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TWELVE 👑✨⚜️
—IT was strange, the things Veronica fixated on now that there was a real guest in her house ━━ something the Flynns hadn't had in years ( other than the librarian her father was seeing ). A dusty picture of her and her father at a swim meet on the wall where she wore an ugly swim cap and goggles and was missing a tooth, around fifty open physics books sitting around the living room and taking up all the available seating, old trophies that Veronica had earned over the years now used as paper weights, and every little hiding spot with a deadly weapon: beneath the couch, strapped underneath the coffee table, on top of the fine China hutch, behind the television, the bread box on the kitchen counter. One needn't look too far in their household to get their hand sliced off. CPS would have lots to say about the Flynn household.
It was nothing to be embarrassed over ( though the swim picture was terrible for her reputation ); she just felt awkward that such a private part of her life was being showcased to a boy she'd met only a short while ago. Her home was her safe space where she was just Veronica, or maybe even Ronnie on the days she felt generous. She had the sudden urge to deep clean every surface and remove all traces of her and her father's vulnerability.
But Nakamura's face held no inch of judgement as he looked around his vicinity, only silent contemplation. He hadn't gotten a chance to look around before being roped into a long few hours of talking with her father about everything that happened. With the long story over, he was free to inspect every little thing. His eye seemed to latch onto picture frames and certain touches that were wholly hers like the trophies, exemplary report cards, and art pieces that all featured something gold. He laughed at certain photos and she cringed at every one.
"Cute," he chimed at one in particular with a smirk.
She followed his gaze to a well-loved picture and stared at it with resentment but also a twinge of nostalgia. It was of a fourth-grade Veronica at a high school science fair. Her father had dressed her up in a lab coat and done her hair in an Albert Einstein-fashion so she looked like a stereotypical mad scientist. The colorful tri-fold board behind her explained the fascinating mechanics behind Tesla Coils ( according to her father, she'd almost been named Nikola after "one of the greatest minds in history" ). She'd even built a mini version of the coils with high voltage batteries and wire to really seal the deal. She'd gotten a fancy, blue ribbon for that one.
Cute, indeed.
She rolled her eyes and waved him onward to the stairs. The sooner she got him situated in the guest room, the sooner she could start a complete clean-up of her house and forget he had ever seen a private part of her life.
