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Sandra Lynn would be the first to admit her surprise when, after Gilear and Hallariel's pregnancy announcement, Fig's immediate reaction was unbridled excitement.
Not that she'd expected her daughter to react badly, necessarily. But Fig had never been one of those children to express any sort of desire for a sibling - it had never been a birthday wish or a Yulenear request, had never been a curious inquiry or casual sentiment. Meanwhile, many of Sandra Lynn's friends had frequently discussed the awkwardness of being in that situation, and most of Fig's friends in childhood did have at least one sibling. It had been an unexpected relief that when Fig became friends with the Bad Kids, Sandra Lynn had discovered the majority of them were, like Fig, only children. It eased one of many insecurities that she was fucking up her role as Fig's mother in every possible way.
Suffice to say, Fig's enthusiasm about this new baby was a curious but not unwelcome surprise, particularly when Sandra Lynn liked to think that, despite Fig's constant, reckless unpredictability, she knew her daughter pretty damn well.
Like how, no matter how badass or edgy Fig acted or dressed, no matter how famous she got as a literal rockstar, she was maybe the kindest, warmest, most giving teenager Sandra Lynn had ever met.
Sometime after spring break of Fig's sophomore year, the two of them were in the kitchen, Sandra Lynn finishing up a pasta bake and Fig having been instructed to make a salad for dinner. Ayda was coming over for a proper meet the parents dinner and the main indication that Fig was uncharacteristically nervous was how quiet she'd been all afternoon.
"Honey, it's not gonna be that big a deal," Sandra Lynn said, resting a hip against the kitchen counter to face Fig properly. "We already know Ayda. We love her. This isn't some big formal thing that makes or breaks our approval, you know."
"I know, I know," said Fig quickly. "This isn't - it's not about that." She bit her lip, putting the knife down and staring a little too intently at the chunky cubes of cucumber piled in front of her. "I um … I guess I was sort of … wondering. Were you … surprised? When I started dating Ayda?"
"I was glad to see you dating someone your age, that's for sure."
Fig grimaced, a hint of colour rising to her cheeks. (Sandra Lynn took it as a considerable victory that being with Ayda had opened Fig's eyes to how abhorrently fucked up her hooking up with grown adults had been.)
"Not that," Fig said, sounding somewhere between nervous and exasperated. "Were you surprised about Ayda? About her being … a girl."
Sandra Lynn blinked.
"I guess I didn't really think about it as I was happening because it didn't really surprise me at the time but now that we're home and being with her is in like, my everyday life, it's kinda occurred to me that I didn't really ever show interest in girls before? And I never came out or anything or talked to you or Gilear or Gortholax about it and I know you're obviously chill about it because you love Ayda and you guys took Kristen in and everything but I just wanted to know."
"Oh," said Sandra Lynn, a slow, fond smile spreading across her face. "Honey, I've known you liked girls since you were like, five."
Fig's eyes bugged out of her head. "What? I didn't even really know I liked girls until Ayda! What do you mean you knew?"
Sandra Lynn tugged the chopping board towards her, sliding the pile of cucumber into a large, lime green salad bowl. "Fig, you having any interest in guys was more of a surprise to me than the other way round. You spent the first ten years of your life not batting a single eye at anything any boy ever had to say to you but desperately wanting to be cool and fun and liked by every girl in all of your classes."
"Well, that's because all the boys were gross!" said Fig indignantly, wrinkling her nose. "They kept sticking their fingers up their noses and pulling on girls' pigtails and being super loud and annoying. If Gorgug and Riz and Fabian had been in my elementary school, I would've been friends with them!"
Sandra Lynn bit back her laughter. "So to answer your question: no, sweetheart. You dating Ayda was not a surprise."
Sandra Lynn had suspected that Fig was going to drop out after junior year long before Fig nervously brought it up to her (though credit to that had to be partially given to Jawbone, who had kept Sandra Lynn in the loop with Fig's skyrocketing grades and school success but also how burnt out and disillusioned Fig seemed to be becoming in Aguefort as an institution).
Gortholax had prepared her for the fact that Fig would look to pick up more direct responsibility for the Bottomless Pit in the coming years, spending more time in Hell than otherwise. Truthfully, Sandra Lynn couldn't be prouder of Fig for not only fully embracing her fiendish roots, but to take being an archdevil so in her stride.
She hadn't, however, even considered that Fig would, unprompted, decide to move out of Mordred Manor and into the Seacaster Mansion for the remaining duration fo her time in Elmville. All of Sandra Lynn's calm, motherly temperament and logic temporarily flew out the window; she was glad now, in hindsight, that nobody else had been home during the long, indignant, infuriated rant that Jawbone had patiently listened to as she nearly paced a hole in their bedroom floor. After about an hour, the anger had given way to hurt, indignance numbing into shock as the reality of her baby girl moving out hit fully. Jawbone had held her close as she cried, and over the days that followed, gently reminded her that Fig was nearly an adult, that her moving out was inevitable, that at the very least, she would still be somewhere Sandra Lynn knew was safe and familiar and a home, rather than trying to find a skeezy, damp, run down room somewhere on the outskirts of Elmville with 20-somethings Sandra Lynn would've been terrified for her daughter to live with. Besides, the beam on Fig's face when Sandra Lynn had given her permission to move out had made the lump in her throat and the tightness in her chest worth it.
At the very least, Fig deserved the chance to live with Gilear again. Sandra Lynn owed them both that.
It had still been strange, without her.
Sandra Lynn still went through all the same motions of motherhood and guardianship - Kristen, Adaine and Aelwyn still lived at Mordred after all, and Tracker, like Fig, was apart of the family whether she lived at Mordred or not. It was a relief to still have kids to care for, to not suddenly have a completely empty nest. She was somewhat dreading what next year would look like, after all the Bad Kids made their college plans and embarked on their next adventure into adulthood. But for now, she still mediated arguments over the shower and reminded 18-year olds to do give her their laundry and insisted on them completing their homework before getting ice cream at Basrar's and had packed lunches waiting on the counter for when they all rushed through the kitchen, always running late for school. Ayda was still a constant appearance at Mordred, her connection to Compass Points still active as she paid Adaine frequent visits. Sandra Lynn loved the days Ayda came by, not just because she truly adored Ayda, but also because Ayda always dutifully gave her an update on Fig, the kind of updates that daughters neglected providing their mothers but that Sandra Lynn desperately wanted to know.
Which was how Sandra Lynn found out about Fig's plans for the Yulenear.
Fig (ur v cool v badass DEVIL DAUGHTER 😈🔥🎸)
5:01pm:
Hi sweetheart, Ayda told us you're going
to be taking some time away from Hell
and staying at Secaster Manor over the
holidays?
5:04pm:
hey mom!!!!
5:04pm:
yes
5:04pm:
Hallariel's due RIGHT before the
yulenear
5:05pm:
how biblical right
5:05pm:
anyway i figured it'd be worth coming
home and keeping fabian company
while everything's so crazy with the
baby, yknow???
5:06pm:
and i can help out if they need anything
5:08pm:
I hope you're prepared for a lot
of noise and sleepless nights
5:09pm:
i was on tour in a ROCK BAND mom
5:09pm:
noise and sleepless nights is my whole
jam
5:10pm:
and also a cool name for a song
5:10pm:
would that be cute to write a song abt
having a sibling
5:11pm:
Very cute
5:14pm:
Let me know your plans, okay?
We're going to have a big dinner
for the Yulenear and we can always
change the day so that you can be
there too ❤️
5:17pm:
will do!!1!1 xx
5:19pm:
gotta go rn, running hell n all
5:19pm:
love u
Quietly, privately, Sandra Lynn had spoken to Gilear and Hallariel and the three of them had agreed that Sandra Lynn would the one to bring Fig and Fabian to the hospital when the baby was born. Though both teenagers were 18, alarmingly independent, and more than capable of getting themselves to the hospital, it was clear to see their youth in the unfamiliar waters they were wading into. Jawbone had been a strong proponent of this plan, agreeing that it would be good to have another adult around that Fig and Fabian could rely on when Gilear and Hallariel would be so distracted by their new child.
Gilear's call came through at 3:57am, a week before the Moonar Yulenear.
She hadn't been expecting a call. A text, sure, with her crystal volume turned up as high as it could go so that its incessant buzzing would startle her or Jawbone awake. But a shrill ringtone burst into the early morning air, the sky still pitch black outside, and both Sandra Lynn and Jawbone jerked sharply into consciousness.
"Sorry, sorry -" muttered Sandra Lynn, quickly reaching for her crystal. "Oh, it's Gilear. D'you think -"
"Answer it," said Jawbone, sitting up and running a hand over his face before flicking his bedside lamp on.
Sandra Lynn swiped to answer the call. "Gilear?"
"I've just realised that it was probably both a very bad time and also perhaps uncomfortable for me to call you," said Gilear in lieu of a hello. There was a sleepless hysteria but unmissable brightness to his voice, even as he clearly came to a skidding halt at the realisation he'd expressed to her.
Sandra Lynn laughed. "Both of those things are completely untrue in these circumstances," she promised. "Do I owe you a congratulations?"
"It seems so," said Gilear, sounding a little shy. He hesitated for a moment. "It feels strange, talking to you about this. I still remember …"
He didn't finish the sentence but he didn't need to. Sandra Lynn remembered too.
Newborn Fig, loud even in her first moments in the world. Wide eyed, wanting to take everything in. Pink skin that Sandra Lynn hadn't thought anything of at the time - she was a newborn, after all. She'd been a firecracker, a revelation, a bright, beautiful force of nature that had lit up their lives in an instant.
Things had been so different then.
"Congratulations, Gilear," Sandra Lynn said softly. "Hallariel and your little one are both very lucky to have you."
And she meant every word. Until the day Fig's horns had started growing, until their lives had completely fractured apart, Gilear had been the best father in the world.
"Thank you," Gilear said quietly. "Listen, I wasn't sure whether to wait until the morning for Fig and Fabian, or whether …?"
Sandra Lynn hummed. "I can go get them. Something tells me they're awake."
The lights were on at Seacaster Manor when Sandra Lynn pulled up in the drive.
Ranger hearing, even in her 4am tiredness, picked up quiet voices up on the bow of the ship. Sandra Lynn leaned against her car and whistled, a sharp, trained sound that cut through the icy night air, usually to get Baxter's attention no matter how far he was but this time, she knew it would snag Fig's.
Sure enough, a moment later, Fig's face appeared on the edge of the ship. A telepathic message drifted into Sandra Lynn's head. Mom? Is that you?
Hi sweetie, Sandra Lynn thought back. Baby's here. I'm driving you guys to the hospital, okay?
What Fig's reaction was, it was too dark to tell. All Sandra Lynn saw was her daughter quickly turn, saying something to what could only be Fabian, still hidden by the enormous ship.
Okay, Fig messaged back after a moment. We'll come down. Then, after another brief pause. Thanks for being here.
Sandra Lynn blinked in surprise. Always, Fig.
It was only as they followed the quiet, flurocently lit hospital hallways towards the room the receptionist had provided, that it occurred to Sandra Lynn for the first time in several months that this might be the first time Fig interacted with a baby.
And for the first time in perhaps just as long, Sandra Lynn thought about Bobby Dawn.
There were days when Bobby had given her endless promises about the life they could have together. He promised her warmth and love, he promised her the comfortable reliability of faith, he promised her community and family and support, all the unfailing, unconditional light of him and his life in the Church of Sol.
Of course it had all been bullshit. Sandra Lynn had figured that out a long time ago, and seeing what Kristen had gone through with the Church of Helio had left no doubt in her mind that Bobby had just been preaching empty platitudes out of his evangelical ass, taking advantage of her youth and loneliness and desperation for someone to love her and some place to belong to.
That didn't mean she hadn't thought about it from time to time. Thought about what community could feel like, the kind that was always there. The kind that would've been there for Fig too.
Again, of course, it was bullshit. When Fig's horns grew in, that would have crumbled just like the rest of their lives. Not like followers of Sol or Helio would take kindly to the child of a literal devil in their midst.
But Kristen had told her sometimes about the things she missed. About a place to go outside of home and school that felt like hers. About the youth groups and Sunday schools, about the moments between bible studies and sermons, those moments not about anything Helioc at all. About knowing a place so well that it was a part of you, about knowing all the secret spots where you could take a breath that felt real, didn't have to be devotional or faithful. About the jokes and games, the home cooked meals, the familiar smooth wood of the pews, the comforting scent of the candles. About the kids Kristen said she'd known since birth, had held when they were a few weeks old and came by the church and wanted Helio's Chosen One to bless their baby. Those kids that she'd watched grow up and babysat and had water fights with in the church carpark on the hottest days of summer.
"They were family as much as my own brothers were," said Kristen sadly with a shrug, looking so small at the kitchen table despite her height and muscles and usually glowing presence. "It's weird to think that I might not ever see some of them again, and if I do, they'll probably hate me."
Sandra Lynn sometimes wondered what it would have been like for Fig to have that. To have people who could have caught her when her parents both so unforgivably, irreparably, let her down.
They found room 14C. Sandra Lynn paused and stepped aside in the doorway to let Fig and Fabian go first. She wasn't planning on really being a part of this; it wasn't her place to be. She was only really there to hover, to be a reassurance for Fig and Fabian, to take the necessity of parenting the teenagers away from Gilear and Hallariel.
For a brief moment, neither Fig or Fabian stepped through the door.
Sandra Lynn leaned against the wall, torn between saying something and letting them take their time, before Fig took Fabian's hand and gave it a small squeeze.
"You good?" she asked in barely more than a whisper.
Fabian let out a dry laugh. "No fucking idea."
Fig grinned. "That's the spirit." She stepped inside, gently tugging Fabian in with her.
Nobody was sure who exactly had really taken the hunch and ran with it, but it had become an assumed prediction among the Bad Kids and their oddly accrued extended-family of sorts that Baby Faeth was going to be a boy.
Hallariel and Gilear had even taken to it too, having decided that should this prediction come true, the baby's name would be Alfred - Alfie for short - Faeth. If it were a girl … well, they had 9 months to figure out an alternative name.
It turned out, they never had.
She was still Baby Girl Faeth when Gilear introduced her to her older siblings.
Abruptly, cold panic unfurled in the base of Sandra Lynn's stomach. This was Gilear's daughter. The daughter he thought he'd had in Fig.
Fig was turned away from her but Sandra Lynn watched her back keenly, searching for tension, hurt, discomfort. She didn't find anything, but that didn't mean much; Fig had perfected hiding how she really felt a long time ago.
"A girl?" Fabian said, speaking for the first time and sounding a little as though he'd never even considered this a possibility.
Gilear laughed. "Yes, she really took us all by surprise." It was strange that for all Gilear's ambling, helpless clumsiness, he looked as at ease with the little bundle in his arms as he had 18 years ago. He gave Fig a fond smile. "Would you like to …?"
Fig laughed a little nervously, wiping sweaty hands on her jeans. "I don't really know how," she admitted.
"It's easier than you think," Sandra Lynn promised, keeping her voice low but reassuring.
"I'll show you," said Gilear. "Come, sit on the end of the bed."
Fig glanced over at Fabian, giving him a look Sandra Lynn couldn't quite read but that seemed to say enough to Fabian, who took a couple of steps closer, offering his mother a small hello smile and kissing her cheek. Fig settled onto the end of the bed, listening attentively as Gilear instructed her on how to arrange her arms, where to support her sister as he ever so carefully transferred the squirming bundle of blankets into Fig's arms.
"Whoa," breathed Fig, eyes wide.
A lump found itself determinedly sticking in Sandra Lynn's throat as she watched from the doorway.
"She's so warm," whispered Fig. "And like. So tiny?" She leaned a little closer to get a better look, eyes roving searchingly over her sister's little face. "Hey. Hi. Wow, look at you."
Sandra Lynn swallowed. She wasn't going to cry. She would not cry. Hallariel arched a knowing eyebrow at her, smiling with exhausted joy and the all-seeing understanding of motherhood.
"Does she have a name?" asked Fabian quietly, peering curiously over Fig's shoulders but still making no indication of wanting to hold his sister.
Hallariel chuckled wryly. "Well, here's where we were woefully unprepared."
"You really didn't think of anything?" said Fig, grinning.
"We were very attached to Alfie," admitted Gilear.
Fig furrowed her eyebrows, returning her attention to the snuffling newborn who had curled one tiny fist around the end of Fig's braid and was tugging with unexpected strength. Fig leaned down to press a kiss to her sister's knuckles. Sandra Lynn had to look up at the ceiling and blink very quickly to stop the tears from spilling down her cheeks.
"She could still be Alfie," said Fig.
"What?" said Gilear.
"Like, gendered names are just social constructs 'n all that." Fig shrugged. "I mean, maybe you don't want to call her Alfred because she'll probably get the shit kicked outta her in school but like. Alfie is still a cute girl's name."
"We could call her Fi for short," said Fabian softly.
Fig looked up at him. Pride shone in her eyes and she shot him a small, soft smile.
Even that almost had Sandra Lynn tearful again. God, how had Fig turned out this good after everything?
"Alfie," said Hallariel, sounding the syllables out slowly, as though measuring the shape and feel of them. "Alfie Faeth."
"It's not particularly proper," admitted Gilear. "What would your family think? Perhaps a more Elven name?"
"She's not their kid, she's yours," said Fig indignantly.
Sandra Lynn was seconds away from trying to figure out a polite way to remind her daughter that propriety did, in fact, matter to her father, when Gilear said, "You know what, Figueroth? You're right." He gave Hallariel an adoring, inquisitive eyebrow raise. "What do you think, darling?"
"Alfie's sweet," said Hallariel decidedly. "If my family needs some sort of formal full name for her, I'm sure there's some bizarre amalgamation of letters that vaguely resembles Alfie that can go on her Elven birth record."
Fabian snorted quietly, something loosening in his shoulders for the first time.
After a little longer, a nurse came in to give Alfie another check up. Sandra Lynn ushered Fig and Fabian out of the way, getting them seated onto a couch by the window and giving Gilear a quick hug and squeezing Hallariel's hand in quiet, unspoken congratulations.
Fig and Fabian didn't seem to mind a moment out of the unfamiliar action of the room, both predictably retreating to their crystals, assumedly updating their friends on Alfie's arrival.
Sandra Lynn had her own updates to give, Jawbone having gotten up for the day when she headed out and having now texted her as he made coffee and an elaborate breakfast for when the teenagers woke up.
Jawbone 🌹
4:21am:
Everything go okay?
4:49am:
Don't think I quite realised how
grown up Fig is until I saw her
holding a newborn baby
4:51am:
Aw, honey
4:51am:
Might go have a cry in the bathroom
4:54am:
Not sure what our timeframe is
4:55am:
I doubt Fabian will go into school,
I think he and Fig were up all night
4:57am:
Ah, it's fine, they're out for the
holidays in a couple days, they're
not doing That important
4:57am:
How are Fig and Fabian doing?
4:58am:
Think I should keep Kristen and
Adaine home to hang out with
them after they leave the hospital?
4:58am:
Might be a good idea
4:59am:
Fig seems very fine but there's just
4:59am:
Something
4:59am:
Fabian's still very quiet
5:00am:
I think seeing the others might do
them some good. I know Fig hasn't
seen them yet since coming back -
Hallariel going into labour was a few
days early so Fig was only meant to
come home tomorrow. She went
straight to Seacaster when Fabian
texted her.
5:02am:
Gotcha
5:02am:
Lemme know how things go
5:02am:
Love you
5:04am:
Love you x
As the nurse finished her check up on Alfie, Gilear glanced at his watch and grimaced.
"I suppose if we have her name, I should get a move on before sunlight, hm?" he said.
"What's this?" asked Fabian, frowning.
"A very old Fallinel tradition," explained Hallariel. "To give a child all the Elven blessings for their life ahead, there is a naming ritual meant to be performed under the light of the first moon they see. It's not mandatory but it's considered good luck."
"Which gives us a couple more hours," said Gilear. "I talked to Aguefort about requesting a teleport for this, so as long as he hasn't decided to galivant off somewhere in time as he is wont to do, I should be able to get to Fallinel in time."
"Good luck," said Fig with an eye roll.
"If it helps, Jawbone talked to him at school yesterday evening," supplied Sandra Lynn. "I think you might be okay."
"Splendid," said Gilear. "Alright. I should be back in a few hours. Are you sure you're okay for me to go? We don't have to do the ritual -"
"I want her to have it," said Hallariel firmly. "She deserves all the luck in the world."
Gilear smiled. "Yes she does."
Sandra Lynn felt a momentary prickle of discomfort for the first time, dropping her attention to her crystal. In her peripheral vision, she watched Gilear drop a kiss to his daughter, then wife's foreheads, then gently pat Fabian's shoulder, ruffle Fig's hair and finally, exchange a warm, friendly, familiar smile with Sandra Lynn.
"See you soon, Gil," she said softly.
Once he was gone, Hallariel caught Sandra Lynn's eye. "Would it be terribly presumptuous of me to request that you three spend some time doting on Alfie while I strong arm one of these nurses to help me take a shower?"
Sandra Lynn still vividly remembered how lifechanging her first shower after having Fig had felt. "Not even remotely," she said firmly. "Please, go ahead. Alfie will be fine with us."
Hallariel's smile was unexpectedly soft. "Of that I have no doubt."
Feeling much more comfortable and confident than before, Fig eagerly took the opportunity to hold Alfie again, this time making funny faces at her that succeeded in earning a babbling giggle like sound that had Fig's eyes lighting up. Sandra Lynn perched on the armrest of the couch, watching. The lump in her throat had dissipated slightly, thankfully.
"Hey," said Fig after a little while. "You sure you don't wanna hold her?" She was looking at Fabian.
Fabian's jaw clenched. "I'm … I don't want to hurt her."
"You won't," said Fig quickly. "You couldn't."
Fabian gave her a beseeching look.
"C'mon," said Fig, knocking his ankle with hers. "You're her big brother. She's gonna spend her whole freakin' life looking up to you. You gotta have held her the day she was born."
Fabian's eyes flickered to Sandra Lynn suddenly and she was struck by the vulnerability and trust in his expression as he stared at her.
Sandra Lynn was very used to teenage girls. Hair in the drains and mascara smudges on the sink and more boxes of tampons than could technically fit in the bathroom vanity. She was used to the mood swings and the confidence issues, used to putting her foot down about revealing clothing in inappropriate places, used to the fierce independence and sharp wit and the silly, catty arguments that broke out between them about the most miniscule things. She hadn't quite realised until this moment how out of her depth she was with this boy with stubble lining his jaw and perfect curls in his silky hair, who if he stood, would be far taller than her and considerably stronger, whose voice had dropped two years ago and who radiated this outward energy of rich and popular and unerringly charming, but who looked at her now with the nervous unease of a small child.
"Like I said to Fig, it's easier than you think to hold them," she told him gently. "Do you want me to help you?"
Fabian bit his lip, then very slowly, nodded.
With an ease she didn't realise she still had, Sandra Lynn carefully took Alfie from Fig's arms. She stole a moment to take her in properly for herself, her tiny little button nose, her big, grey-blue eyes, the light, blonde-white scatterings of hair on her head.
"Welcome to the world, sweetheart," Sandra Lynn whispered, before instructing Fabian similarly to how Gilear had Fig, and once he seemed somewhat ready, easing Alfie down into her brother's arms.
Alfie settled nearly instantly, her little whimpers falling quiet as she stared up at Fabian.
"Oh," said Fabian quietly. "Hello."
"Like I said," said Fig, even softer. "Already got that big brother thing down."
Sandra Lynn didn't remember her saying that. It must have been earlier, when the two of them had been alone at the Manor.
Fabian didn't have as much to say as Fig, but he didn't make any indication that he wanted someone to take Alfie from him. Sandra Lynn crouched in front of him patiently, let him settle into the weight on his lap, the warmth, the unbroken, innocence staring up at him.
"Hey Mom?" said Fig.
"Mm?"
"Did you ever want more kids?"
She asked it in that easy, casual, blindsiding Figueroth Faeth way of hers that most days, Sandra Lynn was prepared for. It felt like an unweighted, curious question. Sandra Lynn would have believed it as one, if out of the corner of her eye, she didn't see Fabian stiffen, looking up as a myriad of expressions - surprise, unease, protectiveness, wariness - rush across his face before he schooled it into something neutral. Even as he returned his attention to Alfie, there was a tension in his shoulders that made it all too clear that he was invested in whatever answer Sandra Lynn had for Fig.
What unknown thing was buried within this question, Sandra Lynn wasn't sure, but it made her choose her answer all the more carefully.
"I'm not sure," she admitted, truthful. "You were the best kid I could ask for. I kinda never really found myself thinking about it, honestly."
A light flush crept across Fig's cheeks. "Aw, shucks Mom." She leaned forward on her knees a little, resting her chin on her fist and gazing over at Alfie. "Seriously, though. You and Jawbone - you guys wouldn't?"
Sandra Lynn hummed thoughtfully, even as her heartrate skyrocketed a little. She stood, knees clicking as she did so and returned to her perch on the arm rest of the couch. "I dunno, kiddo. I mean, neither of us are that young anymore."
"Mom," said Fig, rolling her eyes. "You're not that old. Plus, you're an elf, does that kind of thing even actually apply when you live basically forever?"
Sandra Lynn swatted Fig's shoulder. "Cheeky. But no, the biological clock of it all doesn't apply the same way. Even still, though — I have you, Jawbone's got Tracker, we're obviously both Kristen, Adaine and Aelwyn's guardians. So much has been going on the last five years, so much has changed in our lives. I feel like things are only just settling down now. Jawbone and I haven't actually talked about whether that would be something we'd want together."
"We're all leaving though," said Fig, oddly insistent in a way that had Fabian looking up again with an odd, unreadable expression on his face. "I mean, I'm already gone. So is Tracker, most of the time. Kris and Adaine are gonna be fucking off to college or whatever else next year. Aelwyn will probably go wherever Adaine goes. You'll have the entire manor and it'll be empty."
"Don't make me think about that, Fig," said Sandra Lynn with a slightly uncomfortable chuckle. "What's this about, honey? Are you finally doing the thing every other kid did when they were like, six, and asking for a little sibling?"
"No!" said Fig quickly, unexpectedly loud. It made Alfie whimper, sounding moments away from crying and Fabian's eyes widened with panic.
"It's okay," promised Sandra Lynn. "Just rock her a little. She was just startled."
Fabian listened dutifully and Alfie settled back down.
"Sorry," said Fig and there was something new in her voice this time, something far away and fragile that Sandra Lynn had uselessly never known what to do with. "I didn't mean - I don't even know why I was asking. It's stupid."
"Hey, no," said Sandra Lynn softly. "It's not." She reached over, gently tucked a strand of Fig's hair behind a piercing-adorned ear. "You can talk to me about anything, Fig."
Fig shook her head. There was a sheen to her eyes. She was avoiding Sandra Lynn's gaze, staring down at her own hands fiddling in her lap. "I don't know why I was asking," she said again, quieter. "Just … curious, maybe. It's weird. I've never been around babies."
Sandra Lynn tilted her head, smoothing Fig's hair carefully around her horns. "Funny. I was thinking the same thing earlier."
Fig finally looked up. "Really?"
"Mm hm. It's ironic. So many of your old friends from elementary and middle school gave me such lectures about how much better it was for a child'd development to have siblings, to be around other kids in that way. They told me that you might turn out spoilt and selfish if Gilear and I decided we wanted to have a 'nice easy life' with just one kid."
"What the fuck," said Fig, wide eyed. "They said that to you?"
"They did," said Sandra Lynn with a nod. "Isn't it funny to think that you would up being the kindest, most protective, empathetic, loving kid of that whole bunch, hm?"
This time, Fig properly blushed. "I'm not - I don't think I'm -"
"Aren't those all the girls who dropped you when your horns came in?" said Fabian, finally interjecting into the conversation.
"I guess, yeah," said Fig, slouching in the couch.
"I'd say you're a hell of a better person than they are, then," he said with fierce certainty that the tips of Fig's pointed ears went bright red.
"I'm not just making empty platitudes when I say that you're the best I could've ever hoped for in a kid, Fig," said Sandra Lynn firmly.
Something seemed to be warring in Fig, a torn, vulnerable uncertainty caught in her eyes. "Even -" Her voice cracked a little and she cleared her throat. "Even though I turned out to be a tiefling?"
Sandra Lynn's heart dropped into her stomach. "Fig."
"'Cause I know I was a really good kid before all of that. And it was -" Fig shook her head, sudden tears gathering in the corners of her eyes and she pushed herself upright and turned to look at her mother properly. "I remember it, you know? What it was like, before. You, me, Gilear. I remember how he'd get up so early on school days just to make me the biggest stack of pancakes I'd ever seen. I remember hearing you guys laugh and joke and whisper about how to surprise me with stuff for my birthday after I'd gone to bed but I secretly wanted to stay up 'til midnight to tick over to the actual day. I remember when we'd go shopping for clothes and stationery before every school year. I remember when you taught me to ride Baxter by myself for the first time." The tears spilled over her cheeks. "And I feel like I'm the one who fucked all that up."
"Fig, no -"
"Like, yes, obviously, I can't control who my dad is and that I'm what I am, but I made that choice to make things so fucking hard. It was such an insane, overwhelming situation for all of us and I was such a little brat not getting the attention I was used to from my parents because they were trying to wrap their heads around this enormous thing in their lives and then, what, I decided I was going to just be an asshole all the time? Okay, yeah, Gilear reacted with a spite he shouldn't have taken out on a teenager but you were trying so damn hard and I just made life so difficult for you! I remember how tired you used to be because Gilear wouldn't talk to you without a lawyer and you were trying to convince him to keep showing up for me or at least figure out what to do about the house and the divorce, and I kept you up playing bass at some obscene volume for half the night and I used your credit card to buy all those new clothes that I know we couldn't afford and you lost all of your friends too because they were my friends' parents -"
"Fig," Sandra Lynn interrupted sharply, getting up from the couch, tugging a shitty, plastic hospital chair towards her and sitting opposite Fig. "Stop. Listen to me a second."
Hot, unrelenting tears rolled down Fig's face even as she pressed her lips tightly shut.
"Baby," said Sandra Lynn, trying to keep her own tears out of her voice. "I need you to hear me, okay? You were a kid. There is not a single fucking moment of everything that happened in that entire awful, strange, overwhelming period in all our lives that you hold a single ounce of responsibility for, do you understand?"
"But -"
"No buts. I'm serious, Fig. The mistakes I made, the way Gilear and I both reacted to the situation, how selfishly we let you get caught in the crossfire. That will always be on us. You were not a brat trying to get attention. You were a little girl who wanted the love she'd spent 13 years receiving from her parents. You deserved that, we owed you that."
"It wasn't you," Fig said in a small voice. "The only reason I acted out so much with you was because I knew you weren't going anywhere. I knew you loved me because you kept trying no matter how hard I tried to push you away. But with Dad -" Something broke in Fig's voice at the same time that Sandra Lynn's heart shattered.
It had been a long time since she'd heard Fig call Gilear 'Dad'.
"- I tried so fucking hard and he didn't want anything to do with me. And then suddenly, he did, he started showing up again and he came on adventures with us and I finally had him back but I don't think I've ever been able to get that cold look in his eyes from that night he left out of my head and I'm just so scared that maybe one day he'll change his mind unless I'm the closest thing to that perfect daughter he remembers."
"Is that why you moved into Seacaster Manor?" asked Sandra Lynn softly, even though she already knew the answer. "Is that why you wanted to be so involved with the baby?"
"I'm scared this is his do-over," confessed Fig, her voice saturated with guilt. "I'm scared that now that he has this, if I don't find reasons for myself to be in his life, he'll forget that he once loved me as his daughter too."
"Honey, no," whispered Sandra Lynn, aghast. Gilear's cold fury when Fig hit puberty had been a terrifying shock for her too, but she knew that deep down, it hadn't meant this.
But how had 13-year old Fig - or even 18-year old Fig - been meant to know that?
"And -" Fig swallowed, tearing her gaze away to stare up at the ceiling the same way Sandra Lynn had earlier, watching her and Alfie. "I'm scared it's the same with you."
Something cold crept into Sandra Lynn's chest. "With me?" she echoed. The words tasted bitter on her tongue. "What do you mean?"
"So much has happened in the last few years," said Fig thickly, curling her hands into fists, nails clearly digging into her palms. Sandra Lynn wanted to stop her but she was too frozen with numbing dread to move. "I know you don't like to acknowledge everything you went through in the divorce because you think it's your fault. But things were hard for you too, and even if it's like you said and it was okay for me to be acting the way I was, it doesn't change that it made everything harder on you. I think I've been afraid of … of being too much the last few years because I feel like I exhausted everyone's patience for it a long time ago. There's been so much shit that I haven't known how to make sense of and haven't understood what was wrong or how I'm meant to fix it or be better or be okay, and I wanted to ask you but I don't think you would know how to help. I guess -" Fig gulped, looking back down for barely half a second before dropping her gaze from her mother's and covering her face with her hands. "I guess there's this part of me that sees you be as much of a mom as you can be to Kristen and Adaine and Aelwyn and it's so much easier to be what they need. I'm scared of seeing you be to them what I wanted so fucking badly in the last few years but you've been going through so much and I never knew how to ask for it and I'm scared I'll end up resenting my best friends for getting what I didn't from you.
And - I don't know, Mom. After freshman year, I remember looking at Riz and thinking about how him and Sklonda losing Pok made them so close in the aftermath. They were each other's person through thick and thin, even when Sklonda started dating Gortholax. And maybe there was a chance that we could've been the same, after freshman year. But you were already dating Jawbone and we were moving into Mordred and we had taken in Kristen and Adaine and I was going on tour with the Cig Figs and maybe part of it was me letting these things get in the way so I could run away because I was afraid of bridging that gap with you and asking for what I wanted in the first place. It feels like it's my fault. Like I did all this to myself and didn't know how to help myself and just made it worse and worse over the years, and now I'm here and I just keep running away."
Sandra Lynn could taste the salt in the back of her throat from rapidly building tears. She pushed them back, finally urged feeling into her hands and carefully reached over to uncurl Fig's fists, rubbing a soothing thumb over deep crescent marks in her palms.
"Is this why you decided to go down to the Bottomless Pit?" she asked, surprising herself with the calmness in her own voice.
"No," said Fig, then, tearfully, "Yes. Sort of. Not at first. Leaving school, wanting to spend more time in Hell — it was meant to be genuine. I wanted to get a chance to figure out a version of myself as a tiefling and an archdevil knowing that there are people who really do love me even when I'm not desperately trying to be useful and loyal and in some kind of servitude to feel certain that I'm not gonna lose them. But I hadn't really thought about how much things change in all the boring day to day of school and life and every time I came home, there were things I hadn't been around for and things were changing and people were different and part of it was my fault for moving in with Gilear and being so far away from you and … and home and I felt like I was just gonna get left behind eventually so it became easier to stay away rather than watch that happen in front of me." A broken, hollow sob wrenched free from the back of Fig's throat, her whole body shaking suddenly. "Mom, it feels like I'm gonna just disappear some days. Like if I'm not your kid and Gilear's kid and one of the Bad Kids and in the Cig Figs and Ankarna's paladin and the Archdevil of Rebellion, there's nothing worth anything beneath all of that and I'll just be gone -"
Sandra Lynn pulled Fig in close, perhaps harder than she meant to but it didn't matter, not with the way Fig fell into her arms, clutching her jacket tightly and muffling heavy, breathless sobs in Sandra Lynn's shoulder. For what felt like the hundredth time in the last two hours, Sandra Lynn thought about the slow, sunny, honey-sweet summer morning that Fig came into the world, thought about how loudly she'd cried and made her presence and life known, how Sandra Lynn had cradled her head and held her against her chest and promised her everything she could possibly give for the rest of her life.
She brought a hand up to cradle Fig's head now.
"Beneath all of that," she said, voice shaking but inarguably sure, "you are everything, Fig. You're the best fucking thing I've ever done with my life."
Fig made another broken sound, grip tightening. Sandra Lynn let her.
I don't want to even exist, Fig had said, last Yulenear. How had that gotten lost in everything else? How had it not snagged right at the forefront of Sandra Lynn's mind, how had she not sat down and figured out how the fuck to talk to Fig about it?
With school and the Cig Figs, the Bottomless Pit, the Rat Grinders, Kristen's campaign, Ankarna and Cassandra, with Ayda gone, with all the Bad Kids barely scraping through the days, how had Sandra Lynn convinced herself that there was someone else Fig would talk to better equipped to help her with everything she was going through?
How had she copped out so quickly from being her mom?
Because Fig was right — it was easier to help Kristen and Adaine and Aelwyn. Their standard for good, loving parents were so low that the bare minimum of love and attentiveness and interest and acceptance was nothing they'd ever been used to. Sandra Lynn could be what they needed without having to really try; they were such fucking amazing kids that loving them was as easy as breathing.
Loving Fig was even easier than breathing. It was somewhere deep in her soul, through her whole body like the blood in her veins, but somehow, that made helping her, really, truly, actually helping her so much harder.
"I noticed," she said with a trembling sigh. "I noticed. But I just kept making excuses for myself. You'd figured so much out without me. You had Gortholax. You were close with Gilear again. You had friends - real friends, good friends - whose parents were so much less fucked up than I was. You were - you are - so smart and so kind and so determined and resilient and you just kept flourishing in new ways and I wasn't even sure any of it was because of how I was parenting you and I - I was so stuck in my head too, honey. I convinced myself you didn't need me. That you had other people to help you with the things you weren't sure of. I'm so, so sorry, sweetheart. You're not alone, you hear me? I'm here. I'm right here, I'll always be here. Do you believe that?"
The quickness with which Fig nodded eased some of the suffocating weight on Sandra Lynn's chest.
"I'm your mom," she whispered into Fig's hair. "I'm always your mom above any and all else. And if Kristen and Adaine and Aelwyn and Tracker or any of your other friends ever needed a mom from me, I would be there for them. But you're my baby girl, okay? Raising you is the one thing in my life I know made me a better person. I owe you everything I am and everything I have."
Fig nodded again, her whole body shaking as she cried and cried and cried.
Sandra Lynn's eyes flickered to Fabian, who seemed to have calmed considerably in holding Alfie as all of this had unfolded. Two things were clear in his expression: a profound lack of surprise, and resounding relief. He had clearly already known, at least somewhat, what Fig was keeping bottled up.
Are you okay with her? Sandra Lynn mouthed to him, nodding towards Alfie.
His expression mellowed even more. He nodded.
Sandra Lynn felt more than heard the shallow, gasping breath Fig tried to suck in. She ran a comforting hand down Fig's back. "Breathe, honey. That's it."
It took several more slow stretching beats in the dimly lit quiet of this hospital room for Fig's stuttering breaths to steady just a little.
"Sorry," she mumbled. "Fuck. Sorry. God - this is so not the time."
"Actually, it definitely is," said Fabian, surprising Sandra Lynn in his speaking up. "I was actually going to say something to Jawbone if you didn't talk about all of this with someone before the holidays were over."
Fig pulled away from her mother, staring at Fabian in very obviously half-hearted betrayal. "Dude, what the fuck?"
"It's hard to take you seriously when you're that snotty."
"I swear to god, if you didn't have an hours old infant in your arms right now -"
"Hey, stop it you two," said Sandra Lynn, barely refraining from rolling her eyes. The familiarity of their bickering, the spark in Fig's voice as she took Fabian's bait, the non-judgemental warmth in Fabian's eyes as his lips curved upwards in a small smile — Sandra Lynn took a quiet second to let out a slow exhale.
"Seriously," said Fabian, a little quieter. "I know things feel a lot less fucked up than they are when you've carried them around for so long, so maybe none of it felt that big a deal or particularly urgent to you. But the stuff you told me back home … Fig, I was worried about you. It's the kind of stuff that we could've gotten you to talk to us about if we pushed hard enough, but it's not something we would know how to help with. And you kept holding us all at arm's length, so we never would've got the chance to really get through to you anyway."
Sandra Lynn gently fixed Fig's braid, smoothing some of the frizzed hair. "He's right, honey. There's a lot to talk about here. More than we have time for right now and also more than even I would be able to help you work through. You've had years and years of a lot of fucked up shit you've kept real close to your chest and it's gonna take some time to untangle that from your sense of self."
Fig sniffed, groaning as she tugged her sleeves down to fingertips and wiped the tears from her face. "Is shit like that what I get for you dating a guidance counsellor?" Her eyes were swollen, nose red and exhausted embarrassment seemed to be slowly creeping into her eyes.
"Yes," said Sandra Lynn, pressing a kiss to the side of her daughter's head.
"Sorry Alfie," said Fig, half wry, half self deprecating. "Didn't mean to steal your thunder there."
"Alfie's gonna grow up with a hell of a big sister as a role model for being brave and honest and building good relationships with the people she loves most," said Sandra Lynn. "And maybe one day, you can tell her that she's the reason you got to start fixing a lot of things that were making your life harder."
Something lightened in Fig's eyes. "Yeah," she said quietly. "Yeah, maybe."
"I want you to know, though," Sandra Lynn said, gentle but firm, "I'm gonna talk to Gilear at some stage. Not now, obviously — he and Hallariel are certainly going to have more than enough on their plate with Alfie. But once things quieten down a little, I think he needs to know and own up a little more to what he said and did when things were bad between us all."
"No, Mom -"
"Fig," said Sandra Lynn sternly. "I'm putting my foot down here, okay? Some of the ways that all of that went down would have been, to other people, completely unforgivable. The fact that you have forgiven him and that you've put so much into repairing that relationship says mountains about who you are as a person. But while Gilear has done his part to show up for you now and make amends and be in your life, I don't think he's taken the time to consider the severity of how he treated you when you were still just a kid. And if he's going to be raising another little girl, confronting that is only going to do him good in being who she needs."
Framing it for Alfie's benefit was perhaps a dirty tool, but Sandra Lynn knew it would work far better than angling this as something Fig deserved closure for.
"We'll talk to Jawbone later," she added. "And maybe, if you want, we can find someone else if you'd rather talk to someone without a conflict of interest."
"I don't mind talking to Jawbone," said Fig quickly. "It's … nice. He already knows me. He knows all the shit we've been through, he knows the people I'm talking about. Talking with him doesn't have to be in some kind of abstract."
Sandra Lynn smiled. "I'm glad." She gave Fig a small nudge. "As for you and me — how would you feel about splitting your time between Mordred and Seacaster Manor for the holidays?"
"And maybe take some extended leave from Hell duties," Fabian piped up, making Fig glower. "What! I'm just saying! Feel like you need some friends and family R&R."
"Since when were you the poster boy for good mental health?" Fig sniped.
"Since you became my step-sister and I was the only one you hung out with long enough to see that you're a fucking mess."
"Rude."
"Kids," said Sandra Lynn again, clearing her throat pointedly. "I'm not bothered by it but let's watch the language in front of the literal newborn, hm? Her parents might not be too stoked about the cursing."
"Sorry," said Fig and Fabian in unison.
"Hey, um," Fabian chuckled awkwardly. "My arms are getting a bit tired. Could someone maybe …?"
"Of course," said Sandra Lynn, easing Alfie from her brother's arms and walking her over to the bassinet by Hallariel's bed. She fussed a little at being on a mattress rather than in someone's arms but after a few moments, her eyes fluttered shut and she began to drift back to sleep.
"For real though," said Fabian to Fig. "You can be angry at me for being willing to tell your secrets to Jawbone but I really am glad you told someone."
Fig shook her head. "I'm not angry." She shrugged, eyes darting briefly to her mom and then back to Fabian. "Thank you for listening. Sorry for you having to sit there while I had an awkward breakdown and everything."
"Fig, you were there during the literal lowest point in my entire life," said Fabian dryly. "I got a crew of pirates killed. I almost died. I got pneumonia. I had an identity crisis on a pirate island in the middle of us trying to find the Nightmare King. A very overdue breakdown is really far from what could make things awkward between us." He hesitated, then reached out a hand and placed it lightly on Fig's knee. "Besides, I know that you spent most of these last six months living with me in a place that doesn't feel like home because you didn't want me to have to deal with any of this by myself. Which kind of automatically puts you up there with Cathilda as the best family I've literally ever had."
Fig's expression looked seconds away from another onslaught of tears, which she hid by promptly launching herself at Fabian in a tight hug. He made a sort of oopmh sound but latched on just as tightly, the tension that Sandra Lynn had seen in his shoulders from the second she'd picked the two of them up finally unfurling as he sank into Fig's unrelenting hold.
Jawbone 🌹
5:32am:
When it's not an obscene hour of the
morning and Adaine's awake, see if
she can get Ayda to come over
5:35am:
Fig okay?
5:35am:
Right now? Sort of.
5:36am:
In general? No.
5:37am:
Gotcha
5:37am:
Anything I can do?
5:38am:
She might come talk to you some
time over the holidays
5:40am:
But could you make pancakes for
when we get home?
5:41am:
I can do pancakes
5:41am:
Like, a truly ridiculous amount of
pancakes
5:41am:
The most pancakes you can stack
on a plate without them becoming
an architectural safety risk
5:41am:
With chocolate chips and raspberries
5:43am:
There's something behind the pancakes,
isn't there?
5:45am:
She might cry when she sees them,
but I promise it's okay
5:47am:
I'm on it 🥞
Fig managed to clean herself up by the time both Hallariel, and then not long after, Gilear returned to the room.
Sandra Lynn excused herself and Fig for a little while to find a terrible cup of coffee in the hospital cafeteria, giving Fabian, Hallariel, Alfie and Gilear a moment with just their immediate family. Fabian didn't send Fig a help, save me look, which Sandra Lynn counted as progress.
Replies had started pinging from the other Bad Kids on Fig's crystal by the time Sandra Lynn found the right opportunity to extricate them from the day's continued unfoldings at the hospital; while Hallariel's family meeting Alfie would need to be done when Alfie was a little older and could travel to Fallinel, Gilear's parents, on the other hand, hadn't lived in Fallinel for some time and were apparently on their way to meet their grandchild. (Gilear pulled her aside to tell her out of earshot from Fig, who had not seen or heard from her grandparents since the divorce and would most certainly have an incredibly uncomfortable time seeing them now. Not to mention Sandra Lynn, who immediately grimaced at the mention of her ex-in-laws.)
("Ah," she said quietly. "We should … go, then."
"This isn't me asking you to," Gilear clarified quickly. "But unless you want to make small talk with my mother …"
"Your mother didn't like me even before everything," said Sandra Lynn, wincing. "So, no. I'll very happily take my leave, there."
Gilear smiled, all grudges and past tensions between the two of them long since forgiven. "Thank you for coming today," he said, quieter, more sincere. "I thought it would be strange but … I'm glad you were here."
Sandra Lynn squeezed his shoulder. "Me too.")
Fabian opted to stay for a little longer, promising Fig he'd text her updates and pictures of Alfie, and that he'd come round to Mordred later in the day to see the others too.
Sandra Lynn felt acutely aware of everything over the rest of the day, as though seeing Fig so worn down, so broken and helpless and upset had sharpened every motherly sense she had, all pricked on high alert and watching every little thing to make up for how much she seemed to have missed.
She realised that she'd never noticed the last time she carried Fig into the house when she fell asleep in the car. Fig drifted off on the drive back from the hospital and as the car pulled up in Mordred's gravelled drive, for the first time in almost a decade, Sandra Lynn found her first instinct was to ease Fig into her arms and carry her to bed. She couldn't, of course — Fig was her height and incredibly strong and while Sandra Lynn was a highly trained Solisian Ranger, she wasn't sure she quite had it in her in this sleep deprived state to lug her teenage adventurer of a daughter into their ridiculously large house. Instead, she gently shook Fig awake, pressed a kiss to her forehead and whispered, "We're home, honey. C'mon. Breakfast's inside."
She noticed that there was perhaps not a single better sound in the world than your child's laughter. Fig was immediately ambushed by Adaine and Kristen, who descended on her with exuberant hugs and exclamations of delight and excitement and relief to finally see her again, barely letting her get past the doorway in their joyful attack. Fig hugged them back with just as much warmth, promising to show them photos of Alfie if they let her actually get inside, bursting into laughter when Kristen did the exact opposite and promptly jumped on Fig's back in a piggy back ride as Adaine, grinning, said, "Can you tell we missed you?"
Sandra Lynn hadn't been lying when she'd told Fig that she truly hadn't thought about having kids with Jawbone. But as expected, Fig had burst into tears when saw the stack of pancakes and without missing a beat, perhaps already primed for it from Sandra Lynn's text, Jawbone immediately gathered her up in his arms, pressing his lips to the top of her head as Fig buried her face in the plush, fluffy, dark blue fabric of Jawbone's dressing gown. And Sandra Lynn found herself thinking, maybe it would be fun, maybe it could be something good, maybe it would be even more joy and love and laughter in this house and this family that feels more real than anything ever has before. She tucked it away, not something for right now. It was a one day thing, when she'd taken the time to deal with the tall list of things in her life she'd turned her back from until recently, when she felt reassured and confident that she could be everything she needed to be for Fig and for Kristen and Adaine and Aelwyn and Tracker. Until then, she watched instead as Jawbone gently brushed the tears from Fig's cheeks and checked that she was okay, then ushered to a seat and told her to wait because there was ice cream and raspberries in the fridge.
There hadn't ever really been a moment where Sandra Lynn hadn't liked Ayda, and her only reservations had ever been whether Ayda's brusque directness might wind up hurting Fig one day, and whether the two of them were moving far too fast for their relatively new relationship in those early weeks after the Nightmare King adventure. All of that seemed like distant history now, when Ayda showed up midway through breakfast and every single small, lingering line of tension pulled taught on Fig's face just melted away. Sandra Lynn had assumed that with a direct connection between Compass Points and the Bottomless Pit, Ayda and Fig had been seeing each other more regularly than Fig necessarily saw her other friends, or visited Elmville. But from the way Fig sank into Ayda's hug, how tightly Ayda held her in return, Ayda's quiet murmur of, "I missed you," and Fig's whispered, "Me too. 'm sorry" (that Sandra Lynn only really heard from her keen hearing), it occurred to her that maybe Fig had been keeping her girlfriend at arm's length too. So maybe the 'no SOs in bedrooms after 9pm' rule could be bent for a night.
The day was a strange haze, texts from Gilear and Hallariel chiming through, teenage shouts and laughter and giggling ringing through the house (especially when Riz, Fabian, and Gorgug all came round in the afternoon). Jawbone happily went all out to cook for everyone (including making extra to stock up the Seacaster fridge). Everything felt warm and a little surreal yet still fragile, Fig's words, her confessions, her tears, the feeling of her shaking, sobbing body still burned into Sandra Lynn's brain. Tomorrow, she resolved, she would talk to Jawbone. She was too high strung, too exhausted to explain it to him in a way that made sense today.
All that mattered was that Fig was here, home, and for now, happy.
Fig (ur v cool v badass DEVIL DAUGHTER 😈🔥🎸)
10:04pm:
hi
10:05pm:
Hi honey. Everything ok?
10:05pm:
you haven't come by to kick ayda out of
my room yet
10:06pm:
I figured today might be an exception
to the rule.
10:07pm:
oh
10:08pm:
are u sure?
10:09pm:
Positive ❤️
10:11pm:
okay
10:11pm:
thank u
10:13pm:
and thank u for today
10:13pm:
i was thinking maybe i might stay here
while i'm home for the holidays and i
could go over and help w alfie during
the days?
10:14pm:
maybe fabian could stay too so that he can
actually get some sleep at night and get all
his yulenear homework and shit done too?
10:15pm:
That sounds like a great idea
10:15pm:
You know there's always plenty of
room for any of your friends
10:16pm:
And you know you can come home
and be here whenever you want for
as long as you want
10:17pm:
thanks mom
10:17pm:
i really love u
10:18pm:
u said that i was the best kid u
could've asked for
10:18pm:
for the record, ur the best mom
i could've asked for
10:19pm:
i mean, there's a reason i need like,
fifty different father figures but i
only need one mom, right? 😉
10:20pm:
Are there forty-seven other paternal
figures in your life I need to know
about?
10:21pm:
omg no
10:22pm:
i was being hyperbolic
10:22pm:
u know what i mean
10:23pm:
I do
10:24pm:
Good word, hyperbolic
10:25pm:
courtesy of my genius girlfriend
10:26pm:
Go spend time with her and stop texting
me xx
10:26pm:
I'll see you in the morning. Don't stay up
too late.
10:27pm:
i know jawbone's got work but can we
have pancakes again tomorrow morning?
10:28pm:
maybe just you and me?
10:29pm:
Anything you want ❤️