Chapter 35: Parentals

A/N: Alright, so it's been a little while since the last chapter (was busy again), in which I stated my thoughts about how the story had kinda fallen off and I was questioning whether it was worth prioritizing anymore and asked if anyone was still here.

It received two responses, from goldengolem15729 and Pizzatime6969XD (what a name, heh). Thanks, you two. I'm glad there's still some people around.

Although now I have another issue to contend with.

Currently, I've been splitting work evenly between my two stories. Write a chapter for one story, write a chapter for the other, repeat. But doing this is greatly tanking upload rates for both stories at the same time. Which is why I brought up this topic last chapter, I thought that if nobody was going to read this then I should just try to upload faster for my other story.

I was originally considering switching it so that I'd write two chapters for the other story then a chapter for this one. Or maybe even three for one. But that's not an option now that I know people are still here.

What makes this worse is that there's another story I wanna start writing! Hah.

So I'll keep thinking away until I come up with something I'm satisfied with that isn't unfair to any of my stories' readers. Until then, which I have no idea when that will be, things will stay the way they are. Maybe I'll just need to put in more effort than I already do... but then I'll have to take breaks more...

Anyway, on with the chapter.

"So..." Hailey said, "Now what?"

"I dunno," I replied, "But I'm staying right here."

Zena hugged my arm after I said that.

I turned to her.

"What? You didn't think I'd forget my promise, did you?" I chuckled.

"No, no," She denied peacefully, "I just love how thoughtful you are."

I nodded slowly.

"Fair enough."

I turned back to Hailey, who now had a look of deep thought on her face.

"Well, I feel like it's my turn to let you two be by yourselves for a while," She said, "Maybe I'll go to Alpine Skyline and see if I can find Badge Seller."

"You don't have to leave, my dear," Zena said, "I enjoy your company greatly."

"Yeah, but I want to let you two have some privacy," Hailey declined, "I mean, Dad let us have privacy yesterday, now it's my turn."

"I thought we already had a little bit of privacy?" I questioned.

"Barely!" She denied, "And I wanna be helpful, so might as well get started on trying to solve this problem of ours, right?"

Hmmm...

I shrugged.

"Well, if that's what you wanna do, go for it," I said, "However, I said this yesterday, and I mean it for REAL this time: you will be back at the ship by sunset. No excuses if you're not. Am I clear?"

"Yep!" She replied cheerfully as she ran off.

She didn't seem to get quite how serious I was about that.

"If I have to go looking for her again..."

"Oh, did she not come home on time last night?" Zena asked.

"Nope. I waited so long I had to go down to look for her, only to find her walking out right then. I wasn't happy," I replied.

"We were having fun. Don't fault the poor girl," She defended.

"I'm not. I completely understand. But she also needs to understand that I'm not gonna be happy if it happens again, cause it was still her fault. Especially considering she has a clear view of the sky at all times in Alpine Skyline. There aren't any excuses this time," I explained.

Zena frowned.

"You need to trust her more," She sighed.

"I do. I just don't like how little she seemed to recognize how serious I was," I said, "But whatever. She'll probably be back by sunset... there's not really any reason for her not to be, given where she's going to be for the rest of the day."

"Just don't get mad at her if she's not, alright?"

"I won't," I sighed.

Something about this conversation seemed oddly familiar. Well, familiar wasn't the right word, but I felt like someone I knew would've had a talk like this befo-

Oh. My parents. They would've had a talk like this when I was around a teenager.

I looked into Zena's eyes.

"You're already acting like a mother."

She looked at me with confused curiosity.

"What do you mean?"

I leaned back in my chair.

"When I was a kid, my parents were basically polar opposites. When it came to things like punishments for misbehaving and whatever, my father was always the harsh one, the bad guy, not hesitating to yell at me or whatever if he thought I deserved or needed it. He'd even threaten to confiscate or break some of my most prized belongings if I didn't take him seriously. I'm not necessarily saying that's a bad thing, it worked in the end, and he made it clear that he just wanted the best for me. No harm, no foul and all that," I began.

I then rested my head on my fist, thinking back deeply to the old days, around a decade ago.

"And then there was my mother. She was always understanding, rarely ever getting mad or giving out any real punishments. When I made her mad, I knew I really screwed up. Instead of using threats and position of power to enforce rules, she chose to explain them to me, make me understand myself why they existed in the first place. Which actually worked a lot better than what my father did. When my father would take something from me or whatever, she'd often argue with him about it because she felt it wasn't right."

A smile came to my face.

"I feel like my parents would've had a conversation exactly like this sometime when I wasn't around."

...

"... I feel old."

Zena laughed.

"If you're old, what does that make me?" She exclaimed.

"Uh... I-"

"I'm just joking," She said, "I've got one thing to say to you: Get used to it, hon."

... What?

"'Hon'?"I questioned, "I never expected to hear you of all people say that.

She shrugged.

She then took a relaxed sigh and smiled.

"It's quite endearing to think that your parents had similar conversations to what we have. Makes me feel like we're doing something right. Or at least, you are," She mused.

"You're a part of this family too, now," I countered.

She smiled like the sun and opened her arms, inviting me into them.

I leaned towards her and felt her wrap her arms around me and bury her head in my shoulder.

God, I loved that.

I wrapped an arm around her.

You know, it's certainly weird to think that, of all the people I could've fallen in love with, it ended up being a millenium-old ancient being who looks and acts like she's 23.

And even weirder to think that she loves me back.

But given that I have an adoptive daughter who isn't even the same species as me and can pilot a spaceship that can probably travel faster than light, should I really be questioning things anymore?

No. No I should not.

Especially considering I wouldn't have it any other way.

...

This was so nice.

Could we just stay like this all da-hold on, the chair's tipping ove-oh God I'm falling-

CRASH

"OOF-"

"Are you okay?" Zena asked. I could hear her struggling not to laugh.

I shook the sudden dizziness away and stood up, muttering that I was fine.

"Now that I think about it trying to snuggle with someone lying in a bed while sitting in a chair is a bad idea," I thought aloud.

The smuggest grin I've ever seen made its way onto her face. It was so smug it was downright intimidating.

I felt my heart sink, knowing full well I screwed up. But what did I say this time?

She then cringed and shook her head rapidly, returning to her typical, innocent smile.

... I guess she decided it was too much to say. Yikes. I'll really have to be more careful with my words, then.

"Well, luckily for you, the doctor says I'll be able to leave tomorrow!" She beamed.

He said what?

"Huh?"

"He said that the wound was healing very rapidly and with no complications, so I should be able to go home tomorrow. He warned me that I'll have to be careful, though, and that I'll have to come back in a week to have the stitches removed," She explained.

I felt a wave of euphoria wash over me.

No freaking way!

"Fantastic! When I was recovering, they made me wait until the wound had healed entirely!" I exclaimed.

"I thought they would have," She replied, "When he told me I could leave tomorrow, I asked him why they'd let me leave this early, and he said that it had healed enough that I could be trusted to go back to living a normal life as long as I don't do anything, well, strenuous."

"That makes sense. So I wonder why I wasn't released until I had my stitches out?" I questioned, "Maybe bird hospitals have different medical practices?"

"Perhaps. Or maybe they thought you can't be trusted to let it heal," She teased.

"Yep, mhm, sure, that's me, rash Markus, constantly getting myself into-"

... Constantly getting myself into bad situations, huh?

Yeah...

"I'm not going to finish that sentence," I muttered as I scratched my head, "I really can't wait for you to get out of here, though. You promised me a full day to help me relax, and I'm going to hold you to it."

She let out a small chuckle.

"Trust me, Markus. I'll fulfill that promise and then some," She said with a warm smile.

"Given that you already are, I'm sure you will."

She then sat up and patted for me to sit down on the bed next to her.

I did as she commanded, and she wrapped her arms around me yet again.

I was about to return the gesture, before there was a knock on the door.

Zena instantly shoved me off the bed, nearly sending me to the floor a second time.

I was about to shout something about her warning me before doing something like that, but then, lo and behold, Dr. Nyasahiro walked in.

So... it was a good thing she did. That would've been super awkward.

"Hello again," He greeted me.

I responded with a small wave.

He must've noticed something was off, because he proceeded to raise an eyebrow.

"Did I... uh... interrupt something?" He asked.

"No, not at all!" Zena lied, "We were just talking."

The look on his face made it clear that he didn't buy it, but he clearly knew not to press. Good.

"Well, how are you feeling today?" He asked her, "No pain? No itching? Are you feeling weak?"

Zena shook her head.

"It only hurts when I stretch now," She said, "Other than that, I feel perfectly fine."

He wrote something down on a clipboard.

"Good, good," He muttered, "Mind if I take one last look at the wound, just to be certain?"

"Of course," She replied.

Dr. Nyasahiro then turned to me and gestured to the door. It clicked in my head immediately.

"Oh, right..." I muttered before walking out of the room, proceeding to lean against the wall and close my eyes while waiting.

Now would be a good time to work on my dimensional power stuff. Not like I had anything else to do.

Well... obviously I wouldn't be, like, making portals and stuff right here in the hospital, that would be dumb to do in public, but... I could just mess with the fabric of reality a little.

I blotted out everything else and listened to the Multiverse. I'd never get tired of how cool this was.

I tried bending a little bit around me, not much, just a little. As to be expected, it worked.

What should I do? I'd wanna have fun, obviously.

I could try experimenting. Surely Traveller did the same when he was first getting used to his powers... although probably in a more secluded environment... and he was screwed in the head back then...

... Whatever. Just a little bit wouldn't hurt anyone.

But what to try first...

Well, I should probably start simple. I'll try concentrating it into a point.

So, I gathered the fabric around me and crushed it all into my hand. It was actually harder than I first thought, it wasn't keen on getting compressed like that. So I didn't compress it very much. Who knew what'd happen if I compressed it TOO much, after all? A multiversal black hole? Would the fabric of reality tear open and need to be sealed shut?

I didn't need very much focus to keep it compressed once it was like that, though, so I opened my eye, curious if there was any visual effect.

Oh, there was.

Now, floating in the palm of my right hand, was a small, star-like beacon of colourful light emanating off in every direction.

It looked awesome.

Although I wondered, what'd happen if I touched it...?

I decided to poke it with my left index finger.

A jolt of energy shot through my left arm-

BAD IDEA-

I hissed in extreme pain and recoiled my arm as it appeared to distort and warp similarly to an image getting corrupted. It felt like it was on fire, being struck by lightning, and being ripped apart all at once. All I could do was close my eyes and grit my teeth until the pain subsided.

Slowly, it lessened to a bearable amount, and I opened my eyes and examined my arm. It still distorting occasionally but nothing permanent.

I looked back at where the point was, noticing it gone. Good...

It continued to occasionally spaz out as I waited, causing me to cringe in discomfort every time, but I was just glad nothing serious happened.

Okay. Maybe experimenting could be a bad idea... or maybe I should just use my freaking brain.

Either way, that was enough experimenting for one day.

Hopefully Dr. Nyasahiro would be done s-

The door opened, and I looked over to see the doctor walk out.

Well, speak of the devil.

"You can go back in now if you want. My job here is done."

He then walked away.

Sweet.

I opened the door and stepped back inside, smirking at Zena.

"What happened with your arm?" She asked, extremely confused and worried.

"I was messing with my powers and did something stupid," I replied, "Don't worry, it's nothing serious. It'll be fine in a few minutes."

She facepalmed and shook her head.

"Boys..." She sighed judgingly.

"Uh... well, anyway..." I diverted the topic, "What's the verdict?"

She seemed to immediately forget about my arm.

"I'm all set to leave tomorrow!" She beamed, then took a deep sigh, "I'm so glad I don't have to stay here any longer..."

"Any particular reason for that or are you just bored?" I asked.

"Many reasons. First of all, I'm worried for my people. I know you're watching over them, but have you really watched over a whole civilization before?" She asked.

"Of course not. I'm doing my best," I replied, "And you're probably still going to need my help for the next week until you get your stitches out."

She nodded.

"I know. And you seem to be doing a great job. But I just don't like not being able to return at all," She said, "Next, similar to what you said, I don't like it here. The flowers you bought helped greatly, and everyone is really kind, but it's still far too cold in a place like this."

I nodded. Of course, all hospitals were like this, cause... they kinda had to be.

"And lastly..." She said before closing her eyes and sighing sadly, "I can't stand being reduced to this weak, helpless state. I hate it so much. It's not right! People should be able to rely on me! Not the other way around! Ugh..."

I walked over to her and sat down on the bed, wrapping my arms around her. She let out a small exhale in response, and I felt some tension in her arms go away.

"Everyone needs someone to rely on, y'know," I said, "Ain't no person in this whole multiverse who doesn't depend on someone else in some way."

"That's true..." She mumbled, "But it still just feels wrong. I feel like I'm taking advantage of others' kindness. You can't tell me you don't understand that."

"Oh, trust me, I do," I said with a chuckle, "I get the same way with Hailey. And funny enough, she gets the same way with me, and everyone else. But sometimes you just gotta let it go. With how much helping you do for others, sometimes it's okay to let yourself be helped for once."

She was silent.

She then rested her head on my shoulder and snuggled into me again. Heh. She really was something.

"You're an angel..." She said quietly.

I closed my eyes and let out a light snort.

"Zena, if I'm an angel, then you must be a goddess."

We sat in silence, enthralled by each other's company.

Finally, we could have all the time in the world just to ourselves.

A/N: Well, seems fair to assume that neither of them is gonna be moving from their spot for the next few hours. Haha. A match made in heaven, both figuratively and literally (kinda).

And Markus, you should know better than to touch weird things, ya nincompoop. Hopefully you've learned your lesson.

I already addressed the reviews, so there's no need to do it again here. I'll just say: Thanks again, you two.

So, well, I'm not sure what I'm gonna be doing next chapter. A couple ideas, none of them I can really work with yet. I'll figure it out, though. See you then.