Character(s)::August and Layla
Word Count::1,015
@pettythieveswithpotential
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It had been hard, remembering her old life, her dads, her brother and sister, but Layla was grateful for it. Those years hadn’t been easy, but she had been loved and she had been safe. As safe as she could have been.
Watching her dads together had been the difficult part. It had always been so painfully obvious that papa was deeply in love with dad, but it had never seemed like dad had felt the same. There had always been a tension between the two of them, no matter how hard she had tried to resolve it.
She knew it hadn’t been her place or her job to. They were adults and they did the best they could for them. But she had wanted them both to be happy too.
If they had ever gotten to that point, Layla had never gotten to see it and she needed to know. Not just for who she was now, but for the girl she had been when they had loved her.
“Did things ever get better? After I...well, you know?” she asked quietly, one of the photo albums she had started in her previous life resting on her lap, open to a page of photos she had taken of Chase.
“Sort of, I think. Things were always kind of tense,” August answered, not wanting to lie to her.
Things with him and Chase had bever been easy, even when Chase tried. There had always been a level of distrust on the hunter’s part and August had just learned to live with it. There had been moments, small ones here and there, and he clung to those memories. Especially on nights when it all felt like too much.
“There were times he touched me willingly, without flinching. Soft moments. But I never pushed and I think that might have made things easier. He said something to that effect once. That it was because I didn’t expect anything of him that trying didn’t seem as difficult because there wasn’t that pressure. If it didn’t work, then, it didn’t work.”
It probably wasn’t the answer she was looking for, he knew that, but it was the only one he had to give. He knew, in some ways, that Chase had cared about him. He had admitted as much a scattered handful of times.
“I’m sorry, papa. I know how much you loved him,” she said softly as she closed the album and set it aside. “I’m sorry you had to lose him when I know you never wanted to go through that.”
She could see the pain in August’s eyes over the conversation and she hated herself for bringing it all up in the first place. She had never wanted to cause either of her dads' pain and she knew she had. Knew she had caused hurt that never really healed and there was nothing she could do to fix that.
Sure, she might have been around again, but she wasn’t the same girl anymore. Aislynn had been softer than her, sweeter. She had been an artist that just wanted her family to be happy. Layla, the girl she was now, was harder around the edges, she didn’t have the same hopeless romantic view of love that she had held so dearly in her first life.
“We both knew it was going to happen sooner than I would have liked. I had offered to try turning him a couple of times but, well, we both know how he felt about that.”
August had respected Chase’s answer, no matter how much he had hoped it would change. It had been hard raising the kids without him around to help. They had balanced one another out and it had, for the most part, worked. It had been messy and tense, but the kids had been safe, loved, and cared for.
“I’m sorry you never got the chance to say goodbye to him. He never stopped missing you. Neither of us ever stopped missing you.”
“I know,” she mumbled, knowing that she would never understand the depth of that grief. They had buried their daughter, their first child, and there was nothing that could heal that. “I’m sorry I put you through that.”
“Hey now, that wasn’t your fault, Ais--Layla.” He was still adjusting to the name change, still trying to get used to her not being the same girl he had raised.
“Papa, it’s okay. You can still call me that. I know it’s a lot. I know I’m not the same as I was, but I’m still me in most ways,” she assured, a soft, sad smile touching her lips. “I even still prefer drawing with charcoal.”
He had always gotten her all of her art supplies, encouraged her to be soft and artistic, to use her hands to create instead of harm. Both of her dads had encouraged that, but August had always been better at it. August had always been the softer one.
“You do?” That small bit was enough to make him smile, relieved that some things were still very much the same.
“Mhmm,” she hummed, giving a small nod. “It was one of the first things I remembered when I started getting my memories back. I miss being a cat though. I don’t think I’ll ever stop missing that feeling.”
“I’m guessing that’s not really a possibility with your new genetics?” he mused, figuring she would have taken a chance if it had been.
“Yeah, immune to all strains of it. There are spells, sure, that can give me animal form, but it wouldn’t be the same and would come with its own limitations.”
It made sense, he thought, although truthfully, Chase had known more about actual magic than he did, even if it had been in the capacity of a hunter. August had never needed magic or to know about it, so he could only take her word for it.
“I know it’s not the same, but I’m still glad you’re back,” he murmured, reaching out to pat her hand.
1. She was barely seventeen and her one dad told her was too young to know what love was. The other was softer about it, had nudged her with his elbow and rolled her feline eyes. But there was worry behind his smile too and she understood. They were protective. But Teddy had never hurt her, would never hurt her. He was the only thing that felt real.
“He protected me from the boys at school that wanted to hurt me,” she had argued. It had been that day, that moment, when she first realized it.
She loved him.
2. The blood work had come back positive. Cord had let her stay the night there, no sense in a long drive back home without no rest. Aislynn wanted to tell him, but not over the phone or video chat. It was face to face news.
Fingers continued to skim over her lower stomach in wonder. She was young, she knew that, they both were, but mental image of him holding that baby in his arms was something she craved to see.
It was a piece of him she would carry in her heart for always, a part of herself he would have even after she grew old and passed on. It was, to her, proof of where she was meant to be.
3. Memories of a stranger haunted her for months. A girl that looked just like her and a boy with the sweetest smile. They had filled Angie with an odd sense of longing. But, they were just dreams, right?
Until she saw him. It had to be the same boy. It was just far too uncanny and her heart had skipped a beat. It took every bit of nerve she had had to go and talk to him, terrified he would think she was insane.
By the time the dreams had turned to nightmares, it hadn’t mattered. It had been so clear that losing the girl she had been once had broken him and he needed her, who she was now.
Angie had never been certain how much of her feelings for him had been her own or Aislynn’s until she got sick. It was his anger, his desperation as he argued with the doctors, demanding they do something, anything to save her did she know.
She was just as much in love with him as the girl in her first life had been.
4. It had always been Teddy. Her mom called it a “puppy crush” and used to tell her she was far too young, but Layla didn’t really care. Besides, she wouldn’t be a little kid forever and she was convinced he would always be her favorite person.
She was ten. Other kids her age were crushing on characters in tv shows and they all thought she was weird. None of them held a candle to Teddy. None of them ever would.
So, when the dreams first began, she didn’t think they meant anything other than what she already knew; that she loved him.
5. The years went by and Layla clung to those dreams. He had begun to avoid her when she started looking like the girls she had been before. It had hurt so much, but she had been told to be patient.
When she had the entire story, she went to him, promised never to leave him again. It was a promise she would sign in blood if he needed it to believe her. There was nothing that was going to make her abandon him. He had been through enough because of her.
But it was that first kiss that sealed her fate, three small breathed against his lips.
