Fynleigh frowned as she sat in the back of a fancy ass car, her eyes had originally widened when she had first saw it before she quickly turned neutral again. Damn, Fyn. These are fancy ass people, you got to be on your toes this time, her inner monologue boomed as the young girl felt greatly inadequate next to the two well dressed women and their apparent luxury life.
She almost felt impure, something dirty that didn't belong in this type of environment as she feared putting her dirty converse down on the floor of Carina's clean car. The leather seats were smooth against her back, almost too smooth, as she stared out of the window not feeling able to relax in her seat for fear of magically messing something up.
"Are you hungry bambina?" Carina eyed the girl briefly for a quick second before turning her eyes to the road. The young girl didn't seem too interested in replying as her gaze was fixated on the window at the other cars that passed them.
An awkward silence passed as Maya internally wrestled with herself, deciding eventually that she should get the child's attention and hoped she didn't frighten her.
"Fynleigh, she asked you a question." Maya frowned at the girl's lack of responsiveness, reaching out and placing a hand on her leg as she gently squeezed to try to focus her attention on them.
"Shit, did you say something? I'm sorry, I wasn't ignoring-" Fynleigh jumped beginning to worry, her breath hitching a little as she glanced down at Maya's hand with a frown and Maya noticed an element of fear in her eyes.
Maya quickly withdrew her hand, giving the girl an apologetic smile.
"Language, bambina and there's no need to apologise. I asked if you were hungry." Carina said gently, her voice firm but gentle while scolding her.
Fynleigh shrugged her shoulders, just wanting to stare out the window again and watch the world pass by to distract herself from this awkward situation she was in right now. She now feared that the two women probably wouldn't be so nice if she was to ignore them again, not like it was intentional or anything. She just got so sucked into her own little daydream world sometimes that everything else around her seemed to dissolve away.
Carina noticed a small ice cream shop, deciding it was a good place to start to try to bond some more with the young girl. Every kid liked sugar, right? Plus, there was a couple of stores nearby and despite her better judgement, Carina was already planning a small belated birthday celebration for their new bambina.
Maya walked ahead, after Carina had parked and held the door open to the ice cream parlour with a smile stuck on her face whenever she looked at her wife and Fynleigh together or merely next to each other. God, she was so in love and she was sure if Maya 'monogamy is for the weak' Bishop could see her now she'd probably have a heart attack.
Fynleigh mumbled a small thank you, pausing as her eyes darted around to look anywhere but directly at Maya. In her frantic scanning, she noticed a small black cat sat nearby on the street and she longed to go and pet it but didn't want Maya and Carina to think she was strange. They'd soon send her back and as much as she hated to admit it, she didn't hate being with the two women so far. She thought they were quite funny and could tell that they clearly loved each other.
She reluctantly followed followed Maya to the counter, where Carina stood waiting having already ordered hers.
"Maya?" Carina noticed the nervous expression on the child's face at the colourful, busy environment and gave her more time to hopefully feel more comfortable.
"Strawberry please my love. Fyn, what would you like?" Maya directed to the small red head who was picking at her sweater sleeves, seeming uninterested but deep down she was frightened and confused.
It was rare that she was given a choice or included in family time with her previous foster families and the openness of the two women confused the hell out of her. She nearly skipped over her new apparent nickname, furrowing a small brow at her name being shortened all of a sudden.
"I'm okay." Fynleigh shook her head but was soon met with a disapproving look from Carina, concern prevalent in her eyes.
"Uhm.. birthday cake p-please." She mumbled, her voice shaky as she scuffed her old converse into the tiled floor wanting the ground to swallow her whole.
Maya gave her a kind smile, asking her to go choose a table to give the child some space and some time to herself as she was very obviously uncomfortable. The two women leaned into one another, Maya's arm wrapped around her wife's waist as the two waited as the ice creams were made.
"Am I mean? Did I scare her? Am I a merda foster parent?" Carina said quietly to her wife, seemingly down trodden. She wasn't trying to upset the child by demanding she meet her basic needs and she would bet money on the fact that they hadn't previously been met.
"No no my love, you care so much and the bambina is still getting used to that. I spoke to Jack about what foster children actually want and need, love. You have so much of that to give, whether anybody likes it or not." Maya teased, Carina laughing slightly as Maya tried her best to pronounce bambina correctly. She knew she would fail but it was all in her plot to cheer Carina up. Carina pecked her wife's lips, before pulling away and taking one of the ice creams from the server as Maya picked up the other two.
"Let's get back to the bambina." Carina let out a breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding, exaggerating the pronunciation of the word bambina in a sarcastic manner after Maya had butchered it.
.·:*¨༺ ༻¨*:·. .·:*¨༺ ༻¨*:·.
Fynleigh hesitantly and slowly ate her ice cream, the colourful sugar immediately rushing to her head.
"Any questions for us kid?" Maya smiled, her eyes locking with the young girl's from across the table.
"Why do two women with so much money want a messed up foster kid like me? You could probably pay to adopt a cute little baby, a kid that isn't fucked up and full of trauma." She said bluntly, not realising how inappropriate it seemed to be until she was met with shocked expressions.
"Bambina, again language. We need to set some boundaries around the language you're using and you need to know that it's wholly not appropriate." Carina frowned, scolding her firmly but gently.
She knew the young girl was still getting used to them but the constant language was beginning to frustrate her.
Fynleigh instinctively flinched a little at Carina's sharp tone, sending her an apologetic smile with confusion in her eyes. Nobody had cared enough to even notice her, never mind correct her language or her behaviour.
"And to answer your question kid, we don't want to buy a baby. We want to open our home to give the love we have to a child that needs it." Maya tried her best to be open with the girl, resonating with the girl in some ways - especially the element of wanting to know everything and not have the details sugarcoated.
Fynleigh swallowed her mouthful of ice cream, mumbling a small fearful sorry as she began to pick at the corner of her ice cream cone. The hunger in her stomach had quickly been replaced with a sense of nausea and anxiety.
"Bambina, I'm sorry if I scared you. We're just trying to create a healthy environment for you, with structure and boundaries. I promise, we're not trying to do anything that'll hurt you." Carina said softly, her voice quietening down as she focused her attention on the young girl. She placed her hand in the middle of the table, giving the girl a choice whether to take it or not.
Fyn slowly looked up at Carina, setting her half eaten ice cream down as she blinked her damp eyes away. Carina noticed but decided to let it slide this once, as she had eaten at least half. She offered Carina a small, timid smile as she lightly placed her hand into Carina's.
"Would you like to know some more things about us tesoro? Maybe make us a little less scary? All you know so far is that I snore." Carina teased playfully, her finger unconsciously tracing soothing patterns onto the girl's skin.
Fynleigh nodded silently as she relaxed into Carina's touch, her eyes anything but silent as they sparkled with curiosity. The two women had abandoned their ice creams a while ago instead focusing all of their attention on the young girl. Fynleigh usually found it painful to have all eyes on her but it meant a lot that the two women cared that she was upset.
"I'm a firefighter, a lieutenant. I find exercise fun and I actually enjoy it, weird I know. I'm kind of like you in a way, I'm a straight shooter and I like people to tell me the plain truth not an adapted version to spare my feelings. I have a best friend called Andy, she can be annoying at times and god she will probably annoy you to when you two meet. No rush and no pressure, there's also Vic and the two will one hundred percent be fighting to be your favourite aunt." Maya rambled, a wide smile on her face as she watched the girl slowly become calmer. She liked to think her rambling about herself was helping but it was rather her amazing wife, showering the child with patience and love.
"And I'm an OB. I help bring babies into the world. I'm Italian and I love to cook, I'm gonna make you proper Italian food that hopefully you'll love. I love coffee and probably drink way too much but these americans burn their coffee and ruin it. I sometimes burst into random Italian when I'm angry-"
"More like all of the time and she sucks at american idioms." Maya smirked, as Carina playfully nudged her with her shoulder.
"You really love each other." Fynleigh murmured, just loud enough for Carina to catch.
"Si bella and we hope over time you'll let us love you, when you feel ready to accept our love." Carina gently squeezed the girl's hand which the Italian was surprised to see remained interlinked with her own.
"I've just got to make a quick phone call and then we can head home." Maya declared the word home so plainly, making the girl flinch ever so slightly.
The closeness Maya and Andy shared meant that the woman was the first person to be told about getting a foster placement by Maya. Andy had been so happy for the two women, promising not to reveal it to anybody else at the station and Maya would share the good news when Fynleigh settled into her new home.
Maya and Carina had enlisted Andy's help in picking up some belated birthday things for their new bambina and she was more than happy to help. They planned to have a small night in as to not overwhelm her, letting her choose which takeout and movie to watch.
Carina had insisted that Andy pick up a birthday cake and 14 candles for said cake, Maya being a typical firefighter and joking about it being a fire hazard. They hoped Fynleigh would be comfortable with what they had planned but they could hardly ask her, hoping to show her how much they already loved her with the surprise.
"Don't worry I'm already at the store, is she cute?" Andy didn't bother to say hello when she answered, her interest immediately focused on their new foster child.
"She's perfect. She has the craziest red hair and such cute freckles. And she keeps pissing Carina off with her language, I don't think it's completely intentional."
"What am I picking up? "
As much as Maya wanted to be honest that she had no fucking clue what teenage girls were into, she knew that wouldn't help anything.
"Umm typical teen girl stuff? I know she likes cats. And uh everybody likes chocolate, right? God I hardly know her." Maya sighed and Andy could feel her frown over the phone.
"Calm down mamacita, you've known her less than a day. She's not going to warm up to you straight away and spill everything." Andy comforted her best friend through tough love.
"Stuffed animals! Maybe like one of those big squishy things?" Maya declared a tad loudly and quickly quietened her voice to make sure the girl wouldn't hear her. She was standing outside and off to the side of the ice cream shop so that was doubtful but the two women wanted everything to be a surprise.
"You're so useful." Andy responded with heavy sarcasm as the sound of things being put in the cart could be heard on the line.
"I don't wanna fail at this Andy, I already love her so much. You should see the way Carina is with her, its like my heart melts." Maya practically cooed down the phone.
"Ew, okay go back to your family lovebird. I'm only like five minutes away from your apartment, I'll get all her birthday bits and let myself in with the spare key. You'll never know I was there. I'll even let you guys take all the credit, tia Andy will just have to turn up with the biggest and best present ever when I get to meet my niece." Andy teased.
"Bye Herrera."
"Send her my love!"