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 Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2017 11:42 pm
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Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2017 11:43 pm
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 Happy Birthday, Annie.
The first year we met, you gave me a journal. Never wrote much in it, but thought I could return the favor.
You said that journals were good for catharsis. Did we ever learn what that word meant?
Hope you do this year.
I'll always be there for you.
- J
***
Hi Journal. This is Annie. I suck at keeping journals but let's embark on this quest together just one more time. If I keep sucking at it, it will be time to put the journals down and look for something else . . .
But for right now . . . I need you, Journal. I will have you know I am a pretty happy person and that means I love celebrating but there is one thing I don't celebrate enough . . .
And that's acknowledging when things are not so good.
So, Journal, before we start, let's celebrate why I am cracking you open today:
- He is dead or gone and I have to stop searching for him in the news and obituaries . . .
- I was just released from the hospital after staying for two days due to . . .
- I came home to an empty house and a voicemail with more bad news from my father . . .
- My husband is as sick as ever and is in another hold . . .
- Weren't things getting better? I can't fix everything.
Oh, and: Happy Birthday to me.
This is the life you have been adopted into, dear Journal . . . A life full of hard things. And life has been its hardest yet for me this year, Journal. But after this, I am using you for the little joys in life. A friend of mine told me about this project that people liked to do where they wrote one sentence down on a scrap of paper everyday and put them in a jar for the end of the year . . .
But I am talkative and a sentence won't do, so this is where you come in.
I hope I can tell you some good stories. Something to help you and I have a laugh or two when we need it. And someone else too, if we ever show them all of your pages once it's all filled up and you've grown up into something whole.
That's my first of many little hopes this year.
I think we can do it.
For now . . . Good night, Journal.
- A
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Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2017 1:06 pm
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 The Great Evil likes to linger. It is like a shadow, looming and lurching, stretching behind you, hiding from brightness. It is terrible, and scary, and hard to see. It pervades and stains everything it comes upon. It is incessant, mean, and sly.
The Great Evil began, at first, as Hate. Long ago, when the Witches and Wizards had lived in the Between Place, Hate did not exist. There was no need to make a Potion for it, after all. But little did the Empresses know, the magic they had long thought gone grew twisted in the hearts of their subjects. Magic, unused, felt neglected and jealous of the children now flourishing in its place.
Wanting to be known again, the Great Evil grew to be the immense thing that it is. But, at first, everyone demeaned it was a petulant and weak thing.
Eager to show the world what power it had, the Great Evil cast itself as a grey sickness over the subjects of the Earth. All suffered: the animals, the adults, and the children. The Empresses could find no remedy.
Then, one day, the Empress of Sky grew very sick. Only the Sky Empress knew that the Great Evil was responsible for this doing, for she was always curious and observing new wonders. The lands of Earth and Sea demeaned such an idea. After all, they only knew the Great Evil as Hate. Nothing so petulant could destroy their precious earth.
Among the few to believe the Empress of Sky was young Prince Aina. She had not yet grown sick, protected by her mother’s love, but she watched in her young days as the Empress withered away to malady.
If only the lands of Earth and Sea knew, she thought. If they knew what they faced, together, we could show the Great Evil who is truly greater.
Prince Aina, the brave Sky Prince, knew what she had to do.
With her steed and a small raft, the Sky Prince bid a silent good-bye to her ailing mother and worried father. So protected was she from the world below that the Sky Prince did not know what was to come as she made her plunge down below.
But, armed with her wisdom and courage, the Sky Prince stepped into the rest of the World for the first time with a naive and bold confidence.
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Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2017 3:18 pm
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 Previously ▪ Annie’s books sat in a corner of his bookshelf, nearest to his desk. They were crafted with cardboard and office paper, makeshift creations with no titles and acrylic paint binding it together. Many of the stories were about their home’s many tenants and the lives Annie had pretended they had; some were about music; others were about places.
There was only one that she had written about her family. She had created it with her mother so long ago.
Duncan reached for the cardboard book from his shelf, wiping it of dust. The cover was blank, a simple sky blue, but one look inside it and he knew it was the correct one; it was the tale of Prince Aina, his granddaughter’s namesake.
Duncan wasn’t quite sure what had inspired him to find the book on a random day in May. Perhaps, he thought, it was seeing Millie again, the youth preserved in her reminding him of his wife as she worked on the books with their daughter.
Perhaps, too, it was because he hadn’t seen mama on Aina’s list of happinesses, and he couldn’t bear to see her forgotten.
▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
Things had happened in a whirlwind for Annie Clarke in the span of a year. She moved out of her studio, she was helping a good friend from high school start her dream bookstore, she had started making music again and, oh, she now had a husband and a little brother. Marriage was not the wistful and romantic thing Annie had read about in novels or seen in movies, but that was just as well. The hard work, she knew, was better for her spirits than just sitting pretty - she invited the rapid changes of living with her boys with eagerness. The hurdles that came with it she found ways to conquer.
The only thing she couldn’t seem to manage to do was convince her father that it was all a good idea. The Clarkes were notorious for injecting themselves into the lives of the unsuspecting with a fervid desire to Do Good, and her father had done the same for Johan as soon as he stepped foot in his classroom, but accepting Mordekai into his heart as a son-in-law was another matter entirely. It was partially because the marriage had happened so fast - in the span of less than a year of knowing each other, no less, but Annie reminded him how quickly he had fallen for her mother.
It was also partially because Mordekai seemed to suffer from foibles Duncan disdained most in a person. His absenteeism from family gatherings, for one, and his tendency for conflict with his little brother, who Duncan had already cared for as a son was another. But, ever so patient as Duncan was, he respected Annie’s choice and was as polite and accommodating as he could be for the older Kantor. Annie and Duncan had just begun repairing their relationship after years of silence, and Duncan wanted nothing more than to keep at it.
Without so much as a moment’s worth of hesitation, Duncan had agreed to let Annie and the boys stay in his home that was much too large for one person to occupy alone.
Duncan sighed worriedly as he began unpacking the last of Annie’s things from a cluster of cardboard boxes now living in his foyer. “Really, Annie,” he murmured, “It would have spared you some time in the end if you had labelled these.”
“Sorry, we were in a hurry. I just need to find our clothes…” Annie sat beside him, unboxing and unwrapping the tape off of her boxes at a calm pace. “The boys’ll move all this out of the way once they’re home.”
“I can’t imagine most of this is theirs,” Duncan retorted, and the two of them laughed - it was no secret that Annie had too many things to name.
“Yep, I think the boys have, like, three boxes between them both? The rest is all me,” she admit. After finding a box of jewelry, she leaned her elbow against a large box, grinning curiously at her father. “You know. I think I got my hoarding problem from Mom.”
“Undoubtedly.” Cerise’s things had lived in several places over the past few years since she passed, shuffling between the master’s bedroom and the garage depending on if there was a tenant. Duncan recalled the dusty collection of items he kept out of sentimentality - in secret, he knew Annie had inherited the bad habit from both of her parents. “Oh! Look at this,” he smiled, splaying open a box lid to unveil a small shelf load of boxes.
“Oh, yeah! All of my old books,” she said, craning her neck and leaning forward to see. She was exhausted from a day’s worth of moving, but she summoned the will to stand from her chair to kneel beside her father. Some of the boxes had been packed long ago, living as a singular item from apartment to apartment until now. Annie pulled out a crinkly looking book near the top of the pile and cleaned off some of the dust with her palm. “Damn. I wish I was as productive as I was when I was a kid. Maybe I wouldn’t have flunked out of college, right?”
Duncan glanced over Annie’s shoulder at the book in question - the cover was blank, a simple sky blue, undecipherable by any other means but its color being distinguishable from the rest of the pile. “The Sky Prince. Your favorite alias,” Duncan smiled, watching as Annie peeled open the makeshift book. “Prince Aina of the Clouds, as it were?”
“Right,” Annie answered, smoothing her fingers over the introductory page. The book itself was pristine from spending so many of its days in the shadows, and near the top of the printer said The Sky Prince - by Annie Clarke and Cerise Clarke. The handwriting was undeniably her mother’s. “How many days of pretend did I drag you and Mom into with that one?” Annie asked, flipping slowly through the pages.
“You make it sound like a chore. We loved it,” Duncan chuckled, sitting on the floor beside her while he skimmed through each page that Annie explored. His smile grew wistful as the last half of pages drew blanks, marked only by a few occasional splotches of paint. “You never did finish this book.”
“Yeah… I started working on it with Mom. Figured I shouldn’t finish it without her.” Annie lingered on the last page of the book before snapping it closed. With another breath, she tossed the book back in its box so carelessly that it made Duncan startle. As Annie moved the box hastily away from the top of the pile, she ripped the tape eagerly off of the next package, pulling out a flannel with both her hands. “Haha! Found it. Check out how much flannel these two wear,” she announced, the shirt obscuring her from Duncan. When silence followed, she rested the flannel on her lap, frowning as she saw her father pull the box of books closer to him.
“Dad.” Annie folded the flannel back up, sitting cross-legged as she watched Duncan find the sky blue book again. A twang of guilt made her heart flutter - she wished she wasn’t so reckless.
“I always say I can’t speak for your mother,” Duncan said, quietly, staring at the book. “But I’m sure she would have wanted you to finish it.”
“Aw, Dad,” Annie sighed, putting a careful hand on her father’s shoulder. “I would if I could, but I don’t have the time. Between the Ladybird and moving, you know? I don’t know how I went from house sitting and smoking weed all the time to this.” Annie made some attempt to laugh, but it fell flat, and she tucked some hair behind her ears as she glanced to the edge of the foyer. “Not that I don’t love it.”
“You were always so good at writing, Annie. You should pursue it when you have some free time,” Duncan urged, resting his hand on top of her’s. Annie kept her eyes on the entrance door, and she laughed quietly, fingers curling against Duncan’s shoulder.
“Let’s be honest, I was good at writing because you and Mom held my hand the whole time.” She turned back to the box of clothes, but the feeling of victory of having found it had dimmed a little. Still, she pulled out the flannel she had earlier, folding it carefully to keep her hands from idling.
“But it was you with the ideas.” Duncan held the book out to Annie, and Annie grimaced, smoothing her hands over the flannel.
“Thanks, Dad. Maybe one day.” Gingerly, she pushed the book back to her father, but he kept holding it there. With a deep breath, she stood, rifling through the remaining boxes - there was still enough work to do to last the whole evening. “Okay, I found the boys’ clothes… the only other thing I need to find are, y’know, mine.”
Annie ripped another ream of tape off of a moderately sized box, then glanced at her father, who was still quiet, his expression soft as he admired the book. With a small smile, Annie knelt in front of him, her hands on the top of the book as she summoned his attention.
“Dad. You wanna keep those for me? It’d help me with some of this clutter,” she said, softly, as her father’s soft grey eyes met her’s. “I didn’t mean to shoot you down. I’m sorry.”
“These are yours, Annie,” Duncan digressed, smiling despite himself. Annie broke into a grin.
“It’s not that I don’t want them, but they make you happy! I’m giving it to you as a gift, then,” Annie replied. “And If I am going to write again, it’s not gonna be that stuff… I think it’d make me too sad. But if someone else can enjoy them, that’s great. Right?”
Duncan held in a breath, nodded, and carefully placed the book beside him. “Thank you,” he said, as he held his knees and slowly came to a stand. “I’m sorry, I should be helping you with these boxes…”
“Don’t worry about it! We’ve got all day.” Annie held her hand out to her father, and he took it, which made standing much easier. “I’m really hoping you don’t find my lingerie,” she digressed, humming as she opened another box for them both.
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Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2017 3:25 pm
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 Vesna and Aina do right by their promised birthday celebrations. They go to Thistle Do Nicely and meet up with Eden and Ian!
▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
After her first few days of school, Aina was looking forward to celebrating her birthday with Vesna and one of her friends, Eden, at her father’s flower store in Barton. She promised her grandfather repeatedly that she would go straight to her uncle’s university campus after all the fun was done and, entrusted with his trust and an overwhelming, exciting sense of freedom in walking through downtown Barton herself, she headed to the meeting spot her and Vesna had agreed on to start the day. It was a small stationary store named Noteworthy, covered from wall to wall with a variety of papers, pens, and stickers – as badly as she wanted to go inside immediately, Aina waited for Vesna at the entrance.
For the start of school, Duncan had given Aina an ancient iPhone he had kept from a while go for her to use. She had installed a few small games onto the device, and she hoped more than anything that Vesna could help her with making a fabled Instagram account. Slowly navigating her way through the contacts list, she found Vesna’s number in her list and dialed it, pressing the phone to her ear as she glanced around the area. She hummed while she waited, flowing low and sitting against one of the walls of the stationary store.
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Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2017 11:49 pm
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 (Link TBA!) Anita and Mordekai take Cruz and Aina to the much-praised restaurant Ambrosia. They are fortunate enough to meet Phoenix and his daughters along the way!
▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
Ambrosia is settling down slightly post-rush. The restaurant is bustling with the noise of families gathered for a hot meal amidst the cool autumn air outside. Music plays over the speakers, loud enough to make out but not enough to drown out conversation. An upbeat hostess waits at the front, seeing guests to their seats. The same friendly energy can be seen in each server bouncing between tables. It’s a comfortable atmosphere, the calming blues of the interior adorned with mementos from generations of the Argyris family brought straight from Greece.
Phoenix: -brushing stray hairs from his face, a subtle insight into the rush that had caught Ambrosia so off guard, emerges from the kitchen- -unties the apron around his waist, throwing it over his shoulder and approaching a booth in the far corner of the restaurant that currently seats two: Zoe and Shoshana- “You girls ready to head home?”
Zoe: -looks up from the kid’s menu she’s coloring quite neatly- “I’m ready. Can we get some food? We worked up an appetite helping Miranda.” -collects the crayons to put in her pocket, then folds up the paper to take home as well-
Shoshana: -is sipping at a glass of water, one of many she’s downed in the couple of hours they’ve been there- “I am ready too. Your friends here, they are very nice! Can we come back again?”
Phoenix: -chuckles and holds out both hands to help them out of the booth simultaneously- “I don’t see why not. Zoe comes in with me a lot when she’s not in school.” -glances around at the simmering down restaurant and sighs- “Maybe not when it’s as busy as it was earlier though, next time.”
Shoshana: -smiles sheepishly, taking Phoenix’s hand and floating out of the booth- “Next time I will help. Not bother.” -lets go of Phoenix’s hand to grab a hold of Zoe’s, then leads the family towards the front of the restaurant- -is unable to help herself and looks at every table they pass, smiling openly at everyone-
As the family is heading for the doors, they open to a group of four entering - two of which have a very familiar lower half. Two pairs, hand in hand, human with human and raevan with raevan.
Anita: -gives the interior a once over as they get inside and nudges Mordekai’s arm- “I was not expecting one of his recommendations to look classy.”
Cruz: -swings his arm with Aina’s gently, a pleasant and curious rumble in his throat to be out of the brisk autumn wind-
Mordekai: -he glances up at the ceiling, smiling curiously; he laughs at Anita’s comment, looking back at her- “We gotta check under the table. Make sure he ain’t gonna pop out.” -leans forward a bit to talk to the Raevans- “Whatcha think, guys? Nice, huh?”
Aina: -unlike Cruz, Aina is a bit unnerved to be out of the nice autumn breeze; clinging to him quite tightly as they enter Ambrosia, a bit nervous about how many crowded it is in the building- “Lotsa people…” -smiles guardedly at her papa, but nods nonetheless, taking in the rest of the decor- “Everything is really really blue…” -perks up a bit- “I like it.”
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Posted: Sun Apr 09, 2017 12:52 am
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 It’s Apples ▪ In a similar line, but altogether more positively, Australian and New Zealand English include the slang reassurance she’s apples or it’s apples – i.e. everything is, or will be, fine.
Aina and family are out on the town in celebration of the holiday like so many others. There's decorations galore, good smells, even better sights, and everything festive from creepy to cute and back again. There's so much to see and do, it seems impossible that any one Frei could get it all done in one night. Aina is sure to try though! However, in the midst of all the revelry she ends up getting separated from her papa and grandpa! What's a little Frei to do, especially when the crowd seems intent on pushing her through the doors of the night's prized gem - the haunted house?
▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
Last year, when Aina was trick or treating, there was a man with a chainsaw that chased after her and papa in the middle of the night. She was scared for her life, but papa was laughing, trying to explain what the man had been doing after the Frei stopped screaming. Papa said that the man was advertising a haunted house, a place where folks went to be scared on purpose. While places to go were all well and good, and adventures themselves were scary sometimes, Aina disavowed places meaning to be scary as the dumbest thing in the world. If Cruz and her didn’t see any haunted houses during her first ever Halloween, which was the best, it meant they weren’t a really important part of Halloween anyway.
Knowing that, Aina forever and ever dismissed haunted houses for the rest of her life. The Frei was more than willing to give trick or treating another chance, of course, and this time she had hoped to bring some school friends with her through her circuit through Barton. A few days before Halloween proper, though, Barton was holding its first annual Samhain festival in the downtown area. The fare stretched out for several streets, and Stephen had invited the Clarke-Kantors out to the festival for free to visit the Hartline booth. It was rare that Aina got to visit a Hartline booth when papa wasn’t working, and the whole family was eager to go - nonc Johan had even agreed to meet them there, especially with Auntie’s flat being so close.
A few fairgoers were wearing costumes, and Aina envied them all, wishing hers was completed before they had arrived to the festival - but it was a project she was working on with Auntie, and she knew the outcome would be well worth the wait on Halloween day. Some were witches, others were werewolves, fairies, and the like, and a few costumed folk were even selling wares at the festival’s various booths. There were lots of oddities to enjoy here, and for a change in pace, most of it didn’t seem to be food, which Aina was grateful for; even if she couldn’t eat proper human food quite yet, the sight of them always made her hungry.
They were near the very front of the festival when Aina crossed paths with the first interesting booth of the day - a booth covered from head to toe with precious stones and gems, sparkling and near-glowing in the evening sun. The Frei held a small coral stone in her hands and held it out for her guardians to see, smiling. “Look! It’s pomegranate colored,” she said, and Duncan leaned forward to see it a little closer, adjusting his glasses.
“It is! Let’s put that back, now,” Duncan encouraged, patting Aina’s head as the Frei diligently returned the coral gem to the table. Mordekai spun around where he was, trying to make sense of their surroundings - the vendors and pedestrians were so tightly packed together that the map in his hand proved useless.
“Stephen said Hartline’s near the rides? And I’m not seein’ any rides.” A small horde of people screaming and sprinting away from a house startled Mordekai in his place, and he held his arms up to them as they fled a Victorian-style house illuminated in chartreuse. “Well, least we found the haunted house,” Mordekai laughed, giving off a tired sigh as he referenced his map again - Aina let out a small scream, hiding behind Duncan on instinct.
“I don’t wanna!”
“Don’t worry, Aina, you won’t have to go in,” Duncan assured, twisting around to try and see the young Frei. Aina looked up at Duncan with a severe look of hurt, and he smiled sympathetically, holding out a hand for her to take. “No need to fret.”
“I think I found where we gotta go,” Mordekai said, patting Duncan on the back as he wormed his way across the booths to a crossing up ahead. Duncan followed, Aina grabbing ahold of his hand, as they pressed on through the thick crowd in an attempt to follow after Mordekai. Aina was never fond of crowds - as small as she was, she was always shoulder to shoulder with other children or bumping into adults’ legs, and none of them seemed to hear her as she apologized.
“Where are we goin’?” Aina asked, trying to keep a firm grip on her grandfather’s hands as they approached the edge of the sidewalk. She squeezed her eyes shut and bundled her arms together as a group of adults knocked her over. She let out a small scream and gasp when she felt her hand let go of her grandfather, and when she opened her eyes, he was all but gone.
She felt her breath growing short as she stared frantically around the crowd from the trash-filled street of the Samhain festival.A Aina floated up as high as she could, and in her periphery, she saw a tall blond enter a dark house with chartreuse lights. Without thinking, Aina began chasing after him.
“Papa!” she yelled, squeezing in past wandering bodies as quickly as she could. “Papa!”
She didn’t know why grandpa and papa would enter the haunted house - grandpa had promised her they wouldn’t.
The only reason she could think of was that they were trying to find her.
“Grandpa! Papa! Don’t go in there! I'm--”
It was too late.
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Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2017 11:02 pm
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 There was somebody dressed in a black cloak with a skeleton mask at the front of the haunted house who stared as skeptically at Aina as they could with a mask on. Aina insisted that she had to go in, and when asked why, she clammed up and wasn’t able to explain - but a group of strangers eagerly took her into their fold, insuring her that all was well and that they would chaperone her for the time being. Aina strayed near the tail of the group as she followed the cadre of giggling adults through the dark and narrow hall of the haunted house, feeling the chill on her back as haunting colors of purple and green illuminated the cobwebs above her.
Aina hugged her backpack close, fidgeting and nervous. She felt her eyes sting with tears, and she shut them closed - she had to steel through the haunted house for her folks.
The Frei managed to float a few feet before she bumped into something.
Screaming, Aina reared back, staring wide-eyed at the floating skeleton that was originally on the ground. Frozen and trying to catch her breath, Aina began crying, sinking low to the floor as she hugged her bag for comfort.
While the sound of a child screaming didn’t sound out of place, it also didn’t sound artificial, and a man from the group previous approached Aina and knelt beside her. “Pardon,” he glanced at the floating skeleton “Did you lose your way?”
Unbeknownst to Aina, the other props nearby also began floating, a product of her emotions going awry - it riled the attention of a few bystanders, who were uncertain of what to do with a crying and stranded child. When Samael came to her aid, the group eased, moving on and choosing not to linger for long. The Frei, clearly shaken, continued clinging to her bag and weeping - at the strange voice’s question, she shook her head despite, sinking to the ground even lower than she was before. Her voice was strained, and she had a difficult time controlling her crying.
Samael quirked his brows at the answer, and at the bystanders who chose not to act, and spoke in the same even tone as before. “You’re not hurt.” He gave her a quick glance over - and, without looking away from Aina, he pushed away the face of the floating skeleton calmly, and it floated toward the opposite wall and away from her. He held out a handkerchief from his inner coat pocket. “Here. Would you like help reaching the exit?”
With the reduced density of the skeleton, it quickly cracked upon impact with the wall, its stray pieces and a few bones rebounding and floating lazily back out into the main hall of the haunted house. Aina didn’t seem to notice the skeleton move away, let alone the handkerchief offered by the man in front of her. Clinging to her bag, she shook her head firmly at Samael’s offer of help. “Mm-mm… I gotta find grandpa an’ papa,” still weeping, she hung her head lower. “They got really lost ‘cause fo me…”
Samael glanced at the skeleton and watched it dissipate. “So you were separated…” He pulled the handkerchief away from the Frei, resting his arm against his knee as he knelt. “I’m alone in here, myself. I could use a partner to get through, if you’ll let me.” His shoulder got bumped by a small group as it wove around them, and the traffic around them seemed to gather in the thin hall the more the two lingered there. Aina tried to collect herself, wiping at her eyes with her sleeves - but her tears were rolling off in little droplets, floating around the two.
“But I gotta find ‘em…” Aina retorted, her tone still weepy as she struggled to stay strong; a few spiderwebs, cauldrons, and ghosts followed the skeleton in its floating.
“You will,” Samael said - before he had time to say much else, a stranger screamed from a distance, startling Aina in the process. He closed his eyes a moment and sighed, then placed a hand on the Raevan’s shoulder to get her attention. “It is scary, isn’t it? But you’re brave. You’re in here all by yourself to find them,” he spoke between her sobbing, hoping she could hear him better, “They need you to find them just as much and I’ll gladly help you do it-- but you can’t find them if you stay right here, now can you?”
Despite Aina wailing into her sleeves, the Frei seemed to catch a few of his words, and her tears began to wane as Samael addressed her. She nodded slowly at first, then quickly, her enthusiasm reflected in the motion of her wings as her rune pulsed into action. “I’m scared… this house is really big,” she admit, still collecting her bravery as she rubbed her eyes, taking in a few shallow breaths meanwhile. Another bundle of stray tears left her, floating around her in a small halo.
Samael nodded once when the Frei seemed more sure of her answer. “It is big, but there are a lot of people here just like you. You’re not alone,” he said, holding his hand out in front of her patiently. “So, shall we find your family?”
Aina managed to steady herself a bit, just enough to look wearily up at Samael, bleary and flustered. She nodded, meekly extending her hand out for Samael to hold. “D’you, um…” she rubbed her eyes one last time, then stared shyly at the ground. “D’you know where my family is?
Samael took her hand loosely in his and stood, gently raising his arms to coax her with him. ”They can’t have gone far. If we don’t come across them in one of these rooms, then I’m sure they’re just outside looking for you.” He gave Aina a single reassuring nod. “Would you like to tell me about them while we walk?”
“Mm…” Aina listened to Samael’s words carefully, and as hesitant as she was, she kept her eyes to the ground, trusting the man’s judgment of where they were walking - the two had left a mess of haunted house debris and tears floating behind them. In an attempt to dull some of the sounds surrounding her, she pressed one sleeve to her ear. Sniffing, she thought a bit about her family before she answered Samael. “I dunno… I dunno what to tell you ‘bout my grandpa and papa,” she said, truthfully, pushing her hood up around her head to try and avoid looking at the remainder of the house. She looked up at Samael for comfort.
“Are you lookin’ for someone too?” she asked instead. Samael looked back at Aina at the question, quiet for a moment, before looking ahead again.
“I suppose I am,” he said. A few folks behind them were audibly perplexed by the scattered debris behind them, assuming it was a strange and bothersome addition to the haunted house. “It might help to think of ways your family makes you feel safe. Anything they do or say that calms you,” he digressed, glancing at Aina. “Then it feels like you’re closer to them. Things aren’t so scary.”
She cast her glance back down as they wandered forth, not paying any mind to the debris and objects floating near them due to her nerves - her grip on Samael’s hand grew a little tighter at his answer. Feeling a bit braver now that she knew Samael was looking for someone, too, Aina pressed her lips together tightly, thinking on Samael’s words. “Okay… but, um…” she looked up at Samael, a bit too shy to say anything at first. “Who are you lookin’ for?”
Samael glanced at Aina when she first responded. When Aina managed her question, he looked at her more fully, a slight delay in his answer as he processed he words. “A very dear friend,” he replied, giving her a small half smile.
Aina turned back to the ground, smiling along with him. “I can help you look for ‘em,” she said, wings fluttering a bit. “Grandpa an’ papa are my dear friends too.”
Samael eyed her curiously as they walked, smile growing just slightly before he resumed looking ahead of them. “I appreciate it,” he said amidst a few screams ahead of them in the haunted house, then laughter, which grew distant as the other patrons continued on their journey.
Aina smiled shyly up at Samael, jumping only slightly this time at the screaming up ahead. In truth, the screams didn’t sound like grandpa or papa in the slightest, and she pursed her lips thoughtfully. “Mm,” she hummed, fiddling with her jacket strings.
Samael gave a thoughtful hum under his breath, his expression back to neutral. “I think this means we’re near the end,” he said, glancing to Aina. Light gleaned off of the hall as they approached the exit. “I’m sure they’re just outside waiting for you.”
Aina wiped at her eyes a bit, nodding. “We didn’t find anyone at all,” she murmured, staring sadly at the ground. Samael looked down at her and gave her a gentle wiggle to her arm.
“Hey, now,” he said, voice sympathetic despite his calm expression. “We’re further along than when we started. You don’t have to wo--”
Samael was interrupted as they walked into a wider area of the hall, by a group of fully costumed actors across from them doing their best to jump out, scream, and startle them. A bright flash of light followed, and Aina - not having expected the scare at all - immediately froze, clinging to Samael as she let out one last startled scream.
After the startle, Aina took in an uneven breath, quickly hitching up. Flustered and shocked, the Frei began crying again. Samael, who hadn’t even jumped, had his arm draped protectively over Aina as she clung to his coat - staring nonplussed at the actors and the camera, he began ushering Aina away from them and toward the exit of the haunted house.
Once they were outside, he knelt down to tend to her. “It’s done, they’re gone now. You were very brave.”
Aina, still clinging to Samael, shook her head, wailing against her coat. “I don’t like haunted houses… I don’t wanna go back in…”
“And you won’t, you don’t have to worry about that,” Samael reassured.
In the distance, Mordekai and Duncan were wandering across the street with Johan, who had finally met up with them to join in on the Samhain festivities for a short while. Given the group’s collective height and the fortune of a diminished crowd, it was easy to spot the small but luminous Frei and one Samael Markett from the rest. Brows raised, Johan quietly began making his way through to the exit of the haunted house, pointing out the two figures ahead of him for Mordekai and Duncan to see. Aina’s two guardians paced across the busy street, and Johan followed just behind them.
“Professor Markett!” Johan called out, waving Samael down. As he did, Samael offered Aina a tentative pat to her back - at the call of his name, Samael lifted his head and, once he spotted Johan, put his other arm around the Frei to cradle her as he stood.
“Mister Kantor. A pleasant surprise,” Samael said. Aina leaned back when Samael pat her back, appreciative of the gesture; she wiped her tears and looked up at the familiar sound of her nonc, pulling away from Samael to rush to where her family was.
“Papa!” she cried, and Johan stood back with Samael, arms crossed as he watched Duncan and Mordekai attend to Aina with open arms.
“Oh, thank goodness,” Duncan laughed in relief, and Duncan bent down to scoop Aina up into his arms - he spun the Frei around once and gave her a tight hug, and the Frei endeared it immediately.
“Hey, baby girl! Where were you?” Mordekai asked, giggling despite the look of worry clear on his face. Johan glanced at Duncan and his children to see that they were situated, and seeing that they were, he relaxed some - he turned toward Samael, nodding to him.
“Same to you - pleasant surprise. You’re the last person I expected at this event,” he said, leaning to the side to look past Samael at the haunted house. As tacky and Hallmark Halloween as it was, the look of it enough was predictably scary for a young Frei. “Thanks for being there,” Johan added; Samael tucked his hands into his pockets once Aina rushed off to her father, a slight quirk in his brow.
“Of everyone you know, I’m truly the last?” he asked, giving Johan a subtle smirk. “What example of myself have I been setting, I wonder.” He dipped his head toward Aina. “It was no trouble. I take it you’re with the little one?”
“Spoke too soon, I guess,” Johan replied, smirking dryly back at his old professor. “Rare find, meeting a hardass with a sense of whimsy.”
“Even for a hardass, life without a little whimsy will get boring fast.” Johan received Samael’s reply with a small scoff, and when Aina and her guardians approached the two, Johan gave the Frei a small pat to her head.
“Hi, Aina. This is a friend of your grandfather and I who works at the university. Did Professor Markett already introduce himself?”
After receiving a kiss on the cheek from Mordekai, Aina hummed, glancing cheerfully at Johan and Samael - after a sniff, she shook her head, curious eyes on Samael. “Mm-mm,” she shook her head, “But he helped me when I was in the haunted house… an’ I helped him too.”
Having been preoccupied with Aina’s wellbeing, Duncan hadn’t fully recognized Samael’s presence - with a start, Duncan chuckled, bowing his head to the fellow professor. “I apologize for not greeting you sooner, Samael. How nice to see you here,” he amended, smiling at Aina. “You and Professor Markett were helping each other?”
“S’real good of you, mamzelle,” Mordekai said,brows upturned as he nodded to Samael. He adjusted his hold on Aina to extend a hand out to him. “Nice meetin’ you, Professor Markett. Don’t think I ever met you before.”
Samael raised his brows just slightly as Johan made his introductions, and he offered Duncan a nod. “No apology necessary, Duncan. It’s nice to see you, as well.” He turned to Mordekai and took his hand in greeting. “No, I don’t believe we have-- but I recognize you. The older Kantor, I presume?” he asked, giving Aina a muted but fond smile. “Your daughter’s quite determined to keep her heart in the right place.”
Brightening, Mordekai’s grin widened, and he laughed in earnest as he glanced down at Aina. The Frei seemed to have mostly calmed by now. “Yea, das me. Older brother to this ray of sunshine,” he said, nudging Johan’s shoulder a bit with his own, to which the younger Kantor responded with an apathetic raise of his brows. “An’ she is? What’d you do this time, huh?”
Aina, smiling, felt her wings bristle a little at everyone’s positive appraisals. She wiggled her shoulders a bit and glanced shyly at the ground. “Papa, I thought you an’ grandpa were lost in the haunted house so I tried findin’ you, an’ I found Professor Markett there an’ he helped me,” she took a breath between her explanation, “An’ he told me he was lookin’ for someone too so I tried helpin’ him too but I couldn’t…” the Frei looked apologetically up at Samael. “‘M sorry, Professor Markett.”
Duncan’s brows upturned a bit as Aina explained. “You need help finding someone, Samael?” he asked, “If so, we would be happy to help.” Despite Duncan’s offer, Johan noticed Samael’s lack of urgency - he glanced at the professor waiting for his response. Samael, though his smile remained small, reached his eyes at Aina’s apology.
“No need for apologies, Miss Aina-- you did very well.” His smile waned to nothing at Duncan and Johan both, but he gave an amused scoff despite, shaking his head. “In a manner of speaking. There’s someone I’ve lost touch with for quite a long time. Nothing urgent,” he said, returning his gaze to Aina with a slight bow of his head. “I’m sorry for misleading you.”
As Johan and Duncan glanced at each other in mutual understanding, the Frei smiled at Samael, nodding a little. “It’s okay,” she said, perking a bit. “I hope you find your friend. ‘M sure they miss you.”
Mordekai smiled, too, gesturing back over at the food stands. “Mister Markett, yeah? We were grabbin’ a bite of somethin’ to eat, you wanna come with?”
Duncan nodded. “Yes, Samael, I insist. As a thank you for helping Aina.”
“Caramel apples whimsical enough for you?” Johan asked, crossing his arms. Samael gave Aina another fond but faint smile, and he looked to the men, giving Johan a sarcastic smirk.
“They’re actually a favorite of mine,” Samael said.
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Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2017 11:10 pm
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.
 Going to school gave Aina a lot of things to think about on her way home from school. While grandpa had a lot of work to do, like grading and reading his e-mails, Aina tended to her family's garden and thought about all of the assignments she needed to get done for the day and onwards. Among the ones approaching was her class's third monthly show-and-tell. For September, she had her mama's journal; for October, everyone showed off their costumes for Halloween; and for November, she was at a complete loss.
Aina tapped her fingers nervously on the watering pot as she tended to the pomegranate brush, floating low to the ground to let the roots soak in as much water as they could. The Frei gave the plant leaves a gentle pat as she thought about the time ticking away before show and tell day – a lot of her classroom friends were saying they were going to show off more of their magic, but grandpa had advised against her's. Before she had more of a handle on her magic, it had proven time and time again to be quite destructive.
Still – what else did she have?
“I wish I could talk to you like Lorin can, lil’ tree,” she whispered to the branches, leaning in to look at some of the flowers. Between the leaves, they were few and far between – the brush, she knew, had seen better days before she was alive. “Can you hear me?” she asked, hopefully, but no reply came after. In truth, she knew Lorin had explained that plants did not quite talk like they did, and that she didn't have magic like his.
“It's okay,” Aina said, offering the plant a small smile as she picked a few withering leaves off of the winter brush. She went along, pruning with her bare hands what rotting leafage she could see could see in a small basket set beside her. Only a handful of pomegranate fruit had blossomed fully this November, and Aina was hesitant to pick them.
Still, two in her periphery seemed perfectly red, ripe enough to fall off if no one tended to them. They were just above her height, and she jumped a bit to reach them, her fingers grazing the pomegranate's crown a few times before she managed nab one, then two. She clumsily held them in her arms before letting them drop into the basket.
When she did, the Frei heard a strange rattling sound from within the fruit. Aina kept her eyes on the basket, perplexed, and knelt down to examine the pomegranates – she was sure she hadn't broken either of them.
“Hm?” She picked one up, holding it up to her ear and giving it a gentle shake. She heard the rattling even clearer than before, and she glanced back at the pomegranate brush with a frown. Was their plant really this sick? She hastily picked up the rest of her gardening tools and rested it at the patio, making a beeline to the kitchen for a small knife. Once one was found, she climbed onto a seat by the counter with the basket, unveiling the two pomegranates.
Carefully, she removed the crown of the pomegranates, scored them into perfect fourths, and cracked it open as gently as she could - just like she had for every meal.
Inside one was a bundle of ruby-red beads - not pomegranate arils, but beads like she often got at a craft store. Several beads rolled off of the kitchen counter and onto the floor, but Aina elected to clean them later. When she cracked open the other pomegranate, what was inside was not quite as messy - sitting perfectly inside the shell was a pair of golden barrettes, just like the ones that Auntie Leigh wore.
With a small smile, Aina tucked the golden barrettes into the side of her bangs, glancing briefly at her reflection on the marble counter. She held the other fourth of a pomegranate, still full of beads, in her hands – they were sparkling and shaped like flowers, more beautiful the more she looked at them. Despite the cold from outside, a kind of magic emanated from them that made her feel inwardly warm. Aina leaned to the side to peek at the pomegranate brush in their garden, smiling fondly.
“Thank you,” she whispered. Even if the pomegranate brush couldn't speak to her, maybe it could hear her, after all.
Aina hopped off of the stool and quickly began picking up the remaining beads – as much as she wanted to tell grandpa now, she had some experimenting of her own to do before show-and-tell came around.
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Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2017 12:01 am
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.
 Leigh and Mordekai have a heart to heart about her progress with Lab 305 and past events.
▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
Leigh called Mordekai on a random November day asking to meet, and it was probably one of the only times he was thankful for having debilitating enough pains to send him home. Aina had gotten back from an early day at school and was working on her homework at the kitchen table, and just across he was sitting placidly in front of the television, watching a rerun of a cooking show in Food Network. Slumped against the couch, he took out his cellphone to take a quick glance at the time - she was coming back home from Gambino, and his heart was leaps more excited than his body let him express.
“You need anythin’ before I go out, Aina?” he asked, glancing back at Aina. The Frei didn’t look away from her homework, but shook her head, scribbling diligently away at her worksheets. “Grandpa’s gunna be back real soon.”
“Nope! Can I see Auntie still?” she asked, curiously peeking at Mordekai. He laughed quietly, but she couldn’t see him past the couch backing.
“Mais, might need to drag me to her,” he replied. He carefully sat up, poking his head past the couch to grin at her. “Think you can do that?”
“Mm… I can try!”
“You’re real sweet, baby girl,” Mordekai chuckled, resting back on the couch. “But I think I’d break you in half.”
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Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2017 11:02 pm
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.
 Johan has a chance to introduce Duncan and Mordekai to a friend, Gabe Knight, after inviting him to a short outing at Propeller Roasters.
▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
Knowing Aina and Duncan liked their trips to Gambino, Johan asked if they had plans to go the weekend he was scheduled to meet with the client near the southern bay. To his lack of surprise, they did have plans to drop into the city, and Johan met up with Duncan and his niece in the early afternoon.
Aina liked her walks around Gambino pavilions, and there were so many for the beach city to offer it made her head spin. Duncan and Johan entertained a long walk across an expanse of blocks before the three of them agreed to a break somewhere to sit. Johan spotted a familiar go-to when he was in town, a simple and small coffee house by the name of Propeller Roasters. He had been to the cafe a handful of times to make idle chat with a friend, Gabe.
Aina: “I like the airplanes inside!” -she presses her hands to the glass wall of the cafe front, but quickly floats in once Johan holds the door aloft for his company - Aina stands near the entrance and soaks in the small coffee shop - rushes over to where some model aircrafts are- “Whoa!”
Duncan: “You and Leigh, Johan, always with your eye for cafes.” -Duncan smiles at Johan, and with Aina safely in view, he approaches the bar close ahead- “Would you like some tea, Aina?”
Aina: “Yes please!”
Johan: -at Duncan- “I don’t know if she’s been to this one yet.” -to Aina- “Hot or cold, Aina?” -he stands next to Duncan in line-
Aina: -glancing back at the two, briefly- “Mm… Cold!”
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Posted: Sat Apr 15, 2017 1:15 am
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.
 “...And you promise me not to run off again?”
“I promise!” Aina smiled, holding Duncan's hand and guiding him down the stairway of Yarrow's Point at a careful pace. Three months had passed since the last time Aina had visited the beach with her father, but with school starting, the time seemed to fly away from her. The winter drifted over Yarrow's Point and covered it in a foggy gloom, and there were even less people at the beach than there was in the autumn. Aina could see a few families and couples walking along the shoreline hand in hand, covered head to toe in the same warm clothes that her and grandpa had worn.
Still, she had not forgotten about her prerogative when she was there last. Admittedly, the image of the girl in her head had grown blurry and indistinct from the glimpse she had gotten of her so long ago. All she could think of were the peonies and sunflowers that decorated her shirt, and the dark murky eyes that stared back at her from just above the glowing water.
Her father had gotten a clue of who she was talking about in September, but Aina still hadn't told grandpa. It was strange, keeping all of these little things from him, but Aina had begun learning to value secrecy after her father had given her mama's journal. Outside of the one she kept for English class, Aina had not started her own at home quite yet, but she filled the one in her head with content full of stories just meant for her eyes only.
The Frei glanced up at her grandfather as they walked along the dry sand. “Do you have a journal, grandpa?”
Duncan returned her smile, chuckling. “I'm afraid not. I've certainly started many journals in my lifetime,” he glanced back up at the coastline, “But it takes a very special kind of person to finish one.”
“Really? Is it hard to write journals?” Aina asked. “Everyone in my class writes journals for English.”
“Well, it's a matter of diligence,” Duncan laughed. “And just a bit of patience, honesty, and a knack for introspection. I did not have much of any of those things when I was younger.”
“What does introspection mean?”
“Being able to look inwardly at oneself.” The corners of Duncan's eyes creased as they came to a stop at the foot of a ravine. The cliff caved in to form a nice enclave of stone that blocked out some of the harsh breeze, and Duncan turned them toward one of the long logs resting within. “Let's take a little break.” Aina followed, sitting at the edge of the log with her grandfather as they watched the waves roll over the sand. She wrung her hands around her backpack straps, then stared downward at her rune.
“How d'you look inwardly, grandpa? Like this?” she said, watching as her rune glowed a dim, calm blue, but she knew her grandfather was not born the same as her.
“No, not quite,” Duncan replied, and he pressed a finger to his heart. “It's being able to tell how you feel. Whether it be sadness, or joy, or anything outside and in between.”
“Oh...” she craned her neck to try and see the side of Yarrow's Point, but her grandfather had taken them yards away from the arch and the alcove. “Grandpa, can we keep walkin'?”
“Just one minute more, Aina,” Duncan laughed, hanging his head as he held his gloved hands together for warmth. “It's quite cold out here.”
“If I stay really really close, can I go explore?” Aina asked, wiggling closer to her grandfather. The two exchanged a few solemn looks, but Aina attempted to persuade him with a small smile. With a stern grimace of his own, Duncan looked to the watch on his wrist.
“How about you go and explore for three minutes. For now,” Duncan said, and without another word, Aina bounced off of the log, heading as quickly to the alcove as she could.
With a sigh, Duncan straightened where he sat, glancing up at the sky. “What a knack for adventure she's inherited in all of us,” he murmured, smiling anyway.
---
Aina tried to count every second that had passed by the time her grandfather had allotted three minutes. She had lost count by one-hundred and had just reached the stairway they had come from, and the Frei knew better than to think she could reach the alcove at this pace. With a slight pout, Aina sank to the foot of the staircase and squinted to try and see the silhouette of the crags ahead, covering her forehead with her hands to shade her eyes from the sparse sunlight.
“I told you. Do not return,” said a ragged voice, and Aina startled back, collapsing with the weight of her backpack. On the stair above her, the girl with peonies and sunflowers on her shirt stared down at the Frei, clothes and skin clammy and wet with ocean water. Some of the water dripped onto Aina's face, and she sat up, quickly floating to eye level – but the girl took a step back, leery, as she clenched her sharp teeth.
“It's okay,” Aina gasped, backing away, flustering even more underneath her scarf. She held out a hand for the girl to hold, but the girl did not take it, bony arms bundling up against her knots of matted hair.
“You came back,” the girl hissed, glancing back at the stairway behind them. This was too far from her home, but she had to brave farther from the alcove to find nourishment in the winter, and she held some stray flowers in her hands for a meal.
“You weren't here last time,” Aina digressed, taking in the whole of the girl in front of her. She was small, like her and her classmates, with gills decorating her spindly neck. “D'you live in the little cave out there? You got my shirt...”
“This isn't your shirt. It was left in my cave,” the girl snapped, clutching the rim of her shirt protectively. She hopped off of the edge of the stairway and landed on a pad of dirt with barely a sound, and Aina only followed with her eyes, hands clutched protectively around her backpack. “So it is mine.”
“I was the one who left it, silly.” Aina found it in herself to giggle, though she felt her heart thrumming against her chest. She had wanted to meet the mysterious person in the alcove for so long, and she stared shyly down at the sand as she extended her hand out again, this time her arm reaching as far out as she could. She saw her grandpa and papa exchange handshakes frequently with strangers – it seemed like a good way to introduce herself. “It's nice meetin' you. My name's Aina,” she said, mirroring her guardians. The girl did not take her hand, but watched the Frei carefully as she stepped around her. Very quickly, Aina glanced up, only to find Josephine mere inches away from her face – the Frei gasped, jumping back and tumbling with her backpack to the floor again, causing the girl to giggle.
“My name is Josephine,” said she, kneeling down as Aina sat. Her smile was strange and crooked, her teeth uneven, and Aina smiled back fondly. “Josephine Yarrow Seabrooke. That is the name I was given. Like this shirt.”
“Hi, Josephine,” Aina said. “The name I was given... 'm Aina Sabine Clarke-Kantor. Papa says Sabine is a river.”
Josephine furrowed her thin brows, tilting her head at the Frei. “Must I call you Aina Sabine Clarke-Kantor? I'm not fond of rivers,” she admit.
“Oh... no, you don't gotta call me that,” the Frei inclined her head. “You can just call me Aina if you want. Hi, Josephine.” Josephine smiled, brushing some of the matted hair away from her face. She had soft features beyond her jagged teeth and dark eyes, her cheeks flush with a faint red.
“If I can call you Aina, you can call me Posey,” Josephine replied. “How did you get to my cave? I have trained the water. If you swim in it, it would push you away.”
“I'm not very good at swimmin', but I floated there,” Aina pointed plainly to her ribbon, and Josephine stared. “How d'you train the water?”
“Aina!”
Josephine let out a small gasp, and the two girls looked back, only to see no one in view.
“Grandpa, I'm over here!” Aina shouted, cupping her hands to her mouth. Josephine looked back with a glint of hurt in her eyes, and she crouched, palms pressed to the sand.
“Is he with you?”
“Yeah! That's my grandpa... it's okay,” Aina said, carefully, “d'you wanna meet him, Posey?”
Posey took another look over the stairway, and with a small hiss, she ran to the alcove. “Wait!” Aina shouted, starting after her, but Posey was much faster than the Frei - the strange girl was out of eyesight quicker than Aina could have imagined. Glancing sadly at the sand behind her, floated back to the few items that now lay strewn about from her backpack.
“Is everything alright? Did you fall, Aina?” her grandfather asked from a distance, and Aina picked up her mama's journal from the dirt.
“Yeah... 'm okay,” Aina whispered. As Duncan approached her, he couldn't help but find the pink journal in her hands to be painfully familiar.
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Posted: Mon Apr 17, 2017 4:54 pm
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 Previously ▪ “What? Like we can keep the beach way from you!” Mordekai laughed, pressing his palm against the sand as leverage as he crouched - he could already feel the cold gnaw away at his bones, and he winced at the pain. “Let’s come back another time, mamzelle,” he murmured, holding out his hand.
“I made you cold,” Aina sniffed, staring guiltily at him, “You’re gonna hurt!”
“It’s okay! It’s okay,” Mordekai hushed, fastening his backpack around him. Hastily, he scooped Aina up and onto his shoulder, heading away from the crag. “But let’s come back another time, okay?”
“Are you really gonna be okay…?”
“Always.”
▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
Mordekai leaned back in his chair as the lines of his coloring page began to blur. After he rubbed his eyes and blinked, he realized he had begun coloring Elsa’s skin a comically bright orange when he was convinced he had picked up a peach crayon. No amount of squinting seemed to help him make the image less hazy than it was, and he took a moment to adjust the brace on his arm before he leaned forward and continued coloring, anyway, as he rolled with his decision to make his Elsa the real ice queen’s horribly tanned twin.
“That’s kinda weird, papa.” Aina was peeking sporadically at her father’s coloring between completing her multiplication homework, though Mordekai had not noticed before she spoke up, and he smiled at her, poking his daughter’s nose with the tip of the orange crayon.
“Hey! Orange is my favorite color, thank-you-much. How’s your math?” he asked, and Aina giggled, covering her nose - the coloring was taking a toll on him and his wrist pain, which did not help his sense of uselessness while staying home. Duncan had entrusted him to watch Aina and help her with her homework while he was out preparing the last of his Bouquet of Tender Thoughts assortments with his students for the holidays, as Mordekai had been stuck at home due to pain. Aina had agreed on completing her homework at the couches for him, too, accommodating his need to stay somewhere a little more comfortable, but his back was also starting to complain from leaning forward too long.
“Almost done. Can you check it after?” Aina asked, turning the worksheet over to complete her last columns of multiplication. Looking at the numbers made Mordekai’s head swim, but he focused back on his coloring, switching his orange crayon out for blue as he worked on a gradient for Elsa’s dress.
“‘Course. What color should I write with? Pick it out for me.”
“Hmm… this one,” Aina said, quickly picking out her usual when she asked Duncan and Mordekai to look over her homework - a coral pink crayon that was starting to get a little too short. “Can I color with you after?” she said, wiggling closer to lean on Mordekai’s side.
“You gotta work on English, don’t you?” Mordekai smiled at her, taking the coral pink crayon and resting it near the top of his coloring page. “Sorry, don’t make the rules. Don’t think it’s fair you got homework for winter break too,” he contended, nudging Aina’s arm. She did not seem to bothered, smiling a little wider down at her math homework as she gave Mordekai a small shrug.
“I guess… okay! Done! Here.” It was comedic how easily Aina seemed to ease through her math homework, and Mordekai gave a small sigh and chuckled as Aina handed him her homework. “Can I color Elsa while you check that for me?”
“She’s all yours,” Mordekai replied, sliding the Frozen coloring book Aina’s way. He leaned back against the couch as he looked at the multiplication homework. It was still hard to concentrate, and he turned the page. The numbers were swimming on the paper, and he tried to distract from the disturbance by speaking to Aina. “What’s your English homework, baby girl? Mais, that’s your last thing, right?”
“Mhm! Well… I just gotta work on my spelling and meanings for English.” Aina had left Mordekai’s coloring on Elsa’s dress alone, working diligently on scribbling in a bright yellow for Elsa’s hair. She paused as she reached the end of Elsa’s bangs, and she glanced up at Mordekai as he stared solemnly at her math homework. Remembering her English homework brought her big project for Miss Millie to mind. ”Papa?”
“That’s not so bad,” his said, his answer slightly delayed. He looked back at Aina. “Yeah?”
“If I gotta do a spellin’ and a meanin’ for ‘happiness,’ how would I do that?”
“Oh,” Mordekai said, his smile growing as he met Aina’s eyes, a tad surprised. “Mm,” he said, his mouth a pout as he glanced up at the ceiling, and as the silence grew between them, he took in a small breath. “I dunno… I’m havin’ a real hard time thinkin’ right now, baby girl. S’one of those days. I’m sorry,” he upturned his brows, smiling apologetically at the Frei. He ruffled her hair, and Aina shook her head, laughing a bit as she held her father’s hand atop her head.
“It’s okay, I’ll help too!” she said, turning to face him, keeping their hands held on her hair. “Um… what makes you really really really happy, like you smile when you just think about it? Just think about that!” The vague suggestion made Mordekai giggle, but he felt some tenseness deflate from his shoulders - he closed his eyes and hummed. Aina respected the quiet between them, resting their hands on the couch space between them as Mordekai thought.
Mordekai’s eyes fluttered open, and he chuckled a bit, tilting his head upward at the recollection. “You know Edith Piaf, baby girl? Y’know...” he began, glancing at her. He cleared his throat a bit, bobbing his head to the tune he sang quietly to her: “Give your heart and soul to me, and life well always be--” he pointed to Aina, and the Frei hummed at her father’s sing-song voice.
“La vie en rose,” Aina completed, remembering Mr. Louie’s rendition of the song playing in their garden through the summer. “Mhm! Does Ms. Piaf know?”
“Yeah, I think so,” Mordekai smiled, fingers curling as he held Aina’s hands. “Your mama an’ me watch a movie about her once. She said somethin’ in it I always think about,” he said, closing his eyes again, a little tired. “S’one of my favorite movies.”
“What does she say?” Aina asked, tilting her head. She rested back on the couch with Mordekai, watching as her father closed his eyes. He looked calm in the cold and grey of their living room. “Can I watch it with you?”
“We can watch it when you’re a little older, yeah?” he grinned, resting Aina’s math homework beside him. He let in another breath. “But.. when someone ask Ms. Piaf a question one time, they ask her: if you gotta give advice to a woman, what would it be?”
“Hm?” Aina’s smile fell, replaced by a curious pout.
“Love. That’s all she said.” Mordekai murmured, his head tilting slightly against the comfort of the couch. “An’ they ask her about advice to a young girl: love, an’ a kid: love, but I think it’s for everybody.” He wiggled Aina’s hands in his, giving her palm a gentle squeeze. “You know. I think if you gotta tell someone what happiness means, you just gotta be like Ms. Piaf an’ jus’ say ‘love.’”
“Hm…” Aina glanced down at their hands; maybe some part of her agreed with Ms. Piaf, but she shook her head, holding her father’s hand to her cheek. “But.. love an’ happiness gotta have a whole sentence, at least. If I gotta do a spelling and meaning for ‘happiness,’ I gotta write at least one sentence,” she explained.
“Ahh. Shoot. A whole sentence?” Mordekai chuckled, eyes half-lidded as he turned quietly to Aina. She was a blur, too, but with her help, he managed to ruffle her hair again, her bright blue eyes clear despite things. “It’s like… you know when you’re real hot?” he whispered, as if imparting some secret to her.
“Mhm,” Aina nodded, eyes wide. Mordekai was talking slow, his voice gentle and low, a lot like her nonc’s.
“Yeah. S’like… bein’ out in the sun all day and bein’ too hot, and someone givin’ you their sunhat. Or-- you know-- you’re tired, you brush your teeth, an’ you’re walkin’ to a warm blanket you got when you go to bed. Or,” Mordekai let out a huff, smile warming. “When you’re knockin’ on a door and you know somebody you miss is just on the other side.”
“Happiness is... finally fillin’ in some empty spot in your heart you didn’t know was there, like colorin’ with a crayon that’s your favorite color inna colorin’ book.” He pointed at the Frozen coloring book, grinning. “Yeah?”
“Yeah,” Aina agreed, nodding this time as she repeated the words in her head, eyes on the coloring page they had worked on together of Elsa. Mordekai picked Aina’s math homework up again once the Frei quietly began to color again. The sound of Aina scribbling in the remainder of the colors filled the silence between them as he carefully went through her homework. She finished most all of it, save for the dress that Mordekai had begun working on.
“All done with your math. 100%, Aina, you smart thing,” he said, quickly signing his initials at the top of her worksheet in the coral pink crayon. He set the paper on Aina’s side of the coffee table, and she beamed proudly at her pristine homework sheet. “Let’s get English done and draw, huh?”
“Yeah! Are your arms gonna be okay?” she asked, patting Mordekai’s arm.
“Yeah. You don’t gotta to worry about that,” he said. The two shared a look of confidence before Aina rummaged through her backpack for the last of her homework, and Mordekai took a quick look at the coloring page they had nearly finished.
As ridiculous as she looked, Mordekai liked Elsa’s horribly tanned twin a little better.
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Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 3:58 am
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 Previously ▪ “S’no big. Just hope the baby girl likes ‘em,” Mordekai replied, and with a breath he smiled wide. Baby girl. Duncan had sat unknowing of who or what the Raevan would be like for years, but on Christmas he’d returned home with some clarity - and, for the first time since then, Mordekai let the news sink in. “Jeeze. Don’t really matter, girl or not, but-- that means we had a lotta stuff ready for her. That’s awesome. Even found summa Annie’s old baby clothes. Wanna see ‘em?”
Without waiting on a response, Mordekai turned toward his bed, folding the blankets up onto the mattress. Underneath his creaky and uncomfortable bedframe were several boxes Duncan had only barely noticed were there before. There were even more boxes down there than he recalled Mordekai ever having enough possessions to require.
“Of course I would. You must have spent a long time at the unit,” Duncan mused. Of course, Annie provided in possessions and memorabilia aplenty where Mordekai could not, but all of it was crammed into a storage unit in Durem.
“Not long long-- ahah.” Mordekai pulled a large box out from beneath his bed; like the ‘STUFF’ box, the box was labeled aptly as ‘SMALL CLOTHES.’ “Anyway, this was all inna box already.” It didn’t take much effort for Mordekai to rip the duct tape and lids up to reveal the container’s contents. Inside was, true to the box’s name, small clothes - more accurately, it was mostly small dresses.
“All of these were from when Annie was a little girl. Cerise made most of these,” Duncan noted, shuffling his hands through the wardrobe of Annie’s childhood. When he found a light pink shirt dress with floral patterning, Duncan beamed, lifting it up to admire it against the dimming sunlight. None of the buttons were uniform and new pockets had been sewn on with a navy thread some time ago. “Annie loved this dress the most. You can tell, we had to stitch it up so much.”
“She told me once. She was real happy it survived.” Mordekai unfolded a few dresses on his own, smoothing them out on the floor to inspect them fully, when a thought came across him and his smile fell. “Think she’s gunna fit? Or are these gunna be too big? Too small?”
“I’m not sure. We’ll have to see.” Duncan stored the shirt dress back into its respective box.
▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
Aina wore the gold barrettes from her pomegranate to visit her nonc with grandpa and papa in the city for a pre-holiday gathering - it seemed like finding time to spend with her uncle this holiday was difficult, and it was better to see him before the Christmas rush. Aekea was one of the only places the Frei did not visit very often, and just driving through the industrious metropolis made Aina’s head spin. Everything was built tall and everybody moved very quickly there, all just like her uncle, and she watched all of the busy city people pass by like bugs down below her from the high rise of nonc’s apartment.
“Ma chere,” nonc said, lifting Aina up from her place in the couch to spin her around - the Frei laughed, clinging to his shoulder. She had gotten her fair share of people-viewing for now, and Aina noticed that grandpa had finished arranging the last bits of decorations in her uncle’s apartment with the leftover bouquets from his students. “How has school been?” Johan asked, walking Aina to a clean kitchenette where her grandfather quietly fit the last of the poinsettias inside of golden vases, which looked pretty on the otherwise empty table space. The table was a snug fit for four, especially with gifts lined up at their feet below the table, but Aina found comfortable enough arm space at her spot near the foot of the table.
“Je le trouve bien,” Aina replied, carefully reciting the French that she had practiced with her nonc. “You gotta really nice house, nonc. D’you like livin’ somewhere this close to the sky?”
“I do. It’s good for people-watching, isn’t it?” Johan asked, settling down in the chair next to Aina’s as Duncan nitpicked at the arrangement on the table. Duncan whispered something to himself, and with a cough, proceeded into the kitchen to grab another vase - Johan smiled slightly as he watched him go.
“Mhm. And the snow falls down slow up high. You should put fairy lights up, though!” Aina suggested, and Johan let out an amused breath - it was a typical request from his niece involving any house she stepped into that did not have fairy lights. He took a sip from a mug of coffee on the table that had grown slightly cold, watching as Duncan rearranged some of the vases in the kitchen, too - his apartment had become much more festive in the short half-hour his family had been keeping him company.
“I’d have to ask my roommate about that. Do you remember Dr. Westcott?” Johan asked, holding his mug in his two hands as he leaned back in his seat. “You should take a break, Duncan,” he added, watching as Duncan coughed into his sleeve in the kitchen. Duncan waved at him in dismissal.
“Nonsense - it’s about time your apartment has some life to it, son,” Duncan smiled, admiring and pruning a few dead leaves off of a bundle of near-iridescent honeyworts. Johan scoffed, leaning forward to rest his elbows on the table as he left Duncan to his own devices. Aina hummed, resting her cheeks against her palms as she watched her uncle drink the last of his cold coffee.
“I think Dr. Westcott would like it,” she answered, tilting her head as she watched Johan make a slightly displeased face at his coffee. “You should live with Dr. Rokos instead, though! She’s really nice.”
“I don’t think I can choose which doctor I can live with that easily,” Johan replied, pulling his seat back to take his mug into the kitchen. As Johan poured his drink down the sink, Duncan sighed as he made peace with the arrangements in the apartment, proceeding to the table where Aina was sitting. “What do you like about school, Aina?” Johan asked, glancing quickly at the Frei while opening and closing cabinets in an effort to find some coffee. Truth be told, he had spent more time in Barton than Aekea as of late, and his roommate seemed to have done some rearranging since the last time he was home.
“All the teachers, an’ I like the projects, and my classmates!” Aina said, scooting her chair a little closer to her grandfather when he met her at the table. Duncan gave another tired breath, folding his hands together over the table with nothing left to keep him occupied. “Did you notice I got stuff in my hair like Auntie?” the Frei asked, pointing them out first to her grandfather then to her uncle. Johan managed to find some pre-ground coffee in a cabinet above the coffeemaker, and he began pouring some into a filter.
“Those do look just like your aunt’s, don’t they,” Duncan mused, chuckling. “Johan, would you mind making enough coffee for two?”
“Sure,” Johan answered, glancing at Duncan and Aina. He smiled some at Aina’s golden barrettes, and he scoffed, looking back at the coffeemaker as he set the water to boil. “I did notice them. Where’d you get them?”
“S’a secret,” Aina answered, coyly, which made Johan’s brows raise somewhat at his niece. Giggling, Aina nudged her grandfather’s arm, smiling wide. “Grandpa, can we open presents now?”
“We have to wait for your father,” Duncan laughed, making note of the absentee in the room - Mordekai had stowed away briefly to Johan’s bedroom to finish the last details of his presents, the contents of which were still a mystery to even Duncan. Johan crossed his arms over the kitchen counter as he stared across the long hall of his apartment, and just in time, Mordekai emerged from the bedroom door - Duncan brightened, turning in his seat as he watched Mordekai proceed to the kitchenette. “Oh! Speak of the devil?” Duncan grinned, and Mordekai let out a relieved breath, quickly setting three large reused shopping bags on top of the table.
“Papa! Sit next to me,” Aina urged, pointing at the seat next to Duncan’s - with a happy sigh, Mordekai sat, raising his arms up in victory.
“Whoo! Finally,” Mordekai laughed - and, as the coffee was steeping, Johan settled in his spot at the opposing foot of the table, arms crossed.
“Big bags,” Johan commented, and Mordekai grinned at him.
“Aw, thanks. ‘M all done!” he retorted, reaching for the bags and looking inside, carefully handing each to a family member. “Okay - Jo, Duncan, Aina,” he recited. Aina reached underneath the table to reach for presents of her own, distributing small boxes to each of her guardians - they were significantly smaller than her father’s shopping bags, but wrapped neatly in curly ribbon and decorative paper.
“Grandpa, papa, nonc,” she said, pointing out each, and Duncan found his own presents to give after Aina, each box a uniform navy blue and white.
“Aina, Mordekai, Johan,” Duncan chuckled; Johan gave his own gift bags out quietly, each clearly labelled on tags attached to the handles. Once everything was distributed, the surface of the table was hardly visible, and Mordekai leaned his head back in order to see everybody present - he laughed, crossing his arms shyly as he tried to make sense of what to do next.
“I dunno how to do this,” Mordekai smiled, glancing at Johan, “Should we open ‘em person by person or by who got ‘em, y’think?”
“You should open mine last!” Aina suggested, quickly trying to regather her boxes - Duncan dissuaded her with a gentle hand, smiling.
“We’ll open yours last, Aina, don’t worry.”
“Alright,” Mordekai said, setting Aina’s present to the side of him, knocking over one of Johan’s bags just slightly. “But whose first?”
“Nonc’s?” Aina glanced over her mound of presents at her uncle, and Johan looked back at her, brows raising.
“Mine. Sure,” Johan replied, leaning back in his seat. “Get the predictable ones out of the way.”
“Ah, BS.” Smiling wide, Mordekai pulled the present bag from Johan closer to him, with Duncan and Aina following suit.
Johan’s presents were simple, but practical - he’d bought an assortment of teas from a store near his office for Duncan, a kind of flight full of earthy teas to his liking; for Mordekai, a new pair of boots, and for Aina, an original French copy of Le Petit Prince and Madeline. Next were Duncan’s presents - a new winter jacket for Johan, a boxful of sewing thread for Mordekai, and a small watercoloring set for Aina, to bring with her to school and when she was staying at Auntie’s or Anita’s. Mordekai’s presents sewing projects he had finished for his family members - bandannas for August, Johan and Leigh’s pet cat, and several new bowties of interesting patterns for Duncan.
The biggest gift between them all, though, was the one he had prepared for Aina. She pulled the gift onto her lap excitedly, reaching her hand into the paper wrapping. Inside, she felt something soft, and maybe a button, and she glanced curiously up at her father. When her hands found the corner of her present, she closed her eyes, pulling them up for her guardians to see.
When she opened her eyes, she gasped - she had pulled out a creme dress that was decorated from head to toe in roses, with slits in the back made especially for her wings. “There’s more of ‘em inside,” Mordekai whispered, and Aina removed some of the paper within to find an assortment of dresses just for her. She laid each out on the table for her grandfather and uncle to see, and Duncan smiled with a hint of familiarity.
“These are so many dresses! Papa!” Once the Frei pulled out the last of her dresses - a yellow dress perfect for the winter, with its long sleeves and a cardigan to match - she hopped off of her seat to rush to her papa, reaching her arms out to give him a hug. Mordekai lifted her up into his arms, humming contentedly as he tilted his head to give Aina a small kiss to her cheek.
“You’re welcome, mamzelle! Your mama wore all of ‘em when she was little,” he said, leaning back to look at his daughter, “I just brought ‘em in for you, I hope they fit right, huh?”
“Mama wore these?” Aina asked, her voice a near-whisper, enchanted at the idea. “I’ll wear all of ‘em! I’m sure they fit perfect,” she assured, resting her head against his shoulder. “But now you gotta open my presents!”
“Okay, okay,” Mordekai replied, giving Aina a small squeeze. When he met Duncan’s eyes, Duncan received him with a small, sad smile, though he quickly returned his attention to Aina’s presents. A quiet settled between the four of them, and Johan calmly watched for a moment as Mordekai and Duncan unwrapped their boxes, first, noticing the slight shift in mood that disturbed the air when Aina unveiled her gift. It was clear that he was missing something, but Aina did not seem to notice the bitterness in the air - instead, the Frei glanced at her uncle when he did not attend to his present, and she reached over to nudge his arm.
“Nonc?” she said, and Johan smiled tiredly at her.
“Sorry.” He glanced down at his niece’s carefully wrapped present, and began gently removing the tape. Johan furrowed his brows as he opened the lid, taking out a small pomegranate from inside of the box.
Looking over, Mordekai and Duncan also seemed to have received the same thing - a perfectly round pomegranate, just a bit smaller than the fruit typically was. Mordekai grinned, turning the pomegranate in his hand and holding it closer for Aina to see.
“Wow!” he laughed, giving Aina another kiss to the cheek, “thanks, baby girl, look at ‘em poms! You been proud of waterin’ our tree out back, huh?” he asked, and Duncan smiled, too, chuckling.
“No! You gotta open ‘em, silly,” Aina retorted, a tad impatiently. Johan was still looking at the pomegranate - it was lighter than the fruit usually was, and he held it closer, turning the pomegranate over on its base. When he did, it rattled, which seemed to catch Duncan and Mordekai’s attention - Mordekai frowned, glancing at his own.
“Ah? Okay,” Mordekai said, and he pointed toward the kitchenette. “We need a knife?”
“Mm… mm-mm,” Aina shook her head, perking up. “You just gotta press in real hard, an’ it’ll break, I think.” Aina seemed a tad uncertain, but she watched as her uncle continued to study the pomegranate, tapping it - it made a hollow sound.
“Huh.” Johan turned the pomegranate over so the crown faced the ceiling. He pressed against the shell with his thumbs, and Duncan observed quietly as he did, eyes wide - and, with just a little pressure, the pomegranate broke in Johan’s hands.
After removing the broken top shell, Johan pulled out a small bit of precious amber. It emanated a comforting warmth, glowing slightly in the warm light of the apartment. Inside of the amber was a piece of pressed violet, and Johan smiled, holding the stone up to the lamp at the table.
“This is beautiful, Aina,” he said, glancing at Aina. “Thank you.”
Aina wiggled her shoulders, breathing in proudly at a job well done - “Mhm,” she said, and she urged Duncan and Mordekai to open theirs next. The same piece of amber was not found in their pomegranates - in Duncan’s, there was a sparkling seed, and in Mordekai’s, there was a coin the same size of a quarter.
Mordekai turned the quarter around in his hand, grinning as he noticed the difference in detail. On each side was a simple bevel of Seabiscuit and Tango, a little too crude to be realistic. When Mordekai looked up at Aina, who was still resting against his shoulder, he found that the Frei was also admiring her work.
“You made these, Aina?” he asked, and Aina nodded.
“Mhm! But… with our lil’ pomegranate tree’s help,” she added. After a pause, she frowned, watching as her guardians continued staring at their small presents. “D’you like ‘em? ‘M sorry they’re all little…”
“Little, just like you,” Mordekai retorted, grinning. “Think we all love ‘em.”
“We do, more than anything,” Duncan added, a little breathless - he looked at the strange seed in his palm, glittering with magic, and knew just what to do with it. “Thank you, Aina,” he said, smiling warmly at his granddaughter.
“Mhm! S’where I got my hairclips like Auntie’s, nonc,” she said, patting her hair. “See?”
“I had a guess,” Johan replied, holding the piece of amber in his palm. “That’s some impressive magic, Aina,” he said, raising to stand and kissing the top of her head.
“Happy Holidays. Before the holidays,” he amended, “Thank you for driving out all this way.”
“Mhm!” Aina hummed, reaching up to hug her uncle. “Can I try coffee for the holidays?”
“Mm. Don’t think so,” Johan said, heading into the kitchenette.
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