Kiddie AU

[sliceitwithwind]

Aya and Dilan had been dating for a bit over a month. During that time, Braig quietly put his affairs in order, so to speak.

Oh, not in the wills and death kind of way, but rather in the way that he broke up with the girlfriends as Dilan did (which raised no eyebrows, that was the way it had always been after all), and in the way that he started, and abandoned, a million different ways to approach the other two. Aya first, he knew that much. Dilan was, after all, polyamourous and more likely to follow the other two just because that was what he'd always done. Aya - Aya was monogamous and it could bring this whole house of cards tumbling down.

A house of cards that Braig had spent the majority of his life building, step by step and moment by moment. He'd known what he wanted since he was eleven years old, from the time that Aya shrieked Lions! in her little girl's voice, and Dilan paffed into the dust behind her.

It just took another twenty years for the two of them to start getting the idea...but...they might not want him.

Oh, Fire and Ice, they might not want him.

Comments

[sliceitwithwind]

"Yeah, yeah. I'll wash if you'll dry." It was the ONE chore that Dilan would let him do. Lazy as he was, it rankled to not do anything at all.

[mitochondriaaya]

"Deal. Up dear." She reached across the table to tweak his nose and gathered dishes. "Do not call me from Buffalo. It's hard to coordinate with people there for bail."

[sliceitwithwind]

"I promise not to call you from Buffalo." They'll end up in Toronto, without bus-fare back.

He washed with Dilan-approved thoroughness and then kissed her forehead on the way out to collect Pierce, a lot more alcohol, and maybe a little bit of his self-confidence back.

[mitochondriaaya]

And Aya fretted and tugged his braid and told him to be careful as she locked up and headed down the street. A few blocks to the house she'd mainly grew up in! It was barely nine in the evening, people would certainly still be awake, and the lights said as much...

Nope, no knocking, just walking in, kicking her shoes off and 'Elssssssyyyyyyyyyyyy! HELP!"

[sliceitwithwind]

"I'm in the kitchen, Aya. Is this a chocolate help, or do I need to go get Nevada's old guns?" She was a decent shot! More importantly, though, she was good at backup.

[mitochondriaaya]

"CHOCOLATE! I'm not allowed to shoot Braig!" Just for the record. She made it to the kitchen without really registering the rooms between then found herself sitting at the kitchen table, head down on the polished wood. "I don't know what to do. I'm dating Dilan. And Braig...twenty years! Since I was six!"

[sliceitwithwind]

"Well, no. I prefer my son un-perforated. It's hard enough dealing with Dilan's tendency towards that." Elcy's hands pulled down the store of emergency chocolate and she tossed the small box towards Aya, "Well, yes dear. He finally told you, then."

[mitochondriaaya]

"He's slowing down on the piercings!" Aya exclaimed, just, well, reactionary. The piercings bothered her, so she had to say something reassuring!

Blink.

Catch chocolate.

Blink.

"YES!"

[sliceitwithwind]

"And you are panicking because you're not sure how to deal with it." Elcy continued without missing a beat, "So I have only one question for you."

"Do you want to have sex with my son?"

[mitochondriaaya]

"No. Yes. I DON'T KNOW I HAVE A BOYFRIEND!"

Chocolate. TOTALLY CHOCOLATE TIME.

"I thought, a long time ago...maybe."

[sliceitwithwind]

"Yes, but that boyfriend is Dilan." Elcy went back to the meal she'd been making when Aya got there, "And you know that he adores both of you beyond reason, so that wasn't what I asked. I asked if you wanted to have sex with Braig.

"The boys love you, the boys love each other, you love the boys. The question isn't do you love him, it's just what do you want from him?"

[mitochondriaaya]

"Braig is...Braig." Attractive beyond reason, egotistical to the point of requiring slaps. Braig. "I don't know how to do that! I tried! HOW DO I PICK ONE?!"

[sliceitwithwind]

That caused Elcy's brows to raise and she turned around to smack Aya gently with the wooden spoon in her hand, "You don't, child. You have them both."

DUH.

[mitochondriaaya]

THWAP.

Blink.

Yes, Aya was going to break down crying now. Both just...didn't work in her brain. She didn't know how to make that work. She'd FAILED THAT COURSE IN COLLEGE OKAY?

[sliceitwithwind]

That made Elcy pull her into a hug and tuck her short near-daughter's face against her chest. "Shhh, child. Shhh. You can do it. You know you can, if you stop telling yourself that it won't work. Stop thinking, child, and feel."

Aya, like many people who spend too much time around geniuses, tended to think too much in Elcy's opinion.

[mitochondriaaya]

IT WAS HOW SHE KEPT UP! She HAD to keep up or she got left behind.

Oh Gacy.

They were already so far away...

"I can't lose them. I can't." This, naturally, was sobbed into Elcy's shoulder.

[sliceitwithwind]

"Stop thinking about that, Aya." her hands smoothed Aya's hair, over and over, "Just feel. Past the fright, what's next?"

[mitochondriaaya]

"...I am such a crappy badass chick." A tough as nails sheriff was suppose to not balk at things!

And past that...

Past that? She was dizzy. And confused. And shocked. And numb.

"I hurt, Elsy...and I don't know why."

[sliceitwithwind]

"Sweetie, you're trying to deal with something you've been ignoring for most of your life." Elcy pointed out, pushing Aya into a chair and handing her the chocolate again, "Now. Can you imagine living without Dilan? Can you imagine living without Braig? Can you imagine sleeping with the two of them in the same bed? Can you imagine having sex with both of them? When you think about children, what do you imagine?"

There was a hint of give me grandchildren in there. She won't pretend there wasn't.

[mitochondriaaya]

She just kind of...clutched the box to her chest, not really processing outside stimuli enough to get a chocolate infusion. "No. No. Yes." After all, sleeping together was one of the big reassurances in her life. Whenever things went bad, went wrong, went...anything major, they tended to crash together. "At the same time?" Yep, touch of panic there! Though...maybe? She had no idea! "I'm a stick in threesomes." Yes, outside terminology!

"I..." Did she think about children? "...blonde?"

[sliceitwithwind]

"Darling, it's the boys. Do you really think you'd be a stick with the boys?" Does she think that they'd let her be a stick? Have they ever, under any circumstances? "Do you want both of them?"

[mitochondriaaya]

"I don't know!" She could still be a stick! It was the BIG way she was different from them! "And what if I am? And I fail again, and I lose them?" Both of them, just gone. Because the stakes weren't high enough with just dating Dilan apparently, now she had a double jeopardy thing going and and...

...and and and and...

And her brain was stuttering. Hadn't she answered that question already? She couldn't even think about losing them! She couldn't. "Yes."

[sliceitwithwind]

"Aya Brea. Stop assuming things won't work and start figuring out how to make them work." Time for another gentle swat, "The three of you have never failed at anything that you've done together in your life."

[mitochondriaaya]

...

...because that wasn't like thumbing their noses at fate or anything. Yes, teh table was getting a soft knock, even as she was wincing away from the swat.

Okay.

Okay.

Breathing.

"I'm scared." The first part of dealing was admitting? "No, check that, terrified out of my mind." But she could deal once she wasn't so mired in it. Wait, Elsy had known...Elsy was a researcher...

..."Do you have materials I can study?"

[sliceitwithwind]

"Yes, dear." Elcy said simply, "You'll get over the terror. I was terrified about marrying Yinsi, but look at us now! You'd never know it was arranged."