ello_poppet | Catchall for Domestic Post-Airlocked AU Shenanigans w/Mini

[Hisae takes a look at this baby human for a moment or two, before licking Aria's face.]

You're kind to say so.

[The answer to that question: people have, in various ways, and he's never once believed them.]

[Aria squirms a bit, but doesn't seem too troubled by this new development. It's almost as if they were destined to be friends.

She starts whining a little as Elaine pulls her up and wipes her face, though, so Elaine figures it's probably time to feed that pumpkin. She'll get started on that, but she's not letting it distract her from her dismay.

Elaine loves him.

She only wishes he could love himself, if even a little.]

Thanks.

...for everything.

[it's all she can really say about that, but she doesn't just mean for him telling her that. Honestly, she doesn't know if she could do all of this without losing her mind if he wasn't there.]

Can I ask you a few questions? You don't have to answer if you don't want, but...

[There's so little she actually knows about him, and it bothers her.]

I can answer.

[He isn't one to talk about himself. He cares more about what other people have to say - that might just be the way he is, even if he loved himself.

But Elaine wants to know, so he'll answer.]

Do you remember anything about whatever family you had when you were younger?

[She assumes, from what she knows about him, that Oda didn't have much of a childhood. That's horrifying, and it's also reason number 4000 she wants Aria to have a normal, happy childhood with no assassinations or anything like that.

She rocks Aria, who's still whining a bit even with her mouth full, as she ponders this. She has Elaine's eye color, but as the days go by and she looks like less of a potato, Elaine can sort of make out tiny features on her face that look, unmistakably, like Oda's.

What a beautiful little bean. But if Elaine went through months of hell to bring that bean/potato/pumpkin into the world, she figures she deserves to know a few things.]

[She deserves to know. And so Oda tries to give the best answer he can give.]

I remember my parents' faces, vaguely. I think my father was a businessman, and my mother would often go with him on his trips and leave me with a babysitter. I was an only child.

When I was ten or so, they didn't come back from one of those trips. According to the news, there was a gas leak at the hotel their conference was at.

[He's never found out if that's really what happened.]

[...so he became a child assassin. Aria has stopped whining for now, but it's replaced with Elaine frowning just a bit. Even if it's the answer she honestly expected.]

...I'm sorry.

It's okay. I don't mind talking about it.

[And it is what it is: he can't undo what happened.

He's learned better than to try that sort of thing, now.]

Would you... mind if I asked you about your friends?

[She remembers that he said he had to say goodbye to a couple of them.

He must miss them terribly.]

[He does and he doesn't. They didn't see each other all that often, they didn't open up about themselves, and one of them already betrayed him, but...

He was happy then, in that bar, clinking glasses with Dazai and Ango. He misses those moments.]

I don't mind. Have I said anything about Dazai or Ango to you?

[He doesn't remember. Space prison was a long time ago.]

...I don't think so, no.

[Aria looks at peace. It's enough for Elaine to say:]

And I think she just likes hearing you talk.

[He looks fondly at Aria for a second, putting his thoughts together.]

Dazai Osamu... Was the youngest executive in the history of the Port Mafia. He's a genius, almost never wrong about anything. He takes heavy things lightly and makes jokes about serious things, and he was always looking for a way to die.

...But he was too smart, and couldn't find anything that meant anything to him. There's an emptiness in him that I couldn't fix, and neither could anyone else.

He called me a friend. When I died the first time, he was holding me, and he listened to my last wish. 'Go to the side that helps people.'

When I came back, he'd already left the Port Mafia. Because I asked him to.

[Elaine listens, for as long as she needs to. Aria stirs and groans a little, and it's enough to make Elaine need to adjust her position in the middle of Oda's story, but she's right: that kid does like the sound of Dad's voice.

But it does make her say one thing:]

...so you were dead there, too.

I can't imagine what it must have been like for him to see you again.

Difficult. But I didn't want him to not know I was alive again. He deserved to know.

[Despite everything they were - that both of them still are - Dazai is his friend.]

I'm just glad he got to see you again.

...did he at least know where you were going?

[Now she feels bad for separating them.]

I told him a few things. He wished us luck, and said you sounded like a wonderful woman.

[He doesn't think Dazai was just being his usual flirtatious self there.]

Catchall for Domestic Post-Airlocked AU Shenanigans w/Mini

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tw: suicide mention

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