It had been three days in the middle of nowhere. Which, granted, was not ideal for most people but for Caleb was a slice of paradise. Driving through the plains of Oklahoma and all the way into the mountains of Colorado, he had the opportunity to clear all the thoughts from his head and just be alone. There weren’t a lot of people on the roads he took and it was even better when there was an opportunity to go off the path with only the word of the locals as a guide. Meeting his father had been both sudden and not quite the family reunion he’d always anticipated. From Spencer, he’d heard a new side of the story of his early childhood. How his mother hadn’t always been the saint that he knew her as and had left suddenly from what (in his father’s eyes) had been a peaceful and happy marriage. It filled Caleb with questions that his mother could never answer and a weight on his shoulders that couldn’t be lifted. Leaving the ranch had been a difficult decision.

He urged the motor bike to a slow stop beneath him as he came towards a fork in the path. To the left was more wilderness and towards the right the path was more beaten and in the distance he could see what a passerby a few miles back had referred to as ‘ever more’ with no more descriptors than the simple phrase. It was far enough in the distance that even squinting to see proved useless, other than a few lights that could either be a campground, or a city, or a carnival or all he knew. Caleb bit his lip, exhaustion pining at the back of his mind, just where he couldn’t let it take over. It had been a long few days.

A long few months.

A long year. Caleb absent mindedly twisted the ring on his left hand, red hair and a bright smile flashing through his memory. He still wore it.

Til death do you part isn’t supposed to…

Actually die. Caleb couldn’t think about that right now, the wind was picking up and a storm was blowing in. He kicked the bike back into action, but it protested with a grumpy groan. Granted, it had been a few hundred miles since he’d had it serviced.

Merde.  

This was not the time for his singular mode of transportation to fuss out. Rain drops dashed against his face and thunder echoed  in the distance. Caleb fastened the straps of his backpack securely and wheeled the motorcycle further into the underbrush. He’d come back for the bike. Looking once more at the two angles in the pathway, he chose the one facing right.

Ever more? If only things could last forever.

He stepped further into the rain, struggling against the wind. It was heavy and seemed to easily move against his frame. The thought of tornado was the last one on his mind before a large tree branch snapped from above and came hurtling towards him. There was a sharp pain behind his eyes and everything went black.

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It didn’t take them long to start getting into the rhythm of making the meal, the Ailward manor had a good wide open space for making meals so they could both work separately while chatting away, she started by putting the pan on the stove and then adding the base before bringing it up to heat so they could mix everything in “Honestly I feel like they’ll eat anything” she laughed softly and shrugged “If it means they don’t have to cook it themselves at lease” she would admit she was guilty of wanting some of what anyone else made here, the smell always spread all over the manor and drew people out of their rooms out of curiosity. Most people just made extra by default because there would always be someone who was hungry and wants some.

She nodded when he commented on her having a lot of siblings, he had only met a few of them but the Aspects were a group of 8, always a package deal so where one went another was never far behind “We’re not actually siblings, more like, a group of people who were let down by their families and so we made a family of our own” she answered his question while leaving out the whole being 1000 years old thing because that would open a whole can of worms she wasn’t sure he was ready to hear. “I guess you could say in a way we raised each other” most of them had been only children originally but Argent once had two elder brothers and a sister “But crazy? Definitely” she laughed softly.

“Though there are still times that I wish I could’ve had the parents and me kind of scenario, it makes me wonder if things would have turned out differently” she doubted it considering the age she had been born and how societal standards were back then. Didn’t matter really, she would have been told what her place was in the world one way or another.

Before long, the pasta was cooked and the two of them had finished mixing the ingredients into the sauce. Delicious smells were wafting from the delightful mess of pans and spoons that had created them. Caleb washed his hands in the sink, before taking a leftover spatula and dipping it into the sauce pan to taste it. It was warm and tasted like fresh spices and garden tomatoes. Some of the best he'd ever had, perhaps. It seemed like they had quite a rhythm when it came to teamwork and he had to admit that it was nice to have someone else to tackle projects with, as a pair. It had been a while and the light banter was as much good for his heart as the meal would be for his stomach. Caleb pulled a stack of plastic plates and cups from the cupboard and began setting the table. His Mama had taught him a mnemonic to help him remember how it went as a child and even as an adult, it often still echoed through his head.

place down the plate
and up goes cup
fork to the left
spoon the right
knife inside

He stepped back, surveying the table settings, and listening as Argent described her childhood. It was almost time to call the others to the meal, although some of them had already gathered in the living room as the kitchen became active. "I enjoyed my childhood. I suppose it came to a bit of an abrupt ending, but my great-aunt took over when my mama died and she did her best to make that transition as seamless as possible, despite the kinks. I didn't meet my father until I was an adult." 

Caleb shrugged. "Our...relations are complicated."

It occurred to her that throughout the day they had done so many things and fell into this very natural rhythm together, there was no questioning what the other was doing, they just kinda went with it and it took them to some really interesting places. Wasn’t all the time you could say you donated toys you repainted yourself to the orphanage and then went home and cooked a meal from scratch. By the time the pasta was cooked and they’d mixed in the sauce she had helped to set the table and find the serving spoons they rarely to never used. She felt like she had achieved a lot today which was a rare feeling for the aspect who often felt like she was in limbo just watching the world moving around her rather than actually being an active part of it. But then she had met this certain human who had been so in touch with everything around him, despite being injured and confused at first and she had reminded him how little things mattered just as much as the big things.

“Complicated just about covers it” she responded and offered him a sweet smile “But I wouldn’t be without my family and I’m sure you could say the same” especially the great aunt he mentioned who seemed to be important to him “At the end of the day it’s the people you can call down to a meal and share the evening with that matter” she grinned slightly “So I guess in that sense I should welcome you to the family” because it was about to get loud in here that was for sure. She grinned and rang the bell that had the kitchen which told everyone they could come down for a meal if they wanted to and before long they were surrounded with people, she sat alongside Caleb and they chatted the rest of the night away about everything and nothing at the same time.

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