Entry tags:

Δ complete, Δ threads, → astrid hakansson, → michael price, ∞ 2000: 05, ◦ tarrytown downtown

RP: I think you should know...
Who: Astrid and Michael, David Hakansson [NPC] and Freyja [NPC]
What: Time to see about some of that courage Ram said she'd need
When: Wednesday May 29, 2000, early evening
Where: Starting out at Astrid’s childhood home in Phoenicia, NY and then Michael and Julián’s apartment in Tarrytown.
Warnings: TBD
Completion Status: Complete


David let his hand drop to his side, as the little green car turned the corner and disappeared out of his sight. With a sigh, he leaned against the railing on the front porch, his elbows resting against the rough wood. It could do with some paint, he figured, and added that to the list of renovations to the house for this summer. It had been hard having Astrid home for the past days. Hard not knowing exactly what was going on in her mind, though it was clear to see that she was trying to come to terms with something that most likely had to do with that necklace her mother had given her on her birthday. If she hadn’t been curled up on the windowsill staring out at the mountains, she had been running and hiking the trails around town, and if he was lucky, she had been in the garage with him, still not talking, but going about the place’s everyday routine as if she had never left. Yes, it had been hard to have her home and unable to help her with what troubled her. But it had been harder to see her drive away.

“Freyja,” he sighed, “I don’t even know how to do this or even if it’ll work, because Lord knows it hasn’t ever worked in the past.” He stopped for a moment, considering what he had just said. “Now, would that be considered a cuss word for you. Lord, I mean? Nah, doesn’t matter, does it. Like I said, it’s never worked before, but I’m still gonna try, because my little girl is hurting badly so I hope you know what you’re doing. I make no guarantees if you fail, I don’t care if you’re a goddess or not. I hope you know. Her wheels are spinning, and I don’t know how to get her to find that traction to get on the right path again, but I hope you can.” He ran an oil-stained hand over his scruff and stood back up to his considerable height. “Not sure if I’m supposed so say Amen, but here goes; Amen.” Pounding the railing gently a couple times, he was about to turn around and go inside, when a voice he would recognize anywhere reached him.

“She was never a little girl.”

He turned around and right there on the front yard stood Freyja, as beautiful and luminous as ever, looking exactly like that day he had first seen her almost thirty-one years ago. “Oh, she was my little girl,” he said, the contempt and devotion clear in his voice. “What she wasn’t, was a young girl. You all took that away from her when you gave her that cloak.”

“I didn’t give her that cloak.” Freyja moved closer and now she was standing by the three steps that would take her up onto the porch.

“Well, you certainly didn’t take it away, either” David huffed at her, his jaw flexing as he once again leaned on the railing. He wanted to look at her, wanted to take in the beauty he had only been able to see in his dreams, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t bear to have this goddess, this being connected to his anger and frustration right now. “My little girl is hurting, because she never had the chance to be that young girl who does what they do, who mess up and get their hearts broken so they know how to deal with that later. She didn’t get that. Instead, she got death and war, and she doesn’t know how to deal with that either, no matter what she says. Can’t you see that?”

“I see that,” Freyja said, coming to stand next to him, looking out across the front yard and the street, to the mountains further out. “I never wanted her to take that cloak.”

At this David snorted and shook his head. “Then why don’t you take it away. You’re a goddess, aren’t you?”

Freyja’s touch when she placed her hand on top of his was light, though it felt like his entire world was being wrapped in light and love. “I can’t,” she told him gently. “But I showed her how she can take it off.”

---

The drive back to Tarrytown had been uneventful, but the music had been loud and as she had started to look forward to being home, she had even started singing along. Astrid still didn’t know what she was supposed to do, but for the past days, she had been going in circles and she had missed both Michael and Jude, though as she was driving, it had been Michael who had kept popping up in her thoughts. Maybe it was because it wasn’t unusual for she and Jude to go days or longer without talking to each other, but things with Michael had moved fast, and all of a sudden she was feeling overwhelmed by huge feelings that she wasn’t exactly scared to acknowledge, but worried might make things more complicated.

Pulling into an empty parking spot somewhere between their apartments, Astrid pushed her sunglasses into her hair, and quickly made her way down the street. She drew in a deep breath before she knocked.

She waited for a while, though when there was no reaction, and only the sounds from the piano reached her, she drew in a deep breath. Had she really managed to push him away by leaving the way she did? That hadn’t been her intention at all, and she could kick herself for not having had the courage to just speak to him or call him or just… go to him. She stood there, for long minutes, leaning against the door, just listening. He was improvising, it seemed, as she recognized various bits from different melodies, and then came that one bit, from that first melody he had played for her and it nearly took her breath away.

Not wanting to wait anymore, she eased the door open, and followed the music to where he was sitting by that old piano. How could she have been this stupid? In a few strides she was next to the piano bench, her hand reaching for his cheek, to turn his face to her. She met his eyes for a moment, just long enough to really see him. She wanted to tell him she had missed him, wanted to tell him that she was falling, but all she managed was to lean down for a slow kiss.