Nora Cadwallader (safekeep) wrote in disorderic, @ 2018-04-04 20:41:00 |
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Entry tags: | nora cadwallader, rhys cadwallader |
WHO: The Cadwalladers
WHAT: Plans for the future
WHEN: April 4, awhile after they make sure Jasper is okay
WHERE: Dafydd Cadwallader's house
WARNINGS: General Cadwalladerness
It took time, searching through the rubble that was once the Gentle Green for what they could retrieve. They got the okay from the insurance inspectors as long as everything was documented, which was a trial all its own. There was so much they couldn't save. And they started small, a few rooms at a time. The salvageable contents of their bedroom were spread out around Dafydd's living room then, waiting to be sorted and documented. Nora was exhausted. She picked up a photo from their wedding day, framed in a pretty, woven silver frame. It was only seven years ago, but they looked so young and happy. The photograph version of Nora stood up on her tiptoes to kiss her new husband on the cheek, and photograph Rhys laughed. She held the photo for a while, running her fingers over the frame until she found a divot she wasn't expecting. At closer inspection, her shoulders slumped. "Oh, no. This one's cracked, too." “Oh no, really?” Rhys said sympathetically, shuffling closer to her on the floor in order to take a closer look. He leaned his head on her shoulder and pressed his fingers to the fault in the frame. “We can fix this. Just needs a bit of glue and it’ll be like new.” he said, though he knew that was not really true. You could put things back together as best you could, but they would never really be the same as they once were. He looked wistfully down at the broken keepsake for a moment, contemplative. “You know, the Japanese have this philosophy called Kintsugi—they repair broken pottery with gold, and it becomes a part of the history of the thing rather than something to hide. Imagine how shiny all of our stuff would be if we did that.” "Maybe we should get some gold-coloured glue, then," Nora said. She smiled, but it couldn't quite reach all of her. "Real gold would probably get expensive. Maybe for this one, though." She sighed. "My parents gave us this frame," she added, a fact Rhys probably remembered just as well as she did. “I love this frame,” Rhys said gently. “It’d be worth the gold. This is one of my favourite pictures of us. Isn’t it funny how something can seem like ages ago and just yesterday all at the same time?” He leaned over and gave her a soft, affectionate peck on the cheek. “Maybe we should take a new photo sometime. Get them to pick out another frame.” Nora leaned her head against his shoulder. "Get it printed out and everything? We'll have to pick a good spot. Maybe on a beach or something." Rhys leaned his own head against the top of hers. “We should go to the beach. We haven’t been to a beach in ages.” he said with a sigh. “I guess we can do whatever we want now.” Nora was silent for a moment while she weighed her words. It was something she'd been thinking about for days without quite acknowledging it. But there was a door open now that she had forced closed so many times, and she couldn't look away. "Maybe in Brazil," she said quietly. Rhys too had been silently considering it, though he hadn’t yet found an opportunity to bring it up. Nora had only just returned to St Mungo’s, and he hadn’t wanted to breach the subject before she was ready to consider the alternative to starting over again here. All he’d ever wanted was for her to be happy and safe. “I think it’s about time I tried out my Portuguese for real,” he said, equally quiet. With one more glance at the frame in her hand, Nora put it down gently on the floor and spun herself to face her husband. This was the kind of conversation they should have face to face. She sat cross-legged, a knee gently brushing against his thigh. "Do you really want that?" she asked. "I— you're not saying that just for me?" He placed his hand on her knee, then took a deep breath before nodding decisively. He’d thought about this for a long time, so this wasn’t a simple, impulsive agreement. “I do want that. I think we should go. We’ve done enough here. It’s time to move on with our lives.” he said. He gave her knee a squeeze. “What do you want?” "I don't know," Nora admitted. She took her husband's hand. "We'd have to leave … everyone. Baz. Dafydd and your parents…" “We can get our brothers to come with. Dafydd doesn’t have anything left here, either. My parents would be fine.” Rhys said, because he had to believe that was true. "Baz does, though," Nora said. She pulled her knees up and wrapped her arms around them. "He's already said he thinks it's off the table but …. Maybe I can talk to him. It isn't like we would have to leave tomorrow." Rhys nodded. He gave her a small, reassuring smile. “We don’t have to leave tomorrow. Baz too. He could change his mind yet. We’ve got our whole lives ahead of us. We can find new jobs, new friends…” He paused, hesitating for a moment before adding, “Maybe start a family?” Nora's breath caught, and she bit her lip. This topic had seemed even more impossible, even more distant and unattainable, but she didn't even have to think about her answer. She gave the smallest nod, before a grin broke across her face and suddenly she couldn't stop nodding. "Yeah. Yes. We should … yeah." Rhys’ entire face lit up. Beaming, he leaned in to give her a thoroughly excited, delighted kiss. “I love you so much,” he said, pulling her into a passionate embrace. They were going to be okay. Despite all they’d been through, this was only the start of something much, much better. He took her hand. “Nora Cadwallader, will you start your life over with me on the sunny beaches of Brazil?” By now she was crying, just a little, because this was finally, finally something good, no matter how many changes it brought them. She grinned and nodded again. "I do," she said, then a laugh. "I mean, I will. I love you." |