This is Real

Up, Up and Away

"You were a predictable kid, Sash."

"Thanks, dad," Sasha muttered sarcastically, burrowing underneath a thick blanket as she stared at cartoons. She wasn't easily thrown into very low mood but after what happened with Shay, there was nothing else to do but mope, in her opinion. So she did what she always did when she was looking for comfort. She went to her dad. And refused to talk about it.

Derek shrugged his shoulders as he sat on the couch beside his daughter, settling in comfortably with a beer in his hand. He'd offered one to Sasha, she just gave him a 'Really?' look. "You were pretty easy to read."

"Do tell." Sasha lifted the blanket up so it covered up to her nose, exposing only her eyes to her father. She tried not to think too much on the fact that she'd grabbed the blanket from her bed even though there were enough blankets in her father's house. She didn't want to think about how needy she was of a certain brunette that she grabbed the blanket on a last minute decision to want to feel closer to the person she'd just told she wasn't sure she wanted to be with. She controlled her breathing so she wouldn't take a deep inhale because it smelled just like the said brunette, of vanilla and something forest-y. She hugged the blanket closer to herself, convincing herself that she was a little cold, when really it was because that same blanket had been wrapped around Shay the last few nights she'd spent in Sasha's place.

No. She was not desperate.

Derek took the remote from beside Sasha and ignored the look his daughter sent him. "Whenever something was bothering you, you always did the same thing, but you always thought no one noticed."

"I don't wanna talk about it."

Derek ignored her. "You would curl up-" Sasha shifted so she wasn't curled up, placing her feet flat on the floor. "-grab the blanket from my room because, I don't know really know, maybe you're freaky and like the smell-" She hastily pulled the blanket down so it wasn't covering her up anymore. "-and you'd ask me to cook chicken noodle soup."

"You didn't have to cook."

"Except now you have a different blanket." The look on his face wasn't teasing anymore when he said that. It was knowing. It was the face of a dad who knew his only daughter wasn't ok and he would do what he could to make her fell better. "I guess my hugs won't be as effective as when you were five."

Sasha felt herself deflate, and the facade she'd been trying to keep up broke and she was curling up again and pulling the blanket so it was wrapped around herself again and scooting towards her father who was only too ready to wrap one of his strong arms around her to keep her away from things he couldn't really protect her from. But for a while he was willing to pretend with her that he could.

He tightened his arm around her when she sniffled. "It's all right, pumpkin."

Sasha gave him a watery smile. "Still pretending we're English to make me feel better?"

"They've sexier accents," Derek replied in a well practiced English accent that he used to talk to her when she wasn't feeling well. Sasha was a Harry Potter fan, and it always made her feel better to pretend she was in that magical world with her dad.

Sasha groaned. "I don't wanna know what you find sexy, dad."

"That new neighbor- Ow!"

"No." But she was already smiling, letting the constant comfort that was her dad envelope her.

But he was right.

She sighed as she stared at the basketball game that was now on screen, and Derek occasionally voiced out his thoughts about the players. She understood enough to hold a conversation, having sat with him while he watched hundreds of times. But the familiar position wasn't as comforting as it was. She wanted to be curled up against someone else. She wanted a different pair of arms wrapped around her. She wanted someone underneath that blanket with her.