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

[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.

[mitochondriaaya]

"Wow, you're old." she wrinkled her nose at him "Not a old as my dad though so that's okay." she couldn't imagine being eight! Being six was hard enough! "You must have to do all kinds of stuff!"

"AH TINY CRAB!!" the pincers didn't hurt, just kinda tickled, but she ended up pulling her hand, and attached crustacean from the water in surprise.

[sliceitwithwind]

"I'm nobody's dad." Dilan says, rushing over to help get the crab off, "Sorry, they do that sometimes. I don't think there's an octopus in here. Not a lot? I go to school, but I love school."

[mitochondriaaya]

"Well, duh, you're only eight" she laughed, holding very, very still so he could get the crab. "I think you have to be like...fifteen maybe?"

"Hey, you can show me where the school is! I start there next week! And no, no octopus, unless he's buried in the sand? Do they dig?"

[sliceitwithwind]

"Sure." Dilan says, "You can walk with me and Braig. We'll come pick you up. Octopus don't dig, we'll move on to the next pool."

[mitochondriaaya]

Aya crouched to wave goodbye to the crab (carefully keeping her fingers above the water), then skipped after Dilan. "That'll be nice! Are you guys going tomorrow?" she asked cheerfully. She wanted to get toknow the school a little before she started!

[sliceitwithwind]

"No, but if you want to see the school we can go down there. They've got a good playground." Dilan offers, checking the next pool for poison creatures before letting her stick her hands in.

[mitochondriaaya]

"I'll go when you guys go." she shrugged "I just need to talk to the teachers an stuff." she admitted. "But I do like monkey bars!"

"Hey, snails!...wait. crabs. In snail shells!"

[sliceitwithwind]

"Yeah, that kind of crab changes shells as it gets bigger. Don't get pinched again, okay?" Dilan fusses with the water, then beams and says, "Octopus!"

[mitochondriaaya]

"Hey, pinching is just something they do" she pointed out "If I want to look close, I'll get pinched! But they're really cool...and they might not pinch hard..." she mused, fingers darting in to poke at shells without getting nabbed.

"Octopus"

[sliceitwithwind]

"Yeah, but humans tear more easily than points and folds." Dilan says, "And I didn't bring band-aids this time. I don't want to have to explain to Braig's mom that I tore the new girl."

[mitochondriaaya]

"Hey I'm not that weak! I might bleed just a little but I won't tear!" she snorted in indignation, but she did abandon poking the crabs in favor of petting the octopus. "You don't have to explain to anybody. If I get hurt it's cause I did something, and maybe next time I won't!" Yes, all the times she and her sister had gotten scraped up had been Aya's fault. she was the adventurous one.