Uran and the Little People

Introduction:
I recently discovered the Anime "The secret world of Arrietty" and really enjoyed it. Then in my mind I wondered how Uran and Astro might interact with the borrowers. (Especially Uran!) For this head cannon, I'm envisioning the "cute widdow Astro" version of our robot hero which is more like the version of him in the 2003 series and the 1980 series, with a bit of the Akira Himekawa Doujinshis thrown in. This story takes place about two years after the Arrietty Anime.

Chapter One: The house in the country

The automobile bounced along the winding country roadway. They had been driving for a few hours now, having left the Metro City megalopolis far behind them.

"Are we there yet?" Uran asked for about the 100th time.

"Almost there." Dr. O'Shay patiently replied.

"Why do we have to go to the country?" Uran asked. "I bet there are no robots out here at all!"

"I think the peace and quiet will do all of us a lot of good." O'Shay answered. "The two of you have never seen nature in its normal state. It's time that you got out of the city and saw how beautiful the world really is."

"I can't wait!" Astro cooed.

"Well what do you know, here we are!" Dr. O'Shay said as he took the upcoming cutoff on the two lane blacktop and turned onto a narrow road leading up to a hidden driveway.

Dr. O'Shay parked the car in the driveway in front of the small house. They were deep in the country side, far away from the noise and hurry of the city. Uran stepped from the car slowly, looking around. She had never been far from Metro City, and the unpaved surface beneath her feet felt alien to her. The soft damp smell in the air was also new to her olfactory receptors, the tweeting of the birds and the chirping of crickets tickled her ears. Astro followed his sister, also taking in the different environment. The ground crunched under his red boots as he walked. Dr. O'Shay could see that the two androids were experiencing something new, neither of them had been far from Metro City, and this outing would be an opportunity for them to have some new sensations.

Dr. O'Shay had arranged for the trip several weeks earlier. Yuki's detective uncle Wally had a client who was a real estate agent. The agent had a listing for a place in the country that had just gone on the market, and the owners were willing to rent out the furnished property during the summer until a buyer could be found. The house was a two story wooden structure with a tile roof. It had three bedrooms on the top floor, and an attic above them that was crammed with old treasures left behind by the former residents. The ground floor housed a fully equipped kitchen and a huge pantry. A comfortable dining and living room took up the remainder of the lower floor. Below that was a basement, parts of which had a low ceiling. The basement was mostly used for storage, but it also had a finished area that could be used as an extra bedroom, or for entertaining young guests. An old player piano stood against one wall, and a dartboard hung from another.

There was a large garden in the front of the house, with a covered well with a real crank up bucket for drawing water. In back of the house was a large yard, a small swimming pool, a duck pond, and two swings hanging from a wooden A-Frame. In the far back of the yard, there was a small wooden shed where the gardening tools were stored. Hidden in the canopy of a sturdy oak, was a kid's size tree house. A rustic path trailed away into the woods, and went down hill to a stream where fish were know to jump. All in all, the place was a wonderful retreat for city dwellers looking for some peace and quiet.

O'Shay worked the key in the lock. The old door acted as if it hadn't been opened for some time and the latching mechanism was a bit rusty. It was an old fashioned type of lock, that took a large flag style key that fit into the lock with a lot of play. After wiggling the key around in the lock he finally got the latch to release and the door creaked open on its rusty hinges.
"Good thing I've brought some oil with me." He laughed. "I wonder what kind of repairs we'll have to make?"

While Dr. O'Shay and Uran had walked toward the house, Astro had grabbed the suitcases from the trunk of the car and was now right behind his guardian. He looked like a Himalayan Sherpa, overloaded with the gear of the climbers who had hired him. Despite his small statue, which was now buried somewhere in the middle of the large pile of luggage, Astro easily carried the burden into the house. He set the pile of suitcases and bags neatly down in the middle of the living room.

Uran, on the other hand, dawdled behind, stopping often to smell a flower or observe an insect crawling on a leaf. She was especially fascinated by the sight of a woolly caterpillar slowly crawling up the trunk of a small sapling. Suddenly the rustle of movement under a hedge caught her eye. She quickly reached in, parting the leaves low to the ground with her hands to see what was inside. Uran rubbed her eyes, thinking that they had deceived her, for she had caught a fleeting glance of a small female figure running for cover into the tall grass in front of the house, just to the right of the path leading up to the front door.

"Come on Uran, we have to unpack!" Astro yelled through the front door.

"Coming Astro-Ani!" Uran yelled back as she broke into a run along the flagstone walkway leading from the driveway to the front porch. She took a final glance over her shoulder to look for the small being she swore she had seen running away from her, but now detected nothing.

Uran bounded up the wooden steps leading from the flagstones to the porch that spanned the entire front of the house. She stopped briefly to notice the swinging bench seat next to the picture windows that looked out into the garden.

"Uran!" Astro called out again.

"Alright!" she yelled back as she entered the house.

The inside of the house was dark as the window shades and blinds had been left down. Astro and O'Shay were already adjusting these to let sunlight into the house. Uran was feeling along the walls for a light switch, but didn't find any. O'Shay saw what she was doing and laughed.

"This old house doesn't have any built in electric lighting." he explained. "There are some floor lamps that might work, but you have to reach up to turn them on. I checked with the power company before we left, they said they would get around to restoring the power out here but they may not have got to it yet."

That brought a sour look onto Uran's face. O'Shay walked over to one of the floor lamps and reached up under the shade to find the pull chain for the light. The lamp came on for a second giving out a flash of light as the light bulb burned out.
"I guess I should have added light bulbs to the list of items to pack" he sighed. "Maybe there are some spares in the basement."

Astro picked up four of the suitcases and slowly made his way up the stairs. He had taken both his and O'Shay's leaving Uran's two bits of luggage on the floor for his sister to carry up herself. Uran took the hint and grabbed her two bags and followed her brother on the staircase. Just before her right foot touched the first step she caught a glint of light out of the corner of her eye. It seemed to come from a small hole in the baseboard next to the fireplace. She shook her head and mounted the stairs.

Up on the second floor landing, Dr. O'Shay had already opened the doors to the three bedrooms. He had claimed the master suit for himself, it had a large walk in closet and a full bathroom. The other two bedrooms were on the other side of the second floor. They shared a small water closet between them, and each had a smaller, but quite adequate closet. The two smaller bedrooms were actually mirror image twins of each other. Both had a large window over looking the back yard, with a clear view of the stream about a quarter of a mile away. Each had a large, nearly Queen sized bed, with an overstuffed mattress and equally comfortable comforter and plump pillows. On the side of the beds were night stands with working table lamps.

Dr. O'Shay found his larger suitcase on the bed where Astro had carefully deposited it. The smaller case was on top of a small chest of drawers at the foot of the bed. He opened his luggage and began to unpack, putting his shirts, socks and underwear into the drawers. He hung his trousers in the closet, which had been well stocked with hangars.

Uran dropped her suitcases onto the floor and unpacked by tossing the contents onto the bed. She then opened the drawers off her dresser, and tossed the contents from the bed into them. Despite the crudeness of her methods, the garments remained as well folded and neatly pressed as they had been when first packed.

Astro carefully removed each of his shirts and short pants from the suitcase and neatly placed them in the dresser drawers. He hadn't brought as large a wardrobe as his sister, and it took him only a few minutes to quickly empty the suitcase. His other suitcase contained some toys and a few stuffed animals that he slept with.

Having unpacked his suitcases, Dr. O'Shay returned to the car to remove the last of the trunk's contents, several large bags of groceries and other supplies. These he brought into the dining room, emptying the contents of the bags onto the large table. O'Shay started to carry the various items into the kitchen, to stock the pantry. Uran skipped down the stairs two steps at a time, and found her way into the dining room. She picked up a large jar of chocolate covered raisins that Dr. O'Shay had brought for her and turned the jar over and over in front of her eyes, counting. 512 she announced, putting the jar down and picking up another one containing jellybeans that Astro favored, repeating the exercise, 333 she said.

"Are you doing that again?" Astro asked.

"I like counting things." Uran replied. "Now I can keep track in case any go missing!"

"Who is going to steal our candies out here?" Astro laughed.

"You never know!" Uran laughed. "Maybe the little people."

Astro gave Uran a funny look, and shrugged his shoulders.

Dr, O'Shay finished putting the canned goods into the pantry and looked at his list.
"We still need some supplies from the general store." He said. "It's about a ten minute drive into town from here, let's get back in the car and do some shopping so we can finish stocking the pantry. Then I'll cook us some dinner."

"I'm going to help!" Uran yelled out. "You can't cook without me!"

"OK." O'Shay agreed.

The three of them left the house and headed for the car. They drove off, heading in the same direction as which they had come, toward the small country town to shop for the food items needed.

Arrietty had watched the new arrivals since the small automobile had first pulled up. She had been exploring in the garden, looking for some seeds when the smallest of the 'beans had nearly spotted her. While the 'beans had been moving into the house, she had watched them from several of the secret places behind the walls, trying to learn more about them. After they left the house, and the car had pulled out, she walked into the living room of the Borrower's small dwelling under the floorboards of the house. Her father and mother were there relaxing.

"You've been watching the new 'beans, haven't you?" Her father, Pod asked.

"Yes, I have." she said. "Now that there are humans in the house, maybe we won't have to move out? I mean, they will bring in stuff that we can use. Things were starting to get scarce, like you said."

"Maybe." Pod replied. "We'll have to see how dangerous these new 'beans are. The older one doesn't look very observant, he'll probably never cause us any issues. The smallest one nearly saw you out in the garden. There's something about her, and the slightly larger one that is probably her brother, that I can't place. We'll have to keep an eye on them before deciding if it will be safe to borrow anything while they are living here."

Arrietty's mother, Homily, was a bit more observant. "I don't think the two smaller ones are 'beans at all." She said. "I used to live in the city before I met your father. They had servants that looked like humans, but were really machines. I think those two little ones look a bit like those robots."

"Is that good or bad, dear" Pod asked.

"Depends." Homily replied. "Robots can sometimes keep secrets from their human masters. I've heard of borrower's befriending robots before, right under the 'beans noses." Across the room, an infant started to cry in his cradle. Homily picked up the little boy and held him against her to nurse him. Arrietty smiled at her younger brother, Shawn, who had been named after the boy 'bean that had befriended her two years ago.

Spiller walked into the dwelling through the back entrance carrying a sack of acorns. Spiller looked like a native American, dressed in simple clothing, and wearing makeup paint on his face. His vocabulary had been limited before meeting up with Arrietty's family, now he was a bit more talkative. They had moved here from another house about two years ago, before the baby had been born, when Arriety was 15 years old. Now there were five of them living under the same roof.

Spiller smiled when he saw Arrietty. He'd been courting her for about six months now, but Arrietty wasn't yet sure how she felt about him. Her parents were hopeful, since there weren't too many borrowers left in the world. They had long hoped she'd find someone to fall in love with, and Spiller wasn't a bad person.