Silver Umbrellas

Five-- Scissors

I give up... I'm gonna make most of her W's into V's but that's probably going to be it. If only her voice actress didn't change some Th's into T's or D's...! ARGH Okay, calming down now. Carry on~

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A thought came to Lili's mind when she looked at the two children next morning and couldn't help but frown a little at how long their hair was. For Alice, it reached to the backs of her knees in unkempt, dirty strands. Their red-brown color was altered by all of the dirt that was caked on. Yao was hardly any better, though his locks only fell to just past his waistline and were already a dark brown, so the dirt didn't really change that much about the shade.

The medical kit lay open on the worn coffee table, and Liechtenstein's gaze wandered over to rest on it. There was a pair of scissors there, meant for cutting bandages... And Lili did know how to cut hair; she had been cutting her own for decades! So, why not?

"Alice, Yao?" Lili said to get their attention. The two of them had just woken up and were slowly rising to get ready for the day.

"Uh-huh?" Alice replied around a yawn as she scratched the top of her head idly, and Yao just gave Lili his bleary-eyed attention.

"Vould you like me to cut your hair today?"

Two pairs of eyes widened at the thought, and then Alice smiled brightly. "Yeah! But how're you gonna do that? We don't have any scissors..."

"There are scissors in here," Liechtenstein explained, and reached for the box. Finland sat up from where he'd been sleeping and handed the implements to her; she accepted them with a small, "Danke."

The look of delight on the younger girl's face was remarkable. "Yes, please!"

After a quick breakfast of water and trail mix, Yao got dressed for a trip out into the woods and Alice plopped herself down in front of Lili's rocking chair. Before Yao could leave, Tino spoke up.

"Could I go with you, Yao? I'd like to see where you get food from, so I can help out more." His boots were already laced up and his arms were pulled through his flight jacket sleeves.

China looked down at the silver umbrella in his hand, which was just barely wide enough to shelter two tall people underneath its canopy. "Okay, if you want to," he said after a moment.

Their group divided, leaving the girls safe at home while the boys were bundled up for an adventure in the outdoors. Before Lili started cutting, Alice tilted her head back and said, "When your leg heals up, you and I can go get food together! Then you'll know where it comes from, too."

Liechtenstein smiled down at Oregon. "I vould like that very much. Now hold still so I can do a good job. How short do you vant it?"

Finland and China walked in relative silence, caused more or less by the boy's distant attitude. Thinking to himself, Finland couldn't blame him for his way of acting; he and Liechtenstein had sort of barged in and disrupted the equilibrium China and Oregon had grown accustomed to. 'And there is also the past to consider, where China had been very against strangers and adapting.

'But that was the previous China's doing, not this one. Maybe they share that personality trait.' Tino couldn't help but wonder. 'That would be interesting to find out.'

Over the noise caused by the moderate drizzle, Tino spoke. "How far is this convenience store?"

"Two hours that way, if you walk careful," Yao answered with a minimal gesture ahead of them. He was taking good care to keep his fingers from leaving the protection of the umbrella's canopy, and therefore couldn't point very far.