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Familiar comfort (DarkenedKnight and Lucrezia)

Lucrezia

Lucrezia

Planetoid
Joined
May 12, 2011
Location
Europe
There were nightmares and then there was, well, that. Laura still couldn't believe it, not really. It seemed like one of those things that happened to someone else, happened in a movie. Sure, she liked to tease guys a little, but she was a good girl. She didn't go home with just anyone. She wanted to fall in love before falling into bed with someone. Falling in love wouldn't happen from just a casual meeting in the club. Love wouldn't happen while dancing together, gyrating bodies in the mass with touches and smiles and lips against skin.

She'd never imagined that some guy wouldn't take no for an answer. Where did he think he got the right to just... to try and take that from her when she clawed at his face and tried to kick him away, screaming bloody murder.

But dad had been there. Dad was always there to get her out of trouble, especially after mom died. She'd been annoyed about that once but now... after this night's event she was so thankful that it almost hurt.

Laura sighed and peered into her tea. It had cooled down, but she couldn't drink, couldn't sleep either. Her pale face had been cleaned up from the make-up she usually layered onto it. It made her look younger than her eighteen years with bright blue eyes looking even larger than usual, or perhaps just because she was so used to seeing her face made up to look older. Even though she was dressed in sweats and a bagg old T-shirt, one of her tattoos was still visible, a delicate little spiderweb tattood on her neck and spreading out under the Micky Mouse shirt, down her right shoulderblade.

She raked a hand through her black hair. The young woman had curled up on the couch in the living room, quiet and half hoping that her dad would come downstairs. It would be comforting to just have him here, maybe curl up against him like she used to do when she was smaller, when his overprotectiveness hadn't annoyed her into rebellion. Laura couldn't bring herself to go and look for him, irrationally afraid that he'd be disappointed in her. She knew in her mind that he couldn't be angry with her. It wasn't her fault the bastard at the club hadn't been able to let a tease be a tease. Not her fault.
 
Ethan tossed and turned in his bed, seemingly cursed by his memories. The crime scene photos drifted in and out of his dreams, red splashes and streaks painted the night whenever he dared to open his hazel eyes. The coppery taste of dread soured in his throat. Yet he refused to cry.
He almost lost what was left of his life the same way as before...but he could not cry. Instead, his sadness and fear turned to violence the moment he saw what was going to happen to he little girl.

Finally deciding to get out of bed, he sat up and rubbed his wrapped knuckles absently, still unable to believe that he nearly broke his hand on the worthless punk who tried to rape his Laura. That was it, he just needed another pain killer. That was what was keeping him up, the pain. Groggily, the very trim forty year old wrapped his night robe about his toned body and shuffled to his bathroom for the orange prescription bottle full of oxycontin. The father gave an exasperated sigh at not seeing it in the cabinet, he must have left the thing on the kitchen counter, again.

As he silently made his way down the stairs, Ethan wondered where he went wrong.
How he let his daughter slip away from him like that. He knew she was a tease, but it was better than her being a slut. At least he managed to instill that much in her.
Was it the long hours at work, or did he not get out and date enough?His thoughts were so disjointed, he couldn't make any sense of them. All he knew was that he let Marian down again.

Out of the corner of his eye, Ethan spied his daughter curled up in front of the blank TV, seemingly lost in her thoughts.
He took a deep breath, the 'pain' in his hand forgotten, and sat down next to her.
"Hey honey..."
 
Laura looked up, startled out of her thoughts by her father's presence. She froze for just a second, a fleeting moment of uncertainty flitting through her until she shifted and leaned against him. He was warm and comforting and she couldn't, for the life of her, remember why he annoyed her sometimes. Daddy was right, after all, it was a bad world out there and she had the memories to prove it to herself now. This never would have happened if she had just listened to him.

Silly little girl.

Laura rested her head on his shoulder. "Hey daddy," she said. Her voice was almost a whisper, as if she didn't want to break the quiet. She wanted to thank him, apologise, say something, but couldn't get the words past her lips. She reached out and touched his hand, looked just up a little. "You know I love you, right daddy? No matter how bad I behave sometimes?"

Those were better words, they didn't connect to that evening. Didn't remind her too much of greedy hands and breath that smelled too sweet and bitter at the same time.
 
"I know...I used to be a young man too you know. I was quite the bad boy back in the day. I still loved my folks, but everything the said I did just the opposite." He tried to laugh, not wanting to share only sadness with his daughter. He certainly didn't want to make he feel like it was her fault.
His hand found it's way to the spiders web printed on Laura's neck and began to stroke it softly. "I'm sorry I've been such a bulldog..." he trailed off, not knowing what to say for the first time in a long time.
All he could think to do was hold her close, try and protect her in his arms. Slowly he wrapped her up and squeezed her, the memories of when she was little flooded back. She was even wearing one of her Mickey mouse tops like before.

Ethan was glad for this moment, he had had so few lately. Part he knew was his fault, he had been too busy trying to protect his daughter to be a real father. Her rebellion was a result of that. All of this was his doing.
He gave Laura a soft kiss on the top of her head and just let the moment be.
 
Laura laughed, softly and just for a moment but she laughed. "Hmmm, sounds familiar," she said and peered up at her father with a teasing smile. She knew very well that she was lucky to have a dad like him despite his tendency to smother her in overprotection. Or maybe because.

"You always make me feel better," she said, and snuggled just a little closer, wrapping her arms around his. "Sorry for being such a pain in the ass. I'll try to be better from now on." No promises, but she would try. Daddy had been right, after all. The world was a dangerous place for a girl to be in. She needed her father to be there for her and he needed her.

"Do you want me to make you something to drink? I have to get something anyway. I let my tea go cold." And she just couldn't stomach cold tea. It was far too bitter for her tastes and she did have some. Tastes, that was. It was just too bad that getting something to drink would mean getting up, just when she was so comfortably and peacefully snuggle dup to her father.
 
"Being a pain is part and parcel of growing up, young lady. Besides, it's about damn time I got thicker skin-- don't you think?" He said with a very boyish grin. If he had a quarter for every knock down drag out he had with his parents he'd be able to pay her way through Yale. And have cash to spare for a midlife crisis complete with Ferrari and trophy wife. She wasn't that bad anyway, she wasn't pregnant or on drugs, in debt, or blackout drunk so that was a hell of a win in his corner.

"Besides, you turned out okay for all the late nights." He said, almost forgetting what happened. Almost.
Ethan's ears perked up at the thought of a drink. A nice glass of whiskey would not have gone a miss...
"I bet you know where my good whiskey is...why don't you get me some? I'll get a fire going in the fireplace and we can talk, just like old times." He said, fully aware that she might come back with two glasses.
 
"Hey!" Laura batted playfully at his arm. "I'll have you know that those late nights are a vital part of my personal development." Hadn't one of her teachers said the same thing? Only that some kind of excursion to a boring old museum was a vital part of their personal development.

She pulled away from her father and used his shoulder to help pull her upright. "I'll be right back."

Of course she knew where the whickey was. She didn't drink from it that often, but she liked the occasional sip. And so, when she returned she did indeed have two glasses. "You don't mind, do you?" she asked and held her own glass up. "How is the fire going? I hope you haven't torched your eyebrows off. I like your eyebrows." She was very much aware that her father was very handsome. So many of her friends over the years had commented on how hot her father was. That usually went accompanied by her shrieking and telling them that she didn´t want to know that about her own father.
 
By the time Laura returned, Ethan had quite a roaring fire going. The flickering heat and light gave the whole room a cozy, vaguely romantic aura, though the romance of it was totally lost on the father. All he wanted was to keep talking with his daughter, finally able to fully share a moment with her that wasn't tainted by the events of the night before.
"You noticed! I waxed and shaped them just for you!" He teased as he took the glass from her.
"I'll bet you've already had some, so my minding would be pointless." He indicated the large bottle, "have some, should help us both get some sleep."

It was strange, he had spent so much time protecting Laura, that he didn't really get to know her really. The belated realization brought a shamed heat to his face as he looked into her brilliant blue eyes. Amber liquor splashed into the shallow glasses and reflected the fire proudly.
"So...girl talk?" The father grinned over the rim of his glass.
 
Laura settled down next to her father again and snorted. "Girl talk with my daddy? Now there's something special," she said, teasing him a little in good nature. "We can do that. What do you want to talk about? Hair? Make up? Nails?" She didn't feel like talking with boys and some things were too embarrassing to talk about with any man, let alone one's father. "Or school."

They should talk about that. She was in her final year of high school. College was looming around the corner. Before, she would have lept at the chance to get as far away as possible. The extra freedom would have been irresistible. Now? It seemed scary. Something she didn't want at all.

"There's this college," she said, sipping from her own drink for courage. "It's really close to here. I could get in easy and I'd live here if you're okay with that." She looked up at her father. Her long eyelashes cast spidery shadows on her reddened cheeks. "They've got a very good Arts programma there."
 
The father looked thoughtfully at Laura for a moment. Wondering what caused the change of heart-- the last he had heard was that she wanted to go to new York or Scotland even for her college. To 'become more worldly', she had said.
"You sure? I mean, I want you to get to see the world...not that I'm sad to hear that I'll have even more time with my one and only! If you want to stay with your old man, I'll just have to put my man cave on hold then won't I?" He said, excitedly hugging his daughter.

Ethan stroked his short beard as he marvelled at his daughter. He could see a change in her, he just couldn't figure out what the change was.

"Well, at least I'll be able to interview your prospective boyfriends easily now." He laughed heartily at the thought of how nervous he was to meet Marian's parents.
He didn't know what to continue the conversation with, so he took a long drink of whiskey and let Laura lead the conversation, something he hadn't done in a very long time...
 
"Yeah... well..." she said and took a sip from her own whickey to stall for time. "I just got to thinking. College is for learning, right? I mean, if I flunk out it's gonna mess up my whole future, so maybe it'll be better if I stay here where I can focus better instead of being somewhere across the world being destracted by just about everything."

Laura leaned against her father. The whiskey was a tad bit stronger than the watered down mixed drinks she was used to getting at the clubs she often went to. It made her head feel a little fuzzy, but only a little. Buzzed. That was the term. She was just a little buzzed.

"Luckily for that hypothetical boyfriend," she said, "he doesn't exist and probably won't for a good while. I don't need a boyfriend, I have you." She giggled. Okay, that came out wrong. Oh well, she'd blame it on the buzz if she had to. "You'd probably loom over the guy and give him the big ol' stink-eye and make 'm quake in his boots. I don't want some boy anyway. I want a man."
 
That explanation made good sense, it showed maturity that made Ethan positively beam with pride at his daughter.
"You have no idea how proud I am to hear you say that. About college that is..." he chuckled.
He was pretty glad about the boyfriend thing too, but she didn't need to hear that. He'd done his share of protecting. His large hand slid against Laura's shoulder with an affectionate squeeze.

The father filled up a second glass of amber, his head full of the liquors buzz.
"I'm glad we've got each other...I don't know what I'd do if I didn't." He mused softly as he continued to hold her in his arms lovingly.

"You are a woman, you deserve a man....not a man-child. I'm sure he'll find you when the time is right. Lord knows he is a lucky son of a gun..."
 
Laura cuddled into her father. "I love you, daddy," she whispered. "You'll always have me. I promise." No matter what would happen, she was certain that she could always depend on her father.

"Oh really now?" Laura asked, arching one eyebrow. "You think I'm a woman?" And here she had always thought that he kept seeing her as a little girl with pigtails and a stuffed toy under her arm. Part of her still believed that he saw her that way.

"Then prove it." She smiled as she challenged him. Never mind that there wasn't a way that he could prove that he saw her as a woman now instead of a little girl. Not a way, at least, that she could think of too easily. Laura downed the last of her whiskey and reached for the bottle, pouring herself another glass,
 
Ethan looked at his daughter with a wise look in his eye, enjoying both the buzz and the life he saw reflected in her blue eyes.
"Well...I think that you proved it for me. What you said about college and what you want out of it was very mature you know." He smiled, realizing that he hadn't been seeing what was actually there. Instead he let fear and sadness grip him, in the process, he let it hold on to Laura too.
"I should have seen you as the woman you are a long time ago." He eyed the glass of whiskey in her hand, "besides, you are drinking a big girl drink aren't you?"

Laura would always be his little girl, but he had accepted the fact that the lovely woman before him was what she grew into. Plain as that.
The whiskey was finally settling in his brains, it made everything so light on his tongue, so easy to say.

"I love you, and that's all I got." He continued, squeezing her shapely form to him some more.
 
She had never been quite thise close to her father, cuddled up against his body, almost molded against him. Comfortable, that was the word for it. At home, another phrase she'd attach to cuddling like thise in front of the fire. Laura put her glass down. It was as good as empty again and her head was full of it anyway and instead of drinking, she squirmed up against her father's side and landed a sloppy smooch on his cheek.

"Then you got enough," she told him. "Love you, daddy, love you so much. So lucky to have you."

She sprawled against him, utterly relaxed and content. "Though I think this grown woman has had enough. On the drinking bit, I mean." And usually, when she got a bit buzzed, she turned up the teasing but that, she estimated, was a bit problematic. So instead she patted -- or was that petted? -- his chest. "Mine," she murmured.
 
Ethan glowed happily at feeling his daughters warm length pressed up against his, the father lazily stroked her ribs as he emptied another glass.
He was well and throughly buzzed, borderline drunk, he had to be careful what he said, loose tongues and all that.

He returned his daughters kiss, aiming for her cheek but instead he hit the corner of her mouth. In his state, he didn't even care.

He felt his consiousness slipping from him slowly, it must have been the alcohol...
"I'm the lucky one...look just like your mom..." he said hazily, already beginning to fall asleep.
 
Laura giggled. Her father had such horrible aim. But she didn't complain about the kiss at the corner of her mouth. It was sweet. Too giddy and happy to really consider her actions, Laura shifted and landed another sloppy kiss on her father, this time on the lips.

"Y'think I look like mom?" she asked, slurring her speech, then snorted. Obviously, she didn't have to expect an answer any time soon. For the guy who bought the good whiskey, he had a low tolerance. And it looked like they'd be sleeping on the floor. Laura didn't thinks he would be able to get him up to his bed, especially since she was rather gone-ish as well. She'd probably end up falling asleep in the same bed.
 
The father lingered in his daughters kiss for much longer than was really appropiate, but the alcohol had numbed his good sense enough that he simply enjoyed it for what it was. A simple kiss between father and daughter. He couldn't find anything wrong about it.

"Where do you think you got your good looks,honey? Me?" He laughed sleepily as he absently caressed his darling laura.
Ethans body became pleasently numb as the alcohol sank into him fully.
 
She liked this. The soft lingering kiss and the way he touched her. It felt safe and loved and right and she didn't want this to end any time soon. "Hmmm... I think you're very handsome," she said, leaning into his caress. Her hand rested on his chest and she closed her eyes for a moment.

Wouldn't life be easy if her daddy was all she needed?

"I think you're very handsome," she repeated, her hand trailing up and down his chest. "I could fall for you in a heart beat." If not for pesky little things as him being her father and such.
 
"And I've already fallen for you...honey." he said, not realizing the implications of his words. He only meant that he was her father and loved her completely.
The fire was dying down, the twilight its embers cast upon the pair made ethan sleepy. He lazily snuggled Laura close as he drifted off to sleep.
Unbeknownst to ethan, his large hand had slid down and attached itself to his daughters behind, gripping it tightly.
"Let's sleep now honey..." he half snored as he slid deeper into unconciousness.
 
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