oh, shit // bnha

twenty-five

Her thoughts were interrupted by the feeling of pressure on her horns, and she opened her eyes to see the child gently touching one of her horns. Once they saw Eli looking at them though, they gasped and inched away, only for Eli to erupt in giggles. They blushed again from the sudden laughter, pulling the jacket closer to them.

Eli peered behind her to see Hitoshi behind her, unable to get past her wings so instead was standing up a little outside of it.

"Call Dad or Mom, somebody," Eli told him.

Once the child remembered that there were not one, but two people there, their mind began to race. They inched back further, going back towards the box behind them making Eli tense significantly.

"That's just my brother," Eli told her, waving her hands slightly.

"He doesn't have horns like us, but he's still cool, I promise," Eli urged.

She smiled as softly as she could, nervous suddenly. She didn't know how old the kid was, but they looked about 4 or 5. It was hard to tell since their hair was so long, basically down to their waist, but they were so frail and small, that she honestly didn't know what to think.

But from their appearance alone, Eli knew this wasn't just another homeless foster kid. The hospital dress really gave that away.

'Well unless they ran away from the hospital. I've done that once... but they're too young aren't they?' Eli pondered.

Sighing inwardly, Eli reached her hand out as slowly as possible. She couldn't go far since she was kind of stuck, but after watching How to Train Your Dragon enough times she figured this should work. The child nervously stared at her hand, holding the jacket even closer to her.

"You mind helping me, my wings are stuck?" Eli asked, nudging herself a bit forward to show her.

They gasped as they looked up and saw the huge black feathers. Their eyes seemed to sparkle in wonder at the feathers. They shuffled, hastily but cautiously pulling the sleeves on their arms, scrunching the long ends along their arms before they inched forward toward Eli.

They carefully placed their hands on Eli's shoulders, trying to nudge her out. Eli almost laughed at their attempt, how sweet it was. She took a breath and stepped back, nudging their shoulders and wings backward. It strained her legs and back, but she still pushed herself out.

She had half a mind to just push the dumpster away but not only was that kind of gross, but she also didn't want to scare the kid.

With a final push, Eli fell backward into Hitoshi. He fell to the floor, instantly being smothered by Eli's feathers. He sputtered and moved away, huffing as he moved to the side, to see if Eli was okay, despite her just almost killing him. But he was surprised to see Eli with the kid in her lap, who Eli had expertly pulled out once she was out.

The panic set in quickly.

"I-I have to hide, h-he'll see me!" their voice squeaked, fighting to move back into the 'safety' of the dumpster.

Eli's wings extended, completely covering the girl in his wings.

"Don't worry," Eli said with a nod.

Wonder danced around them as they looked around at the feathers surrounding them. Hitoshi poked his head through the wings, not hesitating to shuffle inside and hunch over them with his hands on his knees. He too had a nervous, almost uncomfortable look on his face.

He didn't know what to do, but he'd already texted their parents and let them know what was going on. And I mean at least 20 back-to-back text messages. He sent his location like 5 or 6 times to both of them, yelled about finding a child, and sent the word 'help' a couple of times as well.