Brothers (Extras)

Little Butterfly (part 2) - Already Attached

Jinx: "I'm baaack-! Huh...?"

The Boys: "Surprise!"

Sitting there was an empty glass box.

Nico: "We got you this as a place to keep your caterpillar!"

Rock: "You can put it in here along with those branches you got."

I smiled as I roughly put the branches in the glass box and gently set my caterpillar down on a leaf. I stood up, turned to my brothers and hugged them.

Jinx: "Thanks, big brothers! It's perfect!"

They smiled. At that moment, Honey and Trois stuck their heads in our cell.

Honey: "What's taking so long? I thought you were coming to the game room."

Trois: "We waited for quite a while. Is something wrong?"

Honey: "Free time doesn't last forever, you know."

I took their hands and dragged them into our cell.

Honey: "What are you doing?"

Jinx: "Come see!"

Trois: "See what? Uh- what's that?"

I pulled them both down to the ground in front of the tank.

Jinx: "Look."

Honey: "...... a pile of sticks?"

Trois: "Leaves?"

Jinx: "Nooo! Look closer... there."

I pointed to my caterpillar who appeared to be nibbling on a leaf already.

Trois: "Ah, I see. It's a caterpillar. Where did you get it?"

Jinx: "I found it just over there on the window."

Honey: "And... what do you plan to do with it?"

Jinx: "I'm gonna help it grow into a butterfly of course."

Honey: "Hm..."

Jinx: "Pretty neat, huh?"

Trois smiled and pet my head.

Trois: "It's very impressive, Jinx. I look forward to seeing it when it hatches."

I smiled proudly.

Jinx: "Me too! Okay, we can go to the game room now. Come on!"

We went with the boys to Uno's game room. Trois had his hands full teaching Jyugo, Nico and I how to play billiards. I wasn't paying attention to the conversation Honey, Uno and Rock were having on the other side of the room.

Uno: "I don't see what the big deal is, man."

Rock: "So what if Jinx has a caterpillar? She's happy."

Honey: "That's the problem. She's too happy. Jinx is a child and children get attached to things very, very easily."

Uno & Rock: "So?"

Honey: "*sigh* So, don't you realise? One day soon that caterpillar will become a butterfly and she will have to let it go."

Rock: "We realise that."

Uno: "But she's happy. And that's what matters."

Honey: "Tch... sure. She's happy now. But I'll be saying 'I told you so' when this all ends in tears. The kid may be a pain in my ass sometimes, but I don't want to see her heartbroken. And at this rate, that's just what will happen."

Rock: "We get it, man. But what do you expect us to do? Take it away from her now?"

Uno: "Besides, she's attached to the idea of it become a butterfly. She's not necessarily attached to the thing itself."

Honey: "Oh, please. I bet you she's already named it."

Jinx: "Yay! I got one in!"

Trois: "Great job, Jinx. You're a fast learner."

I smiled.

Jinx: "This is fun but I wanna go back and check on Doobie soon."

Jyugo: "Who?"

Jinx: "My caterpillar, silly. I couldn't just keep calling it 'caterpillar'. So I gave it a name."

Nico: "Aww... that's so cute!"

Uno & Rock: "Aheh..."

Honey: "See, this is just proving my point."

Uno & Rock: "*sigh*..."

Honey: "Though you are right about one thing. It's too late to take it from her now."

Soon, Hajime came to tell us free time was over. Kiji took Trois and Honey back to building 3 and the rest of us returned to our cell.

Jinx: "We're back, Doobie!"

Rock: "Hey, Uno, you think we should tell her?"

Uno: "Uhm-"

Jinx: "Tell me what?"

They'd forgotten I could hear everything. I stared up at them puzzled.

Uno: "Uh- Nothing, Jinx. Never mind."

Rock: "Yeah, you go see Doobie."

Jinx: "Kay."

I crouched down next to the glass tank and happily watched my caterpillar for the rest of the day.