Rito laughed hesitantly as he ate, listening to his father ranting about his recent deadlines and the chaos that came from having to delay production after the 'Darkness Incident', which seemed to be a common thing everyone around him knew about and didn't bother explaining in great detail.
"My stuff got big time about 3 years ago, and since then, work's really piled up. I'm real glad Zastin and the other two showed up when they did, I don't know what I'd do in the end-of-month crunch time if I kept growing without any assistants!" Saibai laughed, downing his plastic cup before setting it on the table, waving to Mikan. "Hey, can I get some more? I haven't drank in months!"
Mikan frowned, looking up from the card game she had been playing with Lala and Momo. "None of us are old enough to serve you alcohol, get it yourself."
The man blinked, before frowning as he stared at his empty cup, and proceeded to lean back and laugh, reaching up to tighten his characteristic headband. "Yeah, guess I shouldn't mooch off my hard working daughter too much when she already cleans up when we're too busy to do that. I still pay for this place, but I'm practically a guest myself!" He grinned, sitting upright again as he set an elbow on the table, scratching his chin and staring at Rito, who blinked at the expression on his face. "Well, I'm not the type to beat around the bush too much. I heard what happened, but you seem like you're doing alright. You remember your family and got along with those girls quickly, even though you don't know anything about them. I won't pretend to understand the complicated stuff, you're a whole lot better at dealing with people than I am, but even when you were young, you weren't the type to let something like this get you down."
The boy nodded, sighing as he set his chopsticks down to stare at the table. "I know, I'm going to try to get along with everybody I did before, but if I won't be able to recognize people I'm supposed to trust…"
"You can read kanji you learned recently, can't you?" the man asked, hushing his son as he motioned idly with his hand. "You remember your assignments and recognize the names of stores you've been since middle school. If it's just people and nothing else, then I don't see this being permanent." He grinned, before chuckling. "Trauma can cause people to suppress memories related to some particular incident. I bet once you've calmed down and settled back to a normal life, you'll get them back. It might be slow, it might be instant, or it might never happen at all, but the important thing is that you focus on getting comfortable with living again."
The man frowned, checking to make sure his headband was still tight before crossing his arms. "I don't like lying about things, so I'm going to say directly that when Mikan called me and told me what happened, I expected a whole lot worse. I was kind of aware that you've got a durable body that can recover quickly, but you got skewered by Darkness and were in critical condition by the time I got to the hospital. The doctors didn't even tell me what your chances were, so I thought you would-" The man stopped, before shaking his head.
"I know I'm not around much even though I live so nearby, but I'm still your father. You two and Ringo are everything for me, I would rather lose everything I've ever drawn than have to hear the way Mikan was talking during that call again. It's all I can do right now to stop myself from breaking down, because I know if I do that, then she will too. You're her big brother, and you've been what's keeping this house together for a long time. That Yami-chan…" He tapped his foot on the ground, closing his eyes and groaning as he took on a thoughtful expression. "I was about ready to ban her from ever seeing you again, but when I met her at the hospital, she talked the same way Mikan did. You were minutes away from tapping out, but because of that girl, you-"
"Dad, we promised her we wouldn't talk about that." Mikan said, standing up to walk to the table, and he blinked, looking in her direction, before nodding.
"Right. Still…" He turned back to the confused boy, narrowing his eyes as he spoke. "There were some strange circumstances around that whole situation, but I don't really have the same obligation to keep my promise that Mikan does. You've kept your friends close, Rito. It's because of how much you trust them, and how much they trust you, that you're alive today. You better thank that girl when you see her again, because she was willing to do a whole lot more than I'm capable of to drag you back to life."
~~~Later that night~~~
Deadlines stopped for no one, and Saibai had to eventually leave, though he had spent every minute he could talking with the house's residents, quite literally having to be pushed out of the door by Mikan to go back home, and now, the house was quiet as the two Devilukeans had gone to bed, leaving the siblings in the living room as Rito bounced Celine on his leg, the child just as happy as ever, blissfully unaware that the boy had no real idea who she was.
He knew she was an alien from the flower on her head and her strange two-toed feet, but other than that, she acted like a normal child, waving her hands and chattering excitedly as he played with her. "Celine...So she was a sunflower before, but ended up like this because of...Momo? Why would there be a plant species that could become human?"
Mikan shrugged, sitting beside him and moving her hand to catch the baby whenever she leaned too far backwards. "There's weirder stuff the twins have stored away. Celine's just another family member now, we're basically her parents."
"Parents…" The boy frowned, and when Celine copied his expression, he reached a finger to boop her nose, causing her to grin and go back to her incoherent baby noises. "It's weird, I remember always being the one protecting you, but all of a sudden, you're taking care of all the chores and I'm here being useless. Did I do anything to help out? To me, it just sounds like all I've done is bring more people here to deal with. And I'm pretty sure this isn't how the house looked like back then..."
Mikan tilted her head, tapping her chin before shrugging. "Yeah, we've needed to completely remodel several times because of Lala-san, but it's not as big a deal as it sounds. We all get out just fine, and our personal stuff never gets too damaged, so it's become sort of a tradition to get a new layout every few months. She doesn't look it, but she has a lot of funding since she's a scientist and princess and all."
The boy crinkled his nose at the thought of Lala being a scientist. "Yeah, considering the first thing that happened when I walked in the door was that a runaway robot knocked me over, I somehow don't think she's that good at it."
Mikan laughed, reaching to pick Celine up, the girl giving a mau as she was set on his sister's lap. "That was just Peke, she was running low on power and wasn't fully aware what was going on. That's pretty low on the scale of the chaos Lala-san's caused."
"Is that so…" He blinked, remembering something from the mention of Lala's status as a princess. "That reminds me...You said twins, but I've only seen Lala-san and Momo-san, and they're not the same age. Who's the third sister?"
Mikan jolted, before sighing, wrapping her arms around the little alien to give her a hug. "Nana-san is...probably not going to be discharged until tomorrow at least. She's Devilukean, so she has a lot faster recovery than a human, but you healed way faster than you should have. Plus, she got hurt a lot worse than you did, she was Darkness' target after all."
Rito nodded, sighing and scratching his head. "'Trauma can cause people to suppress memories'." he said, echoing his father's words. "From what I heard, I stepped in willingly and got punished for it, but she was fighting in self defense. I can't imagine how she reacted to all that happening."
Mikan let go of Celine as the child leaned back against her chest, patting the Plantian's head idly while they talked. "She didn't just have the physical reaction either, she also had to deal with Mea betraying her...It's not the first time, but last time this happened, Mea came back and apologized almost immediately when she realized she'd made a mistake. This time...she just vanished into thin air. Nobody knows where she went, even Yami hasn't seen her since then."