Wish - Chapter 5

V

Sarita smiled at her dad as he cooked dinner. His cooking was always excellent. In fact, he was pretty good at all the little skills that mothers were usually suppose to know – such as sewing. He'd once told her that he felt like it was only right for him to learn those things so that she wouldn't miss out as she grew up. He'd made all of her Halloween costumes until she was eight. After that, Talya had taken over simply because she loved making costumes.

“I feel bad that I'm going on another business trip so soon,” he blurted out.

“It's okay dad,” Sarita assured him. “We'll be fine.”

“Yeah, but I've had a lot of trips this year. This will make the 4^th one since January and it's only March!”

“Dad,” Sarita murmured. “Don't worry so much. We know that your job is important.”

He sighed. “Yeah... but if things keep going like this, I'll get promoted and be gone even more!”

Sarita laughed. “You make that sound like a bad thing. Being promoted, I mean.”

He grinned at her. “Well, the good thing about a promotion is that I'll get a lot more vacation time, so that would be nice.”

“We can maybe go to a beach this summer,” Sarita suggested.

“That would be nice,” her dad murmured vaguely. He had a far away look on his face that Sarita usually associated with her mother. He shook it away and smiled at her. “I just don't like leaving you two alone so often.”

Sarita shrugged. “We work well together when you are gone.”

“And I am not entirely sure that I am comfortable with Ianto spending the night with Thomas now that you two have been going out for so long. At first, I thought that it was a simple phase and you'd break up soon enough, but you two seem pretty serious. Only the fact that I know Ianto is a good kid prevents me from forbidding him from coming over at all when I'm gone.”

“Dad!” Sarita groaned with a blush. “You shouldn't think like that! When Ianto comes over to study with Thomas, I barely see him. We certainly aren't doing anything. And besides, Thomas has told us both more than once that he would kill Ianto is we did do anything!”

Her dad laughed. “I know he doesn't actually mean that, but I'm glad that he's looking out for you.” He ruffled her hair. “Do you hope to do anything?”

She blushed and looked down. “Just... just kiss...”

“Hmm,” he murmured. “That sounds about right for your age, if I remember correctly. Your mom and I were at the kissing stage when she was your age, and I'm a little more older than her than Ianto is to you.”

“Wait, so you were going out with mom when you two were our ages?” Sarita asked incredulously. “I knew that she got pregnant with Thomas at 17, but I didn't know that you had been a couple for a long time at that point.”

“Yeah,” he admitted with a sigh. “We were together since she was 13 and I was 17. We were very much like best friends for years though, and then one day, we were ready to be more. We thought that her modeling career would be over when she got pregnant, but it turned out that she was the right look for a maternity magazine. Then we got married when she turned 18, and I took care of Thomas while she did her modeling. I got in with a good company, and she took a break from modeling when she got pregnant with you.”

He smiled and ruffled her hair again. “Things were working out pretty well for us until the accident...” He looked over at the nearest picture of her mother. “My beautiful Nadia...”

“Dad...” Sarita murmured sympathetically.

“So anyway, while I really am not comfortable thinking about you in a relationship already, I trust that you'll wait for certain things until you are ready for them.”

Sarita hugged her dad. “Sometimes I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to have such a wonderful father!”

“Try having you for a daughter,” he joked lightly, and then chuckled. “You even managed to find a cat I could be around without sneezing!”

Indigo was basically ignoring them as they hugged, but now he stood up and rubbed his head against her dad's hand. He purred to let them know that he was happy by their affection. He wasn't purposely keeping the fact that he could talk a secret, but neither had he just come out and started chatting either. Neither familiar nor girl was quite sure whether or not to tell her father about her power.

From time to time, Sarita would try to tell him, but she was so afraid that he wouldn't believe her and call her stupid or crazy. It seemed like a better idea to just avoid the topic. Even so, she had never kept a secret from him before.

“Hey dad...?” Sarita began timidly.

“What?” He wondered curiously, sensing that it was something important.

“What if...” Sarita faltered. “I...”

“What?” He prompted patiently. Hugging her again. “You know you can tell me anything.”

“Well...” Sarita took a deep breath. “What if I...”

The front door opened to admit a loudly laughing Thomas and Ianto.

“Nevermind!” Sarita squeaked before running out of the kitchen. She ran all the way to her room, shut the door, then ran into her closet and shut herself in so that she could hide under a voluminously fluffy skirt. “I almost told my dad!” She blurted out to Indigo.

“I think he would understand,” Indigo responded with a soft purr.

Meanwhile, back in the kitchen, Thomas gave his dad a funny look. “Why do you look like you can't decide whether you want to laugh or cry?”

“Your sister was about to tell me something really important, but you scared her away.”

Thomas tilted his head to look up at the ceiling in thought. Ianto pointed to the hallway to indicate that he was going to go say hi to Sarita. After he left the room, Thomas shrugged.

“She probably wanted to tell you that she has magic,” Thomas stated. From as far back as he could remember, he had always been able to see and hear things like ghosts. Both his mom and his dad had acted like this was perfectly normal, so he had no reason to think that his dad would be surprised by this news.

“She does? Nadia wasn't quite sure, but she thought that Sarita might have inherited her gift.”

“So you knew it was possible?” Thomas asked, a bit incredulous. “I was sure surprised! The morning of her 13^th birthday, she suddenly glowed like a small sun, and that cat of hers has a glow about him too. I had no idea what to think, so I just avoided talking about it.”

“Hmm...” his dad hummed in thought. “I think I'll rehearse a speech or something to reassure her.” He then sighed morosely. “But it'll have to wait until I get back from my trip.”

“Don't worry so much,” Thomas suggested. “I'm pretty sure that Talya knows, so she has both her best friend and her cat to talk to about it.”

“The cat talks?!” His dad blurted out in surprise.

“Well,” Thomas shrugged. “At least I think he does. She can have entire conversations when it's just the two of them in there. Although considering that I can hear ghosts, maybe she is talking to one of them.”

“Wouldn't that be weird though? She has always seemed so afraid of ghosts. Just last week, I was watching a scary movie with her, and when a ghost came on, she shrieked and clung to me in near terror.”

Thomas nodded, knowing that Sarita really didn't like ghosts. “That's true; it would be weird. It must be the cat then.”

His dad laughed. “You could always ask her.”

“I don't think she wants me to know,” Thomas stated with another shrug.

“That's only because you are always teasing her,” his dad replied with a smirk. “She probably thinks that you'd just make fun of her.”

“Maybe,” Thomas grunted, unwilling to confirm or deny the fact that he teased his sister all the time.

“Ianto has been in her room a rather long time now, don't you think?”

Thomas laughed. “Don't worry about that either! I am certain that the two of them haven't even kissed yet. To tell you the truth, I really think that Ianto's gay.”

His dad was surprised all over again. “He is?! Then why is he going out with Sarita?”

“I think it's because he hasn't figured it out himself yet,” Thomas answered. “He has something else really big on his mind, and I don't think it leaves much room for him to think about things such as whether he is gay or straight.”

“That must be something huge if it takes up that much of his mind!” Now that dinner was done, his dad focused on dishing it up. Suddenly a thought occurred to him that made him look at his son with suspicion. “Wait... You like him!”

“What?!” Thomas blurted out with an expression like he had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. “I – uh – wh-what makes you think that?”

His dad gave him a look akin to duh! “It just makes sense when I think about it. You have a girlfriend that I know you fool around with – you do use protection, right?”

“Of course,” Thomas stated with a tone like he thought his dad was stupid for asking.

“But she's older than you and you two never really go out on dates. She just calls you over when she is in the mood, and you go because you have nothing better to do.”

“I didn't think you knew quite so much!” Thomas blurted out in astonishment.

His dad smirked again. “But he's over here as often as possible. I know you're pretty smart – just like your sister – so you don't need to study nearly as much as you do, but you do it to be near him.”

Thomas looked down and away, not quite ready to admit that his father might be completely right.

“That must be awkward now that he's going out with your sister,” his dad remarked. His tone made Thomas feel better because there was no judgment in it.

“Actually, I suggested it. I was fairly certain that the two of them would spend ages in the first stage of a relationship before gathering up the courage to move forward, and so far, I've been right,” Thomas explained.

“Ah...” his dad murmured in understanding. “You figured that if they focused their lovey dovey attention on each other – where it's safe – you wouldn't have to worry about either finding someone else that might not be so safe.”

Thomas was tempted to walk out of the room without a word, but settled for giving his dad a grumpy expression. “How can you know what I'm thinking like that?”

“You're fairly easy for me to read because we think a lot alike,” his dad replied with an amused smirk. “Sarita – on the other hand – she's a bit like a book written in a foreign language that I do know, but not fluently at all. Your mother was the same.” He laughed, blowing a kiss to her picture. “I studied the book as much as possible, but I'm still thrown for a loop from time to time.”

Thomas snorted. “I feel the same way! That's one of the reasons I worry about her so much! She's not like all the other girls...”

“Well... try not to worry too much. She'll be just fine... especially since she has magic!”

Thomas sighed, deciding not to say that he had been trying not to worry about her too much for years!

***

Ianto had knocked on Sarita's door lightly before entering. Usually he waited for an invitation, but she didn't say anything. It almost sounded like she wasn't even in her room.

“Sarita? Are you playing hide and seek with me?” He called out. When again there was no answer, he scrunched up his body so he could look under her bed. “Sarita?”

He searched her room in silence for a few minutes before finally finding her hiding in her closet. “What are you doing in here?” He asked with a laugh.

“At first, I was a little embarrassed by my conversation with my dad, but then...” Sarita blushed and buried her face in the skirt she'd been hiding under.

“What?” Ianto wondered.

“I couldn't stop thinking about...” Sarita fell silent, unable to say the rest out loud.

“What?” Ianto asked patiently. A second later, he added his secret weapon. “I promise I won't laugh.”

Sarita studied her nails intently for a long time. Ianto was ready to admit that she didn't have to tell him if she didn't want to, but before he could, she surprised him by flinging her arms around his neck.

“This...” she whispered softly before pressing her lips to his.

Ianto was so shocked that he didn't do anything at all for a long moment. Then he wrapped his arms around her and returned her kiss. When he had another moment to think about it, he pushed her away slightly.

“I don't think we should be doing this right now,” he whispered. “This might look bad if they came looking for us.”

“You're right,” Sarita admitted softly, disappointed that he had stopped her.

“Hey...” Ianto murmured in concern. “I didn't mean to imply that I didn't like it. I did!”

Sarita felt much better and smiled at him. “I liked it too.”

Ianto chuckled and ruffled her hair. “You're so adorable right now!”

Sarita rolled her eyes, then a thought occurred to her that made her look to the floor.

“What?” Ianto wondered, finding it funny how easily he could read her moods.

Sarita sighed, absently picking at her nails so that she didn't have to look him in the eye. “Is it really okay if we only kiss?”

“Why wouldn't it be okay?” Ianto questioned in confusion.

“Well... you're already 16... If you weren't going out with me, you could have a girlfriend who wants to go all the way. Like Thomas has,” Sarita explained.

“Hey,” Ianto murmured softly, cupping her face with a hand. “This is my first kiss too. I'm not ready for all the way yet either.”

“You're not?” Sarita asked, clearly hoping that it was true.

“Nope,” Ianto confirmed. He slowly tilted his head toward hers, an insane urge to kiss her again making it impossible to think about anything else. He pressed his lips to hers softly, his hands shaking from nervousness.

Sarita squealed happily, flinging herself into his arms again. This had the effect of knocking him over. They tumbled to the floor – half in and half out of her closet – laughing from the silliness of it. Sarita felt bad about interrupting his kiss, so she kissed him again.

Ianto inhaled a gasp and rolled her off him so that he could sit up. “Perhaps laying down while kissing is a bit too advanced for us right now.”

Sarita blushed as she realized that he was right; her body had been laying on top of his! Helping her to her feet, Ianto decided to make sure she knew he wasn't upset or anything, so he kissed her once more. She sighed happily, melting into him. A moment later, he ended the kiss and pointed to her stereo.

“You want to listen to some music? I have a song on my MP3 player that would be perfect right about now.”

Sarita smiled, tempted to purr like Indigo often did. “That sounds good to me.”

Ianto smiled at her, dug his MP3 player out of his pocket, and then walked over to her stereo to connect them. A beautiful classical tune began just as Sarita sat in a chair next to her table. Ianto chuckled at the irony since he naturally wanted to ask her to dance.

A knock on her door announced Thomas, who didn't wait before opening the door. “Dad says dinner is ready... What happened?”

“What do you mean?” Sarita asked with a frown.

Thomas narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “You have a bit of that invisible glow you were talking about once upon a time ago.”

“N-n-n-nothing...” Sarita lied.

“Riiight...” Thomas drawled in disbelief. He half glared at Ianto. “You kissed her, didn't you?”

Ianto chuckled wryly, rolling his eyes and shaking his head. “You really do have a sister complex!”

“Well, that was a bit faster than I thought it'd take,” Thomas muttered under his breath, and then gestured for them to follow him. “Come on, let's go eat dinner.”

They followed him, holding hands and smiling at each other.

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