Asilian appeared to be sleeping. Anyone who knew him, however, knew that he was not. He rarely, if ever at all, actually slept. What he really was doing was a form of meditation. A smile appeared on his face as he sensed the second female to take his heart approach. Well, the third, honestly. He opened bright blue eyes to meet a pair almost identical to his own.
"Senna, shouldn't you be getting ready?"
The girl put her hands on her hips, in a gesture that looked so much like her mother that he almost laughed. "I am ready, thank you. What about you, Dad? Toto expects us to be there in twenty minutes."
Asilian chuckled, reaching out and ruffling his daughter's hair. Toto had been the nickname she'd opted into giving her older brother, who didn't seem to mind it at all. "Well, it's your mother we're waiting for, Nana. Go see if she's ready." He smiled as he watched her run off. Fifteen and she had more spunk than Kirito had at that age. Twenty-five years had passed in the blink of an eye, with Kirito and Khalid keeping the peace between the realm of man and the realm of the dead.
Humankind now knew of demons and angels, and as such, Asilian and Sephiriel rarely, if ever, hid their wings. There was no longer any need to. There was still conflict, as it was simply a part of human nature, but there had been an era of peace that none of them could remember happening before. And now, the whole family was gathering in order to celebrate Kirito's fiftieth birthday, though as usual for one of his kind, he looked no older than his mid-twenties.
Kazehana, as it turned out, was out in the training area theyâd built outside their home, currently in a fistfight with her own father, who was, as he often did during a friendly spar, laughing. It wasnât a mocking thing, but rather a raucous expression of enjoyment. He seemed to be almost unable to help himself, though she supposed that by now she was entirely use to it. Her foot cracked into the side of his head, or would have, had he not raised a hand to catch her by the ankle just in time. Wrenching his hand around, he attempted to pull her off her other foot, but she went willingly, spinning in midair and hauling herself around to land in a handstand and spring backwards from there. She was grinning herself, eyes alight with the fierce joy that was competition, though admittedly not one with any major repercussions.
Uriel called a halt to the fight, however, when he spotted his granddaughter headed in his direction. âLooks like Senâs come to find you, Kaz.â His daughter rolled her eyes good naturedly and ruffled the teenagerâs hair. She still didnât look quite old enough to be the mother of a teenager, but sheâd long learned that, like basically everyone else in her bizarre family, time just didnât affect her the same way it worked on other people. Given her husbandâs technical immortality, she couldnât say she was sorry about it. She was pretty much living an afterlife anywayâshe was just doing it on earth. She even visited Heaven sometimes, since the policy seemed to be that if you could get yourself there, you were welcome.
She doubted theyâd forgotten to take away the wings sheâd used to flee hell, but she wasnât exactly going to ask if she should still have them. Some things were best accepted with grace. It wasnât like she manifested them all the time like the actual angels she knew, anyhow. âYeah, yeah, all right. Let me change, and then we can go. See you there, Dad.â Uriel nodded, and, with a mock salute, took off in the direction of Kirito and Sephirielâs house. Kaz, meanwhile, followed her daughter back to their own abode, heading into the master bedroom to dog around for something to wear.
âWhat color says âwhile I am moderately respectable, sass me and I will be happy to kick your ass'?â She inquired of her husband, rummaging around in her drawers. She didnât ask because anyone in her family had any doubt of this, but rather because she and her family âenjoyedâ a certain degree of celebrity post-apocalypse. Meaning that sometimes, they were followed around by reporters or photographers. It had taken her a while to learn to deal with this patiently, and every once in a while, she still hit someone too pushy in the nose. This was mostly tolerated, because the one time someone had tried to take her to court for it, sheâd successfully managed to argue that existing laws were put in place to punish humans, and she was not one of those.
Of course, now there was legislation involving angels, part-demons, and everything in between. Voting rights, criminal provisions, all that. Realistically though, they didnât exactly apply to her family. What were they going to do, put her in prison for hitting some guy who deserved it? Cassie had fixed the nose right afterwards anyway.
Senna rolled her eyes. "It has nothing to do with what you're wearing, you could be naked and still make half of the population run for their lives. You wear your personality like a hat and your emotions on your sleeve."
Asilian raised an eyebrow at his daughter with a smirk. "Like someone else I know." She puffed out her cheeks with an indignant huff. "Shut up, Dad." As chuckled before turning to his wife with a shrug. "You know it doesn't matter what you wear, especially to me."
Though I'd prefer you have nothing on at all...
There was an evil little smirk accompanied with that thought. Fifty years of marriage had changed him little, and even re-becoming an Angel had not taken away certain tendencies, which neither of them seemed to mind at all. Senna, as sharp as ever, caught the look, and rolled her eyes again. "We're gonna be late and Toto's gonna be pissed."
âOh gee thanks,â Kaz told her daughter, rolling her own eyes to the ceiling. âIâm glad the world would find my nudity frightening.â Honestly. Of course, As was only making matters worse, and she raised a sardonic eyebrow at him. Right. But as it stands, weâre unfortunately obligated to actually get out of the house today, so unless youâre keen on everyone else getting an eyeful, I do have to wear [b]something.[/i]
Since her husband and her daughter were absolutely no help at all, Kazehana gestured to shoo the latter out of the room. âKiri can shove it. Weâll get there when we get there. Weâre his parents; I certainly donât answer to the brat.â She decided on the red, sliding into the long-sleeved shirt and pulling the hem down over her dark jeans. From there, it was a simple matter of brushing her trademark purple hair up into the equally-recognizable ponytail and tying it off, which she did with the ease of long practice.
She turned her head so as to regard the man she married. âI suppose we really shouldnât keep him waiting too much longer. At his age, he might have a stroke.â She shot him a wicked smile. âBesides, I want to see his face when Momo finally cops to dating Stella.â She snickered; pretty much everyone was aware of how close the two were⊠except Kirito. Who was probably actually going to have an aneurism when he found out. He was just about the most overprotective father she could imagineâmuch worse than As or her own dad.
Asilian raised an eyebrow at his wife. "And what makes you think Momo is actually going to admit to it?" While everyone knew exactly what was going on right in front of his son's clueless eyes, everyone was also pretty much aware that Morgan was, in one word, terrified of Kirito. Or perhaps the correct phrase would be that he was afraid for his own life, which was the main reason he'd never said anything about himself and Stella.
Senna looked sideways at her father. "Simple, Stell's making him say something. I think she's hoping that the fact that there will be more people around will keep him from over-reacting, but we all know Toto's going to blow his lid completely." She herself was actually looking forward to that quite a bit.
Asilian sighed, shaking his head. "And here I was hoping for a party without all the drama." Senna grinned. "Are you kidding? Drama is the middle name of everyone in this family."
âItâs true,â Kazehana agreed. âWe used to be able to channel all of it into killing hellspawn. Now weâre all out of hellspawn.â She shrugged. âNot sure why heâs being such a coward, though. Kiri probably wonât even maim him. And Sephâs on his side, so even if he tries, it probably wonât get farâŠâ It struck her sometimes that these were not the kinds of thoughts that people with normal lives ever had. Screw normal livesâhers was awesome.
âAnyway, might as well get going, hm?â
"Senna, shouldn't you be getting ready?"
The girl put her hands on her hips, in a gesture that looked so much like her mother that he almost laughed. "I am ready, thank you. What about you, Dad? Toto expects us to be there in twenty minutes."
Asilian chuckled, reaching out and ruffling his daughter's hair. Toto had been the nickname she'd opted into giving her older brother, who didn't seem to mind it at all. "Well, it's your mother we're waiting for, Nana. Go see if she's ready." He smiled as he watched her run off. Fifteen and she had more spunk than Kirito had at that age. Twenty-five years had passed in the blink of an eye, with Kirito and Khalid keeping the peace between the realm of man and the realm of the dead.
Humankind now knew of demons and angels, and as such, Asilian and Sephiriel rarely, if ever, hid their wings. There was no longer any need to. There was still conflict, as it was simply a part of human nature, but there had been an era of peace that none of them could remember happening before. And now, the whole family was gathering in order to celebrate Kirito's fiftieth birthday, though as usual for one of his kind, he looked no older than his mid-twenties.
Kazehana, as it turned out, was out in the training area theyâd built outside their home, currently in a fistfight with her own father, who was, as he often did during a friendly spar, laughing. It wasnât a mocking thing, but rather a raucous expression of enjoyment. He seemed to be almost unable to help himself, though she supposed that by now she was entirely use to it. Her foot cracked into the side of his head, or would have, had he not raised a hand to catch her by the ankle just in time. Wrenching his hand around, he attempted to pull her off her other foot, but she went willingly, spinning in midair and hauling herself around to land in a handstand and spring backwards from there. She was grinning herself, eyes alight with the fierce joy that was competition, though admittedly not one with any major repercussions.
Uriel called a halt to the fight, however, when he spotted his granddaughter headed in his direction. âLooks like Senâs come to find you, Kaz.â His daughter rolled her eyes good naturedly and ruffled the teenagerâs hair. She still didnât look quite old enough to be the mother of a teenager, but sheâd long learned that, like basically everyone else in her bizarre family, time just didnât affect her the same way it worked on other people. Given her husbandâs technical immortality, she couldnât say she was sorry about it. She was pretty much living an afterlife anywayâshe was just doing it on earth. She even visited Heaven sometimes, since the policy seemed to be that if you could get yourself there, you were welcome.
She doubted theyâd forgotten to take away the wings sheâd used to flee hell, but she wasnât exactly going to ask if she should still have them. Some things were best accepted with grace. It wasnât like she manifested them all the time like the actual angels she knew, anyhow. âYeah, yeah, all right. Let me change, and then we can go. See you there, Dad.â Uriel nodded, and, with a mock salute, took off in the direction of Kirito and Sephirielâs house. Kaz, meanwhile, followed her daughter back to their own abode, heading into the master bedroom to dog around for something to wear.
âWhat color says âwhile I am moderately respectable, sass me and I will be happy to kick your ass'?â She inquired of her husband, rummaging around in her drawers. She didnât ask because anyone in her family had any doubt of this, but rather because she and her family âenjoyedâ a certain degree of celebrity post-apocalypse. Meaning that sometimes, they were followed around by reporters or photographers. It had taken her a while to learn to deal with this patiently, and every once in a while, she still hit someone too pushy in the nose. This was mostly tolerated, because the one time someone had tried to take her to court for it, sheâd successfully managed to argue that existing laws were put in place to punish humans, and she was not one of those.
Of course, now there was legislation involving angels, part-demons, and everything in between. Voting rights, criminal provisions, all that. Realistically though, they didnât exactly apply to her family. What were they going to do, put her in prison for hitting some guy who deserved it? Cassie had fixed the nose right afterwards anyway.
Senna rolled her eyes. "It has nothing to do with what you're wearing, you could be naked and still make half of the population run for their lives. You wear your personality like a hat and your emotions on your sleeve."
Asilian raised an eyebrow at his daughter with a smirk. "Like someone else I know." She puffed out her cheeks with an indignant huff. "Shut up, Dad." As chuckled before turning to his wife with a shrug. "You know it doesn't matter what you wear, especially to me."
Though I'd prefer you have nothing on at all...
There was an evil little smirk accompanied with that thought. Fifty years of marriage had changed him little, and even re-becoming an Angel had not taken away certain tendencies, which neither of them seemed to mind at all. Senna, as sharp as ever, caught the look, and rolled her eyes again. "We're gonna be late and Toto's gonna be pissed."
âOh gee thanks,â Kaz told her daughter, rolling her own eyes to the ceiling. âIâm glad the world would find my nudity frightening.â Honestly. Of course, As was only making matters worse, and she raised a sardonic eyebrow at him. Right. But as it stands, weâre unfortunately obligated to actually get out of the house today, so unless youâre keen on everyone else getting an eyeful, I do have to wear [b]something.[/i]
Since her husband and her daughter were absolutely no help at all, Kazehana gestured to shoo the latter out of the room. âKiri can shove it. Weâll get there when we get there. Weâre his parents; I certainly donât answer to the brat.â She decided on the red, sliding into the long-sleeved shirt and pulling the hem down over her dark jeans. From there, it was a simple matter of brushing her trademark purple hair up into the equally-recognizable ponytail and tying it off, which she did with the ease of long practice.
She turned her head so as to regard the man she married. âI suppose we really shouldnât keep him waiting too much longer. At his age, he might have a stroke.â She shot him a wicked smile. âBesides, I want to see his face when Momo finally cops to dating Stella.â She snickered; pretty much everyone was aware of how close the two were⊠except Kirito. Who was probably actually going to have an aneurism when he found out. He was just about the most overprotective father she could imagineâmuch worse than As or her own dad.
Asilian raised an eyebrow at his wife. "And what makes you think Momo is actually going to admit to it?" While everyone knew exactly what was going on right in front of his son's clueless eyes, everyone was also pretty much aware that Morgan was, in one word, terrified of Kirito. Or perhaps the correct phrase would be that he was afraid for his own life, which was the main reason he'd never said anything about himself and Stella.
Senna looked sideways at her father. "Simple, Stell's making him say something. I think she's hoping that the fact that there will be more people around will keep him from over-reacting, but we all know Toto's going to blow his lid completely." She herself was actually looking forward to that quite a bit.
Asilian sighed, shaking his head. "And here I was hoping for a party without all the drama." Senna grinned. "Are you kidding? Drama is the middle name of everyone in this family."
âItâs true,â Kazehana agreed. âWe used to be able to channel all of it into killing hellspawn. Now weâre all out of hellspawn.â She shrugged. âNot sure why heâs being such a coward, though. Kiri probably wonât even maim him. And Sephâs on his side, so even if he tries, it probably wonât get farâŠâ It struck her sometimes that these were not the kinds of thoughts that people with normal lives ever had. Screw normal livesâhers was awesome.
âAnyway, might as well get going, hm?â