after reading the back cover for call of duty, maybe that's not the best choice for roman right now. the last thing he needs is to swap a knife out for a gun. hell. her thoughts go sour. it's just a phase. or maybe he needs therapy. or to get his frustrations and anger out on something that can't cause lasting damage. 

on second thought, maybe call of duty would be a good investment. 

she tucks the game under her arm and will leave the decision up to bo. and as she has that thought, she smiles, finds him staring over the ps5 box displaying the bundled game within. she sets the game on top of the box and says, "what do you think then? this all look good?"

boruta maher

☉

willow shoots a look at her mother, knowing full well she's the reason that cider's sitting open in front of roman. she'd voice her concerns, but one sip and roman's face makes it clear he has little interest in it. from across the table, eleanor winks. willow rolls her eyes and takes a sip of her own cider. just as roman opens his mouth and says that. 

she coughs. the drink goes down the wrong way and her face reddens as she goes into a fit. the carbonation tickles her nose and instantly her eyes wet at the stinging sensation. she reaches for a glass of water and takes a small sip. 

eleanor stares blankly at roman and then her brows furrow. "think you're funny, you little shit? if pawpaw was still around, he'd beat your ass for doing that to your momma. now apologize. or i'll make ya drink that whole damn cider."

willow crumples. in the past, she'd have reprimanded her mother alongside roman, but she's so tired. and her little boy is a stranger beside her. 

boruta maher  CIAN MAHER  Roman Maher

☉

with the box still on the counter, she pokes at that. bo's right. it is, in fact, a bundle, and includes two controllers alongside a game called ratchet & clank. she nods to the shopkeeper, says she'll be taking it and to hold onto it while they continue to browse, and turns her attention back to bo. 

and he seems so happy. happy at the chance to share this with roman. happy to be here with her right now. it's infectious, really, and the stress of the holidays melts right off of her as she scoffs at the punkish controller he'd picked out. 

she snorts. "po's pretty good at tricks, but i don't know if he's that good." she's in the same boat as bo. roman had done a pretty damn good job of chasing off any potential friends in the schoolyard and not much has changed, even in the past couple years since bo's return. 

"the box comes with a game called ratchet and...clunk? clank. what else should we pick up? he talks about call of duty nonstop."

boruta maher

☉

plastation or not, bo being there will be the best gift for roman, even if he won't admit it. and it's a gift to her too, though she definitely won't admit that. she looks sideways at him while they walk. her gaze lingers until they approach the store.

inside, she realizes very quickly that she's out of her depth. there are so many games. and so many call of duties. why are there so many? she bites her lip and goes to the counter, knowing full well she looks as lost as she feels.

"do you have ps5s in stock?" the clerk pulls a box out from the back and she looks at it, then at bo.

"what else do we need? does it come with two controllers?" he gestures to a rack on the wall and she grimaces. 70 pokedollars for another controller? yeah, no. bo and roman can each get their own and she'll be more than happy to opt out.

boruta maher

☉

"you know," she says, "most people do dinner before dessert." but her smile and her eyes let him know she's just teasing. she follows him, looks down at their hands, their entwined fingers as they walk, and her heart skips a beat. 

she feels giddy. like a schoolgirl. and it's so silly and so refreshing and she doesn't want the night to end. so she can't say she's unhappy that he'd wanted to take her out, even if she feels slightly underdressed. 

"it's perfect," she says. they walk in and are immediately greeted with warm smiles, with most everyone asking how eleanor (her mother) is doing. how's roman getting along? need a few arrangements made soon. we'll call. you been doing well?

it's a bit much. fallarbor's a small town. and when it's clear from the flush on her face when they ask after lance that they'd very well like to be left alone, she finds them a seat at the back of the restaurant and sighs. 

"how's it feel being on a date with a celebrity? sorry. i think they'll leave us alone now. they mean well."

LANCE VOLLANS

☉

she frowns and resists the urge to reply they're not boring, but that's an endless loop of disappointment if there ever was one. one day he'll understand. one day he'll do more than roll his eyes at the pressed flowers she leaves for him, at the choices she makes when she sets up little pots on his windowsill. 

lost in her thoughts and thinking about flowers, it's a couple beats too late when she realizes roman has slipped into the pen, exactly like she'd told him not to do. 

gretchen, sitting on one of the posts, stops licking one of her paws to watch the boy. after all his torment with that dog of his, her eyes gleam with a certain satisfaction when the tauros take their eyes off willow. 

at first, the tauros don't quite respond. they're proud creatures and they don't exactly see roman as a threat. it's just enough, though, for willow to lift the latch to their pen and carry a bucket of water over to refill their trough. 

then gretchen hisses. D.K.'s taunt had worked on more than just the tauros. the glameow darts forward, hissing and spitting. even hazelnut, her greedent, leaves one of its berries behind to make for the dancing monkey. 

cowslip and buckwheat stamp the ground, nostrils flaring. 

"roman, stop! make D.K. stop!"

Roman Maher

☉

she's listening so intently that the dinner starts to burn. the acrid smell makes her nose wrinkle and she coughs as she reaches over the stovetop to shove the window open. the cheese that had dribbled off the lasagna is black and with shaking hands, she tries her best to unstick it from the pan and keep it together enough to put it on a couple plates. 

but it's hard to focus when their conversation is pulling her outside herself, when her anxiety is making it so she can't breathe. sleepless nights spent much the same way as this one - wound up tight, just waiting to snap. 

and it's as she's putting the plates down, when roman spits vile words that'll hurt bo more than he'll ever know, that she cracks. 

the plates clatter on the table and she steps right in front of roman, hands on either side of the chair to trap him. to force him to sit back down. her jaw is set, anger and frustration alight in her green eyes. 

"roman, you will not say anything like that to him. i don't care what he did. for the past two years, your father's done nothing but care about you. he's done everything to make it right.

"so sit the fuck down and answer him. this is serious. you did an awful thing and he, we - " and she loses her steam. she'd been choking back more tears and they come forth now. tears of anger, of shock, of rage. 

she steps back, feeling like her hands burn, horrified by her own actions. 

her mother yells from her room and she uses it as an excuse to leave. she's too ashamed to meet bo's eyes so she clenches her fingers to fists and abandons him with roman in lieu of checking on eleanor.

for better or worse, maybe he'll listen now.

boruta maher  & Roman Maher

☉

he offers his hand and everything seems a little bit brighter, despite it all. she feels her pulse in her ears as she stands, a little too quickly, and slips her fingers around his. but she raises her brows too, frowns in the slightest. 

"reservation...?"

LANCE VOLLANS

☉

she doesn't know what's putting that grin on his face, but something tells her his answer doesn't quite cover everything on his mind. she narrows her eyes at him, but lets it go regardless. there's a bit more energy to her step now, a bliss as the space between them, metaphysical mostly, disappears. 

her bags are delightfully full and a lot of the stress of getting gifts has slipped off of her back. there are still things to do, but there are always still things to do. 

she shakes her head. "how the hell did we make such a pain in the ass?" she muses. before they can dwell on the memories that brings up, she points down to a more commercial-looking game store. 

"c'mon. let's get the troublemaker his playstation." as they walk, she tilts her head and then asks, "will you be around for candle-nights day? to be there when he opens it?"

boruta maher

☉

with her small frame, she probably could have maneuvered a lot better than bo and grabbed nacho without any casualties. but with her hands full of presents, she's really not much help, so she can only watch as bo bumps into a tower of mugs, knocking one off of its post. the clerk looks up disapprovingly from behind the counter and willow has a feeling they won't be welcomed back with open arms.

her cheeks are a little red as she pays for her things after bo. and while yes, she is embarrassed, she's also trying not to laugh at the struggling vaporeon in his hands and the uncouth words dropped from his frustrated mouth.

and the clerk's indignant frown. 

"you can just put it in the same bag as mine," she says when she tries to, at first, throw it away in the bin. 

once outside, willow finally allows herself to laugh. 

"as penance, i'll be fixing the mug for you and you'll have to keep it forever. and secondly, are you why roman's language has taken such a dive?" the accusation is a friendly one, eyes still glowing with her laughter.

boruta maher

☉

she presses the carnation to his hand and then looks away. it's not often that she's brought to tears, especially in front of others, but she has to work to swallow those now. the air feels heavy and there's not much, if anything, she can say to fix it. 

"we have them here, you know. the redbuds. not in fallarbor, but a bit closer to verdanturf. there's a little valley full of them."

she offers a wan smile. "i'll take you sometime."

LANCE VOLLANS

☉

she stops fiddling with some hanging ivy. she's at a loss for words, truly, and the pain that stretches across her face betrays her feelings on the matter. she couldn't imagine losing roman. she'd lived through a month of stressing over his whereabouts, but never had she assumed the worst. never could she have assumed the worst.

without her words, she stands and goes to her flower pots, sifting through greenery. thorns threaten her hands, but she slips around them. 

she plucks a single red carnation and goes back to lance. 

"you know the language, don't you?" she says gently.

LANCE VOLLANS

☉

she rolls her eyes. but you're always hungry. still, she puts the candle back on the shelf and picks up a couple more, looking instead towards the floral scented ones. she finds a lovely soy and beeswax one and ponders it for a moment, wondering if this is something she could do with her newest venture with Greyson Connors . 

she decides to purchase it alongside a couple of smudge sticks for grace. with the bag at her hip full of most of the objects she needed to buy, she looks up to tell bo they can move on, only nacho's off making trouble. 

it reminds her of how often Roman Maher would struggle away from her when he was younger. she'd need only look away for a second and he'd be hiding in a rack of clothes or monkeying his way out of the store entirely. 

"he really likes to run you around, doesn't he?" she says with a laugh. 

boruta maher

☉