Chapter 34: Home
The examination grounds had nearly emptied by the time Arthur stretched his arms above his head and said, with complete sincerity, "That was fun."
Vedas looked at him.
"Fun," Vedas said.
"Yeah."
Vedas considered arguing and decided against it. He had a feeling, and the feeling was that he would lose.
Melo was asleep in the crook of Arthur’s elbow, a small warm weight that had arranged itself into a position of complete comfort without any apparent awareness that it had done so.
Arthur glanced around the thinning grounds. Then stopped. Mithra wasn’t nearby. He thought back through the evening and remembered something she had mentioned: a Communication Crystal, a call she needed to make.
He found her near one of the stone walls at the edge of the grounds.
A crystal floated in front of her, its surface lit with pale blue light, and Mithra was standing with the particular quietness of someone who was not performing anything. Arthur had spent an entire day watching Mithra be warm and present and relentlessly attentive to everyone around her, and this was not that. She was just standing there, listening, and her eyes were lowered.
He heard her voice, soft enough that he almost didn’t catch it: "So I’ll be alone?"
A pause. The response from the crystal was in a voice that was warm and masculine and older, and Arthur couldn’t hear the words themselves, only the quality of them.
Mithra’s mouth made a small shape. "Oh." Then: "I understand."
Something passed across her face in the space of a second. It was not sadness, and it was not self-pity, and it had nothing to ask for. It was simply the expression of someone who had accepted something they had been accepting for a long time.
Then it was gone. The smile came back, easy and practiced, and Mithra turned her head slightly as though she had heard something interesting.
Arthur had already crossed the distance.
He put his arm around her shoulders.
Every person and object in the immediate vicinity went still. Mithra froze. The crystal froze. Vedas froze. Melo shifted slightly in her sleep without waking.
Arthur grinned. "You can stay with me."
Mithra opened her mouth. It stayed open for a moment. Nothing came out.
The voice in the crystal said, very carefully: "...who is this?"
"Arthur."
A pause.
"Your daughter has been taking care of me all day," Arthur said. "I’m returning the favor."
Mithra made a sound that was not quite a word.
Then the laughter came through the crystal, warm and genuine and considerably more dangerous than Mithra’s laughter because it had the quality of someone who found things funny in exactly the same places she did.
Arthur immediately liked this person.
"Is that how it happened?" the voice said.
"Pretty much."
"That is not what happened," Mithra said.
"Too late," Arthur said. "He already heard it."
The laughter strengthened. "I think I’ll take Arthur’s version."
"Father," Mithra said, in the tone of someone who had identified where all of her problems were currently located.
"What?" her father said, in the tone of someone who had not done anything.
Arthur nodded wisely. "He seems nice."
Mithra appeared to be considering the logistics of throwing two people into a body of water simultaneously.
"Arthur... I have a question... How does Mithra seem to you?"
Arthur looked at Mithra, and Mithra looked back at him with a warning in her eyes.
"She tends to pay attention to others more than herself."
Silence.
"Is that what you think?" the voice said.
"That’s what I noticed," Arthur said.
"You’re staying with this boy?" the voice softly said to Mithra.
"He just decided that," Mithra said.
"And you object?"
A pause.
"No," she admitted.
"Good," the voice said. "He seems like he’ll make sure you eat."
"I eat perfectly fine."
"You forget lunch when you’re busy."
"That’s different."
"Arthur," the voice said.
"Yes?"
"Make sure she eats."
"That is not necessary," Mithra said.
"Done," Arthur said to the crystal.
"Thank you."
Mithra turned toward Arthur with both hands on her hips. Arthur looked at her with the expression of someone who had just made a reasonable commitment to a reasonable person and could not identify the problem.
Vedas sat down quietly on the ground. He had decided to wait this out. Melo remained asleep. She had excellent judgment about these things.
"So she’ll be staying with you for the two weeks before the Academy starts," the voice said. More statement than question.
"If that’s alright," Arthur said.
"Is your family comfortable with that?"
"My mother will like her," Arthur said. "She likes people who need to rest."
"And you think Mithra needs to rest."
"I think she’s been going all day and hasn’t stopped once."
A pause.
"Hm," the voice said. It was a complicated sound. The sound of someone receiving information that confirmed something they had been thinking for a while.
"You’re not the kind of person who lets their daughter spend two weeks alone in an empty house anyway, right?" Arthur said. "That would be a genuinely terrible thing."
The examination grounds went quiet while Mithra turned toward Arthur very slowly. The man laughed while Vedas buried his face behind one hand.
Melo remained asleep.
Finally the laughter settled. "I guess I can see your point."
Arthur pumped his fist. "Nice."
"Mithra." She went still at her father’s voice. "Go have fun."
"... okay," Mithra muttered.
Her father laughed. "There she is."
Mithra rolled her eyes, but the smile stayed. "Goodnight, Father."
"Goodnight, sweetheart."
The crystal’s light faded slowly and then was gone.
Arthur looked at Mithra. "So."
Mithra looked back. "So."
"Are you staying with me?"
Mithra laughed. "You really don’t give people time to process things."
"Is that a yes?"
"...yes."
Arthur grinned. "Good. These two weeks will be fun." Then he immediately turned around. "Let’s go home."
Vedas followed.
Mithra stared at Arthur’s back for a moment. Somehow it seemed a little larger than before. Then she smiled and followed.
...
The walk through Greenleaf Town at night was quieter than Arthur expected. He walked ahead with Mithra beside him, and Vedas followed behind him. Melo still slept comfortably in Arthur’s arms.
For the first time in what felt like forever.
Nobody was fighting. Nobody was trying to kill them. Nobody was trying to recruit them. Nobody was losing their mind over evolution. It was oddly peaceful other than Mithra asking what his home was like.
"Small," Arthur said. "Warm. My mother cooks well."
"That sounds nice."
He asked about hers. She answered, but the answers were brief and vague enough that it became obvious she wasn’t ready to explain more.
Arthur eventually pointed ahead. "There."
Mithra looked up.
A small house stood at the end of the street. Warm yellow light shined through the windows. It looked simple and was nothing special, yet it felt welcoming somehow.
Arthur smiled immediately.
"Home."
...
Maria Cronwall was standing on a stool trying to reach something on the upper shelf when the door opened, and she turned with the automatic smile of a mother who had been waiting for the sound of the door.
Then she saw what had come through it.
Her eyes moved through the group with the systematic attention of someone conducting a rapid inventory. Arthur. A girl with pink-and-blue hair in the Pathfinder uniform. An armored figure that stood chest-height on Arthur and was carrying a spear.
A small sleeping fox in Arthur’s elbow.
Arthur waved. "Hi."
"...Arthur."
"Yeah?"
"You’ve brought home considerably more than I expected."
"I know. It happened gradually." He rubbed the back of his neck.
"Well, that’s fine. Welcome home, my sweatie."
Arthur beamed at her before snapping his fingers. "Oh right. This is Maria; can she stay with us for two weeks?"
"Oh? This is new, you have never invited anyone over before." Maria tilted her head. "Do you like her that much?"
"Yeah, I do..." Arthur was quiet for a moment, and then he said. "I know it’s sudden–"
Maria gently caressed his face. "Didn’t I tell you," she said, "not to worry about things like that?"
Arthur stopped.
"I’m happy you found a friend you like that much," Maria said simply. "Of course she can. People shouldn’t have to earn a place to rest. The world asks enough from people already."
Mithra stood very still in the doorway.
Arthur looked at his mother for a moment. "...Are you sure?"
Maria raised her eyebrows. "Has mommy ever lied?"
Arthur blinked, and then the smallest smile appeared. "No," he said. "Usually not."
Maria looked at Arthur. "Besides... The best stories always start with someone showing up at your door."
Arthur laughed at those words.
Maria laughed, and she dropped her hand from his cheek and stepped back.
Mithra cleared her throat. "I do have money. For the stay, I mean. It wouldn’t be any trouble for me to—"
"And you want to pay for staying here?" Maria said.
Mithra nodded. "It would only be fair."
"Give it up," Arthur said, without looking at Mithra. "She won’t accept it."
"I’m a guest," Mithra said.
"You can explain that to her. It won’t help."
"Arthur’s right," Maria said pleasantly. "I won’t accept it."
Mithra looked between them.
Arthur said. "But."
Maria looked at him with mild suspicion. "But."
"We could go together and buy the ingredients for what we want to eat," Arthur said. "That way you’re choosing what comes into the house. Which is different from paying."
Mithra blinked.
Maria gave him an amused smile. The kind that arrived when she had lost and found it genuinely funny.
"Did the meat clerk give you that idea?"
Arthur looked at the wall.
Maria laughed.
Vedas looked at Arthur, who was still looking at the wall.
"Fine," Maria said. "We’ll do that."
She then took Mithra’s hands and looked at her with the warm green eyes that Arthur had inherited the shape of, if not the color. "You must be exhausted." She squeezed Mithra’s hands once. "Thank you for looking after him."
Mithra blinked. "I don’t think I looked after him, exactly."
Maria tilted her head. "Oh?"
"He mostly looked after himself. And everyone else."
Maria turned toward Arthur. "Then we’re both suffering."
Arthur looked offended.
Vedas looked amused.
Mithra laughed despite herself.
...
Then Maria looked at Vedas.
He stiffened slightly. He had been welcomed at the settlement, and Arthur had accepted him from the first moment, but this was different. This was a human home, a human mother, and the question of what that acceptance would look like here was one he had not thought to prepare for.
Maria walked over and stopped in front of him. She looked up because he was taller than her now, and she smiled. "Welcome home too," she said.
Vedas froze.
He had prepared himself for suspicion. He had prepared himself for fear. He had even prepared himself for rejection. He had not prepared himself for kindness. For some reason, that felt harder to deal with.
Maria smiled. "You don’t have to stand outside. You’re family now."
"...humans are strange."
Maria blinked. "Good strange or bad strange?"
Vedas looked away. "...good strange."
Maria’s smile grew, and she patted Vedas’ shoulder. "Then you should get used to it being my adorable son’s partner. He has been talking about getting a Beast Partner for the entire year—"
"I did not!’
"You absolutely did. It was pretty cute how you would sit at the table and talk about what you plan to do with your partner."
"Oh? What type of partner did he want?"
"Well... Actually, I think he drew some pictures."
Arthur froze. "Mother."
"I still have them."
"Mother!"
Mithra looked interested. "Oh?"
Arthur immediately changed the subject. "Dinner."
Mithra immediately started laughing again.
For some reason.
Vedas felt warmer than before.
"Regardless, you guys can relax here," she said quietly. "For as long as you’re staying."
Mithra and Vedas looked at her.
Maria smiled. "I hope you guys enjoy your time here."
Mithra was quiet for a moment. Then she smiled, and it was the smile she had shown her father through the crystal. "Thank you," she said.
Vedas trembled before blushing and looking away.
Arthur smiled.
"Everyone." Maria clapped her hands. "Dinner is ready, though. So you can-"
Arthur immediately moved, dragging Mithra with him. Vedas chuckled before following along towards the dining room.
Maria smiled. "Definitely my son."
...
Arthur reached the table first.
Which wasn’t surprising.
What was surprising was how quickly food started disappearing.
Mithra blinked.
Vedas blinked.
Maria stared.
Arthur shoveled another mouthful into his mouth.
Then another.
Then another.
Maria put a hand over her face.
"Arthur."
"Hm?"
"You have guests."
Arthur looked around.
Then looked at the food.
Then back at her.
"I can eat politely tomorrow."
Silence.
Mithra immediately burst out laughing. Even Vedas looked away to hide a smile.
Maria pointed toward him. "See?" She looked toward Mithra. "This is what I deal with."
Arthur looked offended. "I survived an entire secret realm."
"Yes." Maria nodded. "And somehow table manners remain your greatest enemy."
Mithra laughed harder.
Vedas looked at Arthur. "...He really eats like that?"
Maria nodded. "Every day."
"...Impressive."
...
Soon everyone was sitting down.
Vedas stared at the plate in front of him.
Human food.
A human table.
A human home.
The situation felt strangely unreal.
Maria noticed. Of course she noticed. She immediately reached over and placed another piece of meat onto his plate. "Try this one."
Vedas blinked. "...for me?"
Maria looked confused. "Who else would I be giving it to?"
Silence.
Vedas slowly looked down. Then nodded. "...thank you."
Maria smiled. "No problem."
For some reason. That simple exchange felt heavier than it should have.
...
Mithra watched the interaction.
Maria serving Arthur.
Maria serving Vedas.
Maria asking if Melo wanted food despite the fox being asleep.
It was all so natural. Nobody was trying or forcing anything, and instead it simply happened like this was normal. Like there had always been room at the table.
Maria eventually noticed her staring and then pointed toward Mithra’s plate. "Eat."
Mithra blinked.
Maria pointed again. "You’ve been thinking instead of eating."
Arthur immediately nodded. "Her father said she does that."
Mithra closed her eyes.
"Why did he tell you anything?"
"Because he left you in my care."
"He was a fool for that."
"Ahh, no need to be shy," Arthur said with a chuckle.
Maria laughed.
Even Vedas chuckled.
For a moment, the room felt warm to her. To the point she couldn’t help but smile at how easy everything was right now. And Mithra realized something. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d eaten dinner like this.
She didn’t realize how tired she was until nobody expected anything from her. For once... She didn’t have to be the one taking care of everyone else.
...
Maria looked around the table.
Her son.
His partner.
His friend.
The sleeping fox.
All of them were laughing. All of them were safe.
A soft smile appeared on her face. "Now this," she said quietly. "This is a story worth coming home to."
Arthur looked up before smiling at her. "I agree."
Maria smiled. "I know."
And for the first time all day, everyone simply relaxed.
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