V. Spilled Galaxies | Magnus - Tumblr Posts

━━ ✦ ( @never-surrender) said :

you made me feel… incredible. (M&M)

When he had invited his neighbor with him to Napa, he'd be lying if it wasn't under the guise of them perhaps knowing each other better. He had harbored feelings for her for a while but with Emma and Elizabeth being friends, he didn't want the possibility of it crashing and burning and affecting his daughter like his last two marriages did. He just didn't see this moving this quickly.

What had started as a wine tasting at sunset became a kiss. Which became them rushing to her room for more than kissing. It was the sun's rays coming through the hotel room window that had alerted him to the fact that it wasn't just some dream he had conjured up in his hopeless romantic heart. His fingers traced patterns across her back as he peppered kisses on her shoulder.

At her words he couldn't help the small blush that came to his cheeks. It had been a while since he had been with anyone and had doubted that he was that good. Placing a gentle kiss on her lips, he spoke voice still rough from just waking. ❝ Not as incredible as you make me feel. ❞

Magnus's brows furrowed as his attention was pulled from his daughter to his beautiful neighbor. It seemed the two were going through similar personal turmoil about their daughter's new journeys. Reaching out, he placed a reassuring hand on her arm. "I have an open pair of ears anytime you need to talk about anything, Mickey." Returning her smile with one of his own.

"Yes, that sounds like a great idea." His voice was boisterous as he followed her to the kitchen. This was a joyous occasion after all. Waiting patiently as she poured them their glasses, he couldn't help but smile as he reminisced about when the first settled here. " I remember when we first moved in next door and you invited us over to dinner. Elizabeth was happy to know that you had a daughter her age, was excited all day. "

Taking the glass, he gave a small thank you before taking a drink from it. " It's been going well. I'm going to be heading out to Napa in a couple of weeks to take some new shots of a location." Then an idea came to mind. " Have you been? You should come with, I usually have Elizabeth to explore places with but with her choice of college, I think she'll be busy settling in. It's a nice getaway. "

"You know... I kind of hoped she'd take a year to figure things out, but I'm okay with her not..." or so she thought. "I'm worried for her though... really worried. She's -" Mikayla hesitates, before shaking her head. "Well, now's not the time for that kind of talk. I'm sure I'll tell you about it later," she amends, smiling over to him with a gentle smile.

And then she claps her hands. "Now! About that wine!" she exclaims excitedly, moving towards the kitchen with him in tow. Grabbing a couple wine glasses, she sets them down before she fills them up with wine, handing him a glass before sipping at her own.

"So how's work going?"

"Yes," Magnus smiled remembering that night. They were finally planting roots. He had tired of lugging Elizabeth around on his adventures, and wanted her to have somewhere to call him as he had once in Iceland. Having fallen in love with California, he felt like he had chosen the right place that night his neighbor invited him and his daughter made her first friend. One that she could keep in touch with and see every day now. Not corresponding in emails and passing social media posts. And that fact that Magnus in turn also made friends with the beautiful mother was also a nice surprise. " You did, but I must admit they did not make it to the next day. When I stayed up that night responding to emails for a new job I heated them up and ate them hours later." Chuckling, like if it was a secret.

"Of course!" Magnus smiled at her. "You can stay as long as you like. Elizabeth is most likely leaving for Boston in the next couple of days to get settled." He had at this point accepted his daughter's choice, she was as stubborn as he was. "And please, don't rush. If you can't make it, no harm. I wanted to invite you seeing as it would be a nice getaway. I don't remember you taking a trip yourself. Or a vacation as I can recall." Did he pay attention Mickey's comings and goings? No, but he did notice in conversations when they talked that mentions of vacations or getaways had never been brought up.

Nodding, he agreed. "Please, take your time. Let me know when you decide. That way I know if I should wait for you to drive up together or head out." Taking a sip from his wine, he looked around at all the other parents and teenagers. With a sigh, he couldn't help but ask. "Mickey, you have a big family, correct?" Glancing over at where his daughter stood with her friend and other teenagers, he then looked back at Mickey. "Does this ever get easier? Watching them grow and move away. Making their own way?" A small sadness blossoming in the father.

Taking up her own glass of wine, Mikayla takes a lingering sip from it as Magnus does, listening to the memory that he speaks of with a soft sound of laughter bubbling from her lips. "I remember that very well... her and Emma hit it off so well, and so did we for that fact," she muses lightly, "I think I sent you home with the leftovers too," it was a pointless comment, a fact she's well aware of as she lifts her glass to take another sip of her wine.

Though she does sputter a bit when he offers what he does. "Napa?" she questions, worrying at her lower lip for a moment. "Well... I'd have to decide quickly so I can let my families know I won't be doing daycare... I can stay for a week, but I'd have to come home after that long. I can't take more than that off," she could, but she didn't want to inconvenience her families like that.

"Would that be alright?" she asked after a brief pause, looking to Magnus as she did.

These Tiled Steps In San Francisco Glow At Night From The Moonlight

“But, she doesn’t believe in love because of me.” Magnus had never intended on his daughter to know that his marriages failed because they wanted to send her away. It was something he had kept to himself for all those years. After losing the mother of his daughters and Elizabeth’s twin in childbirth, there was nothing more unimaginable to the man than sending his only daughter away. Each time he thought he found love, someone that he could share his life with, only to be blindsided with the fact that they never actually even liked his daughter was a betrayal he could not stand.

He had never imagined that his daughters inability to find someone was because she had taken his failed attempts at love as being a sign that love was not real. “I feel as if I have done her more harm than good by keeping the truth to myself. I don’t know how to approach this with her.” It was true she was older now, would understand nuances of relationships better but would she then take the truth and blame herself? “ i don’t know how to make this right.” He was in no way asking Mickey what to do. Just needed to let this out, for the first time he felt as he had failed his daughter.

❛  i thought i was doing the right thing ... but i realize now that i was wrong.  ❜ magnus -> mickey

Mikayla is quiet as Magnus speaks, hearing what he had to say and certainly uncertain how to respond. It was a sensitive topic to say the least, she had to treat this carefully or risk upsetting him more. "Sometimes, doing the right thing in the moment is the right answer. Hindsight is always 20/20, they say, and they say it for a reason..." she rests her hand on his arm then, a soft smile rising to her features as she attempts to soften the blow with a gentle kiss to his cheek.

"Elizabeth doesn't hold it against you, that much I can assure you."

"Of course, take your time." Magnus smiled at Mikayla, he would never rush her. While he hoped she could make it, he also understood that she had children and a family to tend to and it wouldn't be easy to just drop things and go. His life had been full of travel, his daughter and he had never settled anywhere until a couple of years ago when he fell in love with the golden state.

"It might not be what I want to hear, but it is what I needed to hear." He chuckled as he took a drink from his glass. "It makes me feel as if I am part of a club now. One in which parents watch their children grow up and go off to make their own lives." It was perhaps harder for the man since she was his only child. Not quite ready to accept that she was now off to make her own way in life. "At least it's not a country away. A plane ride away, right?" It was said more in a way that showed that he needed a little bit of reassurance that everything would be okay. But he also wouldn't turn down the sage advice of a mother who had done this more than once.

Mikayla hadn't taken a vacation in... lord knows how long. It had truly been some time since the woman had done anything for herself rather than spending all her time dedicated to her children, both her biological children and the children of her daycare. The last vacation she had been on, had to have been when Steve was still alive...

"Oh trust me, I want to make it. I'll let you know as soon as I can figure it out, alright? I promise," she spoke with a small smile, looking towards where the children were now. Finding a smile making its way to her lips, Mikayla thought back to the first time she had seen Magnus and Elizabeth, and found that she couldn't quite remember the first time that they had appeared. They seemed to have just... came from nothing. Like God knew exactly what he was doing by just placing them into her life.

"Does it get easier?" she parrots, sighing as she shakes her head. "No... if anything, it gets harder," she admits with a small sigh. "I was upset when my first graduated, and now I'm even more upset that my baby is graduating. I know that's not what you want to hear..." she speaks apologetically, grimacing as she does so. "Its especially hard when they move so far away," the experience in that sentence was hard to ignore, as her eldest son had moved clear across the country to New York.

Magnus's shoulder slumped as he wracked himself with guilt. He had always done only what was best for her the moment she was born. The moment the doctors said his wife and other child did not survive the birth, and the nurse placed a crying babe in his arms, he knew that everything he had to do was for her. This felt like a failure on his part. A sigh came from the man as he placed his hand over hers. Thankful that he had her in his life, for a moment he had doubted everything he had done to provide for his daughter. His career made it hard for them to call anyone place home, maybe he had found a place for them to settle too late. So many maybe's, could've, should've's raced through the man's mind.

As always, his friend was right. The choices were to either let her believe that his marriages had failed because love was not real, something broken by infidelity, or just a flitting fancy, leaving as quick as it came. Or tell her the truth, that the women he had come to want to share his life with had eventually wanted to ship her off to some boarding school or just away in general. Knowing her, she would take the guilt onto herself, blame herself for her father not being happy and that was just not an option to him. "You're right," he conceded. Mikayla in her wisdom knew them so well in the couple of years they had spent living next door to her. "How are you so wise?" He smiled at her knowing fully that she was an amazing parent who had done it with more children than Magnus's one. How he wished he had found someone like her when Elizabeth had longed for a mother in her younger years. "Do you think you could come over and have dinner with us tomorrow night? She flies back to college the day after and I don't want it to be so awkward and I know she misses you."

Mikayla's heart broke with what she heard. To know that Elizabeth didn't believe in love was painful for the woman to come to terms with, and she wasn't even the woman's mother. Though she thought of Elizabeth as one of her own, and she could only hope that Elizabeth trusted Mikayla enough to come to her for anything that she'd need. But right now this was about Magnus, not his daughter.

And with that thought, she reaches forward, taking a gentle hold of his shoulders, "You've not done more harm to her than good. You've done what you know to be the right thing... if she knew about what you've gone through with your previous relationships, the outcome would be the same. A disbelief in love, but for entirely different reasons," the rationalization came with ease to her, "If you feel like the right course of action now is to admit the truth to her, then I will support you... but sometimes, things are better left unsaid."