It was a beautiful, sunny day in May, the perfect day for a walk in the park. April had been rather wet and, as a result, the park's plant life was in peak form. Countless flowers speckled the sides of the winding path you had chosen for a leisurely stroll. While the ground offered many sights to see, you tended to keep your eyes turned upwards. You observe the variety of colors and sizes of the various birds alighting the trees, chittering and chirping to one another. Amid the branches and leaves you spot a rather suspicious looking crow. Your view is obstructed so you approach for a better look. As you come closer you find the crow to actually be a stuffed animal perched on the head of a small child balancing rather precariously on a tree branch. The child has very long gray hair and is wearing a very oversized purple coat, looking more like a dress on her small frame. She has large bracelets around wrists and ankles with a similar band for her neck, accompanied by a short yellow tie, and one purple knee sock. The most strange thing about the child, however, is that her stuffed animal crow is flanked by two large, black and purple striped, very convincing horns extending outward and upward from the sides of her head. As you come just under the branch she is standing on, you can hear her mumbling either to the crow or to herself.
"You shouldn't be playing around up there. You are going to hurt yourself." You call up to the girl. The girl turns and looks down at you before crossing her arms.
"You would dare approach me, mortal?" She asks with a sneer on her face, "Do you have any idea how powerful I am? Nothing in this pitiful world could ever hurt me!" She yelled down at you in a very smug tone. You look around but there appear to be no parents in sight. This girl looked far too young to be playing alone in the park. You would have to think of a way to get her to come down so you could take her back to her parents. You attempt to indulge her fantasies.
"Uhh, o-of course! Surely a being so strong as you must have a name?" You ask her.
"You are in the presence of the leader of the world's most powerful secret society and you don't even know my name? Hmph," she turns her nose up at you, "I should have expected as much from a lowly human such as you. I am Laplus Dia Highest Death Thirteen Daina Art of Impact Sign Emperor Road of the Darknesss! Heed my call!" She shouts, pointing down at you.
"Uhh, right. Is your mom or dad around, miss Darkness?" Your question is met with an immediate change in attitude and her body tenses. Laplus scrunches up her face.
"I.. T-that's none of you business!" She turns from you and runs along the branch before jumping to another. You try to chase after her on the ground but you lose sight of her among the trees.
"Laplus?" You try calling out for her a few times but get no reply. Though it goes against your natural instincts you are eventually forced to give up your search, you can only hope that she gets back to her parents safely.
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A few days later the weather is beautiful again and you decide to spend your afternoon in the same park as before. After a long walk you take a rest on a park bench. The bench is one of a few forming a line in front of a children's play area. The playground has all the amenities you might expect, a swingset, a slide, a merry-go-round, various structures for the children to use for hide-and-seek. As you look across the area, you are met with a pair of small yellow eyes but only for a moment before they quickly dip down behind a wall. The eye's owner would have been perfectly camouflaged were it not for the large horns still sticking out. The child from the other day was spying on you. For her sake, you pretend not to notice and look the other way. After a few seconds you see her pop up again in the corner of your vision. She observes you, occasionally moving her mouth and looking down, presumably talking to her stuffed crow. Despite her bratty behavior from the other day, you had to admit her childish antics were rather cute. You retrieve a book from your pocket and begin to read as you bask in the sunlight, content with letting yourself be the object of Laplus' game. Occasionally you would glance up from your book to see Laplus had moved, studying you from different angles and distances, and after a while the mysterious child was gone again.
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You found yourself drawn to the park again. You hoped that maybe today the girl would be accompanied by a parent or wearing different clothes, anything to show that this girl was being taken care of to put your mind at ease. You went to the same play area bench and took a seat, scanning for any signs of the girl.
"Excuse me?" You hear a voice beside you and turn to look. She is a tallish woman with pink hair, the front stylized to resemble a bird's wings. She is wearing a long sleeve, white dress shirt tucked into a pair of scandalously tight, black leather shorts with dark pink toned tights extending from the legs. She had a smart, red tie and a reddish-purple coat that was a size or two larger than she needed which Laplus was currently hiding behind. She is very attractive. The woman's piercing blue eyes meet with yours as she continues speaking.
"I'm sorry to bother you. Do you mind if I sit down?" She asks, gesturing to the bench next to you. You nod and she takes a seat next to you. Laplus looks at the two of you and a sad expression comes over her face before she runs away toward the playground.
"I'm Lui."
You introduce yourself as well.
"It's nice to meet you. Laplus has told me about you," she breaks eye contact and looks a bit embarrassed for a moment, "thank you for looking after her." You tell her it's no problem and she continues talking. She is an office worker and work has been very stressful lately. Her boss has even started demanding that she start doing work at home and on her days off as well so she hasn't had much time for one-on-one attention with Laplus.
"She seems like a bit of a firecracker." You joke.
Lui laughs, "Yeah, she's a handful." She replies, laughing again. Her laugh sounds beautiful.
"That's a pretty cute outfit, the horns are really well done. Did you make those for her?" You ask. Lui quickly looks around making sure Laplus isn't close by.
"The horns are real." She says matter-of-factly before leaning in close and putting a hand up in front of your ear and her mouth, "She's adopted." Lui whispers.
"I found her huddled underneath a bus stop bench in the rain one night when I was walking home from work so I took her with me. I tried working with CPS and the like to find her parents but nothing ever turned up. As far as I know she doesn't have any family or relatives at all, she would always get so upset whenever I tried to ask. She's been living with me for a few years now." Lui turned her eyes back to the playground again, watching Laplus go down the slide. "I think she has just accepted me as her real mother. I do the best I can for her." Laplus notices the two of you watching her and runs behind the nearest structure.
"How old is she?" You ask.
Lui turns back to you, "I'm not sure. I think she is about eight or nine. She told me the day of her birthday but not the year, just kept insisting she was an adult. Isn't that funny?" She laughs again.
"She certainly does have an active imagination. She told me she was the leader of a secret society the other day." You tell Lui.
"Oh, yes, I've heard about it too. 'Holox is going to take over the world' she always tells me. Her, a samurai and a whale all work in a secret lab with a pink coyote. I assume they must be other kids from the playground here. How do they come up with this stuff?" She laughs again. A part of you wants to hear that laugh forever.
"Hey! Give him back!" You hear Laplus yelling. An older boy seems to have stolen the small stuffed crow and is holding it over her head. You see Lui starting to get up but you motion for her to stay there, now was your chance to make an impression.
"I think I can handle this one." You tell her and walk over to the kids.
"What seems to be the problem here?" You ask in an authoritative tone. The previously smug expression of the boy vanishes as he looks up at you.
"Nothing. We are just playing, mister." The boy says. Seeing her chance, Laplus grabs the crow back from the distracted boy and kicks him in the leg.
"Well hey now, that's not very-" You start to admonish Laplus but are interrupted by her yelling.
"Y-You're not my dad!" Tears are welling in her eyes as she has her fists balled tightly around her stuffed animal, "And me and mom don't need your help!" She yells as she runs off and ducks into a nearby play fort. You turn to go back to the bench and see that Lui is already walking over to you. Lui puts her hand on your arm.
"Sorry about that," She leans forward and lowers her voice, "she can be a little dramatic." Lui stands up straight again.
"I hope you won't think this too forward of me but..." She looks back to make sure Laplus is still in the fort, "I have to get going but would you like to meet me for lunch on Saturday?" There is an edge of nervousness in her voice as she asks.
"That would be great." You reply and the two of you exchange phone numbers. Lui walks over to the fort and bends over to look inside the small entrance. You can't help but notice the lack of panty line under her shorts.
"Come on, Laplus, time to go." She calls with her hands outstretched towards the door. You see Laplus' small hand grab on to Lui's as she crawls out.
"Nice meeting you." Lui says as they walk past you, hand in hand. After a few steps Laplus turns her head back to scowl at you.
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After an admittedly nerve racking wait, Saturday is finally here and you make a point to be punctual. You spot the familiar sight of Laplus' horns and then slow your pace as you realize you can hear her as well.
"But mom I don't want to be here!" Laplus whines, "Why couldn't we just eat lunch at home?" She has her arms crossed tightly across her chest.
"We are eating lunch here because mommy is meeting with someone and it's very important to mommy that everything goes well, so you really need to behave today, okay?" Lui puts a gentle hand on Laplus' cheek, "And if you are really good today we can get ice cream after, how about that?" Laplus looks down at the table, her brow furrowed as if in deep concentration.
"I want cake too." Laplus demands.
"Fine, we can get cake too. Anything you want as long as you behave." Lui concedes.
"Okay..." Laplus hesitantly agrees. You are granted no further time for snooping as Lui looks up and spots you. A happy smile crosses her lips as she waves you over.
"Hello, girls." You greet both of them as you sit down.
"Hey! You are right on time." Lui says. She squeezes your arm gently as she greets you. Laplus makes her immediate displeasure known with a grunt and looks away, her arms returning to their place across her chest.
Lui nervously chuckles, "She's uhh, very hungry today." She says, making an excuse for Laplus' little outburst.
"That's okay. What do you want to eat, Laplus? You can have anything on the menu, my treat." Your attempt at breaking the ice is unsuccessful as Laplus doesn't even acknowledge you.
"Now, Laplus, don't be rude. Mister Anon is being very nice in offering to pay for your food." Lui admonishes her. Laplus observes you coldly before replying.
"I want hamburg steak." She says curtly.
"Oooo, that sounds good. I like hamburg steak too." You reply. Laplus squints at you for a moment before looking away again.
"And for the lovely lady?" You ask, turning to Lui.
Lui chuckles, "Easy there, lover boy." She playfully scolds you, "I heard the shrimp soup here is very spicy." You motion to a waiter and relay the orders.
Your food arrives and you and Lui get to talking about all kinds of things. Lui tells you about a movie she saw recently and you tell her about a book you've been reading. Lui tells you all about her boss being a slave driver and a funny incident that took place the other day. You even got to see Laplus' adorable embarrassed face as Lui tells you about the time she came home to find Laplus had wrapped herself in gray construction paper and was pretending to be a hippopotamus.
With all of the food eaten and the bill paid you ask Lui if she needs a ride. Lui tells you that she lives close by so you offer to walk her home which she accepts. A few laughs and some playful flirting later and the three of you are standing at Lui's front door. She opens the door to let Laplus inside before turning back to you on the porch.
"Thank you for lunch, that was wonderful." She says.
"I had a great time too." You say, "Want to go out again sometime next week?" You ask. Lui's face lit up.
"I would love to. I'm not exactly sure of my schedule but let's say Saturday again?" She asks.
"It's a date." You reply. Lui's cheeks almost match the color of her hair as she blushes. She looks in through the open front door and then back at you with a nervous look on her face. There was a hint of spice on Lui's lips as she kissed you for the first time.
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It is amazing how powerful words can be when delivered in a certain context. You were woken up by the sound of your phone and looked at it to find a message from Lui. "Good morning." It said. Two simple little words. A standard greeting you had heard countless times in your life but in this moment they meant the whole world to you. Lui Takane started her morning thinking of you. You replay the moment as you lay in bed. Her nervous eyes looking right into yours before they closed. Her hand slightly ruffling your shirt as you used you for balance to stand on her tippy toes. Her smooth, glossed lips making that satisfying 'smooching' sound when they parted from yours. Her playful look back at you before she closed the front door. It was a memory you intended to hold on to for the rest of your life. Another message from Lui, "I'll likely be busy most of the day but I'll try to sneak away during lunch." You couldn't wait.