Opportunity | Lana Parilla fanfic

Chapter 9

The following day, Lana's alarm rings early in the morning. The woman wakes up and immediately turns off the alarm and she looks at little Lux who was sleeping embraced to a Stitch soft toy that the woman had bought for the little girl in the amusement park the previous day. She couldn't think of anything else than how beautiful and helpless that creature was. The woman gets up and prepares for departure by closing her bags, taking a shower and ordering breakfast.

After preparing everything she goes to wake up the girl. Lana finds Lux awake hugging her new friend Stitch and thumb in mouth. When the girl sees the woman she immediately removes her thumb embarrassed. The woman knew of the little girl's habit and understood that she was her way of pampering herself from a bad thought of her.

"Hey sweetie.. did I wake you up making too much noise?"

"Nope"

The woman strokes the little girl's hair and immediately hears a knock on the door that scares Lux.

"It's ok. They brought breakfast. Are you hungry?" the woman asks her going to open the door.

Lana thanks the waiter who set the breakfast table and asks for an autograph.

"Honey is ready.. come and eat up"

The little girl sits at the table and smiles when she sees a lot of micky mouse on that table: micky mouse pancakes, micky mouse eggs, micky mouse toast and even fruit cut in the same shape as the rest of the food.

"Woah..I have never even dreamed of it" the little girl says with curious eyes.

"Do you like our Micky Mouse breakfast?"

"Can we eat it?" the little girl asks surprise

"For sure we can.."

"That's cool"

"It is" the woman says, smiling and surprised how something so obvious for the other children made Lux so ecstatic.

The two eat and chat about this and that and soon after breakfast the woman is called by the reception who informs that the car she had ordered was ready to take them to a train that would take them to their next destination.

Lux was used to uncomfortable movements, where she had to be silent and not disturb. Lana knew that the little girl would have no problems whatsoever even if she had planted her in a chair for sixteen hours straight but she had still taken some coloring books and loaded an iPad with games and movies that she could see together.

A car, a train and a taxi after they reach the destination.

The town that would host them for the following week was small and seemed to come out of some fairytale as Lux noticed from the website, clean tidy and with a wonderful view.

The house that Lana had booked had private access to the lake and was just outside the city center which was reachable on foot in a few minutes.

The lake dominated the panorama that they could see from the big windows and the sun that was setting now made everything more epic.

"You like?" Lana asks Lux.

"It's really pretty" the girl replies yawning.

"You are tired?"

"A little.."

"Why didn't you rest during the trip?"

The little girl does not answer the questions and gets lost looking at emptiness, embarrassed. The little girl had made the long journey sitting in silence staring into space with her legs to her chest and her arms around her knees. Although the woman had repeatedly proposed to the child to see a movie or to rest, the child had never moved from that vigilant position on what was happening around her and lost herself for long moments staring at the landscape that darted from the window. The woman then takes the girl and makes her sit on her lap on the patio of their new home.

"Hey look at me! What's wrong?"

"What happened if you left me there? I don't know where we are and I don't know how to go home.." the girl says in a whisper, looking down.

The woman understands that she had taken the child away from everything that was in the least familiar and that she remained a stranger so the child did not feel completely at ease with her.

"Do you really think I could have left you there?"

"I do not know.."

"You are my travel buddy, I cannot leave you. Who would I have fun with if not?" the woman says with a smile hugging the little girl "How about taking a nap while I figure out what we can have for dinner?"

"No I'm fine"

"You're sleeping on your feet young lady" Lana says smiling "I'm not going anywhere promised"

"Do you swear?"

"I never swear but I promise you that I will never never ever leave you and you know why?" she gets no answer from the little girl "Because I love you so so so much" the woman says kissing the girl's cheek.

At that point the little girl with an astonished face rests her head on the woman's chest without say a word. 

This was the first time Lana had said "I love you" to the little girl and from her side Lux couldn't remember if anyone had ever told her. She knew that her mother loved her but she could not agree if she had ever told her so and with this thought the child soon falls asleep nestled in Lana.

On the other hand, Lana had waited because if from the first moment she had grown fond of the little girl, on her side she didn't want to forge ahead and go slowly for both her sake and Lux's. At that point the woman knew that the little girl had so much to heal and she would have loved taking that journey with her.