BIRDS! (Cylo)

[Ϛ Cylo]

^{This is a little long, but oh well.}

Cylo sat for a moment with a bemused smile on his face, and when Tawny finally decided on pancakes (with blueberries), he stood up from the table. He placed his hands on the edge of the table and leaned over, as if to prove he was far too lazy to stand.

"Pancakes it is, then. With blueberries," he was quick to add. "I'll go tell them, okay? You stay here, and you can---" he leaned over to the next table and grabbed a paper placemat and a jar of crayons "---colour if you want. It shouldn't be too long though." He figured colouring was safe; everyone liked to colour, didn't they?

"Oh, and bruschetta is just fancy, yummy bread."

He start slowly walking away, backwards, and waved at Tawny as he went. It was almost like he was reluctant to leave. But after he backed up into a table, he seemed to decide it wasn't such a good idea to not watch where he was going, so he finally turned around and walked properly, though he kept shooting smiles over his shoulder.

Eventually he reached the swinging double doors of the kitchen, and he pushed them open and entered. "Hey Stephan," he said amiably as he spotted the head chef. Stephane waved and smiled the smile of a man too busy to chat before getting back to work. Cylo continued deeper into the kitchen until he found what he was looking for.

"Hey Umi."

Umitaheno Kai, Cylo's adoptive Lycan brother, jumped at the sound of Cylo's voice and nearly cut his finger off instead of the end of a carrot. "C-cylo, hi, what are you doing here?" he nervously asked, keeping his eyes on his work after an initial glance at his brother.

"Take a wild guess?"

Umi gulped. "Umm, okay, just..."

"Hey, if you aren't up to it, that's fine."

"Oh, no, it is just that you will have to wait until my break," he said in a stronger tone, fussing with ingredients as he spoke. "Would you like something to eat while you wait?"

"No thanks, but I could use some pancakes for my friend."

Umi looked up at Cylo with searching eyes, and there was a faint smile on his thin lips. Cylo didn't know it, but Umi was happy to see his brother making friends. It reminded him of the Cylo he had known as a child, before he was so withdrawn. But then a slight frown met his features. "We do not... normally serve pancakes this time of day..." he said, as if afraid Cylo would be upset at the news.

"Oh, I know. I figure I'll just make them myself. Stephan wouldn't mind, right?"

Umi nodded, looking down at his work again, and Cylo beamed. Then he found himself an apron and a hairnet, and gathered the stuff he'd need with the air of one who knew exactly what they were doing, and enjoyed it thoroughly.

Not long after, he had a plate of pancakes, with blueberries forming smiley faces on them, and he stuck a short note on the plate as well before handing it to a waitress and finding Umi again. The note read, "I'll be out in just a minute, enjoy the pancakes!"

Umi slid a few diced potatoes into a pot with a knife, put a lid on it, and washed his hands off, before nodding to Cylo. "All right, I am ready."

"Don't look so nervous, bud! It's like you've never done this before!" Cylo said, giving the frail Lycan a friendly one-armed hug and smile as he walked the younger boy to the break room.

"I am just stressed out today," Umi said. "I am being considered for a promotion."

"Hey, that's great!" said Cylo. "You sure you don't mind this? Especially now!"

"Yes, I am sure." Umi said, finding a chair and sitting down. "Go ahead." He rolled up one of his sleeves slightly.

Cylo grabbed his brother's arm, and with a hint of guilt that he still couldn't squelch, siphoned some of the boy's energy to feed himself. He didn't take as much as usual, just enough to hold him over til he could find someone else to feed off of, because the thin boy hardly needed to be any weaker. If he wasn't a Lycan, Cylo would have refused to do it at all.

"You good?" Cylo asked, and when he didn't get an answer, he panicked a little and dropped to his knees beside Umi, whose head was in his chest. When Cylo noticed that said chest was slowly rising and falling, and cute little snoring noises were emanating from him, he chuckled and stood again. He found an egg timer, set it to wake Umi up at the end of his break, and left the kitchen, feeling energized.

"Hey," he said with a broad smile as he slid into his chair, across the table from Tawny. "How are the pancakes going?"

[tawny]

"Pancakes!" Tawny cheered as the waitress handed her the dish of yummy goodness. "Thank you!" She shouted to the waitress, who gave her a nervous smile before heading to meet her next customers.

The note Cylo so thoughtfully left her didn't interest her at all; she plucked it right off the plate, stared at it for a matter of seconds, and then ignored it completely.

She made a noise that could only be described as a happy squeal as she poked the blueberry smile with her fork. Mommy used to make her food like that, she thought, swinging her legs under the table in childish excitement.

She mercilessly stabbed the pancake with her fork, forgetting knives and syrup completely, and tried to take a bit out of the floppy breakfast food. She was blissfully unaware of the looks a couple's two children were giving her a booth down, concentrating fully on stuffing the entire pancake into her mouth. She never remembered them being so big before! Weren't pancakes easy to eat?

"Hi!" Tawny greeted Cylo as he returned. She managed to get a biteful of pancake, and was talking with her mouth full. Really, it sounded like she said "Hooyyyphh" more than anything. "I got pancakes!" She announced proudly after swallowing, and tried to pick up the whole pancake again, this time moving it toward Cylo. "Want some? Pancakes are good!"

Meanwhile, a rather irritated-looking businessman had made it to the front of the restaurant. He seemed to be the one looking for Tawny, as he was describing her appearance to a woman who stood nearby. "A man on the street told me he saw her come in here." He informed her, in a tone suggesting that he was not in the mood for games.[/font][/size]

[Ϛ Cylo]

"I can see that," Cylo said when Tawny proclaimed she'd procured pancakes. "Glad to see you're enjoying yourself." His smiled seemed almost absent it was so tranquil; after the feelings of guilt passed it always soothed him to be well-fed. It reminded him of his mother somehow (probably because she had always insisted on being the one to feed him until he was too big for her to handle it on her own).

When she offered him a bite, he took on a look of 'sure, why not' and leaned over to take a bite of the whole pancake being thrust toward him. He got a bit of blueberry on his face in the process, but he had to admit, the silly gesture was actually quite enjoyable. "Do you want me to cut that up for you? It would make it easier to eat."

Meanwhile, the woman being questioned by the businessman, who was named Michelle, was facing a dilemma. She wasn't nearly as stupid as such employees were often made out to be, and could tell that the man probably wouldn't be happy to see Cylo. However, she didn't think there was much she could do about it.

The man seemed to be the girl's caretaker, or something of that manner, so if nothing else, he had the right to know where his charge was. So she led the man to where Cylo and Tawny were seated, only hoping Cylo would be able to take care of himself.

When they reached the table, Michelle cleared her throat, causing Cylo to look up with curiosity. "Hey Michelle. Who's that?"

He'd figure it out in a minute.

[tawny]

"Ummm..." Tawny touched a finger to her bottom lip as she pondered the possibility of cut-up pancakes. As long as she could remember, she never cut food up, or had seen food cut up; her father either cut up her food before he gave it to her, or gave her food that didn't need to be cut. "Okay!" She soon decided; while she was definitely eating pancakes, they were much bigger than she remembered them being.

"How you do that?" She asked curiously, examining the table for something that could make her big pancakes smaller. There was a fork, which she knew was for eating things with, a spoon, which was for ice cream, Captian Crunch, and alphabet soup, and something that looked like what she used to put peanut butter and jelly on sandwiches. She had no knowledge of knives, or what they did; her father took great care to only expose her to plastic butter knives, lest she hurt herself. Why, she didn't even know what knives were called! She just assumed they were Spreaders, because that was what she used them for.

The brunette jumped in her seat when Michelle appeared and cleared her throat. "Bless you?" She offered the waitress, not sure if the sound she made was a sneeze or a cough. Sometimes Daddy made that sound, and she always asked if it was a sneeze or a cough, but he just sighed and rubbed his temples and never told her.

When she saw Daddy, her eyes lit up in excitement, and she pushed the plate over to him, holding out the top pancake for him to take a bite. "Hi Daddy! Want pancakes?"

Robert Lemuria wrinkled his nose at Tawny's offer, but otherwise, he kept his expression gravely serious. He did not approve of the establishment, it was far too low-class for his taste. What kind of respectable restraunt served pancakes in the middle of the afternoon, anyway? One where the cooks were less than capable, clearly. Just as he disapproved of the restraunt, he disapproved of Cylo. He looked like one of those punks with no morals, no manners, and no respect for authority. Not exactly the type of character he wanted near his impressionable daughter.

If he heard about her vandalizing things on top of her usual antics, he would very likely snap.

"Tanya." He addressed his daughter, brows knitting together in his trademark disapproving look. His voice was deep, but loud, and as a result, several people were now watching them curiously.

Tawny dropped her fork onto her plate, startled, and sank into her seat.

"I told you not to leave the table, and yet, here you are, in some dump, with who knows what kind of people! Why must you continue to disobey me?!"

Tawny quivered.

"I know just how to handle this defiance. No. more. outside."

"Nooo, Daddy!"

"You!" Robert Lemuria barked at Cylo, ignoring the shaking mass that was his daughter. "Who are you? What is your relationship with my daughter?" He had one hand in his pocket, fingering his cell phone. He wanted nothing more than to hand the red-haired hoodlum over to the authorities. The way he saw it, even if Cylo didn't have anything to do with his daughter's appearance, there was only a matter of time before he did something to land himself in a cell. "Explain yourself!"[/font][/size]

[Ϛ Cylo]

Cylo sat there, butterknife poised to cut one of the massive pancakes, and stared at the businessman as it dawned on him precisely who it was. He supposed he probably should have assumed that when someone as unique as Tawny was wandering out in public, someone was going to come looking for them. And when you bring the person they're looking for further away, that someone isn't going to be very pleased. And when the person looking is the 'unique one's' father, you're really in trouble.

As much as it pained him to do so, he simply sat in polite silence as Tawny's dad yelled at her. Contrary to what the man, and many others, thought, Cylo was not 'some hoodlum'. He normally had the utmost respect for authority figures, and held parents in particular in even higher regard. It probably came from the fact that he knew he was lucky to have even had parents, as were most of his siblings.

When Tawny's father turned to him, he obligingly answered his questions in a very polite, even tone. "My name is Cylo, sir, and I'm afraid I'm not much more than a stranger. Your daughter was wandering around outside and I thought it would be safer, not to mention warmer, in here. I didn't even consider that someone might be looking for her. I'm sorry to have worried you."

The man truly tested his patience, though, especially calling the restaurant a dump. He was friends with most of the people there, not to mention his brother worked in the kitchen, and it was hardly a dump.

Michelle had taken the opportunity the commotion provided to stealthily walk away and get back to her job.

[tawny]

"Cylo." Robert Lemuria spat mockingly, as if the speaking the 'hoodlum's' name burned his tongue. The boy truly had no class, with a name like that. His parents probably had intercourse in a barn and named him after the first thing they saw afterward. He made no attempt to disguise his disgust, scrunching up his nose again in the way he reserved for only the most annoying or disgraceful people. He flicked open his phone, which was still inside his pocket, and ran his finger over the first number, waiting for the boy to take one more step out of line.

But to his horror, Cylo didn't step out of line. In fact, he was being polite. He slowly slid his phone shut and removed his hand from his pocket, grasping his wrist tightly instead. He realized that if Cylo wasn't a street punk, he might have liked him, and consequentially, his expression was akin to that of one who just took a bite out of an extra-sour lemon.

"Very well." He conceded after a long silence, pursed lips twitching as the 'apology' escaped him. "Come on, Tanya." He turned to grab his daughter's arm, eager to leave the despicable establishment and forget all about the surprisingly proper redhaired punk who wouldn't be sitting in a cell as planned, but her arm was not there. None of her was there, and if he wasn't used to her antics, he wouldn't have known to look under the table.

Tawny kept sinking in her seat until she ended up on the floor, which was alright with her, if she got to stay in The Outside a little bit longer. She crawled over toward Cylo's leg and tugged at his pant sleeve, making the 'Ssh!' hand signal and trying not to giggle. Her father caught her arm a moment later, and tugged her out from beneath the table.

"That is quite enough." He growled at her, shooting her with his typical disapproving stare. He held out a teddy bear backpack that was much too small, and much too young for a girl Tawny's age, and shook it pointedly. Tawny slipped the backpack on the best she could, hmph-ing all the way, and her father tugged a long strip of fabric down from the back. A child leash.

"Bye bye..." Tawny uttered sadly, waving goodbye to the Magical Bird Catcher.[/font][/size]

[Ϛ Cylo]

Cylo nearly snapped, hearing the way the man said his name. That name, and the dog tags it was printed on, were the only traces of his birth parents that he had left in his life. Cylo loved his birth parents, even if he didn't know them, and had always believed that they'd only left him because they had to, and that they had left him with such a great family because they had loved him, too. If it wasn't for the fact that it would make Tawny's life even worse, he would have punched the man square in the face right then and there. He was sure there were plenty of good reasons to do it.

Expression carefully neutral, he nodded graciously at the man's not-quite-apology, as if it were very kind and generous of him to have uttered it. It was just about then that he felt a tugging on his leg and slid back and inclined his head to take a look under the table. His silly face and rolled eyes spoke volumes about how he really felt in this situation. It was probably good that the girl's father was occupied with tugging her out from under the table at the moment, because the whole ruse would have been up if he'd been watching Cylo instead.

He politely averted his eyes as Tawny's father made her put on a child leash, something Cylo actually found amusing more than affronting; the man must look like a complete fool walking a grown woman around on a leash. Tawny may not have liked being constricted, but at least she had a less solid grasp on the subject of embarrassment. That's not to say he wouldn't rather her be free; he simply didn't think there was much he could do about it.

"Goodbye," Cylo said in an all-business manner, directing the response more to Tawny's father than to her. He did, however, nonchalantly pat the top of his head affectionately, trusting either only Tawny to get it, or neither of them. He then sat for a moment in silence, before abruptly standing and calling out to the pair.

"Sir!" He paused for a moment, as if he'd forgotten what he was going to say. "You may want to have a physician look at her; she was playing with the birds when I found her, and they can have all sorts of nasty diseases."

When they'd left the diner, he walked over to the doors and watched them go, feeling a little ill. Michelle walked over to him and watched as well, clutching a stack of menus to her chest.

"There are so many things wrong with that picture," she commented.

"Tell me about it..."