[SRP] Kin (Daisy Darling & Boone)

[Summer Raaven]

 

[Summer Raaven]

"Do you ever....think about what life would be like had you settled down?"

The pair had gathered themselves in a cave to wait out the blizzard, and silence had remained between them for quite some time. But this was normal, this was their usual quality time spent. The stallion wasn't big on conversation, and the mare was just happy to be around him - no questions asked. She loved her father, for everything that he was AND everything that he wasn't, and over the years she had grown accustomed to just standing by his side for hours on end. They didn't need conversation to prove they were father and daughter, and they didn't need conversation to be happy. They just were.

But silence made her mind wander, and with such a creative imagination (or so her father had said), there was no telling what stories she'd come up with. She had been thinking about her foalhood just now, and how she had a happy little family - brothers, a mother and a father - and now what remained was her father, and the occasional visit from her young half-brothers. It was funny how life worked out like that - one day things were expansive and exciting, and the next it was gone. Everyone had gone off on their own adventure, and she didn't blame them, of course, as she too went off on her own adventure, but the 'what if' was ever present. What if her father and her mother had stayed together, and created a life together - what if her brothers hadn't disappeared, never to be seen from again. What if she herself had settled down and started a family of her own, leaving her parents behind for good?

Her father would say it didn't do well to dwell on the past, and so she anticipated that response almost immediately after the words escaped her mouth, but it had just slipped; her mind had been itching to explore the possibilities of a different life, about his different life. Plus, the blizzard wasn't letting up any time soon, and if she wanted the time to pass slowly, she'd have kept her mouth shut. No, this was good! Keep her father talking, keep him engaged, and maybe they'd be chatting for hours! Oh! What fun!  

[Summer Raaven]

"I almost did, once."

A grunt, he was sure his daughter had heard this story many times before, as the time they spent together had always ended in her getting him to tell her a tale, but his heart was full of love. He'd do anything for Daisy Darling - absolutely anything, and if repeating a story that she'd be excited to hear was what was going to happen today, then so be it.

He had wondered what she was thinking about, black eyes watching her and they stood in silence for a while. She wasn't usually this quiet, she usually broke much quicker than this, so she had to have been thinking about something important. And she was, based off her question. Ah, life. The biggest question and the biggest topic of them all. Boone wasn't big on discussing the what-ifs, as what was in the past was in the past for a reason, but he'd play her little game. He'd weave her a tale of mares long forgotten, and decisions better left unsaid, and she'd look up at him with those loving green eyes, like it had been the first time ever hearing it. He didn't have much in his life, nor had he ever, but he had her, and his sons - who visited on occasion - and that was all he ever needed. He was happy, and to think about a life where he settled down and found love and had children who were NOT his current was simply just....not plausible.

Of course he'd love to have more children, but that was for the future. That was what could still be. What once was, or what could have been, didn't need to be discussed. Didn't need to be thought about. But Daisy most likely had been thinking of the past because of her own; not lonely, but alone. He knew she didn't want kids, didn't want to be a mate, but he couldn't help but feel like it was his fault. Maybe she wanted to be comforted and reminded that the decision she made long ago was the right one.

He'd do anything to make her happy. And so he looked down at his daughter, and smiled, "do you want to hear about it?"  

[Summer Raaven]

"Do you want to hear about it?"

His words lingered in silence for a few moments, as Daisy's mind was racing with the possibilities. Her strong and mighty, independent father had almost once settled down? It almost seemed impossible, what with the grandiose stance he took on love, but then again, she supposed....anything was possible. Perhaps the reason he always felt so jaded towards romance was due to this experience, many moons ago. It wouldn't be completely unfair, for someone whose heart was torn asunder, to swear off any further deep connections. She knew her father had his fair share of steamy love affairs (as she had 5 younger half-brothers as proof of that), but nothing that lasted for more than the children being born. The departure was always amicable, as the mares in question would be a willing participant in his tryst, and usually the pair would make out with raising 1 child each. To an extent of course, because Daisy had met all of her brothers and still new them quite well - they were not strangers, they were still family.

She also knew she had heard this story before, many times in fact, but in her current state of mind she acted as though this was news. She wanted a tale of romance and adventure, of two lovers pining for one another under circumstance that would otherwise render one distraught. She wanted...sadness! Despair! Pain! And then, culminating in an ending so romance that it would make her swoon on the spot.

This was not her father's tale, but she could dream.

"Yes! Please," the small mare grinned from cheek to cheek, beaming up at her father like she did as a foal, waiting in anticipation.  

[Summer Raaven]

No, his tale was not a grand adventure, quite the opposite.

His own father had raised him with strict, stern outlook on life, despite the love the two of them shared as father and son. Bairn was not one for games, and even less for silly little stories. His father was a very serious stallion, and Boone suspected it was due in part to having lost his first love & how it affected the children he had with her. He knew his father loved his own mother, but the first love is always the deepest cut. Bairn did not want his children to experience that sort of heartbreak ever - and so there was no room for ooey-gooey nonsense. And that was all Boone had ever known, and that was okay.

He had been starting off his adulthood as a fresh, young bachelor, ready to take on the world and have many romantic encounters - but then, she happened. Boone didn't want to fall in love, it was never on the agenda growing up - so why now? Why all of a sudden did his heart sing to the heavens and his soul long deeply for this mare of whom he barely knew? It was almost a betrayal to everything he had ever knew, ever learned - but he didn't care. He wanted her.

The pair had started off friends, and it grew from there. Nodding to his daughter, the large stallion began to tell her his tale once more. "I was young - much, much younger than I am now, then you are now, even. I was sleeping beneath a giant oak tree when she tripped over me. Call it a surprise for both of us, for sure."

Boone had no idea what the mare was up to now, or how she fared in matters of the heart. But it was not a painful memory, so on he continued, "I had yelled at her, not out of anger or spite, but shock, and she yelled back."  

[Summer Raaven]

As he spoke, her mind drifted to a place full of fantastical imagination, and she placed herself in the hooves of the mare. She envisioned a Soquili tripping over her, and the madness that would ensue. Would she have found a friend in that meet-cute, or more? Time and time again, Daisy had tried to come up with her answer of what she would have done, but there were so many variables - so many possibilities - that it was impossible to say. As a child, Daisy knew her response would have been, 'kick them in the shins they deserve it! They hurt me!', and then giggle excitedly as she chased the nearest forest creature - but that was then. What about now? She wasn't getting any younger, and although young at heart, she was much wiser and experienced, and had learned the value of a friendship since then.

But that was the interesting part - friendship. Was Daisy capable of being in love, or would any interaction she would ever have always result in a temporary friendship? A 'thanks for the company, hope to see you around' type situation, each party going about their ways, happy to have spent the time but not in need of anything else? That was a pattern of habit for the mare, and she had always been content.

Except....the what-ifs were sometimes too much to bear. The game of what could be was too enticing, and she wanted to know more.

Would that mean opening herself up to love?

Daisy scoffed, her thoughts drifting back to her father's tale. She couldn't quite tell how long he had been speaking while she was distracted, but he was certainly hoof-deep in his story, so she had assumed her thoughts had taken her elsewhere for some time.

Refocused, listening, and her father was at the part where he realized he was in love with the mare. Ah, perfect timing, she thought to herself. A description of what love is supposed to feel like.  

[Summer Raaven]

"Growing up with the parents that I had, yelling at someone was not tolerated under any circumstances, so when she gave me the same attitude I had given her, it made my heart leap for joy. There before me was a mare not afraid to speak her mind and stand up for herself, it was quite refreshing. I don't mean to sound like an out-of-touch old man, but she truly was unlike anything I had met before. I was young and sheltered, so sue me!....." the stallion had rambled on, speaking now mostly for himself than his daughter, as he watched his daughter's eyes sort of wander, and he knew she was off in her own dreamland. In the past she had drifted - not this quickly - and so he had wondered what it was that she had been thinking about, and continued his story as if nothing had happened.

""We spent some time together, just talking, and before either of us knew it, night had begun - it was as if no time had passed at all, yet.....hours had! It was truly something. I had asked her if she wanted to spend the night sleeping under a patch of trees, obviously not under the same one as I was trying to be a gentleman, and she agreed, so we woke up the next morning and continued out conversation." To most, his story didn't seem any different than your average story of meeting a stranger and being polite, but to him, it was everything. He couldn't remember ever enjoying someone as much as he enjoyed her.

He had woven a tale of, to anyone else, a boring, average day in the life of making friends, but this was his story - and he'd tell it as he pleased! "....and that's when she called me an annoying pig, and said she was leaving. I knew right there I couldn't lose her..."