Aria of the Ascending Soul
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
A/N: just some dusting and cleaning up here though back then, I didn't think of making Snuggy into Simon. So making all these edits with that knowledge now makes me giggle.
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
"True, but they can not deny the fact that Alucard has shielded his father from our eyes. The senseless attack of Dracula have shown that he has not changed despite his form."
The young boys watched as Cardinal style robes walked through the distant door began walking along through the room.
"Indeed, perhaps it would be best to address the clan as a means to assess their view of the situation. Mrs. Aulin is still alive is she not? Perhaps she would be able to give counsel on this topic?"
The boys sat under the meeting table exchanging confused looks between themselves, Xavier was new and turned his expectant gaze towards Elmo. After all Elmo seemed to know what was going on through out the Vatican. So him being just as clueless left poor little Xavier feeling smaller than before.
"These are proving to be darker times than we expected. I had prayed with the Demon Wars end that we would not have to fear the monsters any more."
"So what do we do now? With Dracula out of the Castle, we thought that he could be completely destroyed, yet he merely reincarnated. Are we even sure the Belmont Clan can hold back the evil that Dracula rules?"
The pair of men continued, unaware of the audience, and walked through the door that the kids had used to enter the room, leaving the pair sitting in silence under the table. For a while there was nothing, but, a pair of kids sitting in a forest of dead wood polished into a dark gleam, in a room lit by a sun coming out of every window. Why didn't the grown ups ever see this? Xavier watched as Elmo finally began crawling out from under the table and made his way to the door when something caught Xaviers' eye.
The small boy crawled over to a strange lump under the near center of the table while Elmo placed his ear to the door of the room to see if the grown ups had left. For someone who had been so clingy Elmo was surprised to see Xavier had not followed him. But he couldn't hear anyone on the other side of the door so he turned to check on what Xavier was doing. He got back down on his knees and saw his fellow kid nearly the center of the table working on something.
"What are you doing Xavier?" Elmo asked, watching as Xavier seemed to be intent on taking something down.
"I think someone taped a book here."
Well that seemed odd, grown ups didn't do that, and there 'was' a book clearly taped up by what looked like an insane amount of tape to keep it there. Elmo frowned thoughtfully as he watched Xavier carefully begin to pull on the scotch tape from the table. Then shrugging he crawled up beside Xavier and held the book up, freeing up Xaviers' hands to work on the book.
"Who would put a book under a table though? That's kinda a weird place for one," Elmo noted thoughtfully as he watched Xavier work.
"Dunno, but boy were they determined."
Elmo decided that Xavier liked everything neat and tidy. Because, personally, Elmo would have just pulled the sense of out that book and ripped off the tape to get to it. But Xavier was being very careful, probably meant that he was neat with his Christmas presents too. "So I don't think we should take the tape off the book. Maybe we should give it to a grown up."
"Why?" Xavier asked, before re-sticking the tip of his tongue out in his focus on getting the tape off.
"Well... no one writes in books anymore, so I think it might be super old. A grown up can handle that better then us," Elmo explained as he held the book to the desk.
"Ok, hey Elmo, how did you join the Cherub Choir?" Xavier asked, moving to another side of the book to pull off more tape.
"Ms. Yoko attended the Christmas Choir at the orphanage I live at. She said I had potential and brought me to the Vatican so His Holiness himself could hear me! It was very special to me," Elmo explained as he switched hands.
"Oh, so what happened to your mommy and daddy?" Xavier asked, as he continued working like an industrious little ant. But Elmo didn't answer, he was so quiet that if Xaviers' mommy and daddy neglected to teach him manners, Xavier would have started prodding for more information.
"A really scary dog kill them and my grandpa."
Xavier had to stop what he was doing as he heard that, turning his head to look at Elmo. The kid was sitting there with one hand holding the book up. But his expression was decidedly more sad and Xavier found that he felt bad for asking. He didn't know what he would do without his mommy and daddy after all. Unsure of what to do, Xavier opted for the next best thing, redoubling his focus on freeing the book.
"Well, I'm sure God is looking after you, how else would you end up in the Vatican? I bet your parents put in a good word for you with God!"
"Erm," Elmo gave a wordless agreeing sound as he sat there.
The pair finally worked the book free, while trying to keep the drying tape from finding hold on the pages of the book themselves. Before either boy could open the book a soft, hollowed thumping sound from the door grabbed their attention. Comically the pair looked at each other in confusion before Elmo got to his knees and began crawling out from under the table. Xavier following close behind with the book tucked under one arm as he made his way.
Elmo cautiously opened the door to peek out only to see one dark plastic 'eye' staring back at him framed in honey gold fake fur. "Snuggywuggy!"
Elmo threw open the door in excitement, revealing to Xavier the ever popular, to the point of robbing the Vatican, being known as 'Snuggywuggy'. For which Xavier wasn't sure what to make of the moment. Snuggywuggy was essentially a big stuffed bear with honey blond fake fur, a pair of dark bead eyes, a nose and mouth made with thread. A length of rope was coiled and hooped over the bear's head so it slung down like a crossing guards' sash. It wore a child's hard hat on its' head that read 'RESCUE' with holes for the bears' ears, a utility belt and what looked to be a backpack. All sized accordingly for the bear.
Snuggywuggy, for its part, pushed up the hat from its head revealing a small folded sheet of paper. The bear bent its head forward to drop the sheet onto the ground before pulling the hat back down on its head. The ears suddenly stuck back up through the holes for it, giving a quick wiggle no less. Then the bear bent down to retrieve a small plastic hammer before sliding it back inside its belt while Elmo bent down to get the paper.
Elmo unfolded the sheet, his eyes scanning the message quickly before giving a nod. "Xavier your mommy and daddy are here waiting for you."
"Oh!" Xavier started and quickly joined the pair before looking down at the book. "Um, but what about this?" he asked curious about what he should do with the book.
"Oh that's right, hey Snuggywuggy? What should we do about this?" Elmo asked while pointing to the book Xavier was holding. Meanwhile Xavier found himself fascinated by the appearance of the bear. A part of his mind kept trying to say that Snuggywuggy was a robot, but he couldn't see how what with the way the bear moved.
Snuggywuggy answered by walking up to Xavier and looking at the book, and the bear 'was' looking! Then It began wiggling Its way out of Its backpack with Elmo cheerfully helping take off, between the two they emptied out a bottle of water and several wrapped crackers. If the boys were older they would have understood better that the Snuggywuggy Rescue Bear came armed in case of diabetic rescues. But for that moment the only thing they knew was Snuggy began extending its paws towards the book in Xavier's arms.
Xavier looked confused for a moment before relenting the book to the bear. But the toy seemed to have a plan as it began sliding the book into the backpack. Then it began re-bagging the crackers and slide back on the backpack. It was as the bear picked up the bottle of water and handed it to Elmo that Xavier started to think that maybe, just maybe, stealing from the Vatican was justified.
This was one awesome bear.
Said bear proceeded to reach up to the boys which Xavier didn't understand, but Elmo knew and took one offered paw in his free hand while the other held the bottle of water. Then both bear and boy looked at Xavier for the boy to fall into step. Blinking the younger boy followed suit placing his small hand over Snuggywuggys'. It was a strange sensation, the feeling of soft cloth yet not squishy, under his hand as he held Snuggywuggys' paw while they began to walk to the still opened door.
"So umm, can Snuggywuggy talk? Err Mr. Snuggywuggy can you talk?" Xavier asked, feeling a need to put words into the silence of their walk.
"No, he doesn't have a mouth, just that thread line. When Ms. Yoko made him she wasn't planning for him to talk. She was a kid like us back then," Elmo explained, while they went down the corridor.
"So the Snuggywuggy Christmas train isn't just a bunch of robot toys?" Xavier asked, recalling last years Christmas event. His brother swore that the toys were just robots, boy was he wrong!
"Yep! Over the years Ms. Yoko has brought a bunch of toys to life like Snuggywuggy. But since he's the first, he gets to be in charge."
Big brothers really didn't know everything! Xavier didn't think that was possible, but here was proof! As they walked along Xavier initially thought that there was no point in Snuggywuggy showing up, since there didn't seem to be any difference until he noticed that the sun seemed to have settled on one side of the halls. But Elmo was so confident of Snuggy's ability that Xavier just bit his lower lip and stayed quiet for a while. Yet there seemed to be progress, as they began to see more of the nuns and priests in the hallway doing whatever it was that nuns and priests did. Those that saw the trio only smiled in that warmly amused way that said 'oh lost again I see'.
"This always happens to me," Elmo grumbled in a retrospective tone as he walked. Yet at the same time Xavier was trying to desperately remember the way that they took to get back.
"But maybe if we drew a map?" Xavier offered, only to see Elmo shake his head.
"Tried that, we've made maps but they always end up wrong some how. The older kids tried using rope to find their way back and that was a dud. One time they hung themselves out a window and the other kids all ran the whole long length around the Vatican and couldn't find them." As Elmo talked Snuggy nodded to each idea that had been used as though supporting the conversation silently. Then again it was apparently a self thinking bear even if he couldn't talk. But why wasn't anyone scared?
"Weren't you scared when you found out? I mean, wouldn't the priests do something about all the confusion?" Xavier asked as they turned a corner and finally the sun was in the west.
"We're just kids, its natural for kids to get lost when we run all over the place, that's what they'll tell you anyways." Elmo recited as they reached a banister, while down below Xavier saw his family waiting for him.
Joy filled his heart at seeing his family waiting for him after his ordeal of the Vatican. Letting go of Snuggywuggy's paw he ran towards the stairs making his way towards his loved ones. Somewhere in the back of his mind he thought this might be a bit rude, seeing how Elmo didn't have a mommy or daddy anymore. Xavier didn't think much beyond that, more concerned that he took the steps properly so he didn't trip and end up rolling to the ground floor. That would hurt. Lots.
He kept his little legs steadily pumping as he dashed past all the grown ups in a sea of colors on his way to his parents. Throwing himself into his mothers' arms as she knelt to catch him in warm loving embrace.
"So there you are Xavier, they said you had gone on a tour with another of the Choir boys," Xavier's mother noted with amusement. Xavier nodded into his mothers' shoulder and turned to point towards Elmo only to remember that short kids couldn't see over tall people.
"I made a new friend, his name is 'Elmo' and there's this ultra cool bear named 'Snuggywuggy' that lives here too!" Xavier reported in excited tones that hadn't been used since he blew up about stealing from the Vatican offerings.
"Oh?" his dad sounded amused as he righted himself and used his height to try and see this child that Xavier was talking about. "Well I see a little boy with a big teddy bear in his arms, could that be him?"
"Sounds about right, the bear wearing a hat?" Xavier asked, once his mother let go of him he began jumping up and down in an effort to see Elmo. His mother chuckled as she rested her hands on his shoulders so he would stop hopping like a bunny. With his father in charge the group made their way further into the Vatican on the search for Elmo. When finally Xavier got excited seeing his fellow Choir Boy walking along with Snuggywuggy clutched in his arms. But he couldn't say anything as he watched Elmo rub his eyes.
Elmo was crying! Did running off upset Elmo? Xavier was suddenly concerned that running off had upset Elmo, but when he tried to see what Elmo was looking at he saw the little girl from before with her parents. Parents. Mommies and daddies that Elmo didn't have anymore and in a flurry Xavier turned his attention up to his mom.
"Mommy! Mommy! Mommy, Elmo needs a 'Mommy hug' real bad! Can you give Elmo a 'Mommy hug'?" Xavier gripped his mom's hands tightly, his eyes pleading so hard for his mom to do so that she was left momentarily speechless.
"Son, why can't Elmo's mommy give him a mommy hug?" Xaviers' dad asked as he knelt down to his son's eye level.
"Because a big scary dog sent them to God," Xavier explained in his best grown up voice. But then he leaned over to his dad and whispered in a conspirator tone, "the dog killed them."
His father placed a big, strong hand on Xaviers' shoulder before giving a nod. "I'm sure your mother can give Elmo a mommy hug."
"A dog killed them? How can one... Oh no," Xaviers' mother looked mortified as her eyes locked on her husband. "You think he could be?"
