May flashfic for empath_eia
Title: Our Language
For: empath_eia
By: sayasama
Request: Mana+Allen
Genre: Backstory
Rating: K as K can be
Word count:1883 (Yeah, Saya knows she sucks...)
Notes: When Saya saw the list of requests, this is the one that popped out and say "write me!" and well....the idea had been in mind for some time now, so this seemed like the perfect reason to write it. It's short, but Saya felt it was done, so it was done. No need to add too much pointless stuff just ot make it longer... And Saya was really just guessing with Mana's personality...what else could she do, anyway? Enjoy?
Our Language
Allen was a good child, he didn’t whine and beg for things he didn’t have, he was exceptionally selfless for his age, and for someone who was only being taught bits and pieces of things between performances (granted they could afford the materials needed to teach him), he was a rather smart boy. He was kind and clever and cute, everyone in their little circus troupe treated him like their own son. He also had that interesting red arm with its strange texture and the odd little bit of what looked like glass, and what Mana knew to be something else entirely. Not to say he intended to tamper with that arm- No, no, he would prefer it stayed dormant for the time being.
As of late, it had been snowing heavily in the region that their troupe was working in, which left their little caravan of performers stranded. At first, everyone had groaned and grumbled about the weather, because if they couldn’t leave, then they couldn’t work, and that was most definitely a problem, financially. The fact that Mana was the one in charge of money made that problem seem a just a little more prominent to him.
But Allen-oh, their emotional savior in their times of stress, Allen!- took one peak outside their wagon, saw the piling snow, and had jumped out of their little home-on-wheels almost before Mana could throw a coat on him. Despite the snow being almost up to his waist, Allen had smiled in wonderment and waded through it as though it were thick water, finding every bit of the white powder to be absolutely amazing. That heart-warming scene had been followed by a good laugh and a bit of worry later, when Allen realized that he was soaked and had the most adorable case of the sniffles any of them had ever seen.
The group tried not to stay stranded for too long though, and as soon as the roads were clear enough, their little troupe was on the move again. The snow came back often, and soon enough it had forced them to temporarily take proper shelter in a quaint little town of little two and three story brick buildings. While the rest of their group moved their belongings into the hotel, Allen dragged Mana outside to play in the settled snow (he’d been cured of his sniffles, by this time).
"Manaaaa! I need help!" Allen called, in a voice that lacked urgency, despite his request. Mana left his place on the stoop of the inn they were to be staying in, and moved over to his son. Allen was laying flat on his back in the snow, his arms in the air, his hands waiting to be taken. The snow around him had been pushed about, the depressions in the snow made to look like wings. Mana thought that it quite suited Allen, to be laying there with a snow angel’s wings behind him.
"I don’t wanna wreak it Mana, help me up?" Mana smiled warmly at his son, and took his hands, pulling him to his feet. He was quick to scoop the small child up, and carry him over to the stoop of the building they were currently moving into. Allen laughed happily and hung onto Mana’s neck until his father sat down between their suit case and bag, which had yet to be moved indoors,
"Allen, you haven’t practiced your writing in quite some time, have you?" Mana asked with a knowing smile, as the boy smiled sheepishly up at him. "Well then, come on, scoot off, this is as good a time as any to practice in the snow."
Allen groaned, though he didn’t particularly care what they did, as long as he got to stay outside with Mana a little longer. Obeying his father and moving off of his lap, Allen took up a twig that was laying nearby, and snapped it in half, one part for Mana and the other for himself.
"Lets practice something....different, today. That ok with you, Allen?" Mana asked, knowing that Allen was rather bored with the usual ABC’s. Allen nodded his head quickly, eager to learn something different. Focusing on where the twig came in contact with the snow, Allen watched carefully as Mana drew a little symbol in it.
"Huh? What is that? It’s not a letter." Allen had sort of been expecting to maybe learn a few new words, but what Mana had just drawn was more like a dotted line than anything else.
"That...will be the first letter of our own alphabet," Mana said, earning a questioning look from Allen.
"Our...own? So we’re gonna make new letters ourselves?" Allen asked, sounding as though he couldn’t believe they were allowed to do that.
"Yes, we’ll make our own code, all by ourselves. It’ll be just for us to use, a fun secret language." Allen was amazed by the idea, and immediately redrew the character Mana had made, doing his best to commit it to memory. Mana continued to draw out characters, beautiful, strange-looking symbols, and Allen copied them to the best of his ability.
"These looks so weird Mana! They’re gonna be hard to remember..." Allen said, wondering if either of them would be able to remember these little lines and squiggles.
"Don’t worry, I’ll remember them, and help you remember them too. We can practice them together all the time, after your regular lessons, for fun." Allen and Mana returned to their diligent silence after that, and it stayed that way until Mana stopped drawing figures in the snow, and Allen finished copying the last one.
"These look so odd, what do they mean?" Allen asked, wondering what all the little symbols he’d just drawn would mean to them. Mana smiled, and pat Allen’s head out of habit.
"What do you think each of them mean?" Mana asked, waiting with something like anticipation for Allen’s response. Allen pointed to the first one they’d drawn with his twig, and thought for a moment before deciding: "This one can mean "sleep", because Mana’s starting to look sleepy." Allen moved his stick to another symbol, "And this one can be "L", because it sort of looks like a little piece of this one." Allen pointed back to the first letter, "sleep".
‘Right on the mark Allen, amazing.’ Mana smiled proudly at his son. "Then those will be "sleep" and "L". Now...what about this one?" Mana pointed to one he’d drawn in a second row of characters.
"Um....how about "boy", because it’s smaller than this one, but looks just like it? And this one can be "adult" because it’s all grown-up." Mana nodded, and continued pointing out different symbols, and asking Allen what he wanted them to mean. They went through the entire list in a little over one and a half hour, and Mana just seemed to grow more and more proud with each symbol Allen identified. Finally, they came down to just one last symbol, which Allen couldn’t think of a name for, he seemed to have either exhausted his vocabulary, or have simply exhausted himself.
"Hm... We can’t leave this one out, but I can’t name it...Mana, what should we call it?" Allen asked, not wanting to let even one important letter go nameless. Mana smiled, before writing under it "pray".
"We’ll call it "pray", because it looks like two hands praying," Mana said, and Allen nodded his approval. Night was quickly falling around them now, and their breath was apparent on the night’s chilly wind.
"Ok! It can be "pray"! So...are we done?" Allen asked, not really wanting to be finished. Mana shook his head, thinking that there was one more thing they had to add to it, to finish off their code.
"We’ve got to make a name for it, and a picture to go with its name," Mana said, which made Allen think for a moment. What would Allen want to call their code? Would he be able to think of the right name for it? Or would he want Mana to name it?
"Then I’ll make up the name, and you can make up the picture again!" Allen decided, and worked hard to think of a name for their character set while Mana doodled away in the snow. At last, Mana put down his stick for good, and pointed to the picture. It was a rather detailed picture, much more ornate than all the other symbols. It looked like a coat of arms, with strange lines and twirls going around it. Something that could’ve been a heart, but wasn’t quite clear enough to tell, was at the center of the picture.
"Think of a good name yet?" He asked, sure that Allen already had the right name. Allen nodded, excited and waiting for Mana to ask him to say what he’d thought up. "Well, go on, what do you want to call it?"
"Maybe we can call this our "Song"? We could make a really pretty song with all our words. Your picture will be "song" then, is that good?" Mana was beaming at this point, and nodded in agreement with Allen’s names.
"That’s just perfect! Now we’re all finished up and can start using our own code to write to each other." Allen looked over-joyed to be told that the name he chose was "perfect", and jumped up unto the stoop to hug Mana. Mana laughed lightheartedly, before shivering dramatically.
"Say, it’s getting quite cold out here, isn’t it? Would you like to go inside and see if we can get some hot chocolate?" Mana asked, knowing that Allen would do anything for food. As expected, his son nodded excitedly at the prospect of hot cocoa. Mana got up and dusted snow off his lap and shoulders, before taking Allen’s hand and leading the boy inside.
000
Years later, when Allen was no longer a boy, and Mana was no longer alive, and Allen was considered suspicious and a possible Noah, the snowy-haired boy looked into the mirror of the Order’s bathroom, not doing much of anything, just staring at the shadow in the mirror that was staring back at him.
‘I don’t understand... I had made up the names of those symbols, and Mana had created the symbols themselves, so why were they in the score? Why did they have to show up again? Mana...Did you put them there? Is it you I’m looking at now? Why...?’
Allen sighed forlornly, as Link called for him to get out or the restroom, saying that his time was up and if Allen didn’t come out in the next minute, he would have no choice but to bring him out. He hated being watched all the time, he felt like he couldn’t be his own person anymore, and what was worse was that he was starting to doubt if he ever really was in the first place.
‘Did we really make that code together?’
For: empath_eia
By: sayasama
Request: Mana+Allen
Genre: Backstory
Rating: K as K can be
Word count:1883 (Yeah, Saya knows she sucks...)
Notes: When Saya saw the list of requests, this is the one that popped out and say "write me!" and well....the idea had been in mind for some time now, so this seemed like the perfect reason to write it. It's short, but Saya felt it was done, so it was done. No need to add too much pointless stuff just ot make it longer... And Saya was really just guessing with Mana's personality...what else could she do, anyway? Enjoy?
Our Language
Allen was a good child, he didn’t whine and beg for things he didn’t have, he was exceptionally selfless for his age, and for someone who was only being taught bits and pieces of things between performances (granted they could afford the materials needed to teach him), he was a rather smart boy. He was kind and clever and cute, everyone in their little circus troupe treated him like their own son. He also had that interesting red arm with its strange texture and the odd little bit of what looked like glass, and what Mana knew to be something else entirely. Not to say he intended to tamper with that arm- No, no, he would prefer it stayed dormant for the time being.
As of late, it had been snowing heavily in the region that their troupe was working in, which left their little caravan of performers stranded. At first, everyone had groaned and grumbled about the weather, because if they couldn’t leave, then they couldn’t work, and that was most definitely a problem, financially. The fact that Mana was the one in charge of money made that problem seem a just a little more prominent to him.
But Allen-oh, their emotional savior in their times of stress, Allen!- took one peak outside their wagon, saw the piling snow, and had jumped out of their little home-on-wheels almost before Mana could throw a coat on him. Despite the snow being almost up to his waist, Allen had smiled in wonderment and waded through it as though it were thick water, finding every bit of the white powder to be absolutely amazing. That heart-warming scene had been followed by a good laugh and a bit of worry later, when Allen realized that he was soaked and had the most adorable case of the sniffles any of them had ever seen.
The group tried not to stay stranded for too long though, and as soon as the roads were clear enough, their little troupe was on the move again. The snow came back often, and soon enough it had forced them to temporarily take proper shelter in a quaint little town of little two and three story brick buildings. While the rest of their group moved their belongings into the hotel, Allen dragged Mana outside to play in the settled snow (he’d been cured of his sniffles, by this time).
"Manaaaa! I need help!" Allen called, in a voice that lacked urgency, despite his request. Mana left his place on the stoop of the inn they were to be staying in, and moved over to his son. Allen was laying flat on his back in the snow, his arms in the air, his hands waiting to be taken. The snow around him had been pushed about, the depressions in the snow made to look like wings. Mana thought that it quite suited Allen, to be laying there with a snow angel’s wings behind him.
"I don’t wanna wreak it Mana, help me up?" Mana smiled warmly at his son, and took his hands, pulling him to his feet. He was quick to scoop the small child up, and carry him over to the stoop of the building they were currently moving into. Allen laughed happily and hung onto Mana’s neck until his father sat down between their suit case and bag, which had yet to be moved indoors,
"Allen, you haven’t practiced your writing in quite some time, have you?" Mana asked with a knowing smile, as the boy smiled sheepishly up at him. "Well then, come on, scoot off, this is as good a time as any to practice in the snow."
Allen groaned, though he didn’t particularly care what they did, as long as he got to stay outside with Mana a little longer. Obeying his father and moving off of his lap, Allen took up a twig that was laying nearby, and snapped it in half, one part for Mana and the other for himself.
"Lets practice something....different, today. That ok with you, Allen?" Mana asked, knowing that Allen was rather bored with the usual ABC’s. Allen nodded his head quickly, eager to learn something different. Focusing on where the twig came in contact with the snow, Allen watched carefully as Mana drew a little symbol in it.
"Huh? What is that? It’s not a letter." Allen had sort of been expecting to maybe learn a few new words, but what Mana had just drawn was more like a dotted line than anything else.
"That...will be the first letter of our own alphabet," Mana said, earning a questioning look from Allen.
"Our...own? So we’re gonna make new letters ourselves?" Allen asked, sounding as though he couldn’t believe they were allowed to do that.
"Yes, we’ll make our own code, all by ourselves. It’ll be just for us to use, a fun secret language." Allen was amazed by the idea, and immediately redrew the character Mana had made, doing his best to commit it to memory. Mana continued to draw out characters, beautiful, strange-looking symbols, and Allen copied them to the best of his ability.
"These looks so weird Mana! They’re gonna be hard to remember..." Allen said, wondering if either of them would be able to remember these little lines and squiggles.
"Don’t worry, I’ll remember them, and help you remember them too. We can practice them together all the time, after your regular lessons, for fun." Allen and Mana returned to their diligent silence after that, and it stayed that way until Mana stopped drawing figures in the snow, and Allen finished copying the last one.
"These look so odd, what do they mean?" Allen asked, wondering what all the little symbols he’d just drawn would mean to them. Mana smiled, and pat Allen’s head out of habit.
"What do you think each of them mean?" Mana asked, waiting with something like anticipation for Allen’s response. Allen pointed to the first one they’d drawn with his twig, and thought for a moment before deciding: "This one can mean "sleep", because Mana’s starting to look sleepy." Allen moved his stick to another symbol, "And this one can be "L", because it sort of looks like a little piece of this one." Allen pointed back to the first letter, "sleep".
‘Right on the mark Allen, amazing.’ Mana smiled proudly at his son. "Then those will be "sleep" and "L". Now...what about this one?" Mana pointed to one he’d drawn in a second row of characters.
"Um....how about "boy", because it’s smaller than this one, but looks just like it? And this one can be "adult" because it’s all grown-up." Mana nodded, and continued pointing out different symbols, and asking Allen what he wanted them to mean. They went through the entire list in a little over one and a half hour, and Mana just seemed to grow more and more proud with each symbol Allen identified. Finally, they came down to just one last symbol, which Allen couldn’t think of a name for, he seemed to have either exhausted his vocabulary, or have simply exhausted himself.
"Hm... We can’t leave this one out, but I can’t name it...Mana, what should we call it?" Allen asked, not wanting to let even one important letter go nameless. Mana smiled, before writing under it "pray".
"We’ll call it "pray", because it looks like two hands praying," Mana said, and Allen nodded his approval. Night was quickly falling around them now, and their breath was apparent on the night’s chilly wind.
"Ok! It can be "pray"! So...are we done?" Allen asked, not really wanting to be finished. Mana shook his head, thinking that there was one more thing they had to add to it, to finish off their code.
"We’ve got to make a name for it, and a picture to go with its name," Mana said, which made Allen think for a moment. What would Allen want to call their code? Would he be able to think of the right name for it? Or would he want Mana to name it?
"Then I’ll make up the name, and you can make up the picture again!" Allen decided, and worked hard to think of a name for their character set while Mana doodled away in the snow. At last, Mana put down his stick for good, and pointed to the picture. It was a rather detailed picture, much more ornate than all the other symbols. It looked like a coat of arms, with strange lines and twirls going around it. Something that could’ve been a heart, but wasn’t quite clear enough to tell, was at the center of the picture.
"Think of a good name yet?" He asked, sure that Allen already had the right name. Allen nodded, excited and waiting for Mana to ask him to say what he’d thought up. "Well, go on, what do you want to call it?"
"Maybe we can call this our "Song"? We could make a really pretty song with all our words. Your picture will be "song" then, is that good?" Mana was beaming at this point, and nodded in agreement with Allen’s names.
"That’s just perfect! Now we’re all finished up and can start using our own code to write to each other." Allen looked over-joyed to be told that the name he chose was "perfect", and jumped up unto the stoop to hug Mana. Mana laughed lightheartedly, before shivering dramatically.
"Say, it’s getting quite cold out here, isn’t it? Would you like to go inside and see if we can get some hot chocolate?" Mana asked, knowing that Allen would do anything for food. As expected, his son nodded excitedly at the prospect of hot cocoa. Mana got up and dusted snow off his lap and shoulders, before taking Allen’s hand and leading the boy inside.
000
Years later, when Allen was no longer a boy, and Mana was no longer alive, and Allen was considered suspicious and a possible Noah, the snowy-haired boy looked into the mirror of the Order’s bathroom, not doing much of anything, just staring at the shadow in the mirror that was staring back at him.
‘I don’t understand... I had made up the names of those symbols, and Mana had created the symbols themselves, so why were they in the score? Why did they have to show up again? Mana...Did you put them there? Is it you I’m looking at now? Why...?’
Allen sighed forlornly, as Link called for him to get out or the restroom, saying that his time was up and if Allen didn’t come out in the next minute, he would have no choice but to bring him out. He hated being watched all the time, he felt like he couldn’t be his own person anymore, and what was worse was that he was starting to doubt if he ever really was in the first place.
‘Did we really make that code together?’