Chapter twenty-seven – How's The Family?

~~

-Nine days later-

It's been close to a week and a half since Michael and I officially became a couple, and we've been extremely happy about it. Of course, Michael is still grieving over the loss of his parents, but it's nowhere near as bad as it used to be. I think, in all honesty, that he's gradually learning to live with it ... but it's still hard for him, and that's understandable.

Today we're planning to go to the fields to spend some time there together. Michael's justification for this decision was "It'll be our first time as a couple", so of course, I accepted. Besides, I enjoy the fields in the late Summer time, because they're simply beautiful. Then again, it's Autumn now – but only just.

As of now, Michael and I are sitting at the kitchen table finishing breakfast. Well, I say "Michael and I" – it's more a case of "Michael is waiting for me to finish because he's a quick eater". It amuses me how he says he's watching his weight, yet he doesn't hesitate to eat if he's given the chance. Perhaps the watching-my-weight business is to impress me. It's cute, I guess.

"My God, you take forever," Michael teases, stealing the corner of one of my toast slices. "Why do you eat so slow?"

Swallowing, I give him a mock look of disgust. "I'm sorry; are we in a rush, Michael? Is there somewhere important to go to today?" I ask.

He snickers at my sarcasm. "Meow, somebody's being sarcastic. You know that's the lowest form of wit, right?"

I take the final bite of toast, chuckling at his use of "Meow", before answering. "Your point being what exactly? Don't you like my sarcasm, huh?"

"It just seems strange when you use it. You're normally ... nice." He smirks, biting his lip to suppress laughter.

"Nice?" I repeat his choice of adjective. "So I'm not nice now, huh?" I give a fake pout, folding my arms and giving him puppy dog eyes. "Is Cit-wee-ah not nice enough for My-kull now?"

Giving in, he leans forward to gently peck my cheek. "Of course you're nice. You're better than nice. But the only problem with complimenting you, is that it sounds so sickly and ... I don't want to sound ridiculous."

Standing up from the table, I shrug and take the plates away. "It's nice to have a sickly compliment here and there, though, right?"

"Of course." He helps me to wash the plates and cutlery up in the sink. "But I don't want to go too far within the first two weeks. We have forever and a half to compliment one another, you know."

"Ah, well ... it's not like you'll be doing it often anyway." I place a plate on the drying rack, taking a fork from the sink to rinse under the tap.

"Why not? Is it really that sickly for you?" he questions, his tone concerned-sounding.

"It's not the sickliness I'm on about," I laugh, beginning to dry the dishes. "It's the person you're complimenting. She's not the kind of person to receive compliments really, is she?"

"Anyone can receive a compliment," he answers simply. It's then that he decides to change the subject. "Anyway, let's go to the fields now. We can talk more about life and its beauty—" He pauses to look at me upon the word "beauty", causing me to look away bashfully, "—When we're there."

"Alright." Once I've finished up the dishes, I grab my jacket, as well as Michael's, passing his to him. "Let's get going."

*  *  *

We're not that far from the fields now. We're close to Michael's old house; soon we'll be walking by it. Considering how often we walk by it, I'm surprised Michael doesn't get emotional when he sees it – at least, not in the way he used to. Now, the most he does is sigh sadly, then speaks nothing more of it and moves on.

As we start to walk by Michael's old house, I spot a man walking on the opposite side of the road with a suitcase. It's a rarity seeing someone else in this area – normally, it's just Michael and I because it's such a quiet place to live in.

The only thing is, whilst I think nothing of this other human being, Michael squeezes my hand tighter, as if wanting my attention. When I look at him, I notice his eyes are widened, and he looks as if he's going to pass out. I'm a little worried now.

"Michael, what's wrong?" I ask him nervously, standing myself opposite him. "Michael?"

He opens his mouth, but instead of speaking, he just exhales loudly. He looks as if he's in shock right now – yet I still don't know why.

"Michael?" I repeat, squeezing his hand tightly to try and earn his attention.

The next thing he does is let go of my hand, before running towards the man. However, just as he reaches this man, his legs give way, and he collapses to his knees. The man seems confused, but he lets go of his suitcase to hold Michael's hand, and to try and help him up. Michael, however, remains kneeling down before him.

I decide to run over to them both, to see what's happening. Once I'm standing in front of them, I ask. "Uh ... what's happening?" My main concern is Michael, but this man is making me curious too. "Michael, what's happening?"

The man seems to give me the same expression as I'm giving him – confused. Nonetheless, he answers me better than Michael does. "Hi. Um ... nice to meet you. I'm Reiss ... "

"I'm Citria. I'm sorry about Michael; I'm not sure what he's doing." My eyebrows furrow as I bring Michael back up to his feet.

"Neither am I. He looks real happy to see me," Reiss laughs. "Now Michael, how's the family been?"

Then, out of nowhere, Michael bursts out into sobs. "Reiss! Oh God, Reiss! How could I forget you! Oh, Reiss! You-You've missed so much! We need to talk about ev-everything!" he cries.

Reiss seems puzzled now – the way I've been the entire time. "What have I missed, kid?" he asks, bringing Michael into his embrace. "What have I missed?"

"Wh-What are you doing here!" Michael demands. "Why did you come all the way from England!"

Reiss gives Michael a look of sympathy, but I don't think he knows why Michael's crying either. "I came to see the family, like I do every year! Did you forget that, kid?"

"Oh God! Of course! How could I forget!" Michael's still crying hysterically, yet he manages to turn to me to talk. "Citria, this man is my Uncle Reiss!"

Now it all makes sense. Michael's crying because he believed all his family were dead – when in actual fact, this Reiss man is still here. He must be the only member of Michael's family that still lives. Gosh, Michael must be in shock to see someone other than me around here – especially someone from his family.

"O-Oh." My eyes widen a little in surprise. "Uh, I'm Michael's girlfriend. I-I didn't know he had an Uncle that was still alive ... I'm sorry."

Reiss looks confused yet again. "Still alive? Citria kid, they're all still alive! What makes you think they aren't?"

Michael's cries have reduced in volume now, but he's still teary-eyed. "Uncle Reiss, we have a lot to tell you ... and it could potentially kill you ... " He sounds dejected now, as if his happiness has completely been ripped from him.

Reiss nods in response, before Michael leads him and myself to the fields. It takes a few minutes from Michael's old house, but once we're there, we all settle on the grass at the top of the hill together, Reiss' suitcase resting beside us.

"So what is it?" Reiss asks. "What do we need to talk about?"

Michael draws a prolonged breath, closing his eyes to mentally prepare himself for what he's about to say. "Uncle ... you remember that family reunion we invited you to at our house in August?"

Reiss nods once more. "Yeah, I remember. I didn't come though."

"And it's lucky you didn't," Michael continues. "Because ... if you did come, then you would've ... you would've been killed ... "

Reiss remains silent to take this in, but he doesn't appear to fully get the point. "Killed?" he repeats. "What do you—?"

"I mean ... " Michael looks up at his uncle, tears visible in his eyes. "Everyone who was at that reunion ... died that day ... "

And then comes another deafening silence, which lingers around us in the most terrible way. Reiss seems to be unable to process this information; his eyebrows are knitted together, his gaze fixed on the floor.

"B-But how are you still here?" he asks after a long pause. "How come you aren't dead too?"

"Your son, Astrix is the reason why," Michael replies. He clearly has no other words to say, so closes his mouth and looks the other way.

"Astrix," Reiss suddenly gasps. "Please tell me Astrix is okay!" Tears fill his eyes at this point, threatening to spill out with one more heartbreaking word.

Michael looks back at Reiss, his eyes glazed-over like his uncle's. "Uncle Reiss ... Astrix is also the reason why everyone else ... is dead."

"But how?" A few tears run down each of Reiss' cheeks now.

"Astrix and I were deadly enemies; I think you knew that. He was at the reunion, and I refused to be there if he was, so I left the house for a little under an hour. When I came back, everyone was dead, and ... I recently found out how that happened." Michael feels the need to stop his explanation for a moment due to the grief he must be feeling from reliving the time again. "Astrix left a recording for me to hear, admitting he killed everyone, and then he shot himself, on a voice recording that I heard last week. It was horrible ... I'll never forget it as long as I live ... "

"My God," Reiss gasps, looking almost numb from everything he's heard. "Everyone we've ever loved ... gone ... "

"I'm so sorry Uncle," Michael apologises painfully, hugging him tightly to try and ease the mental pain they're both feeling.

They both sit and cry for a good few minutes, whilst I sit feeling more useless than I've ever felt before. How do I even try to calm them both down? How do I make them feel better? This is probably the biggest thing Michael's been through since the day we met, so it's got to be a lot to take in.

Reiss eventually speaks once more. "S-So you buried them already?"

Michael nods, "Yes. I buried them with Citria a couple weeks ago. There's still some ashes left to scatter though." He sighs – almost a sigh of defeat. "But it was a lovely service. I made sure of it."

Reiss seems happier knowing this. "That's nice. I'm glad they got the goodbye they deserved."

"I have no idea how I forgot about you Reiss," Michael confesses guiltily. "Especially when your son was one of the main people in all of this ... I feel terrible for you."

All Reiss does is shake his head. "You were wrapped up in your own grief, kid. As for Citria – how long you known her for?"

"Since the day everyone died. We've only been a couple for a week and a half, though," Michael explains.

His uncle smiles faintly at me. "Ah. Well, don't beat yourself up about forgetting me. You were surrounded by your grief, and this pretty little thing here." He points at me as he says the latter half of his sentence.

"Citria's been wonderful." Michael smiles at me, taking my hand in his. He rubs my knuckles with his thumb comfortingly, despite the fact he needs comfort more than I do right now. "She didn't even know me before everyone passed away. She found me crying on the street on the day it happened, and was nice enough to take me into her home. She's given me so much, and ... I gradually fell in love with that."

"Aww." Reiss seems to be cheering up a little now. "Well, treat her right, kid; she seems like a keeper."

"Thank you." I decide to speak up at last. "And ... it's real nice meeting you, Reiss. You're really from England? Is that what was said earlier?"

He nods, letting the top half of his body stop to the floor. "Sure thing. I wasn't born there, but a few years back I moved there for work. Caught the accent a little, that's all. I'm not British."

"But that's still cool." A more genuine smile forms on my face as I converse with him. "What's it like in England? I've always wanted to go there. Is it nice there?"

"Woah, calm down." He raises his arms in surrender of my quick-fire questions. "Firstly, the weather isn't great compared to America. Rains more often than it suns. It's rare that it's actually warm in that damn place."

"Oh," I breathe. "But it's still nice living there ... right?"

"It can be, sure. Better than some countries for definite."

"Anyway ... " Michael re-enters the conversation, which makes it obvious that it'll be more serious now. "Where are you going to stay whilst you're in America?"

Reiss shrugs. "Honestly, I don't know. I was going to stay at your house, but since you've told me everything ... no. I'll have to fly back to England tonight or something ... "

I'm not going to let that happen. This man has flown hours and hours to be with a family that is no longer alive. He must be jet-lagged, and the grief from what he's just heard will be overwhelming for him. He can't leave the country and be all alone again. That's the way I was before I met Michael, and I know for a fact that it isn't pleasant.

"You're staying with us until you go home," I decide, shifting positions on the grass. "I won't let you go home after everything you've been through today."

He shakes his head. "No, no; I don't want to be a burden to you—"

"What is it with the Jackson family feeling like they're burdens? Listen Reiss; Michael said the exact same thing on the day we met. Look at our relationship now! You're staying with us, and you will not be a burden. Clear?" Despite Reiss being approximately double my age, I'm acting quite motherly towards him at this moment, just like I was with Michael.

Reiss gives a closed-mouth smile, nodding. "Okay. As long as you're sure. Thank you ... so much."

"That's sorted then." My hands clasp together, as I stand up from the floor. "Should we go back to mine now?"

"Sure." Michael stands up too, taking Reiss' suitcase from the ground so he can carry it.

"I can carry my own things, Michael," Reiss assures him, trying to take the suitcase from his nephew's grasp. Michael, however, keeps a firm grip on it. "Kid, give me the suitcase! I'm not an invalid y'know."

"Just let me do it for you, okay?" Michael offers sweetly. "It's really no problem at all."

Reiss appears to decide that it's easier not to argue; he allows Michael to carry his luggage with no more words. We all walk back towards my house, a peaceful silence lingering around us all.

Honestly, just when you think all the action's over, more comes ...

~~

Aww! Just me that finds it cute how Michael has one family member left? I've actually been planning that for a while, tehe. :3
I've got a few other little things like that to add into the story in future chapters. :3
I hope you enjoyed this chapter! :)