✔ Aspen | Sherman Yang

[2.11]

Sherman hesitantly lifted his arms from the ground, stumbling a bit, but managing to keep his balance. He slowly took a step, almost falling, but grabbing onto the huge bear that he had grown into for the past year.

The tension was still between Caroline and Sebastian. Sebastian, stopped spoiling him as much, and when he did, Caroline would push him away more often. Basically the only thing Sherman was definitely getting from Sebastian was the expensive applesauce, because the whole gang happened to fall in love with that stuff.

Sherman walked towards Hunter, a platinum blonde haired man, who was bony, skinny, and short, but could run extremely fast. Hunter became one of his favourites, partly because he had a huge husky dog who adored Sherman and let him ride on her back, partly because the dog was practically Hunter's own baby and was very fatherly towards Sherman.

As Hunter turned his head around, seeing Sherman walk towards him, he nearly dropped his phone in the lounge and choked on his champagne. He would have choked if the champagne wasn't 157.95 a bottle.

"Caroline, hurry, come see!" He cried, quickly taking a video with his phone. Caroline rushed over, a very panicked expression on her face and it suddenly changed when she saw Sherman taking his first steps.

"Oh my goodness! He's walking! My little baby is walking!" Resisting the urge to pick him up into her arms, Caroline, took a video with her own phone. "Can you walk to mummy Sherman? Can you walk to mummy?"

Sherman watched his beautiful mother hold our her arm to him and he took a step towards her. Her smile widened as he took each step and Sherman felt more accomplished, laughing, but his little legs threw him down. Her mother's smile faded and he felt disappointment coming from her, making his sad. His lower lip trembled and Caroline took it as a sign that he was going to cry.

"Come Sherman, can you walk here?" Sherman crawled towards his mom, and unconsciously took his hands off the ground to walk to his mother.

"Oh my lord! My baby can walk!" She cried. Sherman squealed and laughed, plopping down on his butt and holding out his arms for Caroline to hold him in. She scooped him up and poked his tiny nose happily. "My little sapling can walk!"

"Sapling?" Hunter raised a blonde eyebrow that was so light you could barely see it.

"Yes, he's my little sapling."

"Why sapling? Why not honey or darling, or cupcake?"

"I call him all of those." She smiled, saying all the little names to him at once. Sherman seemed to particularly like the name cupcake. It reminded him of the applesauce he once ate.

Rolling his eyes, Hunter exhaled sharply. "How did you come up with sapling?"

Caroline sat on the couch and placed Sherman down, watching him take his steps towards the large husky sitting in the rug and taking a long nap. "My, no, our last name means Aspen tree. It's a pretty common last name where my parents come from, and they really liked it. I've seen them, there was a forest up north where I came from, and I'd always visit it back when-"

Her voice cracked and she swallowed, looking at the ceiling with glassy eyes. "Back when I had a job, I went there quite often, just to see the tree I was named after. It changes to the most amazing colour, and when the wind blows it seems to shutter. But I never seen many broken aspen trees. They don't burn, they don't break, no matter how fragile they seem. I think it's quite beautiful actually, I hope someday, he can be like that. Beautiful and precious-seeming, but strong."

"So he's a Yang sapling?"

"I guess?" She laughed, watching him lay his small head on the large husky and smile. His toothy grin awoke the dog and she tilted his head back to examine the small toddler curling his fingers into her thick fur. Sherman gazed into the dog's eyes, who had one blue and one brown, and closed his eyes, enjoying the warmth of hes pelt and the steady rising of her chest.

The little Yang sapling sure had long ways to grow.