Man, I think Due's cuteness is starting to get to me. I'm actually really liking her like this.
A couple months later...
Due looked at Schach as the older woman slipped a bracelet on her wrist. "What's this for?" she asked curiously as Schach put some gloves on Due's hands.
"Well, you're finally healthy enough to go play outside." Schach smiled softly as Due let out a yell of happiness. "But outside is a bit too big, if something happens, or it suddenly storms, the bracelet will let us find you fast."
"Also you wanna make sure that I won't run off, huh?" Due gave her a flat look as Schach finished fixing up her coat.
Schach stared at Due, who looked back at her seriously. "...You're rather sharp when you aren't being silly."
"I *was* an assassin who lived at this church for awhile, remember?" Due deadpanned at Schach. "It's hard to be serious when I have the attention span of a hummingbird on a sugar high." She groaned and rubbed her head. "My head feels like someone put my brain in a blender and hit puree... Maybe I should try that sometime?"
"Huh?" Schach looked at Due, who was thinking seriously.
"Yeah! Make some fake brains and put in the blender, see what happens!" Due giggled as she mentioned something about red food coloring to make it more realistic and Schach let out a sigh, at least that wasn't too bad. There were plenty of students in the school who liked doing stuff like that. Making things get messy was fun apparently.
"Sein! Otto! Deed!" Due grinned and slipped away from Schach, waving at them. "You three going to work again today?"
Deed shook her head and smiled. "Nope. We were putting in extra work these last few days so we could all go and play with you today."
"Really?" Due's eyes sparkled in happiness as Otto nodded at her.
"Yep." Deed's twin sister knelt down and smiled softly. "We all wanted to be there when you finally got to go back outside."
"Yay!" Due threw her hands up in the air and hugged Otto.
After Due let go, Otto chuckled as she, Sein and Deed walked with their sister to the front door. Even though it had been two months, it was still weird seeing Due as a child, not that Otto nor Deed had known her in her real form, but the fact that she was a child cyborg was the weirdest part.
Well, that and the fact that there was a cyborg smaller than Cinque.
"Cinque! Zaffy!" Due grinned as she saw the two by the front door. "Hi!"
Cinque smiled at her, before kneeling down. "Due, close your eyes for a moment, okay?"
Blinking, Due did just that before she felt something warm and fuzzy wrap around her neck. "Cinque?"
"Okay, open your eyes now." She did and saw Cinque smiling at her but holding onto...
"...My scarf?" She stared at it dumbly as she gripped it tightly. "How? It went boom!" She threw her hands up. "Everything went boom, my hearing stopped for awhile, was so loud, did you know explosions hurt when you're only four feet from them? All movies lie! They're loud, they throw you down and then you get all cut up from all the stuff thrown around by them! It's not fair! They shouldn't be that loud and..."
"Due!" Cinque grabbed her shoulders to keep from going into another tirade and freaking everyone out again. "Calm down... Zafira came across a piece of your scarf and we had Hayate-san knit you a new one."
"You did?" Due asked, her eyes misting up as Cinque nodded. "Thank you." She hugged Cinque, before letting go and glomping Zafira. "You're my favorite puppy!"
Zafira rolled his eyes. "We should go outside. Nove and Wendi might start doing something crazy if we take too long."
"Huh?" Due blinked. "Nove and Wendi?" She hadn't seen much of her sisters, other than Cinque, who visited every other day, Sein, Otto and Deed, the latter three had been mostly absent for the past few days, since she had gotten at the Saint Church. "...Who are they again?"
"You never met them." Cinque smiled softly. "Don't worry about it, you'll like them, I promise."
Due looked at her, before nodding and grinning. "kay!"
(-)
"I'm glad she can finally go outside." Carim smiled as she and Hayate looked out the window while drinking some hot cocoa. They normally drank tea, but considering how chilly it was, they didn't think it was appropriate for some reason.
"Been a problem?" Hayate was slightly concerned as Carim nodded slightly.
"She hates being alone and gets bored easily." Carim wasn't sure just why Due hated being alone like she did. "She hates waking up alone even." She chuckled softly as Hayate looked at her confused. "One morning, she woke up alone because Sein overslept and when we came to get her for breakfast, she was in tears before grabbing Sein for dear life, saying she thought that she was abandoned."
Hayate winced, she could see why. "Abandonment issues?"
"Considering that she died on a mission and alone, it's understandable why she wouldn't want to be alone."
"She didn't search any of her family out though, did she say why?"
Carim shook her head. "No." She had some suspicions, considering that Due didn't seem to trust anyone but Sein, Otto, Deed or Cinque. Even though she liked Zafira, she kept trying to get away from him when one of her sisters weren't around.
"I see..." Hayate shook her head. "What else can you say about her?"
"Despite her personality and her difficulty sitting still and focusing on anything, she's incredibly intelligent. We gave her some placement tests for school, but she aced each one, except for the ones for the final senior year for civilians." Carim thought about it for a moment. "When we could get her to sit still and calm down at least."
"So, she has all her previous intelligence then?"
Carim nodded and leaned back. "The best way I can explain her now is that she has her memories, intelligence and experiences all mashed together with the personality, innocence and insanity of a child who's been sick, suffering from more than just a couple mental diseases combined with the attention span of a hyperactive kid on a sugar rush makes for a very unusual person. To be honest, I'm sure that she knows she shouldn't be behaving the way she does, but..."
"But?" Hayate blinked as Carim shook her head.
"She complains about splitting headaches when she stays calm for too long."
"...So it's a coping mechanism?"
"Probably the only one she has." Carim sighed. "When my brother gets back in a couple weeks, I'll see if he can do something to help her cope with it."
Hayate smiled, she missed Verossa, the guy was rather fun to talk to. "It'll be nice to see him again."
Carim nodded and looked outside, giggling softly as Due tried to throw snow at Zafira, who was sitting down, before he suddenly shot up and took off, causing her to fall on the bank in surprise. Hayate joined in her laughter as Wendi pelted her with snow. "That looks fun." Hayate giggled more as Due got onto Zafira's back and the two took off after Wendi and Nove, who were dodging the two as Zafira's running kicked up a lot of snow.
Even so, Carim watched and worried slightly. They had only just began to give Due vaccinations, mostly because they didn't want to over-tax her body while she had been taking antibiotics.
"Carim?" Hayate blinked at her. "What's wrong?"
The blond nodded her head at Due, who was laughing as she made a snow angel. "You know how she often times goes off on tangents and seems to be in a world of her own, right?"
"Yeah..?" Hayate blinked as Carim sighed. "What about it?"
"In her more... Lucid moments she's asked about Jail and her other sisters and wonders what happened to them."
"Have you told her?"
Carim shook her head. "No... I... I didn't think it was a good idea to tell her, not yet."
"You'll have to tell her, sooner or later..." Hayate sighed and Carim nodded.
"I know." The two looked back outside and smiled softly as Due, Nove and Otto were making a snowman while Deed, Cinque and Wendi built some sort of snow fort.
"I hope you're taking pictures of this." Hayate giggled as Carim winked at her.
"Schach's got the camera."
After all, this was too cute to not record.