Satzu - reliable

#8

On grounds of something that Tzuyu did not understand, her phone had given up and ensuing her own reflection glared back at her from the black screen in a quite unamused way. Her gaze drifted towards the little girl, standing sideways next to her.

In all honesty, Tzuyu actually had a delight dislike against children. They were loud, annoying and just enjoying their lives while having no clue about how stressful being an adult would going to be.

While giving the whole topic around children and where her annoyance against them might come from another thought, she realized, she had never really had to do anything with them. There were no younger siblings in her life or at least relatives. Consequently, her opinion was technically based on her own imagination and shouting and crying children in shopping centers.

The little girl in front of her seemed to be well mannered though. Additionally, she had a name that Tzuyu was more than familiar with so that it echoed in her head every time she let her mind slip.

Preoccupied, her fingers grope for a cigarette and a lighter in her pocket, taking a deep drag after enlightening it and puffing out the greyish smoke.

Then, she decided to sit down on the stairs in front of the building since she started seeing small, black dots in the corner of her eyes out of nowhere and really didn't feel like fainting in front of the child she should wait for her parents with.

Her left foot slowly tapped to the rhythm of nonexistent music and after taking turns in observing the past driving cars and the little girl standing in front of her for a perceived eternity, she cleared her throat. "Have you eaten? Maybe we should get some food."

The little girl turned around as if she was flinching and looked at Tzuyu in a way that was somehow hard to interpret so the young woman made her cigarette tap two invisible dots of smoke and rolled her eyes. "Can you maybe communicate with me? That would make it way easier."

Another second passed until the little girl sat down next to her on the stairs. "Can you maybe stop that? It stinks." She indicated towards the cigarette that Tzuyu held between her middle and index finger and sniffed in a way only children can.

Tzuyu looked at her cigarette in confusion as if she just realized in that moment that she was actually holding one. Something inside of her refused to listen to what a child uttered, especially when it was in such a rude way. But on the other hand it was whatever and she could just oblige for the cigarette box's sake which was nearly empty again.

So she darted the cigarette end towards the sidewalk. The little girl leaped up, ran towards the spot where it landed and stepped on it like a weird kind of energy ball. "Are you a dog or something?" Tzuyu who weirdly felt reminded of her little Chihuahua at home by the action of someone running after something she had thrown raised one eyebrow.

The little girl sat beside her again, swinging her legs concentratedly but ignoring the asked question. "Why don't you have a phone? I'm boring" She drew out the last syllable of the last word in a way that made the whole sentence sound like a speaking verse in a song.

"You're bored?" Tzuyu decided to interrupt the singsong. "And to your information, I do have a phone. It just died, you know?"

The little girl sighed theatrically "Why?" Again, she drew out the word in a way which made it sound more like a "whyyyyy" than an actual question.

"I have no idea. Phones do weird stuff sometimes." Tzuyu felt nearly a little embarrassed at the realization that she had talked to Sally in such a sweet voice and childlike way. So she added "and even if it would be working right now, I wouldn't let you use it" in a slightly stricter voice.

The child observed her surroundings carefully and with wide opened eyes as if she just noticed where she was. "That's sad" once again, her statement sounded more like "that's sadddd" and like a little song than anything else.

Tzuyu answered her with a silent shrug and continued staring at the past driving cars.

"What your name?" Sally tilted her head suddenly while looking at the woman next to her.

"Oh, It's Tzuyu" Tzuyu couldn't fully suppress a smile. This child was adorable.

"Ah."

Short silence.

"Tzuyu. I'm sleepy" The sentence sounded more like "Tzuyuuuuu and sleepyyyy" but the addressed decided to ignore that. And before she could ask "So?", the little girl climbed towards her to sit on her lap and closed her eyes.

Tzuyu held her breath for a second. There she was sitting at the stairs in front of an old building with a toddler in her arms who was quite likely to be asleep. By no stretch of her imagination, she could understand why this little girl had elected her to sit on and to fall asleep since she had in all honesty not really been friendly.

But the situation, even though it was confusing, gave her a weird warm feeling inside and absentmindedly, she cradled the child carefully in her arms.