DC Headcanon's 6: Sparkle Sparkle!

Paranoia

civil war mention tw 

gun mention tw 

slavery mention but it's only once

A cool dreary day.

Kentucky studied one of the blanks he had cut up earlier that day against an already planted blank from the other day. He was about to hammer the plank in with the others when a small voice interrupted his work.

"Papa! Milk!" IDC announced holding up the bucket filled to the top with fresh milk.

"Nice work Izzy. Did Hannah give you any trouble?" Kentucky asked taking the bucket from his daughter and put it next to him.

"Nope! All by myself." IDC said proudly puffing up her chest.

"Good girl, why don't you get your brother now from the chicks and you two start workin' on some school work before your Uncle Del gets here." Kentucky gently ordered. He went back to his work, grabbing two nails from the ground next to him and hammering in the plank. IDC watched her papa curiously, looking at the assembled fence already around the farm.

"Papa? Why fence?" IDC asked, confused.

"To keep bad people out." Kentucky grunted, finishing hammering and wiping his brow.

"Bad people? To take us away?" IDC asked the fear in her voice. Kentucky just picked up another nail and hammered into the plank, securing it in place.

"Not if I can help it."

Kentucky shot up in bed, breathing heavily and whipping around to the window over his bed. The curtains blew in the wind and the moonlight shone over the front yard; it was peaceful, but Kentucky swore he heard someone or something trying to get into the house. He kicked off the covers and padded out of his bedroom, opening the door and making his way down the hall towards the baby's room to make sure they were still there. The southern state opened the door quietly and peeked inside; IDC and DC were still asleep, IDC with her blanket that Georgia knitted for her the last Christmas they spent together and DC clutching Sissy his rag doll. Kentucky breathed a sigh of relief and closed the door, his babies were okay.

But fear still crept at the bottom of Kentucky's spine that he couldn't ignore. He padded away from the twins room and down stairs making his way towards an often never used closet by a spare bedroom under the stairs. He opened the door and after searching through some boxes pulled out a gun, checking to make sure it was loaded before going to the parlor that faced the front yard of their cozy home.

The moon still shone over the yard, and a gentle breeze blew through, but Kentucky pulled up an old rocking chair, sat by the window, and started out the window making sure he faced the door just in case someone tried to break in.

Delaware found him like that in the early morning; fallen asleep while rocking himself but still clutching the gun like his life depended on it. Even when he was woken up, he mumbled something about adding to the fence before putting the gun back before the babies could see it.

"Tobacco and rolling papers, and a bag of cornmeal. That'll be eighty-nine cents." The shop clerk announced. Kentucky dug into his pants pocket and pulled out the coins, handing it to the clerk and picking up his items.

"DeeDee, Izzy c'mon let's go." Kentucky called to the twins, who were looking around amazed at the store. The twins were immediately at his side and the three left stepping out onto the boardwalk and into a crowd of onlookers.

"Papa?" IDC asked as DC clutched onto Kentucky's pants. Kentucky, confused, tapped on the shoulder of a man standing next to him, asking what was going on.

"Union soldiers leaving." The man announced. "Heard they were going back up to Washington for their new assignments down south." The babies squealed at the news, clapping their hands and trying to peek through the legs of the onlookers at the soldiers. Kentucky was able to see the boys walking the streets, their tired bleary faces, their wounded bodies. They all looked tired, homesick, and would suffer the scars from this war forever.

Kentucky and Georgia supported the Union, hated slavery, fought their own states, and taught their children to do the same. But all he could see in the eyes of the soldiers were people determined to separate him and his children to further fracture their family.

Kentucky grabbed the twins hands and quickly pulled them away.

"You can't keep them with you forever." West pointed out one sunny, warm afternoon. The babies were playing and Kentucky and West were sitting on the front porch watching them. Kentucky lit up a cigarette and blew smoke out to the sky, tilting his head towards the sun.

"Until Georgia comes home, this is what I have to do." Kentucky whispered.

"You built nearly a damn jail fence around your farm. They're going to want to explore! Get out and see the world!" West pointed out.

"We're not as secure as we were back in Georgia, I still haven't been able to travel back down." Kentucky mumbled running a hand through his hair.

"Maybe I can watch-"

"No."

"Ken, do you not trust your own brother?" West asked, horrified. Kentucky blew more smoke out and looked at his babies.

"It's not you who I don't trust, it's the world right now." Kentucky whispered.

"Kentucky you can't do this, even Georgia would think you were being mad." West pointed out. Kentucky watched IDC tackle DC playfully, tickling him with intent and DC laughing up a storm.

"I may be mad." Kentucky said not taking his eyes off his babies as DC pushed IDC off and dashed off. "But I'm keeping my family together. No matter what it takes."