The Ramen Shop Girl

The Wake-up Call

Birds tweet outside in flight as white curtains get pulled apart. A blinding light pierces through the cluttered bedroom. Ayame scrunches up her nose at her nieces messy room. Finding a large lump crated by guilts, she smirked.

"I guess I have to eat grandpa's ramen all by myself if my niece can't get up for it." She teases as she tightens the white apron around her waist, ignoring a long whine from said cocoon.

'Honestly, she'll make one think that she was dying in there...' Ayame thought.

A head of black tangled hair pops out from the blankets and sneezes. Ayame rolls her eyes at the rats nest, none could see anything but the girl's mouth and nose. Taking apart her hair, Poppy's tired green eyes blink up at her aunt.

"I thought today was Saturday though..." Poppy yawns out and Ayame chuckles, picking up a forgotten brush laying on the floor.

"Your calendar is from last year, Pops." She points to the over used calendar on the wall beside the bed. Poppy only shrugs to the woman's amusement. "Let's see what we can do with that hair first!"

Poppy's eyes widen at the brush and dashes past Ayame, running out of the bedroom. Ayame's lips twitch and in an instant, the chase was on. Yet, after an hour, Ayame had not capture her niece. The girl had locked herself inside the hallway closet.

"I'm only brushing your hair!" Ayame yells, pulling on the door. One foot braced on the wall and the other on the floor.

"No!" Poppy yells back, keeping the door shut stubbornly. But, with the aroma of ramen hitting her empty tummy, she gets distracted and the door rips open. A grinning aunt greets her.

"Got ya now!"

Poppy's horrified scream has costumers smirking at the ceiling. Teuchi served them, ignoring the fighting upstairs, as this was a common occurrence in the house.

"I see that granddaughter of yours hasn't changed a bit, Teuchi." One of the male costumes laughed, he owned the dongo shop down the street, and Teuchi sighs.

"She's a handful just like her mother was..." He breaths in deeply with a fist to his chest. "But, at least this way no man will take her away from me!"

All his customers sweatdrop at the old chef's happy tears.

"I don't get it, why do I have to brush my hair..." Poppy pouts and her aunt smiled.

Ayame had won the fight as usual. Poppy sat at her vanity as her aunt brushed her tangled mess. In a way it calmed the girl, but getting her to that point was a pain for anyone. Yet, her aunt didn't mind the challenge.

"Because it's to let the leaf see how beautiful and cute my little niece is!" Ayame brawled with love and pulled Poppy's black hair into two ponytails. Poppy frowns and plays with a ribbon on the floor with her foot.

"It's not like it matters, they'll still laugh at me..." Poppy mumbles. "I'm only a dust bunny to them..."

Ayame slammed the brush down on the wooden vanity, giving Poppy a fright, an spun her niece around to face her. The girl nibbles on her bottum lip with only her two front teeth, something she did when she was ever nervous.

Poppy had fallen on her face in the park one year and had to get the teeth beside her top front ones removed. The kids had been making fun of her ever since.

"Listen, people are afraid of what they can't understand." She poked Poppy's little nose with a grin. "You are beautiful, our beautiful bunny and there is nothing wrong with that!"

Poppy stared up at her grinning aunt and let a big smile split her cheeks, her two missing teeth showing. Ayame smiled back and finished tying the girl's hair. Poppy checked herself in the mirror before giving her aunt a tight hug of thanks.

Patting the young girl's head, Ayame realizes that Poppy had grown much taller from when she was a baby and grew sad. Her niece's head now reached past her hip. She guessed all thing grew up.

"Breakfast!" Poppy gasped, running downstairs to the kitchen. She leeched herself onto her grandfather's leg and the costumers chuckle. The old man tries to stir the noodles while shaken back and forth by the girl.

"Grampy!"

The old man smirked down at the six-year-old tied to his leg. His greying hair hidden by his white chef's hat. Poppy's pigtails and blue overalls reminded him of Sana, the girl would even sleep in them too.

"How did the talk with Mr. Shen go?" Ayame asked, following after Poppy. Teuchi sits a bowl down for Poppy, sighing as the girl paid the grown-ups little attention. Her slurping getting a chuckle out of him.

"He's agreed to meet our terms." Ayame smiles. But, his frown has her confused. "If we agree to hand Poppy over to the academy."

"Over my dead body!" Ayame hisses at her father. The shop's costumers mumble their opinion, most agreeing with Ayame.

"Because we are living in the leaf they have the right to make children fight?"

" Ayame..." Teuchi voice is full of warning.

"I forgot my bag!" Poppy gasped and ran for to her bedroom. After deeming her far enough, Teuchi turned to Ayame with a cold glare.

"After Poppy is gone, we will get to the bottom of this."

Ayame pulled out her white bandanna, tying it to her head. She nodded and they began to run the shop as Poppy's rushed feet jumped back down the stairs.

"Forty-one, forty-two, forty-three!" Poppy cheered, counting the last step. She sent her grandfather and aunt a thumbs up before speeding off to her friends house. The people passing by laugh as she trips and gets up to run again.

"I swear, she gets more like Sana everyday..." Ayame sighed and her father nodded.

"But, she will still have her fathers face..." And for that moment, a tense silence draped over them. It was like a secret plagued them but they couldn't speak it out loud. Yet, as many customers approached, they slapped on smiles for the people of the leaf.