Zerro was still feeling out of sorts. He had just had a nice little coffee catch up date with Kallie. Any more that was all he got with his friend. Zerro got to see her toddler and that was nice, but it was always hard looking at the child and seeing things that matched his own face. More he trying not to focus on things like that. So instead of spending time alone or just floating around on his broom he had been making it a point to hang around Youngblood more. Hopefully he hadn’t been annoying the centaur.

The more time he spent around the other man the better he felt. Ze could sit and just listen to the other lecture about this or that and he would be perfectly content with his day. He was not afraid to say that he was falling for the centaur but had refrained from saying much about it because he didn’t want to jeopardize the only thing that had him feeling like himself lately.

Down the streets he roamed with hands in his pockets. As he looked around at all the people bustling about despite how it was later in the season. Every time or year seemed to be a time to visit Paris. Of course the romance was a little faded for the man. Paris had been his home for years. Athens was falling more and more into the background of his life.

He started towards the door of the ice cream parlor, briefly looking over the few people who sat at the tables out front. As he walked past a girl something caught his eye. Zerro found himself stopping misstep eyes glued to a picture that sat on the table. The face of that man was an image that he had not seen in so long. Only the few snapshots and letters were left from that time.

One by one his friends had fallen from his life. Unfortunately the face that he was now staring at in the picture had been one of the more tragic stories. Zerro finally took the time to look at the girl. For a brief moment Zerro thought it was…but he had received word that the little girl who would laugh as her papa sang to her little French song had been lost in the same accident. So this had to just be a cousin or something.

“excusez-moi ... où avez-vous cette image? (excuse me...where did you get this picture?)” Zerro finally sputtered out after clearing his throat a bit. He slid into the chair across form her to try and get out of the way of the people passing by on the narrow sidewalk.

Zerro was the kind of man who loved all of his friends to the end of the world Of course it was a crushing blow when one of his closer friends had lost his life. Still he had others around. It did make the friendships that were still there stronger. And he would always have happy memories. Ze was always upset that he never got to see his friend’s daughter grow up and be the beautiful young woman she was surely going to be.

Seeing the girl sit there with this picture almost made Zerro stop breathing. For a moment he was holding his breath. He had to tell himself that she was just some relative curious about a man that had left before his time was done. There was no way that Zerro was lied to not like that.

There wasn’t even the thought that the girl might not know French. The question just just flew out. She seemed to catch part of it at lest and wasn’t yelling at him to go away that he had crossed some line by sitting at her table when she was doing nothing but minding her own business.

Her answer was like a punch to the stomach. It was almost worse than all those years ago and hearing that his friend had died. It was harder to look at this girl that to watch the casket get lowered. It was because he had seen that man in the girl. His eyes in hers. Zerro was stupid to second guess himself.

His mouth hung open and his eyes looked over her face more. Sure the memory of the man had been fading slowly over time but the picture was there in front of her. With it’s help his face was fresh in his mind. “Oh…um sorry,” He switched to English for the girl…no not just a girl. His god daughter. Or at least someone who was claiming to be that girl. For almost a decade and a half Zerro believed she was dead.

“Your father…” He had to repeat it. “I did…yes, he was a very good friend of mine.” Zerro carefully moved the picture closer to him so he could look down at it closer. “Do you mind?” He then asked quickly. A soft smile spread on his lips, still it was a sad look.

Zerro couldn’t believe he was looking at this young woman who was just learning to walk the last time he had seen her. She should have been a ghost according to everything he had been told. His heart ached because it was being ripped in two. He was hurt, so hurt that he had been told that she died with her father, when clearly there was that little girl sitting in front of him. Merlin she was so beautiful.

He was thrilled as well knowing that she had gotten a chance to grow and become this beautiful girl. The lovely vision that he always felt she would be. The ache was enough to make his knees shake under the table and he tried to figure out what he should do and how to keep his voice from cracking. There should be tears, he should be asking her a million questions. And where in the hell was her mother. That woman who had lied to him about a girl that he loved as if she were his own.

Zerro took the photo from her hands, like it was a lost treasure that was so fragile. “ο παλιός μου φίλος (my old friend)” His words were breathy. His voice also finally giving in, Zerro’s throat felt dry and tight. He cleared it but it didn’t really help. Zerro set the photo down and looked across the table. “I know, Eun Min,” He smiled again, the same lost bitter sweet smile. Her name…it had been a long time sense he had said that name. For a long time Zerro had trouble doing it, along with her father’s name. He still wasn’t sure if this was meant to be a bad dream, a dirty trick, or one of the best days of his life.

“I’m Zerro,” He reached out and took up on of her hands in both of his, just holding it there for a while, making sure she was real. “I was your god father….I guess still am actually,” He laughed, the laugh strained and so similar to the smile that plagued his lips with it’s melancholy. He also had to sniffle back some tears that were trying so hard to show how much his emotions were a hurricane inside of him right now.

Zerro was sure that she had a million more questions than he had . More pressing questions than his at least. He just wanted to know about all the years that he had missed. How her life was. She would most likely want to know about her father, judging from the picture. That was more important now. Hopefully he would get his time with her to learn about who she was now.

He wanted to reach over and wipe away her tears. It was another stab to hear that she didn’t know who he was. Did she not know anything besides this picture about her father and the life she lead when he was alive? More and more questions were piling.

“Well he was a very good friend of mine.” Zerro started reaching back through foggy memories to the ones of Eric. “We traveled a lot together.” It was hard for Zerro to remember just how he had met his friend. It was something probably silly, just running into each other somewhere trivial, a park or ice cream shop. Zerro had a knack for friends and Eric was such a good man.

Before he start blathering on through the whole story he glanced down at the picture again and then back up at Eun. All the way from Seoul. Was she alone? That was not important right now. “I …did you want to talk here, or I can, we can go to my loft.” Rarely was he flustered like this. “If you have the time to talk, and I have pictures that you might want to keep…”

Zerro stopped and let himself breath. “Or here is fine, I can tell you everything I can.” He smiled realizing how ridiculous he must have sounded. There were just so many years to make up for on both ends and not nearly enough time.