Beyond the Sun

24

Reappearing while pulling a dark green jumper over her head, Annie looked to the door when it opened. Rebecca and Robert came in chatting animatedly away, they paused when they saw her and then looked to the side. "Hello!" Rebecca said cheerily while walking past the sofa and making her way to the kitchen. "Are you staying for dinner, Clark?" Annie smiled and sighed with relief, her mother was perhaps one of few people to not tiptoe around him, fearing that they'd say the wrong thing to him.

"Is it still raining out there?" Annie asked while taking a grocery bag from Robert and took to helping unpack the items from within in the kitchen before sitting back down on the sofa.

"No, it's stopped now. Some of the roads are flooded though, that's why it's taken us so long to get back. They've put blocks up at certain parts, traffic all round is a nuisance now." Robert explained while sticking his head around the door and looking to them. His eyes narrowed suspiciously. "What have you done?"

"W-what? Nothing! Why do you think I've done something?" Annie exclaimed and bolted upright on the sofa.

Robert raised an eyebrow at her. "You look shifty." Which was something which Annie didn't know, Clark too looked a little confused by Robert's presumptuous words. For all of his knowledge, Annie and himself were just sitting quietly on the sofa, doing nothing. No shifty business here. The fact though that Annie thought Robert was only singling her out, was a little amusing to Clark and the tiniest of smiles tried to appear. To be fair, out of them two, she was perhaps the more likely to do something, but that was a minor issue.

Rebecca soon joined his side and looked at the pair. "Would you leave them alone? Jesus, Bob, the last thing they need is you getting at them." Rebecca rolled her eyes and returned to the kitchen, clattering and banging happened as she pottered around putting things away.

"Are you going to stay?" Annie asked quietly while turning and looking at Clark. "Don't feel obligated to." She said while he looked distant for a moment before looking at the kitchen, he frowned awkwardly when there were quiet sounds of bickering and more banging about. Annie turned and then looked at him, she smiled. "They're always like this, don't worry." It was more Robert kindly reminding her mother where certain items went in the kitchen, or even just plainly asking her what she was trying to cook. The bickering was nothing, truly, nothing; if anything it was more Robert teasing Rebecca and her taking it a bit too seriously. Nothing nasty was thrown out in these moments though. Robert never pushed a boundary, which just solidified him in Annie's thoughts of him.

Clark nodded slowly, "Maybe another time?"

"Sure!" Annie smiled and jumped up to walk to the kitchen. Clark sat and listened to the quiet banter exchanged between the three before watching as Annie made her way over to him. Clapping her hands together and leaning down, she looked at him with a smile. "Want to go for a walk?" She looked at him as he thought over the question before nodding and standing up, she jumped back a step, shouted a quick bye to Rebecca and Robert and grabbed her coat as she passed on her way to the door.

With a sudden shiver, Annie zipped her coat up and frowned suspiciously at Clark. "What?" He didn't know what warranted her suddenly looking at him like that. It was rather suspicious looking, her chocolate coloured eyes flicking up and down his person was a bit creepy and made him feel just a little uncomfortable.

"Can you get ill?" She asked curiously, he mused over it for a moment before slowly shaking his head. He hadn't ever been ill, that he could remember. But he was slightly relieved this was what was on her mind, the cold clearly affected her, it didn't him; she could get ill from the cold, a chill or an actual cold could appear, yet it wouldn't for him if he stayed out here so long. The fact he travelled here in torrents of rain and remained unaffected showed quite a lot of how such things didn't affect him in the slightest.