WHO: Raven Darkholme and Nina Lehnsherr WHAT: Summer fun! WHEN: Recently WHERE: At the pool WARNINGS: Nope STATUS: Closed/Completed Gdoc
Nina was SO HAPPY that school was out. It meant that she could play all day with nobody to tell her that she had to do her homework instead or anything silly like that. And that was the best. The only sad thing was that daddy couldn’t be with her all the time because he had to work. But thankfully, Uncle Charles or Aunt Raven were usually there if he wasn’t.
Today, it was super super hot and so she and Aunt Raven had gone to Crystal Beach swimming pool to play on the big slide. She’d already been down it with Aunt Raven like FIVE WHOLE TIMES but she wanted to do it more.
Splashing up to her, she threw her arms around Raven’s neck and smiled.
“Again!”
***
The loss of Kurt from town hit Raven a lot harder than she would have expected and she felt a tremendous amount of guilt for not making a point of spending more time with him while he was there. As much as she hadn’t planned to be a mother, she was one and he deserved better than what she’d provided.
Spending time with Nina was bittersweet and made her wonder what Kurt was like at this age. She knew that giving him up was the right choice, but sometimes she wondered if she would remember this place and have the option to make a different decision.
She grinned as Nina splashed her way over to her and easily lifted the girl into her arms. “Again? Don’t you think you’ve gone enough times?” Her words were light and teasing. Nina deserved to have as much fun as possible and Raven was determined to ensure that she had a good life here since it wasn’t likely she would back home.
***
“There’s never enough times on the slide!” She said, holding on to Raven tightly. There were a lot of good, strong men in Nina’s life, but there weren’t that many women. And Raven was one of her favorite. She was like family. No, she was family. Just like mommy and daddy.
“Please? Just one more time?”
She looked at her with her big brown eyes, hopefully. Of course, last time it had been ‘just one more time’ too.
***
“This is the last one,” Raven said. It wasn’t like she could really deny Nina anything, but they’d also been at the pool for quite a while and she knew that she was going to feed the girl sooner rather than later. “And then we’ll get something to eat, okay?”
Probably something completely unhealthy, but she didn’t think Erik was the type to fuss about proper nutrition. Charles might. Luckily, she was used to ignoring him.
***
Nina still didn’t want it to be the last one, but right now she was just happy that there was going to be another one, so she focused on that instead. She wriggled out of Raven’s arms and out of the pool, over to the line to the slide, looking back and holding out her hand for Raven.
“Can we have ice cream for supper?”
***
Raven laughed as she caught Nina’s hand. “We can have ice cream after supper,” she said. There was a difference between not fussing over proper nutrition and having ice cream for dinner.
“How about we go to Hinkles?” she offered. That seemed like a decent compromise.
***
Nina pondered that a moment, as if trying to figure out if that was okay or not. Finally, she smiled a little. “Okay. I like Hinkles.”
It was yummy, and anyway, Raven said that they could have ice cream after dinner. As long as they could have it, she could deal.
“Are you having fun?”
***
Fun wasn’t a common theme in Raven’s life and the question caught her off guard for a moment. Then she grinned. “Yes, I am,” she said. “I always have fun with you, Nina.”
And she was glad that Nina was getting an opportunity to have something resembling a normal childhood despite her mutations. It was an experience that she, Erik, or even Charles really got to have and she knew they were all committed to making sure that Nina did.
***
Nina was lucky enough that her mutation was invisible. She didn’t hide it, and she’d gotten in trouble at school for misusing it, but you still couldn’t tell she was a mutant just by looking at her. It made things easier for her. But it also made things easier that she was here in Madison Valley, with all sorts of strange people. Strange was kind of the default here, and people accepted it easier than they might have other places.
She looked up at Raven and smiled.
“Good. Because I think you’re not happy sometimes. And I want you to be happy all the time.”
***
“I’m happy all the time when I’m with you,” Raven said. It was true that she wasn’t always happy, especially lately dealing with losing out on the opportunity to know her son better, but Nina was a ray of sunshine in all of their lives and despite her initial misgivings about Erik having a child with someone else, she was glad the girl was here.
She leaned down and kissed the top of Nina’s head, hoping the answer would direct her away from thinking about Raven not being happy.
***
Nina wasn’t stupid, even if she was just six years old. She knew Raven wasn’t happy, and she hated that. But she wasn’t going to push it or anything because she was happy today and she didn’t want to be anything but happy.
“Well, be with me more,” she said. It sounded like the best thing to Nina. After all, if being with her made her happy then that was what she should do, right?
***
Raven grinned. That did seem like a logical solution. “I think that sounds like a great plan,” she said. “Now, let’s ride this slide once more and then get some food. I’m starving.”