Sunkissed
Theo Dyer, 25 to 30 years old.
The oldest son of the Dyers, followed by another two sisters who, as expected, took all the attention away from him. This didn't exactly gave him any ill feelings towards his family, but he knows that growing up as a lonely kid was not the best.
Once the younger sisters grew up and got married they moved out of the house, Theo then remained as the only son taking care of his mother, which was fine by him, even thought deep down he knows that his mother would've prefered any other sister taking care of her.
"Meeting" her.
Theo didn't even knew that Clyde had a lost younger sister until he told him about it in a moment of vulnerability, he promised to keep it a secret from everyone else, but since that moment he kept an eye on her case. There wasn't much speculation online, the case was mostly cold, only some old photos of her as a baby and some supposed sightings here and there. Things changed when she came back, and seeing her in the news with the whole story about her being rescued really peaked his interest.He began thinking about many scenarios; How much did that woman did to her? How much did Noelle believed was right and how much did she believed was wrong? It was pretty obvious that she was used to "that" life, so, how difficult would be to get a normal one? He also began to put himself in that place, the place of her mother. How much could he got away with it?
Theo knew from a while ago that, despite dating many girls his age, his real interest was onto something else, Noelle was the confirmation, but many other girls made him believe in such a thing. He was definetily attracted to younger girls.
Many more questions came after that. Was really that, or did Noelle got his attention just because of how vulnerable she was? The idea of her depending totally on him was what put her into his mind, the liking came later, slowly. But, exactly, what was it? What if Noelle was slightly older but still looked the same?
Teaching her.
Once Clyde told him about the whole situation Theo accepted, even with the condition that she didn't knew it was him. That was fine, just knowing that she would be talking to him was enough. He began thinking to himself, what if he found her, out of nowhere, in a chat room when she was still with his mother? Could've he convinced her to run away with him? Probably not, but these kind of thoughts kept getting more and more into his head, and he knew that this was sprouting onto something. Thankfully, he was not really far from moving out for his studies, so he has to say goodbye to her, which was easier tan he even believed.Away from home.
Even if he didn't seemed successfull in the romantic sense, he still vas successfull in every other sense; had good grades in school, had a half-time job and took good care of his mother as much as she needed. However, once he had to move away because of his studies one of his sisters offered to take care of their mom, as now that she was a stay-at-home mom she would be more free than Theo.While away Theo didn't tought about her that much, mostly for how bussy he was but also because he just didn't kept in contact with her. Sometimes he would even use the theme with the girls he wanted to pick up to appear sensitive. "Have you seen about that albino girl who got rescued after her mother tried to kill her? Yeah, I had to teach her basic maths and stuff, that poor thing", based on Theo's sense of humor and because of how out of place it sounded most of the time not a lot of girls believed him, but they still found it charming. Only then he would think about her almost the whole day; How was she doing? Should he send her a message? No, Clyde would probably kill him after he told her that he was the guy who texted her this whole time. This grow up guy. He was just hoping she didn't talked to grown ups that often because of him.
Coming back after the cold.
And he noticed how much she had changed. Was this still the same girl? This girl who walked everywhere, this jump rope queen. Her messy hair was no more, in fact she looked... Cuter and ever...
Asking for his attention in one way or another. Saying things like "Mrs. Theo, how was the sun where you stayed?" while holding his arm to see his tan, comparing their skintones, comparing their hands sizes, and it was fun to play along, asking her if she came from the moon, seeing her face get red every time she called "cute" or anything similar. She seemed to want to be closed to him all the time, asking for a hug when no one was seeing them. Things then started to feel a bit more... Personal, specially when Clyde asked for his help again.
He felt that he was in highschool all over again, flirting the same ways teenagers tends to do, but with this child. Friendly biting, kicking out of the couch, covering each others eyes when playing a video game together, taking advantage of that closeness, taking note of her smell, taking note of how small she felt in his arms. Noelle would sometimes trap him and kiss him on the face while he pretended he didn't liked it just so she did it more. He was doomed, he liked this girl, he really... really liked her.
For a girl, specially one of her age, it's harder to hide when you like someone, he was pretty sure that he was some kind of crush to him. So, one day, at the top of the ferris wheel, making sure that there was no one on the other cabins, he leaned for her cotton candy but, ultimately, ended up for his true objective; her lips. That was first kiss ever, her first kiss ever, and that was when he knew that he could never be like a father to her ever again.
Manmade honeymoon for the sun.
That was enough for him to stop pretending he was a normal guy. If being a lover for her required for him to stop being normal it was fine to sacrifice that side of him, to stop pretending. At one point he even started to feel like the one he showed to anyone but Noelle was the "fake" one, only with Noelle he could be the guy that he always was, as wrong and bad as that sounds. Being this bad with her just felt... Right.It wasn't long until he started to ask for more risqué things. Calling her to teach her how to touch herself, ask her to let him hear, ask him to use his name, using these "leasons" to later ask her to show him in person. Taking photos of her with almost nothing to no clothes on. To Noelle this was like a game, and to him it was adorable how much she played along.
He had made this before, even before the kiss. Taking off her clothes while she slept, playing anything that made her skirt go up, but having her do anything he asked her directly was on a whole another lever. He had been given a gift, was it from heaven or from above? Too late to ask, and too late to stop.
He knew that just touching eachother and giving her "grown-up kisses" wasn't going to be enough, so he planned a trip. Saved some money, asked for some days off work with the excuse that he had to visit his mother. Noelle was pretty much on board, so soon they took off.
While in this trip the questions came back, what if they just... Didn't came back? What if Noelle dissapeared again? What if he took her away in a distant place. It could never work, even less now when a lot more people would be looking for her. He could change her appeareance, change her hair, tell her that she would be playing dress up.
He tought of an excuse even before they leaved, most convincing one was the story of him being this step-father to him, pretending to be super nostalgic and sad about the death of his wife, the mother of Noelle, only one year ago, no, too recent, two years ago. So they made this their new tradition at the anniversary of her death, so she would not miss her that much. Noelle had this natural nostalgia attached to her, the rest would lay on him, and he played it perfectly. Maybe he could make it...?
They had to be careful about how much she got exposed to the sun, as the albinism made her skin really delicate. He would ofter take her to the sea with a umbrella above them, even if at the start she would feel ashamed the warm of the water bought the happiness back to her. In the pool they would often take areas with shade, dinner time was often the more peaceful times, even more than the time they shared alone in their bedroom.
As soon as they were alone Noelle would jump to his arms to kiss him, and he would kiss her back. Being alone made them feel like they had to make the fullest of every moment, so they would often feel heated up.
One night, after a long day outside, checking out many places and with Noelle with a bruised up knee, she would ask him if "The pain would be worse than this". When asking him about what pain exactly she just went silent. Theo didn't picked up until that moment how sexual Noelle was becoming, obviously all because of him, and he didn't knew exactly how to feel. After a bit while he finally took her virginity there.
The way back home was different, Noelle seemed happier than ever, but something felt different in her. Was that him? Did HE made that? He took it slow, asked her constantly how was she doing, if she needed something, if she wanted something. They had to stay at a hotel because of a storm, and after she asked for water he went outside at the vending machine. There he had to lie a last time about the story of the dead mother with a guy who was also there with his daughter and wife and, coming back at the room after that made him feel like a total fraud. This girl needed a father, and he was being everything, everything but that.
Coming back to a new life.
Even thought they relationship lasted a few more after coming back, probably a few months after the roadtrip he just couldn't take it anymore. Running away from her? Yeah, sure. What could he give her that her friends and family did? More than that he would just keep taking away from her, what else would there be? Just a husk of a person, same thing his mother did to her. Theo understood that this Noelle, the one that he loved so much, was the product of healing. Taking everything from her would also take everything that made her loved her. Sure, she would be vulnerable, she would do anything for him if he asked him to, but only out of fear, and even thought that was what he wanted at the start, after seeing this version of Noelle he just couldn't... Go back.He also noticed that he intefered with the work of everyone else. She was on the way on having a great life, a normal life, and he had changed that in two of the most important aspects of someone growing up: love and sex.
So, he just stopped looking for her, hoping that just stoping out of nowhere would make it the best for them. Trying to teach her at least or right thing; Hating someone who did you wrong, someone who wronged you, someone who you wanted to hate. If she wanted to tell everyone about what happened, if she wanted to go to the police, understanding how wrong everything was, they he would take it. But... She never did.
He then got with someone else, a pretty girl around his age named Esme. Esme also had a little five-year old, Mollie, from who he didn't found out until a little deep into their relationship but he didn't took it wrong, and the girl seemed accepting of him, so he tried to do things right this time and find out if he could really take care of a girl as his daughter.
He liked Esme, he really did, it wasn't like he picked her at random just to prove himself, she sometimes reminded him to Noelle, despite of her age she would act a bit childish but in a charming way. She started to stay with him, and even if she didn't move in with him she was pretty much present in his house. She was also really friendly to Noelle and Charlie, which he didn't really liked that much, but couldn't say otherwise. Noelle would often act as if they where just neighboors, so he did the same.
Seeing from afar, watching her become this teenager, entering puberty, even at one point seeing her hand by hand with a new boy, made him believe that he had made the right decision. But, still, he couldn't move on. Even if he had a nice life right now he couldn't stop but feel like if he could he would change all of this for taking her in his arms again. To kiss her, to sleep with her. He wanted to see Esme this way, he really did, but he couldn't.
Past catching up to him.
One day, out of nowhere, he would receive a visit. Clyde seemed as normal as always, but he would soon realize that this was something else. Clyde told him th true, he knew everything, and he wanted to hear it from him too. Despite that all of thing coming to light being one of the things that he feared the most, he couldn't help but also feel relieved. So he just answered everything Clyde asked him.What did he did it? Because it seemed easy.
What exactly did he did? Almost anything he scared he did.
What exactly? Kissed her, huged her, took her.
Every time they were alone?
Every time they were alone.
Do with that what you will.
Catharsis
Did it feel good? Probably. Was he expecting anyone, even the police, before her? Yes.Noelle arrived, soaking wet from the outside, asking him to hide her bycicle inside so no one saw it. She kept wrikling her nose, shaking because of the cold water, uncovering her broken arm cast from her oversized uniform, and all he ever wanted to do was to hug her back again.
Trivia
✦ Theo was a weird case. He developed almost the same as he does in-canon. I wanted for him to just take advantage of Noelle and not really caring about her, but as time went on and I kept thinking of them I just felt bad about the idea of Noelle falling in love with someone like that. Like, it makes sense, but at the same time...Oof.✦ He took MANY re-designs to get where he is right new, an he might not be the most amazing and handsome looking guy out here, but I like how he ended up looking, I also like the contrast between him and Noelle.
✦ I am not the best making guys (compared to how easy to me is to design girls) and as I said above, he was really difficult for me to really like him, I just ended up inspiring him after Tim Robbins in "Jacob's Ladder", so he's pretty much both his face-claim and his voice-claim. He's not the only inspo tho, I have always like this archetype of a sun-tanned guy, brown-blonde hair, blue eyes and warm colored clothes.
✦ This scene pretty much encapsulates how I imagine him.
I see her smile when I close my eyes,
I guess I'll sleep,
So that I can see her in my dreams,
I guess I'll sleep,
So that I can see her in my dreams,