My Heart has no Strings attached (Marionette X reader) DISCONTINUED

2. The Crying child

After having pizza you learned that you needed to wait for your cake to arrive, you saw this as a chance to chase after your cousins and resume playing with them but first you wanted to make sure that your music box wasn't going to be touched or moved. Gingerly you picked up the box and once again held it against your body and walked over to where your aunt and mother sat at the table talking about well.. adult stuff while sitting next to Jack in a highchair who appeared to be giggling and smearing pizza sauce on his face you gave a small tug at your mother's shirt bring your two chatty relatives out of their conversation "hey mom I am going to go play with Lexis again, please hold my box?" you said raising your small arms up to present the music box to your mother who blinked and smiled down at you "of course sweetums, I'll just put it in my purse for you ok?" she said taking the box out of your hands, putting it down on the table, then retrieving her purse from underneath the chair and carefully placed the box inside of it "there! safe and sound" she zipped up her purse and placed it back where it was and turned back to you "okay thanks ma I am going" "okay play safe okay? I will call you when the cakes here!" you mother called out as you headed out after your cousins.

It seemed like there were slightly more children around than there usually was today as you found yourself nearly bumping into others and having to try standing on your tippy toes to try and spot at least one of your cousins in a constantly moving sea of happy squealing children. "Lexis!" "Gilbert?!" you called out your eyes moving about looking for a familiar looking hair style or color of clothing, whenever you though you found them you just ended up calling out to a kid you never seen before who in turn gives you a strange look before resuming whatever he or she was doing. Starting to get a bit frustrated you decided that you were going to check back in the arcade room to see if Gilbert had gone to continue playing the games he was seemingly addicted to, you saw the arcade room overhead and just as you began walking in the right direction a black blur raced by your line of sight pushing you out of the way, nearly knocking you to your butt. catching yourself you caught sight of the culprit: a raven haired child. you puffed your cheeks and huffed in annoyance "hey rude! watch were your goin-huh?" your agitation quickly deflated away when you managed to catch a small side glimpse of this child's face, puffy red eyes with large streams of tears falling down and heavy sobs could be heard "w-was that kid crying?" you thought out loud to yourself watching the kid until he seemed to vanish into the.. Prize corner? some kids and adults seemed to notice the crying child too while others mostly ignored it, another sound was heard from the direction the ravenette was running from: loud obnoxious and mocking laughter. Turning your head to the source you found three older looking children, two of them brunette and one blonde, they were facing the direction the ravenette had ran off to, they also all had a rather sadistic looking glint in their eyes as they high-fived each other and carried away a paper plate with a pile of slices of pizza on it in one of their hands. standing there you blinked finally processing what you may have just witnessed you suddenly felt bad for the poor boy who has shoved you and several others out of his way not to be rude but possibly out of humiliation and sadness and wanted to get as far away from those laughing kids as possible, personally you hated the idea of anyone being that unhappy you were sometimes bullied at school by the older kids for no good reason remembering how you felt during those rough times made you feel that you needed to seek that crying child maybe Gilbert and lexis are fine on their own for a little bit you though as you began to follow the direction of the ravenette to the prize corner driven by curiosity and pity.

Walking briskly up to the prize corner you noticed that their was a chain link going from one side of the entrance opening to the other, a bright red sign hung from this chain stating; PRIZE CORNER CLOSED; BE BACK IN 20 MINS. reading this you bit your lip in hesitation you were certain that this is where the crying child had ran off to but at the same time you didn't want to get caught in a place you aren't supposed to be in at this time by someone who worked here, they would surely tell your parents and you could face some unknown harsh consequence, again you hesitated and shifted your gaze all around to make sure that you weren't in the line of sight of anyone who worked here before quickly scrambling underneath the chain barrier. Once inside you ducked behind a space of wall just inside the entrance so you won't be seen, your eyes scanned the room for any lone grown up or sign of the crying child, nobody appeared to be here except the large puppet box over by the counter the music box softly emitting the "grandfather clock" tune your ears suddenly caught a sound in the background of the tune, you listened hard and your eyes widened when it was heard again; like a child softly sobbing. you looked around the prize corner once more trying to pinpoint where the sobs are coming from and your focus was led back to the puppet's box. you slowly got up from your kneeling position behind an old broken down arcade machine and quietly walked over to the puppet's box where little by little the sobbing became more audible, getting close to the box enough that you were nearly in contact and pressing up against it you the sobs were much more clearer and told you that someone was hiding behind the box. "the crying kid?" you whispered questioningly to yourself as you peered around the corner, yep this was definitely the crying ravenette child. Curled up on the floor in the fetal position his body racked with sputtering sobs, your little heart ached at the sad sight, you walked up and around to where his arms and legs hid his face you wanted to help this boy feel better again, nobody should be upset at Freddie's the happiest place in the world. "u-uhm hey are you okay?" you asked the boy's crying instantly ceased and he seem to tense up hearing your unfamiliar voice most likely not expecting anyone to find him here, the boy moved again craning his head to look up at you with a look that was that of shock and bewilderment then he tightly shut his eyes and sniffled as he wiped away his tears "n-no." he stuttered finally answering back, you noted his appearance; he was short with jet black hair, probably the same age as you, his complexion was that of a porcelain doll aside from his reddened face and slightly bruised and scraped spots on his skin, but what struck you was his eyes, they were the bluest of blue you've seen like two sapphires. You watched as he sat up from the cold tile floor and leaned up against the puppet's box shyly shifting some distance away from you, he hugged his knees close to his chest and shot you a questioning look that also held a twinge of fear. Sensing the boy's shyness and vulnerability you carefully approached him again, calmly sitting down criss-crossed you then shot him a friendly smile as to assure him that you weren't here to further bully or cause him pain in any way, "my name is (y/n). what's your's?" you asked "m-my name is Salem.." he responded now seeming to have calmed down a bit more "that's a nice name! never heard of that name before" you complemented, Salem gave you a sheepish yet flattered smile once you saw that Salem was a bit more comfortable around you, you decided to bring up the problem "I saw you run by and push me, but you were crying. what happened?" Salem's eyes widen in realization as he remembered the (Hair color) girl that just happened to cross his path at the moment he managed to escape his bullies and ended up nearly pushing her down to the ground. A sheepish blush rose to his face "o-oh that." he began "I-I was running away from those three mean kids t-they told me that they would beat me up if I-I-I didn't give them my pizza..I gave it to them.. they beat me up anyway. I needed to get away.. I-I am sorry I pushed you." blurting the last part out as tears threatened to spill from his eyes again and he buried his head in his knees withdrawing into his own body like a turtle into its shell "sorry" he repeated in whispers "sorry.. sorry..p-please don't hate me." you scooted up to his shaking frame and put a hand on him he flinched letting out a whimper "hey.. its okay now." you shushed him taking the hand that touched him and rubbing comforting circles on his back. "I think we should leave before somebody catches us here" you said getting up and walking away, Salem got up and followed you outside the prize corner thankfully neither of you were caught exiting the area the hallway you then turned to look at Salem who seemed to be rather fidgety and was nervously looking all around, probably fearful that the kids who bullied him out of his lunch would still be around and likely itching for round 2, or perhaps it was one of the security guards that just when by who shot you two a strange look before wandering off just a couple seconds ago either way it made you equally anxious, you thought for a bit wondering how you would go about your day now that you had met this rather shy and meek boy who was now following you around like a lost puppy then an idea popped in your head; "hey Salem" you called bringing the boy out of his funk "huh? What?" he said blinking "you said the bullies stole your pizza right?" you asked "y-yea" "I can give you some of my pizza from my birthday party.. there's still a lot of it left" the ravenette's eyes widened slightly "really? y-you'd do that for m-m-me?" he stuttered and cocked his head cutely to which you giggled at "yea! you can come over to my party and have cake too if you want" you beamed at the boy to which he blushed "you are so nice! thank you." he smiled widely for the first time since you two met lighting up his face his blue eyes sparkled with a newfound happiness it was now your turn to blush " I am going to ask my mom if I can have pizza and cake with you" Salem then said "ok! meet me at party room 3 if you can go" "ok I will be right back!" Salem called back running off to find his mother.