Custody

[P. J. UMBERMAN]

Who knew that custody would become such an issue for a man so young?

Footsteps creaked in an out through the ambience of the archaic schoolhouse. The air inside was stuffy and sweltered through thick summer evening heat, supplemented by the fact that the entire town was located in the heart of the Red Desert in Wyoming. The walk to the building was tiresome enough-The schoolhouse itself was located further away from the main district of the Circo. The only reward the travelers received from their brief hike was a squeaky fan in the corner and open windows. Well, that and whatever the two needed to get from the dusty old learning place.

To those not acquainted with the tall figure would probably scream out of fright. Why? Well, all they would see would be a lopsided, slate colored, WWII US army backpack floating in mid air. The backpack of course was not floating on its own. The figure holding it was merely invisible. PJ Umberman had been this way for as long as he could remember. People could touch him but not see him. He had a physical state that was undeterminable by the human eye. Accessories and clothing would float around if he put them on, but since he was invisible anyway, what did it matter?

Of course, this meant that at that moment PJ was naked.

What further justified his blatant nudity was the fact that only one person could see him, and this person always imagined him to be in clothes. This person, trailing not to far behind him, was a little girl whom had been assigned to him as a secondary caretaker. On most days, the little girl was under heavy surveillance by people who's purpose was to only keep her from harming herself or other people with her 'gift'. PJ's job was a bit more fun, at least to him. He was to make sure that she was happy and entertained, treated like the child she deserved to be.

In other words, he was pretty much a father-figure to her.

It was his night to watch over the girl. What better way to make sure she was happy than to find some books or toys at the old schoolhouse? His backpack explained this, as well as possessed clothes for when it got slightly cooler. There was also water and snacks for the child as well. After the initial throw-down of the backpack, PJ went off through the small building to search for something to keep the child entertained. What would she like?

In a few swift movements, PJ had vaulted over a few desks to land on the teacher's one. To allow the child to keep up with him, a soft 'ding!' of a diner bell placed on the desk was heard.

"Raisa, why don't you go pick out something you'd like?"

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[RAISA GARCES]

It was play time! All week she had waited for this day, and who could blame her? The young girl had near instantly latched onto PJ. Maybe it was originally because of his prince-y looks, but the young girl had come to really care for her best friend. And why not? He was always so kind to her, and always seemed to know how to make her smile.

Well, nearly always. The poor kid was pooped from the walk. "I don't like summer." she whined to no one in particular, setting her near empty water bottle next to her caretaker's bag. It was her first real summer with Circo, and she hated it. There was no school, and she didn't know how to swim, and she wasn't allowed in the Big Top. Her summer days normally consisted of following one caretaker or another around, rarely deviating from them. She had her chores of course, and a few friends she had made here and there, but because of her gift she tended to stick around the adults.

Why was everyone always so scared of her power? They couldn't see it, but that didn't mean it was bad. Like PJ! No one could see him but her, but they weren't scared of him. So why was she different? The sound of a bell snapped her out of her thoughts, and near instantly her smile returned. "Come with me!" She bounced over to the boy, hand extended happily. The first time she saw the unseen, he had looked like a prince. Today? Maybe it was because of the bag, but today he had a more military look about him. That was okay though. Soldiers were good people, and they protected people. Soldiers and princes were kinda the same thing.

And no matter what PJ looked like, even if he faded from her sight, she would like him.

"I wanna find building blocks! Then we can build you a castle."

[P. J. UMBERMAN]

PJ watched as the little girl situated herself from the outside, worried that she may have almost gotten heat exhaustion. It was his job and his personal vow to make sure that she was 100% okay at all times. Raisa, probably unknowing to her, was probably PJ's biggest responsibility of all time. This child had deserved a normal childhood. Sure, she had a scary power and her adoptive 'father' was both underage and invisible, but for their physical and emotional state that did not matter. It helped that PJ possessed a fairly mature mind and pretty much no other option in the matter. Nevertheless, their bond was crucial. If Raisa had permanently shut herself out from everyone, who knows what could have happened.

When the little girl bounded over to the young adult PJ grinned an undetectable grin. He couldn't help but to think that she was so damn cute for a kid. "What is it princess?" Princess. That was her designated nickname. Like most little girls her age Raisa was very much a fairy tail aficionado. She knew she liked it, so the name stuck for him. PJ let the girl lead him forth as he slid off the table, bending over a little bit to keep his hand at a comfortable reach. At her request, PJ beamed a bit more and nodded swiftly. "Blocks? I'm sure we can find some."He assured with a pleasant tone, searching through the shelves if he could find any. There were plenty of toys and such for the elementary-level kids here. Maybe there would be something else for Raisa to play with. "How about we make the castle for you? After all, what's a princess without a castle?" After walking a few feet a plastic tub full of pastel wooden blocks was seen. PJ let go of Raisa's hand for a few seconds to take it off the shelf and set it neatly on the floor.

"There you go princess. Why don't you get started while I get some juice for you from my bag? You could use something else to drink since we had to walk through the icky hot weather." PJ called out to her as he headed back towards his bag. He reflected in his head the instructions he was given for her. Give her only the food distributed by her primary caretakers. Don't let her have too much sugar. Got it. Well, she could use the snack that was given to him. Maybe that wouldn't be too much. "Would you also like a snack? I've got cookies or crackers. You can have whichever one you want!" Already sifting through his bag, PJ had his back turned against her. Who knows what sort of things she could do when no one was looking.

[RAISA GARCES]

Raisa tended to be adorable most of the time, as she was constantly in little-girl mode, but the look on her face when PJ turned his back was priceless. She had her blocks, and had sat down to start building, when one of those odd thoughts went through her mind. She couldn't make a castle for herself, not unless it was PJ's castle too. Princesses didn't get their own castle unless it was guarded by dragons, and dragons were mean. Raisa didn't want to be guarded by a dragon. All of her thoughts were focused on dragon. Had PJ not distracted her, who knew what could have happened.

But distract her he did. Her head shot up, her face looking almost oddly squished. Now she had two thoughts in her head. The dragon, and the cookie. She could only focus on one. The cookie won out though, the dangerous thought fading back into her mind. "What kind of cookie?" She actually leaned forward, as if somehow she could see through him and the bag. Not possible. PJ was just as real as the forgotten block in her hand, at least in her eyes. "Is it the nasty orange cookies? They get stuck on my mouth." Nasty in the fact that they were sticky when she ate them, like peanut butter. She did like how they tasted however.

"I can't eat them without milk. And I can't have milk when it's hot. I miss my cereal." Since she was bound to be running around outside as soon as breakfast was over, Raisa wasn't allowed to have cereal anymore. A slightly whiney morning Raisa was preferable to whining and sick Raisa later. "Are there cheese-y crackers? I eat the cheese first, then the cracker. And people get mad when I share the cracker part if I'm playing with the real animals." Not that her imaginary animals weren't real, but still.

[P. J. UMBERMAN]

PJ sifted through his military-style bag, searching through its numerous pockets to find something to feed the kid with. Thank god this thing was big, because the more time he had spent with Raisa the more he figured out that you could never have too much stuff for kids. After some searching he held a bag of chocolate chip cookies and some cheese crackers, plus the juice bottle. He slightly turned his head to take in her request, and, unknowing to him, nearly lost the child within her imagination. Well, the cookies seemed to be too much of a hassle. He didn't of course want to give her something she didn't like. Crackers it is. "You're in luck, they gave me the cheese kind. You can eat it however you want, but make sure you eat the whole cracker, okay? I don't want to to be too hungry before we go get dinner." PJ knew that her caretakers fed her slightly later than the other oddities and on a private level. Sometimes they ate dinner together, though many were too scared to allow her into the dining hall alone. Often times it made PJ wonder what some of the people were like when they discovered their 'gifts' when they were very little, without the circus to help him. Now here they were out-casting a child because she couldn't yet come to terms with her powers. It was pretty sad really.

PJ's smile brightly remained as he returned to Raisa and sat gently next to her. He handed her the cracker bag while opening the juice and looked at the pile of blocks. He wasn't very used to thinking like a kid when playing with one. Well, he certainly had time to learn. He then handed that bottle of juice to her after he opened it. "I think it's fruit punch. You like fruit punch, right?" He asked her softly. He then looked back at the pile and picked up a decent size pastel pink block and looked at it. In the eyes of a normal person, and in the eyes of PJ, the block looked like it was floating on its own. Raisa was literally the only person that could see him, which made her all the more important to him. "So tell me princess, what's this castle gonna look like? We'd have to make it strong so no mean dragons can get in." Not to give her any ideas of course. PJ had officially changed his mind over to play-mode, which wasn't that hard considering his job in the circus was pretty much to entertain kids on a silent level. "Hey princess, after we finish up here do you want to go to the playground if it's not too hot? I can push you on the swings!"PJ offered to her, hoping that her mind had enough possibilities to have fun for the night. "Whatever you want to do we can do it. As your royal knight it's my duty to make sure the princess is always happy!"PJ said with a wink before sifting through more blocks.

[RAISA GARCES]

Raisa could really only focus on one thing at a time. As soon as she got her crackers and juice they had all of her attention. "Fruit juice is nummy!" She didn't take a sip right away though. Something looked wrong. She pouted slightly, examining the bottle. This wasn't her normal juice. Her normal juice had a big sun on it. This one had pictures of fruit all over the label. And the plastic was too thick. Why couldn't she have her juice? Had she done something wrong? She was going to ask PJ about it, the older boy probably knew more than her, but her attention was instantly ripped away.

Mean dragons. Had he read her mind? She had been thinking about the mean dragons before! The look on her face was one of complete wonder. "No dragons. Dragons are scary..." Just as she started to hear the dry sound of scales rubbing on each other, PJ promptly distracted her again.

Swings? Her face twisted a little. "Swings make me feel icky inside." There was something about the motion that her body did not like. Castle and food now forgotten, she focused on the playground. Thanks to her vivid imagination, she could recall near exactly what the playground looked like. "The slide really hurts. I don't like it anymore either." Hot metal and exposed legs had not been a good combination. "But the see-saw is fun!" And she was very good at imagining partners so she could play. And her imagined partners never did mean things, like jumping off so she'd go crashing to the ground.

"But you're not a knight. You're a prince, but you're not /my/ prince. You're like my elder brother prince. So the castle is yours, not mine." Cause that's how it worked. The eldest got the crown. It was almost like she was working backwards. The castle had her attention for a few seconds, and then her food again. She set the bottle aside, it was wrong and she wasn't sure she wanted it, and started on the crackers.

Without a care in the world she twisted them apart, licking up the cheese inside before making a stack of clean crackers on her knee. Hell could have broke loose and Raisa wouldn't have even noticed.

[P. J. UMBERMAN]

Ooo, just when PJ thought he was doing right he proved to himself that there was no possible way to read a child's mind. Raisa looked distressed at the mere sight of her juice. "Is there something wrong Raisa?" PJ asked her gently, his suspended voice filled with worry. Was there something he was missing that she picked up on? Lord knows. She's a kid. They can have the attention span of a goldfish but an eye for detail like a master artist. Hoping to take her mind off of it, he proceeded to build a foundation for a decent sized castle. "I'm sure that not all dragons are mean. Sure, ones that lock away princesses can be, but I'm sure most of them are reasonable creatures. A lot of our family here at the circus are like dragons in the sense that they are different and misunderstood. All of them are wonderful people." Well, that was partially true. Some of them are buttholes, but that couldn't be helped.

PJ felt slightly disappointed with himself for even suggesting something that Raisa didn't enjoy. What he found the most fun about the playground here wasn't the same in Raisa's eyes. No swings, no slide. That was understandable. He was thankful that Raisa had actually suggested something else instead of him having to play a guessing game and feel guilty for bringing up things that she had a specific reason to hate. "Oh okay. The seesaw is fun, too. Will you get your friends to play with you?" Truth be told PJ wasn't phased in the slightest by her abilities. Sure she had some scary potential, but her power was an awe-inspiring one. When she grew up she would certainly have an amazing tool on her side. He knew if she was guided in the right direction she would be able to use her power to the best of her capability.

PJ slipped up yet again with Raisa's disapproval at his pet name. That was okay to him, though. He was whatever she wanted him to be. You really got this worked out huh... PJ thought to himself. "Well, a prince is just fine with me. We can share it!" He asserted with a gentle tone. Wait... Did she find him to be like an older brother? Was that a good thing? Was he really that trustworthy in her eyes? How much did she really care about him? His mind started to become lost in his thoughts for this kid. What could he say? He was a dreamy kind of guy. A sky blue block was lodged between his hands, seemingly holding itself in mid air as he spaced out.

[RAISA GARCES]

"My juice is wrong." Raisa mumbled to his first question. All the cheese was gone, so she was nibbling on the crackers. "My juice has a happy sun on the label. And the plastic is too thick." The juice probably tasted around the same, but... It was wrong. It wasn't /her/ juice. But did it really matter in the long run? No. Not really. So she reclaimed the too heavy bottle and took a sip.

It didn't taste the same at all. It was more orange-y tasting and less sweet. Why couldn't she have her juice? She made a face, setting the bottle aside again. "This one isn't as yummy."

"My real friends are all the way back at the Circo, and you said they were dragons." Unless he was talking about her imaginary friends. Raisa looked up at him with a smile, her entire front covered in crumbs. "And I could play with my not-real friends, but I wanna play with you." He was much heavier than her though. That was okay. She could just even them out with a friend or two.

Crackers gone, Raisa started building again. "But only after our castle is done." And it was going to be the best castle ever.

[P. J. UMBERMAN]

PJ frowned sympathetically and tucked his knees to his chest. He took the discarded bottle from her after she had labeled its disappointment. "Aw, I'm sorry Raisa. They just gave it to me to give it to you later, I didn't know they switched bottles out on you. I'll tell them to give you your old stuff back, don't you worry about that. I still have my unopened water if ya want. Would you like it?"PJ asked her in a low voice. He didn't want her to be dehydrated. Even though she had abandoned a near-full seemingly fine bottle of juice she still came before him. His hands traced back to block, his hands tracing over the smooth surface before placing it down.

"Not really dragons silly! Just figurative ones I guess. Maybe you'll understand when you're older." 'When your older- the ultimate child's question dismissal'. Maybe she did understand in a way. It was hard to tell with her. At least she was happy to be his companion, which was returned with PJ's ultimate willingness to give her his everything in terms of guidance. "Okay, I'll play with you." He agreed, hoping he could help resolve the kid's loneliness. He nodded to her final statement and went straight back to building their castle as he came in touch with his inner child.

[RAISA GARCES]

He was going to give her his bottle? Just because she didn't like her juice? "You don't have to give me your water, you need drinking stuff too. I just don't want the juice right now." She was still disappointed in it. Maybe later, when she was thirsty, she would drink it. She would drink from a hose before she took PJ's drink. That was what a bad person did, and she wasn't a bad person.

Princesses couldn't be bad people. Not unless they were ugly step-sisters.

She didn't want to be an ugly step-sister.

The subject had been decided. She wasn't going to drink PJ's water and she was going to put up with the nasty... No. It wasn't even really nasty. Not when she thought about it. It just wasn't what she was expecting. And he may call her a princess, but she didn't have a right to act like one.

Just a big step, and it wasn't likely it'd stick of course. She was a child after all. Some small part of it would stay with her though, and that small part would help her become a better person.

"How many towers should we have? At least four, one for each corner."

[P. J. UMBERMAN]

PJ was quite pleasantly surprised by Raisa's own selflessness. It really took a lot from a six year old girl to say that she didn't deserve something. Most kids her age would have taken the gift without a second thought or regret, even going as far as to taunt the donor with their shiny new reward. "Really? Well, I don't want to force you into drinking something that's not yours. Thanks, Raisa. That's very kind of you!" PJ rewarded the girl for her miniature sort-of good deed. Maybe he could sneak her an extra cookie later. For PJ, it was truly the little gestures that counted for him. Maybe this rejection of a gift would later evolve into genuine acts of kindness. Kindness was so hard to find these days. He hoped Raisa would try to take in some of the values his parents raised him with. Not that his way was the only way of life, but he found that the love and support he received should be passed on.

When Raisa's full attention was back on the tower PJ beamed elatedly towards Raisa. "Four towers... That should be enough. After all we want to leave some room for the main building, right?" The invisible man asserted playfully. As he stacked blocks neatly up he turned to Raisa once more to ask a question. "You can answer me with as much honesty as you want, princess. Are you settling down to our circus better now? Are you happy here?" Despite his gentle as a breeze voice and formerly childlike behavior his voice was serious and interrogative. He looked to Raisa, pausing the construction and setting his hands in his lap.

[RAISA GARCES]

She didn't want to answer this question at all. "A princess is supposed to be honest." Maybe if she just ignored the question it would go away. Yeah. That always worked, people were always telling her to ignore things to make them go away. "Honest, and loyal, and kind, and brave..." She didn't look up at him. If she looked up he would see that she was purposely ignoring the question.

"I'm not always honest, but I do try. People ask me things and I don't want to make them mad or sad so I lie." Like she was trying to avoid doing now. Was ignoring something lying? "But I am very loyal. I don't tell secrets." Not that she had many to not tell. No one but PJ tried to honestly be her friend. "And I try to be kind. I cried yesterday cause I killed a little bug. It but me and it hurt so I killed it. But my caretaker said I was very brave when I sat still so she could clean the bite."

Now she looked up at him. "The stuff she used, it burned. The not-right juice is better than it. It really really hurt." She had forgotten about it until she told PJ about it though, so it hadn't been /too/ bad.

And once more Raisa looked away, adding a few new blocks to the castle. "People here are scared of me. They don't like that they can't see my power. They remember the person I hurt forever ago. I said sorry but no one will forgive me."

A few more blocks. "The woman who takes care of me, she found someone who makes powers go bye bye for a little while. She doesn't know I know. She says I'm not grown up enough for my power. She's gonna ask the Mr. Spooky to let her take me to the bye bye guy to make my friends go away for awhile."

[P. J. UMBERMAN]

PJ stacked more blocks on top of each other, the form of a castle now shaping out. None of it was one solid color nor looked really impressive. Still, it was the two's creation, plus at least Raisa seemed like she was having fun. Sort of. Raisa was completely avoiding his question, which only made PJ concerned. What was she hiding from him? What did she have to hide? Were people mistreating her? Maybe he would have to sneak in her care place to see if Raisa was getting the care she needed. He listened to her meaningless ranting with much care, though only stated a small "That's good.". He meant it, though. Raisa needed to be honest with him in order for him to know whether or not she is okay.

Though most of her words were just a hollow distraction, she did come out with some truth. All of this truth quite honestly scared him. Her first piece of news about the bug bite upset him. "They probably used a really bad disinfectant on you. They should have been a lot more gentle. Sorry to hear about that princess." PJ mumbled, casting a sympathetic look to her. At least whatever had bit her didn't poison her. So maybe some good came out of that.

More bad news came to him in concerns of her gift. Man, when was she ever going to catch a break? Was PJ the only one that understood her? Why were they trying to take away her power? Sure, he had seen some scary things with her power, but she shouldn't be punished for it. "I'm not scared of you princess. I'll never be scared of you. I hope you know that." He assured to Raisa, scooting closer to her. He truly didn't understand it. There were oddities three times her age that did and still do more damage than her. Maybe it was to deter her from becoming like them? Who knows. "Maybe... It's for the best." Despite his personal opinions, he pretty much had to side with her caretakers. He didn't have the right to fill her mind with thoughts against them. "I just really don't agree with the decision at all." PJ said only slightly glancing at her, the rest of his mind sidetracked to something else.

[RAISA GARCES]

"Maybe it's for the best." Raisa didn't hear anything else. Why did he want her power gone too? She had been mildly happy before, even when she told him about the power thing. But now? She hugged her leg to her chest, resting her head on her knee. "I don't want my powers bye bye... I won't see you anymore..." She would lose all of her friends. And PJ apparently was okay with that, because he said so.

Tears gathered in her eyes, her face twisting as she tried to keep from crying. "I try really really hard. I haven't hurt anyone. She said I need to focus on what's real but my not real friends /are/ real. I still can't control them, but I make the bad ones go away now." Butterflies, baby animals, those were safe things. She played with them when she was bored, which was nearly all the time. She wasn't really given a chance to play with the other oddities so she was almost always bored. That really wasn't her fault.

She hid her face. "I don't want to play castles anymore. I want to go home." Not home. She wanted to curl up in her blankets and never move ever. Her best friend, who wouldn't physically exist without her powers, said that maybe her powers should be taken away. He claimed he didn't agree, but then why would he say it was for the best? He had betrayed her. "I don't want my powers to go away..." They were very literally a part of her. Just a part of her as PJ's invisibility was.

[P. J. UMBERMAN]

PJ nearly gaped in horror at the realization of his own statement's hurt. He didn't mean to say that she didn't deserve her powers! He just... If her caretakers were going to do something, there wasn't much he could do to stop them. What could he say in her defense? She had been behaving so well lately, but there was still the possibility of her powers going ballistic. Nevertheless she deserved her powers just as much as every other gifted here.

When she started to cry PJ truly realized what he had done. He had on a face of true regret as he switched to facing her and sitting on his shins. "Raisa, please don't cry... I-I didn't mean it..." PJ whispered in a strain of his own tension. He would have comforted her with a hug, but he probably said something to completely set her from caring about him. "I know you try really hard, and you do a wonderful job at controlling yourself. I know your friends are apart of you and you can't control what they do to others... You're still really young, so maybe you haven't figured it out yet." PJ attempted to comfort her from afar, now afraid to upset her further.

At her request PJ's new found depression hit him. Great, he couldn't even take care of her and prevent her from being upset. "You want to go home...? Oh... Okay. I'm really sorry for what I said. I just... Want the best for you. I just don't know what that will be."PJ mumbled to her, a sad sigh heaving at his shoulders. He didn't know what to say to make her feel better. Maybe if he showed some empathy, maybe she would understand him.

"Can I tell you a story before we head off?"