Akeem

[pippa_flynn]

Straight away after Christmas Pippa had taken Fin's recommendation and gone to see Hex. He told her it was much too early to tell if she was preggers but he ran an STI panel, just to see. He told her it was a bit early to tell that, either.

Ever since, she had been peeing on sticks every few days, just waiting for her period to come. But it didn't. And it didn't. And now she was officially late. By two weeks. But every stick said negative. And so she had made arrangements with Hex once more, not wanting to go to her regular doctor because of her 'condition' as well as Akeem's. No, the NHS wasn't equipped to deal with Fae or werewolves.

And so she set a time to meet with Hex and then went to Akeem's shop to see if he'd come with her. No call, no text, she simply dropped in.

"Akeem?" she called into the book shop. "Are you in here somewhere?"

Comments

[leloupnoir]

"I can only imagine what that's like," Akeem admitted, reaching out to stroke his free hand down her shoulder and arm.

[pippa_flynn]

"I know we bicker a lot, and I know he resents me when I'm bossy, but I can't help it I only want to make sure he's cared for," she said, slowly leaning in against Akeem.

[leloupnoir]

Akeem shifted his arm to wrap it around her shoulders. "From my not at all personal experience, aren't those things parts of most sibling relationships?"

[pippa_flynn]

Pippa huffed out a soft laugh and then took a deep drag.

"Yes, I suppose it is. It occurs to me, just now, I've never asked about your family..."

[leloupnoir]

Akeem gave her a soft smile. "It's just me and my mum. She's... she's in a home now. Alzheimer's. I try to visit often."

[pippa_flynn]

"I'm sorry," she said gently. It was the sort of thing you just said to that sort of news, but Pippa truly meant it. To have only his mum and her likely not know him...that was a special sort of hell.

[leloupnoir]

Akeem accepted that with a small smile and a nod. "She's had a beautiful life. And she does still have moments of lucidity, now and then."

[pippa_flynn]

"So she knows who you are sometimes?" she asked. She thought of her own mum and what it might be like to not be recognized. Even though she'd left the woman back in Manchester, even though mum wanted nothing to do with Fin, Pip still felt a pull toward her.

[leloupnoir]

"Sometimes," Akeem echoed with a nod. He hated everything to do with his mother's current state, but that hate had simmered into a low, deep melancholy over the last few months, the sort that got its hooks in you and would not let go. He took another drag on his cigarette, holding the smoke in his lungs for a few seconds.

[pippa_flynn]

"I never want to be like that," she said softly. She took a drag and thought. "I don't imagine it's something I have to worry about. Somehow I don't see a fae queen becoming a pensioner at all. Maybe, but not likely. What about you? Do you...age?"

[leloupnoir]

"Quite, yes," Akeem confirmed with a small smile, and a nod. It was one more thing that made him think that this would not last.