Chapter 233: 234 | I Call It Family
Cheon set her tablet down and approached the couch. She didn’t sit. Just stood in front of us with her arms crossed and her expression unreadable.
"Your reserves are at thirty-one percent. That’s a significant increase from this morning."
"Laurana’s ability is compatible with the drain. The transfer was more efficient than usual."
"I noticed." Her eyes narrowed slightly. "Your heart rate peaked at one hundred eighty-seven beats per minute approximately forty-three minutes ago. That is concerning from a cardiovascular perspective."
"I was exercising."
"You were having sex with our professor."
"That’s a form of exercise."
The corner of her mouth twitched. Almost a smile. "I will update my records accordingly."
Noel hadn’t moved from her position near the window. Her violet hair caught the city lights. Her grey eyes watched me with an intensity that felt like being examined under a microscope.
"You’re collecting us."
"What?"
"Mera. Me. Aurora. Cheon. Now Reeves." She walked closer. Stopped at the edge of the couch. "You’re collecting women like someone building a team. Except it’s not just a team, is it? It’s something more."
"The system calls it a harem."
"I’m not talking about what the system calls it." She knelt in front of me. Her face level with mine. Close enough that I could see the flecks of violet in her grey irises. "I’m asking what you call it."
I thought about the question. Really thought about it. Not the glib answer or the deflection or the joke that would let me slide past the vulnerable moment without acknowledging it.
"Family," I said finally. "I call it family."
The word sat in the air between us. Heavy with meaning neither of us had expected.
"Family." Noel repeated it like she was testing the shape of it. "You think of us as family."
"I think of you as the people I would burn the world down to protect." I looked at each of them again. Mera pressed against my side. Aurora holding my hand. Cheon standing guard. Noel kneeling before me. "I think of you as the reason I’m fighting instead of running. I think of you as home."
Aurora made a small sound. Something between a laugh and a sob. Her free hand came up to wipe at her eyes.
"You can’t just say things like that."
"Why not?"
"Because it makes it impossible to be mad at you."
"I didn’t realize you were mad at me."
"I’m furious." She smiled through the tears she was pretending weren’t there. "You slept with our professor and came home smelling like thermal discharge and instead of apologizing you told us we’re your family and now I can’t remember why I was upset."
"I’m good at redirecting conversations."
"You’re good at making people love you." Mera’s voice was muffled against my shoulder. "It’s annoying."
I wanted to argue that point. Wanted to remind her that the original Rome had been universally despised by everyone who knew him well enough to form an opinion. Wanted to point out that whatever charm I possessed was borrowed from fictional characters whose dialogue I’d absorbed through years of consuming media.
But the words wouldn’t come.
Because maybe she was right. Maybe whatever the system had done to me when it dropped me into this body had included some fundamental rewiring that made connection easier. Made vulnerability possible. Made love something I could reach for instead of something that happened to other people while I watched from the sidelines.
Or maybe it was just the women themselves. Maybe Mera and Cheon and Aurora and Noel and Laurana and whoever else joined this increasingly complicated arrangement were simply the right people at the right time. Maybe they saw something in me that the original Rome had buried too deep to access and decided it was worth digging for.
Either way, I was here now. Surrounded by people who knew what I was and chose to stay anyway.
The ramen had gone cold.
Aurora noticed me looking at the bowl she’d abandoned and laughed. The sound filled the penthouse with something warm and genuine and alive.
"I’ll heat it up."
"Let me." Cheon took the bowl before Aurora could argue. "You have been providing emotional support. I will provide nutritional support. Both are necessary for optimal functioning."
Noel finally stood. Her knees must have been hurting from kneeling on the hard floor, but she didn’t show it. Corporate composure reasserting itself now that the vulnerable moment had passed.
"We still have problems."
"We always have problems."
"Your father knows about the surveillance countermeasures. Your sister’s loyalty is uncertain at best. The NEA investigation is accelerating. And you just added another complication to an already complicated situation by sleeping with a woman who has the political connections to either save us or destroy us depending on which way the wind blows."
"That’s the situation, yes."
"And your plan is what exactly?"
"Win the match." I leaned back into the couch. Let Mera’s weight settle against my side. Let Aurora’s hand stay tangled with mine. "Win the match, impress the scouts, secure the Vanguard contract, become too valuable to disappear. Everything else is details."
"Those are significant details."
"They’re details I can’t control." I closed my eyes. Just for a moment. Just to feel the reality of being surrounded by people who gave a damn whether I lived or died. "The match is something I can control. Three weeks of training and preparation and turning whatever abilities I have into something that looks impressive enough to matter."
Cheon returned with the reheated ramen. Set it on the coffee table in front of me. "You should eat. Your metabolic readings suggest you have been running at a deficit for the last eighteen hours."
I opened my eyes. Looked at the bowl. At the steam rising from the surface. At the careful way the noodles had been arranged despite being reheated.
"Did you remake this?"
"The original presentation was degraded by cooling. I corrected it."
I picked up the chopsticks. Took a bite. The flavor was rich and warm and exactly what I needed after a day that had included training, emotional confrontations, and sex with a woman who could probably incinerate me if I disappointed her.
"It’s good."
"I know."
Mera’s tail tightened around my wrist. Aurora shifted closer. Noel finally sat down in the armchair across from us. Cheon returned to her tablet but kept glancing up like she wanted to make sure I was actually eating.
We stayed like that for a while. The penthouse quiet except for the occasional sound of me working through the ramen. The city lights twinkling beyond the windows. The weight of everything we were facing temporarily pushed aside by the simple act of being together.
"Rome."
Mera’s voice was sleepy. Muffled against my shoulder.
"Yeah?"
"Don’t die."
"I’ll do my best."
"Promise me."
I thought about all the ways that promise could break. All the variables I couldn’t control. My father’s resources. The federal connections. The match itself and the thousands of ways it could go wrong even if I prepared perfectly.
But she wasn’t asking for a guarantee. She was asking for commitment. For effort. For the assurance that I would fight as hard as I could to come back to the people waiting for me.
"I promise."
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