backdated WHO: Allison & Nick WHEN: Halfway through Ancient Vallo WHERE: The Mortuary WHAT: Missing people over breakfast WARNINGS: Nah
Nick had spent most of day one avoiding people, because he felt like he was one step from falling apart. He'd made dinner that night because Dan wasn't around, but he hadn't felt very talkative and so had left it available if anyone wanted to eat, then came back to refrigerate the leftovers.
He still wasn't feeling the most sociable, several days in, but he also knew that everyone in the mortuary was stressed out, and Allison had to be especially so, being separated from Claire. Even with Sabrina and Dan there who Nick knew wouldn't let anything happen to the little girl, it was still a stressful situation.
So today he lingered in the kitchen, fresh pot of coffee made, as he drank from a mug himself. On display was the last color Claire had used to paint them, the hot pink that he was quickly growing to appreciate. He took a sip of coffee and then nodded at Allison as she entered.
"How are you doing?" he asked.
Allison hadn’t really been sleeping since Claire left. She’d done her best to look out for Nick, but when he wasn’t there, she didn’t know the places to look and she definitely didn’t know how to look for him. But she’d do her best for Sabrina. She deserved to know that she’d come back and Nick would be okay.
After another night of barely any sleep, Allison made her way down the stairs to start the morning. The smell of coffee tipped her off to someone else being around and she glanced up at Nick, studying him for a moment. “It’s…” She frowned, looking down at her hands before moving to get a mug for her coffee. “It hasn’t been great, but I’m guessing that’s...all of us right now.” The fear for Dan and Claire and Sabrina was up and she couldn’t figure out what to do with herself.
“You?” She was sure the answer was not good, but she was asking anyway.
Nick had talked to Ambrose, so he no longer had the weight of the world resting solely on his shoulders. That's what it had felt like at least. And yesterday he'd spent the afternoon helping Margo check through her newly arrived castle, so that had kept him distracted and productive. He'd already been on a morning run with the hounds, Shadow, and Salem, so as to help deal with their excess energy in Sabrina's absence.
And a hot shower had helped clear his mind.
"I"ve been worse," he said. "But I need them all back home." His need to see Sabrina still bordered on desperation, but he'd been a bit better in how he wrote to her. Or so he hoped.
"What do you want for breakfast?" he asked.
She started to argue that she should be the one making breakfast, but she was about as skilled at that as she was at gaining her father’s approval. So she just sighed. “Cereal is fine.” It made her think of when her and Dan were first dating and Sabrina scheming to get her to stay over and have cereal waiting for her. “Give me the bran one. It’s Dan’s and he deserves it.” Even if it wasn’t his fault. She’d still probably replace it.
“Hopefully they’ll be back soon.” She hated to imagine Claire in danger. Dan and Sabrina, too, but she was the most anxious about Claire. At least Diego was there to make sure she was safe even if he was supposedly giving her knives. “Dan and Claire check in every night, which is nice, but not the same.”
"There's no need to torture yourself with bran cereal," Nick replied. He wasn't even on Dan's level with that. "They're alright, Allison," he said, considering her. He wasn't sure if any of Allison's siblings were still here in the present or if she'd had anyone else to talk to other than him and Ambrose. "Have a seat and I'll make something. Pancakes? Omelettes? Waffles?"
“I’m punishing Dan,” she said. “He’ll be disappointed if he comes back to no cereal.” Which wasn’t really true. He’d just buy more cereal. He rarely ever complained. And he’d be happy she got her fiber in...even at his expense. Dan was annoyingly kind and gentle sometimes. Mostly she liked it, but it meant it was hard to upset him and usually she wasn’t trying to. She was just upset at Vallo and the situation they were currently in.
She sat down all the same, frowning at the cup of coffee in front of her. She knew Nick was going through enough as it was without her being sullen about everything, so she took a deep breath and considered the options. Waffles felt very Klaus. Who else named a cat Jules Waffle? Only Klaus. And Ben, she guessed, went with it. She let out a breath. “Pancakes, but we’ll make chocolate chip smiley faces on them.” It seemed acceptable.
"That's more like it," Nick said. He got why she was sulking, and he didn't need to tell her that Dan would absolutely not have left her like this on his own free will, just like Sabrina wouldn't have left him.
"I may just say when I'm measuring the sugar and salt," he said, as he absolutely had a complex now. But he did much better with the recipe this time, and was soon throwing pancakes on the griddle before retrieving the chocolate chips.
"Keeping busy?" he asked. Because he was starting to find more things to do, like make pancakes. It kept him from going insane.
She smiled a little, remembering something about sugar and salt being thrown around the house. “I’ll make note of it.” Even if it went bad, she still had revenge cereal to eat. So she’d be okay. She’d probably tease him about it later, however. But right now, she wasn’t up for it. But he seemed to have it under control.
“I just opened the salon, so I kind of have to keep going even in a crisis.” Which was annoying sometimes, but she couldn’t just stop living because everything was terrible. If that was the case, she’d have stopped in childhood. Now she just needed to prove her dad wrong as many ways as she possibly could and she was sure living a normal life was a very incredible disappointment. It was one she would keep doing because he fucking deserved to be disappointed. “There’s been a lot of work and things that need to get done and now it’s just me and a couple of the Vallo locals, it’s a lot. I’m taking a class on coloring because I’ve never done that and people do request it. Luckily, the Vallo locals and Genya usually have that covered.”
"Is it distracting, at least?" Nick asked. "Because the first couple of days I about lost it. Of course…"
He stopped, not necessarily wanting to go into the fact that his memories had been updated and he was in full on panic mode because of that. "Anyway, is keeping busy helping?"
Allison nodded. It was extra work without Genya and the classes were useful. She was happy to have something to do at least. “It’s something. Sometimes it’s easier to get lost in that than other times. It all depends.” Because sometimes she couldn’t stop her mind from going at a hundred miles a minute thinking about all the things that could happen.
She gave him a soft look then. “It’s hard to worry about what could have happened,” she said after a moment. “Sometimes being busy helps, sometimes it doesn’t. I think it depends.”
That sounded right.
"I'm here if you need anything," Nick said. "Or you know, just to be nervous around." He got it after all. "They'll be back soon though because I need Claire to touch up my nails." He couldn't imagine having to worry about a kid, so he was going to do his best to keep his own worrying to a minimum around Allison.
He fell silent for a moment, until he was piling pancakes onto a plate, handing them over to Allison with the chocolate chips while he finished using the rest of the batter.
“I’m here for you as well,” she said after a moment. “If you need anything.” Maybe it was the mom in her, but she did her best to be there for Sabrina and the other kids in the house when they weren’t doing their own thing or getting themselves into trouble. Dan was a little better when it came to the discipline, but she knew when it came down to it, she was very involved in what happened with her daughter and making sure that she was the one most in charge of the discipline. She knew Claire would listen to Dan as well, but she was hers.
She started to place chocolate chips on the pancakes before getting the syrup. “Claire does like to paint nails, though.”
"Thanks, Allison," Nick answered. At the very least, the three of them weren't alone and that counted for something. Even if they all had people they wanted to be back home, sooner rather than later.