November 30th.

The soldier hefted his bag higher on his shoulder, the gold metal of his arm gleaming in the light like a medal of valor. The eight experimental "Demi-god" soldiers stepped off the plane. Each of them had tapped into some emotion of humanity.

Two of them got into a taxi, the calmer of the two gave an address before the car took off. A minute later he asked "How do you plan on telling them?"

Gritting his teeth, the other responded "I have to just say it. They will understand."

"Yes. They will…"

When the taxi pulled up the two swiftly stepped out and grabbed their bags. Yasha immediately walked into the house "We're back!" he called.

That was all the call the two inside the house needed Durga raced from the backyard to grab her older brother in a hug while Mithra replied "Uncle Yasha!"

A moment later Durga looked around and asked "Where is Asura?"

"Outside with a rather important announcement." Worried faces came to Durga and Mithra but Yasha waved away their questions.

As the two women stepped outside they were greeted with Asura, gleaming gold and silver markings standing out in stark contrast from his black uniform…with a young girl by his side. The usually angry man sighed heavily and looked at his daughter and wife "This is Ahria." Durga glanced between her daughter and Ahria constantly while Mithra slowly walked closer, mirrored by the newcomer.

If it wasn't for their clothes it would be impossible to tell them apart. Both of them tilted their heads and smiled-it was exactly like a mirror, their actions were synchronized to the point that Yasha felt a chill run up his spine. The silence lasted several minutes as the girls continued their act, Durga opened and closed her mouth twice before managing "Why don't you come in with our guest and you can explain what happened."

Entering the sitting room, things took an odd dynamic, Asura sat on the loveseat with Durga to his right while Yasha took the recliner and the girls took the sofa. Asura wrapped his arms around his wife and just held her for a minute before kissing the top of her head and leaning into the plump cushions. Within moments he was asleep.

Durga stared at him in disbelief before she turned to her brother at his chuckling "You'll have to give him a break-he's been extremely worried how you would take Ahria showing up."

Rolling her eyes fondly Durga pulled her husband's head onto her lap and started running her fingers through his hair "So what happened?"

Rubbing his goatee Yasha stared "We were in Mongolia helping the army with a rebel group that called itself Gohma. Radical is a vast understatement for them, but they also attacked anyone who wasn't in their group. We were only there a couple of days when we found a village that had been attacked. Ahria was the only survivor-Asura tore through rank after rank to get to her. She bonded with him to the point that he was the only person she trusted for 4 of the eight months we were away. The Mongolian authorities were flooded with orphans and people in need of care so she ended up staying with us at the base. Asura couldn't help but take a shine to her."

Ahria and Mithra both glanced at the man in question before leaning against each other. Durga smiled "Of course, if I didn't know any better I would think they were twins."

"Oh, and get this, she doesn't know very much English and she was in shock so teaching her was out of the question. Asura-our Asura-learned Mongolian."

Mithra perked up "Wait, Dad took up a book to learn a language?"

"Not only that but took a super accelerated course to speak to her."

Ahria, not understanding much of the conversation at all, looked to Yasha and said a few words, to which he replied in Mongolian. Durga looked at him and he answered "Bathroom." Before standing up "Speaking of rooms, I suggest that she take the guest room for at least a bit. This may not be a permanent arrangement."

Mithra went to the kitchen leaving Durga to watch her brother "You care for her." It was not a question.

He nodded "Of course I do, she became a fixture for nearly eight months and she became my brother-in-law and best friend's friend. We all grew fond of her." He chuckled "Did you know Augus is scared of her?"

Mithra choked on her water as she laughed, making the liquid spray out of her nose like a sprinkler. Coughing several times, she gasped "What?"

All the Demigods had grown comfortable enough with each other that their homes were mostly open. Augus, the battle-loving-don't-understand-people giant was probably the one person they knew who was the most fearless.

Yet…

"Asura was very careful to implant in her that if she was in trouble that she could go to any of the eight of us, but the hierarchy was strict, him first, myself second, but if it was a fight, hide by Augus. I don't really think he knew what to make of that much responsibility."

"I take it she spent a lot of time with him?" Durga asked with a smile hidden behind her hand.

Yasha nodded before standing and stretching "She decided that he was one of her favorite people. Did you know that Augus is obsessed with popcorn?" neither of the women knew that fact and he continued "Augus has a huge family, 3 brothers and 2 sisters and each of them has multiple children and every month they send him a care package with a pound of popcorn. Actually, we saw him eat his weight in popcorn, keep in mind he's mostly mantra metal now…it wasn't pretty-frankly, it might have been the ugliest thing I've ever seen, but he did it. Anyways Wyzen somehow found his bag and ate it. Augus put him in the infirmary for two weeks."

Durga's eyes widened "Even with your healing?"

Yasha nodded before continuing "Anyways, Ahria got a stipend for personal things and went out and got him a 5-pound bag from the market. That's the closest I've ever seen him come to crying. He went on for weeks about how good it was."

Ahria returned and smiled at Yasha before echoing the gesture, albeit much more restrained, at Durga. At Yasha's urging Ahria sat next to Durga on the couch while Mithra took the spot next to her sleeping dad.

Ahria spoke and Yasha was forced to translate "She says that she's thankful that you are letting her into your home." Though he spoke evenly his raised eyebrow made it clear he was surprised at her highly formal tone.

Knowing no Mongolian and knowing that Ahria knew almost no English, Durga used simple actions. She closed the gap between her and the young girl before hugging her, not tightly enough that the girl couldn't break free if she wanted to.

But she didn't.

Slowly she returned the embrace. Ahria opened her mouth and croaked as tears overwhelmed her. She had been safe with the Demigods, she had been happy.

But there was not this sense of comfort. The Demigods could physically protect her but they themselves were not able to emotionally support her and she refused to speak to the councilors on base.

With Durga though, that emotional pillar was there. For the first time in many years Ahria cried, her tears leaked into Durga's shirt and Mithra rushed over to hug the other girl.

For a moment that everyone saw, Asura's sleeping face twisted into a pained and worried mask before Ahria let out a shuddering breath and her sobs stopped, in response his face slackened.

The gentle hug turned into Ahria clutching onto Durga as her tears continued to fall for several minutes, during that time Durga hummed comfortingly. At some point she shifted so the girl was tucked into her chest while the mother slowly threaded her fingers through her hair.

Mithra was extremely distressed at what was happening and started rubbing Ahria's back until sometime later Ahria's exhaustion got the better of her and she joined Asura in sleep.

Yasha quietly recommended "Maybe you should leave her here, waking up in a strange place would probably scare her, Asura should comfort her."

"Good idea." His sister agreed and she slowly adjusted the sleeping girl so she was laying comfortably across the loveseat and draped a blanket over her.

Having nowhere to sit now they somehow migrated to the kitchen. Silence settled over them for awhile as they took in how much Ahria had shouldered.

Finally, Mithra asked her uncle "So how was Halloween?"

"Nonexistent." A smile creeped onto his face, much to everyone's confusion.

"Huh?"

"Do you really want somebody running around jumping at A) Demigods who have the power to level the base with ease B) your father C) your father with superpowers and a young girl who's scream might very well cause him to go ballistic?"

Giggling Mithra responded "Yeah, that would be bad."

Durga countered "What about Thanksgiving?"

With a non-committal shrug he offered "Nothing special, the base only had a handful of Americans and most of us had patrol or some other job so it was more like we just grabbed a bit of turkey and went on with the day."

Puffing up her cheeks Mithra grumbled "That's no fun."

"It certainly wasn't your mother's food." He agreed.

Smiling the lady in question took the compliment with grace "Thank you."

Grinning Yasha couldn't keep the chuckles from escaping "Thank god she did not have to experience Black Friday."

After a few hours Ahria woke and wandered into the kitchen before smiling broadly at Durga, Yasha commented "Now that's wrong. It takes me four months to get that smile."

His sister retorted "It's a girls' thing."

"Olga hasn't gotten that smile."

The mother laughed "Olga is far more interested in Deus than anything else."

"That's…that's true." He conceded.

Asura woke up some time later as Durga was working on dinner and the two girls were chatting with Yasha as go-between. Realizing what happened and surrounded by the only people he could do more than tolerate (much, much more) he sighed before walking into the kitchen "Sorry about that."

His wife smiled before kissing him sweetly "It's okay, Dear." Leaning closer she whispered "Ahria's a sweetheart."

He nodded "Of course she is." As if that was all he needed to say.

"I think it would be good for her to learn English." Durga offered.

Asura nodded but didn't say anything as Mithra and Ahria we so absorbed with talking to each other Yasha was having a hard time keeping up with them. When he inevitably tripped up the girls just laughed at it while he sighed before looking at his brother-in-law "Help?"

December 14th

Ahria had taken to English with a rare devotion, four people who spoke English that she wanted to speak to and two of those who knew both made for an especially easy way of learning the functional version of the language.

While she didn't have anyone beating down the door trying to take her away the idea hung over Durga and Asura's head.

It was shortly after noon while Mithra was at school that Asura had asked Ahria to sit in the living room with him "Ahria, Durga and I have a question to ask you."

She sat down, not really knowing what was going on. It was Durga who started the conversation "Ahria, it's my understanding you don't have any other family." The girl nodded with a small frown "Asura and I…" she hesitated but took her husband's hand "Would like to formally adopt you."

"What does 'adopt' mean?" Ahria asked sheepishly, she knew it was something big since both of the adults looked deathly serious.

"It means we would be your legal guardians, that you would live here." Asura supplied.

The girl's eyes wildly darted from husband to wife and surprise was written all over her face. Durga, afraid panic would set in, raised her hands with a concerned look "We're not asking you to decide now, we just want to let you know what we were thinking."

The one who was panicking was Asura, Ahria looked like she was going to cry and that would have been something he couldn't deal with. Several deep breaths later Ahria asked a question that neither of them were expecting "What does Mithra think?"

Smiling contently Durga replied "Last week she asked when we were going to ask. We hadn't even talked about it with her yet."

Ahria flung herself across the coffee table to hug the two of them tightly "YES!"

In reality, their views were very different.

Ahria had lost everything she had and was being protected by people she didn't know. Then she had bonded to Asura, he was always angry but treated her softly. There was the feeling that he would fight and protect her from the world.

She didn't mean to be so comfortable with him, but when she cried and he gave her that scared hug…there was no one she would rather be with.

He quickly turned into another father figure as Yasha quickly turned into an older brother figure. Augus was a very…interesting grandpa.

She didn't have anything left on this Earth, let alone the land of her birth. Then Asura had reached out his hand, warm and solid, and offered to take her to his home.

Durga had been the mother her own had not. She loved her mother but the woman was someone who was forced to be strong and didn't know how to be anything else. Ahria knew her mother loved her, but it was a love that wasn't openly visible. Ahria had also been forced to grow up fast as she was needed to help take care of her younger siblings.

Durga was warm and let be the child she didn't have the chance to be. The woman was warmth incarnate and comfort unmatched.

Mithra was seemingly an enigma…until she figured out that Mithra didn't know what to do with Ahria as much as Ahria didn't know what to do with Mithra. Beyond their identical appearance they had almost identical mannerisms, but very little in common, but-and this was a massive but that only came from differences in societal norms.

After only two weeks they were nearly inseparable.

Mithra bounded down the concrete sidewalk to Yasha's car she was curious as to why it wasn't her father's blood red Mustang. "Hi Uncle Yasha!" she said as she climbed into the passenger's.

"Hello Mithra." He said with a smile as he pulled onto the road.

The young girl watched her uncle "So why didn't Dad or Mom pick me up?"

Yasha shrugged "I don't know, I just got a text about an hour ago asking me to pick you up."

"Hmm."

When they got home, everything was answered.

Ahria was crying holding onto Durga and Asura with a bone-crushing grip. When the door closed Ahria saw Mithra and Yasha and leapt at them, forcing them into the tight embrace that she had given the wedded couple.

Mithra stared at her parents who only smiled contently. It took a while but Ahria calmed down and the situation was explained very simply. Durga simply said "She's agreed to us adopting her."

The celebration lasted well into the night.

December 15th

Asura was on the base filling out paperwork when Augus approached him "Your wife is funny!"

Glancing up and raising an eyebrow Asura simply asked "What?"

"She joked that I should come to Christmas!"

His usual pursed line of a mouth twitched up "She was serious."

Augus was taken entirely aback and visibly shocked. It took several minutes (during which Asura had gone back to doing his paperwork after taking a picture) before he finally replied "In that case your wife is terrifying."

"That she is."

The short drive home was all the more amusing by the fact that he knew Durga had meant every word. The retelling and photo evidence was one of the funniest things he ever had the pleasure to experience…twice.

Durga's fingers flew over the keyboard of her laptop until a small "Um, Ms. Durga?" turning she saw Ahria standing shyly in the door way.

"Yes Dear?" she said gently patting the empty seat on the sofa.

Ahria sat "Um, this is an odd question and a bit late…what do you do for a living?"

Realizing it was indeed late, she smiled "I work for an aero-a flying magazine. Anything to do with flying we publish." Her passion was coming through "The idea of being able to flutter so freely like a bird, or to go faster than anyone else, both are possible in the air."

"It sounds like you love your job."

Nodding Durga agreed, "I do. Do you have a dream job?" she asked.

Ahria tilted her head and though, since the upending of her life nine months ago she hadn't really thought about the long term future "I don't know Mom-Miss-" her attempt to correct was buried in Durga's chest. It marked the first time the girl called her anything other than 'Ms. Durga.'

December 16th

Asura and Yasha were on base again, dealing with more paperwork. The younger man grit his teeth "I didn't think this would involve so much paperwork."

Yasha sighed with some sorrow "I know…it feels like every time I finish one two more need filling out." Indeed, their desks were filled with looming towers of paper.

Working for nearly 3 hours they were about to break for lunch when a shadow covered the two men. Augus. Looking a bit scared. His students were perplexed and ready to run when he finally opened his mouth "Durga's been calling me every hour asking me if I'm going to your house for Christmas."

They both rolled their eyes before Asura leaned on his hand and asked "Are you?"

"Uh, no…"

"Then what are your plans?" Yasha asked, knowing exactly what was going to happen. And so did Augus. If he didn't have a good reason for not going they were going to find a way to drag him to Durga's party.

Sighing heavily Augus flopped bonelessly on a spare chair "I was actually thinking of going to my parents'."

That got Asura and Yasha's attention. Augus hadn't seen his parents since he was 20 when he joined the army, when he almost literally ran away. After high school Augus didn't want to take over the family printing press and even as he worked as a gym assistant the fight started to escalate until he eventually left.

Asura stared at his teacher before warning "If we ever find out that you didn't go to your parents' Durga will drag you to every holiday at my house and invite your family too."

Augus tore off so fast he nearly left smoke in his wake.

December 24th

In the living room Durga, Mithra, Ahria, Asura and Yasha sat around with warm drinks chatting amicably…at least until Asura turned to Yasha and asked "Why aren't you with your girlfriend? The blond one, right?"

With a groan Yasha threw his head back "No, and why can't you remember her name?" Asura shrugged and with another groan he turned to Durga, who was watching intently, "I've been talking to one of Augus's nieces…maybe a bit more than just friends."

Durga tilted her head and had a smile that said 'And why didn't you tell me that?' However, what came out of her mouth was "I take it not the blond one…the twins, right? So, the one with pink hair?"

Leaning away a bit Yasha nodded several times in confirmation.

Durga's eye twitched before she planted her face in her hand and sighed heavily. Mithra giggled before turning to Ahria and saying "Uncle Yasha doesn't really date so anything about it is big news!"

Ahria laughed loudly, and when everyone looked at her she blushed a bit "Well he was dating her before he came to Mongolia."

Durga stared at her soon-to-be-adopted-daughter before giving another smile to her brother, one that promised pain.

The only sound was the ticking of the clock. Several smiles filled the room, Asura, Mithra and Ahria's amuse smiles, Durga's promise of pain and Yasha's scared, twitchy, smile that was seemingly trying to placate his nearly murderous sister.

Eventually Yasha nearly screamed out "So Ahria, how are you liking the US?"

The girl, for a moment, entertained not answering but eventually gave in and allowed him the escape "I like it, it's very different but that's not a bad thing."

Yasha nodded before turning to his brother-in-law with narrowed eyes-Asura only smirked back. Durga smiled goodheartedly while Ahria and Mithra leaned against each other lightly.

Durga stood up and motioned for Asura to follow her. He didn't know what she wanted but followed her anyways. Mitha's phone buzzed and the girl snatched it out of her pocket before staring at the scene intently.

Yasha asked calmly "Are you hoping for a certain someone to text you?"

"Yes and no." she replied with a faint dusting of blush across her cheeks.

Ahria elbowed the other girl lightly "Maybe it's a boy!" Mithra's red flush answered succinctly.

The husband and wife walked back in, both smiling happily before they handed Yasha a package. As it was Christmas eve he shrugged before ripping the paper off.

The usually infallible man's jaw dropped as a small package slowly was exposed "T-this…"

His sister's smile was more joyous than it had been throughout the night "Don't think I didn't see you looking at the ad."

The camera was obviously high end, the glistening black and silver shell was worthy of a photo itself, there were several small dials on the back and top that as Yasha turned it became visible to the rest of them. "I-why…Thank you." he managed to say.

Asura wrapped his arm around his wife who smiled as she leaned against his chest "You're welcome." She said. Her smile dropped and she looked a little frustrated "Alright young ladies," she said with a good deal of humor "We couldn't decide what to get you. I'd like to ask and we'll go out and get it after the New Year's Eve."

Mithra instantly squealed "A video drone!" she had her uncle's love of pictures and her mother's love of aeronautics, she often spent hours talking to and just observing both of them involved in their passions.

All eyes turned to Ahria who smiled though confusion was openly on her face "Yes?"

Asura asked "So what do you want?"

The girl was taken off guard "Um, my family never really did Christmas before…" when that didn't dull their gaze she answered honestly "I don't want anything."

Everyone was surprised but it was Mithra who voiced it "Come on, there's got to be something you want?"

Ahria smiled with something…complicated behind it "I'm in a bit of a different place than wanting anything physical." Everyone leaned in intently "Nine months ago everyone I knew and loved was ripped away from me violently. It was only inches that spared me. I could have died like that, but someone reached out a hand. At the base I got back on my feet, I got close friends, I got people who cared about me-cared enough about me to bring me back here to be with them. Now they want to bring me into their home and their family. I haven't wanted anything for a long time because I've got it."

Durga and Mithra smiled with tears in their eyes and Yasha was stunned into silence.

It was Asura. The rage driven solider. He walked over to the loveseat and knelt before pulling the girl into a tight hug "No matter what happens from here on, we're family. We love you."