Nostalgic Ep. 1

20 years later...

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Luca and Amboise sat in their warm, wooden house, made of logs and built completely from the ground up by Luca and Amboise themselves.

They always sat the same way, Amboise on Luca's lap, his thick, burly body covering her back, while she sat on his thigh, his hand sheltering her inside of him. He rest his hand often on her lower back, and he started to rub her back warmly, while they sipped on their apple ciders, cuddling and talking as they played a movie in the background.

He often kissed her tenderly, knowing how she loved to be secure and cared for, from the day he had found her on the side of the street, raining down on her, wondering how she had gotten there.

"Baby," he often said in his deep voice, similar to his dad's voice. He kissed her again, "I..." he blinked slowly in the way he had when they first met that night.

"I never want you to go through something that horrific, terrible, scary... So we're in the right timeline..." he said, smoothing her hair over her head, her silken, black hair, different from his warm, chocolate locks.

She closed her eyes, sleepily. "I know..." she said to him, looking up at his eyes, wanting to see his eyes changing colors, dark blue, wavy blue, sapphire blue, back to dark.

"My eyes don't scare you anymore...?" he asked.

"No Luca, it's been 20 years! Your eyes have never scared me," she told him, both of them remembering back to their teenage years, when they were still young growing kids, and he thought she had gotten lost and not come home.

He ran around the forest surrounding their house, screaming, looking for her all around, and finally saw her looking at mushrooms, not having come home, even when the sun was setting. He cried and sobbed that day, thinking she had not wanted to come home after getting into a hustle with him and his father about her skirt length on the skirt that she was so proud to wear, having made it herself, thinking they would he proud of her.

Instead, they were surprised and shocked, wanting to know why in the hell she had made it such a length. Still, she was rather confused, and laughed at the two, thinking they were silly. But Luca and his father did not find the matter silly. They demanded her to change, or she would be taken to the back shed, where Dad took Luca.

He had never threatened to take her to the shed. She gasped, and tears stormed out of her eyes, as she ran back up to her room, hurt and offended that they couldn't appreciate such art.

When she did not come back down for school, Dad had said that she could take a trip over his knee or change and get going to school. She was a strong-willed, sharp young teenager, though. She challenged the man, tall and stern as he could be, that she did not want to do either. She was an artist and that nobody would stop her self expression. In fact, she would not change. Luca's father, whom she grew to know as Dad, temporarily lost his temper, yelled at the young girl whom he saw as just a little child, and grabbed her waist to smack her bottom silly.

Luca stood at the door while his dad lifted Amboise by the waist and hoisted her over his knee, while he put his foot on the wooden panel of her bed frame.

"Dad... please..." Luca pleaded. "You're not going to be able to control her or change her mind, dad. Please... just let her wear it if that's what she likes."

His dad turned his head at him angrily. "I'm her father. I decide what's best for my children, Luca. Amboise you have one more chance to sit down at school properly. Do you want to change or do you want a spanking and then you will change into jeans, young lady. Do you know how much that hurts?!" He asked her, hoping and begging to himself, that she would see reason and change into something he thought was appropriate for a 13 year old young girl.

She cried and she cried, wishing Dad would see reason. She opened her eyes, peaking at Luca, who looked at her afraid of his father's wrath.

"Dad..." he said, shifting uncomfortably, "Amboise... please just change...!" He pleaded to Amboise, seeing how his father would not change his mind. Once his dad had set his mind to something, he rarely changed his method or mind. Luca sighed, wishing he his mom, whom his dad occasionally spoke of, who made him extremely happy, and helped him see the world in different ways, he told Luca once.

But Luca's father seemed to take pity on the stubborn little Amboise, knowing that she was deeply different from themselves and most other people. He set her down on her feet carefully.

"Amboise, if you choose to wear this skirt, and I don't like the length of it baby, because there's boys at your school who might not be nice... You won't be sleeping comfortably. I'll take you to the back shed..." Then Luca sighed.

"Dad, please... you don't have to be so strict. Amboise made this skirt herself, and she thought you'd love it, dad, please..."

Amboise's tears hadn't stopped. She was an extremely sensitive and recluse. Although she was friendly and bright, she preferred to be at home, doing different creative projects, showing only Luca and Dad. She was heartbroken when the two had reacted the way they had. But Dad didn't understand, nor did it seem like he cared. She looked up at him, shaking like a skinny little poodle, Dad had once said.

"Dad, I won't change," was all she said, wiping her tears, and grabbing her book bag, being brave and defying her dad who both Luca and herself thought as too strict on them.

Luca's father was visibly stunned and licked his bottom lip. Shit, he thought to himself, now I have to make good on my promise... shit.

So Luca thought that Amboise was afraid to go home that day, or worse, ran away. She had run away from her original home, so perhaps, he thought, she thought running was normal.

So when he found her, he was sobbing, a complete mess, hugged her tightly.

Sniffling he asked her, "Why didn't you come back yet? Dad made dinner and couldn't find you. You're in so much trouble, you have no idea! Why didn't you come back, we thought we lose you." His nose was dripping, his face was red, he was a complete mess, as he simply picked her up, and carried her bridal style, all the way back to their house.

Luca's dad was furious and grumbled to himself about how it was all his fault for threatening the back shed and that was why she had not come home. He thought to himself about how he had hurt the little girl's feelings so deeply and that was why she had not come home. He thought about how hungry she'd be and she was undoubtedly frightened. She heard the horror stories of the back shed, only the worst behavior got dealt with there. And she had not thought of her skirt length a crime.

Dad rubbed his hands all over his face with stress. "Amboise, please, eat a good meal tonight and don't think about your punishment. Just eat, because dad made this meal for you," he said to her, eyes red and swollen like he had been crying. Amboise suddenly felt guilty, and furrowed her little brows together, feeling more afraid than she was, picking at the mushrooms, not wanting to go home, wondering if she could teleport to another day where her dad was not cross with her, even furious, she thought, as her stomach churned before. Now, all she felt was guilt and sadness. She looked at her dad with surprise and tried her hardest to blink away her tears, "Dad, I'm sorry..."

Luca looked down, wiping away his tears, thinking he had lost her, and that it was all his own fault.

"No. No crying. Please eat. Eat a lot. I can tell you're hungry. And you'll be in bigger trouble if you're ever hungry."

"Okay, dad," she whispered out, feeling like the toddler he had found, bathed, and put to bed.

The three ate together in silence, all three of them sniffling back tears, wiping their eyes, throughout the whole meal. Amboise ate the most that she could muster, and by the end of the dinner, she was fully sobbing, telling Dad that she was sorry and she would never do that again.

But Luca's dad just asked "what are you sorry for?!"

Barely able to speak through her tears and her welled up emotions, she told him "for not coming home daddy..."

Luca, Dad, Amboise shared the same heart. They all felt that they had perhaps overreacted about the skirt, but feared how badly they had hurt each other. Luca held Amboise's hand all throughout their walk to school that morning, but was secretly upset that she would rather get a spanking than to change her skirt. He let her know that he was cross with her, and she immediately unlinked her hands from his, wiling away the unending tears. Luca frowned, feeling down, but he couldn't help but feel upset.

Amboise, having had an emotional day right from the very morning, wanted to get it all over, and wished for it to be the next morning already.

"Daddy are you really taking me to the back shed?" She cried to him, wiping her tears back, after a good 15 minutes of sobbing at the table as Luca rubbed her back.

But Luca's father couldn't bring himself to do that. "No... sweetheart, I don't think I have it in me... Let's just do it right here, in the living room. And Luca can hold your hand, okay?"

Amboise nodded, so Luca's dad lifted her into his arm, brought her into his living room couch, where he flipped her over gently.

"Amboise, Amby, I just want to make it clear. This isn't about your skirt. This is because you didn't come home right away, and didn't tell Luca where you were, and we thought you got lost or ran away!" He said, raising his voice slightly, wanting to scare her with his lecture, instead of with his hand or his belt.

He grimaced, looking at Luca, who was sniffling back more tears, holding both of her hands tightly.

He frowned even deeper, looking at her skirt again, not because of the length, but because it had caused so much grief, when he regretted not appreciating her creativity.

It was a unique patterned, patchwork skirt. He thought, how creative to make something that poor Apalachian folks would make into something so beautiful.

But still, he sighed, and then, lifted up her skirt, and started to smack her small bottom with his larger, rougher hands. He sighed, feeling like he should be whipping her with his belt for running away, but hearing her whimpering from a spanking with his hand was unbearable.

So after a good 5 minutes of solid smacking on her butt-- in the beginning, firmly, he noticed how it scared her, made her think that she was being walloped the whole time, and as the spanking went on and she was deep within her own sobs and tears, he lightened up, just kind of patting and tapping her bottom, until he thought she had enough.

He stopped, and rubbed her back.

"Amboise? You okay?" he asked.

"Yes..." she sniffled out, nodding her head.

"Baby, I don't want you to ever do that again. Or the next time, you'll get my belt on top of this spanking. You hear me? This wasn't a walk in the park, right, baby?"

She shook her head, sobbing out tears and whimpering out little noises that seemed like pleas.

"It hurt, dad, it really hurt, please. I just didn't want to move and make you even more mad. It really hurt dad..."

So Luca's dad, Amboise, and Luca all embraced in a hug, and the matter was considered closed.

Luca smiled to himself, thinking about how Amboise was such a good kid growing up, but it was hard for him to recognize that, considering how he had chased her around all over town from her curiosity.

He kissed her head again. "Amboise, this is our safe timeline, right? So you let me take care of you," he asked her, blinking, looking at her face, hugging her tighter, taking his hand off of her upper butt to rub her full back.

She smiled inside of his chest. "Mhm..." She felt extremely safe. She always did with him. Still... he was Luca. She was Amboise.

"You don't know this, but..." she had started one day.

"Yes, Amboise, what don't I know?" He asked her, earnestly, just wanting to know.

But she looked disappointed in herself.

"I've always wanted..."

"Yes, Amboise, what have you always wanted?!" He didn't want to get frustrated. But she had started this conversation many a times before, without finishing her thought.

"I..."

"Yes." He got impatient, but reeled himself in, wanting her to trust him.

"I always wanted..."

He licked his lips silently waiting. Amboise looked up at his eyes, quickly, before hiding her face in his chest again when she brought this conversation up.

"I always wanted a dad... a daddy... father..." She frowned, feeling bad because Luca's father had been so kind and nurturing towards her. But he had been Luca's dad first and her dad second. She was afraid to get too close. She was afraid to impose on their relationship. They had their secret bond together. And she was afraid to open up about her secrets. Still, Amboise still did consider Luca's father to be her dad too... And still, she wondered if there was a closer bond. She was guarded, walled up, she was often afraid, despite their happy upbringing.

Luca sighed, heart dropping, the feeling of a stomach drop on a roller coaster.

"Baby..." his voice broke with emotion. His curtain lashes drooped downwards, his hand gripping her tighter, wanting her to be closer than she already was.

"I want to be everything with you," he had wanted to say in the past, when the conversation was brought up. But this night, he vocalized his feelings.

Amboise went from sleepy on his chest, him rubbing her back, to snapping her head up at him. "What?" she asked him, looking into his dark blue seas, wanting to know if she understood him correctly.