Chapter Text
It wasn’t an easy day for Orpheus and Eurydice, letting their nearly five year old daughter walk away from them. So much had walked out of their lives and out of sight, that the thought of letting go of their girl broke them both. They had plenty of support, from Persephone who insisted that they would be fine. Hermes who told them that it was what they had to do, that Ophelia was better off. Even so, there was just constantly reminding themselves that it was only a few hours. Only a few hours and their baby would be between them again.
They laid together all day, just calmly holding each other in bed. Sure, they had things to do. She could be working on the papers in the bar. He could be working on a new song. Yet, that day, paperwork could wait. And as Eurydice laid in the bed, head on her husband’s chest, she thought back to the past years. From having a baby in the underground, to holding her again in this same bad. She thought to her daughter, who just hours ago skipped out of their arms and down the road to her first day of school.
“Mama, come on,we gonna be late!” Ophelia linked her hand through Eurydice’s, running up her father as well. Ophelia linked her little hand in his, too, and tugged on their arms. “Come ooooon, I gotsa to got school!”
“We’re coming, baby, school doesn’t start for a few minutes yet.” Eurydice teased, letting Ophelia drag her down the street towards the little school she would be spending her first day in shortly.
It wasn’t even like she was gone the whole day, but the ache deep in her heart for her daughter remained. She couldn’t stay a baby forever, but part of Eurydice would always think of her as the little baby who slept against her chest in Hadestown as her only link to humanity.
“ She’ll be fine, ‘Rydice.” Orpheus promised, kissing the top of her head as both his arms wrapped around her shoulders. “And she’ll be home in a few hours.”
“I haven’t been apart from her since-” Her voice caught in her throat. “...since before I came home.” She rested her chin on his arms, hands coming up to hold onto his forearms as well.
“This isn’t that, Eurydice. She’ll be back before we know it. Before lunch, actually.” He rested his cheek ontop of her head now, and let out a heavy sigh he didn’t know he was holding. “She isn’t a baby anymore.”
“I didn’t think i’d ever get to see this.” She admitted, watching as their daughter disappeared into the school, waving back at them every few steps. “And here we are.”
They were there, hands linked with each other in the same place they stood hours before, waiting anxiously for their daughter to return to them.
Eurydice was bouncing on her toes, waiting for noon to hit and their baby to run out. Orpheus stood beside her running his thumb over her fingers to calm her.
It was when the sweet sound of “mama, daddy!” called to them, that they were taken from their anxious reverie.
When the little human jumped into Eurydice’s waiting arms, burying her face immediately into her neck.
“I missed you.” The words are spoken by Eurydice and Ophelia at once, as they cling to each other like they were missing part of their soul without each other.
It’s when Ophelia pulls away and looks at her parents with a toothy grin, that Eurydice gasps and Orpheus stutters over the words coming out of his mouth.
“Ophelia...love…”
“Where did all your hair go?”
Orpheus reaches out and grasps at the choppy ends of his daughter’s hair, that now framed her face. The long dark curls that had previously reached the middle of her back were no more. Some front pieces were cut above her eyes, in her version of bangs.
“I cutted it! I wanted hair like Mama’s!” She explained, reaching a childish hand to run through her mother’s short curls. “Mama’s hair is so pretty…” Ophelia coos, still gently petting the bangs on Eurydice’s forehead. “I wanted pretty mama hair too. I missed her so much.” She says it so matter of factly that it was hard for Orpheus to argue with her, and instead reached out to hold her on his hip instead.
“Well, you look beautiful, Ophelia.” Orpheus promises, trying to make up for Eurydice’s stunned look. “And I bet Mama will straighten it out for you when we get home.”
Eurydice absently nodded, still a bit dazed by the whole interaction. “Yeah..yeah of course I can.”
“Do you like my hair, mama?” Ophelia cocks her head, waiting for her mother’s approval on the new look.
“I love it, baby.” She agreed, finally flashing her a smile and nodding. “Is this what you learned in school today?”
“I learned how to spell my name, too!”
She was proud, it was evident in her sweet smile and the way she talked animatedly with her hands.
“Thats wonderful, you’ll have to teach us!” Orpheus teased, poking her little stomach to make her giggle. “Why don’t you run up ahead, we’ll stop and see Hermes before we go home?” The god turned father figure would certainly get a kick out of her appearance and decision making skills.
He sat her down and watched as she ran ahead a little, skipping through every puddle she could get her little feet into.
“...she cut off all her hair.” Eurydice whispered, feet glued to their space on the ground. “Our baby took scissors and cut off her hair. It’s her first day.”
Orpheus draped his arm over his wife’s shoulder, laughing just a little as he kissed her temple. “Because she loves you so much that her first reaction was to look like you.”
“She cut her hair. I’ve never cut her hair…” It was so trivial, but such visible evidence that her baby was no longer a baby.
“And she cut it like you do. She wants to be like you. I don’t blame her.” Orpheus tugs gently, to get her walking down the street towards the bar with him. “I didn’t think she could look any more like you, then here she goes. Fringe and all.”
“You sound so proud, poet.”
“Couldn’t be prouder actually. And if this is how she is as a kindergartener, it can only get easier with age, right?”