Gil took longer than most children to grow out of the “why?” stage (either Klaus or Von Pinn dealing with him at that age, you pick, I just want to see toddler!Gil and hilarity)
It was a little celebration amongst the rigger rats. They called it Family Day, and used it to remember the people they had left behind. Gil enjoyed the stories the others told but, when it came to his turn, his joyful mood fell to ash.
“I don’t have a family,” he confessed. “I don’t know where my home is.”
The others laughed at him. He ran away.
Von Pinn found him in the Escape Rig hangar, hiding between the emergency supplies and the mammoth baits. She reacted to his tears the way she reacted to anything outside of her field of order. With anger.
“Who harmed you?”
Gil automatically unfolded to show a lack of injuries. “They jus’ laughed at me, m’m,” he quavered. “Why don’t I have a family?”
“You do have a family,” Von Pin soothed. Or the closest thing she could get to ‘soothed’. “They are just… not here. Come along, this is a dangerous area.”
“Why?”
“Child, you are sitting next to poison in an area full of flying machines, with a door that leads to a five-thousand-foot drop. Which one of these features escaped your notice?”
“No, why is my family not here?”
Von Pinn picked him up by his suspenders and carried him at arm’s length. “Because they are located elsewhere.”
“Why?”
“Because they could not be here.”
“Why?”
“For your safety.”
“Why?”
Von Pinn tutted and rolled her eyes. “Young master Gil, are you asking to know or are you asking to annoy?”
“I wanna know. Where are they? Why aren’t they here? How can I be safe if I don’t have a mama or a papa? Who am I?”
“I give you leave to come to me after bedtime. I will tell you then.”
“Why?”
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