February 6th 2022
Chapter 37
Our Sparks For Ink
A week after the Friars had unleashed the Christmas fairies' magic on their house, Lucas got on the road with his eldest daughter and made his way out to Houston. The trip had already been in the books a week ago, at least for him. It wasn't until he mentioned it to her that Ella became involved. When she found out that he was due to go and get his birds updated, she immediately asked if she might go with him. She wanted to get an update, too, to the flowers on her wrist. It was quickly settled. Lucas texted his artist and asked if she could fit Ella in after him and she responded in the affirmative.
For that, he'd been looking forward to the day even more than he'd done when it was only him. The tradition had grown out of nowhere, hadn't it? He and Maya had gotten their own birds, the owl and nightingale on their forearms, back in college, thanks to a doodle Maya had traced on herself out of boredom. He'd wanted her to do the same for him, as he understood the significance, and so she'd broken out the markers and drawn them on him, too. And when they'd looked at their arms side by side, both with the birds there… they'd wanted to make it permanent. They'd gone out that very night, and there they were, their first tattoos. After that, well, once they'd had Marianne, it hadn't been hard to look at her, and look at their arms, and think 'she needs to be a part of this, too.' And the first little swan had been added. Then, when they'd adopted Ella, herself born in October like her new little sister, they'd just needed to add a second swan for her.
Just like that, they'd sealed their fate. How ever many children they ended up having to call their own, they would all have their birds. And now, they would also have a flower, on their older sister's wrist. She'd gotten that one tattoo the same day he'd had her swan added, a circle of flowers instead of a flock of birds, representing her birth month as well as those of her adoptive parents and sister, her daughter, and Elizabeth Hart. Now, today, while Lucas would see three little kingfishers added to his flock, Ella would see three new poppies planted to her garden, joining the one already there for her August baby Tori.
"Are you going to get one with them and Mom, too?" she asked when they got out of the car. She pointed to her arm, below the crook of her elbow. He knew at once that she wasn't talking of the birds now but instead another of Maya's pieces permanently inked to him. This one was for her and Marianne together, with their names traced above an image of the baby's tiny hand, set over her mother's, all in a circle, with the number 732 hidden in the image. The double 366… Maya had a similar tattoo, of him and their firstborn.
"Thinking about it, but probably won't be today, might take too long. Anyway, Maya hasn't drawn any…"
"No, she did," Ella smiled before passing him a small piece of paper. He hadn't even seen her take it out and he took it in surprise.
In this circle, Maya had drawn herself, sitting with her head bowed to the three small babes in her arms, all of them in their hooded towels, courtesy of Michelle Day, complete with the little ears that enabled him to see who they were meant to be. Bear ears for Kacey, cat for Remy, bunny for Lucy… There were their names again, and a 366 hidden inside each girl's towel. He looked at it all and… well, how could he not? Still… He looked over to his daughter, and he must have had a terrible poker face. Either that, or she was just getting that good at reading him.
"I love that we get to come here like this, you and me," she pointed out with a smile, and that was the answer to his unspoken question. He didn't have something like this for her, no, but she didn't need him to. Lucas smiled now, pulling her into a hug which she returned in kind. She'd been the most unexpected part of this family he and Maya were building, and he loved and cherished her for it, every day.
"Alright, let's do this."
It might have been that they wouldn't have been able to get it all done today, if not that Cheyenne was and always had been a sort of artistic kin to Maya. Just like her, she just couldn't see something that needed to happen and not try to make it work. Since they'd travelled out today, she suggested that they go ahead and do the birds and flowers now and return after lunch for the other piece. That was perfectly reasonable to them. Today was all about them as father and daughter after all. So, Cheyenne got to work, adding the three new birds to Lucas' arm and then the three flowers to Ella's wrist. In both cases, they made sure not to lose the fact that the trio came together. On Lucas, the kingfisher birds were perched on a branch, while on Ella, the three poppies grew and branched off from a single stem.
"We joke sometimes about how people might think we just love birds… or that we'll run out of room," Lucas reflected as they sat at their table over at the Nook, inspecting the new additions, wrapped up in their protective film. Ella laughed, though to see the way she looked at her new flowers for her baby sisters, he had a thought like she would have been satisfied to have a whole sleeve of flowers on her arm if it meant that each one represented a person she loved, people who made her feel safe and happy, feel loved in return.
"Part of me was thinking I might add one, in memory of Lambert… But then I'd need one for Lea and Taylor, too. Maybe that's too early though, or… I don't know…"
"Well, you could always wait. You guys are going on your trip next summer, maybe they'd be into getting their own, sort of like…" he indicated the clock on his wrist.
"You want us to get drunken tattoos?" Ella asked with a smirk that made him laugh.
"We really shouldn't have told you that story, should we?" he asked, and she shook her head, laughing along. "I mean, they turned out pretty good, all things considered. Could have been so much worse." It was just as well that they had never shared the part they'd eventually remembered out of the haze. They had come so close to populating a much less 'sharable' section of their bodies with this matching bit of ink, before settling on their wrists.
"If we do get something together, it won't be like that," Ella promised him, and he nodded with a grin. "Anyway, that's if we still go," she went on, and his expression shifted toward concern.
"What do you mean? Did something happen?"
"Sort of?" Ella shrugged. "It's just that… this whole thing with Theo, and Tori, and then Nika and the baby… Everything's a bit complicated right now, and it's already December. I don't know what the next few months are going to be like, but the idea of flying off in just six or seven months… Maybe it'll all be fine, and we can really go, but I'm not so sure that it will be, and I don't want to keep Lea and Taylor on the line this whole time, only to bail on them at the last minute. It's already kind of weird now anyway," she went on to admit, turning her eyes down to the film on her arm, lightly prodding at the corners where it was stuck down.
"Because of Theo?" Lucas guessed after a few seconds. And Taylor? Ella let out a breath.
"Something like that," she replied. Whatever it was, whatever was or wasn't going on, she didn't seem ready or eager to get into it, so he didn't pry. She'd know by now that, whatever was going on in her life, if she needed to talk to someone, he would be there.
So, they changed the subject, something that was made infinitely easier by the introduction of their lunch. They ate everything off their plates, talking about the more pressing event on the horizon: Christmas. Their respective daughters may have believed that their presents would come courtesy of good old Santa Claus, but they were wearing the hat in real life, and that meant shopping. It was probably a good thing that the triplets would be barely four months old when they had their first Christmas, less to worry about there. Oh, the grandparents would probably imbue Santa with the power to make a lot of generous offerings, whether or not their granddaughters and great granddaughters would be in any way aware… And as to the matter of grandchildren, well, Lucas and Maya did have the one…
It really was an interesting position to find themselves in. Through little more than circumstance, they were at once parents and grandparents to small children, giving them both of those viewpoints at the same time. On the one hand, they wanted to treat their children with presents but not so much as to go overboard, and on the other… All they had to do was think about their little granddaughter and Christmas, and their brains seemed to lose all cohesion and logic.
"Dad, breathe, okay?" Ella laughed when he told her this. "She's two."
"I know, she tells me so," Lucas smiled. "We'll be good, we promise," he added. Ella didn't look too sure about that. They'd always been people of their word, yes, but there had to be weaknesses, surely.
After they'd had lunch and discussed and wandered their way through the time they had to kill, they made their way back and Lucas took his place in Cheyenne's chair for the second time that day. Ella happily documented the process as Maya's art was applied and inked on to Lucas' arm, just below the other circle. By the time they'd be done, he'd be able to look down, all the days of his life, and see these memories of when Marianne and her little sisters had all been babies. Every time he would look there, on this arm or the other, where his birds flew, he would feel all his love for them, making him stronger. It was right, that every last bit of ink on him tied back to people he cared for, people he loved. It was the kind of person he was, and he would have the world see him and know him that way.
"What do you think?" Lucas asked Ella, turning his arm toward her so she could see the finished work. She stepped forward, snapping a picture before it would be covered up.
"It's perfect," she declared, beaming. "Can't wait for Mom to see it."
"She'll be back here next month," Lucas reminded her. "I know this is our thing, but I think she'd love to have you there, too," he suggested.
They hadn't outright told her the idea, the timing, but as soon as he told her, she understood. In January, it would be one year since they'd adopted her. And Maya hadn't been able to get her second swan yet, but she would, along with her three kingfishers… All her girls, there on her arm. She smiled again, that smile she got that made her look like a little girl all at once. It was the smile she got when she felt her parents' love around her, as good as a tight embrace.
"I'll be there. Promise."
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
