Wren

Part 21

Vincenzo was wrong. Sophie loved everyone. As a lively six year old, she had the most fun when she was running around the mansion saying hello and playing with the guards and maids. Wren would follow her, watching the ruffles on her favorite dresses bounce along with her chestnut curls as she skipped to a tune she hummed.

Today though, she was being a little fussy. It was around 8:30 in the morning, and she'd happened to wake up as Matteo was getting ready to leave the room. 

"Papa, Don' go!" She screeched as she clung to his neck, her lower body in Wren's arms as he was gently trying to get her to release her grip on his husband. 

"Come on, SoSo. Let's go back to bed. Don't you wanna cuddle with Daddy?" Wren sleepily coaxed, not used to getting up so early. 

"No! I want Papa!" Her hair was messy and her nightgown wrinkled. Wren could tell she was sleepy too, but she could be extremely stubborn sometimes. 

"Princess, Papa has to go to work," Matteo pleaded as he pried her tiny hands off of him. "But I'll be back later, and we can do something fun then. Maybe Daddy will play dragons with us, okay?"

Sophie considered for a moment, before finally letting herself be pulled away by Wren.

She was very much a girly girl; she loved pink and sparkles and all things pretty, but she also loved dragons. They weren't quite sure why. She'd become infatuated when Vivian gifted her a storybook, and one of the creatures had been in it. It didn't help that the dragon depicted had been purple and had glittery horns.

Matteo smiled and kissed her cheek, then kissed Wren's lips. He left quickly before she changed her mind. Wren carried her over to their huge bed and flopped down, both of them giggling. She lay on his chest, looking into his eyes. Her feet tapped against him and she played with his hair, twisting it around her little fingers.

"Daddy, can we go onna wa'k?" 

"A walk? Where would we go?"

"Pets!"

"The pet store? Yeah, I guess we can do that. We gotta eat breakfast first though."

Wren playfully flipped her off of him, and went to dig for clothes for both of them. He slipped on a pair of light-washed jeans and a t-shirt, and dug through her dresser and pulled out her favorite outfit. It was a pink dress with ruffles on the hem, and he grabbed her sparkly sandals that matched it. 

He walked back to the bed, freezing when he saw she wasn't there. "Sophie?"

He heard giggling from the other side of the bed. Relief washed over him, and he decided to play along. "So-So~" He called playfully as he walked around to the other side of the bed, sanding close to it. "Where could she be?" He wondered aloud.

A tiny hand shot out from under the bed and grabbed his ankle, and he shouted in surprise as he fell down theatrically with a hand over his heart. Sophie poked her head out and growled. 

"Oh no! A dragon!" He crawled away, but Sophie jumped on his back and pinned him to the ground. She blew raspberries against his neck as he screamed, pretending she was eating him. 

He lay still, internally wincing when he felt slobber drip down his neck. But he was committed to the bit. Sophie paused, and started pushing her hands against him as she straddled his back.

"Daddy?" 

Silence.

She got up, and walked around to his head. She bent over, peeking into his face. 

He suddenly grabbed her around the waist and drug her towards him as she squealed, and tickled her belly.

He laughed as he pulled himself to his feet and carried her over to the bed, having her stand on it so he could get her dressed. He wiped the drool off his neck.

"You really got me," He said as he pulled off her nightgown and slipped the dress over her raised arms. 

"Daddy, did you 'ear my dragon growl?" She held up her claws and scrunched her nose, trying to look scary. 

Wren smoothed the ruffles around her knees, and sat her down. He crouched and began strapping on her sandals. "I did. It was scary. Have you tried it on Papa yet?" He grabbed the brush from the nightstand and began combing her hair. 

"No, but I don' think he'll be scared. He's not scared of anything!" 

Wren smiled to himself. Only he knew Matteo's deepest darkest fears; to everyone else he was an invincible man who wasn't afraid of anything. But Wren had been there on the nights when Matteo lay sobbing in his arms, his hand under Wren's shirt and tracing over the cigarette scars on his shoulder. No one knew just how broken Matteo had been those first couple years, and Wren too. He would lock himself in the bathroom sometimes and have panic attacks, memories of the abuse and the fire flooding his mind.  Matteo would come and sit against the other side of the door, singing the lullaby to him until Wren was able to open the door and felt ok with being held. They'd been the only comfort to each other during those times.

Wren shook himself out of those thoughts. They both occasionally had hard emotions rise up, but it'd been seven years now since those first few nights of hell. They loved and trusted each other deeply, even though it'd taken them a while to get there.

"You're right, SoSo. Papa's not afraid of anything." 

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During that exact moment, Matteo screeched as a bug flew through his open window and landed on his desk. He jumped, knocking the chair he was sitting in over backwards, dumping him into the floor. He quickly scrambled up and flicked the creature away with the newspaper he'd been reading. He exhaled heavily, extremely grateful he was alone. 

Needless to say, he was scared of bugs.

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Wren and Sophie headed downstairs, grabbing breakfast and heading out back to the giant garage, where a driver would drop them off downtown in their favorite place to walk. Wren held her hand tightly as they strolled down the street, headed to the pet shop to look at animals. 

Everything seemed fine, but he had the sinking feeling that something wasn't quite right.

                            Part Twenty-Two Coming Soon