I’d Give Up The World For You - Chapter 241

Rukelion liked being the stay-at-home parent. He was able to take quick breaks to check on his kids whenever he wanted since he was such a fast and efficient worker. As long as he got his quota done for the day, no one cared what he did during work hours.

Roselia and Peony were thick as thieves and could play make-believe games or with their toys together all day. That made things easier. He could check on them at the same time since they were never far away from each other.

That became more of a problem once Roselia went to kindergarten. She had already been attending half-day preschool and the separation anxiety for that was bad enough. Having a full-day program was worse. Since Peony only went to preschool half that time she easily grew bored and wanted someone to play with while her sister was gone.

Dealing with a fussy three-year-old and twin infants at the same time made getting any work done a real challenge. He got into the habit of setting her down with a movie when she got back from preschool so he could finish his work.

As soon as Roselia came home Peony was happy as a clam again and went off to play with her. Rukelion’s work was usually done for the day at that point so he was able to focus on the twins.

His weekdays were hectic but he was used to that. It had been much worse in the royal army without the benefit of having people he loved around.

He lived for the weekends. The Blazes didn’t go out much when the twins were little but that wasn’t a problem since their backyard was as good as any playground. They had bought a backyard playset consisting of slides, swings, and a climbing wall.

The girls would play on it for hours while he and Daisy set to work turning their property into the garden of her dreams. Never one to be kept down, she began the massive undertaking mere weeks after giving birth to the twins. She said it helped keep her sane while they were in the NICU.

Rukelion could understand the feeling. He needed something to keep him sane too.

They couldn’t afford all of the bushes/trees/etc. that she wanted right away so the first thing they did was plan out what they wanted everything to look like in the future. Having a rough layout of where they wanted to put what was helpful.

Very little of their backyard consisted of lawn. It was primarily restricted to right outside the back patio and took up less than half an acre of space. There was a bit more in the front but not much.

Daisy wanted the front yard to be mostly flowers and trees she thought were pretty while the fruit trees would be out back. Rukelion had no problems with that. This was her dream landscaping project not his.

She never seemed as at peace with the world as she did when they were digging around in the dirt together. He was heavily reminded of their days on the farm.

He couldn’t deny that he was more at peace here than he had been in their apartment back in Cincinnati too. He didn’t like being apart from his wife or children but he didn’t have to do that as much here. And having land was familiar to him. Comfortable.

“Isn’t it a beautiful day?” Daisy sighed happily.

They were out working on the garden while the girls played and the boys napped in the shade. It was indeed a beautiful day but the most beautiful thing about it for Rukelion was hearing his daughters’ joyful yells as they chased each other around and the way his wife had been singing to herself as she pulled weeds.

He smiled softly at her. “Yeah, it is.”

“Florida is so, so much better than Ohio. I’m so glad we moved here. Aren’t you?” she asked.

“I’m with you on that. The weather allows for gardening year-round. I haven’t seen that anywhere else I’ve lived. We don’t have to spend all winter cooped up inside anymore.”

Daisy laughed at the reminder of the farm back in Mirea. Aside from taking care of the animals there really hadn’t been anything to do except catch up on months’ worth of chores that had been put off.

After coming to this world and realizing how much the people here distracted themselves Rukelion found it amazing that she hadn’t gone insane during those winter months. Then again, she had him and later Ira to talk to her at least some of the time.

She had been so happy back then even without all of the distractions. He supposed it had been because she was living her dream.

Seeing her now with modern amenities, their family, and their massive garden in progress she was even happier than she had been on the farm. She was perfectly content with her place in the world and he envied that.

Not that he wasn’t happy! He loved his family and the life he had now more than he could put into words. But he knew he didn’t actually belong here and never would. His dreams had become Daisy’s but he had none of his own at this point in time.

Rukelion simply wished he could get his anxiety to go down and feel less like an imposter. There were still things he didn’t know even after years of living in this world.

Whenever he brought those feelings up to his wife she told him he needed to immerse himself more fully in the culture here. Find something he liked outside of his daily duties at work and to their family.

Basically, she was telling him to get a hobby the same way Amy had. She wanted him to make friends and feel connections to this world outside of the one he had to his family so he would feel more like he belonged in this strange place.

He always changed the subject. He had his reasons for not wanting to get more involved than he had to. He doubted that doing so would change anything.

“That is a major perk of living here,” Daisy agreed to his earlier statement. “I also love living only a couple hours away from both the beach and major campsites. I’ve always wanted to go camping. I’m sure the girls would love it.”

Rukelion knew what camping was and it baffled him. Why would people purposely want to act like they were on the road back in his world for fun? What was so entertaining about that?

He was never one to dampen his wife’s enthusiasm though. If she wanted to go camping, he would do everything in his power to make it happen.

“Sure. That sounds fun,” he told her.

Rukelion was rewarded by Daisy’s brightest smile. After so much time it never failed to warm him to his core. It had gotten him through some very dark days.

There was nothing he wouldn’t do to keep her smiling. Her smile was the most beautiful thing in existence…perhaps tied with their daughters’. The sight of those filled him with joy and hope as well.

“I’ll need to look up recipes to make over a campfire. I know about s’mores but that’s it and only because one of my former foster families had a backyard fire pit…”

Daisy continued going on about what she had heard about camping and how it compared to the times she had camped out on the road traveling with merchant caravans. Rukelion was surprised she could still be excited about it having experienced the same sort of camping he had but, then again, she wasn’t knocked down so easily.

Camping here was much less risky and wouldn’t involve traveling so that was a plus. He almost got excited about it listening to her.

She was primarily looking forward to hiking around in nature, which made sense. She loved hiking. They had been on many hikes together in this world and someday planned on taking trips to national parks further west.

When Daisy talked about going on vacation she often mentioned the concept of “couples vacations” where parents left their children with someone else so they could enjoy themselves doing activities that were hard for little ones. The very thought terrified him!

Of course Rukelion would love to have some quality time with his wife…but would he be able to enjoy himself with how much he would be worrying about the kids? He wasn’t sure.

At least this wasn’t something he had to worry about for a while. The twins were too little to leave with anyone right now.

He liked the way things were. He had more control this way. He didn’t want to lose that and let his anxiety take over his life the same way hatred once had. Now that he was free of that, he never wanted to experience anything like it again.

Rukelion felt more at peace here in the safety of his backyard with his family all around him than he thought was possible after all that happened. Why mess with a good thing?

He took deep breaths of the fresh air and tried to relax. Stressing himself out in advance wasn’t going to help him.

The scent of earth was as familiar to him as his own fire at this point. It always made him think of Daisy. His sweet Daisy, who was happily and obliviously going on in her excitement without knowing what was on his mind.

He didn’t want to let her down. She already got frustrated with what she called his “helicopter parenting” so telling her would ruin the mood. He pushed his thoughts aside and devoted himself entirely to the conversation.. He truly did love talking to his wife no matter the subject.