the littlest princess ♕ mary
The larger man easily relaxed into a laugh, returning her embrace. Her enthusiasm was always a pleasant surprise to him, especially after a long day of hard work. It was nice to come home to such a smiling face. Everything about her was sunny - from her hair, glowing golden, to her eyes, bright sky blue, and her dimpled face, so full of life, She reminded him of someone, but whom specifically he could not recall… there were many faces in this world, however, and this was not a cause for alarm, merely confusion. She was always elated to see him and he could say the same about her tenfold. He truly hoped she would be just as overjoyed with her surprise.
"Not at all, Miss Mary!" Of course she wasn’t late - in fact, she was right on time because he had no set deadline with her. Even if there was, how could he ever be mad about any of that? Especially when the weather was this beautiful and both found themselves in good health? He was one who believed in hard work, sure… but also in proper breaks, of which he enjoyed spending that time with her.
He placed a tender hand on the top of her head, giving her hair a small pet. “How are you today?”
Jonathan expected to hear some kind of crazy tale about her day, full of adventure and valor… which probably wasn’t actually true. Still, he enjoyed humoring her stories if only because of how much joy it gave her to share them. Similarly she was always so interested in hearing about his educational pursuits that day (“You taught how many classes?!” “How is Mister Kirkland? You had lunch with him today right?” “Will you take me to class someday?”) but he figured those were too boring to share sometimes. He would rather hear about her.
"Up you go!" As she liked, he picked her up and placed her around his shoulders. She was small enough even at fourteen that her weight didn’t bother him whatsoever. Once she was secure, he began to walk them towards home. “Tell me, dear, did you do anything fun?”
It felt nice to have an affectionate father figure in her life, Mary felt. To have someone to attach herself to, to play with on those lonely days-- all of that felt incredible to her. A feeling that she had craved for so long-- she finally has it. She has the warmth of another person's affections, genuine affection at that. She embraces it just as much as she had physically embraced Jonathan right this second.
A bright smile has yet to fade on Mary's face, her reluctance to let him go very apparent as she burrowed herself into his muscular frame. "Okay." Her tone as cheery as ever, and with that smile still static on her face, at last she pulls away from the elder Joestar with her bright blues flickered upwards. A bright day reflected well the current moods of these kindred spirits, a father and his surrogate child.
Both hands folded behind her back akin to a modest child receiving praise. Her smile only brightened with an extra show of affection. "I'm okay! I was followed by a bunch of big birdies, but they all flew away when I went to go play with them." A flock of pigeons. That's natural. "What about you? And your stu~dents?" It's funny how she so excitedly questioned things like academic situations where a girl her age should want to avoid it like the plague. A natural curiosity.
She had little room to continue her excited banter-- Mary is now airborne in Jonathan's hold and candidly placed on his shoulders. A joyous laugh erupted from the girl's petite presence.
"Playing with the birdies was fun!" Again with the pigeons. "I want a birdie to play with one day. They can sing and I can sing with them and we could be best friends forever."
