Heirot

"I really did run into him, it hurt," she said and giggled.

Sid peered through the others' legs, again pondering the last name. And a rogue, to boot. On top of that, he seemed to immediately command the attention of everyone there without saying a word to them. Well for a coincidence like that, he decided he'd at least stand up and take a look at the guy. When he got to his feet, he was plenty tall to make him out, but Soran's back was facing him. He just saw a slim form in a black coat, with longish brown-black hair. Playing idly with his own short stub of a blonde ponytail, he shrugged and walked over to where the 'village rogue' and the girl he met before were talking. "Hey there," he greeted as he came up behind Soran, giving Mizuki a friendly wave.

Mizuki looked over at the man and waved back a little excitedly. "Here he is, the man who reminds me of you!" she laughed and moved to let Soran turn around more easily.

Rai looked behind her, "Oh, its you!" Rai said happily and waved at him from her perch. "Daddy! This is him!"

Soran turned over his shoulder, still half smiling. When his eyes met Sid's, he looked confused and unsettled, as if someone had just whispered in his ear and he couldn't tell who. The person in front of him was familiar - no, he knew him, but the acquaintance was so incredibly far out of the current context that he had no idea why he knew him.

The face finally registered, however, when Sid's eyes widened in a mixture of recognition, stunned confusion, and alarm, as if he'd suddenly been confronted by a dead relative. He rather had.

Soran's expression looked conflicted at best, like it was desperately throwing up a wall of cement and indifference while floods of shock and a dozen other emotions perpetually flooded it down. There was no name for that look.

Sid's expression began recovering before Soran's did. He plastered a casual smirk onto his face, though there was a lot of tension behind it, and began nodding in slow understanding. "Well I'll be damned....and here I thought someone had gone stealing your image," he elbowed with his voice.

Mizuki blinked. She was confused. Did they know each other? She couldn't recall most of Soran's memories that had flooded into her mind that day, she never even tried either. She touched Soran's arm lightly and just kept watch. If anything happened, she'd help Soran and protect him...

Sid glanced from Soran's face to the cheerful little girl on his shoulder, to his face and to the girl again, distraced by the child's apparent incongruity to the face that looked, in most ways, exactly as he remembered it.

Soran noted Sid's confusion over Rai, and made no move to resolve it, letting the girl stay where she was. Sid, for his part, looked a good bit older than he had before, and his hairstyle had changed, but the light in his eyes and the smile he'd worn a second ago were exactly the same.

"Sid," he said tightly, his voice not knowing what to do with itself any more than his face did. "What are you doing here?" The memory of Sid's betrayal, and of his spying for Rone, struck back into his mind like a splinter, and his expression finally hardened into stern anger. He was very conscious of the lack of the familiar metallic weight on his wrists.

"I don't know. Perhaps you should invite me to your lovely home and find out," Sid said charmingly, indicating the mass of spectators.

"Soran," Mizuki grabbed his hand gently, sensing the rising anger in him and trying to call him back to their family event.

Soran tried to stay calm. The whole school was watching them now. This day was important to Rai. No...it was also important to him. But how could he move forward with the past suddenly staring him in the face? "Have you still not learned to find your own lodging?" he pressed the words out darkly.

"Have you taught yourself to sleep alone without having bad dreams?" Sid teased back, and frowned. The words had come out more cruelly than he'd meant them to. Or maybe it was just the look on Soran's face after he said it.

Mizuki frowned then stepped in front of Soran, trying to be calm and not draw too much attention to them.

"I don't understand right now," she started saying to both men in the softest voice she could managed that still held some authority. "but right now we have something to do, wait until later to solve your problems." she looked pointedly at Sid, something clicking in the back of her memory.

"AHem!" the schoolmaster's voice mercifully interrupted the moment. "We're now preparing our barbecue out back. The butcher has donated a whole bushel of sausages for us to eat, and there's apple bobbing for the children. Sir, you're welcome to join us. We'll need a few people to help cook. Anyone? ... Soran, yes. Oh! You mean you wanted to cook, heh, of course. Thank you. Everyone can head over there now."

Soran lowered his hand, wondering why he'd raised it. He had to get away from Sid. He had to think. His head felt like it was going to burst. He squeezed Mizuki's hand and cast her a brief, traumatized glance lined with a silent apology before leaving Rai with her and striding quickly away to where the grills were being fired up.

Sid watched him go, his false casual demeanor wilting immediately. "Oh God," he murmured to himself as he stood next to Mizuki, looking ready to scream or cry.

Mizuki watched Soran go, holding Rai's hand as she now stood next to her. What did they do now? And who was Sid? A new old 'friend'? Gods, Mizuki didn't want to fight anymore.

"Are you friend or foe?" she asked Sid abruptly.

Sid turned his head to her, realizing he was still in public. "More like family, perhaps. Sometimes family can be both," he tried to laugh. When she didn't seem to laugh either, he shook his head with a tight smile. "No, right now I'm more like a foe. Not one Rhen would be willing to hit, but probably not one he could forgive, either." He looked at her quickly as it occurred to him that she might not know him by that name.

Mizuki nodded, catching the Rhen name but not responding to it. She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair, now she couldn't wait for this day to be over with.

"I'd suggest keeping your distance then," she advised Sid then excused herself from him to take Rai over to the barbaqcue.

Rai looked at them and then at Soran. "I'm confused," she said with her eyes narrowed. "What's going on? What's wrong? Can't we all be happy!"