A/N: If you read these over on my LJ, you can see the pretty pictures that accompany it. The URL is nyanja14(dot)livejournal(dot)com .
As always, these are totally un-beta'd so if you notice something off, let me know!
033: CURIOSITY
"What are you doing?"
Yoite looked down at the voice. A little girl with her hair parted into two short pigtails was staring back at him.
"Waiting," he answered. The girl beamed at him.
"Me too! I want to leave, but my brother wants to stay at the park, so Mom says we're going to stay longer." She pointed towards the playground where a younger boy was digging in the sandbox. "He's the baby, so Mom always listens to him and not me. I don't like it, but Mom says I have to learn to com-pro-mise." She sounded the word out carefully, looking up at Yoite for confirmation. He nodded and she smiled again, bouncing on her toes. "Why are you waiting?"
"I'm waiting for someone."
"Your friend?"
Yoite opened his mouth to say no, but stopped. What was he supposed to say? "Business partner" wasn't quite right and even Yoite knew he shouldn't tell a little girl that he was waiting for the boy he kidnapped and then coerced into helping him.
Before he could try to answer, a woman called out across the park. "Hitomi!" The girl clapped a hand over her mouth.
"Oh, I can't talk to strangers!" She turned and ran towards her mom, looking back at Yoite to wave. "Bye bye!"
Yoite lifted a hand to wave back at her and tried to forget about the question. He couldn't deal with any more confusion or emotions, not when he was so close to the end.