Ashes to Asher

Emil had gone straight back to his room at the hotel. He had never intended for anyone to think that he was flirting with Asher. He really had only wanted to help. He had just realized that there was no television in the room a moment before his stomach growled loudly. Just then there was a soft knock on the door.

"Mr. Emil," the unmistakable young voice of Danny Danvers called out. "I hope you're here because I brought your food and I don't think I can carry it all the way back to the diner without dropping it." Emil opened the door just in time to get kicked in the shin by the almost teen. "Sorry," the boy apologized immediately. "I was trying to knock again, but my hands are full, so I was using my foot instead."

"Well, here, let me take this," Emil offered as he took the tray the boy was holding. "What do I owe you for the meal?"

"Huh?" Danny asked intelligently. "Grandpa said this would be your pay for helping in the kitchen tonight."

"Well, I should at least tip the delivery boy, right?" Emil countered as he grabbed his wallet and handed the boy a ten-dollar bill.

"You don't have to tip me," Danny said as he tucked the money into his pocket. "Mom says I have to apologize for the rom com joke, by the way, so, I'm sorry you and everyone else don't appreciate my humor."

"Nice," Emil snorted. "Very sincere, too, I'm sure," he added as he rolled his eyes. "Just between you and me, it wasn't what you said that made me leave, well it wasn't the only thing."

"Yeah, that's what Miss Moony said, too," Danny informed the man. "Then she spanked Grandpa with a frying pan," he added with a giggle. At the look of horror on Emil's face, he quickly continued. "It wasn't a real spanking, just one swat, you know one of those 'love tap' kind of things, only not the kinky kind."

"What do you know about kink…. Never mind, I forgot, porn on the phone," Emil snorted.

"OMG I do not watch porn on my phone," Danny quickly denied, although he blushed profusely. "You can check my browser history, I swear."

"Chill, little dude, I don't judge, but I am glad to hear that you know how to clear your history," Emil assured the boy.

"Oh, you don't clear the whole history, because that's worse than not clearing it at all. You selectively edit," the boy answered a little too quickly. He seemed to realize what he had just confessed, because he blushed much more and blurted, "Not that I do that. I wouldn't even know how, and… and… there's parental controls and stuff."

"Settle down," Emil laughed. "Just tell me this; did your mom have to ask you to set up those parental controls?"

"No," Danny answered, poking his tongue out at Emil. "Grandpa did," he giggled. "He said he knew I would find a way around it anyway, even if he hadn't needed me to do it for him."

"Yes, and he clearly already knows what you're looking at," Emil pointed out.

"Hey, he didn't tell me to look up anything naughty, and he didn't show it to me, either. He hasn't done nothing wrong or bad, I swear. He just caught me looking at it one day, and he told me that he knew I was at the age that he would have been looking at stuff if he had been able to do it, so he wasn't going to judge or punish me for being a normal boy. Please don't make any trouble for him, please?"

"I'm not going to turn anyone in for anything, because none of it is any of my business," Emil vowed. "I'm just here to scatter my friend's ashes because he asked me to do that for him. That's all. Once that's done, I will leave all the wonderful people in this perfect little town behind and go back…. Well, I will leave here, anyway."

"You think this is a perfect town?" Danny sneered. "If this dump was perfect, I wouldn't be the only kid my age in the whole town. The place wouldn't be drying up and dying. Grandpa was right; you are the most interesting to happen around here in years, and now me and him have fu… flubbed that up, so you'll leave and we'll all just go back to waiting to die here."

"He said I was interesting?" Emil squeaked. "No, never mind that. You should have a full, long life ahead of you. You shouldn't have to die here unless you choose that."

"Yeah, dream on," Danny huffed. "I may be young, but I'm not stupid. I will inherit Grandpa's house and the diner when he goes. Only by that time there won't be anyone left in the area but me. I'll have a diner but no one to eat at it, no income, and no one that would consider buying it so that I have the money to leave, so yeah, I'm stuck here just like Grandpa is." He then grinned impishly, and said, "On other topics, if you let me eat your dessert, I will tell you what else Grandpa said about you after you left tonight."

"You traitor, you," Emil gasped in melodramatic shock. "You got a deal, sneak. What did you hear?" Emil handed over the pie and watched as his little spy started practically inhaling it.

"He joined Mom fussing at me for calling you two a rom com, since he said there has to be a rom to be a rom com, and you would never want that with someone like him. Then he said that with you here to take care of Robert, it was the wrong time for the com part, too. That's when Mom smacked him on the arm and told him to keep his mouth clean in front of me. He rubbed his arm where she clobbered him and told her that he had said com not cum, so then she hit him again, and so did Miss Moony."

"Poor Ash, he's got too many females in his life," Emil laughed.

"Yeah, me too," Danny agreed with a mouthful of pie. "I better get back to help with the cleanup," he said a moment later.

"Hold up," Emil stopped him. He held out a little plastic container of breath mints. "Don't let them know you ate my pie, and maybe you can weasel another piece out of them."

"OOO good idea," Danny grinned. "Thanks Mr. Emmy. Say, when you and Grandpa finally do get together, can I call you Auntie Em?"

"Get out of here, you little heathen," Emil scolded with a laugh.

Emil woke up the next morning, got dressed in his favorite purple cargo pants, and a long sleeve purple paisley shirt. He put on his faux suede lavender chukka style boots, and then headed out downstairs. He stopped by the dining room to have some breakfast since he didn't want Miss Moony to feel like she wasted her time, effort, and food. He had a couple of pieces of toast, and he tried the coffee, he really did, but Asher had been right. It was coffee colored water. The first thing he said when he got to the diner was, "Real coffee, please."

"Good morning to you, too," Asher chuckled.

"Coffee first, talking later," Emil groaned.

"You want another caramel kamikaze diabetes special?"

"I don't suppose you have pecan praline flavored coffee with butter pecan flavored creamer?" Emil asked hopefully. At the look on Asher's face, he wilted a bit and said, "Ok, fine, kill me with caramel again."

"I can think of lots of things to do with you besides kill you," Asher mumbled. "Sorry, I didn't mean for that to be out loud."

"Coffee now, flirt later," Emil whined as he dropped his head on the table in front of him.

Two minutes later, Asher sat a cup on the table and cleared his throat. "Death by caffeinated caramel, as ordered," he said with a smile.

"Morning people always think they are so funny," Emil groaned.

"For the record, when you said coffee now, flirt later, was that actual permission or was that just a demand for the coffee?"

Emil held up a finger, indicating for the fry cook to wait a moment while he took his first couple of sips of the hot drink. "Call it a coffee demand with benefits," he smirked. "Because a certain little birdie told me that someone around here thinks he doesn't deserve to be flirted with in return."

"You flirted with Danny?" Asher asked.

"No, eeww, don't be disturbed," Emil grouched. He took more sips of his coffee before adding, "He is a baby; a naughty baby, but still a baby. Just don't tell him I called him one because I don't want his feelings hurt, or for him to get mad at me."

"Don't want to lose your spy, huh?" Asher teased. "Don't look at me like that, the kid is a double agent," he added when he saw the indignation on Emil's face.

"That little back stabber," Emil laughed. "Did he blackmail you for pie, too?"

"You let him have your pie?" Asher questioned suddenly.

"Oh, I guess he didn't share that part," Emil shrugged. "Well, he deserves to be ratted out if he's spying for you, too."

"See if that little monster gets any dessert today," Asher grumped.

"Yes, you should definitely refuse him dessert," Emil said with a smile. "You deny him the treats, I give him the treats, and presto, he's back to being just my spy."

"You're as devious as he is," Asher marveled. "Well, just you remember the two of you that youth and treachery will never triumph over experience and wisdom."

"Spoken like a true elder," Emil smiled.

"Are you insulting me, now? I thought we were supposed to be flirting."

"If you really want to flirt with me, get me more coffee flavors besides caramel," Emil told him.

"Don't think I won't, if you stick around long enough for me to get them," Asher returned.

"I've already said, I don't have any plans for the future yet. I will go and stay where I feel welcomed, wanted, and useful."

"I do want to apologize to you for what I said about the gravy," Asher told him sincerely. "I was shocked by how bad it was, but I really did mean it as a joke. I did not want to hurt your feelings or make you leave."

"I accept your apology and promise to stay out of your kitchen," Emil said in between more sips of his coffee.

"Oh, no you don't," Asher denied. "You made really good mashed potatoes, so you can cook. I just need to teach you to make gravy."

"Many have tried, all have failed," Emil informed him with a frown. "I just seem to have a gravy block of some kind."

"I think the blocks were in the gravy, actually," Asher teased.

"Robert called them boulders," Emil laughed. "He tried my gravy one time and told me to never threaten his life like that again. He said his cancer was killing him fast enough, it didn't need my gravy to help."

"Well, that was a bit harsh," Asher frowned. "Not to mention dark. Does sound like something he would say, though."

"I knew he didn't mean it the way it sounded because he was smiling when he said it," Emil explained.

"Yeah, Robert always did have a way with words, a bad way," Asher chuckled. "He never really understood when he would say something that people took the wrong way. The folks who took the time to get to know him usually found it to be sort of endearing."

"Yeah, he was kind of cute when he would sit there wondering how what he thought was a perfectly normal line of thinking for him was so different for everyone else," Emil agreed. "Now that I'm here, I kind of don't want to do this. It sort of feels like losing him again, even though I never really had him."

"I am feeling the same way," Asher agreed. "But at the same time, I feel like this is one final gift that I give him. I can let you do this so that he will forever be in that canyon where we had so much fun as kids before we had to grow up and be adults."

"Yes, and on that note, I guess we should go," Emil said with a sigh. "Do you need to wait for Ashley or someone to run this place for you while you take me to the canyon?"

"No, and even if I were, it would never be Ashley. As I said last night, that girl could burn water," Asher laughed. "I'm just shutting the place down for the day, but if we get back in town in time, I can reopen for the dinner service. I worry for Old Barney if he misses a whole day of meals because I'm not open."

"Well, hopefully we won't be too long then," Emil smiled.

"I will just rinse out your coffee cup and then we can go," Asher told him as he took the empty cup to the kitchen. A moment later, they were standing on the sidewalk outside as Asher locked the doors of the diner.

"So, am I riding with you, or do you want to navigate while I drive?" Emil asked.

"What drive? We're walking up the canyon, there's no roads up there," Asher told him.

"You might have mentioned that before, you know," Emil pointed out.

"Do you need to go change into your purple hiking boots?" Asher teased.

"Do they have those?" Emil asked eagerly.

"I'm sure if they do, you'll find and buy them," the other man answered while shaking his head.

"You say that like it's an insult, but I like the color and I like how I look in it," Emil defended.

"Then that is all that matters, isn't it?" Asher shrugged, but he was smiling.