What Stranger Danger? (Remle)

[Midori Hawkins]

Sunday mornings with no recruitment assignments were beautiful things. Midori had slept in as long as her three year old son had allowed, and though they’d both had breakfast at home, after running a few errands in town she had slipped into the Velvet Tone for some coffee, as well as some milk and a cookie for Tory. He’d been fairly angelic all morning as they’d run around. Much as she tried to make errands fun for him, she could tell his toddler patience was starting to wear thin, and a break was in order.

After sitting him at a booth in her line of sight and asking him to please wait nicely as she waited in line, the recruiter wasn’t all that worried about Tory. It wasn’t a big place if he did move out of his seat, but she trusted him to listen. They’d had many talks about the importance of listening when out in public places, so that he stayed close and safe, but toddlers... well, tended to have things like that go in one ear and out the other. Still, she kept an eye on him until it was time to order. Waiting for that order situated her a little further away than she wanted to be from the table, but she could still see her son.

Tory was merrily coloring in his book at the table, blue crayon arching across the lines as he went. Sven the Reindeer from Frozen was going to be thoroughly blue by the time he was done, but that was okay because it was cold in the movie and blue was cold. After scribbling through his antlers, Tory deemed the picture appropriately colored, but his mommy wasn’t close enough to show it to her right away. He was excited about it, though, and excitement translated into motion. Mommy had said to stay at the table, but close to the table was close enough, right?

In his mind, it was. So, he crawled down from the seat and scurried to the nearest table with an occupant and showed her his coloring masterpiece. “Do you like Seven too? He’s a deer!” Once again, stranger danger was going to have to be reviewed.

[Remle Boyd]

After a night of on and off sleep, Remle was feeling caged in her apartment. Now that she had company to look forward to 5-7 days a week she was starting to remember what it was like to have a life outside of a room. It was worrisome to think about how insanely close she'd come to being a shut in and to that end she forced herself outside. Her abhorrence of sunlight wasn't new and she sought refuge from it whenever she could but she knew she was stronger than she acted. Still, that didn't mean she had to do it so early in the morning. She'd left her apartment not too long after she'd woken up, having showered the night before. She'd grabbed a book she'd read almost a dozen times since she bought it and put it and her iPad into her purse.

The coffee house was a retreat she liked to frequent on her weekends because it was quiet and it provided her with coffee and treats. This morning she sat with her second cup of coffee and an uneaten chocolate muffin, reading her book and occasionally working on the tablet sitting on the table in front of her. She was expecting a quiet morning like all the others she'd had before, She thought she's be able to continue enjoying her coffee and her book until she grew tired of sitting here and wandered off to do something else.

She thought wrong.

Especially when a very small child proudly strutted to her and thrust a terribly colored picture into her line of sight. It took her a moment to see through all the blue and when she did she pulled her tablet silently towards her, accessed her web browser and googled a picture of said character. Of course she had loved the movie but hadn't told a soul because she was embarrassed too...but who was this child going to tell? She looked around for a moment to see if she could see his mother or father but her attention was back on him in a moment. "I liked Elsa the best, and shouldn't Sven look like this?" she asked as she showed the little boy a properly colored picture of the reindeer from an image search. “He wouldn’t be so cold, reindeer’s have special fur that keeps them warm in the snow,” she told him matter-of-factly, without a hint of enmity or irritation. It would be the same tone as if she were addressing an ad project one of her coworkers had brought her for a second opinion.

[Midori Hawkins]

Tory really didn’t have any fear of strangers. He loved just about everyone he met, though he was still a little iffy around his Uncle Zach, and over the past year or so had developed an aversion to his father. Mostly because he didn’t see him often, and when he did see him, he often looked quite different from how he’d looked the previous visit. But strangers? No problem. He often ran up just to greet people, giggle, and run back to his mother’s safety before he was once again told not to run off. At least here he wasn’t running anywhere. He was staying inside the shop, and really hadn’t even moved far from the table. Besides, the blonde lady looked nice!

He continued to beam at her as she flicked through her tablet and showed him Sven in the correct colors. The toddler took a moment to study the blue colored reindeer before shaking his head. “Seven’s cold! Elsa made him icy!” Not because Elsa was mean, no, but because Sven wanted to be icy, like Olaf. “Like Olaf!” Who remained Tory’s favorite, no matter what anyone said. Still, the fur thing made him think before his eyes went wide. He knew someone else that had warm fur in the winter. “Reindeers are like puppies! Puppies have warm furs too!”

It was at that moment that Midori came back to a rather empty table. So much for Tory actually listening. She turned to look for him in a mild panic before spying him talking to a blonde woman. Thankfully, he didn’t seem in any danger, but regardless, he didn’t need to be talking to strangers. “Tory?” She stepped closer and gently scooped him up into her arms. “What did we say about running off?”

“T’ not to,” he answered truthfully, before pointing happily at the lady he’d been talking to. “She likes reindeers!” Naturally, Midori closed her eyes for a moment to gather herself before smiling gently at the other woman.

“I’m so sorry if he was bothering you. He... loves pretty much everyone.” It would be so nice when he eventually grew out of that phase, so she didn’t have to worry so much anymore.

[Remle Boyd]

Remle had been trying to think of a way to respond to the toddler in w ay that wouldn’t upset him potentially when the boy’s keeper approached. It was most likely his mother since they shared certain physical traits, but Remle didn’t want to assume. She frowned at the implication that she liked reindeers though. “No, I don’t…they’re smelly and disgusting. Puppies are much better, but I have two cats right now,” she informed the young boy before returning her attention to the woman. “Not at all, he’s quite polite all things considered,” she smiled back. She put her tablet to sleep and slipped it into the bag sitting beside her. She thought about it for a second and then decided that it wouldn’t necessarily be terrible thing to have some company at the moment.

“You…can…join me, if you like. I feel like I owe it to poor icy Sven to explain to…Tory? That Elsa wouldn’t make him icy like Olaf,” she looked at the little boy, not angrily or sharply, but perhaps a bit seriously with a slight smirk to her lips and a twinkle in her eye. Honestly, she didn’t really care what color the child made the character, but it was rather fun having a conversation with him as to why Sven should be any color but blue. He didn’t seem all that upset when she had corrected him either which meant that perhaps she would enjoy this discussion.

Remle didn’t mind children usually, especially if they were well behaved and clever. Tory seemed to be both of these things and his…guardian seemed rather nice herself. “I’m Remle by the way it’s nice to meet you Tory and…?” she looked up at the brunette as she extended her hand for a shake.

[Midori Hawkins]

((Oh my God Rae... I suck. I’m sorry!))

Tory wasn’t very easily upset. He was a fairly sunny child that tended to just roll with whatever he was presented with. Sure, he could be stubborn at times, and was entirely capable of trying to bring the house down in a toddler tantrum, but most of the time he could be trusted to be good. At the idea of reindeers being smelly, Tory wrinkled his nose, but thinking back to the movie... she was right. People smelled better than reindeers! Well, except Kristoff, but that was because he was pretty much part reindeer. “We have a puppy! She’s Zero!” Tory adored his mother’s roommate/best friend’s dog, and spent a lot of time napping with her on the floor.

Tory was often a source of Midori’s interactions with people she wouldn’t otherwise speak to. Not because she didn’t want to, but rather because left to her own devices, she was rather shy at times. Tory was always an icebreaker, whether she wanted him to be or not. Smiling in a relieved fashion, Midori shifted Tory to her hip for a moment. “If it’s not too much trouble, that would be nice.” She took a moment to move Tory’s thing over from the other table, including the booster seat, and plonked him down in front of his coloring. “Sorry about the Frozen stuff. He saw it and latched right onto it. Can’t count the number of times we’ve watched it.” Luckily it wasn’t a terrible movie.

“Seven wanted to be icy like Olaf,” Tory announced as he set a blue crayon to a picture of Olaf. “They’re friends.” Midori just smiled affectionately and brushed her fingers through his dark hair before shaking Remle’s offered hand. “Ah, sorry. I’m Midori, and it’s nice to meet you too.” This was better than she had expected. Some people just didn’t do kids, and she feared the day Tory tried to make friends with someone that fell into that category. So far he’d been lucky.

[Remle Boyd]

Remle decided to take the child at his word for the moment and turned her attention to his mother instead for the time being. "It's okay, I haven't seen it but I've seen so many spoilers and my co-workers talk about it so much I feel like I have. And if one more person requests that stupid song one more time during my show I might just play "My Heart Will Go On" on repeat for an hour...oh I like that...it could work," Remle said to herself as if the idea (which had just occurred to her) was appealing (which it was). She was certainly tired of the music, the fan theories, the music, the characters being on everything and everywhere, did she mention the music?

"Well if Sven wants to be icy then I suppose there's no choice but to give him what he wants," Remle sighed deeply but in a friendly, not at all angry way and returned her attention to the other woman. "Midori, that's a pretty name," she commented in a way that she was told was complimentary and socially appropriate. Plus, she did think it was pretty so she should say it. She and Dakota had been working on those things recently. It made her happy that her boyfriend wanted to see her more social and make friends but was also willing to do it in a way that didn’t violate her personality. Baby steps, as they say.

Remle searched her brain for something more socially appropriate to ask and looked at Tory. “How old is your son?” she ventured after sipping her drink.

[Midori Hawkins]

Midori offered a little smile as she settled into the seat. "Yeah, I think everyone's seen it. It really took off." Curious, she tilted her head. "Are you in radio, then?" She'd never known anyone in the radio business, but then again it felt like most of her working life was now spent at Hammel. "If it helps, he doesn't actually like very many of the songs. He just likes the animation. Mostly the little snowman, and the reindeer." He tried to sing along, but most of the lyrics were still a little over his head, and he ended up losing interest in them fairly quickly.

Tory just beamed at the woman, coloring over Sven thoroughly with the blue crayon. Midori just smiled and shook her head at him, brushing her fingers through his hair. He was relentless once he had an idea. "Thank you," she replied, her attention returning to the blond woman. Pretty, yes, but also almost laughably unique. Sigh. "Remle is too." Because good manners were always good to return.

As the question returned to her son, Midori looked at him and sighed. It felt like yesterday he was a tiny baby. "He's three now. He'll be four in March." Too soon, she kept thinking. "It's amazing how time flies."

[Remle Boyd]

"Yes," Remle hesitated and then remembered that she was now in the business of getting to know people and that sharing certain things were still okay and not violating her fiercly protected privacy. Besides, this was a woman with a child, willing to sit down and talk to her a total stranger, she could absolutely talk about her work for a little bit. "Ah sorry, yes I am," she continued with her answer when she realized she had stalled a bit longer than she'd meant to. Luckily it just appeared as if she had lost her train of thought for a moment rather than "assessing" the situation she was in. "I do a late night show at the local station, it’s nice to work that late, I can do almost whatever I want…within reason of course,” she smiled as her own eyes dropped to the picture that was being colored at the moment.

“Ah, thank you…I’m not sure it has any sort of special meaning though…” she said with a shrug, allowing Midori to move on to her next answer of her son’s age. “Wow, 4! He’s so big…are all four year old’s that big?” Remle blurted out on accident. She wasn’t sure what age she expected the child to be, her experience with anyone younger than 20 was quite stunted considering she didn’t necessarily enjoy being in the company of young people.

[Midori Hawkins]

Being that all of her adult life had been spent as a recruiter most recently, and as an administrative assistant before that, a job in radio sounded exotic, and fun. It wasn't something she could possibly see herself doing, so she admired Remle for it, but it still sounded fun. "That's got to be interesting, though. What kind of things do you tend to play?" It wasn't often she listened to the radio late at night, so she wasn't confident she'd heard Remle's show. Next time she was out late driving though, perhaps she'd look for it.

Tory didn't seem to mind being the subject of conversation as he merrily colored his book. "I know, he's growing like a weed. There's a few others about that big at his preschool." She didn't mind the question. Really, anything to do with Tory was usually fine with her, unless someone was going out of their way to be cruel. Thankfully, that hadn't happened yet.