Kessie's Short Stories

[Mega AU][MMZXA] Curiosity Snuffed the Ashe

There were a lot of things that Ashe wasn't allowed to touch. That small porcelain horse statue which sits on Momma's dresser now, for example. It used to have a twin, designed to be used as bookends, until Ashe came along. One little poke and -crash- nothing more than little pieces on the ground. She couldn't remember how old she was at the time (let alone whatever Momma's reaction was), but she could always remember the head of that porcelain horse. Split into roughly five pieces, with one marble eye still in its place and the other no where in sight. Little Ashe stared at the marble eye in place as Momma came rushing in and started berating her.

Momma didn't scare her that day, it was that stupid marble eye. She had nightmares about it staring at her for weeks. It burned its way into her memory so that she never felt the compulsion to touch something off limits ever again.

But there were voices coming from Momma's room when she wasn't in there. Voices that Ashe didn't recognize and had a feeling her mother couldn't hear. They weren't calling for her, per say, although it was hard to ignore when Ashe was the only one in the area and she could hear the casual dialog exchanges in Momma's room. The voices talked as if they were old friends, sitting around with nothing else to do and dictating their morals toward each other.

Ashe was very bored that day, you see. Something had gone down at the market that Momma had requested the pup stay out of sight for awhile. She had no choice but to agree in all due honesty. When Ashe was bored, she became far more nosy. No one was there to stop her from finding the root of those voices, and Momma hadn't locked her door that day. So...

She did make one last check around the area to make sure no one could catch her before she stuck her ear to the door.

'A transaction. We were part of a transaction between those two. Doesn't that make you the least bit upset Model X?'

'Not at all.' a second voice disagreed calmly. 'We're safe from whoever may harm us. She was right, you know, no one would ever think to point fingers at the proprietor of the black market.'

'It should be their first guess.' the first voice retorted rather darkly. 'That little... mutt of hers has quite a social standing outside of this... business. Everyone but that child knows that she's related to him.'

'And you remember the reason for that, don't you Model Z?'

There was a rather long silence that followed after this question, leading Ashe to press her ear even closer to the door. Unconsciously, she placed her hand on the door handle, and then proceeded to accidentally turn the knob. Ashe ungracefully fell into Momma's room with a small thud. Sitting on Momma's bedside table where two objects that Ashe didn't recognize- one was red, the other was blue.

'Speaking of the little imp...' one of the voices from earlier retorted, sounding as if it were coming from the red object.

"I like mutt better, really." Ashe sheepishly chuckled, rubbing the back of her head as she tried to stand up again.

'She can hear us...?' the other voice questioned with almost genuine surprise- that one almost sounded like it was coming from the blue object.

'You mean it wasn't obvious Model X? Could you not sense her through the door?'

'Well I... I could, but...'

Ashe raised an interested eyebrow as she walked closer to the objects. They were floating, just a little bit, off of Momma's beside table but they were otherwise stationary.

"What are you?" Ashe wondered as she got down to be nearly eye level with the objects.

'Never mind us Ashe.' the blue one informed her, sounding rather kind, 'You need to get out of your mother's room before she catches you. She could be back any moment now.'