A black car pulled up to the orphanage, two very distressed young boys in the back seat. Their parents had recently passed away and with no next of kin to take care of them, this was their only option. The younger of the two brothers looked puffy around his nearly black irises, as though he'd recently been crying; this was further attested to by his slight sniffles and his older brother keeping a hand on his shoulder as though to comfort him. The two were walked in by a social worker, and told to speak their names to the woman working the registration counter.
"Seto," the older boy spoke, sounding like he wanted his voice to lose all trace of the trauma he and his brother had just endured. "And my brother's name is Mokuba." The registration worker nodded to him, getting the hint that the younger boy was clearly too upset to speak for himself.
"I'm very sorry for your loss, Seto and Mokuba," the woman spoke to them, warmth dripping from her voice. "Serenity," she called into the room behind her, and was quickly greeted by a pale-blond haired female with a bandage on her hand labeled "papercut". She couldn't have been more than six years old. "Would you mind showing Seto and Mokuba to the boys room? They look like they're due for some rest." The blond girl nodded and stepped around the counter, revealing an oversized sweater, a pair of shorts, and socks that went all the way up her legs.
"I'm Serenity," she greeted with a small smile. "You probably don't wanna talk to me today. We can be friends tomorrow instead. Follow me." She padded along in front of them, only in her stocking feet, and led the two brothers down the hall and to the right. "In here is where the boys sleep. The boys bathroom is the only other door in here, and the two beds by the wall with the window don't have anybody sleeping in them anymore. You can have those two." She smiled, closing her chocolate brown eyes for a moment. "I'll come get you guys when they say dinner's ready. And you should probably stay away from Lucas. He's really mean." Taking a moment, she pouted toward Seto. "He took my head band this morning. Anyway, see you guys at dinner."
It seemed that no matter how hard Seto scowled at this girl, her disposition never changed. He shook his head as she padded back off toward the "paper room" as the other children called it, and walked Mokuba inside and to the two unoccupied beds. "They might have something really good for dinner, Mokie," he spoke to his brother, trying to help him cheer up just the slightest bit. It didn't work. Instead, Mokuba just curled up on the bed that Serenity had noted to them and resumed grieving over his lost parents. With a sigh, Seto flopped onto his back on the neighboring bed, shutting his already steely blue eyes. Before he knew what hit him, Serenity had sneaked into the boys room and was poking at Seto. For whatever reason, Mokuba had joined Serenity in poking his brother awake – It almost seemed like some of that girl's good mood rubbed off on the younger boy.
"Big brother, they said dinner's ready," Mokuba chimed quietly, much to his brother's delight. He hadn't said a word all day.
"Let's go eat then," Seto replied, somewhat sleepily. With a yawn, he rubbed the nap from his eyes and stood up to follow Serenity and Mokuba to the dining area. Two seats were saved, side by side, at which the two brothers sat. After putting out plates, however, Serenity simply disappeared. The woman who had been working the registry earlier sat down at the head of the table.
"Everyone, we have two new additions to the house," she announced, the warmth still not having left her voice. "Seto and Mokuba, welcome to St. Lucia's." As she paused, the ten other children in the room chorused a semi-enthusiastic "Welcome". The woman smiled, nodding her approval at their greeting, and began the evening meal's prayer. Upon the word 'Amen' being spoken, every last child started grabbing food and passing dishes like it was a family Thanksgiving meal. It didn't take long for the two boys to catch on and join in, grateful to have something to eat after such a long, long day. Finally Mokuba's nearly black irises scanned the room, and then looked to his brother questioningly.
"Hey, why isn't that girl eating too? This food's really good," Mokuba asked his brother, very softly so he wouldn't be overheard. Seto, slightly confused, also took a quick peek around the room and concluded it with a slight shrug.
After the meal concluded, Serenity magically appeared again, smiling to Seto and Mokuba. It didn't look like she skipped dinner, due to the tiny speck of mustard that got onto her sleeve. "Hope you guys like Miss Margaret's cooking," she chimed, quite cheerfully. "I'm gonna go to bed early today. We should play together tomorrow. Good night Seto, good night Mokuba." With that, she skipped off, still stocking footed, to the girls bedroom. The day ended very similarly for Seto and Mokuba, the younger of the two brothers having decided that this strange girl was worth trying to be friends with, and he made sure that Seto knew that for sure. After all, who was he to tell his younger brother that he thought she was weird? After nearly a week of stress and one streak of bad news after another, she might have been the best thing for them to run into.
Even if she did run around laughing and only wearing socks on her feet.
/This is the new one I'm working on. It's been in progress since at least 2002-2003. Serenity is actually a character that I've had for several years (around ten years actually). This is going to stay in the child realm for at least two more chapters...I'm not planning on making this quite the short fanfic. I hope I can keep up on it.