So today, I woke up bright and early. I gave my wife a kiss on the forehead, told her I'd be back later, and left. I had a mission in mind - finding Maximus, the horse Tangled Fan had gotten out of the attic for us. (the Maximus stand-in, rather). Jase had been harping at me all day yesterday that she wanted to ride Maximus. I had my reservations about allowing my daughter to ride that horse, especially since the first time I rode him, I had to do a rather..let's just say unfantastic dismount. Quickly. And without really meaning to. Okay, fine. I got bucked off of him. Regardless.
I spent the better part of the day searching for that horse. I finally found him by some piles of papers and general stuff, near our old shelving unit; and so I made note of where he was, and went to go back to the bookshelf.
When I had started on my way back to the shelf, I noticed HB talking to some guy, seeing as I walked right past them on the floor. I scurried past in a hurry, hoping to not be seen by either of them, especially HB.
No such luck.
"Hey, Flynn."
"Busy."
"One minute of your valuable time."
I swung around on my heel. "What?"
"How're those babies doing? I miss them." She gave me a cold smile that made me get the heebie-geebies (or however you spell that.)
I ignored her, taking a deep breath in, and walked off.
"Hope you're taking care of them - neither of those two girls could possibly ever know how to care for a baby! I mean, really. Your wife's an airhead and the redhead's got a nasty temper."
"What did I tell you to do, just a little while back?" I threw over my shoulder. "I'm not going to say please, this time. Leave them all alone, Merida included." I know I shouldn't have added this, but it slipped out: "She's not an airhead, and she was right. You, however, are an airhead AND you have a temper! Which is ten times worse. Now, I don't want to hear one word from you again, HB. I'm not one to be nasty to someone, but you know, I'm real sick of this."
I heard her gasp, but I never faltered in my step. I was mad, and I was tired, and I was about ready to snap at the smallest thing.
The good part about me being mad is that I walk quickly when I'm mad. So I made it back in record time. However, as I neared the bookshelf, I heard sobbing.
I started a jog and soon saw my wife was huddled up against the shelf, crying. My heart sped up, and I wondered if HB had done something to her. All my anger slipped away and was quickly replaced by concern.
I slowed when I reached her, and I bent to look at her. She didn't even notice I was behind her.
"Hon?"
She gasped, looking up and sniffling. Her eyes were wide and red. "Oh, hey..you're back." She mumbled.
"Yeah, I am. I found him; we'll take her for a ride tomorrow. Why are you down here, crying?" I held a hand out to her, and she accepted it and stood.
"It's nnnothing," she stammered, swallowing.
I took her chin in my hand and studied her face, worried about what had made her this upset. After a few moments, she looked me in the eye. Her face crumpled and she burst into tears.
"C'mere," I whispered, gathering her up into my arms and holding her close until she calmed down.
After her shoulders finally stopped heaving, I wiped off her cheeks and watched her face until she finally told me the whole long story. You can see her post HERE if you want to read the whole thing - it's really long, like I said, so I won't type it all down here when you can read it there!
"Was I so horribly hateful towards them?" she ended her story with a sniffle and looked up at me as I gathered an answer.
I didn't really know how to respond, only to try to give her a perspective of their side - which, basically, was that while I knew she was trying to be nice, she had kind of jumped the gun on that one, and that maybe he wasn't as awful as she thought he was. When I took a breath, she jumped in, her eyes flashing with anger like I'd never seen from her - with the exception of when HB is around.
"So you won't even consider my theory, either? Thanks so much for backing me up!" she said, her voice rising as she tried to yank away from me.
"Wait-"
"No! You can't even imagine him using her that way? Get all nice with her and then kidnap the babies? He's probably still with HB in the first place! They're both liars! And-"
I cut her off. "Wait, just hear me out." I frantically reached for her in an attempt to keep her from running from me. Okay, stupid move. I should have just agreed with her, instead of trying to explain their reactions right then and there. It's not like I didn't believe her! I actually agreed with her concern, as well. I thought about letting her go and cool off, without explaining anything. But then I got so scared that she would run and that she'd hate me, and I'd never have the chance to explain myself to her, and a couple of fearful tears came before I managed to stop them.
She did all in her power to try to twist her wrists out of my hands, and she was surprisingly really strong. I grunted with exertion as she yanked me around.
"Listen to me. Calm down....Rapunzel!" I fairly shouted her name to try to get her to stop for a minute.
"Let me go!" She yelled back, stopping her efforts long enough to demand it. I opened my hands and let her hands fall to her sides, terrified of what would come of it, since I let her go.
She started to do exactly as I was afraid she'd do. Her face darkened in anger, and with a huff she started to turn on her heel and leave. I grabbed her back up and into a forceful kiss, trying to get her to slow down for a second. She pushed me and yanked away before glaring at me. "Let me go."
Yup. It worked.
"See? That always does the trick. You forgot I left you go," I pointed out, gesturing towards her limp arms.
She glanced down at her hands, and I could see another wave of embarrassment and anger coming as she tried to gather her thoughts to start another shouting match, so before the wave (okay, forget it) before the TSUNAMI hit, I grabbed my chance to explain myself.
I put my hands on her shoulders to catch her attention, but I kept them there loosely so she didn't feel like I was holding her against her will.
"Now, please listen to MY theory. I agree with your concern. And I think the same. But try to think like Blondie and Rayne..." I explained that, basically, since Rayne lost someone she loved dearly, she would side with Blondie. Since Blondie was in love with Ray, she would defend him over anything. Since Merida hasn't fallen in love with anyone, she wouldn't understand. And since Rapunzel and I had gotten married right off the bat, she'd never fallen out of love, or had anyone accuse her or me of anything, or have her loved one taken away from her.
As I spoke, her red face slowly cooled to a more normal shade, and her angry breathing slowed. "I...I guess you do have a point."
I slid my hands up and down her arms and offered her a small grin. "Now...do you see both sides now? Do you get why they were all on the defense? Do you get my perspective?"
She nodded, staring at me. Her eyes started to fill with tears once more. "I'm....so, so, so sorry, Flynn...I can't-"
I reached over and put a finger to her lips to quiet her. "It's fine. You were mad, and hurt, and upset...and you were just on the defensive, too. I get that." Her lips started trembling, and I pulled her close into a hug.
"How can you be so understanding and chill about...about everything?" She stumbled out, before she sobbed.
"That's just how I am, I guess. I'm not chill about everything, though, mind you." Usually, anything that had to do with my wife or Jase or Hallie usually made me un-chill really quick. But I didn't say anything about that! She finally put her arms around me and clamped them around me so tightly that I wondered at how I could even breathe. I stroked her hair, which only made her cry harder into my shoulder. I couldn't believe how upset I'd made her. Note to self: Never, ever try to get your wife to understand all the perspectives until she's cooled off and more understanding, and not acting out of emotion.
After awhile, she pulled away from me enough to look up at me. I offered her a smile, and her lips gave the slightest tremble. I reached down to give her a gentle kiss before I wiped her cheeks again. I stepped back when I was done, and asked her if she felt better.
She shrugged and said she felt horrible for treating me that way. She gave a shuddery sigh.
"Don't worry about it. As husband and wife, we'll have our trials. Our spats. Our somewhat silly arguments and fights. But no matter what, I'll always love you and try not to be mean to you over anything. Now stop crying, sweetie. I've already wiped your cheeks twice." I added a wink, and she tackled me into another hug that made me back up a couple of steps before I could regain my balance.
"You wouldn't have to keep doing that, if you'd stop telling me all these beautifully-worded sentences that make me feel bad!" She exclaimed.
"Well, I'm gonna say some more sentences here, just so you know." I looked down just as she was looking up at me. I grinned at her and commenced with my sentences.
After I was through, I cupped her face in my hands and stared at her until she nodded. "I love you too - even if I don't act like it sometimes. I'm sorry I was a jerk earlier instead of just listening to what you wanted to say."
"It's fine," I said. I took her loosely by the hand and smiled. "Ready to go back up there?"
"No. But since Merida has the girls, we have to. If the girls and Merida were with us, I'd be tempted to just stay elsewhere for the night, to let those two others settle down."
I nodded and gave her a kiss on the cheek and her hand a squeeze. "I'll back ya up."
"What, you're gonna go in there, frying pan swinging and claiming that this is the strangest thing you've ever done?" She referred to our movie.
I chuckled at that one. "Mayybe. It it's THAT hostile up there.."
"I dunno, but we were all just about at each other's throats up there earlier."
Oh boy. This could get real interesting real fast.
I raised my eyebrows and gave her a reluctant glance before we started back up to the bookshelf.
When we got up onto the top shelf, I could immediately feel the tension. The two girls and Allie were sleeping, thankfully. I hated that they had been exposed to that tension. Merida was sitting by the kids, glowering at the other end of the shelf. Blondie and Rayne were at the other end of the shelf, ignoring us.
Merida saw us coming. "We had a small spat again, when Allie cried and Blondie made the comment that they'd probably be in better hands with her and Ray."
Small spat? Coming from Merida, the words "SMALL" and "SPAT" usually don't describe one another.
"Small....spat?" Rapunzel voiced my thought.
"Okay, fine. It wasn't small. But certain dolls need to keep their mouths shut!"
Rapunzel whispered something in her ear, and she grumbled something about Blondie, stopped short, listened to what my wife was saying - whatever that was - and then began shaking her head...considered the issue at hand, and then nodded. "Fine. But if one of those yahoos says anything to me, or you, fur will fly!"
Rapunzel chuckled. Hallie started to squirm, and I had the feeling that Scream War-1-Zillion was about to commence.
"If you yahoos would have left me alone to begin with, nothing would have hapened!" Blondie finally yelled in retaliation to Merida's comment.
"Shh!" The three of us exclaimed unanimously. Merida and I picked up the babies, and Jase ran to her mother's lap.
I sat on one side of Rapunzel, and Merida on the other.
"Momma, Blondie said she was dating Ray. I knew Ray. He's not nice at all! He was mean to me. Tell her! Tell her so he doesn't hurt her. And Momma, why are your eyes red?"
"I know, sweetie. And, well,...it's nothing." She glanced towards me awkwardly.
"You always say that, Momma!" Jase exclaimed.
Boy, wasn't that true? Even Jase knew!
"I, um...I'm just sleepy - that's all, baby girl!" she managed, and then Jase hugged her.
We basically just sat around in awkward silence for a long while. Eventually, Rapunzel laid a sleeping Jase down beside me, took a deep breath, and walked over to Blondie and Rayne.
After a really quick conversation that I couldn't hear, Rapunzel backed up several steps before she turned and fairly lunged back towards me. "Why don't we sneak back to our old shelf for the night, or something? Or at the bottom of the bookshelf. I don't want to expose the girls to this kind of stress. I tried apologizing, and they BOTH blew me off."
I could hear her voice start to crack the smallest bit, and I watched her, worried. Whatever they'd said to her had really stung. Again.
"Merida, do you wanna come with?" she turned to ask.
She nodded and gathered Allie up. My wife took Hallie, and I scooped Jase up. We all made our way down the shelf, and when we reached bottom, I nodded towards the bottom shelf. "The old shelving unit's full of books - we wouldn't all fit in there."
Merida strode into the shelf first and plopped down in a corner with Allie.
Rapunzel was standing just outside of the bookshelf, watching Merida quietly talking to Allie; a smile on her face. I walked up behind her, Jase slung over my shoulder, and bumped my other shoulder up against hers before I hooked her pinky finger with mine.
"Hey, hon. It'lll be alright," I whispered to her.
She nodded. "I know. It's just hard...I even apologized, and they just totally blew me off! It's not like-"
"Don't get upset all over again. Focus on other things," I said, giving her a grin and a wink. Her face showed what pleasure my simple grin gave her, and if she hadn't had Hallie, and I Jase, I would've hugged her as well.
We both went up into the bottom shelf and I carefully laid Jase down so she could sleep. Rapunzel talked with Merida about what kind of a threat Ray could pose if he really was after the babies while I was working on that.
They finally decided to sleep with the babies close to us so that we could hear or feel if they were to be stolen away in the middle of the night.
When we finally retired to bed after we got the babies asleep once more, I wrapped Rapunzel up in my arms and whispered an I love you, but I don't think she heard me. She kept a watchful, motherly hand on Hallie, and the other hand held onto one of my hands. It took awhile, but I finally did fall asleep, for a little while.
When I woke back up, I reached to plant a kiss on Rapunzel's forehead...and I ended up kissing the air. Uh, well that's awkward.
I sat up quickly, looked around, and felt to make sure Hallie was still there.
From the red cast of the alarm clock across the room, I saw Rapunzel's silhouette, sitting at the edge of the shelf. I released the alarmed breath I'd been holding in and decided whether I should go talk to her or go back to sleep. I knew she'd make me go back to sleep anyway - she's a real stickler with my 7-8 hours of necessary sleep!
I finally stood and crept over to her so as not to wake anyone else. I set a hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze...and scared her. She jumped, shuddered, twisted around, muttering, "What in the-" and then broke off when she realized it was me.
I walked around to sit beside her and put an arm around her.
"Why're you up? It's, like, really super late."
"Why are you up? You'll get a migraine."
"I was just wondering what you were up to," I said, staring at her dim face in the darkness.
"Just thinkin', and I can't sleep. But you need to go back to bed. " she leaned up against me with a sigh.
See? I told you she was a stickler.
"You're upset because they're still acting mean," I said, referring to the fight and skirting around the idea of bed. She nodded. "Don't worry. Everything will work out alright. Don't let this get to you." She nodded again.
"It's just hard, is all. Did I say something rude?"
I shrugged and told her that she was letting it get to her.
"And you need to go to sleep, or you'll end up with a migraine. Don't worry about me - I'll come back and sleep when I can go to sleep. Thanks for the talk." She rolled her eyes up at me and offered a sweet smile.
"Anytime, sweetie," I said, still not moving to get up.
"Bed."
I shook my head, but ended up stopping mid-shake because of the intense staredown Rapunzel was giving me at the moment. I grinned, and the corners of her lips twitched, but she managed a poker face.
I reached over and gently tipped her head back to kiss her, reverting to my usual method of trying to get her to forget about something, but she turned away from me.
"Hey," I laughed quietly.
"If you promise you'll go back to sleep right away, I'll kiss you. But other than that? Nope."
"Bribery, eh?" I winked and grinned at her jokingly.
"Yup."
"That's not nice."
"But you'll do it anyway. Won't you." She didn't ask *if* I would.
"Alright, alright...fine." I chuckled, and then my wife reached up to give me the promised kiss. When it was over, I stood.
"Now, get to bed." She smiled at me adoringly. "I'll go to bed when I can sleep."
"Okay. Remember what I told you about not letting it get to you, okay?"
She nodded, and I bent to plant another quick kiss on her lips before I did what I was told.
And then I guess I was out - I don't know when Rapunzel went to bed again, if at all. We'll see what tomorrow brings as to what level of hostility is still up at the top of the bookshelf...
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