Huffs.
❝—’Least someone does.
Oi.
Are you implyin’ I can’t build a nice house?❞
”Lots of people have faith in you—“
Just not with building houses.
Or something like that, anyway.
“I’m not implying that…
construction can be very dangerous though.”
❝Have faith in me, yeah.
Don’t you want a cool house to live in?❞
”I always have faith in you, papa.
Well, yes, but I would like a nice house and you to be uninjured.“
Stares at book on building houses and structures in general.
”—I don’t think papa can do this.”
❝They’re not, huh?❞
Ah— this story of hers was getting stranger and stranger. And he’d always been one to plant the seed of suspicion somewhat earlier than the norm, a spark of doubt that had worked well to save his life on more than the odd occasion. Caution, hesitance— even in the presence of a child were they reliable emotions to stir.
❝You must’ve walked pretty far.❞
A lingering glance is issued towards her, flaxen bangs splayed about his face like golden feathers dancing in the wind, fabrics about his frame dark as the night and shifting gently via the gentle push of each surge of breeze. A storm was approaching - as they typically did so close to the Crater - and he knew well that it was more than likely time to consider heading inside. Unfortunately, the modest village of which they currently resided in failed to house a plentiful amount of stores to take temporary shelter in; as was expected for a tiny place such as this.
The Inn then; if she would allow it.
❝I’m Cloud,❞
Either way, her gentle introduction was not one to be ignored—
❝—You have any idea how you’re gonna get back to your folks, Naminé?❞
—nor was he particularly willing to abandon her to her own lonesome company.
Cloud… that sounded familiar. It rang a bell, somewhere in her mind and her memory, something that had been heard before and something that she had, at one point, deemed to be entirely important at some point, but it didn’t occur to her for several long moments as to where she had heard that name before. The reason as to why it seemed important that she remembered it, why it felt as if she absolutely had to keep that name locked away somewhere in her mind.
Cloud.
Aerith’s kind of love.
But—was that even possible? Two separate worlds, two separate people. Perhaps the name Cloud was more common than she originally would have thought. There had to be more than one person in the universe that had that name after all, and it wasn’t like she could ask anyways. That time, in that forest, when there had been terror racing through her veins and it felt as if it were there last moments, it had been requested that she never tell anyone.
So she left the thoughts behind, only peering at the man curiously for a few more moments before blinking and nodding her head once. To be fair she did know how to return back to what she, supposed, could be perceived as her technical home, to people whom she could perhaps return to. The option was just far from her at that moment, powers shying away from her touch.
”Yes, I do know how.”
Hopefully that much, at least, could be enough to alleviate any worry, small as it may have been or as unseen. ”I just—can’t, yet.”
Good.
Perhaps this wouldn’t end with him taking yet another child home due to an unfortunate abandoning, or from being torn away from those they loved, or yet another young life having been turned into one more tragedy. A droplet of sadness to add to the mix.
This world had already seen too much pain.
❝Then we’d better take you back to them.❞
A hopeful suggestion, knowing well that he wouldn’t have the heart to simply drive away and leave her alone. She’d more than likely struggled enough through the forest on her own; and while the village he’d taken to was modest and friendly and gentle, nowhere would ever be completely safe.
Not even for someone like him.
❝They nearby?❞
A muted inquiry, followed by yet another— one he probably should’ve asked initially.
❝—What’s your name?❞
The feared question of where, of the point of origin, and she had to glance away from him for a moment and off into another direction entirely for a moment before looking at him once more. For all that he had helped her she had not quite expected him to say that he would help return her to the place where she had come from, before she had supposedly gotten lost. Then again she likely should have expected that, given everything that had happened between them up until that point.
Perhaps she did have people to return to, people who she would always be happy to see once more because they were there and they were people who mattered to her, yet she could not say they were nearby. Simply because–
”No, they’re not nearby.”
Perhaps moving onto the next subject would allow them to gloss over the fact that she was certainly far from the place she would return to, from the people that she could imagine returning to. After all, she was literal worlds away, and while it would not be difficult to get back to Twilight Town—once her powers began responding to her again, fickle as they were—she couldn’t exactly explain that.
And anyways, formal introductions were long overdue.
”—My name is Naminé.”
My Tumblr Crushes:
[ i have no idea how this list works but i’m amused by it sO ]
❝That simple, huh.❞
Maybe a tad too simple, in his opinion— because who in their right mind would willingly wander around the Sleeping Forest alone, without the Lunar Harp, and without any obvious means to defend themselves?
Especially a child.
But perhaps he was fueled on little else but both suspicion and paranoia. Cloud’s life had never been a straight-forward thing. There would always be complications, bumps in the road, plain old disappointments and—
tragedy
—but perhaps he could be hopeful in the potential that he was alone in such a thing. That a child could wander off on little else but a whim and still manage alright. That something hadn’t pushed them to leave their home or their family, or that they wouldn’t snapped up by the wrong kind of people or a wandering monster on the way.
Or maybe she was just an orphan with nowhere else to go.
And an instant frown would form across the pallid span of his face. Soft. Worried. Subtle.
❝—Do you have anyone to go back to?❞
That was one question that she was, ultimately, not prepared to answer. After all, it wasn’t like people oftentimes inquired if she had anyone to return to. Somewhere to go perhaps, a place to return to she certainly had, but a person? In the end there wasn’t really anyone that she definitely returned to, absolutely went back to, because she existed alone.
For a moment her thoughts went to Ace, because he was her friend and she saw him willingly and often enough that she supposed that, technically, she would return to him. But at the same time that was inaccurate, because while she cared for him and he cared for her in such a context it was an incorrect statement.
And, just for a moment, the slightest moment, her thoughts went to Aerith. To the couch that was unfailingly offered to her and a warm and inviting smile, a woman who was extensively kind to her—
But then that thought was gone.
To say that she had Aerith to return to was the equivalent to admitting that yes, she certainly would always go to the woman, burden her with her presence. That was something that she had been trying her best to avoid, and even if in that moment saying her name would simply get her out of telling the whole truth it felt wrong to.
Yet there was a frown on this man’s face and
she did not want to say no.
”—In a way.”
❝That sorta goes without saying.❞
If she hadn’t gotten herself lost, then surely she wouldn’t be here— in the situation at hand. He knew full well that she must’ve wandered too far from her home, or from whoever she’d been with at the time; but the real question was why.
Why leave supposed safety for unknown roads without an adequate reason?
Unless there’d been no safety in her previous location at all.
❝How, though.❞ Cloud prompted, attempting to resume the conversation in order to learn exactly what he was dealing with. ❝You must’ve come from somewhere.❞
The questions were not unusual or odd in and of themselves—really they were standard and expected there were only so many things that she could say in answer. In the end she was bad at lying, and his gaze was too imploring for her to lie to effectively anyways. And too long pauses really were all the more suspicious, so—
”I had just wanted to explore.”
Slight shoulders rose and then fell in a shrug.
”Somewhere along the way I ended up there.”
Sincerity was true and clear because that was what happened in the end, albeit with a few parts omitted for ease of explanation without getting into other things that went far beyond simple exploration, yet went hand in hand at the same time.
❝I said it was fine, yeah?❞
He’d never been overly fond of repeating himself.
—But she was a child, and he couldn’t stay sour for long.
❝‘Sides,❞
Cloud began, gaze shifting from the girl in order to redirect mako blues towards the rather barren landscape beyond the modest village they’d decided to take a moment of pause within. Admittedly, he was curious; and perhaps a tad concerned regarding the way he’d discovered her out by the forest, wandering and lonesome.
❝You can tell me how you wound up out there on your own.❞
Making the man repeat himself was likely a bad idea, but she could never be quite sure—after all, he had willingly taken her to a nearby village instead of subjecting her to walking on her own. Young she may appear, which could cause feelings of sympathy, but it took a kind person to offer as much no matter what.
And she wasn’t surprised by his question.
Well it was less of a question, and more of a statement.
”I had gotten lost.”
A vague way of stating the truth, albeit in an incomplete and rather suspicious manner. After all, what child got lost in a forest that was rather far away from any civilization? But it was the most straightforward answer she could give.
❝S’alright.❞
A hand rises in the act of a wave, motion casual and nonchalant as if he were dismissing the previous topic. All in all, if no harm was done nor meant, then there was little need to linger over past frays; no matter how small.
❝If you wanna hang around, m’not gonna complain.❞
For— she was here for a reason, right?
An easily dropped subject, evidently, and she couldn’t help but be relieved over that fact. If hard pressed she wasn’t entirely sure how she would respond to continuous prodding over it considering that it had been an accident, and she felt her shoulders relax, even if only slightly.
”—Are you sure?”
A kind offer and she couldn’t resist a tilt of her head and a lifting of her eyebrows.
”I could leave, if you'd like.”