Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 3

Class Reunion

The smell reminded him of his childhood. Winter was coming and leaves were detaching from their branches, dried out and brown to come falling to the ground in piles where they moldered letting off the sweet aroma of fall decay. It reminded him of the Halloween of his childhood the shuffling of feet over barren sidewalk crunching over leaves.

He remembered the sort of dry rattle the wind made at night, a sound which had once scared him, but later soothed him as he got older. They weren't sounds that he thought about often as they were completely absent aboard the ship, but now that he thought about them, really remembered them he was surprised to find that he sort of missed them.

He missed the way they had rocked him to sleep.

It never occurred to him, when he left for space, how easy it would be to return home so often, but with a warp drive which could travel the length of space in less than a minute, he had all the opportunities to be in deep unexplored space one moment and in earth's orbit the next. His longest commute time was probably the shuttle ride back home, which he could fly himself and was only around seven to fifteen minutes depending on weather conditions.

He had come down to visit his parents and Eris.

Unfortunately that meant that he had to bring Conn along with him as well as Sunny and Krill. Conn was still working on trying to make Sunny jealous by announcing that he had a child with Adam and she didn't. if it bothered her, she hid it very well. Then again if conn kept bothering her about it, maybe it did bother her. He could read minds after all and he wasn't likely to do something if it wasn't getting a rise out of her.

He would have to talk to her about that later.

He wasn't with them right now. He had stayed behind to spend some time with Eris.

If one good thing could be said about Conn, it was that he had taken quite handily to being a parent. Maybe he wasn't a great role model, but he did seem to care about Eris, and he made it a point to spend time with her when he got the chance, even asking to go on occasion. In a way he was a much better parent than Adam was. That thought sent a shot of guilt through him.

He loved Eris, of course he did, but it did seem that Conn was making more of an effort than he was.

There was no excuse for that, he thought to himself.

IT was simply his own selfishness keeping him from giving her what she needed.

There was a part of his brain that told him that it wasn't his job to feel that way considering he hadn't been involved in the decision to make her. He hadn't chosen this, and so shouldn't feel guilty for the amount of involvement or not involvement, but he stuffed those thoughts down.

He would try and be more active in the future.

She deserved that much.

In that moment he was thankful to conn for doing the right thing even though the floating bastard didn't generally tend to do anything else right.

"What are you thinking about?' Sunny asked as they took a turn down the street. There were no flowers for her to pick, and she had mentioned that dried leaves don't taste nearly as good as they do when in full summer

"Just how much work I have to do on myself."

"Well that list could go to the moon and back." He gave her a look and she hummed at him clearly leased with her sarcasm.

He waved her off shaking his head.

"You're so funny."

"I know."
A chill wind blew past them dragging leaves across the ground. He pulled his jacket up higher around his shoulders and shivered. The sun was sinking towards the horizon giving the air around them an eerie sort of feeling.