-
"I..."
There was something wrong with his stomach. It felt like it was turning into duracrete. Belatedly, Wyl wondered if maybe he'd caught whatever it was that Tak had. And then he hoped that maybe it would kill him sooner rather than later.
"This was a necessary evil, General," Wyl squared his shoulders, going for the common ground. "A man in your position - you gotta understand that we had no choice!"
-
"Young man, a long time ago, I used to be a kid, believe it or not. And I'm no stranger to spinning a big whopper. That happens, but you become a man by copping up to it when you have to."
Dan removed his coat, setting it aside as he headed to the kitchen.
"Take a seat, Wyl."
He could see Tak still loitering.
"You're supposed to be in your room, Missy. I'll talk to you later."
-
She huffed a snort from flaring nostrils, her brow knit in frustration, and her eyes flashed a tawny yellow for only a moment. A small, short-lived moment at that. In the next instant Tak turned on her heel, wringing her hands as she passed by Wyl. She watched him from the corner of her eyes, hoping that her Dad wouldn't make him leave forever.
She kept her mouth shut however; what if she made things worse?!
The girl disappeared through the hall doorway, considering the notion of hiding out of sight, but there was no doubt in her mind that her father would know, and deciding it best to be cautious, Teagan slunk in through the doorway of her room, shutting the door behind her with more force than was really necessary.
-
With a dawning sense of acceptance, Wyl watched his beloved leave. It was probably the last time they would see each other and so, as she turned in the doorway for one last glance, he glanced his fingers to his chest where the sandpanther charm she'd given him hung, concealed underneath his shirt. He steeled his face in a brave, noble look -
- that faded as soon as she disappeared.
"I didn't lie," Wyl protested softly. It took every ounce of gumption in his possession not to look away from Dan, whose gaze seemed to pierce him right to his very soul, baring every fault and shortcoming and secret that Wyl had amassed in his short (much too short) life.
-
Dan opened the fridge, carefully pulling out two objects, and closed it. He took the seat opposite Wyl, and set two juice boxes on the table.
"You like my daughter, don't you?"
-
"Yes?" Wyl's eyes narrowed, suspecting some sort of trap.
-
Dan nodded, testing the waters for how forthcoming Wyl would be, He stabbed the straw into his own juice box.
"Glad to hear it. You make her very happy, and that's good."
He sipped his juice, and set it aside.
"That said, I don't want to come home and see what I just saw."
-
Corellian Punch. That was good stuff. Wyl slowly slid the remaining juicebox across the table and wrapped his hands around it, fiddling with the plastic-wrapped straw.
"With all due respect, sir," he said, "If you hadn't just seen what you just saw then what you would have seen would've been a dead body. Isn't that worse?"
-
"We know what I just saw, Wyl."
Dan patiently drew the narrative back toward the truth.
"I'm not about to belt you or Teagan over it, it's time to own up to it. You kissed my daughter."
-
"Of course I did!" Wyl exclaimed, his face pinched with puzzled desperation. How was this not clear by now, when they'd gone over it so many times?
"She was dying. You've kissed your wife lots of times for the same reason."
-
Well, that one took him by surprise.
"W...what?"
-
"You know. Because of the oath."
Receiving a blank look in response, Wyl pressed forward. "The oath that you take when you get married. About... about death and..."
At one point it had all made perfect sense. There was a perfectly line of logic leading up to his and Tak's passionate embrace but all of a sudden it was sort of fuzzy and the boy found that retracing those steps was difficult, like chasing chaff in a strong wind.
"And you kiss your wife to stop that from happening and Tak is sick and it's probably fatal because that's what happens to the betrothed and if you don't believe me then go and take her temperature. It's high."
-
The rabbit hole just got longer by a few miles. Dan fought hard to suppress a smile.
"Till death do you part?"
That was a heavy concept to discuss with a child.
"What that means, Wyl, is that when two people love each other, and they make those oaths, they promise to be together, even if things aren't going great. That's life. Sometimes good things happen, and sometimes they don't. But if you love somebody, you stick with it."
It was sweet. This little desperate kiss, as an act of complete selflessness.
"You're not gonna up and die without a kiss. But sometimes a kiss makes life a little better. At least you know it's serious."
-
When it was all laid out like that, it made more sense. Wyl quietly sipped at his juicebox and mulled over the words. As weird as the adult version was phrased, it amounted to the same conclusion that he and Teagan had come to.
From the moment they'd first met there had been a spark of recognition between their souls, an old-world understanding that tied them together. They had forged their relationship on the back of adventure and, in the natural way of things, that bond had flourished and grown. Did he love her? Of course he did. It was a no-brainer that they would throw in together, no matter what the galaxy had up it's sleeves.
But.
"It didn't make life better," Wyl's face was full of frank horror. "It was disgusting. I told Tak it wasn't because you're supposed to be considerate of invalids and she was under enough stress. She told me the same thing, except she was totally lying because her nose did that thing..."
The boy scrunched up his nose in an admirable imitation of the General's daughter.
-
At that, Dan did laugh.
"Well, it's about like caf in that respect. Do you drink caf?"
If there was a fixed rule, it's that kids couldn't get near the stuff. It was atrocious.
-
Wyl frowned and shook his head. "I drink fizzyglug, sometimes."
-
"I remember when I was your age, and I tried caf."
He made a face and shook his head.
"Hated the stuff. It was bitter and it wasn't sweet, and I couldn't imagine why anybody would want to torture themselves and drink it."
He leaned forward a little.
"Then one day, somebody was drinking some, and I smelled it, and this stuff I'd smelled before and didn't like, it suddenly seemed like something I'd want to try. And I tried it, and then I liked it.
What I mean to say is that, some things become good, not because they change, but because you change. It was the same caf, I just reached the point one day where I liked it."
Having made his point, Dan gestured with a hand.
"It's a lot like kissing."
-
"So it's something you grow into then?" Wyl cocked his head to one side. "Does that mean you won't mind so much when Fang and me are older?"
-
Teagan sat on her bed, legs splayed out as she looked miserably to the other bed in the room. Wyl's bed. To say that the girl was nervous would be stating the obvious, and she found herself idly scratching at an itch along her jawline. She still felt a little warm, and decided that perhaps their kiss took a few hours to take effect. It would certainly explain why she didn't immediately feel better.
She sighed, and the itch on her jawline moved up to her cheek.
With slumped shoulders, the little Lupine finally slid from the bed, unable to take it any longer - she had to go out and... and... and do something. Anything to help her husband survive whatever punishment her father was sure to give.
The faint sound of laughter gave her courage, and cracking the door open, she called out in a resolute, defiant voice.
"I'm coming out!"
-
Dan looked in the direction of Tak's voice, then back to Wyl. He spoke in a low tone.
"Just remember what I said, alright? I like you, Wyl. I want you and Teagan to be happy, but there's no sense in biting off more than you can chew."