Work Text:
Fingers trailed over the braille on the shelf tag. "Let's see; Vegetables?" The blonde woman questioned.
"Yeah." The child with silver hair nodded her head, eyes scanning the basket filled items on the floor.
"Milk?"
"Yup." Her head nodded again, before a bag of bright and colourful sweets caught her gaze, luring the young girl in, like moths to light.
"Grains?"
"Yes." Maybe, just maybe she'll be able to sneak it into the basket before her mother found out—
"Chicken... Ciphera, put the candy away."
Aglaea's blunt tone cut through her ears. Cipher groaned, knowing there was no use arguing with her mother.
Anaxa just stood there watching the mother-daughter duo as they did something so mundane, yet charming. He'd only been dating Aglaea for a few months, it was somewhat... Baffling to find out that she had a six-year-old. Not that there was anything wrong with being a single mother, but all while being blind? Astonishing.
Unfortunately, he has no clue how to handle kids.
He is a professor at an esteemed university, yes. But those were college students, basically adults. Ciphera is six. How would a child of her age even think? Has she even started school yet?
"Looks like I forgot the salt. I'll be back."
"Wait, I'll go get it for you!—" before Anaxa could even finish, the woman dressed in white silk had already left their aisle. Her steps were confident and familiar, as if she's done this 33,550,336 times in the past.
Amazing. He's now left alone with this tiny human...
The two stood in silence. Should he ask her about school? Her favourite colour?"So, what's your favourite book...?" Anaxa nervously spat out.
"I can't read."
The small person gave such a matter-of-fact answer, how was he supposed to respond or continue the conversation?!
Anaxa frantically scanned the aisles, hoping a conversation starter would just magically appear in his head. His eye stopped at a toucan mascot on a serial box; bright, colourful, anatomically wrong and most importantly, a cartoon character.
"So, Ciphera, right? What show do you like?" The man finally mustered up something else to say. All he had to do now was wait and pray that the child would give him something to work with.
And then he waited,
And waited,
Then continued waiting.
Had he said something wrong, are children not into cartoons anymore now?! have the videos made by greedy, money-hungry companies that not only sell children false information but also fry their brains taken over?!
The man anxiously turned his head. "Ciphe—" Gone. Disappeared. "—ra."
Fuck.
Where... What?!
Holy fucking shit. How's he going to tell his girlfriend that he lost her daughter.
"She couldn't have gone far." The professor frantically started searching through the shelves: Dairy, Meat, Seafood...
How could he have lost sight of a whole human being?! Aglaea's definitely going to kill him.
Fuck !
Fuck!!
Fuck!!!
An educator of his calibre shouldn't be speaking like this, but that isn't the point right now! His main objective was to find that little girl and prevent his relationship from getting flushed down the drain.
--------------
Aglaea's finger traced over the braille, searching for the salt section. Disrupted by a small tug at her walking stick, a tug she knew all too well.
"Mama!" You could hear and feel the warmth from her smile.
The mother sighed, her daughter practically clung to her legs immediately. "Hello, Ciphera."
"Did you tell Anaxa where you were going, before you came here?" Her reached down to feel the soft locks of hair.
"Nope!"
Aglaea let out a deeper sigh, "Ciphera, what did I warn you about before...?"
----------------
Anaxa panted, having searched for the past seven minutes and 24 seconds. Still no signs of Cipher. It looks like he has no choice left but to find Algaea.
He spotted her golden hair from a distance.
"Aglaea, my deepest apologies, But..." His voice trembled as he fidgeted with the ends of his coat.
He watched as she turned her face towards the sound of his voice. The lament clawed at his throat, "I lost Ciphera."
He had expected anger, disbelief and maybe shouting if she was really pissed.
Instead he was met with a meek laugh, the sound made his heart skip a beat yet also soothed his worries.
"It's fine, Anaxa. I had expected this to happen."
Her palm reached out and dragged itself along the moderately taller male's face, finding his cheek to rest on. "Ciphera's always has had tendencies to wonder, I knew she would've ran off to find me. A mother knows her daughter best."
*Why was his face suddenly so warm, was it always so hot in here...?*
His eyes were blown wide, his former feeling of dread having disappeared completely. He probably looked like a moron from gawking at just the sight of a pretty woman.
"Although I do have to apologize too, I probably shouldn't have asked you to watch over a child with a habit to walking off." Aglaea pulled her hand away to reach for little Cipher's head, who's been hiding behind her leg this whole interaction.
"No, it's no problem, I had offered to help." He quietly mourned the loss of her touch.
"Now, Did you grab the basket before running off to find Ciphera?" Anaxa was hit with another moment of 'oh' before he could even fully relaxing.
The teal haired man managed to cough out and answer, "No, I forgot..."
Aglaea grabbed a bag of salt before handing it to the young girl beside her, "Let's go get it then." She spoke as if already having predicted that this would happen.
.
.
.