Same, but Different

•Chapter II•

"Thank you." She looked into my eyes. "I think Papa likes your eyes too because they're almost exactly his favorite color. I like Tobias's eyes too because they're gold. It's like he's treasure."

Titan grinned widely. "You can call me Titan. I like you, Aki."

Aki smiled at him. "I like you too, Titan."

My son looked over the moon, and his eyes shined. Aki was his first friend, besides the rats which he found on the street, but those disappeared at some point.

I stood up. "I forgot to ask, does anyone want a certain drink?"

"Apple juice!"

"I'll have apple tea," Aki said quietly. "Titan, do you want to play dress up after this? I read about it on the internet."

"I wanna play with Richie!"

"How about you play dress up, and then play with Richie after?" I suggested. I was a pushover when it came to Titan, so he tended to get whatever he wanted. I thought having someone else around would help.

"Okay..." Titan replied, "but we have to remember to play with Richie."

I nodded, leaving to get the drinks and making myself a coffee as well. I was waiting for the kettle to boil when I heard the front door open.

The sound of keys clattering on the bar counter startled me and I turned to see Levi massaging his temples. "Morning, brat."

"Coffee or tea?" I asked, the raven looking pretty exhausted. "I heard you didn't sleep last night."

"Coffee." Levi opened his eyes. His right eye was silver and his right eye was a sky blue, the reverse of what his daughter's were, and I found myself admiring them. "I don't really sleep any night. I'm fine."

"You should." I said briefly, not wanting to lecture him. "If I can help with anything, just tell me... What were you doing this morning?"

Levi blushed, looking away. "Nothing of importance. I had business."

"Do you have it every morning? It'd be nice to have breakfast as a family, of sorts."

"I... no... It was a..."

"You don't have to tell me." I confirmed, sensing the topic might not've even been something he wanted to talk about.

"—date..."

I raised an eyebrow to hide my embarrassment at practically forcing information out of him. "You went on a date this early in the morning?"

"Chelsea wanted to go out for coffee..." Levi scratched the back of his head. "She's the cashier at the convenience store over here that I... like. After buying a bunch of random shit to come up with shitty excuses to talk to her, I asked her out and she wanted a coffee date..."

I laughed softly, "That's sweet. You bought stuff just to talk to her, I'd be a mix of flattered and embarrassed if someone did that for me. Either way, if you ever get a chance to, could you wake us all up before you go out in the mornings?"

"You want to eat with me?"

"Well, yeah, but more Aki than me." I replied, "I mean, I'd be happy to eat with anyone because it's food and company, but Aki wants to eat with you more often. She won't say so because she knows you're busy, but she really does."

Levi's expression went somber. "Oh..."

"I'm sorry," I apologized. "I shouldn't have said that. I understand that you're busy and I'm just making you feel bad about something you can't control." I grabbed Aki's apple tea bags, gave Levi a coffee and made one for myself, and poured out some apple juice for Titan before putting the drinks on a tray. "We should go and eat with them, we were waiting for you so we could eat as our weird little family."