Between the kindness of strangers and the rumble of the road

[foolishwren]

Who: Aoko Nakamori, Crow Hogan, Harry Mason, Heather Mason, Henry Townshend, Kaito Kuroba
Where: Route 38
When: Nighttime, August 31
Summary: Campfires are interesting places. Even more interesting when the people sitting at one are a detective's daughter, a guy who plays card games on motorcycles, an internationally-wanted jewel thief, an

Comments

[harryusedworry]

[He shakes his head with a sigh.]

Alright, alright. What story was that....right the babysitting one.

[Just give him a moment to think back. Right...that one. He takes a breath and enters story mode. So suddenly less awkward.]Well, that one's actually one of the stories I collected for one of my books. It was a little bit before you were born Heather. Your mother and I drove quite a bit to hear it

[foolishwren]

[Heather grins like a fiend and pulls one of the blankets over her shoulders as he starts. This is the story that gave her nightmares as a little kid when she snuck a copy of that particular anthology out of the bookshelf in her father's room... and naturally, like most things that scare us as kids, now she looks back on it with fond nostalgia.]

[When he's finished, she turns to the rest of the group with a serious nod.]

That story?

Made me turn down every single neighbor who ever tried to get me to babysit for them when I was in high-school.

[... NOT... THAT THERE HAD BEEN MANY. Mostly folks from the church trying to reach out to those shy quiet people in the Daisy Villa apartment who didn't get out much.]

[harryusedworry]

[Harry had fallen quiet after the story ended but he shakes his head with an amused smile.]

I told you not to read them.

[foolishwren]

Dad, putting that book in your shelf and telling me not to read it was like putting a milkbone on a dog's nose and expecting it to sit quietly and not react.

[Since coming to Johto and spending a year in the company of a Growlithe, dog metaphors spring to Heather's mind a lot more readily than before.]

[harryusedworry]

I underestimated your desire to give yourself nightmares I suppose.

[foolishwren]

Little kids just like scaring the living daylights out of themselves. It's in their nature!

[harryusedworry]

You also enjoyed denying things ever scared you, as I recall.

[foolishwren]

Well, my five-year-old self had a rep to uphold, y'know!

[harryusedworry]

That "rep" didn't hold up so well when it was night time though.

[foolishwren]

Dad, you are just determined to embarrass me in front of all my friends, aren't you?

[... She doesn't really mind that much, judging by her too-serious-to-be-serious tone.]

[harryusedworry]

[Just smiles.]

Oh course not. Just because you came running in claiming the pillow was trying to eat your head. I'd never dream of joking about that.

[Actually he would. It's the nightmares about fire and burning and memories that he wouldn't joke about, much less bring up. Convinced that your bed is actually the monster you saw on tv though? That is fully up for grabs.]

[foolishwren]

[... REACHING OVER AND MIMING PUTTING A HAND OVER HIS MOUTH, complete with an expression of mock horror and a loud stage-hiss.]

Da-aaaad! You said you'd never tell anybody about that!

[... Of course, she knows he wouldn't joke about those nightmares... or the ones where she dreamed of something inside her, moving around and making terrible little noises. To be fair... she can't bring herself to joke about those, either. And she's Heather. The girl who can joke about virtually anything.]

[harryusedworry]

[Just smiling.]

It must have slipped out.

[foolishwren]

I can't take you anywhere!

[harryusedworry]

I don't know. I think you're friends would love to hear stories about when you were little.

[foolishwren]

They already know I was the coolest kindergartener around-- that's all they need to know!