"Where are we going?" Dee asks as she puts her shoes back on.
"The corner store." It's most likely the only place still open at this hour, and only because it offers 24/7 service.
Dee stops mid-action, with one shoe on and the other off. "What?"
"What what?"
"I thought you said we were getting food," she whines, plopping back onto the couch.
"And we are?" Kit doesn't see what the problem here is.
"Man, I thought we were going to an actual food place…" they pout. "Why can't we go somewhere?"
"...Do you have any idea what time it is?" It was almost midnight, and the kid was talking as if it were before 9 o'clock. After ten the only businesses open and serving would be bars, and he was not about to take a kid there. Not to mention the "food" that could be found wasn't really dinner material.
"No?" Dee blinks a couple of times. "Should I?"
"Yes, you should." Especially because the primary reason they were getting home this late was their fault.
~~~
After Kit had promised to show them the "cool trick", Dee had absolutely not let him forget about it. After work hours, he had begged Mousie to stay for a bit more and help him out with something. It was nothing major, Kit promised, but still, Mousie had seemed reluctant, saying she had wanted to get home as soon as possible. But after a lot of convincing and bribing (another favour he now owed), he had gotten Mousie to accept and they had made their way to the lab.
"Um…" Mousie looked a little bit nervous, fidgeting and glancing around. "So what exactly did you want my help with?"
"Oh, it's nothing. Just show Dee some flashy chemical reaction. I promised them one if they behaved."
"Hey! You had promised me an explosion!" Dee loudly complained. "Not whatever that chemical-whatever is!"
Kit resisted the urge to sigh. "It's the same thing."
"Really?" Dee cocked her head to the side.
"Y-you want me to cause an explosion?" Mousie's eyes widened.
Kit pinched his index and thumb together. "Just a small one."
"Awww," Dee whined. "That's so unfair! Shouldn't I get to choose? It's my reward after all and–"
Kit immediately put a stop to their rant, "No. Now be quiet before I change my mind."
Mousie looked conflicted. "So… just a small one?"
"Yes," Kit answered before Dee could speak again.
Mousie still looked like she wanted to cater to Dee's wishes, but didn't dare to go against her master's instructions. In the end, she decided to play it safe and do as she was told. Dee was easy to ask for forgiveness, but her master wasn't so easy to forget a wrongdoing. She went to the storage closet, taking out a container with pieces of some sort of metal floating in a clear liquid.
"What's that?" Dee cranes her neck to try and get a better look at what Mousie was carrying.
Mousie didn't answer, just setting the container down on a table and pulling on her gloves. She then took out a beaker from a cabinet under the table and filled up one fourth of it with water. Taking out a piece of the metal and setting it on a petri dish, Mousie cut off a small piece of it with a knife. Contrary to how it looked, the knife slid through it easily, and Mousie then picked up the fragment she had cut with a pair of tongs.
"Um…" Mousie scratched her nose. "You might want to stand back a bit for this."
Dee's eyes only grew wider at that. "Is it dangerous?!"
"Um." Mousie looked to Kit for support.
"Just do as you're told." Kit pulled them to his side, away from the lab table.
Mousie dropped the piece of metal into the water. Immediately, it started to dissolve, emitting smoke and going around in circles on the water's surface.
"Is that it?" Dee asked, disappointment clear in their voice.
"Not yet." Mousie took out a lighter gun from what looked to be her back pocket. She pulled down her goggles from on top of her head, and brought the lighter close to the beaker. "This is when the real thing begins."
"Why are you carrying around a stove lighter?!" Kit interrupted.
Mousie stopped just before turning on the lighter's switch. "Um… It's because… Uh…"
"You know what? Never mind. Just continue." Kit waved her on. He didn't feel like dealing with the topic at the moment. It was, after all, Mousie's business. As long as no trouble sprung up, he would pretend he didn't know anything about it.
"Okay," Mousie agreed quickly. Before another issue could arise, Mousie lit up the flame and brought it next to the piece floating around the water. She only brought it into contact for a second, quickly pulling her arm back, but no sooner had they made contact, and sparks started flying everywhere.
"Ah!" Dee exclaimed in surprise, her pupils round as saucers.
The sparks lasted for a few seconds more, until the reaction sizzled out and only the water in the beaker remained.
"That was great!" Dee's face was practically glowing. "Can you do it again? Bigger?"
"Sure!" Mousie seemed to have caught Dee's enthusiasm. She was just about to repeat the procedure before Kit stopped her.
"No, no. Once is more than enough." Kit walked up to her and took the lighter gun from her hand. "If I remember correctly, weren't you in a hurry to leave before?" he asked as he placed the lighter in its proper place in the lab.
"Right…" Mousie looked a bit sheepish. "Sorry, Dee." She pressed her palms together. "Maybe next time?"
Dee pouted. "Whatever," she mumbled.
"Let's go, Dee." Kit pulled them by the hand so they would follow him. "We need to go pick up your stuff at Jessica's house."
~~~
The detour to Jessica's house should not have taken that long, except that because the decision of Dee moving back with Kit had been so sudden that she didn't have her stuff packed beforehand and ready to go.
But even then, it should not have taken the time it apparently took Dee to pack her stuff.
"How many things do you need?" Kit asked, peeking inside the guest room Dee had been using as her own. It had already been more than an hour, and there was still stuff scattered all around the room. Dee was nowhere near finished.
"None of your business!" Dee stuck out her tongue at him. They were still mad not to have been allowed to look at another "explosion."
"Just hurry up, will you?"
"Hmph."
Finally, after another hour of Kit having to sit in the living room sipping tea and awkwardly making small talk with Jessica's mum, Dee emerged from the room.
"Okay!" She stood there with the suitcase by her side. "I'm all done!"
About time, Kit thought.
Jessica's mom walked to Dee and started fussing over them. "You take care of yourself now," she patted their head, the fondness clear in her voice. "And make sure to come visit whenever you want to. We'll only be too happy to have you." Her eyes grew misty with tears. "If you ever need anything, you know you can come here, okay?"
Jessica made eye contact with Kit from across the living room, rolling her eyes.
Kit honestly had no idea how to respond. In any case, it was nice to see Dee had at least one person who cared about her and was willing to look after them if the need arose. Well, aside from Kit, but he was their master, so he supposed that was different.
Dee grinned. "Sure thing!"
"We're going to miss you a lot…" The older woman dabbed lightly at the corner of her eyes.
Kit cleared his throat before the matter could devolve into something more. "Ahem. Right… We should really be going now…" He rose up from his seat. "Say your goodbyes and thank Jessica and her mum for their hospitality," he nudged Dee.
Dee did as told, and as quickly as it was possible without appearing rude, Kit ushered them out of the house.
Jessica's house wasn't terribly far away from Kit's, but it was a lot farther from the commercial district and more towards the east than his apartment. It was still within walking distance, but it would take them some while to get there. Right now, it was already past 7:30, the sun had completely set and the lamp posts had been turned on along the street. It was a quiet neighbourhood, there weren't any cars on the street, and only a few people here and there could be seen walking around. He picked up the suitcase and started heading in the direction of his house.
As soon as they started walking, Dee pulled out a paper bag from her pocket, the crinkling noise of the paper making Kit turn back to look.
"What's that?" he asked.
"Some cookies Jessica's mum gave me before we left."
"And you're going to eat them now?"
"Hmph! I'm not going to give you any if that's what you're asking." Dee popped an entire cookie into their mouth, chewing loudly.
"No, that's not–" Kit sighed. "Shouldn't you wait until we've reached the house?"
"They're my cookies," Dee answered with their mouth full.
He sighed again. "Whatever. Suit yourself."
"I will." Dee fished out another cookie, cramming the whole thing once again into their mouth.
They kept walking, Dee munching noisily and Kit walking in silence beside them. A few people passing by stared at them strangely. (He wondered how they must look like to an outsider. What sort of relationship does it look like they have? Father and child? No. He doesn't look old enough. Siblings? He doubts that.)
But not even halfway, Kit started feeling an itch in his throat. He tried to clear it to get rid of it, but it didn't work. Instead, the itch only grew more intense. At the same time, his nose started to grow runny, the skin around his eyes also grew itchy.
He sneezed. Once. Twice. Three times. By now, the itch in his throat is unmistakable.
"Dee?" He turned to them. "Do you know what the hell is in those cookies?" His nose was running like crazy, and he was sniffling with all he was worth trying to retain some of his dignity.
Dee looked at him weirdly. "They're just normal chocolate chip cookies?"
"They don't have anything weird?" He kept coughing and sniffling, using all his willpower to keep himself from rubbing his eyes. He knew that if he did, the itch would only grow worse.
"Weird?" Dee took a bite out of another cookie. "They taste fine to me. Here," she offered the already bitten cookie up to him, "see for yourself."
"No, no. I'm fine. Are you sure they're normal chocolate chip cookies?"
Dee shrugged. "I think?"
"They don't have any cinnamon?" Dee shook her head. "Nuts?" Dee shook her head again. "Banana?"
Dee took another bite, chewing thoughtfully. Finally, she shook her head.
"Pineapple?"
"Eww!" Dee scrunched up her nose. "Who the hell puts pineapple in chocolate chip cookies?! Are you fucking insane?!" they shouted. Several people turned to look at them.
Kit sneezed again. He covered his lower face with his robe sleeve. It was too late, he couldn't stop his nose from running anymore, and he had no tissues. What could it be? If the cookie didn't have any of those ingredients, then what could it be… Suddenly, his eyes landed on a juniper bush.
....
A juniper bush?!
An alarm went off in his head.
And to make matters worse, it wasn't just one. It was a whole field of them. Well, not a field. But it was definitely a very large garden with row, after row, after row, of the shrub.
Junipers… He had learned early on in his stay here those motherfuckers were deadly. The amount of pollen they released during the summer months should be illegal.
His summer allergies were completely kept under control with just taking an allergy pill before leaving home, but junipers… If he came near one, his allergies would come back as strongly as they had when he was younger. And those plants were around so fucking much. Well, it was to be expected since the town was named after them. But still!
In the junipers' defence, they weren't so popular that Kit would be unable to avoid them. Most of them were grown in controlled environments for the production of gin, the second biggest thing for which the town was famous.
But they were still fairly popular so that every two to three summers, Kit would bump into them and have to rush to the nearest pharmacy.
When he felt his vision growing blurry with tears, Kit simply set down the suitcase and approached the nearest person on the street. "Excuse me," his voice sounded strangely nasal and he cringed inwardly, "do you know if there's any drug stores around?"
He must have looked bad enough that the stranger didn't question him and only pointed in the direction of one. "If you turn left at the end of this road, go past three houses and there should be a narrow pathway. If you go through, you'll emerge on the other side, take a right and two buildings down there should be one."
Kit smothered another sneeze. "Thank you," he expressed his gratitude sincerely. Before the other person could say 'you're welcome' he had already taken off at a sprint down the road. He didn't even bother to check if Dee was following after him. In fact, Dee was one of the last things on his mind right now. (He was a horrible mentor, he knew that, but he would beat himself up about the fact later.)
Almost out of breath, he arrived at the pharmacy. The person working the counter looked up in surprise when he entered.
"Oh," they said a little breathlessly. "It's the juniper guy."
His brain short circuited for a moment. 'The juniper guy?' Had he been here before?
"Wait just a second please," they hurried to the backroom, "I'll have your medicine shortly."
The juniper guy… He kept mulling it over. Just when the guy emerged, it hit him. He had in fact been to this same pharmacy before. It had been two years ago, if he remembered correctly. There was another juniper garden in this same street farther down (he would have to avoid it when he went out, he made a mental note). For some reason, he'd had a job in one of the houses in the area, and when he had walked past the junipers, the same chain of events had taken place. He doesn't want to think about the state he had arrived back then (or now, for that matter) for the store worker to remember him even after all this time.
"Here," the pharmacy employee handed him a blister and a cup of water.
Kit quickly swallowed down three of the pills in one go, and after a few minutes, he could feel their effect starting to spread. His nose cleared up, the itch in his throat was mostly gone and he wasn't sneezing every three seconds or coughing up his lungs.
"Thank you." He took out his wallet to pay for the medicine. "And um, sorry for the trouble."
"It's nothing," they said, ringing him up. "I've seen worse cases."
Kit didn't want to ask.
But now that he could think again, he realised Dee had not followed him. He stuck his head out the door and looked around the area near the store, and no signs of them. He walked back in and purchased a face mask, another blister and a bottle of water. He would have to go back and look for Dee.
~~~
When he returned to the juniper garden, Dee was nowhere to be found. Neither was the suitcase.
"Dee?" he called out. No answer. "Dee?!" he called again, this time more panicked. They shouldn't have gone far, right? Maybe they went back to Jessica's house?
No. If she had, Jessica would have called him, and his phone hadn't rung.
Kidnapped? No. Too outlandish. And Dee was too feral to go down without a fight.
So then where… He made his way down the street, keeping out an eye if he spotted them. He doesn't know for how long he walked, but by then, the streets had grown almost deserted. And the more he walked, the less close he felt to finding them. He decided to retrace his steps. Perhaps Dee had gotten lost, and had done the same, going back to the last place where she had seen Kit.
When he made his way back to the street where they had separated, Dee was sitting on the curbside, her eyes puffy.
"Dee!" He ran towards them.
Dee perked up, jumping up when she saw him. "Kit!"
"Where have you been?"
"Where have I been?!" they cried. "You took off running like the devil was chasing you, abandoning me!" Dee puffed out her cheeks. "What was I supposed to do? I tried to keep up, but I got lost, so then I tried to come back here, thinking if you noticed I was gone you'd come find me, but you didn't! So I went off on my own again. But I got lost again, so I came back here, again, because maybe some nice person might take pity on me and let me sleep over and feed me until you remembered about me!"
Kit felt terrible. "...I'm sorry."
"You're sorry?! I could have died!"
"Dee…" He tried to think of something to say to calm them down. "Could you forgive me? But I really was trying not to die back there…" It's an exaggeration (barely), but he hoped it would work on Dee.
Dee paused to consider this new revelation. "...You were?"
"Um. Yeah."
"Oh."
Kit felt just a smidge guilty about lying to them.
"Okay then. I'll forgive you." Dee picked up their suitcase. "But next time don't just take off like that! I don't care if your head is hanging on by a thread! Don't leave me behind."
Kit didn't know if he should laugh. "If my head were hanging by a thread, wouldn't I be dead already?"
"You get what I mean!"
"Okay, okay. Let's get home, shall we?"
~~~
In the end, that is why when they had finally arrived at the apartment it was already so late.
And now here Dee was, acting as if (most of) this wasn't her fault.
"11:30? But that's not that late…" Dee pouts.
"Yes it is," Kit argues back.
"Doesn't the burger place offer 24/7?"
"That's too far away. We're not going."
"Awww…" Dee slid down the couch.
"Do you want to eat or not?"
Threatened, Dee sulkily picks herself up from the floor and puts on her second shoe. "Whatever," they mumble. "Let's make this quick. I'm starving."
The store is only two houses down. It's actually pretty well stocked, almost like a mini-mart. Even the sign overhead was a fluorescent one and the inside had air-conditioning. When they walk in, there's another couple apart from the cashier.
Kit tries to steer Dee away from the couple, but Dee seems determined to find out what their business is.
"Dee, don't stare!" Kit hisses at them.
"Huh?" Dee only glances at him for a second before their eyes turn back to the couple in the corner of the store. "Why not?"
"It's rude," he scolds.
"Mhm. Hey, look," she tugs at his sleeve, pointing not-so-discreetly towards them. "She has the same colour hair as you."
"Dee!" He hits her across the back of the head. "I told you not to look!"
She massages the sore spot. "Fine. It's not like I wanted to anyways…"
He passes a basket to them. "Choose some snacks you want. No more than five, okay?" he adds quickly before she can think to go overboard.
"Five?"
"No more than five!"
"Sure, sure. Five it is." Before Kit can stop them, she has already skipped away.
Kits sighs, heading towards the frozen food section at the back of the store. He opens the fridge door where the chicken nuggets are. He takes out a package, but thinking about it more, he takes out an extra one. He shouldn't underestimate Dee's appetite. He also takes a pack of mozzarella sticks, plus some yoghourts. For breakfast tomorrow. Or dessert, if Dee ends up eating them.
A few seconds later, Dee bounds up to his side, the basket full of six bags of chips.
"I said five."
"Damn it!" Dee snaps her fingers.
"One of them has to go."
"Does it?" Dee's lower lip wobbles.
It's not going to work on Kit. He already has enough experience refusing Mousie and Gnocchi. "If you don't pick, I'll do it."
"Fine, fine! The Cheetos can go!" Dee throws the bag onto the nearest counter. They're not supposed to go there, but Kit isn't going to bother trying to get Dee to return them to their right place. With the Cheetos gone, there's a bag of potato chips, salted crackers, some chocolate puffs, buttered popcorn and Taqueritos left.
On their way to the cashier desk, Kit picks up a bottle of fruit punch. He can pretend to be sorta healthy this way.
After paying, they walk out of the store, both carrying one bag each.
"You know," Dee suddenly speaks up, "back when I was under the Bureau, they never let me eat any junk food."
"So until you came here, you'd never tried any?"
"Oh, no. I had. I snuck away from my handler and stole some from a vending machine or the store down the street and ate it before they could catch me."
"Why does that not surprise me?" Kit looks up to the sky.
"Ah, but some handlers were horrible," Dee continues with her story. "You know, because they always said I was too much trouble, they kept switching me around different handlers. And some of them were just so mean. They never let me do anything except study and eat and shit."
Kit tries to stifle a laugh.
"Ah?! It's not funny! I even had schedules for when I was allowed to go!"
"For real?!" He can't believe they're allowed to treat kids that way.
"Nah. They just didn't let me go during lectures because I always escaped through the bathroom window."
…That makes a lot more sense.
"But still! Sometimes I actually had to go! If you have to go, you have to go, right? They couldn't expect me to hold it in all the time, right? So when I eventually couldn't hold it in anymore, they couldn't blame me! It was their fault!"
"Dee…" He doesn't want to say it, but the meaning behind Dee's words seems very clear. "Did you…?"
"That doesn't matter!" they say a little bit too loudly. "Besides, it was years ago. I wasn't even seven at the time."
"Ah…" Kit still feels a bit awkward.
"But the last handler I had was actually a pretty nice lady. I think they were a bit cuckoo, but they were nice. They sometimes even let me have days off when I wanted to. Probably because she knew I would be going away soon…" she trailed off. "Well, no matter. I don't miss that shitty old place. It was crammed with other kids and they all sucked. We were all magical creatures, but man, most of them were annoying."
"Ah, so it was like an orphanage for magical creatures?"
"I guess? I mean, it definitely was like one, but it was also a lot more like a boarding school, you know? Like there were a bunch of rules and you had to wear a uniform. Nah, scratch that, it was like a prison. They even gave us mush and all! Can you believe that? Man, it was some nasty ass shit."
This time, Kit can't hold back his laughter. "It couldn't have been that bad."
"Nuh-uh. Trust me, it was. It was all a bunch of veggies."
"Then it wasn't mush."
"Fine, it wasn't mush. But I didn't like it!" Dee makes a face at the memory. "What did they think I was? A rabbit? Not even the rabbit kid liked eating just veggies!"
"...But they can't eat meat?"
"Don't look at me." Dee shrugs. "I totally saw them eating tofu once!"
"Dee…" he fights to keep a straight face. "Tofu isn't meat."
Dee seems shocked at this revelation. "...It isn't?!"
"No."
"Huh… You learn something new every day or whatever the saying is."
Kit unlocks the door; they're back at the apartment. "No, you got that one right."
They look pleased with themself. "I did? Nice."
They head into the kitchen, and Kit takes a plate to put the frozen nuggets on to heat in the microwave. "Do you want to eat the mozzarella sticks too?" he asks.
Dee nods enthusiastically.
"Alright." He places them next to the chicken nuggets and into the microwave. As they see their dinner spin around, Kit decides to ask her something that has been on his mind for a while now. "Hey, Dee?"
"Hm?" They tear their gaze away from the microwave for a second to look at him.
It should be okay to ask now. They're no longer strangers and it wouldn't be rude to pry. "How come you never talk about your parents?"
"'Cause I don't got them." The answer comes out naturally, as if it had been told many times before.
"Of course you do. I mean, you must have come from somewhere."
"Well, if I do, then I don't remember them."
He finds himself at a loss for words. Anything he could come up with would fall short. In the end, he can only say, "I'm sorry."
"It doesn't matter." Dee shrugs. "I can't remember them, so there's really no use worrying about it."
"Still…" To have been denied a chance at a normal life even before they could even have a say in the matter… It was too heartbreaking.
"For as long as I can remember, I've never had them, so why should I be worrying about something I know nothing about."
"But…" He wants to say more. But did you never wish you had them?
"Ah, just forget it. I said it doesn't matter. I don't really like other people feeling bad for me. It makes me feel weird."
"Hm. I guess. But I wasn't trying to make you feel weird."
"Yeah, I know that. It's okay."
"And you don't know anything about them? Not even their names?"
Dee shakes her head.
"It must have been lonely, then."
"Maybe. I can't really remember. I mean, I don't like to think about it much.Hey, Kit…" Dee chews on her bottom lip, as if hesitant to ask something. "Why the question all of a sudden?"
"Does it seem sudden?"
"Well, you never really bothered to ask before, so yeah. I wasn't really expecting it. When most people found out I was an orphan they would get all weird and try not to mention anything about families around me. So I kinda thought you were the same." They giggle. "Especially since you always look so uncomfortable talking to other people. You're really bad at that, you know? You look like someone had a stick up your ass."
Kit can feel his whole face going red. "I-I do?"
Dee laughs. "Yeah."
"Ah… That's… That's kinda embarrassing…" He had hoped with time his uneasiness around new people had become less noticeable, but apparently it hadn't.
"It's funny. And I don't think most people mind it. They probably think it's funny, too."
"I suppose…"
They both grow quiet again, the hum of the microwave filling in the silence.
"So?" Dee speaks again after a few seconds. "You never answered my question."
"About?"
"Why'd you ask about my parents?"
"Ah, well, it's just… Most kids your age would have probably mentioned them. I mean, even if they had passed away, a lot of the times the kid still has some sort of object to remember them by. Or at least mention that their parents were dead. And you just… You just never mentioned anything along those lines. It seemed as if you even went out of your way not to even allude to the topic, and… And I was curious."
"Well, like I said, most people get weird when you mention that stuff. And I didn't really think it was that weird not mentioning them. Besides, you never mention your parents either."
"Well, but that's different."
"How come?"
"Well, because… I'm an adult, right?"
"So you don't have parents anymore too?" Dee tilts her head. "Are they dead?"
"No, no. It's just… different when you're older. I mean, I still have my parents, but we just don't… Well, you grow apart with time."
"How come?"
"Well, because you don't depend on them anymore. And you stop living with them."
"But Jessica still lives with her mom. And they seem pretty close."
"Ah, well… That's different."
"Are all adults different then?"
"You could say that."
"Hmm. I see." Dee ponders this for a few seconds. "Say, Kit… What were your parents like?"
Kit opens his mouth, but he's at a loss for words. Thankfully, the beeping of the microwave signalling the food is ready saves him from having to answer. He takes out two other plates, serving the food in them and taking them to the small dinner table in the corner of the kitchen.
As soon as the plate is placed in front of them, Dee starts wolfing down the food, not stopping until every last crumb has been licked off. She gets up and walks over to the kitchen counter to get the potato chips, walking back to the table. This time, she starts eating them at a more leisurely pace, leaving time to talk between bites. "You didn't answer my question. Again."
Looks like they're not going to let the topic slide by that easily. "What do you want me to tell you? They were my parents." What is he expected to say? He barely knew them even while they were living under the same roof. He's not going to tell Dee about how he barely saw them and how they were almost never around. His father was always busy with his job at the bank, and his mother, if she wasn't at her job at the clothing store she was employed under, would be out with her friends. Growing up, the only thing that was expected of him was to behave and study. Anything short of perfection wasn't worth their time, and thus, Kit had to put all his efforts into pleasing them to get some sort of attention. As he got older, he stopped trying to cater to them, and that was when any sort of relationship they could have had fell apart. During the last few years he lived with them, he didn't speak to his father anymore, and his mother only said the bare minimum. Now, he could say they might as well be dead from all the contact he kept with them. But that's not something he can tell Dee. What kind of twisted person would he have to be to say all that?
"What is that supposed to mean?" Dee's voice pulls him back to reality.
"Well, they raised me and they provided the stuff I needed to survive."
"That's a pretty vague description," Dee says suspiciously. "Are you sure you're not making it up that you have parents?"
"Ah, well, they were pretty busy people, so I didn't see them that much. But it was so they could provide the best life they could for me." He tries to sugarcoat the truth for them.
"So you weren't close?"
"No, not really."
"Hm. That's a bit sad, isn't it?" Dee has stopped eating, instead studying his face closely.
"Sad?"
"Yeah. I mean, you see it in movies all the time, no? The kid whose parents didn't love them–"
"Let's not go that far. I wouldn't say they were bad people."
"But you never felt close to them?"
"Why the interest?" It's his turn to ask this time.
Dee shrugs. "I kinda wanted to know what it was like to have parents. But looks like you didn't have either. Well, not in the literal sense."
"I–" He's taken by surprise. He had honestly not been expecting Dee to be so perceptive. "I guess you're right."
"But who knows?" Dee grins. "Maybe if we had parents we wouldn't have come here, and I wouldn't have gotten to meet you. And I've had so much fun with all of you, I really wouldn't want to have missed out on coming here. So in the end, it really doesn't matter, right?"
"No. Perhaps you're right. It doesn't."