Rays of light streamed through stained glass, filling the hallway of the library with a warm, gentle glow as the sun crossed the sky, approaching the late morning hours. A lone figure paced the grand and open corridor of polished cherry floors and brushed velvet wall tapestries, burnished bronze sculptures and intricate tile ceilings. Dressed in a simple ensemble of gray slacks and brown shirt, he walked the hall with his eyes on the small, but thick, book in his hands, every so often turning a page. Slowly he walked, as he had done since coming to study at this place, his mind on his studies.
The lad, no more than thirteen or fourteen years, paused a moment, lifting his eyes from the pages to reflect on its words. A glimmer of mischief glimmered in his eyes, eyes that spoke of childhood and laughter. Strolling down the hall, he came to its end, and the centerpiece of the hall that hung from the wall there. The figure stood and beheld a painting, an artist's rendition of the first day: the Lord embracing a void, and making from it the heavens and the earth. Though he had seen the work many a time before, it still held an appeal. Under his breath, he spoke the Scripture, and in his mind praised the Lord, as he had done for many years.
A moment of thought, and then he looked away, his thoughts on the text before him again, his steps leading him down the way he had come.
"Oof!" the young woman cried as she crashed into someone. Now she was bumping into people too! If her partner would just show up so they could hurry and finish their business here, she wouldn't have to deal with figuring this place out. Why, she had just finally found where the darn library was again in the city so she could sit down and wait for Heinkel to meet her in peace, and here she was crashing into someone walking along because she too busy studying the wall murals to look where she was going!
"Ah! I'm sorry Sister, I was so distracted I didn't even see you!"
The young woman smoothed her plain nun's habit frantically as she tried to gather her wits again. Well, it seemed that she wasn't the only one at fault at least. Turning to see who she had ran into, she was surprised to find a mere boy, no more than fourteen years old, standing before her with a concerned look on his face. "Oh, I'm sorry, it's really my fault. I wasn't paying any attention at all."
The boy looked at her in confusion for a second. "Um... I don't recognize you Sister... I thought I've met everyone here studying already, but I can't place you at all. My name's Ranma Saotome."
"Um no, I'm not studying here. I'm just here visiting. My name is Yumiko Takagi."
"Takagi... Oh, you're Japanese? Wow, I haven't been talked to anyone from Japan for years!"
Yumiko watched the boy's eyes light up in delight, and couldn't help but giggle at his cheerfulness. "Yep, I am. It's been a while for me too. Please just call me Yumiko."
The young woman adjusted her spectacles as she studied the child in front of her. "So Saotome-san," she asked, "what are you doing here in the Holy See? There isn't much for someone as young as you to do in a stuffy old place like this."
The boy grinned as he replied: "Ranma is just fine, Sister Yumiko. I'm here just to do some research actually, to try for holy orders. I don't know if I'll get very far, but I'm studying very hard."
Yumiko's eyebrows shot upward. "To become a priest? That's amazing! There aren't many boys like you these days. Most don't even want to go to church, much less join it."
Ranma lowered his eyes in embarrassment. "It's nothing really. I just want to do what I can to repay the Lord for letting me become what I am today. I want to be like Father Anderson and help others like he helped me."
Yumiko's eyebrows shot upward even farther as she froze in shock. "Anderson... you mean Father Alexander Anderson? Then you must be that Sao-"
"Yumiko!"
Yumiko jumped at the stern voice of her partner. "Oh, Heinkel. There you are. I was waiting so long for you to get here."
The new arrival stared down at Yumiko for a long moment in consternation. "I've been looking for you in the building for ze last fifteen minutes. Oh never mind, vy do I even bother? Who's zis?"
"Hello again, Miss Wolffe."
"Ah, it's you again."
Yumiko turned from Heinkel to Ranma and back again. "Do you know each other?"
"Yeah," Heinkel Wolffe said, shrugging, "it vas... vat, a year ago now? You still viz Anderson, kid?"
Ranma nodded. "Please stop calling me 'kid', Miss Wolffe."
"Nein, nein." Before the boy could begin to protest, as the tall blonde knew he would, she turned to address Yumiko again. "Time to go. Ze Cardinal's vaiting. Or," she added at the pleading look on Yumiko's face, "vould you rather stay und chat vith Anderson's boy?"
A moment passed.
"Fine, I'll deliver ze message myself."
Heinkel left. Ranma turned to Sister Yumiko. "What was that all about?"
"So, Father Anderson still gives 'shed duty' in the winter?" Yumiko gasped from her seat. "Why won't he learn that it never works?"
Ranma raised an eyebrow from across the library table. "You sound like you've had, um, experience with this."
"No, not me." Yumiko smiled. "But I know Father Anderson well enough, and he likes to talk about the orphanage sometimes. In fact, he likes to talk about a certain 'Ranma' most of all." Her smile became a bit more sneaky. "So... what did you do to get in his... ah... good graces like that?"
Ranma squirmed a bit in his chair. "Well, there's a lot of little things. Like the time I dumped a can of zafferano in Father Alex's stew. It was awful, nobody could eat it... don't look at me like that! His cooking is the blandest ever! Nobody even blamed me!"
Yumiko valiantly tried to change her expression to something other than disbelief. "But saffron? That's expensive! And I heard you're not allowed in the orphanage kitchen anymore."
"Um, yeah, not after that one."
An embarrassed silence.
"So how did you meet Heinkel? She's not all that sociable, and I know she doesn't go to the orphanage."
"Well, I don't know if I should say. They told me not to talk about it."
"They?"
Ranma shook his head.
Yumiko giggled into her sleeve. "Well, I'm sure 'they' have their reasons. So... you don't like being called a kid?" If she knew Heinkel, and she most certainly did, the boy would probably go nuts before he could convince her partner to stop calling him that. Heinkel wasn't the type to let go of small irritating habits, especially when they amused her and irritated others.
"Feh, not really. It's annoying, you know. Besides, I know she does it just to bother me." Ranma snorted. "That Miss Wolffe really doesn't bother with niceties."
Yumiko laughed out loud. "You certainly got her pegged quickly enough."
"It's not subtle," Ranma sniffed indignantly. "She's not subtle with it."
"Nope! Heinkel has a very simple character, much simpler than she thinks herself. But why so annoyed from being called a kid? That's what you are, after all. I bet Father Anderson calls you a kid all the time."
"Well, Father Alex calls me 'boy', usually at the top of his very big lungs, but it's more a habit thing. You can tell he does it because he's always been doing it. So I don't really care what he calls me anymore. Not that, of course, I ever did."
"Well, if you wait a few years Heinkel will probably forget about the whole thing."
"Ha!"
An hour later, Heinkel came back. Seeing her partner and Ranma sitting and chatting together, she quietly walked over to stand behind behind the boy.
"And what you need to do, is if whenever kids come up as a subject, whatever the reason, you need to try very hard to persuade her to Not Mess With Their Minds. I know it'll be hard, but some day she might come to visit the orphanage or something --I know she'll never do that willingly, but...-- and nobody wants to see how she deals with a bunch of screaming kids. I'm afraid of what she'll do if one of the younger ones dumped juice on her or something. She's like a bomb, and I don't know from looking at her at any given moment whether she's just ticking for the heck of it or if she's about to blow up everything around me. I bet, if one of the kids tripped on her or something she'll do something that'll cost Ferdinand Luke lots of money in rehabilitation bills for him. And she's standing right behind me right now, isn't she?"
Yumiko nodded.
Ranma turned right around and directed his rant toward the proper target.
"And another thing! When someone asks you a question, don't give them the ugliest possible answer! Try to have some consideration for other people's feelings!"
Heinkel almost, but not quite, raised an eyebrow.
"Let's go, Yumiko."
Yumiko frowned at her partner's already retreating back. Couldn't she at least say goodbye!? Getting up from the chair, she turned to face Ranma and cheerfully bowed. "Well, I hope to see you some other time, Ranma-kun."
With that, she ran off to catch up to her partner.
Ranma suppressed the ridiculous urge to make a useless gesture like shaking his fist in Heinkel's direction.
He watched as the two women walked out of the room.
Sighing, he took up the book he was reading before and started out of the library to pace the halls again.
The sound of his footsteps echoed through the empty corridors.
Then God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.
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(Posted Sun, 12 Dec 2004 20:58)
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