Forty Years of This [Monster Hunter World]

Chapter 27

Of all the things the Commander expected the Quartermaster to do to get back into form, of all the exercises that he imagined, he hadn't expected dancing to be one of them. A few months into sparring with the Commander's daughter and the Admiral's son, the Commander saw his partner lift his daughter in the air at her waist and spin her around then do the same for the much heavier teenage boy.

The Quartermaster hadn't known the Commander was there.

At some point, unaware that the three of them were being watched, the Quartermaster began to lead the kids through what the Commander recognized as ballet exercises. The Commander stared dumbfoundedly at the trio until his daughter noticed him and waved. The Quartermaster shot up from his dip and whipped around, staring at the Commander in silent horror. Fifteen years ago, the Commander thought murder was on the man's mind.

"What the hell?" The Commander stared in admiration. "You can dance?"

"He dances really well, sir!" The boy shouted in pride. "You haven't seen nothing!"

"We haven't seen anything," the girl corrected him. "Pops here's been holding back. Bad knees my ass."

The Quartermaster continued to stare down the Commander turning pinker with every word from the kids around him. He swatted the air, closed his eyes, and took a steadying breath.

"It never came up."

The Commander stared blankly. It was his turn to lose his words, it seemed. The kids, oblivious, continued to yammer.

"Never came up?" Asked the daughter. "Why not? You could have been spinning me all this time, and you haven't been? Pops, I feel betrayed."

"I wonder what things my partner's going to not know about when I'm old..." The Admiral's son began to scratch at his chin. The first of his facial hairs were beginning to poke through, and he found his face to be much itchier than it used to be. "I wonder what my parents don't know about each other..."

"Well," the Commander began. He could see the Quartermaster beginning to flail and spiral into some sort of gloomy, defensive mood, and he wanted his lover to be comfortable sharing old knowledge. Not ashamed. "I'm sure there's things about me you don't know that seem just as big. I just don't know what they are because I don't think about it."

Their eyes met, and the Quartermaster's expression softened. In a slow, tired blink, the Commander recognized a silent 'thank you.' No longer on the spot, he began to show the three of them a little of what he remembered and a little of what his body still allowed him to do.

When the two men were alone, the Quartermaster raised his hand as if to stop the Commander from voicing any question or thought he might have held.

"Remember, ████, the household I was raised in. The wealth my family had, and the expectations put upon me as a child. I suspect I have many skills fostered by that environment I think nothing of that would surprise you."

The Commander chuckled and shook his head. "At this point? I'm not sure anything would surprise me." But the Quartermaster had read his mind. He had wanted to ask why he learned ballet and when, but it was clear to him now that the skill had not been a choice. "But something else struck me back there, I can't imagine it slipped past you. ██ called you 'Pops'."

A faint smile spread across the Quartermaster's lips as he turned his head down bashfully. "I think she was testing the waters, so to speak. She's called me that a few times before, and the first time I stared at her, but she grinned and stared right back. I would be very honored for her to consider me family."

"Do you consider her family?"

"If she is not a daughter to me, then I have no idea what a daughter is, but that has to go both ways, I believe. I cannot claim her as my daughter unless she also claims me as a father, or a 'pops' it seems. Until then, she is the daughter of the man I love, and I am her father's partner."

The Commander drew his lips into a thin line and sighed through his nose. "████████, you're over complicating it. I don't know what weird politics there were in your family or what convoluted emotional games they played, but it doesn't have to take years to decide if someone is your kid. She's my kid because I love her, and I'm her father because I protect and shelter her."

"That's all very well and simple for you, and I am glad you can do that, but I can't. You two chose each other almost immediately. Even I could see it. But you cannot force someone into family. You have to choose your family. I want to be a part of her family, and I have already chosen you as my family, but she has to accept me before I can claim her as my daughter. I am just putting into words what the both of you have already done."

"Everything is always so complicated with you." The Commander shook his head and moved his jaw to avoid grinding his teeth. "How do you do it? You overthink everything."

"I have to." The Quartermaster shrugged. The Commander's words didn't seem to bother him. "Or I won't understand it, but I don't see how I've made it any more complicated, and." He met the Commander's gaze with a glimmer in his eye. "I think ██ sees me as family now."

He took to sparring with their daughter (their daughter!) and as the years drew on, the girl grew taller and stronger. A part of the Commander began to worry that she was more capable of fighting another man than a monster, but when she was old enough to start making eyes at the younger hunters, he was glad to know she could lay any of them flat.

On her fifteenth birthday, a heavy storm began to brew heralding the start of the next elder crossing. She stood at the edge of the canteen's boardwalk looking wistfully over the ocean. The wind whipped her hair around her and in her face, but she didn't seem to mind it. The Admiral's son stepped over to her and dropped his wide hand on top of her head. When she ignored him, he patted her hair and poked her cheek. She snapped at him, turning quickly and catching his finger between her teeth, and the now young man yelped.

The Commander watched the pair indecisively. The Admiral's son was almost twenty, and he knew better than to instigate his daughter, but the two were as close to siblings as anyone could be. He knew the lad was acting out-- the Admiral had been touch and go, stopping in and leaving almost immediately, for the past two years, and his son felt abandoned.

Calling out to him, the Commander crossed his arms and put on his sternest expression. When the young hunter came over to him, he was grinning.

"I don't need to tell you to stop harassing her," the Commander began. The Admiral's son began to deflate. "You know better. What I do need to tell you is that we're sending hunters home on one of the boats. I think it'd do you well to go home."

"With all due respect, Commander--"

A glare from the Commander silenced him. "I know what that phrase means, and 'with all due respect' you can kiss my ass before you start a sentence like that again."

With his father off galavanting around chasing a shadow, his son had begun to grow rough and careless. The Commander understood it. He saw the same desperate cry for attention he'd once done in his youth. He'd left for the New World in part because he wanted his family to miss his absence, and he never learned if they really did.

"Look, ███, I'm not saying this to punish you. I'm telling you to go home because I see how miserable you are here. I know your father, and I know how impulsive he is. You don't have to suffer for his whims."

His friend's son looked down at his feet then back over to the Commander's daughter. Past her were great, dark clouds over a tumultuous ocean.

"I miss my sisters," he finally said. "I miss my family..."

"Me too." The Commander slapped his shoulder. "Now, let's start battening down before that storm hits, or you won't get a chance to see them again."