“LARK!” Two bear cubs rammed into his gut like a bullet airship. Teddy’s dark brown hair hung upside down as he latched onto Lark’s arm like a monkey, while Cloud, as curious as a cat, poked various spots on his ribs.

“Help! The dragon is getting abused,” Lark cried out through the doorway, trying to keep the two misfits away from his surprise.

Mishka came to his rescue or so he thought. “My minions we haven’t finished building the thing, let’s regroup inside and attack him after he’s offered his treasures. You know, dragons collect the most delicious and expensive kinds of treasures.” She winked.

“Yes, Cat Princess.” The twins saluted and returned inside. Lark could hear their Lego box jingle as it slid across the kitchen floor. Hugging his box tighter, he looked over Mishka’s shoulder wondering what they were up to.

“Hey, no peeking,” Mishka warned.

“Is that so, Cat Princess?” He repeated with a drawl. “Ha. Should ask them to call you their Cat Goddess.”

“Should I tell my heroes their Cat Princess is getting bullied by the evil dragon?” She pouted, putting a hand on her hip while holding the door for him.

Lark shook his head and stepped inside to set his box on the kitchen counter. The twins were nowhere in sight; they must’ve moved their base to the living room.

“It’s true what they say about couples, they start to think alike. Maybe look alike…” With a smirk, he took off his aviators and placed them over her eyes.

“Now with your two fingers touching the middle of your face like how Sky does it—exactly like that—Repeat after me: Laaark, you’re awesome. And cackle or add in a ‘nyahhh.’ Whichever.”

One of the cat ears drooped as she stood in the center of Sky’s kitchen.

“I’m not saying that, but thanks for the aviators.” A wide grin spread across her cheeks, laughter whistling between her teeth. She stepped back, pulling the rim downward, allowing Lark to see burgundy liner intensify her already striking blue eyes.

“See, I don’t think Sky would’ve done that,” Lark said, scratching the spot behind his ear. She twisted away from his reach and waltzed into the living room, where the sound of mischievous giggling could be heard.

“Heroes,” she sang, sending a thrill down his spine. He couldn’t see past his black tinted shades, but he knew her eyes were overflowing with a devilish thrill.

Oh, he was in for it.

“Attack!”

Bird-sized balls whizzed past his ear. A catapult that barely reached the twins’ shoulders was tucked near the stairwell. He ducked behind the armchair as Teddy reloaded, but lying in wait was Cloud. Buckets of lego fueled ice-bolts rained over his head and shoulders.

“Argh!” He covered his face with his hands and roared, “Delicious humans! I’ll roast them up for my dinner!”

“Roar!” Lark pretended to breathe fire and rolled towards one side of the room. The plastic edges of the ice-bolts stung into his arm as he crawled to safety.

Cloud, out of ammunition, placed the empty, plastic bucket over his head like a helmet. Lark snickered, bundling the struggling boy in his arms and tickled him all over his belly.

Cloud screamed-laughed maybe? It was hard to tell which as tears formed in his eyes. His legs kicked the air and he giggled while calling for help.

“Teddy, Cat Princess, I’ve been captured”—Lark carried Cloud over the couch while blowing raspberries— “He’s eating meee!”

Unlike Teddy who looked similar to Sky, Lark couldn’t help but think that Cloud looked more like himself. They had matching blond hair and less violent tendencies. Teddy would be punching him by this point.

In his best villainous voice, Lark announced, “Ahhh! The sweet taste of victory.”

“Unhand him at once,” Mishka threatened, aiming a cardboard machete at his neck.

Lark dropped Cloud onto the couch and the Cat Princess held him there until Teddy arrived with two more swords, laying them against his stomach.

Lark raised his arms weakly. “Mercy?”

“Nevarrr!” Teddy roared and dual wielded the cardboard into his appendix.

When did Teddy become a pirate? Lark clutched his abdomen as he rolled half-dead over the couch. Seeing Mishka unable to keep up with the twins’ antics, a wolfish plan materialized in his head.

Revenge!

“Ahah! Heroes, you leave your princess ripe for my taking.”

Lark cackled and dove towards Mishka.

Caught by surprise, she squealed. Lark’s arms tucked under her bare legs and shoulders into a princess carry. She had to stabilize herself by wrapping her arms around Lark’s neck as he ran around the living room.

“Don’t eat her!” Teddy protested.

“Don’t worry, dragons don’t eat princesses,” Cloud said while casting red-colored legos on the floor.

“Put me down!” Mishka flicked Lark’s forehead.

“Want to give me back my sunglasses now?” He backed into the wall, watching the twins corner him in. Encased by lava(red legos), he couldn’t escape!

“Nevarrr.”

“Release her!” The twins shouted.

Mishka’s arms around his shoulders tightened.

“What are you doing?” he whispered.

She only cackled in return. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sky emerge from behind the backdrop of the catapult.

“Shiii..shishkabobs!” Lark corrected himself. “She’s mine!”

The jelly monster saw them in a dubious couple pose. Mishka giggled and he rolled his eyes.

Though the thought was tempting, he couldn’t just drop her. Could he?

“You leave me no choice. I will use an ancient dragon spell to put your princess into a deep slumber.” He kicked away the red legos and plopped the princess onto the recliner.

The twins followed him with their brows creasing, probably wondering why the plot-line changed from defeating the dragon to waking a sleeping princess. Then they saw their brother and pushed him forward to help them get their princess back.

Lark rolled the lever on the recliner back till Mishka faced the ceiling like Sleeping Beauty and his hands hovered above her face. “From the Greek ancients and their madness for tragic star-crossed lovers, humana-humana, la princessa es en deep dormir! Dormir! Dormir!”

Mishka’s folded arms twitched and her straight-lined lips crinkled on the edges.

“Now only a true love’s kiss can awaken her! If you can do that then I’ll relinquish my treasures! But this is an impossible task! Mwahahaaa…”

“Brother! Brother! Kiss her already! I wanna get Lar—the dragon’s treasure box!” Teddy and Cloud prodded a pink-faced Sky up to the task. “Do it!!!”

Under his brothers’ pressuring shouts, Sky took off his glasses and leaned in to kiss Mishka’s forehead, while whispering to Lark, “I’m so gonna kill you after this.”

Before Mishka could open her eyes, Cloud chipped in, “Hey, why’d you kiss her forehead? A true love’s kiss is on the lips!”

Nice play! Lark winked and threw a thumbs up at Cloud, who only had a very pure and innocent expression. Sky sighed, while a deep red blush suffused over Mishka’s cheeks.

“C’mon Cloud, it’s just kissing.” Teddy and Cloud brushed her dark blond curls away from her face. Puckering their baby, pink lips, the two pecked each side of her cheeks. She jolted up from her fake sleep and embraced them into a fierce cuddle. “My cute heroes.”

Sky, slack-jawed, reached for Lark’s collar. Running away while howling with laughter, Lark flew to the kitchen where he left his surprise box.

“Alright, heroes, you’ve shown your worth. Your prize is here,” he announced, unveiling Runesteam on their coffee table. Weighing the helmet in his hands, he showed them the mask inside that was programmed to listen to voice commands and was the gateway to the virtual world. The console also came with two gloves and a black box with the Runsteam logo on it.

“The newest toy from Runetech industries - that's not being sold in stores yet!” he pitched.

The twins jumped on their toes, itching to play as they cleared away space in front of the T.V. Lark pressed a button on the black box to turn it on and attached a cable from the T.V. monitor to it.

Mishka, who sat in Sky’s lap, widened her gaze at how the helmet buzzed in reaction as a light on the black box turned from white to green.

“Who wants to go first?”

Teddy leaped up, snatching the helmet from Lark. It covered his entire face.

“Oh-my-gosh. This is so cool!” Teddy squealed as soon his eyes adjusted to the screen inside the helmet. A wide, panoramic view of grassy hills rolled into a seaside cliff showed on the T.V. screen. The view bounced, matching Teddy’s head bobs.

Outside, Lark adjusted the straps and added the finger-padded gloves. “This will allow you to touch things. Try clicking on something.”

Teddy bent down and picked something off the ground. “Hey, a bunch of words showed up.”

“What did you do?” Sky asked, watching Teddy arch his shoulders.

“I picked up a flower and the words are telling me a lot of things about it like its…Geh-nus? Jee-nus? Whatever that means. But oh, it’s so pretty.”

“Teddy if you clap your hands, the mode will change into a game mode,” Lark said.

Teddy put his hands together and exclaimed, “Oh-my-gosh, how do I turn on the lights? Wait—I see a lady talking to me. She’s telling me to hold out my hand—”

“Listen to her then,” Lark interrupted.

Teddy obeyed the voice in the helmet. He held out his left hand and shouted, “Firebolt!”

The finger pads on the left glove glowed red, while Teddy whooped. “I exploded the wall! To smithereens! You gotta try this Cloud!”

“Don’t worry about it, Teddy, we can see what you’re doing on the T.V.”

“You can?” Teddy excitedly asked as he waved his hand. The T.V. caught the motion capture of a ‘hand’ moving in the environment. Currently, Teddy was inside a fortress near the seaside.

“Hey, Teddy, try saying, ‘Earthquake’!” Lark said.

Teddy followed his orders and shrieked in the next second. The entire camera view shook.

“My screen is turning red!”

“It means you’re in danger. You’ve unlocked a hidden boss. Be careful!”

Teddy squeaked as he twisted his entire body to get a good view of the fortress he damaged.

‘Danger’ flashed on the T.V. monitor. The woman on the screen sprouted whiskers and tattered dog ears. She rushed at the screen and Teddy died before being able to cast firebolt.

“That’s too bad, Teddy. Alright let Cloud have a turn now,” Sky said.

“No fair,” Teddy moaned, taking off the helmet and gloves, “If Lark hadn’t told me about Earthquake that mean old lady wouldn’t have killed me.”

The rest of them laughed and Cloud brushed Teddy’s brown helmet hair. For the next few hours, everyone took turns practicing different spells inside the fortress, exploring, and then started to hunt small monsters like diseased rats, skeletons, and evil stone gnomes.

“The twins are getting really attached to her,” Lark said to Sky, noticing the two shaking Mishka’s hands and pulling her into different parts of the castle.

“Did she watch the twins while we were at Sam’s service this morning?”

While the twins were distracted by Mishka’s gameplay, Sky leaned in. “Yeah, she did me a really huge favor today since the ‘rents were busy doing something related to the university. I wouldn't have been able to go without her help.”

Lark nodded, suddenly feeling tired.

Sky waved a hand over his face. “Don't get so glum now, Samuel wouldn't want that. You know what’d he’d say: Lark, you can't steal girls with that attitude; never mind the ball.”

Lark laughed through his nose. “I feel like he did say something like that before.”

“Yeah, it was during your practice match.” Sky grew closer to his face. “Hey, when did you start to wear colored contacts?”

“You're acting creepy,” he countered, swatting Sky’s face.

“Someone’s hiding something again,” Sky chortled, but his arms were folded, a signal to Lark that a line had been crossed.

“Oomph. I need a break.” Mishka took off her equipment and passed it onto Cloud. She made her way to her boys, and Lark scooted to the side.

Just as she was about to sit down, she said, “Wait,” and rushed off to the dining room where she stored away her backpack. She came back into the room, holding out her sketchpad.

“I forgot to give you the sketches from last time. Things had gotten so hectic, I just remembered them today.”

“No problem.” He’d forgotten too.

She sat in between the boys and rested on Sky’s shoulder when she brought up a strange topic she heard yesterday.

Mishka worked as a Teacher’s Assistant for Mr. Zayne, their old Biology professor and she would gossip to them about the Zayne’s potential marriage troubles.

Mrs. Zayne’s wardrobe varied from slacks to skirts, but her husband was never spotted without his lab coat. The two couldn’t be any more different, in fact, no one wouldn’t have known they were married if not for their identical last names and matching wedding bands.

However, this time she told a different story. “You guys remember hearing about the bat population decreasing last week?”

The two boys nodded and she continued. “Don’t tell anyone this yet, but Mr. Zayne said the Night Watch will have to be canceled this year.”

“Wow—that sucks.” Lark bit his bottom lip, recalling their sophomore year. Sky and Mishka had just started dating, his grandfather was still alive, and he was still playing soccer. It was a happier time.

The Night Watch promised a romantic opportunity for the new couple and he didn’t waste any time teasing them back then. But between the teasing and more teasing, there was something about observing natural life that felt sacred, or sobering. Even if the three weren’t natural-life experts, they could tell the phenomena was a great dilemma. For future students not to have that same opportunity felt like a huge loss.

“Are you crying?” Lark asked Sky.

“No, there’s just some dirt in my eyes...shuddup.”

Mishka slapped Lark’s shoulder.

“Where’d that come from?” He frowned, tending to his shoulder.

“You insensitive jerk. I just remembered - How could you ask the missus about their anniversary?” She poked his forehead repeatedly. “She bought those earrings for herself because he forgot.”

“How do you know that?” Sky joined.

“Because there was an expensive receipt on his desk from a super fancy restaurant. You know the Gold Leaf restaurant downtown?”

“That’s the one daddy took mommy before right?” Cloud asked cutely before sitting on Lark.

“Yes. Oh so, are you saying he took her there to make up for their missed anniversary?”

“Exactly. And you bringing it up, you idiot, is gonna put her on our bad side.” All three began to prod Lark’s face.

“This looks fun!” Teddy climbed next to Cloud.

“You guys…Rawr!”

“Ah! The dragon is back!”

Not long after, the lovers passed out on the couch. Mishka’s head laid on Sky’s shoulder, while his head rolled so far back, his neck was exposed to her drooling.

Lark snickered and passed two tens over to the twins for a job well done. Teddy broke into a wide grin, looking at Lark and then at the two sleeping. He rubbed the bill in between his palms and ran upstairs to stash it away, while Cloud slipped it into his pocket.

He scooted up the couch and wrapped his tiny arms around Lark’s waist. “Thanks for the present Lark.”

He tussled the kid’s hair. “You stay out of trouble and out of Sky’s room, you got it?”

Cloud smirked, but nodded anyway and let go of him. “You coming again next week?”

“Maybe? I’ll have to check my schedule,” Lark replied hesitantly, checking his watch. He usually visited the Laytons’ often on the weekends, but Samuel’s memorial took an unusual toll on him as well as Runesteam’s production beginning to saddle up. Besides he didn’t want to cut in Mishka’s time to bond with the twins. However, before he could produce the app, Cloud nudged him in the stomach and took off like a bandit after his brother, laughing in hysterics.

Cloud didn’t pack a punch as hard as his brother, but he somehow managed to tackle the same spot as earlier. Lark rubbed his tender appendix and stepped on another stranded lego.

Ffffuckrocks—firetruck. Oh, what’s the point?

He peeked around the living room. Making sure, the couple continued snuggling, and the twins were still upstairs, he quickly hopped to the sliding patio door, which faced the backyard and touched the glass with his bare foot. The coldness soothed the pain slightly. Maybe, it’d work on his torso too, he thought and tried to lean his stomach into the window frame. It was dark outside, so hopefully, none of the neighbors were snooping and as he was checking for this, Lark noticed a dark spot, blotting out the moon. It hung there in a way…clouds really shouldn’t.

Weird. Maybe he should get the space enthusiast to take a look. But when he blinked again, the spot was gone, and so was the moon in a curtain of darkness. If it weren’t for the faint pouches of lightened grays, he wouldn’t have even believed the moon was still there.