notaretriever | (no subject)

Entry tags:

jack

(no subject)

Jack wants to learn how to swim.

At first, when he'd brought it up, Luke had made a few jokes about taking him down to the beach and teaching him to doggy paddle while in wolf form, but the teasing had quickly morphed into a more serious conversation. That Jack loves to learn is something so special that Luke wants nothing more than to encourage it and he's always been a relatively strong swimmer. Shadowhunters had the lakes surrounding Alicante, so many opportunities to swim, and they had been expected to be good at everything. Luke might not have always been the best fighter, but swimming was something he had excelled at.

Add to that his wolf instincts and love of water and he thinks he'll make a fairly good teacher.

They settle on the beach instead of a pool, mostly because Luke thinks the atmosphere will be more relaxed, which will be much more conducive to actually learning to swim. He's made sure to get Jack a properly fitting life jacket, just in case he gets tired of the lesson, but still wants to play in the water, and he packs for the whole afternoon. Towels and a big blanket to spread out on the sand, four of their reusable water bottles, three with water, one with juice, sandwiches and fruit and snacks for their lunch as well as clean, dry clothes.

It's a beautiful day for it, too, and when Luke pulls the truck into a parking space near the beach, he's pleased with how well things are working out for them. Jack deserves nothing less and Luke is happy to be part of giving that to him.

"Ready for this?" he asks, grinning over at Jack as he turns off the truck and begins to collect their things.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

There's a lot of happy stuff that's happened these days. Magnus and Alec got married, which was one of the best days ever because they were so happy and there were so many people that I love and are part of my family. And Michelle knows that Papa is a werewolf, which I know isn't just happy but it's like bringing parts of my family together, I hope someday Papa and Dad think of Michelle as part of their family. For now, I'm really happy that they're becoming good friends.

School's gonna start again soon too, which I think will be really fun. It means that Fall's going to come back too (some people call it Autumn), and I saw Fall before but I only saw the end of it. I'm really excited to see the beginning, because that's when all the colors of the leaves change and the trees are going to switch from green to yellow to orange and red.

I think it's gonna be beautiful.

But Fall coming means that Summer's going away, and the important parts of Summer are like having ice cream and going to the Ocean and swimming. That's what you see in lots of books, so I want to try and learn how to swim so that I can like the Ocean even more than I do now. Alec said he could help me learn but that I should ask Papa, so I asked Papa and Papa is actually one of the best swimmers. And I'm glad to get some time just with Papa. Sometimes it's really nice when it's just you and your Ma or Dad. You feel really safe.

"Oh yeah, totally ready. This is gonna be so much fun," I say, and I wait until the truck's turned off before I open the door. It's heavy, but I know how to do it myself now and I'm always really careful when I get out so that I don't hit the next car. "Do you think the water's really cold? Last time even though it was hot out, the water was really cold when I walked a little into it."

"I think it's probably a little bit cold," Luke answers with a grin as he goes around to meet Jack on the other side of the truck, using his key to lock the door. He's been teased once or twice when it comes to the age of his truck, but he loves the thing and he takes care of it, so he sees no reason to trade it in for something with automatic locks or a command start system that he thinks is probably terrible for the environment anyway. "But I'm really warm, remember, so if you start to get too cold, I can scoop you up and give you a big hug and warm you up."

There are times when he forgets other people aren't like him, that they don't run as warm as he does, that their metabolism isn't working overtime like his does, and it might be a little silly, but he likes those moments. It's almost as if he's forgotten there's anything other about him. That maybe being a wolf is something he can think of as normal.

"Where do you think we should go?" Luke asks as they start down the steps toward the sand, then points toward a stretch of beach shaded by a few trees. "We should find some shade, I think. I brought sunscreen and your hat, but it'll be nice to be out of the sun when we eat."

I giggle when Papa tells me again that he's super warm. It's funny because sometimes he's a little too warm in Summer, like when I wiggle up next to him in bed I end up feeling like I'm gonna sweat so I have to scooch away for a bit and then come back. But when it's cold, Papa being warmer is the best. I can't wait for it to be Winter again because that's when I just wanna cuddle Papa all the time, he can warm up even my toes and my toes get cold real easy.

I bet he can keep me really warm in the water and that's good, that makes me less afraid that I'm gonna shiver and that it's going to be hard to swim.

"Yeah, I might ask for lots of hugs in the water," I tell Papa and reach to hold his hand. "Promise that I'm not trying to cheat and stop swimming. Maybe if I move around then I won't be that cold, but... but warm hugs in the water sound super nice."

Papa asks me where we should go, and I look up and around to the trees by the beach. "Under those trees looks really good. And yeah, my skin's still... I guess my skin's still getting more Strong, but it's not as Strong as the other kids at School, I know that because I get more red faster than them. So I need to stay in the shade for longer and in the sun for shorter. I wish I could stay out longer because I really like how warm the sun is. Do you think there's a way for me to practice making my skin more Strong?"

Luke laughs as he takes Jack's hand and says, "I'll give you all the hugs you could ever ask for, honey." That's hardly the sort of thing Luke would consider a hardship, more than happy to shower the boy with whatever affection he wants. Luke isn't the sort of man who waits to be asked either, happy to hug and kiss Jack when he comes home from school, happier still to tuck him in at the end of the day or hold his hand whenever he needs.

"I think your skin is very strong," he continues as they walk across the sand. "But I think it's always going to get red if you spend too much time in the sun. Some people have fair skin and they get sunburns easier than other people. Clary was like that, she was very fair, she couldn't go out in the sun for longer than ten minutes without getting a burn."

As they reach the little bit of shade with the trees, Luke drops their towels and then looks over at Jack. "And the sun can be dangerous, too. It's very bad for your skin to get a burn, especially if it happens over and over."

I know that Papa is the best at giving me hugs and kisses and all those sorts of love things. Well, maybe Ma was also that good, but in Darrow, Papa is the one who does it the most. I think that's how you know that he's the best kind of Dad, because the best kind of Dads are the ones that always show love to their kids. Grandpa wasn't that kind of Dad to Ma, he was... well, sometimes he was really serious and he didn't listen to Ma and he definitely didn't give her the kind of hugs and kisses that Papa gives me.

Papa's the best.

"Ohhh, so... so people with lighter skin just sometimes get red more and burn more?" I ask Papa. "That kind of sucks, that makes me wish that my skin was darker. Is there good stuff that comes from fair skin? Like you'd think that because we call it fair skin, there must be something really good about it."

I bend down and make the towels more straight, but I'm still listening to Papa when he talks about how the sun's dangerous. It's a lot like what the Doctor told me in the Hospital in World, he said that I gotta wear like hats and lots of sunscreen to try to make myself safer from the sun.

"I wish the sun wasn't so dangerous, because it feels really nice and warm to be under the light. And I know that it's good for like, growing vegetables and flowers."

"Well, everyone can get a sunburn, it's always important to wear sunscreen no matter what," Luke says as he sets down their bags and begins to help Jack lay their towels straight. As an adult, Luke hasn't spent an exceptional amount of time around kids, there was really only ever Clary and Simon, but Jack is so conscientious in ways he knows the other two had never been. Simon had certainly been the more aware of the two of them, but even he wouldn't have been sitting here with Luke now, making sure everything was set up properly. Whenever he took them up to his farm, they would both bolt for the water immediately, wanting nothing more than to swim and forget the adults were even there.

"And the sun gives us good things, too," he says. "We need vitamin D, which comes from the sun, so it's nice to be in the sun for a little while, but we just have to make sure we don't stay out in it too long without protection. That's why I make you wear your hat when we're going to be out at the park all day. If we don't protect you, your nose will turn bright red, like a clown." Luke grins and reaches out to poke Jack's nose at the same time as he says this.

"Alright," he says, getting the sunscreen out of their bag. "Shirt off. I'll slather you up and then I'll get you to do my shoulders for me. Deal?"

"We get vitamins from the sun?" I ask, that's a big surprise to me. Ma always asked Old Nick for vitamins when we were back in Room, and sometimes he got them. Sometimes they were really nice and almost like candy, like you chew it up and it tastes a little bit dry but still lots of sugar, those were my favorites. But I remember I heard him and Ma talking before and he said that they were too expensive. I didn't know what that word meant back then but now I know it means that it takes too much money to buy vitamins so it's pretty cool that you can actually get some of them from the sun.

I think I'm going to tell my friends that, it's super cool and I think that they should teach you that in School.

"I guess the sun's like lots of other things then, like it's good to have some but not good to have too much," I say, and I giggle when Papa reaches out to boop my nose. I like when he does that. I don't boop his nose but I definitely stick my face in his beard sometimes, it's funny because it tickles a little bit and it scratches. "Like cake. A little bit makes you happy but too much can give you cavities. Or even broccoli, I bet you can eat too much of that too and feel sick, also you probably get lots of farts if you do that."

I raise my arms and take off my shirt. "Deal," I tell Papa, and I smile real big because I bet my hair's all messy, this shirt's a little tight and it always pulls my hair up when I take it off. "I hope that the sunscreen's not too cold."

"Technically your body can already make its own vitamin D," Luke explains as he reaches for the tube of sunscreen and pours a bit between his palms, rubbing them together to warm them. "But exposure to a certain kind of light in the sun stimulates the production of the vitamin, so it's good to help us make more. It doesn't take very long, though, probably only fifteen minutes for you and then you have plenty of vitamin D."

Clary never would have been interested in any of this at Jack's age. She had been curious and clever, but she had been very selective in her interests, focusing already on storytelling and art instead of science or history.

He begins to rub the sunscreen into Jack's shoulders and down his back, taking care to get every little bit of exposed skin, including the tips of his ears.

"But you're right," he says with a teasing grin. "Everything is good for you in moderation. Like the sun and cake and even broccoli. And you already make plenty of farts, so I'm not sure we need to be giving you much more of anything in the cabbage family."

"Oooh, okay," I say when Papa explains how it works to me. I'm still learning lots of science whenever I go to School. Some of the stuff, Ma taught me even when I was in Room, but some of the stuff Ma didn't really know and I think she just told me what her imagination told her. I like science a lot because it's basically telling you what's real and what's not real, or sometimes it's telling you how you can try things to see what's real or not. Those are called experiments.

"So our bodies can make some vitamin D, but the sun helps us make even more of it. Kind of like how sometimes you can grow plants even without lots of sun, but when you have the sun the plants will grow even faster and stronger," I say. We had a Plant in Room. It was always really small, not big like a lot of the trees and bushes and even the flowers out in World and in Darrow.

I wonder how big it would be if it had as much sun as I do now.

"Moderation. That's like… having stuff in the middle, right? Not too much and not too little," I ask Papa. He's really good at making the sunscreen a little warmer before putting it on me, so now I reach for the sunscreen so that I can do what he did. I hold it in my hands and rub it around a little bit in my hands first, that way my warm hands can take the cold away. "Maybe my farts are not in moderation. I've had so much more now because I eat so many foods." I giggle because I think farts are really funny. I always try to make loud ones.

"That's exactly right," Luke says with a smile, proud of Jack for knowing how to define the word. With Clary, he remembers adults always talking down to her, trying to use smaller words because they were afraid she wouldn't understand and Luke knows it's necessary in some situations, to break complex ideas down into simpler ones, but he doesn't believe in ignoring bigger words for the sake of understanding. Jack is smart, a lot smarter than adults without any experience with kids would ever really expect, and when he doesn't know something, he asks. It's a way to help him learn and Luke is so proud of what Jack knows already and how open he is to learning something every single day.

With his shirt off, he turns around and sits on the towel so he's down at Jack's level, letting him rub the sunscreen onto his shoulders and his back.

"Your farts are definitely not in moderation," Luke agrees with a laugh. "But that's okay, that just means your bowels are moving stuff around in there and you always want it to keep moving." This isn't the conversation he expected to be having with Jack today, but somehow he's not surprised at the same time. He's such a curious kid that everything seems to be open for discussion and Luke is happy to talk about whatever he wants. Including his farts, if that's what it comes to. "Alright. Ready for your life jacket?"

Sometimes I hope that I'm suddenly so much bigger so that I can be as tall as Papa, but I'm not yet, so I have to get up a little bit on my feet to reach his shoulders. He's definitely getting down to try and help me, and maybe I can get most of his shoulders like this even if I'm sitting, but I want to make sure to get the sunscreen everywhere so that it can protect him the most, and that means I need to stand up and spend a lot of time rubbing the sunscreen around.

It's oily and sometimes it feels a little icky, but I know it's good for you so I keep going. But I try to rub it enough so that there's no white parts left.

"Bowels are like the big intestine and small intestine, right? There was um, there was this really cool book I found in the School Library and it showed you what all the parts inside your body look like," I say, and I wrinkle my nose. "Some of them look really weird, like... like beans, except pink. It's really interesting that they're all really different like, sizes and shapes and stuff, I guess they have to be if they all do different things. But I know the intestines are like the last parts that your food goes through before you poop it out. Or fart it out."

I laugh because the word fart is always funny.

I pat Papa's shoulders when I'm done sunscreening them and I jump up all the way to my feet. "Yeah, I'm ready for my life jacket! It'll be nice to wear it because then I know I'll float even if I'm tired. Sometimes if I don't know I'm gonna float, my brain gets scared and stuff."

"You're right again," Luke says, clearly pleased by the extent of Jack's knowledge. He has the mind of a lifelong learner, someone Luke is sure will be constantly picking up books and reading whatever he can for the rest of his life, someone who will have knowledge about any number of topics and will be able to carry on conversations with nearly anyone. He can see these things for Jack already and he feels a swell of pride, knowing he's contributing to that, knowing he's lucky enough to be one of the people who watches him grow.

He reaches for the life jacket, holding it open so Jack can slide his arms into it and then he begins to do up the buckles on the front, making sure they're snug and comfortable.

"I'll never let you sink," he says seriously, then gives Jack a smile as he rises to his feet and holds out his hand. "And I'll keep you warm, just like I promised. Ready for this?"

I stick my arms into the holes of the life jacket. It's not as comfortable as just going into the water but it's definitely safer, and I think safe is more important than comfortable. Someday I'll be able to swim with lots of Strong like Papa does, and then I won't need the life jacket. And maybe it won't take that long. It's like when I try to ride my Bicycle. Right now I still have my training wheels on most of the time, but sometimes I try for a little bit without the training wheels, and I think soon I'll be able to go all the time without training wheels.

Everything gets easier when you practice.

"Yeah, I'm so ready," I say, and I wrap my arms around Papa first just to test that he'll keep me warm. He's definitely warmer than I am, and it feels really nice right now because I'm not wearing lots so the wind can get a little cold. After I hug him, I grab his hand and I pull us to the water. "Last one in's a rotten egg!" I yell, and then I let Papa's hand go because I totally want to get to the water first!

It's hard not to be delighted by such happiness and Luke laughs before he jogs after Jack, making sure to keep pace with him without ever taking over the winning position of their race and as Jack splashes into the water first, Luke gives a groan from behind, as if he's disappointed he's just lost. He'll happily lose every single race for the rest of his life if it makes Jack happy.

"I guess that makes me a rotten egg," he says with a sigh as he comes up behind Jack, kicking the water around his legs. It's cool, certainly, but he thinks given the temperature of the day Jack shouldn't get too cold. Luke barely notices it at all, always running warmer than the average person and for someone like him, it's pleasantly comfortable being in the ocean like he this.

"So what does that make you?" he asks with a grin, reaching down and scooping his hands under Jack's arms, lifting him out of the water before he plunks him back down gently. "The rotten egg's son? I don't know if that's any better than being a rotten egg yourself."

I shout a little when I run into the water. I knew I had to get into the water if I wanted to win the race, but it's so cold and it surprises me a lot, and I'm shivering first before I quickly stomp my feet because maybe if I keep moving and maybe if I let the water splash on me, then it'll be less cold. I remember from when Alec took me to the water, if you just go down in it, it feels warmer faster than if you just do one step at a time.

So I sit down in the water, then I stand right back up because it's so cold!

"You're a rotten egg," I agree with Papa, and I lift my arms just in time for him to pick me up and put me back down. He asks a really good question, and I have to think about it because I want to come up with a funny answer, or at least a smart one, but it's kind of hard. "Um... well chicks come from eggs, right? So maybe I'm just one bad chick. But I think chicks are usually girls, and I guess I'm not a girl, but being a girl isn't a bad thing so I don't mind if people call me a chick."

"You're one bad chick," Luke agrees with a laugh, figuring there's no arguing with Jack's logic. It's nice to hear him say something like that, too, that he doesn't think being a girl is a bad thing, because far too many boys hold such ideas. The Clave may have had some backward ideas that Luke will never agree with, but at least in that regard they had been relatively forward thinking. Men and women were always considered equal. Boys and girls both grew up learning how to fight, how to handle weapons, how to decipher languages and identify different poisons. Girls were never told they were weaker or that they weren't allowed to be Shadowhunters. It's something Jocelyn had taught Clary, even if mundane society tried to teach her otherwise.

It's the same sort of ideals Luke wants to instill in Jack.

"Alright, ready to swim?" Luke asks, wading out into the water that's a little deeper. Enough that he's up to his thighs, willing to go deeper if they need to. Jack is small, though, and they won't need to go too far out to make sure it's deep enough that he can practice paddling around.

"I think so," I say, and now I'm feeling a little bit scared. Not too scared, but the kind of scared where your stomach feels a little funny because you're trying something new and you don't know how it's going to feel yet. But I walk out because I want to be brave, and I want to have all the Strong, and I want to show my Papa that I'm learning how to get more Strong than him.

I know I'll be okay because Papa's here. He always makes everything better, even if it starts scary or sad. I think my Papa's like... he makes people happy just when he's around. He's nice and good to everyone. That's the kind of person I want to be.

That's also why everyone likes coming to our bookstore so much, because Papa's in charge of it.

"Whoa," I say when I walk far enough that my life jacket starts pulling me up. "I'm totally floating already," I tell Papa, and I laugh and try to keep my toes on the ground. "But it's like rubber ducky floating. How do I swim?"

"Okay, the most important thing you're going to learn today is how to tread water," Luke says, ducking down so he's level with Jack. "If you know how to tread water properly then it doesn't take much energy at all and you could theoretically do it for hours, which is good to know how to do in an emergency situation. I'm going to reach under the water for your legs, okay? And I'll show you how to move them."

Luke ducks a little further, dropping his hands under the water, his fingers curling gently over Jack's ankles.

"Feel that?" he asks, then slowly and carefully begins to move Jack's legs for him. "That's easy, right? All you have to do is that gentle kick and then move your arms back and forth under the water like you're gently scooping it away from you."

I laugh when Papa reaches down because it tickles a little, but I try to stop laughing because I want to pay attention and the learning part is lots more important. He's showing me that I can move my legs under the water and that's called treading water. I guess when you tread water it just helps keep you up, because Papa's moving my feet for me but I'm not really moving a lot, I'm just staying still and staying up on top where I can breathe.

Most of my moving is like back and forth, like… like I'm a bowling pin. I hope I don't fall over or turn upside down.

"Yeah, I think I can do that myself," I tell Papa after I feel how he's moving my feet. I start to move my feet the same way. It's kind of like walking but like… but like the ground is squishy because there's not actually ground right under my feet. I move my arms too. Sometimes I move too much and then I move all my arms and legs really fast because I'm a little scared. "Whoa."

"Good job," Luke says, still sunk low in the water so he can be close to Jack. He reaches out to find one of Jack's hands, then gently shapes it so it's a little more cupped.

"Feel that?" he asks, gliding Jack's hand through the water slowly. "See how it feels like you're pushing the water away and then pulling it back toward you? All of this doesn't take much energy or effort once you're really good at it and that's very important in an emergency."

He lets go of Jack again to let him try on his own, watching the way his arms and legs move under the water. It's only the first step, but Jack is always so eager to learn, always filled with such desire to do more and Luke has no doubt he's going to take as well to swimming as he has everything else.

"If you're feeling brave, we can always try it without your jacket," he says. "I'll be right here for you to hold onto if you need."

I don't talk for a while because I want to make sure that I get this right. I think it's going to be even harder when I don't have the vest so I have to get it super right when I have the vest on so that I don't mess up when Papa takes that off. I do want to take it off some time soon because I want to know what it's like to try to swim even without a vest.

It's really weird though. I think I kick and move my arms a little too much, because Papa said you're not supposed to take that much energy doing it but I'm definitely getting tired. It's weird because you don't stand on the ground and nothing's... nothing's just there, you have to keep moving and balancing. And the vest actually kinda pulls you up so that's really weird to balance, too.

"I'm totally going to feel brave. But maybe I need a little break," I tell Papa, and I squeeze my eyes shut when some of the water goes into my mouth, ew. "Salty."

"Well, you're not supposed to drink it," Luke teases with a grin as he gets to his feet again, hooking his hands under Jack's arms and pulling him clear out of the water. He'd promised hugs to keep him warm, after all, and he holds Jack close to him, then sinks back down a little lower to keep the both of them in the water as much as possible. Now that they've gotten in, he knows getting back out is what's going to make them truly cold.

"You're doing a really good job, Jack," he says a moment later, his voice fond. "You always try so hard and you have such a wonderful attitude toward learning and that makes me so proud. I know it would make your mother proud, too. Learning is the sort of thing you ought to do for the rest of your life and I think you probably already know this, but you never need to be afraid to ask me any questions. About anything at all."

Swimming is easy, it's not the sort of thing that takes a lot of effort on Luke's part, but he doesn't want Jack to be afraid of asking for harder favours, too, if they come up.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only