Young Hearts - Part 24 by Keara
Standard disclaimers apply
Quatre chuckled as he led Raberba into the toy store.
This was something else he had missed out on when he had been a child
himself. Being the son of a noted businessman made it too dangerous
for him to be out in the open, or so his father had often said.
“Well . . . go on and look around. Pick something you’d
want to play with.” He looked over to where Triton was looking
up at Trowa with an air of uncertainty.
Trowa knelt down to be at eye level with the boy. “It’s
all right, Triton. We know you already have the bear. You can get
something else. Right Quatre?”
Quatre followed Trowa’s lead and knelt by the boy, far enough
away so as not to make the child nervous. “That’s right
. . . go ahead and pick something. No one will get angry with you.”
As the boy nervously released Trowa’s hand, Quatre smiled in
encouragement.
When both of them stood after Triton had skittered off, Trowa shook
his head. “He’s waiting for the blow to come. The thing
that will prove to him that this is all a farce to lure him in. It
will take a while for him to trust anyone.”
Quatre turned and smiled warmly at Trowa. “He will learn to
trust, my friend, Trowa . . . YOU did, after all.”
Trowa offered a brief, fleeting smile. “Thanks.” He whispered
quietly, then turned and walked away, probably in search of Triton
to keep an eye on the boy.
Quatre merely watched him leave . . . sighing as he watched Trowa.
He would like to be more than just a friend, but that was unlikely,
and Quatre wouldn’t risk their friendship for his own small
hopes. He shook his head, sighing again before he walked further into
the store and went to see what the other children had chosen.
A number of hours later, the kids were finally ready to leave. The
kids had all chosen their toys . . . strangely Tian Bao had chosen
a stuffed animal, a panda, although Quatre hadn’t thought that
the boy would want something like that. Of course Wufei also purchased
a good deal of games, chess and checkers, and several other strategy
games, not just for Tian Bao, but for the other children as well.
Triton had mostly picked out coloring books and crayons, a couple
of pads of paper that he could draw on. Raberba, to Quatre’s
amusement had picked a stuffed dog that was bigger than he was . .
. the poor boy couldn’t even carry it around without falling
over. Quatre had decided to splurge and purchase a video game system
and several games geared toward children . . . as well as accessories
so that multiple people could play at the same time.
Treize had taken a liking to interlocking building blocks, as well
as a remote controlled racing car. And Milliardo seemed to enjoy the
several packs of toy cars that he had found, as well as the number
of puzzle books. Quatre smiled, glad that the kids had toys they’d
like. All the children had something now and Trowa and Wufei were
standing at the checkout getting ready to purchase the items.
However, one child was unaccounted for.
“One moment . . . I think Triton is still looking.” Quatre
said, squeezing Trowa’s arm briefly. “I’ll go see
if I can find him.”
Trowa looked around and nodded.
Quatre hurried around the store, hoping to find the child before
Trowa and Wufei got to the cashier. If Triton wanted something else,
he’d probably feel bad if they had to bother the cashier again.
Quatre didn’t want the boy to feel guilty, not when he was already
such a timid child.
At the sound of a soft giggle, Quatre walked over to the educational
section.
“The cow says . . .” The electronic voice said, followed
by the unmistakable sound of a cow mooing.
Led by the sound, Quatre found Triton. What happened next took Quatre
by complete and total surprise. Had it been any of the other children,
it wouldn’t have been such a big deal. But it wasn’t any
of them . . . it was Triton.
“Moo . . .” Triton giggled after mimicking the sound
in a softly spoken voice.
Quatre took a few steps back, nearly falling to the floor in his
shock. He sidestepped into another aisle, out of eyesight of Triton,
letting himself gain his composure again. The boy had spoken . . .
he had actually opened his mouth and made a sound . . . Quatre couldn’t
get over that.
He took a few deep, calming breaths, then stepped back into the aisle,
smiling as he approached Triton slowly. He didn’t see any need
to embarrass the child, so fought to suppress the urge to jump for
pure joy as he announced his presence with a calm tone.
“There you are.” He said softly, walking toward the boy
with cautious steps. He was glad when Triton didn’t turn and
run off, or cower before him. Still, the child looked quite frightened.
“We’re about ready to leave. Have you found something
else you like?” He kept his voice encouraging, knowing that
positive influences would do the boy good.
After a few moments, Triton held up the electronic toy with unsteady
hands, his eyes swimming with hope and nervousness.
Quatre felt like dancing with delight. ‘I will HAVE to tell
Trowa. This is a good thing.’ He took the toy from Triton and
reached over to get a few interchangeable cards, smiling at the look
of awe and gratitude that Triton had on his face.
“Come along, Triton . . . the others will be waiting.”
He smiled warmly as Triton walked in front of him, thrilled by the
simple show of trust. ‘This is very good.’
Upon their return to the checkout lane, Quatre set the toy and cartridges
on the conveyor belt, noticing that Trowa had taken notice of it and
was looking at him curiously. Quatre gave Wufei a smile, doing a quick
headcount to make sure all of the children were there before he spoke.
“Wufei . . . Trowa and I will be right back. I just have to
make sure we have everything.” Quatre said, laying his hand
on Wufei’s arm for a moment.
“Why do you need Trowa?” Wufei asked, but shook his head
before Quatre could give any sort of reply. He rapidly fell into grumbling,
shaking his head again. “Leaving me with all the toys . . .
injustice.”
Quatre smiled faintly, then moved away from the checkout. Trowa followed
behind him. Once they were out of sight of the others and away from
anyone who could overhear, Trowa spoke up.
“What’s this all about? And why did you get that for
Triton?” Trowa inquired.
“Because I found him with it.” Quatre replied, knowing
that he was smiling. “Trowa . . . he repeated after it. Sure,
it was just to mimic a cow, but isn’t that a good thing? And
he does want the toy. It would be wrong not to encourage him.”
Trowa blinked, shaking his head briefly. “Wait . . . back up
a second. He repeated after it?”
Quatre nodded enthusiastically. “Yes . . . true, all he said
was ‘moo’ but that’s better than nothing, isn’t
it? And a couple of the cards will get him repeating letters and numbers.”
Quatre sighed, remembering the look on the boy’s face when he
had walked over to him. “When I first approached him, he looked
as if I had caught him doing something bad and that he’d be
punished for it. I think it shocked him when I took it along with
those other cards. He really wants the toy, Trowa. Maybe it’s
his way of testing us to be sure he is allowed to speak. And then
he walked AHEAD of me, Trowa . . . he turned his back on me.”
“All right . . . calm down. It is wonderful.” Trowa said,
smiling warmly. “And it makes me glad that you were the one
who happened upon him. He’d have hidden it from everyone else,
I believe.” He looked around briefly, then plucked a handheld
electronic game off of a shelf . . . it was various casino games.
“For Duo.”
Quatre smiled. “He’ll love it. Come on, let’s go
. . . I don’t think Wufei appreciated being left alone with
all of the children and toys.”
The two of them returned to the checkout line, Quatre smiling shyly
to Wufei in apology. As they waited for the cashier to finish ringing
everything up, Quatre noticed that Triton was looking a little bit
tired. The boy was rubbing his eyes wearily. After a few moments,
he stepped over to Trowa and tugged on the tall young man’s
jeans, gaining his attention. Grunting a little, Triton raised his
arms, silently requesting to be picked up.
“Tired, eh little one?” Trowa smirked, bending slightly
and indulging the boy’s request.
Triton merely yawned and wrapped his arms around Trowa, laying his
head against his elder self’s shoulder. He snuggled close, a
soft grunt passing his lips as he closed his eyes. Quatre was glad
to see that Triton trusted Trowa so much . . . to allow himself to
be held without hesitation . . . he hoped that one day Triton would
allow other people to touch him, to allow physical contact from others.
They left the store shortly after that. Wufei and Quatre packed all
of the toys into the back of the van, while Trowa got into the back
seat, Triton still sleeping against him. None of the three adults
had wanted to disturb the boy’s sleep, and Trowa worried that
Triton would be frightened if he awakened somewhere other than where
he had fallen asleep . . . so Trowa would continue to hold him.
Once everything was inside the van, Wufei ushered the children inside.
Quatre stepped forward then, having had a sudden thought.
“Just a moment, Wufei. I need to speak with Raberba a moment.”
Quatre said, placing a hand on the boy’s shoulder as Wufei nodded
and got into the driver’s seat. He smiled and knelt in front
of the worried-looking child. “It’s all right, Raberba.
You haven’t done anything wrong.” Quatre assured the boy.
“I just want to ask you a favor.”
Raberba frowned for a moment, then shrugged. “What is it?”
Quatre took a deep breath. He knew that he was going to be asking
a lot of Raberba. “It’s about Triton. You’ll be
sharing a bedroom with him, so there’s something you should
be careful of. Well, there are probably several things to be careful
of, but this one is very important.” Quatre took another breath.
“One of his choices for a toy was an electronic game. It’s
educational and geared toward young children so they can learn their
alphabets and numbers and other things.” Quatre brought his
hand up to caress the little boy’s face. “It is really
important that you don’t tease him if you catch him repeating
anything the toy says. Do you understand? Can you do that? You don’t
have to be outwardly nice . . . just don’t tease him. Please?”
Raberba looked over to the van, to where Triton was curled up, asleep
in Trowa’s arms. Then he nodded. “I won’t tease
him.”
Quatre smiled, softly stroking the side of Raberba’s face.
“Thank you . . . I’m sure you’ve noticed how quiet
he is. Even if he doesn’t know you’re being nice to him,
I do . . . and I appreciate it greatly.”
Raberba’s cheeks turned pink and he shyly lowered his gaze.
He was a kind boy, really he was . . . it was just that he was afraid
of being himself, of lowering his guard. Quatre understood that.
“Now, come on and get in the car. We’re heading home.”
Quatre said, offering a smile. “I’m sure your room is
all set up by now. The Maguanac always do their work impeccably well
and with haste.”
Raberba smiled brightly and all but clambered into the car next to
where Trowa was sitting. Quatre got in after him, closing the door
as soon as he was sure that everyone was all settled within the car.
*******
TBC
*******
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