Vanilla 7, Chocolate 6, Strawberry 8: Four Ways To Get Home
Title: Four Ways To Get Home
Main Story: In the Heart
Flavors, Toppings, Extras: Vanilla 7 (holiday), chocolate 6 (grace), strawberry 8 (signpost), malt (12 Days- four ways to get home), pocky chain.
Word Count: 404
Rating: PG for some swearing.
Summary: What going home means to my four main ladies. Companion to "Three Bouncing Balls."
Notes: Yes, Danny is a girl. Her full name is Daniella. Again, I'd love concrit if you've got it.
1. Ivy
"Mom, I'm home!" she yells, unwinding her scarf, hanging her coat in the closet beside her father's.
She walks through the living room-- all the furniture is pushed back, and her sister Summer is dancing to a tune only she can hear. She can hear her brother Aaron in the kitchen, swapping jokes with his girlfriend.
"In here, love," her mother calls, and she goes into the dining room, where the table is set, the candles lit, and her father is just leaving. He throws her a smile as he goes, and her mother a kiss.
She smiles.
Merry Christmas.
2. Gina
"You sure about this?" Ivy asks, and she's not sure, not at all, but it's the right thing to do, isn't it?
She loves Ivy, she really does, and she wants to spend the rest of her life with her, but that rather means telling her parents about... well, about her. It means dropping a mask she's worn for so long that she can't remember putting it on. It means risking everything.
But she'll do this for Ivy, because Ivy never asked.
"I'm sure," she says, though she isn't sure at all, but it's Christmas, and everyone deserves some grace.
3. Danny
It's her best memory, her favorite memory, the one she tells her friends every chance she gets and anybody else she can trap into listening.
She is saluting almost before Nathan Kendall enters the room, and he laughs at her, but not cruelly.
"Settle down, kiddo, I left the Navy twenty years ago." He eyes her critically. "Before you were born."
It sounds like a question, so she answers it. "Not quite, sir. I'm twenty-two."
His eyes soften. "My son's age," he says, and that right then, she tells them, whoever's listening, that was when she got a real father.
4. Olivia
It's a right and then a left and then another left at the signpost, the clerk said, but she can't seem to find it. It would be typical, she thinks, to finally make a decision after all these years, and then not be able to find the damn place.
A left at the signpost, but what signpost?
Maybe it's an omen. Maybe she shouldn't have come. If Jake is wrong...
But Jake is right, she tells herself firmly, and decides to just make a left anyway, abandoning the mythical signpost. She'll find it. She'll find her father.
She'll find home.
Main Story: In the Heart
Flavors, Toppings, Extras: Vanilla 7 (holiday), chocolate 6 (grace), strawberry 8 (signpost), malt (12 Days- four ways to get home), pocky chain.
Word Count: 404
Rating: PG for some swearing.
Summary: What going home means to my four main ladies. Companion to "Three Bouncing Balls."
Notes: Yes, Danny is a girl. Her full name is Daniella. Again, I'd love concrit if you've got it.
1. Ivy
"Mom, I'm home!" she yells, unwinding her scarf, hanging her coat in the closet beside her father's.
She walks through the living room-- all the furniture is pushed back, and her sister Summer is dancing to a tune only she can hear. She can hear her brother Aaron in the kitchen, swapping jokes with his girlfriend.
"In here, love," her mother calls, and she goes into the dining room, where the table is set, the candles lit, and her father is just leaving. He throws her a smile as he goes, and her mother a kiss.
She smiles.
Merry Christmas.
2. Gina
"You sure about this?" Ivy asks, and she's not sure, not at all, but it's the right thing to do, isn't it?
She loves Ivy, she really does, and she wants to spend the rest of her life with her, but that rather means telling her parents about... well, about her. It means dropping a mask she's worn for so long that she can't remember putting it on. It means risking everything.
But she'll do this for Ivy, because Ivy never asked.
"I'm sure," she says, though she isn't sure at all, but it's Christmas, and everyone deserves some grace.
3. Danny
It's her best memory, her favorite memory, the one she tells her friends every chance she gets and anybody else she can trap into listening.
She is saluting almost before Nathan Kendall enters the room, and he laughs at her, but not cruelly.
"Settle down, kiddo, I left the Navy twenty years ago." He eyes her critically. "Before you were born."
It sounds like a question, so she answers it. "Not quite, sir. I'm twenty-two."
His eyes soften. "My son's age," he says, and that right then, she tells them, whoever's listening, that was when she got a real father.
4. Olivia
It's a right and then a left and then another left at the signpost, the clerk said, but she can't seem to find it. It would be typical, she thinks, to finally make a decision after all these years, and then not be able to find the damn place.
A left at the signpost, but what signpost?
Maybe it's an omen. Maybe she shouldn't have come. If Jake is wrong...
But Jake is right, she tells herself firmly, and decides to just make a left anyway, abandoning the mythical signpost. She'll find it. She'll find her father.
She'll find home.