Clawen • What comes next

|| CHAPTER 36 ||

           

They got home safely, if you didn't count the 20 minutes they spend walking right instead of left. Then there was the moment where a bush started shaking and all three were sure they were about to get eaten, but it turned out to be a huge ass squirrel. Maisie couldn't stop laughing at the fact that Owen almost shit his pants over that tiny redhaired thing. He didn't say it out loud but he thought of how many times a certain other redhead had scared the living shit out of him. In so many different ways. Seeing the roof of the almost finished house, in the distance, Maisie insisted that Owen let her down. He did as he was asked and she took off. Neither of the adults knowing why she was in such a hurry. They had the keys.

When they arrived at the van, they found Maisie sitting on the small doorstep to the van with a pout. "Forgot something kid?" Owen grinned at her, receiving an annoyed groan from Maisie who caught the keys that were thrown at her without a second glance. After unlocking, she ran directly to the bathroom and Claire decided to go find the girl's present. She had bought two unintentionally. She had an idea for the first one but figured she might wait with it till Maisie was older. After looking around with the girl, Claire had noticed the perfect one and couldn't not buy it. Then she decided to buy something she would be able to use now, if the other thing didn't fit.

Owen was making coffee which gave Claire the perfect opportunity to sneak up behind him. Not to scare him or freak him out, but simply because she wanted to let her arms snake around him and lean against his back. Hugging Owen was great, it was greater than great. Snuggling into him was even better and waking up to their limbs entangled in each other was almost as good as it got for Claire. But there was something about leaning her whole body against his back. His strong muscular back, shirtless or not.

Wrapping her arms around him as she let her head fall against him, she let out a deep sigh filled with comfort. Owen was about to turn around to hug her back but she stopped him. "No no, stay...please" She said, almost a whisper. He chuckled at the woman and placed his hands on hers, stroking her knuckles a couple times before continuing the coffeemaking.

Maisie came back a minute later, more than ready for her present. Claire had placed the giftwrapped present on the table, at a perfect angle for Maisie to see when she came out. And oh, did she see it. She ran towards it, desperately looking up at Claire for permission to rip open the wrapping. Claire nodded, one arm still around Owen, having let him turn around to hold her as well, quickly after Maisie entered.

The girl threw the paper over her shoulder to get to what was inside as quickly as possible. Finding an ocean blue box with a rainbow ribbon around it. She hurried to untie the bow, carefully placing the ribbon next to the box because she really liked it. Taking off the lid, putting it aside, she looked inside with excitement. Her whole facial expression changing from excited to extremely happy when she realized what she had gotten. A couple coloring books, way more sophisticated and with much better drawings inside than the cheep ones you find at a gas station. There was also a book with a raptor on the outside, filled with blank paper inside, to draw on. Next to the books, she found three different clear plastic boxes. Two of them were identical, filled with colored pens inside in all sorts of varieties. And the third one had three different kinds of pencils and two kinds of black outlining pens and an eraser.

Claire had seen how into coloring the girl was and she would often find her drawing outside of the lines on the white background. She would draw all kinds of things with the cheap coloring pencils that she had gotten. Not long after that, Claire had decided that Maisie deserved a real drawing kit. Real coloring books with real colors and a blank paged one to explore and develop her skill in, with special pencils made exactly for that kind of thing.

The girl was without words, looking down at the content of the box and up at Claire, then back down at the box again. It took her what Claire would consider, more than a minute before she spoke up. "This is all for me?" She asked dumbfounded. Claire slightly giggled and nodded and the girl and could feel Owen pull her closer to him. "All of it?" Maisie asked, completely amazed. "Yes sweetie, all of it is for you" Claire said. Owen leaned his head down to whisper a 'good job mama' to Claire which made her smile. The girl looked up at Claire and ran into her arms, making Claire let go of Owen and bending down to better embrace the girl. "Thank you so much mom" Maisie whispered into Claire's shirt. "You're welcome sweetheart. You deserve it" She said.

Maisie pulled away, with shining eyes almost spilling over with tears. "No sweetheart, don't cry. If you cry, then I cry" Claire said holding back a sob. Maisie laughed at that and went to give Owen a hug as well, even though she knew he hadn't chosen the present. But maybe he had helped to decide what to give her, she didn't know. Anyways he deserved a hug anyways, Maisie thought.

After Maisie had taken all of the things out of the box to explore, Claire started to prepare the cake. Owen made place on the shelf for Maisie's new things, seeing as she didn't have a room herself yet. Telling her that she could put it all back in the box when she was done and then showing her where she could then put it. The girl went crazy with the coloring, not confident enough to start drawing on her own but also not wanting to destroy the new book she had gotten. She promised herself to eventually use it but she wanted to admire it a little bit longer before she let her mind explode on the blank pages.

Claire put the cake down on the table and lit the giant tree shaped candle that Maisie had chosen. The girl admired the cake and the candle before quickly blowing it out, not wanting the tree to get destroyed too much. Owen found a knife and cut them all a piece, letting Maisie choose where he should cut and what piece she wanted. The girl made sure that all three pieces were the same size and gave Claire the least destroyed one as a thank you for the gift. Claire insisted that Maisie took it herself but she wouldn't have any of it. Laughing she said. "It's going to get destroyed in my mouth anyways" And Claire had to laugh as well because the girl was right.

They ate their pieces, Maisie leaning up against Claire who had an arm around her small shoulders. She leaned down to whisper "I got another surprise for you, but don't mention it okay" which Owen couldn't hear, making him look over at Claire asking for answers. She just smirked at him and went back to her piece of cake.

The last couple of chapters were so much easier to write – Thank the lord.

I hope you liked it - Also give me your guesses on what the other present is ;)