Another Friday, another instance of Yarne getting off at his normal early time to go pick Ribbon up from school and take her home. That particular day was a rough one, given that it had been snowing since the night before, but the roads had been deemed clear enough for schools to go on without cancellation, and naturally Yarne's job hadn't closed for the weather either. There wasn't any snow on the streets he drove on, but things were clearly wet and his mind was jumping to every possible worst-case scenario on what could happen on his drive through town to get his sister. Nothing did happen, and he pulled up to the school in the middle of the busiest time for people getting picked up, and she was brought out to his car in visible tears.
"What happened?" he asked, hoping that the teacher who'd escorted her would hear him but he was left needing to get an answer from his sobbing sister, who got into the passenger's seat and buckled in like nothing was wrong, even though she was crying. "Ribbon, is it the bullying again? Do we need to have a talk with the parents about this?"
She shook her head, raising her hands to show that, while on one hand she wore a sparkly pink glove, the other was bare and showed off her equally sparkly nail polish. "I l-l-lost my glove at recess and no one could find it and Mom's gonna be so mad if she has to buy me another new pair and I-I didn't mean to lose it, don't let her get mad at me!" There was desperation in Ribbon's voice as she started gasping in the middle of her crying, a feeling that Yarne was very familiar with. This was equal parts valid fear and childish overreaction, but as her older brother he felt like he needed to do what he could to help her out.
Wet, terrifying streets be damned, he was going to protect his sister from any punishment she might have received for losing a glove on the playground. "I don't have anything going on tonight outside of my normal stuff, and that can always wait," he said thoughtfully, as he began to drive out of the parking lot. "We can stop and get you a new pair of gloves before I take you home, but if we do that we've got to also…you know, get something for Mom so that she's not suspicious of what took us so long."
"I like that idea," Ribbon choked out, beginning the process of calming herself down now that she knew there was a solution to the problem. She continued to sob and hiccup and cough as she slowly went back to her normal disposition, while Yarne drove with his hands gripping the wheel like it was about to fly away if he loosened even a muscle. Because of his focus on the roads, he didn't feel like he was able to give her any more attention than he already had, but she didn't seem to mind her brother ignoring her in the aftermath of her ugly bout of crying.
The store he chose to go to was a newer one in a shopping center pretty close to the school, in the opposite direction from their parents' house but worth it as they advertised all sorts of great deals. While they were walking inside, Ribbon's eyes were being caught by all of the different ads that adorned the store's windows, while Yarne was focused entirely on not slipping on slick spots on the road. His lack of attention on what the store was offering was to his detriment, as they entered the building and his sister immediately bolted toward the back of the store, telling him she'd come find him when she was done. He watched her go, and while his mind was screaming for him to follow her, he'd happened to see a display near the door that seemed interesting to him, and off to that he went.
Twenty minutes later and Ribbon was back at his side, her arms filled with much more than just a pair of gloves. "I found all these things that I want," she told him in a completely serious voice. "I have the money for them at home, but that's at home and not here, so will you be a good brother and buy it or am I gonna have to cry again?"
Yarne looked at everything she was holding, a lot of little toys and trinkets in addition to two sparkly, fuzzy pairs of gloves to replace the one she'd lost, then to the collection of things he'd acquired while he was browsing. "Uh, I think I can handle buying all this, I did just get paid today, but you have to promise me you're going to pay me back when I drop you off, for everything except the gloves."
"Deal!" She started to back away, prompting him to ask her where she was going. "To get more stuff, of course! I have way more money than just what I need for this!"
"That's plenty of stuff already, you're not getting anything else today!" The idea of having to pay for more than what had already been gathered made Yarne's blood run cold, and while he felt bad telling his sister to stop, he couldn't let her rack up a small fortune to pay him back later. "Seriously, Ribbon, if you get too much, Mom's going to be mad at me for letting you be that irresponsible with your money…"
She huffed, but came back to standing beside her brother instead of running through the store on the hunt for more fun purchases. "I guess that makes sense, but what about you? Why are you allowed to buy all of that stuff you totally don't need?"
"Most of it isn't even for me," he replied, looking at the selection of workout materials he'd scooped up from on the shelf. "I kind of figured that maybe Kjelle would like these things as a gift, since she loves herself some different ways to test her strength and all that. Plus, I found a rabbit planter that I'm getting for Mom, to make sure she's not suspicious about your glove problem."
Ribbon listened intently, then feigned a yawn once her brother had stopped talking. "Sorry, that was really boring to hear. Are we leaving now?" While Yarne was not exactly happy about how his sister was talking to him, he had to remember that she was just a preteen and she wasn't going to be as interested in things that he thought of. With that in mind, and while also trying to keep her from buying anything else, they made their way to the register and paid for everything they'd collected, far from a cheap shopping trip despite the store bragging about its low price point, and after making sure Ribbon knew exactly how much of that was hers that she now owed her brother, they were on their way out, resuming their ride to drop her off.
It had started snowing lightly while they were in the store, which only amplified Yarne's anxiety about driving on the roads, but he was able to get to their parents' house without any issue. He had to get out and run the planter inside; Panne was not home to receive it herself but Ricken was more than happy to take it and give it to her when he could. "Is there any reason for this gift?" he asked, looking between his son and the ceramic rabbit. "Something didn't happen between you two again, did it?"
"No, Dad, everything's fine. Ribbon and I just went shopping after school and I decided it would be nice to get Mom something for once. Don't think too much into it." Laughing as he tried dodging the actual reason they were at the store in the first place, Yarne made it back to the front door before he heard his sister in her room yelling about finding the glove she'd thought she'd misplaced in her jacket sleeve. His eyes widened and his shoulders slumped, his father giving him quite the amused look as Ribbon ran to the doorway with a small wad of cash to hand over to her brother. "Thanks for ruining our whole operation," he muttered as he took the money, his sister quite confused about what he meant by that until she was asked moments later about her so-called missing glove.
That was Yarne's cue to leave, and he walked out and closed the door right as he heard his sister starting to talk about how she'd left school crying. "How did she forget to look in her jacket before assuming it was gone?" he asked himself, remembering once again that she was a lot younger and a lot less mature than he was. What seemed like common sense to him wasn't anything close for her, and that was something that had to be kept in mind when considering her behavior.
He climbed into the car and sat behind the wheel, watching the snow slowly collecting on the windshield as his heart rate began picking up until it felt like it was about to pound out of his chest. There were a million things that could go wrong on his way home, on a drive that he'd made more times than he could count, and even just sitting there he was allowing for things to get potentially worse on his way. That was the motivation to just get going, slow and steady over slickened roads that were starting to collect the fresh dusting of snow. He'd braked much earlier than necessary at every light and intersection, and waited especially long to cross where oncoming traffic didn't need to stop, but aside from the feeling that things were going to get worse as the night went on, he was able to make it home without even a slight problem.
That clearly wasn't the case for the other car sitting outside of the house when he got back, considering Kjelle wasn't even supposed to be home at that time. She had clearly run into something, or perhaps been run into, while out driving, as evidenced by the bent front bumper and the way that there was an obviously flat tire right behind it. The sight of the damage made Yarne cringe when he saw it, and after getting out of his car with his bag of new stuff he went to go inspect it a bit closer, even in the snow. That was when he realized that Kjelle was still in her car, sitting behind the wheel with her face buried in her crossed arms, and he tapped on the glass of the other window to get her attention. She lifted her head and smiled at him, but it was no surprise to see that she was visibly upset.
Before he had the chance to ask what had happened when she got out of the car, she was telling him the short version of events. "Someone turned out when they shouldn't have and sent their car into mine, nothing big," she explained, a sadness to her voice as she spoke. "It was right down the street from here and I hoped they would've stopped but they didn't, so I just drove it home. Not like the police are taking calls about accidents right now, but I got the license plate information of the guy who did it. Damn people with their stupid vanity plates, if they can't drive it just does them in."
"How are we going to get this fixed?" he asked, his jaw starting to hang as he looked a bit closer at how much damage had been done. "I mean, hopefully they find who caused the accident and they pay for it, but until then, what do we do? I don't think you can be driving around with this like this, even if we fix that tire."
"I know, okay? You don't need to point out how bad this is to me when I'm already well aware of that fact!" Her temper seemed to be rather short at the moment as she snapped at him, before storming inside the house, nearly slipping on the slick sidewalk as she did. Yarne intended on following her right away, but with hurt feelings and a mind jumping to all possible conclusions on how the situation would be solved, he stayed out there in the snow and kept looking at the damage for a while.
He wasn't the best with cars and how to fix them, and when he needed help he always went to the mechanic that one of his coworkers had recommended to him, because she'd been going to him for several decades. But that man's work, while fantastic, always seemed to be incredibly expensive and if this car with its damage was limped over there, Yarne could only imagine the giant cost they'd need to pay to fix things, insurance or not. He crouched down and took a look at the way the bumper had crumpled and broken apart, at how there was no life left in the tire that had barely been able to get home, at how the rim of the wheel was clearly damaged from being driven on. This wasn't something that they were going to be able to take care of without needing to make some serious changes to save money, and that was assuming that it would be able to be taken care of. Just the thought of needing to replace the car on their own had him beginning to panic, and he wasn't even the one who'd wrecked the car in the first place.
That was what led him to go inside to comfort his girlfriend, the realization that if he was panicking about things, she was going to be even more distraught. Things that rattled him usually didn't impact Kjelle in the same way, but this was a completely different beast than what they were usually faced with; she'd had to feel the impact, see the accident as it happened, remember the license plate while she worried about getting the car back home in the snow. When he got inside, he could hear her on the phone with someone in the bedroom, but the conversation was snappish and annoyed on her side, making it seem like whoever she was talking to, it wasn't something she wanted to be talking about. Rather than go figure out what she was doing, he decided to just sit in the big chair and start playing his game, a reminder that not everything in the world had to be as bad as things currently were.
When Kjelle came out of the bedroom, she was holding her phone tightly in her hand and looked like she'd been spending some time crying at one point, which Yarne had missed entirely due to focusing on his game. "Good news, I called the accident in anyway and because I had some information and they didn't care to stop, I think it'll get handled somehow," she said as she came to sit down in her usual spot on Yarne's lap. "Bad news, they didn't tell me how long it could take to get handled, and when I called the insurance company they weren't exactly the most understanding about how I didn't get any more information than the plate. They're asking for a lot to make a claim here, and I…"
He nodded, listening to her even though he hadn't once pulled his eyes off of the TV screen since she'd joined him. "I was thinking about that too, we're just going to have to not spend any extra money to cover for that. How bad is it?"
"I don't even want to talk about it."
"That tells me all I need to know." Just the fact that she couldn't bring herself to say a number amount made Yarne worry how much it really was, but he was confident their plan to save money would be able to take care of things. "I think if we both try to work a little extra, and we make sure to not go out doing things that cost anything, it'll all be okay."
"Until they say it can't be fixed and I have to get a new car, then we're completely screwed. I've had that car myself since I turned sixteen, but my parents got it years before then, I really don't think they're going to bother trying to repair a car over a decade old." Her fingers fidgeting as she still held onto her phone, it was clear that there was something else going on that was weighing on Kjelle's mind. All it took was Yarne putting the controller down and giving her a sad smile to get her to break down and tell him exactly what was going on. "I had to tell them. It wasn't my car to begin with, I know how much my parents gave to get that thing for me, I had to let them know what happened."
Yarne's smile only turned further into a look of sadness, which he knew wasn't helping matters anyway but couldn't change. "That's a huge decision, telling them something like that. They decide they're going to handle things for you or something?"
"Mom tried, I told her she could step off and let me take care of my own problem. Kind of ended in a bit of an argument, might've hung up on her without apologizing, it's how it always goes." She sighed, finally letting her phone slip from her hand and down onto the chair, where it then bounced off and onto the floor. "I shouldn't have told them in the first place, but I felt…I felt…it was what was right to do, given the situation."
"Well, now you're going to need to work things out with her again," Yarne pointed out, knowing that it must have seemed fairly rich coming from him and his own history with fighting with his mother. "And we both know that that's not going to be easy, don't we?"
Her cheeks puffing up as she thought about how to reply to that, Kjelle held her emotions and all of her words in for a few moments, before exhaling sharply. "I'm not going to take the first action there. If she wants an apology from me, she's going to be the one coming to look for it first."
Even though he didn't like that being the course of action she planned on taking, Yarne knew that he wasn't going to be able to talk Kjelle into handling it any other way. "Well, if that's how it's going to be," he said, picking his controller back up and getting back to playing his game with full attention, "then I'll support you every step of the way. I'm not going to force you to talk to them, you know I don't really like talking to them either. It just kind of…works out if you're not on speaking terms again."
She nuzzled herself into his shoulder, mouthing words that she didn't give a voice to so that Yarne couldn't react to them, and soon enough she was quietly crying into him, a break from her usually rough façade that she kept up around everyone. "I wish it wasn't this way," she squeaked out, voice cracking with every word. "I think it would be amazing to have a good relationship with my parents, I really think it would. They're just so difficult, they just don't get me, they just—I don't—it isn't fair to live like this!"
"I know, I know," he comforted, leaning his head onto hers to show that he was trying to be there for her while he was still focused on his game. "I always feel like that when me and Mom go to blows, it sucks but things always get better in the end. You'll find a way to see eye-to-eye with them sometime, I know it."
Lifting her head, it was clear that the crying that Kjelle was doing was emotionally devastating her because her cheeks were reddened and stained with tear-trails, even with being against his shoulder like she'd been. "And what if I don't find a way? They never want to meet me where I am, it's always their way or no way at all and I can't handle that. I'm an adult, they need to stop treating me like a child all the time!"
"Please don't yell at me…" Yarne's voice was small, as his controller came out of his hand once more so that he could reach up and cover his face, so that Kjelle couldn't see that he was on the verge of crying himself. "I didn't do anything wrong here, so there's no reason for you to be raising your voice at me, you know? I'm trying my best to help you out but if you don't want me helping you, then…then…I don't know what you want from me!"
At once, she slammed her face back down against him, choking out body-shaking cries as she tried her best to apologize for raising her voice, all attempts at getting the words out hampered by the way she was crying. The sound of her pitiful attempts at making things right had an averse affect on Yarne, who started crying as well, drenching his hand in his tears that he shouldn't have needed to shed. Their emotional outbursts were complemented with the sound of the video game music playing in front of them, a sound that felt too upbeat and joyful for a moment filled with struggles; eventually, as the hour changed and the music shifted, they both came out of their crying to find the other still there, still trying to physically support even in their own moment of weakness.
The game was turned off and they sat there in relative silence until their sniffles had subsided enough to properly speak to one another again. "I think I'm going to need a drink with dinner," Kjelle said, despondence in her voice as she sat up and stopped leaning so hard into Yarne's body. "I know turning to alcohol in these times isn't the way to handle things, but it's a unique situation."
"I'm not sure if you remember, but you probably should, but it's snowing right now, Kjelle. We don't have any—" Yarne cut himself off when he looked over at the gift basket in the very room with them, the bottle of wine his mother had gifted them still sitting within view. He'd only had a sip of it that night at his parents' house, but he remembered how nasty it had been considered and how much help it needed to be worth drinking. "—okay, we have wine but we don't have anything to go with it. I'm not driving in the snow, and I don't want to make someone else drive in the snow to bring you something to drink. I think you're going to have to wait on that."
Rather than listen to his reasons, Kjelle got up out of the chair and went over to the basket, scooping up the bottle of wine and walking it straight into the kitchen. "I'm just upset enough that I think a glass with dinner won't kill me," she called back to him, as he heard her set the bottle on the counter and come back to join him in the chair, making sure to pick up her phone before she sat. "It was disgusting and needed a hell of a lot of juice to be drinkable, but it's one glass. I'll manage, somehow."
"Then dinner should…probably be something you won't mind being drowned out by that taste," he replied, pulling a disgusted face complete with nose scrunched as high as it could go. "Something bland and plain and boring."
"Or it can be something so good that it makes us forget how gross the wine is, because you're drinking some too. You missed out last time, I'm sure your mom would be thrilled to know you actually went for it this time." She matched his face-scrunch, before sticking her tongue out at him for a split second. "I'm thinking something that uses the oven, to warm it up in here a little. This snowstorm really decided to bring the cold with it, huh?"
He didn't respond right away, as his mind had begun turning at the mention of the cold. First it was thinking about Ribbon and her missing glove that hadn't been missing at all, then it was about buying her new gloves to replace said not-missing glove, and finally he remembered what else he'd done at the store with his sister. "Kjelle! I didn't show you all of the things I bought for you today, did I?" he asked, almost out of nowhere and catching her by complete surprise. When she shook her head, he motioned for her to get up off of him before he got out of the chair and went to get the bag from by the door. How he'd remembered to bring it inside with everything else that had been going on, he wasn't completely sure, but he had it sitting there for him to refer to eventually.
Inside of it were all of the little workout aides he'd found at the store, as well as a cute shirt that he'd seen and thought of his girlfriend immediately, with a cat hanging upside down on a dumbbell. "When did you get these for me?" she questioned, pulling everything out of the bag and smiling at each and every item, especially the cat shirt. "Better question, why did you get them for me? You trying to tell me something?"
"They weren't expensive and I thought, hey, maybe you'd like to have these sorts of things here at home so that you don't have to spend all of your workout time here doing things on your own," he explained, a solid reason for the purchases in his mind. "Plus, if you have these here, then you don't have to try using things like them after work like you sometimes do, you can just come home and do it instead."
"That's really sweet of you, thanks for thinking of me like that. Still doesn't explain when you got these, but at least I know you're not trying to kiss up to me or something." Her smile seemed so genuine, a welcome sight after everything else that had happened that day so far, and Yarne was glad that he could say he was responsible for the change in demeanor. Even still, he didn't ever get around to explaining why he'd ended up at the store, or when in his schedule he'd made it happen, but that wasn't important in the end.
True to her word, once they'd made dinner and it was served at their cluttered kitchen table, Kjelle poured both of them some of that wine they'd been given, into normal glasses because they had no reason for ones specifically for wine. It tasted exactly as disgusting as it had the first time they'd tried it, and without any juices or other things to mix with it, they were left having to brute force their way through the drink. Or, at least, Yarne was having to do the brute forcing, because after her experience with it the last time, Kjelle was at least a little more tolerant of the taste. Still not tolerant enough to have more than the one cup on its own, but she at least didn't seem to be deterred from drinking it on her own. "Maybe next time your mom decides she's going to buy us something like this, she can at least check to make sure we'll actually want it," she said after taking a sip of the wine and doing her best not to grimace at the taste. "I can't say I have any ideas for what she could give us that we would want, but…anything would be better than this."
"You're the one who said you wanted a drink and I told you this was all we had, you could've at least saved your desire to drink your sorrows away for when it isn't snowing," he replied, not seeing anything wrong with the idea of being given a better gift but also knowing that drinking the wine as it was wasn't his idea. "I wouldn't even know where to start with asking for something that's better than this, I don't know how to describe what's so bad about it to begin with."
"It's just strong. Overpowering. Tastes like when they made it, they forgot to add the things that are supposed to make wine taste good." Unable to contain her grimace after another sip, Kjelle looked like she was experiencing some genuine discomfort with that drink until she went ahead and downed the rest of the cup, the bitterness leaving her face scrunched for a solid minute after. Yarne looked at his own cup, which had barely been touched, and thought about offering it to her but decided against it, knowing that she'd suffered enough with her own portion.
With no other options, he decided to try drinking his as fast as he could and ended up sputtering dark wine across his part of the table and all over his clothes, due to how disgusting the rush of wine was. That made her laugh, which in turn had him laughing, and even though they were now in a race against time to keep the wine from staining his shirt and from leaving marks on their table, it was nice to share a light-hearted moment after a day that had been anything but light.
"Remind me that, for as long as this wine's the only alcohol we've got, we need to keep some juice around for mixing, because this stuff just isn't good," she said as she was wiping down the table, Yarne standing in the kitchen at the sink with his shirt currently submerged in soapy water. "I've decided that, even though the idea of a drink seemed like a good one, drinking this as it comes was not the best way to act on that idea."
He blinked, almost surprised that she had just come to that conclusion. "You're telling me, I might've ruined one of my favorite shirts because of this."
"I wasn't the one who made you try to down the whole cup at once, that was all on you."
"Yeah, true, but I wanted it gone." He reached into the water with a long-handled spoon and stirred it around a little, hoping that he'd gotten soap to the wine marks in time. "I don't understand how Mom could drink that and expect others to drink it too. I know that it's because it's for the taguel and all but…come on, couldn't she have gotten something lighter? Something fruitier? Something better?"
There was a wet plop sound as Kjelle threw the rag she'd been using to wipe the table toward the sink, landing it perfectly in with the shirt. "Seriously, that stuff tastes like medicine and looks like it too. I doubt even serious drinkers would want to touch that stuff without mixing it, and yet your mom just kind of gifted it to us. Must mean a lot to her that we drink that stuff this year instead of normal wines."
The bottle was still on the counter, and Yarne glanced at it, the picture of an ornate rabbit on the label reminding him that it was beyond important that he followed his mother's expectations that year. He was one of two taguel who could drink the stuff, and while the next year of the rabbit would have a third, that still wasn't going to be enough to drain the supply that inevitably existed of the stuff. "The place that makes it probably makes so much that they need to get rid of it as fast as possible, that's probably why Mom thinks we need to have it instead of anything else."
"Right, only taguel and all that. Well, at least for her sake I think I can do it as long as we have juices around, but I'm not the target audience for this stuff, you are." Coming up beside Yarne and resting her head on his bare arm, Kjelle also glanced over at the bottle before giving a big shudder. "Imagine being the person that's meant to drink something and absolutely hating it. I mean, I get why you'd hate it, it's nasty, but I think you're supposed to like it."
"I don't know, maybe I am? I'd never heard of it until Mom brought it up at that dinner, and I don't exactly remember her drinking it last time it was the year of the rabbit because…" He trailed off, knowing why he wouldn't have seen her drinking the wine that year, but he still had zero interest in approaching that topic if he could help it. "Doesn't matter, actually. I think this is just something she's brought up with me, and you because you're with me, because we're old enough for it."
Kjelle nodded, before moving away from his body to go back toward the table, just to check and make sure it had been properly cleaned. "Imagine being someone whose first taste of alcohol is that wine because you're unfortunate enough to be around someone who's part of the taguel culture. That would definitely turn me off from ever wanting to drink."
"Definitely. Might be for the best then that it's only a once every twelve years sort of thing, and the chances of it being someone's first time to drink when they have it are pretty low. Unless they just sell this stuff every year, in which case, sucks for them." Yarne actually wouldn't have minded it being the first drink he'd ever had, given how infrequently he drank and how little he'd take in when he did, but he wasn't going to try and bring down the conversation and where Kjelle was going with it. "A-anyway, we'll have juice in the house for next time we drink some. When that'll be, who knows, but—"
"Your birthday's coming up, we could have more of it then?" Her suggestion came as she turned on the balls of her feet to look at him once again, having been struck with the idea as she'd gone to the table. "It wouldn't be the best birthday present, I get that, but it would be a solid reason for why we'd be drinking anything in the first place. Better than 'I got my car wrecked and fought with my mother and now I need a drink' as a reason, that is."
He didn't like drinking on nights where he worked the next day, but his birthday was an exception as he took the following day off if he was supposed to work it, which in this case he was. That wasn't an excuse he could use to get out of having more of the nasty wine, and both he and Kjelle knew it. "I, uh, think that might be doable, if we're planning on staying in that night," he said, stirring around his shirt and the dirty rag in the water. "If we're going out, though, I'd rather be given drinks from somewhere else."
"No one said you couldn't have both," she pointed out, turning back toward the table and running her hands over it to check for any stickiness or leftover wine. "But I get it, not everyone is as open to getting drunk once a year as I am, you're not going to want to spend your birthday the same way I did."
"You also spent the next day completely hungover, don't think I've forgotten that." The memory wasn't a pleasant one, not exactly, but Yarne distinctly remember having to make several store runs the day after Kjelle's last birthday, all in the name of trying to find her something that would help her feel better. "Just because you spent your twenty-fourth birthday getting trashed while out and at home doesn't mean I need to do the same."
"Fair enough, we'll pick one or the other, but not both for you." With a nod, satisfied with the condition of the table, Kjelle moved away toward the chair in the living room. "When you're done in there, you can come join me and we can play games together or something, I don't know," she yelled back to Yarne, who nodded as he gave the water another spin. "I'll be waiting for you, though!"
"I'll take you up on your offer as soon as I can, that's a promise!" Yes, he was concerned about his shirt being unsalvageable, but Yarne had something to look forward to once he knew its condition, and he wasn't going to let something else going wrong that day ruin the enjoyment he got from spending time with his girlfriend.
When Yarne's birthday came just a week and a half later, he'd been equal parts excited and dreading its arrival. He knew that he was going to get to spend the evening after work getting spoiled to the skies above, but he still wasn't sure if they were staying in (and therefore subjecting him to that wine again) or going out (which was the preferable option on multiple levels). It was his choice at the end of the day, and his social battery was going to be the determining factor for what happened, but he so badly wanted to be able to force himself into a situation that would result in him enjoying his night, not being forced to make good on an agreement. Unfortunately for him, when he got off work that afternoon he was so tired of dealing with people trying to talk to him and wish him a happy birthday and all of those pleasantries that the mere thought of going anywhere else made him panic.
One text message to Kjelle later, telling her that she needed to prepare to have his birthday celebration at home, and he was once again sitting in his car trying his best not to have a breakdown over things. "She's going to have a cake, she's going to have a dinner, she's going to have me drink some more of that wine, it's all going to end up okay but it's going to suck getting there," he told himself, trying to resist banging his head against the steering wheel. "I'm not going to have to deal with other people, I'll be just fine."
That was what he kept repeating as he drove home, only to find an unfamiliar car idling outside of the house when he got there, which immediately sent up the red flags that indicated things weren't going to be going according to his plans. Thankfully, the car left relatively quickly after he'd parked, and it didn't seem like it had anything to do with him or his birthday. It wasn't until he was inside the house that he remembered that someone had to have brought Kjelle home from work, and they probably had stopped at the store on their way home so that she could fulfill his birthday wishes. Sure enough, when he got inside he could hear her rustling around in the kitchen, and after locking the door a sufficient amount of times, as well as going into the bedroom and changing, he went to go meet her in there.
Instead of making it into the kitchen, he was stopped right by the table with a crudely-taped banner going across the opening into the other part of the room. It didn't say anything, and was made out of wrapping paper, and it wasn't even high enough to prevent him from seeing over it, but it was a clear indication that Kjelle did not want him on the other side for the time being. "Go play your game, I know that you're looking forward to seeing which villagers come to your party this year," she told him when she heard him tap on the wall, deciding how to proceed. "You can come over here and see what I'm doing when I'm done. No peeking, even though I know you want to."
Laughing because of how easy peeking really was for him at his height, Yarne turned around and plopped himself down in the big chair, turning his game on and getting right to playing. The birthday celebration was one of the highlights of the year for him, something that he hadn't been able to do until almost a full year after the game's release due to when his birthday fell on the calendar, and he found it peaceful and enjoyable to get to party with his fictional little animal friends and deliver cupcakes to them wherever he could find them. "I wonder who's going to be throwing the party this year?" he mused, as he got everything in order to find the answer.
The villagers responsible were two of his longest residents, both rabbits of different personalities and appearances, as well as one of his "had-to-get" animals he'd found chilling at his campsite a while back, a lazy cat that made him smile to look at. He felt completely at home being in the room with those three, getting to chat with them and have them give him birthday wishes as well as gifts to make his whole day bright, and when it came time to beat the pinata he went intentionally slow, as to savor the moment of his animal friends cheering him on and celebrating with him. Once the party was over, it was time to run around the island and visit with everyone who hadn't come to visit, including one villager whose birthday was the same day—something that had been a complete coincidence when he'd recruited her to come live on his island.
By the time he felt satisfied with his in-game birthday, he heard the paper getting ripped down back behind him and as he was saving and turning the system off, Kjelle was walking toward him, looking like a complete mess with cake mix powder all over her shirt and arms. "We're not going to say a word about how bad everything looks, got it?" she said to him as she came around the chair, smiling at him with her hands on her hips. "I've done my best, and that's all we can ask for."
"If you're fine with how it's turned out, then I'm sure I'm not going to be complaining one bit," he replied, standing up and considering hugging her but thinking twice about it when he saw the powder on her body. "You, uh, have a little…something on you."
"I know." Two words, said completely matter-of-fact and without a hint of anger or being upset with the situation. "I decided I was going to try making a cake from scratch. Worst idea I could've come up with, so you're getting one made from a box. Sorry about that."
Given how many times in his life Yarne hadn't even been given a cake to begin with, the fact that Kjelle had tried to go that far in making him one had him grinning from ear to ear. "I'm sure it's going to be great!" He inhaled, and for the first time he realized how sweet the air in their house smelled, as if the cake's odor had permeated through every inch of the place. "Is it still baking right now?"
"Sure is, then it'll need to cool and then I'll be able to frost it, but that isn't why I was locking you out of the kitchen." With a hop to the side, she began walking back toward her workspace and he eagerly followed her, like a child into a candy store. Spread out across the counters in the kitchen were all sorts of different small dishes, some more plant-based and some more meat-heavy, each one looking like it had just enough for them to share. "I had this idea the other day, and when you told me you wanted to stay in today I knew it was now or never for this kind of work. Thankfully, we already had a lot of what I needed for this, but it might've been a bit expensive to get the rest."
He was staring at all of the dishes in awe, to the point that her mention of price hadn't registered in his mind until several moments later, at which time he shook his head and looked at her. "More or less than it would've been to just take me out to dinner?" he asked, almost afraid of what the answer was going to be.
"Depending on where we would've gone, probably less, but there's the chance you could've wanted something cheap and this was the more expensive option." She raised a finger for him to hold on before saying anything else, then opened the fridge and pulled out a large salad, handing it to him before reaching in again and grabbing a brand-new pack of assorted drinks. "Also, this might've been, like, a third of what I paid for today. It looked interesting, and I felt it was only fitting that I get…"
As she trailed off, Yarne was able to see the specific assortment of drinks she'd gotten, all of which were year of the rabbit-themed alcoholic beverages that looked nothing like the wine his mother was fond of. "Oh, these must be for people who celebrate this year for reasons that aren't the taguel reasons," he concluded, "which I hope means they're easier to drink. You're not intending for us to go through all of them tonight, are you?"
"Between this and the wine? Hell no, I think we'll be fine if we keep some for later. But if we were just drinking these, I think we'd be able to finish the pack tonight." Kjelle laughed, putting the package back in the fridge but grabbing a single bottle and pulling it out instead, closing the door with her hip when she was done. "Come on, while the cake's finishing baking let's get started on eating, so that there's at least a little room for the cake to cool when it's done."
Once again, Yarne looked at the dishes on the counter, then at the salad in his hands, and he nodded enthusiastically. "Sounds great! I'm glad I had a light lunch today, because this is more food than I could've ever asked for from you."
"There's something else about all of this, but…I'll tell you it later." With a smile, Kjelle popped open the bottle she was holding, took a sniff of it and winced, then shrugged as she walked to the table, drinking as she went. "This is definitely better than the wine, but it's not hard to make that claim."
After he set the salad down and opened its container, Yarne reached out to take the bottle from his girlfriend and try it for himself, but she resisted until after she'd taken another drink of it. He wasn't a huge fan of it either, but could at least agree that it was better than the wine as well. By the time they'd finished as much of the salad as they wanted to eat, they'd downed that drink together and had broken into a second one, and it was as they were moving the small plates over to the table to start eating from those that the timer on the oven went off. "You just stay right here and eat whatever you want, I'll get my share once I take care of this," Kjelle told him, getting up from her seat to handle the cake. With a shrug, Yarne began spooning off different plates, excited to taste all of the different things he'd been given.
Everything was clearly homemade, but where some things were familiar to him as being replicated from restaurants or places he loved going, there were others that had tastes he couldn't put his finger on. "Did you make these recipes yourself?" he asked once Kjelle was back at the table, bringing with her the last of the plates they needed. "Or did you look them up or get them from someone?"
She started pointing at different plates as she answered his question. "Those are all recipes I found online, figured you'd like them and I thought they'd be worth a shot. The rest, well, where do you think they came from?"
"I…can't tell," he admitted, taking a bite of one of the biggest question marks he had, which was one of the vegetable-heavy dishes. "It's almost like this is something I ate as a kid, but that wouldn't make any sense. Mom always made things that she had passed down to her from people who were dead."
"Yeah, that's true," Kjelle said with a nod, reaching over and taking a bite of the same exact dish Yarne was talking about, her whole body tensing up at the flavor. "Ugh, it's so bitter, I don't know how you guys can eat this and enjoy it. Your mom was adamant that you'd be happy to have it, though."
Yarne did a double-take, looking at Kjelle with wide eyes. "You got the recipe from Mom? When did you do that?"
"For that one? It was tucked in one of the books she gave me and when I asked if she meant for us to have it, that was what she'd told me. Then she gave me the rest of the recipes I used, which, by the way? Making things according to taguel traditions is incredibly difficult, so I might've smudged a few steps to make it easier." The smile Kjelle wore after saying that was sneaky and sly, like she was committing a crime she didn't want anyone to know about, but Yarne knew the secret of her changing rules was going to stay right there with him. "I'm glad you're enjoying everything, because this was a lot of work and planning to make it happen for you."
"I guess I don't have to go home anymore if I want meals like the ones Mom makes," he decided, taking more bites of the different foods. Now that he knew the truth about where they all came from, he could tell the stark difference in their flavor profiles; the meals made from online recipes were a lot blander than the ones that were made according to taguel recipes, and while they were all delicious, he definitely preferred the ones that made him feel like a child again. "This was by far the best way you could've treated me for my birthday, just saying."
"And there's more to treat you with later," she said, standing back up and going to the fridge for something. He was too busy eating to care to look and see what she was up to, but when she came back she was carrying two full glasses of a suspiciously dark juice that smelled akin to death. "But first, we said we were drinking this tonight, and when better than when you have something good to wash it down with?"
At once, Yarne wished he hadn't just been enjoying the best meal he'd been served in a long time, and he eyed the glass he was given with complete disdain. "It's mostly juice, right?" he asked, hopeful that would be the case.
"Nope, half and half. If we're going to get rid of that bottle appropriately, we've got to just go ahead and drink it as fast as we can." As soon as she finished speaking, Kjelle put her glass to her lips and took in some of the wine, not grimacing nearly as much as she did when the wine was on its own. "This is a pretty good mix, actually, makes it at least somewhat drinkable without making it too good."
"I'll take your word for it," he replied, before nearly gagging at the mere smell of the wine mix when it got closer to his face. He felt obligated to drink it, though, and so he did, sprinkling sips of it in between bites of food that tried their best to make it better. On the other hand, Kjelle finished her cup pretty quickly and without issue, and even went back for a second before she really got into eating the food she'd made for them both. By the time dinner was done and the cake was cooled enough for frosting, she was definitely inebriated and he felt a slight buzz from what he'd been forced to drink, and that meant that the clean-up from dinner and getting the cake decorated was an endeavor unlike any other.
He felt comfortable enough washing the dishes that he could do it without breaking them, and being in the kitchen while she was working with the cake and the frosting she'd bought meant that any time she started seeming like she needed help, he could step back and assist her. There was also the bonus that, being right there with her, he could keep her from getting any more to drink and instead give her water and juice without any wine in it, so that she wasn't digging herself a deeper hole for the following morning. But, even with his good intentions, it was clear that the damage had already had been done—as evidenced by how she let out a string of curses at one point, throwing something to the floor. Turning around as he heard the clatter of a knife bouncing along by their feet, Yarne saw a chunk of the cake missing from the top, as well as Kjelle leaning against the fridge next to her, still muttering curses under her breath.
"Whatever just happened, it's no big deal," he assured her, turning back to the dishes in case she looked and saw him seeing the cake. "It's just a cake, we'll eat it anyway."
"I was almost done with it, too," she replied, audibly kicking the cabinet in front of her before grabbing a new knife to finish the frosting job. They both finished properly around the same time, turning to face each other in sync, with her holding the cake that she'd tried so hard to make well for him. There were smudges, there were clearly crumbs mixed into the frosting in places, but the fact that she'd done the job even half as well as she did while obviously not in her sober mind was worth celebrating.
She saw him looking at it and grumbled, "It'd been worth my time to just buy you one instead. I couldn't get the rabbit drawn right on it for you."
"I think it looks fine." Honestly, Yarne wouldn't have known that the off-colored patch in the middle of the cake was meant to be a rabbit if Kjelle hadn't just mentioned it right then, but that was a secret he would keep to himself. "It looks like it'll taste great, too. You didn't do anything crazy when baking this, did you?"
"Nope, just the normal stuff we always use. Thought about asking your mom for advice but decided she could stay out of this one." Already Kjelle was walking the cake over to the table, taking careful steps to not trip and fall with it in her hands, so Yarne scrambled to follow her with plates and silverware to eat it with. Sure enough, it tasted perfectly fine, making how off it looked a completely irrelevant point, and before they'd really realized it, a third of the cake was gone and they were left sitting there, both still feeling effects from their dinner's drinks and having so much left to do on this birthday night.
Right as Yarne was about to suggest wrapping the leftovers for the next day, Kjelle leaned over to him, putting her hands on his lap and staring into his face with her eyes slightly glazed over. "I forgot to get you any presents. I realized it too late and I…thought maybe you'd understand if I, you know, did something like this for you instead."
The admission seemed like it had come out of nowhere, but in that moment Yarne couldn't find any reason to be upset about it. "This was a lot of work, and a lot of money, I'd trade presents for moments like this any day. You did a lot for me this year, Kjelle, don't think that I expect more from you."
Her eyes slowly blinked a couple of times, as she slowly pulled herself away from him, sitting back up in her chair. "Good, because I don't know what else I could give you. Well, I mean, I do know what else I could give you, but I don't know if you…want that. I'd want it. I don't know if it's me talking or all that drinking, but…"
Ever focused on everything else going on, Yarne understood what she was referring to and bit down on his lip to keep himself from expressing just how okay he was with that proposition. Instead of speaking, he pointed to the cake, mimed wrapping it up, and promptly left the table with their dirty plates to take care of business there in the kitchen area before taking care of any other sort of business.
Before they both headed off toward their bedroom, he made sure that they each had a glass of water in hand, just as one of those "in case we get thirsty" precautions; by the time the night was over, he'd refilled his own several times, and he couldn't even guess how many she'd needed. He wasn't even sure if they helped, though, as they both woke up the next morning with varying degrees of hangovers that ranged from headaches to absolute misery, but there wasn't a thing he would've changed about the previous night to prevent them.
Although, he would have preferred having fallen asleep with clothes on, but he wasn't sure what element of it all was to blame for that choice being made.
Once again, when Friday came around Yarne was ready for his usual job of picking his sister up from school and driving her home, with zero distractions from the task allowed that day. Even though it was days after his birthday, he still felt like life was slightly off-kilter after how he'd celebrated, and he was looking forward to getting to his perfectly normal routine when he got home that night. He was, therefore, not anticipating seeing his sister running up to his car with a giant balloon trailing behind her that he had to help get shoved into the backseat of the car.
"Mom said I could bring that to give you," Ribbon explained, a giant grin on her face as they got the balloon tied down in the back so that they could drive away safely. "She wouldn't let me get it to you on your birthday, so sorry it's a few days late. Oh, and, happy birthday, by the way."
He laughed, reaching down to ruffle the hair on his sister's head. "Thanks, kid. Late's better than not at all. Of all the things I got on my birthday, a balloon wasn't one of them, so I appreciate it."
They got into the car themselves and drove off, Ribbon excitedly talking Yarne's ear off about her day and what had happened at school and all of the cool things she'd wanted to do for him to celebrate getting another year older that had been put down by one or both of their parents. As he listened to her, Yarne felt like she was getting more enjoyment out of his special day than he had, and that was saying something—even just thinking about the admittedly hazy memories of what had happened after they'd turned out the lights still had him quite flustered. "Yarne! Are you even listening to me?" she asked, annoyance in her voice as she waited for his reply.
"Wh-what? I'm listening just fine, thank you." While he wasn't sure what was making it obvious that he'd tuned her voice out, the chances of it being the way he was beginning to grow red might have had something to do with it. "You were talking about how you wanted to get me another present but Mom said no."
"That was, like, six sentences ago! Keep up!" Throwing her hands into the air, Ribbon was acting like she was very annoyed, but her laughter let him know she wasn't too upset. "I was just telling you that when you drop me off, Dad might have something for you. He wasn't sure if he wanted to give it to you today or not, so if he doesn't give it then don't blame me for giving you bad information."
"Uh, noted," he replied, going back to focusing on the road, on his eventful birthday night, and definitely not on what else his sister had to say to him. When they pulled up outside the house, Ribbon jumped out quickly and ran for the door, while he was a lot slower, a lot more methodical, at joining her up at the front of the house. A lot of it was to do with making sure the balloon was still going to stay in its place, but he also needed just a bit of time to make sure he was completely moved on from his less-than-savory thoughts he'd been entertaining while driving.
Soon, after locking the car three times and taking a deep, contented breath to remind himself he was okay, Yarne went up to meet his sister, who unlocked the front door with a key she found in her backpack (giving her brother a bit of a panic because he felt she was far too young for that kind of responsibility). When he entered behind her, he locked it a few times to make sure they weren't being followed, and that the key she used hadn't just broken the lock, and after he was sure they were safe he stood up, turned to go into the living room, and was greeted with his father looking up at him, which spooked him further. "Did you just have to be there waiting for me?" he asked, clutching at the sides of his head as he stared at his father. "You could've at least said hello or something."
"Those are the sorts of things a father says to their child, not the other way around," Ricken said with a chuckle, coming closer to Yarne to give him a quick, friendly hug. "But you're right, I should've cleared my throat or made a noise or something. Your mother usually hears me long before I get this close to her, same with your sister."
"I was focused on locking the door, Dad, it's very important to make sure we're safe at all times." Yarne rolled his eyes, but was receptive to his father's kind gesture. "If I'm not focused on something, I can hear just as well as Mom can. Sometimes. Usually. It's hard if I'm thinking about things, though."
Rather than come up with any way to debate that statement, Ricken merely stepped back, laughed again, and motioned for his son to follow him. "I was going to save this for when we do dinner together next week, but I didn't want to have to keep you waiting any longer than you already have." They were walking through the house, out to the door toward the garage, and while on the way Yarne realized that this was going to be when he was given his bike, that he wasn't going to be able to get home, and that he was going to have to accept that it was still there even without him.
Except, that wasn't the case at all. The bike was still in the garage, but it was in an even worse state than it had been the last time he'd seen it. Instead, Ricken was walking right past it and going over to one of the shelves in the back of the garage, picking up a box and handing it off to his son. "Is this an actual gift from you?" Yarne asked, holding the box up and looking at how completely nondescript it was. "Or is it another one of those 'Mom wants me to have something and frames it as a gift' gifts?"
"Actual gift. From me. Your mother didn't have a say in this one." Smiling, Ricken motioned for Yarne to open the box, which he did after a little hesitation, going through all the possibilities of what it could be. Inside, rather than any of the kinds of gifts he'd been used to receiving from his parents in recent memory, was an old handheld game system that immediately brought tears to the corners of Yarne's eyes. "Once we found the bike, I got to thinking about what other things you'd lost in bizarre ways as a kid, and I…"
Yarne nodded, holding the box in one hand so he could grab the system out of it and inspect it. "I get it, you decided to replace something else for me. Means a whole lot, knowing that you even got the same color I'd had before."
"That was the point. Your mother was insistent that the bike should be your only gift this year, but it's still not done, as you can clearly see." Ricken walked over to the bike and picked up the handlebars, which had become removed from the body of the bike itself. "We had some friends over a couple weeks back, they were trying to help us fix it and ended up breaking it worse than it was before. But we will get it done, there's no question there."
Although Yarne had his suspicions of which of his parents' friends had broken his bike during the repair stage, he was sure he would be able to guess without asking. Besides, he was too mesmerized by the game he now had, a system that he'd had stolen from him that had prompted his switching of schools mid-year as a kid, which had ultimately led to him meeting a lot of the people he still called friends. "Dad, you didn't get anything else for this, did you?" he asked, flipping it open and trying to turn it on, the charge completely drained from it. "Like a charger, or a game, or something?"
"There's a charger in the box, and your games are still in your old room and—actually, no, they're not in there anymore." Stiffening up as something dawned on him, Ricken glanced at Yarne and how he was beginning to look in the box for the charger, then excused himself to go back inside, call as loudly as he could for Ribbon to do something, only to come back out with a slight grimace on his face. "They were in your old room, I know that, but your mother had been cleaning in there recently and I can only hope your sister knows where she moved that box to."
Freezing what he was doing, Yarne went from looking in the box to his father at once. "Why was Mom in my room? I thought she said I could keep those things here as long as I wanted to, because if she's changed her mind then I really need to find somewhere else for them."
"No, no, there's no reason for that, she was trying to convert it into more of a guest room and the things in the closet are fine where they are."
"Until she changes her mind and throws them out."
"She's not going to do that. Yarne, don't be ridiculous." It was more forceful than Ricken usually got, and he was left staring at his son in a wordless battle of power until Ribbon came barreling into the garage, another cardboard box covered in Yarne's messy, childish writing under her arm. "Oh, thank the gods you were able to find that."
"Mom told me that they were my responsibility until she found a better place for all of Yarne's stuff he left in his room, I wasn't going to lose them." With her big smile on her face, Ribbon walked over to her brother, set the box right in front of his feet, and stepped back laughing. "Now they're your old games to deal with again."
He looked down at the top of the box, his label that the box contained his games, do not touch, still firmly on one of the flaps. "This is seriously one of the best presents I could've ever gotten, now that everything's back together," he said, resting his foot on top of the box. "I-I'm not even exaggerating, I couldn't have ever expected anything better than this, and the bike whenever that gets done."
Ribbon reached up and twirled a piece of her long hair around her finger, until it was tightly coiled and layered over itself several times. "Dad, when it's my birthday, am I going to get as many cool things as you've given Yarne? I mean, it's almost like you're—"
She was cut off by her father shushing her, miming for her to stop what she was saying in its tracks. "It's an important year for you both, so yes, you're going to get a good number of interesting gifts as well. Maybe not as meaningful as your brother's, but they'll matter in some way to you."
"—okay, I'm not forgetting you said that." With a wink, Ribbon erupted into giggles yet again and ran back inside the house, leaving the two men staring at each other in her wake.
"So, uh, Mom's not here, I take it?" Yarne asked after letting his sister's statements roll off of his shoulders and out of his mind. He was already itching to get his things back home and get some use out of them when he got the chance, but he was going to at least be somewhat respectful about family before leaving. "I'd think she would've come out here by now if she was home, right?"
That was when Ricken reached into his pocket and grabbed his phone, checking the time and shaking his head when he saw it. "She won't be home for another hour or two, at the very least. Don't worry about waiting around for her, you'll be able to see her at dinner next week." A pause, while he tucked his phone away and Yarne bent down to grab the game box to begin carrying it out. "Actually, before you go, there was one thing your mother asked me to do when I saw you next."
Immediately Yarne's heart began to pound in his chest, and he knew that he needed to get out right away before anything could be said. Alas, being where they currently were, he had no way of sneaking out unnoticed. "Y-yeah? What's up? She's not asking me to do something impossible, is she?"
"No, not this time," Ricken replied, heading for the door back inside. "She put together a list of things she'd like at the dinner when we go. Short list this time, it shouldn't be too difficult to make it happen. Come on, she left it hanging on the fridge, that way you can get it on your way out."
By no means did Yarne want to be subjected to another list of recipes that his mother wanted prepared for her, but as he collected his things and followed his father inside, he remembered that Kjelle had been fairly successful at the dishes she'd made for his birthday, and they'd both done a decent job the last time they'd been asked to cook to Panne's desires. If nothing else, they could skip out on her requests this time and make some of those other things they'd previously made, which made the whole idea of needing to cater to her a little easier to swallow. The list ended up being made up of some of those very recipes they'd already done, and he was able to carry that out with his games and the system to play them on, knowing that preparing for their family dinner next week wasn't going to be nearly as big of a struggle as previous dinners had been.
Of course, with those games back in playable condition, it took several days for Yarne to even remember the request list, and when he did finally tell Kjelle about it, they had one day to go before the dinner was upon them. She wasn't thrilled with the last-minute change of plans to the night—she'd already planned what they were going to prepare and had bought the ingredients necessary for those foods—but she took the list with a deep sigh, told her boyfriend to get dressed to go out to the store with her, and dragged him out to have to do the shopping for what his mom requested. "It would have been nice if you'd told me this sooner," she grumbled as they entered the store, Yarne following behind her with his game in hand and still being played, "but I'm taking it that you're not even listening to me now anyway, so what's even the point?"
"I am listening, and I'm sorry that I forgot about the list. Is that what you want from me?"
She turned to look at him, mouth slightly agape at what she'd just heard him say, then went back to facing forward and walking with determination to get the shopping done quickly. "I don't really know what I wanted from you there. You can't change what you did in the past, you can just make it a point to not have it happen again in the future."
"That sounds like something my mom would say." Yarne glanced up over the top screen of his game, right as Kjelle looked back at him again. "What? It's true. You haven't been talking to her more behind my back, have you?"
"Can't say that I have. If I had been, don't you think I would've known we'd need these things for her dinner?" She raised a great point, and Yarne had no way of replying to it aside from shrugging and focusing once more on his game. Maybe there was some truth in the theory that people found significant others that reminded them of their parents, but this was the first time that he could remember that Kjelle had reminded him of his mother. The first, and hopefully the last.
A/N: this story is at the tip of its first roller coaster hill and I am SO EXCITED to hit the downfall next chapter!