Starlight travels (Lorien legacies fanfiction)

Everything is okay

When dad tells me I can go play outside, I grab my toy spaceship and dart over to the backyard. My sandy hair falls in my eyes with my quick stumble and I hastily push it back. 

I spin it through the air making sounds that I imagine it to make as it goes through space. 

"Whoosh!" I say as it does a flip in my hands and I gasp. "Commander! There is an asteroid approaching... it will hit the ship!"

I scrunch my eyebrows with a smile and imitate a deep voice that the pilot would have. "Not if I have anything to say about it!"

I quickly shift the spaceship into my other hand, and do a series of complicated maneuvers to safely clear the ship of the asteroid while running across the backyard.

"Pow!" 

"We did it!"

I smile and laugh as I spin around, the ship in front of me. I think I see my dad peek through the blinds in his study and watch me. I grin wider maybe he'll come outside and play with me soon. 

He had been distracted and distant, always in his study. It made me worry and get sad that he wasn't paying attention to mom and me but mom comforted me and told me it'll be fine soon... and it was.  For the last couple of weeks, dad has been happy and listening to me talk about school and my new comics. Everything is going back to the way it was.

It still hurts to think about that time though.

****

I feel incredible giddy as I sift through my new comics. I can't wait to see dad's face when I show him these. I rush to his study. The door creaks when I open it. 

"Dad!" I call. His study is messy but I smile brightly when I see him at the desk looking through papers and the computer in front of him. "Guess what?!" I exclaim waiting for him to turn and see the comics. 

He just slouches. His eyes are bloodshot and he has dark circles under his eyes. Hasn't he been sleeping? He grumbles something about a meeting and then talks louder.

"Not now, Sam. I'm busy. Go tell your mother." He continues clacking away at the computer keys and then every couple of minutes, he looks through the papers surrounding him. He doesn't  even look at me. 

"Mom got them for me," I try again. I'm desperate for him to see me. Doesn't he care about what I feel and what's going on with me? "I wanted to show you."

"Maybe later. This is important." He still doesn't look at me.

 I clutch the comics closer to my thin body feeling my heart ache and tears build up. I run out to the kitchen where mom is making food. She turns as I enter and I throw my comics to the side as I run to her arms.

"Mom! Dad hates me!" I wail as I sob into her arms.

"What do you mean? He loves you, Sam." She rubs comforting circles into my back.

"No, he doesn't!" I insist. "He doesn't even look at me and told me that his work was more important than me!" I bawl.

She tenderly wipes my tears away and gently tells me what she has been telling me for awhile now.

"I'm sorry. He's just working really hard right now. Things will get better soon and he will look at you and talk to you because he loves you very much. I promise things will get better."

I sniffle and nod, letting a few more tears fall and wiping them away. She smiles sadly at me but as she turns away to continue preparing lunch, I think I see her look angry. Yet, when she speaks again to me, her voice is soft and caring.