trans_9 | A Little Bit of Down Time [Open]

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A Little Bit of Down Time [Open]

There were a few times Vivio enjoyed just being a little girl. Working on homework instead of dealing with the Media Library's contents was one of them. For the most part, Vivio stayed away from the newest additions - the video clips of an Ohm attack. She didn't want to see a world fall apart, especially after the fact that Nanoha was upset over what she had seen earlier. That certainly took the wind out of her sails on that idea.

For the moment, though, Vivio was content on finishing up her homework, Sacred Heart over her shoulder watching. As she fiddled around with her pencil, trying to figure out the next problem, she accidentally tossed it aside.

"Whoops! Didn't mean to do that!" Vivio said. Before she could get up, Sacred Heart flew over and picked up, giving it back to her. The little girl giggled as she took back her pencil. "Thanks, Kris, but I could have gotten it! You keep doing that and I'm gonna get lazy! You know Nanoha-mama and Subaru-san wouldn't like that!" The plushie rubbed the back of its head before the girl reached over and hugged it. "It's okay...!"

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Komali was hiding under a shelf. He'd been hiding out in here for a while since the attack in the city. His old bolt-hole was still buried under rubble, and something about a place filled with books smelled like safety. If he'd been half the Rito he ought to have been, he'd never have felt so about a room made of flammables, but the little cave-nest under the dustiest shelves remained, nonetheless.

But he wasn't napping now, or hiding, he was spying. Peering out between the books of a shelf only Just too high for him, he lost his grip and fell with a thump and several dislodged vid-discs.

"Oof!"

Vivio jumped a bit as she heard the thump and the clatter of vid-disks. Someone had fell and she was doing something else!

The girl quickly whirled around, hopping off from the chair she was sitting in. "A-Are you alrigh-- Komali?" Vivio said, surprised to see one of her friends on the ground. "Are you okay?!"

She ran over to the floor where he laid.

Komali blinked the dust and daze out of his eyes and found himself staring directly up into the red-green gaze of one Vivio Takamachi. He responded to this by immediately puffing his facial feathers in the Rito equivalent of a blush, which had the unfortunate side-effect of making him look rather more like a chubby parrot than less.

"I-I-I-I'm f-fine!"

Vivio noticed his reaction and couldn't help but laugh. It was silly, yes, but it let her know that he WAS okay.

"That's good... what were you doing up there, though? If you needed something, I could have helped!" Vivio said, going to help him up.

Poor Vivio. Oblivious to what was really going on.

"I-I don't need anything. I was just. Uh..." H puffed more than ever, and scrambled to his feet. If he had to die of embarrassment, he'd at least not do it laying down!

"I was just looking!" he finished, urged on by a sudden burst of inspiration, "And. And, now I'm done, so I should go."

Vivio was shocked by Komali's behavior. This was the first time she'd seen him like this.

"A-Are you sure? I-I mean, I could help you if you really need it..."

"I'm...I'm fine," he insisted, and nervously tried to smooth down his feathers with one hand, "I...uhm...I...bye!"

Flee!

Going through the texts in the library, Ed was determined to discover more about his situation and the available things. When he turned the corner, his arms filled with data chips when he noticed Vivio and her little plushie. "Is that some kind of creature?" inquired Ed from the other side of the room.

Vivio looked up from her work and noticed Ed looking at Sacred Heart. She couldn't help but chuckle.

"No, he's my Device! Sacred Heart, say hi!" Vivio said. With that, the plushie waved at Ed.

Ed walked over, putting the chips on the table as he bent over to look at Sacred Heart. He poked it in the tummy and chuckled. "It's pretty cute. What's a Device anyhow? Some kind of animated item?"

Sacred Heart reacted by wobbling a bit, holding its tummy as if it was laughing.

"It's pretty much our focal point for our magic. It's like a magical computer of sorts...!" Vivio said. It was kinda hard to explain it to someone that certainly seemed like they weren't from Mid-Childa.

Ed was about to say there was no such thing as magic, but then when she mentioned that it was a focal point with a technology base, he closed his mouth with an audible click, biting off the usual reply. "This... computer thing. Does it follow a set of rules, logic and formulas?"

"Well... in a way, it does. A lot of our magic does, really." Vivio said, thinking a bit.

"Of course, a bit of it is just incantations..."

Ed had to digest this. The thought of magic, no matter how structured boggled the mind. Even with the structure, it was strange at best. But incredibly challenging. He grinned, smothering the wide nearly evil maniacal smirk he got when he was thinking of something awesome.

"That sounds actually interesting." And maybe a way to get his body back and locate Al to boot! "I'm Ed Elric."

"Vivio Takamachi. It's nice to meet you, Ed!" Vivio replied. She DID notice the odd grin on his face, though. Did she give him an idea or something?

"I'm just curious - what were you in here for? Could I help you?"

"Oh, I was looking up Alchemy texts," said Ed, picking up one of the chips and looking at it. "Can't believe something so small contains so much information. This one is labeled Busou Renkin, which seems to be a text on Battle Alchemy. I need to learn more."

Unfortunately, Ed hadn't counted on it directing him to a fictional series, and what he held was a small stack of Manga.

Vivio blinked a bit as she heard the title. Wasn't that...?

"Yeah, it is amazing what they can do. Though "Busou Renkin"? I, uh..." Vivio began to stammer. "...I think that's a manga..."

"A what? What's a manga?" inquired Ed as he looked at the data chip. Truth be told he didn't really check any of the contents of the books he had, preferring to gather anything pertaining to Alchemy.

"Wouldn't like what, Vivio?" Nanoha was very sneaky when she wanted to be. And she'd entered the room just in time to hear the last part of that conversation.

Vivio jumped a bit when she heard Nanoha's voice. Even after all this time, she still hasn't been able to watch out for her.

"O-Oh! Nanoha-mama!" Vivio said, recovering. "Well... slacking off, really! Sacred Heart's a real help, but I can't have him doing every minor thing - I might get lazy...!" She let out a brief chuckle at that.

"That's true, you might! And we wouldn't want that, right?" Nanoha's voice was teasing as she walked over to her daughter, resting a hand on the girl's shoulder.

"You've been working hard, haven't you, Vivio?"

"Uh-huh...!" Vivio said. "Practicing my magic, trying to keep everything straight here, doing my homework...!"

"It's a bit tiring, though..."

"Mm, well make sure you get your rest too, okay? It's good to see that you're working so hard, but you need to know your limits."

"That's what a grown-up does, right?"

Vivio nodded a bit. "Right...!" It did dawn on her that she was working a bit too hard.

"...maybe I should slow down a bit, huh?"

"I'm not going to tell you that, you know." Nanoha's hand moved up to run through the girl's hair affectionately. "Part of being a grown-up means learning to judge that sort of thing yourself. You need to learn your own limits - I had to do that, too." Well, kind of. Almost getting killed had been a big wake-up call.

"That's your decision, Vivio." A warm smile. "I think I can count on you to do the grown-up thing, right?"

Vivio gave Nanoha a nod and a big smile. "Of course you can!" Vivio said. She was starting to trust her more and more - that was good. Of course, she still had a long ways to go.

Vivio looked at her homework, then let out a slight sigh and sat it aside. "I can finish it a bit later...!"

"As long as you remember to get it done, that is," Nanoha reminded her. "It's all about striking a good balance! You need to do your work and take care of yourself."

Vivio really was a lot more grown up than the little crybaby she'd adopted.

"Mmn, that's right...!" Vivio said. "It may take me awhile, but I'll find it!"

Curiosity did set in, though. "If it's okay to ask, Nanoha-mama: was there something you needed here?"

It didn't hurt to ask. Nanoha was probably here to see her just because, but there was always that off-chance...

"No, not really." She smiled. "I was just checking in."

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A Little Bit of Down Time [Open]

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