Imperfect Desires

"Xiao Xiu, is the food to your liking? If not, I can make something else for you," offered Zhao Wei in her ever so soft voice. 

Xiu shook her head saying, "You don"t have to. It"s already really good." When Zhao Wei gave her a once over, Xiu"s head lowered slightly as she mumbled, "It"s a little spicy for me."

Zhao Wei chuckled at her innocent remark saying, "I"m really sorry about that. These two love to eat spicy food." She was pointing at both Dylan and Darren who really seemed to be enjoying that burning spices in their mouth. Even seeing Darren"s lips turning red from spices, she was feeling like biting those red lips. She inwardly rebuked herself for having such thoughts at such a time and was only brought back to reality when she heard Zhao Wei speak again, "You have some soup or vegetables instead. Those have only mild spices."

Xiu nodded her head, "Thank you."

"Don"t be so polite," said Zhao Wei while waving her hand nonchalantly. "No one is polite in this family. So, it"d be weird if you kept talking so sweetly."

Xiu gave a half-hearted smile as she said, "But there is a person here who thinks I only breathe fire through my mouth."

That specific person in question who she was referring to ended up choking on his food and started coughing violently. Darren had to rub his back and offer him some water to calm him down. After soothing his throat a bit, Dylan looked at Xiu and said, "I wasn"t lying. Today is the first time you actually spoke nicely to me. And I"m still having chills thinking about the goody-two-shoes way that you used with me."

Xiu shrugged her shoulders and sighed out, "See! Even if I"m genuinely being nice, you"re skeptical about my intentions. Now, how is that my fault?"

"Not your fault? Till this morning, you were spewing insults at my face without a care in the world that I"m your boss and yet during the lunch, your whole persona took a 180 turn." Dylan stared at her challengingly as he continued, "Now tell me, how can someone change so easily? Unless a ghost took possession of you or your soul got swapped with a nice spirit. Those are the only acceptable possibilities for me. Because I really can"t get myself to believe that you"re the same person who got on my nerves this morning."

Xiu slapped her chopsticks on the bowl and glared at Dylan from across the table saying, "This behavior of yours is the reason why I can"t be nice to you even if I want to. Like, you are willing to believe in crazy things like a ghost possessing my body or soul swapping but you"re not willing to believe that I just simply had a change of heart? Or maybe, I genuinely wanted to build a good relations.h.i.+p with you? How unreasonable can you get?" 

She took a long calming breath before adding, "Your unreasonable behavior is the reason why I call you Uncle! You"re like those middle-aged men who just don"t have any trust left in the younger generation. Those old men only try to prove themselves right. Just like you do with! You only know how to be stubborn with me."

Dylan stood up from his chair, fuming at her remarks as he said, "How dare you! I think we decided that you won"t call me Uncle and I won"t call you kiddo. Why are you still stuck at that point?"

"Because now I truly believe that first impressions can"t be wrong," retorted Xiu as she stuck her tongue at him childishly.

Meanwhile, Darren kept his focus on the food as if this banter was an everyday deal and he was too used it to. On the other hand, Zhao Wei was listening to Dylan and Xiu"s back and forth bantering with intrigue. Well, actually she looked rather more pleased and entertained than intrigued. 

Slowly, Zhao Wei slid close to Darren and asked, "Does this happen often?"

Darren gave Xiu and Dylan a glance before saying, "Too often for me to even keep track of it now."

"Really?" Zhao Wei was surprised to hear that. And the only reason for that was; Dylan wasn"t the kind of person to argue with anyone over petty things. He was a sensitive person because of the atmosphere he grew up in but he was also a sensible person. What Zhao Wei couldn"t figure out was how did Xiu manage to trigger that childish part of Dylan that only came out with either her, his dad and Darren.

Dylan never even had this type of argument with his own sister. Then what was really different about Xiu to make her son act like that?

"Aren"t you gonna stop them?" asked Zhao Wei. "I feel like they are gonna be at each other"s throat otherwise."

Darren put a spoonful of pasta in his mouth, chewed softly and calmly. He took his sweet time before answering, "Beauty Wei, why are you so worried? They had been at each other"s throat for too long now. I don"t even find it any weird anymore. Because this stupid bickering of theirs creates a special connection between them that only those two can feel." Then he took a sip of juice from his gla.s.s and added, "Besides, they got each other behind bars. I don"t think they can do any worse than that."

"Behind bars?" Zhao Wei gaped at Darren in shock.

Darren didn"t panic even though he let out a secret between him and Dylan as he said, "Calm down, it wasn"t a big deal." As he explained the events of that night when he received a call from both Xiu and Dylan asking him to come for their bail, Zhao Wei couldn"t help but laugh. After that, he pointed at Dylan and Xiu as he asked, "But be honest, don"t they both look adorable acting like kids fighting over their favorite candy."

"Why do I feel like you"re so happy because the "candy" they often fought over is actually you?" Zhao Wei"s suggestive words made Darren smile mischievously.

"Well, why not? I also want someone to fight for me," said Darren with a smile but inwardly he added, "Because people only left me. No one ever fought for me."

Darren was startled when he felt a soft hand on his head and looked at Zhao Wei, who said, "Isn"t it better to have someone fight along with you rather than for you?"

Darren was dumbfounded for a moment before he chuckled at her and shook his head saying, "My Wei Ma can never be wrong."

"That I know," Zhao Wei replied looking smug.

Finally, getting tired of the arguing, Darren held Xiu"s wrist and when she turned to look at him, he shook his head and said softly, "Eat first. We need the energy to fight as well." Then he turned to Dylan and said, "Didi, Asteria also calls you uncle which means you"re actually an uncle now. Stop whining over that."

Dylan huffed before saying, "But she only says it to annoy me, unlike Asteria." But when Darren gave him a look that said, "That"s enough." Dylan made a face before nodding his head, agreeing to drop it already.