tamingthemuse | 160 - Trump Card - Wishful Thinking - sh_nano

Title: Wishful Thinking
Fandom: Original
Prompt: Trump Card
Warnings: None
Rating: G
Summary: Alice wishes, more than anything, that her sister would just grow up, already.

Alice wasn't sure whether she was doing the right thing - being a careful, responsible big sister - or being selfish and lazy and disrespectful. Sophia was almost impossible to control - the girl couldn't even take advice without throwing a fit of some sort - but Alice knew that it was her responsibility as the older sister, the only sister who was capable of exercising any amount of forethought or self-control, to keep Sophia safe against the world and against her own juvenile stupidity. No one could reasonably contest that Sophia didn't need to be taken care of: the girl would try to go fight a dragon without so much as a stick to beat it with or even a vague working knowledge of dragonlore were it nor for Alice; even with Alice around, it was probably a very good thing that dragons were scarce in the area.

So Alice tried to comfort herself with the knowledge that she was merely fulfilling her duty. Sophia was not an easy girl to be around in general, and she was even more difficult when one was determined to do what was best for her; and yet Alice was obligated to stay around her, protecting her, trying against all hope to teach her to grow up already and not get herself killed. She had no choice, really, but to use her trump card - sometimes every day, if Sophia was being particularly contrary. She honestly and truly hoped that her parents didn't mind having their names used, their memories called upon, for the sake of controlling Sophia. That was the only thing that the girl would respond to nowadays - the thought of upsetting her parents. Though they had been dead and gone for - how long? - too many years now, Sophia had always listened to them, and still cringed at even the thought of insulting their memories. She could, would, and often did fight and argue with Alice for hours about why it was absolutely necessary, in her opinion, to go wandering in the woods for hours, questing after some unknown adventure; but if Alice reminded her that their parents would never have allowed it, that to hear such an idea would bring her mother to tears with fear and worry, the discussion would end at once.

Alice wished that she didn't have to resort to these measures, time and time again; but then, Alice wished for an awful lot of things these days. She wished that Sophia would settle down, grow up, stop dreaming about adventures and magic and saving the world. She wished that Sophia would be more wiling to help out around the store, without having to be guilt-tripped and virtually blackmailed into it. She wished that the task of parenting a physically fully-frown but emotionally immature girl had not fallen on her shoulders; she wished that Sophia would stop seeing and treating her as the villain in whatever adventure story she was playing in her head. She wished, after an especially long day, that she could sink into one of the books that she was perpetually surrounded by, and not have to come back out. But most of all, Alice wished that she didn't have to wish so damn much. She wished that she could be happy with what she had, or have what she needed in order to be happy - but then, those were the same thing, or close enough to it anyway.

She knew that ultimately, the only person who could fix anything was herself; so she continued to nag Sophia, using whatever methods she had to in order to keep her sister safe and reasonably happy. She only ever wished late at night, long after Sophia had gone to sleep, or early in the morning, before Sophia woke up. And she kept going, day after day, secure in the knowledge that she would stand by her sister, and her sister by her, for the rest of their days. With family, and with the right perspective, one never really had to wish for anything.

Edit: Can a mod give me a tag? This is the first thing I've posted under this journal.