Reunion
It was a rather sunny afternoon in the shadow of the old gallery, small groups of people would come and go every now and again as the exhibits weren't quite as popular as they had been a year ago. One year... It had been one year. The man who stood at the building's gate, refusing to take another step closer towards it, let out a sigh; to him, the past events that had happened at the gallery felt like a dream. However, he knew that not to be true as he pulled out a laced handkerchief from the pocket of his tattered coat. No, this was all the proof that he needed to know that it hadn't been a dream; the man finally forced himself to look away from the gallery for a split second in order to glance down the sidewalk. He was beginning to worry that she had forgotten, or decided to just not show up, but that wasn't quite like her so the man kept his slither of hope that she would be their soon. He looked back towards the gallery as if it would come to life and swallow him up if he didn't keep a very close eye on it; just standing there was enough to make him feel incredibly uneasy.
"Garry!" A familiar voice suddenly shouted as a small body slammed into his back and a pair of arms wrapped around his waist; this caused the man to let out a surprised scream. Which in turn, ended up making the young girl that had hugged him, let out a small bit of laughter as she stopped the surprise hug. Garry quickly whirled around, coming face to face with the small girl; her crimson eyes shining with enormous amounts of joy.
"Oh dear, Ib, I apologize for that; you've just really startled me." Garry said with an embarrassed smile, that soon vanished and became joyful as well. The two hadn't seen much of each other since that fateful day in the gallery, roughly about a year ago and they had missed each other terribly. It's not that they hadn't wanted to reunite sooner, but oddly enough it just proved to be incredibly difficult for Garry to get in touch with a nine-year-old and not look like a creep. Luckily, it was as if fate wanted them together, just like their time in the gallery; completely by chance, they had run into each other and decided to set up a time and place for them to meet and catch up. With his smile still in place, Garry opened up his arms to allow Ib to run into them for a more proper hug. "Ib, did you get taller since the last time I've seen you?"
"Yea, I did!" Ib said as she bounced back a few steps in her sudden excitement; she held up both of her hands as if to show off each of her fingers with pride. "I turned ten last week!"
"My, I didn't know that, I'm sorry that I didn't get you anything." Garry said with a frown, feeling relatively bad about having missed his little friend's tenth birthday; he would have loved to have been there.
"Don't worry about it." Ib said with a happy smile as if to show him that it really didn't bother her. "Spending the day with you can be my present!" Garry couldn't help it as he smiled again; Ib was definitely much more joyous and just plain happy than she was in the time that they had spent together in the Fabricated World. With that in mind, Garry was extremely happy that he had been able to get her out of there; if he hadn't, he probably never would have been able to see this side of her. However, as they stood there for a few moments longer, the old Ib appeared to resurface as she turned her worried crimson gaze towards the old gallery; there was mistrust shining brightly in her eyes.
Garry saw this and it caused a look of concern to flash onto his face, perhaps it would be best if they took their little reunion party else where. The purple-haired man held out his hand for the young girl, as if to ask for her permission to hold her hand; he would always do that, even in the gallery, as the last thing that Garry wanted was to make Ib feel uncomfortable.
"Would you like to go somewhere else, Ib?" Garry asked her, bringing the young girl's attention towards his out-stretched hand. Ib looked up at her friend as if she had almost forgotten that he were there, but then the uncertainty on her face vanished and she clasped a hold of his hand.
"Sure, where are we going to go?" Ib excitedly asked as Garry finally lead her away from that dreadful museum.
"I'm keeping my promise to you, of course." Garry said with a light laugh, the two walking along in order to put distance between themselves and the museum. At his words, Ib gave Garry a slightly confused expression, which caused him to give her a playful frown.
"Don't tell me that you've forgotten about it." He said with a sigh that caused Ib to look away, her little mind frantically racking her brain in an attempt to remember. Soon enough, though, they came to a small little local café and it was then that Ib's memory quickly came back to her; this caused her to looked up at Garry with excitement in her eyes.
"Oh, I know, we're getting those hamburger candies, right?!" She asked hopefully, nearly bouncing up and down as she did so. Garry was very glad that it had come back to her, though it also made him a tad sad that she could remember events from the Fabricated World so easily.
"They're called Macaroons, remember?" Garry said, though not really expecting an answer from his young friend. He was attempting to push away his worried so he wouldn't put a damper on their day that Ib was so looking forward to. "Anyway, yes, we are finally going to get those Macaroons together, Ib!"
The pair sat at a small table in the middle of the small, nearly empty, building with a plate full of the colourful little treats between them. Garry watched as Ib scarfed down one after the other, which caused him to feel very glad that she ended up liking them just as much as he did. However, he did feel slightly worried that the young girl would end up getting sick if she kept eating them at the pace that she was going.
"Slow down there, please." Garry said as he took a bite of a pink Macaroon, while then adding on in a joking tone. "They aren't going to go anywhere, Ib."
"S-Sorry Garry." Ib said, her little face flushing a bright red that nearly matched her eyes; it took Garry by surprise, but it soon vanished all-together. "Mom and dad usually just say I'm a growing girl, whatever that means... But I'll slow down for you, Garry, that way we can spend even more time together!" She said with a small smile as she took a much smaller bite out of her lime-green Macaroon. Garry simply gave a curt nod as he leaned his head into his hands, keeping a watchful eye over his little companion; they may have been in a café, but they both had to admit that sometimes their minds were still in the gallery. Even know, Garry felt the strong urge to protect and watch over Ib even though there were no obvious dangers lurking around. He quickly shook it head clear of the thoughts and flashed another smile.
"You know that your parents are right though." Garry said, which got a look of surprise from Ib. "You're growing, my, I think you'll be as tall as me one day." Ib pouted out her lip at Garry's teasing tone; she knew that there was no way she'd ever be as tall as Garry.
"Whatever." She said, with the pout still upon her face, which Garry found to be super adorable. With that being said, Ib reached out to grab a hold of another Macaroon, but she had suddenly stopped short and looked awhile while dropping her hand into her lap. It took Garry by surprise as the young girl brought back up the facade that she used to hide her emotions.
"I'm done." She said quietly, looking away so the man would not see her face. A frown grew on Garry's face as he wondered what was wrong with the young girl; he then looked down towards the Macaroon that she had reached for. The sight of it made Garry pause as well and then he understood why Ib hadn't suddenly shut down; the little sweet was the brightest of yellows. Garry let out a sigh as the Macaroon had sudden reminded him of her; so that must have been what was bothering Ib. Garry looked back up at his little companion, whose brunette-hair was now covering her face, and he pondering about what to do to cheer her up a bit. Suddenly a little light went off in his head and he gave off another smile.
"Hey, Ib, do you have a phone at home?" Garry asked, which luckily, did manage to get Ib to look up at him from underneath her bangs.
"Y-Yea, why?" She asked as she was unsure of what Garry was getting at.
"Well, I was thinking of giving you my number so we can keep in touch better." He said, leaning forward in his hands once again. "Of course, only if you want to." This seemed to bring the light back into Ib's eyes as she excitedly perked up.
"So I could talk to you every day?!" Ib asked, to which Garry gave a sure nod; this brought back Ib's smile, which Garry loved to see upon her face rather than not.
"Sure." Garry said, pulling out a pen from his tattered coat so he could scribble it down on the nearest napkin. "I'll write it down and then we'll leave; is there anywhere else that you want to go today?" Garry just simply wanted to get her as far away from that yellow-coloured Macaroon as fast as possible. Ib looked as if she began to ponder over what she wanted to do with her best friend next; the possibilities were endless in her ten-year-old mind.
"I want to go to the park." She said once Garry had finished writing his number. The man looked back up from the napkin and nodded.
"As you wish, Ib." Garry said as he stood and handed her the napkin, before he forgot to; the young girl quickly grasped it as if she were entirely determined not to lose it. Ib quickly rushed towards the café door, while Garry pocketed the yellow Macaroon; for some reason, it didn't quite feel right for him to just leave it there. He would probably eat it later on when Ib's sights were no longer on him, so would not have to be reminded again.
"Come on, Garry!" Ib said excitedly, hopping up and down on one foot again. Garry quickly did as his little companion said, which resulted in her nearly attacking his hand as she grabbed a hold of it once more. The duo then went on their way, hand in hand; Garry had to admit, even though the museum-incident was one of the worst occurrences in his life, he was actually glad that it had happened. If it hadn't, then he and Ib would have never met and they never would have had this little joyous reunion.
