do right now, but I think suffice it to say, it seems my Kaleb and your Yuuka are two of a very strange, stubborn kind."
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Posted: Sun Jan 24, 2010 3:49 pm
Yuuka smiled, laughing as she shook her head. “Oh yeah! How could I have forgotten that? Silly me. Silly me!” she replied and once more stepped forward, happily taking another whiff of the Christmas scent. “You smell nice. Really nice,” the scent complicated with a sincere beam.
Adrian stared at the child with bewildered eyes. He managed to grasp one half of their conversation, but the other half was completely lost to him. The lad was staring to piece together an explanation. Kaleb had also been born from a scented candle as well, was he not? It would explain the Sparkling Angel scent as well as Yuuka’s already-knowing him. However, how could she have known Kaleb from before? From when she was a candle? Candles could have a working conscious? Reality was not so realistic anymore.
She wisely nodded her head at Kaleb’s explanation. “Yup yup! I knew Kaleb way way before I was Yuuka.” The green-haired girl seemed proud with the other scent’s answer.
Amber eyes keenly stared at Hanna as she conversed with the two kids. “In the shop”? That must mean the shop Adrian had waltzed into to purchase a scented candle (which later grew into a full-grown child). His eyes narrowed and he casually lowered the cap of his hat. Yes, his hypothesis was beginning to appear truer and truer by the second.
“Remi?” Yuuka mock gasped and her fingertips flew to her gaping lips. “Which scent is Remi? There were other Christmas-y scents, right? Like . . . like . . . pine? And, and gingerbread!”
Excitement glimmered in her wide eyes. The meeting of another fellow scent, a fellow Christmas scent sent her emotions on a wild rollercoaster. She was ready to explode with glee and eagerness. So much to talk about. So much to do!
Adrian chuckled at Hanna’s remark, smirking. “Mmhm, yes. However, I have a question to ask you. Did you by any chance purchase a Sparkling Angel-scented candle?” he inquired, feigning innocent curiosity.
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Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 2:53 pm
If that wasn't a dead giveaway, Han-hui didn't know what was. She glanced at Adrian from the corner of her eye and tapped a finger to her chin. "No," she answered. "I never bought anything like that." Smiling slowly, she added "...although I received a lovely scented oil as a gift a Christmas or two ago. I'd always wanted to try something fancy like a candle-burning fragrance oil with a glass bowl." She made some small flourishes with her hands as she spoke, rustling the shopping bags on her arm. "Just has a sense of elegance about it, you know?" Han-hui gave a small sigh. "I kept telling myself I shouldn't, though... they're not hugely practical things and they do tend to be a bit expensive." Her gaze fell once more on her Scent-child and she smiled more tenderly. "It was an awfully nice surprise, though."
More or less indifferent to the conversation of the two adults, Kaleb giggled and answered Yuuka's question. "Remi's Gingerbread, actually. Hanna always says it makes her hungry when she's around. She smells really good, too." The white-haired boy rocked his heels lightly forward, sampling the Mistletoe Scent again in the crisp, late-autumn air. Pursing his lip as he thought, he said "I haven't met Pine yet. I haven't met a lot of other Scents yet, actually. Just you and Remi for right now. But I want to meet lots of Scents." His enthusiasm dimmed a little, remembering Remi's warning. "The nice ones, anyway."
Turning her attention back to Adrian, Hanna twined her fingers together in front of her. "My rambling aside... let me guess. You got something from Solace Scents and wound up with... an impromptu babysitting contract?"
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Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2010 6:17 pm
His question was obvious, Adrian knew that, but to someone unaware of these magical scented-candles, it would only seem to be an eccentric inquiry. If Han didn’t know anything about the mysterious shop, then she would simply give him a curious look before flatly answering ‘no’. Adrian’s guts told him that the woman would not react so, and the innocent tap of her finger as she slowly smiled confirmed his suspicions.
He perked his eyebrows at her, intrigued by her reply. So she indeed had not set foot in the shop at all, assuming this was the truth, anyways. Adrian grinned, amused by her answer. “I suppose, considering I had a fragrance oil myself. It was more of a requested gift from my older sister, but ended up being thrown into my possession along the way,” He followed her gaze and stared at his own, softly smiling as he watched the pair excitedly converse with one another. “Nice, indeed.”
“Oh! I can imagine,” Yuuka remarked in a dreamy voice, softly smiling and closing her eyes as she envisioned gingerbread cookies, their warm, cinnamon smell wafting into her mouth and nostrils. She could feel her mouth watering already! “I can imagine, just the thought of the smell makes me hungry!” she giggled, but frowned at Kaleb’s confession. “You’re the first scent I’ve met. And that just won’t do for the both us, at all!” Huffing, she crossed her arms and childishly stamped her feet. “There should be like, a directory of all the Scents!”
Adrian chuckled. “I’ve never considered it to be a babysitting contract, but yes, that’s the gist of it,” he answered and casually placed his hands behind his head. “Sounds like you’ve been with Kaleb for a while, though. In my case, Yuuka and I have only been together for about half a year, I suppose?”
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Posted: Sat Jan 01, 2011 8:52 pm
Han-hui hummed a moment, her eyes looking off in no particular direction as she thought. "Ah, I guess we have been together a while. It's been near a year now, I think. Sometimes it feels like I've always had him, but I'm always learning how much he doesn't know and how much I don't know, and everything seems new..." She broke off with a laugh. "Oh, sorry for rambling again."
Kaleb's eyes lit up again at Yuuka's idea. "That's a good idea! It'd be so nice if we could just know where to find all the other Scents and get to know them."
"Hey, there's an idea," Han-hui chimed in, finally taking notice of the children's chatter. "Say," she said, turning to Adrian, "You have been to Solace Scents, haven't you? So you know where it is and all? I've been meaning to go and find out whether they know anything about Kaleb, and it seems a fair chance, since you've had something of the same sort happen to you, that they might know what's going on with all these Scents. Suppose they do have something like a Directory of Scents there."
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