Disclaimer: I do not own Ice Age.


AN: Thanks for the reviews…was going to update earlier, but was busy…holidays, you know?


Chapter 13:

Eliza sits down at the dining table, waiting anxiously for her daughter's return. Despite her stoic facade with Isobel, she was genuinely worried for her daughter. Witches, male or otherwise, were not the friendliest of species. Besides shape-shifters, they were probably the most unsociable species that Eliza had had the displeasure of meeting.

She perks up as she hears the door opening.

Shira returns, on time, as promised. She hadn't elaborated on where she was going, only that she would be back at a specific time. Eliza trusted her daughter enough to make her own decisions - after all, her daughter had cut ties with Gutt efficiently enough on her own.

And even if Shira had been with Diego, as Eliza and her husband have been expecting, Shira always came back with a noticeable glow that she tried - and failed - to hide from her parents. And while this was good and left both parents reassured of their decision, this was a serious matter she had to discuss.

She was relieved Victor was away on business. Shira had inherited her fiery temper from him, and both could go days without talking to each other.

Eliza needed to approach this gently.

"Shira,"

Shira turns curiously. "Yeah?"

"We need to talk about Diego."

This snaps Shira out of her happiness and she frowns, taking another seat opposite her mother. "What is it?"

Eliza leans back. "Isobel Romano came here several hours ago."

"Oh?" Shira arches an eyebrow. The hunters usually tried to avoid them as long as they can.

"And she mentioned something to do with Diego."

Shira sighs. "Not you too."

"Too?" Eliza questions.

Shira crosses her arms and leans back in her seat. "The hunters' children tried to corner me during lunch." She frowns. "I don't know if their parents set them up to it, but they were insistent."

"What happened?"

Shira closes her locker, ready to join Diego in the canteen. As she turns however, she startles back upon realising the five faces that are waiting for her. She growls internally, cursing the other spirits here for not warning her about this.

"What?" She demands.

Crash shrugs. "Maybe we're just trying to give you a heart attack."

Shira growls at him, watching with satisfaction as he and his twin shrink back behind their sister, who looks mildly exasperated. Her expression turns serious as she looks Shira in the eye. "Shira, listen. We know about you and your parents."

Shira blinks. Wait. Did they not know? Huh. That explains a lot. "What?" She asks. That seems the appropriately obscure response.

Ellie hands her a plastic bag.

Shira blinks again, then looks into it.

"A DNA test, a syringe for a blood test, and we need a strand of hair."

What?

"From me?" Shira asks, frowning. As far as she was concerned, they had no authority to get her to do this. Barring the interference agreement, which her parents had drilled into her head since she was a child, the hunters were not a legal force that could issue this sort of order.

"No, Diego."

And things just got stranger.

Shira had an inkling about why they wanted this from Diego, but she feigns nonchalance as she hands the bag back to them. "Then ask him yourself."

"It'll seem weird if we went up to him and asked him for a DNA cheek sample, blood sample, and a strand of his hair." Manny scoffs.

Shira glares. "And you think it's that much easier for me?"

"We know you're a Median," Ellie says. "And our parents are Hunters."

Shira rolls her eyes. "No duh." She ignores their surprised looks - did their parents really not tell them until recently? That would explain the sudden interest - and continues. "No way I'm going up to him and asking him for all this."

"Shira, he trusts you more than he trusts us."

"Which is why I'm not going to betray it," Shira says firmly, trying to push the bag back to them again.

"Say it's for a bet." Manny suggests. "That would seem less suspicious."

Shira lets out a slow exhale. "I think you're missing the point here. And that is - I'm not doing this. I don't care how badly you want it. I'm not betraying Diego's trust like that."

"It's not that difficult!" Sid protests. "Look, we can think up of everything for you."

Including the place, time, what she should wear, say, and act? Shira sighs sarcastically. "Alright, let's backtrack. What do you need this-" She shakes the bag "for anyways?"

"We think Diego…might be something dangerous." Ellie says slowly.

Shira snorts at the thought. Diego is the least threatening person she knows. Knowing she wouldn't get anywhere with them, she tosses the bag in the air, watching passively as Manny and Sid dive to save it from smashing onto the ground.

Shira rolls her eyes and turns to stride off, before Ellie grabs her shoulder and turns her around. "Let me go, Ellie."

Ellie pushes the test into her hands. "Look, if Diego is innocent, then there's no reason he shouldn't take the test."

"But you don't want him to know the purpose behind the test," Shira rolls her eyes.

Ellie merely gives her a strained smile, then escapes with the rest, leaving Shira holding the plastic bag in her hand. She groans.

Dammit.

"And then?" Eliza presses.

"We went out for a few hours." She shrugs nonchalantly. "Diego knows we are Medians, and he knows about the Other World."

Eliza freezes. This is disastrous. If Diego truly is a Witch, then what could this kind of knowledge do to her daughter? To her family? Witches were aggressive by nature, and the Medians' passive nature had resulted in many being abused for their powers.

"He said he wasn't going to tell anyone, not the authorities or the hunters," Shira says, trailing off. She wanted to tell her mother everything that happened, but Diego had told her in confidence, and so she stands. "Long story."

Eliza doesn't push. Unlike Isobel, she knows when to strategically retreat and come back to it again. "Just one more question."

Shira sighs but nods obligingly, picking her bag from where she dropped it on the floor.

"There was a woman who visited Valley. She looked like Diego. What is her relation to him?"

Shira shrugs half-heartedly. Eliza sighs but nods, and Shira takes the chance to dart into her room, collapsing on the bed with a small grin. The not-date with Diego had gone surprising well, and both Diego and Shira had confided in each other what they were. Shira hadn't been kidding when she told Ellie she wasn't going to betray Diego's trust.

Shira had never before considered what it was like, having someone she trusted from the Other World as well. Sure, she was brought up here, but there was something about being from there that changed the way she viewed things. She and Diego had laughed about it, bringing up the most random topics.

From the eager way Diego had shared, Shira guesses that he was quite lonely as well.

Either way, this had not been how she had been expecting her first semester to end. After all, she had grown up alone and with Gutt's crew, hating the Half-Peak students that showed up. Within the span of a few weeks, she was sort-of-not-really-dating one of them, who turned out t be from the Other World as well.

She had told him about Ellie and the others. Diego had sighed, a mischievous look in his eye as he examined the tests.

"What'd you say to messing these up a little?"

Shira had frowned, but laughed as well as Diego's hand gleamed a dark shade of green. "They're going to be so confused."

Diego had smiled at her, bright and happy, and Shira had treasured it since.

Still, there was one thing that was nagging at her.

"Why aren't you telling someone about me? Why be so nice?" She had tried to disguise it under nonchalance, but Diego and his sharp eyes had picked up on it, and his smile had gentled.

"Because my ancestors did the same."