Vanish {Book two in the Coriana Johnson series}

Dad and Daughter Night?

I was heading inside my room when I heard someone call my name.

"Cori!" Coulson said, and I turned around.
"Coulson!" I exclaimed and threw my arms around him, then let go again after a few moments. "You're back!" He smiled.
    "May talked to me," he said, growing slightly serious as he did so.
"Ok..." I tried to act like I had no idea why he would be saying that. "And...? You talk to May all the time? What's the significance of that?"  His face grew even more serious.
"You know what I mean. She said that you've been having trouble sleeping, and that you've been having a rough time since...you know."

   I sighed, suddenly wanting nothing more than to just lock myself in my room and try to sleep.
"Look, Coulson, I'm kind of tired, so..." I opened the door to my room and walked inside, but when I tried to close it Coulson stopped me.
   I let out a frustrated groan and plopped down on my bed.
"Whoo-hoo!" I said sarcastically. "Welcome to the 'Let's All Invade Cori's Feelings Show', the show where everyone completely forgets about Cori's privacy! Episode three!"
    As you can see, when I get frustrated, my sense of humor becomes very sarcastic.

Coulson sat down on my bed next to me.
"Look," he began, "I don't want to pressure you into talking about it-"
"Good," I cut in, and he sighed.
"But you also shouldn't bottle things up. But I know you, and you're too stubborn to listen to me, so I actually didn't come here to talk about that. I know that you've missed me when I've been gone, so I thought we could just spend some time together tonight."

That caught me off guard. I had completely expected him to keep pushing and make me talk about my feelings, but the fact that he didn't even intend to do that startled me.

"Um...ok...what exactly did you have in mind?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.
He simply grins, and I don't know wether to be excited or nervous.

******

"Okay, so what's next?" I asked, stuffing my last handful of popcorn in my mouth.
"Well, we can play another board game if you want, or I think we've got Mario Kart laying somewhere around here," Coulson replied, tilting his head as he tried to think.
   "Oooh, yes! I haven't played that in ages!" I exclaimed, possibly a little too eagerly because it looked like he seemed amused by my enthusiasm.
  "Mario Kart it is then. I'll go find it and set it up." I watched him as he got up to find the game, and as soon as he was out of earshot, I looked down and sighed.

   There was a small, nagging feeling inside of me that wanted to just pour out my emotions to him. I had finally admitted to myself that I couldn't bottle everything up forever, I guess it's just a question of how long I could do it for. I can't help but just wish Daisy was here, she's my sister, after all. But no, she had to leave. Of course, it doesn't matter how much she cares about me or how much I'm broken too, all that matters is that she gets to be some sort of Lone Ranger vigilante. I don't get it.

  "Cori?" Coulson said, snapping me out of my thoughts.
     "What? Oh, uh, I'll...I'll be right there," I replied and stood up, then paused. "Coulson?"
     "Yeah?"

What— what are you doing? A voice in the back of my mind said. You don't need to talk about this, you're fine. Just go play the stupid game.

   I look down for a moment, then back up at him.
    "I, uh...I just...I miss her so much," I said, my voice starting to break, and the next thing I know, he's next to me, pulling me into a hug, and I let loose all of the emotions I've been holding back for so long in a tidal wave.

    "I don't understand why she left...it...it was selfish, I...I need her, she's my only family," I sobbed into his shirt, clutching onto him.
   "I know, I miss her too. And...she's not. You have us too," he whispered, and that's when it hit me. He was right.

Daisy isn't really my only family. They are. Fitz, Simmons, May, Mack, Coulson— all of them. I have them.

We kept hugging for a little while, then we finally broke apart.
   "So, how about some Mario Kart?" He asked, and I laugh slightly, wiping my now red and puffy eyes. Yep, definitely family. Coulson's the dad, complete with terrible "dad jokes." Really, you should hear some of them, they're awful.

We grabbed the remotes and began playing. I have to admit, I'm not great at this game— or most games, for that matter— but then again, neither is Coulson. Our races involved a lot of crashing into the walls and finishing in last place.

"Yes! I got a rocket! Look out, I'm coming through!" I exclaimed gleefully, then let out a loud "YES!" when I him over.

"Heyyy, 6th place! That's actually not too bad," I said, satisfied with a least not getting last place.
"Yeah, well the goal is to get first, or at least in the top five," Coulson replied.
"Oh really? You're one to talk, mister DNF," I shot back.
"Hey, it's not my fault I fell into the lava about ten times." He held up his hands defensively, and I just laughed.

We had just decided to try Rainbow Road to see how bad we would do when one of the director's message-boys (not really but I liked to call them that) came into the room.

   "The director wants to see you in his office," he said, and I immediately assumed he was talking to Coulson. He must have thought the same, because he stood, but then the man held out a hand.
   "Actually he meant Agent Johnson."

My jaw dropped slightly, stunned. Why would the director want to see me in his office? Did I do something wrong? I mean, I know there was the incident with the shaving cream, but that was last week.

    "Um, okay...," I replied, then glanced at Coulson. "I guess, I'll see you in a bit."
"Yeah, we need to finish our race," he said with a joking tone. I chuckled, then hugged him one more time before walking out to meet my fate.

Okay, okay, I know that's overly-dramatic, but it just sounded cool.