Silicon City, Mackel Street

Normal Realm

11:30AM

The sun rose upon a new day, and with Colt and Yuri having adequate rest, they ventured out to the Normal Realm like Colt requested.

The cool autumn breeze blew through the air as they walked through the street of a tranquil neighborhood. The crunching of the fall leaves and idle sounds of wind blowing could be heard all around.

"You live here?" asked Yuri.

"Before my college dorm, this place here is home. I feel so much nostalgia here, and I haven't even been gone for that long."

"It's a given with all of the shit that happened in such a short amount of time."

"Facts."

A small house with pristine stone walls stood in the center of the block. Passing through the gate, Colt made his way up the wooden stairs.

The same stairs that he had sat on at light nights with friends, or fell up and down when in a hurry, they were just as clean as he remembered. Despite this, they little hints of wood sticking out nailed home the impending doom of splinters.

"You can come in if you want." said Colt.

"Oh, okay."

He chuckled, "Did you think otherwise?"

She crossed her arms and nuzzled into him, "Shut up. I just wanted to make sure."

It is pretty chilly outside.

Colt pulled off his black and red jacket, handing it over to Yuri. "You can wear it if you want."

"Are you blushing?" She grinned before taking the jacket from him, "Thank you."

"No problem." He held her hand, leading her to the cream-colored door. Gaining entry with his keys, they both stepped inside.

Passing through the spacious living room, the scent of vanilla candles wafted over from the table between the couch and flat screen tv, where two lit candles rested.

There was some sort of news channel on the tv.

Hidden beneath the vanilla was the scent of cinnamon, most likely coming from the kitchen.

He sat down on the couch and gestured for Yuri to sit next to him.

She rubbed his thigh, "I know this is your home, but was there a specific reason you wanted to come?"

"I wanted to see my mom." He grabbed the tv remote, flicking through the channels until an intense cooking show came on, "I've been gone for a while due to college and everything else."

"Are you a momma's boy"?

He nodded his head, "I know you're trying to tease me, but I am. I've always been."

Leaning into him, she held his hand. "There's nothing wrong with that. Some people get around your age and start treating their parents like shit."

"I could never." He wrapped his arm around her shoulder, "Are you a mommy's girl?"

Her smile faded, "No."

Someone emerged from the kitchen, aiming a shotgun towards them. The darkness of the kitchen masked the individual, as the shiny nozzle beamed out.

He had heard of ambushes before, or even stakeouts, where someone would break into an enemy's home and kill everyone once they arrived. Or perhaps they had walked in on a robbery, and the perpetrator was attempting to make a getaway.

Even with all of the fleeting thoughts and endless possibilities, only one thought remained constant.

I'm tired of getting shot...

"Colt?" The young woman lowered her gun and broke into a laughter, "You scared the hell out of me!"

"M-Mom?" He rose from the couch, running over to hug her. "I wanted to surprise you...I forgot you were packing heat."

"Well, you certainly did a good job. I almost smoked you." She punched him in the stomach and started laughing.

As Colt laughed with her, she turned to Yuri.

"Oh, and who are you?" His mother walked towards Yuri and shook both of her hands, "I'm Colt's mother! Are you his girlfriend?"

"Uh-"

"I hope he isn't too much of a burden."

Colt facepalmed and pulled her away from Yuri, "Please stop..."

Yuri bowed her head, "It's nice to meet you. I'm Yuri."

"Yuri, such a beautiful name!" Colt's mother pinched his arm, "Why didn't you tell me you found such a beautiful girlfriend?"

He winced as he tried to pull away from her, "Because..."

Ms.West nudged Colt and giggled, "It's ok! I used to be your age y'know? If you want some private time, you can go to your room."

"Okay mom...you're done." He grabbed onto her shoulders, "I wanted to come back to check on you."

"Aw...Have you been staying over at her house after your college got bombed?"

Colt and Yuri shot knowing glances at one another.

I'm definitely not telling her about the Seishin Realm!

It seems like the news coverage is still calling it a terrorist attack.

"Y-Yup! So no need to worry about me." cheered Colt.

Ms.West held both of their hands, "Both of you can come to my place whenever you want."

"Oh-Ok..." Yuri nodded her head in understanding.

Colt looked towards the kitchen, "Did you bake something today?"

Ms.West perked up before shooting off into the kitchen, "I almost forgot!"

Colt looked at Yuri and laughed, "Sorry for that."

She shook her head and stood up, "Don't worry about it. I already like her. I can see a bit of you in her. You both look alike, and you're both energetic. Albeit she's far more charged up than you."

"True, there's never a dull moment with her around," tucking his hands into his pockets, he made his way to the kitchen, "And I'm sorry about her calling you my girlfriend and all."

"I-It's fine..." She lowered her head as she followed after him, "It saves us the time of having to make an excuse."

As they all reached the table, Ms.West sat across from them, placing a large plate of glazed cinnamon rolls down before them.

"Dig in!"

Colt grinned as he shoved two rolls into his mouth, "Don't have to tell me twice!" The tender dough of the rolls easily parted as he bit into them, freeing the constrained flavors of icing and cinnamon to flow through his taste buds, "These things are just as good as I remember!"

Yuri took one of the soft rolls into her hand and took a small bite. "This is really good, Ms.West."

"Oh, Thank you darling!" She smiled at Yuri, "Have as much as you'd like."

"So, Mom..." Colt grabbed another roll, "How's school been for you?"

"Ugh!" She leaned forward onto her elbows, "I already have a ton of work to do. Since it's the starting weeks, there's been a lot of tests we had to give out...But, I've been managing."

"Let me know if I ever need to come up there for anything."

She chuckled and leaned back in her seat, "Don't worry. All of the juniors and seniors know that I'm your mom, they wouldn't try anything."

Yuri glanced between them both as she took another bite of her roll, "Are you a high school teacher?"

"Yup. I teach the upperclassmen at Colt's old high school."

"That's nice. Did you teach when Colt was still there?"

"Mhmm. I wish I could've done more, y'know?" She glanced at Colt, "He's a lovely young man, but every parent feels like they should do more for their kids, even if they're already giving it their all."

"Stop beating yourself up over nothing," interjected Colt, "You're already the best mom in the world."

"Aw..." teased Yuri.

"Shut up..." He muttered under his breath.

"So Colt, what are you going to do now?" asked Ms.West. "Your old university is gone, so do you plan on re-enrolling into a new one?"

"I'm not sure yet." said Colt, "I might take a bit of a break, and get a job in the meantime."

She smiled and clasped her hands together, "Okay, take as much time as you need. Things have been moving quite fast..."

Things have always been this way between himself and his mother. As long as he was headed down a good and righteous path, she never really pestered him about much.

I'm glad that's out of the way...

I know I called her after the university got raided, but she's been worried sick.

Ms.West directed her attention towards Yuri, "Do you mind telling me how you met my son?"

Yuri almost choked on her food, "Uh-We were put together for a project in our math class."

"Really? What a fateful meeting! Did you have to do most of the work?"

"No," She briefly glanced Colt's way before relaxing in her seat, "He actually helped me."

"Good. I don't want you to feel like you're his second mother." She laughed as Colt groaned in embarrassment. "What made you realize you fell for him?"

Yuri's face reddened as she was hit with the swift curveball, "I-I..."

She wasn't the only one reeling from the questions either.

With the events of the club night behind them, Colt had already been more anxious around her. These questions were only fanning the flames.

Even so, having Yuri answer the question was somewhat welcomed. Acting or not, if there was some part of himself that Yuri fell in love with, he wouldn't know what to do with himself.

She's blushing?

N-No...I'm just getting too hopeful.

"You don't have to answer if it's too embarrassing." teased Ms.West as she took one of the cinnamon rolls for herself, "If you don't mind me asking, do you have any goals in life?"

Recomposing herself, Yuri sighed, "Nothing too concrete. I just want to be the best me I can be."

"I can respect that. Colt doesn't have a concrete goal either, or at least that's how I see it, so it's good to have someone to keep him in check." She looked at Colt, "But that doesn't mean that you can just slack off Colt. Yuri seems like a wonderful young woman, so you better not chase her away!"

He groaned and walked over to the refrigerator to get some water, "Yes Ms.Matchmaker..."

"Fine, fine." Ms.West stood up and slapped Colt on the shoulder, "How long do you plan on staying over?"

"Uh...I don't know. I might leave in a little bit, I just wanted to drop by."

"In that case, I'll give you little lovebirds some private time!" She ran out of the kitchen, leaving them both alone.

"You can spend the night here if you want." said Yuri, "I could head back on my own."

"Nah, I actually wanted to go back before the day ended." He sat back in his seat and took a sip of his water, "After seeing the South side of the city from our party, I need to head back otu there."

"Yeah, there's a ton of stuff you'd like there."

"Um...do you want to come with me?"

"Maybe some other time, I have some bullshit meeting with the core foundation in an hour."

"That sucks."

"It does. And be prepared for another meeting too. Another Fucshia victim came up, and the Core Foundation probably finished their analysis."

"Fucshia..."

As the image manifested in his mind, his blood boiled. "Do you think I can come to that meeting too?"

"Definitely, they were probably going to call for you anyways. Do you want to start heading there now?"

"Yeah. I still don't know that much about what I want for my future, but I know that Fuschia's dead in that future."