The Antiquity Shop down the Street

As she planned to, Skapii came back a few days later. She stood up in the middle of the antiquity shop for a minute, before she shyly went to the counter.

Agamemnon didn’t even look at her.

“Hi. Can I sit there for homework ?” He finally gave her a quick glance. “Yes. You can. If you stay quiet.” She cracked a little smile and sat at the counter, grabbing her stuff and getting started without any more wait.

He was writing some poems. Therefore, he was too busy to pay attention to that tiny child sitting by him. Only using his power of quiekinesis to shut down the noise of their pen against the paper. Everything was dead quiet, and that’s how he enjoyed his time at work.

That being said, as time passed, he couldn’t help but glancing at her by times to times. He definitely noticed with her mimics that she was doing really big effort to be as quiet as possible. As if he would beat her up if she did make noises… Okay, he wouldn’t beat her up ever, but he definitely worked hard to give that vibe off, purposely.

He started to soften, just a bit. He kept his stern mask, but he decided he would tolerate this tiny child around here and maybe even build conversation if she wanted him to. She seemed to be a good kid.

Some more long minutes passed in this comforting silence. Everything was very calm and quiet, and this soothing lack of noises felt like it was wrapping around them like a warm blanket. Skapii was enjoying this. A lot. Enjoying it so much, it took her a long moment to work up the motivation and break the moment.

“Do you write ?” He stopped working, and looked up at her without lifting his head. “Yes I do. Sharp observation skills of yours, Skapii.”

To his greatest surprise, she cracked a wide, soft smile. He could have qualified it of adorable if he wasn’t so cold at heart. “You remembered my name…”

He finally lifted his head to look at her straight in the eyes. “I did. Now what do you want ?” She blinked and started nervously showing him her homework. “I-I don’t know how to write that.”

He slid his chair to be just in front of her, inspected her essay, and corrected her spelling on the word.

“You’re in highschool, right ?” She nodded quietly. “Which stream ?” Long pause. “ES.”

He nodded slowly, still reading up on her essay. He took a little moment before he started talking again. “How’s class ?” She shrugged, and he didn’t insist. “Do you have any friends among your classmates ?” She shook her head from left to right, and he looked at her, interrogative. She felt forced to elaborate. “I don’t have classmates.” Long pause. The look on his face was quietly asking for more information. She kept going, nervously. “I take. Online classes.”

He nodded again, as he started to correct other spelling mistakes on her essay, very calmly. “You don’t write badly, but you could probably put a tiny bit more effort on spelling. That’d be great improvement.” She pouted, looking sad and defeated. He focused back on her essay, kept correcting some mistakes.

“Ok.” He looked back at her, surprised by this delayed answer. “Okay.” He replied. She took a while before she talked again. “French.” He raised an eyebrow, but let her continue without interrupting. “Not. My first language.”

He was surprised by how minced her words were, but he assumed she just wasn’t in the mood to  talk. Judging by her mimic and overall behavior, that might as well be some kind of pathological issue of some sort. While he didn’t quite care enough about her comfort to make further effort, he didn’t want to make everything even harder for her either. He just let her time.

“What’s your first language ?” She articulated quietly, without making a sound. “I-ta-li-an”. He nodded and gave her back her essay. She nodded with energy – it looked like she was thanking him? And went back to work.

However, after some more time, it got very clear that she was stuck.

He just watched over her quietly, occasionally focusing back on his own work. Until she interrupted him again, with the tiniest voice. “Can you. Help me more please ?” He looked at her. “I could, if I wanted to.” She made a face. “Not cool.” He shrugged and went back to work on his poems.

She was still stuck. “Do you think you’ll want to help at some point ?” He glanced at her, with a gloomy expression. “I don’t know.” And suddenly, he couldn’t help but feeling the urge to play some game with her. Test her. It’s been so long he hadn’t given any little challenge to anyone anyway. “Maybe. How much do you like enigmas and riddles ?”

She just frowned at him, very clearly upset. “Tell me the enigma or the riddle.”

He started talking, still very stern. “There are 8 pills. All the same size and colors. One pill weights slightly more and is poisonous. You have a balanced scale and only can use it twice. How can you find the poisonous pill ?”

She looked absolutely offended. Betrayed. “I-is that a riddle ??? That’s not a riddle, that’s math. Fuck you and your math.” He frowned, even though amused deep down. “Language.” She cringed. “Don’t threaten me with that arithmetic non-sense.”

He raised an eyebrow, even more amused but hiding it incredibly well. “Do you want another ?” She hesitated, but nodded. “Last chance. If you don’t answer this one, I’m not helping you with your homework.” She gulped and braced herself.

“There are 3 apples for 2 sons and 2 dads. Each one of them get to eat an apple. How is that possible?” She growled quietly, but started thinking intensely. She didn’t make a sound for a few minutes. “There’s a papi.” Then shut herself back down.

“Right. What do you need help with ?” She showed him her essay again, shyly explained him her issue. Needed some help with wording.

They started working on it together, calmly. For a while. He helped her, trying to be as patient as possible. She wasn’t annoying anyway.

“Thanks.” He gave her some space. “You’re welcome.” 

She gave him a shy smile. He didn’t smile back, but he did take not of that cute expression. She spoke up again, very low. “Thank you…” He just looked at her. Then checked the time. 

“I don’t want to kick you out, but it’s going to be time for you to head back home soon.” She nodded and started to put away her stuff. Quickly enough, she was heading out.

“Bye, Agamemnon. See you later.” He nodded. “Bye, Skapii.” She disappeared and he cleaned up the counter a bit… And carefully put away the customized pen she forgot.