Tennis Imagines :)

Casper Ruud

A/N: I'm back from a very long hiatus! Don't worry, everything in my life is now ok for me, and I think I am starting to get out of my writers' block phase too. Chose to write for Casper because I've been pretty impressed by his performance this year, winning three consecutive titles in three weeks, being able to qualify for the ATP finals, making it to the semi-finals of the ATP finals etc! And it so happened that recently I stumbled upon a Norwegian fairy tale by the name of "The Bushy Bride", which has loosely inspired this imagine. Here's wishing everyone a pleasant 2022!

"It's time to sleep," you called out to your daughter, Astrid, from outside her bedroom door. She disassembled her lego blocks, which her favourite uncle Frederik had given her for her birthday two years ago, before returning them to a red plastic box. She ran over to you, albeit slightly clumsily, with her braided ponytails flying by her sides of her head. You picked her up in a hug before carrying her and laying her down on her bed. You helped her remove the elastic bands that were on her hair, and combed her hair, while she was fiddling with her fingers.

"Mama, can you tell me how you and papa met?" Astrid turned around and looked at you with bright, round hazel eyes.

"Sure, if you promise to sleep after that, ok?" Astrid nodded, and the two of you connected your pinkies together. You leaned against the headboard, while she laid her head down on your hips. You stroked her hair, as you began telling the story...

~~~

Once upon a time, there was a man, a widower himself, who had fallen in love with a widow while on a trip to town to buy groceries for his family. No one knows for sure what attracted him to her; was it her looks, her smooth talking, or something else altogether? Either way, it was love at first sight and very soon, they got married. Unfortunately, less than a year later, the man contracted an incurable disease and passed away, leaving the man's two children, a boy and a girl, in her custody. The true colours of the women were revealed right after the widower's passing. While the woman treated her own biological daughter with much love and care, the same could not be said with her step children. She treated the two of them as if they were her personal slaves by forcing them to do all the household chores, and were severely reprimanded even for the slightest of mistakes. She made her two step children eat the remaining scraps of leftover food that she and her own biological daughter could not finish, or did not want to eat. The list of examples of how poorly the woman treated her step children would only grow with each passing day.

The boy, Frederik, could not stand the situation at home anymore, and one night, pretended to be fast asleep when his step mother came up to his room to check on him. When the whole house was so dead quiet, and the only thing he could hear was the wind gently blowing through the open windows, he crept out of the house with some money that he had secretly stashed in a concealed corner of his room, and some other important personal belongings, before running as far as his feet could take him under the dark cover of the night. He wished he could bring his younger sister along, but there was no way they could plan their escape together without their stepmother knowing, as it felt like she was always breathing down their necks. Maybe, he thought to himself, when the time was right, he would come back for his sister.

He ran across rolling hills, precariously crossed fast flowing rivers, until the next evening, where he felt as if his feet were about to give way. He decided to stop at the nearest town where there were at least a few inns for travellers for the night to rest. The following morning, he decided to go around the large town to search for employment opportunities. A tailor happened to have a job opening, and since the boy had learnt how to sew and mend clothes from his biological mother when she was still alive, he decided to try for the job. The tailor was impressed with Frederik's skills and nimble hands, and immediately hired him whilst offering him a place to stay at his house above the shop.