Send “Future” for a drabble in which our muses have a family
Seeing Antos interact with Rhoda’s sons never ceased to seem surreal. Ada could see the same lines in his posture as he’d interacted with Victoria when she was young, the same little smile hovering in the edges of his eyes when they misbehaved.
And something in her ached when Rhoda and Antos fell into a co-parenting routine, bouncing off one another with near perfect volleys as the boys watched and learned. It wasn’t jealousy, not quite, or at least, it wasn’t Ada being jealous of Rhoda. It was like seeing a glimpse of what life Ada could’ve had as a young woman, if she’d been … better. If she’d been slightly older, if she’d wanted a child instead of needed one, if Antos hadn’t been a professional manipulator and murderer.
But there was a balance. Vira (who was Victoria, and that never ceased to frighten Ada a little) had given up on being jealous of her not-siblings getting Antos’s attention - or she’d simply stopped showing it, which was all anyone had asked. She kept her distance, though, staying as far away as possible and acting out when she was home.
Nox was the saving grace, the one who kept Vira calm. Nox loved the boys, and was busily raising them to be true wastelanders while their mother was busy securing the future of said wasteland with Ada. And sometimes there was a look in Nox’s eyes when he looked at Ada or Rhoda. Ada had asked him, once, what it meant. He’d just shrugged and said, quietly, “Sometimes I wonder what my life would’ve been like if you had been my mother. Or Rhoda. Or … anyone besides my mater. If I’d had a family.”
Ada still didn’t hug people, but she’d put a hand on his wrist, which was a step, and almost smiled. “This is a family. Just a few decades late.”