Summer Reins [Closed] - Printable Version
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RE: Summer Reins [Closed] - saronym - 12-24-2016
“Rude.” Sanders warned to the dismissive horse, though he had enjoyed watching the riding instructor get snubbed again. The twang in her accent had come across particularly strong for a moment which drew a big smiled from the cowboy. Something about southern accents always warmed him up. Akiko seemed in her usual mood again after her lesson. Right back to playfully sassing him about this or that and running off again. He liked the familiar way Akiko was with him. Though he was her father, he also felt a kind of freedom to be a friend to her. She had almost no responsibilities while she stayed with him that he had to enforce. And the well-behaved child needed little enforcement in anything. Which left them to enjoy one another’s company without the usual tensions that existed between teen and parent. He knew things were not the same with her mother.
“Yes she does.” Sanders agreed with Loch’s assessment of Akiko’s energy. “Colorado sunshine does that to people.” The ever present smile remained as he debated on confiding in Loch the changes he witnessed in Akiko from the time she arrived to him at the beginning of the summer to the time she left him at the end. Something about the ranch left her full of herself. Something about California returned her to him needing to be recharged.
Loch’s change of subject was along that vein so Sanders held the thought for the moment. “No of course not. No problem at all.” He reassured Loch that she wasn’t offending him with the topic. “My life is an open book.” He said sarcastically, not meaning to chide Loch, but rather referring to the fact that it was difficult for him to deny his situation when Akiko’s mother had already embarrassed them with her phone call during their first lesson.
He pursed his lips unable to hide his disappointment with her information. “Oh.” This news was not something he would enjoy breaking to Akiko. “She goes back to California the second week in August.” He walked away from Loch a few paces shaking his head as he mumbled something about another disappointment for Akiko thanks to Dawn.
“I’ll talk to her. I can’t imagine she would want to quit her lessons.” He turned back towards the riding instructor trying to assure her. “This is for her though. So ultimately, I’ll leave it up to Akiko to decide if she wants to keep on without being able to compete. I know she was kind of … excited about that part of all this.”
He continued to move towards the barn door, turning to his side to wait for her to catch up to him.
RE: Summer Reins [Closed] - megs - 02-05-2017
“There are other types of competitions,” Loch began to explain, by way of consolation, even though it was not necessarily Sanders who needed consoling. He did seemed annoyed, however, by the pull Akiko’s mother had on the situation. He had been trying to do something nice for his daughter, and even in California his ex could still cause problems. She jogged a little to catch up with him as he paused to wait for her. “In the summer there’s dressage and racing. I could easily shift her lessons to prepare for those, and she could compete next summer.” Sanders had made it clear that the decision was up to Akiko, but she presented these other options to him in case they came up while he was discussing the matter.
In her room, Akiko quickly changed out of the riding outfit. Kicking off the boots she pushed them out of the way with her feet before switching the tan breeches for a pair of worn denims jeans with a scraggly hole in one knee. The blue polo was replaced with her newest Legend of Zelda t-shirt, the eponymous princess taking up most of the scene, surrounded by the hero, the villain and other miscellaneous characters. She shoved her feet into paisley patterned Converse and snatched up a hoodie hanging on the door before she raced out of the room to reunite with her father and riding instructor.
Feet kicked up red dirt as she raced from the house to where they were both just leaving the barn. “Ready!” she announced excitedly, skidding to a halt a few feet away from them. She paused just long enough to pull the jacket over her shoulders, it was black with a red and grey patch on the front that heralded her place in a fictional space military. Akiko’s love for video games was by no means a secret.
“Race you to the truck!” she announced suddenly, when the jacket was secured and zipped halfway. Without waiting for a response from either adult Akiko turned on her heel and bounded off in the direction of Sanders’s vehicle parked some ways away. Youthful energy indeed.
Loch laughed as Akiko was almost immediately gone again, but made no move to chase after the energetic teenager. She was sure the challenge wasn’t issued to her, and she was more content to watch father and daughter interact, besides.
RE: Summer Reins [Closed] - saronym - 04-30-2017
Sanders nodded along with the information Loch gave him about the various competition schedules. He was grateful for her understanding and willingness to work with what would likely be an off-and-on student, given the custody arrangement. “That’s good to know, Miss Loch, thank you.” Akiko in rushed excitement was already dressed and running to meet them. Sanders sarcastically grabbed his cowboy hat, clutching it down against his head as if her speed risked knocking it off. Luckily, he already had the hat pressed down when Akiko challenged him to a race.
Wordlessly and still clutching his hat, he ran after her. Though she had a slight head-start, she was at quiet a disadvantage in comparison with his long legs. Their racing had excited the pack of herd dogs laying and milling about the yard. They jumped to attention and ran along with father and daughter easily pulling ahead of the humans. A couple of the dogs looked back at them, mouths hanging open, ears flopping, as if to tease the humans for being so slow.
In a full sprint, Sanders caught up to Akiko and snatched her around the waist lifting her from the ground even as she kept trying to run. He whirled around placed her on the ground and raced off towards the truck yelling:
“Sucks to suck!”
Sanders was unconcerned whether his disruption of Akiko’s race was fair or not. He just wanted to win. He planted a hand on the door of his truck and hooted his victory before climbing into the driver’s seat. The door was hanging open and several dogs tried to climb inside with him. He was left shooing and shoving the dogs back out of the truck while he waited for the girls to catch up.
He treated both girls to lunch at his favorite restaurant in town. After having his personal life unexpectedly exposed, Sanders kept the conversation light and friendly during lunch. He bragged to Locha about Akiko’s achievements in school - something he would do to anyone who would listen. Also, he found occasion to speak more in detail about the business side of his ranch with someone who could appreciate such a topic.
On the way back to the ranch, Sanders let the windows down and blared his favorite country station. He pulled around the final corner in the winding drive leading up to the main home and felt his stomach lift into his throat. A nervous sensation caused when he spied a familiar vehicle parked in front of the house. So familiar, that the dogs hadn’t tormented the driver, but milled and laid around the yard as if nothing out of the ordinary were occurring.
His ex-girlfriend and damn near wife was waiting for them. Sanders took his time climbing down from the truck, bracing himself for interacting with a woman he still loved but who had long since left the realm of possibility for him. He waved in greeting and moved to meet her.
"Maeve. I wasn't expecting you." He greeted with his usual smile. "You weren't waiting long were you?" He pulled the woman into a comfortable hug. His hand made a few sweeps up and down, rubbing warmth and familiarity along her spine before he let go and backed away a pace.
"We were just - uh - treating Akiko's new riding instructor, Lochellen, to lunch today." He gestured to Loch by way of bringing her into the conversation.
RE: Summer Reins [Closed] - megs - 04-30-2017
Akiko’s gasp was audible from the backseat as she spotted the vehicle that was unfamiliar to her, but also the silhouette of a woman she was very familiar with. “Dad look!” She unbuckled her seat belt before the truck had stopped to lean over the center console and point at the figure out the windshield. It's Aphrodite!” The child was practically buzzing with excitement. Lochellen followed the line of Akiko’s pointing finger, though she had already seen the car and the woman standing near it. Looking over Akiko’s head and towards Sanders’ almost blank expression, she chose not to ask any questions.
The teenager was quicker out of the car than either her father or Loch. She kicked up gravel as she raced from her own open door to where Aphrodite was leaning against a red Audi. Aphrodite pushed away from the vehicle and opened her arms to accept the arrival of the over eager child, who barreled into her and wrapped clinging arms around her waist.
“Oh my gosh, look at you,” she said petting Akiko’s hair. Her gentle, accented tone was an immediate comfort to Akiko and she clung tighter. “You’ve grown so much! And in only a year! If you keep this up you’ll be as tall as your father.” Gentle hands with meticulously short manicured nails nudged Akiko away from her. Akiko laughed and pushed up her glasses before fixing the jacket that had fallen off her shoulders.
The sound of Sanders coming up behind her made Akiko step to the side. Aphrodite smiled softly as she passed her hands over her hips. Smoothing down the pleats of her skirt as a nervous gesture. Violet eyes focused on blue ones. “Oh, I should have called.” She sounded apologetic as her hands fell to her sides. They remained there for only a moment before Sanders pulled her into a hug. “But I wasn’t waiting long at all.” She let her face rest against his shoulder, closing her eyes as she hugged him back, one arm around his back and the other around his shoulders. She closed her eyes for a moment, surreptitiously enjoying being held by him. Unavoidable now, but she would certainly feel guilty about it later.
Lochellan had been even slower out of the vehicle than Sanders, sensing some tension in regards to the upcoming interaction. His girlfriend, perhaps? She followed behind him, nonetheless, stopping a bit farther back as he approached the woman. She was...very possibly the most beautiful woman that Loch had ever seen. And Loch thought very highly of herself. She looked like she had just stepped out of the pages of Better Homes and Gardens magazine from the fifties. Blonde hair was styled perfectly and help back with gleaming barrettes. There wasn't a single wrinkle in her yellow blouse, and a circle skirt decorated in summer flowers fell perfectly over her hips and dangled around her knees. She wore honest to goodness Cuban-heel stockings that Loch would bet money were being held up by garters and heel that matched perfectly, and made Lochellen feel like a mess in her riding breeches and nylon pullover. Akiko watched the way Aphrodite and her father interacted. Though, she didn’t quite understand it, there was an obvious affection between them. She had begun to notice, beginning in the last summer that she was at the ranch, that her father behaved differently towards Dite than he did other women. Or other people in general. Though, she would never admit it out loud, Akiko secretly wished that her father and Aphrodite would get together somehow, and then Dite could be her mom for real. And not just the way Akiko pretended she was. But Aphrodite had her own family and Akiko knew it was selfish to think that way.
Loch smiled when she was ushered into the conversation, professional as ever and immediately holding her hand out towards the other woman. “I’m Lochellan,”she chimed, smiling brightly. Dite took the offered hand in a friendly but firm shake.
“Aphrodite,” she returned, knowing full well that Sanders had called her Maeve, as he always had. As he’d implied he always would. “It’s lovely to meet you. I hope I wasn’t...interrupting anything? I really should have called, but I wanted to surprise Akiko.”
“I am surprised!” Akiko forced her way into that small space between Sanders and Dite and hugged the woman again. Dite laughed and loosely draped an arm around her shoulders.
“Good. Because I brought you something, and I want to hear all about your lesson.”
The instructor waved her hand in the air as if to also imply that Aphrodite hadn’t been interrupting. That wasn’t to say she had not been enjoying her time with the handsome cowboy whose availability was still being thrown into question. “I should actually be heading out,” she explained. Loch started to back up slowly, separating herself from the group and the weird tension that she was still feeling despite the smiles. “Akiko, you did wonderful and I will see you on Wednesday. And thank you both so much for lunch.”
RE: Summer Reins [Closed] - saronym - 05-12-2017
“No, it’s fine.” Sanders insisted earnestly while he embraced Maeve. “You know you are welcome here anytime.”As Loch and Maeve exchanged greetings, Sanders stood aside with one hand on Akiko’s shoulder. Her jacket was still askew and, out of a place of fatherly instinct, tugged it more squarely and smoothed it on her shoulders.
Loch was quickly saying her goodbyes and parting the group.
“Thank you for joining us,” Sanders responded courteously. She was already turning away when he jumped and trotted after her. “Wait a sec, I got your check.” He pulled his wallet from his back pocket and fished through until he found the already filled out check which had been folded over once in the middle.
He thrust it out to her with a handsome smile. “Its for the month. We’ll see you on Wednesday.”
Once the money had been given, Sanders moved to open Loch’s truck door for her. He waited for her to climb in and closed it behind her. He slapped the hood of her truck twice before lifting his hand in a wave to send her off.
He rejoined his daughter and Maeve easily linking an arm around each of their shoulders to usher them into the house.
“What a nice surprise, huh?” He jostled Akiko a little bit when he asked the question. Prompting her to thank Maeve for the visit.
RE: Summer Reins [Closed] - megs - 05-15-2017
Aphrodite was all bubbles and smiles, despite the fact that she didn’t like the situation. Well, she liked everything about the situation, save for one detail in particular: Lochellen. She had enough guesses as to why Sanders would have invited the beautiful riding instructor to join them for lunch. She wouldn’t display how it annoyed her, she couldn’t. She no longer had the right to concern herself with who Sanders was seeing. Somehow, that didn’t stop her.
Lochellen stopped and turned to face Sanders, the awkward feeling she was harboring displayed on her features. Wide hazel eyes and a crooked half-smile. “Oh!” She breathed the exclamation before trying to laugh off that she’d almost forgotten to get paid in her fleeing. Not that she couldn’t have just picked it up in a week. “Thanks,” she said, tapping the paper against the palm of her hand and continuing to back away slowly, Sanders was walking with her. Admittedly, that made her feel better. She smiled when he opened her truck door, and lifted herself inside.
Maybe, the other woman, Aphrodite, or Maeve, or whatever, wasn’t such a threat.
“See you next week,” she agreed.
Akiko and Aphrodite were talking and giggling while Sanders sent Lochellen on her way. Dite looked up and smiled at him as he approached. While he’d been going, Aphrodite had dipped back into her car to retrieve her gifts for Akiko. The child had pulled the decorative gift bag wide open and was near-shrieking in excitement as she rifled through the contents.
“Jelly babies!” The child pulled a handful of yellow packages containing bright colored candies. They were Akiko’s favorite, and Aphrodite always remembered to bring them back to the states whenever she made a trip home. There were some other gifts in the bag, but Akiko was already ripping into one of the candies to eat them. She shoved the rest of the bag under her arm as Sanders draped an arm around her shoulder.
“Of course it was a nice surprise. I love when Dite visits,” Akiko said over a mouthful of gummy sugar candy. It was as close as a thank you they’d get out of her. Aphrodite was too close to the woman to be any more formal.
Something about Sanders arm around her shoulders, was comforting. She leaned into his side a little bit. The familiarity and the easy way he touched her. She missed that. Being touched. She would never say it out loud, but she missed the way someone could touch her without having to think about it. She walked in stride with Sanders and Akiko and into the house. The house was familiar too, everything nearly the same as it had always been. There were some impressions of Akiko scattered about that made the space seem more homey.
When they were inside, Akiko broke away from her dad to take Maeve’s hand and pull the woman into the living room. The plopped down on the couch together, and Akiko offered up some of her candy. Aphrodite peered in the bag and pulled out a red candy; the only flavor that she enjoyed.
“Tell me about your lesson,” she suggested, easily promtping Akiko to launch into a fill report on her experience.
RE: Summer Reins [Closed] - saronym - 05-18-2017
Sanders’ arm tightened around Aphrodite and he mouthed ‘thank you’ to her when his daughter failed to use those exact words. He smiled affectionately down on his long-time friend, truly appreciative for the relationship she’d cultivated with Akiko. He had a sense that Akiko need positive female relationships. He couldn’t fill in that gap for her and he wondered whether she had any positivity in her relationship with Dawn at all. He suspected not.Sanders let the girls get settled in the living room. “Let me get you something to drink.” He said to Aphrodite. It wasn’t a question whether she wanted one. His parents had always taught him to insist on hosting and waiting on those who visited.
From the kitchen he could hear Akiko chattering on about her lesson. He filled a glass printed with ice and sweet tea and even garnished the rim with a lemon. Sanders brought the beverage for Aphrodite and set it on a coaster for her on the living room table. It was there if she wanted it.
“We’ll have to take you out to get some proper riding clothes, won’t we?” He asked Akiko as he sat down. He chose to sit next to Aphrodite, letting the girls be closer together. “That one pair of pants got you through the lesson, but you’ll need some more.”
Sanders reached behind Aphrodite’s back to pet at Akiko’s hair. “You two will have to spend some time together this summer,” he suggested and took his hand away to rest it casually on the couch behind Aphrodite. A thought occurred to him, “you know so long as Holland doesn’t mind.” He self-consciously reclaimed his arm, not wanting to seem too overly affectionate with the woman married to his friend. It was a too-easy habit to fall into.
“As usual, Akiko will be here through the end of the summer. Maybe we can plan something fun before she has to go back to California.” Sanders hated that there was always this artificial time limit with his daughter, but he was always determined to make the most of it.
RE: Summer Reins [Closed] - megs - 05-21-2017
Akiko had kicked off her shoes and pulled off her jacket and cuddled up on the couch next to Aphrodite as if the blonde woman were her mother. The child felt a sense of comfort and familiarity with Dite that she didn’t share with her actual mother. Dawn was completely at fault for the strained relationship, she and Akiko shared. Akiko had yet, and would probably, admit out loud the obvious air of disinterest and resentment that her mother often exuded. Akiko felt uninspired and out of place in California. Despite her good grades and good behavior she felt none of the motivation and excitement that filled her when she was in Colorado. With her father. With Aphrodite. Akiko stopped pushing candy into her mouth long enough to swallow her current mouthful and express a cheerful “yay!” She adjusted her position on the couch, not enough to pull away from Aphrodite, but enough to grin up at her father. Akiko loved shopping, and shopping for fancy riding clothes sounded like double the fun. “Can Aphrodite come?” Brown eyes flickered across both their faces as she waited for an answer. Though, it sounded like she was asking for permission, everyone knew that she was just inviting Aphrodite along for the ride, regardless of her father’s consent.
Aphrodite was aware of the way Sanders shifted simultaneously to mentioning her husband. There was an unspoken nod to the strained relationship between Holland and Sanders in that comment. Their friendship was tense, muddled with jealousy of different natures, and possibly the tiniest amount of distrust. Personally, she had been trying to lean into the man sitting next to her, also a too-easy habit. It still felt strangely natural; her desire to be close to Sanders had yet to fade after all this tie. “Holland is very busy,” she explained, the words were more bitter than she allowed them to sound. She wrapped an arm around Akiko and pulled her back against her, petting her hair. It wasn’t an untrue statement. Ever since Holland had all but kicked her off the research project they had been supervising together, he’d taken on double the workload, and Dite had suddenly found herself with very little to do.
“I don’t think he would mind.” He would, but not because she would be spending time with Akiko. “But I will talk to him.” This she said for Sanders’ benefit. Though she was loathe to sound as if she would have to ask permission.
Akiko had gone almost suspiciously quiet, nestled against Aphrodite, upon the mention of her scheduled stay in Colorado. Thoughtful gears were obviously turning in her pretty little head as she resumed eating piece after piece of candy.
Dite squeezed the girl's shoulder. “I’m sure can think of a few fun things to do while she’s here,” she teased, smiling down at her.
Akiko grinned in return. She pulled away from Aphrodite and dropped the remainder of the candy into the gift bag. She gathered it up in her hands and hopped off the couch. “I’ll be right back,” she announced, picking her shoes up from the floor and scurrying off and up the stairs towards her room without much of an explanation, leaving the two adults alone.
“I can’t believe it’s only been a year,” Dite expressed with a chuckle. “She’s growing so fast.”
RE: Summer Reins [Closed] - saronym - 05-27-2017
Something like vowel sounds were caught in Sanders’ throat upon Akiko’s sudden announcement and exit from the room. Something like a ‘u’ sound that wasn’t fully enunciated. He shrugged and shook his head in amusement and disbelief. Each year his daughter came back to his home she’d changed so much. He was left feeling as if he were running to catch up to all of the developments. This year she seemed so much more grown than he’d remembered. More independent. Sure, they spent plenty of time together, but she was also content to guide her own activities. It was interesting to him to watch the blossoming of her personality. And here she was, something suddenly struck her that she needed to do and Aphrodite being there to visit her wouldn’t stop this most important task.
It baffled him.
“Yeah, she is.” He agreed with Dite wistfully and scrubbed his hand almost wearily over his face. “I feel like I’ve missed so much. She’s so different every year.” He gestured like he was searching for the right words. “She’s not different different, you know? She’s herself. But...just...maturing. It’s wild.”
He smiled sadly at her. Surely she would understand what he meant. Like him, she only got to see Akiko about once a year or so.
His cell phone was ringing in his pocket. Sanders shifted around to pull the device out and frowned in confusion at the name of the caller. Turning the phone screen towards her so that she could see that ‘Dawn’ was calling him. “Again?” He complained rolling his eyes. “Guess I forgot to inform her nobody died or broke limbs at riding practice today.”
Sanders knew though that he couldn’t afford to miss a call from Dawn. “‘scuse me just a second.” He said to Aphrodite, putting a hand on her knee in apology as he answered the call.
It was an unhappy call. A very unhappy one. Dawn was laying into him even before he could say hello. A worried frown crossed his face, he glanced at Aphrodite and pushed himself quickly from the couch. He wasn’t sure he wanted her to overhear the conversation.
“She what - ?!” he faltered, “Dawn, slow down. I didn’t -”
He crossed the room and pulled open the sliding glass door to excuse himself onto the deck. Even before he could close the door behind him, he was yelling back. “No, I didn’t tell her that! You know what I don’t appreciate - You can’t just speak to me like that - I -” He could barely get a word in edgewise.
Sanders disappeared outside and paced back and forth on the far end of the deck while he argued with Akiko’s mother. When the conversation was over, he shoved the phone into his pocket and leaned heavily against the deck’s railing on his forearms. His head hung down as he stared at the grass below. After a while of this thoughtful pose, Sanders straightened himself up. He walked back to the house with a straight backed resolve.
He shoved open the door and stepped inside, “Well…” he stood somewhat self-consciously in front of the glass. “Looks like...Akiko told her mother she wants to live here full time now. So…”
He shrugged and wiped his hands on the front of his jeans. “Guess I gotta get her enrolled in school here? Get her shot records and transcripts transferred. Get her things moved over. Set up a real room for her.”
RE: Summer Reins [Closed] - megs - 05-29-2017
Aphrodite glanced down at the phone. The name on the screen instantly pushed a lump into her throat. She swallowed hard and looked back up at Sanders’, shrugging her shoulders. She intentionally resisted eavesdropping on the conversation when he answered sitting next to her, attuning her attention to the sound of Akiko’s video games upstairs.She had never heard Dawn’s voice before, she didn’t know her face. She had never known the woman as anything more than a Sanders' brief fling, and Akiko’s mother. She watched Sanders pace across the deck and she clenched her trembling hand into a fist. She was familiar with this feeling. This was jealousy. She was jealous. She was a weak and petty woman who had given something up and was mad that someone else had touched it.
Of all the things she had shared with Sanders’, and everything they’d almost had, Dawn had given him the one thing she couldn't ever and she squandered it.
Aphrodite took little comfort in knowing that it wasn’t just Sanders who made her feel this way. She was jealous of eager, young lab technicians who smiled at her husband too brightly, and of Julianna and her bouncing baby boy. She didn’t know when she’d become this insecure version of herself.
Sanders came back inside and Aphrodite stood to move closer to him. He looked a little shell-shocked, as if for moment someone had stolen all the air from him. She cocked her head at the way he was postured in front of the glass. This self-conscious air was unusual for him, but she waited for him to explain himself.
“That’s wonderful,” she sighed without missing a beat. He was clearly nervous about the idea, but her lips pulled back into a smile. “I mean--just--wow. That’s fantastic.” She closed the distance between them to hug him. There was something selfish in the embrace that she refused to acknowledge.
“Luckily you have the rest of the summer to figure out the details. I'll help, if you need me, of course. Do you want me to head out so you can talk to her?”
RE: Summer Reins [Closed] - saronym - 06-09-2017
Sanders folded his arms around Aphrodite as she embraced him. As always, a hand on her back rubbed his affection for her into her spine. An act he probably shouldn’t have done, but it was one he had never given up after their break-up. “Yeah, it is really great.” He sighed against her hair with the scent of her shampoo all around. When she pulled away, he shrugged dramatically an action that made his hands slap against his jeans covered thighs. He rubbed out palms that felt slightly sweaty against the worn fabric. “I don’t mind you staying.” He said somewhat noncommittally.
Part of him entertained a little fantasy, an alternate reality, a dream, in which Aphrodite and he parented Akiko together. The three of them could be a family. It was wrong. She had her own husband and daughter. He had no right to ask her to stay or take part in any of it. He especially had no right given his secret daydreams that happened when he Aphrodite and Akiko together and pretended they were mother and daughter. His girls.
“Akiko trusts you. It might be nice to have a positive female role model around. You know, since she is kind of...rejecting her mother. For lack of a better description.” He scratched at the back of his neck looking somewhat struck by that realization. That his daughter had essentially rejected her mother for him. He wondered what pain lay beneath that decision. He couldn’t fathom any other possibility than Dawn having hurt her. And that infuriated him.
“Up to you.” He said at last with a half-smile. “I can handle it myself too.” He reached for her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “But, you know, I just - you’ve been there for us, a lot.” He was wavering. He needed her to choose for him.
RE: Summer Reins [Closed] - megs - 06-24-2017
“I think I’ll go.” Aphrodite knew that Sanders was forcing her to make the decision, because he couldn’t. She didn’t know about the fantasy that he entertained, but she knew that he wanted her around, and not simply because he felt that Akiko needed a role model. She knew she needed to make the right decision for the both of them. “I’ll be back of course, but I think this is a conversation you two should have privately.” Pushing hair behind her ear, she smiled softly at him. “I think this is a really good thing.” Dite didn’t know how much Sanders knew about Akiko’s strained relationship with her mother. She knew a few details from the emails they exchanged while Akiko was away in California, but there was something reserved about the young girl. She never said too much. Only ever just enough.
She pulled Sanders into another hug, because she could get away with it. Sometimes, she was selfish like that. “Let Akiko know I’ll talk to her later,” she said against his shoulder before pulling away again. She let Sanders walk her out.
Akiko, meanwhile, was upstairs, waiting for the fallout of her decision to reach her. She was huddled up in her room, in a fort she had made with her sheets and blankets and pillows. Her attention was focused on the brightly colored game on her TV. The Legend of Zelda, one of her favorites, and one she always reverted back to when she was freaking out about something. She had headphones on, some weird eclectic power pop song was playing loudly from an MP3 player. The child was clearly determined to avoid the possibility of confrontation as long as possible.
RE: Summer Reins [Closed] - saronym - 06-27-2017
“Okay.” He nodded agreeing with a resignation knowing that she was making the proper choice. Not the choice he would have made but the proper one. Just another quality that he loved about her. “You’re probably right. I need to talk to her myself.” “I think it’s good too,” he added behind her affirmation of his daughter’s choice. “It’s just a bit scary, you know?” He looked down at his feet to get his eyes away from her feeling a welling of some emotion he didn’t want to put on display. It was dawning on him slowly that Akiko was there to stay. That he would be raising her from now on. Making all the decisions about her upbringing by himself.
He wrapped his arms around the blonde glad for one last embrace. “Thank you, Maeve. For coming over, bringing the gift. For everything.” He walked her to the door and stood a silhouette on the threshold watching over Mavee protectively as she got into her car. He waved her off before he closed the door and turned the lock.
He mounted the stairs with anxious anticipation in his gut nervous for what the conversation with Akiko would hold. Sanders knocked tentatively on her door, “Akiko? May I come in?” He didn’t hear a response and figured she had her headphones on so he poked his head inside to confirm. Indeed she was in a hidey hole of sorts made from her blankets and pillows with her attention focused on the screen that glowed in front of her.
Sanders crawled into the fort cautious not to disrupt what she had made. He lay on his belly next to where she sat, elbows rested on the bed and his fists under his chin. “Are you winning?” He asked uncomprehending of the action that played out on the screen.
“I got a call from your mother.” This prompt came as an incidental aside so as to not sound confrontational. “She said that you want to try out living here?” He offered up the situation as a possibility, a trial, in case she would later change her mind. He didn’t want her to think that the decision needed to be permanent if she didn’t want it to be.
RE: Summer Reins [Closed] - megs - 07-23-2017
Akiko didn’t look up from her game when Sanders opened her door. She had known it would only be a matter of time until he would come up to her room to talk to her about what she had said to her mother. When she had told Dawn that she wanted to live with her dad, she had hung up on her daughter to, Akiko assumed, give her father what for. Akiko had chosen Zelda and headphones over eavesdropping on the conversation. A nervousness fluttered in her stomach when he joined her on the bed. She quickly scanned the doorway, half-expecting Aphrodite to have come with him. It seems that wasn’t the case, so she slowly pulled off her headphones and let them dangle around her neck.
“Yes.” It was a fair enough answer, because she wasn’t exactly losing and she didn’t want to take the time to explain the game didn’t quite work that way. She had beat several bosses and was making good progress, and that was winning enough.
Akiko didn’t pause the game when he mentioned the call from her mom. It was a welcome distraction to not have to look at him. She was worried about what he would say. That he would turn her down, or send her back home when the summer was over. “I want to live here,” she corrected, noting the timid way he broached the subject. “I don’t want to go back to California.” Finally, she paused the game and looked down at her father. “I want to stay here. With you.”
RE: Summer Reins [Closed] - saronym - 08-03-2017
Sanders affectionately petted his daughter’s hair while she played. He gathered it together behind her back and smoothed it down until she paused and turned to look at him. While he was happy to hear that his daughter wanted to come live with him full time, he was simultaneously worried that something bad was happening to her in her other home that prompted the change. “Of course you can stay with me sweet heart.”
He kept his voice gentle given the sensitive discussion. His senses told him Akiko was on edge as much as he was.
“Is … uh …” He searched for the right words but opted for the simplest most direct question. “Is everything okay between you and your mother? Is there anything you want to tell me?” He reached for her hair again trying to offer comforting touch. “You can tell me anything. Okay? And it can stay between just the two of us if you want.”