#also I think Safiya should 'adopt' him

[thekingsofironfist]

"Pretty much. I don't think we've done too bad for ourselves, all things considered.

"Which is completely understandable. You shouldn't have to do all the work. We can only hope that one day, She'll come to realize that running away can't heal the shared traumas we share."

[talkfantasytome]

separated kid fic??😮😶

Oh, this one...I have a good 6-ish chapters written. I think at least four have been beta'd. I don't know when I'll decide I have enough to start posting, but it's one I don't want to post until I know I can actually finish it and not be on the wonky schedule I'm on with everything else. 😂

Anyway, the premise: a little girl about 9 shows up on Cassian's doorstep and tells him he's her daughter. Surprise! He finds out that Nesta, when they were dating years ago, got pregnant, which is when she transferred to some other school and broke things off with him. She gave their daughter up for adoption, but then her adoptive parents died a couple years before, and so she ended up in foster care and started looking for them. When she finds Cassian, he's very all in right away, and manages to get custody of her, and the fic is mostly about them now living life together, and how this also brings Nesta back into both their lives - now that she's also back in town.

Snippet below!

WIP Ask Game

For the second time that day, Cassian felt everything in him stall.

It was as if his entire body just stopped working as he stared at the little girl on his tiny porch. At the girl whose ponytail was the exact shade of Nesta's hair, whose eyes were a summer's storm cloud instead of a winter's. Whose skin was so close to his in shade.

What had he guessed? Still in elementary school?

Nine...maybe ten?

No. Nine. If this girl really was his daughter, well, with her features and at her age, that could only mean Nesta's her mother. Cassian hadn't been with anyone else his entire freshman year, or sophomore. Or junior.

It had taken him a while to move on, to finally realize she wasn't coming back.

He studied her face closer. Her lines were softer than Nesta's, but still noticeably sharper than most girls around her age. And her nose, her chin, both delicately pointed as Nesta's were. But her ears. They were rounder, with smaller lobes, and they stuck out just a tiny bit like Cassian's did.

"Y-you..." he breathed out. "How...what...?"

She tilted her head, assessing him with a gaze he knew only too well. It was so similar to the way Nesta had always looked at him before they'd started dating that it had Cassian's skin warming.

Before he knew what was happening, Cassian was on his knees, a hand cupping her face as he looked into those tentative eyes. The girl - Safiya - bit her lip, but something eased in her expression as his lips curved upward.

Gods, she was gorgeous. He knew he shouldn't believe her so easily, that he should ask more questions, do what he could to be certain she was telling the truth, but...how could he not be? She was exactly what he'd imagined his and Nesta's daughter would look like, back when he was picturing such things. Exactly what he'd hoped for.

He couldn't stop himself as he whispered, "I can see it."

Safiya let out a small, choked sound and then flung her arms around him.

It felt right, as he held her close to him, hugging her tight. Like that was where she was always supposed to be.