Corruption of the Innocent

Before they left, Arjean watched as Béatrice gathered up the art supplies they left behind and stuffed them into their bag. "Don't forget these, okay? You should know better by now," she huffed.

All Arjean did was nod anxiously, say, "Yes Maman," and lay their head on their mommy's chest. As Ade began to walk to their home Arjean remembered how Poulos spoke through writing and pulled out a piece of paper and a green crayon. For a moment they saw their maman's glare, yet pretended they didn't see it and tried to wave it for Poulos to take. Instead, Ade stopped walking and gave the paper and crayon to Poulos so Arjean would stop adjusting themself to get closer to the girl.

"You're welcome," both Arjean and Ade said in conjunction. The walk back home didn't take that long, though it was probably because Arjean kept dosing off every once in a while. Usually they all flew back home so Arjean could get some flying practice, then after a while of flying they got to relax in one of their family member's arms.

When they arrived the home was a beautiful white mansion obviously roomy enough to hold more than just five people if some redesigning was done. There was only four bedrooms from Arjean's knowledge, but their mommies always shared their bed. Outside there was a pond Arjean liked to play in, and when you moved closer to the door there was a fountain that occasionally got broken from Junchi and them playing too roughly.

"Sorry if it's a bit cold inside, it's just how we live," Ade told Poulos as Béatrice opened the door the allow everyone in. There was a giant staircase that was always the first thing people saw when they entered, and when Ade took Arjean up they appeared immediately in a home library. Among the books were some chairs and tables to read in, and then there were smaller, more colorful chairs for Arjean to sit in when they wanted to read. Their maman seemed to have walked away to do other things, though from what they could smell and hear she seemed to be preparing some food.

That wasn't the room they were going into though, it was the room that was in between the library and their bedroom. Inside that room were four chairs that were decorated like different types of bears. Across from those chairs were four smaller bookshelves each painted a different color for different genres. Yellow was for action and adventure, blue was for learning, purple was for mysteries, and orange was for others. The books didn't follow one age group, as some were picked just for Arjean's age group and others Arjean took from their family. The higher age books usually went into others or learning because they were hard to understand.

"Quiet Room," Arjean explained as they were put down. Then they tottered over to the small stereo and asked Poulos, "Music?"

Before Ade left she said, "Poulos, I'm going to be in the bigger library, and Bunn-er... Béatrice is downstairs. Just come out if you need us."

It felt weird having a new child in their room, especially without their mommies to constantly watch. "Oh, uh... maman is Bunny," they told Poulos. "Béatrice is Bunny."

Arjean glanced back at the note long enough to read it before going back to beginning their search for which DVD to play. Without thinking they removed all the classical and lullaby music; playing with someone wouldn't be fun if they fell asleep. Maybe louder music would be fitting... but Poulos seemed like a quiet girl, and it was hard to read and speak when the music was so loud. It took Arjean longer than they would have liked to find a good song, but once they found a good match they played an upbeat tune with no lyrics, that way it was easy to read to.

"Do you like?" they asked as they moved away from the stereo, yet they didn't really care whether she actually liked it or not. Arjean liked it, so that was enough for them. Now they needed to think about what books to give her. She was a big kid, so the baby books they had wouldn't work for her. Arjean flew to the blue bookcase and start pulling out high school and college level books and then laying them to the ground. They really needed to buy some elementary school books to even things out. Maybe the top level should be the college, the middle level for high school, and the bottom level for elementary and kindergarten books.

Once finished they landed wobbly onto the floor and began looking through the books. A lot of these had complicated words on the inside, but the outsides they could understand more or less. Most were about math, English, and various types of art, but there were some stuff on high school biology and history. They weren't really approved to be reading stuff on science, but their mommies liked that it kept them interested and devoted to the experiments so it wasn't that big of an issue. Wasn't like they could really read it, but they liked the pictures and liked looking at what was called "meiosis" and "mitosis." They always got the two mixed up. It was easier to learn when they were around the older people and could keep asking questions on what words meant and how to pronounce them. Sometimes they would even be read the books so they could develop their listening abilities.

One by one Arjean laid out the book options in front of Poulos. She was the big kid, so she got to pick what they got to read today. While waiting for her to choose they couldn't resist taking a peek at one of the math books. It was a large one with bright colors: yellow, red, and blue. Something about algebra. Math didn't include words, which made things so much easier. All they had to do was memorize formulas and numbers, and because their memory was so good it was an easy task to accomplish. Anything with formulas and clear rules on what to do was easy for them, it became hard when they had to guess or think about what the right answer was instead of knowing it.

All this thinking about formulas and how much easier it was to look at math than words made Arjean realize that some of the books they gave Poulos were in Oscela. Actually, some were in Oscela, some French, and others English. Very little were in French since reading something you couldn't read was a pain, so those books had a lot of pictures detailing what the words were describing. The ones in Oscela and English had more words and less pictures, but Arjean still had trouble reading them because they used lots of big words for the big kids.

Surprisingly, Poulos didn't seem that bothered by the language, and even patted the spot next to her, which Arjean assumed was an attempt to get them to sit next to her. Arjean moved as they were instructed, yet made sure they distanced themself enough from her so she wouldn't touch them. It felt weird, befriending someone who couldn't speak and looked so... different. Was this how their mommies felt when they first got involved with people of other species? There had to be something to gain from Poulos though, whether it was fun stories from her species' culture or some sort of power she had.

"What powers do you have?" they asked, repeating something they've heard their mommies say a lot before. "Where did you come from?" Maybe she had something to offer to the mafia they were making. They weren't sure if she had the type of cuteness that could be used against people, and she didn't seem particularly interested in violence or a leading role, but maybe she could heal, or teleport them places, or... something.