The Fat and the Proud

Chapter 7: New beginnings

The following morning, after grabbing some yogurt and cereal for breakfast at a local yogurt shop, Michael headed over to the Droplet, but for once, it wasn't because he needed to find Zachary, no... he still struggled to believe it, but it was because that morning, he was going to move in with his human friend, Eden. He chuckled to himself as he found himself already thinking of the human as his friend, but... they'd been through a lot in those past few days; between opening up to him, being helped by him, being offered food and advice... and now a new place where he could start anew- The more he thought about it, the more he realized just how selfless Eden was. He'd always thought of humans as selfish, greedy beings, who cared about nothing but what benefitted them, but Eden seemed to be the complete opposite of that, and he wondered if there might've been other humans like him on Earth... he certainly hoped so.

Once he'd gotten in front of the Droplet's entrance, he naively knocked on the door and waited, completely ignoring the 'closed' sign hanging on it. He thought it was quite an unnecessary sign, the door was clearly closed, he could see that- putting a sign there was a bit overkill.

After a couple of minutes he heard a door opening and he looked up, noticing Eden hanging the laundry out to dry on his small balcony "Eden?"

"Oh! Michael, you're early!" the round bartender said, giggling "Go to the back of the building, I'll open the backdoor for you!" he added, before disappearing back inside.

Michael followed his directions and walked up to the backyard. It was surprisingly nice, with flowerbeds and well-pruned hedges framing the entire perimeter, an apricot tree on the right side, and a deck chair and small table propped under it, making it a perfect spot where anyone could relax.

He timidly walked onto the backyard's gravel path, just in time to catch Eden opening the door for him.

"Bonjour, chérie! It's good to see you!" he cheerfully greeted, shaking his hand and kissing him cheek to cheek "How have you been? Ça va? Hope you didn't forget to have breakfast this morning-"

The Seraphim was quite flustered by that greeting, was that a... normal human custom? It must've been- "What? Oh! Yes, I remembered, don't worry... I've been okay, not much happened since yesterday, luckily the hotel I was staying at also had a canteen to so I managed to eat some more there too... and this morning I saw a yogurt shop offering some free samples so..."

"Oh that's super! I'm glad you've been eating well, bien- that's nothing compared to the things you'll eat here, you can ask Hezzy about it, my dad is a master when it comes to cooking! And- I'm not too shabby myself" Eden chuckled, patting himself on the back.

Michael gave him a bit of an awkward smile "Uh- yeah... no doubts about that-" he said, wondering what Eden's father must've looked like... probably just as round if not more- and just as happy-go-lucky as his son.

"You'll see, you'll see! Oh, but come inside now, we've been out here enough-" the shorter man cheerfully said, motioning him to step inside.

The house was a stark contrast to what he'd seen before, both in Heather and Ezekiel's apartment and in his own hotel room. The place looked like a continuation of the Droplet's furniture style, with bright colors, rounded shapes and many pop-art paintings hanging on the walls, along with what seemed to be many pictures of Eden and an older, very muscular and tan man beside him, which Michael couldn't figure out the identity of.

The French man must've noticed him staring at the photographs and quickly explained "Oh that? That's my dad, he used to be a boxer!"

The Seraphim froze in disbelief "Y-your dad?!" he was shocked, they barely even looked related!

That caused Eden to laugh "Yeah! Oh man you should see your face- don't worry though, you're not the first one to be shocked, Hezzy was just as perplexed" he giggled, sighing a bit "I got most of my genes from my mother... she was the short, pudgy one" he then explained, his voice nostalgic.