Status: Live

Holding Hands Won't Be Enough

Chapter 69: Kettle

The 24 hours leading up to Sonja's wedding day was a blur or fabric, flowers and frenzy for Millie. She hadn’t slept and could most definitely feel it under her eyes as she stared absent minded at the kettle, waiting for it to boil. There had been a crisis the previous evening that none of the button hole, nor bridesmaid flowers had arrived - causing Sonja to hyperventilate herself into a complete meltdown, that included violently shaking and vomiting as she panicked that her wedding was ‘ruined’. Millie had called every florist in town begging for any flowers they had - knowing full well that in winter, pre-ordering flowers was a must as they had to be imported; she then spent two hours driving all around Helsinki picking them up, before spending until 5am trimming, pairing and arranging them all into perfect bouquets and tiny button fixtures that wouldn’t send her sister into an OCD frenzy. She had moments to herself before slowly everyone started waking up, the first being her father.

He kissed her cheek as she filled her coffee mug with boiling water, “Good morning my darling girl.” he said sweetly, loving the fact that his baby girl was back home.

“Morning dad.” she said before yawning slightly. “Coffee?”

“Oh don’t tell me you were up all night doing this?” he lamented, looking over the kitchen table that was completely covered in flower arrangements., “Darling, I got up early to help do it with you, you said you were going to bed soon.”

“Oh, I just got into the groove of doing it, plus, you know what Son’s like - they all need to be identical.” she said, rolling her eyes with a chuckle. “All done now.”

“You’re a good girl.” he said, pulling her proudly into a side hug, “I know how difficult everything is for you at the moment, Sonja told me what happened at the dress fitting…” he said softly, with an empathetic expression.

“Hasn’t crossed my mind since.” she lied, handing him a fresh mug.

“Hmmm..” he growled in a fatherly fashion, “you’re too much like your mother for your own good. You can’t always keep everything bottled up in there.” he sighed, tapping the top of her head. “You can always talk to your old dad, you know.” she smiled.

“You’re not old dad.”

“60 sure as hell isn’t young my darling.” he laughed, “Now, where is the little terror?”

“Surprisingly, he is still sound asleep in the living room with Jussi. Unsurprisingly, it’s because Jussi and he were watching and re-enacting superhero movies until 1am.”

“Jussi? When did he turn up?”

“I don’t even know what time it was. Oscar was grumbly because he woke up and I was too busy to lay with him, then I ran out of wire and couldn’t find any in the garage. But Jussi messaged me mid-panic asking how it was going and thankfully they had some laying around in the studio and once he got here saw how frazzled I was and just took over Oscar duties to let me get it done.”

“You didn’t sleep at all?”

“I’ll be fine.. Really.” she smiled.

“Right, I’m making you breakfast.” he declared boisterously. “Dad special, coming up! You go and sit down for a bit in the living room, go on, get.”

“Thank you dad.” she took her coffee mug and quietly padded into the living room where Jussi was stretched out on the longest couch, one leg hanging off the edge with his foot on the ground, the other just reaching, and perched up on, the arm rest; his left arm bent and supporting his head and his right hooked around Oscar who was adorably sleeping in a similar position only his tiny leg wasn’t reaching the ground. She chose the armchair, sitting with her legs curled underneath her she placed her elbow on the arm rest and her head in her hand and smiled as she looked at two of her favourite people in the world. As she blinked it became harder and harder to reopen her eyes and before she knew it, she was sound asleep.

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“Jussi?” Ville asked, an undertone of annoyance in his voice upon learning that Jussi had taken care of Oscar last night from Bam as Jussi was unable to pick him up from the airport. “Why didn’t she call me?”

“It was probably just a timing thing dude, don’t stress about it.”

“He’s my bloody kid.” Ville protested.

“Chill.” Bam reasoned, “Anyway, look back to the conversation, I’ll be in town until New Years Day, you gunna be good to do a set NYE because I’ve got to lock this down today. You’ll be in town definitely?”

“Yes, this city is my prison now.”

“Your heart is your prison, Valo. Drink a cup of coffee and have a cigarette or whatever the fuck you do when you’d normally have a beer.”

“Mph.” Ville mumbled through biting his lip. “I’ve got to go.”

“Where? You said you had nothing on?”

“Okay Jonna.” Ville remarked, rolling his eyes.

“Don’t you go over there Ville. You're not a teenage girl.”

“Bye Bam.”

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“Oscar Hermanni Altoinen!” Heli’s voice rumbled down the stairs, spiking Millie’s full attention from having been asleep. She jumped, spilling the perilously perched now cold cup of coffee onto the ground.

“Fuck.” she cursed, swooping down and grabbing the mug, instinctively tearing off her cardigan to soak up the liquid. “Shit, shit…”

“Oscar!” her mother barked again, she growled as she abandoned the mess and sprung into action making her way towards the stairs.

“Millie!” Sonja called in a panic.

“Millie!” her mother called in a state of frustration.

“One at a time!” she yelled as she reached the top of the stairs. “Mu-“ she had barely formed a syllable when Oscar tore past her legs butt naked and covered in bubbles, cackling. “Oscar!” she said sternly, causing him to turn his head as he ran - she braced herself, as a mother she had developed a sixth sense for imminent danger where he was concerned - his legs tripped over themselves and his head slammed square into the wall. The only sound worse than a child hitting his head is the silence that follows it when you don’t know if they’ll laugh or cry, if they’re okay or if they’re hurt. She gasped in as she felt her body lunging forward, the silence was harrowing and felt like it lasted years, when in actual fact it was merely seconds.