Chapter 5

Intrigue

Theo watched as Tsukushi pulled the weeds from the garden bed, he's eyes carefully followed her movements but he began to reflect on his experiences since he started living at the orphanage. After the first couple of weeks Theo discovered that not only did Tsukushi occupy the only single room in the orphanage but none of the other orphans talked or interacted with her at all.

It wasn't that they bullied her, in fact if anyone did happen to tease her she was quite capable of defending herself. But all the children avoided her like she had the plague or something.

But Theo didn't mind it meant that they could spend time together without anyone else around.

'There is some mystery that surrounds her though. Like where does she go every morning?'

One morning he had awoken to find the bed next to him empty and being the pessimist he is, Theo instantly assumed the worse.

He drove himself insane trying to find the little girl and when she casually walked in at 7 o'clock he could have pulled out his hair in frustration but instead he found himself rushing up to her and scooping her up in his arms.

"Theo, I can't breathe. What's wrong?" Tukushi questioned innocently.

Theo stared at Tsukushi, he couldn't believe she was acting so serene.

"What's wrong? What's wrong is that your wondering around at ungodly hours alone and in a big city…a big dangerous city I might add, while you're still recovering from…from whatever it is that's making you faint all the time!" Theo finished as he took deep breaths to calm himself.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you worry and I thought you would still be asleep when I got back," Tsukushi responded guiltily as she returned to her bed.

"Well you should tell me whenever you go somewhere."

Tsukushi stared wide-eyed at the boy sitting on the bed next to hers. 'That sounded like a command…no he was just worried…right?'

While Tsukushi contemplated these thoughts Theo continued, "Better yet I'll go with you. Who knows what lunatics you might run into and especially since you're a girl and you're only like what 5 years old or something?"

Tsukushi couldn't stand his condescending tone any longer, "I'm 7 this year! And I'm more mature than you think, I'm probably, no, I am more mature than you are. You're like what," Tsukushi mockingly repeated Theo's words, "9 this year and you're acting like a 6 year old boy."

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A BOY!" Theo angrily responded.

'Those lessons on self confidence are coming back to bite me' he thought to himself.

"WELL THAT'S WHAT YOU ARE! YOU HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING TO CONVINCE ME OTHERWISE!" Realising that she was yelling Tsukushi took several soothing breathes before continuing much more calmly.

"Did you or did you not beat up Micheal-san just yesterday afternoon?"

Theo cringed, "You heard about that?"

"It was a bit hard not too when he came in with a black eye after lunch. And you were bleeding too," Tsukushi attempted to sound stern but she ended up sounding more concerned than anything else.

"Why did you beat him anyway?"

"Why are you defending him? And since when did you call him by his first name?"

Theo heard the words come out of his mouth before he could stop himself and to his surprise he could hear a hint of jealousy in them.

"I'm not," Tsukushi said as she pulled the bedsheets aside and stepped towards his bed where he was sitting with his arms cross and his face facing the wall away from her.

Softly touching his cheek she said soothingly, "I don't care about Micheal I just don't want to see you hurt."

Seeing his face turn towards her she placed herself on his lap and continued when she felt him wrap his arms protectively around her, "Micheal said his father was American and so he insists on the western custom of everyone calling him by his first name. But I won't if you don't want me too."

Burying his head in Tsukushi's hair he whispered, "I'm sorry. I was just worried about you and somehow we ended up arguing again."

Tsukushi sighed deeply, "Maybe I'll take you with me sometime but for now I'll like to keep that little secret from you."

After that he did try to wake up to follow her in the mornings but she seemed to know what he was trying to do and exhausted him by insisting they sang songs every night.

By the time he falls to sleep he was so exhausted he even had trouble going to class or even to lunch sometimes. Luckily though Tsukushi on those days brought his lunch up for him, perhaps as a form of an apology for keeping him up so late.

'I will find out what she is keeping from me." Theo promised himself as he waited in the back garden for Tsukushi to finish her clean-up duties.

He would help but that seemed to have the opposite effect intended, when the volunteer teacher caught him helping Tsukushi she added a few more weeks to Tsukushi's punishment. So since then he thought it better to let Tsukushi complete her punishment alone.

'That and you got an earful from the her for tripling her punishment,' Theo thought sheepishly.

A pair of hands covered his eyes and he heard Tsukushi's voice whisper, "Guess who Teddy?"

Theo smiled at the nickname she had given him, the girl seemed obsessed with teddy bears for some odd reason and when she began to adopt 'Teddy' as his name he could do nothing but indulge her, he loved to see her smile after all.

"Hmm…" Theo pretended to contemplate.

From their short time together he had learnt one of her weaknesses was that she was extremely impatient to the point where it would drive her insane.

He laughed inwardly as he heard Tsukushi's sigh and tap her foot impatiently.

"Could it be my little Tsukushi?" Theo finally answered.

Tsukushi removed her hands from Theo eyes and sat down next to him smiling contentedly.

"Did you know what day it is today, Teddy?" she asked him suddenly.

Slightly startled, Teddy counted the days off on his fingers before answering,

"July 26th…why do you ask, kushi?"

"No reason, I was just wondering," she replied quietly.

"…yes it appears as though we've found her…"

"I agree you'll need to do that as soon as possible before Kaede does something…dangerous…I entrust her safety in your capable hands…Thank-you," Doumyouji finished his telephone conversation and turned to carefully analyze the data on his computer.

"I've found you at last Oshiro-chan…"

Theo awoke suddenly one night to find Tsukushi curled up beside him in bed quietly sobbing in her sleep.

"Mommy…" she whispered through sobs

"Tsukushi, whats wrong?" Theo said worriedly as he shook Tsukushi awake.

Tsukushi awoke surprised to find herself in Theo's bed.

"Nani?" she questioned sleepily as she rubbed her eyes and sat up in the bed.

"You were talking in your sleep," he explained a concerned expression on his face.

"Oh," she said unconcerned as she moved to her own bed but Theo tightly gripped her arm.

"You said 'Mommy',"

Tsukushi remained motionless, as the seconds passed by in the darkness Theo thought he saw her look at the teddy bear on her bed before she turned to look him straight in the eyes.

Tsukushi sighed deeply, "I wanted to tell you but I wasn't sure what you would do…"

She continued to stare at him intently before she nodded her head and pulled him out of bed.

"If I'm going to show you we have to leave now before anyone knows we're gone," she whispered as she threw a jumper to Theo while hastily pulling her own on.

"Where are we going?"

"Shhh!" she whispered placing a finger on her lips, but just as they were about to leave the room she abruptly ran back to her bed and put something carefully inside her jumper.

Theo was certain that it was her teddy bear, 'Why would she bring that?' he wondered internally.

They both silently crept down the stairs of the orphanage and slowly pushed the old door open and stepped out onto the streets. The lights of the lamp posts shone on them as Tsuksuhi pulled Theo along behind her.

"Kushi, where…where are we going?" he asked breathing heavily.

But Tsukushi didn't answer him and continued to run down side streets and across roads that Theo had never known existed, but Kushi acted like she could remember the way even if she was blind.

'Whats this all about?' Theo wondered to himself.

A/N: YAY FOR ME!