Chapter Text
“Hey, Aisling, can I ask you something?”
The dark haired girl looked up from her current crochet project. “Yeah, of course.”
“You um.. you.” David realized he had made a mistake as he had inherited his Irish father's inability to speak about his emotions.
Aisling stared and slowly nodded her head. “I am.”
David laughed awkwardly. “Sorry, um. I think, uh, I think I like a boy.”
Aisling’s eyebrows shot up in excitement but she quickly tamed them. “I see,” she said with a knowing smile. “One of your skateboard friends?”
David smiled sheepishly. “Yeah, he goes to school with us, too–” he cursed himself as he realized he gave it away.
“Oh, Donnie! He's pretty handsome.”
David’s face turned four shades darker. He thought Donnie was very handsome. He had a slim, athletic build, dark skin, and interlocking locs that David thought looked so cool. He was also out.
Aisling thought the blush was cute, but unlike her sisters, she elected not to tease David for it. She kept her thoughts behind her closed mouth smile. She waited for him to talk again.
David avoided eye contact. “Yeah, he is…”
“Are you looking for advice?” She asked, realizing he needed some more guidance in this conversation.
David took a deep breath. “Yeah.”
Aisling pretended to look at a watch on her wrist that wasn't actually there. “And this advice would have nothing to do with prom coming up in a few months?”
David's face was three shades darker now. “Do you think it would be a bad idea to…. Make a move?” He visibly cringed at himself.
Aisling thought hard about it, actually putting a finger to her chin as she contemplated the few interactions she's seen between the two. She tried to take an unbiased viewpoint. Finally, she looked back up at her brother. “I think you may have luck.”
And he believed her. A smile flashed on his face. “Thank you.”
Donnie said yes to the prom-posal. Turns out he had a significant crush on David back. Not wanting to wait for prom, he asked David out on a date right then and there. It was easy. He already knew the family.
David even invited him to Rowyn and Siobhan's dance recital that year. David sat in between him and Aisling, their parents next to his sister.
“So, how come I don't see you two up on that stage?” He asked, his hand holding David’s.
“Trust me, you don't want to.”
“You make a good slow dance partner,” he said with a wink.
David scoffed and blushed. “And that's about all I can do.”
“Yeah, same here,” said Aisling. “Rowyn's tried teaching me… can I technically do the moves? Yes. Do you want to see me do the moves? No. No, you don't.”
Donnie laughed, accepting their answers.
Donnie’s family unexpectedly moved away that summer. He and David decided to amicably end things, but occasionally stayed in touch.
David took a different boy to prom for his senior year, one of Siobhan's more eccentric friends, but no relationship came out of it.
A week later, he was on the phone with Aisling. “You know I've enlisted right?”
“I do.”
“And Siobhan doesn't know yet…”
“David…”
“I know.”
“You have to tell her.”
“I… I don't think I can.” She didn't respond. “Rowyn wants me to take her towels.” A small laugh came through the speaker. “... Is there any memento of yours you want me to take?”
Aisling thought for a moment. “No. But… can you sing for me one last time?”
The wording hurt him a bit, but he understood. “Yeah.”
He sang a gentle tune, one he would sing along with Aisling’s strumming when they were little. A song about innocence and friendship.
He just sang the last verse of the song, which was her favorite part. There was a small sniffle through the phone, followed by, “Thank you. I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
David held on to his memories of his sisters for as long as he could. His personal items following him all the way to Project Freelancer. But then his memories were compromised and jail separated him from his physical possessions.
He had moved on from his civilian life. He hardly ever thought about it now. His mind was crowded with someone else's memories.
But somewhere in a locker, deep in a long forgotten ship frozen on an ice planet, was a set of fluffy towels, an ink stained needle, and the memory of a song.