Madison's POV:
This kid is so tired.
After holding her, and her closing her eyes for longer than a couple of seconds she fell asleep. I had to deal with that empress on my own. If I wasn't holding Hattie I think I would have most definitely taken her soul.
But now Hattie was struggling to stay awake as she walked next to me. She was still hungry, so I'm not going to push her to take us back now...after she eats.
I looked down at her, she was rubbing her eyes with one hand. She looked up at the food places, before looking at me.
"Do you care which one we go to...?" I asked, she shook her head in response. I looked back up and scanned a couple of restaurants around us, before walking up to one.
"Looking to buy?" The cat asked and I nodded. He slipped a menu onto the counter. I glanced at it, there were more options this time. I'm not sure what she'd want so I took it from the counter and held it down for Hattie to look at.
"Go ahead and pick," I instructed. She blinked at it for a moment, before she pointed to one.
"The fries," she said, looking up at me. I nodded and stared at it for a moment, before deciding what I wanted. I placed the menu down and looked at the vendor.
"Just fries and fried fish," I gave my order, the cat nodded and went to get those prepared.
After a minute, Hattie leaned onto my leg, letting go of my hand. She started whining impatiently, "is it ready yet...?"
"It will be ready soon," I reassured her, and she just groaned. I was right though, not even 20 seconds later I was handed the meals and utensils, and I paid for it all. I walked us to a table and set the food down. Hattie climbed up into a chair, grabbed her fries, and went to eat one. She dropped it and shook off her hand slightly. She looked a little upset, before she switched to some cat beanie hat, and blew on the fries. I sat down across from her, as I watched, and she took another fry and seemed alright with it now. I shrugged it off and began to eat myself.
We ate in silence, listening to the trains passing and the other conversations. I watched cats walk by and order their food for a while before I finished my own meal. I turned my attention to Hattie again, and she was making two of the fries sword fight. I smiled slightly before taking one from her fries boat.
"Hey-" she looked at me, dropping one of her fries and pointing at me with the other one.
I chuckled, and held up my fry to hers, "en garde!"
She giggled slightly and started to try and poke my hand with her fry. I 'fought' back and avoided her fry, and easily booped her with my potato sword.
"I win," I bragged, but-I didn't win for very long as she bit off half of my fry.
"Well that was rude," I chuckled, but still gave her the fry.
"Well they're mine," she emphasized and stuck her tongue out before eating the rest of the potato swords-well-the fries.
She started to slow her pace of eating, eventually stopping and leaving a couple of fries. She pushed it towards me, and mumbled out something along the lines of "I'm finished."
I picked up the remaining fries and ate one. "Ready to go?" I asked, before clarifying, "to the ship, I mean."
She shook her head, despite sounding very drowsy, "no...no no no."
"Yes-yes yes," I countered, and got up, eating the last fry.
She got up too and started to run back to the main square. I threw away the trash and let out a sigh. I started after her. She wasn't running nearly as fast as she normally does, and she looked around. While she wasn't looking where she was going, she tripped and fell over. I quickened my step to get her, she normally hopped right back up but she just laid there.
I picked her up and, unlike how it's been most of the day, she held onto me.
"Ok..." she mumbled, "we can go back..."
"Thank you...now are you alright? That seemed like a pretty nasty fall."
"Yeah," she breathed out, rubbing one of her eyes before she put her head on my shoulder.
I waited for a second before there was a slight flash, and I blinked. We were back in the storage basement of the ship. I knew at least how the bounce platforms work now and jumped up it. Hattie held on before her grip on my jacket loosened and her hands just stayed there. I walked through the hallway of the science lab and ended up at the wall that takes the dweller's sight to get through. Well, not that convenient...but, I do remember what the bedroom looks like.
I pictured it for a moment, before going back into the science lab. There was a space under a desk to slip through. I took my crown off, holding it in my hand as I moved my arm back to support Hattie. I am more worried about dropping her than losing my crown...
Nonetheless, I moved through the shadows, and going into her room was shockingly easy. When I came up, I realized it was because the lights were off. I fixed my crown back upon my head and stepped lightly onto the floor. It wasn't that difficult to see, not with my occasionally handy glowing eyes. I went and put Hattie into her bed, getting the covers over her and taking her hat off her. I placed it on the bedside table next to her.
I walked to the door quietly, and it let out a hissing noise as it opened. I glanced back at her to make sure she was still asleep. She was out like a light. I smiled slightly and walked through the hall into the main hub, and looked around for a moment.
The little vacuum was plugged into its charger, and all the lights were dimmed. The brightest thing was the planet outside the window. I walked over to what seemed to be a control panel and watched the planet slowly rotate. The ocean itself gave off some sort of light, but the whole planet did. Well, nearly all of it. Subcon was a dark splotch on it.
Watching all of this in the quiet it...it is quite calming...
I unclipped my cape and set it on the desk next to the steering wheel of the ship. And pulled my coat off after, resting it on the chair. I sat down in said chair and rotated it so I'd be facing a flat desk-like surface as I watched the silence of space...
Each blink got a bit heavier, and I rested my face on one of my hands...I shouldn't need sleep...I don't think I should...
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"Madison...?" A voice called out, I opened my eyes, and realized I must have fallen asleep. Weird. But I turned my head to the one calling my name, Hattie of course—
Oh, oh my.
"Madison..." she sniffed, as tears were rolling down her cheeks, what happened?
"Hey-hey, what happened?" I asked, suddenly being very awake, and turned to her.
"I.." she gulped down sobs, "I had a bad dream..."
Poor thing...
"Oh, kiddo..." I got up just to kneel next to her, "was it scary?"
She nodded.
"Scarier than me?"
She nodded again.
Hm.
"What happened in your dream, Hattie...?"
"M-my mom a-and dad we're really sad and angry at me that I c-couldn't help them in time," she stuttered out, her sniffling getting more uneasy, "a-and m-my dad yelled at me and-and then they went back onto the p-planet and it-"
She started sobbing. I was not prepared for this. What do I do-I don't know???
The only thing I could think of was to open my arms for her to take a hug if she wanted one. She did come in slowly for a hug, and I returned it.
"It was just a nasty dream, kiddo," I reassured her, "I'm sure your parents would never say-"
"Y-yeah he would!" She cried out and dug her face into my shirt.
I looked down at her, and moved one of my hands from her back to her head, trying to soothe or comfort her. "Hattie...I don't think your father would ever mean to say something like that to you."
She just cried. Would her dad say something like that to her? She's only what-seven? Would a seven-year-old lie about her dad being that...that much of a peckneck?
The more I think about it...I don't think so...she just woke up from a nightmare, and she is tired and scared. I can't imagine someone her age would feel the urge to lie to prove a point.
Are her parents really worth this much distress from her...?...no-don't think like that. It's not only wrong maybe she is just exaggerating...
She finally began to calm down, and her sobs had become just sniffs and hiccups. I let her sit like this for a moment, but she moved and shifted to grab onto her cape and start messing with it.
"Do you want to know what I think, about the dream?" I asked, seeing she was feeling a bit better after her cry session. She nodded a bit, looking at me.
"I think that," I realized I would have to choose my words carefully, and decided to take a moment to think before continuing, "...it wasn't your fault it took you so long...a lot of people-including myself-weren't helping you out."
She rubbed her nose on her sleeve and nodded slightly.
•
•
•
Oh, I can't keep this to myself—
"And if you think your mom and dad would actually say those things to you, I'm not sure if he was all that good of a dad, kiddo," I tried to lightly explain.
She looked at me before at her hands which were rubbing at her cape, she only shrugged. Ok. Maybe. Just maybe. I'm not crazy and her parents were the worst. I couldn't help but sigh at the thought and rubbed her back a bit.
"Come on, it's still early in the night let's get you back to bed," I encouraged her to get up, but she just clung to my shirt instead. Looks like I'm picking her up again—
I held her and took her back to her room, and set her down on the bed. She scooted under the blankets but stayed sitting up. She looked at me for a second, before she just smiled a bit, and lying down and shimmied under the blankets more.
I wonder what she was going to say...I didn't find it the right time to ask, so I went to leave.
"Night night, Madison..." she mumbled.
I looked back to her, halfway to the door, and smiled, "good night, Hattie. I'll make sure to scare away any other nightmares."
"Thanks.."
And I left the room.
Ouches and Awwws all in one chapter???
French fries are forever going to be called potato swords now, besties. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter! I loved it sm. I love Madison sm. Anyway-later homies B)
BUT WAIT ACTUALLY-
TAKE THIS ART
Best dad for the win. Anyway, till the next chapter!!!