That evening left him feeling restless. What was he going to do now? It was fine for the moment, but shrugging off reality and living in a dream was not sustainable. He had trouble sleeping that night, as his mind was spinning from thinking about his options. What did he want? More importantly, though, what did he owe others.

Sarah was but one in a line of people that had changed his life for the better, only for him to ruin it again. He wanted, nay, needed to find a way to pay them back. Tossing left and right, sleep only found him late into the night, leaving him with slightly red eyes in the morning. During training, he continued to fail to find peace and had to stop meditating for lack of progress.

That was also how his host found him that evening. He was jumpy and prone to drifting into his mind at any moment. She tried to work around his odd behavior first, but he could feel how agitated she became when he failed to listen to her for the fourth time in an hour. When she finally had enough of his antics and asked him what was wrong, he did not know how to describe the situation. There was an obvious answer there, he knew, but how could he just apologize?

It felt like a humongous understatement. You could say sorry when you blew off a friend or had a spat. What do you do when you have fucked up so royally that you placed your friends in mortal danger, only to get the police involved before running away and almost dying while fighting a teen with a pet monster. At least, that was what he told her. She did not buy it.

"Really? That is what you are thinking? Are you sure it has nothing to do with being scared of their reaction?" The dry sarcasm was almost sharp enough to cut. He visibly flinched back, hurting because of how easily she saw through him. "Haa..." The sigh sounded tired. Like someone resigned to explaining something for the hundredth time. "It is not that difficult, Kael." - "Really? Then tell me. What am I supposed to do? They will hate me for what I did. How could they not? I caused problems and simply dumped them onto everyone else while I ran away!"

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"Mhh." She nodded. "Correct. So?" - "What do you mean, so?" - "Well, little Kael, you seem to think that there is a better option. There is not. In the first place, who do you think you are apologizing for anyway? Who do you think the apology is for? This is not about you. You are doing this for them as much, if not more than for you. This is what it means to be an adult. Take responsibility for your actions. Now, if you will excuse me, I have enough of playing caretaker for little kids." Like a slap in his face, her dismissal hurt.

She was long gone by the time Kael processed what had just happened. "I guess I deserved that, huh." He really had behaved like a child. Wasn't this one of the things his father had always preached? "No matter what you do, son, stay true to yourself and your ideals. Making the wrong choice is fine as long as you are the one to make the decision. Take action. Go down your chosen path and accept whatever consequences it may bring."

How long had it been since he had thought about his father? "I had just told a friend that I was sick and could not come and hang out, I think. In reality, I just wanted to spend time with a new friend. 'If you decide to do something, do it with pride.' Maybe he had been too young to understand what his father wanted to tell him at the time, but now, he felt that he finally understood.

The next evening. When Sarah returned, he could see that she was hesitant to enter the building. "It's fine. You were right. Sorry for making you spell it out for me." Relief and a small smile replaced her tense mask. "Oh? So you have come to a decision regarding your friends?" - "Yes. As you said, I need to apologize. I, metaphorically, made my bed, and now I need to sleep in it. Thank you for going out of your way to help me understand. In that vein, would you be able to help me contact some people?" - "And here I thought you would never ask."

She promised to get in touch with the Feathery Delight and his friends and arrange a meeting for him. Two days later, they boarded a sleek, black car heading towards the restaurant.