Chapter 3
Hearing Alexiel's speech, Tristan only kept his head lowered and nodded to indicate that he heard him.
Quickly being pushed into the bathroom he shuffled over towards the sink, his eyes instinctively avoiding the obvious places a bathroom mirror would be.
Unbeknownst to him everyone in this family loved looking into mirrors, so when he approached the sink itself, 3 small mirrors of various sizes were immediately in his line of sight.
He couldn't avoid seeing himself.
Rusty red-brown hair, his gingerbread colored skin, medium nose with full lips, with one healthy green eye.
The other side of his head, after years of healing, had the outlines of what should be a person's head, maybe if that head belonged to a mannequin at least.
There were several large chunks missing, that looked as if you took a glass ball and dropped it on the pavement.
Small cracks and fractures gave testament to how serious the blows to his head were. He really should have been dead.
There was really no telling the extent of his ability to be able to keep him alive after suffering such a malicious attack.
Tristan never really hated himself or even his ability. He was much more afraid of the reactions of others towards him though.
He quickly threw these thoughts to the back of his mind and rushed to wash his face, his hunger becoming unbearable.
As he stepped out of the bathroom he was greeted by a shocked cry!
"Oh WoW!!!
You must be my brother's friend from earlier!
Your name is Tristan right??
He talks about you all the time.
He's never invited a friend over…"
Star paused her bombardment of questions midway.
She had a face of contemplation and then she gave a very sure nod as if she understood something deeply.
It was pretty funny coming from such a small, young face.
She leaned in a little closer and used her hand to convey she was gonna speak quietly.
"I think you might be his only friend, I don't think he's ever mentioned anyone else before!
But don't tell him I told you or else he might start feeling lonely again!"
After that she took a step back, put her hand on her chest and breathed a deep sigh of relief as if she had overcome a great obstacle.
Tristan actually couldn't help but grin a little at this cute girl's antics.
"He never told us you have such a pretty power! I wonder what it feels like!"
Star shifted her eyes left and right up and down as if waiting for tristant to give her the okay to have a feel.
This unfortunately caught Tristan way off guard! To the point he almost went right back into a panic.
Thankfully as if sensing his distress, Alexiel called out from the kitchen!
"Star, if Angelica is home, ask her if she wants her plate in her room or if she will be joining us. Be sure to tell her we have a guest!"
Star jumped like a cat that's tail had been stepped on! She looked around as if trying to find out if her brother had been secretly spying in on their conversation.
After a moment of not finding anything she quickly called out a reply, waved Tristan off, and headed further down the hall.
***
Alexiel spoke up as soon as Tristan Walked into the kitchen.
"I packed us cucumber sandwiches and sautéed broccoli for lunch, but we have left over eggplant parm. Do you want something in particular?"
He directed Tristan to sit at one of the dining room chairs, which Tristan obliged.
"Uh, I'm more hungry than usual today. I'll take whatever you bring out."
Alexiel nodded in reply and kept busying himself with getting everything ready.
Soon from the hallway he could hear the sound of a few pairs of feet shuffling towards them.
When he looked up he saw a beautiful woman, who towards a 14 year old could be anywhere between 20 - 30 years old.
Her orange hair was put up tightly in a bun, and she was wearing brown scrubs that matched her mocha skin. She was wearing some kind of lip balm and the glasses she wore fit nice on her face.
It was quite the difference from her earlier look being passed out on the couch. She looked very respectable, and had a sturn touch right between her eyebrows.
She gave Tristan a once over and she actually smiled, nodded, waved, and approached him!
It all happened too fast and his head was spinning, he even forgot to wave back and started stammering as she approached him!
"Hello dear! I'm the children's mother, Euria-Lee!"
She reached over and pinched his fleshy cheek and gave it a light tug!
"Star already told me you're that Tristan, the one Alexiel always mentions!
I'm glad he finally invited a friend over! Will you be staying for the weekend?
He has a game station somewhere in that room of his, you just have to pull it out and maybe dust it off a bit!!"
Coming in close behind here was another new face. She must be the other sister who wasn't much younger than Alexiel himself.
"I'm Angelica, nice to make your acquaintance. Continue to be kind to my brother."
That was all she said, it was sweet but sounded kind of distant or distracted. You could tell she meant it but it was like her thoughts were in a different place.
Tristan hadn't had a chance to get a word in and he was visibly being sent into a spiral.
Oddly enough the person who came to his rescue was not Alexiel but instead was the cute little Star!
"Back! Back! All of you! Can't you see you're smothering him!
Give him some space jeez, what do we tell Alex if he gets scared off and never comes back??"
The three women looked between each other sternly, nodded as if they had come to a group consensus and then all went to their seats.
The oldest daughter and mother chatted with Star, getting caught up on what was happening today, and the atmosphere in the room was very charming.
It was like 3 minutes ago never happened at all. They even included Tristan in their small banter. It really helped ground his thoughts and bring him back to the moment.
A few moments later Alexiel began bringing out plates, placing them in front of everyone.
Everyone was eating a different assortment of things.
Star was given broccoli and the eggplant parm, Mother Euria actually had sauceless noodles and the eggplant, Angelica had a large cup placed in front of her.
If one had to guess they would assume she was drinking some kind of smoothie?
Tristan's plate had the most, a nicely cut cucumber sandwich was placed to the side on a small saucer, while his main plate had noodles with sauce, a large serving of eggplant, and plenty of broccoli.
Alexiel only had a sandwich and some noodles with light sauce on them.
"Okay everyone eat up!"
"Yay!! Time to eat!"
Little star cried out!
The rest just directly started digging into their food, slowly savoring the flavors.
Although Star was clearly the most excited to eat she was the first one to continue the chatter.
"The kids in our class group chat said the entire state is currently under curfew and stay-at-home orders for everyone except non-essential workers.
Sorry mom, you still have to head to the clinic."
Alexiel pricked up at the mention of today's emergency.
"Does anyone know the specifics of what today's crisis is?"
He looked at her stuffing as much broccoli in her face as possible while also using some of the taller ones as soldiers to do battle with each other.
This time their mother replied.
"Chrissy from the clinic has some decent contacts and said 3 kaiju have appeared on the coast.
They are about 50 kilometers in distance from each other so you can imagine the amount of inland damage they could cause if they decided to launch an attack.
Currently the governing bodies of 5 coastal states are working together to formulate a plan to minimize casualty and property damage.
The full travel band is to keep unnecessary people out of the way of any evacuation plans that may need to be put into immediate effect."
Alexiel stopped eating and began contemplating. This was truly a serious matter.
Even if the kaiju don't head to their city, just the post battle effect would have lasting ramifications on everything region wide.
Even the children of this era knew the awful implications of an attack from an alien monster like the kaiju.
Their economics teachers would drill into them how important the movement of resources was to the nation even on regular days let alone after suffering a catastrophe.
Angelica and Tristan didn't even blink at this news, one was reclusive and never had to worry about her personal needs as her family paid excellent attention to her care, while the other was sitting at the table with the only people he liked.
What was there for them to even worry about?
The hearty meal went on for a while longer and when it was time to put the plates up and start cleaning Euria hugged, kissed, and waved everyone off as she headed to do her work at the clinic.
"Mother, take an extra case of vials with you today… just in case, ya know?"
Alexiel brought out a strange box case that was clamped and sealed shut tightly. There was no telling what the case held and it seemed to be a pretty pricey device as it looked to have a fingerprint scanner among other safety mechanisms to ensure no unwanted individuals could open it easily.
Euria-Lee smiled sweetly, said her final good-byes, and headed out of the house.
The girls went back into their rooms respectively while Tristan followed behind Alexiel.
Once inside Tristan decided he would sit at the desk chair this time not trying to make a habit of letting his guard down.
Alexiel went back over to the fridge and seemed to be taking inventory again before he finally sat on the bed facing Tristan.