Random ficlet

[estirise]

This is set in the "Boxed In" universe and features Hotaru and the Watcher.


Considered Contact
by Estirose

Hotaru peeked in on the little girl, and nodded in satisfaction as she found the little girl to be sleeping. The room was one of two spare bedrooms she kept for unexpected guests - especially unexpected young guests - and she was glad to see that the little girl had accepted it for the moment.

"How is she?" the Watcher asked, unusually solicitous. At least this one hadn't been found in a hunter cell, for which Hotaru had no doubt that the Watcher was glad for; missing Kurenai Wataru for seventeen years had to be a blow to the other woman's pride.

"Sleeping. Soundly," Hotaru said. The young girl had a cast, in fact that's how she'd been discovered. A blood test that had happened to reveal the girl's Fangaire ancestry, and then the confession from the mother that the father had been a full Fangaire, easily proved when she'd given them the father's name. At least the little one had been brought up to revere and not hate the Fangaire like hunters' children sometimes tended to do, and even if she'd been taught to hide that ancestry like the hunters' children had, it wasn't in hate.

"Good." The Watcher was not maternal, not like Hotaru was. The Watcher was the least maternal woman Hotaru had ever met, unless one counted watching out for the Fangaire population maternal. "I take it she ate."

"Not yet," Hotaru admitted. The girl had not been interested in eating, tired out and scared as she was. "I'll administer energy if I need to. Or... other measures."

"You're thinking of doing what the Executioner did?" the Watcher asked. "One could point out here that you made Kurenai Wataru full Fangaire because you didn't want the hunters to poison his mind."

"The woman is a little overfond of our kind, not a hunter," Hotaru said. "The perfect test case. If she can get the girl to accept things, then it will make the child's transition much easier." She paused. "And perhaps we were a bit overhasty with Kurenai Wataru's change."

The Watcher raised both eyebrows. "They're still hunters. Technically speaking, they shouldn't have been anywhere near the boy."

Hotaru smiled a bit at that. "Don't try calling a seventeen year old feral Fandiri a boy. They seem to think they're grown up."

"I'll remember that," the Watcher said. "But do I think that, intended or not, they were still a threat. With Wataru out of the picture, they cannot use the Kiva armor. They weren't a threat until I discovered that they *did* have the armor and a way to activate it."

"Ah," Hotaru said. She debated checking up on the child again, but decided that hovering might not be the best thing.

"As long as Wataru remained Fandiri and the group had access, they had the potential to use him against Fangaire. Thus my going to you and the council. I have to think beyond one Fandiri's feelings; I have to protect our kind from the hunters. Now that Wataru is Fangaire he cannot use the armor, and I would hope the Executioner doesn't let him donate blood to them."

Hotaru made a note to remind the Executioner of that, though she thought that the Executioner was savvy enough not to let Wataru know that it could be done. And maybe the hunters didn't know that either.

"He is no longer my responsibility," Hotaru pointed out. "Not now that he's changed."

"I may need to have a talk with him," The Watcher said. "But that is my concern and the Executioner's." She paused. "So, are you going to contact the girl's mother?"

"Only if I need to," Hotaru said. "Wataru was quite withdrawn when I first evaluated him and rapidly improved. I still think that no contact is the best for the children; but occasionally I am proven wrong. If I need to, I will do so. "

"Only in exceptional circumstances?" the Watcher asked, raising both eyebrows.

"I hope so," Hotaru said. "With Wataru it worked. But he was so old by the time we retrieved him that he was set in his ways. Here, it may not be needed. Or maybe it will be."

"We can only hope not," the Watcher said. "The Executioner's apprentice can afford to be eccentric. Most Fandiri cannot."

"All of them can afford to be eccentric, Watcher," Hotaru said, smiling a bit. "The Executioner's apprentice is the only one who can afford to be exposed to hunters."

"True," the Watcher conceded. She looked at the door. "I hope that you are able to convince her to let go. Despite what the Executioner says, I think it'll be quite hard for Kurenai Wataru to let go."

"Give him time," Hotaru said. "He's still the Executioner's apprentice. He will change. And I think he'll be the better for it."

"On that, I will defer to you," the Watcher said, and headed off. Hotaru took one look at the closed door and followed her.