Lyn woke up with a terrible, throbbing headache. Frowning, she tried to heave herself up, only to find out that her back was aching even more. She slumped back down and groaned.

"Oh, you're awake."

Irene sat by her bed, crossed-legged on the chair and munching on a cookie. Lyn cast her a tired glance before rubbing her face.

"Hey, Irene," she mumbled. "We... failed the commission, didn't we?

Irene shrugged. "Yes and no. We didn't capture the Witches, but Cydney managed to get us a lead on their next location, so we did get something out of this commission for the QA to work on. They say they're also gonna try and figure out a stronger antidote against Sybil's subjugation."

Lyn nodded while letting out a dejected sigh. Big commissions like this do not usually lead to immediate success, but she was still disappointed at herself for being struck down so fast. As an elemental mage, there was nothing she could do against subjugators like Sybil Dalman.

Suddenly, Irene's hand struck mercilessly on her head.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"That's for being an absolute idiot!" Irene snapped. "Raph told us everything. Why didn't you stay put as you're told? You'd be dead if not for him, you know that?"

"Oh." Lyn chuckled nervously as she rubbed her head. "Sorry, I thought Cinna was in danger so I—"

"Don't you dare push the blame onto Cyd, she's already upset enough about this."

"She's upset? Why? Where is she? Is she safe?"

Ignoring her pain, Lyn sat up and looked around. She was inside a spacious room, but there was nobody else other than her and Irene, and no other patients or beds. Wait, was she in a private hospital room? She was sure that the QA, no matter how influential or rich they were, would not cover such luxury in their commission contract.

Before she could ask about it, Irene gave her yet another smack on the head.

"Shut up about her and worry about yourself first, you fucking idiot! You were the one who almost died!"

"I know, I know, but Cinna was—" Lyn's sentence was cut off when the door slid open, revealing the woman in question

Her eyes lit up. "Cinna!"

"Lyn!" Cydney's widening smile was filled with relief. "You're awake!"

"Cin—"

A ginger-haired woman pushed Cydney to the side, bolted into the room, and pounced on Lyn, crushing her with the entire weight of her body.

"My baby!"

"Ah, get off me, Francine!" Lyn struggled against the suffocating embrace, but in her current weak state, she could not win her mother. "Why are you even here?"

"I'm here to see my favorite daughter, of course!" Francine sobbed into Lyn's head. "My poor baby is so hurt from her quest!"

Francine's chest was smothering Lyn's mouth, muffling Lyn's exasperated cries. "What do you mean, favorite? I'm your only daughter!"

(Off to the side, Cydney leaned over to Irene. "Francine?" she whispered.

Irene nodded. "Yeah, she calls her parents by their first name for some reason. It might be a white people thing, I don't know.")

A man with a head of similar reddish hair joined the bear hug as well. "I knew it was a bad idea for you to become a quester! What did I say, Francine? I told you it's dangerous!"

"I know, Chris, and I've been telling this to her every single day! But she won't listen! And now my baby girl is in the hospital!"

"Oh my God... The two of you are embarrassing me..." Lyn felt as though her soul had left her body. Her hair was wet with tears and mucus as her parents continued to weep into her head in the most unsightly manner ever known to man.

When Lyn finally managed to push them away, Francine and Chris began to unload their giant bags of food that they had brought with them.

"We brought you your favorite sponge cake," —They took out a five-layered, 10-inch tall sponge cake.— "and some eclairs," —Hundreds of chocolate- and buttercream-covered eclairs were displayed on an enormous tray.— "and pies!" —They hauled a massive pie that had the circumference of an extra-large pizza.

"Oh my God..." Lyn covered her face. Even after twenty-five years, she still could not get used to her parents' over-the-top indulgence. "You two shouldn't have come. I won't be able to hang out with you; after I get out of the hospital, I'm going to go right back to work."

"No, you're not," Irene said flatly. "You're taking the entire week off."

"What? No way. We have commissions lined up after this, so I need to—"

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"I pushed them back for you."

"You pushed them back? Why would you do that?"

Irene scowled. "Don't be an idiot. Just look at you now. Also, even if you don't want to rest, the rest of the team needs a break after that ordeal."

"Yeah, listen to Irene!" Francine interjected, squishing Lyn's cheeks aggressively. "My poor baby is working way too hard! Oh, I'm so worried about you!"

"I'm fine! God!" Lyn pushed Francine's hands away from her.

"Our Lyn has always been so reckless." Chris shook his head in disappointment as he wiped his tears away. He turned to Cydney, who seemed to be enjoying the ruckus somehow. "Cydney, do you want to hear about the time Lyn learned how to ride a bike by herself? Instead of learning with our help, this girl chose to learn by riding the bike down a slope. And then—"

"Ah, stop, stop!" Lyn waved her hands around in fear. "Don't- Don't tell her that!"

"Why not? She's been finding all the stories really interesting."

"You've been... telling her... stories...?" Blood drained from her face. She could see Irene stifling her laughter from the corner of her eyes.

"Oh, yeah, of course!" Francine continued, unaware of Lyn's growing despair. "We've been telling her all kinds of fun stories about you as a child! And Cydney had been loving it! Oh, you were such a crazy baby, my little ball of sunshine, my absolute favorite child—"

"I'm your only child!"

The more Francine spoke, the more Lyn wanted to dig a hole in the middle of this hospital room and bury herself in there forever. She narrowed her eyes accusingly at her parents. "Also, did you two help me pay for this private room or something? How much is that?"

"Oh, we didn't. Cydney paid for it."

"Cinna?" Lyn gasped. She turned and stared at the petite woman shuffling uneasily in the corner. "You paid for this?"

Cydney nodded, her eyes averted. "Y- Yeah. They told me that I can upgrade it, and I thought you'd get better rest in a private room..."

"She used the entirety of her share from this commission to upgrade you to a private room," Irene said.

"What? Why would you do that, Cinna?"

"Sorry, should I... not have done it...?"

"No, no, I mean, it's just- it's so expensive! You didn't have to do that."

"Oh, that's okay," Cydney said sincerely. "It's also my fault that you ended up like this anyway..."

Lyn cursed at herself. Was this what Irene meant when she said Cydney was upset? Was Cydney blaming herself for everything?

"Cinna, it's not your fault at all, please, never think that—"

Right at that moment, Francine and Chris tackled each other in an embrace and burst into tears.

Lyn had to suppress an eye roll. "Argh, what is it this time?"

Francine broke off the hug to wipe her tears. "We're just so happy for you, Lyn..."

"W- What?"

"After your tragic breakup last time, I thought you're going to end up all alone and sad forever, but I'm so, so happy for you now!"

Lyn almost fell out of her bed.

"W- What are you talking about?" she stammered, peering nervously at the pony-tailed woman next to her. To her relief, Cydney did not seem to have understood what Francine was implying.

As if trying to make things worse, Chris turned to Cydney and held her hands. "Cydney, our baby daughter can be a little reckless, and stubborn, and stupid, but trust me when I say that she has a good heart. Sure, she doesn't have a perfect track record when it comes to relationships, but she's grown and matured a lot now and—"

"No, no, no, no!" Lyn flailed her arms around, cutting her father off. "Shush! No more, no more!"

Irene sensed danger as well—she brought up a random topic of filling out forms for the hospital and escorted the two parents out of the room.

After they were safely out of the room, Lyn heaved a small sigh of relief and gave Cydney a bashful smile. "Sorry, Cinna, just, erm, just ignore what they say."

Cydney's eyes lingered at the door, a wistful smile on her face.

"Your parents are really nice," she said, before looking back at Lyn accusingly. "You... should be nicer to them."

Lyn's cheeks burnt at that mild admonition. "I- I know. I do love them a lot, really, I just... They can be so frustrating, you know? Always coddling me like I'm a kid. It's annoying."

"Of course, you're always gonna be their kid. All parents are like that." Cydney settled on the chair Irene had been sitting on. "Mine was too."

Lyn cursed at herself once again. Why would she say all that about her parents, when Cydney could not even go home to see hers?

"I'm so sorry, Cinna."

"You don't have to apologize to me," Cydney said, a small pout on her lips. "Apologize to them instead. They deserve to be treated better; they're very sweet."

Lyn sighed. "I take that you liked hanging out with them?"

"Mmhm."

"Well, that makes one of us."

"Lyn!"

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding! Anyway, enough about me and my parents. How have you been, Cinna? What happened during the commission?"

Nervousness crawled over the Asian woman's face. "Oh, n- nothing much... I, erm, didn't get too affected by the subjugation magic, so I... chased after the Witches... and—"

"By yourself?" Lyn reached out a hand and grabbed Cydney's. "That's so dangerous! Please don't fight anyone without backups next time, okay?"

Cydney nodded slowly. "Lyn, can I ask you something? What will happen to the Witches if they get caught?"

Lyn blinked, taken aback by the question. "Oh, they'll be imprisoned, of course. Sybil Dalman will definitely be thrown to the supermax prison since her powers are so... frighteningly dangerous."

"Oh." Cydney's brows furrowed. "What is that like?"

"Not sure. I know there's tons of quester-level guards, highly enforced buildings, solitary confinement, and the likes."

Cydney did not seem to like the description. "What about..." —Her eyes swept the floor before climbing up to the bedpost.— "What about people who... do Blood Magic? What happens to them?"

Lyn stiffened. "What? Did you learn something? Do the Witches do Blood Magic? If they do, you better report it—"

"No, no, Lyn! I'm- I'm just curious, that's all..."

"Oh, okay." Lyn let her shoulders sag back down. "Well, then, I don't know, Cinna. We don't deal much with these things. If I had to guess, probably death sentence?"

"Death..." Cydney paled. "Oh. That's... scary."

"Yeah, but Blood Magic is really, really bad," Lyn said with a grimace. "If you hear something about it, you should let the QA know. You don't want to even be associated with it."

Cydney's expression turned strangely dark before it was quickly replaced with a smile. Changing the subject, she dug out a few bottles of pills from her pocket. "By the way, I also got you these supplements. The doctor says it'll help you recover faster."

Lyn stared at the bottles, and then at Cydney. How much money was this girl spending on her?

"Thank you, Cinna, but you didn't have to do this for me."

Cydney gave Lyn a gentle smile in response. It was small, but it was still so breathtaking; the way her cheeks bulged out like little mochi balls of joy, pushing her dark, round eyes into an adorable crescent... Lyn wished she could stare at this perfect face all her life.

But of course, her parents just had to ruin this treasured sight by running back into the room once again.

"My baby Lyn!" Ambushing Lyn with an unsolicited hug, Francine announced with a high-pitched voice, "We're back!"

"Ah, get off me!" Lyn tried to push her away, but Chris decided to pile on them as well, making it harder for Lyn to break free.

"I missed you so, so much, my baby!"

"Why did I ever let you leave home?"

"I! Can't! Breathe!"