#event.cupidshuffle

        from a small distance, anya looks at the pole of a boy. he doesn’t look that old, but at the same time, he looks aged and... 

        “scruffy!” 

         she speak her mind, calling the boy by the name of her pa’s friend who would come over to help pa for his many missions. and, as if to make sure the boy knows she is referring to him, she even points at him with her fingers, her eyes fixed on his appearance. 

        “... and scruffy stinks.”

         she scrunches up her nose, unhappy with the smell of days old cigarettes mixed with fresh cigarettes. it elicits unwanted memories of a childhood before ma and pa. 

         encouraged by an unknown force, she walks up to scruffy, looking up at him and... offers a peanut as a bribe. 

        “p-pink!”

        anya points at the older, pink haired girl with a short, stubby fingers. her green eyes are wide open, staring intensely at the blues of the girl near her. one can almost see the gears turning in anya’s little head in the moments of silence that precede a sudden--

        “big sis!” 

with a brightly blushed face, perhaps due to some embarrassment, anya takes small, tiny steps to bring herself closer to the older girl (who she doesn’t know, but has already felt connected). 

        “my name is anya.” 

she introduces herself eagerly, even pointing to herself to make sure the older girl understands what she’s trying to say. 

        "peanuts?”

        anya thrusts her precious bag of chocolate covered peanuts towards the sky, in the direction of the far taller white haired older boy. she stares with wide, bright green eyes, hopeful that the boy would accept her gift and ask to be friends (maybe even her bro!). well, she isn’t too sure how to befriend older kids (she barely even managed to make one friend her age at school). and, without her mind reading, she really doesn’t even know how to act. 

        she lowers the peanuts, so she can have a full view of the stranger she felt the sudden urge to befriend. “do you... also live around here?” she speaks slowly, looking at the buildings that she was told, by someone who had brushed her off brusquely, would be her new home for an unknown amount of time. 

        but the strange feeling she had been feeling the whole day, the strange feeling that even made her speak to strangers despite knowing better, begins to push her and push her. it’s not enough. her small talk would just be tossed aside again and she would be alone still. she bites her tongue, thinking it would be inappropriate to ask, but her restraint loosens. the strange feeling again, the inexplicable desire that forces her to blurt out --

        “i always wanted a bro! and... and... i... i don’t have ma... or pa... now...”

        the little girl smiles, weakly, before looking up. 

        “can you be my... bro? just for one day.”