after a nice bath, feeling fresher than he had in several weeks. aero went to confront his mother's boyfriend, he found Adir sweeping his mother's bedroom, which now possed a second bed. That meant their reaction ship had progressed when he was away. huffing aero wilted slightly before stringing his back, ' I hope my mother doesn't have to regret taking this step,' singing as he entered the room to ask where his mother was.

only for Adir to try and pull him into a conversation first, with much more will than usual. he didn't flinch under Aero's burning glare. which both impressed and annoyed him, 'he's got to be ridding the high of moving in.' must be overriding his survival instincts.' grumbling aero backed down enough to hold a conversation with the man. during which he learned it had only been a week since he moved in, and his mother was out shopping.

since the women probably didn't know about his arrival, unless the gossip reached her, which let's be honest it might. but still aero wanted to see his mother. plus he could help her with her purchases. so he headed out of the house and towards the town market. from there it wasn't hard to find his mother, knowing the stalls that she frequented.

he found her talking to the lady she bought the house utensils from. since adir was moving in that made sense. he waited a distance away until she finished her conversation and purchase. then he walked over to his mother." aero your back?!" she greeted him with a hug that he early returned under his stone-faced. "when did you get back?"

"less than a flower ago," he told her savoring the warmth of her skin. when they pulled back he missed it quickly but pushed down the feeling and followed her as she finished up her shopping changing a few things so they could celebrate his return, as they talked about what the mother and son did while they were separated.

aero tried to not mention several things but his mother saw right through his attempts and heard about space, his job in space, how he meet the country leader how he acted toward said leader. there more things but at that point, she stated she wanted to go home before they heard any more. "fewer eavesdroppers that way," this aero glared at everyone around them. but moved on quickly to where fewer people were staring and listening.

Their conversation lost its sensitive nature until they got home, where Adir joined them. To Aero's displeasure, he didn't kick the man out, whether he could was a different question. but the fact the man while looking overwhelmed didn't look ready to run. gave Aero a little respect for him.

[from the way you treated this man it's a wonder how your relationship turned out the way it.]

[I don't need more grief about this, the zalts and divine across the universe have said something!]

so in the end, as they put the final touches on their celebration they decided to let things continue their current path. though Neora was going to have a few words with Baili. aero asked the helper who they were going to win that fight,' seeing as she was able to raise you. I do believe your mother has a good chance against the women running an entire country.'

'I'm sure you just called me a difficult child, but I'm going to let it go. because your right.' aero ignored the presence of the helper for a few moments as he thought about how the conversation between his mother and the leader would go. despite how little time he spent around the latter, he honestly couldn't see either of them back down.' there both pretty diplomatic at times' the lord thought to himself.

moving something around on the table, and making sure Neora's and Adir's chairs were a reasonable distance apart. when he was done with that he had to sit at the table while Adir helped his mother finish up the food and drinks.

no, he wasn't bitter about how the man could cook he was happy. someone else could take the burden from his mother. he could probably help around with much more chores around the house, he knew his mother wanted her house to be a certain level of clean as often as possible. while aero didn't see the full point he helped when he was home.

when he wasn't home, Adir could help her. 'Actually,' looking around he noticed how clean the house was. 'I think he might already be helping her.' great that was another good mark for Adir. but it would be a very long time before Aero approved him dating his mother.

the celebration was tame but it was good, along with the food and drinks, aero had more of the latter due to his age. it was a tasty collection that he was probably going to regret in a few hours but for the time he was savoring the sweet savory taste. it went down smoothly," I'll have to see about the recipe." Neora commented after Aero had a fourth full cup.

aero wasn't what you called a picky child, nor more than a usual child. but he was kind of closed off about his food. though what he liked and didn't like showed in how much and how fast he ate and drank.

'he's relaxed a bit,' it wasn't very obvious but honestly when Aero returned from the trip he expected him to be heated. annoyed or mad about the people he was working with. but to her surprise, he almost seemed calm about it, which told her things were going well. better than she had hoped, her son might have a friend soon. the lack of them never seemed to bother him.

it didn't bother her much, but the implications of what it meant bothered her. what would he do when she was gone, who would be by his side? who would stand buying by his side, the fact he seemed to be making friends along with calming down brought her relief. She would openly celebrate if she wasn't sure Aero would deny it on some level.

when the drinks were gone and the group washed the dishes, Neora couldn't call them a family. not yet at least. maybe someday, she could hope. if the zalts allowed, but she wasn't going to spend the night worrying about it. instead, she enjoyed the company of her two favorite boys.

a small and old memory reached her as she laid down for the night, but she violently kicked it out. there wasn't a point about him after all this time. she didn't even know if he breathed still. much less if he would return, not that there was a place for him.

aero's blood father.

when aero woke up in the morning he had to deal with the results of the amount of juice he had. once that was done he stretched into his room," I know I agreed to return home. but I don't know what to do besides spend time with my mother." which wasn't a problem. but what did he do with the rest of the time training? his duties as a lord? read? 'my lord this is a good chance for your o develop other hobbies.'

"I don't think it's that' important," he told the helper as he grabbed his laundry moving to the clothesline and bucket. Fill it with water and a bit of soap. The water was cold as he worked to scrub out dirt and blood, little of it was his. 'Actually, my lord, long live species have shown the importance of hobbies. not to mention something to do when traveling between star systems.'

aero paused, his mapping had familiarized him with that. 'okay I'll work on the hobby thing...maybe I can do some wood carving,' he's carved wood for his flute staff. maybe doing things a bit more artsy was an option. he was going to do that.

when he had hung his clothes to dry he walked to the forest and snapped a branch off a tree before walking back into the house. grabbing a knife he just had, "Alright let's try this out!"

he spent the next twenty minutes hacking at the wood. slowly removing chunks and carving off pieces. before he died that he couldn't salvage this project that was supposed to look like the creature that pulled his cart. setting it down he headed out to the forest and grabbed a branch and six more before turning around.

"ugh, great!" he came back into his room noticing the mess he left on the floor. woodshaving and chips settled on the floor, he got to work to clean up. which took longer than it really should have. "alright let's try again. outside." grabbing the branches he headed outside to start working.

several hours as he worked through the branches, making a few crude carvings and getting more familiar with how he was supposed to wield the knife against the wood. making him several crude carvings. but he was making viable progress, he figured out how to make the details a bit more clear.

"I haven't cut myself either," he shook his legs knocking off the wood shavings. setting carving next to the others he turned to the sun, measuring the time." I've got time for one more I think." so he turned and headed for the forest. 'my lord I have a suggestion?'

'yes?' he let the helper speak as he judged the thickness of some fallen branches. 'my lord I've detected faint amounts of your pride energy seeping into the carving. if possible I think you should do so on purpose.'

"well that's a good experiment, based on what he knows and Xoqax knows. the energy will likely be stored or be fused with it right?" the helper agreed with that possibility and now would give them a chance to see. aero nodded and grabbed a good beach. seating himself back at the house he directed a thread of energy into the blade.

it gave a little resistance but not enough that he considered it a problem and started carving. putting the energy at the blade when noticed it wasn't reaching the wood. that changed some things. the helper carefully examined the effects. how the energy was sticking to the wood.

it was giving it a faint aura of some kind, probably pride related as it was the energy he was using. but it was also changed. he wondered how well one could tell the energy belonged to him. how long it would stick?

"I guess I'll learn soon enough." aero set down the finished carving. it was still pretty bad but you didn't have to squint to tell if it was a feline-based creature." how interesting?" his mother stated when she saw the collection of carvings he made. there was viable progress between the first and last statute.

"you've picked up a new hobby?" she asked as Aero dest with the wood chip he left outside. which he decided was put in a bucket to be used for kindling. he set the bucket where they kept the rest of the fire supplies. before throwing the carving inside them. Neora wasn't surprised, Adir was.

"Why did he do that?" he quickly asked Neora." he doesn't like to dwell on badly done things. especially not as he improves." he nodded before asking how she was sure that he would improve. woodcarving was a thing that took years to perfect. he might stop given how demanding being a hunter was.

"the look in his eyes, a change that caught his interest. also he kind of smiled a bit when he presented them to us." Adir thought back to that moment. he could see it. but trusted her to know her son.

after dinner, Neroa brought the group into a conversation about what they would do tomorrow. since aero was only here for a while she wanted to spend some meaningly time together. aero's first question was if they could leave Adir behind, his mother didn't dignify that with a verbal answer. so his second question was if they were willing to travel.

"I think i day trip would be good, do you remember the flower meadow a short distance north?" aero paused trying to think about it. he remembered going to the meadow a few times. "yeah, I remember it." it was a nice play but the memories were a bit old.

but Adir was interested. having moved to this town he hasn't known all the sights. so the chance to explore caught his attention. with all three of them in favor, they decide that they were going. early the next morning they made the short few preparations they needed.

the following trip took about ten petals of walking, through the forest. there was a path, but Aero saw no need to walk it. the creatures the path curved around to avoid he could take. they weren't strong but still deadly in the way that all creatures were, with teeth and claws.

a few did try to attack the group, they were soundly beaten and driven away. adir felt a bit of nerve seeing the strength of the teen who didn't like him. 'if I make Neora upset, he's likely to do something if our relationship doesn't improve.' but he didn't think about that.

arriving at the meadow Adir had his breath taken from him. cause this place was beautiful. the flowers were numerous in every color they came in bright petals dan ing in the gentle winds. the sweet scents mingling together, strangely it felt like the world was at peace in one little corner.

aero was quickly to find a place among the flower he could lie down and bathe in the light. surrounded by the flowers and the gentle scents he relaxed. all his fight instincts turned off for the first time in a long while. he didn't even have the hostility to glare at Adir when the man took a seat at his side. along with Neora, who set the basket they brought to the side.

'This is interesting," the helper took note of something they would show their lord later.