WHO: Rowena Hyland, with guest appearance of Rohan Hyland WHEN: Morning of January 16 WHERE: The Hyland home, mostly the kitchen SUMMARY: Father lets daughter know that she doesn't have to invite any company to an upcoming family gathering. WARNINGS: None
When Rowena woke, she went through her normal routine of the last month. First, she waved her hand around in the general direction of her nightstand, looking for her cell phone that was currently blaring a loud alarm, the only one that would actually wake her up. Then, once the offensive sound had stopped, she sat up and stretched her arms over her head, her whole body popping in a way that made her feel like she had just gifted her an additional inch or two to her more or less average height.
Then, she hopped out of bed and went straight to her calendar, where Rowena crossed off the day before and smiled at the number written in bright teal Sharpie on the current date: 17. That was how many days she had left to wait until she closed on her house and was officially, blissfully, a homeowner.
Rowena had already started the process of packing, the evidence of which surrounded her bedroom. There were cardboard boxes and totes full of clothes, knick-knacks, and books, all waiting to be loaded and hauled across town to the house she had put an offer on that was accepted a couple weeks before Christmas. She would have been happy to move in immediately, but the current owners wanted to finish off the year there, which Rowena couldn't fault them. It also gave her a bit more time to prepare, which was what she had been doing in what freetime she could muster between grad school and her photography business.
Finding a sweatshirt that hadn't been packed away, Rowena tugged it over her head, then made a quick stop in the bathroom before going on the search for breakfast. It was in the kitchen that she found her father, a newspaper spread on the counter in front of him and a mug of coffee to the side. Her mother and sister were nowhere to be seen.
"Good morning, Dad," Rowena greeted, going to the refrigerator to find a yogurt. That would do.
"I was hoping to catch you before I left." Rowena was surprised, her expression showing it as she peeled the foil off the top of the container of strawberry goodness in her hand. "Your grandmother's birthday is on Friday."
This turned Rowena's surprise into confusion, one of her eyebrows arching. She crossed the kitchen to stop in front of the silverware drawer, pulling out a spoon. "Yeah, I know. We're doing dinner here for her, right?"
"Right." Her father turned, abandoning the paper to look at his oldest directly. His expression was a mixture of concerned and stern, one that Rowena was not unused to being on the receiving end of; it seemed that no matter how reasonable a choice she made, her father was always some shade of concerned, as though he never could understand her. That much was true, she knew. He never could understand her.
"Do you want me to pick something up? I can order a cake from the bakery in town or run into DC?"
"No, your mother has that all handled." He folded his arms over his chest, then continued, "But it's just a small family gathering."
Rowena ate a slow bite of yogurt, struggling to understand. It wasn't as though she'd never gone to a birthday dinner for her grandmother before. After swallowing, she nodded. "Yeah, it usually is."
"Just family," he reiterated, giving her a look. "So you don't need to bring any company."
Realization dawned on Rowena immediately, her back straightening as it did. What he meant by company, of course, was Morrighan Kane. The attendance of Cerys's friend at Christmas had been one of her cousin's best ideas, as far as Rowena had been concerned. It had been refreshing in a lot of ways, her presence bringing something to the Hyland gathering that it usually lacked -- fun. It wasn't just that some of the more Hyland members of her family had some rather entertaining reactions to the things Mo had said or worn, but she had been genuinely fun to spend time with. There had been a point in the evening that she'd almost forgotten that her invitation to Christmas had initially been a way to mess with her more snobby family members.
And while she new in that moment that perhaps she had no right to be because of that, Rowena felt her anger rise. Though she hadn't had a conversation with her parents about Mo since Christmas, outside of her mother making a comment about how it was nice to see Rowena bringing new friends around, her father effectively banning her from the house didn't sit well.
"I wasn't planning on inviting Mo in the first place," Rowena said, her voice sharper than she had meant for it to be. There was no apology on her face, though, when the realization hit her. "Though maybe I should."
Rohan let out a huff, a noise that Rowena knew all too well. It meant that he was irritated and felt that she was being unreasonable. "I don't understand where this sudden rebellion has come from, Rowena, but it needs to stop."
"Rebellion?" Rowena repeated, not bothering to disguise the indignation in her voice. She understood exactly what he was thinking, though. For nearly as long as she could remember, Rowena had been very careful to act a certain way, be a certain sort of person -- the person that she thought her parents, more specifically her father, wanted her to be. She never stuck a toe out of line. She was agreeable. She did as he asked, without question. If she did something wrong, she was quick to apologize and try to make it right, adjusting herself to her very core if needed. Coming out had been terrifying to her, as she didn't know how he would react; it had been fine, in the end, with him caring more about her choice of studying art than her sexuality.
For the first time in her life, though, Rowena had been embracing the parts of herself that she'd pushed down or ignored for so long. The opportunities that she had been given in the last year and the inspiration that she found just from having Bea in her life had allowed her to see just how unhappy she had been for too many years. Hearing her father dismiss her discovery of herself as rebellion sat with her about as well as Mo being banned from family gatherings had.
"I'm not rebelling," Rowena continued, cutting her father off before he had a chance to say anything else. Her appetite gone, she let the spoon drop into the sink with a clatter before tossing the half eaten yogurt into the trash. "I'm happy."
Again, her father made that huff, making her temper spike once more. "You've always been happy."
"I've let you think that I've always been happy," she corrected, shaking her head at her father. "There's a really big difference there." Rowena started back through the kitchen, heading away from her father and this conversation. "So you might want to learn to accept this version of me that you find so irreprehensible, because it's staying."
She heard her father sputtering behind her, trying to explain himself, but Rowena didn't have the patience. All she could see was Zelda and the crushing weight of expectations that she felt from her own father. The fate of a kingdom paled in comparison to Rowena's father's desires of her to go into a "reasonable field" and "settle down with someone appropriate", but she could feel the connection. She saw what that stress did to the princess and she wasn't going to make the same mistake.