Mia huffed a bit more and flopped on the floor. “You are a freeloader!” Raine pointed at Mia.

Mia lifted her foot up and wiggled her toes at Raine.

“I am not going to massage your feet!”

Once more Mia huffed.

“I don’t care! I’m not Xeik!” Raine was fighting around Xeik and saw that Mia had a smirk on her face. “You are so mean Mia,” Raine laughed a bit. “We can fix it together. I can teach Mia how to do it!” Raine had made plenty of holes in her adventures around the temple.

The following day Mia worked on the wall and redid it a few times. Raine flailed in front of Xeik only once where Mia had taken the plaster and splashed it on Raine. Raine admitted it had been her fault for trying to boss Mia around and Mia wasn’t hasn’t it. Mia had been shown how to do it the right way by someone else and she finished it easily enough.

After she cleaned up the mess she made of the plaster and once she was done she padded her little feet to where Xeik was in the library. He was on a couch reading a book and taking notes. She weaseled her way onto the couch and up under his arms and contorted herself until she was in his lap so she could read the book. Or… well try and find the pictures. She leaned her head to the side and pulled up some pages carefully to see if there were any pictures. Once she found out there weren’t any she huffed.

Xeik was reading up on new mana flow techniques, mostly for helping Simone and Lewis with the twins. It was one of the most complicated things that he, and even Angela, had ever come across, and everything was a new experience when it came to them. The Divine Mender had taken it upon himself to research a variety of different cultures in order to see how each of them dealt with similar issues, and compare the techniques with what they used today, hoping that by combining the past and present knowledge, they could come up with something that worked in such a unique situation.

He barely registered that Mia had entered the library, but when she crawled into his lap, he lifted the book just a bit to give her room, seeming not to care. While he was a little annoyed when she tried to look at the pages for pictures, for the most part he was okay with it.

“No pictures, Mia. This is for work,” he said as he turned the page. “Simone and Lewis are getting back to where they should be, but I’m a little concerned at how they got there in the first place. I want to know how to prevent it, or even fix the problem entirely. Angela has her own theories on it, but I can’t sit back and let her do all the work.”

He pulled the book to the side and looked down at Mia, who settled for just resting her head on his chest. “You do know that I’m not a pillow, right?” She nodded. “Right…well…” He sighed, and went back to his book. “Are you feeling okay today?”

There was a huff from her as she heard the book had no pictures. Even books for work could have pictures. This was just boring. Mia got comfortable in his lap and laid her head against his chest. There was a content sigh that left her lips until he questioned her. She wasn’t about to fall asleep on him! Pillows were for sleeping!

Mia once again nodded and she lightly started to pull on him. Pulling down the book she laid out some paper from her pocket and she took out what looked to be a piece of charcoal. She stuck her tongue out as she concentrated. Her hand was a bit shaky as she moved her wrist. When he tried to peek at what she was doing she shook her head and waved her hand at him to hide it.

Once she was satisfied with what she did she leaned back and presented him with a badly written page that held ‘Xeik’. It was her first thing she wanted to learn how to spell and Raine had helped her at the plaster wall. She wasn’t so sure what the letters were or meant but she would find out in time. Mia smiled up at Xeik happily.

When Mia tried to get his attention again, Xeik put the book aside. Whatever it was that she wanted to show him was vitally important to her, so with his full attention on her, he nodded to signify that he was ready. He watched carefully as she painstakingly wrote on a fragment of paper, but she did her best to hide what she was actually writing. Slowly, but surely, she finished up, and with a proud look on her face she presented the paper to him.

“Look at that,” Xeik said with a smile as he looked to Mia. “You did such a good job on this! Did Simone or Raine teach you this?’ She shook her head no to Simone, and then yes to Raine. “Make sure you thank her,” he said as he looked down at the paper again. “Can I keep this?” He looked back, wondering if she’d say yes. It was impressive how far she’d come in the short amount of time they had been together, and it was only going to get better every day.

“Okay,” he said as he closed his book. “It’s almost time for some more physical therapy. Are you ready? It’s the pools again today, so go get ready.” He stood up and stretched.

The days turned into weeks, and the weeks turned into months. As Mia’s routine settled after her rehabilitation, Angela decided to give her a room for privacy. Though, in her usual odd fashion, Angela made sure that the room was directly next to Xeik’s, with a door between the two rooms. Per the goddess, this was to make sure that Mia was safe at all times and had access to her ‘caretaker’ in the event of an emergency.

And so, as time went on, they settled into a strange, but close routine…

Mia proudly nodded as she let him take the piece of paper. There would be many more if she had a say! Could he keep all of them? She would have to find out.

Time went on and they settled into an odd routine. Their lives revolved around each other in weird ways. Simone was a good teacher but more than once she sent Mia home for misbehaving out of shock. For instance, Mia did something she shouldn’t have and Simone scolded her. So… In the very most Mia way she wrote lame and pointed at Simone. “Take her back for today. Have a talk with her,” Simone waved her hands. It looked like Lewis was laughing in the background. “IT’S NOT FUNNY!”

That would just lead to more huffs from Mia as Xeik tried to get down to the bottom of what exactly it was that Mia did this time. Normally it was something dumb and little but it was consistent only when she was bored.

This morning was a very special morning for Mia. She was going to use Lewis as a distraction but first, she was doing something she did often… She peeked her eyes only a little bit to see if Xeik was awake. He wasn’t but she snuggled close to him and rolled on his chest. She put the entire blanket over her to hide on his chest.

She would do a meek little wave to him when he finally woke up to see her. She would often sneak into his hammock at night to sleep now that she could walk. The conjoining rooms made it easier for her to sneak in and out since the door was constantly left open thanks to her.

Mia got close to his face and sniffed his hair making a huffing noise. It was time for his bath. She flopped on him. Should be… Any moment nowwwww….

Angela slammed the door open, “Lewis sent a message. Apparently, it’s an emergency.” Now!

It had become a strange routine, having Mia sleep with him on a regular. For some reason, which the mender could not figure out, she just couldn’t fall asleep on her own. He had more or less accepted it, and it wasn’t as if he were losing sleep over it. If anything, it was strangely comforting to have her there, almost reminding him of the days he spent sharing a sleeping space with his fellow thieves. Underneath it all, there may have been other reasons, but Xeik was far too busy to explore them….

Of course, when Angela barged in, Xeik was up in an instant, almost flinging Mia off of him as, even with her strength, she was light as a feather. He apologized immediately, but was already halfway out the door with his bag in hand, heading to the portal. In no time flat, he found himself at the Terrowin Castle, running in to be greeted by a strangely stoic Lewis, who should have been panicking per his usual.

“Oh, you’re here,” Lewis said. “You’re a lot faster than I give you credit for…” He pointed upstairs. “Janus and Lila…they’re looking a little blue. I’m worried.”

Hearing this, Xeik ran up the stairs and into the nursery. Janus was awake, babbling away while Lila seemed to be sleeping. The two were sharing a crib. But, as Lewis had said, they were strangely blue. He walked over to them. Neither one seemed to be in distress, so what was happening?

“Well…at least they don’t look in danger…” He started to examine them. Their pulses checked out fine, as well as their breathing. Eyes looked normal, as well as their extremities. The mender looked puzzled, and checked their mana veins, all which were acting normally. “I don’t…” He narrowed his eyes. “Areas around their mouth and eyes look normal. And…” He wiped their faces with a cloth. “…is this…dirt?”

Lewis groaned internally. Xeik was too good at his job, and this definitely was not fast enough. He had to think of something quick.

Xeik sighed, crossing his arms, “It’s just…paint. They’re fine. Is this some kind of jo-” he turned around.

“I think Ezili’s pregnant,” he blurted out, looking almost as shocked as Xeik. “Can you check? I’ve been slipping them both potions without them knowing, but who knows what kinds of things they get into. Can you just…check and make sure? I hope I’m wrong.”

Xeik sighed. Both he and Angela had provided the philters for Simone and Lewis, and the mender knew very well that the potions worked. But, he also knew just how Lewis was. “Fine… go get her. I’ll run some tests…”

Mia was up off the floor as soon as Xeik was done. She gave thumbs up to Angela and as soon as Xeik was gone there was laughter out in the hall. Simone was on the floor and she couldn’t contain herself. “I fucking love that man,” Simone was actually crying.

Angela quirked an eyebrow, “Are you going to be okay?”

Simone took huge breaths as she looked up at them, “Yeah. We better hurry though because I don’t know how long Xeik is going to put up with Lewis.”

Raine bounded in with the petals. “How are we doing this.”

Mia arranged all of the piles where she wanted them. Simone got the paint and let Mia paint to her heart’s desire even making a huge cute moon banner. “Alright, next is the chocolate. I’ll be making some too since Lewis wanted some. I’ve been learning how to do it so I could show you,” Simone said proudly. Before leaving they hung up a "Best Xiek" sign on his door that Mia had spent a long time painting to make it look legible.

Mia forgot the sugar but she didn’t stop. Next, she got a portal open and began to heave in flowers with their roots and dirt still attached. The plan was to cut all the stems and put them in beautiful vases that Angela was arranging in Xeik’s office. There Raine was hanging up the moon sign and fretting over the dirt that Mia had tracked in everywhere.

The chocolates were laid out even if they looked bad. She stood looking around and she fretted at Raine for not going to spread the rose petals soon. The bird left as soon as Angela told her she was slacking to try and spread them.

Mia was trying to arrange the flowers by color and Simone was helping. “Uh… oh…” Simone’s color went away. “I HAVE TO RUN GOOD LUCK! Remember what LEWIS told you to do!” She waved and ran out to avoid something.

“Well, that’s not a good sign…” Angela disappeared too.

Lewis was pacing back and forth outside of Ezili’s room. For the most part, he knew how long the exam should have been, but he had a bad feeling about it. Surely enough, Xeik walked out of the room with an annoyed look on his face. “Ezili tells me she’s been taking a potion herself, given to her by Simone. Same for Lucas. She’s showing zero signs, and I’m starting to think you’re just messing with me.”

The assassin sighed internally, “Well you know…I’m just parano-”

“This is beyond paranoid. Are you trying to do something? Is this another one of the ‘hair’ things that you pulled last year? Because Rhenakos was furious, and it took months to get all that pink out.” It had been one of the most impressive pranks Xeik had ever seen, but he had been completely thrown that it was Lewis who had done it. Rhenakos still had no idea who the true culprit was, and had blamed it on his enemies.

“No, I swear-”

“Look, I have a lot to do today, and Ang is going to kill me if I don’t get it all done.” Xeik started to walk past Lewis, and the assassin panicked, starting to draw a dagger. Xeik felt the motion, and rolled his eyes, turning one heel to unleash his secret weapon. It was something that not even Lewis could survive.

“Lewis! Look! Janus is about to take his first step!” Xeik pointed. Whether or not it was true or not, Lewis ran.

“Fuck! I’m not going to miss this!”

And with that, Xeik escaped, making his way back to the portal to Elysia.

Once there, he felt the aura of the temple…and it was oddly tense. Things felt in disarray as he walked down the halls. There were strange piles of petals all over the place, almost as if someone had just dumped them there to leave them, and he could have sworn he felt Simone’s presence if only for a second.

As he walked into his room, a dazed Mia stared back at him. She was covered in paints and dirt, almost from head to toe. And was that flour on her arms as well? She looked as though she had been in a whirlwind of disaster. At once, her eyes got wide, and she started to panic. Her arms went up and it looked as though she was trying to scream.

“Mia? What’s wrong? What happened? Are you okay?”

Mia was full-blown panic attack now as she was literally screaming. Well, as much as she could for a mute girl. It sounded like a rush of air as she waved her arms around panicking. Raine opened the door. “I forgot to spread the… OH LOOK XEIK IS BACK,” Raine laughed a bit.

Mia grabbed Xeik threw him in a chair and told him to wait. Then she proceeded to throw herself onto the floor and beg Raine for help. PLEASE HELP.

Raine nodded and helped her up, “We’ll be back Xeik!” After they bathed her and got her dressed Mia shyly opened up the door. She looked beautiful and dressed up as she slid in and closed the door. Her face was bright red though as she started to play with her hair. She had learned it as a nervous habit from Raine of all people.

Raine had chosen a deep plum-colored outfit for Mia to wear. It had white flowers detailed across the top and bottle. The top was more like a bikini as it wrapped around her neck with a nice little choker. The skirt was long but tied on her hip showing all of her left side. She wasn’t shy about her body and she barely even understand why people wore clothes, to begin with. Raine had braided the sides of her hair back and left the back long.

Once she got in she took a breath and pulled Xeik up. She showed him the room and though it was a disaster it was still more than she thought she was going to get. She showed him the banner of the moon and pointed at him. She had hoped he understood what she meant. He was her moon.

Xeik was confused at what was happening. Why was Raine there? What was this mess? The only thing he could come up with was that this was one of Raine’s bird brained schemes, and Mia had fallen for it. It wasn’t like it hadn’t happened before, and this time it seemed as though it had just gotten out of hand. Still, Mia had something to show for it, and had asked him, practically begged him to wait, so he did.

It was all he could do not to move, though. The room was a wreck, scattered with dirt and roots. He was pretty sure it would be easy to clean, but the fact that it had to be cleaned was a problem. And there was still the problem that Mia was acting so weird. Whatever Raine had gotten her into was definitely a wreck this time.

But when Mia walked in wearing a rather revealing dress, Xeik stared for a good few seconds, more surprised than anything. “Mia? Why are you dressed like that? Did you have a date planned with someone?” Perhaps Raine had set her up with someone. Things were starting to click into place. Perhaps she wanted tips on how she looked before she went out. “I’m so glad you managed to find someone Mia! I’m so proud!”

Xeik paused, looking around. “Is…is someone yelling in the other room?” He shrugged. Probably Angela dealing with an unruly patient. He let it pass through his mind as Mia pulled him up, pulling him through to the other room. It was worse than the first one, with flowers pulled front the ground, dirt and roots still attached everywhere. There was misshapen chocolates on the desk, with a giant banner in the back of a moon. Mia pointed to the moon, and then to Xeik.

“I…what?” She wasn’t making any sense.

Mia was getting flustered, but there was one last thing in the back of her mind. The image of Lewis and Simone, and the helpful suggestion that Lewis had given her. It was almost as if she could hear his voice, clear as day, “And when he acts clueless, because I know he will, just do this….”