She never removed it

It was when the leaves on the bushes outside began to change color that she knew.

“Mother, where are we going?”

“It’s a surprise, my darling.”

The smile felt more real than fake and it took everything Mary had not to let the tears in the back of her throat reach her eyes. She’d always been very good at lying and anyone who was as good at it as she was knew that the art in lying is in having just enough of the truth in it to make it real.

“Are we going to have to finish our homework?” her youngest asks, eager for a reason to not finish the packet sent home for the fall break.

“We’ll see, Matt.” She shares a grin with her eldest at the boy’s groan. What she doesn’t say and what her eldest likely already knows is that they will likely never return to this house that had almost become their home.

Matt didn’t remember living anywhere but here, he’d been so young when her husband had left and only a little older when his father had died. She still wore her wedding ring even though it was on the wrong hand. It was a plain enough band that many wouldn’t know that it had ever been a wedding ring in the first place. Her husband’s name was only clear on the ring once the band had been removed.

Mary never removed it.

Doubts of the Enemy Seep Through

It wasn’t until long after her sister was gone that she realized the fighting wasn’t truly over.

“There’s been another attack!”

“But all of the Enemy is gone!”

“How is this possible?!”

The fears and doubts started coming out as people turned and remembered that she had been the one to send away on of the better defenses they’d ever had.

It didn’t take much more to remember that she was more closely related to the Enemy than she was to any of her allies.

“We never should have sent Comet away!”

“With another anchor for a chaos-souled gone, how soon would Star turn against us?”

“We should be more careful around her…”

Their whispers were never more than murmurs when she was around and they would sometimes stop talking at all should she enter the room. Their eyes ever watchful as if they were waiting for some sign that she was the reason behind the renewed attacks.

The only solace was the fact that her Princess would hear nothing against her.

“Star could no sooner turn traitor than I.” Solaris would say to any who brought forth concerns and doubts over Star’s loyalties.

“But, you Majesty, she is a chaos-souled-”

“And yet she has never taken any action save for our lives to be prolonged, nor has she ever spared any of the Enemy save they have truly turned aside from their born task to destroy.”

“Princess, that is not the poi-”

The arguer cut themselves off as soon as Star entered the room. His watchful eyes shadowed as he met her eyes, but saying nothing more.

Solaris didn’t like that.

“If you can bring your doubts and concerns to me in person instead of by message like so many others,” she reprimanded sternly, “Then you can certainly say it in front of the person you are accusing! I will not have falseness within my Court and certainly not right in front of my face!”

Her voice did not raise in volume, but the extent of her disappointment and disapproval with this course of action. Solaris did not approve of this kind of backstabbing even if there was no actual actions save for verbally. If you had a problem with someone, you take it up with them, in private, and work it out. You didn’t slink around it and talk badly about that person behind their back and you most certainly would treat them with the common courtesy that all deserved.

Solaris even allowed the fallen Enemy its due courtesy. This was one of the reasons that even their Enemy had respected Solaris.

---

Written after reading this Monday’s Light and Shade Challenge: http://lightandshadechallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/monday-19-may-2014.html

I actually remembered that there was a word limit on this prompt!

Familial Friends

He hadn’t been in her life very long.

Well, ‘very long’ didn’t mean quite the same thing to her as it did to him, but that wasn’t the point.

The point was, Mary hadn’t known Alex even nearly as long as some of her ‘short term’ friends or acquaintances back home, but he was already a very important part of her life. So that meant that his opinions were also very important to her.

“I can’t believe you said yes!”

Of course, he was also prone to overreacting in some cases, and she hadn’t quite learned how to calm him down quickly enough for her tastes.

“Alex-”

“You barely even know him!”

“Alex-”

“What possessed you to say yes?”

“Alex-”

“I mean, there’s no possible way that he is ever going to be good enough-”

“ALEX!”

Alex’s mouth shut with a click.

“Thank you. I realize that you are worried, but there is no cause for concern-”

“No cause-!” He started up again, but quickly stopped when he saw the look on her face.

“I know that you are worried, but I’m also aware that you’ve already ‘researched’ everything there is to know about Warren and if you really were against me knowing him, you’d have found some way to make him disappear.”

Alex looked slightly uncomfortable, “I wouldn’t have made it a permanent one unless he really deserved it…”

Mary nodded her auburn head, “Which is one of the reasons why I didn’t have too much of a problem with you looking into his past. The point is, I said yes. It is my decision and I have made it. Now, are you going to be an adult about this and accept my decision or should I find some way to drown you out for the next few hours?”

Alex pouted, “I don’t know why you’re always treating me like a child. I am older than you.”

“You appear older, that is all and you know it.”

Alex rolled his eyes and plopped himself down on the sofa across from her. “As far as anyone is legally concerned, I am the older one and that is what we decided to stick to-”

“What you decided.” she muttered playfully, knowing that she had won.

“-and so it makes no difference to bring anything up otherwise. Now,” Alex’s eyes began to sparkle, “Have you decided on a date yet?”

Mary groaned and put her head in her hands as Alex started talking about wedding preparations.

---

Inspired by Suzie81’s weekly word challenge: http://suzie81speaks.com/2014/05/18/weekly-word-challenge-friendship/#like-14158

I just couldn’t get this little conversation out of my mind once I read the prompt! Don’t worry, Alex and Warren will have their little moment as well!

Look in Her Eyes

It wasn’t easy to find, certainly wasn’t easy to procure, but once he’d seen it, he knew that it was the one. He’d planned the date perfectly, stroll through some nearby trees, picnic on a hill during a sunrise (her favorite time of day besides the stars after sunset) now all he had to do was pop the question.

He was nervous that was for sure. What if she didn’t say yes? What if she did say yes?

He needn’t have worried. The look in her eyes and tremulous smile on her lips told him all he needed to know.

---

Written for today’s Light and Shade Friday challenge: http://lightandshadechallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/challenge-friday-16th-may.html

Random Moment of Worry and Fun

There was so much that she could do and so much that she couldn’t do.

“This isn’t something I can ignore, Mary, you know that.” Alex said as he sat opposite her in her parlor. “What if he decides that the information about what you can do is more important than you are?”

“Warren isn’t like that, Alex.” Mary protested, interrupting her adoptive brother before he could continue. “He isn’t going to try and turn me into some kind of lab rat.”

“How do you know that?” Alex demanded, “Just because you’ve started to ‘fall in love’ with him doesn’t mean-”

“Alex,” she interrupted again in a much quieter voice, “I know that you worry about me and I know that you’re just concerned that Warren will do to you what you’ve done in your youth.” She held up a hand before Alex could do more than open his mouth, “No, I know that you’re not like that anymore, not really, but that’s not what people see anymore. All they see when they see you is someone whose made a lot of mistakes and that can’t possibly turn himself around. Warren even saw you like that when he first discovered that I was under your protection, but he doesn’t think that of you anymore.”

“And how can you know so much about Warren, Mary?”

She smiled, “It’s something about what I am, and no,” she continued when she read the look on his face, “It’s not that I can read his mind, but I can sort of…infer…what his intentions are towards me. It has something to do with the-”

“You don’t need to tell me how or why you can do that, Marry,” Alex sighed tiredly, “I know that you’re just trying to distract me with science.”

“Is it working?”

“No, stop trying to distract me.”

“It is working.” Mary sounded quite pleased with herself.

Alex had to remind himself that it was his idea to adopt her as his sister, his younger sister, and that this was apparently how she treated siblings. He wondered if this was how she’d treated her twin at all.

(He had no idea that part of the reason Mary was acting like this was because it reminded her of her lost sister. Mary was so used to being the serious sibling that acting differently reminded her of what she’d lost, but it made her happy to have a reminder. Mary’s sister had lost more than Mary had, at least Mary was certain that this was how she felt and if acting like this occasionally helped her to feel closer to her… Mary was more than willing to give Alex premature grey hair. He’d understand in time.)

---

Written for the Random Moment of Delight prompt for this week: http://firebonnet.com/2014/05/11/random-moments-of-delight-19-meet-my-bff/

This is the scene that came to mind as I was reading another blogger’s post for this week’s prompt (http://eclecticoddsnsods.com/2014/05/11/random-moment-of-delight-19-tears-ahoy/comment-page-1/#comment-3855).

So here is a random moment between the adoptive siblings Mary and Alex in my Former Guardian universe.

Sorry! You’re Obsolete

Out of everything she’d ever seen come and go, the thing she missed the most was the ability to simply sit around a table and play board games with her family. The advent and spread of video games, both on the computer and it’s smaller cousins or on the television. She missed having her husband at the other end of the dining room table with their sons on either side.

Mary entered her apartment and was greeted by the sounds of her youngest playing…something…on the small handheld that he had received from his older brother for Christmas. With a glance, she saw that Terry was sitting at the sofa working on some homework or maybe something else. She wasn’t entirely certain as he was working on those tablets that had become popular in her early years in this world.

If she was lucky, they’d agree to a quick family night tonight and do something together. If she was even luckier, they’d agree to a game of Sorry! as long as she was able to keep it a quick game.

Her eldest was often called in to work strange hours at his job.

---

Written for today’s Daily Post prompt: https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/going-obsolete/

Also written because a few nights ago we were able to sit down and play a round of Sorry! which isn’t something that we’re always able to sit down and do. I miss the family game nights of board games…

First Date Jitters

image: http://b.rgbimg.com/cache1opEbs/users/c/ch/chidseyc/600/mtLG8Jy.jpg

The first time she went out with Warren, Alex spent the entire time waiting for everything to go south.

He sat up and waited for her to come home even though she wasn’t out late nor was she a minor. It didn’t really make a difference for him; she was the closest he was ever going to get to having either a younger sibling or even a child.

(There had been a time when he’d been married and thought that there was a child on the way. It had turned out to be just another lie in a long string of them. Needless to say, he had finally given up on having a relationship after that.)

Alex would have had someone tail Warren and Mary, but Mary had made her thoughts on that matter clear.

(She had at least allowed him to install a GPS chip just under her skin somewhere and promised not to short circuit it if at all possible, so he hadn’t even had someone follow them on CCTV cameras. He wasn’t entirely certain that she would appreciate the self-restraint he was showing.

Mary didn’t understand a lot of things, but she did understand what it was like having someone you were responsible for disappearing randomly, which was why she’d acquiesced to the chip and nothing else.)

“How long can a date get?” he grumbled to himself, well aware that he sounded ridiculous.

Mary was a grown woman who’d been through more than he could even imagine and had likely seen more in the world than Alex’s history books talked about.

There was the sound of a door opening and Alex quickly reopened the book in his lap and pretended to be reading as Mary walked in, still smiling over her shoulder at Warren before closing the door.

“You’re home rather late,” Alex commented after a moment, striving, and succeeding in sounding like he wasn’t interested in the slightest in what he was talking about.

Mary glanced at him with a wry smirk on her face, but said nothing as she removed her coat and shoes and stored them in the coat closet.

After she’d left for her room, Alex set his book aside with a sigh.

He didn’t think he could take another night like this where she left on a date that he wasn’t allowed to shadow.

Being a responsible adult that cared about another was harder on the heart than he’d ever thought it would be.

---

Written for a challenge that I was informed of yesterday (and am still really excited about): http://lightandshadechallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/challenge-28th-april-2014.html

Unreasonable

They accuse me of being unfair, of manipulating them into what I would have them do. All because I have spoken contrary to their wants. Of course I’m not being fair! What in this life is fair? If this life were fair, then I would still have Warren by my side, would not have watched him die and have to pretend I only mourn the loss of an estranged friend and father of my children. If this life were fair, then it is likely I would never have met Warren at all because I would have had no reason to come to this place.

If life were fair, I would not have been eternally lost to my past in order to have a future.

But life isn’t fair and we must use whatever means we have in order to help those who will come after us to survive and, hopefully someday, live. If that means that my children only see me as a manipulative, bitter woman, than that is the price that I am willing to pay for their future.

Sadly, it’s not like any of this means anything to my son. All he sees is his mother refusing to allow him to do something. It doesn’t really matter what that something is at this point, he is a teenager and it doesn’t seem unreasonable to him.

---

Written for…I have forgotten what I wrote this for. shrugs But it was written all the same and I will post it.

Inaction to Decision

Sometimes the sun goes ’round the moon.

There isn’t a lot left to do,

He’s been found again and again.

Even more ripples in the sand, growing and growing and growing.

 

Before it all they’d been so close,

Even apart they’d known they were united.

Siblings in all but blood,

Their souls knew one another as soon as their eyes met.

You wondered how you’d make it through.

For years and years they fought side by side

Only for it to change in the blink of an eye;

Right and wrong changed in his mind.

 

Lost and confused, he didn’t know which way to turn.

A far away dream or the life he’d always had?

Silly though it may seem, he found this life was not

The one for him; he chose to drift away.

But now we’re standing face-to-face.

Years went by and she did not stay his hand

Only stepped in after the damage was done,

Undoing what she could and mourning what she can’t.

 

When finally she was there, catching him in the act.

Events slowed to a crawl and his face morphed from glee to disdain.

Not going to stop me? he asked, taunting her with her inabiltiy.

The moment passed and steel encased her heart.

Just when I thought our chance had passed.

Anceint responsibilites flooded her mind and she knew she could

Never let him complete another actions like this.

Don’t think, she spoke with ice, that inaction equals inability.

 

Silvery light tinged red flooded her hands

And a sword sharp and ready grew within the plam.

Vengence was not on her mind as she swing the blade

Even though this man in front had killed her brother before all else.

Deadened eyes still wept as the dance of death began.

You go and save the best for last.

-Vanessa Williams

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Inspired by the song “Save the Best for Last” by Vanessa Williams running through my head all morning. It would not leave me alone and this story/poem demanded to be written as a result.

Also, I’m slightly mourning the lack of Trifectra prompt/challenge for this week even though I understand the reasons behind it closing.

Absent

What’s love got to do with it, got to do with it? …Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken. -Tina Turner

When you love someone, you give them the power to hurt you. The more you love them, the more power they have until they hold enough to completely destroy your life.

If you’re a special kind of lucky, then they can destroy the lives of those around you as well.

She missed her family, missed them with something that boarded on hysteria if she allowed herself time to think about it. But she didn’t really have much of a choice here.

(She was lying to herself, she had a choice. It’s just that the consequences of the other choices available weren’t something that she could live with.)

Mary glanced back at where her sons were sleeping. She’d left the cameras installed after Warren had left out of reflex. If it took longer than they’d initially predicted then he’d still be able to watch over his family even if he couldn’t be there in person. The fact that she now needed to use them for the same purpose was not reassuring.

“Maybe I should have left this to Al to take care of like he offered,” she murmured to herself as her youngest rolled over in bed, his face scrunching up.

Matt was likely having a nightmare, again. And she wasn’t there to sooth him through it should it actually wake him up this time. She’d likely not be there in the morning either.

It broke her heart to know that she was losing both her sons so slowly, but as Warren had said when they’d first separated, if they would live to grow up then the price was worth it.