stormsthing1:

Ms. Swanson looked out onto her first
grade class, all of the students working on crafts. They were drawing
pictures to be put up as decoration on the walls for parent night,
and they would stay up as the teacher did her beginning of the year
individual meetings with parents.

For this activity, students were
allowed to move around the room as they pleased. Yes, the room got
rather loud as the children happily squealed and played with each
other, making scribbles and then pointing out to each other what they
had drawn, but they were happy, and having fun, which made Ms.
Swanson happy.

There was one little boy, though, who
was not joining in on the fun. He sat in the back table all alone,
all his table mates already abandoning him to talk with their own
friends. He had light blond hair that sat fluffy and almost spiky
around his face, his bad eye covered up with a combination of light
hair and a white eye patch, but the pink warped skin around it was
still visible. His little legs were swinging, not quite touching the
ground even in the small first grade chair that would be torture for
any adult. He had a pretty box of his own unused crayons sitting
before him, and one of them was gripped tightly in one hand as he
looked at the paper, and then started with feather light strokes on
the paper.

“Heya, Toby.” Ms. Swanson knelt
beside the boy, letting her red hair brush him gently.

“Hi, Ms. Swanson,” he looked at
her through the corner of his eye, looking over his nose and eye
patch.

“What are you drawing?” his paper
had hardly any color on it, and the crayon he’d been drawing with
looked brand new still.

“I don’t know.” his voice had a
wispy quality to it, and he never quite made eye contact with her.

“Maybe you should try pressing a bit
harder with your crayon? It would be easier to see the color if you
did that.” the young woman in her fifth year of teaching suggested,
as the boy moved his lone eye back to the page on the table.

“No.” was all he said, adding
another delicate line of yellow to the drawing.

This made Ms. Swanson’s brow furrow.
“And why not, Toby?”

His eyes briefly flashed to the crayon
box. “I don’t wanna run out of colors. They’re special.” he had
no change of face. He seemed very meek and remorseful.

“Why are they special?” at this
point Ms. Swanson pulled up a chair. Sitting in the little child
seats was not fun, but the floor was worse.

“They were bought for me.” another
delicate line in yellow.

That worried Ms. Swanson, just a tad.
“Did your dad buy those just for you?” she had read the brief
paperwork given to her that contained the basic information of each
child. On all of Toby’s paperwork—very little, as this was his
first year in school—she had never seen mention of a mother, and
was sure to not broach the subject with him. You only make that
mistake once.

He looked like he wanted to correct
her on something, little mouth open, and sucking in air, before he
seemed to change his mind.“Yeah.” Toby looked down even more,
looking more at his lap than his drawing. He delicately set the
yellow color back on the desk. “I don’t think he’d like to have to
buy me more.”

The teacher smiled softly at the
child. “Why don’t you go play with the other kids.” she
suggested, gesturing with her head to the other kids.

“Okay.” he slid off the chair with
his things in hand, and sat at an empty seat in a more crowded table.
The other kids there tried to start conversation with Toby, as
children will do, but the meeker boy only looked at them like they
had kicked a toy griffin. He was such a kind kid, but he was just so
quiet, and meek. He seemed almost scared of other people.

“Ms. Swanson! Lookie what I
drawled!” a little voice not quite high enough to be a pixie but
high enough to be comparable came with a tug to her long sleeve. Toby
was an issue that would have to wait a little while longer.

Toby’s father was not at the open
house, Ms. Swanson had noticed. Parents were all huddled around their
child’s desk, while the child excitedly pointed out what they’d been
doing, and pointing to their art on the walls, but the Pines child’s
desk was empty of both child and adult. That made Ms. Swanson frown,
but a glance at her schedule assured her that yes, she would be
meeting with him individually the next day.

And there he was that next day,
leaning up against the wall next to her room at four-thirty just like
they had worked out. Actually, it was four-forty. She was the late
one.

“I’m very sorry, Mr. Pines, a staff
meeting went long.” she apologized profusely, shaking his hand.

“No problem at all.” he assured.

“Good afternoon, Toby.” she smiled
at the fair haired child also leaning against the wall as she grabbed
her key card and swiped the door unlocked.

“Hello, Ms. Swanson.” he addressed
his shoes.

She led them into her classroom, into
the back where her oval table where she sat in a normal sized seat,
and the man and child before her sat in children’s chairs.

“Sorry about the chairs.” she
apologized, before beginning the compulsory ‘I’m so glad to get to
work with your child this year, he’s a good boy ready to learn’
speech, before launching into the specifics of Toby.

Mr. Pines—Tyrone—seemed like a
normal enough person. He was a string bean, fairly tall and slim,
with ruffled hair and a mischievous smile paired with brown eyes that
would look fine on a child or adult. Apparently, he was a scholar of
the Transcendence and the times right before and after. He looked and
acted nothing like how Toby’s demeanor had made her suspect him to be
like. He seemed genuinely interested in what was going on with Toby,
and sucked in the praise for his character just like any other proud
parent would.

She slid the affectionately named
‘Mommy Homework’ across the table to him, on a tablet. It was all the
normal things, ‘What medical issues does your child have?(Check all
that apply)’ and ‘Do you like in a permanent or temporary
residency?’. For being a scholar, the man was rather clumsy with the
fairly simple technology.

Toby was swinging his legs in a way
vaguely reminiscent of running, and was looking down at his knees,
which were devoid of the normal scrapes children receive while
roughhousing. He looked bored out of his mind, but not at all like he
was about to complain about it as most children would.

She leaned across the table a little
bit to talk to him. “Heya Toby, how you holding up?”

He gave her an almost startled glance
with his sole eye. “Fine.”

“You can go pick out a book from the
library if you want, and read while the adults talk.” she
suggested. When Toby had first arrived to her class, he already knew
how to read—in normal, every day writing, and the ancient script
from the Transcendence Era, and whenever he was given the
expressly-stated opportunity he would go and bury his nose in one of
the tablets in the library, curled up in a bean bag.

Toby’s eyes lit up at that, but he
looked up at his father before doing anything. “Can I?” the
whisper was aimed at the man best trying to decide what to put down
for ‘Guardian Contact Info.’ and ‘Emergency Contacts if You’re
Unreachable’ (Of course he would always be able to go out of his
way to get Toby). He smiled a
little at the kid, looking almost guilty.

“Yeah, course
you can kid. This’ll probably be while.” he patted the kid’s head a
little, and the kid shrunk down into his shoulders, like a turtle.

Toby sung his legs
to back his chair out from the table, and plopped his way down to the
floor, walking at a fairly fast pace to the library, where he picked
a book he’d been reading a lot off the shelf and snuggled into his
favorite bean bag chair, in the very back corner, facing away from
the rest of the room.

Tyrone briefly
whispered under his breath, something sounding like ‘I need to get a
bean bag’ before turning back to the teacher, and handing back the
paperwork all filled out with bogus information.

“Wonderful,”
the woman stated off-handedly, briefly scanning through the paper
work to ensure it truly was all filled out, and not with silly things
like ‘Dick Buttkiss’, sometimes it got ridiculous what these “adults”
wrote down. She made a mental note that Toby had asthma, which was
definitely a good thing to know.

“Now, I do have
a few concerns over Toby’s… behavior.” she prodded gently, and
took her time in deciding the best words to use.

The way Tyrone’s
face changed when she mentioned that was interesting to say the
least. He looked, angry, and suspicious like this was something he
knew was going to happen, and that he was waiting for and dreading.
His mouth curled into a slight snarl before quickly settling itself
out. This all happened in less than a second after she spoke.

It scared her.

“Has he been
acting up?” he said in a calm voice, that revealed none of the
micro-expressions that had flashed across his face so fast Ms.
Swanson entertained the thought that it had all been nothing but her
imagination.

“Quite the
opposite, actually,” she wanted to get out, out, out. Her legs
began to bounce up and down below the table, sensible flat-heeled
shoes making a slight clacking, and she clenched her hands together
so tight it hurt to keep them from trembling and spasming, and hoped
her smile would draw attention away from the sweat gathering at her
brow. “Actually, I’m concerned with how quiet and… submissive he
is.” hopefully her voice wasn’t as weak as she heard it.

The man across
from her did seem to calm with that, not in his face, which never
really changed, but just in that the air in the room got lighter, and
she no longer wanted to run until she couldn’t move anything. She
tried to lay her hands on the table relaxed, but they wouldn’t
unclench. She was calmer, not calm.

“Ah,
yes.” the man leaned back in his chair slightly, like he was
considering the best way to say something. “He did have… some
people in his past that would lead to that.” he would probably be
the only one to ever truly understand the meaning of those words.
“Those people are gone
now, and should stay that way, but, the road is long, you know?”

The woman who did
not quite know just how young she was nodded, both relieved and
horrified that her theories were half right. Horrified, because this
sweet little boy had been abused, she assumed, but relieved at the
same time because it was not the man before her, as he had said and
his word was so compelling, and that those people were in jail, most
likely.

“I
am very glad to hear that.” her voice quivered a little. The tone
Tyrone had taken when speaking of the ’gone’
people had shaken her up quite a bit more than she was willing to
admit to herself. Her two hands making one fist darted under the
table, and became tangled in her skirt.

She hurriedly gave
the little speech she gave at the end of all her meetings, saying
once more how glad she was to get to work with Toby, and how she was
sure it was going to be a great learning experience for them both,
and giving him her contact information if he ever needed her for
whatever reason.

Both
adults stood, and shook hands, Ms. Swanson praying he couldn’t feel
how clammy her hand was, and Tyrone relishing how panicked he made
her and how he could make her so much more–

“C’mon
Toby, time to leave.” he walked over to the deep blue corner of the
room assigned the task of ‘library’(nothing like The
Library) and slightly nudged the
bean bag(need to get one of those, good for mental
stability).

The child swung
his head around odd to get a look at the man. “Okay.” Toby
agreed, powering off the tablet he’d been reading on, and wasted no
time shoving it back onto it’s proper place on the shelf, moving fast
as he often did.

“Bye-bye guys,
it was very nice to meet you!” Ms. Swanson bade them farewell from
her doorway, listening to their conversation all the way down the
hall.

“Sorry for you
having to do that.”

“No problem.
Hey, lets go get some ice cream.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, the good
stuff with all those glittery toppings and such.”

“Thanks.”

Ms. Swanson smiled
as she stepped back inside, and closed the door, leaning against it,
breathing heavy. She liked seeing that little happy moment.

She never wanted
to meet Tyrone Pines again.

stormsthing1:

I wrote something for the Transcendence 1-year ficathon! This was really fun, I hope you enjoy!

_._

Alcor—Tyrone, currently—walked
hand-in-hand with Toby through concrete streets. He did miss a time
when you could find trees outside of recreational parks and the
Historical Forrest just outside of town, but at the same time it was
interesting to watch how humans progressed. Currently, the sun was
rising, shining between reflective buildings. The streets were fairly
empty of pedestrians, most preferring cars or other forms of
automatic transportation that did not involve physical activity.

Toby was having to keep his little
legs moving fast to keep up with his guardian, the literal demon that
was the nicest person he’d encountered. He was seven, but he looked
small enough to be starting pre-school, not first grade, and he had a
yellow pack that he himself had gotten to choose settled on his back,
full of goodies Alcor had said would be good for school.

Yes, Toby Pines was going to school.
He had spent all summer learning how to read and count, and now was
when he finally got to go to this school Alcor made a big deal out
of. Honestly, Toby didn’t really want to go to school, but he was
feeling bad about always being a slug around the house Alcor let him
stay in, and he knew Alcor simply must be getting sick and tired of
him always being around. This would be a good way to get off Alcor’s
nerves for a while.

Alcor, too, was having his own doubts
about sending Toby to school rather than keeping him close. What if
he dropped the act and became Him
around the other kids? He could seriously hurt someone, and it would
all be Alcor’s fault, as he knowingly let a monster into the school.
This is a terrible idea, horrible, horrible. Let’s go home now.

But if Toby does
have more social experiences, and is more like a normal kid, maybe
there’ll be less of a chance something will run him over the edge?
Maybe if he’s properly ingrained into society, he’ll be less of a
risk in the future? Maybe he won’t have a reason to snap, and kill
people because he didn’t understand them, a something even Alcor felt
at times. It could be beneficial for everyone—the whole world.

But, then again,
Ian did have a proper childhood, and he still… yeah.

And there was also
the issue of Toby’s bad eye. His hair and the eye patch did a fair
job of hiding the white and scarred orb, but did fairly little to
hide the scarred pink skin surrounding it, tracing down his neck.
Heck, even adults had a tough time tearing their eyes off Toby, but
kids? Kids could be cruel, Alcor knew this first hand from when he
was a child. That was a long time ago, but he doubted human nature,
human children, had changed that much. He could still remember being
Toby’s age, coming home in tears, and having his father hold him in
his lap, till the tears stopped. (But which father was it? Mark?
Lionel? Off topic.)

He
didn’t want Toby to be picked on. Because.. it would be bad for his
mental health, yeah! It could throw off his mental stability, making
him more susceptible to snapping. Who knows what he could do to the
poor kid that teases him, snapping and ripping the child’s heart out
with his bare hands, and shaking with demonic laughter. Yeah, he was
a danger to the other kids. Alcor didn’t care about Toby, getting
bullied, just the poor kid that bullied him and got their throat
ripped out. (Is that really how you feel, Bro-Bro?)

But it could be
good for Toby to get some more experience with people his own age.
The kid was so small and shy. Maybe talking with other kids could
help him come out of his shell. Stop being so freaking meek and
submissive all the time, put some hairs on his chest, help him to be
more assertive. At current, the kid was a pathetic, sniveling mess.
It could do him good to learn how to person—something Alcor never
truly learned, even when he was human and thus could not help Toby to
learn. It would be nice to see his kid—charge, young human he
looked after—able to properly interact with other humans. Maybe
even make some friends.

…Because, if
he’s able to better interact, there’s less of a chance of him
snapping?

It was while he
was still in a pro-school mood that they arrived at the large
building. The interior tried to be kid friendly—posters with bright
colors, with fairies on the playground and griffin handlers letting
kids pet the animals. It actually looked like it was doing more to
frighten kids than assure them. All the halls were well marked,
making sure kids knew exactly where they were expected to be. The
first grader hallway was in the very back, right across from the
kindergarten hallway, making a backwards ‘K’ shape with the rest of
the building.

“Remember your
teacher’s name?” Alcor—Tyrone, he was in public—asked Toby, who
was clutching his hand for dear life.

“Ms. Swanson?”
the boy asked his answer as a question, looking in wonder at all the
other kids who were walking by, all also hand in hand with their
parents, like he was with Tyrone. Some of them looked exited to be
here, bouncing and tugging their parents along. Others looked weepy,
hiding behind their parents’ legs, refusing to go into classrooms.

“Good boy.”
Tyrone patted Toby on the head, and began to walk further into the
hallway, humorously noting signs for a ‘Kiss Goodbye Zone’ that
wouldn’t be going into effect until the second week of school. Ms.
Swanson’s room was at the very end of the hallway, right next to a
slightly tinted window that displayed the covered playground outside.
“Ready?”

Toby didn’t want
to go. He didn’t want to go into that big room full of big loud
people he didn’t know. He didn’t want to sit with those kids his age,
all loud and snot-nosed. He wanted to stay in his quiet house, just
him and Alcor, where he could just read, stay out of the way, do
whatever. His hand that wasn’t holding Tyrone’s reached across his
body, and clutched Tyrone’s pants. He shoved his body as close to the
other’s as he could. Maybe if he got small enough, Tyrone wouldn’t
notice him clinging to his leg, and go home with him there.

Tyrone did notice
Toby attach himself to his leg, and look like he was never gonna let
go. He gently grabbed both the kids hands in his own, and pulled him
into the corner, where he knelt down to better get on eye level with
him, and talk with him.

“How are you
feeling, Kiddo?” he asked, hoping he wouldn’t scare the boy too
much, as he often did without even trying.

“Its scary in
there.” he answered. “There’s lotsa loud people, and I don’t
wanna go in there.” he rubbed at his blue eye with one hand, the
other still holding Alcor’s. His happy yellow shirt seemed like an
insult now.

“C’mon, Kiddo,
it’s really not that bad.” yes it was. Alcor didn’t want to go in
there either. It was really loud, and the kids were annoying even
from this distance, with a closed door and everything. But if he told
Toby that, he’d never go. Toby needed to go. It would be good for
him. “Here you can learn stuff, more modern than what I’d teach
you. And less accurate.” he smiled at his own joke, while Toby
still looked miserable.

“I can’t just
stay home?” Toby looked at him with watery puppy eyes he’d seen on
many Mizars.

“Only on
weekends and holidays.” the kid didn’t look relieved by that, not
even a little bit. He actually looked even closer to crying—crap.

“Hey,” Alcor
began, quickly trying to remedy the situation before there were
tears—he would break if there were tears and would rationalize
keeping Toby home another year. “after school, why don’t we go get
some treats. To celebrate.”

“Ice cream?”
Toby looked hopeful, eyebrows rising a little, tears in his eyes not
quite dissipating, but not quite welling.

“Yeah, with all
those toppings.” Alcor agreed, looking forward to the promise of
treats himself. (He also liked that the kid was happy shhh)

“Sounds good.”
Toby looked almost exited now, having something to look forward to.
He shook Alcor’s hand. “Deal.” there were no flames or
theatrics—they were in a school, an elementary school—but the
deal was still solid. Toby would go to school, Alcor would get ice
cream, and Toby would too. He didn’t look like he was about to cry
anymore.

“Sorry.” the
little boy whispered as he was being led back to classroom slowly,
tiny feet shuffling. He felt absolutely ridiculous. He’d put up such
a big fuss over this—there was no way Alcor’d let him stay now. He
was gonna have to go back to the streets, or back to the home and he
really didn’t wanna, but now he’d hafta ’cause he made the only
person that had any reason to keep him safe angry, so now he really
deserved it, and–

“It’s fine kid,
everyone gets nervous.” Alcor patted his head a little. Even just
that made Toby feel better.

Toby wanted to
point out that no, Alcor never got nervous, but that would be mean
and Alcor really didn’t deserve anything like that, especially after
the stint Toby just pulled, and how nice he was to even take Toby in
in the first place. If anything, Toby deserved it.

Of course, Toby
was still reluctant to enter the classroom, but was not outright
refusing like he had been minutes ago. He let Alcor take him by the
hand, and pull him into the loud room.

“Can you find
which desk’s yours?” he asked the kid. Each desk had a holo-screen
on it, with children’s names along with various other first day
messages pulled up on them, obviously for the parents, as children at
this age weren’t expected to be able to read at such a level.

“That one.”
Toby pointed to the back, and sure enough, there it was, an empty
desk near the back with the name ‘Tobias Pines’ printed out on it in
large lettering.

The information
other information on the desk was very cookie-cutter, the usual ‘Glad
to Get to Work with You!’ first-day messages lining the screen in
scrolling letters. The walls had alphabet charts, for the more modern
alphabet it still took Alcor a bit longer to decipher—he was an all
knowing demon, he didn’t need to be literate—and number
boards and the such.

“You think
you’ll be all right, Toby?” Alcor knelt beside the kid that had
already slid into his seat.

Toby hesitated a
moment, before nodding. “Yes,” his voice was tiny.

Dang it, now
Alcor’s the one having trouble leaving the kid. Toby looked so small,
and helpless, feet not even touching the floor, scared of all the
people in the room, just putting on a face. This is a bad idea,
Toby’s just to sweet for school, and other humans are just to cruel
for him.

No, it’d be good
for Toby in the long run to be able to interact with other humans.
Alcor can’t be there forever, right? Well, actually he could… it
wouldn’t be too hard to ignore summons and just stay with Toby,
right? He didn’t want to leave him at school, and be all alone again.
…that’s to say, he didn’t want to put other children in danger?

No, he didn’t want
to be alone. The company Toby gave was great, if meek and apologetic,
and he didn’t want to leave him in this human institution that would
try to corrupt his sweet little boy, and make him into another kid.
He didn’t want to leave his Toby behind.

But he had to,
he’d made a deal, and Toby was already in the classroom, all he could
do was assure himself that this would end up being a good thing for
Toby, before bidding the child farewell and leaving, not looking back
though he could feel the gaze focused on his back the whole way out.

He wanted to yell
at Toby for staring at him with those adoring, innocent eyes, like he
didn’t know what he’s done, all the evil things he did in past lives.
Alcor wanted to yell at him for being this sweet kid that it would be
impossible to hate. And he hated him for it. Except he didn’t because
the kid was so kind, and sweet, and naive and he was gonna get
himself killed.

He forced himself
to calmly walk down the hall and out the doors, back out into the
cement city. He was glad he had it over with. He had gotten Toby out
of the house and into school, victory! He had been able to leave Toby
behind there, something he almost thought he wouldn’t be able to do.

But that’s not to
say he wasn’t counting down to the end of the school day.(because
he’d get ice cream, not because he missed Toby already.)

But that’s not to
say it didn’t feel like time was going slower just to spite him.

But that’s not to
say he wasn’t among the enthusiastic parents waiting for their
children at the end of the day,

But that’s not to
say his face didn’t light up just as much as Toby’s when the day was
over, and that he didn’t gladly soak up the kid telling all about his
first day of school.

Alcor—Tyrone, currently—walked
hand-in-hand with Toby through concrete streets. He did miss a time
when you could find trees outside of recreational parks and the
Historical Forrest just outside of town, but at the same time it was
interesting to watch how humans progressed. Currently, the sun was
rising, shining between reflective buildings. The streets were fairly
empty of pedestrians, most preferring cars or other forms of
automatic transportation that did not involve physical activity.

Toby was having to keep his little
legs moving fast to keep up with his guardian, the literal demon that
was the nicest person he’d encountered. He was seven, but he looked
small enough to be starting pre-school, not first grade, and he had a
yellow pack that he himself had gotten to choose settled on his back,
full of goodies Alcor had said would be good for school.

Yes, Toby Pines was going to school.
He had spent all summer learning how to read and count, and now was
when he finally got to go to this school Alcor made a big deal out
of. Honestly, Toby didn’t really want to go to school, but he was
feeling bad about always being a slug around the house Alcor let him
stay in, and he knew Alcor simply must be getting sick and tired of
him always being around. This would be a good way to get off Alcor’s
nerves for a while.

Alcor, too, was having his own doubts
about sending Toby to school rather than keeping him close. What if
he dropped the act and became Him
around the other kids? He could seriously hurt someone, and it would
all be Alcor’s fault, as he knowingly let a monster into the school.
This is a terrible idea, horrible, horrible. Let’s go home now.

But if Toby does
have more social experiences, and is more like a normal kid, maybe
there’ll be less of a chance something will run him over the edge?
Maybe if he’s properly ingrained into society, he’ll be less of a
risk in the future? Maybe he won’t have a reason to snap, and kill
people because he didn’t understand them, a something even Alcor felt
at times. It could be beneficial for everyone—the whole world.

But, then again,
Ian did have a proper childhood, and he still… yeah.

And there was also
the issue of Toby’s bad eye. His hair and the eye patch did a fair
job of hiding the white and scarred orb, but did fairly little to
hide the scarred pink skin surrounding it, tracing down his neck.
Heck, even adults had a tough time tearing their eyes off Toby, but
kids? Kids could be cruel, Alcor knew this first hand from when he
was a child. That was a long time ago, but he doubted human nature,
human children, had changed that much. He could still remember being
Toby’s age, coming home in tears, and having his father hold him in
his lap, till the tears stopped. (But which father was it? Mark?
Lionel? Off topic.)

He
didn’t want Toby to be picked on. Because.. it would be bad for his
mental health, yeah! It could throw off his mental stability, making
him more susceptible to snapping. Who knows what he could do to the
poor kid that teases him, snapping and ripping the child’s heart out
with his bare hands, and shaking with demonic laughter. Yeah, he was
a danger to the other kids. Alcor didn’t care about Toby, getting
bullied, just the poor kid that bullied him and got their throat
ripped out. (Is that really how you feel, Bro-Bro?)

But it could be
good for Toby to get some more experience with people his own age.
The kid was so small and shy. Maybe talking with other kids could
help him come out of his shell. Stop being so freaking meek and
submissive all the time, put some hairs on his chest, help him to be
more assertive. At current, the kid was a pathetic, sniveling mess.
It could do him good to learn how to person—something Alcor never
truly learned, even when he was human and thus could not help Toby to
learn. It would be nice to see his kid—charge, young human he
looked after—able to properly interact with other humans. Maybe
even make some friends.

…Because, if
he’s able to better interact, there’s less of a chance of him
snapping?

It was while he
was still in a pro-school mood that they arrived at the large
building. The interior tried to be kid friendly—posters with bright
colors, with fairies on the playground and griffin handlers letting
kids pet the animals. It actually looked like it was doing more to
frighten kids than assure them. All the halls were well marked,
making sure kids knew exactly where they were expected to be. The
first grader hallway was in the very back, right across from the
kindergarten hallway, making a backwards ‘K’ shape with the rest of
the building.

“Remember your
teacher’s name?” Alcor—Tyrone, he was in public—asked Toby, who
was clutching his hand for dear life.

“Ms. Swanson?”
the boy asked his answer as a question, looking in wonder at all the
other kids who were walking by, all also hand in hand with their
parents, like he was with Tyrone. Some of them looked exited to be
here, bouncing and tugging their parents along. Others looked weepy,
hiding behind their parents’ legs, refusing to go into classrooms.

“Good boy.”
Tyrone patted Toby on the head, and began to walk further into the
hallway, humorously noting signs for a ‘Kiss Goodbye Zone’ that
wouldn’t be going into effect until the second week of school. Ms.
Swanson’s room was at the very end of the hallway, right next to a
slightly tinted window that displayed the covered playground outside.
“Ready?”

Toby didn’t want
to go. He didn’t want to go into that big room full of big loud
people he didn’t know. He didn’t want to sit with those kids his age,
all loud and snot-nosed. He wanted to stay in his quiet house, just
him and Alcor, where he could just read, stay out of the way, do
whatever. His hand that wasn’t holding Tyrone’s reached across his
body, and clutched Tyrone’s pants. He shoved his body as close to the
other’s as he could. Maybe if he got small enough, Tyrone wouldn’t
notice him clinging to his leg, and go home with him there.

Tyrone did notice
Toby attach himself to his leg, and look like he was never gonna let
go. He gently grabbed both the kids hands in his own, and pulled him
into the corner, where he knelt down to better get on eye level with
him, and talk with him.

“How are you
feeling, Kiddo?” he asked, hoping he wouldn’t scare the boy too
much, as he often did without even trying.

“Its scary in
there.” he answered. “There’s lotsa loud people, and I don’t
wanna go in there.” he rubbed at his blue eye with one hand, the
other still holding Alcor’s. His happy yellow shirt seemed like an
insult now.

“C’mon, Kiddo,
it’s really not that bad.” yes it was. Alcor didn’t want to go in
there either. It was really loud, and the kids were annoying even
from this distance, with a closed door and everything. But if he told
Toby that, he’d never go. Toby needed to go. It would be good for
him. “Here you can learn stuff, more modern than what I’d teach
you. And less accurate.” he smiled at his own joke, while Toby
still looked miserable.

“I can’t just
stay home?” Toby looked at him with watery puppy eyes he’d seen on
many Mizars.

“Only on
weekends and holidays.” the kid didn’t look relieved by that, not
even a little bit. He actually looked even closer to crying—crap.

“Hey,” Alcor
began, quickly trying to remedy the situation before there were
tears—he would break if there were tears and would rationalize
keeping Toby home another year. “after school, why don’t we go get
some treats. To celebrate.”

“Ice cream?”
Toby looked hopeful, eyebrows rising a little, tears in his eyes not
quite dissipating, but not quite welling.

“Yeah, with all
those toppings.” Alcor agreed, looking forward to the promise of
treats himself. (He also liked that the kid was happy shhh)

“Sounds good.”
Toby looked almost exited now, having something to look forward to.
He shook Alcor’s hand. “Deal.” there were no flames or
theatrics—they were in a school, an elementary school—but the
deal was still solid. Toby would go to school, Alcor would get ice
cream, and Toby would too. He didn’t look like he was about to cry
anymore.

“Sorry.” the
little boy whispered as he was being led back to classroom slowly,
tiny feet shuffling. He felt absolutely ridiculous. He’d put up such
a big fuss over this—there was no way Alcor’d let him stay now. He
was gonna have to go back to the streets, or back to the home and he
really didn’t wanna, but now he’d hafta ’cause he made the only
person that had any reason to keep him safe angry, so now he really
deserved it, and–

“It’s fine kid,
everyone gets nervous.” Alcor patted his head a little. Even just
that made Toby feel better.

Toby wanted to
point out that no, Alcor never got nervous, but that would be mean
and Alcor really didn’t deserve anything like that, especially after
the stint Toby just pulled, and how nice he was to even take Toby in
in the first place. If anything, Toby deserved it.

Of course, Toby
was still reluctant to enter the classroom, but was not outright
refusing like he had been minutes ago. He let Alcor take him by the
hand, and pull him into the loud room.

“Can you find
which desk’s yours?” he asked the kid. Each desk had a holo-screen
on it, with children’s names along with various other first day
messages pulled up on them, obviously for the parents, as children at
this age weren’t expected to be able to read at such a level.

“That one.”
Toby pointed to the back, and sure enough, there it was, an empty
desk near the back with the name ‘Tobias Pines’ printed out on it in
large lettering.

The information
other information on the desk was very cookie-cutter, the usual ‘Glad
to Get to Work with You!’ first-day messages lining the screen in
scrolling letters. The walls had alphabet charts, for the more modern
alphabet it still took Alcor a bit longer to decipher—he was an all
knowing demon, he didn’t need to be literate—and number
boards and the such.

“You think
you’ll be all right, Toby?” Alcor knelt beside the kid that had
already slid into his seat.

Toby hesitated a
moment, before nodding. “Yes,” his voice was tiny.

Dang it, now
Alcor’s the one having trouble leaving the kid. Toby looked so small,
and helpless, feet not even touching the floor, scared of all the
people in the room, just putting on a face. This is a bad idea,
Toby’s just to sweet for school, and other humans are just to cruel
for him.

No, it’d be good
for Toby in the long run to be able to interact with other humans.
Alcor can’t be there forever, right? Well, actually he could… it
wouldn’t be too hard to ignore summons and just stay with Toby,
right? He didn’t want to leave him at school, and be all alone again.
…that’s to say, he didn’t want to put other children in danger?

No, he didn’t want
to be alone. The company Toby gave was great, if meek and apologetic,
and he didn’t want to leave him in this human institution that would
try to corrupt his sweet little boy, and make him into another kid.
He didn’t want to leave his Toby behind.

But he had to,
he’d made a deal, and Toby was already in the classroom, all he could
do was assure himself that this would end up being a good thing for
Toby, before bidding the child farewell and leaving, not looking back
though he could feel the gaze focused on his back the whole way out.

He wanted to yell
at Toby for staring at him with those adoring, innocent eyes, like he
didn’t know what he’s done, all the evil things he did in past lives.
Alcor wanted to yell at him for being this sweet kid that it would be
impossible to hate. And he hated him for it. Except he didn’t because
the kid was so kind, and sweet, and naive and he was gonna get
himself killed.

He forced himself
to calmly walk down the hall and out the doors, back out into the
cement city. He was glad he had it over with. He had gotten Toby out
of the house and into school, victory! He had been able to leave Toby
behind there, something he almost thought he wouldn’t be able to do.

But that’s not to
say he wasn’t counting down to the end of the school day.(because
he’d get ice cream, not because he missed Toby already.)

But that’s not to
say it didn’t feel like time was going slower just to spite him.

But that’s not to
say he wasn’t among the enthusiastic parents waiting for their
children at the end of the day,

But that’s not to
say his face didn’t light up just as much as Toby’s when the day was
over, and that he didn’t gladly soak up the kid telling all about his
first day of school.