Chapter 242 - Shop

"What do you wanna dress up as?" Caleb asked his son once they reached the costume shop.

"Umm…." Connor thought harder, taking a look around the room. "I want to be spiderman" he pointed at the small spidey costume hanging on the wall. 

"Okay…" Caleb nodded before turning around to the cashier, "Do you have any iron man costume here"? Caleb asked, "For me, not for him".

"I might" he tilted his head for a moment before exiting his counter to look for the same. After a few minutes of just standing there, the cashier arrived with a heavily shiny Iron Man outfit. 

Caleb rented it and both of them exited the store. Since it's been a while since the father son duo had spent some quality time, Caleb didn't want to go home just yet. "Wanna do something? Just the two of us"? Connor asked his son.

Connor thought for a moment before he mumbled, "I wanna buy a video game." He jumped.

"Another? You have like a dozen of them" Caleb sighed.

"I finished playing most of them," Connor frowned. "Nevermind, let's just go home" Connor mumbled sadly.

"No, let's go buy something you'd like" Seeing the expression on his son's face, Caleb quickly changed his mind.

"Really"? Connor's face lit up.

"Yepp, let's go" Caleb smiled and extended his hand for his son to grab it.

At the store Connor marveled at the variety in the store, jumping from box to box in excitement. It's been a long time since he saw Connor happy like that and therefore Caleb did not mind spending that little extra money on a game given he had plenty of it.

"I'll get this" Connor held out one of the boxes and handed it to Caleb. Caleb looked at the box trying to figure out what it was about. But he gave up pretty quickly and just bought the thing himself. "Let's go get something to eat," Caleb suggested.

"Ice cream"! Connor prompted. As a vampire-werewolf hybrid neither did Connor catch cold, nor was his teeth's integrity compromised, thus eliminating some essential reasons as to why Connor can't have ice cream. Besides, Caleb was enjoying seeing his son enjoy this much, so he let him have it for the day.

At the ice cream parlour, after ordering their favorites they sat face to face while waiting for their order to arrive, sensing it as the perfect opportunity Caleb decided to ask the question he had been dying to ask. "Connor, what do you think of me getting married to Ashton"? He needed to know how his son felt.

Connor went quiet for a moment as he thought hard, struggled, to put his words into feelings. "You love him, right"? He asked.

"Of course" Caleb nodded, "And I also love you, so I need to know you are okay with this before I go through with it."

"He is… annoying" Connor pouted, "But I can tell he loves you a lot." Connor mumbled.

"Why do you feel that"? Caleb chuckled.

"He looks at you like…. I look at my video games" Connor mumbled, earning a chuckle from Caleb. Caleb was quite amused by the analogy his son provided him, but he would take it. 

"So, you're okay with all this"? Caleb asked again.

Connor nodded before mumbling, "I am not calling him Dad though. I'll only call you that" he pouted.

"Okay…" Caleb laughed lightly, "I think Ashton prefers you calling him by his name". Before their conversation could proceed further, their ice cream arrived and they started to munch on their share, sometimes stealing the other's share in a playful manner.

Meanwhile…

"Girls, I am not getting married tomorrow, why are you dragging me into this"? Ashton groaned as his sisters somehow managed to convince him to go to the mall with them. When his sister's were younger, their cuteness was the one that convinced Ashton, or so he believed. But now that they are older, and yet they managed to drag him here, he is not sure.

"With you nothing is sure" Ariel snapped.

"True! What if you decided this evening to get married tomorrow. What if you decided to elope"? Ava scoffed. "I need to make sure I have my dress prepared for the ceremony"! She huffed.

"Girls, I don't even have my own tux for the wedding, how the hell would I get married"? Ashton rolled his eyes at them.

"We'll get you some," Ava shrugged.

"What"? Ashton appeared visibly offended. "I was hoping to do that with Caleb.

"Are you crazy!"

"Nuh-UH"!

Both of them shouted at Ashton startling him to his core. "What"? Ashton frowned. At this point he was sure his sisters were over-reacting. 

"Don't you know it's bad luck for the groom to see the other groom in his wedding tux"? Ava folded her arms.

Ashton's face twitched at the weird logic before he mumbled, "I think that's for brides" 

"Yeah, well this wedding doesn't have a bride. Doesn't mean you shouldn't follow traditions" Ava rolled her eyes.

"Yeah," Ariel seconded her sister. "Two of our most favourite people are getting married, and we are gonna make sure that everything is on point".

"Yep." Ava nodded. Ashton simply shook his behaviour at the childish behavior of his adult baby sisters. Clearly they haven't grown up as much as Ashton expected them to be. 

"Okay, Ariel, I'm gonna go give these dresses a trial. Don't let him out of sight" Ava ordered and disappeared. 

"Don't you have to buy some ''? Ashton asked the remaining sister, i.e. Ariel.

"I'll try after she is done. You are too slippery to be left alone" Ariel shrugged.

"Why would I slip away? Despite all this chaos that I hate being a part of, I do wanna get married. I do appreciate you two being so enthusiastic about it" Ashton mumbled flatly.

"Then what's the problem?" Ariel asked.

"What do you mean"? Ashton frowned.

"I can tell something is not adding up. It's like you are excited from the outside… but concerned from the inside" Ariel shrugged. Ashton raised an eyebrow at her so she shrugged, "Psychology major".

"It's nothing" Ashton brushed it off.

"It's not nothing" Ariel argued, but, if you don't wanna tell me about it that's fine too. I have learned to respect people's boundaries,`" She smiled.

After a minute or so, Ashton finally spoke. "I had a nightmare… of the time when I was… gone. It was vague…. But it also felt like it meant something. Do you know anything similar"?

"Well, our curriculum mostly deals with human psychology, but I guess wolves are not that different. Whenever someone's memory flashes as dreams we do hypnosis to decode what they are going through." Ariel mumbled. "Although, with your wolf nature I doubt that would work."

"I think…" Ashton trailed off. "I think I know something similar." he mumbled.