After hearing about how lonely Dante had felt recently, Lancelot decided to pay a visit to his childhood home with Aurora. It was the first time either of them had gone there since moving out. Everything was still there, from the old stove to the twins' childhood backpacks, from Lancelot's old drawings and even the suitcases he had packed to move out of the house with Toni back when he was a teen.
"This feels so... surreal. I remember when I was a kid living here, and now I'm... visiting this place like it's a museum."
"A lot of history's gone on here." Dante sat down slowly, cracking his back. "Thank you for visiting, Lancelot. It truly means the world to me."
"Of course, Dad, it's no problem at all!"
"Do you remember when I took your sister and you to the Oasis Springs Resort for your birthday? You both loved it."
Lancelot nodded. "Everett's birthday is coming up. He's barely been out of the city before- he deserves to take part in a little bit of island life."
Dante smiled sadly. "I miss being young. A Sim like my age can barely spend a night out of the house, let alone a week." He yawned, stretching his arms. "I'm going to take a nap- we'll talk again later. Take care of Toni and Ev for me, will you? And Aurora, and your mother too."
"I promise, Dad." They hugged once more.
"Lance! What'cha doing?" Aurora ran up to her brother.
"Yeah, why are you in the cold?" Teo asked.
"I'm just building a snowman for dad so he doesn't have to be alone this winter." Lancelot heaved, carrying a giant snowball and placing it on top of the snowman's head. "It's the least I can do for him!"
"Bet I can make an even better one!" Aurora grinned mischievously. "Watch me!"
"There- Bobby and Lottie. Two snowpals to keep Dad company."
"I feel like such a kid again." Lancelot laughed.
"Good- you need the break. We all do."
Meanwhile, Toni had some planning to do. Everett's birthday was coming up, and there were still little-to-no plans on how to celebrate his big day. "Do you want to go to a basketball game?"
"Maybe. Our local team sucks."
"How about to the theme park?"
"It's too cold."
"Maybe to the zoo, like your Aunt Aurora took you!"
"Animals are kind of lame." said the kid who had once sworn he was going to be a vet when he got older. "I'm going upstairs to play."
Toni was stumped. "I'm completely out of ideas, Aurora." Toni vented on the phone to her sister-in-law. "He doesn't want to go anywhere or do anything! I knew pre-teens were tough, but THIS is a whole new level!"
"How about a cruise?"
"A CRUISE?!" Toni laughed. "Aurora, Lancelot and I are broke as fuck. We can barely afford dinner every night, let alone a trip to the islands. Everett doesn't even know how to swim yet."
"Well, what if Teo and I pitched in to help? We have the funds." Aurora was adamant on this idea. "We can make it a family trip for a week- just to escape the cold for a little while and to celebrate Winterfest. Hell, we can even bring Dad to cheer him up!"
"I have to talk to Lancelot about it."
"I don't see why he would say no."
The next day, Toni talked to Lancelot about the idea (which he totally agreed with), and in response, Lance decided to do something he had put off for a while: teach his son how to swim.
"Dad, I don't WANT to get in the water!" Everett whined. "It's too cold and my skin will turn all wrinkly."
"Everett, it's literally like 70 degrees in here. And EVERYONE'S skin gets wrinkled in the water."
"But STILL!"
"Listen to me, Ev. Getting the water isn't always fun, but it's really important you at least know how to do a few strokes in the water." They had decided to keep the cruise plans a secret and surprise Everett with it for his birthday the next day.
"Why? We don't even live NEAR a waterfront!"
"Well, maybe, hypothetically, your parents will decide to take you on vacation to a place where there IS a lot of water, and you'll need to know how to get in the water and swim in it then."
Everett pouted. "I still don't want to."
"Well, you're going to Let's practice treading water and floating first."
Surprisingly, Everett picked up swimming shockingly fast. By the end of his lesson, he was already doing strokes in the water like it was nothing. "Dada, look! I'm doing it!"
"Yeah, go get them, Rett!"
"You're having so much fun now, Everett. Why didn't you want to swim earlier? You're great at it!""
Everett shrugged. "I just had a bad feeling inside. That maybe something was going to go really wrong." He smiled. "But it didn't! Can we get McDonalds?"
Lancelot's phone buzzed in his gym bag. "One second, Lance. I just have to get this call."
When Lancelot picked up the phone, his heart dropped when he saw the contact number: WINDEBURG EMS. "Hello? Is this Lancelot, the emergency contact of Dante Morris?"
"Yeah, that's me." Lancelot's heart pounded against his ribs. The world around him went blurry. "Is- is everything okay?"
"We received reports that your father failed to show up to the restaurant today. When we arrived to perform a wellness check, we found him unresponsive in his bed."
"Is he... did he..."
"I'm very sorry, Lancelot, but your father has passed away."
Dante was dead. Dante Morris, who just yesterday had seemed so happy, so full of life, and so grateful to see his children again, was dead. Just like that.
"We need you at the coroner's office as soon as possible to identify the body. Again, I'm so, so sorry for your immense los-"
Lancelot didn't respond; he hung up the phone. He sat down before his legs could give out. He stared out into the open, tears forming in his eyes. This had to be a joke. It couldn't be real.
"Dad? We still getting McDonalds?" Everett, immune to his dad's pain, asked innocently.
Lancelot shook his head, too emotional to utter a coherent sentence. "We- we need to go. Home. Now."
