The Race (Rewrite) (Discontinued For Now)

BitterSweet and Cupcakes

Nana lay on Zane's good shoulder as they sat on the couch. They had left Zane's house about an hour ago and just hung out at Nana's as Katelyn was staying at Dante's and Aphmau was gone.

She looked up at his face, to see that it was scrunched up. She had spent enough time with him, and knew him well enough to know that he was thinking of something. She looked more directly into his good eye to see it. cloudy, like a gentle storm passing over the light blue sky. His eye was bright enough to possibly be the sky itself, according to her.

Nana sat up a bit and got his attention by leaning over. Zane looked back and gave her a small smile. "Hey four."

"Hey Zane." She cocked her head, "what's wrong? What's on your mind?"

He sighed shaking his head and averting his eyes. "It's nothing really. Just something small, trivial really. It doesn't matter."

She frowned at him and grabbed his chin. She forced his face towards her. "It does matter. What's on your mind right now?"

He smiled at her, glad she cared. There were few people who had ever done that previously. Aside from Aphmau and his mother, and perhaps Garroth and Vylad a bit. But he didn't feel like his brothers counted. "I guess I'm just mad I can't say anyone's names. I know them, and I try to say them, but it just comes out as numbers!" He growled in frustration. "I want to do something, but I can't! Not after becoming that stupid relic..."

Nana frowned and stared in his eye. For a time, she saw how well he was hiding his mental pain behind it. While it had been hard for them all, some had fewer problems than others, or dealt with them differently. It was clear to her that he thought his problems weren't worth the attention. She hugged him and he returned it. "I'm sorry Zane. You should have told me earlier what was bothering you."

"You have your own problems to deal with." He buried his face in Nana's shoulder.

"Your problems are still important. You can talk about them to me." She brushed his hair out of his blind eye. It was permanently clouded over, but she loved it nonetheless.

He leaned forward and pecked Nana on the lips. "Thank you four." He grimaced and frowned at trying to say her name, only for numbers to come out.

She gave a small smile. "What if you tried substituting our names for something else? Like the first letter?"

Zane thought for a moment then nodded slowly. "Okay. Um, how are you doing then N?" His eye lit up at calling her by the first letter of her name. "It worked!"

Nana giggled. "Great! While we're out with everyone else, just do KC. Everyone shortens it to that anyways."

"I'll do that then." Zane smiled and looked at her. "My question was a real one though. How are you doing?"

"I'm alright." She said vaguely. "I do have a small fear of theme parks. Though that might just be common for us all now."

He smiled. "I would think so. Wanna make some cupcakes?"

Nana jumped up, beaming. "Of course I do! Why wouldn't I?" She turned and practically ran to the kitchen.

Zane laughed before getting up and following Nana to the kitchen. She rummaged in one of the cupboards until she found the cupcake baking cups. "Okay! What kind do we want to make? Red Velvet? No. Chocolate maybe?"

Zane leaned on the counter before Nana swatted him off. "No laying on your shoulder sir! It's still very new."

He sat up. "Alright alright. Anyways, if we're planning on sharing with everyone, we may not want to do anything with chocolate because of Garroth. I'm in the mood for just vanilla anyways."