Child's Play

The sight and sound of continuous laughter in the air overwhelmed the little three year old boy with light blonde hair. His bright blue eyes carefully watched the children mingle with each other regardless of gender and race but he was so shy and afraid to make the first move.

"Come on, Leon. Go and have fun. No one is going to hurt you. We'll be right here." His mother spoke behind him and gave her son a little nudge forward.

The toddler turned around and whined, "Nooo…."

A pair of manly hands lifted the boy up, "I'll bring him around the playground, Elizabeth. You stay here and rest. It has been a tiring day for all of us."

Elizabeth nodded, grateful that her husband was taking his turn to look after their child. "Have fun, babe," She waved to Matthew and watched the father and son pair wander deeper into the indoor playground.

"What do you want to play, little guy? The slide? Swings? Ball pit?"

Leon's eyes widened at the mention of 'ball' and he wiggled in Matthew's arms as he exclaimed, "Ba! Baaa!'" He wasn't able to properly pronounce the letter 'L' yet but he still sounded adorable. "Ball pit it is then, son."

Matthew brought his little boy over to the "pond" filled with colorful plastic balls and he lowered Leon at the corner of the pit. The blonde toddler immediately relished the experience and slowly waded through the area, throwing a few balls out of the way to make room. His father walked alongside him, happy to see his son enjoying himself.

Leon proceeded to turn away from Matthew and walked deeper into the ball pool. He was clearly happy to be in it and this gave the elder Mr. Kennedy an idea on what he could gift to his precious son on his birthday. He sat down on the edge along with other parents as they watched their children play with the toy balls.

There was an Asian girl with pigtails who was about six years old situated at the other corner of the pit and she was collecting only blue balls. Then she entertained herself by juggling three at once. It was something she learned in a juggling book her parents bought for her. She did it for a short while before noticing that a little boy was making his way towards her, entranced by the display.

"Ba!" Leon pointed to the blue ball the girl was holding in her hand.

"Ball?" She replied and the blonde munchkin nodded. The older girl handed one blue toy to the toddler and he grabbed it with excitement.

"What do you know, hun. She's making a friend." A mixed race couple near Matthew spoke out loud and he deduced that they were the girl's parents.

"My son is usually very shy around strangers. I'm glad to see him interacting with other children." Matthew said eventually and the couple turned towards him with a smile.

Leon then bounced the toy into the pit and it rolled away from him, making him pout. His face crinkled up with sadness before his new friend waded over to him and presented him with some more balls. "Don't cry. There's more, see?"

She juggled once more and the little boy appeared to be hypnotized by the repetitive circular motion. He cooed out loud in wonder.

"Tell her your name, son." Matthew called out and the blonde obliged, " 'eon!"

The girl just giggle with amusement.

"His name is Leon." Mr Kennedy added on, emphasizing on the first letter of his child's name.

"Hello, Leon!" The girl leaned in and whispered her name. Unfortunately, Leon had no idea how to pronounce Chinese words so he just babbled whatever came close, "Ada!"

Her pigtails flung about from side to side as she shook her head, "No, my name is not Ada." The girl proceeded to say her name one syllable at a time so that the little boy would get it.

"Adaaa." Leon gurgled again.

"I'm sure he'll learn to pronounce his words better when he grows up." Matthew was a little embarrassed as he spoke to the girls' parents who didn't mind at all.

"Just let him be, darling," The girl's blonde mother called out to her daughter and she nodded reluctantly.

'Ada' stepped behind Leon and placed a blue ball in each of his hands. Then she helped the boy toss the ball up and down to make sure it landed in its palm. There were a few times the ball flung away from them but 'Ada' always had a new one to replace it.

"They get along well," The girl's raven haired father spoke and Matthew nodded, "Do you live around here?"

The blonde woman shook her head, "No, we're just here on vacation. She was getting restless so we brought her here to release her pent up energy."

Leon's dad stretched out his hand, "I'm Matthew." The couple looked at each other for a split second before the woman gave the quickest of nods.

The Asian man shook the stranger's hand, "George. This is my wife, Wendy." They had decided to use their English alias since people had difficulty pronouncing words in an Asian language.

"In actuality, our names are in Mandarin Chinese. We just go by English ones to make things easier for others." Wendy replied and Matthew concurred. 'Ada' was now teaching Leon to juggle with two balls. Tossing one up in the air as the other was quickly transferred to the adjacent hand. The first ball landed soon after in Leon's newly vacant palm.

The parents watched their children play and Leon managed to juggle two balls successfully on his own. "Yay!" 'Ada' clapped with excitement and her parents decided it was now time to go.

"Sweetie, we have to leave," George said and his daughter pouted.

"Aww… But he just got the hang of it!"

The girl's father lifted a note up, "We exchanged contacts, dear. You can talk to him soon."

'Ada' relented and waved to her new blonde friend. "Bye bye Leon!" She trudged out of the ball pit and was lifted out by her armpits.

"Bye bye!" Leon waved in return and he returned his attention back to juggling. The little girl smiled to herself and clinging onto her parents hands, she walked out with them to enjoy the rest of their stay in this city.

The little blonde boy played with the balls for a few more moments before his movements slowed, indicating that he was tiring out. Matthew carried his son out of the ball pool and allowed Leon to rest on his shoulder where he promptly fell asleep. Elizabeth looked at her two favorite boys joyfully, "It looks like he had a lot of fun today."

His father put him into the pram and buckled him in before whispering, "He did. And he made a new friend too. I didn't quite get her name but she was very sweet with him."

Elizabeth raised an eyebrow and teased, "Oh? You're playing matchmaker so early?"

Matthew responded by pressing a kiss to his wife's cheek, "Haha. I'm just happy that he has started to socialize." He reached down to stroke Leon's soft blonde hair as he slumbered peacefully.

Elizabeth stood up and began to push the stroller, "Maybe they will meet again in the future."

Her husband picked up the shopping bags and walked beside his wife, "Maybe."

Both children might forget today's meeting but they will be surprised in the time to come when they enter adulthood…

Author's Note: I had this idea on how they meet as kids in my head for a looong time. Glad that it turned out well. It's oozing with a lot of cuteness. :D

Also, one of the RE6 files states that Ada's name is a pseudonym which means her real name is a mystery... I did come up with a real name for her some time ago and it coincidentally does sound like Ada. I won't reveal it publicly 'cos I like to keep that name to myself. ;)