𝐨𝐩𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐚 [robert downey jr.'s daughter] - discontinued

011 - tiny cuddles

The next morning Dana woke up at 8.30 am because she wanted to revise stuff for her last two oral exams which were art and history. The three written exams she had taken before the holidays had been Math, German and English. She would have loved to take chemistry instead of Math but German and Math had been mandatory.

Still almost asleep, she went to the kitchen first to get her morning coffee, where she almost ran into her father. Contrary to her he was already dressed and looking his best.

"Good morning." She grinned as she made her way to the coffee machine.

"Hey, sleepy head. What are you doing up so early? You do have holidays." He tilted his head.

Dana yawned. "I know, I know. I want to revise some stuff for the oral exams. What about you?" "I'm having a call in half an hour and after that Jimmy comes by for a coffee."

His daughter looked up surprised. "Infamous Jimmy Rich?"

Robert chuckled. "I'll tell him you said that." He stepped up to her, took her face in his hand and ran his thumbs over the dark rings under her eyes. "How long did you stay up? Told you to sleep, didn't I?"

Dana just groaned and let her head fall on Rob's chest. "Couldn't sleep." She mumbled.

"Specific reason or just unable to rest?" "Just unable to rest." Dana hurried to answer. She pulled away from the hug to finally make herself her coffee.

While the girl fought the coffee machine, her father made her the same chocolate cereals as the day before because he knew that otherwise her first meal would be lunch. He put the bowl onto the counter, in front of a chair. Dana sighed when she saw it but sat down anyway, cradling the hot coffee in her hands.

"Don't sigh at me. Breakfast comes before lunch." Robert scolded her softly.

"Mhh." The girl hummed unwilling.

"Where are the kids?" Dana asked when she had eaten her breakfast. Robert and Susan had excused Exton from kindergarten for the two weeks of Dana's stay as those were the last weeks before the summer break.

"In the living room, why?" Robert watched her closely. He felt the she was keeping something from him.

Dana forced a light smile. "I need tiny cuddles." With much effort she kept her voice from breaking. She hadn't been able to fall asleep and when she finally did she had been tormented by nightmares. She put her dishes away and walked into the living room. There were Avri and Exton, playing with Lego Duplo on the floor. Dana sat down next to her little sister and scooped her on her lap. The little girl continued to play while the teen pressed little kisses to her head.

Robert, who had followed her, leaned against the door frame, crossing his arms. "Felia, what's going on?" "Nothing."

"That's a lie." Robert scoffed. "We only talked yesterday about communication."

The 17-years-old stayed silent while Avri climbed around on her. The toddler put her hands to the corners of Dana's mouth and pushed them up to make her smile.

"See? Even Ave sees it." Robert remarked.

Dana sighed. "Just some nightmares. Not important." She stood up and gently put Avri on the floor again. "So, I'mma go revise my stuff now."

She left the living room, her father watching her walk away, and went up to her room to get ready for the day. She brushed her teeth and washed her face, then proceeded to curl her lashes, put mascara on, do her eyebrows and put lip balm on her lips. She brushed her brown hair and pulled it in a low bun. While she got ready she had her playlist playing, which resulted in her jumping around like an absolutely wild and insane person and think about something else than her nightmares.

She entered her closet and chose a pair of white shorts and a white-green checkered top. Then she sat down on her bed and spread all her notes and cards on her bed and started to revise everything.

Dana lost her concentration after an hour of punching information about artists, art styles, events in history and famous people into her brain. She decided to go downstairs and make herself a cup of tea. On her way to the kitchen she met Robert and Jimmy, which seemed to be in a vivid discussion at the moment.

"Oh, hi." Dana gave an awkward wave as she put on a bright smile.

"Hey, I'm Jimmy." Her father's best friend introduced himself.

"I know. I'm Dana." She chuckled.

Robert laughed. "He knows." While he loved seeing Dana meet her "uncle", he noticed her acting all happy, masking what she had not when it was just him. "We were about to make us some coffee. Do you want one, too?"

"I was actually planning on getting me some tea." She answered as they went to the kitchen.

While they prepared their beverages and drank them, they talked about Dana's school and other things until Jimmy had to leave.

***

"You're good at masking."

Dana looked up from her book perplexed. It was now later in the evening and the two sat in the living room, relaxing after dinner, while Susan had already gone to bed as she had spent her day with numerous meetings. "What?"

"You know, earlier, when Jimmy was here, acting all fine when you were not." Robert tilted his head. "This is your home. You don't need to mask your emotions here."

Dana cleared her throat. "It's not about where I am, it's about who I'm with. When I don't know people well or I don't talk with them about emotions usually, I automatically mask. Also it wasn't as present in my mind anymore as when I woke up. I kinda danced it out."

Her father observed her closely. "You mask around your family?"

"What? No." Dana tried to row back as she saw her mistake.

Robert raised his eyebrow and she sighed. "Not as much as with others but yes, sometimes. Can we change the subject, please?"

"Yes, of course."

Soon they fell into a light banter until they checked the time and discovered that it was almost 1 am.

Word count: 1050

a/n

this was originally splitted into two parts but i like it better this way lmao

have fun reading! please comment your thoughts and vote, thankss :)

(i'm currently on a study trip)
~snax