My phone woke me up in the morning.

I answered with a groggy "hello?" too confused to look at the caller ID.

"I'm in town. We'll have lunch. Eleven sharp. My assistant will text you the info." And the call just ended.

"Hi grandpa, so nice of you to call. I'm doing amazing, thank you so much for asking," I mumbled, hiding under my covers. 

This wasn't surprising as far as interactions with my grandfather went. The old man was an eccentric self-centered bastard. Normality was really too much to ask when it came to any aspects of my life. 

"Whyyyyy are you taaaaaaalking?" Tyler whined beside me, "Am I dying? Did I have a heart attack? Am I dead?"

Speaking of abnormal things... I threw the covers off my face. "Tyler Grayson, I swear to god, there are more chances of me smothering you to death than of you dying in your sleep."

Tyler threw his pillow at me. "Wanna bet on that?"

"Go back to fucking sleep, you dweeb," I answered, hurling it back in his face.

Tyler got out of his bed, throwing himself over me. "Don't you looooooove meeeeeeeee?"

"What do you waaaant?" I whined, trying to push him off of me. It was waaaaaay too early for me to deal with clingy Tyler. 

"Isn't it obvious?" he said, trying to smother me. " YOUR LOOOOVE!"

"Jesus, I need a new roommate," I mumbled my face squished between my pillow and Tyler's chest.

"HOLD ME AND NEVER LET ME GO!"

There was a pounding at our door. "For the love of god, you guys knock it off!"

I took the distraction to push Tyler off of me, his fat ass hitting the ground in a loud thump. "The peasants have spoken," I announced, grinning at him.

"One of these days I'll break you and you'll give in," Tyler grinned back, crawling back in his bed.

I shook my head and hid it under my covers again. "I am ignoring you, you lunatic."

After an hour of uselessly rolling around my bed, I got out, put some clothes on and went to hunt for coffee after slapping two nicotine patches on my arm. I was going to need as much help as I could if I was going to survive a lunch with my grandfather. 

I took my sweet time getting ready, to make sure Grandpa had nothing to complain about. It was the weekend so I didn't have classes and I didn't have plans.

When I was mildly satisfied with how I looked, I set off to the restaurant. 

I was kind of worried. I never knew what to expect with my grandfather. He was a two face bitch. I mean, lovely man, but he wasn't above stabbing you in the face just for the sheer look of surprise you would make. 

I was there fifteen minutes earlier but the old man was already waiting for me when I got there.

"Grandpa," I said, greeting him. 

The old geezer smiled at me, opening his arms wide for a hug. "Seventh in line for my succession."

I raised an eyebrow. "Seventh?"

"Gotta keep you on your toes," he replied, grabbing me for that hug. After two slaps on my back, he let me go, and we both got to our seats. "How are you doing son?"

I looked at the utensils and glasses on the table, smoothing out the tablecloth. "I would be a whole lot better if you asked me to lunch like a normal person."

He snorted motioning for our waiter to come take our order. "Why would I do that? I'm not a normal person."

"Sorry, I forget."

After scanning the menu, I just ordered the same thing grandpa was taking.

"So how's school?" grandpa asked me, after the waiter was gone. 

I shrugged, taking a sip of water. "It's school."

I could almost physically feel his annoyanc with me. "I'm sorry, I asked the wrong question. What I wanted to know is, when are you going to get your head out of your ass and go back to med school?"

Wow, the old man wasn't wasting any time, now was he? "Oh. No focus on me please. Instead let's talk about my favourite uncle. Did you end up wrapping Trey in nice little bow before sending him to his future wife."

"I'm not going to marry him off, I just like to scare him a little. It entertains me."

"Don't you like your son?" It was a legitimate questions, I seriously had no idea if the old man liked any of us. It wouldn't surprise me if he didn't.

Grandfather dearest looked at me like I had almost offended him. "Dick is my favourite son. He's not a suck up. He's got a head on his shoulders and he's not a damn lawyer. God, I hate lawyers."

Did he just... wait... what? "But... Grandpa... the whole family schnit is about law."

He huffed a breath, leaning back in his chair. "And how boring is it? I hate us. I love money just enough to suffer through it. My only form of entertainment in this prison that I've built for myself is seeing my monkey sons dance for a treat thinking that'll get them the key to the kingdom. I've written about seventy wills. You're going to have a grand time when I die and everyone fights like they're in the octagon."

How could I ever hope to be normal when this was the kind of family I came from? "You have serious problems."

Grandpa grinned. "Hey, I think outside the box. That's why I'm good."

"So, you have no desires of seeing me become a lawyer?"

"Please don't. You're still entertaining."

I shook my head a little. "Glad I could amuse you."

Grandpa took a deep breath and looked at me weirdly "How you doing son?"

"You asked that already."

"And you didn't really answer me," he replied before grabbing a roll and buttering it up,  "It's the anniversary of the death of your shrew of a mother soon."

My fists clenched on top of the table. I took a few deep breaths. I tried not to lose my temper. "Could you stop calling her that?"

"Your mother tried to kill you Nik. I'm sorry if I hate her for it. I'm not the type of person that forgets the shit someone did just because they died. The North remembers."

I really really didn't want to be reminded. I was always so careful not to think too much about my mother. In my top ten of dangerous conversations, my mother took about nine spots.  "Can we not talk about that?"

"I think we should be talking about it. Because you never talk about it."

I threw my head back, ready to flip the goddam table. "Jesus, this lunch is really fucking extraordinary."

"Even if your life is a shit show, I'm proud of you. You're a better person than your father. And god knows you're a lot stronger than your mother."

"Can you not talk about my mom please?" I asked again.

The old man just ignored me. "Are you seeing a therapist? A psychiatrist? Someone?"

"Grandpa, I'm here for a good time, not a long time, so knock off the shrink stuff okay," I replied.

"Trey worries. I worry too."

"Oh so now Trey is snitching?"

"You snitched first. Now, spill the god damn beans, what's really going on with you?"

I thought about dodging the question, I thought about answering him with the same platitude I would be expected to answer. I thought about not saying anything I meant, but I was tired and I didn't have the strength to lie. "I miss med school. I miss dad. I feel alone all the time. And I wish I could be allowed to miss mom, I wish anytime I thought about her it didn't have to hurt. I wish the good could outweigh the bad."

"The bad is pretty fucking bad," he said softly. "I miss your dad too. A parent isn't supposed to outlive his kids. It's not natural."

"I wished he had made me ready for a life without him if he was going to abandon me like that," I admitted.

"Oh son, he didn't abandon you. He was taken away from you."

"Doesn't hurt any less." I stared at the tablecoth, smoothed out the wrinkles in it. "It hurts so much. I try to not think about it. I don't let myself think about it, I shut all the bad feelings up and I don't go anywhere near them, but sometimes, I'll just... let myself feel it for a second... and I'm just so empty..." I didn't know why I said that. I really shouldn't have said that.

"You know, if things are getting to be too much for you, you can come live with me. There's always a place for you back home. We could have fun. The minions would see you as a threat. At least one of them would try to poison you," Grandpa said, obviously trying to lighten up the mood.

"Tell me again, why that sounds appealing?"

"It's free entertainment," he answered, smiling at me, "Sometimes you need family Nik."

He was right. But the thing was, as much as I loved my grandfather however odd he was, and as much as I loved Trey, I had other people in my life that felt more important. "That's the thing grandpa, I do have a family here."

The rest of lunch was pretty uneventful. We dropped the heavier conversation subjects and Grandpa just talked about my uncles fighting among themselves like rabid dogs. 

Grandpa offered to take me back to my dorms after that, so I sat with him in the backseat of his fancy capitalist car. He was kind of ignoring me now, chatting with his assistant that was sitting in the front beside his driver about his schedule. 

I checked my emails. There was one from an address I didn't recognize. It was from Esther. She was sending me a list with over three dozens potential art pieces to put in our fake exhibition and just as many places where we could have it set. And she started the email with, Hello Knickknack.

I burst into laughter. 

"What so funny?" my grandfather asked, frowning at me. 

I shook my head, and kept smiling at my phone. "Nothing."

_______ 

A/N: Hey guys, hope you enjoyed this chapter. Sorry if it took so long to have it up. I'm trying to be a bit more consistent in my uploading. Hopefully you won't have to wait too much for the next chapter. :)

In the meantime, I'm not sure what I shall be uploading next. Life in Paintings is a good possibility, that or Spawns. Or Smirking Jerk. We'll see where the writing takes me. :)

Thanks for your patience, as always.