Room 202, Friday Evening

[that_oldsaying]

Alluka loved her room. It wasn't as large as the one she had back home, but everything in this room she'd either been given as part of being a student here, bought herself, or been gifted by one of her friends or her…

Well, her Papas.

That was a particularly sticky thought right now, though, so Alluka did what she did best: ignored it. Her room was hers, she only had to leave it when it was necessary to use the bathroom, obtain food, or shower. Other than that, there was no one to tell her what she could or couldn't do in her room.

Sometimes that meant tea parties at all hours of the day and night. Other times, like now, Alluka simply gathered all her toys up onto one of the lower bucks of her twin bunk beds and just sat with them, in silence, just breathing and thinking and considering.

Sometimes Nanika came out to do the thinking, while Alluka slept, but mostly it was Alluka, not quite as oblivious to the passage of time as she would like to be, but… as much as she was able to be, yes. Her, the silence, and the loudness of her thoughts.

Her toys had little advice, but lots of love.

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[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo had really enjoyed her trip back home. It was weird how she always seemed to somehow forget just how awesome her sisters were until she saw them again.

So she was humming happily and grinning as she walked down the hall on the second floor, a paper-wrapped box tucked under her arm.

"Knock, knock," she called out in accompaniment to her actual knocking on Alluka's door. "Merry belated Christmas."

[that_oldsaying]

Alluka blinked as she glanced over at the door. Oh.

That was Ringo.

She gauged her feelings on that, which wasn't hard to do. Ringo was her best friend and she'd missed her, and it was nice, in her room.

But it was also a little quiet. Sometimes. She got up and opened the door, peeking outside.

"Hi," she said, subdued.

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Hi! How was your--"

Ringo's voice cut off abruptly. Alluka wasn't always easy to read or understand, but that wasn't because she went out of her way to disguise her feelings. Which meant that sometimes she was very easy to read.

That explained why Ringo's voice went from chipper to concerned in only a couple of heartbeats, and the hand not holding the box under her arm unconsciously reached out for a hug.

"What's wrong? Are you okay?"

[that_oldsaying]

Well.

Alluka was definitely going to snuggle all into that hug, absolutely.

"I don't know," she admitted, feeling a bit miserable about not even knowing that.

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo let the box slide out from under her arm, ignoring the sound it made as it hit the ground in favor of pulling Alluka a little tighter.

"What happened?" she asked, hoping that she wasn't as helpless as she sounded.

[that_oldsaying]

"I wrote to Daddy," she said slowly, not looking up. "About... about the exam. And he came here, to talk to Papa, only then I called Papa 'Papa' and... Daddy didn't like that."

Alluka shivered.

"Kathy had to wish to put Papa back together," she said quietly. "But, but Daddy gave me permission to go be a Hunter?"

[soniaroadsqueen]

Well. That was a lot worse than Ringo would have imagined.

Like. A lot.

Her arms tightened around Alluka. "I'm so sorry that, that all of that happened. I mean, I'm glad you have permission, but." She squeezed her eyes closed and tried not to think about how literally terrifying Alluka's family was.

She still shivered a little.

[that_oldsaying]

Alluka just hung on, tightly.

"I sent in my application and was approved," she said, since it seemed important, now, to let Ringo know she hadn't forgotten to do that. "But, but... I don't know. Daddy gave me permission, but should I, when he did that to Papa?"

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo wasn't loosening up any time soon, even as her tone shifted slightly towards curiosity. "What do you mean? Do you think he gave you permission, but doesn't actually want you to?"

[that_oldsaying]

"I don't know," Alluka said, shaking her head, "just that... that it's my fault Papa got hurt. And, and if I hadn't written to Daddy, then..."

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Hey, no." Ringo shook her head, feeling her hair sliding against Alluka's as she did so. "This is not your fault. You didn't choose to have a crazy family. You didn't make your father do what he did."

Her voice softened. "In fact, I know you would have stopped him if you could have."

[that_oldsaying]

"I didn't do anything," Alluka admitted, in a tiny voice. "He said 'watch' and I just sat and watched."

Could she really have done something?

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Hey," Ringo's voice remained soft as she lifted a hand to gently rub the back of Alluka's head, "I've met him, remember? What could you have possibly done to stop him?"

It was hard to imagine anyone being able to, honestly.

[that_oldsaying]

"I don't know," she sighed, feeling soothed by the contact. "But, but I didn't even try."

[soniaroadsqueen]

"It's not your fault," Ringo repeated quietly. She'd said it already, and a year or two ago she would have accompanied it with an attempt to explain why, logically, it wasn't.

But she'd kind of grown up a bit over the years, and now she knew that most of the time people weren't looking for logic in a situation like this.

So she just kept stroking Alluka's hair as she repeated herself. "Nothing you could have done."