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Eishia wasn’t talking to August.
Extremely unusual but not highly concerning in Alice’s opinion. Fighting is what siblings did and it was good for Eishia to be a bit more firm with her wild brother. But usually August would figure out how he upset his sister quickly and right his wrong. It had now been two weeks and her beloved granddaughter still hadn’t uttered a word to her brother.
Not a “Wait!”, “Stop It Please!”, Or “Auggie!” at all. She would only talk to him when it came to cleaner business and each time August did something to try and fix whatever he messed up it wasn’t the right thing and just pissed Eishia off more. He’d replaced the sheets she bought herself that he stole for spare fabric, bought multiple bottles of nail polish after stealing and using his sisters to completion, and many many other things that Enjin had been thrilled to gossip to her about. That lazy bastard couldn’t be bothered to step in even when the one being harassed was his underling. But he had been smart enough to send Eishia her way for “A Break” from her brother's attempts at atonement.
So now in her old age with creaky knees, she leaned against her clinic's wall waiting for Eishia to stop flitting about so she could mediate a sibling fight.
Her granddaughter hadn’t slowed down since she arrived. Bouncing around from studying textbooks to applying what she learned to organizing the supplies for the third time. The girl already realized Alice wanted to speak with her and was avoiding it. Alice wasn’t going to let her escape a talking to that easily though.
Clicking her tongue to get the girls attention as Eishia waved off their latest patient (a fool who had broken his arm chasing off a small trashbeast without a vital instrument) and watched Eishia stiffen at her sound. As the door swung shut Eishia slowly turned to stare at her with a nervous expression but it was different from her usual nervous expression. It lacked the usual “I am uncertain” energy and had a more “I’m being shy” type of beat.
“Come humor your Gran-Gran and tell her what's going on.” Peeling herself away from the wall she beckoned Eishia to come sit with her at the clinic's small table. She's seen Eishia make many faces in her lifetime but never had she seen her grandbaby look so forlorn about speaking with her. Whatever August did she’d have to tear him a new one for not being more mindful of his sister…Again. Eishia shuffled over to her and sat down across from her, head hung low and eyes darting all over the room. “Common girly we’re not getting any younger, just more beautiful so hurry up and tell me what your idiot of a brother did.” She nudged very gently. She found that prodding Eishia into talking worked best because otherwise she’d shut down.
Eishia grimaced but finally cast a glance at her instead of the cotton balls across the room. Twiddling her thumbs together as if answering Alice’s question was physically taxing. “I like this boy and Auggie scared him off and now he’s not speaking to me so I’m not speaking to Auggie.”
“Are you seriously upset at your brother over a loser boy, Eishia?” She deadpanned, surprised that this was the reason. She couldn’t believe her wonderfully intelligent granddaughter was hung up about some boy. No, no. Eishia was young and this was the first time she’s expressed serious interest in someone so she needed to be understanding. This was important to Eishia so it was important to her and she needed to be gentler. Sighing she began to apologize but suddenly Eishia stood up and banged her hands on top of the table. “He’s Not A Loser Granny! He’s just shy like me and he’s very gentle and sweet and Auggie freaked him out and scared him! August needs to apologize!” Eishia yelled her rebuttal. “I know our family can be eccentric but sometimes August takes his teasing too far and it's not fair I have to suffer because of it…” at the end of her rant she was breathing hard and tears were forming in the corner of her eyes but none spilled as she stood her ground, fists clenched and body ramrod straight.
And Alice was damned shocked to see it.
Eishia rarely blew up and never once had it been directed at her or August for that matter. Honestly she worried that Eishia shoved down her own feelings around them just because they were family. Maybe this boy really wasn’t a total loser if Eishia was willing to defend him like this. “You’re right Eishia, I was being too dismissive and I’m sorry.” She made sure her remorse was known and her apology seemed to knock sense back into Eishia about her shouting. Her grandbaby landed back into her seat with a blush and light ‘thwump’ noise. “Sorry granny…” The girl muttered, her regular frown contrasting her pink blush. “It’s no problem at all, E. Glad you're showing your spine. Now tell me what August did so I can whip him into shape and maybe this boy’s name too so I can meet him.” She leaned further onto the table and winked at Eishia conspiratorially to embarrass her. It worked perfectly and she cackled as she heard her granddaughter mutter another “Granny…” and duck her head.
Calming down, she waited for Eishia to tell her what started this whole debacle but seconds ticked by well Eishia just fidgeted. “Common E, I won’t be able to help if I don’t know what happened.” She pushed, hoping the pet name would make sure her granddaughter knew everything really was ok. Eishia looked to the side filled with pure embarrassment.
“The thing is Granny… I don’t really know what he did.”
“Eishia, are you serious?”
“Yeah…”
“I KNOW WHAT I DID!!” Both her and Eishia jumped in their seats as August kicked through the clinic's door with a wild grin and bags in his arms. “HI GRAN-GRAN! HI E!” Her annoyingly exuberant grandson cheered as he plopped down on the cot next to the table, dropping all his bags on the floor with a loud thud. “WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU ABOUT KICKING DOWN MY DOOR YOU BRAT!” she shrieked. Alice was going to skin the boy someday and use his flesh as a doormat if he didn’t shape up. “Ah it’s fine gran-gran I’d fix it anyway!” August said, brushing her off with a grand wave of his arm. “Besides! I have come to apologize to my darling baby sister yo!” He shot Eishia some finger guns but she just glowered at him “What did you do to Fu?” She questioned with a stern tone. August pouted playfully at his sister but Alice knew he’d been feeling rotten these past weeks for upsetting her and really just wanted to make it right. “Well as you know I need to get other’s measurements when they join our crew and when I went to visit him the little guy got so startled by my insane aura he punched me in the stomach! Hit me so hard I threw up and fell on my ass in front of everyone in the cafeteria!” August had bounced back onto his feet and reenacted the motions as he told his story. From exaggerating his walk to making a gagging motion when he talked about yakking. Alice wanted to hit her dumbass grandson over the head with her clogs. She kept telling the boy that some situations required calmness not the erratic behavior August threw himself at everything with.
Rubbing her temples she almost missed the way Eishia was shaking. “I know you don’t talk to everyone August but I told you about Fu and how skittish he is. I can’t believe you’d embarrass him like that.” Eishia seethed “Now I know that he’s not talking to me because he feels guilty for hurting you! You need to apologize August!”. Her granddaughter was on her feet and jamming a finger into her brother's chest, cheeks puffed and eyes burning with determination “We’re going back to HQ right now to find him so you can say sorry!”. Eishia grabbed August’s arm and began dragging him to the door. “Ack! Hey hold on Sis! Enjin dropped me off too, I don’t have my motorcycle!” August protested yanking back. “Then we’ll walk there!” Eishia argued back, starting a tug of war match between the two siblings.
Alice let them bicker because now she knew Enjin’s angle for dropping Eishia off and not just dealing with this mess himself. Drop Eishia to decompress a little, then deploy August to find her and actually apologize for being a menace, finally show back up to get them with the allegedly skittish Fu in tow so August could apologize and Eishia could talk to the boy again. Only the man had decided to employ her help without her knowledge. That man was always doing things without telling people, a flaw that would no doubt cause him to meet an untimely end. Grumbling at the umbrella handling man's underhanded tactics she tuned back into her grandkids fighting to put it to an end.
If Eishia succeeded in leaving then Alice wouldn’t be able to meet the Fu boy who was helping make her granddaughter so much more confident.