Hallway Kismet

[guard_of_az]

Who: Johnson, Dave, Angela
What: Johnson and a certain little girl meet...
When: February 2nd, Noon.
Where: Hallway, Guards Wing.

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[angela_konner]

Somehow, she had wandered from the palace infirmary, and hadn't realized how far exactly she had gone. When lost in her thoughts, time and distance often escaped her, and she would find herself, sometimes in another town, or another part of the building she had currently been in.

From the look of things, she had gone a good way through the many corridors of the palace. She could tell, since the nice, clean white of the infirmary had disappeared, replaced with paintings and tapestries hanging on the walls. Giving a little time to admire the art, the auburn haired girl decided to continue her journey through the hallways.

After a good twenty minutes of more exploring, the paintings and tapestries started to become sparse; the occasional painting of a battle, or a portrait of a high ranking official being the only source of aesthetics to look at.

"This must be...a place where most people don't go..often." Angela said softly to herself, her voice barely above a whisper as she looked around the new hallway she had wandered into. Spotting a pretty marble bench, the small framed girl walked over and sat, making herself comfortable.

Quietly, she started humming the lullaby that her older brother, Adam, had sung to her whenever she couldn't sleep, calm herself or just when he was showing brotherly affection. Angela lowered her head as she sat, her long hair shrouding her face as her calm expression turned sad, memories of her one and only friend, Adam, her deceased mother and father, Khristina and Zackary and of course, Mister Konner, flooded her mind.

Suddenly, she looked up, a voice startling her. with wide eyes, she turned her head and gaped at the man standing there in front of her.

A man of a large stature was there, looking slightly confused to as why someone was there, and to Angela's childish vision, quite scary. As he said hello, she merely hid her face again, letting herself reply with a tiny nod, and a quiet, "hello.."

[guard_of_az]

The girl was not dressed like the child of a noble, his shrewd gaze took that in immediately. Her clothing was somber, shades of grey, hints of black. Knowing nothing of dress styles, he could not place where exactly in the O.Z. she was from, but he would bet a week's pay that she was not from one of the cities. More likely a small village, or from the country.

Used to the rainbow array of colors worn by the only little girl he had not met more than once in the last however many annuals, the extreme contrast threw him momentarily off.

A mixture of shyness and fear reverberated in her answering greeting, and he uncomfortably realized that once again his size was putting him at a serious disadvantage. His jaw tightened, his mind already trying to figure out the best, and quickest way to ease at least some of her fear.

He crouched down, setting one knee down on the smooth tiled floor. Even down on one knee his height was not completely taken out as a factor, at that level he was eye to eye with the girl seated on the bench. Keeping his face blank of any emotion was second nature, so letting down his stoic mask with anyone but Dave (and occasionally the Princess' for a second or two at a time), but he made a conscious effort at it to try to show he was not about to hurt her.

Setting one hand on the knee he was not leaning on, he raised the other to offer it to her. "My name's Johnson." Admittedly, he was out of his element. Guns and ambushes he understood, trying to keep Princess Azkadellia in once piece (despite her best efforts at times), those things...he understood. Little girls who looked at him as if he was the big bad wolf, that he should be getting used to by now, but he had not quite yet.

Nearly black eyes never left the girl, he already knew there was no one else in the corridor with them. And he would keep part of his attention on their surroundings.

Old habit.

[angela_konner]

Shying a little bit to the side as "Johnson" kneeled before her, Angela fidgeted slightly. Her grandfather, Mister Konner, had raised her, telling her to always look people in the eye as they spoke to you. "It shows that you're strong." he had told Angela at age nine, his cold dark brown gaze forever burned into her mind in that memory.

With a small bit of effort, she raised her head again, face-to-face with the strangely large man. Now that he was closer, Angela started running through her thoughts. Should she run? No way, he'd have her caught in a second. Out of politeness, though, "Johnson" had introduced himself, and it would only be fair if she returned the gesture.

"My name is Angela, Mister Johnson. Angela Calixte Konner. My granddad, Mister Konner is in the infirmary." The girl stopped. "Oh, he died, I just forgot." Once again, she lowered her gaze, deciding not to be polite, but mourn for the moment. Even though Mister Konner had been cold towards her, he had still cared for and sheltered her for five annuals. With a little hesitation, Angela reached out and took the large, offered hand.

"It's nice to meet you, Mister Johnson. You don't seem too scary...Scary people kill you, not shake your hand." The brunette smiled, a tiny little upturn of plush lips.

[guard_of_az]

The girl raised her head to look at him, pinning him with her golden green gaze, and something twisted in his gut at the fear he saw in her eyes. As well as the fact that she moved away from him as he knelt to the ground. It was not like the odd, yet endearing redhead Scraps. She shied away from nearly all people to a degree, especially men, in an entirely instinctive action that revealed pain as being a part of her past. This one seemed to be more of a calmer reaction, but a negative one nonetheless.

It was also a reaction he was all too used to getting, this instantaneous fear from those smaller and/or weaker than hem. Which was most people.

He nearly sighed and stood to leave her to her space, find another guard to ask her where she belonged. It surprised him when she introduced herself, solving the mystery of where she had come from. Remembering his own feelings when his grandmother had died, shortly after his seventeenth birthday, he nodded once. "Are you alone here?"

Johnson's parents had both died when he had been just three annuals old, nothing out of the ordinary, a car accident during a visit to Central City. His grandmother had bounced the toddler on her hip at the double funeral, and told him when he was older that he had not cried at the gun salute. That he was destined to follow in his father's footsteps in becoming a decorated soldier. in service to the Queen of the O.Z..

His father had served Queen Lavender's mother, he served Queen Lavender and soon would serve Queen D.G.. Just as a guard however, no more a foot soldier, that part of his life was over now. Too many annuals fighting in and out of trenches and preparing ambushes, too much for any man's tastes, he thought. He just wanted to finally start a new life with his husband.

The girl, Angela, slipped her tiny hand into his, bringing him out of his thoughts. Both the handshake and her comment surprised him enough for a small smile to pull at his lips.

Behind him, he heard, someone was coming up the corridor towards the pair. Johnson broke off the surprisingly intense moment of eye contact to look over his shoulder.

[purplerhino]

"Don't be afraid of him, sweetie, he's a big, ol' stuffed bear under that exterior." Dave had been surprised to see his husband on one knee before a pretty little girl.

Dave raised an eyebrow. "Now when I flirt it's right in front of you. You're proposing behind my back." His lips curled in a teasing smile.

The little girl was a beauty, and promised to be a heart breaker when she got older.

"So what brings a ray of sunshine, like yourself to the guard wing?" He hoped they hadn't arrested one of her parents or something.

[angela_konner]

Her smile grew slightly as Johnson himself smiled. Sure, it was a small smile, but it was a smile none the less. Smiles were something that she hadn't seem much, ever since she had moved in with Mister Konner. Honestly, she missed them.

"Yes," she answered, nodding to Johnson's question. "Since Mister Konner is gone, I have no place to go."

However, Angela jumped again as yet another presence made itself known. She followed Johnson's eyes and relaxed as he other man spoke. He sounded gentle, on obviously trusted Mister Johnson too. Okay, so they were both good guys.

Tiny hands slipped to cover her mouth as a giggle escaped her lips, a soft bell-like chime of a sound. She found Dave's teasing funny, since he was teasing the 'big 'ol stuffed bear' that was Johnson.

Once again, Angela introduced herself. "I'm Angela Calixte Konner, Sir." she started off. "I walked here from the mortuary part of the infirmary." Though Dave had greeted her kindly, Angela made a confused face.

"Ray of sunshine?" she thought for a moment before smiling brightly, lifting her face towards the two men.

[guard_of_az]

The smile that grew on her face seemed rusty, as if she had not used it in quite a long time. Sad, as she was a pretty little thing, and children should always have a reason to smile. When she told him that she was alone, with nowhere to go, he understood that he likely had had little reason to smile. As they all had.

Why the hell did she call her grandfather 'Mister Konner?'

"This is Dave," Johnson explained, seeing as he had not introduced himself. "My husband." Dave's teasing earned him a roll of his eyes, but little other reaction. When they had first met, the trait had seemed flippant and out of place, annoying almost. Now, after these last annuals since that fateful meeting, it was just...Dave, and Johnson would not even want to change that.

Her giggle was unexpected, as she just carried an air of soul deep sadness around her. It was a welcome sound, however, even as she pulled her hand away to cover her mouth. The action made him wonder if she was as unused to laughing as she seemed to be with smiling, and just what had made a little girl so serious. The second smile that graced her face was brighter, wider, as if she was already remembering how to perform the action.

He stood, turning his body halfway towards the other man, looking him in the eye. "Her grandfather's just passed, says she has nowhere left to go." Purposefully, he kept his tone low, which with his gravelly voice meant that it was more vibration than sound.

[purplerhino]

"Didn't anyone notice, or ask? I mean, she's just left to wander around the castle?" The healers should have asked whom to call or contact.

"No family, angel? Anyone we can call for you?"

The orphanages were almost bursting with the children left behind by the battles and the witches reign. The youngest were finding homes, and sometimes an elder sibling to the young, but the older kids...

It was why he and Greg talked about adopting one of the kids over ten. A surrogate to have one of their own seemed... too much like cheating, as sex would have to be involved. And for all of Dave's flirting and innuendo, they both knew he'd never really cheat.

[angela_konner]

Angela bit her lip as Dave asked why nobody had noticed or asked why there was a strange young girl wandering around. Maybe she should head back to the country and find work?

Big brown eyes blinked softly as their introductions were given, and she shook her head 'no' as Dave asked if she had anyone to call. With Mister Konner dead, and her brother missing in action, more than likely deceased himself, Angela was surely all alone now. That thought caused her to lower her gaze again.

"No, Mister Dave. No family...Nobody to call.." she said softly, before looking back up at Johnson and Dave. These two were 'husbands', Johnson had said. They were a family of a different sort, but still, a family none the less. Angela sighed a little and stood up. "Maybe I should leave? Since I'm not really part of this palace, after all. I was just here...for Mister Konner."

[guard_of_az]

After a look over his shoulder at the girl, he looked back at his husband. Surprising that she seemed to catch a bit of their conversation, based off of the melting of her momentarily happy expression, as they were not being overly loud. Good ears. "Infirmary's overloaded, one little girl's easy to lose in chaos." Not a pleasant fact, but a fact nonetheless.

Too many children had lost too much in the last annuals, and here was yet another victim.

The sorrowful look in her big eyes then, accompanied by a downturn of her lips was practically lethal. Before she was looking back down at her lap, a truly pitiful picture.

"Any idea what to do? The Orphanages are no place for a little girl, she would be more lost there." Johnson did not like the poor girl getting shuttled off to an overcrowded institution where she would be lucky to get any attention at all. The memory of their recent conversation about reviving their idea of adoption came to mind. "We were talking about it earlier..."