Heroes of Flowers Phase 2: Tempest of Hearts

Chapter 25: Doting Dates

Normally in the Ferns household, Steven was the first one to leave. He worked early mornings to mid-afternoon, sometimes evening if he was getting good overtime.

But on the rare vacation days, he was a little surprised to wake up seeing his son restrain his daughter from exiting out of the house with a... frying pan? And his poor niece was by the kitchen eating ice cream from the carton, oh boy.

"Kids!" He cupped his hands to his mouth, they all froze. "First of all, where is Sally?"

"She went to school." Sara sniffled. "Dunno why, she wanted to talk to Granville about something."

"Something about school internships." Mikan shrugged. "Hiro, Karmi, and I aren't the only SFIT students working at a company. My friend Jarmi has an internship at uh... I think at one of the SecuriTech buildings."

"Was it the one my mother robbed?" David questioned, he hadn't mentioned Momakase like that without tearing up, which meant he was starting to recover. That's good. Steven thought, he just hoped Sara would recover from whatever is ailing her.

"Probably." Sara shrugged. "Mika, put the frying pan down."

Mikan pouted. "But I need to whack Wasabi for breaking your heart!" Oh dear.

"Is this boy trouble?" Steven questioned.

"Yes." Three voices chorused, he did not want to deal with this.

But... he was their dad/uncle, even if romance drama drove him nuts, he'd suffer for his children.

"It's my fault he finds stupid perfect Chris better than me." Sara dug more into her ice cream. "I didn't tell him how I feel because I'm a dumb cowardly chicken who's gonna never get a partner for the rest of her dumb life."

Steven walked up to her. "Honey no, it's not your fault." He told her. "Don't beat yourself up because it didn't work out, you'll find the one perfect for you. Heck, a lot of my coworkers like Carl are happier not having a romantic partner, there's more to life than settling down and having a family."

"You did that with Auntie." Sara sniffled, leaning on his shoulder as he calmly stroked her hair. David and Mikan watched awkwardly.

"Yeah, but we were friends for a while before marrying." Steven chuckled. "It was a funny wedding B... the maid of honor called me a cheapskate for that."

"When did you guys get married?" David questioned.

Steven chuckled. "Little after college, it took us a while to fall in love. My best friend practically had to push us into a closet to get us together, that's why we made her the maid of honor."

All three kids snickered. "Sounds like a smart woman." Mikan grinned.

"You can say that again." Steven chuckled. "I had my best friend from college help me out, she and I saw some weird stuff. Like this one time a senior tried taking over campus with a robot army and the military got involved."

Sara snorted. "You're pulling our legs Uncle!"

"Yeah, and I thought my Pops was a good liar." Mikan added. "Make it more realistic, stop watching cartoons."

"I'm telling the truth!"

David huffed. "Suuuure." But then he looked to be in thought. "Can we meet this best friend?"

Something flickered in Steven's eyes, he looked down at the counter. "You did when you and Sara were young." He explained. "She has a little girl around Karmi's age, though not so little I guess. They live on the other side of the country so we couldn't visit as much."