Archive of Our Own ^beta

When Jonathan and Jessica received a Den Den Mushi call two days before Isuka’s Scout Camp was scheduled to finish, they were concerned. What if something had happened to their baby girl? Jonathan answered the call, mighty eyebrows pinched in concern as Jessica listened in, ready to interject.

“Hello, is this Jonathan, Isuka’s papa?” That was the plucky voice of the camp councillor they’d dropped Isuka with. Jonathan tensed up and Jessica held his hand for support.

“Yes, speaking.” Jonathan thought he’d done a great job keeping his voice level. As a commander of a marine base, he had to always have control of his emotions.

“So, I’m calling about Isuka—”

“Is our little girl okay!?” Jessica jolted at Jonathan’s alarm. “She’s not having problems making friends, is she? It’s so close to the end—she hasn’t fallen into the lake and drowned? Been eaten by a bear? Starved to death after eating a poisonous mushroom—”

“Honey,” Jessica squeezed his arm, not so much in reassurance as annoyed at the last culinary-related comment. “Isuka is a fantastic mushroom forager and I’ve taught her myself about every single mushroom on that island’s property. Don’t doubt her skills.”

“She’s exactly right!” The perky voice gathered their confidence again. “You’ll be pleased to know your Isuka got her patch for fungi identification—it has a cute little red toadstool embroidered on it and everything.”

“Sounds like a poisonous variant,” Jessica narrowed her eyes.

The camp employee laughed awkwardly at their intensity. “No, Isuka’s done nothing wrong. In fact, she’s one of the most dedicated and skilled camp attendees we’ve ever had for her age.”

Jonathan swelled with pride, brushing his moustache down smugly. “We’ve been on many camping trips together as a family.”

“Uhuh—I don’t doubt it—it’s just. She’s really been struggling with getting her last badge, and we were wondering if—if we’d need to get an alternative arrangement for her. We just, um, were wondering if you know if Isuka’s ever had any problems with fire? She—”

Jessica grabbed her coat and shouted for her crew to get the ship ready for departing G-8 as they’d be setting sail immediately.

Jonathan’s hand trembled on the phone. God, he’d failed their daughter by not giving them a head’s up—

“She’s a big go-getter. But this latest activity—she’s been struggling. We noticed that under the gloves she usually wears that there’s some quite prominent burn scars.”

Jonathan let out a long sigh, signing off on his last bit of paperwork as he got ready a leave-of absence form to fax through to Head Quarters.

“Also, if I may—there was an incident with a knife.”

Jonathan’s pen stilled. “Excuse me? Did she get cut!?”

“No. Just—she had a knife. Not just a pocket-knife that was on the permissions list. It scared both the other cadets and all our staff stiff to see this small beansprout of a child bring out an absurdly large carving knife from her backpack. It was almost the size of a sword compared to her tiny hand!”

“Oh, that!” Jonathan laughed. “My wife is a chef and I’m a fisherman. Jessica insisted she could have her best filleting knife with her because she trusted her to take good care of it.”

“That … that explains why she brought it out to start gutting the fish we’d all caught after completing the fishing activity.”

Jonathan could picture the intense and serious expression on her face as she went about respectfully removing the creature’s bones as she had been taught. She could be so scarily intense. He was amazed they hadn’t gotten a call sooner.

***

It seemed like just yesterday that they’d dropped their little fledgling off at the ferry that would take her to the island that the marines sent their children to for camping.

She looked so precious in her marine scout’s uniform! So serious, but Jonathan could tell her scowl was hiding a smile. Her eyes had that twinkle of adventure in them. She wore a vest to sow badges and patches into, proudly telling her adoptive parents that she’d come back with a whole set. Jonathan had taken off her over-sized peak-cap to ruffle her red-hair, laughing as her scowl deepened and she tried to swat his hand away. She shook her head to try and get her hair back into place, little pigtail plaits that Jessica had braided into her hair for the occasion smacking her in the face. Jonathan did his best to avoid cooing, but promptly failed.

“We should get some photos!” Jonathan brought out his photo-taking transponder snail.

“Pa, why,” Isuka whined, but quickly got into position huddled between them, smiling for the picture. She was indulgent of their whims. Jessica squeezed her shoulders, and Isuka’s smile became warmer and more genuine.

Sometimes Jonathan worried she was an overachiever because she felt out of place and like she needed to prove herself within her new family. No matter how much Jessica and Jonathan reassured her that she could just be herself and didn’t have to be so hard on herself, she always seemed so skittish, like a baby deer but with red hair.

“I’m proud of you, you know,” Jessica kissed the back of her head. “You’re going to do amazing at the camp. It’ll be just like the camps we do together, yeah? You don’t have to stress about competing with the other kids.”

“I know that!” Isuka scowled, shaking her head. “They’re peers, not competition! But I still want to do my very best.”

Jonathan ruffled her hair again. The compulsion was too strong to make her scowl deeper.

“Now, you’ve got everything in your pack, right?” Jessica lifted it up, sweat dropping at the rattling contents inside and just how heavy it was. Perhaps she and Jonathan had both overdone it—they didn’t mean to be helicopter parents and overindulgent, but she was their little girl and Isuka never asked for anything but Sora comics. She even ate extra vegetables! Spoiling their daughter came naturally to them as they’d been trying for a family for years.

Isuka threaded her arms through the oversized backpack, giving her mum a thumbs up through a reddened face as she struggled to heft it on her back. Her legs shook and almost buckled, the bag so big it almost touched the floor and possibly weighed even more than she did, but she stood strong and without complaint. She’d scolded them earlier that she couldn’t bring all of the contents they’d shoved in there, but had sucked it up and did her best to carry the weight of her parent’s love.

“Have fun!” Jonathan beamed at her with a wave.

“We love you so much, honey!” Jessica yelled over the sound of the ferry announcing boarding.

Isuka nodded proudly, saluting and turning around with a full spin to get the bag moving as she marched onto the ship with single-minded determination. Jessica and Jonathan watched her big bag moving throughout the ship, even taller than most of the taller kids, until she was out of sight.

Their baby’s first solo trip.

***

“She was doing incredible,” the camp counsellor reassured them as they moved along the cabins. The counsellor looked hurried and embarrassed to have had to call a Vice Admiral. “In fact, she got her first badge within ten minutes of touching down! She went straight to her cabin and started organizing the contents of her pack into essential for camping out materials, and inessential. At first, we were worried she’d overpacked herself, but she handed the inessential items—and a mountain of packed lunches—to her scout leader and told her to keep them safe. She explained that it her parents had thought of her and packed everything, but that it was too heavy and impractical for trekking. The scout leader was very impressed by her diligence and delegation skills, as well as the love she clearly held for you both to bring the pack all this way. It was really touching, and the scout leader went through her new pack and gave her a badge for packing and sorting essentials. The scout leader almost gave another one when she told her to share her mom’s cooking among the camp scout leaders and her fellow scouts for their first night. Your girl is very thoughtful, and your wife’s cooking is just as delicious as reputed.”

Jonathan smiled smugly, twirling his moustache. A vein ticked in Jessica’s forehead that Isuka had given away all the nutritious meals she’d packed for her.

Her rage was alleviated when the counsellor added that Isuka had flexed her tiny arm muscles and proclaimed her mama always said a balanced diet was essential, and it would be remiss not to share.

“The issue came during last night’s fire-making,” the counsellor sighed sadly. “Another camper got their flame going and Isuka panicked and smothered the fire as soon as it was lit. This was unacceptable behaviour and we thought perhaps she was interfering competitively—which was uncharacteristic of her, might I add, as she assisted so many of her fellow scouts with reeling in their fish during the fishing component when they were struggling. My suspicion that it was something deeper than not wanting to be upstaged was confirmed when she got shaky and struggled to light her own, crying and doing the same smothering on instinct with her own vest she was so proud of when the flint sparked. She tried again and it was the same thing.”

The counsellor looked towards the forest. “She’s still in there. She refused to go into either a tent or the cabin, vowing not to leave the campfire site until she had succeeded in the task. She’s … an intense kid. We thought you’d be able to help bring her back—”

Jessica gnawed on her lip. “She might double-down if she sees us, or think she’s a failure.”

Jonathan agreed with his wife’s assessment. “It would hurt her pride. So, about the fishing—”

“Jonathan! You are not looking for a fishing spot while your daughter is freezing in the forest!” Jessica crossed her arms and advanced on him.

He put his hands up. “No, not at all. I just wanted to know how well she went with the fishing component.”

“Your pride, huh?” The counsellor guessed with a smile. “She did fantastic. All the other kids got so impatient and fidgeted waiting for a bite on the line. Some even gave up! But Isuka remained absolutely FOCUSED on her line. She got that fishing badge, and I even saw her polishing it.”

Jonathan grinned, chest swelling with pride. Jessica elbowed him lightly in the stomach.

Jonathan rubbed his side. “What was that for? Didn’t you hear! She’s done amazing. It’s good to focus on the positives.”

“Mom? Papa?”

They both stilled at the quiet, raspy voice.

They looked up, seeing Isuka small on the horizon, a dark figure overshadowed by trees, just standing there.

Then, she ran towards them.

Poor Jonathan’s stomach copped another blow as his redheaded bawling baby ran into him to hug him.

“There, there,” Jonathan awkwardly pets her back, hearing her sobs. “We wanted to show our support.”

He pulled back his hand at feeling something gritty and grimy covering his daughter’s hair—my god, were her plaits singed at the ends?—and found it covered in soot.
Isuka sniffled, looking up with a jubilant smile. “I can’t believe they called you right away … Papa can you teleport?”

“Tele … port?” Jonathan looked to Jessica for advice, but she was just as baffled.

With the world’s biggest grin, Isuka lifted up smoke-coated, badge and patch covered vest. In the middle, pride of place, was a big, embroidered patch of an orange and red flame with the surrounding text ‘Fire Maker.’

“I did it!”