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 Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2017 4:15 pm
Zack had very little time for himself these days; he had the Negaverse, Evan, Cambria, and work--all of which seemed to dominate his life in some way.
The Negaverse, because if he failed them there would be repercussions. The Negaverse had quotas to fill, and tasks to complete. He had Bellite, also, but she wasn't much of an obligation when, in the long run, she'd be an asset. But still, she needed his time. If he was helping her, at least he was working towards furthering his own goals.
Evan, while a youma, and therefore part of the Negaverse, was still another time sink. Though he got to spend time with Evan, it wasn't what he wanted. A desperation consumed him; he was desperate to find some way to reverse the youmafication. Even if he was starting to forget the way Evan's voice sounded, the way his face looked. The way his skin felt. There were bottles of unused shampoo and conditioner still in his bathroom. Evan's clothes were folded in his dresser. His belongings were still scattered about the apartment, as if he were going to come back at any time.
But Zack knew he wasn't, not unless he fixed him. So he obsessed over it. Like Cambria did, only they had different ways of going about it.
Cambria took up his time because she was his girlfriend, and sometimes his only tie to sanity. She kept him rooted, and he could pretend to be normal around her. They talked of Evan often, and sometimes shared progress--or, mostly, a lack thereof. He was lying to her about not having found Evan, but she wouldn't understand the truth. Sometimes, they didn't talk about Evan. Sometimes, they could pretend like everything was normal and okay.
Last night, they'd gone on a date, even. It was the best use of his time in a long time, and he'd dreaded the worst of his time sink:
His job. Which only took up his time because he had to pay the bills to make sure he had somewhere to live and food to eat--and he needed money to buy his wonderful girlfriend presents to show his appreciation.
It was because of her that he, on his only day off, was out trying to find her something nice. The Destiny City Mall had more stores than you could imagine, and some fresh air and time to clean his head sounded like the perfect remedy to the constant repetitive nature of his life.
He had drifted from store to store in the mall, just browsing; he was by himself but it didn't seem to matter. There were many faces in the crowd and he wasn't keeping up with them; he was just following the flow of traffic and walking at a brisk pace around the other shoppers around him.
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Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2017 4:17 pm
Things had been going quite well for Raven...and even though she still wasn’t married to Jett, she was more than happy with where their relationship was...especially because of the squirming sixteen month old she held in her arms. Chloe was everything to her, she was the very sunshine in her day, and the amount that the child had grown over the past year was astonishing. It was so hard to believe that this laughing, smiling walking little nugget was the same jellybean that was squirming and fussing just a year before.
Babies grew so fast...and that really wasn’t an exaggeration. Often, Raven almost felt overwhelmed by how much her daughter had grown...and just...she was so thrilled to be here experiencing it all. Every single moment.
And now that moment was in the mall, clothes shopping. For the both of them of course, Raven had already bought at least six new outfits for herself and a good handful for her daughter, and the two were now heading to the food court to rest with some ice cream, because...what else was the mall good for?
At least, she was intending to stop for some ice cream...until Chloe’s little fist reached out and grabbed a handful of someone’s hair.
No...not someone’s hair. Zack’s hair.
Well s**t.
“Ah, sorry about that...she likes to grab things she things are pretty.”
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Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2017 4:22 pm
Zack made a grunt of mild annoyance and confusion; he was clearly not used to people pulling on his hair. Not in public, like this, at least. Not children.
He wasn't in a bad mood though, so turned to assure the mother that there was no harm and try to casually brush the child's hand out of his hair--and then he paused.
He knew that face.
"Raven?" he asked, perplexed. He hadn't seen her in a while, but he recognized that beautiful face instantly.
The kid, though. That was a new addition.
"Long time, no see. Who's this little thing?" he asked, now a bit more delicate as he tried to pry Chloe's hands out of his hair.
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Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2017 4:25 pm
Well, at least he knew who she was, and there was no doubt to her who he was...so that was kind of nice. “Hey there, Zack. Long time no see to you, too. How have you been?” Raven couldn’t stop the grin that spread across her face at the sight of him...even if her daughter was pulling on his hair.
Carefully, she reached up and removed Chloe’s hand from the light blonde hair of her old...fling.
“Ah, this little thing?” She laughed at his phrasing. “Well, this little thing is my daughter. Chloe. Isn’t she the cutest little imp you ever set your eyes on? The answer to this question, by the way, is yes. She is.” Was she flirting with him? She wasn’t trying to flirt with him...but now that he was here in front of her...well.
...It was kind of hard not to flirt, as the memories of their time together all flooded back suddenly without her wanting them to. “So...yeah. My daughter.”
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Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2017 4:27 pm
Zack seemed amused, almost in disbelief. "Well, I can't say I've been around enough kids to know the cutest, but I've got to say--you're still looking pretty good, yourself."
He hadn't heard much from her after their fling, and certainly he'd thought about her from time to time. Now, he had Cambria to fill his thoughts--when he wasn't all caught up about how to fix Evan.
...But he wasn't going to think about that, here. Not now.
"Most women don't bounce back from their pregnancies so fast, do they?"
He reached out to play with Chloe's hair absentmindedly. Unlike her, he didn't seem interested in pulling her hair.
"But you look just as amazing as ever. How old is she?"
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Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2017 4:36 pm
Raven glowed with the compliments and it was all she could do not to giggle. He was a charmer, that much was for damn sure. “Most women might not bounce back so quick, but you know as well as I do that I’m not most women, Zack.”
She winked, laughing a little in spite of her best efforts not to. “She’s about sixteen months, she had her first birthday back in October...I can’t believe so much time has passed already...I mean how long has it been since we last saw one another?”
Well...when had they seen one another…?
Chloe liked this strange man playing with her hair. She let out a loud squeal and held out her arms to him, clearly wanting to be picked up. This wasn’t daddy, but he seemed very nice anyway.
“Aw, I think she likes you, Zack. Well, I suppose that’s only fitting.”
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Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2017 4:37 pm
Zack lazily compiled a mental calendar, trying to figure out a general idea of when they'd last seen each other. It didn't feel like it had been so long ago, but truthfully, he knew that time hadn't felt like it was passing normally for a long time.
Though, something didn't fully add up. "Sixteen months, huh?" he asked; he didn't reach to try and take Chloe from her mother; he didn't know how to hold a baby and, fling or not, wasn't sure Raven considered him safe enough to hold her baby. The name alone was enough to make him think he was missing something.
Chloe. He'd heard that name before, it was something important to Raven. Where had he--oh. The phone call he'd overheard her make with her fiance, the day before she'd slipped out of his life. Something about her wanting her in her life.
It didn't make sense then, and it didn't make sense now.
"She's a cutie. Gets that from you, probably. I can see a lot of you in her. Her father--I take it, you worked things out with your fiance?" he prompted, and even he couldn't help but smile at back at Chloe while he fluffed her hair.
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Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2017 4:37 pm
Chloe was getting impatient, squirming in Raven’s arms, trying very hard to get this stranger to notice her. But he wasn’t doing it...and that was awful. She let out an unhappy little wail of frustration.
Raven laughed holding the girl out to Zack, “You’re allowed to hold her, you know. And when she gets into moods like this, it’s pretty sensible to give her what she wants. I wonder where she gets that from.” She knew that it was from her. It had to be from her. Oh well.
She was a good mother, even if she did spoil her baby...babies deserved to be spoiled, didn’t they? “She get a lot from me...and yeah, we worked things out pretty well, honestly it worked out a lot quicker than I expected it to...so that’s a good thing. We still haven’t gotten married though, so that’s a thing...but that was really mostly me just not wanting to be fat in my wedding dress, which is more than understandable...we were going to get some ice cream if you’d like to join us!”
Clearly Chloe wanted this to be a thing, she let out a shriek of joy at the word ice cream. She liked that.
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Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2017 4:38 pm
"You sure?" Zack asked; Raven was already holding the girl out so he felt like he didn't really have any choice but to accept her; he didn't want the girl to start throwing a tantrum in public.
He bounced Chloe just slightly before nodding. "I guess some ice cream sounds good. I'll tag along."
Zack began to walk towards the food court, careful to let Raven stay slightly ahead of him so he knew where she was going.
"Gotta say, a part of me was disappointed when you left. I had a lot of fun with you. Sixteen months," he said, seeming surprised again. "No wonder you hid, though. You must have gotten pregnant right around the time I last saw you, huh? I'd have made fun of you for being knocked up," he admitted shamelessly. "I mean, I'll bet you were still beautiful, but," he gave her a look over again and laughed. "I just can't imagine it."
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Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2017 4:39 pm
“Of course I was still beautiful, could you ever even imagine a world where I wasn’t the most beautiful person in it?” Raven tossed her long blonde hair, knowing that it would catch the light in the way that it did and grinned. “Sixteen months. She’s growing so fast, I can’t even wrap my head around it. My little goober...next thing you know she’ll be going off to college and getting married.” She sighed, watching as Chloe clung to Zack, chattering away happily in baby talk. She clearly liked this guy.
“Yeah, it wasn’t long after I saw you last…” Honestly, Raven hadn’t really considered that...but it hadn’t been long after her last visit with Zack that she had gotten pregnant...well...nah. That didn’t matter. Probably.
“U-um...anyway. What have you been up to? I’ve really missed you. We should keep in touch from now on, don’t you think? You know...keep those alliances going and all that.”
It was time to get off the topic of Chloe’s birth and the timing of it all. It was way past the time to get off of that subject.
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Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2017 4:40 pm
Zack couldn't help but laugh at Chloe as he watched her babble. He nodded, as if he understood, but his eyes kept drifting back to Raven.
"I think college is still a way off. I'd be more worried about potty training, if I were you." He cracked a grin and winked at Raven, just for good measure. "As for me, I don't know. I've been doing pretty well. Well enough."
It was a lie, but you didn't exactly talk about that time you youmafied your ex in public.
"I'd like to keep in touch. You sure your fiance wouldn't mind? I'd hate to make him feel threatened with me vying for attention," he teased.
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Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2017 8:32 pm
“Oh don’t you worry, Zack. I am terrified about potty training. But, honestly I would be more worried if we’d had a boy...I am really glad we have this doll here, seriously.” The thought of having to potty train a boy...oh good lord, that was more terrifying than anything she could possibly think of. Besides, she knew that the potty training with Chloe would go well...after all, hadn’t she done it in that future dream? Piece of cake.
“I’m really glad to hear that, Zack.” Raven’s voice was warm and she seemed to really mean her words. “I know Jett wouldn’t mind. He keeps in touch with all of his friends so, why would he mind me keeping in touch with mine? That would be rude, don’tcha think?”
She grinned and sat down at one of the tables in the food court. “All right, ice cream time? You go buy it for us, okay? I’ll get you next time.” She winked and her grin widened. She was fully intending to get free ice cream for herself and Chloe today, if she didn’t, well...that would just be a disappointment.
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Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2017 8:35 pm
Zack just laughed richly. "All right, all right, I can manage that. Though," he couldn't help but glance at Chloe for a moment longer. "Has he slept with all the friends he keeps in touch with?"
There was a certain smugness, a certain playfulness; his voice had quieted, as if it was meant to be some secret between the two. It was, certainly, but there was no one nearby to hear.
"You don't seem like the type of girl who would be satisfied with that arrangement."
He had to force himself not to look at Chloe as he spoke, but after a second he simply laughed and clapped her on the shoulder. "What flavors do you want? I'll grab them and be back in just a moment."
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