A/N: Yes, I stole the chapter name from the song. I couldn't help it! Please forgive me! (Bows so hard she hits her head on the desk and falls over unconscious)
Disclaimer: Do I need to say it again? (sighs) Aries28 does not own or is any way affiliated with the Disney or Square characters used in this fic.
Chapter 4: Simple and Clean
Darkness. Does it invade from without, or consume from within? Those creatures under the castle . . .were they beings created from darkness or people that had succumbed to the darkness within them?
"What are you doing?" Two small hands appeared on the edge of the desk, with brown hair and two dark blue eyes swiftly following. No amount of tip-toeing could get her head higher than that, and she knew he wouldn't approve of her pulling herself up by her arms, like Kairi did all the time. Kairi shouldn't even be allowed in the lab. All she did was touch things and leave greasy fingerprints on them and sit on top of the desk and bother him. She was always very careful to ask before doing anything, to be very quiet, to wait. Kairi couldn't even appreciate the lab—she always got bored and ran back to play with Marlene or Ellone, or maybe asked Grandma to tell her a story. Well, what could you expect? Kairi was just five, practically a baby. Amaya was nine, practically grown up! Of course she would be able to understand things that little Kairi couldn't!
He smiled, "Just thinking about things. You can come sit over here if you like."
She tried to keep from bouncing with excitement—that wasn't a very grown-up thing to do—and walked around that desk as he rolled the chair back, making plenty of room for her to sit in his lap.
She sighed happily, cuddling against him as he leaned over, pointing at one of the charts in front of him, "See that?"
She nodded, "Uh-huh."
"That's graphing the number of those things down under the castle."
Her eyes widened, "They're growing that fast?"
She felt his chin move just to the side of her head as he nodded.
"How come?"
"I don't know. That's what I'm trying to figure out."
"Oh," she waited a few quiet seconds before venturing, "Do you know what they are yet?"
"All I've been able to determine is that they have no emotions—no feelings," he explained.
"I know what emotions are," she protested, slightly bristling at the fact that he thought he had to explain to her. She wasn't some dumb baby!
He chuckled, a rumble reverberating through her shoulders and back, "Of course you do," he ruffled one hand through her hair, "You're such a smart girl."
She beamed. She loved getting compliments from him. She loved being his smart girl. It didn't matter that Kairi was the cute one if she was the smart one.
They spent the rest of that afternoon going over the entries to his report and different charts and graphs. Amaya asked a few times if she was getting in the way, but he always smiled and said Of course not, I need an extra pair of eyes around here.
She looked at the sun, and orange ball sinking on the horizon, sending rainbows through every waterfall on the way down. Then she quickly looked back to the books he had asked her to put back on the shelves. What would he think if he caught her excited about rainbows, like some little kid? They were just the sunlight reflecting through water, splitting the light into its colors. Nothing special about it.
"They're pretty, aren't they?" He pointed out the window, "The rainbows?"
She snorted and raised one eyebrow, "Yeah, I guess."
He raised an eyebrow, "I thought you liked rainbows?"
She did like rainbows, "Yeah, but it's so simple. Nothing too special about it, really."
"On the contrary," he said, beckoning to her and wrapping a protective arm around her shoulders as he knelt and pointed down to the waterfall, "Just because it's simple doesn't mean it isn't special. When you're older, you'll start to wish everything is as simple as a rainbow. Just light and water, two of the most common things on the planet, and you get such a beautiful array of colors. You don't have to change anything, or create any artificial conditions; it exists on its own. Simple and clean."
She was glad to have a reason to like rainbows again, even if she did feel the mild rebuke in his statements. The clock rang.
Dong.
Dong.
Dong.
Dong.
Dong.
Dong.
Dong.
"Seven o'clock? I didn't realize I'd kept you in here that long. You must be getting hungry," he apologized, standing and removing the warmth of his arm from her shoulder. She missed it, but wouldn't ask to hold his hand. She wasn't a little kid.
"Are you going to eat with us tonight?"
"No, not tonight. I still have some work to do."
She tried to hide her disappointment. Grandma said that he just didn't like the noise of having so many people around, that he had always been like that. But they used to eat together, sometimes. Before Mama died.
"Can I come tomorrow?"
"Of course you can. Goodnight, Amaya."
She ran to the open door, peaking her head back in just before she closed it, "Goodnight, Papa."