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Bubbles puffed out and silently swayed their way to the surface. My brows furrowed at the slight motion, then I tightened my gaze to keep them open as much as possible without blinking. I'm trying not get distracted by the motion of said bubbles while fighting to keep concentration with the fuckin' large ass eye staring back at me. 

There was no denying that my life has now come to this. A new low of where I was having a childish "no-blinking" show-down with none other than the fucking gold fish in the bowl in front of me. 

My brow lowered when the fish's gaze locked on me. It kept staring at me from the side, its mouth gaping open and closing repeatedly. Its tactic to remain still (aside from its gaping mouth) wasn't working before, so now the little shit decided that it was going to start spouting bubbles. 

Major low in distraction. 

I had caught myself almost turning to blink at the motion, but I managed to hold strong. Instead, I squinted my eyes more. The fish had been eyeing me for however long, meanwhile my chin was kept on the back of my hands that were resting flat on the table in front of me. Slowly, without breaking concentration, I started sliding my hands forward so my head got closer to the transparent bowl with the colorful rocks at the bottom. 

The goldfish's fins flapped at high speed, momentarily swaying itself from side to side before stilling again. I think it knew what it was doing. Why else would the fucking fish just stare back at me for the past minute and a half?

"What are you doing?"

Startled, I yelped, blinking a few times and sat up as I stared up at the person at the entrance of the dining room. Momentarily stunned by the odd look I was receiving, I glanced down at the goldfish that was now swimming around its transparent bowl so carefree. The way its fins swayed around as it swam in different pathways mocked me, and I realized why. 

"Fuck!" 

I curled my fists on the table, narrowing my eyes down at the chipper little shit, then flicked my gaze up to the person at the entrance still looking oddly back at me. 

"Thanks a-fuckin'-lot," I grumbled, lowering my gaze back to the fish. 

I sat back in my chair at the dining table, lifting my attention to my dad who was still at the doorway with his arms crossed. His brows furrowed deeply while staring back at me. 

"...What?"

My dad shrugged a shoulder, raising a brow that he had asked what I was doing. 

"Babysitting."

His brows shot up together. "Sorry?"

"Baby. Sitting." 

My dad's eyes glanced down at the bowl in front of me then up to me before frowning, "The fish?"

I nodded once. He glanced to the side, pursing his mouth in the same direction and cleared his throat. 

"Should I even ask why?"

Lowering a brow at his question, I gestured to the fish in front of me with a lazy wave. 

"It's Maddox's. It's for his birthday coming up and they didn't want for anything to happen to the fish until then."

"So naturally it needed to be watched..."

I rolled my eyes, grumbling under my breath before clarifying to my dad that I was just supposed to keep the fish in my room for the next few days until the party. That I just happened to not make the trip to my room to place the fish in there. Gesturing to the fish silently, I shrugged a shoulder. 

My dad frowned at me for a good minute and I felt my nose scrunch at the stare I was receiving. 

"Why the hell do you keep staring at me like that for?"

My dad sighed, running his hand over his graying hair and shrugged that he just found it odd was all. Even for me. 

I narrowed my eyes, "Thanks." while he continued to say that he expected for me to be doing something other than watching a fish swim around. When I pointed out that there wasn't very much to do around here, that watching the fish seemed a good way to pass the time. I shrugged a shoulder, muttering that it wasn't like he was any better. 

"Adjusting to a 'normal' life has made me succumb to the lowest activity I could fathom in this place," I sighed, glancing at the fish swimming in and out of the lopsided castle home that was in the corner of the bowl. It must have sensed being watched because it paused in its swimming, turning its large ass eye to me again. Blowing more bubbles. 

Little shit.

My dad walked over, pulling out a chair and seating himself across from me. He intertwined his fingers in front of him, pursing his mouth as he was now watching the fish too. We were silent for a bit, not really sure what to say. 

It's not that we weren't close, because we've had years for that. It was just those comfortable moments that you could have with someone. There were no need for words. It was just the company of someone else around that was needed. 

I glanced up to see my dad lift his eyes to mine. His brows furrowed a little, jaw slanting to the side as he did when he wanted to say something. Usually if it was a sensitive topic, or something along those lines. 

Patiently waiting, I lifted a brow while letting my hand raise up to run my fingers through the front of my hair. My eyes looked upward, crossing a little as I scrunched my nose at the length the front of my hair was at now. Although a haircut wasn't in the cards for me, I figured maybe I could trim it a little so it wouldn't fall in front of my eyes as much anymore. 

Maybe.

I dropped my hand into my lap when my dad finally spoke up.

"I'd have thought you'd be out at the pack grounds. You know," he shrugged lightly, "Hanging out with your friends."

My brows furrowed as my eyes lifted to his. "You're kidding..."

He shook his head. 

I pursed my mouth to the side, shaking my head as I looked to the side. I didn't look at him as I mumbled that 'the Six' were not really my friends. I pointed out that they were more my cousin's friends. And that I just knew them by association. 

"Besides," I raised a brow while my finger traced the outside of the bowl in front of me. "I'm not really comfortable around them---even after all these years." 

My dad stared at me, lowering a brow as he questioned with a 'knowing' kind of tone that made me frown at him, "Around them... Or just Easton?"

Narrowing my eyes, I shook my head that I didn't know what he was talking about. I shrugged that I meant the Six in general, and that moody-ass Easton had nothing to do with it. 

I paused, lowering a brow, before waving my hand carelessly in the air as I frowned, "Uh, you know... aside from him being one of the Six."

My dad's lowered-brows look was making me uncomfortable. It felt like he had so much he wanted to say in his head but he wouldn't say it out loud. Half of me was praying that he'd keep all of his thoughts to himself; despite him knowing my discomfort of being around the likes of Easton Quinn since... well, the moment that I met him. 

I winced thinking about that first day and then glanced up at my dad who decided that keeping his thoughts to himself wasn't something he was going to do. 

"It's not a bad thing, you know...?"

Lowering a brow, I turned my head a little to the side. I was eyeing him warily as I dragged out, "Wwwwwwhaaaat..."

My dad replied, "His feelings for you." then shrugged a shoulder nonchalantly, "Or yours for him."

My eyes widened, sitting back in my chair so fast that I almost fell backwards. I caught myself on the edge of the table, stammering once I got my balance. 

"Wha---!? F--Feelings? I don't have feelings!"  

The man across from me said nothing as I continued to stutter in disbelief that he'd actually think I would be attracted to a guy! And to Easton of all guys that were out there! I swallowed hard, shaking my head that my dad's was severely unhinged if he was really thinking that about me. 

My dad lowered a brow, raising the other. "Kale..."

"No. I don't have feelings for him." My lip curled a little, "Other than annoyance." 

"It's alright if you do, Kale," My dad nodded, shrugging. "It happens. Back when the Society was running we all never thought of the possibility of same-sex links. Our mentality wasn't so much of it being right or wrong, but more because we needed to reproduce more Hunter babies." 

I frowned, squinting my eyes at him as he added, "You never really accepted the link between you and Anh, anyway."

Still with a squinting glare in his direction, I grumbled back that that was because Anh and I weren't exactly compatible despite being assigned to be forever with her since I was born. 

"Like you said," I nodded, "Our way of thinking wasn't exactly for enjoying our links. It was more for the offspring... and the making of those offspring." 

My dad raised a brow, tilting his head as he frowned, "Yes... About that though..."

I felt my face growing hot with the stare he was giving me after mentioning that any Hunter male and female would have been more than happy to engage in the process of making babies. I rolled my eyes, grumbling under my breath, "It's sex, Dad. Call it sex."  while he was still talking about how neither Anh nor I were ever interested in that part of our linked relationship. 

Shrugging a shoulder, I mumbled a response after the minute-long silence. 

"That's because we weren't." 

"I just found it odd---at the time with my way of thinking---because by the time you are married to your link, you'd have already consummated at least once and would have had one on the way already."

I looked upward, tilting my head back until it was resting on the chair behind me. I took a deep breath, shaking my head a little while staring at the ceiling. 

"She wanted to..."

Silence. 

I winced before gritting my teeth of trying to continue talking. 

"I didn't. I found Anh annoying, to be honest, with everything she did. Everything she talked about made me cringe, and the thought of sleeping with her while she was that annoying was a complete turn-off." I shrugged, straightening my head to glance at my dad. "So we never did."

The silence was becoming stuffy in the room. I could feel my face growing hot too---whether it was the room being hot itself or just this conversation with my dad where he finds out that I'm a virgin---either way, I waited for him to say something. 

His lips pursed, lifting his intertwined fingers to rest against his chin as he studied me. 

If there was one thing about my dad and my Aunt Emeel was that they had this undeniable gaze that showed you that they were studying you, reading you---even if you were trying to hide your emotions---but the way they stared back at you was so fucking uncomfortable that you'd shift around in your seat. 

Like I was now. 

"Stop, Dad." I finally frowned, narrowing my eyes. 

My dad shrugged his shoulders, "I wasn't doing anything!"

"Yes, you were! You---," I raised a hand, wiggling my fingers in his direction, "---Were giving me that look that you give when you know someone's lying about something. So stop it! It's fucking creepy." 

He continued to stare at me anyway, and I grunted under my breath, shaking my head. 

"Kale... Are you lying?"

My eyes widened under furrowed brows as I scoffed, "Wha--? No! No, I'm not! I told you that I don't have feelings for him, dammit!"  

My dad hummed behind tight-lined lips, and I raised a brow, questioning, "What...?" as my eyes followed him standing up as he pushed himself to his feet with his hands on the table. My dad inhaled, letting it out slow as he turned away and shrugged, "Nothing. I just meant if you were lying about you being a virgin. I was just assuming you didn't want me to know that you weren't or something."

I felt my jaw drop and eyes widen as he was pushing in the chair he sat in a few minutes ago and said, "I never mentioned Easton." 

Sneering at the amused look on his face, I shook my head that my dad was a fucking wise guy who needed his own love life instead of prying into mine. I threw him a look as he lifted his head from finishing pushing the chair in. 

"Oh..." He raised his brows, tilting his head. "So it's more than a crush." 

I frowned, confused, before it hit me what he was saying and I scowled, shaking my head as I ordered him to go away. I even used my hands to lift them up and wave him away; telling him that he was just as bored as I was since he was over here making assumptions about things that didn't exist. 

"And I'm the bored one for babysitting a fish..." I grumbled, glancing at him before deciding to stand up myself. 

Bending forward, I carefully took hold of the sides of the fish bowl. I bit the corner of my lip as I was slowly lifting it off the table. All I kept thinking was that I filled the water too close to the rim of the bowl and then cursed under my breath when a bit of water sloshed over the rim and ended up on my hands. 

Turning towards the hallway that led to my bedroom, I kept my gaze on the water; hoping it wouldn't slosh over again. I was taking deliberate slow steps; one step in front of the other, just as my dad halted in walking out of the dining room. He stopped, raising a finger up in the air and muttered, "Oh... I almost forgot."

I glanced at him, then returned my focus to the fish that was now swimming frantically---almost like it was afraid that I would drop it. Which... I didn't blame it. I was once again taking small steps while balancing the bowl a little more than necessary. I'm sure that I would have been fine just walking naturally, but I set fire to the Christmas tree every year, so it was just extra precaution. 

Now that I think about it... I'm not sure what Thea was thinking of leaving the life of this fish in my hands of all people. 

 Poor fucker.

I sensed my dad watching me in my odd walk, so I muttered---not breaking concentration of the bowl---, "Weren't you saying something?"

"I was..."

I glanced at him, then back to the fish, "What is it then?"

My nose scrunched when a bit of water sloshed onto the floor in front of me and I cursed. I wasn't even walking that fast! 

As I tried to take a balanced enough, big step over the puddle, my foot was literally hovering over it when my dad times out perfectly, "The Six are waiting outside for you." 

I widened my eyes, snapping my attention to him, "Wha---?"

I blinked a few times as my dad raised his brows and grinned with a thumb jabbing at the air over his shoulder. 

"Sorry... I meant just Easton." 

"E--Easton!? Whoa---Ack!" 

I lost my balance. My foot came down too quickly with the startle of the visitor and slipped in the fucking small ass spot of water on the floor. My legs came out from under me and the bowl went flying. 

Slamming backwards on the floorboards, my face scrunched from the impact and I sucked in a breath painfully. My eyes were shut tight, the throbbing shooting from the back of my head down to my ass, as I heard my dad's calm footsteps approaching. 

I slowly peered my eyes open; squinting painfully as I saw the ceiling momentarily before my dad's face appeared from the side. With no regards to my fall, my dad raised his brows down at me and mumbled that I almost killed the fish, but that he caught the bowl in time. 

Wincing through my glare at him, I saw the way he grinned down at me just before saying, "Careful, Son. When you fall hard... it hurts to get back up again."

Glaring at him, for whatever the fuck that meant, I growled low. 

My dad, unaffected by my glare, lifted the fish bowl with the panic-swimming fish in it and said he'd put the little guy in my room for me. 

"Don't want you to keep the young man waiting, Kale," he prodded. "It's rude."

He then disappeared from my vision, his footsteps fading and I stared up at the ceiling for a minute longer. That is until what my dad had said earlier sunk in again. 

Easton was here. He was outside. Right now. 

I then scrunched my face and shut my eyes tightly, groaning with my arms out to the side at this realization.

Kill me now.