Who: Mel, Nick, Helen, Nick's grandmother What: Convo and shopping. Where: Greece When: BACKDATED Aug 19th (before the fires) Warnings: None.
Melpomene had arrived in Greece as planned, and promptly fell asleep in the car traveling to where ever they were spending the night. Time with Nick's family was, as always, interesting, but for once she felt no guilt in claiming her daughter mostly for herself. On the surface, she could only really talk with those who spoke English. In private, she'd speak with his grandmother, and ask her for stories, or any bits of knowledge the woman wished to share. But they both accepted that Mel would stay quiet on knowing the language around most.
Now though, it was mid week. Mel and Nick and free family members were in a market, wandering about from vendor to vendor. Some were getting the groceries needed for dinner, others just to socialize. The muse would separate from the group and speak to Helen in both languages, looking for something to take home with her as possible gifts. Small statues of the gods? Few in her family would find much humor in that.
Nick had considered taking a Poseidon one just to... well, burn it. But that seemed pushing it even for him. But he saw one of the muses and quickly picked it up, putting it in a small shopping bag to carry until he got to the cashier. "How about those scarves," he said, pointing to some on a rack. They were all blue and white, in the design of the Greek flag. "Shiri would like that, eh?"
Turning, Mel glanced where he was pointing, then moved to touch the fabric. Blue and white was fine, but she looked for one that wasn't so blatantly a flag. The fabric was rather soft to touch, and she offered it to Helen to let the child feel. As her daughter giggled, Mel glanced back to Nick. "I didn't think you knew Shiri well enough to notice," she mentioned off hand.
"Every time I've seen her, she's had one on," he pointed out with a smile and a shrug. "And I don't think I could fit another motorcycle in the suitcase for the trip back.' Looking down to Helen, he beamed at her smile, he bent and waved a little Greek flag at her. "What do you think, Helen? Hm?"
Helen didn't give her opinion much, just giggled and squealed, swatting at the little piece of cloth on the stick.
Shifting her daughter, she couldn't help but pet her hair briefly, before looking back through the cloths. Finding one she liked, and thought Shiri would like, she plucked it off and handed it to Nick to put with the other things he was buying. Glancing about though, the muse gave a roll of her shoulders. She felt uneasy, like there was something she was missing. "If we buy something for Shiri, we should scout something for Val, and her triplets..." Mel pulled her mind from the images three babies brought forth, and looked for a distraction. She found her daughter, staring up at her. "Are we going to be able to get her away from your family?" she asked.
Briefly, Nick considered a smartass remark of his family snatching her away and locking her up in a tower. But the events of the past year immediately caught up after him. The young father shivered lightly even in the heat. "Yeah, course. I think they're getting bored of her already. Now, if she were a boy, that'd be a different story."
Now Melpomene frowned, turning to glance at some of the other members of the family, and considering giving a look that some might call the evil eye. But she looked away again, back to her daughter. "Maybe they'll stop thinking I'm just some money chaser then and trying to make her one of their own." As if a daughter weren't good enough. At least mothers had no doubt when a child was theirs.
Nick frowned a bit and sighed. "It's not that they don't love her," he said quietly.
Mel shrugged. She knew her own family well enough to know Helen didn't have to worry. If no one else, Hades would see she didn't starve if Nick's family ever gave up on her. The muse had lived long enough to know well how women were often considered less than men. Continuing through the market space, she found a set of small musical instrument figurines. She would take one back for Apollo.
Nick opened his mouth to argue about how vehement his aunts and grandmother had been when they'd learned about Helen's kidnapping, or how they'd been so happy to see her again, or... anything, really. But he closed his mouth and turned to look at some coffee cups instead. It just wasn't worth the fight. "Think Dante wants anything?" he asked in a dull tone.
He'd been the one to say they were bored of her because she was a girl. "No. He'd only destroy it." Feeling his sullen mood, she grabbed one of the instruments and brought it back, leaning against his side briefly to peer at what he was looking at as well.
The mortal jumped a bit, not expecting the sudden side-cuddle, but he put an arm around her side anyway. "It's complicated," he said after a sigh. "I'm sorry. They mean well. And it doesn't mean she'll be treated any less 'cause of it..."
Not until if came to some family 'pass it down to the son' item. Mel held her piece, and shifted Helen so their daughter could easily reach both parents. Hugs! She smiled at them, reaching to play with the collar of her father's shirt. "You don't have to explain it to me Nick."
Helen's innocent giggling made him smile again. "Who cares. She's gonna be the best damn kid ever."
WHAP.
"{You'll watch your tongue around babies, young man,}" said Grandma in a tone that practically dripped 'I've been wanting to do that forever' as she waved her little paper fan at herself again. "{Next time, you'll get it in the face.}"
Nick blushed just a bit at being scolded like... well, like a grandkid. "{Sorry.}"
Mel turned and smirked a bit as she saw the grandmother. They'd been getting along well, and she was the only one who knew Mel was fluent in Greek. "{You're aim is good. Practice?}"
Grandma grinned, and the grin was the exact same as Nick's at his most charming and playful. Slightly like a puppy, mostly like a fox. "{I've had many children and granchildren to perfect it,}" she said.
"{May I be so lucky with grandchildren,}" Mel murmured, glancing Helen and kissing her daughter's forehead. "{But this one will not give me much need to practice I doubt.}"
"{That's what I thought with this one!}" said Grandma, waving the fan threateningly in Nick's direction. Despite his greater bulk and fit, he flinched away. Eek! "{Such a nice baby. Hardly ever cried, except when you bumped his shoulder. But now look at him. Styling your hair is for women, not men!}"
Nick just blushed. "{Come on, Grandma, it's the fashion,}" he argued weakly.
"Feh! {Fashion is silly.}"
Mel decided to come at least slightly to Nick's rescue and reached up to touch his hair. "{I like his hair. You don't see it really when he has his riding helmet on.}" She turned back to his grandmother. "{How did your husband have his hair normally?}"
"{Short! And that was all.}" The old woman got a wistful expression on her face, her eyes misting over a little. "{And he had a fine beard. A good, strong face.}"
Moving over next to the older woman, the muse gently touched her arm, guiding her back to the isles of the market. She glanced around to make sure none of the other family members were about, and continued their conversation. "{He sounds handsome. How did you two meet?}"
"{Our fathers introduced us. We were very young, but even then, his family was in the decline. The war had just ended, and everyone had alot of nothing. But they wanted him married, and quickly. He didn't agree to the idea, and neither did I...}" She smiled up at the girl, a few years gone from her face from the moment.
"{But as soon as I started to speak to him, I knew we were going to make a fine family. Both of our families wanted a huge, perfect wedding. So, of course, we stole away in the night and found the nearest priest. Sure, we had the big one later, but it was our little secret then. And thankfully, nobody was surprised when Nicodemus' father was born a month early.}"
Mel smiled with the story, the eager listener as much as any story teller could want. She had to shift Helen in her arms again, the one year old not the easiest bundle, but the child had not yet begun to squirm, and seemed fascinated with thing around her. As she had before, the muse could keep the grandmother distracted like this for as long as no other family came around. And they thought she was merely quiet. "{Only a month? The wedding must have been quickly planned.}"
"{Weddings were always quick then. We weren't sure if we would live to see the end of the month, even the week, sometimes,}" said the elderly woman, her tone falling a little. But it quickly picked back up, "{But, he was smart. Nicodemus is only half the man he was, and he is a wonderful boy. When he's not on those silly motor bikes.}"
Well, she'd tried to help Nick out. She shrugged and pouted slightly. "{I like the motor bikes. And Nick does a good job of taking care of Helen and me. You just have to wait for his daughter to twist him around her finger for him to do something historical.}" That didn't come out entirely as she planned, but rarely did it ever.
The matron of the family paused for a moment and then smiled warmly up at her. He had definitely been born with his mother's looks, but his smile was almost exactly like his grandmother's. "{He's lucky to have you, isn't he. Yes, indeed.}"
The muse's eyes lingered for a moment on the smile, before she ducked her head and glanced away, looking briefly to her mortal boyfriend, then around the crowds in general. She couldn't help but cling her daughter closer to her in a hug as muttered words slipped past her lips. "{I am named for Tragedy. I doubt he is the lucky one to be caught around me.}" Glancing to the grandmother again, she attempted to push past the darkening mood. Dark moods had no place when she wasn't in muse mode. "{You said the perfume you liked was sold here, didn't you?}"
"{Oh, it is, somewhere...}" Reaching out, Grandma took Melpomene by the wrist, utilizing that odd old lady grasp that could burn pebbles to keep her in place. "{And do not doubt me. I may look like a little prune now, but my brain still works fine. You're very different. Any fool with half a peanut in his head could see that. But I have never seen Nick, or this family, as happy until you came into his life. Do not doubt yourself.}"
She paused, letting the moment pass before she grinned and followed after Nick, delivering a more playful swat to the head. "{Look! That vendor is selling some nuts.}"
"Ow! Ha." He stuck his tongue out at her. "{Only if you say please.}" And that got him another smack from Mr. Fan.
Mel considered pointing out that she'd never called the old woman foolish, but knowing the ways of elders, held her tongue. If she wanted to believe that Mel was a good change in their lives, she'd let the illusion stand for now.
As they came to Nick again, Helen reached out with one hand toward her father. Knowing what it meant, mother looked to daughter. "Do you want something to eat? {Are you hungry?}"
"Yeah," the little girl answered, before tucking herself against Mel's shoulder once more.
"And I was hoping she meant she wanted a hug from Daddy," he said with a bit of a pout in Helen's direction. Children were so cruel. Back to Mel, he asked, "Well, it's kinda past lunch... you feel like anything since we're out here?"
At Nick's words, Helen smiled and leaned out with both arms toward her father. She knew what a hug was, she knew her daddy was. Both of those were rather simple, really, and the two hand reach was the reach for a hug.
Mel moved to allow Helen the reach and basically pass her daughter off to her father as she considered the question. "Whatever. We can pay for what we have and maybe find a restaurant, or just buy from a vendor. It'll be easier if we can sit her down." She glanced to the grandmother. "{Are you going to eat with us, grand mother?}"
"{Another bit of advice from old ladies. Never turn down meals that your kind, handsome grandson is willing to pay for.}"
Nick arched an eyebrow at his family's matron, interrupted in his cuddling of the toddler. Helen squealed in contempt at this. "{If you want it paid for, Grandmother, you just have to ask.}"
"{That's no fun.}"
"{You haven't learned how women ask for things yet, have you?}" asked Mel, taking the bag he'd been holding from him to make it easier to juggle Helen. She leaned forward and kissed his cheek, then glanced back to the stragglers that were the rest of the family that had followed along that day. "Do we ditch them?"
"{That would be rude,}" said Grandma. "{But, I can distract them if you wish.}" She arched an eyebrow at Nick. 'For a small fee~' said the eyebrow. He laughed and reached into his wallet, pulling out a good sum of money and handing it to her. She gave him a kiss on the cheeks and headed off to go steer the rest of the female herd and their husbands toward better shopping.
What did she need the money for? Probably more for show than actual need, Mel decided. Her own way of letting the tiny family of three have food by themselves. Helen waved as her great grandmother left, then put her hand to her mouth as she leaned against her father. It was food time. "Let's get something from a vendor while we're here to keep the small one content until we can get somewhere else to sit down and eat."
Nick stretched his neck to look around; not being all that tall to begin with and big crowds was not an advantage here. "I see a shaved ice stand," he said. "She's never had shaved ice, has she?"
"No, but I don't know if that would really help hunger much..." And would probably be a bit messy given to a one year old. Then again, she'd probably have a good amount of parental help as well. Mel shrugged, indicating for Nick to lead the way.
"Hey, it's a vacation. We should enjoy it while we can, right?" Well, yes, it'd be messy. But that was what napkins were for. He offered her a smile and started to head over.
It was a vacation? She'd thought she was just there to make sure her daughter wasn't completely abducted while she was on the other side of the ocean. And that said daughter and father were here to see her bathed in his family and religion. Not an ideal vacation to her mind. But she wouldn't spoil it for him, and turned to follow as he carried Helen toward the vendor. She peered over his shoulder, making sure her mother was coming along as well.
Summary: Mel is in Greece with Nick and Helen and family. They are at the market, looking things over.