Chapter 9

'Good letter?' Téa smiled brightly at him, as she spotted the strange smirk on her son's face.

'Good delivery girl,' he laughed, lowering the letter he was reading in order to meet his mother's gaze, 'SK's only gone and hired himself a secretary.'

'Is that what Taylor told you,' she indicated towards the letter he was holding.

'No,' he shook his head, 'I saw the girl who delivered this myself and pieced it all together from what she said.'

'Oh really?' Téa couldn't help but laugh.

It had been a long time since she'd seen this kind of life in her son and it felt good.

'Yeah. She seems an odd choice though, a bit of a ditz. And she dresses like she's from a completely different era.'

'So she's dead then?' Téa frowned, feeling a little disappointed at the thought her son was getting so excited over a dead girl.

'Yeah,' he rolled his eyes; clearly knowing what his mother was thinking, 'she's a Vii Sen.'

'How do you know that?'

'She named herself,' he shrugged, 'she told me that much herself, so what else could she be? But just because she's dead doesn't mean she can't be cute you know.'

'I never said otherwise.'

'But, what? You're bothered at the thought I'm not gay like my Ohpayo Cousins?'

'I couldn't care less what your sexuality is,' she pressed her lips together and tilted her head to one side, 'but a dead girl…'

'Mum, I met her once and thought she was cute. That doesn't mean I have some kind of unnatural crush on her. That just means I'm straight and have eyes.'

'Hmm,' she gave him a thoughtful once over.

She had to admit she was concern. From the way Taylor and Arados had dealt with their feelings she knew she'd have to keep a close eye on him, but she also knew he already felt smothered by her thanks to his illness. So she'd just have to make sure she could keep a close eye on his business without him…

'Where's Dad today?' Lus interrupted her train of thoughts.

'Oh… um…' she thought for a moment, 'I don't know.'

'He still not talking to you properly then?'

'No,' she sighed.

'It's okay,' he gave her a weakly reassuring smile, 'he's just trying to get used to being the Face of Friendship, rather than just hosting her. This whole thing is kind of strange for him, you know; going from two separate entities into one singular one so suddenly…'

'I know, I just wish he would talk to me about it. Maybe I could help.'

'Maybe that's exactly why he can't talk to you about it.'

'What do you mean?'

'One of the Face of Friendship's powers is empathy, remember? He's spent a long time learning to control that power properly and now he is the Face of Friendship it's stronger than ever.'

'Oh I see,' she lowered her gaze, 'I guess I can smoother you two in ways I can't even control, huh?'

'It's not your fault Mum.'

'No, but I should have…'

'Mum, there's nothing you should or shouldn't do in this situation. Just give Dad time to get used to things.'

'How much time?'

'He will talk to you when he's ready.'

'And how long will that take?'

'What do I look like Mum? An empath?'

'I…'

'Surprisingly that's one of Ara's powers, not mine.'

'Oh,' Téa couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed.

For a few moments there was silence between them, then Lus gave a slight nervous cough.

'Mum, look, I'm sure Dad will talk to you soon.'

'I hope so.'

'Oh, he will,' Lus's smile became more genuine again and there was an underlying level of confidence to it Téa instantly seemed to catch. 'You know Dad better than anyone, you know he'll come round when he's ready.'

'You're right,' she nodded, 'I know you're right.'

'Then stop worrying, okay Mum?'

'I will.'

'Hey, is it too late for me to go see Ara?'

'Huh?' Téa blinked at him, confused by the sudden change of conversation.

'Well Ara would have gotten a letter too, I want to know if he's seen our new post-girl.'

'Yeah, sure, you can go see him,' she couldn't help but sigh slightly.

'You'll be okay on your own for a while, won't you Mum?' Lus frowned at her.

'What? Sure, of course I will, it's not like I'm not used to being alone.'

'Are you sure? Because going to see Ara could wait till tomorrow you know.'

'I'm sure,' her voice took on an insisting tone, 'now just go will you, before you make me feel like some pathetic old housewife.'

'You hungry Ara?' Mai carefully brought the tray into his room.

'You even need to ask?' Slowly he sat up and prepared to take the tray off of her.

'You really are your father's son, you know. No matter what you're going through you never lose your appetite.'

'Thanks,' he rolled his eyes, before picking at one of the bread rolls.

'You could have talked to me, you know,' she lowered her voice, 'I kept waiting for you to.'

'I know,' he lowered his gaze, 'I'm sorry, but I thought… Remember that conversation we had after I… Well I was afraid… Before everything came out I thought…'

'You thought that was the level of conversation you'd get? That I would act like I didn't believe you?' She couldn't help but stare at him in disbelief.

'That you'd try to make me think it wasn't true.'

'I would never have tried to convince you that you weren't…'

'I know that now Mum,' he cut her off, 'but I couldn't… Call it an irrational fear.'

'You seem to be suffering from a lot of those,' she gave him a sad smile, before lightly stroking some of his brown-blond hair. 'You'll get over this, you know. You'll get back out there and everything will be…'

'Nothing will be like before Mum, so don't even try that,' he sighed heavily. 'But I at least hope you're right about being back out there soon; I'm getting pretty bored of looking at these four walls all the time.'

'I bet you are,' Lus's voice suddenly sounded from the corner of the room, 'I'm guessing that means you didn't see our new post-girl then?'

'Post-girl?' Mai frowned at him, as her voice overlapped with Arados's.

'You mean we did actually get letters from Tay today?' Arados added.

'Yeah we did,' Lus nodded, 'do you mind going to check the tray for him Una Mai?'

'Sure,' she smiled, 'I'll be right back.'