darker_london | First Signs (Lydia, Peter)

Lydia returned home from school to find her father waiting for her on the sofa, reading some sort of manuscript in a language she didn't recognise. She smiled at him tiredly, which didn't lessen his enthusiastic greeting in the slightest. "Good afternoon, Little Girl! Did you have a good day?"

Lydia shrugged. "It was fine." She dropped her bag by the door and she crawled up on the sofa to cuddle up against her father. "What did you do?"

"I talked to a man at the hospital. Helped him out a great deal, actually. And baby Thomas and I learned a new song! And then he spit up on me so I had to take 3 showers." Peter winked. "What about you?"

"Maths. There was a quiz, but I got them all right."

Peter shook his head and he smiled at her. "I'll never, for the life of me, understand where you got your mathematical mind. I can do the stuff, but I hate it."

"I think it's fun. Like a puzzle and you have to work it all out." Lydia said cheerfully. "And you have clues and you just have to see where they fit."

Peter kissed her head. "Well you are clearly brilliant, Lydia. Is my brilliant girl hungry? I can make a snack? I promise I won't burn it if it's fruit..."

Lydia laughed and then she turned sort of red. She hadn't even had much lunch to avoid eating a lot. The things Brianna had said to her had taken their toll. She wasn't a big girl at all. But Brianna made her feel like she was. And now she walked the halls wondering who else thought that. Were they looking at her? What were they thinking?! "No, I'm fine. Not hungry." And then her stomach rumbled loudly, giving her away and Lydia frowned. Evil, traitorous tummy.

Peter's face immediately took on a look of worry. "You...don't sound not hungry." He turned so he was facing her more formally. While something like this could just be considered small as long as it wasn't an ongoing thing, it set alarm bells off in Peter's head. He already had to watch Aly like a hawk because of her history of eating issues. And he himself was known to abstain from food when he was stressed out. So Lydia could be stressed out. Or worse. Having issues like Aly had, despite the fact that just a few weeks ago she had thought they were stupid. She was nearly 13. People's opinions changed and at the age she was, she was quite vulnerable to peer pressure. "Is something wrong?"

"No!" Lydia said, probably too quickly. "I just...thought I'd wait until dinner."

"Lydia." Peter's voice was gentle, but Lydia was more than aware that it also was inviting no objections. Peter had mastered that voice quite amazingly well. "I'll get you something to eat." He stood up and he extended a hand to her. "Come on, Sweetheart. We'll find something together. Just a few slices of apple or something healthy like that. It'll make you feel better." Peter resolved to watch her closely. He was terrified she might hurt herself. Again.

Lydia took Peter's hand grudgingly. She didn't think it would make her feel better at all, she thought it would make her feel fat, but she didn't want to upset Peter. She knew, deep down, that he was right and that if she was hungry she should eat something. She knew Brianna was a jerk. She what Brianna had said wasn't wasn't even true. But she couldn't help how she felt.

As soon as she'd eaten her snack, she ran up the stairs and looked at herself in the mirror. She frowned and collapsed on to her bed, falling on to her back so she could stare up at the Mortiis poster on her ceiling. "Lucky bastard. No one cares if you fit in to a small school uniform." And then she giggled. Because the idea of Mortiis in a girl's school uniform was very funny.