Felix was giving the both of them an odd look. It was the least of their worries.

"Why did you drop it?" Ark asked.

"I didn't drop it," Melmarc said, still panicking. "I just didn't take it."

"You should pick it."

"God, no. It's your phone."

Ark paused, scratched his jaw, looked left, then right. "Sir, can you do us a favor?" he asked Felix.

"No," Melmarc said before Felix could answer. "He's an innocent bystander. You will not risk his life."

Ark groaned as Felix's expression turned serious and worried.

"She won't eat him alive," he protested. "She'll know that he's innocent."

"I still say no."

"Why?"

"Because if she's one of those two million views, what do you think she's going to think when a stranger picks your call?" Melmarc asked him pointedly.

Ark paused to think about it. An idea popped in his head and Melmarc saw it in his eyes. He was more than certain that it was not a good idea.

"She'll think something horrible happened to us," Ark said, stopping him with a raised finger before Melmarc could reply. "Which will make her more appreciative and lenient when she finally talks to us."

Melmarc opened his mouth, closed it. It was actually a good idea. A smart idea.

No.

He shook his head. The phone continued vibrating on the ground.

"What now?" Ark groaned, while Melmarc wondered if he was stalling for time until the call ended.

"I will not let you give her a heart attack just so that you don't get one," Melmarc said. "It's your phone, pick your call."

Ark pressed his lips in a thin line that was almost a frown before conceding. In the end, he bent down and picked the phone up.

"Can I just—"

"No," Melmarc cut him off. "Pick the call."

With a grumble, Ark accepted the call. He placed it against his ear and assumed an innocent smile. "Hello, mother."

Felix's jaw dropped.

That's your mother? He mouthed.

Melmarc nodded apologetically. He returned his attention, ready to take some level of satisfaction in Ark's discomfort only to pause.

Ark stood with the phone held out to him. "She wants to talk to you."

Melmarc swallowed. He took the phone.

"Hey, mom," he greeted as cheerfully as he could muster.

Their mother spoke with concise words, devoid of emotion. Like a commanding officer. "Are you two alright?"

That scared Melmarc more. "Yes, we're fine."

"Injuries?"

"A few burn marks here and there, but nothing too serious."

"The bad guy. Is he dead?"

"No?" Melmarc paused. "Should he be?"

He heard their mother inhale deeply. She was calming herself. "I guess not."

It did not escape his attention that she had not said 'yes' or 'no.' I guess not did not necessarily answer the question in a way that would let him understand if it was dissonant. He would've asked for specificity if the metaphorical sword of Damocles wasn't hanging over his head.

"Alright," she said after a moment. "I'll get back to you. Give your brother back the phone."

Melmarc obeyed immediately.

Ark looked as if he had been betrayed as he took the phone. Felix remained as confused as he had been from the very beginning.

"Is everything alright?" he asked in a quiet voice. "I can talk to her and assure her that you're safe."

Melmarc shook his head. "It's fine."

His parents were ultimately loving, but there were times when his mother became a little too much. Such times were rare, but they existed. Mostly, it was when they did something that terrified her—something vastly unsafe.

Everyone would think that she was a kind and loving mother for asking if they were alright—she was, no doubt about that. What most people did not know was one of many reasons she was asking.

"What is…" Felix's words trailed off in growing confusion and surprise.

Melmarc followed his wide eyed gaze to find Ark kneeling down on the ground. He had his cellphone tucked between his face and one of his raised hands.

"Yes, mother," he said with some level of fatigue. "I'm fine. The bruises don't hurt. My knees can… yes, mother." He rolled his eyes. "Yes. A Marshal. He helped us unload our luggage." He paused as their mother said something on the other end of the call. "Thank you, Mr. Felix, for unloading our luggage."

Felix looked from him to Melmarc, a little confused. "If I answer loud enough will he get up?" he asked.

Melmarc shook his head. "I don't think so."

"Wait." Felix's eyes narrowed. "Why aren't you kneeling down?"

Melmarc shrugged. "Maybe because he's the oldest."

"She said it's because I jumped first," Ark supplied, still on the call. He leaned into the phone. "It was to keep him safe," he tried defending himself. "The [Pyromancer] was going to explode, and we couldn't stop him in time."

With a quiet sigh, he took the phone from his ear with one hand and held it out. He put it on loud speaker.

"Mel," their mother's voice came from the other end, devoid of emotion.

"Yes, mom?"

"I just want you to know that I'm proud of your brother for being willing to sacrifice his life to keep you and everyone on that plane alive. It shows courage and determination," she said. "It shows how much he values you."

"I don't value him that much," Ark muttered under his breath.

"And," their mother continued. "I'm also very proud of you for being willing to go after your brother with a plan in mind. It shows how much you value him, too. I could not possibly have asked for better sons and you two could not possibly have asked for better brothers."

"Thanks, mom," Melmarc said.

"Good." His mother sighed in relief. "Now kneel down and raise up your hands, too. I can still feel my heart bruising my ribcages with each heartbeat. Take permission from the Marshal so that you can remain in that position for three minutes before getting up. Your brother said it's safe and I believe him."

Melmarc looked at Felix who granted them the most confused and awkward permission Melmarc had ever seen. He couldn't blame the man. When your mother was once the Oath of War, there existed certain dynamics that a lot of people didn't get.

Melmarc knelt down and raised his hands.

"Do you have his permission?" their mother asked.

"Yes, mom," Melmarc answered.

"Good. Call me when you get to school and if you need anything, okay?"

"Okay," Melmarc and Ark replied in unison.

"Alright, take care of yourselves. Mommy loves you."

Ark rolled his eyes. "Love you, too."

"Love you, too," Melmarc muttered loud enough to be heard.

The line went dead.

Ark sighed. "This is your fault. The punishment would've been lighter if we had let the Marshal pick first."

He slipped his phone in his pocket and raised his arms back up. Spitfire started licking a burn mark on his arm.

"Alright," Felix said. "Let's get your things. I'll call the cab. He should be in front by the time we get there."

He paused, looked at them as they remained kneeling down.

"You're not getting up?"

"We're in time out," Ark explained. "We've still got two minutes left."

"Wait, you're going to kneel down for three minutes?" Felix asked, looking between them. "Is your mother Gifted? Will she know if you don't obey?"

"She won't know if we don't obey," Melmarc answered.

"And it wasn't a video call."

"It was not," Ark confirmed.

"But you're still obeying?"

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Ark shrugged.

"Time?" Melmarc asked.

"A minute thirty remaining," Ark answered.

"You're kids," Felix said suddenly, as if it explained something. "Teenagers. Aren't you guys a little too old to be kneeling down in public because your mom said so?"

"Not really," Ark answered. "Personally, I don't mind the punishments. God knows they are rarely ever enough for the crime."

Felix moved over to squat in front of them. "You kids nearly died. She should be happy."

"She's ecstatic," Melmarc confirmed.

"This," Felix gestured to them. "Doesn't feel ecstatic."

"Five," Ark said suddenly.

"Trust us, it's fine," Melmarc told Felix.

"Three," Ark said.

"Besides…"

"Two."

"It's kind of fun sometimes."

"One.

Ark sighed and got up. Melmarc did the same. Felix looked at them like they were mad somehow.

Melmarc paused. "Nin hasn't called."

"Nope." Ark shook his head in refusal, not confirmation. "You'll handle that one. No way am I talking to her."

Melmarc wanted to argue the case but did not. Ark was right, he had taken the call with their mother, it was only fair that he take the call with Ninra… when she called.

"I have a question to ask you two," Felix said very slowly. "And I want you to know that you can tell me anything, and I'll do everything in my power."

Both of them looked at him.

"We're listening," Ark said.

Felix took a preparatory breath and let it out. "Do your parents abuse you?"

"Nope," Ark said without missing a beat.

"Why would you…" Melmarc's words trailed off in realization. "Oh."

Felix looked determined. "Are you sure?"

Melmarc opened his mouth to speak, only to pause. A sharp sensation of pain lanced through him. It carried a touch of emotion, but it was mostly a phantom of physical pain. Painful memories.

There wasn't much but there was enough.

"We are fine," he told Felix very carefully. "We can't have better parents than the ones we have even if we try." He looked the man in the eye, held his gaze. "Our parents are perfect and would never do anything to harm us."

He nodded very slowly when he was done. Felix mirrored the action, nodding too.

"Okay," the Marshal said at last, retrieving his phone from his pocket. "I'll call him now. Let's get going."

Picking their luggage back up, Melmarc and Ark followed him out of the room. As they walked the path that led back to the entrance, Melmarc couldn't help thinking about their mother's punishments.

She had been the Oath of War earlier on in their childhood, however, since then, up until today, her punishments, whenever she really decided to punish them, carried no damage. Sometimes it carried pain, but never so much. His problem was in the fact that no matter how he looked at it, the punishments were never truly equal to the crime.

Does being family make it lenient? He wondered.

He shook his head after a little more thought. If he was going to punish Ark for something, he wouldn't be so lenient that Ark would get away without anything truly considered punishment… right?

But if that was the case then why did their mother continue to…

The bustling airport crowd of people trying to get to leave the airport or simply loitering about filled the entire place, littering the air with their noise. Melmarc's footsteps slowed as realization hit him.

It's not about the punishment.

It made perfect sense to him all of a sudden. It wasn't even about punishing them. She had just asked them to kneel down in front of a stranger for three minutes when they were miles away and she had no way of confirming if they were obeying her or not.

This was not the first time a punishment such as this was happening. Once upon a time, Ark's punishment had been to go to the birthday party of a six-year-old child he did not know and try to be a fun teenager. Ark had been sixteen at the time. He'd also obeyed.

Being the fun child, Ark had been subjected to far more punishments that Melmarc, not that Melmarc did not have his fair share. Still, he felt stupid that he was only discovering the entire purpose of everything now.

It was not about the punishment or being punishment. It was something else entirely.

It was about the willingness to be punished.

Only two types of people were willing to be punished: those who believed they had done wrong and deserved to be punished and those possessing of blind of obedience to a chosen higher authority.

It, to some degree, resonated with his sense of War in a fascinating way. Their continued willingness to be punished was a continued re-acknowledgement of their mother's hierarchy above them and their continued love for her.

Melmarc stopped walking.

"That's…" he blinked then smiled. "Amazing."

Ark stopped, turned back and looked at him. "What's amazing?"

"I just found out why—"

Melmarc felt something from the crowd. Someone was approaching, and they were coming fast. Whoever it was, the person was running.

He turned right.

A lady slammed into him, wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug. Melmarc paused, hands held up as he had stopped himself from punching her in the skull before she'd hugged him. He really needed to work on his growing reflexes. Once upon a time, his reaction to a surprise approach or attack would've been to dodge, now it was to strike first.

He waited patiently, hands held over the woman. He waited awkwardly as she cried into his chest.

"I'm so sorry," she muttered between sniffs. "I'm so very sorry."

Melmarc looked at Ark who shrugged. Apparently, he wasn't sure what was happening either.

The woman's sniffs turned into audible cries once more and her grip squeezed, bundling up sections of Melmarc's shirt.

Felix turned around, realizing the scene and moved over to Melmarc.

Melmarc caught a glimpse from the crowd. In some corner behind the woman, a man stood quietly with his toddlers, the oldest not more than ten.

"Wait," he said before Felix could get to her.

It was the woman that had been sitting next to the [Pyromancer]. The woman with the children that had played with him and Ark before they'd boarded.

He smiled warmly, eyes trying to tear up of their own accord. He placed a gentle hand on the woman's shoulders and very gently pried her away from him. In the distance, the man's eyes were a little red.

His kids were waving. The only thing keeping them in place was the fact that he had the smallest trapped between his legs somehow while holding the other two by the hand.

Melmarc finally managed to extricate the woman from him and looked down at her.

She was still sobbing. She shook her head. "I'm so sorry. I should've known. I shouldn't have put you kids in such a terrible situation. I should've done something."

Melmarc shook his head with a warm, reassuring smile. "You couldn't have known," he told her, hands still on her shoulders because he didn't know what to do with them. "Nobody could've known. You did the right thing. You protected yourself and your children."

"An adult's job," she sniffed, "is to protect all children."

"A parent's job," Melmarc countered, "is to protect theirs first."

Snot rolled down her nose and her hand twitched to clean it. She did not. She was too busy twitching from her sobs.

"I just… I couldn't…" She started bawling again. Crying as she was, she turned and hugged Ark.

Ark wasn't as confused as Melmarc. He returned her hug, held her in a warm embrace as he patted her back gently.

"It's alright, ma'am," he said, smiling as if life was just perfect. "I'm alright. My brother's alright. Our mom knows we're alright. And your kids are just fine."

He continued to mutter soothing words as he rubbed her back. Her cries reduced to sobbing twitches which reduced to quiet moans. Only then did the man and his children approach them.

"Your mom was right," she said into his chest as they stood right next to Melmarc. "Your brother is really good at keeping people alive."

Ark chuckled. "I wouldn't be alive if he wasn't."

When the man approached, the children were quick to rush Melmarc and Ark. Playful as ever, they began tugging on their arms or pulling on the fabric of their pants.

The man held his hand out to Melmarc for a handshake. "I'm Mr. Aldwit. Her husband."

Melmarc shook his hand. "Melmarc."

The man turned but Ark only gave him a wave as the woman released him. "Ark," he said.

Felix stood quietly in their midst, saying nothing.

"I just wanted to thank you for saving my family," the man continued. "I don't know what I would've done if anything had happened to them."

His eyes were red, a sign that he had either cried or almost cried at some point.

"Oh, he was the one doing the saving," Ark said, pointing at Melmarc. "I was just backing his play."

The man chuckled a little. "Okay, Ark. But just know that you have our eternal gratitude. We can never repay you for what you've done for us."

Melmarc and Ark nodded.

"Well," Ark said, drawing out the word. "If we were ever in a—Ow!"

Melmarc smacked his shoulder. He turned back to the man while Ark rubbed his shoulder. "Thank you for your gratitude."

"I know a doctor who can," the man began looking at Ark's face, only to stop when Felix shook his head.

"He already got it covered," Ark said, pointing at Felix. "Bills paid and everything. The whole VIP treatment."

"Cool pet," one of the children said.

Ark turned his attention to the boy seamlessly. He squatted down to their height, still about a head taller, though. "Wanna pet it?"

The boy hesitated, looking up at his father while Spitfire looked at him in curiosity from on top of Ark's head.

Melmarc still felt they should've left Spitfire in its carrier. But he wasn't going to argue the case. It was Tatelat. He was sure that people were used to seeing creatures around.

As long as they don't know it's a demon.

Felix looked down at his phone, then perked up as Spitfire placed a curious hand on the head of one of the children, making the boy giggle.

"The car's outside," he announced. "We should start going."

He turned to go and they followed him. The family walked with them, the man holding onto his wife with an arm over her shoulder in comfort as they walked.

When they got to the door, Melmarc felt something odd. It was like a tickle. He wasn't sure what it was, couldn't put a finger on it.

The security greeted Felix, the same ones that had stopped him and Ark. This time, however, they were looking at them with a different light in their eyes.

Appreciation? Pride?

Melmarc wasn't sure what it was. Then they stepped outside and the tickle became a full on wave. A mental earthquake as the world outside erupted in a chorus of cheers and flashing lights.

Gratitude roared at him from a crowd of far too many people. Lights flashed from cameras. Ark was standing in front of Melmarc in the blink of an eye, hands raised high in a sign of peace as he completely blocked Melmarc out from the crowd.

Melmarc staggered back.

Felix pulled Ark back. Ark did not resist. He staggered away from the crowd and into the building laughing like someone having too much fun.

"You let the paparazzi in!" Felix barked at the security.

"No press," the man said hurriedly. "Just the passengers and their families."

Melmarc looked at the group outside. With glass walls, he could make them out as he struggled with the wave of gratitude, controlling the urge to hug Felix and thank him for being a Marshal that looked after the planes or the urge to grab Ark and tell him how much he loved him and how he couldn't wish for a better brother than him.

All the flashing lights had not been bright at all. Looking at the crowd, he could only see cell phones, no actual cameras.

"How did they know they were even here?" Felix asked as he turned away. "We should use the back door."

"The airline announced it over the intercoms," the father of the children answered.

Melmarc found himself more concerned about if, Spitfire had ended up in the pictures. He looked to the top of Ark's head only to find Spitfire securely fastened to his back, holding on to his shirt.

Smart creature.

The last thing they needed right now was [Dragon Knight] seeing a picture of Spitfire and figuring out that it was a guardian. Or one of the Oaths seeing it and figuring out that it was a demon.

"Damn it," Felix swore under his breath. "I've texted the driver, he'll meet us out back."

Ark looked at Melmarc.

"You good?" he asked.

Melmarc shrugged as they followed Felix. "Yeah, why?"

"You've got this really funny smile on your face," Ark said, gesturing at his own face with a frown. "Like a dog that's happy it's owner just got home."

Melmarc waved it aside with a shake of his head, unable to even say the 'screw you' that he wanted to say because he was too grateful for his brother.

"Too much gratitude," he muttered, gesturing outside. "It's almost overwhelming."

They were a good distance away, slipping deeper into the building, when the effect from the wave of gratitude finally dissipated.

"I just got confirmation," Felix said, pushing open a door with a sign saying that only staff members were allowed. "The back is clear."

The entire process after that was quick. They went through a meandering hallway and popped out of a back door, the family still with them. Then they came to a stop in front of a sleek black car that looked nothing like a taxi of any kind. In fact, it looked like it belonged in the vehicle line of a high-end convoy protecting someone as important as a president.

"That's the taxi?" the mother asked, looking at Felix.

Felix opened the door to the back. "It's taxi enough," he said. To the driver, a man probably in his late twenties, he said, "Get them to wherever their destination is. Pop the trunk."

Ark and Melmarc put their luggage in the trunk of the car before returning to enter the car. The mother stopped them, giving each of them quick but firm hugs. The children did the same, most likely just emulating their mother.

As for the father, he held out a card to them. "This is my—"

"Can we have your numbers… please?" his wife pleaded, interrupting him. "If it's not too much to ask. I promise we're not the kind of family that will be disturbing you with calls. It's just that… I… I can't explain it."

Melmarc could. It was her gratitude. He could only imagine what the Oath of Gratitude went through everyday if one existed. The thought of the most grateful person in the world was a little funny. How was it even going to work?

How was a powerful Gifted going to also be the most grateful person in the world.

Melmarc gave her his number without hesitation, then shoved Ark into the car. The last thing they needed was a crowd of grateful people cornering them.

"Where to?" the driver asked, as the others stood waiting outside.

"Fallen High," Melmarc said without missing a beat.

With a nod and a shift of the gear stick, the man pushed the car into drive. He didn't speed off as if in a hurry, instead, the car rolled into motion, picking up speed, like any car would when being driven by a normal human being.

"Mel," Ark said with a smile as they drove off.

Melmarc looked at him. "Yes?"

"Gues what?" Ark was smiling.

"Road to Fallen High?"

Ark shook his head, still smiling. "That's good, but not that."

"Then what?"

Ark had the widest eat-shitting grin Melmarc had ever seen when he answered.

"I think I'm going to be famous."

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