[Amelia/Ravi/Sofie] - We need to talk
Who:
Amelia
Ravindra
Sofia
When: Day after Sofie's post.
Where: The Naran house.
Rating & Warnings: PG, FAMILY CONFLICT.
Sofie and Ravi try to explain their situation to Amelia. She doesn't take it well.
Amelia was only too happy to get away from the Hour tonight, despite the reason. "We need to talk" was pretty serious, but...flying eyeballs was pretty gross. She'd take the former over the latter any day.
It wasn't until she walked in the door of her godparents' home that the relief over getting away from Erme's mistakes turned into dread over whatever it was her godparents had to tell her. She stopped just inside the doorway, but didn't see either of them in the entry hall or the sitting room. "Uncle Ravi? Aunt Sofie?" she called out, secretly hoping no one would answer.
Sofie was already setting down a small cake onto the kitchen table, right in front of Amelia's usual seat when it came to meals. Really, even Sofia knew better than to bribe someone in those that they'd overlook something serious, but really Sofia had no idea how Amelia was going to deal with the news. She didn't even know how to handle it and she's known for 15 years.
So, a cake was in order. Everything that Amelia loved, down to the frosting. She did her best to ignore her husband's comments that it wasn't going to do anything. She already knew that. At the very least it kept her busy until their Goddaughter showed up.
She turned her head at the sound of Amelia's voice and called over. "Over here, in the kitchen!"
The cake was incredibly patronizing and wouldn't do anything to soften the impact of what it was they had to talk to Amelia about. In Ravi's opinion, it was a ridiculous gesture. Amelia was an adult. She didn't need to have her feelings manipulated with sweets. But Sofie was going to do what she wanted to do, regardless of what he said, so, whatever. He just sat at the table with a cigarette, watching her in exasperation, letting the cat dig her bony back feet into his shoulder as she lay over the back of his chair. He glanced up as Amelia darkened the door, but didn't say anything. He was too nervous to.
Hearing Aunt Sofie's call from the kitchen, Amelia made her way over, pausing in the doorway to peer in. Oh gosh they were both waiting already, this had to be super serious. Filled with a sense of dread, she walked over to take her usual seat and stared down at the cake that had been laid out for her.
Aunt Sofie was trying to make her feel better before they even told her what it was she should feel better about. What could possibly...
Oh. Oh no. "Are you dying?!" she exclaimed, about to burst into tears, not sure whether she meant Ravi or Sofie, but certain it had to be one of them.
Sofia blinked. "What!?" Where the heck did that come from? "No!"
Oh wait, the cake. And Amelia was seconds from crying too. Oh dear. Her long since built motherly sense kicked it, sweeping herself around the table to wrap an arm around Amelia's shoulders "Oh no, no no! sweetie! I'm not going to die. Neither is your uncle or Missy! We're okay, we're all fine."
Her hand continued to rub Amelia's opposing shoulder, glancing over at Ravi with a guilty and ashamed frowned. This wasn't what she expected at all and nearly made Amelia cry already. " Shh shh shh. I promise, That's not why we wanted to talk to you."
Ravi let out a sigh, setting his face in his hand. He was used to the way his goddaughter thought, but that didn't make it any less exasperating. He threw Sofie a look from between his fingers; he told her not to worry about the damn cake. HE WARNED YOU ABOUT CAKES SOFIE.
He dropped his hand, letting it rest on Missy's haunch on his shoulder. "Nobody is dying, Amelia. Be quiet and listen."
Amelia, not quite crying, sniffed and forced herself to calm down. Aunt Sofie's comfort was welcome, but it was Uncle Ravi's stern command that made her pay attention. "What's going on, then?" she asked, looking between the both of them, the worry still plain on her face.
Sofia kept her arm around Amelia, both to help continue to calm Amelia down some and for the small comfort it gave Sofia herself. She knew that she hated lying to Amelia for so long and that finally telling their goddaughter the truth was something she wanted for quite a while. Now that was here though, how exactly should they even tell Amelia that a big assumption in her life was wrong the whole time?
Sofia couldn't even look her goddaughter in the face for too long, finding herself constantly looking down at the floor after just a few moments facing Amelia. "Well, you see. Erm, Amelia. Ever since I married your uncle, um, even before then...It wasn't like he..."
She briefly stared back up at Ravi, her frown more confused and at a loss at what to say. Still, It wasn't like Ravi was going to say anything this entire time. Sofia took a deep breath and looked straight back at Amelia. "The marriage between your uncle and I has never been a love match."
Amelia twisted her hands in her lap and looked up at her godmother, listening intently to every word. The stunning revelation was...
...well, a little less than stunning, really. At first she was relieved nobody was dying, and then she was confused by what Sofie was saying, and then she was uncertain why they'd needed to be so serious about telling her that. "I know you guys had your marriage arranged. That's not--..." Wait. Maybe that wasn't the revelation in itself. She brought one hand up, biting at her thumbnail as she tried to guess what Sofie was getting at.
Oh no. It was obvious! "Are you getting a divorce?! You can't get a divorce! What will Missy do?!"
"Amelia." Ravi's hand came down on the table, a loud thump to cut through her thoughts and shock her back to reality. It was followed by a wince and cringing as Missy took that as an excuse to claw her way off of his back and jump from the chair to the floor.
He straightened himself out, rubbing his shoulder. Damn cat. "We are not getting a divorce," he assured Amelia, trying to curb his aggravation for her sake. "Stop jumping to conclusions and let us explain."
The slam on the table earned a cringe and then a pointed glare at Ravi. Sofia didn't like it when he slammed on furniture like that and it was definitely inappropriate here. That was for another discussion though and she focused back on Amelia. "Erm, No. We're not getting divorced. What I meant to say was..."
She slipped her arm away from Amelia and stood straight again, taking a step back as if unsure what Amelia would do or if her words could handle the close distance. "We...We're not in love with each other. We never were but um, not from the lack of some of us trying to make an honest attempt at it-"
She herself cringed at her own words. That was horrible and totally unfair to Ravi...kind of. Her voiced lowered a little as she continued. Her hands giving nervous twists. " We know you had the assumption it was, b-but I-WE couldn't tell you until now."
Amelia frowned, looking between them again. This wasn't the news she'd expected at all. She knew from the start that their marriage had been arranged, but she'd just always assumed... People in arranged marriages ended up loving each other all the time, didn't they? "Why are you telling me now?" she asked, her voice uncharacteristically meek.
Sofie's words earned her a glare from Ravi. He kept his mouth shut, because he didn't want this to devolve into a fight, but he was very obviously not happy with her subtly pinning the blame on him in the middle of a sensitive conversation.
He put out his cigarette, turning to answer Amelia, trying to keep his voice neutral. "We both agreed that we could not resolve the problems between us until we stopped lying to you."
Sofia tried not to stare at Ravi, she already knew what his expression would be. Still, she gave a shameful nod to his words. "And we still love you. We're trying to get along, but we are just...there's no chance we are going to see each other in that manner."
Sofia didn't know how she was feeling about giving this confession now. Amelia had to deal with the death of both of her blood parents and they had made certain she lived in a loving home, even if it wasn't true. Now it seemed like they were deconstructing that foundation on Amelia and while Sofia still believed in not lying to her goddaughter, it was leaving her a lot more empty than she had hoped.
Amelia had always known that she'd grown up in a loving home, that both of her godparents loved her dearly, but now that she thought about it, it was obvious that their love had always been given separately. They'd never really done things as a family, and she'd just assumed it was because Uncle Ravi's job kept him so busy that when he did get quality time with her, Aunt Sofie preferred to let him have Amelia to himself because she got Amelia all the rest of the time.
She looked down at the cake on the table, a symbol of Aunt Sofie's affection - fleeting treats given in abundance whenever they were together, because they saw each other so often. She crossed her legs under the table, conscious of the stockings that were a symbol of Uncle Ravi's affection - a constant presence that stayed with her when he could not be there. Even if they didn't love each other, they still loved her. That had to be true.
"So..." She reached up, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear, and glanced up at Uncle Ravi out of the corner of her eye, then Aunt Sofie. "So what problems did you mean?" She'd never noticed any problems between them, except maybe that Aunt Sofie wanted a baby and they didn't have one yet.
Ravi tried not to wince, but it snuck through. He looked to Sofie, not sure what to say. This was probably the part where he was supposed to admit that everything was his fault for being unable to be a dutiful husband, but that wasn't something he could bring himself to say, not in front of Amelia.
Sofiia pointedly looked away from Amelia's gaze, feeling almost as guilty as Ravi probably did. How in the world were they going to tell her? She did her best to find the words. "W-well, you see. Um. There isn't-Your uncle..."
Maybe there wasn't any words that could really be said by her. She turned to look at Ravi, her eyes begging for his help explaining this to their goddaughter. It was his issue after all.
Of course it would fall to him to explain it. It really wasn't fair to ask Sofie to try. With a sigh, Ravi lowered his eyes to the table, and then turned to his goddaughter. "I..." he started, then stopped. "Amelia, there is..." Ugh, no, he couldn't do this. He couldn't. He set his elbows on the table, his face in his hands, and was silent for a moment.
This was the single hardest thing he'd ever had to do in his life. Admitting he'd been hiding something like this from his goddaughter her entire life. Admitting that the family she'd grown up in was nothing like she'd thought it was, and it was his fault.
Letting out a slow breath, he lowered his arms and raised his head, his eyes focused on a point above Amelia's shoulder because he couldn't look her in the face. "I never have had an interest in women, Amelia." That was the hardest part, just getting that out. "Our marriage has been...difficult. For us both. Because of that."
Amelia stared at him, and then stared at Aunt Sofie, and then back at Uncle Ravi. She started to say something, but stopped, then started again. "What...do you mean?" This was all so confusing, she didn't know what to think!
"He has no interest in me." She answered, taking a moment to finally add. "Or any other women."
Nngh, this was painful, even for her. Her left hand came up to rub her other arm, a little confused if there really much more she could say. "He prefers the more male variety, Amelia."
The look of disgust that crossed her face was probably hilarious from an outside perspective, but not so funny to the people in the room. Her head whipped around to stare at Ravi in disbelief. "What? You're joking, Uncle Ravi would never--" Her gaze snapped to Sofie. "That's not true!"
Ravi winced as Sofie said it, turning his eyes away so he wouldn't have to see the look on Amelia's face. His voice came out soft, defeated. "It is true, Amelia."
Ah, this was about go from bad to worse. Sofia needed to defuse it before it exploded or their goddaughter started pinning blame on either one of them. She raised her hands in front of her and slowly stepped toward Amelia. "Honey, I know this is hard. It was hard for me too, but it's always been like that. He is still the loving uncle as before."
Her world was upside-down. Their marriage was loveless because...because Uncle Ravi preferred men? She tried to picture him kissing a boy, but couldn't. It seemed so ridiculous. Why would he be like that? He had a wife right here, why couldn't he just stick with her?
"If it's causing problems," she said, "can't you just stop?"
He wanted to just get up and walk out. He couldn't handle this. He couldn't explain that he wasn't normal and he never had been and he'd been like this as long as she'd known him and it wasn't like anything had changed about him except her understanding.
With his elbow on the arm of his chair, his forehead resting against his fingers, he stared down at the edge of the table and said, "No, Amelia. I cannot 'just stop.'"
"But if Aunt Sofie doesn't like it," and she probably didn't or else why would there even be problems? "you're supposed to stop. She's your wife."
"Amelia..." She called out, though through a resigned shrug and her cheeks feeling a little flush at being pointed out in this conversation. "...It isn't that simple. Believe me."
He glanced up at Sofie, almost surprised that she was bothering to defend him. He knew how she felt about the whole thing. He suspected that deep down, Amelia's dismay pleased her, and she was only putting up the appearance of trying to stave off a fight. Nonetheless, he appreciated the effort, if only because he had no idea what to say to defend himself.
"Well why not?" she demanded. Her reaction was a kneejerk anger to being told that her Uncle Ravi--the man she'd trusted above everyone else for her entire life--had also been lying to her this whole time. She wanted desperately for the reality they were telling her about to match the reality she'd grown up believing, and she was going to do her best to force reality into her idealistic mold.
"Because it isn't!" Sofia was starting to get a little frustrated now herself. She could see a little why Ravi had grown angry with her so often when these kind of conversations came up. "Don't you think that would've happened after so many years!? Don't you think I-WE have tried!? Ravi had no interest in me!"
As soon as she said, even if the words were true, Sofia regretted it and caught her breath. Her eyes staring at Amelia as she was almost sure she went too far.
The outburst left Amelia stunned into silence. She leaned back in her chair, staring at her godmother. Aunt Sofie didn't yell. Well she did, but not very often, and only when Amelia had done something seriously wrong. It didn't curb Amelia's anger, but it got her to shut up for a minute to try to process Aunt Sofie's.
Ravi took advantage of Amelia's silence to address her, leaning forward to fold his arms over the table. (He still didn't like the way Sofia was framing the problem as his fault, but he couldn't argue it--it was true.) "Sofia and I both want to move on, Amelia. We want to find a solution that works for us. But we cannot, if we are forcing ourselves to paint a lie to protect you."
Sofia reluctantly nodded her head with Ravi's words, at least in partial agreement at what was being said. Still, her voice was a little soft as if trying to counter the angry outburst a moment again and certainly wasn't looking Amelia's face. "We never liked lying to you for so long, but this kind of secret can't be known to people. It would ruin the family image and would have a bad impact in all of our lives."
Sofia's lovely face twisted in the frown at the last few words, but said nothing. She had already explained that little part plenty of times.
So they wanted to tell her, but still keep it a secret from everyone else? How did that even fix anything? And Amelia still didn't get it, anyway--if the problem was that Uncle Ravi wasn't interested in Aunt Sofie, couldn't he just force himself to be interested? Boys liked girls, that was how things were. Even if he liked boys more, he still had to like girls. It wasn't fair for him to just tell Aunt Sofie he wasn't interested. They were still married.
She let out a low whine, tangling her fingers in the rat's nest of her hair, only mussing it worse. She sat up, slapping her hands down on the table, and pushed herself to her feet. "I'm...going back to the Hour. Thanks for the cake, Aunt Sofie." She picked up the plate, balancing the fork on it, and headed for the door.
Ravi started to rise to stop her. "Amelia--"
"I'm not talking to you, Uncle Ravi!" she called back, disappearing through the doorway.
He fell back to the chair, staring after her, shocked and hurt. He'd expected a poor reaction, but that didn't make it any easier to deal with. It still felt like a knife in his chest.
People really needed to stop abusing tables in this household, but that wasn't important right now.
Sofia took a step toward Amelia, her hand out while she tempted the thought of stopping her goddaughter from leaving, but instead just watch her daughter leave. If she was really that angry right now, then it was probably best she had time to collect her thoughts than to push her further on what was said. Even more, Sofia felt pretty horrible for even wanting this idea in the first place. Maybe their family had been built on lies to start with, but now it was...She didn't even know what it was. Hopefully things would ease out.
Like Amelia, the hand that Sofia had almost offered to stop her goddaughter instead mussied her own hair in both confusion and frustration. She turned around, expecting to find her husband already to have left himself in order to brood elsewhere, only to find Ravi still sitting there at the chair. A pang of guilt washed down her spine, but instead of saying anything that probably would backfire, Sofie simply walked over to her husband and offer a comforting hand on the man's shoulder.
It wasn't that comforting, but it was better than nothing. At least he had Sofie's support, which was a nice change of pace from their norm. He'd fully expected her to back up Amelia's anger and tell her it was justified and turn her against him. That she hadn't was...well, he appreciated that, at least.
He pressed the heel of his hand over his eye, letting out a quiet sigh. This was why he didn't tell people. "She will come around," he murmured. "Give her time."
Amelia
Ravindra
Sofia
When: Day after Sofie's post.
Where: The Naran house.
Rating & Warnings: PG, FAMILY CONFLICT.
Sofie and Ravi try to explain their situation to Amelia. She doesn't take it well.
Amelia was only too happy to get away from the Hour tonight, despite the reason. "We need to talk" was pretty serious, but...flying eyeballs was pretty gross. She'd take the former over the latter any day.
It wasn't until she walked in the door of her godparents' home that the relief over getting away from Erme's mistakes turned into dread over whatever it was her godparents had to tell her. She stopped just inside the doorway, but didn't see either of them in the entry hall or the sitting room. "Uncle Ravi? Aunt Sofie?" she called out, secretly hoping no one would answer.
Sofie was already setting down a small cake onto the kitchen table, right in front of Amelia's usual seat when it came to meals. Really, even Sofia knew better than to bribe someone in those that they'd overlook something serious, but really Sofia had no idea how Amelia was going to deal with the news. She didn't even know how to handle it and she's known for 15 years.
So, a cake was in order. Everything that Amelia loved, down to the frosting. She did her best to ignore her husband's comments that it wasn't going to do anything. She already knew that. At the very least it kept her busy until their Goddaughter showed up.
She turned her head at the sound of Amelia's voice and called over. "Over here, in the kitchen!"
The cake was incredibly patronizing and wouldn't do anything to soften the impact of what it was they had to talk to Amelia about. In Ravi's opinion, it was a ridiculous gesture. Amelia was an adult. She didn't need to have her feelings manipulated with sweets. But Sofie was going to do what she wanted to do, regardless of what he said, so, whatever. He just sat at the table with a cigarette, watching her in exasperation, letting the cat dig her bony back feet into his shoulder as she lay over the back of his chair. He glanced up as Amelia darkened the door, but didn't say anything. He was too nervous to.
Hearing Aunt Sofie's call from the kitchen, Amelia made her way over, pausing in the doorway to peer in. Oh gosh they were both waiting already, this had to be super serious. Filled with a sense of dread, she walked over to take her usual seat and stared down at the cake that had been laid out for her.
Aunt Sofie was trying to make her feel better before they even told her what it was she should feel better about. What could possibly...
Oh. Oh no. "Are you dying?!" she exclaimed, about to burst into tears, not sure whether she meant Ravi or Sofie, but certain it had to be one of them.
Sofia blinked. "What!?" Where the heck did that come from? "No!"
Oh wait, the cake. And Amelia was seconds from crying too. Oh dear. Her long since built motherly sense kicked it, sweeping herself around the table to wrap an arm around Amelia's shoulders "Oh no, no no! sweetie! I'm not going to die. Neither is your uncle or Missy! We're okay, we're all fine."
Her hand continued to rub Amelia's opposing shoulder, glancing over at Ravi with a guilty and ashamed frowned. This wasn't what she expected at all and nearly made Amelia cry already. " Shh shh shh. I promise, That's not why we wanted to talk to you."
Ravi let out a sigh, setting his face in his hand. He was used to the way his goddaughter thought, but that didn't make it any less exasperating. He threw Sofie a look from between his fingers; he told her not to worry about the damn cake. HE WARNED YOU ABOUT CAKES SOFIE.
He dropped his hand, letting it rest on Missy's haunch on his shoulder. "Nobody is dying, Amelia. Be quiet and listen."
Amelia, not quite crying, sniffed and forced herself to calm down. Aunt Sofie's comfort was welcome, but it was Uncle Ravi's stern command that made her pay attention. "What's going on, then?" she asked, looking between the both of them, the worry still plain on her face.
Sofia kept her arm around Amelia, both to help continue to calm Amelia down some and for the small comfort it gave Sofia herself. She knew that she hated lying to Amelia for so long and that finally telling their goddaughter the truth was something she wanted for quite a while. Now that was here though, how exactly should they even tell Amelia that a big assumption in her life was wrong the whole time?
Sofia couldn't even look her goddaughter in the face for too long, finding herself constantly looking down at the floor after just a few moments facing Amelia. "Well, you see. Erm, Amelia. Ever since I married your uncle, um, even before then...It wasn't like he..."
She briefly stared back up at Ravi, her frown more confused and at a loss at what to say. Still, It wasn't like Ravi was going to say anything this entire time. Sofia took a deep breath and looked straight back at Amelia. "The marriage between your uncle and I has never been a love match."
Amelia twisted her hands in her lap and looked up at her godmother, listening intently to every word. The stunning revelation was...
...well, a little less than stunning, really. At first she was relieved nobody was dying, and then she was confused by what Sofie was saying, and then she was uncertain why they'd needed to be so serious about telling her that. "I know you guys had your marriage arranged. That's not--..." Wait. Maybe that wasn't the revelation in itself. She brought one hand up, biting at her thumbnail as she tried to guess what Sofie was getting at.
Oh no. It was obvious! "Are you getting a divorce?! You can't get a divorce! What will Missy do?!"
"Amelia." Ravi's hand came down on the table, a loud thump to cut through her thoughts and shock her back to reality. It was followed by a wince and cringing as Missy took that as an excuse to claw her way off of his back and jump from the chair to the floor.
He straightened himself out, rubbing his shoulder. Damn cat. "We are not getting a divorce," he assured Amelia, trying to curb his aggravation for her sake. "Stop jumping to conclusions and let us explain."
The slam on the table earned a cringe and then a pointed glare at Ravi. Sofia didn't like it when he slammed on furniture like that and it was definitely inappropriate here. That was for another discussion though and she focused back on Amelia. "Erm, No. We're not getting divorced. What I meant to say was..."
She slipped her arm away from Amelia and stood straight again, taking a step back as if unsure what Amelia would do or if her words could handle the close distance. "We...We're not in love with each other. We never were but um, not from the lack of some of us trying to make an honest attempt at it-"
She herself cringed at her own words. That was horrible and totally unfair to Ravi...kind of. Her voiced lowered a little as she continued. Her hands giving nervous twists. " We know you had the assumption it was, b-but I-WE couldn't tell you until now."
Amelia frowned, looking between them again. This wasn't the news she'd expected at all. She knew from the start that their marriage had been arranged, but she'd just always assumed... People in arranged marriages ended up loving each other all the time, didn't they? "Why are you telling me now?" she asked, her voice uncharacteristically meek.
Sofie's words earned her a glare from Ravi. He kept his mouth shut, because he didn't want this to devolve into a fight, but he was very obviously not happy with her subtly pinning the blame on him in the middle of a sensitive conversation.
He put out his cigarette, turning to answer Amelia, trying to keep his voice neutral. "We both agreed that we could not resolve the problems between us until we stopped lying to you."
Sofia tried not to stare at Ravi, she already knew what his expression would be. Still, she gave a shameful nod to his words. "And we still love you. We're trying to get along, but we are just...there's no chance we are going to see each other in that manner."
Sofia didn't know how she was feeling about giving this confession now. Amelia had to deal with the death of both of her blood parents and they had made certain she lived in a loving home, even if it wasn't true. Now it seemed like they were deconstructing that foundation on Amelia and while Sofia still believed in not lying to her goddaughter, it was leaving her a lot more empty than she had hoped.
Amelia had always known that she'd grown up in a loving home, that both of her godparents loved her dearly, but now that she thought about it, it was obvious that their love had always been given separately. They'd never really done things as a family, and she'd just assumed it was because Uncle Ravi's job kept him so busy that when he did get quality time with her, Aunt Sofie preferred to let him have Amelia to himself because she got Amelia all the rest of the time.
She looked down at the cake on the table, a symbol of Aunt Sofie's affection - fleeting treats given in abundance whenever they were together, because they saw each other so often. She crossed her legs under the table, conscious of the stockings that were a symbol of Uncle Ravi's affection - a constant presence that stayed with her when he could not be there. Even if they didn't love each other, they still loved her. That had to be true.
"So..." She reached up, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear, and glanced up at Uncle Ravi out of the corner of her eye, then Aunt Sofie. "So what problems did you mean?" She'd never noticed any problems between them, except maybe that Aunt Sofie wanted a baby and they didn't have one yet.
Ravi tried not to wince, but it snuck through. He looked to Sofie, not sure what to say. This was probably the part where he was supposed to admit that everything was his fault for being unable to be a dutiful husband, but that wasn't something he could bring himself to say, not in front of Amelia.
Sofiia pointedly looked away from Amelia's gaze, feeling almost as guilty as Ravi probably did. How in the world were they going to tell her? She did her best to find the words. "W-well, you see. Um. There isn't-Your uncle..."
Maybe there wasn't any words that could really be said by her. She turned to look at Ravi, her eyes begging for his help explaining this to their goddaughter. It was his issue after all.
Of course it would fall to him to explain it. It really wasn't fair to ask Sofie to try. With a sigh, Ravi lowered his eyes to the table, and then turned to his goddaughter. "I..." he started, then stopped. "Amelia, there is..." Ugh, no, he couldn't do this. He couldn't. He set his elbows on the table, his face in his hands, and was silent for a moment.
This was the single hardest thing he'd ever had to do in his life. Admitting he'd been hiding something like this from his goddaughter her entire life. Admitting that the family she'd grown up in was nothing like she'd thought it was, and it was his fault.
Letting out a slow breath, he lowered his arms and raised his head, his eyes focused on a point above Amelia's shoulder because he couldn't look her in the face. "I never have had an interest in women, Amelia." That was the hardest part, just getting that out. "Our marriage has been...difficult. For us both. Because of that."
Amelia stared at him, and then stared at Aunt Sofie, and then back at Uncle Ravi. She started to say something, but stopped, then started again. "What...do you mean?" This was all so confusing, she didn't know what to think!
"He has no interest in me." She answered, taking a moment to finally add. "Or any other women."
Nngh, this was painful, even for her. Her left hand came up to rub her other arm, a little confused if there really much more she could say. "He prefers the more male variety, Amelia."
The look of disgust that crossed her face was probably hilarious from an outside perspective, but not so funny to the people in the room. Her head whipped around to stare at Ravi in disbelief. "What? You're joking, Uncle Ravi would never--" Her gaze snapped to Sofie. "That's not true!"
Ravi winced as Sofie said it, turning his eyes away so he wouldn't have to see the look on Amelia's face. His voice came out soft, defeated. "It is true, Amelia."
Ah, this was about go from bad to worse. Sofia needed to defuse it before it exploded or their goddaughter started pinning blame on either one of them. She raised her hands in front of her and slowly stepped toward Amelia. "Honey, I know this is hard. It was hard for me too, but it's always been like that. He is still the loving uncle as before."
Her world was upside-down. Their marriage was loveless because...because Uncle Ravi preferred men? She tried to picture him kissing a boy, but couldn't. It seemed so ridiculous. Why would he be like that? He had a wife right here, why couldn't he just stick with her?
"If it's causing problems," she said, "can't you just stop?"
He wanted to just get up and walk out. He couldn't handle this. He couldn't explain that he wasn't normal and he never had been and he'd been like this as long as she'd known him and it wasn't like anything had changed about him except her understanding.
With his elbow on the arm of his chair, his forehead resting against his fingers, he stared down at the edge of the table and said, "No, Amelia. I cannot 'just stop.'"
"But if Aunt Sofie doesn't like it," and she probably didn't or else why would there even be problems? "you're supposed to stop. She's your wife."
"Amelia..." She called out, though through a resigned shrug and her cheeks feeling a little flush at being pointed out in this conversation. "...It isn't that simple. Believe me."
He glanced up at Sofie, almost surprised that she was bothering to defend him. He knew how she felt about the whole thing. He suspected that deep down, Amelia's dismay pleased her, and she was only putting up the appearance of trying to stave off a fight. Nonetheless, he appreciated the effort, if only because he had no idea what to say to defend himself.
"Well why not?" she demanded. Her reaction was a kneejerk anger to being told that her Uncle Ravi--the man she'd trusted above everyone else for her entire life--had also been lying to her this whole time. She wanted desperately for the reality they were telling her about to match the reality she'd grown up believing, and she was going to do her best to force reality into her idealistic mold.
"Because it isn't!" Sofia was starting to get a little frustrated now herself. She could see a little why Ravi had grown angry with her so often when these kind of conversations came up. "Don't you think that would've happened after so many years!? Don't you think I-WE have tried!? Ravi had no interest in me!"
As soon as she said, even if the words were true, Sofia regretted it and caught her breath. Her eyes staring at Amelia as she was almost sure she went too far.
The outburst left Amelia stunned into silence. She leaned back in her chair, staring at her godmother. Aunt Sofie didn't yell. Well she did, but not very often, and only when Amelia had done something seriously wrong. It didn't curb Amelia's anger, but it got her to shut up for a minute to try to process Aunt Sofie's.
Ravi took advantage of Amelia's silence to address her, leaning forward to fold his arms over the table. (He still didn't like the way Sofia was framing the problem as his fault, but he couldn't argue it--it was true.) "Sofia and I both want to move on, Amelia. We want to find a solution that works for us. But we cannot, if we are forcing ourselves to paint a lie to protect you."
Sofia reluctantly nodded her head with Ravi's words, at least in partial agreement at what was being said. Still, her voice was a little soft as if trying to counter the angry outburst a moment again and certainly wasn't looking Amelia's face. "We never liked lying to you for so long, but this kind of secret can't be known to people. It would ruin the family image and would have a bad impact in all of our lives."
Sofia's lovely face twisted in the frown at the last few words, but said nothing. She had already explained that little part plenty of times.
So they wanted to tell her, but still keep it a secret from everyone else? How did that even fix anything? And Amelia still didn't get it, anyway--if the problem was that Uncle Ravi wasn't interested in Aunt Sofie, couldn't he just force himself to be interested? Boys liked girls, that was how things were. Even if he liked boys more, he still had to like girls. It wasn't fair for him to just tell Aunt Sofie he wasn't interested. They were still married.
She let out a low whine, tangling her fingers in the rat's nest of her hair, only mussing it worse. She sat up, slapping her hands down on the table, and pushed herself to her feet. "I'm...going back to the Hour. Thanks for the cake, Aunt Sofie." She picked up the plate, balancing the fork on it, and headed for the door.
Ravi started to rise to stop her. "Amelia--"
"I'm not talking to you, Uncle Ravi!" she called back, disappearing through the doorway.
He fell back to the chair, staring after her, shocked and hurt. He'd expected a poor reaction, but that didn't make it any easier to deal with. It still felt like a knife in his chest.
People really needed to stop abusing tables in this household, but that wasn't important right now.
Sofia took a step toward Amelia, her hand out while she tempted the thought of stopping her goddaughter from leaving, but instead just watch her daughter leave. If she was really that angry right now, then it was probably best she had time to collect her thoughts than to push her further on what was said. Even more, Sofia felt pretty horrible for even wanting this idea in the first place. Maybe their family had been built on lies to start with, but now it was...She didn't even know what it was. Hopefully things would ease out.
Like Amelia, the hand that Sofia had almost offered to stop her goddaughter instead mussied her own hair in both confusion and frustration. She turned around, expecting to find her husband already to have left himself in order to brood elsewhere, only to find Ravi still sitting there at the chair. A pang of guilt washed down her spine, but instead of saying anything that probably would backfire, Sofie simply walked over to her husband and offer a comforting hand on the man's shoulder.
It wasn't that comforting, but it was better than nothing. At least he had Sofie's support, which was a nice change of pace from their norm. He'd fully expected her to back up Amelia's anger and tell her it was justified and turn her against him. That she hadn't was...well, he appreciated that, at least.
He pressed the heel of his hand over his eye, letting out a quiet sigh. This was why he didn't tell people. "She will come around," he murmured. "Give her time."