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Alette's POV

I couldn't decipher the look in Uncle Syl's eyes as he stared at Aresius.

I wonder how they knew each other?

"What are you doing here?" Uncle Syl's sounded genuinely confused.

"I got stuck in the field this morning Uncle Syl, I waited for so long until finally he came and got me unstuck. He walked me home too, isn't that so nice of him?" I explained, considering this whole ordeal was my fault, and Uncle Syl could be a very scary man. Although, judging by how Aresius looked, he was not scared at all.

Uncle Syl was tall, around 6'2, and went to the gym regularly. He visibly had many tattoos, and he looked younger than his age. His golden brown hair and beard were flecked with some white hairs, which were the only indication that he was getting old.

I glanced at Aresisus, who stood confidently, seeming unbothered. He was slightly taller than Uncle Syl, and had a wider build.

The room was blanketed in silence.

"So....um how do you two know each other?" I asked to fill the silence.

Uncle Syl glanced at Aresius, whose jaw and fists were clenched. Odd.

Uncle Syl turned to me and smiled softly. "We know each other from work."

My brows furrowed, "How is that possible Uncle Syl? Aresius works at the tattoo shop?"

The two men exchanged a look.

"I have another job. Your uncle supervises my work sometimes," Aresius answered while Uncle Syl nodded.

I didn't know exactly what it was that Uncle Syl did, but it was top secret. It did make sense though because Uncle Syl also knew Tai from somewhere, and Aresius and Tai worked together.

I hummed in acknowledgment; it was cool that my new friend was also Uncle Syl's friend. I mean, I hoped we were friends.

Everyone in the room fell into a silence again, until an idea struck me.

"Do you um...maybe want to go up to my room? We could play a board game...or! We could watch a movie?" I really wanted to spend more time with him.

But what if he didn't want to spend time with me? Stupid, stupid, stupid, why would you even ask him that.

Aresius sighed, making me look up at him.

"Not today." Not today? That implied another day? Or did it mean he didn't want to ever see me again?

I nodded at him. Deep down, I had expected that answer.

He took a step towards me.

"Soon." Oh.

A smile bloomed on my face and I nodded earnestly at him. What if....what if he was joking? My smile fell.

"Soon? Do you know like...when?" As soon as the words left my mouth, I face-palmed. He's going to think you're so childish and clingy.

I looked down, wishing I could take what I said back.

I had just met him, but those deep-rooted issues of loneliness and abandonment were in full-swing.

After a few excruciating moments of silence, my eyes widened when he extended his hand towards me.

He held out his pinkie finger.

The butterflies in my stomach had turned into dinosaurs at this point, stomping around, making it difficult for me to breathe. Or was that my asthma?

I looked at his outstretched hand and smiled. I inched my, much smaller hand, towards his and wrapped my ring and pinkie finger around his.

And when I looked up at his face, his lips had lifted at the corners in a barely there smile, and I knew he meant his promise.

I reluctantly let go of his hand, my smile etched onto my face.

The loss of touch reminded me where I was standing, and I looked at Uncle Syl. He looked completely shell-shocked. It was so odd to see a man as composed as him look so... flustered. He was staring at Aresius with his mouth slightly agape. He looked like a fish out of water. I giggled at the thought.

Uncle Syl cleared his throat. "Do you want to see your...friend out Faye?"

I nodded excitedly, and began walking to the front door of the house.

Uncle Syl spoke lowly to Aresius, I couldn't make out what he said, and then Aresius turned and followed me to the door. I unlocked the door and he stepped out. The yellow light of the sun hit him, and his beautiful skin glowed.

I stood there, rocking on the balls of my feet, unsure of what to say.

"I um...wanted to say thank you again...for everything, and I hope that I can...see you again soon," my voice gradually decreased in volume by the end of my sentence, and my face turned red. Definitely not because of the heat.

"I will see you soon," his tone was definite, "I promised after all."

I nodded, a small smile on my face, "You did promise, and you can't break a pinkie promise."

"I don't break promises Alette."

Never in my life had I loved my name more than I did in this moment. He made it sound so beautiful.

With one more intense look, and a nod of his head, he began walking off down the cobbled path, and out of sight.

Out of sight, but definitely not out of mind. I walked back into the house, where Uncle Syl was on a phone call. I grabbed the dirty pie dishes and cleaned them up in the sink. After wiping down the table, I grabbed my dress and made my way out of the kitchen.

Uncle Syl's voice stopped me. "I love you Faye, I hope you know that. I want you to be careful."

I got teary-eyed, and stepped over to give him a hug. "I love you Uncle Syl," my voice muffled due to our hug. I stepped away after giving him one final squish.

"Do you...are you saying you don't trust Aresius?" I asked hesitantly, afraid of his answer. I knew I wasn't afraid of him.

Uncle Syl sighed before ruffling my hair. "I trust that man with my life. I've known him a long time. I just am wary of him around you. He's not very good at talking to people, or being touched, or just...generally being around anyone. You've got the kindest heart I know, and I know that he wouldn't hurt you purposely, but I don't want anyone to take advantage of someone who has so much warmth to give."

I smiled at Uncle Syl; he looked so much like my father at times that it hurt my heart. He helped care for me, and make me stronger after the loss of my parents alongside my Grams, and I don't know where I would be without him. I was ecstatic that while he was protective of me, he realized that he needed to give me space to grow, learn, and make mistakes.

"He's my third real friend Uncle Syl," I paused, "At least I think he wants us to be friends. But either way, he helped me and he was kind. You're right that I should be careful, but I'm...not afraid of him."

He smiled at me, and patted my cheek, "I know Faye, and he lets you call him by his real name too, I think it's safe to say that he wants to be your friend."

I nodded happily.

"I have some work to finish up, I'll be in my office. Whenever your Grams gets back from her little book club, we can order some pizza for dinner. Sound good?"

"Sounds perfect! Love you Uncle Syl," I gave him a fist bump and grabbed my dress to take it upstairs.

I opened the door to my room and decided to tidy up a little before sitting down to do an essay.

After tidying, I grabbed my phone, which I rarely used because I only talked to five people, two of who didn't really use cell-phones too often. I smiled when I saw that I had three messages; two from Tai and one from Josephine.

Tai's message included a link to an article, which would help with my essay, what an angel, and the other message was just an otter emoji, silly boy. I quickly replied with a thank you and a wide smiley face.

Josephine's message was a simple check-in, telling me to have a great day and call her tonight so that we could catch-up. We tended to call sometimes if we hadn't seen each other, just to check in, and sometimes just to say 'I love you' because she was a busy girl, and we sometimes didn't get time to see each other aside from work. I messaged her:

I hit send and almost immediately heard the notification bell ring, letting me know she had replied.

I giggled at her antics.

Her reply was instantaneous again.

I sent her about twenty heart emojis, and put my phone back down. Quickly changing into some comfier clothes, and tying my hair into a braid, I opened my notebook and grabbed my laptop. Cracking my fingers, I took a deep breath and attempted to finish my essay.

I typed until my fingers hurt, but I was finished at last!

The door of my room clicked open and grams walked inside with a glass of water and a cookie.

"Hello precious girl, Syl told me you were up in your room, I thought I would bring you a snack," Grams said walking over to me and patting my cheek.

"Hi Grams," I said, taking a bite out of the cookie. Yum. "I just finished, I was going to get Uncle Syl to edit it before I submitted. I'm sure I forgot a comma somewhere," I giggled.

"Alrighty then, let's get downstairs and have him look it over so you can submit, and we can eat some dinner together," Grams nodded.

I picked up my laptop, and Grams and I walked down the stairs, to Uncle Syl's office. He was writing up a storm on some paper, and his glasses were perched on the tip of his nose.

Uncle Syl had an apartment in the city, because he worked in the city most of the time, when he wasn't travelling. He bought a place in case it got late or he had too much to do. However, he tried to spend as much time as he could with us at home, so Grams and I decided to surprise him by redecorating the old dining room as an office for him to use. It was a win-win for everyone: Uncle Syl had a peaceful place to work, and we got to see him all the time.

"Sylas, you better still not be working!" Grams barged into his office, and I followed giggling behind her.

"I'm finished my wonderful mother," Uncle Syl said, resting his elbows on the table and folding his hands in front of him.

"Okay good because you have to edit Faye's work now so she can submit it, and I'll go order some pizza," Grams said, before leaving the room.

"Alright lets see it. I bet you're missing commas again," I laughed and handed him the laptop. As he read it over, I went and sat down on the comfy chair in the corner of his office. I stared out of the window at the setting sun and found my mind drifting to Aresius. Is this what having a crush felt like?

"Hey Uncle Syl, why does everyone call Aresius, Adler?" I asked him.

He finished the sentence he was reading and looked at me.

"He prefers that name I suppose, everyone has always just called him Adler, or Ares if they know him well enough."

Uh oh. I had been calling him Aresius.

Albeit most of the times its in my head, but I should've asked him first.

"Faye, relax okay? If he introduced himself to you as that, then I'm sure he wants you to call him that."

He probably wouldn't want that.

I nodded nonetheless, trying not to let Uncle Syl catch a hint of my spiralling thoughts.

Uncle Syl looked at me for a few more seconds, as if trying to figure something out. He looked as though he was going to say something, but decided against it. He eyes flitted back to my laptop to finish reading the paper, and I went back to my swirling thoughts and staring out the window.

After a few more minutes of silence, and the occasional clicking of keys, Uncle Syl cleared his throat.

"I'm finished Faye, its wonderful, barely any mistakes," Uncle Syl smiled gently at me.

"Thank you! I couldn't have finished it without the article that Tai sent me," I grabbed my laptop from him to submit the paper, and finally took a deep breath once I pressed the button.

"All done?"

I nodded, and Uncle Syl gestured to the kitchen, " Let us go get some dinner then."

We walked to the kitchen just as Grams was placing some plates down on the dinner table. There was a pizza box already on the table, alongside a salad bowl filled with greens and some garlic bread. Yum.

Uncle Syl and I both ran to the kitchen sink and shoved each other, both trying to wash our hands first.

"Rude!" I huffed when he splashed some water on my face. He laughed as if it was the funniest thing he had ever seen.

After drying my hands, I sat down at the table and the next few minutes were enveloped in silence, interrupted only by the sounds of us reaching for food.

"So mother," Uncle Syl began after a few moments of quiet eating, "did Faye tell you she made a new friend?" His tone was teasing.

Grams gasped. Embarrassing that there is so much excitement over me making a new friend.

"Did you really my precious girl? Who?" Grams questioned excitedly.

"Oh just some boy."

I narrowed my eyes at Uncle Syl, and his childish antics, and he just smiled mischievously back at me.

I cleared my throat and looked Grams whose eyes were widened.

"We're just friends, um he helped me today because something happened...and yeah that's it," I emphasized.

"Yeah mom, he's just her friend," Uncle Syl said slyly. And after a moment of silence:

"Just her friend...who couldn't stop staring at her."

I choked on my garlic bread.

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unedited