Hunter puts a hand on my neck, under my loose hair, cradling the back of my head. “Yeah, it is. And you’re going to eat it, Matty.”
“No, I won’t. I hate broccoli. It’s like a tiny tree. We’re eating tiny trees! I’m not a giraffe! I want spaghetti with tomato sauce.” Matty says, stalking to his seat and plopping himself down.
“Tony Stark eats broccoli. That’s how he got so smart.” I’m pretty sure this isn’t true, but I’m bribing the kid into eating vegetables. Parenting 101.
“I’ve never seen him,” Matty says, crossing his arms over his chest, and notching his chin up. Defiant, to the end.
I let Hunter hold me for as long as he wants to. Even then, I won’t let him go. I like this too much. I could never play hard to get, hugs and kisses from Hunter MacLaine are worth worshipping the Empire for.
“Well, yeah. Why would they show Tony sitting at home eating veggies? People wanna see him fighting crime, blowing up aliens and making fun of Cap. You don’t get smart eating pasta for the rest of your life. It’s a scientific fact.”
“You’re a scientific fact!” Matty shouts, banging his fists on the table.
Hunter tenses in my arms. “Kid, if you don’t eat your supper, then you aren’t getting anything else.”
Matty has a triumphant grin on his face. Click. Oh, frak, what a little genius.
I step forward, keeping his present behind my back, moving out of Hunter’s arms. “You know, little man, you can’t let your body get tired because you don’t want to eat vegetables. It’s not fun when you’re tired is it? Even if you get to eat chocolate and candy so you don’t get tired anymore, huh?”
His mouth drops open like I’ve just read every thought he’s ever had. He has to work on his Occlumency.
“I...but I want to have what the other kids have. They can have juice with lunch, and I can’t. They can have brownies for dessert, and all I get is crackers. I don’t like crackers, Sera. They taste like sand.”
I nod, even if my heart hurts. He just wants to be normal, he just wants to be like everyone else.
“How about you keep eating right, and I can start making you special muffins for you to take to school with you? Only for you and nobody else?”
“Can you put some chocolate in them?”
I think about this. “Yes. I can. Now sit up properly because I have a present for you. I got you the most amazingest t-shirt in the history of t-shirts.”
Matty slaps his hands over his eyes, and I know when he moves them, there’ll be red marks on his face. I wince and move my hand from behind my back, totally ignoring the fact that Hunter has let go of me, and gone quiet.
I unfurl the shirt, and show it to the little kid, shaking out my now cast-free hand. I tell him what it says, and feel a little crestfallen when his reaction isn’t everything that I hoped for.
“On the weekend, I’m going to show you what a Jedi is, and how it’s so so cool to be one.”
Matty tilts his head to the side. “Sera, you’re weird.” He shrugs and leaps off his chair to give my legs a hug. “Thank you. Blue is my favourite color.”
“Yeah, Sera. You’re weird.” Four words said in a dead voice. I turn to look at Hunter, whose eyes have gone cold and whose face looks at me like I’m some kind of stranger.
Hunter grabs my upper arm in a gentle hold and almost drags me to his bedroom. Again, I see those hand-drawn pictures, and search for my face once more in the graffiti that takes up the entirety of his far wall.
Oh. My. God.
He’s taken to drawing more of me, more portraits of my face in different thoughts and moods. His talent is pure and beautiful, and the lines he’s used to capture who I am on the paper makes me see what he sees.
And I don’t know what I did wrong. If I did wrong.
“You think I can’t fucking afford to buy the kid a goddamn t-shirt, Sera?” Hunter shouts after he closes the bedroom door. The blue in his eyes is frosty, instead of the warm navy when he usually looks at me. His face is taut, cheekbones standing out, and the muscle along his jaw ticks like its keeping time. He gets in my space, forcing me back against the wall so two of his thick arms cage me on either side.
No. Just no.
“What are you talking about? I saw it, and I wanted to buy it for him, alright? I didn’t buy him a fraking nuclear launch code, Hunter!” I yell, ducking underneath his arms and going for the door. Before opening it, my stomach hollows out and it’s a struggle to breathe. “You need to learn to let others do things for you, or you’re going to be one lonely motherducker, MacLaine! Set the table for two. I’m done here.”