"Phah! Finally done for the day!" Dad groaned loudly as he threw his weary body on the couch, "I forgot how painful this work actually was! Dammit Issei, why couldn't you have just stayed back in your world?"
"You were the one weeping and asking me to stay here to begin with, so live with it." Issei too looked tired, though the two girls tending to him the entire time certainly isn't making it look obvious, "Besides, I told you already that that world wouldn't accept people like us there anymore. Hell, I'd say it's actually pretty lucky you interrupted the ritual when you did, cause without your Materialize Ability, I'd have long since died on the streets of Japan."
"You poor soul..." Auntie stroked his hair as he laid his head nicely on her lap.
"Was it really that dangerous?" Othelia seemed skeptical, though she too thought to boop his nose as if it was a primal urge, "I think you're overexaggerating again."
"Ask Lune, he'll tell you."
"We ate good food, and we saw a bunch of cool stuff." Dad shrugged, "I don't know what he's yapping about, but to me it was like going on a bona fide tourist trip."
"Gah! Easy for you to say, you have everything you could ever want in life!" Issei shouted at the man seated alone across from him, "Meanwhile I'm here with so much I haven't yet accomplished! It's not fair!"
"Again, how do these girls put up with you?" Lem sighed, "Either way, you guys are only now feeling the fatigue after I stopped the buffs, but I felt it the entire day, so I better get extra pay for this."
"Didn't uncle already negotiate your pay and accounted for this?" I smirked, "You even personally agreed to it, with all of us as witnesses. Your pay is set in stone."
"I'd cuss you out so much right now but I'm afraid your old man's gonna beat me up WITHOUT Healing."
They're in quite the chipper mood, despite their hard day today. Then again, with how much they've accomplished in just a single day, who wouldn't be proud of a job well done? Lem's trying hard to prove to everyone that he doesn't need anyone's help, but he's taking it way too far. Hell, you could at least take the lemonade I gave you, come on!
"That being the case..." Dad cleared his throat, "I think I should apologize again for that incident, Lemmy."
"Yeah, you should. You should apologize every day starting now." Lem chuckled.
"I'm serious." Dad nodded, "I didn't hear out your guys' explanations and jumped to some rather hasty conclusions. You've diligently been proving this entire day how much my daughter and you aren't like that, so I can confidently say you've convinced us."
How nice, they're getting along... Oi, what the hell do you mean by that last sentence? The hell's he been spouting the entire day about me? I just hope he didn't say anything to throw me under the wagon just to save himself.
"Ah, I've convinced you?" Lem smirked, "That means I'm safe to hit on her from now on, did I get that right?"
"Lem-!" I shouted.
"Heh, nice one." Dad actually took the joke in stride this time, "You're a good kid, Lemmy."
"Whoa, I thought you were about to slam his face into the table." Issei looked a tad stunned as well, "Like father like son, I guess. Lee used to piss off the guards in the prison the second they let him go from his punishments."
"Don't worry about it, Nelly." Dad smiled back, "This kid's a joker, alright, but I get he means no harm with it. That being the case, you're on thin ice, Lemmy."
"Even the straight man can make a couple jokes every now and then." Lem stuck his tongue out, "Now, what's for dinner? You making dinner again?"
"Nah, Cecily thought to make dinner today because I was working on the house with you guys." Dad explained, "Honestly, I'm just as excited about it as you. You'll see what I mean, she just never misses with the cooking!"
That's a pretty high bar you've just raised for the poor fool, dad, but sadly Lem is about to get his dreams shattered the moment he sits down to eat. In truth, both mom and dad have a certain "style" of cooking—That being to just toss whatever in the oven and add a ton of spices at the end. It essentially makes even the blandest meals "exciting", but for anyone with a normal tongue in their mouth, it's usually just described as "bad".
"So, what do you say, Lemmy?" Mom smiled proudly at him as he partook in the first bite, "I think this is the best spiced chicken I've made yet!"
"Yeah, it's good." He held in his gagging, "It's just, I couldn't help but notice, ma'am..."
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing, just..." He pointed to his plate, "There's some chicken in your spices, you might wanna look into that."
"Gods, I knew I should've cooked more chicken..." She muttered.
I don't think that's the problem, mama. The issue isn't that there's way too little chicken, it's that there's way too much salt and pepper. Gods, everyone says this about their cooking, and yet mom and dad still insist on it.
"Y'know..." Lem whispered to me, "I thought your dad was just purposefully poisoning me with this morning's food, but I guess this is how your folks usually cook. How did you and your brother even survive this far?"
"Oh come on, that's going a bit far now, isn't it?" I chuckled, "Even crap starts to taste good if you eat it every day."
"Oh."
"And hey, didn't you say you liked dad's breakfast?"
"What I say and what I think don't always have to align." He shared a secret with me, "See, there's a name for such a powerful cursed technique—It's lying."
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"You two, less flirting, more eating." Mom scolded us.
"Hell, I'd rather flirt with her and get my teeth kicked in than eat this." Lem blurted out.
"What?!"
"Nothing! Tasty!" He gulped everything down that very moment.
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***
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"Lem, Lem!" Cene toddled to where he was taking a nap, "Let's play again!"
"Sorry little man, I'm busy doing something."
"What? What? Can I help?" Cene continued to buzz around him.
"Actually, yeah." Lem nodded, "I'm fighting the nap demons in my dreams right now, and I could really use some backup. Just lie down with me and let's kick some butt."
"Aw yeah!" Cene jumped up and down excitedly before running off, "Lemme get my swowd filrst!"
"I don't think-" He tried to stop him, but gave up midway, "Never mind, he's already gone."
"I think he mentioned something about a toy sword he was fond of as of recent." I chuckled.
"Well, that shouldn't be too much of a... PROBLEM!?" Lem jumped from his seat the moment he saw the little boy lugging around a sword twice his height, "Hey, what the hell is that demonic thing!?"
"Hehe, cool isn't it!" Cene smugly replied, "I found it in the woods—It's called the Pwototype!"
"And such a cool edgy name to boot!" I shouted, "Cene, what did mom and dad say to you carrying this thing home!?"
"It's fine, we were the ones that suggested he take it in the first place." Mom stated from the other room, "Though I will say Nat overdid it with the restoration. To think she was this talented in swords as well as dresses..."
"Ah, so it was Nat who made the Prototype look like this?" Dad popped his head out to ask, "Yeah, I saw it hung up on the wall and genuinely didn't recognize it the first time I saw it when we got back. I didn't think you'd actually send it out for repairs while Ed and I were in Simpleton, Cily."
"Sigh, it was either that or endure Cene's endless whining. Besides, it was really rusted, so if he accidentally got cut, it'd be the death of me." Mom shook her head.
Eh, what's going on? Am I missing something? This kid got a damned giga-sword while I was away!? And mom and dad just let him take it from some random woods from Gods know where? What if it belonged to a fallen soldier's grave or something, use your brain, guys!
"Looks like I'm not the only bandit in the house anymore." Lem agreed with my sentiment, "Though from what I gathered, grave robbers is a way more fitting title for you guys."
"Don't say that, the Prototype is a family heirloom." Dad revealed before pulling the two of us close to whisper, "My dad gave it to me for my thirteenth birthday, and we gave it to Cene when we went to visit them."
"Your parents? So... my grandparents?" I tilted my head, "They're still alive? Wait, they exist to begin with?"
"If they never existed, then neither would I, no?" Dad chuckled, "We went to visit them a few months ago, though you were in Simpleton at the time, so we couldn't bring you along."
Ah, I get it now. So while I was away: Dad freaking revived, got married to mom officially, visited my grandparents, gave Cene his Proto-sword or whatever, WENT TO ANOTHER WORLD AND BACK, and all I did was... Study? Well, then again, there was that whole saga with Meil's schizophrenia, the drama between Lem, Kiara and Kevin, the play we did when dad and uncle visited, not to mention, y'know... that whole ordeal with the police and Meil. Sigh, I guess we both missed out on a lot.
"Is sis gonna come with us next time?" Cene turned to me.
"Of-..." I bit my tongue before nodding decidedly, "Of course, little bro! I'll make sure to go with you next time!"
"And what of your studies, miss honors student?" Lem asked.
"I'll find a way!"
"And Lem?" Cene again annoyingly asked Lem to come along, "Awe you gonna come too?"
"Obviously." Lem ruffled up his hair, "Anything that'll annoy your sister is okay with me!"
"If you crash the visitation another time, I swear I'm throwing you off the side of the ship." I threatened.
"Then I'm sure the little man will be more than willing to jump right after me to try and perform a rescue." Lem stuck his tongue out, "Face it, Nel, we're stuck together~!"
Argh, he's using my brother as leverage to get more free vacations in! There's no way dad's gonna allow for this! Well, mom maybe, because she seems oddly fond of Lem (fond enough to even lend him some rather expectant anti-contraceptives), but dad should be sane... right?
"Of course you can't, what the hell?" Dad immediately denied the idea.
"Oh thank Gods!" I heaved a sigh of relief.
"What's so bad about me visiting your folks, dude?" Lem rolled his Eyes, "I'm not gonna be pulling anything stupid."
"I know, but there's a certain girl who might..." Dad gave me a nasty side Eye of all people, "If her naivety got you beaten up by me, I can only imagine how my dad would react if you guys happened to create another misunderstanding."
"Again, that's some heavy slander to throw on your own daughter, papa..." I grunted, "Besides, is grandpa really that bad?"
"He's a butcher, dear." Dad smiled, "He cuts meat for a living, and with the Grimhearts' temper, I'm not sure how hesitant he would be to just swap out the pig meat for human meat."
"Ah, I getcha'." Lem nodded before dozing off, "Guess I'll have to wait for my insurance to come before I visit them."
Insurance? What insurance? Is there even such a thing? Mark my words, he's never gonna meet my grandparents!