#hechose.

the two are sitting on the couch in front of the vampire. the younger of the two , benjamin , has his arms crossed and a scowl on his face. he's eight to sybelle's , the girl with noise-canceling headphones who gazes at him with wondrous big eyes , almost eleven. her brother -- his stepfather -- is nothing short of a rotting corpse in the next room , but neither he nor sybelle is upset about that. no , fox deserved what he got.

 ❛ ❛    are you an angel?       ❜ ❜

benji grumbled something along the lines of , more like a djinn , but sybelle removes her headphones and does something she doesn't even do with him -- the girl throws her arms around this armand-that-isn't-an-angel-and-totally-a-djinn's waist in a very tight hug. she hates physical contact almost as much as she hates her hair touching her face , or how the way cotton feels on her skin , or most foods at the restaurant because it could taste different.

it almost makes benji want to trust this man. ( he hates the fact he hasn't been able to trust anyone , save sybelle , since he could remember. can't even remember his father's face or his brother. he hates that fox took that from him , just like fox took sybelle's eomma and their father from her. ) he wishes he could trust him. trusting got everyone he loved killed. trusting meant leaving palestine -- while amma often claimed that mumbai was her original home , that she only moved to palestine for his baba -- and leaving anything he knew of safety.

sybelle continues to embrace him. he will be wary , on alert for both of their sakes , but he can lend an olive branch to this supposed protector.

"alright, but... we should go outside to do it. we don't want to risk setting the whole house ablaze." head tilts for a moment, allowing himself to truly feel that warmth that spreads through him before gathering the tablet. "do you think a few matches will be enough? i have... other options."

benji once asked sybelle why she calls armand baba, like him, than appa. at the time, she did it because benji did it. it made her feel included when fox always ensured she wasn't seen or heard unless he wanted it. appa viewed her and her eomma the same, obvious in his favor for his eldest, blonde-haired and blue-eyed first born that was a spitting image of himself. the title of appa leaves a poor aftertaste in her mouth; armand, baba, is like a weighted blanket when the world gets too loud. baba is safe.

most importantly, baba always ensures she's both seen and heard.

the fledgling peers at his maker -- a maker that finally deems it necessary to show up after nearly two years of radio silence -- behind reading glasses he doesn't even need. bitter , huh? after all the shit this guy has pulled -- nah. too easy. the paralysis demon that has haunted him since he was twenty years old wants him to show fangs. predictable. could easily ignore him , but that means armand might leave , and daniel isn't ready for his maker to hit the road just yet.