It was a rare time for the Terrowin family, and with the way that the day had been structured, the adults had managed to get a lot of one on one time with each of the kids. Today was Glynn’s day, and with a recommendation from Raile, Lewis begrudgingly agreed to visit Hoja Mesto for the day.

Lewis had a history with the place; not only had he grown up here on the streets, but he also had an entire unknown family located here, one which had decided to hunt him across the entire world when he crossed them. Sure, it had ended with nobody really getting hurt (other than Lewis), but it had been quite the difficult time for the family.

The restaurant that Raile had recommended for the day was the Wandering Swan, a rather rustic looking place that served a variety of Hoja staples that mixed with the rather lucrative trade business that the merchant had made. The result was a fantastic sit down restaurant run by a rather charming staff.

Lewis was looking over the menu, and smiled when Glynn made more cute baby noises. “Yes, we can get you mashed potatoes. As long as you behave.” The baby boy had been on a potato kick. For some reason he loved mashed potatoes, and getting him to eat anything else was almost impossible.

“The pasta looks interesting,” Lewis muttered to himself. “Carbonara. What does that mean?” he asked Simone. Sure, he could have read her thoughts, but that would defeat the purpose of having a conversation with his lovely wife. He loved her voice, after all.

Simone was excited for the day out with two of her boys. Her boys being Lewis and Glynn today. The year-old dryad was definitely in his element as he grunted towards the mashed potatoes in front of him. “Honestly, you are going to get so pudgy if you only eat those.” Glynn grunted up and gave a wild laugh which made her smile.

Once Lewis asked her she took the time to explain it to him while helping Glynn take a drink of water. They had been working on him holding his own silverware but he had a wild streak once in a while.

Mone smirked a bit as Glynn thumbed the menu that Lewis had trying to take it from him. “You don’t even know what that says,” Simone kissed the top of his head. Glynn made a nose as she tried to read her menu and suddenly he was trying to put her menu in his mouth. “Okay, that’s enough from you.” Simone laughed and moved it away from him. Glynn made a displeased noise before he reached over to the table and grabbed a spoon. He held it up to Lewis and squealed. Thank goodness this wasn’t too much of a posh place. Glynn’s giggles were getting smiles instead of horrid looks.

One of the waiters finally came over to them and Simone noticed the weird reaction he had to Lewis but didn’t think much of it. Lewis normally got that kind of reaction whenever they went out. Once they ordered their food Simone spoke up, “And a bowl of mashed potatoes just in case our baby decides he doesn’t like what I ordered him. He has been rather good.” She watched Glynn waved around the spoon they allowed him to have.

The whole experience was going quite well for the time being. Too well, even. The waiter came by with their drinks, and with a little stumble accidentally tipped a glass of water onto the table. Lewis was fortunate enough to back up and avoid the water, but Simone was not as fortunate. A small bit spilled over onto her dress.

“I’m so sorry,” the waiter said as he started to try and clean up the mess he made.

“No, it’s fine, really,” Simone replied as she stood up. “I’ll be right back.” With that, she walked towards the back and to the bathroom to try and dry herself off, leaving Lewis alone with Glynn.

Glynn looked a little disappointed that his mother was gone, but as soon as Lewis started paying him attention, was happy to start waiving his spoon around happily.

“There we go, Glynn,” Lewis replied. “We’ll have food soon.”

Simone was used to the children getting her all dirty so when the accident happened she dealt with it gracefully. She went to the wash room and used her fire to dry her dress carefully. She made sure no one was around since her flames tended to make people uncomfortable. Once she was done she made her way out and found herself stopped by the waiter.

“I wanted to warn you,” he sounded sincere enough.

“Lewis, he isn’t who he said he is. You should know the truth.”

She had already cut the resonance just in case so Lewis didn’t murder this man. “Oh? What is it my dear husband has done now?” Simone tilted her head.

“I don’t know how he swindled you into marriage but he’s just a street rat! He grew up here in Hoja stealing!”

Simone put her hand to her lips like she was in shock. By this point, Lewis was quirking his eyebrow in her direction but he couldn’t hear what was going on.

“I’ll make sure I handle this,” She curtsied slowly before heading back over to the table. There was a mischievous look on her face. There were a few waiters watching now. She assumed all of them knew Lewis somehow or another.

“OH MY POOR BABY,” she threw herself on Lewis. “Why didn’t you tell me?! I WOULD ACCEPT YOU NO MATTER YOUR FLAWS. Why didn’t you let me know you were a street rat?!”

Glynn was giving his mother a weird look as he waved his spoon trying to make the situation better.

Lewis wasn’t sure what was going on, and when the resonance cut he had to look over to try and figure out what was going on. He wasn’t too concerned about Simone since she was in sight, but even Glynn was giving curious looks, since his father was now paying attention to someone out of his view.

When Simone rushed over, throwing herself into his arms, Lewis could only stare in absolute confusion at what was happening. SHe was spouting some absurd nonsense about accepting him for who he really was, and all he could do was give her a shocked look.

“W-what?”

It was about this time that Xeik walked in with Mia, holding their baby, Myrri. It was one of the first times they had managed to get out of Elysia with the baby, However, they walked in at the absolute wrong time. Even he was caught off guard at what Simone was doing,

Xeik, though, recognized the waiters almost immediately, “…Ian? And you…you’re Arrin.”

Simone looked over, fake tears welling. “YOU TOO, XEIK!?” She rushed over and took his hands dramatically. “You should have told me you were a street rat!” The Divine Mender stared at Simone with an absent look.

“W-what?”

She looked over to Mia, and took her free hand. “You’ll still accept him, won’t you, Mia?”

Mia caught on quickly as she put her hand to her lips stifling her own laugh. Before long she nodded and patted Xeik’s head.

“That’s right! We love our poor little street rat boys! We’ll always take care of you,” Simone was so good at holding her own straight face.

Mia was playing along as she knocked on the table and wrote out. “Our poor little street rats.”

“What is going on?” The waiters were really confused. “We were just concerned that…”

Simone finally started to laugh as she fell into the seat, “My poor little street boys who need love~” She looked at Glynn, “That makes you half a street rat.” Glynn started to clap at Simone as she pushed a seat out for Xeik.

Lewis was having a very hard time trying to understand what was happening. It finally clicked as Simone started breaking down into laughter, and he stared at her with a dumbfounded look.

“Are you…fucking with me?” Lewis asked. The additional laughter that started after his question only confirmed that Simone was playing an elaborate joke. It was an unexpected one, but somehow she had held it together long enough to run with it.

Xeik and Mia sat down across from the two. The healer was still in shock at the whole situation. They were all ex-members of the guild that he had run, some of the survivors of the whole ordeal that had crushed Heaven’s Dawn.

The ex-assassin crossed his arms, “What…the hell is even going on?”

“You don’t remember me?” Ian, one of the waiters asked. “That doesn’t surprise me…we grew up together. I just thought….”

“Thought what?” :Lewis asked, confused.

“Well…I never would have imagined someone like you ending up with a wife, let alone a child. We thought…well, we thought it was a scam.”

“Lewis,” Xeik said as he held up his hands. “Please don’t hurt them…”

“I’m…not going to, but…” Lewis looked around. “How…are you all here?”

“Well…Master Raile hired us and trained us. We were already pretty good at memorization and other tasks…and he thought he would be doing a good thing for the kids on the street.”

Xeik looked around. “I…I’m really impressed, actually…”

Simone confirmed it with her laughter before kissing the temple of his head, “That’s for plopping in the bathwater that one time.” She chuckled a bit and nuzzled him softly.

Taking her seat she gently picked up Glynn and put him on her lap. He clapped up at her and she smirked a bit down at him. “Did Mommy confuse you?” She gave him a kiss and he squealed.

“We actually have thirteen,” Simone looked up at them.

“What.” All of them were looking at Lewis.

“Only two are ours. Even little Glynn here is adopted but he is so cute,” Simone made Glynn laugh more as she snuggled him. Glynn hugged into her and looked over at Lewis squealing for his attention to. “I am well aware of Lewis’s past. Though it was nice for you to be concerned.”

Mia waved her hand and began to write, “Where are the other kids?”

“Well… Leilah said she would watch the younger ones. Since no one else wants to after the twins terrorized Rhenakos,” Simone sighed a bit. “So they are with Leilah. The twins are on their best behavior tonight because it is Glynn’s night and no one ruins little brother’s night. Huh?” Simone lifted him up and gave him a raspberry. Glynn laughed and kicked his feet happily.

Mia nodded and she waved to the old guild members of Xeik and Lewis.

“I’m Lewis’s wife Simone and this is Xeik’s might as well be his wife Mia. That’s their son Myrri. I’m shocked Angela let him out of her sight. She’s been doting on him a lot. This is our youngest Glynn.” Simone was the ever social butterfly when she needed to be. "I'm not shocked that Raile would do such a thing. He has a good heart."

For Xeik, this was a situation that, in his mind, could never have happened. The guild that he once ran had been destroyed and ravaged, and the old leader had assumed that those who had survived wouldn’t have made it this far. He had always wanted to come back here to make things right and try to fix it, but the few times he had managed to visit Hoja…well…

“Where have you been all this time?” Xeik asked. “I’ve looked for you all, but I never found a trace.”

The young man named Ian waved his hand. “We were a bunch of thieves. Of course we barely left a trace. A lot of the other kids managed to get away from Hoja using the old connections you had. Those of us who couldn’t or opted not to found other means of survival. Like…well, this place. Master Raile was a major benefactor in how we survived.”

Xeik looked over to see that Lewis was playing with Glynn for a moment. “Did you know about any of this?”

The ex-assassin shook his head. “Not a clue. Figured you might…”

Ian crossed his arms and looked at the two. “And here we thought you two could never reconcile. And you both even have families now! It’s amazing!”

Lewis smiled, “Yeah. Never thought anything like this would happen.”

“I feel the same way,” Xeik replied. Myrri made a noise, and immediately Xeik went over. “Is he okay!?”

Lewis rolled his eyes, “It’s a baby. He’s going to make noises…”

Simone held Glynn so Lewis could play with him. He was grunting, squealing, and waving his spoon like a master at Lewis while they played. Once Lewis was distracted Glynn released one of the highest pitch squeals he ever had followed by a grunt as he launched the spoon at his father’s face. It nailed Lewis right in the forehead.

“…GLYNN!” Simone pulled the boy back and looked down at him. He smiled up at his mother. “That wasn’t nice Glynn… Good shot though. Seriously, you might be an expert marksman at this rate.” He bounced his legs while Simone held him up. “Do you want to go to Daddy?” Glynn got more excited as Simone helped him over to Lewis.

“Okay Lewis Jr,” Simone looked over at Xeik. “The baby is fine. Not every noise is him dying and before you judge Xeik Lewis remember that you once tried to make a two-in-the-morning doctor trip to Leilah because Everett sneezed.” She smirked a bit. “And they get along now because of Xeik’s benefactor smashing their faces in. Xeik is a well-known doctor now~ Well getting to be. His teacher is quite famous.”

Glynn let out a squeal, “Yeah, that’s right Grandma Angela is a great teacher isn’t she Glynn?” She tickled his feet and Glynn laughed a bit before looking blankly up at the waiters waiting for them to do something.

Mia gently rubbed Myrri’s back as she had him rolled over on her arm. It looked like he was soothed by it, he let out a yawn and Mia appeared to chuckle.

“Now we’re just waiting for Xeik to stop getting cold feet and marry Mia~” Once the words left Simone’s mouth Mia looked up at Xeik with happiness. Glynn was now interested in Myrri as he leaned onto the table to get a look at the new baby.

“We like babies don’t we Glynn,” Simone asked before Glynn let out a wild squeal and smiled up at Lewis.