"Ash! Ash!"
I could always tell who was calling my name by the sound of their voice. While my dad always sounded like he wanted something in particular, the old man always sounded as if he was the one in trouble instead of me. This time, it was the old man. Not sure why I started calling him that. In all honesty, he was younger than my other father and acted half as mature. Still, the name just seemed to suit him better. He was always smiling or laughing about something. If he was fat, I'd call him 'jolly'.
"Hey, there you are," he smiled at me nearly out of breath as if he ran all the way over here. I was standing against the wooden fence that outlined our property on Earth. It was an old orchid farm, rebuilt from the damage of the Reapers. Dad said that it had been in our family for years and someday would belong to me. We had vineyards, horses, and fruit trees that I didn't have much interest in climbing. Despite the vast land, I still felt caged inside of this wooden fence. My old man noticed that I wasn't speaking to him and leaned up against the fence as well to take in the view of the cliff. His messy black hair blew in the wind reminding me of black swan feathers. It wasn't like my dad's hair, which didn't move at all. "It's great, isn't it? I grew up in the city so we never had views like this."
"Yeah," I smiled, taking comfort in his presence. I couldn't tell if it was him or the sun, but I remember feeling warm all of a sudden. A hand reached down to mess up my own wavy black hair that I cursed everyday wasn't straight like his. I guess I got a lot of my other dad's genes when it came to my looks, but my smile…my smile came from this one.
"There you guys are. What are you two doing?" It was my dad, who looked concerned as usual.
"Taking in the sights, Kaidan. You should join us," the old man said.
"Taking in the sights at 1 pm on a school day, John?" said my dad in disappointment.
"Hey, I told Ash he could take the day off for some…uh…real world training."
"Real world…? What does that even mean, John?"
"We hacked a few ATMs," I interrupted. "Then we got ice cream." My old man laughed at this before giving me a nudge to my shoulder.
"The ice cream was so you wouldn't tell him that…," he chuckled giving my dad a smile. My dad, of course, wasn't happy about that at all.
"Hacking, John? Really? He's only thirteen years old! What if you got caught?!"
"But we didn't?" the old man snickered more as he moved in to place his hand on my dad's shoulder. "I've done this plenty of times. It was just practice. Kid needs to learn these things." My dad sighed, giving me a look, but I only smiled at him with a shrug.
"It was easy," I added, which made my dad only roll his eyes.
"Yeah, I bet it was," he finally smiled at me as he reached out to take the old man by the hand. "Alright, well since you're here, how about we throw something on the grill?" I perked up then. Nothing said spring like a great family BBQ, even if it was in middle of a weekday. "Burgers? Steak?"
"Oh no, we know what happens when you cook Kaidan," teased the old man, but my dad only laughed at this.
"Oh? Remember what happened last time you cooked? We had to call the fire department!'
"THAT…was an accident. They mislabeled that can of gasoline!"
"Uh no, John. It had big red letters, 'Inflammable. Use only in small amounts' on it."
"Yeah, but that was recommended usage…" They walked a few feet away from me as they chatted happily. I watched on, learning that this was the way two people acted when they loved one another. Maybe I stared too long because they paused to turn back at me. "Come on, Ash. There's still some ice cream left."
"Coming!" I yelled as I ran up to them. The old man's warm arm came around my shoulder as my hair was messed with again. "Old man?"
"Yeah?"
"You really did burn dinner last time." He laughed at this, nodding as he was outvoted two to one.
"Fair enough. Kaidan?"
"Hm?"
"We have hot sauce, right?"
"Yeah, John," my dad laughed. "We always do."