Chapter Text
Ganji Anne Tinysop
To preface this: This takes place after they comfort him in his room (so they are already established as friends) and this is a bonus chapter. Meaning it can fall between the 11 days that weren’t written out.
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Aesop sat alone in his room, bored out of his mind. He didn’t know what to do at all. The garden was closed because Emma had work to tend to, so he couldn’t stare at the beautiful, yellow roses that he loved. Eli had a match and wouldn’t be back for another few minutes. On top of that, it seemed like everybody was busy. He sighed to himself and rolled over in his bed before deciding to go see who was available to play with him. It could be just for ten minutes and he still wouldn’t mind it at all. He wanted somebody, or something, to play with.
He stood up from his bed and walked over to his door. As usual, he pressed his ear against the door.
It was quiet.
He creaked his door open, turned the lock from the inside, and squeezed himself out. Aesop had two people in mind and he hoped that they would be available. If they weren’t, he didn’t know what he would do besides stare up at the ivory colored walls of his room.
⏤ ͟͟͞͞★
Aesop stood nervously in front of the door. He balled his fist up and knocked on the door. A woman’s voice called out.
“Who is it?”
“…Aesop.”
“Aesop! Give me a moment.”
Small shuffling noises could be heard from inside the room before the toy merchant opened her room door, standing before the child.
“Hey! What brings you here?”
She squatted down to Aesops height and booped his nose.
“I wanted to play with you and the other guy. I don’t wanna stay in my room all day.”
Anne smiled.
“You mean Ganji?”
He nodded.
“I think so.”
“Well, you’re in luck! He’s with me right now. We were painting my catapults.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really. Come on in and tell us what you want to do.”
“Okay!”
Anne gestured for Aesop to go inside, which he soon did. He walked further into Anne’s room until he finally found Ganji. Anne quickly caught up with the child and spoke to the batter.
“Ganji, look who came to visit!”
“Huh?”
“I said, ‘Look,’ not, ‘Keep painting.’”
He chuckled.
“My bad, Anne.”
Ganji turned to look and was a bit surprised.
“Aesop came to visit us? On his own free will?”
“You say that as if I forced him into my room!”
“I didn’t mean for it to come out like that, but I was just… surprised? I guess.”
He tilted his head.
“Why’d he come to visit us?”
“He said he wanted to play with us!”
“What does he want to play?”
“I don’t know, ask him.”
Ganji looked at Aesop now. Aesop looked slightly nervous, but he wasn’t entirely wary of the batter. He trusted him to an extent and he was pretty sure that the batter thought the same.
“So, what do you want to play?”
“Can we play hide and seek..?”
“It’s been a while since I’ve played that game, holy shit.”
“Shit?”
“Don’t repeat that. Ever.”
“Sorry…”
“A- Anyway, I’m down to play. Although, you do have the advantage since you’re quite small.”
Aesop giggled.
“I’m a hide and seek pro!”
“Are you?”
“Yeah. One time I hid so well that they all forgot about me!”
Both Ganji and Anne’s faces took on a stunned expression. He didn’t expect for him to sound so happy while basically saying his, “friends,” straight up forgot about him. He sighed, rubbing his temples.
“That’s… very nice, Aesop. Trust me, we won’t forget about you.”
Anne added on.
“What Ganji said. We’ll make sure we find you one way or another!”
Aesop smiled softly before replying.
“Okay!”
⏤ ͟͟͞͞★
It took them a while to decide on it, but the three eventually came to an agreement. Ganji would be the seeker while Anne and Aesop would be hiders. On top of that, they were only allowed to hide between their rooms and nowhere else as the manor was quite a large building. Anne sent Ganji into a corner to go count while she and Aesop took off in different directions.
Anne hid in Ganji’s room. Specifically on top of his closet.
Aesop hid in Anne’s room, thinking that Ganji wouldn’t bother searching her room at all. He nestled himself behind the pillows of her bed.
Thirty grueling seconds later, Ganji removed himself from the corner and started to search for the two. He looked through Anne’s room first as he was already in there. The shower, closet, and cabinets were all places he checked. He peeked his head underneath the bed to no avail.
Right as Ganji was about to leave, he heard a small giggle coming from the bed, so he decided to check it again. It was then that he saw a small piece of silver hair sticking out from behind the pillows. He smiled to himself.
He pretended to walk out of the room, opening and closing the door. After that, he quietly tip-toed over to Anne’s bed again. He tore the pillows away from Aesops hiding spot, earning a small squeak from the child. He laughed.
“Found you!”
“I thought you left…”
Aesop pouted.
“Well, I didn’t. Although, I do have to give it to you. If you didn’t giggle, I wouldn’t have found you.”
“Shit!”
“Hey! Don’t say that!”
He furrowed his brows.
“Don’t give me that look, ‘Sop… You can’t go repeating everything I say! If Anne heard you say that, I’d be a deadman.”
The batter chuckled and ruffled Aesops hair. This caused Aesop to go back to being happy instead of being salty.
“Let’s go find Anne now, ‘Sop.”
“Okay. Let’s go!”
Even though Ganji was the one that suggested it, Aesop was the first one out of the door to go find Anne. Ganji followed him shortly after.
⏤ ͟͟͞͞★
Aesop spoke as they walked through the hall to Ganjis room.
“I know she’s not in my room. I locked the door, hehe!”
Ganji snickered.
“I would say that’s unfair, but it’s funny.”
⏤ ͟͟͞͞★
Once they were inside Ganjis room, the two searched for Anne. Under the bed, inside the closet, inside the shower, they checked just about everywhere. Aesop sighed.
“I can’t find her…”
“Neither can I, don’t worry. She’s gotta be in here somewhere, though.”
“Yeah..”
“Don’t back down! She’s very sneaky sometimes.”
Aesop stared at the ceiling of Ganji’s room until he noticed a small hint of red from the corner of his eye.
“Wait…”
He turned his head to that red patch. It was Anne.
“Anne! Found you!”
Ganji turned to Aesop.
“You did? Where is she?”
“Up there!”
He turned his head to look up at where Aesop was pointing.
“No fucking way… How the hell did you get up there, Anne?! On top of my closet??”
Anne laughed loudly, she was holding in her laugh the whole time they were searching for her. She spoke in between her laughter.
“I climbed your closet!”
“How the fuck do you, ‘climb a closet’??? My closet is smooth! It doesn't have those little ridges for you to climb on!”
Ganji’s jaw was on the floor. He spoke again, a bit of laughter laced with his tone.
“Do you need help getting down, Anne?”
He sighed before walking over to his closet.
“A little…”
“I’ll take that as a yes then. Alright.”
Ganji opened his arms for Anne.
“Jump down. I’ll catch you.”
“Thanks, Ganji.”
Anne scooted to the very edge of the closets top and hopped down into Ganji’s arms before he set her back on her own two feet. Anne chuckled.
“I’m so glad you guys found me, I would’ve bursted out into hysterical laughter sooner or later.”
Ganji nudged her shoulder.
“And I’m glad Aesop found you. I would’ve left and gone to his room, even if it’s locked, to search for you.”
He turned to Aesop and ruffled his hair.
“Thanks for finding her for me.”
Aesop smiled.
“Her red vest gave her away.”
Anne sighed.
“It did?! Awh… I could’ve won!”
Aesop giggled and spoke again.
“Thanks for playing with me.”
The two smiled. Anne replied.
“No need to thank us! We’ve been meaning to have some more fun together here at the manor anyway. It gets boring sometimes, you know?”
He nodded in agreement.
“Yeah…”
“If you ever want to play with us again, just come over and ask. Alright?”
He smiled again.
“Alright.”