"Road?"
"…"
"Road, my dear, what is wrong?"
"…"
"Please Road, speak to you dear Father. I want to make you smile again."
A faint smile appeared on her lips, eyes looking up from the remains of the doll in her hands.
"My toys Father," she said sullenly but not looking at the hundreds of dolls and stuffed toys in the room.
"Your dolls dearest?" Cooed the man.
"No. My favourite toys," she stressed then smiled again as the mans face lit up with understanding.
"Did they do something naughty?" He asked with raised eyebrows. "I know you've not been allowed to play with them for a while now," he said with a sigh and saw the guilt flash across her face.
"Road!"
"I'm sorry Father! I didn't mean to!"
"You had better tell me."
She looked away and fidgeted under his stern look, but he relented as she began to explain. "I was in that town and I saw them…" Road explained first about her finding the strange brother and sister, then about coming across them again as they were on a mission. She had been on a school trip that day, completely innocent, she had even got in trouble when she came back late from being in the woods with the Exorcists too long. The Earl had nearly found her playing with her most favourite toy!
But, they had escaped her trap and they had done it by cheating, they had evaded her and she was sulking. "I didn't want to kill them!" She wailed before throwing another door at the wall, hard enough to break the stuffing out of it. "I just wanted to play with them! They looked so delicious, there minds all torn in two like they were…"
Sheryl sat down on the bed next to his daughter and pulled her on to his lap, resting her head on his chest as he held on to her tenderly, gently rocking to try and sooth her. "Well, its too early to really do anything against them, the Earl would get angry." He said quietly, "he's only just starting to really cheer up again since he has nearly finished the new egg."
Road, enjoying the warmth and comfort, sniffed away the tiny tears that had crept into her eyes, "I know Father." She mumbled into his shirt.
"And its too early for Uncle Tyki to really go against an Exorcist." He said, still in that chiding parental tone as he continued to explain. "Lulubell is still depressed since she tried so hard to get the old egg back. You could always find the Twins, see what they are up to?" Road smiled but shook her head, Jasdero got on her nerves after a while, they were too confrontational even for her tastes.
Silence filled the soft room, it ran around the shelves and shelves of dolls and stuffed toys, it danced over the small piles of broken toys and figures and finally wrapped around the two people sitting on the bed. It was broken at last by Sheryl sighing and beginning to rub Roads back, "maybe I'll go have a word with the Earl for you? See if he will let you have someone, provided they are not Allen Walker?"
Roads eyes lit up as she looked up at her Father, "really? You mean it?"
He couldn't help but chuckle at the girl's reaction and he felt the light come back into his life, "now now, I can't say for sure," he said but give her a squeeze, "how about we go out to another country and take some Akuma with us?"
"I love you Father!"
'Yeah, this family stuff rocks!' He thoughts as a blush crept on his face.
