brokendoors | Caleb - Man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.

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Caleb - Man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.

True to his Mama's word, Caleb made it out of The Visit unscathed. And when they'd left, his mom did a lot of hugging to the point he'd actually started pushing her away with a totally age-appropriate 'ew, mom's hugging me!' gross face.

And he didn't think his mom minded, even!
It wasn't until the next day, when his mom was at work, that he made the tiny trek across the complex over to Casper's place.

He wanted to get Casper's input on things.

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There's spraying and smearing and within minutes there's a sunscreened Caleb.

Casper's hesitation to take off his shirt in public is old, but at least now it's only a brief hesitation as he simply tells himself to stop being silly. Then he hand the bottle of sunscreen over. "Have at it!"

Caleb doesn't notice the hesitation, and it's with his usual childish joy that he's taking the bottle and begins to spray Casper. Before long his tongue's sticking out of the corner of his mouth as he concentrates to make each line of sunscreen even. "Did you come to the lake when you were my age, Casper?" he asks.

Casper just sits still as Caleb concentrates.

"No." When he'd been Caleb's age, he never went anywhere. "But when I was a little bit older than you I got to move to Maine to live by the sea." Nevermind that Maine could be frickin' cold, but it had still been a fantastic improvement.

"Woooow." He knows Maine is pretty far up the coast and pretty small, but for some reason it feel like it's bigger than it actually is. Like there's a ton of legends to the place. "I bet that was boss."

"Yeah, it was great. I lived in New York before that, so it was a big change." So thankful for that change.

"Kinda like the opposite for Mom and me. We went from Columbus to the big freakin' huge Nexus. Went from big to bigger, and you went from Big to small. But I bet it was nice. Get to go to the beach a lot." He looks longingly at the water. "I've never seen an actual ocean, though. Just pools and lakes and ponds."

"My folks still live there by the sea," he says. "If your mom agrees, maybe we can go there some day."

"That would be cool." He pauses. "Nothin' scary in those oceans, right?

"Naah, not really. Whales and seals and the occasional basking shark. Perfectly harmless. Now..." He stands, looking out over the lake. "Last one in is a rotten egg!" Though he'll give Caleb a seconds head-start.

Caleb shouts happily and then he's off like a rocket, making a beeline for the water. He squeals once he hits the shoreline, and he leaps into the surf.

Casper is right on his heels, though he stays on his heels even though he could easily have run past him. Yeah, he'll be the rotten egg. Though oncer in the water he passes Caleb with a shallow dive.

He grins a little and immediately splashes Casper playfully. "Got you!"

"Ack!" Splash, a face full of water. And while that's not so bad, Casper makes a show of recoiling and falling over into the water. Just because.

Aaand.. this is when Caleb belly flops into the water from laughing so hard. "Casper, you're so silly!"

"Silly?" he rises up. "Silly?" With a roar contracting nicely to his amused grin, he lunges for the boy to start a playfight. Just because.

Later, when hanging from a raft anchored a little bit off shore, catching their breaths for a moment, Casper decides to bring up something of a serious subject. Hopefully a rather happy one, but still serious. "Hey, Caleb? Can I ask you something?" He pauses to wipe away from wet hair that was clinging to his forehead. "If I were to ask your mom to marry me, would you be okay with that?" The kid may be just that, a kid. There are things he's just too young to really understand, and with so many things yet to learn. But Casper refuses to treat him as ignorant, and with a thing like this, he honestly wants the boy's input. It is going to affect the biy, after all, if it happens.

There's a brief moment where Caleb wants to say, "YES YES OH MY GOSH, YES!" but Casper's being SERIOUS about this, and he guesses that means he needs to be serious, as well. He needs to think things through. "Well, yeah. You wouldn't be any different than you are now. I mean, you know about me and all." Because he'd heard that step parents sometimes act differently once they're all moved in and married.

"Pretty much." If their two separate small families became one, there would be more everyday issues, and Caleb and Casper were sure to butt head sometimes when they disagreed on things. But that's just how things are, perfectly normal.

There's another pause as Casper thinks. "...think she'd say yes?" That is an actual worry for him. Two times in the past he's thought of asking a woman for her hand in marriage, and both times he's had his heart broken before getting the chance. So if there's a little part of him saying, no just let things be as they are, he understands it. But he's not going to listen to it.

Caleb shrugs a little bit. "I think she might. I know she like likes you, that's for sure." He's honestly sort of worried she might not say yes. He'd heard his mom tell people at the hotel that she'd never get married - but that was a long time ago, before she'd met Casper.

Yes, Casper's pretty sure she like likes him. Heh. But Ivy and him have never discussed marriage, so... Maybe he should just bring the topic up sometime, instead of just springing the question on her. Ah, he'd just have to see.

But at least now he knew that Caleb was okay with it, should it happen. Though he probably should talk with his own sons about it as well.

"We'll just have to see how it goes. But, regardless of what happens, you know that you're always welcome around, right?"

"I hope so," Caleb says, all of a sudden rather serious. He doesn't want to think about everything bad that could happen.

"You are." Bad things can always happen, though despite his slight anxieties Casper isn't really worried. Not really. But he wants Caleb to understand that him caring about him isn't dependent on his relationship with Ivy.

Still, best to not dwell on things, right? It's a far too nice day for that. "I'm getting all pruny here," Casper states, perfectly truthfully. "Race yo to shore?"

Caleb squints, just for a moment. "OKay!" And then he's off, not even waiting for Casper

Even though the sky is where Caper feels mostly as home, he has a thing for water as well. Swimming is really the closest thing a human can get to experience weightlessness and flying. With that and having been raised by the sea, it's only natural that he's a good swimmer.

He's quickly going after Caleb, not planning on just handing over the win this time.

And like last time, there's a little bit of a shriek when he notices that Casper's quickly closing in. "I'll win again!" he shouts, swimming in faster than before.

Casper could cheat. If he wanted to. Shapeshifting can indeed give one a certain advantage. But he doesn't. Because that would simply be unfair.

Besides, he's a grown-up. He has the advantage anyway. Can Caleb still beat him?

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