Briar Moss (livingtattoos) wrote in madisonvalley, @ 2018-12-22 19:32:00 |
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Entry tags: | !closed, !log, [plot] future kids take 5, ~2018 december, ~25 points, ~~briar moss (livingtattoos), ~~cassie holmes (crappyartist) |
Who: Briar Moss, Cassie Banner-Romanoff, and eventually Astrid Mitchell
What: Kids with kids
When: Saturday afternoon
Where: Cassie's place
Warnings: TBD
Status: Partial gdoc TBC
Cassie was not okay with this. Having a kid just randomly show up was one of the weirder things to happen in Madison Valley, but it was fine when it wasn't her kid. The little girl had to be around five or so, but she definitely wasn't from the future given the ridiculous nightgown. A short conversation later and she'd discovered that 'Aunt Riley' and 'Uncle Lucas' were supposed to come over, which sealed the deal in terms of who the father was.
Briar got a text that suggested he hurry up and get over to her house before she lost it. Whether she was talking about her sanity or the little girl, Cassie honestly wasn't sure. Luckily, her little brother showed up again and he didn't seem to mind playing with Astrid for a little while. That gave her the opportunity to wait outside in the cold for Briar to show up. She'd absolutely rather freeze her ass off instead of talking about all of this to her parents. Ugh.
***
Briar had done the whole randomly appearing kids thing before. A couple of times over the years he’d been in town and he wasn’t all that surprised by Cassie’s message. He’d never really had mates in town before her, never really gotten swept up in anything except with Maya, but it didn’t surprise him that this place had decided their friendship meant they were a target of things happening. Again.
He didn’t really think anything of it, just ducked out of his own house, out the window to avoid the second set of twins, and scampered across town to Cassie’s, slowing a little when he got close enough to see her sitting outside.
Hands jammed into his pockets to ward off the cold, he hated it and his coat and scarf did nothing to chase it away, he greeted her with a smile that was more teasing than anything. “What? You’re hiding out?”
***
"Of course I'm hiding," she replied flatly. Not even his teasing would get her to loosen up, at least not right away. "She's in there playing something or other with my brother, Alex. He showed up again, thank god." It meant there was a built in playmate for Astrid and an easy enough excuse to not have to interact much with the little girl.
Cassie looked up at him with a sort of frown. "What the hell are we supposed to do with a five year old from the 1830s?" He was way too calm about this. It was almost unfair although she knew that was unfair. It just hit way too close to home because she was just starting to come to terms with the fact that she had 'more than friends' feelings for Briar. This just made her want to throw her walls back up and hide behind them, but it helped that the kid was from their Wild West selves instead of whatever future they might or might not have here.
"It's just weird."
***
Briar only smiled at her frown, moved to sit beside her, drawing his coat tightly around himself and bumping his shoulder to hers. “Don’t know if it’s any help but it ain’t like she’s real.”
It wasn’t like she was really their responsibility. If she was really theirs, if they’d had her, then things would be different. He didn’t intend to ever have children of his own but Briar knew he wouldn’t ever let a child of his be without him, the way his own parents had done him, what amount of that was intention on his father’s part he’d never know, and even if this kid was one the town decided to dangle in front of them as a possible future, he’d think differently. But this one didn’t belong to either of them. As far as he was concerned, they weren’t those people. He wasn’t the boy desperately in love with a pretty girl and she definitely wasn’t the girl desperately seeking approval.
Even if he did still think she was pretty and did still think he’d like to kiss her sometimes, wouldn’t mind a lot more than that if she’d let him.
“So way I see it, don’t gotta do nothin’ but make sure she stays safe.” And he could probably help her feel that way, knew what a world a lot more like the one she came from was like.
***
Cassie knew what he meant by that, and it was some comfort but not enough. Still, she nodded and managed to at least soften her frown. “It helps a little, but not a lot,” she admitted with a shrug. She very much did not want kids, knew what it was like to grow up on her own and she didn’t want to be responsible for someone else. Not long term. She felt like she could barely handle being responsible for herself some days.
“She seems okay so far. Not freaking out too much or anything, but I think that’s because ‘Grammy’ and ‘Pop Pop’ are keeping her occupied.” Which Cassie was grateful for, even if she did feel a little guilty. Astrid just made her feel weird, reminded her of the person she’d been in that weird upside down place. She didn’t want to be that person, even if maybe she mellowed out over time. Or at least figured out that being happy was worth it.
“Want to skip out on all this crap and use the transporter to go somewhere?” It was only a half serious question. Cassie absolutely did run away from her problems, or buried her head so far in the sand that she could ignore them, but a kid was something she didn’t think she’d actually get far running away from. Maybe to the transportation services place.
***
Nothing about hopping into one of those transporter things sounded good to Briar, not even to get away from a kid that wasn’t really theirs, and he told her that with a skeptical look. He wasn’t a big fan of most things technological to begin with. Actually putting his life in one of them was not something he was willing to do. No more than he was willing to actually have a kid.
But theirs or not, this one was here.
“Come on.” Why was he the one encouraging responsibility and everything? “Littles ain’t so hard. And she might be alright.” He didn’t know how much he’d talked to the girl, and he wasn’t usually one for optimism, but for all Briar didn’t want any children of his own, he did like them well enough.
***