Hello, it is Wednesday and I am back with a new chapter! It's always interesting to me how the development of a new character enhances other characters too and I always end up developing the people that they are connected with even more. Through the growth of Jorginho, I have been considering Daisy's character a lot. This resulted in me finally writing a story that has been in the back of my mind for a while! I wanted to write a chapter showing Eli stepping up for Misty and her sisters once both their parents have passed away. And as you can see, Daisy has difficulty letting someone else take the reins! I hope you enjoy :)
Ages:
Eli: 28
Misty: 6
Daisy: 12
Violet: 8
Lily: 10
Disclaimer: I own the story and the few OCs mentioned/included!
"Sorry about that. That took way longer than I expected." Eli popped back into the room, the mobile phone lingering in his right hand and indicating what had caused his more than just brief absence. "Hey, what's going on here? What's with the long face?"
Mobile phone then sliding into a pocket of a pair of jeans, Eli's eyes scanned around the dining table and couldn't ignore the fact that, as soon as he entered the room once more and apologized for the phone call taking more time than he had anticipated, he spotted the six-year-old girl stop quite so contentedly poking at the marine pattern on the tablecloth.
Her expression immediately dampened, her eyes misting up like the fog which gave her name. she clamored to the older man, whining out to him from the second that he put one foot in front of the other to see the situation at hand better.
"I don't want to eat this." Misty grumbled, fingertips most certainly no longer tickling at the Seel and the Dewgong pattern lacing the material concealing the table as if they were her very own play mates and instead pushing her plate with her offensive sandwich away from her as possible. "It's yucky."
Upon hearing this, Eli's naturally sunken expression softened just a little bit, his shoulders moving closer to his ears as he listened to his relative's woes. However, before he could think about responding to her, Daisy and the eldest of the four sisters from the foot of the table allowed her voice to fill the air.
Her shoulders were closer towards her own ears for a different reason than Eli. She knew that her little sister would play up to him from the minute that he joined them once again.
"Just try it at least, will you?" Despite of it all, Daisy tried to begin reasonably at first but then from the second that Misty stopped bubbling her eyes towards Eli and they became like ice on her instead, she couldn't help but change her tune, her porcelain cheeks warming. "Stop being a brat. Lily and Vi have no problems with it."
Eyes drawn the most to the youngest of the clan, Eli knew to at least dart them to the rest of the surroundings for at least a couple of seconds. Just like the picture that Daisy was painting, the middle of the four were indeed sat on some of the other chairs around the table and tucking into their lunch, even swapping snacks from plate to plate even if all of them were the same.
Misty might have focused on the first part of her sister's words had Lily not, in the middle of swapping a sandwich square for a sandwich square with Violet, caught onto the way that she was partially being made an example of and chose to quirk the corner of her mouth snidely upwards.
This action from Lily paired with Daisy's name calling encouraged Misty's temperament to glow as fiery as the ginger hues of her hair. She decided to push the plate even further away from her, folding her arms over her skinny chest to boot.
"But I don't like it!" she exclaimed, turning her taut chin away from the table and not only to look over at Eli who had stopped watching the other two girls cracking on with eating their lunch. The more Misty thought about it, the more disgusting the idea of that sandwich sounded to her. "She knows I hate peppers but she's still making me eat them."
It wasn't lost on Eli how Misty had stopped conversing with her sister and instead bought him into the conversation, trying to get him to play referee as he often did. It certainly was not lost on Daisy either.
She exhaled a cool breath out of her lips, but this could not mellow the burning sensation in her cheeks. It didn't get any better when Eli dropped down from his short height to crouch on his knees, touching Misty on the clenched arm in a consoling manner before looking over at Daisy in which he believed was a fair way.
In actuality, it was hard for those eyes of his to portray anything too far away from weariness.
"It's true, she really doesn't like peppers, Dais." He began and this was like a slap to the face to Daisy's already burning cheeks. However, before Misty could copy her other sister's previous antics which had irked her so and show off her own smug expression, the six-year-old was turned to in the same way as Daisy had been. "How about eating the other veggies at least?" he suggested, hand sliding away from the thin arm. "I cut those up, so I promise there's no peppers there."
Misty looked down at her own frame, feeling the absence of Eli's hand against far more than she had done with his whole presence from the room. But then again, she had been as happy as Larry, whispering secret musings to the sea Pokémon etchings with gave her their full attention!
Looking reluctantly up at her relative as he stood back to his full height, even the stubborn spit of Misty's six-year-old self could not reject his suggestion when he was being so reasonable. And after all, he had gone to the effort to cut her vegetables up for her himself because she trusted him not to slip any disgusting and slimy ones in there.
Misty engulfed a huge bout of breath into her lungs as if she was preparing to tackle climbing a mountain. Then again, drawing the plate back towards herself after pridefully shoving it away moments before felt like an equal challenge.
Eli watched her poking her index finger through the pile of cucumber and tomatoes, making absolutely sure that there were no orange and green hues of unseemly sticks of peppers. She also made sure that the redness was tomato and tomato only.
But then, instead of watching with fondness quirking up the corner of his mouth or otherwise, his eyes did scan towards Daisy who exhaled another breath of her own before shaking her head to herself, cracking on with eating her own lunch silently.
Not that he knew how to say it, but he felt the world that had come crashing down on her shoulders on his own ones as well. He knew how much of a feat it was to manage not just Misty but Violet and Lily as well. It probably sure stung that Misty rejected meal after meal for one reason or another, especially when she was just trying to do the grown-up thing by encouraging her little sister to broaden her pallet.
Maybe she needed a new tactic. Whatever tactic Daisy needed; it certainly wasn't the one that came next in the form of Violet!
Misty was only just beginning to make her mind up over which cherry tomato she was going to pop into her mouth first when the next youngest of the four decided to blink those doe eyes of hers and comment, unlike Lily and her look, not out of malice but of prosaicness.
"It doesn't look like there's any peppers in that pile, Misty." Violet told her, absentmindedly leaning closer to her little sister diagonally across the table and unintentionally squashing the pattern of Misty's friends as well. "But Eli didn't say anything about there not being carrots in there."
And with that, the youngest of the four acted like the cherry tomato that she had been rolling around in between her forefinger and thumb was a bomb, dropping it down to the floor with a complexion that was as white as a sheet.
Misty didn't bother to root around in the vegetables to double check. Before any of them could predict it, the plate and the entire contents of it was scooted across the table by the forceful hands of the six-year-old and at once, they knew exactly what this meant.
Tomatoes spinning around on the tablecloth and cucumber falling down onto the floor, however, Misty announced anyway, her sheet-like expression crumpling up like a true piece of paper as well.
"I'm not eating a single thing!" she whined, her arms folding over her chest and this time not just being an act of stubbornness as her little hands hooked underneath her armpits, hugging herself. Misty began to sniff. "I'm not hungry."
Immediately, Eli dropped down to his knees once again, but it wasn't to clear up cucumber from smearing across the wooden floor of the kitchen. Misty felt a reassuring hand against the crook of her rigid arms even if she heard no words of consolation. She certainly didn't hear words of consolation from any of her sisters either.
Lily, thinking that Violet's words were a calculated conversation whooped with glee at the youngest of the four's reaction and held a hand up in order for Violet to high five, but she did not know the reason for Lily's joy let alone why she had upset Misty so, so therefore did not return it.
If her eyes hadn't been blinking innocently in the seconds before she had let rip with her words, Violet's certainly were there and then, wondering what on earth had gone down.
Running a hand through her bangs and not caring for once that she was messing them up, Daisy's head shake was no longer directed inwardly, and she began looking directly over at Misty even though the last thing she was doing in return was looking back at her.
"Oh, don't be so silly, Mist. Eli wouldn't do that. Violet was obviously joking." Dismay latched onto the throat of Daisy's words, and it caused her first few sentences to come out more impatiently than intended. Her hand accidentally smacked down on the table as it was no longer ruffling her own bangs. "I made an effort to make lunch for us all yet again. Can't you meet me halfway?"
While Violet's eyelashes clapped together, wondering why Daisy wanted Misty to leave her seat at the opposite end of the table and her do the same and they both end up somewhere in the middle, Lily silently rolled her eyes, but it was as telling as if she had spoken aloud.
When did Misty do anything for anybody else like Daisy did, the revolving motion of her irises commented.
Fortunately, before Violet could cut into the conversation with her naivety or Lily could with her unkind point of view, Eli got up from his knees all over again, but his touch couldn't quite leave the six-year-old girl all alone, his hand lingering against the bone of her shoulder whether she acknowledged it or not.
He was only trying to be fair. It had been a very long time since he had had to navigate family life.
"If Misty isn't hungry, Daisy, she shouldn't be forced to eat." Eli reminded the twelve-year-old girl and even though his hand was still against the bony ball of a shoulder of her youngest sister, Daisy felt as though he might as well have lifted it and whacked her across both cheeks from the intensity with which her cheeks stung all over again. "It doesn't mean she isn't grateful for all you do."
Daisy started to leave her chair in order to stand and get her point across. Once again, her hand swooshed through her hair and her bangs were left sticking up for quite some time before they slowly decided to sink back down.
"Sometimes saying you're grateful isn't enough." Daisy pointed out, her eyes travelling down to where her little sister was still constricted by her own arms and not a single bit of her gaze was taken up with looking thankfully at the lunch which was now discarded in pieces across the table. "It's just not fair." The whininess from Misty when Eli had only just re-entered back into the room then caused Daisy's own throat to wobble before she addressed Misty properly and as coolly as she could. "Dad used to make you this exact meal. Just get on and eat it."
There wasn't usually a great deal of things that that household agreed on, even less since the parental figures were no longer around and Eli barely had the slightest clue how to rally the four sisters all together. However, the words that escaped Daisy's lips there and then caused quite the similar reaction to omit from three of the people then in that room.
It was put forth by Eli.
"Daisy…" her name was spoken by the only male in the room in a breath that was like a wind and exactly like the coldness in its wake, both Lily and Violet echoed the same word, no longer having very separate demeanors and Lily no longer enjoying the dynamic quite so much.
From the second that Daisy had brought Jordan into the conversation as a method to win her little sister over, she regretted it. Hot and weighty regret tugged down the pit of her stomach even further. It only got worse from the way that Eli whispered her name and looked over at her. He didn't need to say anything else for her to realize she had gone too far.
In fact, he didn't need to say anything for her to know she had gone way too far.
Misty, of course, did speak.
Her constricting arms flopped away from her like a forlorn jellyfish, and she cried out, those stringy arms of hers proving that her words were clearly for Daisy and Daisy alone.
"Just leave me alone!" she whimpered in the second before she was scooped up in the arms of Eli and she could feel that hand which she had never registered on her before then at the back of her hair, stroking the strands that burned brighter than ever at the confusion of it all.
It was plain and simple to her. She hadn't felt hungry for a long time. She didn't understand why her oldest sister made her food she didn't like. And she certainly didn't understand why their dad had to be mentioned like that.
It was plain and simple to Misty. But that didn't make it any easier. The snuffling noises she made close to Eli's neck as she clung to him made that perfectly clear.
While Violet and Lily looked at each other, swallowing even though they had long since been put off their lunches as well, Eli embraced Misty close to him and he looked over at Daisy once again. He did not need to say a single thing.
Daisy felt weighed down from the second that she let those words slip. Now the way that Eli was looking at her made her feel like she was a ship being dragged down to the depths of the ocean. However, instead of busting into tears like her youngest sister, she surprised herself by absorbing a touch of her usual fire and snapped, her burning cheeks fueling her in a vicious cycle that could not be stopped.
"What are you looking at me like that for?!" For once she raged, causing Violet and Lily's heads to snap towards each other and then over at Daisy in unison. Daisy didn't care. She had begun to stomp far away from the table. "Just let me deal with them how I see fit! It's not like you're going to stick around here for much longer!"
And with that and with balled, shaking fists stewing by her sides, loud footsteps followed Daisy all of the way out of the kitchen and up the stairs and towards her bedroom. The house practically shook in her wake. And silence ensued. You know the silence, the kind that makes you feel like you have a plastic bag wrapped around your head and you are slowly suffocating.
The kind of silence that encourages echoing thoughts screaming around the chambers of your mind. But in reality, and in the wider world, there is nothing.
On that day, there was nothing until Eli breathed out that same word all over again. Or rather, a name.
"Daisy..." he repeated even though she was long since confined in the sanctuary of her room. He whispered this word close to Misty's ear as she clung to him even though that sound was not really for her to hear.
From the second that she had sulked away, Eli knew that he needed to follow after her. But of course, like in any household, there was always things to do first. The biggest priority was to reassure Misty enough to unhook her arms from no longer constricting her own body, but Eli's neck instead and not only mop her tears up but to fix her with food that she did feel happy about eating.
Violet and Lily, for a rare occasion, were quick to deal with. But Eli knew their quietness and their compliance to tuck into their old lunch rather than the new one that he fixed for their little sister meant he would have to talk to them after he was done with Daisy.
And so, when everyone was settled as well as they could be and tomatoes were cleared off the table and cucumber removed from the floor and headed towards the bin instead, Eli followed the path in which Daisy had taken about half an hour before albeit far more quietly.
Even so, the house did still seem to tremble in his wake and his knees most certainly did twitch in his kneecaps as he paused outside of the room that Daisy shared with Misty and lifted his hand to knock against the wood of the door but didn't quite do so immediately.
You never knew what you were going to find when knocking for a pre-teen but certainly not with everything that had been going on lately. Eli assumed that at the very least most of the tears would have dried so his black hoodie was not going to get crusted with yet another puddle from one of the other Williams' sisters.
With that in mind and with drawing an exhale into his lungs, Eli allowed himself to knock on the door but what he didn't do was wait for a reply before entering so, from the split second in which he poked his head around it to see the state of Daisy on the inside, he was met with yet another rare racket from her!
He at that point couldn't tell if there were tears or not. All he knew was that noise existed.
"Haven't you done enough?!" she couldn't help but shriek and this in itself got her message across so Eli quickly slipped his head back through the gap in the door and slammed the door behind him himself. Even so, this didn't offer noise protection, so he still heard the second part of what she had to say. "Leave me alone!"
Blinking those sunken eyes of his, it was not lost on Eli how those two sisters with six years between them had been so on opposite sides of the battlefield but sure did like to come out with the same words. And not only that, but they liked to yell them!
Somehow not in the slightest bit concerned that he hadn't fled the hallway completely yet and so could anger Daisy all the more if she found out, instead of making himself scare, Eli focused on this notion as well as feeling a throbbing in the center of his forehead, his deep-set and expressive eyes squeezing together as if he had caught sight of too much sun light.
But that wasn't the case. It was an oddly miserable day in June.
Eli's fingers rose like a vampire waking from the dead towards his face, touching over where his eyelids were closed. And it was as he did this that, once again, he breathed out words that were for him and him alone.
"Jeez…" he mumbled as he caught up to everything that had gone on that entire day and at that point, it did dawn on him that he should probably head back downstairs before either Daisy called him a creep for lingering there or one of the other sisters came up the stairs and called him that same word for lingering there too.
Not, Misty, though.
Bless her, Eli thought. He didn't know how someone like him could bring her such seeming comfort.
There and then, however, he very nearly had the idea in his mind that, although her encouraged a lot of consolation with Misty, this was almost entirely the opposite when it came to Daisy.
As his hands hung back by his sides all over again, he stood straighter to the sound of her barking at him from the other side of the door once more.
"Don't you know anything, Uncle Eli?!" her voice rumbled like the thunder of a brewing storm and Eli was quick to feel his feet twitching in his socks, from the minute that he heard her words preparing to leave the vicinity sooner rather than later. "When a clearly upset woman says to leave her alone that usually means she wants someone to make her feel better!"
He was forced to stop, his foot in his black sock a couple of inches from slapping back down onto the carpet well in front of the other one. With surprising grace in spite of his surprise and his uncertainty as well, Eli knew that this was a command that he had better hurry and comply with otherwise he would make matters worse. And he didn't want that.
He had already seemingly done enough of that on that particular day!
In his haste, he forgot to knock a second time and wait for permission before partial entry but thankfully he didn't get reprimanded this time and he poked his head back through the gap in the door. He felt his cheeks hurting from just how much he was forcing a compliant smile, but it was the kind of pain that he was okay with experience.
"Hi…" he greeted rather tentatively but with the silent confidence running through him that Daisy at least wanted him there. Or rather, Daisy wanted anybody there so she couldn't exactly excuse him of overstaying his welcome like she had insinuated when she was downstairs.
Cheeks still stinging but thanks to a different reason than earlier on, Daisy's eyebrows were practically plaited together as she gestured with two impatient, frantic hands, encouraging Eli to stop loitering there and to properly enter the bedroom in which she shared with her youngest sister.
What Eli had not predicted was that Daisy found his behavior stranger for loitering halfway in than he ever could seem for standing out in the hallway or even at the center of her bedroom. And while Daisy didn't quite address this subject, she did address another, different one as she pulled her legs close to her chest while sitting at the foot of her bed, two thumbs playing with each other as if they were the most interesting things in the world.
"Do you not know a single thing about women?" Daisy questioned, Eli then clued in enough to be standing in her bedroom but close to the door and shutting it behind him with a hand stretching backwards rather than turning away from the scene at all.
He tried to read all of the emotions that were surely spinning around in the insides of Daisy but when he heard these words, all he could recognize was that same attitude of her trying to keep everything hidden like she often presented.
Those wide eyeballs of Eli's decorated with thick, spiky eyelashes clapped together and then he decided to just answer, taking a step forward and his hands stuffing into his pockets for a place of solace.
"Not a single thing." He admitted. Or rather, he humored Daisy. In hindsight, she can still not tell exactly what he was doing! Perhaps he was just going along with her in case the thunderstorms of fury reappeared once more even though they seemed to have disappeared as equally as they came.
A temper within her wasn't as prominent as it was in at least two of her other siblings. No matter what age, she always showed hurt in a different way.
Daisy felt the urge to chuckle – or at least smile – but she still felt the stinging of everything that had just been on that day so wasn't quite able to. Instead, her thumbs stopped playing with each other and a small wave of air puffed out of her nostrils.
Then, she looked over at Eli with a slope in her neck paired with a quizzical albeit swollen gaze, arms wrapping so tightly around her knees that she needed a hand on either side of her upper arms to balance herself.
"Is that why you don't have a girlfriend?" she asked and that time, she posed a question that Eli didn't feel quite so comfortable answering promptly!
His eyes widening to the same degree in which they had sunk back into the rest of his face, his hand moved to play with the shaved parts of the back of his head but not quite yet feeling the need to disguise himself with that black veil of a hood.
Eli knew that he should probably answer quickly otherwise that in itself would be another thing for people – or rather, Daisy – to find odd. But as he opened his mouth, even if words were on the tip of his uncertain tongue – they were not quite so bold enough to be completely put forth.
Daisy's head tilted the other way before looking down at where the tips of her toes in her own socks were almost hanging off the edge of the bed. And it was this break in contact that allowed Eli to find his voice.
Once again, he seized hold of it amusingly.
"It's one of the many reasons." He conceded, hoping he would succeed in garnering a full smile from Daisy this time but in the end, when she looked back over at him, her eyebrows began to plait together once more, and he knew that she felt pity for him.
You would think with a cousin who had just disappeared from his life, no pitiful look could cut as deep as the way people looked at him when they heard that bit of news, but you would be mistaken. All wounds hurt, regardless of their size and their depth.
Eli couldn't stand people judging him. But worse, their pity was nauseating.
His hands bedded further into the pits of his pockets and silently, he wished that he could join them.
"There is more than just one reason you don't have a girlfriend?" Daisy asked, the look of pity physically disappearing from her face and almost an intrigue taking its place, as if she longed to be the one to solve the mystery of why Eli didn't come as a pair.
However, although that look with lips pressed together and a head tilting to the one side became a thing of the past, it still burned in Eli's memory like when you stare at the sun too long and can still see that hot white streak when you close your eyelids.
Eli heard Daisy's words and it was his turn to snap.
But, of course, he wasn't going to raise his voice and even if he did, it would never compare in the slightest to what Daisy and certainly Misty could do with their vocal cords.
"Maybe we should talk about what's going on with you rather than with me, huh?" Eli suggested, beginning to put one foot in front of the other again for the first time in quite a few motions of the clock hand. "We could be here quite some time otherwise." He added, lingering and standing by the side of Daisy's bed for a few seconds before gingerly lowering himself down, perching next to her. "What's the reason that you think I'm not going to be sticking around here long?"
While Eli had noted that no tears seemed to be fresh and escaping from Daisy's eyes from the moment that he stood with a wide stance on her carpet, he knew that this didn't mean that weepiness had dissipated for good. And furthermore, he knew that there was still a chance that she could snap at him.
He didn't know what it was about him! People loved spitting their tempers towards him more often than not.
Daisy's swollen eyelids almost resembling her relative's ones out of hurt rather than hereditary spoke of how near to the surface everything still was. So, Eli shouldn't have been surprised when things threatened to get heated again. And he shouldn't have been surprised that it was his words that encouraged this.
Daisy's being contorted and her body screwed up from the tips of her toes to her forehead bunching together above her eyebrows. Shaking her head at the words that Eli had let out, she began to shuffle away from him, towards the head of her bed and sitting on her pillow instead, as if she didn't want to be next to him any longer.
"Is that the only reason that you came here to check on me?" she tried to spit fire but, in the end, it was her eyes that began to moisten. Even so, she began to rub them frantically and act that something was in them other than hurt. "You want me to reassure you that we want you here and that we would fall apart without you?" Daisy's bottom was perched against her pillow, but she still felt like she was falling down, down and down further still. "Because-"
Daisy did not have the chance to finish that sentence. Eli didn't remain silent long enough to hear the words that she was never going to do such a thing. He was swallowing his own hurt of the twelve-year-old girl acting as if he was merely another small child and it was actually her doing him a favor by having him around.
This was not an intentional thing for her to do but now that she was at the head of the bed, Eli had the foot of it to himself and he made the most of it, turning his body around to face her and not only this but also sitting properly against her mattress, legs crossing underneath him.
As he got himself settled as he figured that this could be almost as long of a conversation as the one surrounding his own life, his eyes began to portray something other than weariness.
Daisy felt the lump filling the base of her throat when even she knew what was being communicated to her.
"I'm here because I care for you very much." He told her, his tone neither inflecting nor inclining yet still cutting through to her. And what did wonders to get his message across furthermore was that he left it there. He didn't add that he cared for all four of them even though that was the truth as well. "And whether you believe it or not, I do intend to stick around."
Contradicting the lump that was making its way from the base of Daisy's neck and up so high it was almost colliding with her chin, her gaze dropped down even if she did take in Eli's words. Inwardly, she willed her eyes with the sheen of a meadow reflecting in the sea not to betray her and spill but also, she begged not to feel the need to rant yet again.
She didn't want to be angry anymore. She didn't want to be anything anymore. Well, apart from comforted. And cared for.
A part of her tried to brush it off, but Eli was there reminding her that this was true.
Something else niggled in her mind that ridiculed her that it wasn't.
She voiced this; her eyes only able to meet Eli's haunting stare about halfway through her own words.
"That's not what Grandma said." She said, her eyes twitching from side to side as they looked over at Eli, searching for any inclination towards what his reaction was going to be.
Of course, it did not fill her heart with shock to see his own eyes drop down for a couple of moments, but it did catch her off guard how his tone didn't change at all, not even when it was being insinuated that he had been spoken about behind his back.
Their eyes both dropped and rose at separate times to one and other.
"What did your grandma say about me?" he asked, even though he had a bit of a rough idea and this in itself caused his own heart to feel as though it was being constricted with a wire made of barbs, squeezing on the valves and ridding him of whatever life was still somehow clinging onto him.
What took place next was one of those occasions when someone greatly contemplates telling the truth. They know that honesty is the correct path. Daisy knew that honesty was the correct path. But is it always better to wound with the truth? Or is it sometimes kinder to reassure with a white lie?
Daisy needed to take some breaths before she knew that she couldn't do a disservice to her relative by taking him for a fool. Not when he had fought with every weary part of him to be there at her father's funeral, not even for his own desperation to say goodbye but so those four girls at least had someone to pull them close when they needed it most.
Not when he hadn't left them alone like the other guests had done when all was said and done. And certainly not when he tried to lighten the heavy plate in which she had been carrying for months.
She didn't give him credit for that because it was still so very heavy that it was barely noticeable.
But he had tried. And that was enough.
Looking at Eli in the eye while she spoke to him, she hoped that their eye contact could soothe each other even if words might scratch the insides of both of their throats.
"That she would do everything in her power to stop you from looking after the four of us." Daisy admitted and from the second that Eli heard these words, his chest moved outwards as he knew she was paraphrasing and that what Jordan's mother had actually uttered was something along the lines of she would rather suffer the same fate as her son and his wife than see him in charge. "She doesn't trust you one bit."
Eli's jaw could usually practically cut glass but this time it was him being wounded. He didn't usually like to do this, but he would have prayed if it meant avoiding hearing the word why coming from Daisy next.
Fortunately, this question did not come. But that did not mean that everything else left him unscathed.
It was finally time for his tone of voice to alter and his body position did as well, his legs folding towards his chest as he found what he wanted to say in a tone that was like a leaf shaking right before it hit the ground.
"I see." Eli murmured and as Daisy flickered a glance towards him, she knew that part of her wanted to know why Jordan's mother disapproved of him so. But when she cast both her mind and her heart a little wider than it usually liked to go, she could speculate why.
And she also knew that if it was something that needed to be shared then it would be. After all, after everything that had happened, life was too short not to speak your mind.
This was one of the reasons why Daisy allowed herself to fly off the handle more than she would have usually felt comfortable displaying. And this was one of the reasons that she piped up next, untangling her legs from being close to her body and unintentionally sending part of her closer to Eli than before.
"So does that mean that she's going to be the one that looks after all of us in the end?" Daisy asked and it wasn't lost on her how the previous hesitance to maintain eye contact with her became a thing of the past and Eli's irises latched onto her. This action in itself said everything! She sighed in agreement and then added. "Because I can do it, you know? If you really have to keep away." The next lump in which she swallowed spoke of how she felt about that even if her words were neutral. "I could do it."
Eli maintained his gaze across the bed with Daisy for a little while longer and, as the seconds passed, it began to mold into a fresh look. Given how much she seemingly gladly took on board and how childlike he felt inside, he rarely acknowledged that a prominent age gap existed between them both.
However, as he looked at her on that occasion, he saw her for what she was. A child. A child without both of her parents. An orphan.
His head scarcely swung from side to side but it still did exactly that.
"Maybe you shouldn't need to." Eli began and he intended to say much more but it seemed that Daisy wished to say more. More than he did.
They had barely acknowledged her legs stretching out towards him and then, all of a sudden, her needing to be on the opposite side of the bed from him became a thing of the past. She darted nearer to him.
And she told him, maybe trying to reassure herself as much as she was doing so for his benefit.
"I know that I struggle with coaxing them all sometimes and we all play up for each other, but I think I could get better, and we could do almost okay just as the four of us if we needed to." Daisy started and as Eli's eyes dropped down to the mattress supporting them both, he knew that a few more pieces of his heart were falling away at her sense of duty. "I think I could do it." There was that almost desperate tone again. "And I think our parents would want us to stick together."
A sharp intake or release of breath threatened to choke Eli as he heard these words, but he didn't dare allow it to come to fruition. As his eyes caught onto Daisy's while his fingers moved down to play with the hem of her duvet for some small distraction, he knew very deeply that Jordan and Lynne would wish for all four girls to stick together.
But they would also wish for them to be taken care of properly. By an adult. Someone to guide them. Someone to support them. Someone to nurture them. He did not know who that person was. He also did not know if that could be him. But he also knew that, if any of those four girls said the word, then he would leave his old life for them and step up.
They didn't deserve any of what had happened to them. And Daisy did not deserve losing her childhood just because Jordan's mother was still haunting her son's legacy even after he passed on.
Suddenly, Eli made the most of Daisy warming back up to him and shuffling nearer to him by reaching out for both of her hands to hold inside his two. It was a rare occasion that eye contact was hard for him because it put a lump in his throat rather than insecurity.
"But maybe you shouldn't have to." Eli repeated these words rather than gathering new ones because, the truth was, he couldn't find any which portrayed the sentiment he was feeling deep inside. His fingers brushed over Daisy's knuckles as if he was swiping her bangs away from her eyes, encouraging her to see a brighter way. "Look, you are amazing at guiding your sisters and I know it frustrates you sometimes when I try to step in but it's just because I don't think you need this on your shoulders. And I just want to help you."
Her own pesky lump was so very relentless, always popping back up again when it had only just disappeared! This time, however, Daisy did not try to swallow it so readily. Instead, she understood it for what it was in the same way she understood Eli's words for what they were.
Yes, it really did frustrate her when he tried to step in and especially when he thought how her sisters should behave was different to her visions surrounding them conducting themselves. But he cared. It was nice to have somebody around who cared.
But Daisy knew she did too. That was the reason that she dragged herself out of bed every morning. That was why she did her hair in the same way she knew how and painted a smile on her face for her sisters and to continue as normal even if life was no longer normal and properly would never be that way for them ever again.
And, unlike with others in their lives, she knew she would never leave. She understood that Eli didn't want to. But other people were tricky. You just didn't know.
Even so, she absorbed his sentiment into her skin as much as her touch of his thumb grazing across her knuckles. She tried to manage a smile at him, but this was one thing that failed. But even so, her mouth pressed together as much as she could, and she uttered her own truth.
"There are lots of things in life you can't choose and where you are born is one of them." Daisy began and immediately, Eli was seeing her from an angle with those big eyes of his and he was back feeling like a youth, and she was the one guiding him, as much as he tried to allow it to be the other way around. "I'm the oldest and I do wish to take care of the others." Her shoulders fluttered upwards while Eli's eyelashes did together, blinking just once. "This is the card I drew, and I accept it."
As if her hands were yet another thing bestowed upon Daisy in the same way, she tried to draw her hands back towards her own body after finally managing a wan smile, but Eli didn't let her, wanting to at the very least hold one of her hands in both of his.
For a rare occasion, he found his voice again rather quickly. This was a moment that he did not need to skirt around for once.
"And I was born in the middle so I can't help being a peacemaker." He said and this time, his hand did momentarily move away from joining the other in holding one of Daisy's in order to flick her hair out of her eyes before patting it back down. "I just want to make things easier for you. So please, at the very least when I am around, will you let me run the show?"
Within herself, Daisy knew that she was hating feeling exactly this way, but her hand still wriggled inside the hold of Eli when his hands were back on her again and eventually pulled away from him. Additionally, her gaze longed to be free to do whatever it wanted and looked down at the mattress that was still unifying them both.
Eli sensed her turmoil in the seconds before she actually spoke of it.
"I don't think my sisters would be able to get used to that." She said and although her downward gaze meant that she didn't meet Eli's continual stare towards her, just like knowing when the sun was about to pop out from behind a troublesome cloud, she could feel his eyes on her, and she knew why too. Daisy decided to confess, altering her words. "I don't think I could do that. I ran the show even when dad was still around."
Daisy's eyes positioned down towards the mattress didn't tug on Eli's heartstrings too much but hearing her tone of voice dipping as she admitted these words most certainly did.
He might not know a single thing about women – or even people – but he knew that he could not fight the urge and go against what his body was urging him to do where and then.
Once more, his hand was pulling Daisy's into his own and his other hand was cupping underneath her chin, encouraging her to look at him.
It was funny how unsteady he felt alone, but in the household of those four, he was the protector and even the man that he was born to be.
"Okay, so how about this," he initiated and his tone of voice paired with his firm yet reassuring hand underneath Daisy's chin made her gather that there wasn't going to be room for arguing. But in a good way. "Just tell yourself that you're on a break when I'm around. It's your vacation. And you don't need to stress about sorting your sisters out because it is my job." Daisy felt that hand travelling from her chin and resting over her twitching forehead instead. "Okay?"
Gosh, letting go of control was such a tricky thing to do. Trusting that someone else could do as good of a job as Daisy was next to impossible. But she had to try, didn't she? If Eli was there and going against the judgement of others and even himself by showing up and proving that he could step up in the way that he had, then she had to trust, didn't she?
She didn't know what that really meant since her parents passed away, let alone whether she could. But she had to try.
Eli felt her bangs bobbing against his hand and pulled it away to see Daisy beginning to nod, this time her hands reaching out towards his and squeezing them for comfort. He did not hesitate to hold them in the same way, relishing in and acting as if her compliance was fresh air into his lungs.
It was fresh air for them both. It was a chance to try something new together.
"Okay. We'll see how it goes." Daisy's words spoke of her hesitance, but Eli did not take offence. It was his turn to show off a proper smile as well no matter how small and it felt so good compared to the achingly false one earlier on!
Eli squeezed Daisy's hands some more. And then he read the room and decided the discussion was to end there so prepared to lift himself off the bed, his niece's digits tucked inside his and enjoying how much bigger it felt than Misty's, yet she still held onto him as if she needed him in the same way.
The truth was, they all needed each other. And unfortunately like the path was paved for Jordan and Lynne, they would only wholly realize it when they faced true separation.
"You'll see how much fun it is to just be a child; I promise you." Eli told Daisy and he was left wondering if he had finally put his foot in it from the way that she stopped clambering off the bed to join him by his side, only making it about halfway on the bed and kneeling while he was already stood with his feet planted in a wide stance on the carpet.
Eli turned around, looking over his shoulder and certain that he had overstepped the mark. Daisy considered keeping quiet. But she reviewed all of the lessons of the day and certainly, the past few months.
Silence didn't save anyone in the end.
So, Daisy made another confession, her shoulders moving up and down with such vigor that her long locks draping over her right shoulder were sent backwards, cascading down her back instead.
"I'm not sure I remember how it feels to be just a child." She told Eli and then she looked over him with hesitant eyes as if she was telling him about the most profound thing in the world and did not know how he was going to react.
Granted, his hesitation for quite a few moments made it seem like her words were earth shattering. But then, Eli used this sadness that engulfed his throat as fuel and he encouraged himself to not only squeezed Daisy's hand inside his with more firmness yet tenderness too, but he properly guided her off the bed to stand with him.
As he flashed his second smile of the way towards her, his pearly white teeth glistened for the first time in quite a while. Soon enough, her hand was not just in his hand but was tucked inside the crook of his arm and he was patting it through the gap.
While they stood side by side, they stood at a similar height! They were equals. And all they both wanted was their family to heal together.
"Well, I think we'd best get back downstairs to the others then, don't you?" Eli began and immediately, Daisy's neck was slanting to the side as she wondered what he would come out with next. She soon found out. "Because those three little rascals can teach you a thing or two about embracing being a child!"
And with that, Daisy could not help but giggle herself at the blinding flash of white as Eli smiled and she did not resist being tugged by him down and out of his room and towards the rest of their family that they indeed shared together.
Eli might have spoken these words about Misty, Violet and Lily, but Daisy couldn't help but think they were a bit true about him as well! Certainly, she did feel a bit lighter when she allowed herself to feel this way since he had been around.
He was there to call upon when she needed him, both for a bit of fun and for a bit of guidance. And, as she would go on to learn in the next few minutes, to lean into the trust that he offered as well.
Soon enough, everybody was back into the dining room and after a calmer occasion initially, things had soon threatened to go back to how they had been at the beginning of the story. Except, this time, it was Violet and Lily getting into a spat between themselves and of course, Daisy had initially experienced her brow creasing with worry and couldn't help but nearly slip into her usual role when, in the middle of pushing and shoving each other, the two middle sisters looked to her, waiting for her to sort it out.
She had almost fallen into temptation, going back on her and Eli's agreement when he stopped entertaining Misty by spinning her around and around enough to go and diffuse the situation between Violet and Lily, Misty then clinging onto his leg as she lay on the floor, not quite wanting to give his attention up just yet.
In the same way that their oldest sister felt, Violet and Lily discovered their eyes widening when it was Eli to move between them both, gently catching hold of an arm each and stopping their spat from escalating any further.
The way that they gazed over at Daisy with a different look in their eyes spoke of everything. And Eli felt his heart swelling in his chest as much as the blood being cut off from his ankle by Misty at the way that he noticed the eldest of the clan swallowing, smoothing down her bangs for a bit of extra confidence before answering their look with words.
"Eli's around for the foreseeable and he is going to be sorting everything out, so I don't have to." She told them and she looked over at Eli for confirmation. He nodded and he also trusted that those two had been removed from their spat enough for him to be able to take his hands away from them in order to lightly rest his hand over the center of Daisy's back.
United in their confusion rather than at logger heads thanks to a petty argument, Violet and Daisy looked at each other, still puzzled for a second or two longer. But then, Violet blinked those doe eyes of hers for another occasion and after she considered it, she decided she had words for her own to speak in return.
Her hands falling to her narrow hips, she figured out the situation and decided that she actually quite liked it. It might, however, take Lily a while longer to get used to arguing with someone else other than her sisters!
"It will be quite nice just having you as a big sister again." Violet began and Daisy couldn't help but agree so, still feeling Eli's dependable hand between her shoulder blades, she nodded her head and she smiled, forgetting the fact she once thought she would never do that again. Violet's nose scrunched in return and then she added. "I'm not sure I liked having you as a mom."
And, coming nearly full circle in our story, it was almost time for Eli to breathe out Violet's name in the same way that he had done towards Daisy. While the look omitting from the rest of them was the same, once Eli felt Misty no longer hugging onto his ankles and a threateningly tearful look taking over her features, he knew that he had to address this interaction in a different way.
Misty was scooped back up onto his hip and embraced. But Eli's other hand moved to the middle of Violet's back instead while he looked between all four of them.
"Daisy is a wonderful sister, and she is exactly that to you. Never taking the place of your mom. Or dad too, for that matter." Eli started and he saw the way that, although he meant these words comfortingly, all of their chins dropped downwards towards the floor. Misty's didn't quite make it that far, instead solemnly resting against his shoulder. Eli knew he had to correct his sentiment. "Let's have story time, you guys. I want to tell you some tales that will help you trust that your mom and your dad could never leave you truly alone."
And with that and with Misty still clinging against his hip with her arms around his neck, Eli guided Violet with a hand against her back towards the living room and in toe came Daisy following with a hand resting on his shoulder and Lily linking her arm through Violet's as an act of a full truce.
When all five of them got settled on the sofa, Eli did not need to take out a book because what he told the girls were stories from his culture and the region of Ammon and how passing on is certainly not the end, not for the people who leave the world themselves and certainly not their loved ones left behind.
In future reflection as I am told this story, I'm not sure if it was Eli's stories that lead to a future where Jordan and Lynne would both indeed return to them all or it was all of the times that he instilled trust within them on that day, on the days before and the days going ahead.
Or perhaps, just plain and simple, it was meant to happen. Jordan and Lynne were meant to live lives beyond their first adventures side by side. And certainly, all four of the girls were meant to have their eyes opened to the strange mystery of the world.
Nothing could prepare them for the future. None of them. Not even Eli. But when times grew murky for him as well, he had moments like this to look back on.
He instilled belief in those girls long before he truly believed in himself. And that is something that he too holds dear to this very day. It is something he took with him throughout both of his lives as well.
The End.
There you go! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed :) It's always interesting how different things inspire my stories and certain characters. For this one, Harry Styles' song Matilda was in my mind. I definitely think that Daisy had to step up as a child more than she perhaps should have done, both after her parents death and even before. Even so, she wouldn't trust anyone else to run the house and look after her sisters and you can tell in this story! Thankfully, Eli manages to get through to her. Even when he has to physically stop being there for the girls thanks to Jordan's mother intervening, he supports them from afar. Thanks again for reading and I will be back on the 28th with Letters That Changed Everything so see you then!
Amy signing out :P