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end-of-reset · 3 years

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Written Special, A Blast From the Past

3-year-old Chara finds the only adult in the house injured.

This is NOT NECESSARY for understanding the story, it is just for fun, and it was a blast to write baby Chara’s thought process. They are very silly and very adorable. Let me know if you liked this!

TWs: blood, injury, hospital mention, pregnancy mentions

”Appa” is their dad and “Halabeoji” and is their grandfather.

He was taking WAY too long to get that drink.

No drink took this long. And if it did, it had better be a really good drink. Like the canned stuff that Chara wasn’t allowed to have anymore because they “set the floor on fire” and “ate an entire book” and “banged on the piano for five hours” like those were bad things.

Okay, eating the book wasn’t such a good idea. It made their stomach hurt. But that’s the reason normal drinks exist! They don’t end with obscene energy highs and book eating.

Hmmm...

Chara slapped their hands on the wall. Bang, bang, bang. Their irritation grew more and more with each slap of their tiny hands. “HAaaaaalll-AAAHB-OHHHHjeee…” The wall rang hollow. No grandfather. No comfort.

Chara wiggled in place, bouncing their upper body until the springs creaked. All this noise, and still nothing? Sheisse.

Chara tried bouncing one last time. The springs creaked weakly. Ugh! It was the bed’s fault, really. It didn’t bounce, it didn’t make as much noise... But the crib was for little kids, and Chara was one of the big kids now.

Just not in size. M-e-t-a-p-h-o-r.

This big kid bed wasn’t exactly fun, though. It didn’t have the little bars like the crib did. Chara got to gnaw on those bars and hit toys on them. They could be SO loud using those bars! This new bed just had pillows and those tasted like spit after too much chewing. Boring!

Chara stood up. “WHERE ARE YOUUUU. HELLO?”

No answer.

Chara tried again, and again, and again, shifting through all the languages they could use so far. “<WHERE ARE YOU?>” They repeated.

Nobody came.

Chara frowned. “Where are you?” they tried using their inside voice, but there was no answer. If Chara used the inside voice, people HAD to answer. Otherwise, what was the point of the inside voice?

…No, really…. why didn’t anyone answer?

Halabeoji told Chara that everyone was gone because the new babies were trying to come early. Just like Chara, but even earlier, and there’s TWO of them, so the hospital had to make them them stop. The grown-ups all thought Chara didn’t know the babies were coming out of Mother, but Chara knew. They read about it. The babies were gonna be squeezed out and look like little raisin people. Everyone looked like raisin people at first, and then they get stretchy when they grew up. Would Chara get stretchy and tall, too? Must investigate later.

Hmm... The only other person in the house was Chara’s sister. She was stuck in her room, probably pouting. She was being all grumpy again! And she’d even got a DRESS as a gift from Halmeoni. Mother didn’t like that very much, but Chara could see their sister’s eyes light up over the frilly piece of fabric. Sure, it was pretty and looked like it tasted like candy, but could it make noise? Could it talk? If not, it was useless.

But she liked it.

And yet, not even the dress could save her mood once Mother went to the hospital. Maybe ‘cause the babies were getting all the attention. It was always about attention.

“MIN-MIN!” Chara yelled. “YOU THERE?”

No answer.

Chara took a deep breath. “MIN-MIN…. MINNIEEEEEE…. MIN-MIN MINNIE MIN MIIIN……..”

She finally had enough after a round of this. “What do you WANT?!“ she yelled, her voice coming back high-pitched and angry despite the muffling walls.

"WHERE’S HALABEOJI?”

“I DUNNO! YOU ASK HIM! DON’T ASK ME!”

Chara heard a door slam. Uh, oh, Min-Min sure was lucky Mother and Appa weren’t home. Or she’d be in big trouble for that.

Hey…why didn’t Halabeoji say anything? He didn’t like loud noises, either… and he didn’t like when Min or Chara were yelling.

Chara hit the wall again, mindlessly. Well. Since nobody was coming, Chara would come to him.

They slid off their bed, wobbling slightly when their feet hit the ground. Walking still felt a little funny sometimes. Their legs weren’t used to holding their body upright all the time.... Crawling was easier and it looked like Chara was a bug, which made it even more fun.

They could pretend to be a spy bug and steal Min’s dolls for future torture and/or chewing. The dolls were brightly colored and smelled like fruit, okay. There was fruit somewhere in the darn things… And someday, Chara would find it and eat it.

Chara dropped down from their bed and scrambled to the door, pushing it open and peering out.

Silence.

Schweigen, silenco, chimmug...

“Haaaaalaaaabeeeeoooojiii?” They tried again.

“Stop YELLING!” Their sister yelled herself- oh, was that i-r-o-n-y?- and kicked her wall loudly. She was across from Chara’s room, so they saw the wall shudder with her tiny, weak little kicks. Later they would show her how to really kick a wall. She probably wouldn’t listen, because she never did, but they could at least say they tried.

Sigh, why were big sisters LIKE this?

“Where is he?” Chara asked. “He not answering!”

“Why would he wanna? You ANNOYING.”

“No, no, Min-Min, yooooooou’re in-se-cure,” Chara stuck their tongue out. “Un-sich-er...”

“Whazzat mean...”

“I-N-S-E-C-U-R-E~ It means you-”

“I DON’T CARE!”

There was a muffled scream. Probably into her pillow. She did that a lot when she was having a tantrum. She didn’t know that she should be biting the pillows instead of screaming into them. Biting felt much better sometimes.

The wall shook one last time before everything went quiet.

Chara pulled themself to their feet.

They looked around and walked down the hallway, wobbly on their legs but managing to remain standing.

Hmm. The house was NEVER this quiet. Maybe Chara could listen... and try to hear him. Like a dog. Like the neighbors giant dog that was Chara’s actual best friend (unlike Grandmother’s cat... the one that hated Chara.) Chara’s nose wasn’t like a dog’s nose, but maybe if they tried to listen…

Chara cupped their hands around their ears.

This was more like a dog. They pretended to be a dog like this a lot.

They’d probably sneak up and surprise Halabeoji when they found him. Maybe not TOO big a surprise, but a little fun one.

As they listened, there it was- haggard breathing. Chara put their hands down and scurried after the noise, sticking their tongue out and imagining they were tasting the air, like a snake. A dog-snake, that was cool.

The scent of metal hit them first- straight up their nose, so intense they thought their tongue was ACTUALLY tasting it. Chara slowed, closing their mouth. Metal....

That could be something scary. Or it could be their grandfather playing. Either way, they were on edge until they reached the kitchen. They turned the corner, and-- OW! Chara stumbled , catching themself on the wall. They turned to look at what nearly tripped them... some legs?

Chara let their gaze travel up the expanse of the long, long legs. When their eyes reached the white button-up, they knew who it was. Their grandfather’s fallen body- facedown and still.

Chara frowned.

“Hello! Hello,” they repeated, grabbing his pant leg and shaking it. “Hello? You are asleep during drink time! S’pposed to be back now!”

He didn’t answer. Chara moved forward, stopping stiffly as red filled their vision. Ah, that was blood? All around his head and the floor… smelling so intensely of sweet metal.

And their feet felt warm.

Chara looked down.

Chara had never seen so much blood. And now it was ON them. Huh. Was it supposed to be so… Thick? It felt warm between their toes, its copper scent wafting up to their nose and filling it with the strong scent of pennies. Chara didn’t know that much about bodies or about blood, but their mind still shivered slightly from the pervasive feeling of wrongness.

“Blood... ‘s blood.” Chara mumbled. Blut, pi, ketsueki... “Bleeding is bad… That how things die.”

What should they do? Tell Min-Min? No, she would just scream. Screaming wasn’t fun unless Chara was doing it. Min always had to be dramatic about it... Tears and everything.

Chara paused, remembering something they read.

“If you bleed lots, you die forever…”

Then he’d go away. Chara didn’t want that! They liked him and his stories and big hands and big shoes the size of Chara’s whole leg. Maybe if it was someone else. If Min went away, that wouldn’t be too bad, because she was always whiny. Was there a way to replace her with him? Wait, then everyone would be sad because Min-Min was dead. Chara didn’t want that, either. Hmm.

He was still breathing, right? So he wasn’t dead, but hurt. Maybe he broke a bone in his head.

Chara kept watching, squinting. If he was dead, then his SOUL would be showing. It wasn’t, so he had to still be alive...

If only they could see it. Chara didn’t know how to see SOULs yet. This is why Mother should be teaching them! What if someone else died or bled in front of Chara? They needed to be able to DO something about it!

Maybe there was something else Chara could do.....What could help? Maybe the hospital. Hospitals fix people who might die. Did that mean the auto shop where Auntie worked was a hospital? Must investigate later.

Chara stepped back. The hospital was HALFWAY across the village... it was a WHOLE four kilometers away. Chara could maybe walk that distance if they tried really, really hard, but they couldn’t drag Halabeoji ALL that way. He’d get blood EVERYWHERE, and people would want to ask about that! Then everyone would ask about how Mother was doing, and look at how BIG Chara’s getting, what’s their favorite color- all DUMB questions.

No, walking wouldn’t work. Chara needed to call someone for help... They had to call the emergency number that told the hospital to send an ambulence to their house. If they made the call, the people would be here really quickly, and they’d probably want to talk about boring stuff, but at least they’d get Halabeoji to the hospital and fix him before his SOUL fell out.

Or his brain. Whichever came first.

Chara looked around the kitchen. There, there it was- The house phone had been carefully hung up on the wall a good five feet from the ground and away from the easily-climbable counters. Chara eyed it. They’d only used that phone once. One time. Uno, ichi, il, eins...

Hmmm... All the other phones they’d used were flippy ones. Those phones were all dead and didn’t do anything. As long as Chara “didn’t throw them across the goddamn room AGAIN” then they got to play with them.

That rule was dumb. These phones didn’t let Chara call anyone any other way. They had to be used as noisemakers if they were meant to be of any use!

Though… it was fun to pretend to talk to someone about how smelly big sisters were.

Especially when the conversation took place in front of a big sister. Oh, hello, friendly dead snake that Chara found in the basement that will make Mother scream later, did you know lil’ Mini Minnie Min-Min took foooooreeeeever to be potty trained? Guess who learned how to use it at 2 and a half years. No, obviously it wasn’t Min, she could never! Hey, hey, Did you know the word for snake in German was schlange? It sounded like a bad word. What if Min knew there was a schlange within 20 feet of her? She’d cryyyyy…

Yup, phones were easy stuff. And the number for phone emergencies was the easiest.

Chara scurried over to the neatly organized table and grabbed an adult chair. The one made out of sticks, not wood blocks, because the others were too heavy to push. Chara had tried. They could knock over the high-chair, but it made lots of noise and then Chara got yelled at. The kind of yelling that you aren’t allowed to yell back at.

They dragged it over to the well, grunting with exertion. Their legs were already feeling wobbly, but nothing like they used to. That’s because Chara PRACTICED until their legs got big and strong. They were gonna use their feet to break watermelons someday, like the lady on TV did. Chara puffed out when the chair was in place, eyeing their handiwork with a smug smile. Okay, stairs. Good.

They climbed up onto it and swiftly grabbed the phone. It was a smooth oblong object with glowing little numbers… so tiny and bright…

Chara blinked. A little light shone from the number screen at the top. The lights were very pretty. This must be the look of a phone that was alive. If they opened it, would it bleed, too? Would it light up even MORE? Chara raised their arm, about to throw it down- No, NO, wait! No, they needed it ALIVE.

For now.

Hmm. Last time they called Mother and Appa using this phone, it was because they learned how to say bad words in French (a gros mot) and wanted permission to say them to Min-Min.

Puis-je dire à Min de casse-toi....

The answer was no. Even though French was REALLY hard and Chara could barely learn it! Those two didn’t understand just HOW important it was that Chara said the bad words to Min. Sigh. Grown-ups...

And after that, they put the phone high out of Chara’s reach! Such a shame. It’s a good thing Chara was so strong and knew about chairs.

Chara pressed the buttons. They made fun noises, so fun that Chara almost kept pressing them just to hear the little music notes. Music was fun... this phone was like a tiny piano with far fewer keys! Keys that called people if you put in the right numbers.

9-1-1.

It rang for a single moment, then a voice rang out of it. Calls rarely took longer than a few rings here.

“Emergency services, how many I help you?”

“Hi.” Chara blinked. “I need am-buuuu-lens. You gotta send one.”

There was a pause. “U-um. How old are you, sweetie?”

The person must’ve realized Chara was little. They tried to make their voice sound deeper so they sounded bigger.

“Don’t need it for me. It for Halabeoji. He down on the floor and his head bloody.”

“….Have you told your Mama or Papa?”

“No. Them both at the hospital with you, making sure the babies don’t come out too fast.” Chara paused. “That would be bad,” they added, in case the phone person didn’t know. Sometimes grown-ups didn’t know simple things. That was okay, as long as they didn’t waste Chara’s time for TOO long.

“Yes, it would, um.. I’ve got your location, is this where you liv-”

Chara didn’t let the person finish. They didn’t need the other person telling them the score. They recited their address themself.

“Oh! Yes, that’s right. You must be ██████’s oldest, right? Mina…?”

“I’m Chara.” Chara frowned. Mother’s real name wasn’t important. “Did you get the ambulens?"

"But… Chara is 3...?”

“3 and three-twelves. Cuz it’s been three month. Twelve months in year.” Chara knew math. This impressed people. They could also count to 100, which also impressed people, because grown-ups found simple things very impressive when they were not at all. Still, Chara made sure to count whenever they thought an adult needed to be reminded of just how many numbers Chara knew, which was often.

“...Y....Y-yes. It’ll be there very soon. Could you answer some questions while we wait?”

“Yeah, okay, as long as they good quest-ons. U-s-e-f-u-l.” They better not be silly questions or stuff about Chara’s age. Chara being 3 was not important! They would be 4 in a year and even older the next. So boring! “Don’t wanna talk ‘bout useless stuff. Did you know useful only got one l even though it "full”?“

"That’s nice, honey…. u-um. they’re good questions, don’t worry.” The person didn’t acknowledge their observation. Probably just jealous that Chara noticed it first.

“Hmmm.”

“Okay…. Um, is he breathing? Can… You tell?”

Chara thought for a moment. They couldn’t hear anything, and they couldn’t cup their ears right now. Had to do something else. Something smart.

Outside, people licked their fingers to feel the wind. And breathing was just mouth wind.

They licked their finger and put it by his nose. It was weak, but they felt a warm gush of air against the wet skin.

Chara grinned. Breathing meant he wasn’t dead yet. (And yet, the not-dead phone didn’t breathe? Must investigate later.) “Yes. Slow and heavy. Should I roll him? He bigger than ANYONE ever.”

“No, you don’t have to do that, sweetie.”

“Next.”

“What?”

“Next quest-on.”

“...” Was that a giggle? “Okay. The injured person is bleeding, right?”

“Yup. From his head.” Tête, cabeza, meoli, kopf..

“…Well… do you think you could put a clean towel on his head and push down as hard as you can?”

“…I gotta be a band-aid?”

“…Yeah, basically.”

Chara looked around. There were some towels hung up on the wall- the clean ones were always put on the wall, kind of like they were being displayed. Chara walked over, grabbed, and pulled until one came down. “Gotta towel. Gonna be the band-aid.

“Good! See if you can find where the bleeding is, okay? Find where the blood is coming from, if- if you can, if you can’t, you should go get your sister-”

“Hold on.” Chara put the phone on his back. So it wouldn’t be on the floor. They crept closer, ignoring the blood squelching between their toes.

‘Go get your sister...’ HAH. Like Min would do anything.

Chara couldn’t see anything from the back. It wasn’t nice to pull people’s hair, but they grabbed a handful from his scalp anyways and pulled with all of their might. Blood dripped down their grandfather’s forehead. An oozing gash sat up against the crown of his scalp, smeared blood surrounding it. Chara wobbled, their arm tiring quickly from the weight of his head. They shoved the towel underneath him and let his head back down, breathing heavily once the pressure on their arms decreased.

They huffed, picking the phone back up.

“Big cut on his front head. I can’t push that, so I put towel under. His head too heavy.”

“So his head is down on the towel? Is the towel bunched up?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, that’s good. You did a great job.”

Chara rolled their eyes. They didn’t need to be told the obvious.

“ Try to press down on the back of his head, so the cut presses into the towel.”

“Okay.” Chara did so. “Next.”

“So, um…How old is the injured person? Is he your uncle…?

"He’s a grandfather. He’s 71.”

“Is he your Papa’s Papa?”

“...sure.” Chara wrinkled their nose. “Those are wrong names. But sure.”

“...” Another pause. Sheesh. “When did you find him like this?”

“Now. He said he gonna go get a drink and then didn’t be back. So I yelled and he didn’t come. So I went and find him.” Chara looked at his fallen body. They slid out of the chair, wobbling their way over to him.

“Do you know how long he’s been injured…? It’s okay if you don’t.”

Chara patted his shoulder. Just in case he could feel it. He might need the comfort. Since he didn’t get his drink.

“It was the noon when he gone outta my room. That’s drink time. I watch a Ger-mun video three times. The video ten minutes… So ten three times. Thirty minutes. Then I yelled at him to come. He didn’t. Then I went and found him and got phone after I made stairs.”

"I see, to reach the phone?”

“Well, yeah,” they scoffed. “I not allowed to reach it. But this 'merg-an-cee.”

“It is, you did the right thing!” Ugh, this person didnt need to tell Chara that. “Okay, so… Does he have any health issues that you know of? You don’t have to answer if you don’t know.”

Jeez, this phone person thought Chara knew NOTHING!

“Uuuummm… He hadda take medicines for his blood. Medicines not helping his blood right now. That blood is still on the floor.” Chara paused. “Nobody but him getsta eat them red pill thingies. I asked.”

And adults said they knew how to share. But Chara didn’t get any of the pill candy? Psh. H-y-p-o-c-r-i-t-i-c-a-l.

“Are you alone? He’s the only adult there, right?”

“Min-Min is in her room being grumpy. She not big enough to be grown-up yet.”

"Oh, that’s so cute, is that what you call your sister?”

Chara grumbled. “You said only good questions.” Why was everyone always so interested in BORING stuff? Min was never gonna go away. What Chara called her was normal. None of this was anything COOL and it certainly wasn’t helping Halabeoji die slower!

"Y-you’re right. You are Chara, right?”

They rolled their eyes. “Yeah.” Chara tried not to sound annoyed, because maybe the person on the phone was being polite. Maybe these were mandatory questions everyone had to answer. But they were still bad questions and the person deserved to feel bad for them. “When’s help gonna be here?”

“Soon. Go unlock your front door, okay?”

Chara stood up and scurried out of the kitchen and to the front door. They tried to reach up and grab the handle, but it was locked tight with the white doorhandle helmet that made it hard to grab and open. They fumbled with it for a moment, their face tightening as they tried and failed to get ahold of the knob. “I can’t. It got the lock helmet thing.”

"Okay, so… they’ll have to break in. Don’t worry, Joe’ll fix it!”

Everyone loved and knew Joe, the village’s architect. He build and fixed everything. His beard smelled like tanning solution and Chara didn’t like him because he tried to talk to them like they were friends. Chara wasn’t friends with people who smelled.

They chewed on their lower lip, deciding not to comment on the whole Joe thing. Chara would just avoid him when he came. He was apparently used to kids liking him, because the last time he came and Chara avoided him, he acted like his feelings were hurt. Baby.

“Should I tell Min-Min?”

“Probably… You should also get ready to go. Put some shoes on, okay? And-”

Chara raised a hand to their mouth. “MIN-MIN, THE DOOR’S GONNA BREAK!”

She shoved her door open. “-WHAT?!”

Chara took a few steps back into the hallway, meeting her gaze with their own. Oh, she was wearing the dress. Why did she have to lock herself in the room to wear it? Nobody was here to call her a baby for wearing it. Except for Chara. And they had better things to call her.

“What did you say??” Her voice rang down the hall, her hazel eyes wide. Chara knew they were hazel because Appa never, EVER shut up about what pretty eyes Min had. They looked like FUNNY eyes right now. Her expression was funny!

Chara pointed at the door. “911’s gonna break the door.”

Min looked at the door, then back at Chara, her brows furrowing. Pretty eyes didn’t hide the big brows that everyone in this family had, haha. “What? Whazzat mean? You gonna– you got us in trouble?!”

“Nooo. I did good things only.” Chara scoffed. “You gotta put shoes on. We gotta go to the hospital.”

“Huh?” She brightened a little. “Are we gonna go see the babies?”

“I’unno. I called 911. People gonna break the door down and take us, probably.”

Min’s expression dropped. She looked around, then back at Chara, as if this as a joke. “Wh…”

“But be calm. Calm is good.”

She did the opposite of calm. She started to shriek. “Why’re we gonna go? What’s going on?!”

The person on the phone kept talking. “Is that your sister? Tell her to get ready to go, too.” Oh, right, Chara still had the phone.

They raised it up. “I’m telling her.”

“Y-You’re not s’pposed to use the phone. You’re gonna get in trouble for that,” Min pointed at Chara, her voice shaking. “You made a joke, right? This is a mean joke. Tell the people not to come, I don’t wanna go!”

“We gotta go!”

“No! You’re tryna make trouble!”

“No, I’m tryna stop Halabeoji from dying.” Chara shot back.

"Yeah, right,” Min scoffed, starting towards Chara. She was trying to replace her fear with anger, and it wasn’t going to work. Chara wasn’t afraid of her anger. Chara was afraid of normal things, like Joe the architect and Grandma’s cat.

Chara raised their voice. “STOP there or you gonna be upset. Don’t come into kitchen. He got blood everywhere.” They scurried backwards into the kitchen, grabbing two shoes from the kitchen pile with one hand.

“Nuh uh-” Min-Min started as she rounded the corner. Her voice cut off, her feet stopped moving.

Her eyes were frozen on Halabeoji’s fallen body. Chara shrugged, holding the phone up to their face. “I TOLD her she was gonna cry. And now she gonna cry. I TOLD her.”

“Um-”

Min’s voice started to rise. “AAAAAAA-”

The door splintered, then shattered. Oh, the help was here!

And Min just screamed even louder. Typical!

❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️

An entire ambulance ride with a hysterical sister wasn’t exactly Chara’s idea of fun. They tried to pay attention to the adults talking, but Min-Min held onto their hand like she was afraid they’d fall out of the car and splat on the road.

Chara sighed.

“Gonna be fine,” they told her. “Crying don’t do anything, anyways. Faster they help, faster things fix.”

She kept stammering, unable to get a solid word past her tears. Big, globby ones that made her face sticky and red. “Buh–buh— but- b-blood– his blood–”

“You have blood too. Blood isn’t scary.”

“It is when it’s outta people! It’s supposed to be INSIDE! Outside means-- means-- people’s hurt!”

Chara shrugged again. “He gonna get better. Crying not gonna make him get better faster. Going to hospital make him better faster.”

“I don’t wanna be h-here, though...” Min sniffled. “I wanna go home…”

“You gotta be grown-up to go home alone. You also small.” Pequeno, klein, jag-eun...

Min hiccupped.

“And you gotta clean up all blood if you home alone.”

“I- I don’t want that...”

Chara nodded. “Good. Cause you here. Away from blood.”

Min swallowed, struggling to take a deep breath. She really did try, but Chara couldn’t help but think of a gasping fish while they looked at her.

“I–I didn’t want this…”

“…well, duh. Nobody want this.” Except maybe cats. Chara wasn’t yet sure if cats were evil or if it was just Grandma’s cat. They could see him cursing Halabeoji. If he did, Chara was gonna tell EVERYONE.

“No! Not that!” Min wiped her eyes. “I told Mother I didn't like both them coming over because they talk to you always! I didn't know h-he w-was gonna... gonna diiiiee…” she sobbed again.

Chara stared. “The two... different things.”

“Whuh?”

Hmm... Chara held up two fingers, one from each hand. “Left is you thought. Right is him get hurt. No connection,” they held both fingers in front of Min. “If connection was there it would be like...” they held up two fingers from their left, their favorite hand. “This.”

Min’s eyes followed every movement of Chara’s fingers, then dropped down to her lap. She seemed to have understood, but she wasn’t answering... did Chara not explain right? Maybe they should try again, in German-

Min wiped her eyes. “I didn't really want anything like this…” Her new dress was all crinkled from her crying, but she didn’t seem to notice. She sure was upset! Min always cared about things like that. She liked looking nice; it made her happy. Maybe looking bad was part of why she was so sad.

Chara looked up at her and smoothed down some of her stray hairs, much to her confusion. She had the same straight, dark hair that Appa had; a nice black color with no stray hairs or flyaways to be seen. It was pretty. Chara had dark brown hair that was probably supposed to be straight and shiny and pretty, but unlike Min, they didn’t like when people brushed it. When Mother brushed Chara’s hair, it hurt, so they yelled, and they didn’t let anyone but Halmeoni brush their hair. Maybe Min wanted Halmeoni to brush her hair, too. Maybe she was feeling l-o-n-e-l-y. “You look good,” they said, encouragingly.

Min just stared at them. “Whuh.”

Chara insisted, “You don’t look bad.”

“...Whhuuh....”

“Don’t be sad. You look good,” Chara asserted even harder. Why wasn’t Min cheering up? She looked GOOD. That was important, right!

“That’s... that’s not... that’s not about it! It’s... it’s.... cause they don’t like me!” Min glared, her eyes flashing briefly. “They only like YOU cuz you talk to them better!”

“They like you too. They got you dress. Cuz you wanted dress.” Chara stared.

“Yeah, but... but....” Min trailed off, looking down at the rumpled skirt. Min complained all the time about not having dresses or skirts. Mother always said they made her look like an infant and she was a big girl now. After all that complaining, she finally got her dresss, and she STILL had to complain? U-n-s-a-t-i-s-f-i-e-d. “...I messed up the dress... they’ll hate me lots for that, too....”

“Water isn’t messing up. Tears made of water.” Chara pointed at the wet spots where Min’s tears had fallen. “Will wash out. Get clean. It don’t matter. If you wanna do stuff with them. You gotta learn more talking. It’s not hard.”

“Yeah, it IS.” She sniffled. “You learn stuff fast! I’m normal!”

Chara hesitated- normal?- but continued speaking soon after.

“You gotta repeat stuff until it gets sticky in brain. Easy.”

Min stared at them, her face still red, but her tears notably disappearing the longer she talked. “O…kay….”

“I will teach! Practice and get good!”

“Mmm...”

“First! Ways to say thank you for the dress you got on. You know other words for dress? Deuleseu, vestido, kleid-”

“I don’t wanna know other words for dress.” Min frowned. She pulled on the skirt half-heartedly. “It just makes me know I got it on more. I didn’t mean to wear it out… Mother’s gonna be mad.”

“Looks good, though?”

“…yeah… Mother never lets me wear stuff like this. Cause it’s childish…”

“She call me that lots. But I here. Not gone. So she not hate childish stuff THAT much.” Chara pointed at themself, grinning. “AND she gonna have more babies. Childish stuff GOOD.”

Min smiled a little. Just a touch.

Her tight grip loosened. Chara hadn’t held a conversation this long with her in a while. It was nice, actually. So was the light touch of her hand. Hmm, maybe big sisters weren’t so bad after all… Must investigate later…

“Here’s how Min will say 'thank you for the dress’, okay? Repeat after me-”

❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️

“Good, good, good, good, good, good…” Chara hummed, walking down the hallway with Min and one of the ambulance people. Chara couldn’t tell any of them apart in their matching uniforms. This one had a beard. That was something.

Chara pulled a hesitant Min most of the way, right up until they both saw Appa sitting in one of the beige sofas, his elbows on his knees. Min let go, bolting ahead.

She ran directly into Appa’s big ol’ arms. He was built like the same trucks he helped build, except he was much more hairy than your average truck. “AAAAA-” Min started crying again. Why did seeing their father make her start crying again? Jeez.

Chara just watched, scoffing. She was crying AGAIN. After they had calmed her down and everything! The dead snake with the dead phone was going to hear All About this once Chara could check and make sure the basements rats hadn’t yet eaten the body.

“I’m so sorry, Minnie, this must’ve been so scary,” Appa lifted her up, holding her while she cried into his shoulder. “It’s going to be okay, sweetie…”

Chara wandered to the table in the waiting room and picked up a magazine with a woman in a swimsuit (which was just fancy underwear) on the cover. “Live your best summer with new swimmers ear drops-”…. Do people swim in ears?

Must investi-

“Are you okay, Chara?”

They looked up at Appa. He noticed their clothes before they could respond.

“Oh, god, is that blood on your overalls?”

Chara lifted their feet up, curious Their overalls were too big for them, so the bottoms dragged on the ground whenever they walked. Normally, this made fun noises, but today…? It made wet, heavy sounds. The bright blue was stained with dark red where the denim trailed into the blood puddle. Huh, Chara hadn’t even noticed until now. No wonder their feet felt sticky.

“Not MY blood,” they said, shrugging. “Halabeoji got blood on floor. I stepped in it. Feet got wet. Sticky, too…”

“You… You stepped in it? Why?”

“…” Chars shrugged. “Accident.” Did he think they paraded about in it on purpose? ...Now that the thought was in their mind, that wouldn’t be a bad idea... besides SOULs, blood was the second most important thing to humans being alive. Something there was probably a-r-t-i-s-t-i-c.

Appa exhaled. He ran a hand through his dark hair, his gaze still boring into Chara. They ignored it, looking back at the magazine and turning it upside down in an attempt to find the Swimming Ear.

His voice drew them back out of their thoughts. “Chara…Did you really make the call?”

“Yeah. 911 is the help number. Min wasn’t gonna do it.”

“I’m SORRY…” she wailed.

“No, no, it’s not your fault,” he rubbed her back. “Shhhh….”

“Who told you about call?” Chara blinked. “It was private...”

“Nobody can have any secrets around here. The tech who took your call was absolutely hysterical. She wants to meet you, by the way.”

Meet some weird stranger with bad questions? “No, thank you. Let Min see her.”

“I DON’T WANNA,” Min yelled.

"It’s fine, sweetie, you’re fine-” Though he comforted Min, Appa’s face didn’t look happy or proud. He had a scared face on. Hm. Maybe he was scared for his own dad? Chara patted his knee- as high as they could reach. Comforting. Consolador. Tröstlich. Kaiteki-sa.

“He alive,” they said. “Ambulens said he hadda stroke. But he live and well and learning.”

Appa exhaled. “I see…..”

“...Whassa stroke?” Chara followed up.

“It’s when your brain doesn’t get enough blood….”

“Oh.” Chara thought. “Cause his blood on the floor?”

Appa’s face was turning an odd shade of green. Chara tilted their head, smiling.

Someone in a white outfit approached from the hallway- the same bearded person that escorted the two. “Hey, I heard what happened, man! I’m so sorry! I’ll keep you as updated as I can, yeah?”

“Thanks, Dan.”

So this was “Dan.” All the grown-ups knew each other. How did they remember all those names? Did you get names tattooed on your eyes in code when you grew up? Or did your name brain get bigger? Hmm.

Appa kept going. “Do you know what exactly happened? I heard a stroke...? He has blood pressure issues, but... I didn’t expect them to be THAT bad.”

“Dan” nodded. “Yeah, this stuff happens quick. It’s nobody’s fault, really. As far as we know, it’s ischemic, and Chara called for help soon after he fell, so he should recover well from it. The bigger issue is the head wound. During the stroke, he fell and cracked his head open-”

Min shrieked again. “AAAAAAAAAAH–”

Appa gave “Dan” a nasty look. Chara giggled into their hand.

“...Sorry. But the good news is, because he was found so soon, he hasn’t even been bleeding long enough to go into shock. They’ll give him an IV of tPA, some stitches, and treat him for the concussion, but unless something goes horribly, suddenly wrong, he’ll be fine.”

While “Dan” was talking, Chara took their shoes off and started to squeeze the blood out of the bottom of their overall legs. Nobody noticed until it was too late.

#blood tw #i don't know how to draw blood well yet. leave me alone #written special #EOR #not story #nonstory art

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