(no subject)

[andhiswife]

Greta's done her best not to feel guilty for how focused she was on her Bake Off appearance, especially in retrospect. It was what it was, and she knows that in the grand scheme of things, a couple of months isn't that much of a commitment.

But Saoirse's growing so quickly, a fact that becomes all the more apparent when Greta finally regains the wherewithal to focus on her properly. She's a long way from being a beanpole, but she's still grown out of last year's winter coats by a shocking margin, necessitating a shopping trip (the necklace Magnus enchanted for her might still qualify as 'wearing' her coat -- enough for her own magic to not know the difference -- but she still needs a coat that can ward off the chill). And she's eight. It's hard not to wonder how close they might be to Saoirse deciding she's too old to cuddle on the couch, or that the games and stories they've enjoyed thusfar are for children, which she is not.

So, both as an implicit apology for being so distracted over the past few months and as a means of taking advantage of the time they've got, Greta suggests a mother-daughter outing. Saoirse seems to enjoy any excuse to dress a bit more sharply than normal, and Greta just wants to give the lass her undivided attention for an afternoon. Things at the cottage may have returned to normal, but a little outright spoiling is overdue, she thinks.

Three o'clock sees them stepping into the café that has the best hot chocolate, by Saoirse's decree (and when Greta sees just how many options there are in the toppings department, she can understand the girl's reasoning).

"Goodness, that's an awful lot of options," Greta observes as she looks over the chalkboard menu. "What do you think? Any ideas?"

Comments

[andhiswife]

"Aptly named, too," she says, sitting back with a smile. She's glad Saoirse's enjoying herself -- and that she thought to do this in the first place. Getting back to normal after filming ended has been an odd, piecemeal process as she rediscovers the things she'd been neglecting -- accidentally or on purpose.

Well. Neglecting is a strong word to apply to Saoirse; Greta had taken pains throughout the process to include her as much as possible, so she wouldn't feel like she was being shunted aside or forgotten. But she'd been distracted -- almost perpetually so -- and it's good to be able to give someone her full attention again. Especially the someone who has the strongest claim to it.

"Oh," she says, surprised and a little impressed that Saoirse insists on waiting. "Well, I'd better get to work, then, haven't I?" She retrieves a spoon and starts to attack her own mass of whipped cream.

"How have the children at school been treating you?" She'd know if anything outright awful had happened, but it occurs to her that Saoirse might have been holding onto smaller grievances, presuming them less important than her mother's stint on television. "I expect there were some questions when your coat seemed to disappear."

[selkiesaoirse]

"They're alright," Saoirse says with a shrug. "They did ask questions, a bit, but nobody's bullied me like at my last school." She's glad they'd made the switch, really, because her friends at this school are much nicer than most of the friends at her old school. "Mostly they just wanted to know where it went, so I told them it's at the cleaners." It's an easy enough answer, even though it's a lie. But she can't well tell them that it's in her necklace, can she?

[andhiswife]

"You know what you could tell them," Greta says, with just a hint of mischief in her smile, "is that you've outgrown it. It wouldn't even be a lie." She hadn't been wearing it at Brynmor for all that long -- certainly not long enough for anyone else to have noticed that the coat was a perpetual perfect fit. As far as any of them are concerned, it was only a matter of time before she'd outgrow it.

And if her teachers merely think it was an odd, childish affectation, well. It wouldn't be the only one they'd seen.

[selkiesaoirse]

Saoirse's eyes widen, and she giggles. "Because it's so small now!" So, technically, she has outgrown it. Now that it's small enough to fit inside her pendant, she can't exactly put it on, can she?

She uses her spoon to scoop up some whipped cream. It's a sweet contrast to the warm spiciness of her cocoa. She focuses on it for a few moments, then sips through the straw again.