ular people.

As if gracing me with his attention those deceptively warm brown eyes lands on me. Right now they're something dazzling in a way Lilyanne's shining amber could never seem to imitate. As always I can't read him. He's too confusing too eccentric of a character to crack.

"What are you two being strangers for, get over here!"

"...Ron."

"What? I'm fixing him? Group hug!"

And he's back, weird gross grampa is back and the tension is greatly eased. It's both relieving and disappointing.

"We should get over there before Cap' grabs us." comes the other childish voice behind me.

Even though I knew he was there earlier, it still surprised me. For several moments it felt like he wasn't even here. I heard nor felt no trace of him, as if he had disappeared. For all I know he could have popped in and out in these few moments. Amar is sneaky like that.

There's something else suspicious about the other boy. He looks to be smiling genuinely at the emotional scene in front of me, happy for Lukas. Lukas is tragic and Amar has already known the whole drama.

But normal kids don't react that way. They don't stay so calm and composed in something that should be awkward or at least initially confusing. This reaction, isn't it a little too perfect? Ah this one is actually really really scary behind it all, isn't he?

Of course not that any of us here can be considered normal for whatever reason. Not my place to pry.

"Ugh, fine. Before Grampa tries grabbing me again."

"Lukas! Happy Birthday, even though this is kinda a weird place to say it. If we're saying thanks for you being born then ok, thank you for existing and making everything a lot more fun!"

"It's super weird, ack gramps my lung! Happy Birthday... thanks for ...wanting to be my friend in the first place. You're....cool I guess. Hey wait why are you crying even more again?!"

"I think we broke him more?"

"Oh...well then, grampa fix it!"

"I'm trying! Should I hug even harder?"

"No!"

From behind a very overwhelmed crying boy, Gable trembles and shakes something even worse. But that's okay, that's his happy shake, Ronald can tell he's smiling down there where no one can see. Shame, he loves it when Gable lets himself giggle and smile stupid. But this isn't so bad either, holding so many precious things in his own arms, even if only for a moment.

Because an unknown amount of time later, they're disturbed by a different kind of astonishingly loud crying.

"Hungwy! Waaaaaah huggy huggy! Lilwii too! Huggy! Yaaaaay!"

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