Child in Rukon [Kaimu]

Mia hurried up the stairs, rushing down the hall at a little wobbling run as she made her way to the door at the end. There wasn't much room up there, obviously just for sleeping really. There were three doors and she took on that led to a tiny room. A rolled up futon was in the corner along with some bedding, but there wasn't much else. There was a picture book next to it and a bag that was Mia's things, pajamas and clothes for the morning.

That book was the last one she had...the rest had all burned up. She rushed to it and plopped down, smelling a bit of smoke and held it to her chest as she sat on the floor. "Its safe... I thought maybe mama forgot it again, but I like having it with me. Look Papa!"

Mia held it out, it was the story of the Moon Princess... She obviously adored it, the book well worn... "I-I can...read a bit...but its hard to..."

Downstairs there were sounds of people moving around and Mia ignored them as if they didn't exist.

Kaimu followed Mia up to a small room, looking around as they went inside; it was small...and there wasn't much inside. Mia didn't seem too bothered by it, as her concern mostly went towards...a book?

He crouched down, sitting on the floor near her as he looked at the book as Mia showed it to him. He'd smelled...smoke when he had come in here, which caused some concern. He'd...maybe he could help her...

Still. "Aaah, I can tell how much you love it just by looking at it!" Kaimu smiled, "If you can only read some of it would you like me to read it? If you want I can help you if you want to read it on your own."

She said she could read some of it, and if she wanted to learn how to read more of it on her own he'd be happy to help, but if she wanted him to that would be fun too. Whichever she wanted.

"Papa should read it!" Mia's eyes lit up and she held it out for him, trusting him with the most cherished possession. Kai-tanpapa would take care of it and so she scooted closer so he could set it on his lap and she could read along. "Run your finger over the characters... I can try to read along too!"

She hadn't had someone reading this to her in forever... It would be so exciting and fun! Plus she could try to follow along with him as long as he pointed out the words for her. Mia couldn't wait until she knew enough to do it on her own.

"Alright~! I'll do that!" He could do that easily, if she wanted to try to read along that would be fine, he would teach her whatever she needed to know.

That being said, he opened the book after Mia had handed it to him, settling it in his lap so she could see what and where he was reading from when he began, just as she'd asked he'd run his fingers over the characters so she could see.

If she needed help on learning a character, he'd explain.

Mia listened intently to the story, having not heard someone reading it to her in a long time and thus was trying to enjoy the moment as much as she could. She ended up asking about a few words, mostly the names since they were a bit harder to figure out but...

Still she followed surprisingly well despite her own words before. She knew way more than a five year old should, her bright violet eyes shining up at Kaimu for a bit before a knock came at the door. "Eufemia, your food is ready."

The steps that had been ignored coming, left a small patter as they went back down the hallway. The smell of rice and other things drifted through the closed door as Mia nodded to her papa. "Its dinner time!"

She stood up, moved to the door and pulled the tray in. She didn't eat downstairs...

Kaimu stopped when he heard a knock at the door, having been in the middle of reading still and teaching Mia whatever words she wanted to know, happy to see how enthusiastic she was about learning as much as she could.

Dinner time? She couldn't even go down to eat with them...?

It honestly irked him; this wasn't really so much of a place she could stay but more like a prison... They delivered a tray to her room and left... People like that honestly...pissed him off.

He masked his emotions though, not wanting Mia to question him and ask why he seemed upset. He wanted to be happy in front of Mia, so she could be happy...

Mia happily began eating despite the implications of the actions, obviously oblivious to such things for the moment. Delicious food! She smiled happily before looking over at Kaimu, blinking as she held out her rice bowl. "Here Papa, you can share with me. I'm sorry, I can ask for more for you too?"

They might not believe her imaginary friend existed but she could always feign hunger for him. "You can sleep on my futon too with me! I cuddle mama sometimes when she lets me stay... Well she doesn't anymore in case I burn her work down."

"Aa, I actually don't feel hungry so you can eat all of it! If you eat all of it you'll grow up into a strong, grown woman, Mia! You don't need to ask for more, it's alright."

He hadn't felt hungry or really...anything since he'd been here...

When she mentioned sleep, he gave a chuckle; "Alright, you can cuddle up to me then..."

That part about the fire though, and not being able to sleep with her mother because of such a precaution... Kaimu wanted to shake his head, but he didn't want Mia worrying over him.

"Mm! I'll eat it all papa!" Kai-tan wasn't hungry so she would just eat it all then! He was right, she needed to make sure she ate lots to grow up strong. Mia happily finished her dinner before picking up the tray and toddling to the door with it. She set it down, slid the door open and pushed out the little table before closing the door and moving back to Kaimu's side. By now the daylight was fading, but she had no lamp in here at all so she didn't have a choice...

"I should make my bed before it gets dark and I can't see... Thank you papa! I like cuddles." While it was still light out, she moved to make up her futon with a bit of effort, her little arms tugging at the heavy futon even for its size as she attempted to make her bed.

Kaimu smiled happily as Mia went to eat, glad she'd listened to him about eating it all. The food shouldn't be wasted on him when he wasn't even hungry. Mia needed it much more than he did.

He watched as she finished up, moving to slide the tray from the room just like she'd taken it in. He was still quite upset with her treatment here, but again...he couldn't let her see that.

Make her bed...that would probably be a good idea, it...didn't look like there were lamps in here so it'd be pitch black by the time night fell, which only irked him more honestly...leaving a child alone in complete darkness...there should at least be accessibility to one light...

Still, she had thanked him about the cuddling he smiled; "Welcome~ Ah, here I can help..."

Considering her size that futon was probably difficult for her to deal with on her own, he could at least help her make it up.

"Thank you Papa!" Mia's smile was really happy as she looked up at Kaimu, his help really welcome as she got the futon all set out and properly placed. Sitting on it, she patted the cushion for the floating man to sit by her again as she smiled more.

"Do you have other stories you can tell? Its too dark to read now, but I like stories! Normally I tell myself them before its time to sleep since I can't have a lamp in here. If I don't have a lamp it won't catch on fire!" She nodded with her smile not even a bit subdued at those words, just happy to have company for once instead of being alone...

"Welcome, Mia-tan~"

Once the futon was properly placed, he gave a small chuckle before seating himself next to her after she'd patted the cushion.

"Hmm...Stories; let's see..." Kaimu looked thoughtful for a moment, though he was distracted as Mia mentioned the reasoning for the lack of a lamp in here. Wouldn't catch on fire, huh?

...Stories though, he needed to think of stories.

He had many stories of his travels, and his own childhood, and such...but stories like the one he'd read her earlier...he was quite short in supply of them...

"Would you like to hear a real-life one? I'm afraid I'm unfamiliar with ones like we'd read earlier off of the top of my head... I can tell you about adventures I had when I was your age, though~ hearing about your papa may be a bit boring~" He replied, though his tone was lighthearted and silly at the end.

Mia watching Kaimu with extreme amounts of attention, eyes never leaving his face as he thought. His words caused her to nod enthusiastically though, wanting any types of stories! Even real ones! "Sure! I bet its not boring at all, I'll be happy to hear stories about Papa!"

A light laugh bubbled up at Mia's enthusiasm, happy she seemed interested in hearing any stories he had to share; "It seems there's high expectations of me then, hopefully I won't disappoint~"

Giving another chuckle, he thought for a moment...trying to think of what would be a good one to share first...

He would definitely not start any stories with "When I was your age." He knew that much...it would make him sound like some old man...

Which he was not.

"One year, my mother's birthday was coming up so I wanted to do something really nice for her...She usually always handled the food when I was little, so I decided to go out and try to catch a biiiig fish for us to eat, a real feast!

I'd never gone fishing before though, so I had no idea what I needed to do. I sat at the river for what felt like hours trying to pick out a the best fish, and my eyes finally landed on a really big one...I thought it'd be easy to catch, but instead of using a rod like most people did...I tried to sneak up on it and jump it.

The fish was almost as big as I was, when I tried to jump it it easily slipped out of my arms and jumped...It landed on my head, flopping around a few times before it finally fell back into the water and swam away.

I didn't give up though! I kept trying, I was out there until it was almost night, but after a lot of repeats of that, along with a few other mistakes I managed to catch one!

It wasn't the biggest, but it was enough...My mother had been worried I'd stayed out so long but...I'll never forget the smile on her face when I told her about what I'd been doing. After I got cleaned up she was able to have a really nice birthday dinner, and I'd helped! I was really happy, I'd made a lot of mistakes but I still managed to catch something that made her happy in the end...I don't think she ever forgot that day..."

Mia smiled and giggled at Kaimu's dramatizing. It seems papa was a silly man! "Papa won't disappoint me at all! I bet Papa's stories are good!"

Laughing at the image he conjured up with his words, her father getting hit in the face as kid was a silly picture and she couldn't help laughing so hard. She leaned against him, smiling and nodding as he spoke about how much his mother loved the gift and she stared up in adoration. "Aah that sounds nice! You did good Papa. You made your mama really happy and gave her a nice birthday! But you worried her in the first place, that wasn't nice. She was probably all sad she didn't get to spend the day with you..."

"Another story! Another!" Yawning, Mia rubbed her eyes in the dark and smiled. More stories would be good, she was getting tired and she liked stories...

"I did worry her...but I made it up to her, I spent the entire next day with her and we got to do anything she wanted!" They'd mostly just enjoyed their time at home, she'd played with him and allowed him to try to help fix their dinner along with her...it'd been a lot of fun.

He gave a small chuckle as Mia requested another, noting her yawn. Shew was getting sleepy, but another story couldn't hurt.

"Let's see..." Kaimu looked thoughtful again as he attempted to think of something else to tell her about; "One time, my little brother and I decided to go out to explore; we were both just a couple of kids so we thought it'd be fun to go out and see if we could find...things like treasure or something!

We ran around the nearby district and the areas around it. We even made a little secret base for ourselves near the river out of a bunch of big rocks we'd stacked." It hadn't had a ceiling but it'd been fun to make! "We went there almost every day, and eventually our mother got curious and actually followed us. When she found our base we were really proud of it, she laughed at how into our little game of explorers we were...and then she even helped us make a roof using a big plank of wood for our base!

We acted...really silly, but it was all fun; we found lots of things when we went out, not treasure, but cool little objects like really shiny rocks, marbles...aha...we even found a few animals that wanted to play with us!"

It certainly wasn't as eventful as his previous story, but it was full of fun and happy memories...

"When it was dark out, during festivals...the three of us would go out near there and watch the fireworks, since there weren't many lanterns around it was really pretty to see them! I remember one time I even said I wanted to be able to make things like fireworks since they were pretty and made people happy, but I was too little to realize how complicated making those things were so I had to settle on watching them. That was fine though, I got to enjoy them with my mom and brother..."

"That was good then." Mia nodded forcefully, glad her Papa had made it up to his mother, though it was stopped by a yawn as she leaned down and laid her head on his leg. A little hand came up and settled there too as she listened, nodding and smiling and laughing as he told this story.

"You made a fort base and found treasure? And played with animals...that sounds fun. Your mom helped you..." Mia's voice was trailing off and sleepy, smiling all the while. Hearing about the festivals made her giggle and she nodded against his leg. "So you don't make fireworks then? What do you do? I wanna watch fireworks by the river too... Can you take me one day?"

She was so tired, but she was going to stay up and ask questions as best she could! Papa was here and she wanted to learn about him. It didn't matter he wasn't her birth father, he was now her father...

Mia was getting more and more tired as the minutes passed, that much was becoming obvious as she rested her head on his leg; he had to resist smiling as her hand followed after to settle there. It was adorable~!

"Mhmm, we did." Kaimu nodded; "I don't make fireworks, but there's festivals all the time; I can see them whenever there is one. Right now, I'm an assistant in the Fourth Division for the Captain, I assist her whenever she needs me."

Out of instinct, his hand moved in attempted to pet Mia's head at her question; "Of course I'll take you one day, promise. It'll be fun."

"Hehe...I dunno fireworks are pretty to make... bein an assisant doesn't sound as fun..." Mia yawned more, snuggling sleepily up to the man in the dark as he petted her head. It felt really nice, she was very happy and content... Papa's promise sounded nice and she smiled one last time. "'Kay..."

The girl finally drifted off to sleep, the promise making her the happiest she had been in a while. A festival with a Papa...

"Getting to work directly for the Captain's a big job, but...I'm sure making fireworks would have been an interesting path to take."

Mia seemed to nod off soon after his words, and Kaimu quieted so she could get some proper rest. He still didn't feel tired, he wasn't hungry, thirsty...he didn't feel...any of the usual necessary needs within him right now...

It...probably had something to do with his predicament.

That...That could be figured out later, for now...He'd sit here and let Mia get a good night's rest.

As Mia slept, time passed. The moon shone through the window and the lights from outside of the room that shined under the door shifted and went out. Footsteps had been heard outside of it as the couple went to their room to sleep.

Hours would pass like this, the sleeping child not shifting one bit as she slept curled up to her father...

But then, as the darkest hour of the night drew in... it began.

She became restless and started shifting a bit in her sleep... and with a suddenness her body burst into bright purple flames and her eyes shot open. They saw nothing, blank and it was obvious she was still asleep as she pulled away... Already the bedding was catching on fire.

Kaimu remained as he had been for quite sometime, though he still didn't grow sleepy; his eyes moved to the window where the moon was showing through. From his position, he couldn't really see anything, but the moonlight was nice...

Eventually, the lights went out from under the door, and the room...other than the moonlight and some of the lights from outside, it was completely dark.

Really...making a kid sleep like this...

He tried not to think on his...more negative thoughts towards these people, as he could not really do anything about it...

Eventually, his attention was pulled back to Mia as she began to get restless. Was she...having a nightmare or something...

He held concern, shock mixing in as her body suddenly burst into bright purple flames.

What...Why now!?

"M-Mia!?" Immediately, without even thinking on whether or not he could be burned, he helplessly attempt to touch her shoulders to try to to snap her out of it but...

Seeing the bed, his hands attempted to pat out the fire, going between it and Mia but...

Nothing was working...she wasn't responding...she...

"Mia!"

The fire couldn't hurt Kaimu, but it was spreading and was obviously extremely hot. If it wasn't spiritual fire it might have been colored something closer to blue or white flames.

Slowly, as the flames and smoke started spreading along the floor and walls as if guided, Mia started to wake up and began coughing. As she did, sounds could be heard coming from the room nearby.

"But we kept the lantern out! It was supposed to be safe!"

"Grab the things and get out! I see flames!"

Her eyes were turning red from the smoke as the purple flames faded from her body, her small body coughing as she woke up fully. Fear shone in her eyes as well as shame... "P-Papa... I did it...again...I'm a bad girl..."

The tears streaming from her eyes could be from either sadness or the smoke, but she tried to stand at a wobble and make it to the door. The adults had obviously left her for... well dead. "We gotta get out papa..."

Kaimu heard the shouting of the other residents in the house, but they weren't what was important right now; what was important was snapping Mia out of this!

"Mia!"

The purple flames faded, but the building was still on fire and she needed to get out of here!

"You're not bad, you just can't control your abilities yet!" Kaimu quickly replied, "It's not your fault!"

She was scared, but why wouldn't she be at such a time?

He looked around, his eyes moving to the door as Mia wobbled her way over there; "Right, right we gotta get out..."

Getting Mia outside took priority!

She didn't...seem to accept what Kaimu was saying, how was it not her fault when she caused this?!

Mia slid the door open and hurried into the hallway, stopping to make sure Kaimu was following. Her papa...he couldn't burn up in her fires even as she coughed more and more. The smoke was getting to her tiny body quickly as the flames engulfed the room. "Papa hurry!"

She had to run but...but Papa... was lagging behind... She couldn't...leave him...