[sims] what were you thinking?

This takes place a month prior to the main storyline.

Loud honking came from the front of the house. Julian jumped out of the rocking chair and flew to the front door. A large truck was parked outside. The paint on the side read, "Billy's Bees" with a giant cartoon bee winking at him. What is this, Julian thought.

Then, out of the passenger seat came Asmund with a giant smile stuck to his face. "Julian!" he called as he came running to greet the fairy. "Look at what I bought!" These two burly men with chest hair sticking out of their low-collared shirts climbed out of the cab and proceeded to unload the cargo: bee boxes.

"Bees?" Julian mumbled.

Shaking with exuberance, Asmund laughed and said, "Bees! Yes, bees! We will have an endless supply of honey, Julian! Just imagine it. We can use it, sell it, use it as glue. We can do anything we want with it!"

Julian sighed. "Briefly ignoring the fact you're deathly allergic to bees, it was still a bad idea to get this... wait, you bought these bees right? You used So-mi's money?" The light dimmed him Asmund's eyes as he realized the full impact of what he had done.

"Well, it wasn't all my sister's money... yours, too. From your gardening ventures... and a little bit of mine, from fortune telling..." Asmund trailed off and both were silent for a few minutes.

One of the men came to the pair, asking where to put the boxes. "Oh, they can go in the back... next to the workshed..." Julian quickly replied but trailed off in the end as he remembered something. When the man turned to leave Julian quickly whispered to Asmund, "So-mi is home, you know. There's no way she won't find out about this." Then came the thunder, as if on cue.

"Asmund!" A shout so sharp and piercing even the beemen stopped putting on their gear to watch the following scene. Shortly after, a very angry So-mi came stomping around the corner of the house. "What is going on here?" Asmund's figure grew very small quite fast.

"Um... uhh..." he stuttered and So-mi sighed. She glanced at the beemen briefly and then looked back at her brother.

"You can't take them back, can you?" Asmund nodded his head in agreement. "What were you thinking? Who will take care of them, Asmund? You clearly can't; the risk is too high. And I am too busy with work to deal with bees." Julian was about to speak up but So-mi spoke first looking straight at him, "I don't want to force Julian into taking responsibility for Asmund's willful thinking."

"I don't really mind," Julian said, attempting a smile.

So-mi looked straight at the beemen, their hair black and curly. "What are you looking at? Get those boxes to the back, now." She spoke with a firm, professional voice and at once the workers continued on with their task. She turned back to her cowering brother. "Don't worry about it, too much. But expect to be paying back every single cent to Julian and I." With that, she returned to her workspace.

Julian let out the breath he had been holding. "Goodness, Asmund. You do a lot of strange things sometimes," he commented. Asmund laughed awkwardly before leaving and heading into the house. No doubt to cry in his room again, Julian thought.

In the end, Julian was a little cheerful about his new responsibility as beekeeper. He and Asmund shared some of the housework, but it was Asmund who did most of the cleaning and cooking, and taking care of the pets upstairs. So-mi's growing obsession with studying alchemy had slowly but surely taken over his once vegetable-rich garden, and they now share the task. It felt a little nice to have something only he was in charge of. The bees. Taking care of the bees. Beekeeper. Julian laughed as he thought of So-mi being his little bee, buzzing about with work, armed with a singer that could harm anyone. He was taking care of her, too. Julian liked that idea, and he walked off to inspect the newest edition to the family.

---

Author's Note
Came up with this after rereading the post about the Lee family.
I read Julian's bio and was thinking, "What were you thinking, Asmund?" and then thought it was a good idea for a story. Anyway, that's it for now.

word count:691

[sims] break up (spiderlilly)

"I have some news to tell you," Viveil said, his voice a little raspy. Julia could tell he was nervous, he held his hands together and didn't look her in the eye. Her gut lurched and she feared the worst.

She swallowed and took an uneven breath. "What's the matter?"

"It's Alienne..." he trailed off. He didn't want to continue. Guilt assaulted him and he felt like he was drowning, like an anchor made of regret was pulling him down deeper and deeper into the cold, icy waters.

"What is it, Viveil? Just say it."

"Alienne is pregnant again. I can't leave her like this."

Julia stopped breathing for a moment. She took a few steps back and sat on the hotel bed. "What?"

Viveil sighed. "I know we talked about me leaving Alienne, but I can't do that anymore. Ray is turning three and now we have another child on the way. I can't just abandon them like this." Julia bit her lip, lost in thought. "I'm so sorry, Julia. I never meant for this to happen. I really love you, but I have responsibilities as a husband and father."

Julia remained silent for a long time. She looked down at her hands and thought about what she wanted, she tried to be sympathetic for Viveil, but she just couldn't. It upset her too much. Her quietness started to cause Viveil to worry. "Julia?"

"Does this mean we're done?"

Both of them remained silent, as neither of them wanted to confirm the end to the affair. They looked down, away from each other.

Headlights from a car pulling into the carlot briefly flashed through the thin curtains. For that moment, everything was illuminated, their bodies pasted stark shadows against the filthy white wall.

And then the engine was turned off. Silence returned and darkness seeped back into every corner and crevice, doubt crept back into their minds. They remained unsure.

"I'm sorry," he finally said. She took a staggered, drawn breath.

"Let's do it one last time," she suggested. Viveil slowly crawled on top of her, hungry for her. She smiled sadly, finding some sort of twisted happiness in the fact he still lusted for her.

They made love a few times that night, but everything stopped when she began to cry. He pulled out and held her close, kissed her on the forehead.

Together, held in each other's arms, they fell asleep in sorrow.

---

author's notes
wrote this last night while I was playing.
storyprogression mod popped up and said Alienne was pregnant and in my head I was like "oh.... no..." so then I wrote this.
there are also some smaller vignettes, but I'll thicken them and post them up later.

word count:406