Open!

[justoutrunyou]

Who: Sandy and YOU!
What: You can't leave me behind if I outrun you.
Where: The City

A wall of eyes was staring at Sandy from a large empty stretch of building that she had been planning on painting today. The words "They're always watching." scrawled under the eyes.

She started moving left, then to the right but the painted eyes seemed to be following her. So she backed away and then spun about to run.

Her feet pounded the ground at a steady even pace getting faster and faster till the world was a blur around her. For someone so small without super powers she had some definite speed on her. She ran like demons were on her heels losing herself deeper and deeper in the city.

Maybe once she was exhausted the pit in her stomach would close up.

Comments

[moms_temperment]

Hana had not found Sandy in their room or anywhere at Ruffnut's place, so he'd enlisted the help of the ghosts in locating her.

Luckily, they were fond of Sandy and so happily showed him the way. But as he turned the corner onto the street they were insistent she was on, he had a small girl suddenly collide with his chest. "Oof!"

Taro, who'd been dozing on his head, gave a startled cry and flapped his wings.

[justoutrunyou]

WHAM!

Sandy bounced off Hana having been unable to stop in time and landed squarely on her bottom. She looked dazed as the world caught up with her and remained seated, panting and red faced.

"H-Hana?"

[moms_temperment]

Hana, confused at the sudden assault, pouted as he rubbed his chest a little, the culprit, Sandy he would later see, had a rather hard head and getting hit at speed smarted a little. Looking down to see who had just bumped into him, he spotted Sandy.

"Cassandra!" He cried in an excited voice, trademark grin spreading across his face like it always did when he saw her.

"What you doing down there, dummy?" Hana teased affectionately and chuckled before reaching down to grab her hands and pull her up effortlessly, only to continue pulling her closer until they were hugging.

The teen gave his girlfriend his usual greeting squeeze and nuzzled the top of her head. "Hey."

Taro gave a chirp and immediately moved from Hana's head to Sandy's shoulder to rub his warm, furry head against her cheek, purring.

[justoutrunyou]

"H-hey." She greeted him back breathless and squeezed him tighter then normal. She held him like she was considering never letting go.

"Sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going." She explained nuzzling back to both of them.

[moms_temperment]

"Heh, Cassandra needs glasses~" He continued to tease her, smile still on his face.

Hana was playing with her hair, one arm still comfortably around her while Taro was settling down against her neck to resume his nap. "You okay?"

[justoutrunyou]

She made a cute pouty face at the first remark but before she could playfully argue with him he asked the question and she felt her stomach give a sad little flip.

Small fingers gripped at his shirt a little tighter and she tried to keep still for Taro. "Actually...not really no."

Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly she spoke again, "Eva's been put back in the pods."

[moms_temperment]

Hana was about to lean in a give her a peck on the pouty lips until her face dropped. His eyes filled with concern and he watched her carefully. "Cassandra?"

"Oh." Unsure what to say, he was quiet. But thankfully, he thought he knew what to do; gently, he held her head against his chest. "I'm sorry, Cassandra."

Bending his head down to press his cheek to hers, he whispered. "I know how much you liked her."

[justoutrunyou]

She buried her face into his chest gratefully clinging tightly. "She was...really cool you know? And kind of a total badass when she wanted to be." She mumbled feeling a shudder as tears fought their way into her burning eyes.

[moms_temperment]

"Hey, don't cry." He nuzzled her neck softly, feeling that strange, protective feeling he got when seeing Sandy upset. It made him want to punch something. Preferably a face.

[justoutrunyou]

"Sorry." She blinked and the tears ran down her cheeks to be wiped off on his shirt. "I know she's not like...dead or whatever. It's stupid, I'm just..." She couldn't find a word that didn't make her feel like a wuss so she stopped talking and just held on tightly.

[moms_temperment]

Hana frowned and gently used his hands to tilt Sandys face up. "You're not stupid. You're just upset." He touched their foreheads together. "We'll see her again, I'm sure of it."

Hana lightly pressed their lips together to reassure her.

[justoutrunyou]

Her face turned a different shade of red and she let her eyes close so the kiss would take over. Hana was like the embodiment of comfort. This was somehow so much better then trying to outrun the feelings.

Hana was like Eva that way. They both knew not only how to keep up with Sandy, but to slow her down. To get her to think clearly.

They made her feel safe.

"You're probably right...Eva's stubborn like that." She mumbled sheepishly when the kiss broke. Her face felt so warm from the kiss that she thought her hair might burst into flames.

[moms_temperment]

"Of course. That's 'cause you like stubborn people." Hana grinned and stole another peck. "Like me!"

"Hehe, lookit your face! You're so red!" He pulled her cheeks playfully, wanting to steal her sadness away with childish fun.

[anwei]

Anwei heard someone running on the cross-street ahead of her, but by the time she turned the corner, all she could see was a short figure dashing away from her. She looked around but couldn't see anyone in pursuit. Maybe it was someone newly popped, having some trouble adjusting. Maybe she could help?

"Hey, are you OK?" she called after the retreating back.

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy slid to a stop, her trainers kicking up gravel and turned to seek out the voice, looking around before her eyes settled on Anwei.

Cautiously she kept her distance calling back "What?"

why did this woman look familiar?

[anwei]

"I asked, are you all right? Is someone chasing you?" She still didn't see anyone, or smell them, but on Stacy that probably didn't mean anything. She squinted, wishing her eyesight was better. Maybe it was time to take up wearing glasses.

Then a breath of Stacy's breeze moved into her face, bringing her a human smell. Human, female, young, familiar -

"Sandy?"

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy looked puzzled and then a light went off in her eyes. "Ohmigosh!" She dashed over with the agility her age and hobbies provided. "Anwei you came back!" Maybe it was because of why Sandy had been running or maybe it was just being caught up in the moment but Sandy gave the taller woman and solid hug of greeting.

[anwei]

"Whoof!" Anwei said, hugging back. "Careful there, you'll knock the breath right out of me!"

She looked down at Sandy, and wondered at the sudden prickling of happiness. She didn't know her all that well, but she was a familiar face.

"I'm back. I'm sorry I left, I just - went. How have you been?"

[justoutrunyou]

"Oh well uh...fine mostly." She tried and failed to catch the question gracefully feeling a pang of regret. She tried to outrun it by asking back. "How long have you been back? Were you running mazes?"

[anwei]

She let the 'mostly' slide for now. The way Sandy was running, she certainly was in good condition physically.

"No, I was back in the pods. Just got out. Not a lot of people came out with me, and no one I recognized, but there was a very large red dragon who was pretty hostile when she came up to the Obs Deck."

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy's eyes boggled "Whoa...how'd I miss that?"

Then again stranger things had happened.

Relaxing now and standing looking up at the older woman Sandy grinned suddenly very smug. "Oh yeah, I have a boyfriend now~" She looked so proud and pleased about it too. "Do you know Hana? Hana Asakura?"

[anwei]

"I think she might have shape-changed, or something. Kang was arguing with her, and then another dragon - I didn't see her leave."

Actually she'd hidden behind a couch as soon as she'd seen fire.

"You do? Congratulations! No, I don't think I've met a Hana. Is he one of the Outsiders?" that was the group she knew of on board that catered to young people.

[justoutrunyou]

Oh yeah, Sandy had heard of them, never had much to do with them though...

"No, he's like...he's this really cool Shaman. He can talk to and see ghosts. And he's really strong and sweet and funny and..." And she was blushing as she gushed about his finer qualities wholly unaware that she was rambling.

[anwei]

Sandy, you are disconnected from your elected Council members! This reflects poorly on them. What could be more interesting than a draconian, a cat, and assorted humans and aliens running a government?

She smiled and nodded along with the rambling, squeezing in a "Really?" and "Neat!" here and there. Young love had gone pretty sour for her; she was glad to see that someone else was having a better time of it.

[justoutrunyou]

In Sandy's mind? Anything.

"Oh! And I've been studying medicine, sort of. I mean I'm trying my best to understand some of the more complicated stuff. But I'm doing OK." It had taken some work but she was progressing better then most kids her age would.