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"Let's just go that way and ride whatever we come to!" Roch said, pointing to the right. There were tons of rides, all of them looked like fun to him, fast or slow, and all of them were a distraction from what he had to do before they left.

But still, after a handful of hours running around, his phone rang. He stopped, letting go of her hand and pulling his phone out. "Yeah?" he asked quietly.

"Time to go," Austin said. "Finish up, we'll be in the parking lot."

"Give me twenty minutes," Roch said before hanging up. "You wanna get a drink before we go?" he asked her, pointing to the food stands. It was relatively empty of people, compared to the rest of the park.

"Just... gimme a second," Roch said quietly. "I gotta think this out." He got in line, looking worried about something, his hands shoved into his pockets. It was surprisingly quick to the front of the line, where he ordered himself a drink and let her pick what she wanted. Then he motioned to a platform where abandoned tables were still covered with a few pieces of trash.

"There'll work," he said quietly, heading for it. He sat down on one of the benches, putting his drink on the edge of the table. He didn't seem to want to look at her. Instead he stared at the cup for a moment. "Xiu?" he finally said, looking at her. "I still like you. I still want YOU to be the one with me when I see new stuff. I met this little ghoul in Muertes, she was about eight, and the first thing I thought was that you woulda loved her." A little smile pulled at his lips. "You probably would have. She couldn't speak a word of English but she bossed me around a lot like you do."

He laughed. "Yeah, she was horrible!" he teased. "She forced me to get down just to feel my hair, and she dragged me to her uncle's booth and made me buy candy, and she dragged me to the pinata--" He shook his head, still grinning. But the grin faded a bit, turning to a slight smile.

"That's not what I wanted to talk to you about," he said quietly. "Xiu, I wanna... no, I NEED to... I need to give you what you want," he told her, looking at her with serious silver eyes. "I need to convince myself that you're just another ghoul. A friend, sure, but just another ghoul. I got lots of friends, now, I'm a bit surprised myself, but..." he paused, trying to figure out how to put it.

"There's this song," he said, seeming to change the subject. "And I never really understood it before this. One of the lines really confused me. It goes, 'If you love me at all, don't call,' and it seems strange... but I think I get it now. Just for a little while... just until I get over this, can you... not call me?"

"It isn't you, Xiu, hell, what we did today, this is all I ever wanted," he told her honestly. "It's my perfect day. You made my birthday awesome, did you know? I figure this was my ideal date. Even if technically it wasn't a date."

Wait, what? This was what Roch considered the perfect date?

"And I would LOVE it if you kept treating me like this for the rest of my life--but hell, I'm realizing I'm a selfish little b*****d, and now that you got a boilfr--"

"What's taking so long, kid?" Vegas demanded. The older reaper had a ghoul under each arm and another walking beside them. They giggled and looked up at him with smiles and wandering hands.

"Oh, he's so cute! Is he your son?" one of the ghouls asked.

"Grandson," Vegas said proudly. "He's a chip off the old block, though. You should see how many ghouls he's got on speed dial!"

"Jackdammit, old man, he had another five minutes to stick his foot into his mouth, and you went and blew it," Austin said, dropping down from the roof next to them.

"What the hell?" Roch asked, trying to figure out what to focus on. "When did you become a pimp?" he asked his granddad, only to turn on Austin, "And you! You were stalking us??"

Austin looked like he was going to laugh, but he shot his dad a look of disgust. "Three of them? Seriously?"

"We ready yet? These ladies need to go back to watching their scarelings," Vegas said, making Roch facepalm.

"He's right, we do gotta go," Austin said. "I have to get back to work tonight."

"Later?" one of the ghouls Vegas was escorting asked.

"Sure, darklin, you know where to find me," he rumbled as the three walked away, waving goodbye. "Mothers," Vegas said with a wicked grin. "You comin, boil? Otherwise I'll leave you to walk home."

Roch hesitated, then looked at Xiu. "Yeah, I should," he said. "Bye, Xiu," he added. "Dad'll take you home." Then he walked away, shoving his hands into his pockets, his shoulders slumping.

When he was out of sight, Austin started laughing his a** off.

"So--so many jackin' things--" he hooted, shaking his head. "Gimme a second," he said, catching his breath. "My kid... jack he's cute," he said. "A complete moron, but he's seriously cute. We spent an entire night telling him about sex, did you know that? But he just looked you in the eye and told you that this kiddy date--no kiss, no nothing--is his ideal date. And that whole dramatic speech? Jack, what an idiot!"

He laughed again for a bit before going on. "There's probably a stupid reason for it, too. He's given me something similar before, that little speech of 'don't call me, I don't need to see you for a while,' and it's usually him sayin' 'Pay attention to me you shitty old man,' not that he even realizes it. But hell, maybe he means it. I don't know what your relationship is, other than what I saw today. Do you really got a boilfriend?"