It was getting cold outside, fall had passed and soon it would be winter. The snow would fall, people would be together inside sipping on hot cocoa, and having a wonderful time enjoying each other during the upcoming holidays.

However, for Aphmau and Airis, they couldn't care less about the upcoming winter. Aaron hadn't responded to the text message Aphmau had sent two days ago, and the two of them were getting worried about all sorts of things. Airis was terrified by the fact that Aaron hadn't replied to Aphmau's message, and was worried that maybe she wouldn't be able to see him again if he didn't respond.

Aphmau didn't notice it because it happened at night, but Airis couldn't sleep for days over being too worried about Aaron not coming home. Not even the stranger in her dreams could help calm her down or make her feel any better about the situation. 

"Oh, my gah! He loves her so much! Even though he's dead! Why can't living people do that?!" Aphmau cried as she watched yet another zombie romance movie and eating another cheesecake. Airis on the other hand was cuddling with Aphmau's old Woof plush on the other couch and eating a bunch of strawberries.

"Hey, Aph! Hey Airis!" A voice shouted from the front door. Aphmau and Airis jumped at the sudden sound and fell down to the floor from their shock.

"Aph, Airis, what are you two doin'?" The two turned around and saw Travis standing behind the couch.

"Um, being productive and not moping around with my daughter!" Aphmau said, Airis sighed quietly.

"Katelyn sent me to check on you to make sure you and Airis are doing alright." Travis said, "Are you sure you're not mopin'?"

"Nope!"

"Are you watching depressing zombie movies again?" Travis looked up at the tv and then down at Airis who was trying to salvage whatever strawberries were on the floor.

"Me!? No!" Aphmau denied.

"Then what's that on the tv?" 

"N-no, y-you see it's a zombie movie, but it's not a depressing one this time."

Travis stared at Aphmau intensely, the two of them staying silent for a few seconds before Travis ran over to Airis and picked her up in his arms.

"I'm telling Katelyn.." He whispered before he ran off with Airis in his arms to Katelyn's house next door, Aphamu quickly following behind him.

"I'm telling! You can't stop me!"

"Travis don't tell! Travis! TRAVIS! TRAVIS, YOU LITTLE TATTLE TALE!"

Airis clutched onto Travis' shirt as he crashed through Katelyn's door and saw Katelyn and Lucinda on the couch.

"Katelyn!" He shouted and set Airis down on the floor.

"Travis?" Katelyn replied.

"Katelyn... Aph... has been doing... the thing again." Travis answered out of breath.

"No I haven't!" Aphmau shouted as soon as she made it into the house and grabbed Airis, "And how dare you kidnap my daughter!"

Katelyn sighed, "Aph! Then what were you doing?"

"Watching tv with Airis?" Aphmau answered and Airis nodded to confirm.

"What kind of tv?"

"A romantic story!?"

"Did it have zombies in it and were you eating cheesecake while watching it?" Lucinda asked.

"Yes!" Aphmau squeaked and Airis silently sighed, writing down in her notebook.

"It was "Warm Bodies"." (A/N this is an actual movie that you should check out. I've watched it and it was really cute.)

"That's it! We are taking you out to-night!" Katelyn declared.

"Katelyn, I swear I'm not thinking about Aaron." Aphmau claimed.

"The jacket." Katelyn pointed out the jacket that Aphmau was wearing.

"What do you mean! I don't have his..." Aphmau said, but then realized that she was wearing Aaron's jacket, "Oh, I have his jacket."

"Aphmau, it's been two days since you sent that text." Lucinda said, "He hasn't responded. Maybe it's time you..."

"Bu-bu-bu-bu-bu-but, no explanations. We are going to take Aphmau out, and she is going to have a good time on her own." Katelyn cut Lucinda off.

"B-but I..." Aphmau stammered then growled at Travis, "Ahh, Travis you tattle--"

Travis turned around with a mouthful of cheesecake, some sticking to his face.

"Is that my cheesecake?" Aphmau asked.

"Umm... No?" Travis answered before running for his life outside the house. Aphmau quickly followed after setting Airis down and leaving her with Katelyn and Lucinda.

Lucinda and Katelyn looked down at the little girl and saw just how hard Aaron's leaving was hitting her. There were bags under her eyes and she looked like she was going to fall over because of how tired she was. Even as she was dragged to the house, Airis was still clutching onto Aphmau's Woof plush.

"Airis..." Lucinda said putting down her book and opening up her arms, "Come here, sweetie."

Airis didn't move for a moment, but then walked over to Lucinda and crawled onto her lap, burying her face into the Woof plush. 

"Airis, you can talk to us." Lucinda said stroking the girl's hair, "It's all gonna be okay. Aaron will come back, he loves you and Aphmau too much to stay away for too long."

"Yeah, Aaron may be an idiot for leaving you two for this long, but he'd be an even bigger idiot to stay away forever." Katelyn agreed with Lucinda for the first time in a while.

Airis' shoulders shook as she began to silently cry into the plush she carried. Katelyn moved over to sit next to Lucinda and helped her comfort the little girl until she stopped crying. 

A few minutes later, Airis stopped crying and began writing again.

"Do you really think he'll come back?" She wrote.

"Of course he will, Airis." Lucinda answered with a smile, but Airis' next note made that smile fade immediately.

"I hope so.... I don't think I can lose another Papa."

Lucinda and Katelyn couldn't find the words to say to Airis, so they just held her until Aphmau came back to bring her back home.

~~~~

Aaron was tearing the entire house apart looking for his phone. It had just disappeared two days ago and he wasn't able to find it.

"Still looking for your phone?" Melissa asked as he walked into the room.

"Yeah, I swore it was in my room but, I've looked everywhere." Aaron sighed.

"Maybe you should just get a new one. It wouldn't be too hard, you know." 

"I can't. The phone had my sim card in it and all of my pictures of Aphmau and Airis were in there. I don't want to lose those, plus, maybe Aph tried to reach out to me. 

"Aaron, you're my brother and I care about you a lot. But at some point, you have to realize that people get caught up in life. Again, trust me it happens."

"Yeah. I-I just want to make sure she didn't call me. I'd feel terrible if she tried to reach out to me and she thought I didn't want to reach back."

"Again, you have nothing to worry about." Melissa brushed off, "I'm sure that if she really wanted to reach out to you, she would have tried some other way. There's so many other ways she could."

"Ugh... you're right."

"Either way, if your phone means a lot to you, I'll help you look for it."

"Thanks, Melissa."

"No problem. Oh! Don't forget, we have a meeting with the board of directors tonight."

"I won't forget. Are we going to have dinner with dad anytime soon?"

"I'll check. I'm sure he just had something come up last time. Don't worry."

Melissa began helping Aaron look for his phone. As she walked into the kitchen, she saw her mother sitting at the kitchen island with a cup of coffee in one hand and her phone in the other.

"Mom? I wasn't away you got in." Melissa said, surprised to see her mother in the house.

"I just wanted to sit and have a cup of coffee before I spoke with you and Aaron." Rachel answered, "It's been a long day."

"Tell me about it." Melissa said before continuing to look around for Aaron's phone.

"What are you up to?" Rachel asked.

"I'm looking around for Aaron's phone."

"Aaron's phone?"

"Yeah. He apparently misplaced it."

"Hmph. Easy. We'll just buy him a new one."

"If only it were that simple." Melissa sighed, "Aaron has pictures of him, his girlfriend and his daughter Airis that he wants to keep."

"His... girlfriend and daughter?" Rachel questioned.

"Yeah. We told you about his girlfriend at our dinner. And I'm sure I've mentioned Airis a few times before. Remember, the sweet little girl that gave me those yellow roses months ago?"

"I thought that girlfriend of his was someone he was with for a few days. And that little girl was just the daughter of that same girlfriend."

"Well, he's apparently known his girlfriend for a very long time. And he cares about Airis like she was his own flesh and blood. You haven't seen his phone anywhere have you?"

"No, I haven't."

"Alright, well, I'll keep looking. Either way, I'll see you tonight at the meeting, mom."

Melissa walked away to continue looking with Aaron for his phone, but Rachel was more concerned about this girlfriend and 'daughter' of Aaron's.

"Right. That text must've been from his girlfriend. And that little girl in the photo was Airis." She muttered to herself, "She might get concerned if she doesn't hear back from him soon."

Rachel took Aaron's phone and blocked Aphmau's number from his contacts, so that he wouldn't get anymore messages from her and she would see that he wasn't letting her contact him.

"There. Blocked. Now she'll have no reason to text him if she thinks he's ignoring her. I won't lose my son again."

Rachel smiled at her plan to keep her son at home, but something in the back of her mind thought back to the picture she took from Aaron's room. The smile on Airis' face was so bright and full of life. Rachel just imagined that Airis would find another father figure in her life with that foster mother of hers.

But it was just another passing thought in her mind. It didn't matter very much.

~~~~

Aphmau was left with Zane so that she wouldn't be alone while Aphmau, Katelyn went out for a night on the town at a club nearby. And no matter how many times Zane tried to get to her to open up, Airis still didn't say a single word.

Later into the night, Airis began to fall asleep, her dreams taking her back to that beautiful flower field where the stranger was waiting with a heavy heart.

"You're sadness is causing your body and mind so much harm, Airis."

"I know... but I can't help it." Airis said as she began to cry, her face buried in her knees as her tears flowed down her cheeks. The stranger wrapped their arms around the little girl and pulled Airis into their lap.

"I'm sorry that you have to go through this yet again. I wish I could do more for you than just staying within your subconsciousness. I know I can't protect you from the outside world, but I can at least help in some kind of way."

"What do you mean?" Airis asked through her sniffling tears.

The stranger smiled and held Airis closer, "You know my abilities, Airis. I may just have enough strength to travel through the dreams of others. If you wish for me to do so, I can go see Aaron and tell him that you want him home."

Airis couldn't believe what she was hearing, and as much as Airis wanted the stranger to go and tell Aaron that she wanted him home, something as holding her back. Airis shook her head.

"No, thanks."

The stranger looked down at Airis with a confused expression, "Why not? Do you not want him home?"

"I do, more than anything. I want him to come home and hug me, telling me that he would never leave me and Aphmau again. But..."

"But...?"

"I... I don't want him to come home because of my selfish need for a father."

The stranger sighed, "You know that Aaron loves you like you were his own flesh and blood, Airis. You should not feel selfish for wanting him to be home with you and Aphmau. Every child has a desire to have a father, and every child deserves to have a loving family in their life."

Airis cried again until she slowly fell to asleep on the stranger's lap. The stranger continued to stroke her hair, frowning at the fact that this sweet little girl was being hurt.

"Don't worry, Airis. Everything will be much better soon. I'll help make sure of it."

~~~~~

Aaron was sleeping peacefully for only a moment before his dreams became strange. He stood in a beautiful field of flowers, flowers that he had never seen before. Aaron knelt down to pick a flower from the field, when someone beat him to the flower he wanted to pick.

He looked up and saw a stranger dressed only in white, a thick veil over their face so their identity wouldn't be exposed.

"Hello, Aaron." The stranger said.

"Who are you?" He asked.

"Someone.... of no true importance. Do you like my flowers?"

Aaron nodded, not understanding how and why he was answering so quickly or why he wasn't on guard when speaking to a stranger in white. It just felt right to answer and talk to this stranger.

"They're beautiful flowers. I bet my daughter would love them."

"Your daughter?"

Aaron nodded, "Yeah, her name is Airis. She loves flowers and I think she would really like these."

The stranger smiled underneath their veil and handed the flower they had picked to Aaron.

"Here, to take back to your daughter. She sounds like a very sweet little girl. And such a sweet little girl deserves a beautiful flower."

"Yeah, she really is. I just hope she's doing all right." Aaron said as he took the flower from the stranger.

"Why would you be wondering that? You could always see her the next morning."

"No, I can't." Aaron sighed and sat down in the grass, the stranger following suit, "I left her and my girlfriend, her foster mother. My girlfriend and I got into a fight and I left to go back home with my family so I could think and cool down for a little while."

"And yet you sound so sad. It seems that leaving your girlfriend and daughter hasn't helped you in the slightest."

"No, I guess not. But I can't go back home just yet. I still need a little more time. And besides, I don't even know if Aphmau contacted me or even tried."

The stranger sighed, "Well, from the way you are speaking, I can tell that you are terribly broken by this fight you had with your girlfriend. And I can just imagine how your daughter is feeling because of your absence."

Aaron nodded.

"Perhaps you should go back home soon. I'm sure that you and your girlfriend could always talk about your problems together, instead of just leaving it to boil over. A family is something that can be difficult, but the best way to help heal the cracks is to talk about it. If you don't, the cracks will only grow worse and they will never be able to be mended."

Aaron couldn't believe what he was hearing, but he couldn't help but agree with what this stranger was saying. 

The next thing Aaron knew, he was awake in the middle of the night in his bed. On his lap was the same flower that the stranger had given in his dream. He took it in his hand and smiled, placing it on the bedside table he had next to him before going back to sleep, wondering about what Airis and Aphmau were doing.

And what he was going to say when he got back home.