The Shadow of the Father [213]
Title The Shadow of the Father
Challenge [213] Anticipation
Word Count 351
Notes it's an epidemic Follow up piece to this
Their breath always catches in the same manner. "Oh Riku, she looks just like you." Which isn't entirely true, he knows that. The shape of her face echoes Selphie's, hair shares the same awkward curl as his wife's even if the silver-blond is reminiscent of his own. It's the rest of her (eyes, mouth, tilt of the head) that belongs to him.
"Just how I hoped she'd be," Selphie giggles as she holds their baby close against her.
He's fine with all these physical similarities, even if it is strange to stare back at himself in such a tiny porcelain face. Riku sends quiet wishes (in the form of hugs and kisses) to his baby that she'll have her mommy's personality.
She doesn't, not really, not enough to quell the fear in Riku's heart. He watches as she breaks away from a game of tag and just stares with an angry kind of intensity at the ocean.
"What's out there?" she asks one day, when she's barely five.
Nothing, everything, heartbreak, hurt, pain, adventure, the universe Riku can't think of any answer that will keep her close.
She's eight and babbling about the secret spot, "all these cool chalk drawings, you should see them Daddy and this door-" her words come to an abrupt halt when Riku drops a glass (it shatters, like so many other things he's touched) and turns to her with a panicked look on his face.
"You must never, ever go near that door." It's his serious voice and once she would obediently nod her head, say okay, and that would be the end of it.
Not today. "Why not?" Her face twists into that painful place between rebellion and being the Good child.
There's darkness there baby, and it'll eat you alive but he can't explain that, can't come up with a reason to her question. "It's dangerous in there, you could get hurt." he finishes lamely.
That fire doesn't leave her eyes, Riku's lost her to the same path he once walked. He prays to the stars that she's smarter, kinder, faster, than her father was.
Challenge [213] Anticipation
Word Count 351
Notes it's an epidemic Follow up piece to this
Their breath always catches in the same manner. "Oh Riku, she looks just like you." Which isn't entirely true, he knows that. The shape of her face echoes Selphie's, hair shares the same awkward curl as his wife's even if the silver-blond is reminiscent of his own. It's the rest of her (eyes, mouth, tilt of the head) that belongs to him.
"Just how I hoped she'd be," Selphie giggles as she holds their baby close against her.
He's fine with all these physical similarities, even if it is strange to stare back at himself in such a tiny porcelain face. Riku sends quiet wishes (in the form of hugs and kisses) to his baby that she'll have her mommy's personality.
She doesn't, not really, not enough to quell the fear in Riku's heart. He watches as she breaks away from a game of tag and just stares with an angry kind of intensity at the ocean.
"What's out there?" she asks one day, when she's barely five.
Nothing, everything, heartbreak, hurt, pain, adventure, the universe Riku can't think of any answer that will keep her close.
She's eight and babbling about the secret spot, "all these cool chalk drawings, you should see them Daddy and this door-" her words come to an abrupt halt when Riku drops a glass (it shatters, like so many other things he's touched) and turns to her with a panicked look on his face.
"You must never, ever go near that door." It's his serious voice and once she would obediently nod her head, say okay, and that would be the end of it.
Not today. "Why not?" Her face twists into that painful place between rebellion and being the Good child.
There's darkness there baby, and it'll eat you alive but he can't explain that, can't come up with a reason to her question. "It's dangerous in there, you could get hurt." he finishes lamely.
That fire doesn't leave her eyes, Riku's lost her to the same path he once walked. He prays to the stars that she's smarter, kinder, faster, than her father was.