Stricken - LPF Family Saga continued

[woodyloveslinkin]

Omg we're back to utter chaos already and Mel hasn't even arrived to participate in such a Bourdon tradition!! Haha. Awesome.

[Friðbjörn]

Omg we're back to utter chaos already and Mel hasn't even arrived to participate in such a Bourdon tradition!! Haha. Awesome.

couldn't have said that better myself:D

[Pheonix791989]

hey mum way to go!!! i love all the new story-ness!! i finally got my internet back and a new laptop woot. keep writing and you need to pm me about a few things lol

[Ravynlee]

Thanks guys.

And Mel - PM you about what? *innocent face*

 

Had 'dropped' this a few weeks ago thinking it was rather pointless, but now that I've picked up my actual serious writing again (for my writer's course) I've decided to pick this up to as a kind of respite after the seriousness of study - this will be me indulging in my sillier side (not in content, I'm not comfortable with comedy, I meant I won't be as strict with myself writing this as I am my assigned pieces) - and well because as hard as I try I can't seem to let go of this family. Bizarre innit?

I wrote this earlier and have to get to bed. Hope it tides y'all over until I finish work tomorrow. See when I can get time to update more.

 

***

 

It was, after the initial shock, like two worlds colliding.

Ravyn had been caught off guard by the surprise, more so for the fact that it had been arranged at Chester’s place of all things. Though there had been a degree of bad blood between them ever since the affair that brought about Fox’s conception, things had thankfully dwindled down in time. Now some twenty years, two failed marriages and bitter divorces between them, and a swag of natural, adopted and step-kids later, Ravyn and Chester were at last on some relatively common ground. He laughed as he welcomed them in, congratulating them with a face flushed from enthusiasm as much as the alcohol. Music blared over a chorus of conversation. People were mingling outside, out in the spacious back yard. Kids raced past. A baby was crying. Emerging with Tyler-Lee in her arms, Talinda greeted them each with her demure smile. With her one free arm she hugged and kissed them both, but Ravyn tried to ignore the look she caught flashing in the other woman’s narrowed eyes – it was nothing new, but still, familiar guilt still hurt. She smiled back under David’s draped arm and thanked her hosts. It wasn’t until she was led outside that the shock truly hit her.

“Surprise!”

Faces surrounded her; their voices filled the early evening air. She froze feeling like some zoo exhibit. David’s arm slid around her neck as he nuzzled a kiss atop her crown. With a nervous chuckle she fell against him. Though she hadn’t expected such attention, she wasn’t sure if she loved or loathed it. Surely she had never received this kind of attention with… Never mind. She smiled and thanked all those that congratulated them as David manoeuvred her around through the crowd. He seemed to know everyone. Ravyn had to force herself to hold her eyes up; uncomfortable and unaccustomed to being anywhere near the centre of attention. Surrounded by a bevy of starved and svelte figures and a rugged myriad of men, she felt sick as she drowned in her insecurities. The scents of alcohol and fried food and sweet perfume and sweat permeated the backyard as the sun slowly sunk behind the hazy urban foliage.

Night fell.

Crickets sung.

Music continued to blare.

Ravyn, drinking relief in the form of a whiskey and coke, found herself alone while David was swallowed up by the crowd and was confronted by faces she hadn’t seen or crossed paths with in ages. Mike Shinoda and his rock-star buddy Brad Delson.

“My god,” she exclaimed under her breath. She stood rigid a moment before Mike leant forward and cordially kissed her. She smiled but it screamed nervousness. Her eyes followed the tall Asian man as he withdrew and watched as his long time colleague did the same. “Mike, Brad, how- how are you?”

“Good. God. How long’s it been, a year, eighteen months?”

“Something like that.”

“And here you are man, settling down again. How’s it feel? Must be weird isn’t it?”

Ravyn shrugged in response to Mike’s question. It was vague but she hadn’t really considered such a question least of all to be coming from him. In the back of her mind, and in the time that had passed since she’d seen anyone from the Linkin Park group beyond Chester, she had somehow managed to convince herself that the band were avoiding her out of sheer spite for what she had arguably put their friend through. She had missed Mike’s council and his infectious smile and it was a physical relief to have them back again, but still Ravyn couldn’t help but feel defensive. As she studied the crowd mingling around her she felt her stomach lurch at the very real fear that Rob was here somewhere too and literally felt nauseas at the thought of having to face him – She didn’t want to see or speak or even argue with him anymore, the past was past and he was no longer part of it, but still in the presence of two of his dearest friends she couldn’t help but feel his absence keenly.

“I was… sorry to hear about Anna,” she started. “Chester told us.”

“Yeah,” Mike said. He swallowed hard before speaking. “Well, it’s only a trial separation. Just until we… sort a few things out. You know how it is.”

“Yeah,” Ravyn acknowledged. Her smile softened. It was rare that the emcee ever looked as pensive as his smile wavered. Ravyn wanted to say something consoling but didn’t. What would she be able to say to a master with words that would be adequate anyway, she scolded. But in a heartbeat Mike’s eyes and smile picked back up again, full of life as they always were only now surrounded by a wiry black beard. How old he now looked. With a shrug Mike paused and sipped the drink in his hand.

“Well, you know how this industry is. I can’t believe you want to go back and do it all over again, what are you, crazy?”

Ravyn shrugged. “Well, it’s a little different. I mean, the kids are all grown up now.”

“Yeah but David’s got kids. What with your kids, his kids, and the kids you two will have together - He’s told us all about it, well; we have known him for years. Man always wanted a big family, I guess it makes sense you two hooked up in some way, but-”

“Man,” Brad interjected his sliver of face visible beneath the bushy afro and the Wildman’s beard pinched with a goading smile. “Like, could you find anyone like more opposite to Rob or what?”

Ravyn frowned as the two men laughed and tried to tell herself that she was just being overly sensitive. It was an innocent joke, she had known the guys long enough to know what their bent humour was like, and yet the wheels in her mind were spinning out of control. She wasn’t accustomed to them anymore, to having to think on her feet and let her guard down at the same time, as anyone in close proximity to any one of them had to do, but she couldn’t shake the notion that the pair came along not out of due friendship with Chas but to play spies for her ex-husband. How much of any of this were they going to take back to Rob, she wanted to ask, and how much did they actually care about her intended answers? With a skewed smile she again shrugged as the sting of the insult created a thunder inside of her chest.

“I love him,” she said, raising her chin a fraction too high. “That’s all that matters.”

“Then that’s the main thing,” Mike acknowledged and clapped her on the shoulder. “We’re happy for you. We all are. What the hell, we’re still like family after all these years anyway, aren’t we? One big extended family.”

“Hey, speaking of,” Brad started. He was silenced as Mike nudged his side and bowed close to mutter something discreetly in Brad’s ear.

Ravyn flinched. Her smile set like plastic as the guys withdrew and Brad excused himself to fetch another drink. She watched him go feeling her heart now hammering, her mouth dry in anticipation as she watched Mike avoid her while the look on his face betrayed the fact he had something awkward he wanted to say. Mike cleared his throat and refocussed his attentions before he opened his mouth to start speaking.

“You know, Rave,” he began to say. “About that, I just think you should know-”

“I don’t want to hear it.”

“But, you have to understand, Rob didn’t go out intentionally like… I don’t think he meant to hurt you-”

“Please, don’t. Don’t… try and justify it to me, Mike. I’ve had all the justifying I can take from Joanna; I don’t need it from you too.”

“But he’s my friend, I’m just-”

“And she’s my sister, okay? Divorced or not, Mike, I don’t care what you say, the both of them should have known better than to go round fucking one another behind my back like it was nothing. She’s my family okay, my flesh and blood, my little sister for god’s sake, what right did he have to think that he could just-”

“I’m not here to argue.”

“Good, then we’ll end it,” a low voice interjected.

[Ravynlee]

Almost choking on her words that had mounted like a fist on the back of her tongue, Ravyn dropped her eyes as David stepped in along side her. The feel of his arm snaking around her waist was welcome yet territorial and final. Closing her eyes she pushed out a shaky breath feeling like a kid who had just completed an intensive exam – she wasn’t sure if she had passed the test if that was indeed what it had been or had given the impression she badly needed to convey. When she opened her eyes Mike too had rescinded and the three of them sipped their drinks as the tension reluctantly abated to the backdrop of the music. David’s grumbling inquisition against her temple had Ravyn shaking her head in response to him. She didn’t tell him what was said and nor did he ask her, but from his arrival all notion of the past or old wounds were left to fester in an uneasy silence. Together they stood, physically united, as Mike, either sensing his pleas were useless or whether his need to converse had run its course, bid them both his congratulations and too excused himself away. Feeling David snake both his arms around her from behind Ravyn practically swooned against him, physically relieved to have someone standing there in her corner for once, and glad in a guilty way that she finally had some measure of proof for Mike to run back to Rob with. She didn’t mind as the two of them continued to drink and he was soon draping himself all over her, figuratively gesturing that she was out of bounds to everyone in attendance. She liked the feeling of his strong arms around her just in the way as a baby needed it’s mother’s touch, and though his constant contact was restrictive against her fledgling independence she felt safe and needed against him, and didn’t care who was smirking snidely at the two of them or why.

When a tall man young man with pale skin and fair mousy-brown hair laid a hand upon her not long afterwards she jumped, more startled initially by the way she felt David tense up behind her. Staring over her shoulder Ravyn frowned then her eyes opened wide with alarm and surprise.

“Oh my god, is that – Vi?” she gasped. She was practically sobbing before she’d managed to wrangle her way out of David’s hold to wrap her arms around her son. “Oh my god, oh my god- you’re here!”

Vi chuckled. He had obviously been startled by the reaction of both of them and met David’s eyes cautiously across his mother’s shoulder.

After squeezing him to her chest, then apologizing for the drunken manner in which she was suddenly self-consciously speaking, she held him out at arms length and studied his face with her own softly dampening.

“Look at you. I can’t believe it’s you,” she said. She sighed as she swept a hand against his hollowed cheek and flinched at the slight graze of stubble scratching her palm. Her little boy was a man now, all grown up, and looking down at her now not as a child but as an equal. “God,” she lamented, “you look just like your father…”

“Thanks,” Vi pouted.

He smirked, showing he bore no will against the brief look of insult he had worn, and it grew to a grin before he self-consciously bowed it from view. He chuckled again as Ravyn fawned over him, brushing his hair, his shoulder that had bulked a little since she had last seen him, marvelling as only a mother can do in those brief moments between tears and relief and elation.

When they parted Vi had stood then, face to face for the first time with his mother’s fiancé. Leaning against the balcony rail, David stared back at him, the two men briefly sizing one another up from shoe to scalp in that brief moment of silence. Leaning forward the older man set his drink down, cleared his throat and got to his feet still saying nothing. Though he smiled, and by the look on Vi’s face it appeared to be received affably enough, there was still some underlying tension as David reached out and extended his hand and waited for the younger man to accept it.

Ravyn made the introductions though they clearly weren’t needed. A few words were exchanged but they were drowned out as the hurried approach of others had all heads turning with distraction. Sarah raced up and threw her arms around her older brother, knocking him back a few steps, and away from David’s hand, in so doing. Sarah squealed like a kid half her age and Ravyn already knew her daughter had been drinking. She watched as her only son and eldest daughter jostled, shoved, and drew away, their faces both rosy with familiarity and to a lesser-demonstrative degree with Vi, excitement.

“Big brother! Look at you! The half-breed said you were here but I was too busy getting ready. Can you believe this shit; us all getting back together like this? I mean seriously, what the fuck?”

“The half-breed?” David murmured with his brow pinched.

Ravyn smirked, feeling her cheeks still simmering thanks to the alcohol and emotion, and dipped her eyes, explaining coyly that it was Sarah’s pet name for her half-sister, a little family ‘thing’ they had always done. David didn’t look terribly impressed with the explanation. He mentioned something aside about Sarah’s colourful vocabulary but Sarah rolled her eyes and waved her hand, dismissing the notion and any intended opinion of his aside. She fired a few more questions at her brother before Fox emerged and pushed the duo out of her way. She held a cell phone aloft in front of her mother and urged her wordlessly to take it.

“Who’s that?” Ravyn balked, her attentions still momentarily averted.

Fox had all but thrown the phone into her mother’s hands and strode past to wrap her arms about David’s neck in greeting. She heard them exchange a brief cordial kiss and say something by way of hello but Ravyn’s focus was torn elsewhere. With a palm cupped over one ear and the cell phone pressed to the other, she bowed her head and turned her back, trying to diminish the noise of too many conversations and loud music and laughter so that she could hear.

“You know this is sick,” Sarah told her step-father as Fox settled in along side him. She mimicked his pose with the ledge of the balcony once more at the small of his back. “I don’t know if you know it or not but the half-breed here used to have the biggest crush on you in high school, didn’t you?”

“Shut up!” Fox cried.

David’s brows rose, his drink poised in front of his lips. The rings around his chin flashed in the bright light.

“I bet you didn’t think when you were kissing the posters on your walls one day you’d be calling him daddy dearest, you sick little pervert-”

Fox, with her face suddenly a hot red, leapt from her seat with a murderous growl and her hands outstretched and threatening.

“I’m gonna fucking kill you, you dog!” she cursed.

Sarah squealed and darted away with Fox in hot pursuit after. Left in their wake Vi dug his fists in his hip pockets and sighed to himself, left alone now in an awkward silence as David just sat there chuckling.

“Hello?” Ravyn repeated into the cell phone, frowning hard as she strained to hear some hint of who it was calling her in the middle of her surprise engagement party.

At last a woman’s voice answered. It was quiet at first and hesitant, barely a rumble against the backdrop of her girls yelling and people laughing. David murmured something as he wrapped his arm around her waist and drew her backwards to sit against his lap once more.

“Mom? Is that you?” the voice asked, and Ravyn felt her heart seize inside of her chest expectantly. Her eyes grew wide with renewed shock and anticipation.

“Mel?” Ravyn begged. She could scarcely believe it. “Honey, where are you? Oh my god, it’s been so long since I- where are you, sweetheart? You sound so far away.”

Mel paused before speaking, or it could have been she was deliberating her response, as the sound of a loud bass-ridden song began thundering its way across the balcony and spewed out across the dark evening sky. Pulling herself away from her fiancé and son, Ravyn stood alone as much as she was able amidst the crowd and the shadows and repeated her daughter’s name with a frantic tone in her voice.

“I’m here, mom,” Mel said. She lowered her voice and sounded as if she were addressing another before speaking. Then, just as Ravyn was about to ask her what she had said, Mel continued, “I want to come and see you, soon, but not yet. I can’t… not at the moment. Okay, I can but I don’t want to. Mom… I’m at dad’s place. I’m staying here with him and Aunt Jo. Just for a little while... Okay?”

Ravyn felt her heart sink and a moment later lowered the phone, tucking it in against her shoulder blade as she struggled to get abreast of her emotions. Whiskey and coke bubbled at the back of her tongue and as giddy and weak as she suddenly felt, she was desperate to throw down several glasses more. Without saying anything she thumbed a button and disconnected the call, feeling tears and accompanying guilt wash over her then like a tidal wave. Vi found her on her slow walk back and could tell by the strange look on her face that something was wrong. Rather than answer any questions she merely shook her head and forced a smile and tried where physically possible to slide an arm around her grown son and lean thankfully against him. She didn’t want to lend a voice to the thoughts raging around in her head and preceded to drown them out, one by one, until the noise like the faces of those around her, dwindled away behind a heavy blanketing fog. The last thing Ravyn remembered was cuddling in against David’s shoulder crying at some ungodly hour, unable to speak and just howl until the contents of her stomach left her, several times. She didn’t even see out the end of the party as she fell into an unconscious state, her night of celebrations ending prematurely in a drunken haze and then darkness.

[Pheonix791989]

yay an update!! w00t my day is looking to be an awesome one. oh i got that piccy for you rav. im gonna try to pm it to you. if it dosent work then i dunno. maybe I'll draw it for you.

[Ravynlee]

yay an update!! w00t my day is looking to be an awesome one. oh i got that piccy for you rav. im gonna try to pm it to you. if it dosent work then i dunno. maybe I'll draw it for you.

 

Thanks Mel. Yeah I got the pic. Replied. And glad ya like (update). More when I get around to it

[Friðbjörn]

intense stuff, me likes

[woodyloveslinkin]

^ I'm with you closet baby.