It was rare that Relkir would be home earlier than Gath, but Gath was spending time with their troops in the 1000th Legion lately, making arrangements so that Gath could take more time off work and so the Legion of Heroes could work without their presence. Today in particular had been set aside so Gath could promote a few people to the rank of Captain.
Either way, Relkir had the place to themselves, but there wasn’t much to see. Relkir’s belongings had all been packed away, and a lot of Gath’s stuff had also been packed up, because they were planning to move to a new, larger property soon. One with three bedrooms, an office and a roof garden. And one of the reasons for the extra bedrooms had just knocked on the door, grunted and let themselves in.
“Litvir! How are you doing?” Relkir smiled. They were always happy to see their adopted kid, doubly so because the house had been too quiet.
Litvir grunted and didn’t really answer. That was unusual. Litvir almost always answered with at least a “hello”. Sensing that Litvir was unhappy, Relkir made their way over and helped Litvir take off the cloak and satchel they were carrying, before leading them over to the sofas.
“Do you want a drink or anything, dear?”
Litvir grunted some more, then sighed and apologised. “I am sorry, dada. I am angry and do not know how to express my anger right now.”
“That is fine!” Relkir continued to smile. They fetched some cold cans from the fridge as well as a packet of cookies, then sat down next to Litvir. “Do you want to talk? I assume that is why you are here.”
“Yeah… I want to talk…” Despite Litvir’s statement, they didn’t say much else. Relkir took a moment to inspect Litvir, and noticed they were wearing more arm armour than usual. Heavy metal greaves rather than their normal gold arm plates with the purple trim.
“Did… did something happen?”
Litvir didn’t answer, but they noticed that Relkir was inspecting them. They tried to move their left arm away, but Relkir grabbed Litvir’s hand and inspected them further.
“Someone hurt you.”
With a sigh, Litvir pulled their arm away, then took off their greaves. On their natural plating were some indentations. Bite marks.
“Someone nasty hurt you.”
Litvir looked up at Relkir and sighed some more. They decided to start talking, before Relkir got too angry. They knew Relkir wasn’t angry at them, but Relkir was prone to half- and quarter-stances caused by their worries about their adopted kid. Apparently an increased chance of going Defensive Stance was something both Relkir and Gath had, and because of that, Litvir was a little concerned that they would pass that trait down to their future biological kid. Litvir though didn’t have problems with going Defensive Stance. Mostly.
“The mean old Whenvern got angry at me and Nanik and lashed out. He bit my arm when I tried to protect Nanik. I bit him back and he went away. But I am angry because of a lot of things. It was supposed to be my job to protect Kairos for a bit and I bit him, but also I am angry because he tried to hurt Nanik and she is small and nice and does not deserve to be hurt. And I am also really angry because I got bit by the stupid dragon again! But I should not be angry! I am a Rethan, we are not supposed to be angry.”
Relkir looked down at Litvir’s arm, then gently held their hand. “I understand. Right now though, here, where you are safe with me, you are allowed to be angry.”
“But…” Litvir sniffed. “But… I… I am supposed to be a good kid…”
“You are a good kid. You did the right thing. You protected Nanik. Protecting Nanik is more important than protecting a stupid dragon. Kairos is a dragon. Big mean dragons like Kairos do not need protecting.”
“He does though. Because he is stupid. He wants to fix the stupid time anomaly trap thing that is literally a… a lure thing, a bait thing, so the evil white ball can feed on stupid Kairos’s stupid time powers or something… I do not really understand the white ball myself, but it is bad and Kairos going near it is bad, but also Kairos is also bad.”
“Well… I admittedly do not know Kairos personally, but he does seem… bad…” Relkir trailed off, then altered the subject. “Either way, please do not think you did anything wrong.”
“I was supposed to protect Kairos and I did not.”
Relkir patted Litvir on the hand, then pulled them into a hug. “Sometimes you simply cannot protect someone because they refuse to be protected. You did the right thing, protecting Nanik and retaliating against Kairos’s ill actions against her. And I am sure Nanik appreciates that you protected her over protecting Kairos. I am certain the rest of the Twelve Anew all appreciate you. Even Aesop.”
“Aesop does not hate me any more. He used to. I did not know why. But he thinks I am alright. He also said he did not want to fight me because he respected me, but I do not know why he would need to fight me?”
Relkir shrugged. “You know the fight that your thie Rethais did? Apparently Prime Minister Panos asked Aesop to fight in Panos’s place, and Aesop refused, because he knew that if he fought, Rethais might ask you to fight in Rethais’s place…” Relkir paused, then shrugged again. “In hindsight, that was a very silly situation.”
Litvir shrugged too. “It was silly, yes. Will thie Rethais have a wedding at some point? Since Thie Rethais used the dagger with the blood on it to do the propose thingy?”
“I… honestly do not know. I assume they will have one at some point. Gath and I getting married was difficult, it will be even harder for Rethais, especially since they and Lysar want to get married in secret.”
“I guess… I would like to go to thie Rethais’s wedding though. Would be nice. Maybe not until the bite marks go away though.”
That sentence caught Relkir off guard. “Do you think the bite marks are bad?”
“Yes. They are bad reminders. Nasty scars. Make me look ugly. Uglier.”
Relkir hugged Litvir again. “You are not ugly. Not in the slightest. You have pretty white plating, you have pretty purple eyes. You are nice and tall and you have bigger muscles now. And you have some cool scars. Few people can say that they were bit by the God of Time and fought back to correct an injustice. You are a good person, and you should not let bad people tell you otherwise.”
Litvir thought for a moment, then smiled, just a little. “You make good points, dada. You are right. I am a good person. Can we have ice cream or something now, please?”
“Of course, my darling. Whatever my little hero wants. You deserve it.”
“Yay.”