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 Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2021 1:11 pm
Quote: The Wishing Tree (2) : Your wish is only said to come true if you grant the wish of someone else; when you write your wish, you must also take one off of the tree and do your best to grant it. What wish do you pull off, and how do you intend to ‘grant’ it? Do you work with someone else to grant this wish, or do you work alone? You may get approval from another player to use the wish their character hung up, but no names are attached so your character may not ever know who wrote it!
Chris sat on the couch in their living room, waiting for Paris to join him so they could mindlessly watch some show that was streaming. Really, Chris just wanted some time to catch up with his wife after being gone, playing baseball for months.
“I think you’ll get a kick out of this,” Chris said as he held up the wish he’d written for Elsie earlier that day. He kept it with him, of course. Whether or not Paris was interested in granting that wish, well… it was still amusing.
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Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2021 1:24 pm
Already dressed in her pajamas — cotton shorts and an old DCU t-shirt of Chris’s — Paris carried two mugs of chamomile tea from the kitchen to the living room. She passed one to Chris, then took a seat beside him, close enough that they were pressed thigh to thigh and she might as well have just sat in his lap.
She sipped her tea first, then set it down on the coffee table next to a pair of red star charms the kids must have left out. Empty handed now, Paris took the slip of paper from Chris, unfolding it to read Elsie's wish.
Paris was expecting something about unicorns or fairies or meeting a Princess — the last of which would be easy to fulfill.
What she read instead was, I wish I had a little brother or sister.
Paris snorted, then laughed out loud, unable to control herself until the thought crossed her mind that maybe Chris was using this to broach the topic, at which point Paris immediately calmed down and stared at him with wide, cautious eyes and an apprehensive smile.
“Wait… is this supposed to start some sort of, Hey, I think we should have another baby conversation?”
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Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2021 1:32 pm
“What?” Chris mock gasped, unable to hide his own smile. In his defense, Paris’s laughter was infectious, so could he really be blamed for smiling so easily? “I’m just saying, it would be a shame not to grant Elsie her wish.”
No, that wasn’t exactly fair. They already had three, beautiful children. While Chris would certainly be happy for more, he didn’t want Paris overwhelmed.
“Elsie is three, and the twins are almost six,” he shrugged and then took a sip of his own tea. “But if you’re against the idea, then we don’t have to talk about it.”
It would be a shame though. He would love more little versions of Paris running around.
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Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2021 1:44 pm
And Paris would love to have more little versions of Chris running around, but adding more kids to the mix seemed… somewhat impractical at the moment.
“It’s not that I’m against it,” she began, trying to get her thoughts in order after being blindsided.
She didn’t blame Chris. The wish was funny, and Paris would laugh about it more later, but it was a subject she hadn’t thought would come up for a while. She and Chris were young, still in their twenties, and while she didn’t regret adding kids to their little family, she was old enough and wise enough now that she could admit they might have rushed into it a bit.
There’d been so much going on with the war, and Paris in particular had been looking for ways to feel normal, to feel like she was winning.
Then Chris’s starseed was damaged before the twins were born, and that moment was… not ruined, but different than they’d both imagined it would be. They tried for that normalcy again with Elsie.
They had that normalcy now — as much as they were ever going to, at least.
“One day, I think it’d be nice to have more,” she said — carefully, in case she was disappointing Chris. “I just…” Paris paused again, struggling to explain. “I’ve only just gotten back to being active with… you know, the war and all. I felt guilty for taking time away, and… with the twins in school and Elsie a little older now, I’ve been able to put more effort into it. I couldn’t do that with another baby. I’d want to be home all the time.”
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Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2021 1:58 pm
Chris offered Paris a gentle smile, knowing that she was being cautious not to hurt his feelings. They were young, and they had a hopefully very long life ahead of them.
And hopefully not much longer until the tides shifted in the war to their favor.
“That’s fine,” Chris easily agreed. “I’m proud of you. You’ve been helping a lot of people, and I know you’re only just getting back into being more available for Senshi and Knights… and Negaverse agents that need you. And I know I’m not around nearly as much as I would like to be,” he said, and then let out a small sigh, but obviously frustrated with himself.
“Sometimes I feel like it would be better to just retire from baseball. I’ve played my share of games. And I don’t like the idea of you having to take care of the children by yourself… or taking care of what is going on in the war by yourself. Unless me being around is just going to make things more difficult?”
Chris wasn’t stupid, even if he was purposefully naive. He knew he caused Paris more trouble than it was probably worth out on the field. If something happened to him, her focus would be pulled away from what was most important. Or he could just be a distraction. Either way, he didn’t want his involvement to cause her, or anyone else, to get hurt.
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Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2021 5:41 pm
“Jack would never forgive you if you retired now,” Paris warned him, only half joking. Chris’s regular catcher would be devastated.
She might never forgive him either, knowing why he was doing it, giving up something that made him happy, something he’d worked so hard to accomplish, all because of the war. They’d both sacrificed enough already — their time, their health, their safety, their sanity. Paris wasn’t willing to give up more than she had to, and she wasn’t prepared to allow Chris to do so either.
Not that she could stop him if that was a decision he made, but… she hoped it wasn’t, for his sake.
Dropping her head onto Chris’s shoulder, Paris said, “You don’t make things more difficult. You make things easier. I wouldn’t’ve gotten half as far without you.”
She was lucky to have met him when she did, so soon after becoming a Senshi. They had their fair share of drama as a couple early on, but when it came to their powered lives, they always had each other’s backs. Paris needed that back then. She needed it now, with so many of their old allies gone. Chris was her one constant.
Paris took his hand and squeezed it. “Let’s revisit Elsie’s wish in a couple of years. Save it, and we can bury it when we make it come true.”
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Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2021 6:02 pm
Chris laughed softly when Paris said he didn’t make things more difficult, not believing that in the least. There were plenty of times where Paris had to put herself in front of him to protect him from a hostile enemy. There were times Paris became more in order to save him. She’d gained her power as a princess only after he’d almost been turned to Chaos.
Paris was strong, and he had no doubt that she would continue to grow and flourish. As a Senshi, a mother, a wife… everything she was would continue to grow, and Chris couldn’t be more proud of her for that. Even if they never had any more children, he knew he would be happy if she was.
“Jack can retire, too,” he half joked as well, knowing that his baseball partner wouldn’t unless he was made to. He had a legacy to live up to, after all.
Chris squeezed Paris’s hand back, and tilted his head to press a kiss against her temple. “Alright. I’ll save it for now.”
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