[ota] beware, be canny and careful

[lowtohigh]

She doesn't regret it in the slightest. What's to regret?

Eileen is fully capable of making her own decisions. She's allowed to decide to leave Kevin behind and go visit the Spade dungeon. And someone--she's not certain who--is also fully capable of infinitely childishly telling Kevin exactly where he or she saw his theoretical charge slipping off to while he was turned around. And Kevin is not just capable but essentially required to tell her mother things like where her daughter was this past weekend.

Which means Eileen Eicheln has, for the first time in her life, seen her mother actually angry. It also means, for the first time in her life and very likely one of the first times in history, the Ace of Clubs is grounded.

Mr Kahl is allowed to bring work and keep her up to date with her studies. A student from Mr DeWitt's class is allowed to spend a bit of time letting her know what's she's missed. The King and Jack are certainly permitted to speak to their Ace at their convenience.

But everyone else? Is getting Kevin's most sympathetic smile and a firm shake of his head. "Seems house arrest is catching."


[ooc; Except probably anyone with half a reason can talk to the moodiest tween about how she done wrong. Kevin is secretly easy. Or just come shoot the shit with Kevin, I guess? o/]

Comments

We do what we want. o/

[lowtohigh]

Now, see. Kevin wasn't an unreasonable man. He could be negotiated with. He did, in fact, have Eileen's best interests in mind. He didn't want to be ruining her young life, or breaking her spirits, or punishing her more than was strictly necessary.

And, well. He also knew when a Spade was making a very genuine, real threat that could be avoided by his own actions.

It was probably the quickest he'd jumped to open the door since Elisha came by.

For her own part, Eileen was actually looking up at visitors now. Her brow wrinkled slightly at the expression on Ethan's face, lips pursing together as she carefully set the journal she'd been working on translating for Caleb aside.

Because...reasons.

[cutslikeaspade]

He didn't give Kevin a second look after the door opened, but he did close it rather firmly behind him, Club paranoia be damned. Ethan spied Eileen across the room, sighed, and moved to slowly sit down beside her, leaning elbows on his knees.

"I'm sorry, carina, for not coming sooner," he told her quietly. His lips twisted. "Figured Elisha wouldn't want a Spade profaning his hallways." Ethan shook his head; bitterness--while thick--had no place here.

"Mi dispiace," he apologized, releasing another soft sigh. "It's...been a long day, carina. Far too long a day."

/deal-with-it.gif B|

[lowtohigh]

It was always nice to spend time with Ethan, always a calm and reassuring sort of thing. He understood. He defended. He reminded her that everything would be okay again.

So it was reasonably disconcerting to have him look quite so... put out by life. Her chair creaked as she pulled herself around forward again, frowned just slightly.

"...why long? Has something happened?"

/hi5

[cutslikeaspade]

"Because," he told her with a small, though heartfelt, little smile, "you're one of my favorite people, Eileen. Wednesday afternoon's going to be...boring, carina." He flicked up an eyebrow. "Unless you can persuade Kevin to bring you to lessons."

But that wasn't the only reason he'd bullied his way in here, although Ethan desperately wished it had been. And while he enjoyed spending time with the smallest Ace, enjoyed it very much, he still dreaded seeing her reaction to the news he was compelled to share.

Reaching over and gently taking her small hand, threading his larger fingers with hers, Ethan said quietly, "E 'lo zio, l'amore. David." He had to inhale a shaky breath before going on. "He's...back. Here, in the Deck."

[lowtohigh]

For half a second, she managed the echo of a smile. They both knew she won't be 'excused' from her grounding to go play study with the Spades, but it was still nice to have the thought extended; to know they'd both be missing out at their usual time.

But it was only for half a second. Then his hand was closing on hers, and his words were coming a quieter, strangely painful tone.

And his words were saying the impossible.

The jerk of her shoulders was completely unconscious. The dig of her neatly trimmed nails into his hand wasn't purposeful. The absolute stillness of her face was more instinct than planned.

That couldn't be right. Her mind wasn't wrapping around it at all.

[cutslikeaspade]

He'd expected it, had been somewhat (though not at all) prepared for it, but still, seeing that look on her young face cut at his heart. He was sure his own countenance had shared it, not half an hour ago. That look of absolute disbelief, "seen a ghost", some might call it. Ethan held her hand tightly, not confining, but supporting, letting her dig into his skin all she wanted.

"I know, carina," he whispered soothingly, draping the other arm around her shoulders, giving the one under his hand a quiet squeeze. "I couldn't believe it, either. But it's him." Beyond a doubt. Or, well, some semblance of David, anyway.

[lowtohigh]

Breathing in helps for half a second, before she realizes she can't remember how to breathe out again. The arm pulling around her is something to focus on. She can feel his pulse, connect it to the rise and fall of his chest, use it as an impetus to unleash a shuddering breath again.

Her nails dig in tighter before she tugs her hand back completely. She needs to use her hand to wipe angrily at the sudden pricking in her eyes.

It's not quite like he's said 'Lancelot is alive,' but it's still twisting somewhere deep inside she hadn't remembered a blade breaking off.

"...when?"

[cutslikeaspade]

"Today, yesterday maybe," was the quiet response. "Fairly recently, far as I could tell." Ethan gently reached out and took her hands again, using his left to gently smooth the traitorous moisture from her cheeks himself.

"Hey, hey...va tutto bene, cara," he told her in barely more than a whisper. "Let them fall, if they want. 's okay."

[lowtohigh]

"Non è."

It isn't okay to cry, much though her eyes are continuing to betray her. There's been too much sharp emotion, too much time to steep in it since being sent to her room to stew over things.

It's not okay that on top of this, with the world upside down as it is, this pain she'd learned to live with has shot up again, hot and fresh and almost blinding.

It's not okay that something that should be good news is constricting her throat and making it so hard to breathe.

"How is he back?"

[cutslikeaspade]

Ethan shook his head. "Vorrei sapere, l'amore." A long sigh. "But I don't. I came across him out on the Green, not an hour ago." And God, hadn't David looked rough? But then, coming back from the dead probably wasn't the cleanest of routes, all told.

"But at least he is, sí? At least we know he's still alive." That counted for something, didn't it?

[lowtohigh]

There was that. The hardest thing about Lancelot, at the end of the day, was quashing the continued, nagging feeling that he might still, somehow, against all odds, actually be alive somewhere. That he might someday reappear and things would be well again.

Now, at least, they didn't have to ponder that for David. He was home. Safe, for given values of the word. She can't not be slightly grateful to have that weight eased from around her heart.

"...and he's...?" But she's not certain what she's asking. He's well? He's himself? He's going to slide back into Spades and usurp Clive?

[cutslikeaspade]

Picking up on her unasked questions, Ethan shook his head again. "No, cara," he replied gently. "He's...different, somehow. Not the King we knew...before." And how it ached to say that. To harbor that fear, somewhere inside, that his father--her uncle might be gone from them forever. That they might never again be able to see the King, the man David had been before.

He wasn't about to relay the details of his own episode with the former monarch, but he couldn't outright lie to her, either. "I think...he's been through a lot--in his absence. And--has come back to maybe make peace with it." Please, God, let that be close. He draped an arm around the girl's slim shoulders, letting her lean in close if she wished.

"Whatever the reason, carina, we'll be here to help him, sí?" Because...that's what family did.

[lowtohigh]

"...I don't know."

He had left. He had abandoned them without any explanation. Did family do that? Did that mean he had, in some way, broken the bonds of their family, splintered them beyond her ability to soothe them again into the old love, or something like it?

Maybe she just wasn't a good enough person to forgive him.

That thought makes her breath come shorter. The tears spill more properly over her cheeks, head twisting so her face can be pressed hard against his shoulder.

[cutslikeaspade]

Ethan sighed. He'd done the same thing, hadn't he? Fled, fled of his own volition, to reclaim his precious sanity, but mostly because he couldn't look his father in the face. And returning to find him gone--dead, some whispered--had...broken a part of his heart which would never be repaired.

But regardless of his own personal demons, Ethan highly doubted David had vanished under his own choice. No, psychotic and deranged the man might have been, might now be, Ethan had never once doubted David's devotion to his people.

Yet all that was left for later; right now he had a more important task: putting his arms around a young girl and letting her cry out her hurt, her confusion; being the brother he knew she so desperately needed. Ethan stroked her hair soothingly, resting his cheek atop her head and just let her cry.

Sometimes that was all one could do.

[lowtohigh]

Everything's more amplified for being stuck in her room this way. Everything is more raw and worried and terrifying when she's been left alone this way to mull over her own thoughts and emotions.

There's one sob, shaky and exhausted, before she settles simply into silent shuddering. It will take a few moments. It will take a tight clinging to his arm before shifting back to rub at her eyes.

"...sorry."

[cutslikeaspade]

Shaking his head, Ethan murmured, "No, piccolo. Non ci sono scuse." He put a finger under her chin, looking down at her directly. "Sí?" He wouldn't hear an apology for simply being a child.

A kiss against her forehead and he put his arm back around her, sighing softly. "I don't know what'll happen, tesora," Ethan told her honestly, "but I'll look out for him, I promise." He ventured half of a smile. "Just like I do for you, and Chives, and Amy. Va bene?"

[lowtohigh]

Eye contact is hard, but she manages, tears still sparkling at the corners from the tears she was trying not to finish shedding.

"...that's not... fair to you. Looking after so many people."

[cutslikeaspade]

He gave her shoulder a mild squeeze. "It's part of my job, mi cara," Ethan told her seriously. And truly, one of the only reasons he'd come back to this place.

[lowtohigh]

"...oughtn't... the rest of us help? With... David?"

That seemed fair, right? An equal exchange for how much Ethan did for everyone else, without directly indicating anyone had to look after him.

[cutslikeaspade]

"Well, do you want to, tesora?" He wouldn't lay an obligation on her out of guilt, regardless of its nature. Eileen was, after all, still a child.

And, this was Ethan. He didn't expect Aceness from her, that was for the other idiots. He wanted her honest answer, her honest feelings. If doing so would be too much to handle, he'd understand and not judge her for saying so.

[lowtohigh]

Which is unfortunate, really. It's not something she always entirely knows how to do.

"...I don't know." But, then again. "I'm-- not quite sure of anything, just now."

[cutslikeaspade]

He nodded. "Fair enough." An honest answer, he appreciated it.

"You don't have to decide right now," he told her gently. "It's a lot to digest, I know." And he really did. His own heart had damn near stopped when he'd recognized that figure out on the Green.

[lowtohigh]

One shaky breath in before she nods. She doesn't have to decide now. She doesn't have to process it all at once.

Surely that means she can shift, press her face into his shoulder again and just keep working slowly.

[cutslikeaspade]

Ethan simply put his arms back around her, letting her take what comfort she would. It wasn't easy, growing up here. Granted, Eileen was a child of a newer generation, but it seemed the Deck was still determined to put its youth through hell before granting them the boon of adulthood.

...no, not the Deck. The moronic adults who claimed to "know what was best" for their offspring. But there was little help for it, save to offer comforting arms in which to hide.

"We'll figure it out, carina," he soothed, stroking the length of her hair. "Together, hm?"

[lowtohigh]

Each generation had its wars. Each generation had its insecurities and problems. Each generation grew up with new, strange scars on it.

This would pass. Comfort would be taken. Bones would regrow stronger than before. Families find ways to survive, hopefully pass on less to the next generation.

"If you promise."