Gaijin No More

Aiden's POV

Cody had been pretty down for the past few days. I knew he tried not to let me see how much the loss of his camera affected him but he didn't do very good job. The sparkle in his eyes had dimmed, his smiles were weaker and forced sometimes and his shoulders were hunched almost all the time.

Basically everything in his demeanor told me he was sad. So, I had decided to cheer him up. I didn't like it when he was like this.

I hadn't found out yet who had broken his camera, but I was planning to.

I whistled quietly as I drove towards Cody's house, thinking his reaction once he'd get my gift. I glanced at the package on the seat next to me, my face breaking into a wide grin. I was sure Cody was going to like it.

My stepfather's brother worked in some kind of a store that sold all kinds of electronics. When I had told my mom what had happened to Cody's camera, Steward had said he knew how to get him a new camera in half price. He had contacted his brother and here I was, on my way to Cody's with a brand new camera.

I parked my car and grabbed the package, heading towards the front door. I didn't bother knocking, since I had been told I was welcome any time of the day.

“Oh hi Aiden,” Bruce greeted me as I entered. “Cody's in his room,” he continued and pointed upstairs.

“Thanks Bruce,” I said smiling and made my way to the stairs.

I knocked twice on the door but didn't bother to wait for an answer. I was about to tell him to stop moping around and see what I got him but I stopped when I saw he was sleeping.

If I thought Cody dancing and singing was a cute sight, I had no idea how to describe sleeping Cody.

He was curled into a ball, surrounded by stuffed toys. His mouth was slightly parted, his hair falling over his eyes. He had one hand near his face, clutching a tail of a stuffed lion.

I quietly crept closer, not wanting to wake him up yet. I felt like melting into a puddle of pink goo, as I noticed that Cody's cat April was in the bed too, sleeping by Cody's side.

I wanted to make the scene in front of me last so I took the camera out of its box and examined it for a moment, trying to figure out how it worked. I pressed one of the buttons and it let out a small sound, signaling it was on and ready to be used.

I zoomed a bit and moved myself into a better position so I'd get the best picture possible. When I thought it was all ready, I pressed another button and the camera flashed, saving the moment for all eternity.

The picture was better than I expected, which was good since Cody stirred, slowly opening his eyes.

“Aiden?” he asked in a small voice, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. I let out a small 'aaw' as he yawned, looking at me with confusion. “When did you come?”

“Just a few minutes ago. I have a surprise for you,” I answered and sat on his bed, reaching to give him his present. He just stared at it, like he had no idea what it was.

“What's that?” he asked and pointed the camera in my hand.

“You should know if you're going to become a photographer,” I laughed. Cody blushed a bit in embarrassment.

“I know it's a camera!” he exclaimed. “What I meant to say was what it's doing here. Is it yours?”

“Nope, it's not mine,” I said smiling, waiting for Cody to realize what for I had the camera. When he didn't seem to catch my drift, I took his hand and placed the camera in it. “It's yours, silly!” I burst out laughing when Cody's eyes became wide like saucers. He stared at the camera in his hand disbelievingly.

“W-What?” I stopped laughing and sighed, not understanding why Cody was acting like he had never seen a camera before.

“This,” I said and pointed the camera “is yours.”

“B-But how?”

“I'm giving it to you.”

“What? Why?”

“Because I wanted to cheer you up.” Cody was silent for a moment and I could see how everything finally sunk in. I was kinda hoping he'd jump in my arms and so I'd have an excuse to hold him, but unfortunately that didn't happen.

“I can't accept this!” Cody yelled and thrust the camera back to me like it was burning him.

“Yes you can and you will," I said and tried to give it back to him, but he backed away.

“No no no. That's way too much Aiden. You have no reason to give it to me! Do you have any idea how expensive a camera like that is?!” Oh why couldn't he just take the camera? It wasn't like I was offering him a car and a cabin in Spain.

“I got it half price.”

“But still! I am not going to take that.”

“Oh come on Cody, I know how much you love photographing. And since your previous camera got smashed, you're going to need a new one,” I tried to reason him.

“For your information, I was going to get myself a new camera, I just needed to save some money first.”

“And now you don't have to! Seriously Cody, just take it. I have no use for it anyway.” God, why was he so damn stubborn?

Cody just shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest.

“You know what, I am not going to take a no for an answer.” I placed the camera on Cody's night stand before I tackled him on the bed, tickling him like there was no tomorrow.

Cody started giggling like crazy, begging me to stop. I had no intention to, not before he'd say he'd accept the camera.

“Say it Cody, otherwise I'm not going to stop.” I pinned his smaller body to the bed, taking advantage of my bigger and stronger form.

“F-Fine, I'll surrender! Just please stop!” Cody laughed and tried to squirm away from me. I grinned in victory. Cody pouted at me and shoved me, this time succeeding in getting free.

“Ooh, you're getting violent,” I joked.

“You are mean,” Cody said and stuck his tongue out to me. I just rolled my eyes, glad that I had been able to cheer Cody up.