Hey! Anyone remember me? Crystalmoon39?

I did a Detentionaire fic with my own OC call All's Fair.

To any new readers you should check that out first and then come back here.

This is going to be just a short series on my OC Nora when she was a child.

Like the first time she met her Sensei, her past with her mother and Alex...

Maybe a few others have been in her past longer than she remembers.

Long Drabbles.

"I still can't believe you talked me into this!"

Helena was panting for breath. A married woman, a mother in her thirties, and she's miles away from home with her best friend, climbing up some ancient steps up the side of a mountain. Helena was a pretty woman having light red hair, blue eyes and still in good health. She worked as a high school drama teacher back in Canada, but had been convinced to take this hike on a mountain in Japan. A necessary weight was also on her back which did not make the journey any easier. At least ten steps ahead of her was Winnona Wheatfield, her closest friend since their days in elementary school.

"It's not like I shanghaied you and forced you onto the plane!" Winnona, nicknamed Winny due to her outgoing and competitive nature as a young girl, called over her shoulder. Winny was a lot more youthful than her friend not just by nature. But she had light-brown hair and green eyes that she felt always made her look like an old lady. She waited for Helena to catch up a few steps. "You're still in great shape, and don't mothers in their first few years have great circulation from chasing toddlers around?"

Helena looked up indignantly at her. "That's a myth made up by women who don't actually have children!" She was only three steps behind Winny when Helena stopped. "And even if it were true, Nora doesn't do much running. Henry follows behind her every step just in case she falls, and when she so much as starts looking tired he picks her up and takes her the rest of the way."

"You got a husband that's going to spoil your daughter, you know Lena?" Winny had never married, and that was because she never wanted to. She loved her own independence, her parents had left her money to support a globe-trotting lifestyle and Winny's love for adventure and learning new things had taken the central role of her life. The only time she had ever thought differently of this life was the day Helena asked her to be Nora's godmother and placed the little baby in her arms. "That's why we need to come here! Can't you just feel it?"

"Oh, I can feel it!" Helena assured her, actually referring to burning and aching of her muscles and the heat of the sun beating down on them. Grunting she took one more step. "But why now, Winny? We left Canada to come to Japan, but you never told me why!"

"Yes I did!" Winny told her, puffing out her chest in pride. "We made a vow years ago to see the world together. I've been pulling my half of that promise for the last three years while you've had the adventurous life of a house mom. Today we make it real! We're spending the summer here as guests, it'll be great; you'll see!"

"Winny…" Helena truly loved her like a sister, but the extent she was going with this was pushing the limit a bit. "Then can you explain why you wanted to bring Nora along with us?" The 'necessary weight' was actually Helena's three-year-old daughter. Nora had short black hair that curled at her cheeks which she inherited from her doting father, Henry Prowler, and had what Helena called 'silvery' eyes. Nora may have been three, but she still had a nervous habit: sucking her thumb. It was a security thing, like for most children. Whenever she felt scared, or nervous she would start sucking away. She was even doing it right now. Even though she was with her mother and favorite aunt, Nora knew she was in a very different place than her house and so was understandably nervous and afraid. And she said nothing as the two women conversed on the steps.

"Oh, why not?" Winny argued. "Every girl needs an adventure in her life. How many get to say they've been to a temple in Japan at the age of three? Beside you'd have never come if we couldn't bring her!" The truth really was that Winny adored Little Nora and in the excitement of having the closest thing to a daughter in her life wanted to share a journey with her and her best friend!

Helena rolled her eyes. "She's only three, Winnona! She'll barely remember this and even if she does, I can't carry her up these steps twice as it is now."

Winny laughed. "Then I'll carry her! No really. Hand the little mouse over, she can ride on my back if you're getting tired." Helena didn't protest and neither did Nora. Helena wouldn't have made Winny her godmother if she did not trust the woman. And Winnona had been around enough times for the little child she now carried along with her pack for Nora to know that her aunt's appearance was a time for fun. She even took her thumb out of her mouth as Winny talked to her until they reached their destination.

The temple they were going to was more of a training grounds built into a side of the mountain. The teachers there specialized in the old arts and traditional ways of their people. But it was not solely Japanese, nor fighting. Philosophers of peace, men of extended martial art knowledge and the students they taught all lived at the temple. Winny had come here a few years ago, not really to study, but to visit an old friend of hers and Helena's.

Before they got to the final steps Winny let Helena take a break so she would not look so tired when they were greeted at the top. "You know…" Helena panted as she sat down. "I am looking forward to this… He hasn't seen Nora yet. And I think he's the last of my friends who haven't."

Winny smiled with glee. This had also had been part of her reason for bringing them both. She set Nora down, but held onto her hand so she would not fall. Nora didn't cling to her aunt's leg, but resumed sucking her thumb. "Angel, c'mon it's okay." Winny tried to soothe her removing her thumb from her mouth. "Your mommy and I wanted to bring you to a new place. There's a friend of ours here and he's never seen you. Mommy and Auntie need to show you off!"

Nora only stared back baefully, putting her thumb back where it was.

"If your teeth don't wear away, I think that your thumb will." Nora paused, but then continued sucking. "Helena, shouldn't you be finding a way to make her stop?"

Energy returning to her from her rest, Nora's mother reached into her pack. "I didn't have to. Remember Alfonso Amoreonesto?"

Winny rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Yeah, yeah. I see his face every time I look up the phrase 'lady's man'. Helena don't you think it's weird that your old high school boyfriend lives just down the street from you?"

Helena looked up at her friend, confused by her question. "No. In fact I think it's lucky! He has three boys and the youngest is just a year older than Nora. Winny if you saw them together you'd see how adorable they are! Alex is always leading her around by the hand when he comes over to play, he does boss her to do what he says because he thinks it's his job to keep her safe." Helena smiled up at her daughter. "Nora, Alex takes good care of you for Mommy doesn't he?"

Her expression brightening, Nora nodded her head to her mother. "Winny look at this." Helena began digging into her pack. "Before I left, Alex came to our frontyard and demanded to know where I was 'taking Nora away'. Can you imagine someone four years old saying that?" She laughed. "Any way, he said that Nora had to have this bag of sugar-free suckers."

"Sugar-free?" Winny raised an eyebrow. "That's a blasphemy in Candyland."

Helena waved off the comment. "Alfonso and his wife, Athena, have a strict no sugar policy in their house, so I guess these are the only things he could get. He said he's teaching Nora not to suck her thumb before she starts preschool and he's been giving these to her when he comes over to play."

That even made Winnona smile. She wouldn't say what he thought on Alfonso, not in front of Nora. But the little girl immediately took her thumb out of her hand to reach for the bad of candy her mother was holding out. "You better hand one over, Lena." She joked steadying the three-year-old on the steps.

Helena said. "Let's get to the top first. I'm feeling much better now."

The three of them took the last few steps, until finally they reached their destination. A giant red Japanese-styled gate stood right in front of the travelers. The temple was an ancient ground now used as place of expert training to the next generation who aspired to keep the traditional fighting styles of their heritage, so Helena assumed that the rest of the building would be just as traditional. "Just a few years ago," Winny explained, "they started excepting masters not just of Japanese heritage. Some old, eccentric British guy offered a fund to the temple if they allowed others to stay and learn here."

"Wow." Said Helena amazed. "That's not just everyday generosity." Or everyday money either. Whoever had made that offer wasn't just eccentric, they were also incredibly well off.

"And because of that," Winny continued, smiling slyly. "We get to go in, and we get to see an old friend." She put her hand that wasn't holding Nora's up to her mouth and called. "We're here~!"

The gates creaked as they opened; a lone figure stepped out wearing a monk's robe. "Welcome, my old friends."

The voice, and face were both recognizable by Helena. He wasn't of direct Japanese descent, but she knew he had studied the culture, and fighting styles of it for years.

"Yasu!"

Well, that my first try. If I get enough reviews I think I have enough to do a few more chapters.