ten_fwd | Rewind to the S // He's been old before.... // OTA

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Rewind to the S // He's been old before.... // OTA

[Corridors and Philip's room]

Sure, he's been old before, but that was in his beloved Fuuto. Being less than half his original age in a place like this was distinctly more alarming. And so ran a decidedly smaller hard-boiled detective (perhaps more like a quail egg right now) through the corridors. "This is bad! What the hell?!" He was making his way to Philip's room through the guest quarters' hallway. At the fastest speed his little legs could take him, and likely not looking too close at where he was going.

When he got to his partner's door, he reached up to jam on the doorbell and he beat relentlessly on the door itself. He didn't really care if he disturbed Philip's roommate. "Oi! Philip! Open up! This is important!"

[In Ten Forward, contagious as hell]

There was something wrong with his coffee. It tasted awful. Somehow with his tiny kid-sized body went his adult taste buds. But at least he was still dressed the part. So he searched through the Enterprise databases for something sweeter. What the hell was a Frappuccino? Some coffee shop weirdness. Like some kind of coffee milkshake. That'll do. Mocha frappuccino with extra whip creme and chocolate shavings on top. Nevermind this was far from hard-boiled, but it was super tasty. That was all that mattered.

And the caffeine and sugar buzz later was just a bonus.

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Philip was still working on Cyclone, trying to fix the damage that Shotaro had inflicted on it a while back. Could he really not get a moment's peace here?

He sighed and went over to the door. When he opened it, he stared down at the little boy who was standing there. "...you are?"

He grabbed hold of Philip's hoodie, wherever he could reach it. "It's me, Shotaro! Your partner!" He tugged on it for emphasis. "Aaaah, now you're even taller than I am!"

"Eh?" He looked down at Shotaro, eyes wide. "That's impossible. You're a child!"

"Ah, dammit!" He ducked around Philip's legs into his room. "I don't know what happened! Other than it's probably Q again!" He dropped onto a chair to have a good sulk.

"That would explain it..." Philip followed Shotaro in, picking anxiously at his lower lip. "You're really Shotaro? Tell me something only he would know."

He considered for a moment, vaguely insulted that his partner didn't take him at his word. But he didn't blame him for his caution. "Your pajamas were white. When we met, I mean." He looked up at Philip and then away again. That would do, right?

The skepticism on his face turned to surprise, then acceptance. He nodded. "All right."

He pulled up a chair beside Shotaro and sat next to him. "What predicated your... transformation?"

He thought for a minute. "Uh, I was just in the lounge, and I hung out with those bigwigs. A few hours later I wasn't feeling great and ended up falling asleep on the couch in my room. I woke up like this!" he was rather indignant about the change. But who wouldn't be?

He still pouted adorably, though.

Philip grinned. He reached over and ruffled Shotaro's hair. Yes, this was serious, but... Shotaro was adorable.

"Hey!" He flailed to get Philip's hands off of him. "I'm still me you know! It's just like with the Old Dopant. But I don't know if that's a bigger pain in the ass or this is."

He laughed. "At least now you're able to move around without pain, I assume. Although being so short must be inconvenient."

"Stop laughing!" And he was pouting adorably again.

"You look even less intimidating than usual," Philip observed.

"Being intimidating isn't the problem here! I'm still just as hard-boiled as I ever was, just in a smaller body, okay?" He got up and put some distance between himself and Philip, with his hands on his hips at his waist. "I'm going to find out what happened and kick Q's ass until he fixes it!"

He covered his mouth with his hand. "Yes, just as hard-boiled as ever. That's certainly true."

But he didn't like Shotaro's recklessness. He got up and followed after his partner. "You might risk something worse happening," he pointed out.

"So what! It's better than sitting here doing nothing, just taking whatever else he has to throw at us! Next time I see his face I'm going to rearrange it, no matter what size my fist is!" He punched one fist into his palm.

Philip knew he should be worried by this, but he couldn't stop himself from just smiling and shaking his head fondly. It shouldn't be that amusing, but it was just so... Shotaro.

"If you do that, I'm sure you'll only entertain him more," he pointed out after a moment. "I've been thinking, perhaps the most efficient way to make him leave us alone is to refrain from reacting."

"Not react? How am I supposed to not react to something like this?" He stuck his arms out at his sides in a dramatic shrug. With that, he turned and headed back for the door again.

"Ah, Shotaro--!" Philip rushed after him. Who knew what kind of trouble Shotaro could get into in this state.

"What? You think I need a babysitter just because I'm little?" He crossed his arms over his chest and glared up at Philip. But he did stop trying to leave.

"You would need a babysitter even if you weren't," he countered, crossing his own arms. "I don't want to see you get hurt, Shotaro."

He shouted indignantly. He went back to pouting again. "Fine!" He went back to the chair and climbed back into it. He glared at his feet that weren't touching the floor, by only just a bit.

Mick chose that moment to come wandering out from Philip's bedroom. He sniffed at Shotaro's foot, then hopped up onto his lap. Ah, a new person to sit on.

He grumbled but Mick successful sucked the wind out of his sails. Stupid cat. He idly scritched between his ears. "So long as things don't get to where we need to use Double, I guess we'll be okay in the end..." He still planned on punching Q on-sight next time he showed his face.

Mick settled in and started to purr.

Philip returned to his seat beside Shotaro. "I don't foresee that being very likely. If people are becoming children, how much of a threat could they pose?"

"It could be anything, with Q involved. Making everyone kids and then overruning the ship with rabid wolves could sound like a good time today." He leaned slightly toward Philip, and just kept grouchily petting Mick.

Philip leaned toward him and ruffled his hair fondly. "In that case, we always have FangJoker."

He struggled out from under Philip's attack. Mick made a grumpy noise at the activity. "Hey! Not fair!"

"Does that bother you?" Philip glanced down at his own hand in confusion. "You can just cover anything up with your hat, you know..."

"Just because I look like a kid, doesn't mean you should treat me like one!" Okay he was probably making a bigger deal out of this than he should.

Okay, he had a point. Philip sat back and dropped his hand onto his lap. Being treated like a child when you weren't one was not a pleasant experience.

Shotaro fell quiet for a while, just sitting with Philip and petting Mick. "Ah, dammit, we should see who else is dealing with this."

Yuna was still getting used to being a kid. It was hard to tell who people were as adults when they were suddenly 12 but she was having fun guessing. Her eyes were still mismatched so she has that disadvantaged when it came to identification.

"What's that?!" Her eyes were wide staring up at the sugary caffeinated treat he ordered. Yuna had a new appreciation for brownies since turning younger but there were apparently more sugar treats that she could try and she was always the curious sort.

"The computer called it a Frappuccino," Shotaro answered. He stirred the straw around in the cup to mix in the whipped cream. "It tastes really good, even if it's not hard-boiled at all..."

"Hard-boiled?" Yuna looked at him curiously. She hadn't ever heard that phrase before and she wasn't sure what it meant besides it's relation to cooking.

"A man that stalks the shadows, making those that would make his city cry count up their sins!" He pointed his arm out in the Boss and now his typical way. "He has an iron fist and a mind only for justice under his fedora." He brushed his fingers along the brim of his own on his head.

Yuna smiled brightly. "That sounds awesome but what's that have to do with what you drink?"

It looked yummy and she didn't see why someone couldn't be a protector and drink yummy things.

"A hard boiled detective drinks coffee, no cream, no sugar, just as black as his heart," Shotaro insisted. "That's not this."

Yuna blinked. "I thought you said he was a good person. Why is his heart black?"

Kaylin saw the child running as she turned the corner, and reacted as she always did when a kid was running towards her. She dropped to one knee, and unless he stopped short, or dodged her... she would scoop him up under the arms and spin him around.

If he'd seen her around, and he might have, he'd have seen a woman with a foul mouth, stern eyes, and hard expressions. The way her face looked as soon as she saw him, however.... her face broke into a bright open smile, innocent as any 4 year old's. It was a true smile filled with open love.

She loved children, loved their innocence, loved the sound of their happy laughter, the sight of their small smiles. Loved when she could see them having everything she lacked as a child.

Okay, so he was a bit bigger than the kids she usually tried to scoop up... but she hadn't seen a kid on so long, and even though he probably was just a little shorter than her, she had muscle. She knew she could lift him. And she'd never drop a child. Ever.

He only just caught a glimpse of the woman trying to catch him and struggled and flailed to put on the brakes. His arms windmilled around in circles for balance before he toppled over on his butt, his fedora hitting the floor behind him. "Hey! What's the big idea, lady?"

She blinked startled. "Are you alright?" she asked, her face open and concerned as she knelt and reached over to get his fedora. She held it out to him. "Here," she said with a warm smile, eyes still looking for wounds, making sure he was okay.

She should have remembered that the kids here wouldn't be the foundlings, aren't guaranteed to be like the soft city kids, or the sweet curious Tha'alani children. She had taken in, taken care of children in the fiefs...

No, better not to think about that...

But she knew that fieflings would not trust an adult just because she managed to survive to adulthood.

"My name is Kaylin Neya, I'm a Hawk, a detective," she told him, keeping her voice gentle and soft. "I help people."

"More fuzz? Aw, man!" he complained.

He picked himself up onto his feet. "I'm not normally this little, okay?" He took his hat back and pushed it down onto his head. "The name's Shotaro Hidari, private detective!" he said smugly. He tapped the brim of his fedora with a finger.

"Well, so am I. Private Kaylin Neya," she said with a smile, offering her hand. "Nice to meet you."

It was hard to tell if the smile was just humoring him or she took him seriously, because... he was an adorable little kid. She wished she could have been like him at that age. Really, she just wanted to pick him up, hug him, and the give him anything he wanted.

She hadn't gotten to be happy as a kid. She spent most of her childhood thinking she was happy... but she hadn't been. She had been poor, scared, starved, and always in danger of freezing to death or worse. But when she saw a child who was healthy, well fed, in clothing that fit, it made her happy.

He took the hand for a shake. "Private, like a soldier? That's totally different!" He frowned at her, but on his kid face it came out more adorable than intended.

"Private like a Hawk, like a cop. I solve tough cases, and try to protect people."

She grinned at him. "Are you hungry? The one thing this place has... is plenty of food."

She was always hungry at that age. Then again... She was still always hungry. Somethings didn't just change.

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Rewind to the S // He's been old before.... // OTA

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