CH3: A day before my 13th Birthday

Our Maid, Mia, entered my room, trying to be quiet as possible, but she was staring at me lying on the couch, while I was staring at the ceiling, thinking to myself. She didn't watch her steps and hit the edge of the table leg with her foot's little finger.

"AHHHHHH, Who put that table here?!?!" Mia yelled. "Hahaha, Mia, you really should go be a comedy talent" I say laughingly. She really can't ever stop breaking her serious-motherly-vibe straight into comedic-goofy-damsel in distress vibe.

"Stop mocking me, Ayn, It's not funny" she says pouting. She walk to me, and I grab her hand, pull her on the couch, then raise her leg with my hands near me and look at it. I decide to goof some more, so I give her little finger a kiss, singing "pain pain, go away... pain pain go away", and another kiss to it.

Mia face changed colors from white, to red, turning pinkish, while her face stuck between laughing to shock, like she doesn't even know how to respond, making me imagine smoke raising from head.

"AHHH, you kissed me, now I can't get married. YOU BETTER TAKE RESPONSIBILITY young master!" Mia says and goes back into her act. "Haha, sure, if that what's needed to make you marry me I would have kissed your little foot pinky long ago, as long as your'e okay with my other wives" I retorted to her act.

Mia went to stand again, while saying "maybe you should first find a girlfriend before dreaming about a wife, much rather than wives, and go wash yourself, and your lips, my feet are probably dirty".

I also stand up, was planning to bath anyway, and say "nothing about you is dirty, and to tell you the truth, this house is so clean, I sometime feel I live in a museum".

She give me a quick kiss on my cheek while I take clothes for the showers, surprising me. "An early birthday present. rejoice young boy" she says smiling, and escapes with my laundry to the hall, while I'm happy for the fact she act more and more intimately with me as time goes by.

In the shower I meet my father, shocking me that he's in the house. "Since when you came, father?" I ask. "Since always, my boy, your'e just ain't sharp enough to sense me" he say, showing me his smile with all his teeth exposed.

"Got any interesting relics lately?" I ask while joining him in the bath, and he respond "HAH, relics you say, I've got something even your modern day concepts would break after you get it. Just wait for it".

He stare at my chest, on the tony-stark tattoo Iv'e got 3 years ago, then grab me, and stare from close by, while mumbling "why ain't it doing nothing yet?". I thought 'ahh, such a chuni-father... and how come I got this tattoo and not him? he's suppose to suffer from this weird ancient relic phenomena, not me'. We both *SIGH*.

After the shower I wear my casual-formal clothes, white loose-buttoned-white-shirt and short-black business-like-pants, since I know we would have dinner today. As I walk to the dining room, I see my Robin, my step-mom, in the living room, wearing a black tight dress, making her look formal, yet casual, with a flower on her head.

'She look lovely', with those frills who look like an airy skirt, yet sexy, with her bosom skin exposed to my eyes. While looking into her greenish eyes I say "Well, Hello, Robin, fancy meeting you here".

"Well, hello there, nice of you to come here. Who would have thought we will meet here today?" she retort, and we both smile. She take my hand in hers, saying "let's go dear", raising my hand to her lips and giving it a kiss, and walk me to the dining room while holding my hand.

As we sit down to the table, we see food and drinks fill up all the space possible on it, looking like it can feed a whole platoon in the military, rather than just a small family and a maid. Mia enters with a black cake in her hand, sitting it on a counter in the edge of the dining room.

I smile in disbelief, wondering if finally she made a cake who's not a carrot cake. She see me staring, smile back, and give me a mysterious gaze, as she's a magician, and I just saw her taking a rabbit out of her hat.

Before I could say anything, my father enters the room, sitting in front of me and Robin, saying "Hoho, I see my food is already ready, but what about yours?". Mia then sit near me, and as we're all now sitting, ready to start eating, Mia explain to us all the dishes on the table.

Robin takes a wine glass, and give me a wine glass as well, while standing up, saying "By tomorrow, our Ayn will be 13th years old. A boy turn into a man. Let's raise our glass for our boy for the last time. CHEERS".

We all stand up as well, each with his wine glass, while my father says "Yohoho, A boy turn to a man, I love it, CHEERS", and Mia and me also join, "CHEERS", clicking all our glasses together, we start drinking. It's my first alcohol ever, and it taste like a bitter grape juice, but I can feel what alcohol is, and how my head is going a bit hazy.

As we start eating, continuing to fill a plate after plate with food, till we almost ate most of the food, mostly me and my father actually, while Robin galloped wine, and Mia chewing salad, my father suddenly raise his hand in the air.

He hold in it an odd looking fruit. It has an out-of-this-world look, getting all of our gazes on it. As he opens his hand, making a "YOHOHO" sounds loudly, while we all look to see what he's holding.

It was blue, or even purple color. It was shaped like an apple, but it wasn't an apple. The skin of the fruit look like a whitish-gray flower blooming, as petals-like carvings on it skin, and the stalk was like a group of stamen and stigma, of a flower head, bundled together. It was like someone glued a whitish flower into a purplish apple, yet it had a blackish-vibe to it.

We all gaze at it, until my father says "I'll call it saku-saku-no-mi, the blooming fruit. what ya say?". I blubber in response "..Haaa, where do you even find those things? and you sound just like an otaku who's watching way too many anime all-day-long..".

He start laughing, and so is Robin, who ask him "In what kind of world did you find that fruit?", and he answer "I planted a seed I found way way back in the past, in that last island Iv'e visited before I came back, and way back then I thought it must be something good, so I decided to take it out, and let Ayn experiment", *COUGH*, *cough*, "TASTE! this delicacy!".

I make an awkward smile, 'damn that chuni father, he will kill me one day for sure', and look at Robin in hope for salvation, but what I meet with is a glaring greenish eyes full of wonder, moving between me and that weird looking fruit, making sure to make me understand she's part of the problem, not my solution.

I try looking at Mia, but she rather look at the fruit like it's just normal, like every day she would eat such weird fruit for brunch. 'I guess it's once again all or nothing, hahhh', I thought about those many times I did out-of-the-norms experiences, while taking the fruit out of my father hand, saying "Itadakimasu", closing my eyes, and taking a bite from it.

My face change colors from white, turning gray, to blue, purple, and then just went back to normal. I had all kinda funny faces adored on my face, and after a minute my father opened his mouth.

"SO HOW DO YOU FEEL?" he ask with eyes-wide-open and a smile on his face. Robin have the same look in her face, while Mia just look interested. "You mean how does it taste? hmmm ... at First it hit me like I just drank Bleach. Not that I ever drank a Detergent, but I believe it would probably have such taste, or rather no taste, because I was pretty sure I just lost my taste buds, but after a few seconds it was like the taste grew on me? making me feel...lively? lovely? wonder? .. I don't know" I try answering for the best of my capabilities,

"but since it hadn't kill me, it probably will just me stronger?" I say, to them or to myself, while laugh and take another bite.

"NO!" Robin abruptly screams, "That's enough" my father strongly says, "You better throw the rest" they tell me, but I just look at them while chewing the fruit in my mouth, feeling that taste again.

They look weirdly at me, like I did something stupid that no one had ever done before me? but I don't care, and take a few more bites, till I finish all the fruit, enjoying this out-of-this-world experience, or rather experiment.

"SO HOW DO YOU FEEL?" My father asks again.

I narrow my eyes, 'what does he wanna?', and say "same as I said, like my taste buds are dead, and then it just grow on you?.. anyway, got more of it? I kinda like it".

He open all of his mouth, going "HAHAHAHA", standing up, coming next to me, and *WHACK* my back, and ask again "Don't you feel something after eating it?".

I avert my gaze to Robin, but again she has the wondering-greenish-gaze in her eyes, so I check myself to see if I feel anything, and I have kind of a feeling that just grow on me, so I tell them "I dunno? kinda like the fruit grew on me? or like it grow on me? nothing really, maybe just raising my thoughts like 'ohh, so those kind of fruits also grow in the world', or something like that?".

They both keep gazing on me, until finally my knight on a white horse came to save me from them, or more like Mia, our lovely maid, who came holding a blackish-brown cake.

I can smell the chocolate from across the room.

"MIAAA, I love you, did you finally discovered the true meaning of cake and chocolate?" I say while standing up and coming to the empty bar table, near the dining table, where we could sit to eat the cake.

"Did you just said something?" Mia asked me, and I just say "I love you, what cake did you make?", winning a smile from her, as she tell us "This is a choco-cake, with baked chocolate bread on the bottom, chocolate cream on top, and chocolate chips everywhere".

'I'm so happy to finally get my chocolate cake from you' I thought while grabbing me a slice, biting, and smiling like a kid who found the 'hidden-candy-stash' that his parents hidden from him.

My father, and Robin, exchanged varied gazes, before changing their attention to the cake, and then everyone enjoys some choco-moment. We also continue drinking wine, and soon enough half a cake, and also another wine bottle, were gone.

We all say our "good-night... goodbye... see you tomorrow...", and walk to different direction.

As I was walking to my room, I was followed by a black dress women, A.K.A. my step-mom, Robin. She act like a hunter watching a lion in the jungle, or maybe a lion watching a gazelle, with a gaze who makes me feel like she can see my naked self.

"What happened? You look like you've got something on your mind.." I ask as I enter my room, and she's following me in.

"...Nothing really..." she start speaking slowly, "...I just wanna check you alright dear...", and meanwhile she walk up to me, standing an inch away, "...are you feeling alright?..", she put both her hands on my chest, rubbing them, "...care if I check you up quickly... just so I know all okay?..", and start to raise my shirt.

"Sure, Ruby", I say, while wondering what's going on. Robin move my shirt over my head easily. As tall as I am, she's still taller than me, approximately 6,2' (188cm) tall. Just as she finish taking off my shirt, she still stand close to me, and in front of my eyes is her bosom, partly revealed in her black dress, and I can smell her usual sweet flowery smell.

She start checking my body, making me stand near the sofa, while she sit down, touching me all over, and than gaze at my chest, as per her usual check-up on me.

I gaze back at her, mostly my eyes on her chest-part, like a magnet to my eyes, but suddenly I can feel, maybe 'sense', or even kinda 'see' some 'vibe', maybe 'energy', or even some kind of 'aroma', coming out of her.

It feels like it was growing out of her, peeking into the outside-world, seeking something.

She have her eyes, and hands, on my round-tattoo in the fissure in the middle of my chest, and it seems like that aroma growing out of her is like a branch growing toward it. I stare at it in shock, while wondering what it is, and try to touch it.

It react to me, and suddenly start to grow faster, looking like a whitish-transparent energy-like tree branch, growing a leaf out of it, then a flower start to bloom from it, and when it happens, Robin suddenly says, or asks, energetically "Look. Your tattoo got colors now! like it glows?? I wonder what's that tattoo really is. You feel anything? I hope it isn't affecting you badly. I hope it has some good meaning. Do you feel anything in your body from it? Do you feel anything from the fruit you ate did something to you?".

Her hands is roaming all over my upper body, some time gently, some time strongly, feeling my body, raising all kind of feelings from me, like I can clearly feel I already reached puberty by some of the feeling that rise in me.

I keep staring at her bosom below my eyes, and I feel like something grows in me, making my blood boil, making my head kinda dizzy, like my brain kinda stopped working, pushing my heart to beat faster and stronger, while a tingle comes from my lower body.

Robin avert her gaze to my eyes, her greenish eyes focusing onto me, while my eyes moved to my lower half of my body, seeing that slowly a bump start to appear in there.

Robin also move her gaze to where my eyes where looking, while her hands were on my sides, between my waist and my hips, and her eyes popped out a bit.

My thoughts strand away, thinking 'Why suddenly the whitish-energy-like disappeared, and now there's yellowish-energy-like glow coming out of her?', and just after a few seconds she seems to relax, while thinking to herself something, while I once again wonder to myself 'Why now that yellowish-energy also disappeared, and now there's pinkish-energy, like a thin stream, moving out of her toward me?'.

I try to touch that invisible energy again, and it turn white and red, mixing to some kind of pinkish-energy branch, with many white leafs, and 1 or more red leafs, but no flower have bloomed this time.

Robin look again at my eyes, while my hand in the air between us, and ask "Is everything okay? what are you feeling?..".

Instead of answering, I try to focus on the energy-thingy, making me look like I'm dizzy from alcohol to Robin, but I can feel it growing as I kept my focus on it, till a white flower bloom from it, and suddenly Robin says "I think my dear you really turned now to a man. Maybe sit down and tell me what your'e feeling right now? I think you need to open up to me, express what's running in your head, and not keep it to yourself".

I kept my gaze on that branch, thinking 'Is that interest questions rise from that whitish-energy? then what would rise from that yellowish-energy? and why there's red starting to mix in that white, turning it pinkish?'.

I nodded to her words, acting like I'm about to sit near her, but I keep focusing on that red-pinkish parts of the energy, wishing to see what exactly is that, before I try explaining my weird delusions to her, wondering where do I even start.

"I feel...", I speak as my hands and mind focus on the pinkish-energy, "...I feel like I can feel, or even see, some kind of energy?..", and while I speak I see the whole branch-energy turn a bit more pinkish.

"...like it comes from you in my direction?.." I mumble, and see that now a pinkish-flower-energy started to appear.

"...And.... And that I can almost touch it? or influence it?", her hands returned to move on my body, lowering it to my hips, and then to my thigh.

"...Like a flower blooming, or rather I can make a flower-energy bloom?...", and suddenly a red flower finally bloom, while Robin hands were right in the middle of my body, where all my blood were flowing into, moving on the bump in my pants.

"Ahhhh... it feels good Robin...", I mumble while moving my focus from that energy to Robin's body, her bosom, and her hands touching me, but just then, the flower, together with all the transparent-energy started to turn yellowish, while quickly disappearing, as Robin move her hands away from my body.

She avert her greenish eyes away from my direction, and I feel like I just missed something, or rather I did some mistake, so I sit down quickly next to her, and ask her "Robin?..."