Heart-to-Heart II

Kyle figured that the best way to get Ariel to open up was to bring her out, to one of her favourite spots and to do one of her favourite things.

Basically, to give her undivided attention as Ariel digs into her ice cream. Kyle's face scrunched up a bit when he thought of how his wife was going to react, knowing that he took Ariel out for ice cream so close to dinner.

Ah, the sacrifices a father does in order to coax the little one.

✿ Author posts on WN and neovel ✿

Ariel was happy.

Not only did Daddy bring her to Joyful Ice-Cream Parlour, he actually let her sit on his lap instead of the child seat.

Her eyes shone as she took in the dreamy-like decoration of the ice-cream parlour, made to look like one was on the clouds in the sky. It really reflected the name of the place.

Joyful.

She was really, really, happy.

She leaned back and felt her father's strong chest, feeling secure.

"Daddy," Ariel called out as she held the spoon while waiting for their order to arrive.

Kyle wrapped his arms around Ariel's waist, gently hugging her as he hummed a response.

Ariel giggled, and then asked, "Daddy, where's Mummy?"

"Mummy?" Kyle repeated, surprised.

Though the question seemed innocent, and her voice didn't seem to show any nervousness or apprehension, Kyle still found it strange for Ariel to ask that question.

More so when she would have been otherwise occupied with the thought of the ice cream that would be arriving.

"She had a little something to do," Kyle said, "Just like when Daddy has to go out to work everyday, sometimes Mummy has to as well."

Ariel pouted a bit and tilted her head, seemingly studying the spoon in her hand as she snuggled deeper into Kyle's arms.

"I guess," she replied relunctantly, not quite satisfied.

"Why do you ask?" Kyle asked, putting his cheek on the top of her head, "Did you want to tell Mummy something?"

Ariel shook her head.

"You just miss Mummy?"

Ariel nodded her head.

Kyle thought quickly. This was not the first time that Sayuri didn't spend the day with Ariel and she had only been gone for a few hours – not the whole day.

"She'll be back in time for dinner," Kyle said, "Though Mummy would be giving me an earful for letting you eat ice cream so close to dinner."

Ariel shook her head, "Mummy wouldn't."

Kyle had a small smile on his face as he didn't correct Ariel. Sayuri never contradicted him nor get angry at him in front of the children – giving them the impression that they were never in disagreement or in conflict.

Perhaps some would say that would give children a false sense of security.

Of course, this did not mean that one should be unrestrained and screaming at each other in front of the children, but not to show any conflict at all is would be giving them an unrealistic expectation of what a marriage was like.

Hogwash.

It wasn't like they didn't have disagreements in front of the children, but they had actual discussions which would have them laying out their differences in points of view.

Without getting angry or raising their voices.

So Kyle had to correct his words and rephrased them, saying, "Well, she wouldn't be happy that I did."

Ariel nodded, "That's true."

She patted the back of Kyle's hand and said seriously, "It's okay. I will still eat dinner properly."

"Okay," Kyle said, hugging her tight as the waiter came towards their table, "Next time, we should come with everyone and have the Special Ice-Cream Hot Pot."

At this, Ariel's eyes went really wide and she clapped her hands, "Yes! Yes! Hot pot!"

Ice-cream hot pot was something that came from Country C, and it was similar to chocolate fondue. There would be various flavours of ice cream, shaped in a small ball and frozen solid amongst fruits and crushed nuts. The fruits were also frozen and the 'cold' dishes would remain cold with dry ice.

There would be melted chocolate in the middle, which remained warm with the candle underneath it. When one dipped the ice-cream ball or fruits into the melted chocolate, the coldness would cause the chocolate to freeze – without melting the ice-cream or fruit.

It would soften it a bit, enabling one to eat it properly.

There were even 'kid-size' ice-cream balls, so that they could be eaten by the children easily in one (or two) bites.

When Ariel's ice cream arrived, it was a vanilla sundae.

One single scoop of vanilla ice cream, with caramel syrup drizzled over it and crushed peanuts sprinkled over it.

Ariel ate it with relish while Kyle felt out of all the flavours that the shop had, Ariel just had to have the most 'uninteresting' one.

But at least it wasn't strawberry, which tended to be too sweet and tastes rather 'fake' – well, in Kyle's opinion.

Ariel took one scoop and turned herself a bit, putting it towards Kyle's lips, "Daddy, eat."

Kyle shook his head, "No, Rie. It's all yours."

Ariel frowned and pursed her lips, "Eat, Daddy. It's delicious."

"Yes, it is," Kyle replied but still refused to open his mouth, "Thank you, sweetheart but you can have it all."

"Daddddyyyyyyy," Ariel said, rather sad, her lips starting to quiver, "It's really, really delicious."

Kyle looked at Ariel helplessly.

He never really liked vanilla ice cream and even if he did, he wouldn't take Ariel's portion.

With a sigh, Kyle opened his mouth and Ariel happily fed him.

She would feed him every two scoops.

She would take one scoop happily, but on the second one, her face would look guilty, and then would give her father one scoop with great expectations in her eyes for sharing.

All of Kyle's protests were effectively blocked by her look, and he just couldn't find it within himself to deny her this.

Naturally, the ice cream finished very fast and Ariel would even lick the spoon several times to make sure there was nothing left. If Kyle hadn't stopped her, she would have licked the sundae bowl, too.

Kyle then lifted Ariel up, turned her around, and placed her on his lap again. He looked at her face seriously, noting the slight smear of ice cream at the sides of her lips. Taking the wet napkin on the table, he gently wiped her face clean.

"Well, Rie," Kyle said as he patted her back, "Shall we go on a holiday at the end of the year?"

"Holiday?"

"Yes, a family holiday," Kyle replied.

"All of us?" she asked tentatively, wringing her hands unknowingly as she looked up at him.

With that question and her nervous expression, the conjecture Kyle had come up with was confirmed.

He was surprised, though, because he thought Ariel was too young to remember the incident last year.

Sayuri had already been apprehensive enough going on a honeymoon and leaving her children behind; and it had been worse when they got back. Ariel became extremely clingy and was rather insecure, which compounded the guilt Sayuri was already feeling.

Hence, Sayuri had decided resolutely that she would not be going back to the company to work but basically worked from home. To reconnect and have Ariel get back her sense of security.

It seemed to have worked for the bubbly Ariel came back – though her thumb sucking habit was quite persistent. Other than that, there was no other indication that there was a problem and the shadow of that time was thought to have been passed completely.

Apparently not.

Kyle gave her a smile and rubbed his nose on hers, saying, "Of course all of us. Mummy, Alex, Rory, you and me."

"Pip?"

Alex shook his head, "No, no Pip. It's just going to be us."

Though it would be slightly more troublesome, it wasn't as if they were incapable of taking care of their kids. Alex and Aurora were independent enough anyway. They could take care of themselves – and Ariel.

Ariel was happy and she nodded.

Kyle looked at her seriously and told her, "Rie, Mummy, and Daddy will never leave you behind. You know that, right?"

Ariel nodded, though she did not look at him and was focusing on her father's shirt.

Whenever Daddy looked at her like that, Ariel got nervous. It wasn't because she was afraid of him but he would normally say things that she didn't quite like when he was in this mode.

Her fingers were clutching his shirt, playing with the buttons as if they were the most fascinating thing ever rather than the normal white buttons of any shirt.

The corner of Kyle's lips rose a bit to see his youngest like this, but he didn't stop her nor force her to look at him.

"But sometimes, there will be days when I have to go away for work for a long time," Kyle said, "And sometimes, it would be Mummy. Sometimes, it can even be the both of us."

Ariel's fingers grabbed onto the button slightly tightly at this, so Kyle pried her fingers off his poor buttons and kissed them.

He pinched her cheeks and said, "But we will always come back."

He put both of his hands on the side of her face and made her look up at him.

"Rie, Mummy, and Daddy love you a whole lot," Kyle told her, "We can't be with you all the time, but we will always be there for you when you need us."

Ariel's nervous heart settled down and she felt like a stone was lifted off her shoulders. She didn't know why, but she just felt Daddy's words were like a balm and it calmed her down.

She knew her parents loved her, but somehow, hearing it made it more 'real'.

"I love you, Daddy," Ariel said with a huge smile.

Kyle smiled too and just as he kissed her forehead, a woman's voice was heard that made his eyes narrow dangerously.

It was supposedly a whisper, but it was so loud that anyone within the vicinity of a table with her, could hear it.

The shock, and disgust, was quite apparent as the words "Oh my God, do you see that? Shameless. I've heard of pedophiles but this is the first time I've actually seen one!"