Lacking [Phan]

bez [edited!]

"It was quite alright actually, compared to what it could have been." She replied, lazily twirling a blade of grass through her fingers. "We hit a sort of rough patch a couple of years after Phil was born when my dad left," Kami continued, "I was really young, but I still remember how sad Mom got. I used to think that he forgot to give her her heart back before he walked out."

"I'm sorry." Dan murmured after a minute of silence, because in all honesty, he wasn't the best at comforting people when they were down; but to his surprise, Kami simply shrugged.

"Don't apologize, it's not like I blame you." She paused carefully. "I don't even really blame him to be honest."

"Why is that?"

"My dad never wanted a family," Kami explained, "I mean, even as a kid I could tell he was unhappy here... in this town, with us. He loved my mom, don't get me wrong, but I think they just wanted different things."

"But that doesn't give him the excuse to just leave you guys." Dan retorted, shifting his support from his elbows to his hands so that he was sitting up properly. The long grass of the field had left soft, cross-hatched indents in the skin of the boy's arms as it often did to anyone who sat the same way for too long.

"I never said it excused his actions. I'm still so angry at him for leaving us the way he did, without even so much as a goodbye. Trust me, Dan, I could never forgive him for what he did. I just think... I'd rather him be wherever he is and happy, than stuck here with us and miserable." Kami went on to explain, causing Dan to reconsider what to say next.

"If he didn't want a family, then he shouldn't have had kids." He pointed out. "You can't just ditch your responsibilities like that."

"That's very true. Even though my aunt said he left because he wanted to travel and see the world," Kami stopped, suddenly looking quite small as she stared at the complex braid that fell over her shoulder, "I think he left because of me."

"I'm sure that's not true." Dan retorted.

"Yeah, it is. I mean, he never wanted me in the first place, and we had to move twice because people kept finding out about my disability and he couldn't handle all the negative attention." Kami argued, "We moved here, he installed the staircase, and then he left that very same night."

The meadow was thrown into silence with nothing to be heard but the chirping of both birds and distant bugs. "I think it was that day when he realized that he didn't want to be building staircases for the rest of his life. He wanted to fly, just like he was meant to." Kami's voice said, shattering the quiet.

Dan didn't say anything. He didn't know what to say. What could he say?

"Kami, you're not allergic to Plum Flowers anymore, are you?" Phil's voice rang across from the other side of the field, flowers protruding from the bundle he held in his arms. Dan smiled as the boy struggled to keep the plants in his grasp.

"Not really, their color just causes me to feel the need to projectile vomit." Kami said, grinning in Phil's direction.

"But you look so lovely in purple!" Phil pouted, holding up a single blossom as he reached the other two.

"Blue suits me better," She insisted, reaching for a few of the blue flowers. "What are the blue ones even called?"

Phil let out a small giggle, dropping the pile gently on the ground. "They're referred to as Blue Dick, actually."

"Sounds a bit like Dan," Kami laughed, stopping abruptly as Phil shot her a deadly look. "I mean-"

"Poor things, they probably spend half of their lives at a psychiatrist's office with a name like that." Dan said, reaching for one of them. "They would look nice in her hair, Phil."