Solemn

"Hey, kid. Wake up." Those words got Axel awake and he opened his eyes. Making a big yawn he stretched himself on the ground.

While thinking about his next steps he seemed to have fallen asleep in the grass. The warm weather and the sun above, hitting him directly, obviously didn't make it any better.

'This child's body is energetic but also lacks stamina...' Axel thought when feeling his current state. He already noticed the glaring contradiction of his new vessel.

It seemed to need large amounts of sleep or else he felt like a stone was lying on top of him. His eyes never really went open so easily.

Axel then slowly rose up with his upper torso and looked at the man that stood beside him.

It wasn't someone that he remembered from the show so he looked at him curiously. He was clearly the definition of a Hispanic male with greatly tanned skin and even had short curly black hair.

"You look pretty tired. If you want to sleep, why don't you go ahead and ask someone to lend you a sleeping bag to lie on? It beats the hard floor at least. And get some shade before you get a heatstroke. The weather ain't merciful."

Axel smiled softly. "Thanks, mister. I just seemed to have dozed off without myself noticing."

"Here, this is for you. It's pre-boiled so you can safely drink it." The man gave him a small water-filled bottle.

"Oh, thanks...Um...?" Axel took the bottle and then tried to get the name from the other party.

The man only smiled. "You can call me Mr.Morales. That will just do fine. Over there is my wife Miranda, daughter Eliza and my youngest son Louis. I hope you three can get along."

"I am Axel." Axel smiled at him. Somehow he thinks he does remember a little bit about this person. At least he could see that he was a friendly man.

Why did he think that? It was obvious this man was trying to get him to socialize with his family. And that was probably because of his kids that he did so.

"Sure, if you think it is alright, then I will be happy to." Axel also gave an answer to his inquiry.

When he did so another man came over. It was Shane.

"First I would like to know where you got this gun" Shane came closer and then looked down at him while holding the Glock in his hands that looked rather familiar.

Raising a brow Axel tried to reach towards his back and noticed that exactly his own gun was missing.

Shane noticed that obvious action and looked at him rather suspiciously now.

"Why did you take my gun?", asked Axel now.

"Don't try to avoid the question. Kids don't need these. So where did you get it?" Shane repeated the question.

"In this chaos, you are still saying that? It's for protection. And it was my father's." Axel started to feel annoyed by this sudden interrogation.

"Shane, let the kid be. You know how things are. Why bother asking him such questions?"

"Stay out of it. It doesn't prove anything. I am just making sure he isn't some sort of spy."

"Spy?" Now even Axel was surprised. Why would he even think that? Things should not have progressed that far to distrust strangers that much.

Shane looked at him again when he heard him ask that and even kneeled down to him. "Yeah, a spy. Someone that is deliberately going to people and collecting information to later give that to other people. And those people then hurt them. I don't want the people here hurt. So, I heard you want to leave soon? Why is that?"

'Oh, I see now. I guess that does make me suspicious.' Axel now realized why that was the case.

"Shane..." Morales was frowning now. How could he just accuse a child of something like that?

"A spy sounds neet. I would like that. Aren't spies the good guys like Bond? Well, I'm leaving because I dislike staying too long in one spot. I learned that it is always better to keep moving if you don't have enough supplies or firm walls around you."

Shane looked at him and tried to figure out if it seemed the truth. Then he activated the safety of the gun and put it away. "I will keep this for now..."

"Wait, are you stealing my gun? Are you one of those bad guys that my parents told me about? Where is your Van?" Axel obviously was displeased and made a small joke at him. Somehow playing the naive and dumb card was actually working.

Actually, he felt his brain cells dying from acting this stupid. It also was rather exhausting thinking about how a child would act. He probably fucked up a lot of times already.

Well, at least he knows now that Intelligence and Wisdom are whole separate traits. Even though he has a low number in INT he still could rely on his knowledge that he accumulated over his past life.

Shane on the other hand looked extremely displeased when he heard that and Morales even started chuckling. Both of them got the hint of what Axel had meant.

"Oi, I am a police officer - a good guy. I am just confiscating your gun for safety reasons..." Ahane even tried to reason with Axel. What actually was of little use.

"He got you good there, mister bad guy.", commented Morales who now started laughing.

"I would still like to have that back.", mentioned Axel now. He knew that was going to be unlikely now but he still said it. At least he still had the knife that Shane didn't seem to have taken away.

"Maybe later...", said Shane and walked away now after having enough.

"Come, kid. Let me introduce you to the other children here.", said Mr.Morales.

Axel only nodded at that and started following him.