Days passed by as normally as they could. Lilly and Avery went to school every day while Manny stayed at home and explored. He spent Tuesday cleaning the house (despite Avery's protests that he didn't have to do so), and Wednesday he spent making good use of the dvd collection. Thursday he played one of Lilly's favorite video games, a puzzle and adventure game following a child princess with red hair, until Avery got home.

Manny heard the front door open and he saved and closed the game. After folding the laptop up, he went to meet Avery in the kitchen.

"Hi Avery." Avery looked up from filling the electric kettle with water.

"Hey little man. You like the game so far?"

"Mhmm! It's really fun."

"That's good." Avery sat the kettle on it's port and started heating the water. "Manny, I need to talk to you."

"Okay?" He kept his face neutral, but his blood ran cold.

"You're not in trouble, I promise. Just…" Avery trailed off. "Do you like mint tea?"

Manny had never had tea before. "Yes."

"Cool. Go ahead and put the laptop away, will you?"

Manny quickly scurried to get the laptop back where it should be. His heart was pounding faster than it should. Avery just wanted to talk with him, and he wasn't in trouble. It was okay. It was fine. So why did he feel like he was going to throw up? (Because what if something had happened to Harry or Robin? What if Lilly was in trouble? What if something had happened at the hospital? What if it had anything to do with this father?)

"Okay. Again, I promise you're not in trouble." Avery said while getting mugs out of the cabinet, a cute ladybug patterned one and one with an orange cartoon cat design. Manny sat in his chair at the table.

"I know."

"This just isn't going to be the most comfortable conversation." She dropped a tea bag into each mug, and scooped some sugar into the cat one. "Do you want any?"

"I'll pass." Manny said. The water started to boil and Avery turned it off.

"There are three main things. You want to do the worst first, get it out of the way?"

"Yes please." The anxiety es skulking him.

"Okay." Avery filled each mug with the hot water before bringing them over to the table. She passed Manny the ladybug one and took a deep breath. "First, I think it's time we set up your first therapy appointment."

"Therapy?" Ray had tossed the word around at the hospital, a lot of the staff had, but no one had actually talked to him about it.

"Do you know what therapy is, right?" Avery asked.

"Basically. It's when you talk to a doctor about what's making you feel bad."

"Kind of." Avery smiled a little. "Therapy is when you see a therapist, which is like a feelings Doctor. They're someone who you can talk to about anything. Any bad or weird feelings or thoughts you have, stuff that's happening at school or home, whatever you want. They're there to help you."

"I wasn't wrong." Manny said.

"You weren't, but there was a bit of nuance you were missing. And it's not just for when you feel sad. You can be angry, or jealous, or a whole slew of emotions other than sad." Avery picked up her cup and blew on the tea before taking a sip.

"So why am I going? I feel fine." That was definitely a lie, and Manny knew it. Judging from the look Avery gave him, she knew too.

"You're going because of everything that happened to you over the past year. Even if you do feel fine, that was a lot for anyone to go through, especially a kid." Manny bristled a little at being called a kid. He was thirteen! "The therapist is someone that you can talk to about all that. Lilly is seeing Dr. Ashiq as well, and she's very nice."

"Lilly is going to therapy? But— but she's doing great! She's going to school and making friends and—" Manny stopped talking, notice how Avery was looking at him.

"Just because it looks like someone is doing okay doesn't mean that they aren't struggling. And even if someone is doing okay, they can still see a therapist. Sometimes it's nice just to have someone to talk to." Avery sighed and took a drink. "At least give it a shot Manny, okay? You can ask Lilly about it when she gets back from school."

"Okay." Manny tried to take a sip of his tea, but the liquid burned his tongue. "What about the other things?"

"Well, your first court date on the twelfth."

"Court date?!" Manny almost shouted the words. "Am I going to jail?"

"No, no. Manny calm down. It's a foster care thing." Avery said quickly.

"Why do I have to go to court for foster care stuff?"

"Normally there would have been a bunch of other court visits before this point, but your situation in special and the FBI is involved so they got to pull a few strings and speed the process along a bit. The court date is a routine thing to make sure that you're doing okay and I'm taking care of you. It's why we got the nice clothes, remember?" He did remember, they had gotten dress pants, a white button down, and a clip on tie along with some nice shoes at the mall.

"Yeah… you did say something about court then." Manny tried another sip of his drink. It wasn't as hot this time. "Sorry."

"You have nothing to apologize for. Do you have any other questions about that?"

"No. What's the last thing?"

"Oh, I wanted to know if you have anything specific you want for Christmas."

"… what?"

"Like what presents do you want?"

"I…" Manny looked into his cup. "I don't know."

"That's okay! You can always let me know if you think of anything." Manny looked up to see Avery giving him the nicest smile imaginable. "I do want to take you out shopping for Lilly soon, I want some help on picking out some things for her."

"I can do that." Manny felt himself starting to smile.

A/N

Who's excited for the new show today!

Again as a psa, nothing from the new show will affect this story. I already have basically everything planned and mapped out, so there isn't a lot of room to introduce new things. (Though maybe some references and side characters could make an appearance ;))

Also, if anyone knows the video game Manny was playing (Child of Light) special shout out to you! I remember watching my dad play it in 2014 and I was in love! This entire story has honestly been a huge nostalgia trip, I spend way too much time researching and looking up things from 2014/2015 lmao.

ALSO ALSO Any Percy Jackson fans here? How are we feeling with the new book title? :) I'm doing fine :) (that's a lie, I'm losing my mind)