Pinkie-Swear

[intheheart]

Title: Pinkie-Swear
Rating: PG.
Summary: Ahava and Duncan, every two years.
Notes: For anyone wondering if Arelie's baby had a good life... here it is.


The girl emerged from a pile of boxes of all shapes and sizes, and blinked at Duncan. "Who're you?" she demanded.

Duncan shrugged. "Duncan," he said. "Who're you?"

"Ahava." She eyed him for a moment. "Why're you here?"

Duncan, who had been pushed into the playroom with no instructions except to "play nice," shrugged again. "Dunno," he said. "My mom's talkin' to your mom. Got nothin' to do."

Ahava eyed him for another moment, then nodded. "You can play with me," she said, "but you have to pinkie-swear you won't tell on me."

"Pinkie-swear," he said, and that was that.

--

"This time it's a sister," Ahava told Duncan, and sat down beside him on the grass, spreading out her skirt.

"A sister?" Duncan asked, sounding uninterested. "Look, Scout is going to get out again."

Ahava glanced at the next door neighbor's yard, where their dog Scout was indeed digging his way under the fence. "Yeah," she said. "A sister. Mom said her name is Miriam. She's three," she added, after a minute.

"Half our age," said Duncan-- he liked math, and always showed off. "Big enough to watch Scout get out with us. But only sometimes."

"Only sometimes," she agreed.

--

"Remember, you have to balance," Duncan told Ahava. "If you fall you're going to bust up your knees."

She rolled her eyes, clasping his helmet onto her head. It was slightly too big, and only fit right when she tucked her braids under it. "I won't fall."

"If you bust your knee your mom's going to ground us both," he warned.

"I won't fall," Ahava said again. "Push me."

"They're rollerskates," Duncan said. "You push yourself."

"Push me," Ahava insisted. So he did.

She did fall, and she did bust her knee, and they did get grounded.

Worth it, though.

--

Ahava jumped up atop the swing's seat and stood there, swinging herself back and forth. "So what'd they teach you in FLE?"

Duncan, sitting more conventionally in the swing next to her, shrugged. "Dumb stuff. What'd they teach you?"

She rolled her eyes. "Periods and babies. I already knew about that. It was boring."

"I wish they'd teach us that," Duncan grumbled. "They just taught us about penises. And wet dreams. Way boring."

"What's a wet dream?" Ahava asked.

He told her, then said, "What's a period?"

She told him.

They considered it for a moment, then said, simultaneously, "Ew."

--

Duncan was worried about Ahava-- they'd been eating lunch for five whole minutes and she hadn't said a word. He nudged her. "You okay?"

"No," Ahava said, and then, "My birth mother's coming."

"Oh," he said, and bit his lip. "When?"

"This weekend." She shifted, then admitted, "I'm really scared. Duncan, what if she wants to take me away?"

"Your mom and dad won't let her," he said, positively. "She just wants to see you."

"Um," she said, not sounding terribly convinced. Then she said, "Would you be there when she comes?"

He reached over and took her hand. "Pinkie-swear."

--

Ahava screamed all the way down the bunny slope, fell on her face when she tried to stop, then got up with red cheeks and demanded to go again.

"This is awesome!" she said, on the ride up the ski lift. "Thanks so much for inviting me!"

Duncan made a face. "Well, it was invite you or spend the whole time with Elspeth and Jeannie." Duncan's sisters were three and five years older than them and really annoying about it. "I picked you."

"Oh, thanks so much," Ahava said, sarcastically, then hopped off the lift with a squeal. "Come on!"

--

"We have to break up," they said, simultaneously, and then, still simultaneously, heaved a sigh of relief.

"I'm so glad you feel the same way," Duncan said, with fervor. "I mean, it's not you, you're totally awesome, it's just..."

"...it's weird!" Ahava finished, and he nodded, enthusiastically.

"Exactly," he said. "It's awful. I want things back like they used to be."

She nodded, and sat down beside him on the step. "Let's promise to never date each other again," she said.

"Pinkie-swear," Duncan said, and did so. "We'll just have to settle for being best friends."

"Who says we're settling?"

--

Ahava slammed her way into Duncan's house without bothering to knock, and screamed, "I got in!" when she found him sitting at the kitchen table.

He jumped up. "Sarah Lawrence?"

"Yes!" She threw her arms around him and danced him around the kitchen with glee. "I'm going to Sarah Lawrence!"

He grinned at her. "And I'll be at Columbia! This is gonna be awesome. We can see each other every weekend!"

"Without our stupid siblings," she added, and made him laugh. "Too bad we can't live together."

"We'll get an apartment senior year," he said. "It'll happen."

She couldn't wait.

--

Ahava called in the middle of a date, which accounted for Duncan's snappish tone when he answered. "What."

"Can we talk?"

Shit, she sounded like she was going to cry. "Of course," he said. "Julia, I have to take this. What's wrong, Ahava?"

"Corey dumped me," she said, voice wavering. "He said he didn't like me being friends with you. I told him I didn't care and he dumped me."

"Okay," he said, "I'm coming," and looked apologetically at Julia.

She only asked, "Ahava get dumped again?"

"Yeah," he said. "I'm sorry."

"It's cool," she said.

Thank God she understood.

--

They graduated a day apart, went to each other's ceremonies as a matter of course. Eventually they ended up back at the apartment, families safely in hotels, drinking beer, talking.

"I got a job offer," Ahava said, suddenly. "In Washington."

Duncan nodded, without comment. "You should take it."

"It's so far away," she said, quietly.

"We'll keep in touch," he said.

She moved from her seat to the couch beside him, and put her head on his shoulder. "I don’t want to lose you," she whispered.

Duncan snorted. "Like you could."

"You promise?"

"Pinkie-swear," he said, and made her smile.