Chapter 86: Family Affairs, III

It was already dark out and of course Loki wasn't home yet. His curfew was 7pm, he still had an hour to get home. But knowing him, his parents expected he'd be late. They didn't know what to do with him anymore.

Alora clung to her father like she was afraid he'd disappear like Kiro did. She waited for him, for a week before she gave up.

Sekani greeted his wife and put away everything he bought, she started on cooking and he helped her chop up some vegetables.

"Guess who I ran into?"

"Oh, no wonder you smell of beer." She teased.

"I had one darlin, Philip isn't doing so good though."

"That poor child, he's still alive?" She was cleaning the fish.

"Homeless." He attempted to take a bite of the carrot.

"Why didn't you invite him here then?" She paused what she was doing, looking a bit furious.

"Freya, will you ever stop being impulsive? We are both out of jobs, we have kids, one is keeping us afloat." He sighed thinking about that bit, it was embarrassing, "though I did give him 50 creds."

She laughed, pleased. She knew Philip, not all that well. They worked for one company after all at one point, but since he was under Sekani, they weren't all that close. She lead her own unit, had no time to get to know other people who weren't part of hers.

But she was aware of the relationship between the two. So by extension, she cared for Philip.

"You know honey, I was thinking, why don't you finish the Kiro Project?"

Sekani made a thinking face. It took a while for him to remember what it was exactly. He remembered that when Kiro was born he started a project, he'd hoped would turn into a company that would feed his family.

Unfortunately, he asked the wrong man to invest on his hard work. As he stole it and made it his own, and because he was rich and high up, nothing was really done.

Sekani knew going to court wouldn't do anything, so he accepted the job offer they gave him with his wife. Though it wasn't much it was enough to save up for Kiro and send him to school. Obviously they hadn't known they'd have more than 1 kid then.

The door to the house opened wide, Loki came in. He was a whole 30 minutes early, this shocked Freya.

"Sweetheart, come help me cook."

"Yes Ma'am." He suddenly became the most obedient boy in the world.

His mother wasn't scary, but in the kitchen, so help you gods. She became a demon, that felt like it could whip you at the slightest mistake.

He rarely washed his hands without being hassled, but he did it this time. The teachings were ingrained at the top of his head. He put on an apron and started helping.

"Why are you back early anyway, fought with your friends?"

"You're always on my as—" He realised his mistake immediately, the look his mother gave him didn't help either, he quickly amended, "my case, case, about this, shouldn't you be happy?"

"Don't be such a smart mouth, I heard that you know."

He attempted to smile sheepishly, giving her an apologetic look.

"In any case, I don't want you to be like your brother, he didn't have any friends. The time for you to start school is nearing too."

Loki rolled his eyes, as if to say 'don't remind me.' Of course he did so when his mother wasn't looking.

"Are you having a competition with me, letting your hair be that long? When are you going to let me cut it."

"I'll have it cut when you guys can afford to send me to a barber." He said with the biggest smirk.

Freya shook her head. His sons always thought they were so smart, but with the money Kiro will be sending them, they could squeeze Loki in for a haircut no problem.

The depressive mood around their home the past couple of days was undeniable. They hadn't noticed much, but Loki would come back early because of this.

Today, he saw the smiles and hopeful conversations from his parents he thought were gone. He breathed heavily, his heart came out light as a feather. He was happy.