Down the Drain

Romi

Romi

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Angelo had a lot of experience with crime, and for the most part that gave him a lot of advantages as a cop. He knew how the underworld worked. He was good at spotting sketchy people. He knew where the best place to find illegal weapon sales, and he knew how to deal with the shady underbelly of any city to find what he needed.

That didn't mean he was a good cop. There were plenty of things that were part of being a cop that he had no experience with, and a crying girl was one of them. He had no experience, and no real idea what he was supposed to do. He couldn't figure out what she was crying - she hadn't gotten better when he'd tucked the little critter away - and he was about to head to the school and fetch a teacher for help when she decided to call him 'papa' and throw her arms around him.

His first instinct, which was not a good one, was to punch her in the gut. That would definitely not have been a good reaction, and he managed to stop himself before he seriously injured a kid. He still jerked, and he brought one leg up to keep her from crushing the hedgehog in his lap - but otherwise he didn't try and stop her, just went stiff. Was he supposed to allow this? Was he - god, he was not prepared for this.

"I'm - I'm not your papa." He said, hoping that would somehow, magically, make her come out of whatever trance she'd gone into. He needed her back in reality, because he had no idea what he was supposed to do. No amount of police academy was going to cover things as specific as this.
 
Cloudie

Cloudie

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Jan 1, 2016
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It took her a good few minutes to fully realize that the man she was hugging and sobbing into was not, in fact, her father. It was a bit of a slow process to reach that realization. After a couple of minutes of her crying into the man’s chest, she had finally subsided to light crying and sniffling. And then she began to feel that something was off.

Maybe it was the fact that this man didn’t smell like her father (the slightly smoky smell of wood chips with an underlying earthy tone). Or the fact that Basilio had never worn a policeman uniform. Honestly the detail that set off her mental alerts the most was his hair. Basilio has short soft black curls, as typical of most Greek men, and yet whoever Lidiya was holding on to had extremely long hair. Probably even longer than her own. And it was soft and curly and far more vibrantly blond than her own or her mother’s. And Lidiya was sure that she didn’t know anyone with hair like that in her family.

Tensing up, Lidiya nervously looked up at the man’s face and confirmed that, indeed this man was not her father, and came to the horrifying realization that she was crying and clinging on to an unknown man. Her face paled and a look of complete horror set in as she practically flung herself away from the police officer. The details of the moment were starting to come back to her and she was completely mortified by what she had just done.

As a pre-teen, the (actually rather common) mistake of calling an non-related adult ‘Mom’ or ‘Dad’ was possibly one of the most embarrassing situations that could ever happen to a kid. And so Lidiya was honestly the most embarrassed she had ever been in (possibly) her whole life and desperately was wishing for the ground to open up and swallow her (if only she had been an earth elemental instead). Desperately ignoring eye contact with the policeman sitting in front of her, Lidiya stammered out an apology, “I-I’m very sorry for...that.” She didn’t know of any better way to explain the whole situation and she’d rather not think any more about it.

 
Romi

Romi

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Angelo was very quickly wondering if it was ever going to stop. She just kept crying. The front of his shirt was soaked, and he was pretty sure the poor hedgehog was confused as all hell. Maybe it'd just go to sleep, tucked away in the darkness like that. He knew better than to push her off, but he couldn't begin to guess at what he was supposed to do. Hug her back? No, that seemed to... well, personal. He wasn't against hugs or anything, but this was a girl he'd literally just met. They had no relationship. He didn't even know her name.

Around the point that Angelo was starting to wonder if he needed to call someone, the girl seemed to come to. She practically threw herself off him, and Angelo's eyes went wide for a moment before he frowned. She was... well, she was a bit erratic. She looked downright mortified though, and Angelo softened a bit when he realized it.

"S'fine. You okay?" He didn't want to make it any worse for her, but he did need to be absolutely sure she was okay. She had acted very strangely, and that was only half talking about the prolonged hug he'd just been subjected to. He wasn't sure what to make of it, and he wasn't sure he'd even be able to explain it clearly to ask for advice when he got back to the station.
 
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