Putting you foot in your mouth isn't an uncommon thing Flynx, I promise

Flynx looked up at his sister, multi colored eyes tired and disapointed in himself.

"Flynx?" Cleo asked her older brother, looking worriedly at him, "What happened? You look dreadful!"

"You don't want to know." He mumbled. Flynx did indeed look horrible, his dirty blonde hair was ruffled and sticking up in every direction besides the back which was flat, like he had been leaning back against something for hours, he was soaking wet, his t-shirt and shorts were dirty, his tennis shoes muddy and he didn't have anything on him besides the silve cased phone sticking out of one of his pockets, besides that the nineteen year old had nothing, not even his car.

"Come on inside, you're going to catch a cold out there!" Cleo insisted stubbornly and pulled her brother into the house, pushing him towards the living room while she yelled up the stairs to their parents, "Mom! Flynx needs help!"

"I'm fine, Cleo." Flynx mumbled, not resisting his stubborn sister as she pushed him down to be sitting on a blanket on the couch. Leroy was stretched out on one end of the couch, although he was completely sitting up now and was looking over at Flynx, sunset colored eyes worried about his friend.

"Hey," He said, "Cleo's right, you seriously need a shower or something." His voice held a little amusement.

Flynx felt worse from Leroy's position no doubt he Cleo and Miles had been having a videogame or movie night, with the controllers on the coffee table, how Miles was sitting on the floor near the t.v, how Cleo had her glasses on rather than having contacts in, and Leroy's position how he still had his left arm resting across the back of the couch, his hand hanging off it. "I'll take one later." He mumbled, acting very out of character and abnormally mopy and unhappy rather than the usually energetic and hyper.

Cynthia appeared at the stairwell and her blue eyes widened, "I'm right here Cleo… Leon," she said slowly to the person on her heels, she recognized the look her son had, it was a similar to the one that Leon had had when she had ran away from him when he reassured him she wouldn't hurt him and asked if they could be a couple, crushed, and lost. "Take Flynx upstairs and find something for him to change into, I'm going to talk to someone really quick." She hurried over to Flynx and guided him to his father, before watching them make their way of the stairs, a half worried and concerned expression on her face.

"What's wrong mom?" Cleo asked, taking her earlier seat at Leroy's side, his arm curling around her shoulders, "Why is he so miserable?"

"I don't know, Cleo," Cynthia replied turning towards her daughter, a partial grim expression on her face, "but I have a hunch and it's not a good one."

:( :( :( :( :(

"What's up kiddo?" Leon asked after Flynx had taken a short shower and was now wearing something of his father's, a t-shirt and basketball shorts. Flynx stayed silent, rubbing a towel over his hair and keeping his multicolored gaze down at his lap. Leon took a seat on the bed next to his son, watching him and waiting patiently for his answer. "You can talk to me Flynx, I'm your father, I wouldn't tell anyone what you don't want known." He said supportively and waited for him to decide to answer him or not.

Eventually Flynx decided to answer, "I wish I had a relationship just like you two," He sighed refering to his parents' relationship and putting down the towel, looking at his father who seemed to think about his reply for a moment before cracking a smile and chuckling.

"Even your parents have arguments kiddo," Leon chuckled, reaching over and ruffling his son's damp and messy hair, "That's how relationships work."

"Maybe so, but at least it wasn't huge and you didn't put your foot in your mouth," Flynx muttered, and was startled when his father burst out laughing.

"I put my foot in my mouth on a daily basis, Flynx," He said with an easy smile, "your mother just doesn't blow up about it, while she would give me the cold shoulder or she roll her eyes and descreetly elbow me, she still gets upset when I do."

Flynx rolled his eyes, "Yeah right, you two just ooze love." He snorted, "unlike the other parents I've seen."

"After you've gone through what we have Flynx, you'd be just as," he grinned cheekily and squished his son in a bear hug, "lovey dovey." He finished and released him, going serious, "You aren't the only man to put his foot in his mouth, I do it too, even Leroy and Miles do. You should've seen earlier when Miles and Leroy were trying to prank me, they didn't warn Cleo about the prank and she set it off."

"What was it?" Flynx asked curiously, wondering what his sibling concocted this time.

Leon smiled a bit grimly, "a gallon of ice water dropped ontop of her head while pulling her feet out from beneath her." Flynx winced and Leon continued, "Yeah, she wasn't pleased about it and chased them around the house in her soaked clothing until your mother told her to get changed before she caught a cold. But my point is that both of them weren't thinking about the third part of their group and Cleo yelled at them both for an hour and half. They were dead silent while she was upstairs, probably scared she'd come back and actually hit them. A good demonstration of putting their foot in their mouths."

"What about you? I've never seen you do it."

Leon laughed, "Oh you saw it all the time when you were and kid and we were trying to adjust to having two kids running around. Ever wonder where the whole 'Will you go out with me tonight' thing came from?"

"Yeah, I have been curious about that," Flynx admitted. His dad was refering to a partial joke and partial tradition in their family, whenever his father decided to take his mother out somewhere on a date of some sorts, he always left a small bouquet of blue flowers and a pale blue card attached with it saying the words, 'Like how I asked you when we were young, I want to ask you something, will you go out with me tonight?' Sometimes his father actually asked her, always doing a mock bow and making his mother laugh when he did it. He envied his parents relationship, the equal roles, obvious love, and comfortability between them. It was something he probably wouldn't ever have with Hailee, despite how much he wanted it.

"Well the entire thing came from when I offended her big time and had to make up for it." Leon said, "being married isn't easy, especially when you have a set of stressed out new parents still in college. Lixa was probably around three months at the time, really really young, and very much of a mama's girl."

"How's this relevant?"

"I'm getting there, be patient, young grasshopper." Leon grinned and Flynx did the same before the former continued his tale. "Anyway, Lixa was a mama's girl, meaning your mother was often busy taking care of her while I was struggling with being a new father, a husband, a college student, and a professional basketball player. Now, don't think you're mother wasn't busy either, she was a full fledged intern for a chemistry company and a college student while caring for a fussy baby and not getting much sleep at all. Now take two very stressed people and shove them in the same room, it's not pretty. So I convinced Holly for watch Lixa for a night and promised your mother I would take her out to do something fun or relaxing, but I found out later that the game had been rescheduled to start at seven, which was the time I told you mother I would take her someplace. I didn't remember about the game until Trystan reminded me, and by that time I couldn't tell your mother anything because I had to run to arrive on time. See where I'm going with this?"

"Yeah, but tell me the whole story," Flynx said, looking at his father in a different light, Leon wasn't perfect, and his son was finally seeing that, the many flaws his father had.

Leon listened to his son's request and continued, "I had to go to the game and competed in it, we ended up winning and I completely forgot about what I promised to your mother. I called her and asked her if it was okay if I brought the team over and she told me it was okay and that she was busy with Lixa so she wouldn't be downstairs. I, being the idiot of a guy I was, didn't make the connection that she was upset with me and wanted to make me happy so she let me do what I wanted. So I spent the night with the team in a team sleep over like thing and ended up falling asleep on the couch. I woke up the next morning up in my room and your mother had left sometime earlier and was now avoiding me, pulling an excuse of needing to study for an upcoming test and had Lixa with her to keep her out of my hair while I was with the team. Of course, I didn't know any of that at the time and went downstairs. Holly called me around noon and asked why I didn't go over with your mother when she reluctantly gave her to her to watch for the evening and how come your mother had came back and picked Lixa back up half an hour later. I remembered about my promise and actually swore and hung up on her before calling your mother who had conveniantly forgotten her phone which was lying on the kitchen table face down. She avoided me for nearly the entire day, even after she got home, she went upstairs and didn't come back down, keeping herself busy with both Lixa and college. It took a day before she would talk to me, hurt and disappointed at believing in my promise, and it took another day before I found a way to ask her again, but a little more cowardly and silently. I bought a small bouquet of blue roses, put together something and put it where she would see it before I left that morning for classes. When I came back, the bouquet hadn't moved, but she had written something underneath it."

"Prat." Cynthia quoted as she walked back into the room, "I called him a prat and told him no." She sat down on Leon's other side, looking over at her oldest son, blue eyes gentle, "how're you feeling?"

"Lots better," Flynx smiled brightly at his mother before looking at his father, "So what did you do?"

"I kept asking her in the same way, eventually covering the entire dining table with the flowers and using a trifold poster as a huge card." Leon grinned at his son, "Eventually she gave in. I mean, who wouldn't?" His grin turned cheeky as he looked at Cynthia, "flowers, chocolate, mushy stuff and an apology works wonders." He laughed and leaned over, kissing his wife's nose before turning back to his son, who's multicolored eyes were gleaming brightly, his father's words giving him an idea.

"Thanks, dad," Flynx smiled, drumming his fingers on the edge of the bed, "you too mom." He got to his feet, "I gotta go and take care of something, don't let Cleo get a hold of my phone okay?" And he raced off down the stairs, running back out into the rain.

"You knew that was what he needed to hear, didn't you?" Cynthia asked Leon, leaning against him with her arms crossed over her chest, blue gaze directed towards the open door.

"Yeah," Leon replied with a smile, tugging her closer and wrapping his arms around her waist, "he needed to know his father was just as imperfect as he was," he rested his chin on the top of her head, "and that I make mistakes with you too."

"We both do," Cynthia murmured in reply, "a relationship isn't easy, and it takes a lot of time to perfect."

"I couldn't agree more."

:) :) :) :)

Hailee paced, biting her lower lip nervously, 'I shouldn't have gotten mad at him, he didn't deserve it.' She groaned and inwardly hit herself, 'he didn't mean to say anything to offend me I'm sure… or atleast I think so.' Her light blue gaze strayed over to a picture sitting on her bedside table, the picture was of her and Flynx, Flynx's sister had sneakily taken the picture while they weren't looking and Hailey's lips twitched into a small smile. Flynx had been in the action of kissing her forehead, his multicolored eyes gleaming with love and slight amusement, one arm curled around her shoulders and allowing her to hide behind his taller and broader build. The picture had been taken at the end of highschool last year, when all of their friends were teasing them about being a couple. Hailee herself was slightly ducking, her face pink and going pinker at Flynx's choice of comfort. 'What have I done?'

:( :( :( :) :(

Flynx carefully pulled open the front door of his dorm, sneaking in and hopefully not alerting Hailee of his arrival. 'Thank Starclan for Lixa's drawing classes!' He thought inwardly as he flattened out a trifold poster on the floor of his dorm room and starting to draw ribbons, small decorative hearts, and other things that would hopefully melt his girlfriend's heart.