Baron sighed, crossing off another place on their list.

So far, their old family home, a restaurant that used to be frequented by the former family, and his in-laws house were all explored, but nothing came up. The old house Duke and Baron used to live in with the female had been occupied by another family who had bought it from an auction, the restaurant had been torn down, and the in-laws home had looked as if no one had been living there in quite some time.

"What's next on da' list?" asked Duke.

"I don't even want to look at the moment," Baron answered, putting the list in his jacket pocket. "I don't know about you, but I'm starving and tired-"

"Sounds like ya jus' gettin' old."

Baron chuckled "At least I still have all my hair and it only turned gray." A quick check of his wallet indicated exactly how many marks were available for dinner. "I've got a small stack of gold marks if you're hungry. Either way, I'm starving."

Duke nodded. "Me too. We did a'lotta trackin' today, 'specially since tha' places were so far apart…hey Baron?"

"What's up kid?"

"I don't rememb'ah much about any grandparents. What 'appened to 'em?"

Baron sighed and started walking back towards town, Duke following. "Well, remember when I said your mother and I married young? Her parents were against it, like…real bad. As for mine, well, my dad had died when I was a hatchling and my mom would always say to do whatever made me happy. My mom liked yours." He stopped and checked a few signs before continuing their journey. "Anyway, we just kinda eloped. Went to the judge one day after hitting nineteen and he married us. My mom was thrilled but her parents? Not at all."

"So..what 'appened then?" asked Duke, keeping in step with Baron.

"Well, they didn't talk to us for awhile, which we expected and weren't too worried about. We had you not too long after we got married, but you knew that. As soon as they found out about you…" Baron shook his head. "They wanted to start up a relationship again with us. And I was against that because they didn't even like us being together, but for your sake as well as your mom's, maybe we could try. And…it didn't exactly end well.

"You were one and a half, maybe two when we cut ties with them. They would take care of you when your mom was working, or I was at the guild, or even if we were both home and they were visiting. Her mom loved being a grandmother but…both of your grandparents, as much as they loved you, kept making suggestions that we didn't like."

Duke didn't like where this was going. "Dare I ask?"

"It was stuff like…" Baron stopped walking and thought for a moment. "You know how you see overbearing Masters in the guild, or Masters who want to hound in on someone else's apprentice? It's like that. Your grandparents would make a subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, suggestion to let you live with them. Give you a normal life, despite the fact that the only thing not normal at that time was that I was gone sometimes for guild business. Not that they knew that, they thought I was in another line of work. There were things that lead up to that too, like questioning our parenting, interrogating us about you, if you ever ate which was the strangest question to me since you were a chubby hatchling."

Duke just shook his head at that, smiling a little.

"It was stuff like that," Baron said. "But the final time they came over, they started an all out war with your mom before I got home about how they should be raising you instead. When I got home, I was thrown into the shitstorm as well, and we just told them to not come back. We weren't going to associate with ducks, even if they were family, that told us we were inadequate parents for working."

The younger one let this sink in. "That…that sounds like I wouldn' 'ave wanted tah' know 'em," he finally said. "They sound kinda controllin'."

"In all honesty, they were a bit," Baron said, starting up their walk again.

They were quiet for awhile before Duke asked another question. "What 'appened to ya ma?"

Baron scratched the back of his neck. "Last I heard, she was still here in the capital somewhere, working as a secretary at the same place she's always been at. That was…maybe a year and a half ago?"

"Why didn't ya tell me about he'ah?"

"Because she's the only one who knows everything about me, other than your mom. I don't contact her often because it's dangerous, but she sends me letters every few years. The last time I sent her a letter was when you turned eighteen."

"…do ya think we could see he'h? This whole vacation is about a family holiday."

Baron smiled a bit and came to the door of a small diner. "Yeah. I think she would like that. I know I would, I haven't seen her since I picked you up." Opening the door, he and Duke walked in and took a seat at one of the tables.

"I remember where she was living when her last letter came in. It wasn't far from the hotel, so we could go over there tonight and check it out. I know she'd love to meet you."

That statement brought up a question in Duke's mind after a moment that he hadn't thought of before. "Why didn't she know me as a kid?"

"…it's sort of complicated," Baron answered. "Like I said before, my mom was supportive of our marriage and did a lot to help us. Just about the complete opposite of what your mom's parents were. But…she was still young too, so she had to work a lot since she was a single female. It was the first time in her life that she didn't have to support another duck in the house, so she basically was working for her own savings and whatnot."

"Whatta we talkin' he'ah?" asked Duke. "Like, three jobs or somethin'?"

"Sort of," Baron answered. "She worked two jobs after my dad died, and three when I got old enough to watch myself after school let out. So whatever didn't go into savings accounts went to bills and basic living. Once I moved out and got married, she went to a full time at that secretary job and she's been happy ever since."

A waitress came by and gave them their menus, took their drink orders, then went off to check on other tables. And that small moment of a break gave Duke a chance to process the information about his paternal grandmother. "So why didn' she see me as a hatchlin'?"

"That's where it gets complicated," Baron explained, half-looking at the menu. "You see, she did - well, does - work that job and loves it. Had weekends off and everything back then. And when you were first hatched, she did come see you. Pretty often actually, she would stop by after work and just play with you. She loved visiting with your mom when I wasn't there, so I have no idea what they talked about since I got there a bit later than my mom did." He laughed a little. "I remember one particular time after you started pulling yourself up that she was there when I came home from the guild. I walked into the kitchen and you were covered in vanilla frosting. Turns out that you had gotten into a can of it and somehow managed to get it all in your feathers in the minute she had stepped over to the counter."

Duke smiled. It wasn't often when he heard stories from when he was a kid, especially a tiny hatchling.

"But…" Baron continued, a frown suddenly coming onto his face. "Things don't always stay nice and fun. This particular story was the last straw she had with your mom's parents. At your first birthday, we invited all the grandparents over. Just a nice little get together for dinner and cake, nothing huge because, well, you were one. What was there to do? We didn't know any other couples with kids and even if we did, we didn't have that kind of money to throw a kids party, nor would you remember it."

Duke nodded in understanding.

"So, I'm grilling some fish and meat outside when I hear it. It sounds like a shouting match, so I quickly turn off the grill and head inside to see what the hell's happened. Your mom is holding you while you're crying, my mom is screaming at your mom's mom, and your mom's parents just are…a nice way of putting it is that they were turning the volume up."

"A lot of stuff was said, a lot of it almost incriminating, but it basically came down to my mom saw what your mom's parents were doing and didn't like it. However, the other side accuses my mom of being neglectful, which made no damn sense to me other than, at that time, your grandparents were just owners of the restaurant and not working in it. They didn't need to, but I don't think it should've given them the status of higher up wealth since it wasn't like they had more than one restaurant at the time."

"So they basic'lly said she was a 'orrible duck 'cuz she…didn' have as good'a job as them," Duke realized. Now he was really glad to not remember these sorts of memories.

Baron nodded. "After that, my mom stayed away because your mom's parents were almost always around, whether just one or both. Once we cut ties with them, she did come over a few times, but that was around another time in her life that something happened that's not my story to tell."

Before Duke could ask any other questions, a drake came up to the table with their drinks. "I'll be your server tonight, but only on one condition Baron; shut the fuck up about my parents."

Baron groaned while Duke looked up at the waiter, stunned. The drake in question couldn't have been older than thirty at the most; his feathers were white, his long hair looked like it had been dyed black, and while he was dressed in the uniform for the diner, he didn't look as if he belonged.

"Hello Gerard, nice to see you too," Baron said, a bit of sarcasm in his voice. "I had no idea you were in the restaurant industry, I figured you were sick of it as a kid."

"Listen here fucker, I know what you're doing," Gerard said, trying to sound as menacing as possible. "Making MY parents out to be the bad guys in your sob story? What about your mother, she was no saint if memory serves right. I think I remember that one drake-"

BAM!

Baron cracked his knuckles as Gerard went down in a heap. "Duke, meet your Uncle Gerard. I'd also say good-bye because this is the last time you'll ever see him." With that, he walked out

Duke quickly got up and followed him outside to see him just standing there on the sidewalk. "What was that about Baron?"

Baron wasn't looking at him, his back turned.

The younger drake didn't like this. "…Pops?" Upon closer inspection, he could see that his father was shaking with fury.

And…was Baron's eyes starting to tear up?