(C) Fleck.

"Well, not a lot would agree with you there. You can make your own decisions when you see the photos."

Usually his bored sculptures were simple, taken from cartoons, so they lacked the detail that his more realistic art had. He liked all the little details.

"And I'm done for today." He set down the pin tool he'd been using and stretched out his fingers. "Come back tomorrow morning and I'll start working on the hair. Go make me a coffee, would you?"

Chai stood and thanked him with a kiss to his cheek and a little smile. "You have a smear, right here." She licked her thumb and began rubbing at a smear of drying clay on his cheekbone.

Fleck flushed pink and cried out playfully as he tried to push his sister away. "Chai," he cried out, laughing. "Go make me a coffee."

"Now you're clean." She patted his cheek affectionately. "I'll go. Have fun on your phone date," she sang as she left the room.

He heard some muttering and some yelling on the other end - more sibling antics. He let out a small chuckle at the sound of the man being teased. It sounded all too familiar.

"Sounds like you and your sister get on. Is she older or younger?"

"Ten years older."

Exactly ten years. He was approaching twenty two, and Chai was approaching thirty two.

He slicked his hair back, tucking the unruly locks back behind his ears.

"Do you have any siblings?"

"That is a big age gap."

He rested the phone in the crook of his shoulder to fiddle with the rings on his fingers as he thought over how he was going to answer the question.

He wasn't going to lie to the man, but he also didn't want to be called crazy. As much as it felt the whole of Catania knew about the supernatural it really wasn't the case.

"Ten full siblings, and two half siblings. How many do you have?"

Plus a possibility of a few illegitimate siblings, but they didn't need to be mentioned. He probably never met them himself.

Fleck shrugged. "It's not the biggest age gap in our family." He had a nephew that was older than him, there were age gaps that big in their family.

"Eight half siblings."

None of them had ever thought him as any less than their siblings, though, so he'd never really thought too hard on it like some people in that situation did.

"I think that means I beat you with the most amount of siblings."

If he thought back to his time growing up, his family wasn't all that big - it was average. The most surprising thing about his family was the amount of them that made it to childhood, but that may of been due to his privilege upbringing.

"What's the biggest age gap then?"

"Jay and Theo. Theo's forty eight this year, and Jay just turned fifteen in December."

The eight full siblings spanned nearly thirty five years of marriage.

"Chai and I part of the middle children band."

"Thirty three years? That is a big age gap."

There was no judgement in his voice. Him of all people couldn't really judge large and intricate family's.

"The middle child band it the place to be."

"Oh yeah, we get it the best. The eldest pick on the youngest, the youngest are too scared to pick on any of us, so we're pretty safe now."

Not to say they didn't get picked on occasionally, but it was all in good fun.

"I'm pretty sure Chai and I are the old man and old dear's favourites, too, but don't tell anyone else."

Dick laughed, trying to remember who was a favourite out of his family.

"I promise I won't."

He stood and stretched. He was beginning to ache still so still for such a long time.

"What are you up to for the rest of the day?"

"I think I'm gonna clean up here then go down to the mess to see what dad cooked up for us all tonight."

He began to collect together the few tools he'd been using, wiping them off with a damp cloth, the returning them to their rightful places in his shop.

"I'm hoping its chilli. He makes the best chilli."

"I would say chilli sounds good, but I am not the biggest fan of spicy food."

He was brought up on bland food and he lives of blood, it is not the greatest recipe to cultivate a good food pallet. If he ever did eat human food it would be either sweet or salty. Besides, he is still ever so slightly scared of whoever put chilli flakes sauce in a blood bag.

"Spicy food is my life, I think."

He'd gotten his love of spicy food from his mother. His father and some of his siblings hated spicy foods, so there were usually two meals in the mess.

He was seriously hoping tht one of those was chilli today.

He wiped off his hands, then tilted his head as a little ball of blond energy appeared in his doorway.

"Fleck, we have lasagne tonight," came Jay's excited yell, before he bound off down the hallway to the mess.

"Well, I supose that answers that question."

"Fleck."

He repeated Fleck's to ensure he doesn't forget it again. He was worrying about having to ask Fleck what his name was, and trying to time it right.

"So you are not having chilli I am gathering. I am pretty sure I didn't need the phone to hear whoever that was."

"That was Jay, with his usual bunny hopped up on caffeine temprament."

Jay had far too much energy in him. Even their daily working out didn't drain his energy nearly as much as everyone in the house wanted.

"There, all clean." Well, as clean as it was going to get for now.

"I don't think I want you to suffer the family, so I'm not going to take you to the mess. I'm going to have to leave you."

"It's fine, I will let you go. I have probably kept you long enough."

He was surprised how long they have been on the phone for and how comfortable he felt talking to the man, now sober.

"Just remember tomorrow, or the sketchbook gets it."

"Please, don't hurt it, I beg you."

He picked up his phone and turned off the speaker, pressing it against his ear.

"I promise I'll have the coffee tomorrow," he joked in a teasingly worried tone.

"I'll see you later, Dick."

"See you tomorrow, Fleck."

With a broad smile on his face he waited a couple of seconds before hanging up.

He slumped back in his chair, relief that the phone call was out of the way and it was better then expected. Extremely better then expected. So much so he couldn't stop smiling for the rest for the evening.