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Re: Ciao

[st_hotflashes]

Oh okay... Yeah. It's probably a good idea.

Re: Ciao

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

I'll talk to Pete about it. Get us on the same page. There's a problem, and we can address it as a collective.

Re: Ciao

[st_hotflashes]

Thanks, Mr. Stark. I'd really appreciate it.

[st_arkintern]

Liz, you up?

[st_hotflashes]

Yeah. I'm trying to catch up on stuff from when I couldn't really think of anything more complicated than dancing and boys.

What's up?

[st_arkintern]

Mr. Stark and I had this conversation tonight, and we got to the end of it and he said it was okay if I called him dad.

[st_hotflashes]

Really?? Wow. That's great.

That's great, right? I know how much Mr. Stark means to you.

[st_arkintern]

I mean, yeah. I'm really happy, but I'm also embarrassed, you know? Not just about what people would think, but embarrassed that it took this long to talk about it.

And I was really embarrassing about it, too. I told him I thought of him like a dad back at the ofrenda, and I was really worried about how it was going to sound, but he sounded okay with it. I couldn't bring myself to ask him if it was okay for me to call him dad until tonight and I did it in a journal message.

[st_hotflashes]

I've been sort of getting the idea that using journals or your phone seems like sort of an easier thing when you need to tell someone something important. Does that happen a lot back home? Do people like... have fights and stuff through writing?

I think it's good you got it out, though. Now you both have something maybe you were hoping for for a while.

[st_arkintern]

Yeah, I mean, I guess so. But isn't it better to say the important things in person? It'd be weird if the first time I said I love you to you that it was just on a piece of notebook paper.

[st_hotflashes]

I definitely think it would be better... I can just see how it might be easier.

But don't you think you might have been telling Mr. Stark this for a while now, just not in direct words?

[st_arkintern]

Maybe, but if it were obvious, wouldn't he have talked to me about it by now?

[st_hotflashes]

I don't know... asking someone to call you dad is kind of scary, isn't it? Did you feel scared? And he's the adult, right? Maybe he was worried you would think he was trying to replace the other important people in your life?

[st_arkintern]

It was scary. I couldn't really even ask-him ask-him, I just had to do this whole roundabout thing where I was fishing around for him to say it first.

I don't get why he'd worry about that. He can still be a dad to me without replacing Ben or dad.

[st_hotflashes]

When Annie showed up, were you ever worried you might say or do something that would upset her because of her future and what she knows about her mom and dad?

[st_arkintern]

Yeah, but I'm also not an adult.

[st_hotflashes]

I don't think being an adult means you have all the answers. Sheriff Valenti didn't know lots of things and I even saw him cry a few times when things were bad.

I think life experience helps you navigate the world better, but it doesn't make things less hard.

[st_arkintern]

Yeah, I get it.

I really am happy, though. Even though it took awhile for us to get here.

[st_hotflashes]

Me too.

Does this mean I should call him father--in-law?

I'm sort of excited to hear you two say that stuff in public. :)

[st_arkintern]

I don't know if I'm going to do it immediately. I'm still really embarrassed about it. Can you really imagine me calling him Dad in front of Alec?

[st_hotflashes]

Um... maybe not in front of Alec. I don't know how that would go, but Alec would definitely have something to say about it.

I think it's really sweet though, for the record.

[st_arkintern]

Yeah. Someday. Maybe when the two of them make up.

If they make up. I've been dropping hints and they either don't get them or they're ignoring them.

[st_hotflashes]

I think they will. They can't stay stubborn forever, can they?

[st_arkintern]

If anyone could be, I guess it'd be one or the other.

[st_hotflashes]

Maybe we could get them in one place where they have to work together to get out?