Chapter Text
There was a very strange man looking at Hadley right now, and she wasn’t very sure if she liked him. He was rather quiet, and her Dad hadn’t seemed to notice him yet. Her Dad told her to never talk to strangers with very few exceptions, and this man didn’t seem like one of those exceptions. Well, Hadley couldn’t talk, anyway. But it was the principal of the matter.
Hadley narrows her eyes at the stranger. He narrows his eyes back at her in return. She squeezes her Dad’s hand tighter, and he looks down at her, raising an eyebrow.
“What are you staring at, baby?” Vox asks his daughter. He didn’t have his glasses, and the stranger was fairly far away- so of course he couldn’t make out that there was a whole person staring at Hadley through the woods, especially since only the stranger’s head was visible.
Hadley gives her Dad a very unimpressed look.
Vox sighs, shaking his head. “I don’t know what you’re trying to tell me,” Vox says.
Hadley gives a frustrated noise, pointing at the stranger. Her Dad squints, but he’s clear he can’t see what she sees from here, not without his glasses.
Vox has no idea what his daughter is trying to show him, and that fact seems to be frustrating Hadley very much. She puts a hand on her hip, not at all pleased with him.
Vox can’t help but laugh at that. She huffs at him for that. “Sorry, sorry. It’s hard to take you seriously when you’re doing that,” Vox says fondly.
Hadley sticks her tongue out at him, and then turns her head away.
Vox raises an eyebrow at her. Well, no one ever claimed toddlers made sense. “Alright. I think it’s someone’s naptime.” Vox says as he notices his daughter’s upset increase.
Hadley is very disappointed with her Dad right now. She is not tired, and she is certainly not cranky, but he isn’t listening very well.
Vox picks her up, and she whines for a moment. She turns her head to glare at him for only a few moments, but when she turns her head back around the stranger is gone..well, she did not like that one bit. She clings to her Dad harder, because she’s never seen someone move that fast, especially without making any noise. Frankly, it scared her.
It made things more difficult that she couldn’t tell her Dad what she was scared of. Instead, she simply whines, hiding her face in her Dad’s chest.
“Aw, c’mon kiddo..” Vox murmurs, rubbing her back gently. “I wish you could tell me what’s wrong…well, I guess you are, in a way. I just can’t understand it.”
Vox gently pats her head.
“I think that’s enough of a walk for you today.” He says gently. “Let’s get you home,”
Hadley keeps a close eye for a reappearance of the stranger over her Dad’s shoulder, her eyes narrowed. She did not like that man one bit.
-
When Vox arrives home, the moment he unlocks the door there’s a white german shepherd rushing at him- his Shok.wav. Shok.wav sniffs at him, simultaneously excited that he’s home but also needing to know where he’s been.
“Down, boy. I’ve got the kid,” Vox says, firm.
Shok.wav immediately sits, looking up at Vox patiently.
Vox takes his shoes off at the door. “Val? You home?”
There’s a sound of Valentino’s heels coming down the hall, and it’s always irritated Vox how he insists on wearing his shoes inside the house, but at this point it wasn’t worth bringing up unless he wanted to start a fight, as Valentino never listened.
Valentino walks over to them. “Hi, baby,” Valentino croons, obviously talking to their toddler.
Hadley still has her arms tightly wrapped around Vox’s neck, clinging like her life depends on it, but she turns her head a little to look at Valentino.
“What’s up with you, hmm? You look like you saw a ghost,” Valentino murmurs to the toddler, patting her head.
“She got fussy all of a sudden when we were walking down the street.” Vox says. “I thought maybe she just needed a nap, but now I’m not sure.”
Valentino hums thoughtfully at that, looking at Vox now. “Any idea what got her so on edge?” Valentino asks.
“She was staring and pointing at something, but I couldn’t really make anything out..” Vox murmurs. “I think she got a bit frustrated at me for that. I don’t know if anything was actually there.”
Valentino blinks at him. “...well, that’s creepy as shit.” He remarks bluntly.
Vox shrugs. “I don’t know, Val. It could’ve been anything. She’s two. She’s angry at anything and everything,” he replies.
“I guess so.” Valentino says. “But she normally gets distracted and forgets about it in seconds. It isn’t like her to be shaken like this by something,”
Vox shifts Hadley in his arms. “I don’t think it’s that big a deal.”
Hadley disagrees. Hadley, in fact, thinks that it was a very big deal- but she couldn’t exactly tell him as such.