(Oct 22)

After we finished talking with William, he just allowed us to leave.

This felt like we were let off extremely easily.

I mean, my wife has done a lot of things…. and although she now has a restraining collar on her, it’s still risky for her to just go free.

So it sort of surprised me that he just let us off so easily.

I’m not against it, it’s just not what I would have expected William to do.

But if we were free to go, then I’ll gladly accept it.

My wife and I just left William’s lab and headed back home.

It was awkward between me and my wife as we were walking in silence for a while.

I also just realized that for the past couple months I was training and working hard to get stronger so I can protect my family, but it turns out my wife was stronger than me the entire time.

Whether we liked it or not, it was clear now that things are going to change from now on.

However, what doesn’t change is that we were still family.

And as a wise man once said, there’s nothing stronger than family.

I put my hand on my wife’s shoulder.

At first, I didn’t know what to say. Should I comfort her? Should I make a joke to lighten the mood? Should I ask her something? I wanted to start a conversation but wasn’t sure how to.

I was never very good at starting conversations.

This time though, I didn’t need to because my wife spoke first.

“Anthony, I’m sorry.”

I was slightly taken aback, not because she was apologizing but because of her tone.

Her voice was slightly uneven, but her words were filled with conviction and determination.

“I know I screwed up this time, and I don’t expect to be forgiven so easily, but I’m going to change… I want to be more like you. I want to learn to control this power.”

It seems that after the burden of being The Grinch a secret had been lifted off her shoulders, she’s regained some of her normal composure.

She’s now starting to look towards the future.

Just like me, she has an unknown power and she wants to learn to control like I did with my dragon essence.

All this time, I had assumed that I was the man of the house and that I was the only one who was able to protect the family.

It seems that wasn’t necessary true.

Who’s to say that my wife can’t become strong enough to protect the family as well?

Yes, she did fuck up big time and put me in danger as well, but we all make mistakes. I too have made a few mistakes and accidentally put others at risk as well.

Plus, she was in a very dangerous situation where anyone would’ve mess up in some way or another.

And she seemed determined to improve.

Me and my wife talked for a bit until finally we reached our house.

I immediately placed Gabi into her room (I carried her home since she was still asleep) and then went to my room to get some rest.

My exhaustion finally caught up to me and I collapsed onto my bed.

I hadn’t gotten any rest since yesterday and I even had to fight my wife (The Grinch) so obviously I was extremely tired.

Not long after, I fell asleep.

.

By the time I woke up, it was already late in the afternoon.

I already know that this was gonna totally fuck up my sleep schedule so this going to be a bit of pain.

As I walked out of my room, I saw that my wife was sitting on our couch, criss-crossed in a meditation position.

My wife opened her eyes as she heard me coming out.

“Good afternoon Anthony.”

“Yeah. You meditating?”

She nodded.

She explained that now she no longer has to worry about her Grinch urges and doesn’t have to keep anything a secret anymore, so now she wants to focus on controlling herself.

My wife had seen me meditating before as a way to collect my thoughts and to sense magic, so she tried copying me to see if she could also sense magic.

Even though this was the first time she was doing this, she could sense the magic around her to a certain extent.

I’m not sure if its because she’s talented or if it’s due to her Grinch powers, but it was a good start.

Since The Grinch subjugation was cancelled and I had nothing to do, I spent the rest of the day teaching my wife basic magic stuff and controlling her chakra.

As the sun was slowly setting, I realized something.

“Hey, um, is Gabi still asleep?”

I asked my wife.

She looked at me.

“Oh. About that… I kinda… put sleeping powder into her food so she wouldn’t wake up…” she confessed.

“You what?”

Yeah.

So apparently my wife did that.

She explained that she would put a bit of sleeping powder in our food so me and Gabi would fall asleep. That way she would be able to slip out and do her “Grinch” stuff without being noticed by us.

Basically, she drugged us (harmless though).

What she didn’t know was that my dragon essence purified nearly any foreign substance I didn’t want, so it had no effect on me.

On Gabi however, it worked like a charm and she’s still sleeping.

I was surprised but I couldn’t get mad since I also did something similar to them during the assassination attempt (when I returned home) where they were put under a sleeping spell.

Now I’m starting to realize how my wife was able to avoid being exposed as The Grinch.

She’s damn crafty.

She must’ve put in quite a bit of effort into covering her tracks.

“Don’t worry! I’ll, um, stop using them from now on of course.”

I nodded.

We’ve both been through a lot, and I don’t like to worry about things in the past, so I don’t intend on blaming her for what she’s done. Plus, we can’t change what’s already happened.

“I’ve been thinking, a lot of things has happened and we’ve both been keeping secrets from each other. Even though I should be, I’m not mad at you. I’m just sad that you were so hesitant to tell me the truth. From now on, let’s be more honest.”

I grabbed my wife’s hands and stared right at her.

“I want you to be comfortable to talk to me. From now on, don’t be afraid to tell me about stuff. We’re family, we can work things out together, you just got to let me know alright,” I said with a serious face, knowing full well that it was cliché and bit cheesy.

My wife’s eyes started to water a little as she nodded.

I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her.

Moments like these are what make me feel happy to have a family. This is what I want to protect.

My wife pressed her lips upon mine and kissed me.

I gently pushed her down and slowly started undressing her.

I’ll spare the details, but let’s just say things got hot and steamy.

It’s been a while since we’ve done this, so we were both passionate.

We had a good night.

(Oct 23)

I didn’t have anything to do today since The Grinch thingy was cancelled and I haven’t heard back from my superiors.

I decided to visit William.

I still felt bad about what happened a couple days ago so I wanted to make sure to make up for it.

“Hey William. Want to go grab a drink with me?”

I’ve known William for like half a year now, but most of the time we only talk during work.

That’s why I invited him out to get a drink with me. Maybe some beer or something and hang out.

“Busy.”

And William rejected me with a single word.

“Are you still mad at me?”

“No.”

Even though he denied it, it was clear he’s still upset and I don’t blame him.

“Come on William, give me a chance to apologize. Plus, we never hang out. If you’re a friend, then come get a drink with me. I’ll pay.”

William let out a sigh (I’m starting to notice he sighs a lot).

After a bit of convincing, he finally gave in and reluctantly agreed.

“Fine. Give me an hour to finish this and we’ll go.”

Hell yeah.

So now I’m just waiting here until he’s done doing whatever he is doing.

.

Turns out, William is a total alcoholic. He drank more then double of what I drank.

We were at a nearby tavern/bar place where we sat for a couple hours and talked with each other.

I once again apologized for what happened a couple days ago since I still felt guilty, but he said it was fine.

We continued talking some more as we drank and slowly became more and more intoxicated.

With my dragon essence, I could’ve easily purified the alcohol inside me but I chose not to since we were drinking and getting drunk was part of the experience.

Since we were both a bit tipsy, we started just saying whatever was on our mind.

“Ya know Anthony, your wife is very similar to you. Same personality, you two act very similarly. You guys are both selfish and selfless at the same time. I would’ve believed you if you told me y’all were siblings.”

I chuckled.

“I have no idea what you mean William. Speaking of which, I was pretty surprised how you let my wife off so easily, it isn’t like you.”

“It’s like I said before, I gain nothing from punishing her. If I did, it would potentially hinder our relationship with you. And I don’t want that. You still don’t realize how important you are, do you? With your current potential, I’d estimate that if other countries found out about you, they’d pay at least a couple hundred thousand gold just to recruit you.”

“A few hundred thousand gold!?!”

William nodded as he took another sip of his drink.

“I’d be real stupid to risk our relationship. What good would come from locking your wife up or something? We gain nothing.”

“You value our relationship that much, and yet I trivialized it by lying to you. I’m sorry man.”

“Geez. How many times are you going to apologize, I got you the first time. You’re forgiven. Just don’t do shit like that again.”

I know that I’ve said it multiple times, but I really did feel guilty about what I did.

We spoke for at least an hour longer and during the time we talked, I felt like I got to know William more.

Before this, I didn’t know much about William aside from his work.

Now though, it feels like he’s opening up to me and that’s nice.

Of course, there’s clearly some things he’s not telling me but that’s ok. Everyone has some secrets.

I feel like I trust him on a more personal level now.

Not that I didn’t trust him before, I did, but it was more of a… how should I describe it… I trusted his authority.

I trusted the fact that he was strong, he was smart, the fact he has a high position and would be able to help me. I trusted the fact that he wanted a mutual benefit. Like an employee to an employer.

Now though, it feels more like I can trust him as friend. Someone I can rely on if I need something.

Man, this sounds like I’m a teenage kid learning to make friends for the first time.

I dunno, I’ve never been good at social stuff.

I’m just happy things are somewhat normal now.

Probably just going to go with the flow from now on.

Flow like da wind… off into the distance I go…. Whoooooshhh…