🏁 Tetrology Of The Sea - Book 1: From The Sea 🪼🔨💻 💞 🔮

Twenty-Eight

When Aylin woke up, he didn't know where he was. He looked around for a moment and then realized that he wasn't in his house. He sat up slowly, his body aching and he realized that he had gone to Travis' house after he was let go from Craig's. He ran his fingers through his hair and found that his eye patch was gone and looked around frantically for it.
"Oh, you're up."
Aylin looked up at him quickly and was happy that Travis didn't flinch at him.
"Where's my eye patch?"
"You didn't have one when you came over. You must have lost it when you were at Craig's... You should probably take a shower or something"
Aylin nodded a little and took the towel that Travis was holding out for him and went toward the bathroom to shower.
Travis watched as Aylin moved slowly toward the bathroom and when the door was closed, he called Ruth. She answered the phone quickly.
"Hey, it's me."
"Oh, hey sweetheart. What's going on?"
"I found Aylin... well, rather, he found me."
"You found him? Is he alright?"
"He said that Craig kidnapped him and beat him up. He let him go and he came here first... he also told me about his eye."
"He did? What did he say about it?"
"It had something to do with a fire and an old lady or something. He told me in pretty good detail but I just making sure that his sanity was alright. I think he's okay now but..."
"He went to your house?"
"Yeah."
"I think you should let him stay there for a little while. He obviously trusts you more than us or he would have come to me. He needs someone who won't judge him and the fact that he revealed his most kept secret to you shows he trusts you a lot."
"But Ruth, I don't know how to deal with him. I can hardly deal with myself and Esper, let alone someone who seems like he's kind of emotionally... unstable..."
"I'm not unstable." Travis heard behind him.
He turned and saw Aylin looking at him sternly. Travis quickly got off the phone and turned fully to look at his house guest.
"What the hell makes you think I'm unstable?"
"I meant with the situation."
"Now you're making up excuses."
"Aylin, look, you were pretty out of it last night. I didn't know what you were going to do and I didn't know if you were going to cry or sleep or anything. It looked pretty unstable to me. I mean, you can stay here all you like but I just didn't know how you were."
Aylin frowned. "Nice save, Fishboy."
"You can think whatever you want but if I thought you were dangerous, I would have never let you come around my daughter."
Aylin nods and looks around a little as the two look at each other in a very awkward silence. Finally, Travis clears his throat and goes to the kitchen.
"Do you want breakfast?"
"I'm not taking breakfast from you like we just had a one night stand or something."
Travis blinked in surprise. "Aylin, I'm just asking if you want food, not if you want to lick it off of him. Calm down a little... Are you hungry or not?"
He shrugged a little and Travis huffed angrily, pulling eggs from the fridge and beginning to put them in the pan. They stayed in silence save for the sizzling of the eggs and Travis moving them around in the pan.
"What made you want to do dancing?" Aylin asked as Travis looked up quickly with a jump, making an egg fly out of the pan and into the air.
With a spin, Travis caught the egg back in the pan and smiled at his own culinary prowess of ninja capacity.
"Well, I figured that I was graceful because I was a fish so I thought maybe dancing would have the same effect. I was halfway right but still, it makes me feel like I'm being true to myself and it's something I enjoy. I usually compete in the big competitions and then I teach on my off time."
"Does Ruth watch Esper when you compete?"
"Sometimes. Most of the time she is with me and cheers me on from the sidelines."
Aylin nodded and Travis gave him a plate with eggs on it. He looked at him and Travis shrugged.
"It's all I know how to make for breakfast. If you were expecting IHOP quality you should have gone there."
Aylin smirked and dug into the eggs, not realizing until then how ravenously hungry he was. Travis put some eggs of his own on his own plate and began to eat them from his side of the island bar.
"When do you think Shana will be back?" he asked.
Aylin shrugged. "The experience will either exhilarate her or it will frighten her. I honestly think she'll be back by the end of the month or the earliest, next week. She's never been good at the whole up and change thing. Why do you think she didn't move when our father was deployed to another base?"
"How is he?"
"Eh... doing his own thing. I'm sure he's glad to get us off his hands. Especially after my accident, he got really distant so it was like we didn't really have a father anyway."
"I'm sorry." Travis said and Aylin could tell that he truly meant it.
"Luckily Ruth was there... she's really been the only adult that I've had in my life. If she had been my mother, I think Shana and I would have turned out better than we have, ya know? I mean, Ruth had a rough patch with you but that's because you went through some sort of emo stage and even then you were still okay."
"Maybe if you get pregnant you can find some solace." Travis said with a sardonic smirk.
Aylin just gave him a look. "That's gross. I still don't know how it even happened with you, lest try and do it myself. I still think it's grotty."
"Yeah. Well, she's still your niece."
Aylin nodded and they talked discursively for a while.

******************

Later on that day, Travis went to the grocery store to get food for dinner. As he rolled the cart to the car to put the groceries in the trunk, he felt something touch the back of his neck.
"Put your hands up." He heard.
Travis immediately complied and rose up. He only hoped that the man didn't look at his license and see where he lived and hurt his daughter.
"You're Travis Bagery, right?"
"Yes."
"I've got a bone to pick with you, Bagery. You've cost me a lot these past few years and now because of you, I can't exactly get them back. I'm going to make you suffer."
Something cracked against Travis' head and he blacked out.