Disclaimer: Yoo hoo! I don’t own Witch Hunter Robin, but I will when I take over the planet!!!
Amon: *sarcastically* You do that.
Puff: *whacks the back of Amon’s head*
Amon: *glare of doom* What is it with you and hitting me?
Puff: *picture of innocence* Me?
Amon: *pulls out gun*
Puff: Amon, doll, we’ve been through this. You can’t hit me with a bullet and you don’t want to come near me out of fear of being glomped. I’m afraid I’ve got you in a corner.
Amon: *cursing silently*
Puff: *sneaking up behind Amon*
Amon: Don’t even think about it.
Puff: *sighs* When will you learn? You can’t hurt ME!!!!
Amon: *throwing net over Puff* No, but I can catch you.
Puff: Feh! Ok, I get the picture. Now let me out.
Amon: *tying Puff’s net to the ceiling*
Puff: I’m the author. You can’t do this!!!
Amon: *walks off*
Puff: Well, this sucks. >_<
Chapter Three: Daddy-Daughter Bonding
Amon sleepily registered the fact a slight weight had settled itself on his lap. He chose to ignore it. A slight tug on his hair and a sensation of warm breath on his face caught more of his attention. Carefully, he opened his eyes and found a pair of large blue-gray eyes inches from his own. To say the least, Amon didn’t know exactly how to respond.
“Daddy’s awake!” Javan yelled, sitting back down on his lap and staring happily at him. Michael rushed in and took in the sight before his eyes.
“Sorry, I was surfing the web and I didn’t notice she’d walked off,” the hacker apologized, feeling he had failed in the babysitting game.
“Where’s her mother?” Amon asked quickly, discounting the toddler singing disjointed snippets of the alphabet and nursery rhymes less than a foot from his ears.
“Doujima and Robin are at the hospital with her; Reika finally admitted that she needed to go,” Michael explained immediately.
“Why wasn’t I told?” Amon retorted, finally putting a hand across Javan’s mouth so he could think properly.
“We all decided that it would be best to let you sleep,” Michael said, “If you don’t mind, I need to get back to my computer.” The hacker slipped out the doorway as he spoke. A tiny nip of baby teeth on the palm of Amon’s hand alerted him to remove it. Javan glared lightly at him, looking more like her father than she ever had.
“I guess I have to watch you now,” Amon said flatly, more to himself than to the child.
“Yup!” Javan squealed, clapping very small hands to further signal her happiness. When her father didn’t even smile in response, she took matters into her own hands; the little girl literally reached up to his face and pulled up the corners of his mouth. Amon gently pulled her hands away from him.
‘What could I do that involves very little real effort on my part?’ Amon thought, not quite knowing what to do with Javan. He never really had taken care of a child before.
“Is there a park?” Javan piped, luring Amon from his mind. A light bulb went on and the hunter stood up, barely realizing that he had to catch the girl before she fell to the floor. The dark-haired child wrapped her arms around his neck, not allowing him to set her on to the floor like he had intended.
“We’re going to go play, Uncle Michael!” Javan chirped merrily, grinning brightly from her perch. Michael glanced up and had to look closer; it was quite a scene to behold, Amon with a child practically hanging from his neck.
“Call me the second you get the results from the genetic scan,” Amon ordered coolly, before striding to the elevator. The second the doors slid shut, Michael burst out laughing. Normally, Amon presented quite a fearsome sight; a little girl wearing a floral-printed dress threw off his whole look.
“Daddy, where’s mommy and Robby?” Javan questioned, wriggling to get more comfortable. Amon had to think about just whom she was referring to for a moment; he knew who ‘mommy’ was but the ‘Robby’ required a touch more thought.
“They’re out,” Amon responded simply, not troubling himself to correct Robin’s name and hoping the girl had forgotten about her mother’s illness. He was already getting a few stares from others on the streets as they walked to the park. A screaming child wouldn’t help much. Javan simply nodded her head, casting a wary glance at her father before staring straight ahead.
An amiable silence filled the rest of their trip. Javan squirmed a little every few minutes so she could get a different view. She played with his smooth hair after she had seen most of what she could. Amon was tempted to brush her hands away, but decided to let her play. Besides, he had devoted both of his arms to carrying her.
“Do you see that man?” an old woman asked her friend, pointing at Amon. Her eyes were glazed over with suspicion.
“Yes, he’s an ominous one,” her friend responded, the pair sliding over to the far side of the sidewalk. Amon decided they must have extreme hearing problems or they were deliberately trying to be rude, because he could hear every word that was exchanged.
“I hope the child is all right,” they muttered together, earning a stuck-out tongue from Javan as they walked past. She hugged her father more tightly, planting a tiny kiss on his cheek. Needless to say, the hunter was struck-dumb once again.
“I love you, daddy,” Javan whispered into his ear, causing Amon’s step to falter slightly as her words penetrated his brain. He quickly offered a very small smile, not knowing what to say. It seemed to be enough to satisfy Javan, as she resumed her visual search of the passing milieu.
“Look! The playground!” Javan yelped, her wiggling escalating to the point that Amon had to set her on the ground. She did a small happy dance before she ran off. It took a moment before she registered that daddy wasn’t behind her. Tiny feet stomped back to his stationary form, her hands on her hips. She snatched Amon’s hand from his side and started to pull him along the grass.
“I’ll watch from over there,” Amon explained, pointing to a bench in the shadows. He knew he that he wouldn’t look right, with all the brightly dressed parents playing with their children. More than likely, he might scare a few of the kids and make it very hard for Javan to find anyone her own age to play with.
“No. I want you to push me on the swings. I’ll cry,” Javan threatened, letting tears gather in her blue-gray orbs. ‘Yeah, just what I need,’ Amon thought sardonically before he conceded to her wishes. He obediently followed the child’s small form, wondering what on earth possessed him to agree.
Javan strode right to the swing she wanted and attempted to get on it by herself. Amon stoically placed her on the seat and lightly pushed her away.
“Higher!” the dark-haired child yelled. Her tiny hands wound around the chains on either side of her as Amon pushed her further away. This process continued until the little girl was almost parallel with the bar. The silent hunter then allowed the swing to slow at it’s own pace, till it stopped and Javan pouted.
“Why did you stop?” she asked, faking anger. She tried to narrow her luminous eyes like Amon often did, but she ended up just scrunching her nose.
“Gravity,” Amon said monotonously, taking in the confused look on her face before continuing, “You would have fallen.” Javan nodded her head before sprinting off to play on the slide. Amon strode to a park bench, choosing one that was strategically sound. He could watch Javan at the playground while monitoring the people coming and going.
The two-year-old quickly made friends with several children her own age. They played tag for a few minutes, and then started some imagination game. He placidly allowed his attention to wander, not noticing his phone ringing. He thought about his life a little under three years ago.
*Flashback*
Amon had met Reika while undercover, tracking down clues for a new hunt. She had taken an immediate liking to him and asked him out on a date. The hunter felt obliged to go, since she had worked up the courage to ask. The girl kept asking him out, meanwhile developing feelings for him.
“How do you feel about me?” Reika had questioned once when he took her home. Amon had completely ignored the question. She soon made it a point to inquire about his feelings every time she saw him and every time Amon didn’t say anything back.
“Why don’t you ever answer me?” Reika finally asked after about a month of questioning. Her eyes were tear filled and depressed.
“I don’t know,” was Amon’s ambiguous response, his eyes steely and frozen.
Fast forward to a few months later. Reika was crying, clutching at Amon, trying to hold on. The hunter was coldly detaching her arms from him.
“Is your job that important? That you’d leave me?!” Reika wailed, dropping to her knees on the hardwood floor. Her dark hair fell over her eyes as she crumpled in agony. Tears fell like rain, collecting in a small pool.
“My job is most important to me,” Amon had frigidly retorted, walking off and believing he’d never see her again. Forgetting how much pain he’d caused her to suffer. Not quite realizing he’d never even answered her questions.
*End Flashback*
“I never really loved her,” Amon said softly to himself as he focused back into reality.
“Loved who?” Javan asked, startling the normally perceptive hunter. Amon chose to reroute her attention, rather than embarrass himself.
“Why aren’t you still playing?” Amon inquired, looking at the playground. It was now abandoned, the swings catching in the wind that had picked up. Javan pointed up at the sky, towards the dark cloudbank Robin had mentioned to him yesterday. Rain was already starting to fall in the distance, the sheets of liquid illuminated by flashes of forked lightening.
“I’m scared, daddy,” Javan said, the blatant fear rising in her voice. Amon scooped the child up and put her slightly under his trench coat. She was shivering and he didn’t want to get blamed for her getting sick. The hunter rushed along the concrete paths, watching the trees dancing in the wind.
Thunder clapped harshly as Amon’s phone rang. He hurriedly found a safe place to stop as he answered the ring. He carefully set Javan down on the ground, letting her hide under his long coat.
“Amon, I’ve got the results,” Michael said over the slightly disrupted channel. Javan was whimpering as her eyes focused on the fast approaching storm.
“Amon!” Robin yelled, running towards them as fast as she could. The craft user stopped in front of her partner, panting slightly.
“What is it?” Amon inquired instantaneously, noting that whatever Robin had to say had to be more important than test results at the moment. If her words could have waited, she knew it would have been safer to stay at the hospital.
“It’s Reika. Her fever’s skyrocketed and they have her on an artificial respirator,” Robin told him, “I tried calling you about ten minutes ago when they took her to ICU, but you didn’t answer. She wanted me to find you.”
“Michael, call me back in a few minutes,” Amon ordered, disconnecting before the hacker could say anything in response, “Let’s go.” Robin quietly picked Javan up as Amon began hurrying down the path to where Doujima waited in her car.
Author’s Note: I am disheartened by the amount of reviews I received for chapter two. Only seven! Compared to fourteen for chapter one. You know, I get discouraged and can’t really write that well. Please give me more reviews to make me happy and write lots. ^_^
To The Reviewers:
Trickster’s-Lulaby: I’m lucky, I suppose. I’m the baby of the family and my only sibling is six years older than me. I can sympathize with you though. I have little cousins that make you want to kill them. Yeah, Amon and pull-ups isn’t a normal concoction you’d expect.
Haruya: I’ll try, but the fluff won’t come until later chapters. You know, once Javan gets settled in!
CuriousDreamWeaver: Yup, she’s a real people person.
Suki1: Thanks
Pink Savvy: Of course I’m right. *sounds smug* Christine: Ah, another with many personalities. Don’t listen to Puff; it’s my knowledge she’s been using.
InuGurl2188: Well yes, eventually. I don’t really see Robin or Amon with anyone else.
Cherrystarwolf: Thankies.