*Chapter 16*

"Hey I'm just saying but you should put on something decent. Do you still have clothes to change into in your car?" Zaron pointed out.

"Why? I'm not wearing anything naughty today," I frowned and looked down to what I was wearing. It was just a pink super distressed pair of jeans and a green Minnie Mouse sweater.

He sighed and shook his head with a smile on his face. "Whatever, let's just leave."

"We're driving with your car, right?" I grinned and opened the door after putting on my chucks.

"Yes, we are," he nodded. I hid away my smile and silently cheered. "You really love it, don't you?" He said once he was busy putting the seat belt on.

"Maybe I do," I shrugged and got in his black Jeep. It's so big and nice. "Maybe we should have sex in here," I quietly mumbled. It was actually not for him to hear, but he did anyway which is why he shot me a brief 'don't-joke-with-me' glare. "It is tempting though," I seriously considered.

He rolled his eyes before starting the engine.

We arrived way faster than I imagined and got out the car where we stood in front of a bright and neat looking house. "Is this where your parents live?" I wanted to make sure.

"Yeah. Seems like I haven't been here for a while now," he sighed. Then he suddenly turned to me and caught my attention. "Promise me not to touch anything and please behave yourself," he assured.

Though I huffed, crossing my arms and turned away. "I always do."

"Quentin!" He glared at me with demanding and warning gaze.

"Yeah, I got it. Relax," I subsided and took a step forward to ring the bell. It was like someone was already waiting behind the door since that someone opened up almost seconds after I rung the bell. And it was no one else but Henry whose face was the first thing I saw.

He widened his eyes at my appearance before his eyes shifted to Zaron. "What the hell, you brought that moron with you?"

"Who're you calling moron?" I pouted. Zaron didn't even respond and just pushed his way through the door. I copied his action, just that I stopped when I was directly standing next to him to give him a hug where I also added a kiss on his cheeks. "Nice to see you, Henry," I grinned.

"Gross, get away from me," he tried to push me off. But that was not necessary since I was quickly yanked away by Zaron who had a furious expression.

I shield myself and begged. "Please don't hit me. He was just so cute, I couldn't just not do it." It may have been a lame excuse but it was the truth.

When he was about to say something, an unknown girl together with an older woman walked in us and abruptly changed the atmosphere as they where laughing about something they had been talking about before. Their conversation immediately quiet down once they noticed us staring at them.

"Zaron," The girl grinned and gave him a brief hug while the older woman was more hysteric and locked him in a tight embrace before letting him go.

"You have matured, honey," she smiled. "How have you been doing? You should come and visit more frequently, you know?"

"It's not like anything major happened," he answered.

"Liar!" Henry shot from the back. "You met that disgusting idiot," he added with a red face from earlier.

And that is how they paid some attention to me. "Oh is it that guy you mentioned to me before?" The younger woman questioned, approaching me as she was inspecting me like I was abnormal. She resembled Zaron a lot. Same hair color, same eyes and same lips. Only a different face shape. And obviously more feminine.

I watched how she tilted her head and frowned. I pointed on her forehead and slightly pushed her back. "I'm not an alien, just that you know," I commented when she all of a sudden pinched my face.

"So he is the guy, isn't he? He's young though," she mentioned to Zaron.

"And you're old," I mumbled.

"Fierce, huh? I like it." That's when she stepped back and reached her hand out for me. "I'm Liz, Zaron's older sister. Nice to meet you," she introduced herself. I pursed my lips and suspiciously narrowed my eyes at her.

"Quentin," I accepted it and shook her hand.

"What is with him? Who is that guy?" The woman, who I assumed was his mother, wanted to know. "Is he a friend of yours?"

In that moment an older man stepped in and looked around, spotting Zaron first. "Grown man!" He greeted him and ruffled his hair. "I hope you're doing well," he patted his back. "So I kinda heard something going on here. Is it that boy?" He talked about me. "Jesus what have you done to your face," he shook his head at the sight of me.

Zaron sighed and moved to my side. "Dad-," he was about to say something, but I interrupted him and looked up at the huge man standing in front of me.

"I'm not sure what you mean," I acted like it was the most mundane question ever. But seriously, thanks to dear god that Zaron wasn't as tall as him. It's kinda irritating when there was such a massive difference in height. "I can't tell in what century you grew up in but our generation calls them piercings."

He smirked and also held up his hand for me to shake. "A pleasure to meet you. I guess we still didn't properly introduced ourselves, right? I'm John and if you didn't know this is my wife Amy, my daughter Liz and my son Henry."

"And I'm-" This time it was Zaron who interrupted me.

"-Quentin," he finished. "He's my boyfriend." Silence spread through the whole room once those words left his lips.

"What did you say?" His father gasped. "B-boyfriend?" He let out a frustrated laugh and confronted Zaron. "You are joking, right? He's too young. Besides he looks like a delinquent."

I didn't objected. It's not like he was wrong. But I wouldn't recall Zaron as completely clean either. And by the looks of his expression, he was probably thinking the same. "Doesn't matter to me though," he shrugged.

I chuckled at that. "Well that is certainly a lie," I tapped his shoulder.

"Shut up for once," he shushed with an annoyed glance.

"Why don't we discuss this at dinner," Liz changed the topic to raise the mood a bit. "Mom, dinner is probably ready, right?" She turned to her mother who just snapped out of her shock.

"Right, right. Just go ahead the table is already set. I'll bring the food. Please come help, Darling." Amy basically dragged her husband to the kitchen for a brief talk, as I assumed, while leaving us back.

"You're no help, Quentin. For real," Zaron sighed.

"Well after Henry told me, I didn't believe either. But I couldn't have expected anything else from you. Your mind is not working right anyway, let alone that guy," Liz commented.

"I told you he was crazy!" Henry huffed.

"You're such a cutie pie if there wasn't that loose tongue of yours," I infatuatedly gushed. "But I'll forgive you for it, because you're just so cute. Zaron, please let me spoil him." But before I could even make a step I was stopped by him pulling me back again.

"If you lay a finger on him, I'll dump you," he threatened. I let it go and sighed. So stingy.

"Then let's eat. I'm hungry," I mumbled.

And that was how we all ended up at the dining table. It didn't take too long until Amy came in with fresh cooked food. "Who is ready to eat?" She called as she noticed that everyone was already sitting at the table. John followed with a plate that he set up for me to eat.

"Oh it smells so good," I smiled when I watched how Amy placed a portion on everyone's plate.

"Well that is what I really missed, Mom's cooking," Liz said.

"Oh so that is what a mothers cooking looks like? I definitely missed something," I looked at tasty looking dish. But I guess that was fine Jin's cooking is also really good. The feeling was different though. I mean, eating all together. It was somehow strange, somehow warm.

"You don't have a mother?" Amy raised her eyebrows.

I looked at her. "Well of course I do. But my parents got divorced when I was younger and since then I haven't heard from her." I can't blame her though. She perhaps didn't want to do anything with us anymore. Once a Collister, always a Collister, right? Though, I don't think that she and Dad ever really married.

"Oh, so you are living with you're Dad?" She assumed, but I shook my head.

"Nah, not really. He's probably living like a nomad now. I don't know where he is but the last time we talked, he was in Paris." I wonder when he'll come visit us again. The last time was almost a year ago on a special occasion.

"You're not worried at all?" Amy questioned with curiosity written on her face. I shook my head. If she had met him then she wouldn't worry either. He's a quite intimidating but nevertheless a friendly man.

"Paris, huh? Is it work then? What is he doing for a living?" This time it was John who asked me questions. Zaron looked at me like he wanted to know, too. But we have a deal going on right now and I wouldn't declare it as the best moment to reveal everything.

"Oh you know, this and that," was all I said before I concentrated on finishing my food.

"I don't understand, how did you two meet? And how did you even get as far as into a relation ship?" Liz changed the subject and stared exclusively at Zaron.

"Well that was kind of funny. It was probably around midnight where I was meeting with my friends outside and then he just popped up from god knows where after whatever he was doing. Anyway once he approached me he just confronted me, saying that he wanted me and if I refused, he'd start hunting and stalking me," he explained and looked at me. "Now that I think about it, that was quite reckless of you, don't you think?"

"Well at the end, it did work out, didn't it?" I smirked.

"And then??" Henry was eager to get some details. "Zaron, are you mad? Did you just agree or what?" It wasn't just him who was waiting for a proper reply everyone was looking at us.

Though Zaron hesitated a bit. "Well I don't know how to explain," he muttered.

"I guess, I'm just a genius when it comes seducing people to get what I want," I helped out a bit. Zaron didn't even say anything against it, he just nodded.

"You guys are weird," Liz huffed.

"Zaron," I tapped him. He turned to me, wondering what I wanted from him. "I want candy," I whispered.

"But you just finished your food. Can't you wait till we get back?" He sighed which attracted attention. I shook my head and pouted. "Are you tired? You tend to eat a lot when you are." I bit my lips. I was wondering how he couldn't be tired. We're literally awake since four in the morning.

"I still want though," I pleaded. He just looked away and refused which is why I grabbed his hand and squeezed it. "Zarooon!!" I whined.

"Yeah okay, fine. Just stop nagging!" He gave up.

"What is it?" John wondered and gave us a confused look.

"Henry, you still have your reserve box?" He ignored his father and addressed the question to his little brother who seemed more confused than his father.

"Yeah, but-" Zaron didn't even let him finish and stood up without a word. So once he disappeared from our sight, their gazes where stuck to me. It was quite uncomfortable so I tried avoiding it by looking away.

To my rescue, Zaron came with a bag which he placed on my lap. "Happy?" I nodded.

"Hey wait, these are mine! Zaron why did you give him these?" Henry protested.

"Just let it slip for once. I'll make it up," he promised while I basically gulped in everything I found in the bag. But I had to say, that guy had a good taste. "Slow down," Zaron stopped me.

"It's not that healthy to eat so much candy, sweetie," Amy advised. "And you shouldn't give him any either."

"Don't worry, he'll be fine," Zaron assured. "And either way, it's not like he would listen to me."

"That is not true. I always listen to you. More than I do to any other people at least," I corrected him. He should really appreciate it. "Where can I find the bathroom?"

He sighed. "Upstairs, you won't be able to miss it." And with that I returned the bag to him and stood up. "Wait what? You finished everything?" He widened his eyes after a look into it. "You idiot," he averted his eyes before I left to head up the stairs until I skimmed through all the doors where a bright blue painted door with the tag WC caught my attention.

Anyway, once I finished up and was about to return to the others I unintentionally I bumped into something which fell to the ground. But when my eyes fell to the floor I noticed that I didn't bumped into something, rather into someone.

And that little someone immediately started crying afterwards. I widened my eyes when suddenly Liz and Zaron showed up with a worried expression. I pressed my lips together and kneed down, seeing the little girl crying. I tilted my head in curiosity. Such a cute face she got, was what I noticed first.

Luckily, the little girl stopped crying when she noticed me staring at her. Then she stared back at me with her big chocolate sparkling eyes. "Oh I'm sorry little girl, I didn't see you," I apologized and gave her a hand. She rubbed her eyes and looked at my hand than back at me before accepting me to help her back up.

"S'okay," she mumbled like she still had a hard time pronouncing words. "Who're you?" What was with her eyes? They were so big.

"I'm Quentin," I introduced myself. "And you are?"

"Ruby." I didn't know why but I was really fascinated by her. It's quite rare that a kid was in my presence and talking to me on top of that.

"Ruby? You're so small. I bet I could eat you all in one go," I considered. She giggled and shook her head.

"Noo! You can't eat me, it's 'cause I'm not yummy." She grinned.

I crossed my arms and frowned at her. "How do you know that you're not yummy? Did you already try eating yourself?" She giggled even more at that and nodded.

"Yeah I did. See!" She held her hand up and kissed her hand when she shook her head like she had tasted something bitter. I smirked at her. "S'not yummy. But Daddy does that all the time."

"Should I try it?" I cocked my eyebrow. She nodded and held up her hand. So, I took it and pressed a soft kiss on her knuckles. "Hm," I acted like I would think about it and nodded. "Yup, it's definitely yummy."

"Huh?" She was seriously shocked which caused me to chuckle. Her big eyes showed a lot of confusion when she looked at me. "I want to try again," she insisted. "Gimme yo hand."

Though I shook my head. "You know where it tastes even better for girls?" She responded with a skeptical glance. "Right there," I pointed at my cheek but doubt that she would even fall for it.

"Yea Mommy likes to do that, too," she nodded and got up on her tippy toes to press a kiss on my cheek without a second thought. I was surprised when she did and chuckled when she thought about it. "You're right. It's yummy. I like Quinn's one better," she pointed at my cheek and nodded.

"I'm really happy for that. Though my name is Quentin not Quinn," I clarified.

"Quennnn-" She tried pronouncing but utterly failed at that. So I placed a hand on her shoulder and waved it away.

"Ah forget it. Quinn is fine," I nodded. "So, should I make it up to you for knocking you over? What about playing airplane?" I offered. I bet she didn't even know what I was talking about, but she still agreed on playing. Thus, I quickly raised her up and set her on my shoulders, making her giggle. "So are you ready?" I looked up to her.

"Yes," she nodded.

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