When Xeik stopped and yelled, it derailed Angela’s entire thought process. Which was terrible for everyone involved. Lazily the goddess looked back to see what had upset her Divine Mender so much that he actually cussed for once. The shocked look on his face made Angela walk backward and tilt her body so she could also see inside the window.

“Speaking of unique… avian migratory paths…. Of the Onnen variety…” Angela looked rather amused. She knocked on the window and Simone got up only to shut the curtains. There was a look on her face as she did it.

“Oh my… Xeik I don’t think they took kindly to you getting them banned from every orphanage across Revaliir,” the goddess put her hand to her lips and she opened the door.

“Out,” Simone came around the corner and spoke quietly to them. Simone was sporting blonde hair and pretty hazel eyes. “You both can’t be here.”

“Are you stealing these find folk’s children?” Angela said in a hushed tone.

“No,” Simone snapped lightly. “We’re babysitting. Incognito for our friends from the fallen academy since our faces are still well known to people who went there.”

Angela crossed her arms. “You are scouting again aren’t you?”

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” Simone crossed her arms.

“Hey, Auntie?” Simone turned to one of the children and smiled.

“Yes, dear?” Simone got on his level. “Can we have snacks? And who are they?” This young child was going to get them into so much trouble.

“I can make the snacks,” Angela invited herself in and hung up her shawl. “Show me the kitchen please.”

“LADY ANGELA!” Simone was trying so hard to contain herself. “You can’t just invite yourself in.”

“Think of me as another Auntie. Do you like raspberries?” The children squealed at the goddess as they showed her the kitchen.

“XEIK,” Simone yelled at him. “Get her under control” By now… Lewis had made his way over to see what the two uninvited guests were doing. “Why are you even in Iria?!”

Watching Angela take the lead was great for Xeik. He knew that if anything could counter Lewis and Simone’s absolute insanity, it would be Angela’s own ability to take command of everything. He made a huffing noise as he walked in after Angela, shutting the door behind them,

“Why would I want to even make an attempt to control my Goddess?” he asked, giving her a stone cold look. “This is absolutely insane, even for you two.” He was obviously angry.

Lewis walked in from the living room, leaning against the doorway as Lady Angela lead the kids down the hall to the kitchen. The ex-assassin started to twirl the mustache nonchalantly, rolling his eyes at Xeik. “You’re overreacting. This is nothing. Like Simone said, we’re just babysitting.”

“That thing on your face is absolutely stupid,” Xeik shot back with a look of pure spite. “And I don’t trust either of you. Where are their parents!?”

Lewis held up his hands, “Conference meeting. Some stupid thing about birds…hell if I know what it’s about.”

Xeik blinked. “You mean the one that we just came from?” The Divine Mender crossed his arms. “And who were their parents? Maybe I saw them.”

“Uhh…” Lewis stared at Xeik for a moment. “Honey…who were their parents again?”

Simone came out of the kitchen with a tray of snacks. The look on her face was priceless. “Lady Eloise Thurenberg and her husband Robert. They are part of the trade group that Terra’s family belongs to. Unfortunately, Terra and Sophia are unavailable to do it since they have finals for their new academy this week. They asked us as a favor and well… Lewis and I have nothing better to do with our time right now.”

“…What’s the catch?” Angela was holding another tray with juice and cups. The children had gone back into the living room to raise all holy hell with each other. Simone calmed them down as she started to pass out the snacks.

“…There’s a book at the academy on night phoenixes that Terra is going to get us. We figured it would be good for us to have now that there are six of us. Knowing more things about us would be a good thing.” Simone had been hesitant on answering but Angela didn’t sense a lie.

“…She’s telling the truth.” Angela sighed.

“Their parents are Ornithologists part-time. Though Eloise fancies rocks and crystals more so birds are just a hobby in comparison.”

“Ah! Xeik, the husband was the one who led the third discussion,” she recognized the names now. “We still don’t trust you.”

“Please, if we had any nefarious plans you would have been able to figure it out by now.” Simone was fixing a doll with a needle and thread before handing it off to one of the smaller girls who squealed and gave her a kiss. “We don’t really consider this work anyways. We love kids. We’ve gotten a lot better with other people’s kids too. Haven’t we dear?”

Xeik sat down at the couch and crossed his arms. So far, everything seemed above board with the two night phoenixes. Of course, he agreed with Angela on the trust issues that Lewis and Simone presented. There may not have been an ulterior motive this time, but that book…

The ex-assassin looked over when Simone mentioned being better with other people’s kids, and he shrugged. “I guess…” He walked over to a wall where a dagger was implanted in it, a small fly pinned to the wall. “Better…yeah.” Of course, he did his best to hide this from Xeik and Angela. Whether or not he was successful…

“What’s the book on?” Xeik asked, ignoring the dagger. “And where did it come from?”

Lewis shrugged, “Crazy bird researchers found it. My best guess? One of the hidden clans lost in when they went into hiding. As to what’s in it…” He paused. “Well, there’s a lot we don’t know. Anything helps, really…”

“Uh huh…” Xeik seemed unimpressed with the answer, but Lewis wasn’t really the book smart of the two of then. “I knew I should have asked Simone first…”

Oh My God He’s Beautiful

“All I need you to do is transform into your bird forms so we can study the differences between male and female Night Phoenixes. Male birds are typically more colorful with longer feathers. I wish to see these differences in person since Lewis RARELY transforms.”

Simone was looking at the goddess with skeptical eyes as she crossed her arms in the courtyard of the Terrowin mansion. “And… You are just watching us?”

“Just watching you,” Angela held up her hands.

“No tail-feather plucking?”

“Absolutely not this time,” Angela pledged, “That’s next week.”

“I fucking hate tail-feather plucking…” Simone groaned as she looked at her husband. “Well? It’s a simple request this time…”

Angela clapped her hands together and two bird perches were brought in. They were made of gold with golden flower vines around the base of them. “Perch on these…”

“These are… very… You.” Simone was looking them over and making a face at Lewis. “It’s like when we first got the mansion and we burned everything.”

“Hush… You like dark and gloomy and I like gold. Transform. Let me see.”

Simone got confirmation from Lewis and transformed flying up onto her perch.

Lewis was attempting to avoid being melodramatic as much as possible, but he was failing. His casual ‘bored’ expression was, as always, masking his true desires. At this point, his true desires were to be as far away from Angela and Xeik as humanly possible. But, Simone and Lewis both had agreed to the studies, and that meant Lewis had no choice but to comply.

Emotions fluttered through him all at once. Embarrassment. Mental anguish. The feeling of spite and anger both at Angela and Xeik. It all flowed through the resonance, and Simone knew just how he felt.

“Fine,” Lewis said without a fuss. Azure flames enveloped the man, swirling around his legs and arms at first before fully engulfing him. As the flames dispersed, a majestic form of a night phoenix met Angela and Lewis gaze, though somehow they could almost tell that the phoenix had a disdainful, bored expression.

It was definitely Lewis.

Let’s just get this over with.

With ease, he spread his wings and alighted next to Simone, settling down on the golden perch with relative ease.

Hurry it up. I hate being examined like this.

Simone was more in one with her bird form than Lewis. Angela had large eyes as she wandered over and took his tail feathers in her hands. “Lewis… Pose for me…” She moved him around to hold him up in different poses. “Xeik come here… Look at him.”

His wife even went over and landed on Xeik’s shoulder to look at him. Her eyes got large and she made a majestic song in Xeik’s ears.

“Wait! WAIT! SIMONE!” Angela was trying to stop Simone as she flew out. Soon there were several people coming in. Simone was acting so weird as she strutted up to Lewis on his perch. She put her neck to his and showed off his wings to everyone.

“Well… We’re here what’s th–” Kalina watched in with Raile and crew only to stare at Lewis. “My god you are fucking beautiful Lewis. Look at that shine!” Even Kali was in love with him.

“I’ve never seen such beautiful feathers… You take such good care of them! They look better than Raine’s!” Leilah was ecstatic while looking on.

“IT’S ONLY CAUSE HE’S A MALE!” Raine sounded insulted but even she was staring in awe at him. Simone was snuggled up to her hunk of a husband as many dirty thoughts were going through her head.

“I mean! SIMONE IS ALSO BEAUTIFUL! Her colors just aren’t as bright and Lewis’s tail feathers are also longer… That’s all! Simone is a very beautiful bird… So spread your wings for me…” Angela spoke as Simone sighed and struck a pose alongside her husband. “I want to paint this… Look at this mated pair! I HAVE CREATED FIGURES OF BEAUTY!” Angela danced around in happiness.

Lewis rolled his eyes as he spread his wings. It wasn’t until the room got silent, and Simone flew out that he realized something was wrong. The thoughts racing through Simone’s head were enough to make Lewis suddenly regret this whole thing, and soon the room was flooded with people staring at him. He let out a low growl, which did nothing in his bird form as Simone more or less forced his wings spread.

For the love of Gods… He would remember this, and all of them would pay in one way or another. His prank this year would have to involve far too many people. If there was any benefit to the humiliation he felt, it was that the dirty thoughts racing through Simone’s head were almost worth the suffering.

Almost being the key word.

“Am I done?” he asked angrily. “It’s awkward enough having to do this with you and Xeik, but for the whole ass group!? I’m not some sideshow to be marveled at-”

“You’re far prettier than a sideshow,” Xeik interrupted. His arms were crossed as he looked Lewis up and down. “I’d say you’re downright gorgeous.”

At the words that left Xeik’s mouth… Simone froze where she was.

“DO YOU EVEN UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU JUST SAID?!” The words boomed from Lewis’s lips.

Simone was far too shocked for words for it to be a good thing.

“Well… We’ll have to pause this little thing we have going on,” Angela sighed as they watched Simone transform back and run away upstairs. There had been a look on her face of inspiration. “…I think she is writing again…”

Lewis was quick to transform back and go after Xeik, “YOU NEED TO BE MORE CAREFUL WITH YOUR WORDS! The thoughts going through her head would kill you right now!! I need to have a word with Raile… I need to stop this madness… There must be something I can do..” Lewis was now pacing back and forth he threw his hands up, “FUCK!” He couldn’t think of a single damn thing he could do to convince Simone not to write.

“Face it… When it comes to you… Simone is your biggest fan,” Angela patted Lewis’s shoulder. “It’s not a bad thing… Most of the time.”

Career Day

It was at the suggestion of one of the more influential members of the Benin Council to announce a career day for the students of the school, as most of the students had parents or guardians that were in a variety of fields. It was meant to spur ideas in the children, and to bring about a new surge in interest in a variety of crafts. Of course, those in Benin without children were allowed to attend as well, and bring forth the knowledge of their career path.

Simone, though, knew what the real reason for this was; a show of wealth and power from the richest members of the Council, and a sway for the children to join the lower ranks. But, that didn’t matter much to her. A day where Lewis and Simone could show off their career choices to the whole school.

The day came, and Lewis found himself at a small stall with various grapes and some grape juice. He hadn’t quite gotten around to the wine part, but in a few years the grapes would be ripe enough to make a perfect batch.

To the kids, his chosen career path was a farmer. “The initial setup is rough, and harvesting takes a lot of time. Otherwise, it takes a lot of diligent watering and care for the plants.”

It was Pearl who huffed at this, “Ew, why do something so labor intensive? My Dad just has to sit back in his office while his workers do everything else.” She swung her head back in a haughty kind of way. “And what about your mother?” She gave Alshaya a look. “Is she one of those lame ‘stay at home’ mothers? My Mother helps manage the businesses…”

“Annoying as ever,” Everett replied under his breath. “Alshaya, why don’t you punch her as much as you punch me?” He looked around. “Where is Mom anyway? I haven’t seen her, or the others either…”