Summary: Leo goes back to The States to see his family and settle things with Katie.
At one of the gates of the Regional Airport of Monterey, Katie held her daughters by the hand whilst they waited for Leo to show up. Emma quietly stood by her mother’s side, while Ava anxiously bounced up and down, eventually trying to escape her mother’s grip to look for her father.
“Where’s Daddy?” Ava furrowed her tiny brows.
“He’s getting out of the plane and he’ll be here soon, honey. Be patient.”
“No, I want Daddy!”
“And he’s coming. His plane already landed. He’s just picking up his suitcase.”
“I want to see Daddy now!” the little girl pulled her hand away and folded her arms.
“He is coming, sweetie. We just have to wait a couple more minutes,” Katie said trying to calm her daughter down.
The little girl, however, wouldn’t go down without a fight. Ava began to bite her own hand and stare blankly at the floor. Katie hated when her daughters threw tantrums, but Ava’s were surely the worst ones because of how much she reminded Katie of Leo. Every time Ava did something like that, she reminded of the times Regina and Constantine told her about Leo’s childhood response to frustration. It was daunting how similar she was to her father, how symbiotic their father-daughter relationship was and how Leo rarely dealt with this because Ava was surprisingly well behaved and calm around her father. Nevertheless, she was the mother and her daughters had to obey.
“Ava, he is coming. Behave or you won’t get dessert,” Katie commanded.
“Daddy! Daddy Daddy!” Emma screamed jumping excitedly as Leo marched towards them with a bright smile on his face.
Ava immediately stopped throwing tantrums and ran towards her father and her sister followed suit. Katie rolled her eyes. Every time… But as she watched Leo going down on one knee and pick up both children while they hugged and kissed him, she couldn’t contain her smile. Their laughter was contagious.
Leo stood up, guiding Emma by the hand as he carried Ava who was sitting on his four wheels suitcase and went towards Katie.
“Welcome back,” she greeted him shyly.
“Thanks.”
They walked out of the airport to the parking lot only talking to the kids, without a single exchange of looks to each other. Just like every other time they had a big fight. For a while, they thought it was for the best. Both of them would have time to think and work it out once the dust settled. But, eventually, they were no longer so sure that was the best solution.
“Is Daddy not going to get dessert too?” Ava’s brows knitted together as Leo and Katie buckled their seatbelts and drove off.
“What?” His brows furrowed.
“Sweetie, what are you talking about?” Katie inquired.
“Mommy didn’t kiss Daddy. Mommy never kisses Daddy when she’s mad and he’s not getting dessert,” Ava pointed out.
“Honey, that’s not true. Mommy didn’t kiss me because I’m tired and smelly and I need a shower first,” Leo explained, looking at Katie from the corner of an eye and quickly turning his attention to the road.
“Yes, I’m saving Daddy’s kisses for later.”
“Kay,” the toddler smiled and returned to watch a cartoon on the car TV.
“Now I have a question. Who else lost dessert privileges?”
The little girls went silent.
“Ava?” Leo cocked an eyebrow from the rearview mirror.
“Me…” The little girl mumbled.
“Why?”
“Because I miss daddy.”
“Go on.“
“And I thought you were hiding and I wanted to look for you.”
“And?”
“And mommy said no and I bit my hand,” Ava replied looking at her ballet flats while Emma simply drew on her tablet, avoiding the entire conversation.
Leo glanced at his wife on the front passenger seat, quiet, slightly annoyed. He shook his head as he sensed the irony of Ava showing the same behavior patterns he had when he was a kid whilst Emma’s personality was so alike to Katie’s. “You can’t do that, Ava. You could’ve got lost at the airport and it’d take hours for us to find you. Did you know that?“ Leo asked as the car turned on the street of their house.
“No…”
“Mommy was just trying to protect you, Ava,” he said calmly as he maneuvered the car in his house and parked it. “I think you should apologize to her.”
“Sorry, mommy,” Ava pouted.
“It’s okay, sweetie. You’re forgiven,” Katie smiled and turned to her husband unbuckling his belt and mouthed. “Thank you.”
Leo winked at her, climbed out of the car and helped Emma out of the car while Katie hugged Ava and they walked into their home to have lunch.
…
Days passed by since Leo arrived, yet he still hasn’t talked to Katie. She spent most of the time avoiding him and they were no longer sleeping in the same room. Even though he was no longer angry over their last fight, he was wounded. And the worst part was knowing he felt like this for quite some time and he needed to put an end to it.
As part of their discipline method to teach good manners to the girls, every time they were well behaved for a week, they’d get a few perks. Their favorite one was dinner and movie night every Thursday. They usually had so much fun, they even did while Leo was traveling and he’d participate through video chat. That particular Thursday was no exception. But no matter how well they hid their true feelings from their children, Katie and Leo couldn’t hide them from each other.
After the movie, each one of them carried a child upstairs and tucked them in bed. As soon as Katie closed the door to the twins’ room, Leo walked to the master bedroom. She followed him and sat on the bed while he picked a pajama bottom.“Leo?”
“Yeah?”
“We need to talk,” she bit her bottom lip nervously.
He didn’t respond and simply went to the bathroom to brush his teeth. A few minutes later, he walked back into the room and sat by her side. “We surely do.”
She looked at him for a moment, taking in every detail of his face. She has never been so scared about how a conversation would end, but she had to. “I’m sorry. I should’ve been there the whole time with you.”
“Yeah, you should. But it’s okay.”
“You know, that’s the thing. It’s not. It’s not okay we keep asking each other forgiveness because it’s not fair that we hurt each other so much. I know couples fight, but it feels like it’s all we do. This can’t be right, is it?”
He shook his head looking down his hands.
“Do you think we still can fix this? Fix us?” Her lips trembled as she enunciated the words.
“As a family, yeah,” he heaved a sigh. “But I think we shouldn’t do it as a couple from now on.” He took her hand and looked into her eyes. “What do you think? Can we still can fix us?”
Katie’s eyes began to well up as she breathed fast and shook her head.
Leo wrapped an arm around her and she rested her head on his shoulder sobbing. He caressed her hair, occasionally brushing her tears away and fighting his own.
“I’m sorry, Katie. I wanted us to work things out and be this great family we planned when we got married. But you’re right. We’re just hurting each other. And it started to blow back on our daughters. What kind of parents are we if we hurt our own children? What kind of partners are we?”
Katie sniffed and gazed at Leo.
“I don’t want to hurt you anymore. I love you, Katie. But the way I love you now… It’s not enough to keep us together.”
“I know,” she nodded, placing an arm around his waist and they stayed in silence for a while. “What are you going to do next?”
“I’m moving back to Cordonia for now.”
“Really? What about your crew?”
“I talked to them and I’m joining the freestyle category in Italy and compete with them for a year. They’ll help me to start a team in Cordonia.”
“Wow… You really thought this through.”
“This isn’t a brand new idea. I started to think about it when you were pregnant and we thought about moving to Cordonia when the girls begin elementary school.”
“Oh… I remember that. We’d move there, live in that quiet neighborhood next to the school you went and the girls would study there too. We’d spend more time with your side of the family and slowly introduce the twins to courtly life like we agreed to do when Constantine asked. I’d help catering royal events,“ she smiled. “It was a nice thought.”
“Yeah… It still can come true.”
“But–”
“I know. It won’t be exactly like we planned four years ago, but it still can happen. Move to Europe with the girls.”
“Leo, my job…”
“Katie, if you come to Europe, I’ll make sure you’ll work for royalty. Not just Cordonian, but also British, Monégasque, Spanish. The girls will attend the best schools, you’ll be just a few train stops away from Paris, Milan, Monte Carlo, Brussels, Berlin…”
“But can I do it without you?”
“Hey,” he turned to the side and cupped her face. “We’ll always be family. I’ll be with you whenever you need me.”
“All right,” she uttered. “But is it okay if I say that I need you now?” she said as one of her hands slid up his back and caressed the nape of his neck.
“It’s more than okay,” Leo pulled her onto his lap, groping her thighs. “Because I need you too.”
