"Hey dad, why don't you and mom live together?"
Matthew stopped, trying to figure out how to answer his daughter. Selene watched him expectantly, ruby red eyes trained on him. Brittany and Christopher had already gone to bed, but Selene was still wide awake despite how early she'd gotten up that morning. She was like her mom when it came to sleeping patterns. Get up early, go to bed late, always be tired but never do anything about it. Or, at least, that's what her father told her. Even after seventeen years, she still didn't know her mother's sleeping patterns well enough to know if hers were similar.
The blond sighed and sat down across from his daughter, resting his arms on the table. "It's.. complicated."
Selene frowned at him, her nose scrunching up, the answer not satisfying enough for her. "That's what mom said. Why won't either of you tell me anything?"
He closed his eyes and rubbed the side of his face before looking her in the eye again. "Selene, honey, it's just- a lot… happened between us."
"I know!" Selene replied, knitting her fingers together. "Grandpa Francis told me! He said mom got this spell put on her and that's why Sev, Bell, Brittany, Chris and I were born!"
Matthew raised an eyebrow at her. "Did he? Interesting." He'd have to talk to his father about that.
Selene stopped, realizing she'd probably just gotten her grandfather in trouble. "He didn't go into detail though, just kept muttering about Arthur. Did Arthur have something to do with it? Is that why they don't talk?"
Her father simply smiled and shook his head slightly. "That might be part of it, but no. They've never liked each other." He got up and resumed pouring food pellets into a bowl for Chris's ferret, Byeli. "And technically, it wasn't just Arthur. Lukas and Vlad were helping him with the spell and they had no idea it would effect your mother the way it did."
"You mean get her pregnant?" Selene clarified.
He resisted the urge to facepalm. She was very blunt, always getting straight to the point, never leaving anything vague. "Yes, Selene, that's what I meant. They still won't tell us what the spell was originally supposed to do, but it wasn't supposed to get your mother pregnant."
"How does that even work?" Selene asked, staring at the ceiling like it was going to give her the answers to life's biggest questions or tell her the meaning of life.
Matthew chuckled and sat down again. "I don't pretend to understand what those three do with their magic." He stood again, suddenly feeling restless. "Come on, time for bed."
"Aw, but dad, I'm not even-" her sentence was cut off by a yawn that she tried to hide with her hand. She grinned at him sheepishly, knowing she'd been caught. "Tired."
"Yeah right. Come on."
She got up, following him to her room even though she knew the way. When they got there, she crawled into bed, surveying it for a minute before finding and grabbing her pet fox from the corner and hugging him. Matthew watched his daughter for a minute before smirking at her, "Do you want me to tuck you in?"
Her eyes widened and she blushed, her pale complexion making it even more obvious. "Dad! I'm seventeen, not three!"
"Alright then. Good night." He turned to walk away, before she grabbed his wrist.
"I suppose... this once couldn't hurt." she muttered, stubbornly refusing to look him in the eye. "Just this once though."
He smiled and turned back to the bed, carefully tucking the blanket around her shoulders like he'd done when she was little. "Just this once." He kissed her forehead and went to the door. "Goodnight honey."
"Goodnight dad. I love you."
"I love you too."
The blond took the bowl of food pellets to his son's room, put it in Byeli's cage and turned the bedside lamp off. Chris had long since fallen asleep, his computer screen still open on the english paper he was writing. Matthew clicked the save button and closed the computer before leaving the room again. He made his way to Brittany's room, hoping she wasn't still awake. A quick check assured him that she wasn't and he went back downstairs, his mind wandering. Selene's questions had dragged questions of his own up and these weren't ones he liked to obsess over. Mostly about the woman he hadn't spoken to in person for... how long had it been now? Ten years? He sat down, mulling over it, wondering if Maddy was ever going to stop being so stubborn and prideful. What were they to each other now? Sure, they'd been together when they'd found out she was pregnant and when she'd moved out, but could they still be considered a couple? He'd been planning to ask her to marry him at one point. He wasn't sure if she'd accept it now, but sometimes he thought about how she'd been when she'd first gotten here, quiet and stubborn with her nose buried in a book. She'd been a nervous, blushing mess with a face that looked like a tomato because of how red she was. It was weird to think it had been so long since then.
He sighed and leaned back, his head hitting the back of the chair. He opened his eyes, glaring at the ceiling. Sure, it hadn't done anything to him and wasn't the source of his problems, but it seemed to be enduring a multitude of looks lately. An idea crossed his mind and he sat up, checking his calendar. Maybe it was time he paid her a visit.
I know I just posted this story yesterday, but I've had the idea rolling around in my head for a while so I figured I'd post the next chapter.
pinkittwice54: Thank you! The fact that you like the concept means a lot to me. I promise that I'll try very hard not to butcher any of your characters and if you or Maddy have a problem with the way I write it, I will change it or take it down. I'm not planning on making this story super dark, but there will definitely be a lot of conflict.