Work Text:
The drab grey walls of the Nomad were beginning to really demoralise the two adults.
But not Sunny.
No, recently, the 5 year old had taken an interest in drawing. Sometimes it was just drawings of herself, or her ‘Uncles’, but there were times where she would sit down and spend her time drawing pictures of her mother, from images she’d seen. She’d focus so hard on trying to get it right, as if to summon her mother right there on the page.
“Look! Look!”
She jumped up excitedly, holding the piece of paper.
“What have you drawn today, Sunny?”
Hal smiled, adjusting his glasses. He knew she needed to work on her speech, especially descriptions.
“T-that’s mommy,”
She pointed to the crayon drawing.
“A-and that’s me!”
The two figures were smiling and holding hands. The image tugged at Hal’s heartstrings.
“Oh, Sunny, that’s lovely. Should we put it on the wall?”
He offered and the little girl nodded. Hal found some sticky tack to put it up with. It definitely livened up the place.
They both paused to look at it, with Sunny’s eyes meeting the printed photograph of her mother.
“Can mommy see it? From h-heaven?”
Her brown eyes pleaded for an answer.
“Yeah, Sunny. I’m sure she loves it.”
Hal bent down to give her a hug, which lasted for a moment.
“Now…”
He stood up again.
“What do you want to do? Something quiet, because Uncle Dave is sleeping.”
Hal had to try not to laugh every time he said ‘Uncle Dave’, there was something just so strange about it. It did not present the image of an often grumpy, bandana-wearing man with a lit cigarette in his hand, preparing for a mission to save the world.
But then again, Snake hadn’t been like that for a while now.
“Um… can you h-help my coding?”
She asked. She had picked up how to use a computer so fast, it was as if she was born with the knowledge. Of course, that wasn’t really true, but it was evidence that kids learn incredibly quickly.
“Sure, just show me what you need help with.”
Hal brought another chair for her to sit on, moving out of the way slightly so that she could find it. She typed at a speed that rivalled his now. He marvelled at her abilities, but he also felt guilty. She knew how to do this, but she didn’t have any friends her age. They’d bought her a few toys, and plenty of books to help with her development, but she’d just been drawn to science and technology more than anything. Art and cooking were secondary.
“My program is b-broken!”
She frowned, trying to run it.
“Let me have a look, Sunny.”
Hal pulled the chair closer, scanning through the code. He pushed up his glasses, in the dorky yet cool way that anime characters did, as he said,
“You’ve just made a syntax error.”
She gave a puzzled look, so he explained.
“Here, in line 52 of code, the format is wrong, so it’s stopping your program from functioning.”
He corrected the error.
“There.”
“Thank you, Uncle Hal!”
She beamed and continued her work, making him think about her wellbeing again.
Perhaps he just needed to take some time to play with her.
“Sunny? I’ve got an idea. Let’s play ‘House’.”
He suggested, making her stop frantically typing.
“I d-don’t know how to p-play.”
It only made sense. She’d never lived in a proper house, after all.
“Well… it’s playing pretend. We imagine we’re like a couple in a house! You make me some food, pretend food, and we have imaginary kids. Not real , of course…”
He hoped she’d get it.
“Oh… okay!”
The little girl stood up, ready to play.
“You can use your crayons as pretend fries, and the toys as the kids.”
Hal pointed them out on the table, and she ran over to get them.
“So, what ‘food’ are you making me, today, dear?”
Hal asked, playing his role of the husband.
“Eggs!”
Sunny told him, mimicking the action of frying eggs by rolling crayons on a book and making a sizzling noise with her mouth.
Hal laughed. Of course even in a game, she’d make her staple dish. At least he could imagine it was edible here.
“Why, that sounds lovely!”
Hal watched her try not to let the crayons roll off.
“It’s done!”
She took the book over to him, and he pretended to eat the crayons, and she did the same.
“Mmmh, these are very good!”
He pretended to be full.
“Now, we have to get the kids ready for school.”
He told her.
She grabbed the soft toys.
“C-come on, now, you h-have to get on the bus!”
Hal remembered that she’d seen school buses online, when watching shows. He wondered if she envied kids who went to school.
After making the ‘children’ leave the house she came back and said,
“I’m bored now, c-can I go back to coding?”
He shook his head,
“But aren’t we having fun? Let’s play another game.”
He didn’t want it to end. He didn’t want to see her grow up at that desk.
“I-I want to finish th-this program!”
She tried to get back to the chair, but he stopped her.
“E.E!”
The girl looked at him funny.
“Th-That’s not my name, Uncle Hal…”
“What? What did I say?”
He raised his eyebrows at her. What else could he have said?
“Y-you said ‘E.E’.”
She told him.
“I’ve heard you c-call it me before.”
Hal’s heart sank. He couldn’t bear to look into Sunny’s eyes at that moment. That warm brown, glistening with innocence; it was as if he was back in his old home, looking at her. He didn’t want that game to end because of her. When they were playing, she wasn’t Sunny, and he wasn’t a man in his thirties, burdened with guilt and loss. That’s why there was that part of him that hated to see her being interested in science and technology. She didn’t want her to be another prodigy, leaving him after he eventually messed up. He should have resisted Julie, he should have-
“Uncle Hal? A-are you okay?”
Her voice snapped him out of it.
His heart was pounding, just like that moment.
“Yes. Yes, I’m sorry, Sunny… I’m just really tired right now. Can… you go in your room for a while?”
He knew it wasn’t fair to her, but she didn’t need to see him like this.
She went without a word.
He couldn’t let her down either.
With a deep exhale, Hal went back to his research, briefly turning his head towards the picture of Olga and Sunny’s art just below it. For a split second, he recalled the times E.E -no, Emma- had drawn him things like that.
He’d never let Sunny’s innocence get stolen like Emma’s was on that day.