milliways_bar | (no subject)

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There is a flash of light. Small, quick, probably no one noticed it.

"What...."

But, if you happened to have noticed, where the light flashed, there are now, for some reason, two little pale feet peeking out from two legs of a pair of light purple pajama pants.

"....Um...."

There are two little white hands splayed on the bar floor, currently drawing back under two light purple pajama sleeves.

"....When did... I..."

There is an eight... [or nine?] year old little girl sitting dumbfounded on the floor of the bar at the end of the universe. A second ago she sat on a bed in a house in Tokyo. And her dark hair sweeps away from her face, revealing an expression of confusion... fitting. Hotaru blinks, and, too surprised to move, just sits and says,

"How did I get put into Milliways....?"

[OOM: of possible interest, to singer/songwriters]

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The flash catches his attention as he's walking through with a bowl of strawberries.

What the...

He stops, the cigarette dangling from his lips almost but not quite falling onto the floor. "Hotaru?"

Hotaru's large violet eyes drift all the way up from her vantage point on the floor to that shock of lovely messy green hair in the sky.

Oniisan.

Hotaru gasps. Her face lights up at the sight of Spike, but - still a bit in shock - all she does is stutter, "Aaa... aaa - Onii."

"...Imoutosan?" He's not quite shocked enough to drop Beth's strawberries on the floor, but he sure as hell stops in his tracks. It's been... months and months and months since he saw her, and he figured she was just gone for good; the bar has a way of doing that with people he knows. Hell, he's lucky Beth came back.

He never expected two miracles, but this is Hotaru, his first little sister ever, his whole life, and she's sitting right here in a pair of pajamas looking like she just fell out of the sky. Dropping to his knees, he sets down the strawberry bowl and reaches for her shoulders. "Hey. Hey, Hotaru. Are you okay?"

"...ehlodh.... shaotu...."

singing. Do you hear it too, oniisan??

Why... why am I... the only one who's...

"Oniisan! How did you get into my bedroom?" She quips.

"Huh?" Spike glances around the room. "This isn't your bedroom, imoutosan, it's the bar. I think you're sleeping. Come on, wake up. You want me to get you anything?"

Hell, he's got the bowl of strawberries right there; he can get another one for Beth if Hotaru wants these. "This isn't Japan. It's the end of the universe. Remember? You just haven't been here in a really, really long time."

She grins brightly and her eyes light up, before she tumbles, giggling. Her arms wrap around her sides. She lays with black hair draped across the floor and says, "I'm playing with you, Spikeoniisan!! Haha!"

She giggles a little more, then she sits back up slowly, folding some of that black hair behind her ear. She's still smiling as she says, "I know. I know....

"Don't really know how, but... I know."

Then she gets into a kneeling position, gently lifts his strawberries bowl from the floor and into her arms, and stands up, dusting off her bottom as she does so. She cradles the bowl with an inquisitive look to him.

"Really, really long? ....How long exactly...?"

Milliways is a strange mistress. In her world, it's been... long. ....But not 'really long.'

Scratching his chin, he tries to think how long it might have been. "Well... let's see. Was Beth pregnant last time you were here?"

That's pretty much the standard by which he measures everything these days. He pushes the little voice that insists hey, asshole, she's been pregnant the whole time you've known her... at least I think she has to a place far, far away where he doesn't have to listen to it.

"How long has it been for you?"

"Oh, so these strawberries are for her, like I thought! ...Right?"

She narrows her eyes, "Spikeoniisan, you're not feeding yourself strawberries while she's hungry all alone in her room are you?" And thereafter bursts out immediately in another little giggle. "Just kidding."

A cursory glance deep down into the bowl. "She's pregnant. ....Hm."

"I've only been gone a month!" she gasps. "You are one sly dog!!" she says with gaping mouth.

Well, fuck. She's being silly: is this what he has to look forward to with Junior?

Shit.

"No, imoutosan. It's been a lot longer than a month. She's due in just a couple weeks." He gives the front door a cursory glance, which might actually be more of an unmuttered curse, come to think of it. "Time works differently in here than it does out there."

She used to know that. At least he thinks she did.

A fuck of a lot's happened since the last time he saw her.

"I know.

"For you, it has been a lot longer. I spoke to Arithon'roth'asan once, and he had been gone for years...." her voice trails off.

"What are you going to name her?" she smiles to him. She takes a strawberry, and places the bowl back into his hands.

"We... haven't really decided yet."

Beth Junior. It's the only sane choice, but he's uncomfortable about presuming anything any more. The whole not my kid/definitely my kid thing replays in his brain -- that happens at least once an hour every single day -- but it's not Hotaru's business. Still, he has to offer up something.

"She's a girl, though. The baby's a girl." He glances down at the bowl of berries in his hands, but it doesn't hold any answers to the question of the perfect name.

Not a single one.

She lowers a head a bit. Her bangs blur her upwards glance at him.

You're being strange oniisan... she worries.

Hmm... "I... see," she smiles gently and lifts her head.

"Hey."

He snaps out of it. "Where the hell have you been?" It's not that he's mad at her. In fact, he's pretty damn relieved. "I thought I wasn't ever going to see you again. Looks like you landed here from the middle of a nice night's sleep or something, imoutosan."

It's almost a challenge to her; you tell me yours, then I'll tell you mine.

"Oh... I had schoolwork... and... yeah..." her eyes avert elsewhere. "Did you worry about me?..." she flushes.

"I've been at home with my parents, and Chibiusa sometimes... I..."

She sneezes suddenly. Bare feet on a cold grimy floor... "...was in bed. Looking out the window..."

And my thoughts strayed to you...

"And I was thinking about singing... that I've heard."

I hear it here, too.

"Spikeoniisan, sorry for troubling you," her cheeks flush deeply.

"Hey." This time, his voice is awfully damn soft, all things considered; he reaches forward and touches her on the arm but only for a moment. There was a time she couldn't stand that, and he remembers all about it. He knows what it's like not to want to be touched, to not be able to stand having other people that close. "Hell yeah, I was worried about you. Shit. It's not every day your little sister gets absorbed by some purple monster, knocks you out, disappears, then comes back different... and then disappears again and shows up months and months later in the middle of the night dressed in pajamas talking about singing. You tell me that's normal."

There's no annoyance, though. He really is concerned. It's just hard for him to show that to very many people.

"Ah..." her mouth gapes open just slightly. Then she smiles warmly, tilting her head to the side. "You're right! It isn't..."

But, all things considered and all, she says, "I'm sorry. And thank you!"

A thought. "You know. I..." she blinks. "I'm not very normal." She takes his hand with hers, (full rememberance of those times.

but I'm not the same person, oniisan.)

and leads him... to the bar.

"Bar, slippers, please," she whimpers. Bar obliges. Purple slippers. "T-thank you," she slips them on.

Scratching his head, Spike lets himself be led by the hand; there aren't many people who get to do that with him. Just Beth, really. Silently, he watches the exchange about slippers, waits while she puts them on, and then puts his hands on her shoulders.

"You know, Hotaru, you don't owe me any explanations, really. I know this place is fucked up." Shit, she's young; he shouldn't talk like this in front of her but he can't help it. He fucking hates the way time jumps around for people at this place. "Besides, normal's way overrated. I guess I just want to know if you're okay."

Shit yeah, he missed her and shit yeah, he worried about her. Not every minute of every day, but he's thought about her a lot.

"-aimeliah... aoder... sao..."

She grins, happy that he doesn't pull away.

'She' didn't want anyone to know. But my body is fine.

Then she nods in response, slowly.

He's no mind reader; all he knows is that she looks glad and she's nodding. Those are both good things, he guesses; she's always been kind of hard to read but he doesn't think she's really intentionally deceptive. Besides, he has no idea how old she is now or anything, or what the deal was with the shit that happened a long time ago with that purple... entity or whatever it was.

Maybe some day she'll tell him.

"You... need anything? A blanket? A cup of tea? Anything?"

"I would love a blanket," she says. "It is kind of cold in just... this," she motions to her cotton outfit.

When will the bar return me? Will it return me? How did I just get here, and how long will it be...? She quickly wonders to herself, and her brow furrows just a bit as she frustrates herself with these questions.

She hugs her arms, (chilly). "Um, oniisan. Have you got something you want to ask me?..."

I remember I was distant before. Hesitant. I didn't want to hurt you. But it's been long enough, now.

"I'm willing to tell you about 'that time.' ....If you were wondering." She looks a little unsure about that last part. She's not *exactly* a mind reader.

....

Well, not all the time.

He's a guy: it's a relief to be able to do something concrete and actual for her. "Bar, how about a nice soft blanket for Hotaru? That'd be really good." When one appears, he opens it up and wraps it around her slim shoulders.

Then, he taps out a smoke for himself and lights it, and he doesn't quite look her in the eyes. Instead, he opts to just smoke for a moment. It's something he hasn't done much at all in the past couple months (although a bit more lately, because old habits die really hard).

After a long moment's silence, he nods. "Sure. Tell me about it."

"It's a long and painful story," a bit more maturity drops into her voice as she says this. It shifts her features, imperceptibly, like a mask or a facade has become transparent, for an instant.

"I... I don't know where to start," she says.

"Well, you know what they say... the beginning's usually a pretty good place. You want to sit over there by the fire or something? Relax?"

Shit, he doesn't know what to tell her. He's not the answer guy for little girls or anything. "But if you change your mind and don't want to tell me, you don't have to." Hell, it's just another mystery. He can live with it.

She shakes her head slowly, "I do want to. And, I'll start at the beginning.."

She looks over to the seats by the fireplace. The couch... the table and chair, where she first really met Spike so long ago, when she returned the jacket he had lay over her.

"Yes, let's go over there," she grins up at him.

He follows her gaze to the fireplace: they can do that. She's bundled up like some kind of mummy in that blanket with her little purple slippered feet poking out from the bottom; he shuffles her over to the couch and gets her settled there, tucking that blanket in around her before sitting down himself.

There are no expectant looks though, and no impatient tapping of fingertips on the couch back or anything. Instead, he turns to her and says a few soft words. "You know, imoutosan, we all have a lot of shit we could be talking about. All of us. So you just say what you feel like, and screw the rest. You don't owe me anything just because I asked, all right?"