Who: Eretria and Wil What: A visit When: Early morning Where: Wil and Amberle's Warnings: none Status: Completed Gdoc
Eretria had a kid with Kenny, which really just made her shake her head, but the kid was off with Kenny forming his army, or whatever. Any kid of hers was pretty self-sufficient anyway. She decided to drop by Wil and Amberle’s, drop off some fresh foods, and see how they were doing. She missed her treehouse and it got a long glance before she finished the walk to the door, tying her horse up to a tree before knocking on the door.
She had a bag over one shoulder with a ribbon on it. A Christmas gift, of sorts, really. She was trying, at least. Life felt lonely without them around, but she wouldn’t admit that to anyone though and certainly not to Wil.
“I come bearing gifts of foods and so on and so forth!” she grinned.
***
“Aunt Ere! Hi!” A young man who clearly resembled Wil hurried to open the door. “Dad’s trying to brush Daisy’s hair.” It was not going well if the screeching and wailing that could be heard from upstairs was any indication.
He held out his hands, offering to take something from her and carry it inside.
Wil shouted down from upstairs, his voice barely audible over the crying young girl. “Who’s at the door, Anders?”
“It’s Aunt Ere,” the boy replied.
“Be down in a minute,” Wil called.
*** Ere smiled at the boy, “Oh is he now? Guess he needs me to come save him from girl’s hair” she laughed softly as she stepped inside.
“Do I need to save you from the tough life that is girl’s hair, Wil?” she called up as she let Anders take the bag. She paused, looked at him and grinned in a conspiring way, her voice low. “There are a few bits of candy in there, you can have the first pick” she winked.
***
The boy grinned and immediately went to sit on the sofa and dig through the bag so he could see what kind of candy was in there.
“Yes, please!” Wil called, sounding defeated.
“Auntie Ere, make Poppa stop hurting me!” the little girl whined.
*** There were peppermints, candy canes, and little chocolates in the bag.
Eretria kicked off her boots and headed towards the voices, coming to rescue them. “I’ve got you, don’t worry.” she nudged Wil out of the way and took the brush. She worked on untangling her hair, carefully, picking at knots.
“How are you doing this time Wil?” she asked over her shoulder.
***
Wil sighed. “I thought I was doing okay,” he said. “Until now.” Amberle had gone to work early, leaving him to get both kids ready for the day. Anders was easy. Daisy was… not. But he wasn’t about to send her to Kenny’s given the sheer number of kids his friend had.
“Poppa hurted me, Auntie Ere,” Daisy said with a whine. “And Daddy is being mean. Plus he has lots and lots of kids.”
“How about you?” Wil asked. “Were you… blessed?” There was definite sarcasm in his tone though he hoped his daughter wouldn’t pick up on it.
*** Ere smiled a little as she worked on Daisy’s hair, fingers moving easily through the strands, she leaned down for a moment. “Well your poppa is sorry, and daddy is being mean to everyone so you’ll just have to spend time with me, huh? Do you wants braids?”
She looked back up at Wil and laughed a little bit, “Oh I’m certainly blessed” she rolled her eyes a little. “How lucky, I suppose, my child has run off to join his father’s army.” she arched a brow in a way that said, lord help us. ***
“I have another brother?” Daisy asked, relaxing against Ere’s hands. “And yes please! You do the best braids.”
Wil was grateful that he didn’t end up with nearly as many as Kenny. Honestly, he couldn’t really blame his friend for being so miserable. It seemed like every other kid that popped up on the network was looking for him.
“At least you just have the one,” he said.
*** “You do, his name’s Dylan.” she said as she started working on braiding Daisy’s hair for her. She smiled a little and decided on some seriously fancy braids for this child today. She looked up at Wil and nodded a bit. Poor Kenny really did have the short end of the stick.
Maybe this was the dome’s way of saying he should take it easy. But who knows, really?
“Yes, just the one. He’s 7 and a handful, and more than happy to annoy his father for hours on end.” she shrugged a little. “Or run with the pack of children that are his half siblings. Works for me, really. He doesn’t like being so far out on the edges of town anyway. How are you two holding up?”
***
Wil shrugged. “Anders is a pretty easy going kid,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “But, uh… there were some things that happened at home that I never told Amberle about.” Like her uncle’s death. “So I’m not sure how that’s going to go.”
With Daisy sitting there listening, he wasn’t going to elaborate, but he figured that Eretria would understand what he was getting at.
*** Eretria gave Wil a look. One of those are you even serious kinds of looks. She sighed and shook her head. “You really should tell her you know. But your choice.” she didn’t want to be there for that one. Nope, she was good safe and sound across the town in her dugout home. Thank you very much.
She unwound a ribbon of blue from her own braids and twisted it through Daisy’s as she finished up the braids. “There you go, looking sharp if i may say so myself. Might want to run downstairs before Anders eats everything in the bag I brought.” she winked before sitting back and looking to her friend. ***
“Thank you!” Daisy said, jumping up and turning her head rapidly back and forth so her braid and the ribbon flew. She kissed Eretria on the cheek and then ran downstairs screaming for Anders to save her some candy.
Wil sat back on the bed with a heavy sigh. “If we ever do have kids, I hope they’re boys,” he said. Though Amberle could do the hair brushing and braiding thing too. It just wasn’t one of his skills.
*** She accepted the kiss with a smile before watching daisy run down to fight over candy. She set the brush down finally and cracked her knuckles before relaxing a bit. “You just don’t want to braid hair.” she teased as she laughed, “Though to be fair you could get stuck braiding a boys hair too.”
“If the tiny monsters don’t eat it all, there is actual food in what I brought, too.” Ere was amused, nonetheless, at the whole week so far. Kids everywhere. It was the kind of madness of this place she could handle without too much panic. Just a little.
“I think I’ll skip them all together.”
***
“It’s not something that Amberle and I have really discussed,” Wil said with a shrug. He wasn’t necessarily opposed to the idea, but he also wasn’t chomping at the bit. As much as he loved his wife, there was always the risk that one or both of them would get sent home and never return. He wasn’t sure if he had what it took to be a single parent, though he had no doubt she would do just fine without him in those circumstances.
He sighed again. “I guess we should go downstairs and make sure they’re not getting into too much trouble.” At least there was no screaming at the moment.
*** Ere just kind of shrugged a little before pushing to her feet and stuffing her hands in her back pockets. “Yep, before they eat everything and become tiny terrors.” she teased before heading back downstairs towards where she’d left Anders with her bag.
She sidestepped any further conversations on the issues. Safer that way, really. Though nice to know she’d be Auntie Ere for, like, ever. “I brought a few frozen venison steaks, some fish, and some of the garlic that I planted and came up from last year nicely.”
***
Wil nodded. “Thanks,” he said. “I’m sure that none of it will go to waste.” Especially not with a couple of extra mouths to feed for the next few days.