"Just Hold On, We're Going Home" Pt. III

[Kaz]

Post-Fifteen

It was a few days removed from Fifteen, but our Young Hero Kazward didn't know the difference anymore. Days began to bleed into each other amongst a dripping canvas of chaos and carnage. He walked up towards a modest house, not one befitting the stature of the man inhabiting it. He was a regular philosopher, apt to predict the future before it happened. Not that hoodoo voodoo mumbo jumbo that Kaz was on, but some modern day Nostradomus type of shit.
Kaz held out his hand and rung the doorbell, this time a classic bell echoed throughout the house. Thr pitter patter of feet behind the frame sounded as someone thumped into the door and turned the knob.

The door opened, and a fresh faced boy stood at the threshold, staring intently at Kaz. He saw the boys eyes move towards his arm, and Kaz quickly covered it with a waist length poncho he wore around his chest.

"What happened to you..."

But before the boy could finish the question, Howard Black rounded the corner, wiping his wert hands off with a dish towel. There was a pluck of a smile forming at his cheek as he saw his old familiar friends face.

"Kaz! Welcome!", Howard greeted as he threw his arms around Kaz's shoulders.

Kaz returned the hug with fervor.

"And Sophia made it too, I see?" Howard added.

Kaz stepped out of the way and revealed Sophia, in all of her momly glory. Her face was still a sculpted work of art, even after baring and birthing three children. A harness was slung over her back, the triplets tightly sleeping snug in it's warm embrace. She held out her hand which Howard gripped gently.

"I'm so glad you could make it!" Howard said, "Sarah! They're here!"

Sarah rounded the corner as the two stepped into the foyer and shut the door behind them. Sarah kissed Kaz on the cheek and hugged Sophia, while simultaneously cooing over the triplets.

"They're getting so big", Sarah said as she brushed one of the girl's hair back.

"And Jerry Junior is a spitting image of his father", Howard said while pointing at the boy asleep in the harness, "He'll have a full head of hair and a beard before we know it."

The group chuckled as Sarah ushered them through the house. After Kaz and Sophia got the triplets settled into a play pin in the den, they joined the Black family in the kitchen where they were all bouncing around helping each other get dinner prepared.

"Dinner should be ready in about thirty minutes", she said as she commenced chopping an onion on the island counter, "There's IPA in the fridge and wine in the mini. Help yourself!"

"Don't mind if I do", Sophia answered as she poured herself a glass of wine, "You want anything honey?"

"No thanks", he replied cheekily, "Someone has to drive later."

She shot him a playful look of rage, but sipped her wine and started talking to Sarah.

"You have to tell me how you've stayed so fit after those three", Sarah remarked.

"Well, try carrying triplets on you back for four months", she said while flexing her sculpted right arm, "You'll be in the greatest shape of your life..."

Kaz started studying the room, a painted picture of domestic bliss....but still, his heart was THUMP THUMPING in his chest, and he wasn't able to fully enjoy the levity of the moment. Where other people would find joy, he could only see what could be ripped away from him at any moment. He looked to his left, where little Joey was staring intently at his arm, the familiar silver glow emenating from it. Howard quickly rushed towards the two and gave Joey a menial task to keep him occupied, then motioned for Kaz to follow him into the other room where the triplets lay sound asleep.

Kaz put his hands on the edge of the pin and looked down at his children, surveying them as a Proud Father would. A smiled edged over his cheek as he watched them sleep without a worry in the world. He both envied and feared for them at once. A hand lay gently on Kaz's shoulder, which caused his head to turn on a swivel.

"Everything alright Kaz?" Howard asked, "You seem elsewhere tonight."

Kaz looked back down at his kids before replying.

"I look around and I see this perfect life you've built with your family", Kaz said somberly, "And I look down at my children and I wonder if they'll have the same thing. Will they have a father that loves them as much as you love Joey? Could they get that lucky?"

"Hey, man", Howard replied, "They already do."

"But what if something happens to me? Or, Lord Willy forbid, something happens to them? Sophia and these three are my crowning jewels, my shining stars. It doesn't matter that I never won a World Championship, because I'm a three EX father and that's all that matters to me in the world."

"But is it?", Howard asked while taking a sip from his beer, "Is it all that matters?"

Kaz turned to face his friend once again, and it was in that moment that he realized just how good Howard Black was at reading people. Kaz felt - as he reimagined his glory days in the WCF with he and Cairo side by side - something inside of him began to roar.

"I know you better than you think Kaz", Howard studiously remarked, "I know that you grew up without a father. Bobby Cairo was as close as it came, and there isn't a better man for the job...but something inside of him snapped, Kaz. I don't know what it was, or why it happened, but the Bobby Cairo that fell into that volcano wasn't the same man who gave tutelage to you, and you need to accept the fact that the Bobby Cairo you knew? He died a long time ago. It's over."

Kaz stood there pondering his friends words, rolling them over in his mind.

"It's just...", Kaz started, "I don't think it's over. Something is pulling me back to the WCF, even though Bobby Cairo is gone."

"What do you mean, exactly?" asked Howard.

"If there's something I've learned in this lifetime", Kaz said, "It's that you can't count a man like Bobby Cairo down. He's a fighter, through life and death. He'll be back...and when he is, I'll be there. To save him..."

Kaz turned back towards Howard once again.

"Or I'll be there to stop him. That's what a true friend would do, right? That's what you did for Dune?"

"Exactly", Howard replied.

"Every man has his demons. Some men can defeat them...and some men just learn to live with them."

A carcophany of laughter echoed deep inside Young Mazy - silent to Howard - bouncing off the hollow walls of his ribcage. His arm stung with pain and he brought his free hand to the joint where the shoulder bone and the bionics met.

"Are you ever going to tell me what happened to your arm?" Howard asked, point blank, "It's been kind of the elephant in the room since we found out you were alive."

"Boys!" Sarah called from the kitchen, "Dinner's almost ready! You two want to set the table for us?"

Kaz looked towards the kitchen and then back toward Howard.

"I'll tell you", Kaz replied, "But later. Let's go see what you guys stewed up tonight."

Howard smiled and then wrapped his arm around Kaz's shoulders, leading him back into the kitchen.