TWENTY-EIGHT
Before she knows it, twenty-eight minutes have passed—and the only reason she knows that is because she just happened to glance at her watch in passing. She's had a ton of food and she's pretty sure she's talked their ears off about how cool ants are.
Ants are great. If she can't be a bear, then she'll be an ant. Err, metaphorically speaking, that is.
Or maybe literally? But being an ant would make it a lot more likely that she'd get crushed underfoot.
"That's a pretty big watch you have," Mrs. Maria comments. It probably caught her interest when she glanced at it; the watch is so bulky on her wrist, it clinks when she moves. Come to think of it, she's surprised they didn't point it out before.
She takes her time chewing on a mouthful of bear claw before mumbling, "It was Papa's."
Mrs. Maria leans forward, forehead creased. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch that," she asks.
She glances away, feeling the food in her stomach start to churn. She hates feeling anxious. She doesn't want a repeat of what happened a few days ago, though, so she goes through her breathing exercises.
"It's okay," Mrs. Tsubasa murmurs. "You need not sacrifice your peace of mind for our curiosity."
The way Mrs. Tsubasa speaks when she's nervous reminds her of the older books in the library—and thinking of the library, of just how much she's learned through those dusty books, gives her just enough courage to repeat herself.
"It was Papa's." She says it a little bit too loudly, and she flinches, but her cheeks are burning and she's not sure if she wants to look at or away from them, so she stares down at her lap.
Down at the watch dangling off her hand.
A soft touch to her knee startles her into looking up; Mrs. Maria has a really, really sad look on her face.
Maybe she understands.
"I'm—I'm not sure why I wore it today," Mrs. Maria's sad eyes make her confess. "It just… I just did."
Her throat is all blocked up. She can feel her lungs spasm and her eyes start to itch. She doesn't want to cry.
Why does this keep happening?
It makes her so—so mad.
But also… sad.
"Can I hug you, Elfnein?"
She bites down on her lip. She unconsciously hunches over, but she nods jerkily.
Not a moment later, Mrs. Maria pulls her into her lap; her head is right above Mrs. Maria's chest, and she can hear Mrs. Maria's heart pounding. She clenches her jaw tighter, because she doesn't want to cry, she doesn't, she really doesn't want to cry.
Then there's a hand cradling the back of her head, and Mrs. Maria's arm squeezing her, and then Mrs. Tsubasa whispers, "You miss Papa, don't you?"
Once she starts crying, she can't stop.
Because it's true. Even though this is nice, with Mrs. Maria and Mrs. Tsubasa…
She misses Papa.
a/n: I just didn't have it in me to write fluff today, so cue a dose of life's downs. Also, better late than never, whelp; at least it's not near midnight yet. I'm kind of surprised it took this long to start losing fuel.
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