Heirot

Rai tilted her head at Soran and sighed, slipping off Soran's lap and walking to the door to go outside. She figured Soran was busy thinking and too busy to talk to her. She opened up the door and walked towards the river. She sat down on the river bank with her head on her knees.

She felt very lonely. Soran was busy thinking, Mizuki was busy bathing, Thomas had run away, Siren was... somewhere.

She picked up a rock and through it into the water with a sigh.

Rai's movement brought Soran out of his thoughts. He turned and watched her leave the room, closing the door behind her. He rubbed behind his ear absently, knowing that the child seemed unhappy, though he really wasn't sure what to do about it. He knew how to protect Rai, but beyond that he sometimes felt he was distinctly clueless about how to interact with her. Children had never been his strong point, anyway. Mizuki was much better at these things, but she was enjoying her bath. He stood up, putting his fractured thoughts of his past and Mizuki aside for the time being, and prepared himself to try to be sensitive. He walked outside and defaulted his expression to something mildly friendly, or at least not as frigid as usual, and walked out to where Rai was sitting.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked quietly, taking a seat next to her.

Mizuki tried to scrub herself as quick as she could. True, she wanted to enjoy a relaxing, comfortable bath but... there was too much that had to be done. And there was a child to take care of. As soon as she felt clean and had finished with her hair, Mizuki got out of the tub, drained it, and wrapped herself in a bath towel and donned her previous clothes again. But this time, she braided her hair. She looked at herself in the tall mirror for a moment after dressing herself.

Since Blade's birth, her breasts had gotten larger, and her physic was now somewhat flawed from its original athletic body. Despite their various travels, the excess weight on her body troubled her. Having children did that to one's body? Stretching it out like that? She had never truely thought or looked at it before. After looking her her belly from lifting her shirt, seeing those stretch marks from birth... she didn't want to wear anything too revealing anymore. But she had before... is that what everyone saw?! Mizuki flushed and momentarily panicked over what everyone thought about her then. Even though everyone was too busy worrying about their past fights and battles to worry about something so trivial as Mizuki's physical changes.

Sighing, and laughing at herself, Mizuki put down her shirt hem and went out of the room and downstairs. Soran and Rai were gone, Mizuki wondered where they went and started searching the house for them. She spotted them out of the corner of her eye through a window. So that's where they were. SMiling softly, Mizuki went outside and sat on the porch watching them.

Rai looked at Soran for a moment and through another rock into the river. "Nothing," she said softly. Really she didn't know what was wrong with her. She dug down into the dirt and through a rock sideways at Soran, smirking slightly in her cute childish way. Then she dug another rock out and through it into the water.

"Hmm.... I don't know what I'm thinking... Guess I'm not thinking!"

Soran caught the rock Rai threw at him and studied it. "Would you like to be enrolled in school here?" he asked her.

"Oh could I?!" Rai squealed. "I want to go to school!" She whirled around to face Soran's side. "Oh pleaseohpleaseohpleaseohplease!!!!" She was jerking on his pants leg, like she was trying to get them to come off...

"I'll expect you to study. It's not just for making friends," Soran warned.

She nodded, though the concept of studying wasn't one she was familiar with. She would figure it out eventually. "Okay, will you help me?" she asked with a grin, her bright blue-gray eyes sparkling.

Soran found himself caught off guard by her excited eyes. He let the stern visage drop. "Yeah," he promised, his eyes warm for once. "I'll look into it, so focus on getting your strength up." He looked across the river and back at her again. "I never thanked you," he said more seriously. "For healing me. You could have been killed, and I don't want you to ever do something that dangerous again. But you saved my life. I'm glad you came after me." He touched his strong hand protectively against the back of her head.

"I missed you a whole bunch, daddy!" Rai cried out and flew at him with her arms around her neck. "I didn't want to loose you too! I love you."

Rai closed her eyes tightly as she hugged him, smiling happily.

Soran let her hug him. He didn't try to explain what was crossing his mind, that he had missed them as well, more than he could have previously imagined. He hadn't realized just how attached he was to Rai and Mizuki until he'd been faced with the certainty of never seeing them again. He rested his hand on her back lightly, hoping it could do the talking for him.

"I said, 'I want Soran'! Well I'm glad you're home! I missed tickling and poking and pinching you!" Rai giggled and held Soran's neck tightly, as if she were trying to squeeze the life out of him. "I was going to go get you myself, mmmhmmmm..."

Mizuki smiled to herself as she watched them. Standing up from her seat on the porch stairs, Mizuki went down and around to the lake, not wanting to disturb them. She checked on the bed sheets she had left drying on the new line that had been set up. They were nearly dry and there was still the faint tint of blood on them. It couldn't be helped, but seeing them made her cringe.

Mizuki wondered where Siren had went to and alo started to wonder if she was going to come back. She knew she could easily find out but... she didn't want to pry...

Soran reached up and detached Rai from his neck as efficiently as possible without hurting her. His instincts still kicked in when things wrapped around his neck, and chances were that they always would, even around people he trusted. He set her down on her feet next to him and messed up her hair. "Seems you've gotten some energy back," he observed teasingly, looking over his shoulder and noticing Mizuki hanging laundry next to the house. His pulse noticeably faltered as he spotted her, and he turned back to the river with a wry, somewhat shocked grin. Jeez, he really had fallen for her. One by one, the myths about love he'd discounted as poetic garbage were turning out to be true. It really was just like it skipped a beat. He rubbed the hair out of his eyes and stood up. "Back to the house?" he offered, ready to carry her if she wanted to go back with him.

Rai giggled and cuddled up next to Soran as he carried her. She yawned slightly and smiled up at Soran. She really loved him with all her heart. He was her father.