RITPN ✮ Ray x Reader

120945 ✩ Sleep Tight

˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊

I straightened the bow on the girl's collar, pushing her hat over her wild hair, now done up nicely by Poppy so she could make a good first impression on her would-be adopters. Trying to swallow the frog in my throat, I gestured to the toy in her arms. "Do you want me to put him in your suitcase?"  She cradled a red corduroy bear with a bright blue bowtie, whom she liked to call Mister Cuddles. 

Ichika forked over the bear with a smile, trusting me wholeheartedly with her beloved toy. "Okay! Make sure he's comfy."

"I will," I said, taking the bear from her hands with a reassuring smile. It was the least I could do.

As far as the child knew, she was going to see the outside, and even if she would miss this one dearly, she was going to be part of another loving family. As Ichika bid goodbye to her closest companions with an elated smile, I couldn't bear to look her way. "Bye-bye, everyone!" she called, as she blinked away the tears in her eyes. "I'll miss you! I'll draw lots of pictures and send postcards, 'kay?"

Yukko pushed open the door, beckoning the girl outside. Ichika glanced her way, but thinking twice, ran back through the crowd. She tackled my legs, and as I regained my balance, I could feel the wetness of her cheeks through my clothes. 

"I wish you could come with me," she said, snuffling her sobs in my shirt.

Trying to keep my eyes from watering over, I pulled her arms from my legs and knelt to her height. "Hey now..." I spoke softly, and tapped the left side of her chest. "I'll be with you right here, okay?"

Her lower lip trembled as more tears threatened to fall. "You'll come find me when you get adopted, right? You won't forget?"

In that moment, there was nothing I wanted more than to be able to remember everything; every moment she'd been with this body in the past. That was the very least I could've done, for the child I was sending away to her death; remember every moment she spent alive. But no matter how hard I tried, all I could remember was this one fleeting day.

I dabbed my sleeve on her face to dry her tears. "Of course I won't forget," I said. "I'll miss that smile of yours every day."

Ichika rose onto her toes and slung her arms around my shoulders. "Okay," she said, squeezing desperately, as if she were afraid I would disappear. As she pulled away, fresh tears rolled down her cheeks. "Sorry I can't smile right now," she sniffled. "I'm just more scared than I thought."

"It's okay," I said, and tapped the side of my cheek. "I'll smile instead, so you can be brave. See?"

Her fingers reached up to pinch my face, pulling my cheeks apart. "You have a silly smile, Y/N." As her final tears dripped from her eyes, her round face split in a bright little grin. "I'll miss it lots too. So promise you'll smile lots, and I'll smile lots, too. 'Kay?"

"That sounds like a deal to me."

And so I waved goodbye to the little girl, carrying a suitcase with a pillow in the place of her belongings, as she and her mother disappeared into the night.

"Y/N? Whatcha doin'?" Poppy's head slid into my field of view. I stood with my feet rooted to the floor, eyes trained on the door as if I expected Ichika to walk back through it any moment. Reina stepped out of the kitchen, and brushed my hair from my face in a motherly way. 

"Is everything okay? You've never handled adoption days well..."

I shook myself out of my transfixion, a hesitant smile finding its way to my place. "Yeah. I'm alright."