Stepmother took a deep breath before responding to my concerns.

"I don't know, honestly."

"How come?"

"It's not something for you to worry about."

She tried to rub my head and disregard the topic I was bringing up with a calm smile.

"Why shouldn't I worry about it?"

I grabbed Stepmother's hand.

"You wouldn't understand Fred. Your mom has obligations and duties to uphold, just like your father."

"Dad comes back before we even notice. Why do you have to be away for so long?"

"It's complicated. Please, let's not not-"

I turned to hug my stepmother tightly.

"Don't you want to stay with us?"

I stared up at her and she gave me a pained look before saying another word.

"Of course I want to stay here with all of you."

She wrapped her arms around my small body, stepmother sobbed a little. We stayed like that for a minute before Stepmother regained her composure. We headed off to Mother's room.

We stopped right in front of the door. I was expecting Stepmother to open the door but she just stared at it for a second.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, it's... nothing."

She reached for doorknob and opened the door.

"Ve! How've you been?"

"Good, it's nice to be home. I was just having a walk with Fred here. Hello little ones."

"Hi!"

"Ibis say 'hi' to mommy."

My mother tried to get Ibis to notice Stepmother, but she'd only stare at mom before continuing to play with the toy in her hand.

"Hi mommy."

"No, Ibis, mommy's over there."

Mother turned Ibis's head over to us but she immediately disregarded us.

"No, you're mommy."

My baby sister turned her head and looked at mother when she spoke.

"Come on, let's go hug mommy."

Stepmother got closer while Mother carried Ibis over. However, rather than letting go when Mother pulled, Ibis resisted being removed from Mother's embrace.

"No. I want to stay with mommy."

"Ibis, honey it's gonna be okay."

"Noo!"

Ibis started to cry out and make a fuss.

"It's fine Daphne, seeing her is enough. I don't want to maker her cry."

There wasn't any hiding it. Stepmother missed the more intimate years of raising my baby sister. Now, she was nothing more than a stranger. A stranger she can avoid having to be around if she cries enough.

I wasn't going to let that play out without trying something. Stepmother already felt the pain of getting ignored, getting rejected is a much worse feeling as a parent.

"Ibis, can I get a hug?"

I stretched out my arms towards my mother signaling to let me carry her if Ibis allowed it. Ibis looked down at me and loosened her grip over Mother's neck.

Mother crouched down as Ibis leaned over. Ibis let go of Mother entirely and wrapped herself around me when Mother took her hands away.

My baby sister wasn't too heavy for me to manage. She even had her head resting on my shoulder. Ibis's feet barely hovered above the floor.

I set Ibis down but held onto her hand to get her attention.

"Ibis your hair looks very pretty."

"Yours too."

She pulled onto my red locks of hair.

"It looks just like mom's."

"No yours looks like mommy's. See it's red too."

It stung a bit to have her pull hard on my short hair in her attempt to pull it in front of my face. It wasn't enough to make me cry but it wasn't pleasant.

"But yours does look like mom's, see it's black like hers. Isn't hers pretty too?"

I was gentle when caressing Ibis's hair and pointed towards stepmother when comparing the two.

"I guess so."

"We have two mommys Ibis, she also carried you when you were tiny."

"I don't remember."

"That's okay. Don't you want to give her a hug?"

"I..."

Ibis was acting nervous now. She remained hesitant despite my efforts.

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"Can I get a hug?"

Cassie dashed towards Stepmother. Cassie jumped up with her arms extended, gesturing her desire to be lifted.

"Of course you can."

"Whee!"

Cassie squealed as Stepmother scooped her up.

"How are you Cassie? Look how big you are, you're so beautiful."

"Thank you mommy. You smell good."

Cassie gave Stepmother a kiss on the cheek. Ibis let go of my hair and got closer to Stepmother.

"I want a hug too!"

The capricious nature of children was something that I never got used to even with my experience as a parent and grandparent. Regardless, I was glad Stepmother could reconcile with Ibis after so long.

I played around with my sisters and their assortment of toys, while my mothers caught up with each other.

I had expected to hear my stepmother bring up her idea to change how Father was teaching me.

Instead, all they spoke about was petty gossip and a passing mention of the emperor's daughter that Stepmother had been tutoring.

In hindsight, Stepmother likely didn't want to have a serious discussion about it without Father around, or maybe with me in the same room.

"Fred?"

Stepmother suddenly spoke to me.

"Yes?"

"Where's your brother?"

"Which one."

I almost laughed.

"Zeus. Do you know where he is right now?"

I thought about the various activities my siblings were involved in before and after Father's lessons.

Luca would spend time running along the outside fountain near the entrance to the castle with a guard to keep an eye on him, and later he'd be messing around in his room. I'd heard the maids complain before of the messes he left.

Vanilla normally chatted around with the maids and the female guards when she wasn't in the art room.

Zeus would get into some heated morning sprints across the hedges outside the castle along with Logan, afterwards he'd go back to sleep. He didn't like being bothered during that time before Father's lessons.

Most likely he had already finished his run by this time.

"I think he's asleep in his room."

"Would you mind asking him to come here?"

Stepmother politely asked me with a smile.

"Ok."

I made my way downstairs and all the way to Zeus's door. I knocked on the door to no response. I tried again. Nothing happened.

Following this silence I started beating on the door continuously.

"Who is it?!"

Zeus's groggy shout came out finally.

"It's Fred."

I shouted back.

Fumbling could be heard from the door as I waited for Zeus to open his door. Like most of my older siblings he kept his door locked. Not that it mattered much, the maids had keys to open them for cleaning.

The door lock snapped back and the door creaked open.

"What?"

Zeus rubbed his right eye with his free hand and stared at me with his squinted left eye.

"Mom wanted to see you. She's in mommy's room."

I could not have imagined a more confusing statement. It felt wrong to say such things as 'your mother' and 'my mother' in this household. So, situations like these were bound to happen now that Stepmother was home.

"What for? Can't she wait until dinner? Did something happen?"

Zeus shook his head in utter bewilderment. He reasonably assumed I was talking about my mother.

"No, 'mom' wants to see you. She just got back from wherever she'd been for a long time."

It took a moment for the words to sink into Zeus's mind. Once the thought settled he rushed out the door and slammed it behind him. I chased after him.

It was a strange sight to see my brother in his nightwear scrambling down the hall and leaping up the stairs.

Zeus hadn't even taken the time to put on sandals.

He burst into mother's room.

"Zeus! Be careful, don't just open the door like an animal."

Stepmother reprimanded him for opening the door so suddenly. Even Ibis and Cassie interrupted their current game to see the commotion.

"Sorry mother, I couldn't help myself. It's just- It's good to see you."

Zeus quickly approached and hugged Stepmother. She patted his head concerned by his erratic behavior.

I'm sure the rest of my siblings would've stampeded to the courtyard, and dogpiled her then if they had heard she was home since the beginning.

"That's all well but don't be so reckless. How have you been."

"Fine, fine. I've been studying and working hard in Father's lessons too. I want to enter the academy as soon as I'm ready."

There was a certain quality of radiance in Zeus's personality that I hadn't seen before this moment. He's normally calm and reserved and he's had his burst of intensity when it comes to competing. This was different.

Zeus had on a huge grin that even revealed dimples on his cheeks. He was smiling that hard.

It was safe to say that more than anyone else, except maybe Vanilla, Zeus was the most ecstatic to reunite with Stepmother.

Zeus talked his head off about pointless things to his mother. I couldn't really keep up with his conversation as he kept switching topics.

"Well, it's time to eat, girls. Come on. Veruca would you like to join us?"

My mother got up and gathered my two sisters.

"I'd love to. Zeus why don't we continue in the dining room? That is if you don't want to get dressed properly first."

"Yeah, I'll change first. I'll be there in a bit."

"Fred are you coming too?"

Mother asked me. I wasn't particularly hungry, but I also didn't feel like I've done enough training today in any regard.

"Yep."

I grabbed my stepmother's hand as we headed back to the first floor.

Recalling what my father told me about applying a lesson learned, I decided to accept that I'm spending today with my family.

And so with little else to do for the day I let myself have fun with my family. After eating breakfast, Stepmother suggested we take a walk through the open field past the hedges near the castle.

It appeared foreboding with the entangled trees in the distance but I didn't pay it any mind.

Playing tag, I chased around my sisters through the field. I convinced Zeus to join in. His speed eventually caused all three of us to chase him down as the only one who hadn't been it yet.

It felt ok to be silly. I wouldn't get the chance to do so when I'm older, I knew this reality better than anyone else.

When Ibis finally got tired of running, she started tearing at the flowers in the field that she spotted. Cassie helped her make a bouquet out of them.

At the same time, Zeus switched from running away to chasing me. I was able to evade him for a bit before he caught me and started tickling me.

I laughed so hard I felt I was about to pass out.

"Someone's getting carried away."

I heard Darvy's voice before Zeus was on the ground himself. Zeus started snorting as Darvy's quick hands hit every ticklish part of his body.

"Hold on tight, Freddy."

Kraimer appeared from out of view as I was still recovering from getting tickled. He grabbed onto my arms and I held onto his.

Instead of merely picking me up, he started swinging me around playfully.

Father's first lesson had ended some time ago, so Darvy and Kraimer decided to accompany us on our outside fun. That's what the pair had said.

As the sun lowered Zeus headed off as his lesson was next. Soon after, Logan showed up with my older sisters to join us. Barrett finally showed up too.

There wasn't any hint of the bad feelings from this morning now.

Stepmother left to the dining room to feed Ibis and then put her to bed.

I was surprised to hear my siblings wanting to play a bit of rope ball. Logan had brought the necessary rope and ball.

Page setup the scoring holes with some earth magic. We picked out teams with Darvy and Kraimer as the captains.

With an odd number of players, Darvy and Kraimer instead opted to play a variant of rope ball. In this variant a neutral player became the carrier that scores for the team that last passed to them. Despite the initial organized beginning of the game, we ended up running around confused about who the carrier was for the round and ultimately no one knew who won.

It was still an exciting experience. My sisters were far more capable that I had assumed. Page and Whitney managed to cause Darvy to stumble with their expert high speed passes. Barrett even scored over Kraimer.

When I was the carrier it was almost a guaranteed score, I assumed they all held back because of my small stature.

We all headed to the dining room soon after the game ended.

Dinnertime arrived and we all dug into our food. The previous hours of intensity had us all starving. However, Father called on our attention as Stepmother began to speak.

"Everyone, your mom has something she wants to say."

His voice boomed over whatever chattering and chewing was going on.

"I know it's been a while since we've had a dinner as a family with everyone present. I'm grateful to see you all again. I've had a lot on my mind ever since I got back. There's been a decision I was holding off on making for quite sometime. I'm no longer tutoring the princess."

My siblings cheered believing that had been the news.

"That's not the decision I was talking about. That was the emperor's decision."

Stepmother elaborated.

"The decision I've left open was whether I'd return to teaching at the Magic Academy. After being on leave to tutor the princess. I..."

She hesitated to finish her statement. I hadn't noticed father's face throughout her speech. He looked broken, I was almost ready to cry just from seeing him that way.

Is she really leaving after everything? I thought.

"I decided, I'm going to stay here with all of you from now on."