When Aurora was growing up, her father taught her to never judge a book by its cover, to reserve judgement until you’ve gotten to know someone – no matter their family or the first impression they give. “No person should be defined by actions other than their own, and you never know the type of day someone is having unless they tell you. You might think someone’s awful mean, but maybe someone was mean to them too, and they’re just having an off day,” he’d told her. When Aurora first met Nico, she kept her father’s lesson at the front of her mind. She’d heard lots of things about his family – very few of them nice – but no whispers of the boy himself.
She’d seen Nico plenty of times around town before their first meeting. The first time she ever saw him?…Well…Aurora’s pretty sure she didn’t say anything at all, just stood there staring at this tall, dark-haired man smoking on the other side of the street. It wasn’t that she was enamored with him, he was just…handsome, and different from the boys she’d known growing up. Everyone in the Hundred Acre Wood had a clean-cut look to them, for the most part. After a few seconds of almost-obvious staring, she’d processed what she was doing, and speed-walked the rest of the way home to the little group she considered a family.
When they met, it was different. Aurora had Bridget this time, and it was the weekend. Aurora had no obligations, no responsibilities, nothing that needed her attention except for her child. Bridget wanted to go to the park, and so that’s where the pair ended up, with a picnic in the grass. After eating, Bridget started running around – never wandering far – as part of some game she’d created. All was going well…until the tyke ran straight into a pair of legs belonging to someone she didn’t know – the man Aurora had seen on the street. Rory was up in seconds, apologizing and introducing herself and her child, and thus began the story of a rather unexpected friendship.
And now? Well, Aurora wouldn’t say they were close, but they were getting there. Making plans to hang out in the park made them more than acquaintances, right? They had to be friends now, in her mind, or they would be soon at least, she was sure of it. As the Williams girls approached the gates to the park, it was clear Nico was already there, and waiting. He seemed a bit distracted, though, and Aurora was going to take that to her advantage. Squatting to Bridget’s height, she whispered a plan into the little girl’s ear, and once she had a nod of understanding, the pair began to sneak their way towards Nico, with Bridget running ahead once they were close enough. As Bridget attacked Nico’s legs from the front, Aurora leaned over his shoulder from behind (which was a feat in and of itself, given their height difference) and whispered softly, right next to his ear. “Boo.” @hellfire-bright
Judgments were something that had followed Nico most of his life, he had stopped putting any stock in them long before his teen years and simply found no need to care about the glares of others, the murmurs, unless of course, unless it was a matter of family insult. That carried weight and he had to address it, but people giving him the side-eye? It rolled off him without nothing digging too deep; he had better things to occupy himself with.
Honestly, he had better things than strangers to spend his time mulling over as well, there was just one small flaw in this plan.
A very small flaw in fact; only a few feet tall and all big-eyes and endearing.
That soft spots for kids, really, it always destroyed his disinterested demeanor and left Nico too often making a fool of himself. But how was it even possible to resist? Children were viewed every bit as a gift in the Court and one day he intended to have his own underfoot; he would be king sooner or later and what court was complete without a prince or princess running around?
Didn't really matter if they happened to be his or not; he could always follow his father's example if it came to that. But all those things were too far into the future to weigh yet, only a fleeting notion in the back of his mind
And with a cousin nearly always in tow when he'd been growing up there, babies new to the world and youngsters just getting their feet under them; he was used it. Not only used to it, in fact, he enjoyed it.
If there was anything about that area he favored it was the ease to it; too many times seeing his small cousins hungry or cold had left Nico determined that it wouldn't be that way forever; he generally disliked how easy people in that city had it but when it came to the kids...it was the best thing about being there.
Anyone else would have gotten punched in the face, at the least, for sneaking up on him; he knew better than to turn his back or let his guard down. True, his own fault for being distracted, but when that attack came just about at height with his knees that tension that washed over him dissolved just as swiftly with an amused roll of his eyes.
He hadn't exactly meant to wander into that friendship, nearly his whole life in close company of others made for a lonely solitary existence; friendships weren't going to slow him down in his plans.
Or perhaps they would just a little but it was forgivable in some cases.
"Two against one? That just might be fighting dirty," Nico chuckled with a playful smirk hanging at his lips, eyes cast back first to Rory and then to her small counterpart with an easy slip free that ended with him one knee to the ground to meet Bridget's height, "Now, if you're going to do it right though...you should wait until they're looking the other way first, just in case...so you can see what they've got in their pockets."
He grinned and with a quick sleight of hand he plucked a flower off the grass at his side as though from his pocket and held it out to the little girl before standing once more.
"You're just teaching her the worst things," he teased Rory, knowing it was anything but the truth.
