Scream Me a Dream

Friday, November 12, 2010
7:15 pm

It was amazing what could change in a week, Ville thought falling onto his couch and covering his eyes with his arm tiredly.

He and Soya had come off a stress-free, relaxing week of just being together and alone, coming home and having a day of what Soya teasingly called ‘family time’ with himself, Soya and Aida. They had spent the rest of the weekend in his tower, playing with the new games they’d bought Aida or watching her new movies.

Monday had come and gone; Soya had gone back to her flat with Aida, as they’d agreed, and while Ville had planned on spending the night at her flat with her, he’d spent the day at the studio making sure that everything was set with the remix as they planned on letting the fans pre-order that Thursday. Also making sure it was all set for its December release. He’d lost track of time and by the time he realized that it was nearing three in the morning, he’d just told the cab driver to go to his tower, rather than scare Soya half to death by crawling into bed so late.

It’d gone the same way the rest of the week, they’d caught each other by phone, made plans for him to go over but something had always kept him. He’d gotten bombarded by friends that he’d somewhat neglected since getting together with Soya, and because of the bit of guilt he felt he’d had dinner with them, staying out late only to go back to his tower alone, once again.

He’d also lost track of time in his own home studio, having been messing around with the lyrics and chords that had been circling around and around in his head for several weeks.

Luckily it wasn’t just him that had all of a sudden gotten swamped or side tracked, Soya had had her own issues to deal with at her studio. Most of it being the paperwork that she’d been avoiding since the studio had been up and running, so it had piled up and she’d been trying to catch up ever since. Along with making out new dance schedules that included the new classes she planned on having, hiring new teachers for said new classes, and that didn’t include all the paperwork she’d had her assistant fax over from her studio in New York.

How the hell they had ended up so busy was beyond him, all he knew was the he was ready for the weekend as Soya had assured him she and Aida would be staying at the tower with him and she would be coming work free.

He’d just finished putting in the order for dinner, sitting back on the couch ready to turn on the TV when the front door opened, Aida bouncing in, her pink backpack over her back as she stared at her sister.

“So can I?” Aida asked and by the sound of her voice, Ville knew the question had been asked more than once.

“I don’t know Aida.” Soya said taking her keys out of the lock; she had her messenger bag over one shoulder and Aida’s overnight bag over the other as she walked through the threshold, closing the door. “You have to ask Ville.”

Next thing he knew the eight year old was bouncing up to him with a grin. “Can I?”

“He wasn’t in the car with us Aida; you have to tell him what you want.” Soya pointed out as she went up the stairs, most likely to drop off her things.

“What is it you want, pikkuinen?” Ville asked, accepting the pink backpack as she handed it to him setting it on the couch next to him. She slid onto the coffee table across from him and grinned.

“I always sleep at Maaria’s house on Fridays, always!”

Ville nodded knowing that most Fridays, Aida did in fact sleepover at a friend’s house. “Then why aren’t you there tonight?”

“Because she’s at her Mummi’s,” Aida said in voice that hinted that Ville shouldn’t have had to ask that, he should have just known.

“All right, so because she’s at her grandmothers, you can’t sleep over tonight; then you’ll go next week.”

“No!” Aida said with wide eyes, a soft laugh coming from behind him. He turned to see Soya watching in amusement, probably already knowing the punch line that Aida was going to deliver.

“Is she not going to be there next week either?” Ville asked looking back at Aida.

“We always have sleepovers, Ville!” Aida said again, “Always!”

“I still don’t know what you want Aida.” Ville laughed.

Soya sighed. “She wants to ask you if Maaria can sleep over here tomorrow night.”

“I was getting to it!” Aida said exasperated, throwing her hands up in the air.

“What?” Ville asked looking over at Soya wide eyed.

“Maaria’s parents leave her with her older sister on weekends while they have the weekend to themselves, they don’t like leaving her older sister with too much responsibility other then Maaria, it’s why Aida spends the night on Friday nights, rather than Saturdays, because Maaria’s parents are there,” Soya explained.

“I can’t sleep over there on Saturday, because it’s only going to be Eliina watching her!” Aida said, still staring at Ville.

“So you want her to sleepover here?” Ville asked, looking back at Aida.

“Yes!” Aida grinned.

“I…Aida I don’t have room for a sleepover, I mean, you’re sleeping on an air mattress at the end of my bed, kultaseni, I don’t think your friends parents would be okay with her sleeping in my bedroom with me and Soya.”

“But it’s okay for me!” Aida argued.

Ville nodded slowly. “Sure, because Soya says it’s okay…I just don’t know where you guys would sleep.” That, and the idea of having two eight year olds running around his tower all night scared the shit out of him. While he’d babysat his friend’s kids and had even babysat Aida once or twice by himself, he’d never had to watch more than one kid, at least not without the other kid’s parents present.

He watched as Aida stuck out her bottom lip, her eyes wide, and turned away knowing one more second of looking at that face he would give in. He turned to Soya who was sitting on the stone stairs, smiling at him amused. “What do you say?” he asked.

“I told Aida that since it was your home, it was your decision. I have no say on this.”

“But if it were your flat, you’d let them?”

Soya shrugged. “Sure.”

Ville sighed, rubbing his face with his hand before turning back to a pouting Aida. “You have nowhere to sleep,” he argued again.

“We’ll sleep here!” Aida said quickly, “Like we did when I first slept over here! Remember! We moved the table!”

Ville groaned, hearing the excitement in the girl’s voice and nodded, “Fine, fine, one friend Aida, you can have one friend sleep over.”

“Can I invite Olivia too?!” Aida asked with wide eyes. “You know her!”

Ville nodded slowly, wondering how he had been strong in his resolve to only have one of her friends come over and now it was two. “Olivia can come too, but you have to ask Linde if it’s all right.”

Aida squealed in excitement running over to her sister. “Can you call Maaria so I can tell her?!”

Soya nodded pulling her cell phone out of her pocket, finding the number and handing it to Aida and she hurried up the stairs to talk to her friend.

Soya lifted herself of the stairs walking over to Ville and circling her arms around them, resting her hands on his chest, “You are such a pushover, love.”

Ville groaned, “I can’t resist that damn pout.”

Soya laughed lowly in his ear, kissing his cheek. “I told Aida in the car to ask you, but not to be surprised if you said ‘no’, I knew you probably wouldn’t like your home overrun by eight year olds. I just didn’t know she would be so tenacious or that you would give in so easily. I’m kind of disappointed in you, Ville.”

“I’m disappointed in myself,” Ville groaned, leaning back on the couch, his arms wrapping around her back and tugging her lightly. Laughing she climbed over the back of the couch so she sat next to him. “I missed you, though,” he groaned, burying his face in the crook of her neck and pulling her over so she sat on his lap.

“It’s weird not sleeping in the same bed as you now,” Soya whispered, her fingers running though his hair, before pulling him back and kissing him lightly. “I missed you too,” she rested her forehead against his and sighed. “I think even if we had slept in the same place we would have barely seen each other. I have so much paperwork,” she groaned.

“It’s what you get for putting it off to the last minute,” he teased, moving her legs when he heard a knock on his door.

“It wouldn’t have been pushed back had you not dragged me to Berlin,” she pointed out, looking at him from over the couch.

“Dragged?!” He laughed, as he opened the door. “I dragged you to Berlin?” He turned to the delivery door and smiled “Hei, kuinka paljon olen velkaa?” He asked, accepting the bag from the teenage boy standing at the door. (Hi, how much do I owe?)

“Olet…et…Ville Valo.” The teen stuttered staring at him. (You’re…you’re…Ville Valo.)

Ville chuckled and nodded, handing the bags to Soya who had come up behind him, before pulling out his wallet. “Olen…Paljonko olen velkaa?” he repeated. (I am…how much do I owe?)

“Mikään…sinä mitään velkaa.” (Nothing…you owe nothing.) The teen said before turning around leaving Ville standing at the door, only to hear the teen mutter. “Kukaan koulussa on menossa uska tätä…”(No one at school is going to believe this…), leaving Ville to chuckle nearly going after the boy but he was already half way down the walk, towards his car.

Ville closed the door and went to the kitchen where Soya was getting plates out of the cupboard smirking at him.

“What’s that look for?” he asked, grabbing the silverware.

“Maybe we should just send you to all the restaurants we order from.” She said looking up at him, fighting her laughter. “It might mean more free food.”

Ville groaned, “I tried paying!”

“You should have at least signed something for the poor kid.”

“I would have, had he not walked away so fast,” Ville argued, as Soya made up Aida’s plate with the take out Chinese food they’d ordered. Soya just shook her head at him, a teasing smile on her lips before leaving the kitchen to call up to Aida.

Aida scurried down, saying goodbye to her friend and handing Soya the phone. “She said she could come over!” She said excitedly, climbing up onto the stool at the counter, Soya pushing her food towards her. “Eggrolls?” Aida asked looking around the food.

Soya scrounged through the bags until she found the little box of eggrolls, putting one on Aida’s plate. “Her parents said it was okay?” Soya asked, handing Ville the fried rice.

Aida nodded, biting into the eggroll. “I heard her talking to her äiti, and she said it was fine. Did you call Olivia?”

“I’ll call after dinner,” Ville said with a nod. “But I’m sure Linde will say it’s fine.”

Aida nodded, picking up her fork as she played with her rice, “Ville?”

Ville looked up from his plate and looked at the girl, “Yes?”

“Can I invite one more friend?”

Ville groaned. “Aida…”

“Just one more! I promise! One more!”

Ville was about to speak; only Soya’s teasing muttering stopped him, “I wonder how long it’ll take you to bend this time.”

XxxxxxX

Saturday November 13, 2010
3:13 pm

“Are you sure you’re up for this?” Linde asked as he handed over Olivia’s overnight bag to Ville as Olivia ran over to Aida who was setting up the living room.

“I’m not doing this alone. Soya will be here,” Ville said.

“I know,” Linde said with a nod. “It’s just…you’ve never taken care of six kids at a time.”

“It’ll be fine,” Vile said confidentially, putting Olivia’s bag by the couch as Linde closed the door behind him.

“I’m sure it will,” Linde laughed. “When you called last night you said it was only going to be Olivia and another friend of Aida’s…how did that double?”

“I have no idea,” Ville said with a sigh. “I stood firm on only two friends…I don’t know what she does that just gets me to say ‘yes’.”

“It’s the power of being a little girl,” Linde teased as Ville handed him a bottle of water, settling down at the counter while Ville leaned his hip against it. “It’s how Olivia nearly got me to say ‘yes’ to a pony.”

“I have no idea where I would keep a pony,” Ville muttered, causing Linde to snort with laughter.

“I think that’s that last thought one has when their little girl pulls out the puppy eyes. So, where’s Soya?”

“She’s off picking up the other four.”

“And you guys have enough food?”

“We have food,” Ville nodded. “Soya and Aida went shopping in the morning, and I think there was talk of ordering pizza.”

“And you have enough movies?” Linde asked.

Ville nodded again, “They also went to rent some as I apparently don’t have many kid friendly movies. Apparently little girls don’t like horror films.”

“I have yet to come across one that does,” Linde teased then turned to Ville. “And you hid all the…”

“The porn is stashed,” Ville said with a roll of his eyes. “And it’s been hidden away since Aida found my copy of ‘Star Whores’, I swear one mistake and I never live it down.”

“Imagine if it had been in the DVD player,” Linde laughed.

“Soya probably would have killed me,” Ville said watching as the two girls giggled as they spread out blankets on the floor.

“Well now that I’ve asked the questions, I’m off,” Linde said capping his water, only to stop when Ville’s gasped at his arm.

“Wait,” Ville said with panic at the thought of being alone with the kids, only for Linde to look at him.

“It’s two eight year olds Ville, you’ll be fine.” Linde said with chuckle, patting his friends hand before removing it from his arm. “And Soya will be here soon. If all else fails, just hide out upstairs and let Soya handle all this down here.”

Ville nodded slowly as Linde went to kiss his daughter good bye, ruffling Aida’s hair. Giving Ville a short salute he left the tower, leaving Ville alone with the two girls.

“Setä Ville, sinä aloittaa elokuvan meille?” Olivia asked. (Uncle Ville, will you start a movie for us?)

Ville nodded slowly, “Valitse elokuva ja aloitan sen.”(Pick the movie and I’ll start it.)

So, maybe he could do this. He thought as he watched the girls dig through the pile of movies he and Soya owned that were children friendly along with the movies Aida had rented. Then again, he was used to Olivia and Aida, he wondered how he would fare with children he didn’t know.

He wasn’t faring well, he thought as he sat at the base of the stairs and watched as the six little girls talked and laughed in the middle of his living room. A cartoon movie played in the background and Aida’s games Soya and Ville had gotten her from their trip were strewn across the room, as apparently little girls had short attention spans and couldn’t even finish one game before deciding to play something else.

Thankfully Soya had taken control the minute she’d walked in, setting ground rules for the girls. Thankfully the “no one but Olivia and Aida are allowed upstairs” rule had stuck and the girls had stayed downstairs. She’d also made sure the girls had been fed, before plopping down next to him on the stairs and watching the girls.

“You are so out of your element.” She teased, resting her chin on his shoulder.

“I’m trying to figure out if it would be rude just to hide up in my studio until they all pass out?”

Soya snorted, “I doubt they’d notice if we disappeared. Aida and Olivia know how to change out the movies and set it up, and they have enough games to keep them occupied.”

“So, can I?” Ville asked looking at her, hoping she would give him an out.

“Go,” Soya said, laughing when he stood up so fast he caught the attention of the girls in the living room.

“Tiedän!” One of the girls said excitedly as she stood up with a large smile looking at Ville making him stop. (I know you!)

“Et?” he asked with a raised eyebrow, he didn’t know many eight year olds that listened to HIM. (You do?)

“Minun vanhempi sisko on kuvia teistä koko hänen huoneensa!!!” she giggled. (My older sister has pictures of you all over her room!!!)

Ville laughed, “Onko hän?”(Does she?)

The little girl nodded and giggled again, her face turning red before she spoke again, “Hän suutelee sitä joka aamu ennen lähtöä hänen huoneessaan!” (She kisses it every morning before leaving her room!)

At the echoing ‘ewwws’ that came from the surrounding eight year olds and Soya’s laughter, he turned to Soya and sighed, “Can I go upstairs now?” he asked nearly pleadingly.

“Go,” Soya laughed, pretty sure that these were the only girls that knew Ville Valo and actually ‘eww’d’ at the thought of kissing him. She watched as he walked upstairs and went to the girls.

“Okei, Ville ja mina olen yläkerrassa, Aida, Olivia, jos joku teistä tytöt tarvitsevat jotain otammen Ville’s studio okei?”(All right, Ville and I will be upstairs, Aida, Olivia if any of you girls need anything we’ll be in Ville’s studio all right?)

“Okei!” The girls chorused.

Trusting that the girls would come get them if anything happened, Soya went to the kitchen, grabbed the box of pizza she’d ordered for Ville and hersef, along with two bottles of water before making her way upstairs towards Ville’s studio.

“May I enter your sanctuary?” she asked, Ville looking up from his notebook he’d just opened and waved her in.

“Please,” He said, taking the bottles from her as she set the box of pizza on the couch between them.

“I told them we were going to be up here, and for Aida and Olivia to grab us if they needed anything.”

“Perfect.”

Soya bit her lip as she handed Ville a slice of pizza, and took one for herself, “As much as you’re uncomfortable with all these girls running around your home, it’s really nice that you let Aida have her slumber party.”

Ville shrugged, “It’s not a big deal.”

“It is,” she said with a small smile. “It is to Aida, anyway.”

“It shouldn’t be.” Ville said. “She should be able to have her friends over, you know, as long as it’s not just me taking care of them.”

Soya laughed, “I wouldn’t do that to you,” she said, putting her half eaten pizza back in the box, grabbing a bottle of water off the floor where Ville had placed them. “Aida’s always the one that goes to sleepovers, she’s never actually hosted one before.”

“Your mother?” he asked, not knowing why he bothered asking when he saw Soya’s nod.

“Yeah, though really even at a young age, she knows she doesn’t want her friends seeing what goes on at home. She’s always wanted to have one though and she always feels bad when her friends ask to go to her house and she has to tell them no. It’s a big deal Ville, you made her weekend,” Soya laughed. “If not her year.”

Ville felt himself warm at the thought that something so simple as having her friends coming over made Aida so happy, and at that moment he knew he’d let her host as many slumber parties as she wanted if it meant the eight year old was happy. Well…as long as Soya was there with him as well, he wasn’t quite ready to take one on by himself.

“Well I’m glad that it makes her so happy,” Ville admitted. “So, what are we going to do now?” he asked.

“What do you mean?” Soya asked.

“I mean, we’ve been kicked out of the living room, where the one TV is, and are stuck upstairs, what do we do?”

Soya laughed. “Well, I broke my promise and brought some of my paperwork home, if you want to work on your music, I could go to your room and work.”

“Work sounds unappealing right now,” Ville said scrunching up his nose as he took a drink of his water.

“We have our laptops.”

“We do,” Ville nodded.

“We could go sit on your bed, with some popcorn, and watch a scary movie,” she bit her lip, looking up at him through amused eyes. “I can pretend I’m scared and cuddle up to your side when the scary parts come up and you can do the man thing and protect me.”

“I like this idea,” Ville said, nodding slowly.

Soya laughed, “I thought you would. Go set up the computer, I’ll go make the popcorn and get the movie.”

“Hey, get something really scary!” Ville laughed. “I want you nearly on top of me during those scary parts!”

Soya laughed as she went downstairs, making sure all the girls were still okay, which they were, they were all scattered on the blankets that lay on the ground, watching the Finnish version of Cars.

She went into the kitchen, grabbing a package of popcorn and popping into the microwave, before going over to the bookshelf where Ville had all his movies. She grabbed Silence of the Lambs, knowing Ville really enjoyed the movie along with the first Nightmare on Elm Street, as that happened to be one of her favorites.

Hearing the beeping of the microwave, she tucked the movies under her arm and going back to the kitchen and getting the popcorn and a large bowl.

“What are you and Ville doing?”

Soya nearly jumped at the sound of the voice behind her, turning she sighed in relief when she saw her little sister behind her. “Scared me half to death Aida,” Soya said with a shake of her head and poured the popcorn into the bowl. “And we’re going to go watch movies upstairs.”

“But there’s no TV upstairs.” Aida said with a frown.

“We’re going to watch it on one of the computers.” Soya explained. “Are you having fun?”

Aida nodded. “I am.” She smiled. “But…”

“But?” Soya asked, looking at her sister.

“When all the girls are asleep, can I go upstairs and sleep in my bed?”

Soya chuckled and shook her head. “I think it’d be a bit rude if you went upstairs and left your guests here to fend for themselves; you and Olivia are the only ones that know their way around the tower.”

“Then they can wake Olivia up.”

“But Olivia isn’t the host of this little party, you are,” Soya pointed out, leaning back against the counter and looked at her little sister.

“Then can we all sleep upstairs?”

Soya sighed. “We talked about this before you had your guests come Aida, we told you that if you were going to have this many people that you all had to sleep down here, even when it was just going to be you, Maaria and Olivia.”

Aida chewed on her lip, before turning wide grey eyes on Soya.

“Don’t even try it,” Soya laughed. “I’m not Ville and I’m not going to bend, put the puppy eyes away and go be with your friends Aida, tomorrow you’ll sleep in your bed.”

Aida sighed, “Fine.”

Soya shook her head, picking up the movie and bowl, “How she became such a manipulator I’ll never know,” she muttered to herself, making sure the lights were off, and Aida was back with her friends before making her way back upstairs.

She found Ville sitting cross-legged on the bed, setting up the computer, the box of pizza on the bed next to him. He turned and grinned when he saw the movies she held up.

“Classics!” He said holding out his hand for the movies as she climbed onto the bed. “Which one first?”

“You pick,” she said, balancing the bowl of popcorn on top of the pizza box as he put on The Silence of the Lambs.

An hour later, they found themselves watching their movie, the pizza box forgotten, while Ville laid on the bed his head resting on Soya’s outstretched legs, her back against the headboard, pillows behind her back as the computer rested at the corner of the bed. Her fingers stroked through Ville’s hair. Ville grinning against her leg every time she jumped at a loud sound, causing her to pull lightly at the ends of his hair.

“Your birthday is coming up,” she told him, leaning down to kiss his temple.

Ville groaned against her leg, “Don’t remind me.”

“You haven’t told me what you want.”

“Nothing really,” Ville admitted.

“Really? There’s nothing you want for your thirty fourth birthday.”

“You,” He grinned turning onto his back to look at her.

“You have me!” She laughed.

“I really don’t want anything for my birthday,” he repeated.

“Then what do you want to do?”

Ville shrugged, “Nothing really, I was thinking lunch with everyone, then maybe just dinner you and me. Ask my parents if they’d take Aida for the night?”

“If you want,” Soya nodded. “I still want to get you something.”

Ville laughed, “Unless you can get your hands on Linde’s guitar that use to belong to Andy McCoy then I want nothing.”

Soya shook her head at that. “I will try my best.”

“All right then,” Ville turned again to watch the movie, only to shift when Soya pressed a hand on his back. He sat up, pulling the laptop forward, making sure the power cord stayed plugged in as he sat with his back resting on the headboard, Soya resting at his side with the laptop sitting on his legs.

“I don’t want anything big Soya,” He said quietly after a while, his fingers trialing up and down her arm. “I don’t want a party and I don’t want any surprise. Just…quiet.”

“So boring, old man,” Soya laughed quietly, he looked down feeling her start to settle for sleep.

“You’re the one falling asleep at ten,” he shot back, kissing the top of her head, but turning off the movie, and closing the laptop. “I’m going to go check on the girls real quick.”

At Soya’s nod, he put the laptop under the bed, getting out of bed and out of the room, only going half way down the stairs, he peeked into the living room to see half to girls sleeping while the other half were watching another cartoon movie. Creeping back up the stairs, he climbed back into bed with Soya, pulling her closer to him and lifting the covers over their bodies. Soya’s even breathing and the sound of light rain lulling him into an easy sleep.

He couldn’t have been asleep more than an hour, when he felt a small hand pushing at his back. Opening his eyes slowly, he found himself eyeing Soya’s back as she’d turned during the night, his arm resting around her waist. He felt the hand start pushing and frowned as he sat up, carefully not to wake Soya.

Turning around, his eyes widened when he was met by six different set of eyes. “What are you all doing up here?” he asked sitting up.

“Emme voineet nukka alakeeran, setä Ville.” Olivia explained quietly. (We couldn’t sleep downstairs, Uncle Ville.)

“Miksi ei?” He asked rubbing his eyes as he focused on the six girls standing by his side of the bed. (Why not?)

“Sade ja sitten kaikii eläimet olohuoneessa, se pelottava muut tytöt,” Aida whispered, causing Ville to chuckle, not having thought twice about the taxidermy animals that were in his living room. While Aida had been put off by them at first, she’d grown use to them, as had Olivia. (The rain and then all the animals in the living room, it’s scary to the other girls.)

Nodding he got out of bed, running a hand through his hair and motioned for the girls to get up. “Nukua täällä sitten, älä herätä Soya, menen nukumaan sohvalla.”(Sleep here then, careful not to wake Soya, I’ll go sleep on the couch.)

He helped the girls get comfortable in the bed, covering them up, before grabbing his Jack Skellington blanket out of the closet and heading out of the room towards his studio. He lay on the couch, covering up with the blanket, and using his arm as a pillow. He was just starting to fall back asleep when he heard the squeak of the floorboard, sighing afraid the girls had followed him, he turned only to give a wry smile when Soya come into the room, looking half asleep and climbing on top of him.

“Did you get kicked out of the bed too?” he asked stroking her hair back, his hands running down her back and sneaking beneath her shirt to rub her bare back.

“Mmm, one of the girls kicked me, and since you don’t kick…” she trailed off giving a small yawn.

Ville chuckled and started to get up. “Then let me pull out of the bed from the couch.”

Soya groaned, putting dead weight on him, making him fall back onto the couch. “No, you’re comfortable; just hold on tight so I don’t fall.”

Ville nodded, wrapping his arm around her and giving a tired sigh. “Is this what it’s going to be like when we get married?” he asked absently, only for Soya’s soft laugh to interrupt his quiet musings.

“Of course not, love,” she laughed, turning her head so she was facing the back of the couch, just as he gave a quiet sigh of relief she continued. “This is what it’ll be like when we have kids.”