Rhenakos found himself in Sularia on errands, one of the few places he hated most due to the heat of the desert. It was all complaints due to this, and Osiria was about ready to punch the demon hunter out without a second thought. Despite this, though, she was surprisingly calm. What was even more shocking was that she was pregnant again, and not flying off the handle. With Izzy, she was emotional and volatile, but this second one seemed to be smooth going so far. If anything, it was almost the complete opposite to the first.

Izzy, the little hellion, was climbing all across Rhenakos as they walked the streets towards where they would find Angela. It had been a hellish time trying to contain Izori, and they were at their wit's end. Perhaps the combination of both Rhenakos and Osiria had been too much to hope for, and it seemed as though she had started to develop the absolute worst traits of both of them even at this young an age. Worried, they wondered if perhaps Angela had any ideas to help correct the path she was going down. Maybe a tutor, or something else.

It was about this time, though, through the streets that the red haired man found himself bumping into a teenager with almost matching hair. The boy excused himself, and moved on. At once, though, Rhenakos knew what had happened. “Os..hold Izzy.” He turned around, and pointed.

“What a lousy attempt at a pickpocket boy…” Rhenakos called out. The boy started to run, and the hunter rolled his eyes. It took him little time to catch the boy, and throw him down in the middle of the street. A small crowd formed around them.

“Well, then,” Rhenakos said as he knelt down. “You gonna give me my silver back?”

The boy’s dark amber eyes looked up to Rhenakos. “Oh I’m terribly sorry sir. I’ve done so wrong, and I see now the error of my ways.”

The hunter glared. “All right then…” The hunter grabbed the back of the boy’s shirt and hefted him up. “What’s your name then?” His grip tightened as the boy struggled.

“The name’s ‘I knocked your mother last night’,” the boy growled. Now that he was easier to look at, Rhenakos noted that he was scrawny, if half starved. Still, he was taller than most his age, which the hunter guessed was around fifteen or so. He had fairer features, but would definitely grow up to be more on the rugged side. His hair was a tangled mess of crimson red, and if properly taken care of, would have been smooth as silk.

“Let’s get going then…I’m sure the guards will just love you…”

Rhenakos was doing nothing but bitching. The heat Os, the heat. What about the heat for her? God forbid he remembered she was pregnant with their second child but no the demon hunter was on a bitch fest. Os didn’t say a word though as she watched their little one use Rhenakos as a jungle gym. She had been getting worse the older she was getting.

The red hair made her stop almost instantly. Rhenakos’s hair was certainly different from most so when she saw the same wild hair it caused her to startle. Never mind when it turned out the kid had stolen from them. She took Izzy without complaint and even her hellion was watching with interest.

Izori looked up at her mother and Osiria looked down at her daughter. “Rhen,” Os marched up to him.

“DA,” Izori yelled at him.

Both of the Raize women had a hand on a hip, most notably a trait from Osiria. Taking Izzy she held her out and put her next to the kid. “You got some major explaining to do Rhenakos and this isn’t my pregnancy talking. Let’s go see Grandma to clear this up.”

“YEAH,” Izori yelled at her father while landing a kick to her head.

“Hey, no kick Izzy. Just throw the kid over your shoulder. Grandma should be in her clinic.”

Rex had made a critical error in his latest string of survival tasks. For the longest time, he had held a decent job in Sularia as a runner, but lately it was getting harder to keep coin in his pocket, and after a rather unfortunate accident with a cabbage stand, he owed more coin that he could make. So, he had resorted to less savory means of accruing silver. It had been some time since he had messed up, but all it takes some time in a single, tiny slip up to ruin the rest of your life. And, of course, this was one of those slip ups.

The man he had targeted looked like an idiot. A familiar idiot, but an idiot none-the less. But the idiot was smart, and his wife and daughter seemed almost amused at the situation until the woman mentioned something. A look of shock.

“To Ang?” the man said as he hefted a struggling Rex over his shoulder. “I don’t understand…what do you mean explaining?”

Rex had to agree, but he was too busy being manhandled to really voice it. “Let me go!” he struggled against his captor.

“Calm down,” the man said. “You don’t really have a choice here, so just be grateful you weren’t killed.”

Finally, Rex gave up, and soon he found himself being forced into a clinic. The waiting room was nice enough, but there were definitely shady people about…

Lewis was the farthest thing from happy. Angela had been taking her sweet time giving Simone her check up. Per the Goddess, Simone was a brand new entity that had no prior records. There was nothing to go off of, so every detail needed to be recorded. That was why Lewis had to wait while Simone was stark naked on the operating table as the goddess examined every single part of Simone.

Every. Single. Part.

Simone wasn’t too happy about being poked and prodded either, but at least she knew that it was for her health, and not for something less than altruistic. At least Lewis had something to bide his time with; a form that Lady Angela had made in order to do a minor check up on Lewis’ health in the same breath.

“Name…” Lewis gave Angela a look, but scribbled it down anyway. “Age. Height. Weight.” More scribbles. “Smoking? No. Drugs? No. Potions? Occasionally. Sexually active…” He gave Angela another look. “This form is stupid…you know the asnwers to half of this.”

Still, he filled it out to the best of his ability, and tried to ignore the more abrasive and useless questions. “Are you pregn-….really?” The assassin sighed.

The door slammed open, and immediately Lewis drew a dagger, and readied himself. First came a young boy, tossed into the room haphazardly, followed by Rhenakos. “All right, here we are then.” He took one look at Simone, and then to Lewis. “Oh…well…I mean…” He sighed. “Well, at least it’s not the first time I’v-”

Rex jumped up, “THERE’S A NAKED WOMAN IN HERE. CAN I JUST GO NOW!?”

Lewis took one look at Rex, and then looked to Rhenakos. “Is there any reason you have a mini you in here?”

Rhenakos and Rex both looked at each other, and then to Lewis. “What the fuck do you mean?” they said almost simultaneously.

“It’s like one of those fucked up mirrors from the carnival…” Lewis said, shaking his head. “Os? You have an explanation?”

Simone knew this was payback for the whole make Dala ageless thing. She knew it was coming and Angela was taking her sweet time. Still, she didn’t complain as she looked up at the goddess. There was a displeased look on her. “You only have yourself to blame for this,” Angela hummed as she went along.

Simone fussed up at her lightly before the door broke open. It was fucking Rhenakos. Simone covered herself with her hands and shot up. “FUCK REALLY RHENAKOS?!” Simone yelled. Angela sighed a bit and looked at her dumb as shit grandson-in-law.

“It’s called… knocking.” Angela looked at Rex and then to Rhenakos, “Oh god, it reproduced. Again.”

Osiria put her hand on her hip, “So I was right. I wasn’t the only one who thought it. IS HE RHEN’S SON? GRANDMA TELL ME!”

“Are you going to kill Rhenakos if I say yes?”

“I think you should say yes regardless,” Simone huffed as she flew off the table and behind a changing screen. “Lewis, can you come help me with this corset, please? I was going to have Angela do it… but I think she’s busy now.”

Angela approached Rex and poked him a bit, “Well he’s real… He’s also a Rosenite… Rhenakos… You have a thing for fucking my kind?” The goddess poked at Rhenakos now. “He’s definitely your son.”

Osiria gave the baby to Rex who was on the floor before she took a table and whipped it at Rhenakos. “YOU SON OF A BITCH,” the pregnant screamed as she assaulted Rhenakos.

Angela sighed a bit and helped Rex up, “Os, he had to have gotten someone pregnant before even meeting you.”

“Oh,” Osiria stopped herself mid-swing with the medical table now. “Sorry…”

“It’s the baby… It does things to her.” Angela patted Rex on the hand. “Are you feeling better? You don’t want to have a miscarriage. We wouldn’t want that now would we Rhenakos? Since you seem to enjoy being punished.”

Rex was confused. This grown ass idiot was his father? How was that supposed to be true. But now that multiple people had pointed it out, the resemblance was starting to show itself. It was strange, though, that the lady, Os, handed him a baby of all things, and started to go to town on her husband. Rex was confused, though, at exactly why.

“GODDESS THANK YOU!” Rhenakos exclaimed as Angela finally got Osiria to stop. “This must have been the last time I was in Sularia…maybe…ten or so years ago? There was a demon…I think a dog of some kind if I remember….” He stopped.

“Go on,” Lewis said from behind the changing screen. “You’ve already started, and the boy deserves at least some answers.” The assassin was starting to get good at caring about the kids that came across his path.

Rex rolled his eyes. “The boy has a name. It’s Rex.”

Rhenakos sighed. “Fine. The dog got me good, but I managed to kill it. Back then, I wasn’t exactly great at my job, so I asked for a healer. What I got was…well, a little more than a healer. I was inexperienced and had no idea what was going on, so I went with it, thinking it was part of some crazy healing ritual or whatever. Turns out, she was just a really talented escort.” He shrugged. “I lucked out somehow. To be honest, I don’t remember too much…blood loss and all.”

Lewis stepped out from the changing screen and crossed his arms. “Well…he’s here now.”

Rex stood up. “And he’s also leaving. Last thing I want to do is get mixed up with all of you crazies and-” He looked over to the Goddess. “She’s not exactly known for happy endings either…so if it’s all the same, I’m gonna-”

“We can take you,” Rhenakos said. He looked to Osiria. “I mean…if you’re pickpocketing, I…want to at least be able to take care of you. What about your mother? Is she…?”

The young boy looked away. “I…never knew her. She died in childbirth, and the rest of the brothel saw me as nothing more than a burden. So I ran.” He stopped. “But I’d rather the streets than with an idiot like you.”

Izzy started to giggle in Rex’s arms. “Idii.” She pointed at Rhenakos.

Lewis sighed, “We have a place you can stay, Rex. It’s not with him, and it’s safe.”

Rex looked at the assassin, “You’re not much better. You’re friends with the goddess here…”

The assassin smirked. “One…I have stories on how idiotic your father is…” He held up his hand. “And two…” Almost on cue, Rex’s stomach growled audibly. “You can always come back if you don’t like it. I won’t force it…but at least come get a meal and cheek the place out. There’s other kids there too…some of them your age.”

The boy looked as though he were thinking hard about it. He was close to an answer, though.

Simone had that looked on her face from behind the screen that only Lewis could see. It was that, I let this man touch me and now I want to bathe in fire – Look at that she had on occasion.

Angela waved her hands at Rex, “Not true. I bring happy endings to most to deserve it. It’s only those that don’t who get it revoked. Lewis and Simone are happy aren’t you?”

“I don’t know… You poked and prodded me for two hours… and made Lewis fill out this form… I still don’t know what it is.” Simone came out dressed and filled through it. “Are we sexually active? Really Lady Angela? YOU KNOW. ARE YOU PREGNANT?! SERIOUSLY?! YOU KNOW I CAN’T GET PREGNANT!”

Angela smirked a bit, “But can Lewis?”

“YOU KNOW!” Simone was bright red and face palmed. “You are just fucking with us.”

“It’s payback for blackmailing me Simone,” Angela smiled and picked up Izzy from Rex and kissed her. “Can you say… Great Grandma Ang?” Angela babied the girl.

Almost on cue, a portal opened up, and an adorable girl came running in, “Papa! Mama! Mira flooded the second story bathroom again! Fiori wanted a lifelike experience for a bath and we left Mira in charge! It was only for a few seconds so we could go get her some toys for it. Lucas is trying to contain it.” Her long white hair was bouncing and she had the comb in her hair that Lucas had gotten her.

Simone looked a bit in shock, “Thank you Ezili. I’m going to go get a handle on the Mira situation. I should be able to dry up the second bathroom by bathing it in my heat.” She sounded exhausted just saying it. “I thought we said no more water in her…”

“In her bedroom! Yes! I asked that too!” Ezili was bouncing on her toes in that cute way she did. “She said you didn’t say anything about the bathroom.”

It was all a bit much for Rex, and he immediately used the chaos to slip out of the room. Finding himself back on the streets of Sularia, he took a deep breath and counted himself lucky that he managed to get out of the whole ordeal relatively unscathed. For what it was worth, the silver haired man’s offer was tempting, but the fact was that everyone in that room was crazy and he’d be better off alone.

“You made a mistake,” Lewis said from behind Rex. “Should have run farther.” The boy jumped, startled by the sudden appearance of the assassin. “My name is Lewis, and my wife in there…well, she’s back at the castle now…anyway, her name is Simone. We adopt children in need, and provide them a safe place to grow up and thrive.”

Rex spun around, and shook his head. “Not a chance. I just want to go back to my job and pretend none of this happened.”

The assassin sighed, “Well, if you’re job is as a thief, I can tell you…it’s not an easy one.” The man crossed his arms. “You know, I grew up as a thief in Hoja Mesto. I grew up alongside a bunch of kids my age too…all of us thieving together.”

“What…?” Rex seemed surprised.

“Problem is…that lifestyle catches up real quick if you’re not careful.” Lewis smirked. “Tell you what…let’s make a gamble.”

“A gamble…” Rex looked Lewis in the eyes. “Okay then. What’s the gamble.”

“You steal this coin from me,” Lewis said as he flipped a silver. “And I’ve leave you be.” The assassin smirked. “Oh…did I mention that I’m an assassin for hire? I moved up from theft…so it won’t be easy. But if you take this coin…then you’re definitely skilled enough.”


Rex eyed the coin as Lewis pocketed it. “Okay…all I have to do then is steal the coin…” he cracked his knuckles. But wait. If I miss…will he kill me? He said assassin… The boy gulped. “Right…one shot then….”

—-

Rex stepped into the main foyer, and was immediately met with an intense heat, and the squelching of the carpet. “…not making the best first impression.”

As Lewis stepped through, he smirked. “Mira is a bit…eccentric, to say the least. But I promise it’s not usually this crazy. Here, we can take you to your roo-”

From the top of the stairs, Lucas came bounding down with a panicked look on his face. “Lewis! I’msosorrypleasedon’tkillmeMiradiditIleftforjustafewseconds!” he blabbered out. “Oh…hi,” he said as he noticed Rex. “Lucas. Sorry about the water. It’ll be gone in a few hours.”

Lewis sighed. “It’s fine, Lucas. Just…can you help the butler and find a room for Rex? I’ll go check on Simone…”

Simone had her hands on her hips, “All this water…” Mira had tied a cape to her and acted like she didn’t know anything. “Ezili can you help?” Now that they had Ezili it might not be as bad to contain.

“MIRAAAA,” Simone yelled as she saw Mira running down the stairs past Lucas with an armful of turtles. “LEWIS SNATCH HER!” Simone came around the corner. “I know she has more hidden!”

Ezili sat on the railing of the large staircase and slid down. She looked like an elegant little princess as she danced across the carpet and the water came up. She managed to put it into buckets that the house help had. “That’s a lot of work!” She bounced over to Lucas, “Did I do good? Are they going to catch Mira? I think I saw her hiding animals under her bed? Something about giving Fiori the real experience of the sea.”

Fiori was in bed now exhausted thanks to the commotion. Ezili’s opal eyes went to Rex’s and she held a smile though it wasn’t nearly as cute as the one she gave Lucas. “Are you new?! I’m Ezili!”

Simone was huffing as she came back into the house with a box. “Come on Mira… You can’t keep them. They will die if we keep them. They belong in saltwater Mira. This is freshwater…” The little girl had come back in with her big blue crystal ball and was following reluctantly with her mother.

“FRIENDS NO DIE,” Mira yelled as she bounded up the stairs and Simone looked exhausted as she followed.

Ezili watched and nodded, “Most of us have rooms on the other side of the house just in case Mira floods it. She really likes water.”

Rex was in some form of shock over the whole ordeal he walked in on, and was immediately regretting his choice to come along. Still, a bet was a bet. The boy sighed, and as Lewis managed to wrestle with Mira, one of the prettiest girls Rex had ever seen slid down the bannister and introduced herself.

Rex, being a bit younger than her, blushed. “My, you’re…quite pret-” He was interrupted by Mira as she bounded up the stairs, exclaiming something about her friends not dying, and immediately Ezili lost interest in Rex and turned back to Lucas, who was busy admiring the quick cleanup that Ezili had done.

“Great job!” Lucas said with a smile. “Buuut,” he reached into her hair and pulled out the comb, handing it to her. “Try not to leave this in your hair. It could hurt you if it catches on something. The girl simply glowed at the attention that she was receiving, and made an effort to try and squeeze a little bit more out of Lucas.

Even to Rex, it was obvious her adoration for the other boy, and he sighed. Oh well. Not a big loss. He smiled. They seemed to mesh really well, and he’d hate to come between that. He thought back to the baby, Izzy, and frowned. “Hey, Lewis…why can’t we take Izzy?”

The assassin had stopped chasing Mira a while ago, and thought for a moment. “Honestly, because Rhenakos may be a complete fuck up, but he’s actually not that bad of a parent. Neither is Osiria. Both of them are just…really rough around the edges. Izori showed them that, and they’ve been trying to work on it. The girl seems like she has the worst of their traits, and they’re realizing just how bad that is. And, if you haven’t noticed…they’ve also acknowledged they need help, and are seeking it.”

Rex crossed his arms. “As shitty as it seems-”

“Language.”

The boy glared. “As shitty as it seems…I feel for her. I mean, I met her just today but…she’s blood. And I feel like if I don’t do something to help her that…”

“You’re letting her down? That’s pretty noble coming from someone who has nothing to give,” Lewis replied. “Take care of yourself for now. There’s plenty of opportunities to visit her and do what you can. For now, just settle in here.”

There was a loud crash above, and Lewis winced. “…Lucas or Ezili can help you with a room…I need to go take care of this…” He stormed up the stairs, muttering something about a whale, and disappeared down the hall.

“….what…have I gotten myself in to.”