Episode 2

***Alastair***

Alastair hummed as he walked back to the park, a jump in his step. Hopefully, his G.K. had shown up and was waiting for him. Was she nice like Jani and Ed? He sure hoped so.

His golden eyes scanned the park when he returned. His smile vanished. No one seemed to give off the same aura as Noelle, Hannah, his grandparents, nor the aforementioned G.K.'s he knew. Sighing, he sat down on a bench that was relatively close to a swing set. He got out some bear-shaped crackers and began to munch on them.

Just before he was about to finish the package, something hit him in the head.

"Ow!" he yelped, rubbing the back of his noggin.

A tall guy with big muscles like Del came over to him. "Sorry about that. Are you alright?"

Alastair nodded as he continued to rub his head. "What was that?"

"A ball. Hope we didn't kick it too hard."

Alastair whined as he looked at the ground. His crackers were all spread out on the pavement. "Aw... They're all gone now.."

"Sorry about that, too. Maybe my little brother will share one of his sweets with you." Muscle man looked around. "You didn't happen to see anyone else while you were eating your snack, did you?"

He furrowed his eyebrows. "No, why?"

"I was to meet a friend here, but it seems he left."

Did Alastair's GK leave, too?

He laughed. "Knowing that art nerd, he probably found some inspiration and bolted off to his studio!"

Star's eyes shined. Art? He loved art! Especially drawing. Too bad his friend was gone.

"If you were meeting a friend, then why are you playing with your little brother?" Alaistair asked, glancing around for whoever the guy's brother was. There were several kids around.

Big muscles guy sighed. "Graham decided to tag along. Can be rather annoying if you ask me. But he's my little bro. So, I have to watch out for him. I don't want to lose him like I lost -" He shook his head.

The redhead grinned. "He would probably get along with the cub."

"What cub?" He looked at Alastair out of the corner of his eye. "You own a lion or bear? Or something?"

Alastair laughed. "It's Noah's nickname. He's my kid brother."

"Oh, I see."

"Eir!" a little blond boy whined.

"I'm coming!" He mumbled, "Rugrat..."

Alastair remembered when he used to consider Noah one. He even wanted to get rid of him at one point by trying to send him back to the hospital.

The young man looked at his watch as he picked up the ball. "Ah! I got a text from the princess! Come on, rugrat! We gotta go!"

"I am not a rugrat!" a brown haired boy whined. His hair reminded Alaistair of cookies, not too dark nor too light.

Princesses text people in this world? Wait, there's a princess here? Who was the king or queen then?

Alastair wished his phone was working. Then he could find that out for himself. Of course, it would break when he didn't have En around to fix it for him!

Why didn't things seem to want to go the way they were supposed to? The cub was sad when he left, and he couldn't do anything about it without his phone.

"Do we gotta go?" the boy asked as his big brother took his hand.

"Of course we do. I can't leave you here alone. Plus, who would you play with? None of your friends are here."

"I'll find somebody!"

Alastair said, "I could watch your brother for you."

"That's a nice offer, but I don't know if that's a good idea," big muscles guy said, scratching his blond hair. "I barely know you."

"You can trust me! I won't let any harm come to him."

He tilted his hand and hummed. "You seem trustworthy, but I'm still not sure. A lot of people seem good, only to turn out to be creeps."

"I'm not a creepy person! I adore kids, but not in that yucky way."

He smiled slightly. "It won't be an inconvenience?"

Alaistair shook his head. "Nope. I gotta wait for my family's friend to show up."

Big muscles raised his eyebrows. "They won't be here any minute?"

"Not sure. I've waited a good while, and they haven't shown up. I even left and returned, only to not find them."

"You sure they didn't leave while you were gone?"

Alaistair frowned and lowered his head. "I hope they didn't. Not like I took forever getting my coat."

The young man's eyes glanced at the bag beside Alastair. "Hey, my friend has a similar coat!"

He smiled. "I saw someone with it."

Muscle man sighed. "So I narrowly missed him, huh? Wonder what inspired him to leave?"

Alaistair shrugged.

The young man smiled and ruffled his hair. "Oh, maybe it was this nice shade of red! Or is it orange?"

"Both!" Alaistair said, grinning.

"I see. Say, why haven't you tried to call your family friend?"

"My phone is broken."

"Do you know her number?"

Alastair shook his head. He wasn't even sure what kind of calling system this world used.

Sweat beaded his brows. "If they don't come soon, you should go back to your family or look for an officer to ask for help. There are police boxes at nearly every block corner. They usually help lost kids or their parents."

Alastair pouted. "I'm not a kid!"

He raised a hand. "Relax. I'm not calling you one. It was just an example. Do you know her name or a description of her? I'm not a cop per say, but I do have some connections."

Oh, was that how he knew the princess?

The redhead scratched his head. "I-I forget..."

The young man stared at him incredulously. "Yikes."

The younger boy whimpered. "It's gonna be impossible to find her, isn't it?"

"Not necessarily, but I would be lying if I said it would be easy." He grinned. "But don't worry, our cops are some of the best! My dad happens to be an acquaintance with one. Not that Dad's fond of him, but I think he's a good guy!"

Graham took his ball back and said, "Uh, bro. Shouldn't you get going?"

Big Muscles jumped and stared at his watch. "Oh, no! I'm gonna make Wil mad!" He turned around and patted the boy's shoulders. "Be careful, Grammy. If anything bad happens, you have your terminal on you."

Terminal? Like in an airport? Alastair saw no terminals anywhere.

He fiddled with his watch before leaving. "Gramps will come by to pick you up for dinner! Be sure not to play too rough! Mom and Dad will get mad at me if you hurt yourself."

"Okay!" Graham yelled, waving.

His brother waved back and ran. He sure was fast. Not that Alastair wasn't.

"So, what do you want to play?"

Graham raised his ball. "Do you like to play ball?"

Alastair grinned and nodded.

Graham smiled and kicked the ball. They went back and forth for a while until Alastair's stomach growled.

Graham got out a big cookie and broke it in half. "Do you want some? I know you dropped your crackers when the ball hit you."

"Yeah!"

Alastair bit into the cookie. Ooh! Oatmeal and raisins! Alastair wanted to get another one later. Although he preferred dried cranberries than dried grapes.

The little boy smiled. "It's good, right? My grandma baked a fresh batch this morning."

He nodded. Too bad he couldn't meet her. His Grandma Kari wasn't the cookie making type. As for his other grandma, he had never met her. He wasn't even sure where his dad was from. All he knew was he wasn't from Oregon, nor the U.S. as a whole. Given his hair, he figured his dad must've been Irish or something. Not that Rin was a very Irish name. Nor was Kurenai. Both were Japanese sounding. Oddly, his dad didn't appear Japanese at all. His mom was the half Japanese one in the family. A descendant of the Watanabe clan.

Soon after they finished the cookie, a car pulled up, and an old man in a black suit got out. "Graham, time to go home! Your mom is giving Eiran an earful right now for leaving you."

The boy giggled. "I should've warned him that would happen." Graham smiled at Alastair. "Thanks for playing with me, Mister! I had lots of fun!"

Alaistair smiled. "Same."

"Hope we can play again!" he waved and ran over to his grandpa.

Alastair felt like he was being poked with pins and needles as he watched the boy and his grandfather get into the car. He didn't like cars. Since the day of the accident, he hadn't ridden in one. They were too scary. That was one thing he and En could agree on.