"JUST WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?"

Father and daughter froze into place, holding their breath. Slowly, guiltily, they turned their head to face a very much raging Zhu Li, hands on her hips. This did not bode well. It did not bode well at all.

"I've told you a thousand times, NO MECHATANKS FOR KIDS!"

Varrick wished he could simply shrink away and escape through a little fly-mouse hole in the wall, but he had no other choice than to face the fury of his dear wife.

"But you don't understand, my sweet tiger seal, don't you think our little daughter should know how to defend herself?"

"Don't you dare tiger seal me, Varrick! I'm not letting you put Aricka inside a giant fighting robot!"

"Ugh! Fine! We'll just let her be a helpless fragile tiny little girl and she'll never know anything about the world!"

He threw his hands into the air as Zhu Li took their daughter into her arms, looking terribly mad at him. The poor little girl seemed very confused, one moment having fun with her daddy teaching her tricks and the next being caught up in the middle of a fight. Zhu Li hugged her close to her, stroking her hair, and for a second her face turned fond and loving, but as soon as she looked back up at Varrick, the anger was back.

"I can't even…" She rubbed her temple with one hand, balancing the child with just one arm. "Aricka is going to her room and when I'm back, we are having a talk."

"But mom, I wanted to play with the robot!"

"You can play with it again in thirteen years when you are a fully self-sufficient member of society, young lady."

Aricka pouted but there was nothing to do to make Zhu Li give in. They went out of the room, leaving Varrick to his nervousness. He sat back on his chair at the back of the workshop and waited for the storm to come.

It was a good ten minutes before Zhu Li came back. Varrick was relieved to note that her face had turned back to her impassible mask. It wasn't much, but a stern Zhu Li was slightly better than an angry Zhu Li. She walked up to him to stare down at him, and he felt the need to stand up as well. She was way too intimidating to have her loom over him.

"Well?"

"What?"

"When are you going to stop putting our children in danger all day long?"

"I didn't… That's not what it is, Zhu Li! I'm trying to teach her how to defend herself!"

"You know just as well as I do that piloting a mechatank is dangerous. You wouldn't even do it yourself when you designed them, I had to do all the crash tests!"

He looked down, wringing his hands.

"I just thought it'd be fun…" he muttered.

"I want them to be safe, Varrick. She's only five, she's way too young to be thinking about self defence, much less with huge robots. Can you imagine what would have happened if she had struck the twins?!"

"The robot isn't that huge!"

"How did you end up with a child-size mechatank anyway?"

He knew, just knew her eyes were way too frightening to dare looking up at her.

"You had it made special, didn't you?"

He sighed and nodded.

"You'll get rid of it tomorrow first thing in the morning."

"But…"

"No but! It's too dangerous. She could hurt herself or her brothers."

As if on cue, a shrill voice began to wail with all its force on the upper floor. Varrick's eye widened despite him. Crying children still freaked him out.

Aricka had been a screamer when she was still a baby. She would just weep and shout day and night and nothing anyone did would ever soothe her. Varrick had felt completely useless as a father. It had taken him longer than he cared admit to get used to the little bundle of tears that she had been. They had really become buddies once she was able to talk and listen − or more like talking a lot and listening very little. Little by little, they had become partners in crime and Varrick had only stopped being so terrified of her when she stopped crying so much. Their bond had become so strong that he had helped her getting used to her little brothers.

Zu and Lee were born nearly three years after her and she had hated them immediately. Of course Varrick loved them dearly, as he had loved her, but he had been sorely disappointed to notice that, while they were quieter than Aricka, they still cried a lot. Of course, he had had to get used to them, just like he had learned to live his life with his daughter in it. Children were a blessing. And Aricka had learned that as well. Somehow, seeing her father make so many efforts to take care of his sons helped her a lot through accepting the two little monsters that were supposedly her brothers. But that did not mean he liked the crying anymore than she did. And he was terrified to go face the little boys right now.

Zhu Li, who had been angry seconds ago, suddenly smirked at him. In other circumstances, he would be delighted. He loved to see her smile, even at his expense. But the prospect of having to soothe his little sons endlessly before they would even stop shouting did not please him. At all.

"I beg you, tiger seal, you can't force me to do this! You know I'm afraid of children crying!"

"You should have thought of that before having three of them, then, my dear," she said, her eyes glistening with mockery. "I'll deal with Aricka, you take the boys."

She made for the door but he grabbed her arm. The sound of their child wailing was still echoing through the mansion so he had to be quick.

"Zhu Li, please! You know I can't do the thing!"

She stopped in her tracks to face him and hugged him, surprising him so much he almost forgot the reason he was stopping her. He froze at first, unsure, but soon melted into the embrace and wrapped his arms around her waist. The urgency of the situation made her break away far sooner than he would have liked but she gave him a peck on the lips and mussed his hair with fondness.

"Of course you can. They are children, not dark spirits. Our children."

"… You're right."

"I'm fairly sure our little badgermole will have destroyed the entire floor if we don't hurry up, so stop being scared."

He nodded and they headed upstairs to rescue their screaming child.