tangled (mileven au)

birthday girl

Ever since she met Mike though, she was starting to feel a bit differently toward him. She couldn't seem to understand why he didn't let her do all these things that everyone else her age gets to do. She did them with Mike for two days and nothing bad happened to her, so why couldn't she do them without Mike? Why hadn't she been doing those things already?

Papa goes to town all the time, surely he could take her with him. He always says that the most important thing to him is keeping her safe, but wouldn't she be safe with him, no matter where they go? Why was staying in that cabin all day, every day her only way of staying safe?

None of it made sense to her anymore, but she couldn't exactly mention any of that to him, so her brain would have to remain scrambled for now. 

Once Papa finally released her from his hold, he placed his hands on her shoulders, looking her over with a slight grin.

"I'm truly so happy to see you, Eleanor. Let me go put my things away and then we can talk."

"Alright." She flashed that fake smile once more, but the second he was out of sight, it was gone.

With a soft sigh, her feet sluggishly took her over to the table, where she plopped down and waited for him to join her.

She sat in the silence, twirling a strand of her hair in a rather bored manner, until she heard his heavy footsteps coming near.

"Look what I brought for you!" He said, shaking the small bag in his hand once he came into view. "Consider it part of your birthday present."

A smile spread across El's face, a genuine smile this time. She'd recognize that striped red and while bag anywhere. She snatched it right from his hands, ripping it open to find the giant gummy worms inside, the ones he always brings back for her.

"These are my favorite, thank you!"

"Only the best for you, Eleanor."

Papa placed a kiss to the top of her head, but El was so occupied by her new treat that she didn't even notice.

"So, what did you do while I was away?"

She looked up from her bag of gummy worms then, taking her sweet time to chew up what was in her mouth, as her days with Mike flashed through her head all over again.

"The same as always, nothing special." She shrugged, knowing that her words couldn't be further from the truth. Just about every moment since he left had been quite special and that was all thanks to Mike.

Papa seemed pretty satisfied with her answer though, moving right along with the conversation.

"Have you eaten lunch yet?"

"No, not yet. I was waiting for you."

"Excellent, I'll make us something now then." He said, heading straight toward the fridge to get started.

El was just grateful that he was actually making something, instead of his usual go-to frozen meals.

"While we eat, I can tell you all about my trip. We've come up with so many new plans for when you come help at the lab again and I think we can make some real breakthroughs with these."