The Only Way To The Heart

Arjean was told their babysitter would show up later, but he came earlier than even Rémi was expecting. When came Rémi walked over to him and gave a curt greeting. She seemed pleased with how early he showed up, though it seemed to be more because she was getting annoyed with Junchi constantly trying to run away when she wasn't looking. Now Junchi had his hand held by Rémi, and despite how hard he tried to pull away she kept a tight grip on his wrist as she spoke with Mr. Theron.

"I'll be near, so don't worry about calling me if you need me. I'll probably at a store or something, or maybe far off in a tree watching. Do you need anything before I go?" Arjean didn't completely understand what she was saying, but they understood enough. If she was in a tree that meant she'd be an owl, but that seemed silly. It was nice she would be around, but they didn't like the idea that she might be watching constantly. What if Arjean or Junchi made a mistake? Would they get in trouble and have to be punished? What if they needed to contact her? How would she get messages from them?

They shook their head, trying to remove those thoughts by pushing them into the Big Box of Bad Thoughts. Instead of thinking about that, they went back to seeing if they could spot any animals or insects moving about. Maybe they could pull out a worm and look at it, or see if they could catch and squirrel to play with. Junchi would be impressed if they caught a squirrel... or he would be jealous... or both. Whatever Arjean decided on, they concluded it would have to be enough for them to look distracted so Mr. Theron wouldn't come over and try to talk or play with them. Junchi gets to deal with that problem, he likes problems like him.

"Great... Not about the orphanage thing, just knowing how to deal with kids.... Uh, sorry. Anyways, bye. " Her apology didn't really seem genuine, and despite Junchi slowly getting used to telling when she was and wasn't being sincere, it was still difficult. At the moment her apology just felt so... plain... Maybe she was mental like everyone else in Arjean's family, but according to his dad she was the least mental. Maybe that's why she was the least fun to be around. At least she let go of his hand to turn into an owl and fly off.

Now it was just him, the babysitter, and Arjean. Junchi stood there awkwardly at first with his hands in his pockets and kicking the dirt with a hoof. This was stupid. He didn't need a babysitter. He was the oldest, or, well, older than Arjean, and the older ones were always the smarter ones. Since Arjean was smart, that meant he was extra smart. Thinking about Arjean just made him want to leave the babysitter and go check on what they were doing instead.

When he looked over to check on them, they were attempting to dig into the dirt, probably to pick out worms or something. Not like they could do anything anyways: they always wore those stupid gloves and would scream whenever they had to take them off in public. Plus, their nails weren't even sharp or sturdy enough, but they were just a Cloud, not an Earth. He might as well help them out though, it was a good alternative than standing awkwardly waiting for the babysitter to go away. How long did they have to be with him?

When Junchi got closer Arjean gave up in their attempts at digging into the ground with cut nails and gloves. For someone praised so much for being really smart, they weren't really smart. Before he could suggest a new thing for them to do he was asked one of their standard questions: "Wanna play?"

An idea popped into Junchi's head when they asked. "Yeah," he responded in Oscela, "it's unsafe." He smirked, ready to actually have some fun. Remi may be nearby watching or whatever, and the babysitter may have been watching too, but maybe if he gave them a harder time he wouldn't need to be babysat anymore. He could babysit Arjean perfectly fine. Two years in age difference was huge.

He continued with him idea. "Follow me. To the woods." Arjean didn't seem to reject, but he noticed they looked over at the babysitter and where Remi was a few times. "It's okay. For fun." All that got was a nod out of them, but when they held onto him they moved fairly well for someone who struggled at walking. He could see that they got tired of it quickly and resorted to flying while holding his hand. Now Junchi wanted to see what the babysitter would do as they ran off towards the forest. They probably wouldn't get into too much trouble, but maybe he could see what special thing he had. Maybe floating people, or popping to different places instantly, or fire breath. Hopefully not the latter, they liked Arjean better when they were alive.

Arjean tried to slow Junchi down a bit, seeing how the babysitter didn't seem that pleased with what they were doing. If Remi knew they were causing trouble they would both be in big trouble, despite the fact that Remi would never do punishments like their mommies unless ordered to. Junchi seemed to get the hint though and slowed down, though he looked over towards Karic to see if he got any good reaction. Only thing he got was an expression that looked to be annoyance as he approached them.

If he was going to be babysitting them then they might as well get to know him better. Maybe he was fun and had a bunch of interesting stories to tell, or maybe he would be a fun person to play tricks on until he quit. Arjean hoped for a mixture of the two ideas.

Despite letting go of Junchi's hand Arjean still expected him to be near them as they fluttered closer to Karic. When they got close enough Arjean pulled out their notepad and began writing down some questions they had for him that they commonly heard from their mommies. "Where did you come from?" and "What powers do you have?" were the most common of the most common. Arjean heard them so much that they could perfectly replicate them without thinking most of the time. A lot of stuff they could write and say came from repeating what they've heard repeatedly. When they were done they flew up a bit higher to show Karic the notepad. Tell stories? What powers do you have? Where did you come from? was what was written when Arjean tried to show Karic their notepad. They even flew up a bit higher so the pad was closer to his face-level.

Karic seemed a bit anxious with all his pausing and how slow he was speaking. Was he scared of them? Junchi hoped so, he liked the idea of intimidating a big kid. Not too much so he wouldn't want to be near them, Junchi could probably force him to do stuff with fear.

His response sounded a bit silly. He looked like an Earth person, a normal human, so there was nothing surprising there. "What's an orphanage?" Junchi blurted out. It didn't seem like a village or city, but humans had weirder and harder terms than oricenta. Like all those weird pronoun and gender rules he had to follow.

Arjean seemed more interested in his toothpick sword than where he came from. It was sort of creepy how interested they were in weapons. Weapons were only made to hurt people, but Junchi liked to heal and take care of people more. Maybe it was good that they liked violent stuff, otherwise they would just be a copy of his personality. That sounded boring.

"Story! Story!" Arjean chanted excitedly. "Toothpick sword. Please?"