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Almond was exhausted. His day had been ... Awful. Usually, he knew how to handle everything without feeling too bad himself. But that was when only he was affected. It wasn't the case this time.
Almond had been working for the entire day, making up for several of his colleagues's mistakes. Of course the great detective Almond would be able to fix rookie's works ... It's not like he has a personal life or anything. It's not like he was working on actual crimes to solve where people's lives were in danger... But no matter. He simply worked harder than he should've, nothing different than usual. But then, he got a phone call from a number he easily recognized. Walnut's school. He took the call, expecting her to be sick or maybe getting into a fight with another kid ... But no.
The school counselor was asking him to come to help them catch a dangerous individual that not only got into the school's walls with a weapon, but also took his kid as an hostage.
Technically speaking, neutralizing the man was a piece of cake. He'd done it many, many times in the past. It wasn't something anyone could do, but any person that was trained enough to be in situations with dangerous individuals would've been able to deal with him. And after everything he'd just been through, the fear of having kids, no, his own daughter at risk, the rush to come to th school in time and succeed without putting others in danger, the exhaustion of that awful day, that's when he learned what happened. Walnut didn't just happen to be captured by the man. She went against her teacher's orders and deliberately tried to catch the man all by herself. She'd put herself in danger and only made things worse for everyone. And that's when Almond lost it.
He didn't actually say anything when he got into his car and drove her back to the house. He didn't say anything either when they got out under the rain, rushing to get through the door and finally be home. He waited to slam the door behind him, be alone with his daughter and looked at her right in the eyes with the most intense stare he'd ever been able to show.
"Now. I want you to explain to me WHAT WERE YOU THINKING WHEN YOU DID THAT ?!"
"That was a criminal ! You always told me that Detectives stop criminals from doing bad things !"
"What I always told you was that you're a CHILD ! You know you're not trained for that, you know you're definitely not able to stop anyone by yourself, and with all of that in mind you should've stayed WITH THE OTHERS !"
"He was gonna hurt us !! If nobody acted he would've found us !"
"So you thought that putting yourself in front of him would make things better ?! Walnut, I taught you better than that !"
"You taught me to be responsible when needed !!"
"Then be responsible and listen to your dad when he talks to you !"
"Okay then, it's perfect since you're not even my real dad !"
Children don't really know how to hurt adults. At least ... Not on purpose. It's fairly easy for an adult to hurt a kid. They're big, they know a lot of things that kids don't. So when a kid hurts an adult ... Most often, it's not on purpose. But that doesn't change the pain.
Almond had been trained to handle a lot of things. He saw deaths. He saw people cry pretty much every day. He always ignored his own exhaustion and distress through his overbearing amount of work. But this ? This hurt. It was like a scorpion's sting. It only stung a little at the beginning, mainly because of the flinch it causes, but then the poison begins to spread. The realisation comes little by little and the pain doesn't stop growing. And when Walnut realized what she just said, the damage was already done.
"... Go to your room Walnut."
She didn't even try to argue. She just walked towards her room, slammed her school bag on the floor and laid down on her bed before hearing sobs behind the door. A shiver crawled down her spine. For as long as she could remember, she'd never heard her father cry. If she had to be fair ... She'd been with him for quite a long time. Most of the time she could remember, he'd been here for her. He brought her to nice places, played detective with him, even got her a cat after she asked for one ... And now he was crying because of her. She felt sorry, but didn't know what to do. He was still angry at her, right ? She ... Did a bad thing. She shouldn't have done that, even if she really wanted to. He was right.
This might've been the worst day of Almond's life. He'd had a lot of shitty days before. Ones where nothing's right and small annoying things keep happening until you break and just want the day to end. This was something else. Too much to handle for him. Adopting a kid is difficult, both for the parent and the child. He knew that when he took Walnut in. Yet, there was still this thought hiding behind his efforts every day, this little voice repeating that ... He might not be enough. That he'll never be a real father. And this had just confirmed it. No matter how hard he tried, it was all in vain, simply because this bond wasn't here from the start, it was created. Almond had forgotten how crying worked. It was disturbing to him. Trying to take deep breaths, to wipe down the tears, but only making things worse with random bursts of negativity ruining his best efforts to end it ... He just wanted this to stop. He wanted to fall into his bed, and get to sleep to at least forget that all of this happened for a couple of hours.
But suddenly, he felt something tugging his jacket. He took a few breaths, cleaned his eyes and looked at the little girl that now stood in front of him. She looked ... Awkward. But honestly, no one of her age would know what to do in that situation.
"H-hey ... I'm sorry ... I didn't mean to make you cry, I just ... I was angry and I ... I don't know ... I didn't mean it. I don't want you to cry. Please, don't be angry ..."
Almond felt something in his chest. It didn't stop the tears. It actually made them worse. But it was relieving. Walnut was just being a child. And like any child, she didn't want to see someone she loved cry.
"Oh Walnut, I'm not angry, I swear ... I didn't mean to scare you, I was just worried, you know ? What you did was really, really bad ..."
"I know ... I'm sorry ..."
"It's okay... C'mere."
The man swiftly grabbed his child between his arms and hugged her with all of his might.
"Hehe ... Dad, you're crushing me !"
"Mmmh ? And here I thought the great Walnut wasn't scared if anything !"
"Dad, nooooo ! It's not fair !"
"Okay, I'll let you go, little gremlin. I think we both had enough for today. I think we could use something to clear up our minds ... What do you think of going to a restaurant ?"
"The one that has the super big ice creams ?!"
"If you want."
"Yaaaay ! Oh dad, you're the best !"
Almond smiled.
He wasn't exactly sure if he was the perfect parent yet ... But at least, he did his best.