[For Arya] Dated November 1st.

[flyboy_shepp]

Being a kid again had been fun, even John thought he might have overdone the candy a little. He felt a little hungover, but still kind of hyper, if that was even possible. At least he'd only stayed a kid for a day, and his leg was fine enough that he could jog short distances on it. He wouldn't be running his regular route every morning for a few

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[lonewolflives]

Nymeria took a moment before she looked at him. Anyone who thought wolves were capable of it might think she was fuming over 'girl', but then she did deign to look at him, and then she looked up. At the roof.

Where Arya was sitting, feet dangling over the edge, eating a mango. "'awo," she said, around a bite. After she'd glared at Nymeria for giving her up so quickly, having had half a mind to see if she couldn't get Shep with some mango pulp.

[flyboy_shepp]

If Nymeria had been any other pet, John would have petted her in thanks. He wasn't stupid, though - he liked keeping his hands in one piece.

John walked a little closer and waved up at Arya. "Hey. I think I promised you a birthday a pretty good present."

[lonewolflives]

"You did," Arya said, pausing the swing of her legs and swallowing her mango. She leaned forward a bit to peer at the duffel bag. "You couldn't give it to me when you were all tiny?"

She held out her hand at an appropriately tiny level.

[flyboy_shepp]

John raised an eyebrow and took off his glasses so the glare would be just a little more effective. "No, I couldn't. You wanna get down before I change my mind? Can't give it to you if you're up there, either."

[lonewolflives]

"No need to get your skirts in a bunch, I'm coming down," she said, sliding off the roof and hanging straight down before she dropped one arm, caught a projecting beam and swung down again, to a height she could fling herself to the ground from, rolling to absorb the impact.

"So, what is it?" she said, very nearly hopping to try and get a better look at the duffel bag.

[flyboy_shepp]

Maybe it was just a sign of how old he was getting, but Arya and acrobatics still made John twitch a little, no matter how great she was at whatever she was doing.

He shifted the duffle bag up a little higher on his shoulder and shook his head. "We need to take a walk first," he said, and where John wouldn't have risked petting Nymeria, he ruffled Arya's hair. "You keep getting taller every day. Come on."

[lonewolflives]

"...I should start putting sharp things in my hair," she said, eyes rolled up to attempt to look at where he'd ruffled. "Or just stop washing it again, see how you like sticking your hand in that."

[flyboy_shepp]

"That," John said, giving Arya a look, "would be pretty disgusting, actually." He gave her a grin, though, and put his glasses as he started off toward the beach, expecting her to follow. "Besides, you're a teenage girl, you've got to, you know," he waved his arm vaguely, "care about stuff like that."

[lonewolflives]

She glared another moment before quickstepping to catch up. "I don't got to do anything," she said. "I don't even know why I let Lyanna talk me into growing it."

She reached over her shoulder and grabbed what was now a ponytail of decent length, inspected it critically, then tossed it back behind her.

[flyboy_shepp]

"It's because you're a girl," John pointed out like it made all the sense in the world. He mostly just liked winding Arya up about it. "You know, play with your hair, talk about makeup and boys," he made sure he was walking a bit ahead and out of Arya's arm range, "wear a lot of pink clothes."

[lonewolflives]

"Frak you," she said, tone on the nebulous edge between actual annoyance and good humoured irritation. "Don't make me throw something at you. I might break one of those old bones of yours."

[flyboy_shepp]

"Whatever happened to respecting your elders, huh?" John said over his shoulder. "You could get in trouble with language like that." He ignored the part where he'd taught her a few curses in different languages himself.

When they were a good way up the beach, John stopped and set the bag down. "So. Fifteen."

[lonewolflives]

"Fifteen," Arya agreed. She found it hard to credit, herself. Sometimes it seemed like just a week ago she'd woken up on a beach, able to see again for the first time in weeks. "More or less."

[flyboy_shepp]

"You kids grow so fast," John sighed. He crouched down and unzipped the bag, pulling out the first thing on top - one P90 magazine and one M9 magazine tied together with some leftover black and orange ribbon he'd found in the compound. "Happy Name Day."

[lonewolflives]

Arya's eyes lit up, and it was all she could do not to snatch them out of his hand.

"You're going to let me fire them?" she said, bouncing up on her tip-toes.

[flyboy_shepp]

"I figured fifteen was a pretty good age," John said, his own enthusiam growing with Arya's reaction. He pointed down the beach a little to a few sort-of targets he'd set up. They mostly amounted to a pile of driftwood in a vague boxy pile with a row of mangoes across the top.

He pulled the sidearm he'd gotten back from Rodney just for this out of the bag first, then sat down in the sand, legs crossed with the bag in front of him. "Come on," he said, gesturing for Arya to sit down as well. "First, you learn how to load it."