The day had finally come for everyone to set out and put Greed's plan in action.
"Kidnap the armored boy".
Those were the words Greed had used to explain his intentions to his underlings. They sat quietly, listening as he gave them their separate roles and orders.
"Bido, you're on brat duty. Stay here. Get her out if anyone comes searching before we're back."
The crew had stood ready, armed and focused that morning. Their previous grabs for power had cost them. Failing this round wasn't an option.
The sin was aiming for immortality. It was a powerful and succulent temptation that seemed to dangle itself at his fingertips. Now that the homunculus could focus again, it was practically screaming at him with the intensity of a neglected mistress.
Were you really letting this slip by?
Greed cracked his neck before heading out. He called over his shoulder to the tailed man being left behind. "Bunker down. We won't be back until we have him."
The Devil's nest sat quiet now as most of its occupants had left to "temporarily" borrow the empty suited child. Only two residences sat, left behind.
"Here we go! Bido and kiddo on another adventure!" Bido announced. His sidekick sat atop his shoulders and threw her small chubby hands in the air. She didn't smile, but the action was enough to let the tailed man know she was thoroughly involved in their quest. "We only have until our friends are back." He informed, standing in the bathroom mirror looking at the child who placed soft palms atop his bald head. "I've hidden 3 biscuits. If you find them, they're yours."
The quiet girl watched him attentively in the mirror. Bido smiled up at her reflexion. The hollowness of her face was filling out and the circles under her eyes had all but disappeared. The changes in her body always seemed to happen so quickly, it was relieving to see that trait apply to the good and the bad.
She was recuperating quickly and it was a constant soothing balm on his chest. "If you're gonna survive in this great big world, we've gotta teach ya' some things." He reached up and scooped her off of his shoulders, bringing her around to stand in front of him. "You already know how to run and hide."
He thought momentarily of the strength the girl used to break the door, but decided to keep it on the back-burner for now. He didnt want to teach her to fight or have her tainted with violent things… but she would need to learn to defend herself. She was a little girl. They were pretty vulnerable from what the small man gathered. Maybe Marta would e better with teaching her self-defense. Bido couldnt exactly teach her how to use her tail… but there was something he could teach her. "Use your nose." He tapped an elongated pointer finger against his warted nostril.
The child in front of him mimicked the action, poking at her own nose.
"Right, good girl. Here." He plucked a spare cookie from his pocket, cracked from mishandeling, but tasty and appealing to a child all the same. He sniffed at the cookie and then gave an animated swoon before bending to give the quiet girl a sniff. She folded her hands in front of her and re-enacted the swoon, with a poker face that would give a blackjack dealer a run for his job. Bido chuckled at the expressionless ward as she held out a tiny hand, palm up in expectation.
"Sorry, Little Love." Bido tossed the fraction of a cookie into the air and caught it swiftly in his mouth.
The small girl stood, unbudging, with her upturned hand as if knowing for certain that another cookie would manifest itself for her. When it didn't, she wiggled her fingers, hinting to her caretaker that he'd forgotten to share.
"If you want one, ya' gotta find it." He squatted to be eye level as he explained. "I hid some around for ya'. You can have whatever you find. It'll be like sniffing out those little stones."
The small girl put her hand down and blinked at the man. The gecko rubbed the back of his head with an apologetic laugh, sensing the presence of a frown behind her stoic mask. "It'll be fun, I promise."
Bido took a seat on the floor in the middle of their room. Soft fluffy pink carpeting greeted his skin and he wondered often why they hadn't purchased something so comfortable before. At this point, the large den belonged to the small pastel girl and the three other inhabitants of her room were just additions to the mountains of stuffed animals. Soft lighting hung along patterned tapestries that lined the walls, making the once dungeon-ish room feel warm.
Roa had really outdone himself with spoiling the powerful little girl. The two seemed to share a deep quiet bond of give and take.
"I've already hidden them, so you can start when you want." The short man waved his tail expectantly behind himself. The little girl in front of him blinked before letting her shoulders slump in the slightest. It was the closest thing Bido would get to a disappointed reaction from the girl. Or maybe she was annoyed; it was hard to tell.
She bent forward quietly picking up his calloused rough hand and put it beneath her tiny nose. She gave his fingers a single sniff before tossing his extremity disregarding back onto the floor. He gave a quiet chuckle. She was definitely annoyed.
In a simple pink onesie, the young girl walked across the room, her hair dragging across the floor behind her. She walked directly to her pile of stuffed animals and began tossing them aside. Bido smirked to himself, pleased at how quickly she'd pinpointed the closest snack, but this one was probably too easy. A plumply stuffed pig was tossed at an intentional speed toward the gecko, who easily caught it with his tail. The short girl turned to him with her usual blank expression, held up her newly excavated cookie and broke it in half. She ate the smaller half herself before walking across the room to hand the other piece to her pale green caretaker. She watched him pointedly.
"Are you teaching me to share?" He laughed, delighted at the adorable gesture. It was so sweet and pure that he felt he didn't deserve it for eating the previous snack. "Why, Thankyou ma'am. Mama Marta is teaching you ta' be a proper lady." He put on the thickest 'sophistication' accent he could muster.
"There are two more hid- oh, you know already?" He stood to follow the girl who had suddenly moved to leave the room.
"You can tell there were no more around? Pretty good so far, huh?" Bido followed the girl into Martel's room and stood by the door. He didn't want to give a hint.
Not that it mattered apparently. Within a minute, both remaining cookies were found and divided between the two of them. Something in her eye upon receiving the last cookie made the chimera think that perhaps her sharing was out of pettiness and not purity. He coughed to hide his chuckle.
"Wow you were really good at that! I think we can get right to practicing then… alright, listen up little miss," the cloaked chimera took a seat in front of his small student once more. "I did some thinkin'. If you're sticking with us, you'll probably see some scary things like you have before."
A crease flashed between little lavender eyebrows so quickly, Bido questioned his own imagination. "I'll teach you a trick for times like that. Okay? We'll call it super amazing action plan: find Bido!"
Tiny eyebrows rose as the gecko threw his hands up for emphasis. He definitely had her attention now. Grand gestures always seemed to hold her interest and he'd noticed that putting emphasis on something usually riled her up… well as riled up as he could notice.
"I want you to close your eyes." He took her soft pale palms and placed them over large deep purple eyes. "When you hear Roa's cooker ring, come find me okay?
He took the girl and stood her in the corner with her little hands over her eyes. He backed slowly from the room before turning to scurry through the den. Setting Roa's timer to 30 secs, he placed it on the floor outside the warm room and quickly found his hiding spot.
He didn't want it to be overly easy to find him. If something were to ever frighten her again there was no guarantee Bido would be within earshot. She needed to be able to rely on her own senses to find him. If her senses were as sharp as a chimera's the task would be a cake walk.
If they were s sharp as Greed's, she'd probably know where he was while she still stood in the corner.
Bido quietly entered Greed's room, scurrying up his boarded windows and hiding himself in the furthest darkest corner of the ceiling. The timer rang from its spot on the floor, and Bido concealed himself with the same inhuman stealth he'd used to infiltrate Military ranks and rob people from right under their noses.
It didn't matter. The moment the bell rang, he could hear little feet trotting quickly from the room.
Pat, pat, pat, pat. Up the hall and around the corner. Through the main den into the final corridor. Down the adjacent hall. Pat, pat.
She headed straight to Greed's room without sparing a moment to stop and smell or look for any sign of the tailed man. The door was swung open without hesitation and Bido watched through the dark as her little shadowy figure bounced across the large room, stopping directly beneath him. She looked up at him and the gecko laughed at her expectant expression. Excitement and relief swirled in his gut. She was a good tracker and that was a blessing. If they were going to knowingly keep her in their unstable world, they could at least try to give her the skills to navigate it.
"Good job!" The gecko exclaimed, releasing his place on the ceiling and falling with an effortless thud back to the floor. "Perfect! You're perfect!" He gathered the little one into his arms and gave a squeeze.
"You do that whenever you get scared, okay? You're my family and I'll take care of you, okay? No matter what, you come find your Bido."
The girl hugged Bido lightly and patted him on the head as they often did to her, disregarding his worry completly. Bido placed her back on the ground only for the pink child to make a b-line to the re-re-replaced floorboard that hid Greed's precious stones. She quickly squatted and scratched at the spot, pulling at the boards but not seeming to make any progress.
"You're still not as strong as you were before, huh?" Bido smiled bitter sweetly at the struggling girl. "It's ok, you're still healing. Your strength will come back soon!" He reassured himself indirectly, scooping her from the floor once more and taking her away from one of the dangers of his world.