ONE
Earth to Mars

"Mars!"

Elias stood at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at the door to his daughter's bedroom. He sincerely hoped his voice would carry and he wouldn't have to go up there just to wake her up.

But once a whole thirty seconds passed without answer, he sighed, begrudgingly marching up there and rapping his knuckles on her door. "Mars," he repeated. "You have to get up."

He heard a muffled groan of protest. "Mars," he said again, exhaling quietly. He didn't want to wake up early either, but unfortunately, they both had to. "I'm about to come in there in ten seconds. One. Two, three, four..."

The door was shoved open, and Elias stepped back, coming face to face with a very pissed off thirteen year old, her tangled hair only adding on to the fierceness in her gaze. "I'm up," she stated darkly. "Showering now."

She stomped to the bathroom, and Elias went back downstairs to finish making her breakfast. When she showed up fifteen minutes later, damp hair balled up in a towel and dressed in her school clothes, there was finished food waiting for her at the table.

"What time did you go to bed last night?" Elias asked, leaning against the counter, holding his mug of coffee to his lips. "You look more tired than usual."

Mars pursed her lips. "You're gonna get mad."

"Am I?"

"Yes," she mumbled around a mouthful of bacon and bread. When her father didn't respond, she looked up to find him giving her an expectant look. She groaned. "Fine. I went to bed at midnight."

Elias raised an eyebrow. "Why? I know damn well it wasn't homework keeping you up."

"Oh, so you can say that but I can't?" Mars asked, faking disbelief. "Double standards."

He rolled his eyes. "I'm the adult. If you're gonna cuss, don't do it around me."

Mars huffed. "I was playing a video game. I didn't pay attention to what time it was." She slurped her glass of water noisily. Elias had given up on telling her to be a little more polite when she was eating. "But it was fun and I got to level forty, so it was worth it."

Elias sighed heavily, running a hand through his hair. "I tell you to go to bed by ten. You're lucky I'm not saying seven like other kids' parents."

Mars beamed, showing off her teeth, eyes closed. "You're the best dad ever!" she sang, and despite Elias knowing she was trying to throw him off his scolding, he was relieved to hear her say it. Being a good father to her was important for him, even if he wasn't biologically her dad.

Her real parent was Elias' sister, who passed away during childbirth after becoming pregnant due to a shitty ex who walked out as soon as he found out she was having a kid. Mars was left to him — he didn't mind taking on that role — and as far as Mars knew, Elias really was her dad.

He hadn't yet told her the truth. She was too young, but now she was getting to the age where she deserved to know. But the topic wasn't very easy to bring about. She'd never asked why she didn't have a mom like her friends, but when the day came that she did, Elias supposed that would be the best time to tell her.

"You ready? You have everything?" he asked her after taking notice of the time. "I gotta get you to school."

Mars nodded, stuffing a folded up piece of bread stuffed with bacon in her mouth, rushing for her shoes and bag. "I'm ready!" she yelled, but it came out as something almost unintelligible. He used his context clues.

They were almost out of the neighborhood when Mars suddenly gasped. "I forgot to brush my hair!" she exclaimed in horror, looking at herself in the drop down mirror. "Dad! We have to go back."

Elias reached over and pulled open the glove compartment. She'd forgotten things so much that he had just started to stash extras of everything in his car. Mars made a noise of relief.

"Thanks. I was so scared." She started running the brush through her hair, complaining in the passenger seat the whole way to school because her hair wasn't cooperating with her.

"Just put it up," Elias said. "All your problems will be solved."

"No! I'll look like a potato!"

"Mars," he said in exasperation. "I promise. No one cares what you look like."

"I care," she responded, brows furrowed in concentration. "Ugh! It won't work. Why won't it freaking work?"

Elias pulled into the school parking lot and parked, turning to face her. "Give me the brush," he ordered. Mars pouted, reluctantly placing it in his waiting palm. He parted her hair down the middle and fixed it a bit before leaning back. "See? It looks fine."

Mars frowned and looked at herself in the mirror, narrowing her eyes. "How did you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Made it look good." She turned to look at him. "None of the guys in my classes can do that."

Elias shrugged. "I grew up with three sisters as the oldest sibling. You learn a few things."

"Well, thank you," she said, dragging out the last vowel. "Bye! I love you!"

He smiled a little as she got out of the car, waving. "Love you, too," he replied, the door shutting and her running off to meet up with a group of girls waiting near the entrance. He was relieved to know she had friends. He had moved so much as a kid that he never had the chance to maintain friendships until he was in college.

He made sure she got inside before leaving, turning around to go to his job at a 24-hour restaurant called Bluejay. It was a diner sort of thing during the day, and from nine at night to four in the morning, it was a bar.

Before he had Mars, he had taken the bar shifts. But he had to change to the mornings through the evenings, and he quickly decided that it was far more bearable than when the drunks came in.

He'd been working there for a long time. He was thirty four now. He would've gone for something else, but dropping out of college to take care of your dead sister's child tended to change quite a few plans.

"Eli!"

He smiled at the chorus of greetings from his co-workers and a few regulars. Another reason he couldn't quit. He'd gotten too attached to these people.

"Hey, morning," Elias replied, waving, then stepping into the back room to get situated. As he wrapped an apron around his waist, Gale, an older woman, sauntered in. She could be amusing when she wasn't trying to flirt with him.

"Elias," she cooed, crossing her arms against her chest. "How's Mars? Haven't seen her come by in a bit. I miss that girlie."

"She's good, thank you," Elias responded, giving her a polite smile. "She goes to our neighbor's place after school now."

"Aw," Gale said, sounding disappointed. "I miss hearing her little school stories."

Elias hummed as he passed her to go out and join everyone else. He still wasn't the best at conversation after all these years, so it was a miracle that all these people seemed to enjoy his company. He'd been punched once because someone said his lack of emotion on his face made it seem like he thought he was too good for everyone else.

His cheek hurt just thinking about it.

"Seems less busy this morning," Elias mentioned to one of the cooks, Lisa. She nodded in agreement.

"It is. Enjoy it while it lasts."

He couldn't "enjoy it while it lasted" for even an hour.

As soon as Elias settled back into the rhythm of things, people decided to pour in. Families and couples, groups of friends and even people on their own — they all decided right then and there was the perfect time to go to Bluejay. Dread consumed Elias from the bottom up. How were so many people awake? Were those children sick or skipping school, courtesy of their parents?

Elias would never let Mars skip unless she had a valid reason that wasn't being sick.

It stayed like that until an hour before his shift ended, and things were slowly but surely beginning to die down. He was handing a table their orders when he nearly dropped them due to a loud revving sound outside the establishment.

He whipped his head around to glare at the five bikers that parked their motorcycles. Was it really necessary to make them as loud as possible? He hoped they wouldn't be there long. Men with loud vehicles tended to be the most irritating. He spoke from experience.

Elias sent a polite smile to the family he'd just finished serving. "Do you need anything else?"

The mother pointed at her son's glass. "A refill, please."

He nodded and took his glass, heading back to refill it. He glanced at the door when the bell above it rang, eyeing the group of five that made their way in and straight up to the bar seats. He'd never seen them before.

"Boys!" Gale suddenly exclaimed, arms raised out as she approached the men. Apparently she'd seen them before though. "What are y'all doing here so early?"

They must've been from the night shift. Drinking to their heart's content. They didn't seem like annoying drunks if Gale liked them.

A man with a buzz cut grinned and jerked his thumb at his friend on the other end. "Roman was hungry."

Elias let his gaze drift over to this "Roman" character, only for their eyes to meet. He blinked, looking away and taking the now-refilled drink back to the kid. Why the hell was he looking at me?

"Roman," Gale cooed. "What would you like, sweetheart?"

There was silence. Then, "You still won't talk to me, huh?"

Elias brushed past her, lingering nearby as she tried to talk to the poor guy. He was just pointing at something on the menu, to which Gale ended up nodding with an unsatisfied sigh.

"You should know by now he hardly even talks to us," the buzzcut guy said, his friends howling with laughter alongside him. "Only when necessary."

Gale hummed. "I thought my charms would be enough to break him out of his shell," she said wistfully. "Eli — take the rest of their orders, will you? I need to go take a call."

Elias straightened. "Sure," he said, watching her go before turning to the new faces, faltering momentarily. He hated the whole "tough guy" look they all had going on. "I'm Elias. Do you all know what you want to drink?"

"I've never seen you before," Buzzcut stated, completely ignoring his question. "You new?"

Elias forced a polite smile. "No, I've been working here for several years now."

"Huh," Buzzcut said thoughtfully. "Well — I'll take this..."

Elias relaxed in relief, glad that he wasn't going to be forced into a conversation. He took their orders before stopping in front of Roman, who was staring at his name tag. "Sorry, Gale didn't give me your order. What was it you wanted again?"

Roman didn't move for a couple moments. Elias waited, then set his notebook and pen down in front of him. "I probably won't be able to grasp what you want as well as Gale did," Elias commented. "You can write it down, if that would make you more comfortable."

Roman didn't waste any time doing just that. Elias took the notepad back and went to prepare their drinks. Only two of them knew what they wanted to eat, so he started on that, too.

As he filled glasses, he glanced up and through the window separating the back room and the front, finding that group of five talking amongst themselves. Well — technically a group of four, because Roman was looking at him again.

Elias looked away. What a weird guy.

___

A/N: i'm just writing this bc i've wanted to write this type of thing so bad i'm just having fun ok

i need to stop saying just

anyway. thoughts ? (: