(Untitled)

[curiously_cora]

There were four discarded attempts at what looked like a shark (or quite possibly a dolphin). There was one rather adorable stuffed octopus. There was one baby mobile frame, decorated in blues and greens and coral reds. And there was one sullen teenager sat at a table muttering quite loudly about Stupid Boys and their even stupider girlfriends.

Comments

[haolehothead]

Danny's going to start tallying up how many times he's doing this -- and how many times he's doing this for people he thinks of as family. He tips his head to the side, listening to the diatribe coming out of her lips and standing well-back as he crosses his arms over his chest. "I'm not sure I should let you go," he informs her. "For one, those are some awfully mean things you're saying. And for two, you're one good rainfall away from looking like Violet Beauregard."

[curiously_cora]

"It's not mean if they're true and teenage boys are stupid and gross. They kiss girls in the snow and writhe and it's gross Dadd- Danny." Coraline said scrunching up her face as she turned the shark creature inside out. Looking at the other vague shark-dolphin shapes Coraline picked the best looking one before she began to stuff it. She probably should have stuck to fish. "What do you mean? Why would I look like Violet Beauregard if I got rained on?"

[haolehothead]

"It's mean and I won't stand for it," Danny warns, considering that if ever he heard Grace going off like this, there would've been some severe consequences going on. He leans in and flips at the ends of her hair. "This. Didn't anyone tell you that certain colors run more than others?"

[curiously_cora]

"But he- he-" Coraline humphed, leaning forward onto the table sulkily. This was all stupid Percy's fault kissing strange girls in the snow. Ugh. "No. It hasn't run yet. Maybe I should just cut it all off then everyone would stop staring at me."

[haolehothead]

"You tell me 'he-he' all you want, but I don't care. There's a road and it's called the high road and I expect you to take it, okay?" Danny says, putting this out there with crystal clarity so that Coraline can't go and say that she didn't know. He crouches down in order to pull her into a tight hug, while making a mild face of dismay at her. "Yeah, but if you cut it all off, then you're just gonna get twice the looks."

[curiously_cora]

Coraline looked at Danny sullenly, bottom lip bitten as she sighed before nodding at him.

"I understand," Coraline said watching as Danny crouched before hugging her awkwardly. She couldn't move her feet or change her position so whilst she wrapped her arms around him, she did so unmoving. She really hated the mistletoe. "I don't know what to do."

[haolehothead]

"Close your eyes, honey," he instructs with a sympathetic smile on his face, waiting for her to comply before he presses a chaste, fatherly kiss to her lips the way he's done with Grace a dozen times before. "And happy holidays, thanks to whatever keeps us here every time there's mistletoe around," he murmurs as he picks her up in the hug and forcibly moves her.

[curiously_cora]

Coraline didn't like to close her eyes anymore. Losing Adam, losing her whole family had made her distrustful, wounded, hurt but she trusted Danny not to hurt her even if she didn't trust him not to leave. Closing her eyes, she felt lips kiss her like her daddy used to, like Adam used to and felt her feet unfreeze.

Coraline wrapped her arms around Danny hugging him tight as he moved her away from the thing. "I don't want him to leave me."

[haolehothead]

Danny keeps hugging her tightly, drawing her safely away from the mistletoe. "Why would he leave you?" he asked quietly, settling her down on the floor again. "Huh? What's kissing a girl got to do with him leaving you?"

[curiously_cora]

"Because it was different with Annabeth, she was from his home and she was his friend and she wasn't stealing him away and he always had time for me. And now he's got some stupid stuck up girlfriend who grabbed me from behind and now he's not talking to me because I thought she was the Other Mother and he hates me and it's all going wrong." Coraline said blurting it all out in one long go. For a girl who asked so very many, many questions she actually rarely talked a whole bunch. Not like that. Not unless she was upset.

[haolehothead]

Danny keeps her tight in the hug, refusing to let her go when she feels like this. He doesn't even care if she thinks she's too grown up for this, he's not. He's not and he's never going to be because he wants to protect the people he cares about and Coraline is one of the most important people to him. "Coraline, I don't think he hates you," he says gently. "I think he's just caught up in a new relationship and he'll figure out pretty soon that he needs to balance that out with the rest of his life."

[curiously_cora]

"I don't want him to be caught up in a new relationship, why can't things stay the same?" Coraline asked, hugging Danny tight.

[haolehothead]

"Because things change. Hey, I mean, come on. You met me before Steve was here. I got caught up in a new relationship. Did things with us change?" Danny asks gently, making sure to give real weight to her concerns instead of dismissing them.