Chapter 2: Who Are You?

After waking up Edward and messing with him a little, Amaya went to her mother's side to help with the making process of the delicacies that would be served tonight. Adam was choosing which wines would be opened for the night, Vanessa and Amaya were preparing the meals, as for Edward, he would go out to get what was needed. After shaking off the sleepiness from his face, which he did by stimulating his body with slaps to the face and cold water, he put on a gray hoodie on top of a black shorts. While walking towards the door, he noticed voices of footsteps, coming from directly in front of the door. The scent was very familiar so he didn't give much of a thought to it. When he opened the door he noticed Isaac and Saria, Isaac's hand in the air as if to knock the then closed door.

"Yo."

"They threw the shopping mission to you?"

"Yeah, wanna come?"

"Sure, why not."

The two had a normal face while saying these, almost expressionless, making it seem like a pretty normal talk. Well, in a way, it was normal talk. While Edward stepped aside to give way to Saria, Isaac held out the backpack that was now in his right hand to Saria.

"Can you put it somewhere?"

"Alright."

While Saria took the backpack and stepped into the house, Edward and Isaac were already moving towards the gate of the yard. As the sound of the closed door was heard, Isaac slowly tilted his head to look at the sky. It was literally the middle of the noon and the sun was gradually torturing his light-sensitive eyes. While grumbling a bit, he took his eyes off the massive lightbulb in the sky and turned towards Edward, who was walking casually beside him. He just looked at Edward for a little while and then turned his head to the front. The house of the Matthews' could be considered large, and it had a big yard.

"So, what will we buy?"

The one who broke the silence was Isaac, a little bit of curiosity sensible from his voice.

"Well, chips, beverage, chocolate and sweets and a few more things I guess."

"I call dibs on chocolates."

"Sure."

On the way, except for some little details, like Edward trying to argue with a dog and bumping into a sign as the aftermath of it, nothing spectacular happened. While shopping, Isaac remembered a detail. Iris, who was Edward's twin, wasn't here for the birthday of her sister. He knew she was in a different city, but couldn't help wondering why she wasn't here.

"By the way, where's Iris?"

"Well, she said 'I will be late but definitely come.' So, I don't know either."

What Isaac didn't know was that Iris was currently in a 'different' place, taking care of some necessary things.When they got out of the market, there were several bags in each of their hands, full of snacks and such. Isaac was currently eating a chocolate bar that had caramel in it. Actually, chewing would be more accurate because the chocolate bar wasn't that easy to rip, and it was hard to chew because it was soft. He turned towards Edward, while pointing at one of the bags in his hand.

"Want some?"

He was talking about the chocolates in the bag. Seeing this, Edward became a little puzzled.

"Sharing your loot… is this really you?"

He couldn't help but ask. This wasn't like Isaac at all! When it came to chocolate, he was very strict and didn't want his loot to be touched by others.

"You want some or not?"

His voice was still neutral, but the pain behind the words could still be felt by the ones who heard them. It was like letting go of a plate full of food while you were hungry, painful.

"Umm… Sure."

After some thought, Edward decided to take some, this was chocolate at stake after all! He would betray his morals and thus himself if he didn't take any! Isaac slowly held out the bag towards Edward, a little regretful, but the regret didn't last long. This was a special day after all, he could stand it just once if it was for Amaya's birthday! While the boys were out, shopping, the girls were in the kitchen, preparing the meals and sweets.

"Aunt Ness, can you pass the chocolate sprinkles?"

The voice belonged to Saria, who was currently immersed in the cake she was making. When Vanessa saw the dedicated expression of the girl, she couldn't help but chuckle. The scene was simply too cute.

"Here, sweetie. Your cake looks good, want to share your secret?"

Vanessa said, while holding out the sprinkle filled jar to Saria. At the end of her sentence she had an amused face.

"Hmph, a magician doesn't unravel their secrets."

"Really? But I was so hyped…"

Vanessa put on a sad face, acting like she was really upset, while she was actually messing around. Saria was aware of this, so she just followed the flow. While the two were laughing, a sneaky hand, holding a silver spoon, darted through the gaps, planning to land on the cake. But it wasn't able to accomplish its mission because of a palm strike from Vanessa.

"Ouch!"

Amaya's hurtful cry rang out.

"You can't eat it yet."

"But… but…"

"Nope."

"But it looks so yummy…"

Amaya was looking at her mother, her big and watery puppy eyes trying to mesmerize the woman. But this was an old trick, used for almost seventeen years. Vanessa was already immune to it.

"You can't eat the cake yet but it doesn't mean you can't snatch some of those cookies."

She was pointing at the cookies Amaya took out of the oven just a few dozen seconds ago. Her eyes took on a new shine as she stared at the still hot cookies. As her hand slowly changed trajectory, her eyes became sharp like that of a predator's, ready to jump on its prey. As her hands moved like bolts of lightning, a few of the cookies found themselves in her little mouth.

"HOT! TOO HOT! IT BURNS! HWELWP! MOWTHEWR!"

But there was a detail that Amaya had forgotten. The cookies were still hot. Her shining eyes became watery as quickly as it shined. Because of the heat the cookies exerted, her mouth felt like there was a lit furnace inside her mouth. As her pleas for help rang out, her voice became muffled. There was nothing to do now, Amaya brought her doom upon herself.

"You silly, check before you eat things…"

Vanessa said with a helpless gaze. As much as her daughter looked cute while this happened, it was still hurtful to see her daughter suffer like this. While Vanessa was feeling like this, Saria quickly gave Amaya a glass of cold water. The girl quickly poured the cold water into her mouth. Trying to forcefully swallow the hot cookies. After a little while, she was chuckling, thinking about her air-headed action. Her mouth was already healed thanks to her nature. But since Saria didn't know this, she acted like nothing happened in the first place. After the 'little' accident, everything went normally. Amaya, with her holy artifact that she believed could snatch any sweets, the spoon she held in her hand, occasionally tried to snatch some of the sweets. But alas, Vanessa was experienced in defending against them. The little girl only got some cookies that burned her mouth, but tasty nonetheless. When the boys came back, it was already around the evening.

"What took you so long?"

"Hum Hum."

The voice wasn't angry, it just contained innocence and curiosity, like a little child. The voice belonged to Amaya, who was sitting atop the stairs with Saria. While Amaya asked the question, Saria nodded agreeingly from the side. The stairs were close to the backyard door, and since Isaac and Edward used the backyard's door, they bumped into each other.

"Here."

Instead of answering, Isaac just looked over to the stairs and threw them each a chocolate bar. Saria had an amused expression, while Amaya was terrified. Edward was just watching while the events were getting unveiled.

"You… Y- How? Who are you?!"

With a terrified voice and expression just like that, Amaya crawled back while not breaking eye contact with Isaac, fearing that the moment she did, he would appear behind her and Signal the end of her lovely life.

"Is it really that frightening for me to give chocolate?"

Isaac asked, looking at his little sister, who was chuckling at the side.

"Well, you don't do this kind of thing, you know."

"I guess it's an expected outcome then. It really feels awkward though."

"Well, considering you weren't aware of it, it's an expected outcome dear."

The voice was caring and warm, as if talking to a person who had a very important place in her life, which wasn't incorrect. Hearing the voice, Isaac tilted his head to the side, seeing his mom he couldn't help but smile a bit. Caitlyn didn't miss this, her son's honesty with his emotions towards her was one of the things she liked about him.

"Let's get to the living room, it's more comfortable."

Caitlyn said, while the boys and Saria nodded at her words. Amaya was still looking at Isaac, frightened about the thing that happened just now. Saria simply lifted her friend, holding her shoulders. And walked her to the living room along with everyone. When she met with the softness of the sofa, her mind cleared. As if sitting on a cloud, relaxation sinked in, making her drown in satisfaction. When Isaac got into the living room, he first saw Vanessa and Adam sittin together on the couch, chatting. When Adam saw Isaac coming in, he firmly got up and gave him a firm hug.

"Hey, big man, how are you?"

Isaac said, while repaying the hug with his own. To be honest, Isaac and Adam were pretty close, considering Isaac saw him as a father figure since he was a young boy.

"Pretty good considering the house will get messy soon."

He said, getting a little nervous at the end. Adam didn't like dirt, he was the type of guy who cared about the cleanliness of the place where he lived. Isaac just laughed a little, seeing the man's expression. Adam had a muscular build with a body about 6'5 feet tall. So, him hugging Isaac pretty much covered him up and made him unseeable from the front. After the friendly hug, Adam went back to his place, patting Edward on the shoulders for no reason while smirking. Edward didn't know why his father did that, so he just let it pass. While greeting Vanessa, she hugged him as well, but much gentler than Adam.

"It's nice to see you Isaac."

"I can relate to that."

Isaac said, jokingly. Vanessa and the others lightly laughed at that. They knew these kinds of words were a joke when they came out of Isaac's mouth. He wasn't a person that would say things like these normally. After that it was pretty normal. When hearing Isaac sharing his 'loot' with others, they couldn't help but be surprised. It was pretty rare for him to do that after all.