curiously_cora | (no subject)

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danny,
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There were thirteen dusty shelves. There were four broken/chewed pieces of furniture. And there was one hole in the roof. Coraline stared up at the hole wondering how it got there and how she was supposed to fix it. It wasn't that big but it was definitely a hole, a leaky hole and if there was one there might be more. Coraline sighed, running a hand through her hair as she wandered back outside her old hut.

Being a grown up or trying to be a grown up was hard. No one told you about things like hut maintenance or how to keep animals out of your home. They just sort of knew. And Coraline didn't know and had left her home and now she had a hut she couldn't move back into. Not right now anyway and Coraline really, really wanted to go home.

Sitting by her door Coraline pulled out a book out of her book and began to look over 'DIY for Dummies'. Coraline frowned as she began to read and read and it was just awful. There were words in there that she just didn't even understand let alone know how to spell. Coraline sighed, getting up before smiling as she spotted someone she knew.

"Hi Danny!" Coraline said bounding over with a big, hopeful smile. "Do you know how to fix a roof?"

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"How old are you?" is Danny's suspicious question, because it's not just the roof that he's concerned about in this situation if she's wanting to move out somewhere on her own. "I mean, I got a leaky roof of my own, but fixing it is like admitting that I live under a leaky roof. It's just not happening."

"I'm nearly fourteen," Coraline said. Nearly of course being one of the things that made Coraline frequently annoyed. She was always nearly old enough but never, in fact, old enough to do anything. "Why wouldn't you fix it? If, you could I mean. I'd fix mine but I- I don't understand some of the words in the books."

"Because it's a sign of surrender," he says, making good noise about this. There's no way that he's ever just going to give up, no way. "It is a sign that my hut has done the winning and I have done the losing and Danny Williams is not a loser, no sir. He is a man with strict and strong morals."

"Do those strict and strong morals mean that you'll help me fix mine? I don't mind admitting defeat," Coraline asked smiling at him hopefully. "And then really you'll be a winner because you're helping someone which is cool."

"Well, I can't say no to you. But you gotta do me a favor, okay?" he says, and it's a little more stern now. "You have to promise me that if you do get it all fixed up, that you don't just move in on your own, that you bring a parent or guardian in with you, even if it's just next door. And I mean right next door, none of this miles away stuff."

Coraline didn't know if she could promise that. Promises were sacred, promises were supposed to be kept and despite the fact none of the grown ups ever kept their promises to Coraline, Coraline always kept hers.

"I don't have any parents not anymore anyway," Coraline said. "And I can't promise something if I know I won't be able to keep it. Most of the grown ups I know have homes already, I can't ask them to move for me. Bill, he's my guardian now, is also the guardian at the Homestead so he can't leave."

Coraline didn't know who she could ask if she were to ask. Everyone had their own lives and she was just another kid, a friend to them all. If they wanted her to live with them or live near by them, then they would have asked but no one had. No one wanted her.

"It's okay though, I've been looking after myself for a very long time."

"No, see, no," Danny says, latching onto that and getting a little emphatic as the seconds pass. "That's not just okay. It's not okay if you've been looking after yourself for ages. Everyone deserves attention and there is no way in hell you're different. So, yes, I still want you to make me that promise before I come over with a hammer and nails to help fix your roof."

"Well, then do you want to live next door?" Coraline asked curiously. Coraline could probably ask Jacob if needs be to fix her roof but he'd probably make similar demands on her or try and persuade her to stay at the Homestead. And she really, really didn't want to do that. "Then you'd never have to fix your roof."

"Me? I got a crappy hut already, Giraffe, but I'm very happy for the offer," he makes sure to say, considering that he hadn't exactly been getting many offers yet. "Look, you said you lived at that Homestead place, yeah? So why don't you put in a request for a hut built nearby. Then you got people near you, but you get privacy, too?"

Not that he would ever let Grace do that, but Grace is a lot younger than Coraline.

"No, it's- this is my home. I don't want to live in just any hut, I want to go home and this is it. This is my garden and inside is my bedroom, and my parents room with my sister's crib. And it's all I have left of them and I-I want to go here. Not anywhere else." Coraline said. The feeling of hurt and anger and sadness threatened to overwhelm her but she pushed it down until she could breathe again. "Just here. That's why I need to fix it."

Danny lets out a heavy sigh and hell, he gets it. He so gets it. "I had a home I loved too," he says. "It had everything. It was great. It had great restaurants nearby and a great bed and all my stuff, but I had to let it go. My daughter got moved to a new place and I had to follow. Sometimes, you gotta let things go."

"Why did she move?" Coraline asked curiously. Coraline didn't know if she could let it go or if she wanted to. She didn't want to lose Cain, the one thing that really tied her to him stayed in her bed even now she was nearly fourteen and she didn't want to lose the only thing she had left of Adam that she hadn't destroyed. "What if I don't want to let it go? What if this is all I have left of them? Because they're never going to come back and if they do, they won't remember me so this is it. My house and my garden, that's all I have left of my family."

"She moved because her mom moved her away when she remarried," Danny says, trying to be as gentle as he can. "And they're just things, kiddo. One day you're gonna realize that all you really need, all that's actually left isn't a single garden or house." He taps just lightly on her temple. "It's all up there. Just like my memories of me and Gracie in Jersey are there, but she's gonna forget. But I know. And I'm never letting that part go, even if I moved on to Hawaii and started a new life, just like Grace did, just like you can."

"No kid ever forgets her parents, not one. It's just grown ups who forget us," Coraline said quietly. Coraline didn't like being left behind, she didn't like being alone either but she'd rather be by herself than in a place with people who would disappear and in a place where no one wanted her. "I don't want to start a new life, I want my old one back and if I have to start a new one then I don't want it to be in that place. No one wants us, that's what that place is."

"Kiddo, sometimes I gotta wonder if maybe if a parent is gone too long, they get forgotten," Danny says and it's rough, it's so rough because he misses Grace so bad right now and it's killing him, it's actually killing him knowing he missed their weekend. "And I wish I could give you your old life back, just like I wish I could have mine back. I wish," he promises. "But all I can tell you is you move on and it hurts, it hurts so bad," he says, honest and blunt, "but eventually you find some stuff you like about it."

"My parents, my real ones I still remember them. I still love them even if they did forget about me, they're my parents. I couldn't forget them not even when I had new parents." Coraline said. Coraline wanted to hug him because it was hard to think that grown ups thought similar things to how she thought. Coraline paused before throwing her arms around him awkwardly. Hugs made everything better. "She'll always remember you, I promise. And I only make promises I know I can keep."

Coraline didn't know if it would ever stop hurting. Some days it wasn't quite so bad and other days it was terrible but she stayed and she lived as best as she could and as best as Adam would want her to. It didn't stop her missing him though and it didn't stop it hurting. "I like riding dragons. I never would have done that if my daddy was here, well I would have done it but I would have gotten grounded for an awfully long time."

"Dragons?" Danny echoes and he laughs, shaking his head. "Are you kidding me?" He squints, one eye shut as he takes her in. "Are you telling me that this is the kinda place that has dragons and my daughter is nowhere near to see this? I swear, I swear to you, this is the universe hating on me some more and you'd think after McGarrett, I'd have a carrier ship worth of good karma."

"You know about the dinosaurs, right? Well, there's a dragon and his name is Toothless and he's nice but my cat sort of hates him." Coraline explained, smiling at Danny though. Coraline wasn't a very good liar, she was a good storyteller but it was sort of obvious when she lied. It probably had something to do with having a master spy as a father. "He's my friend Hiccup's dragon. Who is McGarrett? Is he a villainous villain?"

Danny shakes his head and lets out a heavy breath. "Giraffe, you got an hour? Because to tell you about Steve, it takes...at least that long, at least. And, let me tell you, it is not a story that is calm. No, it gets me incredibly riled because he is just that kind of person." He spits out 'person', like it's an insult.

"I've got all day," Coraline said slightly guilty. Coraline should have been in class but well, she had stuff to do and she didn't mind skipping class now and then when she didn't have parents to tell her off for it. "Wow. Is he really that bad? Did he do something bad? Steve McGarrett, I'll write that name down in case he turns up."

"He's not a bad guy, he's..." Danny presses his lips together. "He's just impulsive. It's like he never learned that you're not supposed to do a lot of stuff. He's a good guy, a great man, and an amazing officer. It's just...he hurts me, and I mean literally. He literally hurts me."

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