Too Far Gone - Part Forty Six
Series Masterlist
Warnings: Not a whole lot, angst and fluff, maybe some swear words
Word Count: 7000
Tia thought she would be nervous or anxious seeing her dad. She wasn’t. She thought she would be angry or upset having to remember everything he did. She wasn’t. She thought she would be flustered or start spiraling thinking of all the things she wanted to say. She wasn’t.
When she walked into the restaurant and said Paul’s name to the host, she felt confident.
He was already waiting at a table tucked towards the back, wearing khakis and a button up polo shirt. His light hair had even more grey mixed in than she remembered, the heavy bags under his hazel eyes told a story of their own. He stood up and gave her a hug, then tucked her chair in behind.
“Hi,” he beams at her. “How have you been?” Paul’s voice is soft but riddled with anxiety.
“Good.” Tia replies with a nod. “I’m waiting for exam marks, but I can’t finish any of my classes with a grade lower than 77%. I stopped working at the club and got a job at a local clothing store. The owner is also a designer, and she is very supportive of me, giving me pointers all the time. I go to therapy once a week. Taylour just turned three and had a Paw Patrol themed birthday party. But you knew all that didn’t you?” She holds him under a firm glare atop the menu, then drops it into her lap and releases an exhale.
It’s no secret that Paul has been keeping tabs on Tia. He’s offered money multiple times, came to Toronto and tried to meet with her. Beyond that, there were phone calls she never returned, a letter she didn’t bother to read, messages on social media that were ignored. Despite her attempts to keep him at bay, she always knew he was there giving her space, all while keeping a watchful eye. In all honesty she thought once she started working at the Brass Rail he was going to show up and drag her out by her hair, but even then he stayed back.
Paul shifts slightly in his seat and clears his throat. “Tia, I wish I could go back and undo it all,” he tells her, sincerity dripping off his words. “But that isn’t an option.”
“No. It’s not.” She sternly replies, anger riddling her voice as she glares at him. “But you had three years to tell me, instead you waited for Auston to question you on it.”
“I know and I –“
Paul moves to speak but Tia cuts in. “You were a single parent. You know how fucking hard it is to raise a child alone. The only difference is you had to do it alone, I didn’t. Auston would have been involved if he had the opportunity.” Only anger comes across because the alternative is pain, and that is something she is trying to avoid. “It was hell being a young mother alone in a new city, thinking the father wanted nothing to do with me, not having a single person to support me.”
The silence that follows her words is intense, awkward even, thick and suffocating as her eyes burn into him. Her intention in coming wasn’t to yell at him. Her and Heidi spoke about Tia’s goals, what questions she hoped to have answered and where she saw their relationship going.
She wants to have a real conversation with him, probably one of the only honest conversations they have ever had but seeing him triggered something in her. And before she can move towards a future relationship, Tia needs to get everything out in the open.
“You didn’t actually do it alone, not entirely. In Minnesota you had Grandma and once we moved some of the bases had subsidized daycare, there were tons of families who would help out if you were gone at night.” The more Tia speaks, the more anger and vitriol comes out. Each word burns her tongue more than the one before, but she can’t stop. “You had people everywhere we went! I literally showed up in a country with no job, no apartment, no friends. And within a month of me arriving, Auston was in Toronto signing his contract, practicing with the team. He was so fucking close, and I had no idea.” Tia tries to keep her composure but every time she thinks about how there were only a few kilometers separating them it tears her apart. A lump forms in her throat and tears brim in her eyes, her first sign of weakness since sitting down. “Did you know?”
“Hi folks, I’m Dan and I’ll be looking after you today,” the waiter dressed in all black interrupts. “Can I get you started with drinks?”
There is a delay, and maybe if it was longer he could have picked up on the tension. Dan might have seen the way Tia’s tears stung Paul more than anything else in his entire life, but only because those tears are for him, because of him. But to save the young man from being another casualty of his errors, Paul turns and fakes a smile.
“Uhm,” Paul clears the hoarseness in his throat. “Can I get a diet coke?”
“Of course,” he replies with a nod, and turns to Tia. “And for you.”
Tia’s fight or flight instinct was never to run. She didn’t in fourth grade when Molly Cauvinsky made fun of her for the hairstyle Paul spent over an hour on for class pictures. She didn’t in eighth grade when Kelti and Justine (the mean girls of her grade) were bullying her after moving to Belgium. She always fought back and stood up for herself (literally with Kelti), but that version of her has slowly faded with time. At this point Tia doesn’t think she has any fight left. She just wants to leave.
“Tia?” Paul prompts her.
“Sorry.” Tia shakes her head with a sniffle. “I’ll have the same.”
“Great, I’ll be right back.”
“Thank you.” Paul replies as Dan makes his exit.
“Did you know Auston was here?” Tia repeats the question, looking through her lashes, feeling the hot tears sting her eyes as she tries to blink them away.
“Yes,” Paul sighs and looks away. “I did. The fact you didn’t is shocking. Everyone in Arizona, Zurich and Toronto were talking about it.”
“So, it’s my fault?” Tia snaps, her face scrunching with disgust. “After you made me think he abandoned me I should have googled him? Kept tabs on the ex that I believed wanted nothing to do with me or his child?”
“N…no,” Paul stammers out awkwardly. “Not at all. None of this is your fault. I fucked up, so many times. The first when I made an assumption about the type of person he is, second when I broke into your accounts, third when…I mean the list goes on,” he sighs again and drops his shoulders at the weight of it all. “I did try to tell you. Every time I came to town you wouldn’t see me, or you’d hang up the second you heard my voice…I…I wanted to tell you I just never had the chance.”
“And that’s my fault?” There is venom in her voice.
His hazel eyes flash with pain, but Tia doesn’t care. She doesn’t care if hearing of her struggles upsets him or makes him uncomfortable, he deserves to take back some of the burden she has had to bear for the last four years. He deserves to feel guilty.
“No sweetie, not at all.” He emphatically shakes his head, unable to meet her piercing glare. “It’s all on me. I should have been a better parent,” he can barely whisper.
Tia looks him dead in the eye, trying to find any indication he isn’t being truthful, a hint of insincerity. Something to make her second guess (or quadruple guess at this point) her decision to come. She almost wants it to be there, because it would be easier to accept he hadn’t changed. But there isn’t any. Paul is being genuine, and in spite of her reservations, Tia believes every word he says. So, she takes a deep breath, and then another, trying to steady her beating heart.
“Something we agree on,” she mutters bitterly.
“Here we are.” Dan pops in at the best possible time with their drinks. He sets them down on the table and pulls out his notebook and pen. “Are we ready to order?”
“Can I get the portobello mushroom sandwich, with a Greek salad?”
“Excellent choice, the aioli is very good,” he smiles, scribbling down Paul’s order.
Tia hesitates and contemplates leaving yet again. The conversation thus far has spun in circles and maybe she isn’t ready to hear him out. On top of that, Tia barely glanced at the menu. She read the names of the dishes and looked at a couple pictures, then found herself re-reading it when she didn’t process anything, and then gave up on looking all together.
“Can I have the same please?” Tia requests because that seems easier.
“Nice and easy,” the waiter reaches down to collect the menus. “I’ll be back shortly.
“Thank you,” Tia forces a smile and lump in her throat.
“Every parent makes mistakes,” Paul speaks as soon as Dan leaves. “Mine just happened to be catastrophic. I genuinely thought Auston was a terrible match for you, that he’d do irreparable damage to your heart…I now realize it was me who did that,” he adds in after a pause. “If I could go back to the day he left Zurich, or that first date when you came home six hours late and give him a chance, I would. But I can’t. I can only accept my faults, try to move past them and hope you can forgive me.”
“That’s awfully wise,” Tia cocks a brow, and brings the glass to her lips to take a sip.
“Those would be the words of Dr. Fischer, the therapist I’ve been seeing in Berlin for the last nineteen months,” he explains.
“And what does Dr. Fischer think of you following me and my life over the last three years?” Tia probes.
“He told me I needed to find the true cause for my actions. And it wasn’t fair for me to keep forcing myself into your life if I wasn’t going to be honest with both me and you.”
Tia can hear a raw vulnerability in his voice, something else she never experienced with him. Apart from frustration over her poor dating choices, and disappointment when she lied or broke curfew, Paul rarely showed any emotion.
It always stung as a child when she asked about her mother and Paul brushed it off as if she meant nothing to him, she now understands and reciprocates that sentiment. But as an eight-year-old girl it baffled her why her dad was unphased talking about her “death” as this was supposed to be someone he loved and cared for. She often felt guilty showing emotion when her father didn’t, so to not only see his emotion, but feel it, Tia is a little unsure how to handle the situation.
“He told me I should leave you alone and wait for you to come to me, if you ever did. I listened to his advice for four months or so, then the article came out. That was kind of hard to ignore.”
“Right,” Tia nods, halfheartedly smiling as she lets out an uneasy exhale.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Paul offers.
The thing is, the first few days after the article, when Tia was at her lowest, a part of her wanted to call him - he is her dad after all. He had a hard time admitting his faults or when he was wrong, but the two of them became very close over the years. They had to, every time they moved to a new city he was the only person she’d know.
When she turned twelve he went to a bookstore and bought five different ‘how to talk to your daughter’ books on various topics such as dating, puberty and her period. He bought different types of products and sat her down, trying to explain everything that was going to happen one day.
He was the one who taught her to throw the right hook that led to her two-day suspension after Tia clocked Kelti in the jaw. And with weeks until the start of her senior year when Paul was relocated and Tia was left devastated, Paul was once again there to console her.
He went to every one of her dance recitals, and always gifted her a large bouquet of flowers afterwards. He stayed up until 3am trying to make cookies for the school bake sale, before finally conceding his skills were subpar and tried to play off bakery cookies as his own. He wasn’t just her only parent, whenever they would relocate to a new city he would become her only friend.
“No.” Tia shakes her head and looks him dead in the eyes. “Not with you.”
He’s just not that person to her anymore.
“Alright,” Dan pops in beside the table, holding two plates. He sets one in front of Tia and the other in front of Paul. “Do we need anything else?” He queries with a smile.
“No,” Tia turns to face him. “I think we’re good.”
“Great. Well enjoy.”
Tia picks up her cutlery and starts to eat. Neither one says anything, and Tia doesn’t really know if there is anything left to say. What is she supposed to say? It’s okay. I accept your apology and what you did. Your actions didn’t cause this trickle-down effect on my life that led to me being a stripper, who at times could barely face the reflection in the mirror.
Paul’s face twists in confusion, noticeably baffled by his daughter. He knew she was going to have walls, massive and almost unclimbable walls, but he hoped she was going to start letting them fall. Why else would she invite him to lunch across the Atlantic?
After watching Tia take a few bites of food and rinse it down, unable to bring her gaze up, unable to speak or do anything other than eat, Paul sighs and starts to eat his lunch.
“So,” he prompts her, breaking the bubble of silence that builds around them. “Tell me about Made With Grace.”
“Oh my god,” she almost laughs. Of course, he would know about her fashion line before a single picture or post has been made about it. “What’s there to tell? You know it all.”
“I know you made a second Instagram account with the name Made With Grace. I assume,” he emphasizes for effect, “it’s for a fashion line, but you haven’t posted anything, it’s hard to know for sure.”
“Yes,” she groans, shaking her head. “That is the name of my fashion line. I have made a few pieces, but I don’t know if I’m going to start it now or wait until I graduate, it’s a lot of work and I think I’m starting to hate everything I made.”
“I didn’t raise you to doubt yourself,” Paul asserts.
Tia sets down her fork and wipes at the edge of her lips. “Maybe I’ve changed.”
“No.” Paul shakes his head. It’s clear she isn’t being truthful to either one of them, not that he really blames her. “Circumstance has you scared. The fans and media haven’t been kind to you, and now you are constantly in fear of what will be said about you. You are so focused on how everyone else perceives you that you no longer know who you are.”
“You’re probably right,” Tia finally concedes after contemplating his words.
“Unless you live your days in a hole, people are going to talk. You had a baby with Auston Matthews, it’s obviously very hot gossip.” Tia almost snorts up her diet coke at his sarcasm. “They are always going to talk about you, why don’t you change the narrative?”
Tia stays silent for a moment, as if she is fighting over what to say next. “Might be the first useful thing you’ve said all lunch,” Tia retorts. Paul’s eyes go wide along with his jaw at her bluntness, but when he sees the faintest of smirks on her face, he sighs.
“Can I see?” Paul grins.
Tia smiles at him and grabs her phone from the purse that dangles off the chair. Unlocking the device, she opens the gallery and selects the album full of pictures of her clothes. Some on mannequins, others being modelled by her friends, even a few selfies of herself in them and slides it over the table to him.
Paul takes his time looking at every picture, zooming in, flipping to one from a different angle and back to the other. He asks questions about her inspiration behind each one, the various colours and fabric types she chose, but he didn’t have to do a lot because once Tia started talking it all came rambling out.
She tells him about her decision to start on social media and not use a store – even though she probably could have space at Celestes’. She explains how it will keep her start-up and product costs down if she produces every item herself, opposed to using a manufacturer and needing a markup. She tells him about the price point she was considering, and how Celeste told her it was too low, and that she is weighing the decision to raise it before her first sale.
“You’ve put a lot of work into this,” he tells her. “I’m proud of you.”
“Thanks Dad,” Tia genuinely smiles.
“So, when did you and Auston get back together?” Diet Coke once again almost spews from her nostrils. “I know it was after that banker kid, who, if we’re being honest, stuck around for far too long.”
“Will you stop stalking me?” Her eyes go wide, and she shakes her head in disbelief.
“Send me a text every once in a while and I will,” Paul replies, somewhat jokingly. “But seriously, I just want you to be happy, and if that’s with Auston –“
“We’re not together,” Tia quickly informs him, stabbing her fork through a piece of spinach.
“Tia, can we just skip the part where you lie to me?” Paul grins softly.
“I’m not lying. Auston and I…” There is a slight hesitation that if Paul didn’t know her so well he may have missed, but he does know her. He sees the way her shoulders fall and the way her eyes coat white with fear as she grapples with the admission. “We’re not together,” she finally admits, voice void of all confidence. “Things with Thomas – the banker kid - weren’t good. Not just with him, but a bunch of other stuff was going on and I sort of used him as a crutch to forget it all. That’s why I’ve been in therapy, working through it all, learning to love myself again.”
“I’m glad you’re doing better.” Tia can see the panic in his eyes he is trying to disguise as she speaks of a person long ago forgotten. “And I’m sorry things got to that point.”
“It’s not your fault,” she softly smiles to him. Falling silent for a minute, Tia lets out an exhale, picks up her glass and swirls the ice. For the first time since sitting down, the silence isn’t heavy and full of resentment, it’s almost peaceful, easy.
“Are you sure you’re not dating him?” Paul doesn’t accept her answer. He sets his cutlery on the now empty plate and pushes it to the side. Scooching his chair closer, he pulls his phone out and begins to scroll until he finds what he needs. “This?” he probes, showing her a picture taken of them at the park, sitting side by side with his arm over her shoulder. “Or this?” he scrolls to the next picture, one of them at dinner after she told him of her new job. “And what about this one?” Paul shows her the last picture, one where Auston is holding open the door to her building, Taylour is on his hip and Tia is beaming widely, happily laughing over something one of them said.
“What are you, TMZ?” She scoffs dryly, rolling her eyes.
“These are literally pictures he was tagged in on Instagram or Twitter. The entire world has access to them, blogs are speculating that you two are back together, these pictures are causing a shit storm online. I get notified when your name pops up on Reddit, it’s how I found these.”
“We’re just friends dad, nothing more.”
“I don’t look at my friends like this,” he pulls up the restaurant picture, that must have been taken after he said something funny or ridiculous. Tia has a slight blush on her cheeks and one hand on his thigh, while the edge of her lips are beginning to curl upwards, where Auston is full on smiling at her with a twinkle in his eye.
“Are you done?” She exhales heavily. “Why are you suddenly on the Auston train?”
Paul chuckles. “I trust you and your judge of character.”
“Oh, the wise words of Dr. Fischer,” Tia deflects, not wanting to talk about this anymore, and especially not with him.
“He might be the one who said it first, but I know it’s true.” Paul echoes. “Just like I know you have feelings for him.”
“Dad,” Tia warns, her voice firm enough for him to pick up on. He throws his hands up in defeat while cracking a smile, one that hits her face too.
Tia continues to pick away at her lunch while Paul peppers her with a million questions. Tia answers all the ones she felt comfortable with. She still has reservations about him and rightfully so. She shows him pictures and a few videos from Taylour’s birthday, and even heard a soft sniffle over the screaming children as he watched his grandson dancing with Marshall and Chase.
Dan cleared their plates and Paul ordered coffee and dessert. He didn’t even ask Tia if she wanted to stay, just assumed, but she doesn’t mind – Taylour did get his love of cake from somewhere after all. She knew the real reason was he wants to extend their time together; she doesn’t mind that either.
The decadent dessert was almost gone when Paul was rambling about Cherrie, a woman he had been dating for the last six weeks. He had a sweet smile on his face the entire time as he gushed about her and shared stories of their recent camping trip.
“She sounds amazing dad,” Tia says when he finally stops rambling. “I’m happy you’re happy.”
“Thanks,” Paul replies with a soft squeeze to the hand. “I haven’t been this happy with someone since –“ Paul’s face whitens, and Tia can practically feel the shiver erupt up his spine.
“Since Kylie?” Tia hesitantly questions, letting her gaze drop while she shifts in her seat.
“Yeah. I don’t know how you feel, but I personally try to not talk about her.” Paul explains, his face scrunching up in the process.
“Heidi makes me talk about her,” Tia says awkwardly. “A lot.”
“Luckily Dr. Fischer doesn’t anymore,” Paul replies.
“Well, I went to see her, probably why she still pushes it,” Tia mutters as the fork scrapes the plate to collect the final piece. Almost as if she is contemplating taking the bite, she stares at the fork, centimeters from her lips for a moment, before finally sighing and setting it back on the plate.
“You spoke with Kylie?” Paul sends his full attention to her.
“No,” she lets out a long sigh. “She wasn’t there but I did get to meet her new husband,” she adds softly, but Paul can sense the pain in her words.
“Ah,” Paul nods and clicks his teeth, attempting to hide his own displeasure. He picks up his glass and takes a sip of the drink, that is mostly melted ice with the faintest taste of diet Coke and follows it up by clearing his throat. Tia can feel his discomfort, almost more than her own. “You want to talk about it? About her?”
Tia leans back in her seat. “No,” she answers with confidence.
“If you ever do… or you have questions about her…I know I never really talked about her –“ he barely manages to stutter out.
“Why would I want to find out about a woman who abandoned me, abandoned us?” Tia’s tone is harsh. “The only question I may want answered is why she left, only she can answer that, but right now I just don’t care.”
“I get that, I used to care, spent years constantly wondering what I could have done for her to leave.”
“Dad,” Tia is quick in her response, the assertiveness catching them both off guard. Taking a breath to compose herself, she leans forward in her chair and grabs his hand. When she opens her mouth to speak again, her words are soft, barely louder than a whisper. Using the full weight of it seems too frightening right now. “You didn’t do anything wrong, it’s not your fault she left.”
“No, I know that now. It took me a bit, longer than it should have, but eventually I realized and stopped caring. It’s probably why I never told you the truth about her.”
Tia sighs. “You don’t have to justify how you handled that. For two years I thought Auston abandoned me and I dreaded the day Taylour started to ask why he wasn’t around, because I had no idea what I would have said. It’s not an easy topic to handle.”
Paul brings his other hand over hers and gives it a soft squeeze for reassurance. When he releases a shaky breath, followed by a sniffle, Tia realizes he is crying. Wood scraping on the floor is heard and she shifts to be closer to him.
“I’m so sorry I put you through that,” he whispers through jagged breaths, letting Tia hear all the pain he has been harbouring for years.
“Dad,” her voice cracks, but she has no more words. Instinct is to say something along the lines of “it’s okay” but she can’t say that. What he did is not okay, and as of right now she doesn’t forgive him, she is just open to the idea of maybe forgiving him one day. But, even if at some point she forgives him, what he did will never be okay.
**
Tia didn’t know how or why she planned her day this way. If lunch wasn’t going to be enough of an emotional roller coaster, or if she wanted to add some more excitement to her day, but after lunch she was venturing across town to Scotiabank Arena for a friends and family skate. It didn’t make sense for her to be there, given she isn’t a family member or dating a player, but there she was, with curls bouncing under the Leafs toque Auston had provided her, dredging through the slush covered parking lot. By the time she reached Auston who was lingering at the door, the bottom two inches of her suede boots were soaked, and fresh snowflakes littered her hat and shoulders.
“Hey,” Auston smiles and brings her in for a hug. “How’s it going? How was lunch?” Tia can hear sincerity in his question even though she knows his opinion of Paul and her decision to see him.
She steps into the warmth radiating off his body, her arms sliding around his waist. “It was…okay.” The truth is lunch wasn’t good, but it wasn’t bad. It was emotional, stressful and at times challenging, but she wouldn’t classify it as good nor bad.
He pulls back to scan over her face. She doesn’t look like she is fighting emotional turmoil or the tears that often accompany that, but she doesn’t look excited either. There is something about her that is off. Whether that is the result of seeing Paul, the regret in agreeing to come or a combination of the two, something is bothering her. Auston just knows.
“You okay?”
“Yeah,” she nods, further burying her face against his chest.
“You sure?” He probes while quirking an eyebrow, unconvinced by her.
“I will be.” She nods again, this time tilting her head back to flick her eyes along his. Warm, reminiscent of home.
“Want to talk about it?” He offers, tightening his grip around her waist.
“Maybe later.”
“Okay.” His lips gently kiss her forehead. He knew she wouldn’t talk about it here, but he had to try. “Let’s get going.”. His arms linger a little longer than they probably should before letting them fall to her sides. “You excited?” He asks, opening the door for her.
“I guess,” Tia snickers, “haven’t been on skates in four years.”
“Every Minnesotan is ashamed of you,” he teases, casually strolling down the hall.
“Every Minnesotan is offended by your stereotype,” she claps back, taking her gloves off and shoving them in her purse.
“Fair enough,” he chuckles. “Don’t worry, a lot of the women can’t skate, you’ll fit right in.”
“It’s not my skating abilities I’m worried about,” she mutters under her breath.
Tia reaches for the handle of the dressing room but Auston having heard not only what she said, but the dread in her voice, grabs her wrist and pulls her to the side. “Don’t worry about them.” He tries to comfort her, “I’m going to be with you all afternoon. Same with Taylour.”
The truth is, Auston wants Tia to have a good time, not just with him, Taylour and the few teammates she has met on occasion. He wants her to get along with the women. He isn’t expecting her to become friends with them or even get along with all of them, but a couple might be nice for the few games she will attend.
Tia shoots him a soft smile, one that she hopes will tell him she was okay. It must have worked, because he smiles back and reaches around her, yanking the dressing room door open.
Tia instantly remembers the thing she hates most about hockey locker rooms, the smell. No amount of cleaning product or aerosol spray could mask the scent trapped in every orifice. The room is loud, multiple overlapping conversations, big broad-shouldered men and beautiful women sitting beside them, even a few kids mixed in. There has to be twenty different conversations ongoing, two babies are crying, its absolute mayhem, another thing Tia remembers.
“Mommy!” Taylour calls out when they step in, drawing the gaze of a few people in the room. Stepping over the bags and around the shoes that scatter the floor, she takes the seat opposite Taylour, and Auston sits beside her.
“You ready to skate?” Tia asks, bending down to undo her laces.
“Mhm,” Taylour nods with a smile carved into his face. “I just need my helmet.”
“Got that right here.” William, who is sitting on the other side of Taylour reaches in to the small Maple Leafs duffle bag and pulls out a blue helmet. Adjusting it on his head, he begins to snap the buckles in place. “And your gloves,” he holds out each hand and lets Taylour slide his fingers inside. Knocking on his helmet, Will smiles at him, “now you’re ready.”
“Can I skate now Daddy?” Taylour pushes off the bench and wobbles on his blades.
“In a sec, I only have one skate on.” Auston starts tugging on the laces to begin the process of tightening the second one as Tia slides her feet into her skates. A perfect fit – as if she should expect something else.
“I got him,” Will offers. Standing up in his booth, he runs a hand through his shimmering gold locks and flips them through the air almost in slow motion, like a perfectly placed shampoo commercial.
Grabbing Taylour’s hand, Will helps him maneuver the mess of items on the floor. With Taylour gone Tia returns to the task hand, tying her skates, something Auston used to do because she could never make it tight enough.
“Need some help?” Auston offers after watching her work on the same section of laces, never getting them any tighter.
“I –“ Tia always found him tying her skates to be such an intimate act. She never quite understood why, they were always in smelly locker rooms, or on a crowded bench at an outdoor rink surrounded by strangers. Two of the least romantic places she could think of, but the act of him doing it for her always felt so personal, private.
When Auston asked, it wasn’t a literal question, he was more so informing Tia that he would be tying her skates. He always let her try, sometimes even waited until she was finished only to shake his head and grin over how loose they were and redo them himself. Tying skates is such a normal facet of everyday life for Auston he never felt any hidden meaning. But, there is a small part of him that enjoys tying Tia’s.
Grabbing the sides of her right skate, he lifts it up in the air and slots the blade between his thighs then hunches over. Working his way up from the bottom he yanks on the lace tightening it a little bit more each time. As he passes the ankle, he pulls his gaze to hers and asks, “is it too tight?” to which she smiles and softly replies no.
Becks told her that stepping onto the ice after four years would be like riding a bike. She lied. Becks was a figure skater for eight years, so maybe for her skating was like riding a bike, but that wasn’t the case for Tia. With two feet barely on the ice she started to wobble and reach out for the boards when Auston’s strong grip found her elbow.
“Did you forget everything I taught you?” he teases once she steadies.
“You forgot everything I taught you about fashion,” she retorts playfully.
With a very dramatic eye roll, Auston spins in front of her and puts his hands on her shoulders. “Legs should be shoulder width apart.” He stops and waits for Tia to adjust, “good,” he nods. “Now you want to bend your knees a bit, until they are just past the toe-caps.” Tia once again follows his instructions. “Chest and head up, looking at the ice is how you kiss it.”
Once Tia was standing in the correct position and ready to start skating, Auston gave her a few more pointers. Tia did as she was told, and soon she was slowly gliding down the ice while Auston remained in front of her, holding her hands while skating backwards. Every time she looked down at her feet, he would lift her chin, and every time she began to wobble he would slow down to keep her upright, sometimes by putting his hands to her hips.
“Hi Mommy! Hi Daddy!” Taylour’s small, joyful voice radiates as he skates by.
“Wow, look at you, such a good skater,” she encourages him, feeling a sense of pride watching him maneuver around the freshly cleaned ice.
“Mhm, I have to go get Fweddie.”
Continuing to push out with his feet, Tia watches him slowly skate further and further away, trying to close the gap on Fred and Jessica who are waiting on the blue line. As he pushes faster and faster, his little legs begin to wobble.
“Oh!” Tia exclaims when he falls forward and lands on his chest. “He fell.”
“I see,” Auston spins to be beside Tia, and puts an arm under hers for support, not making an attempt to get to Taylour.
“Auston, he fell,” Tia repeats, firmer this time, panic becoming evident.
“Just watch.” Nodding towards centre ice, Tia watches as he positions himself on one knee, and uses his two hands to push off the ice and onto two feet. “It’s crazy what a good teacher can do,” he adds when Taylour resumes skating towards Fred.
“I wouldn’t know, my instructor had a tendency to get…distracted.”
Auston tries to hide his smile, really tries, but Tia’s playful tone makes his cheeks warm and pink. “Let’s go,” Auston slips his fingers into hers and ignores her teasing, however true it may have been.
True to his word, for the next fifteen minutes Auston was close by with that large smile still pressed to his lips. He just couldn’t shake it. During the first three seasons there were countless friends and family skates, and Auston often attended them alone. Sometimes his family was in town and would join in, but more often than not he felt alone while surrounded by others. Every time he saw Mitch kiss Steph or the Marleau’s holding hands, he found himself wishing Tia was there with him, and now she is. And it will take a lot to pull that smile from his face.
“Taylour come here,” Auston beckons him to centre ice by curling his index finger.
“Daddy, Fwed said I can shoot on him.” Taylour beams as he makes his way with a stick in hand, but it’s obvious he isn’t coming to see them and instead is heading towards the net.
“In a minute, come here for a second,” Auston tells him.
“Daddy,” Taylour whines, throwing his head up in annoyance.
“You can wait one minute.” Leaving Tia standing alone, he takes three strides and picks up Taylour, who starts to giggle as Auston tickles his side.
Auston half expected to find Tia on her ass after he left, but she was in the exact same spot, arms spread wide to help with balance. Fred skates over holding his stick, gloves and blocker and stops inches from Auston, sweeping snow over his ankles.
“Take a picture of us.” Auston shoves his phone into Fred’s chest, the two of them sharing a playful smirk.
With Taylour on his left hip, legs dangling on either side of his thigh, Auston throws his right arm over Tia’s shoulder. Her arm snakes behind his back, and he shifts to be closer as she leans into him. Her other hand finds its way to his chest and he holds them both, close, smiling while Fred snaps pictures of them.
“No more,” Taylour throws his head back dramatically.
“No more?” Tia brings her hand off Auston and gently runs them over Taylour’s chin. Uninterested in anything other than skating he turns away and lets out a deep huff. Auston and Tia share a brief glance, both of them silently saying ‘he’s your kid’ then he sets Taylour on the ice and retrieves his phone from Fred.
“Daddy, come play too!” Taylour grips his hand and tries to pull him over.
“I have to make sure Mommy doesn’t fall and break her leg.” Auston says somewhat sarcastically with a devious grin.
“Go play with him,” Tia shrugs his arm off her shoulder, attempting to act annoyed but the smirk says she is anything but.
“You sure?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
Tia stays put for a second and watches Auston skate away, scooping Taylour up along the way. She watches Jason skate up with Anna and Julia, his two youngest daughters and the three kids practice shooting on Fred who makes dramatic attempts at every save.
Jason coaches them on how to properly hold the stick while Auston snatches the puck from Taylour’s stick and dangles around all three kids as they attempt to take it back. The laughter that echoes off the ice is contagious, euphoric, and Tia feels like her heart could explode just by watching.
As she takes it all in, she can feel her balance beginning to dwindle and decides to venture over to the bench before she falls. Tia tries to remember what Auston taught her and positions her left leg to point away from her body, and her right towards the bench where she can see Jessica sitting alone. Bringing her arms out horizontal to the ice, Tia pushes off with her left leg and slowly meanders away. Feeling her feet wobble under her body, Tia’s arms start to spin in large circles to help with balance and her eyes drop down to see what her feet are doing.
Almost instantly she hears the familiar teasing, yet stern voice of Auston, then feels him enter her personal space. “Head up Adams’.”
“How do I know what my feet are doing if I don’t look at them.” Her entire body starts to lean forward, the ice getting closer, but his hands are quickly on her hips, holding her upright.
“You just do,” his lips hover inches from her ear as he stabilizes her and helps guide her to the bench.
“Very inciteful,” she replies dryly.
“I know.”
Auston leans down and his lips press against her cheek. A short and sweet kiss that he didn’t even think about. It just came naturally and felt normal, like most things between them as of late.
For a while now, Tia had been feeling herself mold more and more into Auston’s life. In the past this aspect of Auston’s life scared her and as a result Taylour was largely kept out of it. Tia didn’t know how to keep Taylour involved but herself out, then it hit her, she can’t. She has to be involved otherwise Taylour won’t be. While that concept used to scare her, she didn’t feel that once while out on the ice. She felt like she was exactly where she needed to be.
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general details.
full name: alexandra raina nuñez.
nickname(s): alex, lex, lexi, lexstasy (stage name only).
name meaning: alexandra: to ward off, defend, protect, raina: queen, nuñez: son of nuño.
age: 22.
date of birth: december 27th.
place of birth: toronto, canada.
current location: toronto, canada.
ethnicity: dominican (afrolatina).
gender: cis female.
pronouns: she/her/hers.
sexual orientation: lesbian.
romantic orientation: homoromantic.
religion: currently atheist, raised catholic, currently athiest.
occupation: stripper but she tells everyone she's she's cocktail waitress.
education level: currently a college sophomore, sports medicine major/social work minor.
extracurricular: none.
living arrangements: off campus in a 2 bedroom apartment with her mom under the condition chad never comes back and he never gets their new address.
spoken languages: english, some spanish (yo no sabo rep).
physical appearance, etc.
faceclaim: alycia pascal-pena.
hair color and style: black, thick, often curly, sometimes worn in braids.
eye color: brown.
eyesight: 20/20.
height: 5’6”.
weight: 121 lbs.
body and build: petite, toned, athletic, curves.
tattoos: tbd.
piercings: earlobes, hoop in her right nostril, septum, various ear piercings.
clothing style: whatever she's comfortable in tbh but she's a tomboy so she leans towards that when it comes to fashion unless she's on stage. when she’s on stage, she’s much more femme.
distinguishing characteristics: her smile.
signature scent: vanilla bourbon perfume.
health.
mental disorder(s): n/a/
physical disorder(s): n/a.
allergies: shellfish.
sleeping habits: late nights for work and early mornings for class means alex doesn't get enough sleep, she runs on caffeine and tries to nap whenever possible.
eating habits: she doesn't have a consistent eating schedule and does a lot of late-night eating but she tries to make up for it by being relatively healthy, she isn't always successful though.
sociability: not the most social, very much sticks to the people she knows.
addictions: none.
drug use: weed almost daily, isn't opposed to party drugs but doesn't do them often.
alcohol use: when she's working, if not it's socially or just a beer after a hard day to unwind.
personality.
aesthetics: bloody knuckles, hoop earrings, old school hip hop blaring through her airpods, seeing red, horror movies, a pile of dead vapes, combat boots or the newest sneakers on her feet no in between, freshly rolled blunt between her lips, energy drinks, late nights, street races, the smell of perfume masking the smell of weed, fighting outside of bars, yelling at the TV during various sports, being secretive, hard time breaking habits, snarky remarks, running from the cops, smoking and drinking more to cope
positive traits: independent, resilient, loyal.
negative traits: harsh, troublemaker, temperamental.
goals and ambitions: to be successful.
astrology: capricorn sun, scorpio moon, pisces rising.
personality type: istp.
moral alignment: chaotic neutral.
hogwarts house: slytherin.
element: fire.
primary vice: pride.
primary virtue: justice.
favorites.
weather: cold, snowy, pure winter baby.
color: green.
music: hip-hop/r&b/reggaeton/alternative.
movie: set it off.
sport: hockey.
beverage: cookies and cream milkshake or any milkshake reallly.
food: chimichurri (dominican burger) and poutine.
season: winter.
family, relationships, etc.
mother: emily nuñez.
father: unknown, chad kent (former step-father).
significant other: n/a.
best friend: tbd.
exes: tbd.
sibling(s): none that she knows of.
children: none.
headcanons.
main difference is this is her first time stripping and she never left to ajax.
she’s currently a sports medicine major and wants to be the physical therapist for the maple leafs one day.
very secretive and private, learned how to be at a young age to keep the abuse in her household a secret.
after her repeat of senior year, she took a year off to figure out her life. during this time she’d gone no contact with emily and tried to start over. the following year she enrolled in university.
(cancer tw) she came into contact with her mother again over the summer after chad left her and she was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer.
alex supports herself and emily financially and takes care of her mother.
watches a lot of cartoons/anime and almost every kind of sport.
wanted connections.
exes.
crushes. (requited or unrequited)
hookups. (former/current)
friends.
besties.
enemies.
gaming buddies.
gambling buddies.
smoking buddies.
drama. angst. give it all to me.
anything and everything we can come up with.
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