The day was seeming to pass agonisingly slow. It felt like hours were passing, but when Ana broke out of her reverie, the ad break was still running. She knew that ad breaks took up a ridiculous portion of time, but hours were a tad excessive. She sighed frustratedly, the gnome seemed to be enjoying the program more than she was. But, what else was there to do? After the first text from Hansel, the only other one she'd received from him was a rather abrupt message telling her to stop messaging him, as he was busy preparing for tonight. Ana didn't know what preparations he could mean, he'd said he had the documents already, and given that her family had an unwavering hatred of him, she highly doubted that he was planning a surprise party to mark the occasion. So lost in her internal quandaries, she didn't notice that Cassandra had set herself down beside her, until her rather more heavy footed father came over to join them.
"What do you want?" Cassandra never opted to read in the living room, much less when the television was on. She could only be there to talk to Ana. Cassandra frowned, placing her book down beside her, and turned to Ana, her brows knit in concern.
"Are you okay? You've been a bit distant lately, and not in a busy no-time-for-anything-else way, but in a purposefully-avoiding-every-one kind of way."
"I'm fine." Ana turned her head away, she didn't need to see her mother's look of mock concern. They didn't really care, Hansel had pointed that out to her. Instead, Cassandra was playing the dutiful parent card. For who's sake though, Ana couldn't say.
"I just want you to be happy, Ana. I don't care where you are or what you're doing or... Who you're with, so long as you're happy." Ana could hide from her mother's eyes, but she couldn't escape the way her voice broke when she was speaking. Sighing, Ana dropped her head, it was killing her to cut her mother out like this. But she couldn't let her know about what was happening tonight, she couldn't.
"I'm fine mum, really. I just... I just feel a little bit lost, about my future. I mean, Sarre has his plans all lined up, but I don't, you know? It's just been weighing on my mind a bit." Cassandra pulled back slightly, smiling with relief. She had those feelings too at Ana's age, right up until Bella was abducted and she had to take over as head of the family. She could only hope that Ana wouldn't need a similar crisis to figure things out.
"There's no rush, Ana, you're only young. You have plenty of time to figure things out, we'll always be here for you, you know that?" Ana nodded softly, emitting a small smile.
