Chapter Text
"Just toss him into the padded room. Make it the one with the windows, though. Make sure we can see him. He's known to injure himself," the masked Federation guard said robotically to another.
Ash stared up at the two guards from behind his overgrown bangs. He wishes to cut them but he knows they will not bother to do so. They never have.
The second guard grabs the child by his arm way rougher than necessary and drags him to said room. Ash can do nothing but be dragged alongside him, his smaller legs struggling to keep up with the guard's stride.
A large, metallic door awaits him and slides open with audible roughness. Ash looks down at his feet as it does so, just awaiting his fate he knows he can do nothing to stop. He gave up some time ago fighting them, it just makes it worse.
"Go in yourself or I will do it for you," the guard states, not an ounce of emotion in his voice.
Ash doesn't respond, instead he just watches his feet drag himself into the room. As soon as both of his heels make it onto the padding, he hears the door slam shut behind him.
He just stands there. Ash doesn't bother even raising his gaze to look around, he knows the room incredibly well. It's where he has been many, many times before.
The boy feels his legs give out beneath him and he falls into a small, pathetic heap onto the white padding. He curls in on himself and shuts his eyes, feeling all of his exhaustion hit at once.
A light knock.
Two more knocks, louder this time.
Ash slowly opens one eye. He blinks rapidly, trying to adjust to the light
The knocks cease...
Then a steady beat sounds on his window.
Ash raises his head. What.
He turns and sees a girl, a few years older than him, knocking on his window. She seems to be making noise with her mouth to join into the tune of the beat she's making.
She notices him noticing her finally and stops. A big grin spreads across her face and she waves at him happily.
The girl has very long, almost unruly strawberry blonde hair. It's so strawberry it looks almost orange in the lighting. It reaches almost to the back of her knees and a few long strands fall into her eyes. At the front of her forehead is a long, twirling unicorn horn. A tail that looks akin to a dog's wags behind her happily.
She clumsily pushes the strands behind her ear and motions for him to come to the window. He gazes past her to the open area and sees no guards around... but maybe it's a trap? What would they be trapping him with, though? He's so confused. He's afraid.
He looks back to her, his lips pulling into a frown. A few blinks help to hold back the tears he knows are filling up in his eyes.
The girl slowly drops her hand and her smile. She bodily turns to look around to find the source of what's upsetting him. Surely it's not her, right?
She turns back and inspects him for a moment. Then she sits down suddenly, criss cross applesauce. She cups her hands around her mouth and yells, "I'll sit down until you're ready to c'mere! It's how I had to get the street cats to like me so I'm used to it!"
The girl pulls her hands back down to her hair and starts seperating strands. He watches as she starts to braid the hair together, it's clear she does it often with how quickly she's doing it.
After 10 minutes she has 3 slim braids framing the left side of her face and she then moves on to the right side to begin making braids there, too.
Ash slowly reaches up to take his long bangs inbetween his thumb and forefinger. He pulls at the strands in disdain as he watches as she skillfully interlocks hers.
Her fingers suddenly stop their motion as if frozen in time, the hair still between her fingers mid braid. His eyes shift from her hands to her eyes, which stare back at him openly. Her eyes are warm, her big smile making them slightly narrow from her cheeks.
"I could braid yours too if you want!" She yells again.
Ash drops the hair from his fingers shyly and averts his gaze.
She giggles and continues to braid the hair, "I am sooo good at braiding now. For some reason they won't let me cut my hair but honestly I'm so used to it now. It's like another body part for me. Or well, I guess it is. Is hair considered a body part? I mean, it's apart of my body so maybe. But I mean like a body part I can move with my brain. Like my arm or my feet but my hair just moves on its own when I walk or something. That's not the same though."
Ash blinks. Wow, she sure can talk.
"Your hair is also pretty long. Is it annoying for you? It was annoying for me for a while before I got used to it! Maybe we can sneak some scissors somehow, I know they got some lying around somewhere. Or maybe not. I dunno," she drones on, not even looking at her hands as she continues braiding.
She finishes the first braid on her right side and then groans and starts attempting to stretch her hands, "Oh boy, do my fingers start to cramp after a while, though! I wonder if it's different braiding someone else's hair. I've never done it before. Please let me braid your hair sometime! I'd do it now but I kind of can't open the door by myself. The masked dudes have some kind of cards they open them with. Some day I'ma get my hands on one. I bet I could get into so many places with them. First, I'd go to the kitchen cuz I know they have some food better than the same crappy soup and bread they give us! They're just being stingy."
"You don't have to yell... I can hear you just fine," Ash replies, his voice cracking slightly at the beginning of his sentence from not talking for so long. He refuses to talk to the guards, so his voice hasn't been used in weeks.
She makes an 'o' with her mouth in surprise, "You can talk!" Suddenly, she slams her hand over her mouth with an audible slap. Her cheeks flush a slight red, visibly showing her embarrassment at the slip up.
"Whoops, sorry, forgot to stop yelling. It was becoming a habit. I didn't know this window was so soundproof-less. Is that a word? Probably not. You get what I mean though. I can hear you good through the glass. You can hear me good?"
Slowly, Ash nods once.
The girl's smile is quickly back on her face, all signs of her prior embarrassment wiped within seconds, "Good! I'm Katie, by the way. What's your name?"
There's a stretch of silence. The girl, Katie, waits patiently during this, showing no visible signs that Ash's choice of staying quiet makes her unhappy or uncomfortable.
Decidedly, he takes the bait.
"...Ash."
She clasps her hands together excitedly, obviously very pleased both by his reply and the fact he chose to reply to begin with.
"Oooh. I like that name. It's like the ashes from a fire. That's pretty sick. I wish Katie had a cool word like that! So lucky."
The familiar sound of metallic scraping cutting through their very one-sided conversation makes both Ash and Katie's heads snap up. The door from behind Katie shows a Federation guard, his hands folded behind his person.
The usual robotic voice sounds, "Experiment KTB. You're unauthorized to be in this vicinity."
Katie groans and slides her hands down her face in annoyance, "Then how did I get in here? Huh? Ask yourself that, buddy boy."
"Get up and follow me," the voice continues, completely disregarding her.
She looks at Ash, "They just never listen. Whatever. I'll see you around! Bye-bye!"
Katie hops up to her feet a little too happily for someone that both her and Ash know is about to be punished for acting out of line. She dusts off her experiment gown of any debris from the floor and skips to the door.
She throws him one last smile from over her shoulder before the Guard steps infront of Ash's view of her and shuts the door.
Once more, he's left in silence.
He had become so used to the silence over the past few months.
After her presence, though, it's made the silence even worse than before. How can he miss somebody he had just met? Was it only because she was nice to him?
He sighs and brings his knees up to his chin and hugs them tightly.
When did you become so pathetic, Ash?