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 Posted: Wed Aug 07, 2013 10:34 am
Harmony decidedly did not like the baby.
No, that wasn't quite true. She adored her little sister and was secretly thankful that she got to skip the family's crop of green hair. But she was an adult now and being in the house with a baby was a challenge: being awakened at all hours, the demanding schedule of an infant, not to mention the free babysitting expected of the teen. Since she was joining the ranks of college freshman everywhere in just a short while Harm had come to a decision.
She was moving out.
That's why she'd prepared a nice dinner for Tony when she knew her mom was likely to be out. She needed an ally in this process, someone her mother trusted. Tony was much safer to combat her mom's loud and passionate feelings toward her daughter's decision making and future. He was not quite as outspoken because she had, after all, kept him at an arm's length since the couple married.
That needed to change, too. He deserved that from her, more than just a pawn to be used against the Queen.
She was just putting the finishing touches on her surprise when she knew he'd be home. Mom had Sarah and Nathan seemed to be absent a lot lately, not that it changed much when he was around. No, it was just her and him alone to talk about the big decisions in life. He was rather a good sounding board for them, anyway.
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Posted: Wed Aug 07, 2013 11:19 am
Tony was surprised to enter the house and smell food. He knew Kyndall was not going to be in and he had been taking care of Sarah, going out for a walk with Dogby and his baby, and the new puppy, Gizmo. It had been an adorable outing, though it was difficult to walk through the park now with so many cute things drawing people over to him. It was more standing around and talking than it was walking.
Dogby and Gizmo did not seem to be put off by it, their spirits high as they yipped at each other the moment they were off their leads and took off into the house to play.
Sarah was exhausted, sleeping against Tony's chest peacefully. Being the center of attention, she had found out, was sometimes exhausting and more than even she wanted. He carried her to her bedroom and tucked her in the crib, smiling tenderly and watching her for a moment before he was sure she was safe. He went back to the living room and then moved into the kitchen, arching his eyebrow when he spotted that it was not Kyndall, but Harmony.
He immediately sensed trouble. This was a trap of some sort.
"What's all this, Harm?" he asked cautiously.
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Posted: Wed Aug 07, 2013 11:59 am
The pups came rushing past her and she knew he couldn't be far behind, letting them out the back door to play in the yard. She was glad Dogby had a friend now. The two of them seemed to get along well.
Harmony met his suspicion with an innocent smile.
"Surprise!"
She'd made pot roast. Men liked beef, right? She'd roasted it on low for hours with potatoes, carrots, and onions and now it was on a serving plate for him to take what he wanted. The meat was falling apart tender. It was one of the things she observed from her mom. Whenever Kyn wanted to butter him up she made him a special meal. Couldn't hurt, right?
"It's gonna get cold. You might as well serve yourself."
Better to let him know she had an agenda after he'd tasted some of the meal. She even poured him a glass of wine. Scarce in this house since her mom couldn't drink for a while. The mint haired girl waited until he had his own plate before making up one of her own. The leftovers would keep, if there were any left once Nate discovered them. The boy had an appetite. What did he do? Wrestle alligators in his spare time? It would explain the bruises...
"Can't I just want to do something nice for you?"
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Posted: Wed Aug 07, 2013 12:39 pm
Tony watched her warily, though he looked amused enough. He was in a good mood and was never one to turn down a good meal. He also did not think his daughter in law was up to anything too devious, as she had been in good spirits lately. At least as far as he could tell. Hopefully she hadn't gotten herself a boyfriend or something, and was breaking the news that she was running off with him.
Or that some sleeze at a party had gotten her pregnant. Or some other horrifying parent nightmare Tony suddenly found himself having. He reeled a bit, worry flashing over his expression before he swallowed it down.
"Ah, well, thank you. It looks very good. You and your mother are too good in the kitchen. I won't be able to climb the stairs at work at this rate." He was lying, in a better physical condition than he had been in ages, but that was what fighting a secret war did for someone. But he could easily imagine, without that benefit, he'd be fairly rotund and be okay with that at this point. A comfortable life.
"I appreciate it," he said, as he got some of the food, "that you're being nice to me and you went through the trouble of cooking things up for me, but ah. I have to wonder if there was more of a motive involved here..."
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Posted: Wed Aug 07, 2013 11:19 pm
Harmony was still a virgin and, despite her occasional claims and pranks to the contrary, a good girl. She let him sit at the dining room table and handed him the glass of wine she poured before she fetched her plate and joined him, trying not to look guilty at his words. They had some ring of truth to them. She had an ulterior motive. But, also, she just wanted to talk to him.
"There is one thing." She let her violet eyes raise up to meet his: her mom's eyes. Sarah's eyes. It seemed to be a family trait and a strong one at that. "I owe you an apology."
This was something the teen had long been turning over in her head. She liked Tony well enough but had never quite gotten over the idea of her mom deserving a knight in shining armor, like Camelot. She'd sort of kept him at a distance despite him being nothing but kind to her and giving her a sister. He made her mom deliriously happy. Happy enough that Harm couldn't remember a time in her life when her mom looked the same. She found in him a best friend.
So now it was time to lay aside childish fantasies. Knights in shining armor didn't really exist, not in the real world. She hadn't even seen Camelot in months. For all she knew he was a figment of her imagination created to cope with a trauma she still didn't fully understand. Some nights she still thought she as crazy and had dreamt everything: space, dying, everything.
"Ever since you married my mom I didn't give you a chance. I wanted my mom to marry the white knight she always dreamed of. Someone like Camelot. But everything was so crazy last year I'm thinking now maybe Camelot doesn't exist. Maybe he never did. Maybe white knights don't really come out of no where and rescue damsels in distress."
She sighed a little, feeling the heavy burden of those words. Being a grown up and trying to put away things she used to believe in was a hard practice. It was for a good cause and all but...still.
"Anyway, I don't think I've ever seen my mom so happy. When it was just the two of us things were ok and she was happy sometimes but I've never seen the look on her face she gets when she looks at you. And Sarah...I have a sister. I wouldn't have that without you. I was kind of hoping maybe we could start over. Maybe we could try to be family."
She looked down at her plate, stumbling through her little speech and praying he didn't interrupt her. This was hard enough without that.
"Maybe...if you didn't mind...maybe I could call you...Dad?" She was quick to backpedal as soon as the words were out. "You know, you don't have to I was just thinkin since you married my mom and all it might be easier. I've never had one but if you don't like it..."
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Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2013 11:08 am
Tony looked at her as she spoke, frowning thoughtfully. There was a lot fundamentally wrong with her arguments, but only because he knew that her mother did get the White Knight she deserved. Well, in theory. Tony wasn't sure if he truly lived up to the title, but he would do everything in his power to try to.
In any case, he was Camelot, and he knew that Harmony would never know that. Maybe it was better to let her go on thinking that she had just imagined him, though they'd met a few times and he knew that she was very thankful to him for all his help.
He would always protect her, whether she believed in him or not. That was just part of his life now.
A smile replaced his thoughtful frown, and he nodded his head.
"I consider you to be my daughter, Harmony, though I would never ask you to call me your father if you weren't comfortable with it. But I love you very much, and want only for you and your mother to be happy. You are the world to her, and I can see that."
He chuckled, feeling a little embarrassed, but honored at the same time.
"If you wanted to call me dad, I would be okay with that." It wasn't like his own son called him that very often, save when he was being sarcastic.
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Posted: Sat Aug 10, 2013 10:55 pm
"I never had a dad. I mean, I know I do and he's out there somewhere but mom never talks about him. I guess that's fine because if he didn't want to know me, I don't need to know him."
It was the one lie she told to spare Harmony, and perhaps herself, from wondering and trying to find her real father. She told her daughter that her father had run off and not the other way around. Kyn had been young and he'd been a fling, much older than she was. When she got pregnant she freaked out and stopped seeing him, dealing with all the other things in her life that had gone wrong at the time.
It was still something Kyn didn't like to think about but the effect was as she hoped. Harmony never tried to find her dad and generally got along without one, until Tony came along. She was secure in the knowledge that he cared about her and she could talk to him about her life and what was going on there. She didn't have to worry about his judgment. It was like a weight lifted when he said it was alright to call him dad and she smiled.
"Ok, I will."
With that out of the way she took a few thoughtful bites of her dinner, trying to figure out how to broach the next topic of conversation: moving out. It was just time for it to happen. She had a job through the school term and college to start attending pretty much any day now. She needed her independence. Besides, they'd still have Nathan at home, for all the good it would do them.
Looking sheepish after a minute or two she looked down at her plate.
"Well, there is one other thing..."
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Posted: Tue Aug 20, 2013 2:45 pm
Tony listened patiently, nodding his head as she spoke. He could understand where she was coming from, though he had not had a similar experience. He had a father to raise him, he'd just chosen not to appreciate that for what it was. He'd rebelled and run away, instead of embracing the family that was given him. He supposed, then, that not knowing about Nathan until he was almost an adult was his punishment in turn.
He felt bad for them, for Harmony and Nate, for people who could have benefited or even wanted to have a dad in their lives. He wasn't sure how much of one he was, he'd been doing his best for Nate and failing miserably, but he was going to do what he could to be there for those that wanted him. Be it their new baby, Sarah, or Harmony.
At least Harm was asking, and he felt rather proud and honored, though he had considered himself her dad for a little while. He watched her, though, and arched his eyebrow when she said there was more. This was probably the real reason she'd made dinner, and his panic flared back up again.
"Is there? You can tell me anything, Harmony. If you need any help with anything..."
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Posted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:59 pm
Harmony looked embarrassed to have been so see through from the beginning. She got up and kissed his cheek, smiling at him to have that resolved between them. It was a shame his own son didn't seem to want to have anything to do with moments like this with his own flesh and blood but, with any luck, between his two daughters he would feel his fatherly instincts were satisfied. She loved him all the same, anyway.
"Dad, I start college in the fall and I think it's time that I move out and get my own place. I mean, you guys know I can't try to study with Sarah awake every couple of hours and DCU is kind of far away now. I was thinking of getting a place closer to school."
She'd spoken to Mr. Santini at Espresso Yourself who promised to work around her school schedule and make sure she had an income while she went to school. Conveniently the coffee shop was already close to the university so if she got something close to campus she'd be closer to work, too. She'd never asked for a car or anything like that from her parents but she knew, before she even mentioned the idea, that it would freak her mom out because Kyndall would always see Harmony as her little girl and would say all of those mom things: living in the city is dangerous, living alone in her first year of college would be an unnecessary burden. She'd also worry about Harmony doing things that were probably untoward for a girl her age like going to parties and drinking, which could be true but in the girl's eyes expanding her horizons was not a bad thing.
"The thing is, I'll still be working as much as I can at the coffee shop but I don't think I could pay for the rent on my own, so there's that. But..."
Her mom would freak out and that was why she needed Tony. He could act as buffer and advocate - the only one that seemed to be able to handle her mom and calm her down no matter what state she worked herself into. This was an immense talent she could not hope to match. No, he'd simply have to do it for her, saving her from the inevitable eruption when the topic was brought up.
"You know Mom. She'll freak! I want to talk to her about it but she's just unreasonable sometimes! But if I already had someone that liked the idea...that was on my side..."
So there it was, her plan to use her stepfather against her mother.
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Posted: Thu Oct 24, 2013 12:47 am
Tony frowned at her for a long, disconcerted moment. He was not sure how to take that. He had only just officially become her dad, of sorts, in that she wanted to call him that now. Yet she wanted to move away and leave them, giving him a very short time to really fill those shoes. Of course, he had been filling that role for some time, they had just never spoken about it before now.
"You want... to move out?"
He scratched the back of his neck, sighing. He knew it was an important step, and at least she was telling them about it. When he was younger he had just left. Basically he ran away, but he had been too proud to put it in those words. He walked out, that's what he told his friends, when he made them. He didn't want Harmony to think that was something she needed to do. She didn't need to feel trapped here.
"Well, I could help you with your rent until you were able to pay for it or... found a roommate, or something like that. But ah. I don't know if I could team up with you against your mother... she wouldn't like that very much..." and he was terribly weak to her guilt trips. Heaven help him when she was mad at him, and he buckled immediately. "She would pull rank, anyway. She's your mother. You should talk to her about it, though, in a reasonable and calm way. Then you should be okay... she'll be upset but not at you: no parent really wants their children to grow up."
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Posted: Thu Oct 24, 2013 1:22 am
Harmony heard his answer and frowned. This wasn't right. He was supposed to be charmed by dinner and being called dad and want to help her against her mother. She pouted and considered her options carefully. Perhaps logic might still prevail. If he didn't want to risk her mother's wrath he at least knew there was probably a chance of it thinking about her baby leaving home.
"It's just time for me to move out. I need to be close to school, and the baby. You know, leaving the nest and all that? You guys will still have Nathan and Sarah."
Her older brother seemed to have no plans to leave so far as she could see and no ambition to go to college and make something of himself. Live and let as far as he was concerned. At least they'd managed to come to some sort of truce. But now she needed an ally and hoped Tony would be that for her.
"But she listens to you! She won't listen to me. I know she won't. She never has!"
Especially since she didn't want her daughter to grow up and move on. Harmony could be downright sneaky when she needed to be and was not above using her new dad's weaknesses against him, like she did with dinner. The girl wasn't entirely unobservant. She knew her mother's puppy eyes could get him to do just about anything she asked of him. Though he bowed to most of her desires, anyway. She was not above using them herself and gave him her most pitiful wide eyed look.
"Please?"
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Posted: Fri Oct 25, 2013 1:31 am
Tony frowned at the mention of Nathan, and the idea that he was not going to move out any time soon. That did not seem to be the right path for her to choose, as Tony looked miserable at the idea. He did not like the idea of having to continue to wait for Nathan to get his act together, and being reminded that that could be a while just made him sigh.
He looked at her thoughtfully, and then laughed despite himself.
"She listens to me? Only when she wants to, I think, and even then she's mostly just listening to what she wants to hear, as that is what I am always so careful about doing or saying..." he laughed, teasing, but it was slightly true. He was very aware of what could upset his wife, and he did what he could to avoid it. Her daughter moving out, for example, would upset her, but it would upset her more if she felt like she was being forced into accepting it by him.
He looked at Harmony, though, and saw the same look that Kyndall gave him. He huffed and looked away, then sighed after a short moment.
"Alright. I'll... I'll prepare her as best I can, okay? But that's all I can do."
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