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Ren glares, staring at her Dad. It’s not fair that he gets the shiny and she doesn’t! She wants her ears to sparkle, too! Even Papa has the shiny!
“Ren? What’s up?”
Ren pouts. She could tell him, but that means getting close to him. Should she? She does want the shiny…
Ren puts on her most stubborn face and makes her choice. The shiny must be hers!Dad hasn’t hurt her yet, so she’s pretty sure she can do this! Scuttling over to Dad’s leg, Ren scrambles up his side. Dad catches her when she reaches his shoulders. Why’s he so happy?
“Ren? What is it?” She reaches for the shiny on his exposed ear… And slaps the side of his face. “Ren. I know you didn’t mean to do it, but we don’t slap people. Especially in a place that can hurt them.”
“Gib shiny!” She demands. She needs it, even if Dad won’t let her! She’ll just take it!
“Give you what? My earrings?” He motions to the shiny.
Ren nods. “Gib!”
Dad smiles at her. “Do you want them because they’re pretty, or because you want your ears to be pretty, too?”
“Ears shiny!” Dad seems happy even though she hit him. Weird.
Dad puts her down, kneeling to meet her eye to eye. “Okay. We can do that, but you’re going to have to follow two rules, ‘kay?” She nods. As long as it’s not too hard she can do it! “First, you gotta make sure you sit still for it. No biting and no wiggling.” She nods. It’s probably something she can do. “And second, you gotta leave them alone. Otherwise your ears will be angry.” Hmmmmm. So she can have the shiny but she can’t touch? “If you need help or want to change them, let me or Luca know and we can help you.”
Ren thinks. If that’s all it takes to get the shiny then it’s easy! “Yis!” She can do that.
“’Kay. Let me talk with auntie Aloe and hopefully we’ll be able to get you some shiny tomorrow!” But that’s so long! She’ll have to go to sleep and everything!
“Now!” She demands.
Dad’s careful as he moves to pat her head. “As much as I’d love to, Luca will kill me if you get an infection.” She doesn’t know what that means. “And besides, we need to find you some shinies, don’t we? How about we go see if we can find something you like before dinner, and then we cat make your ears pretty tomorrow?”
She considers the offer. “No now?”
Dad smiles in a way so unlike all the adults in the street. “No. We have to wait until tomorrow so your auntie Aloe has time to prepare. She’s going to help, so she needs time.” Hmmmm.
“Find now?”
“Yeah, we can find some now.” Ren grins, showing off her sharp teeth.
“Wat in-fak-ton mean?”
“It means you have an injury that gets sick and it can make you sick, too.” Oh! She’s had that before! The nice old lady with the weird elf man helped her with it once before she ran away! “Would you prefer to walk, or would you like carried?” Huh? Dad’s asking? But people don’t ask to pick her up. They just do and then the pain starts and then she has to bite them so she can run away.
“Walk!” Dad seems fine with that, so he leads the way at a pace that Ren can keep up with. She’s seen a lot of this city, but never much around here with all the big buildings with the people who like to hurt her. It’s always better to stay away from here when she can, but that wasn’t always possible since sometimes she had to sneak around here for food.
There’s a lot of people in town. She doesn’t like it. She’s going to get hurt because people are always mean to her out here. Dad doesn’t hurt her, so she clings to his side. Her eyes dart around, keeping everything she can in her sight. It’s weird how much people avoid Dad.
She can feel eyes on her. Where? “Ren? Everything okay?” She jumps, looking up at Dad. Hesitating, she struggles to decide. She doesn’t like the eyes on her, but she doesn’t wanna be trapped…
Her gaze snaps to a certain man and her blood freezes. What’s he doing here? She’s done so well at avoiding him for so long. He’s going to hurt her. He grins at here like every other time.
“Ren.” Dad’s in front of her, taking up all of her view. “Tell me what’s wrong?” Her breath hitches, and she finds herself buried in his chest a mere moment later. Safe arms wrap around her. Tears prick at her eyes. “It’ll be alright. Dad’s here. Would you tell me what’s bothering you?”
She blinks, vision blurry, and looks up at him. Dad’s not going to hurt her? Even now? She considers, thinking about it.
“Bad… Bad man.” Rubbing harshly at her tears, she peers around Dad so she can point him out. She doesn’t know what Dad can even do about it, but now Dad knows.
Dad pulls her in tighter. “Are you okay if I pick you up?” She doesn’t answer, but she does grab on to him as tightly as possible. Dad stands up, pulling her into his arms. She feels safer than she did a few moments ago. Is… Is this what a family is supposed to feel like?
“Now, where’s the bad man?” Dad’s voice is sharp and dangerous, but Ren’s never felt safer. She blinks looking around to point out the man that’s hurt her so many times. Dad strolls on up to him, glaring him down with fun sparkly dancing across his skin.
“I see you’ve found the street toy. Would you mind let--” Oh… Dad’s got his hand through the bad man’s chest. He pulls it out, then turns to stroll down the street. “We’ve got to find you some shinies, right?” Ren nods, wondering why Dad’s not mentioning it.
“Yeah…” Why didn’t Dad give her to that man? Everyone else would have since he pays them. Dad didn’t even give him a chance…
“Daddy?” Dad lights up, grinning happily. “Why you do dat?”
“’Cause he was being an asshole.” Dad says. “’Sides, I’m not going to let someone hurt my kids.” Oh. Okay. “Now! We have to find you some shiny!”
Ren holds her pretty silver shinies while she waits for Dad and Auntie to finish whatever they’re preparing. She even sits there mostly patiently. Auntie Aloe appears in front of her. “Ready, sweety?” Ren nods, handing her the shiny. Auntie pats her head reassuringly. “Alright. Now, what’s going to happen is you’ll feel a little bit of a pinch, and then I’m going to spend some time to make sure it heals properly. When I finish with one side, I’ll move on to the other, okay?” She nods. “If you want or need a break, just let me or your Dad know.” Another nod.
Auntie starts, moving Ren’s hair out of the way so that she can see to work. Auntie was right, it did hurt a little. And then the sparkly showed up! She waits patiently, watching what sparkles she can see. It takes a while, but Ren manages to sit mostly still the entire time.
Once Auntie finishes the first one, Ren asks for a drink while Auntie prepares for the one on the other side. She takes a minute or two to recover even though Ren’s ready now! Auntie smiles at her, starting up the process again soon enough.
Finally, Ren’s allowed to look at her new ear shinies. She can’t help but grin at it. The silver’s so pretty! “Tank you daddy!”
“Auntie!” Oh. It’s Fey. What’s he doing here? Ren pouts as the purple boy strolls in.
“Oh, Fey, sweetie, what is it?”
“Can I—“ Fey looks at her, cocking his head curiously, “Can I have those, too?”