Welcome to town (Kiddie AU)

[mitochondriaaya]

Aya looked at the small vacation cottage and hefted her suitcase up onto the curb. This was going to be 'home' for at least six months. Possibly nine? She couldn't remember all the factors for extending the job. Regardless, this cottage was smaller than their apartment back home! At least it was warm here. Early spring in New York wasn't so much...

Her suitcase she dragged into the small living room along with the thick quilt. Her dad was already fussing with the smaller of the two bedrooms, getting it ready to be a dark room. The photos were important. This was a high paying job, so the dark room had to be ready as soon as possible! She understood that, so, she stayed out of the way by unpacking the rest of the car.

Well, unpacking what she could lift. Or kick out of the side door, if it wasn't fragile. She might be an unconventional little girl, but she was a very determined one!

She was also a rather enthusiastic singer. She'd figured out how to keep the car radio on while she worked. Hopefully the new neighbors were at work or something.

Comments

[sliceitwithwind]

"Well, yeah, but you're human." he says this like it's exotic, "Round ears and pointy ears like sugar. Foldy-ears don't. I like fruit."

[mitochondriaaya]

"Duh' she remarked to the human statement. "Gee, if I'd known I'd have given you one of the apple slices we had in the car! Sorry, we didn't have anyone like you back in New York. A lot of little points though..." half breeds! Had to love them!

"They didn't let me poke their ears..."

[sliceitwithwind]

"Of course you didn't." Dilan says, "I'm a freak. There is nobody else like me. Mom is a pointy-ears, but my father's species isn't. There are only six in North America, and I'm the only half-breed in the whole world."

[mitochondriaaya]

"Whoa. That's cool! That makes you the best Dilan right? I've never met any only anything! Even me, I'm one of a set!" her feet missed a step for a moment, though she caught herself and kept up "Used to be anyway. wasn't born that way!"

[sliceitwithwind]

"It totally makes me the best Dilan." Dilan agrees. With the self-absorption of his age, he doesn't ask about it, instead calling, "Duck here! Low branch!"

[mitochondriaaya]

"Are you in the world record book?I bet you should be! You should write to them!" she was getting good at ignoring the empty spots in her life, so she just ducked and laughed through the branches.

[sliceitwithwind]

"I dunno? We could!" Dilan says, skidding to a stop again at a stretch of beach.

[mitochondriaaya]

"I can find the address! My dad can take your picture, I'll tell him to!" she offered, sliding a bit as she met the sand. sand! Like a giant playground before they put in the safety chips!

"Whoa...that's a lot of water. How do we find an octopus in all that?!"

[sliceitwithwind]

"Okay! Well, we look at the tidal pools. One at a time until we find one." Duh. "I have a brain thing. Just so you know. Sometimes I do things and I can't stop."

[mitochondriaaya]

"Tide pools are like big puddles right?" she offered, looking up and down the strip of beach. "What, like it's broken? What do I do if you get stuck?"

[sliceitwithwind]

"Uh huh. Ocean puddles instead of rain puddles." Dilan shrugs, "Kinda? Just smack me, that's what Braig does."

[mitochondriaaya]

"Alright, which one do we start at?" she bounced on her toes, eager to poke around. "And I do that!"

[sliceitwithwind]

"Start at the first one, and work our way up." Dilan says with a grin, pointing her down the beach.

[mitochondriaaya]

"Well, is it really the first?" she asked, skipping towards the indicated one "I mean, beaches go on for a long time. What if there's one even further away?" she chattered cheerfully.

"Oh look! Stars!"

[sliceitwithwind]

"We numbered them." Dilan says, firmly, "It's the first for how far I'm allowed to go."

[mitochondriaaya]

"That's okay then!" she bent down to draw a '1' in the sand near the pool, and then looked around for landmarks. "I guess this is how far I'm allowed to go too then!"

[sliceitwithwind]

Dilan says, "Probably? That's not my call, though. Braig's mom tells me how far I'm allowed to go. My mom is kinda lax on those things."

[mitochondriaaya]

"Well, it's no fun to go exploring all alone, so yep!" Aya chirped easily. She was a mere inch from sinking her knees into the tide pool as she looked. Looked, but didn't touch.

Yet.

"Are any of these poison? Should I get a stick?"

[sliceitwithwind]

"That makes sense. No, nothing in there is poison. If you want to see a fish closer, I can catch it for you." Dilan says cheerfully.

[mitochondriaaya]

"They don't look like the fish they sell back home!" she offered happily "And they're not goldfish, so, yes, I'd like to see them!" she'd given up on not getting her overalls wet and went down on her knees entirely.

"How do you catch them?"

[sliceitwithwind]

"With my hands." Dilan explains, dunking his fingers in slowly and wiggling them like worms. It takes a while, but eventually one of the bright fish is too close and he catches it. "Here, touch it. I don't wanna take it out of the water 'cause it's like putting your head in water. It can't breathe."

[mitochondriaaya]

She traced a careful finger between his to lightly poke the fish. It wasn't like a shark at all! In fact it was...slimy. "Slime!"

Then she looked up at Dilan with a very serious expression and said "I know fish breathe water. I'm not four". Really. Duh. Of course, she really only learned it this year, at a school trip to the aquarium but still!

[sliceitwithwind]

"Well you could be." Dilan says, letting it go again, "I mean. I don't know, I've never met a human kid before."

[mitochondriaaya]

"I'm six" she stated calmly, watching the fish zoom away and hide in a shadier part of the pool. "I turned six in May." she was telling him so he'd have a reference point?

"How old are you?" she really wasn't paying attention to him when she asked the question. She'd found a soft and squishy anemone to pet!

[sliceitwithwind]

"I'm eight." Dilan says, grinning, "I'm just tiny."

He fusses with the things in the pool too, having made sure before she started touching stuff that none of it was poison.