A/N:Wowee chapter ten :D! This went so fast! I can't believe it. I'm pretty sure AFS is going to be much longer than Child's Play… I haven't even hit my big climax stuff yet… and Hina hasn't… shhhh. I'll stop now :) Hopefully that left you good and glued to my words. REVIEW!
Anonymous reviews:
Whitespine: Yippee… you're my first anonymous reviewer for AFS. Thank you, I'm honoured ;). And thanks for critique, I totally agree. I do love that critique!
--LA
What a pretty little list I have! I own Hina, Felix, Gabrielle, Grace, and Leah. You can have everyone else, but I suggest you mind SEGA finding you… their radioactive attack dogs have some sharp-ass teeth. I learned that the hard way.
"Ready?" Tails asked, a clipboard in one hand and a pen in the other. Hina's blue eyes uncertainly scanned the table before her holding a series of obscure objects, mostly in bright, primary colours, of whose use she had not yet been enlightened. She hesitated slightly, but smiled and nodded her head. From what she had gathered through Tails' concentrated murmurs while setting them up, these were a series of experiments. What part she, Hina, had in them was still a mystery to her.
"Awesome." Tails said, placing his clipboard and pen onto the table and pulling over a piece of pale blue stationary and a fuzzy pencil. Hina giggled and stroked the soft side of the writing utensil, but sobered up as soon as she noticed the passionate, fiercely concentrated, though not unkind look in the Fox's usually soft expression.
"What do I do?" She asked him, trying to seem as mature as she could though she eyed things before her with obvious apprehension. Tails smiled at her reassuringly.
"Don't worry." He said pleasantly, clearly in his element "It's easy."
Hina smiled and nodded again, setting her eyes onto her to-be-assigned task.
"I want you to take the pencil," He told her simply, "and answer the questions on the sheet of paper."
Hina furrowed her tiny brow and pulled the paper towards her. The page contained big, bold script which made no sense to Hina. She squinted at it, but it made no difference. The symbols, which she assumed were letters of the alphabet, appeared as only meaningless characters with amusing shapes.
"I can't." She whispered, her eyes dropping to her shoes to avoid the disappointed look Tails would certainly be giving her now.
"Alright." He said, sounding perfectly normal. Hina peeked up at him and was shocked to see the same, happily concentrated look set on his face as he scribbled something onto his clipboard.
"I'm sorry." Hina whispered, feeling extremely disappointed with herself.
"Don't be!" Tails remarked brightly, finishing his note with a happy jab of the pen. Before Hina could respond, Tails placed the blue, fuzzy pen into her little hand again, and put a hand reassuringly onto her shoulder. "Try again."
Fairly confused and quite certain that she would not be able to succeed, Hina turned back to the blue paper before her. Miraculously, the once empty and meaningless series of symbols seemed to somehow make sense. The first line of large text did not, as she had expected, contain letters, but numbers. '1+1', they read. Somehow, Hina recognized the symbols and understood. She uncertainly placed the tip of the pen onto the paper, her hand quaking slightly. She made a messy little loop. '2'. Hina stared at her own inexplicable handiwork in ecstatic shock. Though it seemed impossible, Tails looked even more pleased than her.
"Great." He said, cheerfully scribbling something down onto the clipboard, his hand still pressed firmly on her shoulder.
"How…" Hina began quietly, staring at her own hands in disbelief. Tails peered at her for a moment with a fond smile on his lips.
"You're amazing, you know." He told her. Hina cocked her head and shot his a sceptical look which seemed so overly precocious for her small, immature face.
"No I'm not."
Tails only smiled wider in response to her disbelief.
"You," He told her, gently removing his hand from her shoulder. She gave a heavy blink and looked back down at the paper before her. As if they had never been, the numbers returned to worthless, incomprehensible shapes of ink. Even the ones which she had only just read – and fully understood – returned to forgotten meaninglessness. "have no idea."
"Cagosolee?" Felix asked on a sudden inspired idea, bits of toast flying out of his full mouth like shrapnel. Gabrielle smiled lovingly at him and patted his mouth with a napkin.
"Chew with your mouth closed, mon chéri." She cooed. This French pet name was one of the only things which Gabrielle continued to use from her European childhood.
"Sorry, Mama." He giggled, swallowing the remains of his bite.
"Now, say it again." The squirrel said in amusement. "In English this time."
"Can I go find Leah, and show her Lucy?" he asked, his mouth finally free of breakfast.
"If you can find her." Gabrielle replied, a bit curious. "Do you remember what floor she was on?"
Felix stared pensively at the plate before him thought for a few moments.
"Yeah!" He cried happily, breaking the silence so suddenly that Gabrielle jumped in her chair.
"Great." She said, a little shaken by the startling noise. "What floor?"
"Nine." He answered happily. Gabrielle checked the clock on the wall of the spacious kitchen, which was extremely nice and clean considering it was in a hotel.
"I don't think she'll still be asleep…"
Felix hopped to his feet excitedly and dashed to the door. Gabrielle laughed.
"Where do you think you are going all by yourself, mister?"
"To see Leah!"
"In this huge place? Not all alone. I will come with you."
Felix crossed his arms.
"No!" he shouted defiantly.
"Why ever not?" Gabrielle asked, choosing to ignore his rude behaviour. His face blushed pink, but he shrugged and resolvedly dropped his gaze, allowing her to march to his side without protest. Together, they walked through the hallway until they reached the elevator, which Felix sprinted into to push the little number nine button.
"How'll we find her?" He asked, looking slightly apprehensive for the first time that morning.
"I am not sure…" the squirrel replied, leaning on the silver banister. "We can look around and see if anybody goes in or out."
"Okay." Felix said happily. If Gabrielle was not particularly concerned, neither was he. The lift gave a little ping and halted with a jerk. Felix hopped out and peered in both directions up and down the hall as if about to cross a busy street.
"Where you think she is?" he asked curiously, clearly wondering which way to search first.
"Eenie, menie, minee moe." Gabrielle chanted Felix beamed up at her, and joined in with her little rhyme, pointing his finger in alternate directions with each syllable. "Catch a tiger by the toe!"
The elevator door closed behind them.
"If he hollers, let him go,"
The lift behind them opened once again, and they heard several light footsteps.
"Eenie, meing, minee-"
"Moe!" cried a cheerful, familiar voice from behind them. Felix turned on his heel to see Leah standing with what he assumed were parents, an adult in each hand, her mother on the right and father on the left. The man was wearing an oddly empty, blank look on his face.
"Hi Leah!" cried Felix, beaming at her.
"Hey, Felix." She replied, pulling him into a tight hug. Her mother gazed down at her lovingly, but her father continued to gaze expressionlessly into thin air with dull eyes.
"Hello." The mother said brightly to Gabrielle, with a little chuckle.
"Hello." She answered, smiling at the children, who were still hugging each other. "Are they not adorable?"
"Yeah." The mother replied fondly. "I'm Leah's mom, Lisa."
"So nice to meet you." Gabrielle said, shaking the panda's hand, which was oddly small.
"And this is Carlos." She said. It was obvious from the way she deliberately slowed down her voice that Carlos was... unusual. "Say hello, dear."
He murmured something in a deep, cracked voice, but his empty eyed expression did not change. Ignorant to the heart wrenching revelations going on above them, Leah and Felix broke the rather awkward silence above which was forming.
"Come on!" Felix told her, tugging at her hand. "I've gotta show you this!"
"Okay!" Leah cried excitedly, and the two children rushed back into the elevator, leaving the three adults behind them.
A/N:Sorry about the shortness and the bad ending... and the bad beginning... and middle 0.o. I'm having a bad week. I mean a really bad week. My uncle died, and his wife had stroke, and they don't think she's going to make it. Plus my brother was in the hospital the other night recovering from surgery, and our really good family friend might have colon cancer. It's just hard because it's all happening at once. God I'm such a little soap opera :! But see, I'm such a little trooper that I did this chapter for you guys. I'm going to my friend's party this weekend at his camp, so I'm not going to be on 'til lateish on Sunday. I would absolutely love to come back to an inbox full of reviews. My goal for AFN is to have ten reviews in one chapter. Please?
--LA