Theodor walked down the street, heading home. It was already starting to get darker. Following behind him was Natalie, the strange girl who had taken to following him. Theo sighed and shook his head.

After recovering enough from the fight, Theodor had his ear yelled off by the matron. Against his expectations, she didn't fire him, but did tell him to take a few days off to both cool off and let things blow over. He was incredibly thankful for the matron's generosity despite her prickly exterior.

In no time, he was at the entrance to the apartment complex.

"You're not going to follow me in, right?" he asked Natalie as he opened the door, hoping she would say no.

The girl said nothing as she followed him into the building. Theo almost clicked his tongue in annoyance.

"Don't you have a family? Won't they be worried about you?"

The girl didn't answer and looked away instead. Theo sighed as he rubbed the back of his head. Her hurt reaction confirmed that her family were dead. It wasn't an uncommon thing around these parts. He didn't want to imagine how she survived in the slums. While his comment did confirm something about the mysterious girl, it also set off an emotional landmine. Despite his better judgement, Theo felt guilty and wanted to make up for it.

"Alright look," he said "I'll let you stay in my apartment for a few days, okay?"

The girl looked up at him, surprised that he would offer this to someone like her. The happy smile that spread across her face, told Theo all he needed to know about her thoughts on the matter.

Thankfully, the landlord wasn't in the lobby so Theo didn't have to explain why he was taking an obviously undereage refugee girl into his apartment. Just before Theodor was about to open the door, his stomach let out a loud rumble.

"Ah sorry," he said somewhat embarrassed "It's been a while since I..."

He trailed off when he noticed that Natalie had a blush on her face. It seems as if her stomach was also empty. Smiling, he unlocked the door and motioned for her to enter.

"I'll make dinner for us," he told her as he headed to the kitchen "You can watch TV in that room over there if you want."

Theo went and put on his apron as he heard the sound of the TV turning on. It had been a long time since he had someone over.

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Theodor wasn't sure exactly what the girl would have wanted to eat for dinner so he made some Linseneintopf, the soup she was served at the soup kitchen. Living alone for a few years now, he had learned to cook himself with a bit of competency. Making some German food reminded him of his childhood when Mrs. Hohenstein would make dinner for the family. With fond memories of his family in his heart, food preparation went by quickly. He set the table and went to the living room which contained the TV to tell Natalie to come eat.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The little girl had been entranced by the TV as it was her first time actually getting to change the channels and watch what she wanted. Usually when she got the chance to watch a TV, someone had put it on a news or sports channel. Natalie was watching some tv channel that played music videos. She seemed to be enjoying the song currently playing, a 3 year old West German song that Theo recognized, having heard the Wessies listen to it during Operation Neptune. Something about red balloons.

"Natalie, it's time to eat, he said from the entrance to the room," he said.

Seeing her look somewhat disappointed while getting up, he added "You can keep the tv on."

With the now happy girl practically skipping to the kitchen, Theo suddenly felt a deep sense of loss. His quiet and peaceful days in the apartment had been destroyed and now he was going to be eating dinner with a little girl he picked up off the street with 3 year old pop music playing in the background.

"Well, things could be worse," he thought to himself as he shrugged and went after Natalie to the kitchen.

After eating dinner, Theo did the dishes while Natalie went back to the TV. Theo had made a note in his mind to buy her a book or toys because being glued to the screen like that couldn't possibly be healthy. After seeing how late it was on his digital watch, he decided to put Natalie to bed. With a bit of resistance from her, he managed to pry her away from the TV. This presented a new problem, where she would sleep. Theodor decided on letting her sleep on his bed while he sleeps on the couch. He would need to buy a bed for her too at some point. While he did mean to look over news sources to find Katia, it appeared that the day took more out of him than he thought and he fell asleep as soon as he sat down.

Waking up early, a habit from his military days, Theodor was about to head out as usual and try to find clues on where Katia was when he remembered his guest. He could hardly leave her alone without any warning and more importantly, without breakfast. As a result, Theo sat by her bedside for about an hour until she woke up, wasting valuable time her could be spending searching for Katia. Inexplicably, the normally taciturn girl started blushing when she noticed him and told him to get out of the room. On his way out, he noted that she had no pajamas or other clothes and resolved to go buy some for her. After that little incident, the rest of the morning went without much excitement.

Now Theo was walking the streets in the refugee occupied slums of Caen. The incident the other day reeked of something fishy and he would get to the bottom of it.