Drabble dump 2 - A drabble set in Mama!AU where four guardians are chosen to protect the soul of the Tree Of Life also known as Ruh. Except it isn't as easy as it looks when the soul manifests as a little child that appears in front of four fully grown men who have no clue how to handle her.

"Have you guys seen Ruh?" Joonmyun asked, looking around the living room. The eight year old in question was nowhere to be seen and that had worried Joonmyun. At first he thought she would be out playing with Minseok or Luhan or trailing behind Yifan, fascinated as he worked in his office. But Yifan wasn't at home and Minseok and Luhan were watching TV. "Isn't she with you?" Luhan asked with a frown. "No. I was in my study, reading for tomorrow's class. I thought she was with you guys" Joonmyun replied. "She must be around here somewhere" Minseok said, getting up to look for her as well. The three men searched around the house. There wasn't much of it. Three bedrooms, a library room and Yifan's office along with the kitchen and the balconies and a living room. They looked in all her hiding places but couldn't find her at all.

"Where do you think she could have gone?" Joonmyun asked worriedly. "Does she have drawing classes today?" Luhan asked, looking through his phone's timetable app. Maybe Yifan had dropped her off to class. It had been quiet for a long time now. "I'm going to call and ask Yifan" Minseok told the other two. He had Yifan's number on speed dial. It came busy at first but on the second try it succeeded. "Hey Yifan, did you drop Ruh to her drawing class today?" Minseok asked as soon as Yifan picked up. "No. She was at home when I left" Yifan said. "Does she even have class today? She was screaming about being free and bugging me to take her to the park" he told them. "Maybe she went to the park on her own then. She isn't at home. We're going to look for her" Minseok told him.

"She would normally tell us if she goes anywhere. She gets hyper but she isn't irresponsible" Minseok said with a frown as he pulled out his coat and keys. "Hyper..." Yifan trailed off. Minseok stopped and raised an eyebrow. "What aren't you telling us?" Minseok asked with a frown. "I'll tell you when I get there. I am going to go look for her too" he said. Minseok heard a chair being pushed away and some rustling before the line went dead. his jaw set. The younger one had done something and he was going to get a talking to as soon as they found her.

"Hey Ruh?" Yifan asked gently. It felt rather awkward when a man in a three piece business suit was bending down to the ground next to a crowded slide on the playground. But desperate times called for desperate measures. The child in question looked at him with big watery eyes. Ruh's jaw set and she looked away with fiery determination. They had always laughed and called it cute when she was set on doing stuff but now it was being difficult. He had to be gentle. Ruh was always open to reasoning and he could cajole her into listening. But it had been his fault.

"It was my fault actually. I shouldn't have yelled at you" Yifan apologised. Ruh didn't look at him but he was sure she was listening. "I was worried and I didn't know what to do and it wasn't fair because all you wanted to do was play with me right?" he asked apologetically. Ruh looked at him thoughtfully as she rubbed her eyes in order to get rid of the tears. "Why were you worried?" she asked in a small voice. "Office things. I am sorry Ruh" he apologised properly. "Did bad things happen at the office?" Ruh asked. "In a way. There were problems. We solved it" Yifan said with a smile. Actually he had just fired the person involved before Minseok's call came, but she didn't need to know that.

"So it's okay now?" she asked. "Yeah. Are you okay?" Yifan asked. Ruh remained silent and looked towards the entrance to the playground. Minseok had just walked in. He spotted Yifan and Ruh by the slide and his pace quickened. Ruh teared up when she saw him and ended up running and hugging him. Yifan looked worriedly at her. Minseok had half a mind to chastise both of them but clearly this wasn't the time. "Let's go home. I'll call Luhan and you call Joonmyun" he told Yifan as he led the way out of the park.

"So she's still not talking to you?" Joonmyun asked, looking at Ruh. "She wishes me good morning and good night and answers when I ask things. But she doesn't ask me to come to the park or read books to her or trail behind me as a game anymore" Yifan said sadly. He knew it was his fault. It was a system of snubs and punishments. Ruh had understood it wasn't all Yifan's fault but she still stood by the fact that she hadn't been wrong. So she wasn't going to talk to him since she still believed that he thought she was a "Spoilt loud child who didn't understand when people were too busy for silly games". Yifan regretted his words. He really did. He didn't think they would have such a profound impact. He was supposed to be her guardian at first. But working for and supporting a child was not easy. Even with three other people involved.

"Read to her tonight? Maybe she'll forgive you if you do" Joonmyun suggested. "Yeah maybe" he said with a sigh. Ruh got up to go change into her night dress. It was a cute frock that Minseok's sister used to own and it fit Ruh just right. Yifan waited till Ruh had said good night to both Minseok and Luhan. Then she came upto Joonmyun and he picked her up and made her sit in his lap so that she faced Yifan who had been sitting next to him. She hugged Joonmyun and played with Joonmyun's shirt fabric instead of looking at Yifan. 

"Are you going to sleep now Ruh chan?" Joonmyun asked cheerily. Ruh nodded and Joonmyun smiled. "Give me a good night kissie then?" Joonmyun asked, bending and turning his cheek to her. Ruh kissed it shyly and then buried her head into his chest again. "You should give one to Yifan too" Joonmyun prompted. Ruh just stared into space instead of acknowledging the statement and Yifan looked crestfallen. Joonmyun rubbed her back and looked apologetically to Yifan. "How about I read you a story tonight Ruh?" Yifan asked. "I can sleep without stories" came the automatic reply. "That's because you are a big girl right? But are you sure you want to miss out on a story?" Yifan ventured. Ruh loved to read or listen to stories. Maybe, just maybe he could tempt her with it.

Ruh struggled with it for a while but eventually gave in. Yifan got up and took Ruh from Joonmyun who gave her a good night kiss on her head before sending her off. "Okay let's see. Do you want to listen to a fairytale?" Yifan asked. "Are their bad ogres in the fairytale? Because Shrek was an ogre but he wasn't bad" Ruh said with a pout. "No there are not and this is a new one" Yifan said slowly, whacking his head for an interesting fairytale. All he could think of were the basic ones that he had already read to her. "Do you know Peter Pan?" he asked her. "Minseok read it to me" she told him. "Oh. Pied Piper?" "Luhan" came the reply.

"You dont know any new stories do you?" she asked him. "No sorry" he apologised, setting her down on her bed. She jumped off her bed the moment he let her go and went straight to her school bag. She fished out a book and handed it to Yifan. "Please read this to me" she said, climbing onto her bed and going under the covers. Yifan looked at the book. It was the original version of Tom Sawyer. Had Ruh already gotten to this point in her reading stage? "Ma'am said I should try it since I had already read all the books in the class collection. I already read the first chapter" she told him proudly. "Okay then" Yifan agreed. He started from the second chapter, goging slowly so that Ruh could understand the difficult words. But she already knew how to read these books and so she prompted him to speed up. Yifan continued for a while but then stopped when there was no response. Had she understood everything?

He looked up to find her eyes closed and breathing slow. She had fallen asleep. He tucked her in properly and handed her a soft toy. She mumbled a sleepy thank you and smiled mid sleep. Yifan smiled too. Atleast things were better now. Ruh could never stay mad at someone who read an interesting story to her. Why had he not tried this before? He mentally promised that he would read to her whenever he could.

-x-

A/N - No clue where I was going with this one either.