"Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday to you!" Jason clapped as Ariana set the lit cake in front of Derrick with the large pink candles burning. Smiling, he looked at the seventeen little lights and Derrick took a deep breath to blow them out, grinning as they flickered and snuffed.
"Yeah!" Jason cheered at Derrick with a smile. Kai flicked on the lights, and sitting next to Derrick was Rema with the knife in hand, smiling as she cut the first piece and slid it onto a plate for Derrick. "Dig in." Jason said with a grin as Ariana and Kai handed paper plates out to people, Garrett standing at the counter with a large ice cream scoop, dishing out flavors.
"Thank you." Derrick had a large smile as he took the first bite of the chocolate and caramel cake. "Holy crap that's rich." He said with a mouth full and a laugh.
"Mmm, Derrick you gotta have birthdays more often." Miles said with a stupid smile.
"No thanks!" He laughed, taking another bite as he looked around the full table. The group was satiated and silent as they worked through their cake and ice cream.
"We got presents!" Garrett cheered as he ran to the closet and opened it to reveal a set of stacked up packages and bags.
"Oh you guys." Derrick said with a soft smile. "You didn't have to." Silently, Jason wondered if his father had ever thrown him a party.
"Shut up kid, it's your birthday." Kai said with a grin.
"Yeah shut up Derrick." Rema nudged him in the side. "Open your gifts!" She said. They loaded the boxes onto the table one by one, and in between bites he wiped off his fingers to open packages. Rema kept poking him as he tried to tear at the paper, giggling as she distracted him.
The first one in blue wrapping paper had a note on it from Ariana, with a card reading "To our beloved son." Stripping off the paper, he gasped as he saw a large box with a message written on it that said "Cocaine."
"I fucking love cocaine!" He screamed as he undid the tape, Ariana grinning. Inside was a large combat knife that fit his hand. "Woah." He said picking it up.
"No stabbing people you know!" Ariana said with a laugh, reaching over for a hug as he set the beautiful knife on the table. Derrick admired the quality, thumbing the edge to check just how sharp it was.
"Thanks Mom." He said and grabbed a large red bag from Garrett. Rema eyed the knife with confusion, unsure if this was normal for their family, or just for men his age. "No fucking way!" Derrick said as he reached in to pull out a box with a game console inside. At the bottom of the bag were three games he could use, and Garret just stuck his tongue out at Ariana. "Oh my god, thank you!" He stood and hugged Garrett.
The next was from Kai, a small little box. "Don't shake it." He joked.
Derrick opened it slowly and found a pocket watch inside. "Oh Kai..." he smiled as he took it out of the box. The watch was an antique. "It was my Dad's. I got it all cleaned up and lemme know if it ever has problems."
"Kai..." Derrick got up and wrapped his arms tightly around him. "This is too sweet."
Jason passed him a large box and smiled as Derrick pulled off the newspaper wrapping. "What is it?" Derrick asked as he found an old book inside.
"It's uh..." Ariana glared at him. "It's a book about martial arts." In front of Rema he couldn't say that it was one of the first books that the Akashayana ever made, but Derrick caught the notes from the table of contents and smiled. "It's about a hundred years old, and it's been preserved by-" Garrett stepped on his foot. "Really advanced techniques from a museum." Jason finished nervously. Inside was an envelope with a hundred bucks, and Derrick tucked it into his jacket with a smile.
Derrick hugged him too, and moved to the second to last one from Miles. Taking the bag in his hands he looked inside, and Miles smiled as Derrick saw the bag shift and move. "The fuck?" Rema elbowed him as he cursed, but Derrick reached inside and found a small kitten meowing for him gently. "Oh my god!" Derrick rubbed the kitten against his face. The small gray cat was young and tiny, barely five weeks old.
Ariana smiled at Miles who just watched as the boy bonded with the animal. "Miles. I love him!"
"He doesn't have a good name yet. So you're gonna have to give him one." Miles said as Derrick took the kitten to the living room and set him on the floor, playing with him quickly. Rema followed and soon the two were giggling happily.
"I think we did good." Kai said with his arms folded.
"Me too." Ariana said, taking his hand and looking at him, she leaned close to give him a kiss. "That was really sweet of you to give him your Dad's watch."
"He's our son. It belongs with him." Kai hugged her. "He belongs with us too. He's a good kid."
The group helped him hook up the game console and as they cuddled the kitten, the party played and ate cake. Garrett was already rattling off a list of ways to mod the device so he could get other games on there, and Kai held the kitten in his burly arms, petting it softly. Rema and Derrick amused themselves with the games as the others cheered them on, Garret and Derrick starting a heated racing tournament as the day wound down.
Rema and Derrick said their goodbyes by eight, and as she walked away, Derrick just watched out the front door. "Hey go get your book Romeo." Jason laughed and patted him on the shoulder. "I wanted to go over some of the finer details of it.
Derrick ran up the stairs to grab it, and headed out the back door to find Jason sitting and sipping tea. "I never got the chance to thank you for this in front of Rema. It's really cool. Can I ask where you got it?" Derrick opened the old cover once again.
"Technically, it's only supposed to be passed from master to student as you learn with them. I figured it might not be a bad starting point since you're teaching yourself every day." Jason eyed the slowly disappearing twilight.
"You mean my Dad was supposed to give me this?" Derrick looked down with his eyes closing a little in dissatisfaction.
"Don't worry. We're gonna find you the best teacher the Akashayana has." Jason said firmly. "For now, just keep fighting. Learning doesn't stop when we feel like we're good at something." Derrick looked disheartened at the words but nodded to show he was listening. "That book covers some of the founders and what they added to the tradition. Most of it is how they changed fighting, and a bit is also their battle tactics. Symbols only known by the Akashayana and only decipherable by them are in the back of it."
"We have our own coded language?" Derrick quickly flipped to the back to eye the symbols.
"Every tradition does, it's usually about what we communicate with it. The Akashayana don't need the same words as The Order of Hermes." Jason pointed to one of them. "We also have established ways of talking to each other. I really wouldn't use any of the ones you have here though. We try to update them often."
"Why?" Derrick looked at the beautiful work of symbols and art. "Is it because of the Technocrats?"
Jason looked around worried and leaned close, pointing at Derrick. "Don't say that word." His eyes blazed with a paranoid rage. "You're an adult in a year. Until then, you let us think about that."
"But Kai said-"
"Don't. Derrick...I know what it's like...to be your age and have all these questions. I was six when I...woke up." Jason relaxed and leaned back.
"You were six?" Derrick smiled, trying to ease the tension of his mistake.
"Yeah I wore a robe that didn't fit for ten years." He smiled at Derrick. "My mentor, David, he was and still is a complete..." Jason looked around and whispered. "Asshole."
"So was my Dad." Derrick said quietly as he looked off in the distance.
Jason thought for a long time, piecing his words together like a jigsaw before he looked Derrick in the eyes. "I used to think my Mom was scared of me, or that I wasn't born the way she wanted me to be. I thought all I had to do was listen to David and I'd be good enough to make her proud."
Derrick bit his lip at the way the words stung his heart with familiarity. "What happened to her?"
Jason folded his hands. "I came back one day when I was thirteen to show her what I was learning....and we got into a fight." Derrick set the book aside and listened closely. "I accidentally blew the stove up. She burned alive." The two waited for the other to know what to say and minutes passed silently.
"My Dad left me on that roof because I told him I wish my Mom had taken me instead of him." Jason looked over. "He told me that if that's the way I felt, he was going to leave me on the roof until she found me."
"She did." Jason said with a sigh. "She and Kai found you, and you got three people on top of that who would do anything to protect you." Jason smiled. "I know what it's like to want the love of your family Derrick, and while we might never be blood, you're our son." Derrick looked away to hide the tears gathering in his eyes. "We're always going to be there for you, no matter what it costs."
***
The large cup of coffee giggled in the cupholder as Jason sped down the road, vibrating with the car. Pulling off the highway and into the side streets, Jason went out past the rest stops and into a large undeveloped side of the town. He took the dirt road that led into the field they usually met at, and parked, waiting for his contact. A black sports car pulled up slowly onto the dirt road and parked next to Jason.
Watching as Vicente got out of the car, Jason smiled at the handler for the cabal. For the last two years Vicente had handed them large folders with the cases collected for each of the members, which the cabal was then allowed to solve as they pleased. Vicente was short and in beat up clothes, his short cut black hair held fast with gel. Vicente was quiet, short tempered, and usually very quick to drive away once the orders were passed on.
"Hey." Jason held out his hand to shake Vicente's but Vicente just looked at it. "Right, sorry, you don't do hands."
