Aaron Cyrus February 23rd,20XX

It was a moment in which I sympathized with all the parents in the world, despite not officially being a parent myself.

It had only been a single day. I had only taken some time to myself, not even up to a day and more like a few hours. It wasn’t like they were all toddlers at a beach house either.

So why was it that when I returned in the evening, Joyce was having a mental breakdown, Eva had passed out on a medical cot, Archer looked like he’d mentally retreated into himself, the twins looked like toddlers and Destia was in a hospital bed?

“Aaron!”

Tillo ran over to me first, which was surprising, and flung his small body against my leg. I waited for Kaja to do the same, but she stubbornly stayed seated where she was and went as far as to turn up her nose in the opposite direction.

Did they fight?

Well, first things first, I bent down and picked up Tillo like a toddler. I tried my best to do it properly, but the way he moved around in my arms made it clear he was uncomfortable.

“No, lower your arm and you can put your other arm down, I’m not small or heavy enough for you to use both arms. And you don’t need to use your legs… have you never held a child before?”

Of course I hadn’t, and I hadn’t planned on doing so for another seven-ish years.

Tillo’s voice had changed with his body, and he slurred certain words and lisped others, making him sound very cute.

Kaja looked on enviously as I finally figured out how to hold Tillo without dropping him, but somehow refused to come over.

I could probably deal with the twins first, but I needed to make sure Destia was okay.

We were down in the lab, so it was not weird that Destia was on a hospital bed. What was weird were the bandages on both her feet and the darkened glasses on her eyes. I could see tape running over both of her eyelids directly behind the glasses.

Tillo resisted being put down when I tried, so I carried him over to Destia’s bedside and spoke as calmly as possible. I hoped she wasn’t that hurt, but from the panicked phone call I’d gotten from Kaja and Joyce’s distressed expression, I knew it wasn’t anything minor.

“How are you feeling?”

Anatha handed me a chart while Destia swung her head around a few times to find me. The dark glasses made it hard to get a good impression of her expression, but she tried to keep a smile on her face.

“Aaron? You’re here. Uhm, I’m fine! I just got a bit carried away!”

I traded a look with Joyce, who was slowly coming back to her senses but still looked like she was one event away from spending the next four hours at the batting cage.

“It’s good that you’re feeling okay. Try to get some sleep so you can recover. Anatha, Danka.”

I turned to Anatha and Danka and kept my voice as calm as possible. I didn’t know what they were doing with Destia that left her in such a state, but yelling wouldn’t do much for anyone.

Anatha stepped forward and handed me a chart. Despite Tillo’s instructions, I’d ended up using both my arms to carry him, so he tightened his arms around my neck as I tightened my right arm and used my left to grab the tablet.

“There was a bit of an accident on the testing site, and Destia had to use her powers to rescue Sema. She’s okay but her eyes suffered from the exposure to the wind and the dust particles it carried. We already flushed out her eyes so she should be fine, but it’ll be best to keep them closed for the next two to three days so the light doesn’t irritate them more. As for her feet, her shoes couldn’t handle the speed she moved at and exposed her feet to the rough ground. That combined with the intense speeds she moved at left the soles of her feet extremely vulnerable.”

As an athlete, I’d seen people with cornea abrasions before, but the degree of it was upsetting.

The motivation for us bringing these kids together was to keep them safe and to help them adjust to their powers. How was it that Destia was bedridden and nearly blinded on her first day meeting the scientists?

It was so frustrating, but now wasn’t the time to show it. And getting angry wouldn’t help Destia heal any faster.

“You’ll be fine, Destia. Take the time to rest it out for now and try to sleep it off.”

She pulled out another soft smile before leaning back into the cot and trying her best to relax. Joyce still looked out of it, so I bumped her slightly down the list of priorities. We’d already had this conversation, so I didn’t know what more I could say, but this couldn’t go unaddressed.

“Kaja, can you come over here?”

She struggled to get off the couch by rolling over to her stomach and wriggling down to the floor. Her little feet dangled in the air for a few seconds before she finally gained the confidence to loosen her grip on the fabric of the seat.

I could see Joyce slightly snap out of her daze at the adorable sight of a toddler in bright overalls waddling over to me, but it wasn’t enough to completely break the trance.

Seeing Destia hurt must have shaken her, but seeing how messy everything else was, I was sure she just got overwhelmed.

She was an incredible person and always had a lot on her plate. While she could usually handle it, she also had a nasty habit of completely shutting down when it became too much. It hadn’t happened since we’d graduated high school, but I guess it had only been a matter of time.

I hoisted her up into the air with my free arm and waited for her to arrange herself to be comfortable. She traded a look with Tillo who sat comfortably in my other arm and sent a silent plea for help, but the usually good-natured boy purposefully turned away and buried his face in my shoulder, similar to what she’d done before.

“Joyce, I’m taking these two to another room so we can work this out. It shouldn’t take too long.”

She finally looked up at me and nodded. Her hair fell into her face as she did so and slightly startled her. Hopefully, she would be ready to talk by the time I got back.

After making sure Destia was okay, I figured the twin’s issue would be the easiest to solve. As angry as they looked right now, there was no way they would stay angry at each other for too long. They had spent too much time with only each other to risk that relationship over whatever this was.

I didn’t quite understand the logic of turning into infants to have this fight, but I was sure they had a reason for it.

“Okay, are the two of you going to tell me what’s wrong or do I have to ask?”

They looked identically awkward as I looked down at them from my status as an adult. I’d set them down on a single chair since they were now small enough to share one and crouched down to their eye level.

“I don’t know what could have made you two fight like this, but I don’t think it’s anything that you can’t talk through. Kaja?”

Between the two of them, Kaja looked the most willing to speak. Just like Tillo, her voice had changed into one more size appropriate, and her lisp was slightly more defined than her brother’s.

“It’s Tillo’s fault! I just had an idea, and you suddenly said that you didn’t want to do it and started giving me the silent treatment!”

Tillo’s head swung over to his twin sister with an incredulous expression, but with his new size it ended up moving most of his body. I reacted quickly and caught him before he fell off the couch.

“Woah, careful there.”

He looked startled and lost his train of thought, but he quickly caught it again.

“It wasn’t about the idea Kaja, it’s that you never listen to me! I know I always go along with you and what you want, but you never listen to me about anything! Even now! Do you know how ridiculous you sound?”

“Yeah, because- You know why I said that though!”

She stopped herself halfway and sent me a look before changing what she wanted to say. IT looked like it was something she didn’t want me to know. I wouldn’t pry into it too much, but I needed them to get over this little tiff before it escalated.

“Okay, the two of you need to calm down now!”

From what I could understand, it was less about the idea and more about Tillo wanting Kaja to respect his opinion a bit more. He was such an easygoing kid and Kaja was so proactive; it was inevitable for this type of argument to happen.

I didn’t raise my voice, but my tone came out harsher than I’d initially intended.

“Sorry for that. Look, even if you two don’t want to tell me what’s going on, I will let you two go until you make up. Do you want me to get Anatha? She’s the therapist you met earlier.”

The two stayed silent and avoided my gaze, but they didn’t deny my offer.

I carefully stepped out of the room and pulled Anatha away from Destia’s side.

“I need you to go talk to the twins and make sure they’re doing okay.”

She looked surprised by the sudden request but quickly handed over the tablet to Danka before striding over to the other room and locking the door behind her.

I was probably overreacting, but it was better to do too much than to do too little and regret it later on.

Now that I’d made sure Destia was okay, and I’d handled the twins, I walked over to my girlfriend and put a hand on her shoulder.

“Joyce, could you come with me? I think we need to talk.”