Rain Again (Completed)

Chapter 32

Whatever stress there had been since almost being run over by a truck, it all ebbed away the moment Kate walked into the orphanage ground.

It was a sunny day and the lawn before Mary's Home shone with even sunnier faces of the sisters and volunteers who were doing the last minute preparations, some older kids of the Home helping them in anyway they could. In front of the makeshift stage, chairs were put in the shadows of the four humongous oak trees across the lawn, one of those - the oldest oak tree in the entire Asthel city.

As Kate moved forward with Victor and Ellie with her, she admired not for the first time - the Victorian-style orphanage building. It was worn out in places and looked ancient, but never in a haunted way. With many innocent souls and their selfless saviors gracing the building, it gave more the impression of a nirvana instead.

Through the front doors, as they walked into the hall, a crowd of children dressed in their best clothes hurtled towards them.

"Aren't you all looking gorgeous!" Ellie grinned, holding up her camera. "Now put on your best smiles. Say Cake!"

All the children lined up and screamed "Cake".

While Kate laughed, Mimi - a four-year-old girl came up to her while stealing shy glances at Victor. Mimi had donned her favorite Elsa frock, however, Kate noticed a few buttons behind her dress were open. Before she could kneel down to button up her dress properly, Victor beat her to it.

"Hi, there," he drawled while moving Mimi so that her back faced him. "You look so pretty today," he said buttoning up her dress.

Mimi turned around and Kate gasped seeing the girl's face turning red. "Thank you. You've cleaned up nicely as well," there was her ever-so-shy tone towards Victor.

Ellie bounded towards Mimi then and dragged the little girl away saying she needed to have a braid like Elsa as well. Kate and Victor watched as Ellie sat on a stool with a boxful of different combs while little girls lined up in front of her to do their hair.

"Mimi's got a crush on you," Kate singed jabbing her elbow into his side playfully.

Victor gave an exaggerated bad boy smirk. The subtle dents on his nose from wearing reading glasses often, crinkled. "At least now I can say that my charms are being recognized by someone," he leaned in a bit and she saw that mysterious shade of brown taking over the usual color of his eyes. She took in a sharp breath, for there was something absolutely magical about looking into his eyes.

The hazy quality of Victor's gaze that had kept her frozen to place however jolted. Breaking their eye contact he looked down at his side with a frown and then a soft smile spread on his lips. Following him Kate located a group of boys had gathered near them, they looked anticipated, one of them - with lovely brown skin and a head full of black hair was tugging at Victor's jeans.

The boys seeing that they'd got Victor's attention now, inched forward a little more, a cute blonde one from them held up a jar of hair gel. "Miss Ellie told you to make us look dashing."

"Ah ha," he laughed. Ellie winked from the stool while Victor glanced up at her briefly, she had a three year old pouty faced girl perched on her lap at the moment - waiting with a serious expression while Ellie twisted her hair into a bun. It was like the little girl thought her hair could not be tied properly if she so much as said a single word.

As Victor dedicated himself to making the boys look dashing, leaving them in the main hall Kate walked away further inside the building in search of her favorite kid and mother Mary. After passing one of the corridors while stopping to say hi to many of the sisters, she found them at one of the nurseries for the smallest kids.