chapter 06: Blossoming bond

Parker's POV

I get a sudden surprise when I get back to the living room after taking a shower by seeing mother and father sitting on the couch. My eyes immediately moves to Kaino in a questioning manner but I find him shrugging at me. Realising he too doesn't know the reason behind the visit from them, I make my way to them. What had happened that made them visit me without even informing me beforehand?

"Mother, father, how are you?" I ask them the first thing as I walk to them.

"Parker!" Mother says before pulling me to sit beside her.

"Is there anything wrong?" I query worriedly while looking at both of them.

"Oh no, nothing Parker. She wanted to see you and I had something to discuss with you. So, we thought we'll visit you." Father replies and I nod at them.

"I'll be back." Kaino notes making me look at him before he gets up and goes to the kitchen. He might bring something for them to drink.

"I missed you, Parker. How were you these days?" Mother asks bringing my attention back to her.

"I'm fine, mother." I tell her with a smile.

Though I'm not better yet, I'm slowly getting better. This past two months, I spent by staying at home doing things that made me feel good mentally. Spending time in nature is calming me and helping me in reducing the thoughts related to anything bad. And cooking is such a curious activities. When I don't do anything, I wait for Kaino to get back home. If he comes late, it scares me because it reminds me of what happened to Zayn. Overall, I'm doing good these days. So, I'm not lying to her.

"That's good to hear, Parker." She smiles back at me.

Just then Kaino walks out of the kitchen while holding a tray. He places it down and I see two sets of glasses filled with water and two cups of coffee. He offers them with a smile and they take it before thanking him. As they drink the coffee, I get up from the couch where I'm sitting and walk towards Kaino. He looks confused seeing me but not bothering with his looks, I just go and sit beside him. I know there's an agenda behind the sudden visit of father and mother. They'll talk something and I just need some support. With Kaino, I can ask him some help if they say something I may not agree.

"Parker." father calls my name and I get ready to face them.

"As you already know I transferred all the company rights to you, on your name. You're the owner now. If you're feeling good enough to work, I want you to look after the company. But knowing your condition and situation, I already appointed a CEO. He's a co-CEO with you. He'll be doing all the work and take care of everything, all you need to do is take the last decision and sign the files and documents. I'm not forcing you to go to the company, I just wanted to tell you all these things." Father explains whatever he wanted to talk to me.

"Should I start going to the company from tomorrow?" I ask him worriedly.

"Ofcourse not, Parker. You can go from whenever you want to. I'm just informing you beforehand." He states relieving me.

"Thank you, father. I just need some more time." I let him know about my thoughts.

"I know, Parker. Take all the time you want. Until you're ready, the co-CEO will look after the business and he'll be temporarily singing the contracts." He informs and I nod at him.

"Now that it's done, we'll get going." He says and I stop them as they get up to leave.

"Stay for lunch, father. You can go later." I request them and they nod at me after gazing at eachother.

"What do you want to eat for lunch? I'll cook for you." I query excitingly, it's my first time cooking for them.

All these years that I have known and been with Zayn, I never cooked anything for them. As I recently started learning how to cook, only Kaino has tasted my cooking. So, to cook for them is making me excited.

"You're going to cook for us?" Mother asks surprised that I'll be the one who's going to cook.

"Yes, recently I'm learning how to cook. I want to cook for you." I admit eagerly.

"Anything is fine, Parker, as long as you cook for us." She says making me shrink down, I expected them to say something not my own choice of food.

"Okay, how about you cook the dish you're best at. You know there's always one special recipe that everyone does. So, cook the recipe you make the best." She suggests when she sees me feeling down and I take a minute before nodding at her.

I agree because it sounds like a good idea. In this way I would be more confident about my cooking and wouldn't have to worry about how the food would taste and what reaction they would give.

"Okay. I'll start cooking now." I state and get up, ready to leave.

"I'll help you, Parker." Mother says and goes to get up but I stop her.

"No need mother, I can cook by myself." I try to convince her.

"Oh, Parker it would be difficult to cook alone. Even if you do everything, you atleast need some assistance." She reasons out walking to me.

"Kaino will help me, mother." I blur out grabbing his hand to get up.

Mother has been looking after me for so long. She cooked end number of times for me. Now it's my turn to cook and feed her, to return the favor. That's why I don't want to accept her help. I just want her to sit here and relax while I cook. That would satisfy and make me the most happiest.

Kaino watches me confused as I pull him but when I give signals to him with my eyes, he nods at them, "yes, mother I'll help Parker. You stay here and rest for sometime."

"Okay, if you guys say so." She finally agrees and goes back to her seat.

I give them a small smile before walking to the kitchen while pulling Kaino along with me.

"You want me to help you in cooking? But I can't cook anything." Kaino exclaims when we get into the kitchen.

"No, I know you can't cook. I asked you to follow me because I don't want mother to help me. I want to cook everything by myself. You just stand still, don't do anything." I reply while opening the fridge and taking out some vegetables and chicken.

He nods at that and I concentrate on cooking after taking out all the required things from pantry. I wash the vegetables and put them on the vegetable cutter to cut them.

"I'll help you with that." Kaino suddenly says and takes the vegetables from me.

Letting him to do that, I concentrate on the other preparations. Because I'm still at the learning stage, I can't cook many things. My choice of food for today's lunch is vegetable salad and pot chicken noodle soup. I have tried these recipes the most in the past two months and Kaino never complained anything. Infact, he seems to like them alot. That would mean I'm good at cooking them, so I decided to prepare the same for lunch. Hopefully, mother and father also likes them just like Kaino.

After cutting the vegetables, Kaino hands them to me and I start preparing the salad as I put everything in the pot and boil the soup. When I'm finally done with cooking, I set them on the table and go to the living room to call them while Kaino arranges the plates and water on the table.

"Mother, father, cooking is done. Come on, let's eat." I call them as they're lazing on the couch.

When they hear me calling them, they head to the dining table following me. Once they get seated, I serve the food and take my seat as I nervously wait for them to eat. How would they react and what would they think of my cooking? These are the thoughts that are worrying me. I don't really expect compliments from them, it's just that I don't want any disappointments. If they eat happily that would be enough for me.

Mother takes a spoonful of chicken soup, drinking it and I stare at her, waiting for her reaction. When she consumes the hot soup, her eyes widen before she turns to me immediately.

"Isn't of your taste?" I call out panicking.

"What nonsense? It tastes so delicious. I'm wondering why you never tried cooking when infact you cook this great." She responds lifting up my mood instantly.

"Really? Is it really that good?" I query to confirm.

"Yes, it's so delicious." When she confirms, I look at father and Kaino who nods indicating the same.

A wide smile appears on my face as they compliment my cooking. Smiling at them, I then start eating. Our lunch goes on with little chats here and there and when we finally finish eating, mother and father decides to leave. Kaino and I walk them out and after bidding them goodbye, we get back inside. Feeling kinda tired, I lay on the couch and immediately drift off to sleep as Kaino watches some TV show.

***

"Parker, pack your luggage." Kaino says the first thing after reaching home from his work.

It's just been a week since his day off where we had spent some time with our parents. That day after waking up, I found myself laying my head on his lap and looked at him to see him sleeping while hanging his head low. Without much delay, I got up immediately and stumbled my way to the garden. If he knew I was sleeping on his lap, it would create awkwardness among us.

"Why? Are we going somewhere?" I ask him as I walk to him.

I just finished cooking our dinner and was about to take a seat on the couch. But as he suddenly informed me to pack my stuff, it's making me feel nervous and so I'm following him.

"You're going to stay at parents house for some days." He states and goes to his room with me behind him.

"Why?" I question utterly confused by his behavior.

"I'm going on a trip related to work. I don't know exact days but it would be somewhere around a week. It's not good for you to stay alone at home. My flight is at five early in the morning. I'll drop you on the way at parents house." He informs as he plops down on the chair, not on the bed as he still hasn't washed up.

"Where are you going?" I query with low voice, not happy with the news.

"Japan, I have to attend some meetings and check on some equipments before our hospitals purchase them." He responds and goes to the bathroom.

After he leaves, I sit and think on what to do. Staying with him, somehow there's some bond blossoming between us. I feel safe being with him. I'm not having any bad dreams from the time I started sleeping in his room. Even when I wake up from the sleep suddenly, he tends me immediately and helps me to calm down. Ofcourse, mother and father will help with everything, just like he does. But I just feel different knowing that I have to stay without him when all these days we were always together. I hope he comes back early, with that thought I reluctantly do as he said and pack my bag.