Heart-to-Heart

When Ariel opened her eyes, she was a bit confused. Her eyes felt gritty and she wasn't quite sure where she was at the moment.

She felt like she was being wrapped up tightly with her face was pressed against something hard, and a familiar thumping sound was heard. She took a deep breath and a familiar comforting smell filled her nostrils.

"Are you okay now, Rie?"

Ariel brought her hands up to her eyes, intending to rub them when they were caught.

"No rubbing of your eyes, Rie," Kyle said and gently rubbed the grit off the corner of her eyes.

With her head finally cleared up, Ariel wrapped her little hands around her father's waist and rubbed her face on his chest.

Well, she *tried* to wrap her hands around his waist but her arms were just too short and it merely went halfway.

She felt her back being rubbed and she was quiet, just enjoying the moment of being held in her father's arms.

Ariel hummed, just content to be held like that, listening to her father's heartbeat and having him gently stroke her back. He didn't say anything, nor ask anything, and Ariel's heart was full.

In fact, she wouldn't mind not saying anything at all.

If Daddy kept quiet, she'd keep quiet.

Problem solved.

Suddenly she felt herself being lifted and Daddy said, "Well, since you're awake now, let's go out."

Ariel lifted her head up and looked at her father curiously, asking, "Where are we going?"

"Sssssh," Kyle said, "That's a surprise."

Ariel nodded.

"But before that, let's clean up your face first," Kyle said, bringing her to the bathroom.

Putting her on the sink, Ariel obediently sat there quietly while Kyle pressed the stop-gap measure on the sink, and turned on the tap.

"I'll be washing your face now, okay Rie?"

Ariel nodded.

Although Ariel was big enough to wash her face on her own, as that was something she learned at the same time as brushing her teeth - Kyle still did it for her this time.

It was pampering time, after all.

Ariel had no complaints.

Who would complain about being pampered, right?

Kyle told Ariel to lean forward towards the sink that was half-filled with warm water, and he scooped up some water in his hand.

"Hold your breath and close your eyes now, Rie," Kyle said gently as his hand hovered over her forehead.

Ariel took a big gulp of air and closed her eyes tightly, feeling the warm water hitting her face as her father's big hand deftly, and quickly, rubbed her face once and another scoop of water was placed and rubbed over her face.

"You can let go of your breath now, Rie," Kyle told her and she breathed normally.

"But keep your eyes closed," Kyle told her.

Ariel obeyed, while sitting up on the sink as Kyle gently used his thumb and fingers to clean the area around her eyes.

Once done, he took the face towel and patted her face, then kissed her forehead.

"All done," Kyle said, taking her into his arms again.

Ariel wrapped her hands around his neck and sat on his strong forearm, then kissed her father's cheek.

"Thank you, Daddy," Ariel said softly.

Kyle kissed her forehead again, and went to the closet. As he flipped through the clothes there, he asked her, "What do you want to change into?"

"This?"

Ariel shook her head.

"This one?" he asked again, flipping the first dress aside and revealing another.

Ariel shook her head again.

Finally, after going through almost half of the closet, Ariel chose a pink overall. She wore a white T-shirt that had a pink flower motif on its front and when she put on the pink overalls, the top of the pink flower petals peeked out.

Kyle then placed Ariel at the dressing table and proceeded to brush her hair. The brush glided over her wavy shoulder length hair smoothly, and Ariel hardly felt any pain as the slight knots that were created while she had been sleeping were brushed out.

Kyle then brushed out her fringe, pulled the top of the hair back and made a french braid while using a pink ribbon to be intertwined into her braid. As a final touch, he pinned a pink flower hairpin on both sides of her head, keeping the slight stray hairs from going into her eyes.

"Wow, Daddy," Ariel said as she leaned closer to the dressing table mirror, "I look so pretty!"

Kyle smiled and pinched her cheeks, "You're always so pretty, Rie."

Ariel moved her head to the left and right, trying to see her braids. So Kyle took a hand mirror and angled it so that she could see the reflection of that mirror, on the dressing table mirror.

She clapped her hands happily, her earlier sadness forgotten.

Kyle scooped her up again into his arms and rubbed his nose on hers, "Come on, Rie. We shall go out and have some ice-cream."

Ariel nodded her head.

"And then you can tell me all about what made you so sad and worried before," Kyle continued as he walked out of the room, "Once you are ready to say it."

Ariel's eyes went wide and she bit her lower lips. She tentatively looked at her father, trying to see if he was angry - or dissapointed in her in any way.

He didn't sound angry

Or upset.

As if reading her thoughts, she heard her father say, "I'm not angry, Rie. Just worried for you. You know you can tell me anything, right?"

Ariel didn't answer.

"And if you can't say it to me, then you can record it and send it to me," Kyle said then pursed his lips.

"Or perhaps I should get you the speech-to-text software," Kyle mumbled, almost to himself then shook his head. He was worried that if he gave her that software, she would be too lazy to learn how to write later.

It also didn't seem to make sense as he felt that if she had trouble saying the words, typing out the words would be easier. The software wouldn't help in that manner, since she would still be required to speak.

Kyle felt that Ariel had to learn to articulate her feelings. Otherwise, she may overthink or worse, start thinking weird and wrong thoughts that they would not be able to detect until it was too late.

Kyle knew very well that he treated his children differently; but that was due to the fact that each child was different in their own way.

However, would his children know this?

He was very strict with Alex because Alex was stubborn and argumentative - but would Alex feel that he was unfair to him?

He didn't push Aurora as much as Alex when it came to training because she neither had the aptitude nor the true interest in it - but would she think that he did not value her enough as he did Alex?

And Ariel.

Kyle hugged her tighter to him as she babbled on about her day, clearly avoiding what had made her so worried that she started to suck on her thumb again.

Ariel was his little baby girl and he knew, he was extremely lenient with her. This was because she was such a bright and bubbly girl, full of innocence and joy. She wasn't as disciplined and savvy like Aurora, and seemed to be extremely clingy.

He was firm with her, but not strict since she did not respond well to that.

But he was worried that he may be spoiling her a bit too much. So he would actually take note of the times he rejected her requests. It had to be 80% 'no' rather than 'yes'.

Of course, Kyle never realised that his meticulous planning had long been overturned by the innocent Ariel. His data was a false positive. He thought he achieved a positive result of successfully rejecting Ariel 80% of the time when in reality, it was the other way around.

Because she never really needed to voice out her requests to get what she wanted. Her innate ability just got sharpened into skills that were fine-tuned as she grew older. By the time Kyle found this out, it was too late for him.

It got to the point that he just gave up trying to figure it out and just went with the flow.

It was his daughter, after all.

He would give her the world if she asked for it.

Right now, his little bundle of joy was still telling him all about how wonderful lunch had been. As Kyle listened patiently, he wondered just how she could go on relentlessly without a break.

A small smile emerged from his face as he helped put on her shoes, which resulted in another wave of her wonderful rendition of how much she loved her pink shoes and all the shoes she has in her collection.

Ah, now all he had to do was coax her into talking to him about what was really going on in that little mind of hers.