Having tossed his backpack onto a counter nearby, Charlie settled into the desk chair by his laboratory station. He had spent an entire day working his brain at school, but Charlie didn't mind facing more work. To him, this was where the real learning began.

The mentor that Bax had picked for him years ago, Doctor Psuedonomas, had given him a couple of exercises to improve his kinetic skills. He cracked his knuckles in preparation for a challenge.

When it came to magic, Charlie considered himself to be special, but not in a good way. Technically, he had three siblings who wielded three different disciplines. Bax had taught him how to go invisible, Bell had taught him how to use the elements, and Fire had taught him how to throw energy beams. Out of his own curiosity, he had eventually begun to experiment around with healing magic. Thus, Charlie was gifted with four different magical disciplines. And yet, he wasn't good at any of them.

In his earlier childhood, Charlie used to believe that he was a jack of all traits; capable of doing many things but not particularly skilled at any given one. Yet, as he had poured more and more of his time and energy into learning healing magic specifically, the truth had soon revealed itself.

The truth - as much as it had irked Charlie to admit this to himself - was that he simply wasn't talented at using magic. He thanked his mystery gene pool for this particular trait, but he saw no point in being resentful at strangers who had given him away at birth. It was the family he had known since, who had helped him hone his strongest traits.

What Charlie was good at, was technology. There was just something about engineering that came easy to his brain. The circle of logic clicked automatically for him and all he needed to do, in the end, was to properly put together the puzzle pieces. Thus, he had recently accepted that his relationship to magic would be a special one, in a good way.

Despite this discovery and developing sense of self-acceptance, Doctor Pseudomonas insisted that Charlie continue his kinetic training. 'If you're not good at it, you should practice more, not less,' he always said. Charlie guessed that his teacher had a point, so he had mandated himself to do a couple of exercises each day after school. After all, in only two years, he would have to take his first healer's exam. The test came with a practical part.

Charlie was snapped from his focus on an especially complicated bone-mending exercise, when his phone loudly rang on the desk. He glanced at the caller and was surprised to see his brother's name displayed on the screen. It was five in the afternoon; too early in the day for Bax to be checking in on him.

He picked up. "Hey, what's up?"

For some reason, Bax sounded both stressed and out of breath. "Charlie, are you safe?" he called over the noise of his own running.

He worriedly frowned. Hearing Bax stressed was never a good sign. "Yeah, I'm fine, what's wrong?"

"Good, stay that way," Bax sharply ordered, instead of answering the question. "Are you at the lab?"

"Yeah... yes, I'm doing homework," he confirmed, confusion growing by the second. "Bax, what's going on?"

"There's a monster-attack, set to happen right around your lab," he barked, "do not leave the building! Stay exactly where you are, I'm on my way to you!"

Charlie blinked in surprise. He slowly got up and walked closer to the large windows that showed a picturesque view over Galway. And indeed, he could see a crowd of humans forming in the streets. He could tell that they were staring at something out of sight and frantically having a discussion over it.

A moment later, a horde of creepy monsters trudged around the corner of a nearby building.

"Charlie!" Bax's voice impatiently pressed by his ear.

"Yeah," he absent-mindedly muttered, "I can see them."

"Do not engage! Promise me, you'll stay inside!"

"Sure," he mumbled, "promise..."

Bax hung up the call. The phone slid over Charlie's ear as he lowered it to his side. His gaze remained pinned to the monsters down below.

By now, the Galway residents had engaged. This neighborhood had many sorcerers living in it, but there seemed to be several mortals as well. Some people ran, some pulled out their phone cameras, and some charged ahead. Then, glaring magic and sharp weapons clashed with the huge claws of the monsters.

Charlie flinched, as he watched a man get his throat flayed open. Another man and a woman went down and tussled with the monsters on the ground.

One of the sorcerers was an energy thrower - his beam was purple, not red like Fire's. He managed to blast a monster off one of the people on the ground. Charlie believed to recognize him from somewhere, but at a distance it was hard to know for sure.

The energy-thrower and the other fighters were quite efficient at decimating the creatures, before they could cause more chaos or raise more attention. Already, the sanctuary sensitives had their workload cut out for them.

Despite the speed of the battle, plenty of people were lying injured in the streets. Charlie could hear their screams and cries for help, even from up here. There were sirens wailing in the far distance, but it seemed like the ambulances might've been too slow to save some of them.

"Damnit," Charlie said.

He quickly sourced a piece of paper and scribbled on it in big letters; SORRY. Then, he grabbed his satchel and ran for the door.

These past few weeks had been rather busy for the Monster Hunters.

The recent monster-attacks had spread like wildfire; creeping slowly at first, and then getting out of control seemingly within the blink of an eye. Naturally, when encountering monsters, the Monster Hunters were often the first names that came to people's minds, and the requests for their services had mounted to an unobtainable pile of jobs.

Technically, their goal was to get to Roarhaven. After several calls with Skulduggery and Dexter on the matter, they knew that time was running thin. Yet, there were too many calls for help to ignore with a good conscience. And so, rather than traveling directly to Ireland, they had slowly worked their way over there.

They had just made it to Galway. And now here they were, surrounded by yet another horde of mystery monsters. They had a decent amount of experience at this point, navigating their long arms and finding their weak spots. With the help of the Galway residents, it took them no time to win the battle.

What Gracious O'Callahan dreaded most about these attacks was the aftermath. Shell-shocked people were wandering about disoriented. Between the mangled bodies of terrifying inhumane creatures, lay moaning humans covered in life-threatening injuries.

Thankfully, most of the monsters were incapacitated by now, and Donegan Bane seemed determined to take on the rest. Thus, Gracious allowed himself to focus on the wounded. He glanced around for whoever needed help the most.

He cursed and ran for one of the people that had first fallen to the ground. Donegan had managed to save the woman earlier, but the man had been left to fend off the monster by himself. He had successfully killed it with a knife, but he had several deep bleeding gashes running across is face, and a severed claw had gotten stuck inside his gut. He clearly had a hard time breathing, but he was holding on for dear life.

Gracious kneeled down beside him and, somewhat helplessly, applied pressure onto the area around the protruding monster claw. The man cried out in pain, then he seemed to clear up a little.

"Hey, buddy," Gracious said with a forced tone of cheerfulness.

"What... what happened...?" he confusedly slurred, as his eyes dazedly flickered across the grey cloudy sky.

"What's your name? I'm Gracious. My friend Donegan is over there, helping other people."

The man tried to turn his head and look at Donegan in the distance. He didn't succeed and tried to lock eyes with Gracious instead. "I'm Pollok..."

"Nice to meet you." He tried for a smile. "Looks like you've gotten yourself into quite the pickle here, Pollok."

He gurgled out a strained laugh. "You think?" he wryly croaked.

Gracious would have loved to tell him that everything was going to be okay, but by the looks of it, this would've been an empty promise. The pressure he applied to the stab wound didn't stop the bleeding. It kept spluttering out of his stomach, seeping from the narrow gaps between skin and foreign object. Pollok looked like the circulation to his brain was beginning to shut off.

Soon after, Donegan came running over. He saw Pollok and cursed too. His professional evaluation seemed to be the same as Gracious's. Only a skilled healer could save him now.

Pollok seemed to take notice of their commiseration. "I'm going to die... aren't I...?" he gasped.

"Nah, you'll be just fine," Donegan casually waved it off. "Nothing a bit of beauty sleep couldn't fix."

Pollok shut his eyes in defeat, but softly chuckled anyway. "Right..."

The Monster Hunters exchanged a sad uneasy look.

"I can help!" a little voice suddenly called from the side.

They looked up and spotted a teenager, running directly towards them. He had short dark hair and dark slanted eyes, as well as a slightly chubby build and facial structure. His outfit was a basic one of jeans and a sweater, but he was carrying an interesting type of satchel on his back.

"Hey, kid," Donegan surprisedly said, as the boy arrived and joined them on the ground. "Are you a healer?"

He awkwardly sniffed. "Trying to be, at least..."

"This is Pollok," Gracious introduced, "he'd very much like to not die. Can you heal his stomach?"

"I don't think so..." the kid uncertainly replied with a closer look at the wound, "but I can contain the bleeding and keep the claw from doing any more damage."

He nodded approvingly. "Give it your best shot."

The young healer quickly focused on his patient on the ground. "Hi, I'm Charlie," he said to him. "This is going to hurt, but you'll be fine. Ready?"

Pollok made a face but nodded bravely.

The boy called Charlie pulled the weird satchel from his back. He opened it up and rummaged around in it, until he found an even weirder device. The device was a small metal orb, about the size of a grape.

Charlie set the orb down on a sterile latex glove from his satchel and focused his attention on the claw that was stuck in Pollock's gut. "Keep your hands right there," he said to Gracious and grabbed the protruding end of the claw.

Just the slightest movement seemed to cause Pollok agony, but Charlie held on to the claw with determination. He made sure to hold his arms out evenly, before pulling straight upwards. It seemed to be harder than expected, he grunted with effort but the claw barely budged, so Donegan quickly moved in to help.

With a visceral squelching sound, the big nail finally came free. More blood squirted from the open wound, and Gracious pressed his hands down harder onto it, but the blood kept coming and soon engulfed his hands in a sea of red.

Pollok screamed and screamed until, thankfully, he passed out from the pain.

"Take your hands away," Charlie instructed, and Gracious did so.

The kid swiftly took over and pushed the small metallic orb into the wound. He covered it up with his own hand, and his fingers sunk into the blood puddle that had accumulated on Pollock's shirt.

Charlie shut his eyes to a look of focus and, soon after, his hand began to glow. A bright white light erupted from his fingers, tinged in an eerie red from the blood, but it didn't last for as long as Gracious might have expected for a healing job this complex.

It turned out, Charlie had merely used his magic to activate his curious device. When he took his hand away, it revealed that the orb had melted and the metal was now clogging up the various new openings inside Pollock's digestive system. Immediately, the bleeding stopped.

"This should hold him over until surgery," Charlie elaborated. He checked Pollock's vital signs and seemed reassured by them. "The doctors should be able to take it all out in one piece, they just need to douse it in saline solution."

"Nicely done," Gracious approved. "That's a handy device you've got there. Where did you get it from?"

"Oh, I got it from my lab!" Charlie cheerfully declared. He looked a bit flustered at the compliment, but the recent rush of adrenaline seemed to be bolstering his confidence. "Would you like some orbs for the road? Any type of magical charge can activate them."

Charlie reached for his satchel to pull out more orbs. Gracious smiled and Donegan opened his mouth to gladly accept the offer. Yet, this was as far as their cordial interaction would get.

Out of nowhere, Charlie's body moved in the most unnatural manner. It looked like something invisible grabbed his hand, harshly pulled him to his feet, and dragged him away.

"No!" he cried in surprise and tried to free himself from his invisible constraints, "wait!"

The Monster Hunters called out in alarm and jumped to their feet. Gracious moved towards the boy, and Donegan fired an energy beam at whatever was attacking him. The beam seemed to hit nothing, it impacted onto thin air.

A new voice cried out in pain and, a second later, a man became visible. He appeared like he'd been there all along, and for proof of this, his hand was demandingly clasped around Charlie's wrist.

Gracious didn't have time to be surprised about the man's sudden appearance, as he was shocked about something much more disconcerting. At a second glance, he clearly recognized the stranger. He had never met him in person, but he had been privy to his grand show.

They stared at Bax Hench in shock for a second.

Then, Gracious lunged to grasp for Charlie. Donegan fired off another energy beam. Hench pulled the kid out of reach and dodged the beam. Whilst never letting go of Charlie's wrist, he kicked at Gracious and clocked him in the knee.

Gracious grunted as pain exploded in his knee and stumbled back a step. He got ready to clash with Hench again, but the Mafia boss made no efforts of attacking any further. He kept on retreating, continuously dragging Charlie along with him.

"Let him go!" Donegan demanded. "You're outnumbered, Hench, and this place is about to be swamped with sanctuary guards!"

Hench paused and, for some reason, he seemed to listen. He looked torn between abducting the boy and fighting it out with the Monster Hunters. His indecisiveness caused a brief moment of inactivity.

Gracious used this opportunity to move in. His hands were up, balled to fists of steel.

Meanwhile, Charlie had managed to break loose from Hench's grip. He jumped in the way. "Wait! Stop! Don't hurt him!"

"Get out of the way, kid," Donegan growled. "You've got no idea who you're dealing with."

"Yes I do!" he argued and spread out his arms to further shield Hench. "He's my brother!"

Although their fighting stances didn't waver, both men paused in surprise.

Hench sneered at them. "You people just can't help yourselves, can you," he spat, "you've got to pick up my siblings wherever you go. Hasn't anyone ever told you? They never needed picking up."

The Monster Hunters exchanged a look of bewilderment.

"What?" Gracious said.

"Bax, they didn't know!" Charlie urgently told him.

Hench redirected his snide gaze at Charlie. "Zip it. I'll be dealing with you later."

Charlie intimidatedly pulled up his shoulders. Hench grabbed his arm and forcefully pulled him behind his back, reversing the roles of who was shielding whom. Albeit the movement had been equally protective and aggressive, it didn't look like Hench was going to make another move for the time being.

"I'm going to take my baby brother home now," he slowly growled. "Are you going to have a problem with that? Or would you rather we fight this out right here, in front of him?"

The Monster Hunters looked at each other. Neither of them was exactly sure what to do. Now that Charlie was safe behind Hench's back, they had a clean shot to take him out. They would've been all too happy to get the job done, for Skulduggery and for that fascinating new girlfriend of his.

At the same time, they weren't exactly thrilled to kill anyone in front of a child, let alone that child's apparent family member. Gracious also didn't consider himself a vengeful person, and he tried his best to live by the rule that violence was a final resort. Something he should respond to, rather than something to initiate.

As far as he could tell, there was no acute reason to fight at the moment. It seemed that Hench was merely protecting his brother - he clearly had no intentions of escalating the conflict.

In fact, as Gracious had a moment to analyze Hench closer, he thought to spot something else beneath the obvious hostility. There was a wide-eyed look of raw instinct. And as he spotted more details - the furrow of his brow, the flaring of his nostrils - Gracious settled on another rather stunning realization: Bax Hench was scared.

Gracious glanced at Charlie, peeking out from behind Hench; his eyes were wide with fear too. He sharply sighed and lowered his fists. Donegan followed his example, if reluctantly so.

"Right, well, you do realize that this isn't the last you're going to see of us?" Donegan said, aloof and with the hint of a threat in his voice. "We'll be letting our friends know about this."

Hench shot him a facetious smile. "Likewise."

Then, within the blink of an eye, him and Charlie vanished into thin air. For a moment, the Monster Hunters stood there in silence and stared at the empty spot, which Bax Hench and his brother had left behind.

Meanwhile, the chaos continued buzzing all around them. The ambulances and sanctuary vans were just arriving. A first responder was rushing towards Pollok. And no one seemed to have taken any notice of the utterly absurd encounter they'd just had.

"Umm..." Gracious eventually asked, "what the hell just happened?"

Donegan shrugged, clueless.

"Do you have any idea, the position you've just put me in?! I can't believe you could be so STUPID!" Bax yelled, "to say that I'm disappointed would be the understatement of the century!"

Bax almost never yelled. When Bax yelled, it meant that shit had just hit the fan.

And so, Charlie didn't argue with him. He stood there - head down, shoulders up, his hands buried deep inside his pockets - and subjected himself to the scolding like a naughty toddler.

Meanwhile, Fire stood in a corner and silently watched. She had just returned from her latest solo mission and probably lamented having missed all the action. As usual, she neither interrupted nor looked like she especially cared about the erupting tension in the room.

For most people, the sight of her cold indifference would have been disconcerting in this situation. For Charlie, this created a steady presence of neutrality. In a family where emotions often ran high, Fire always made for a nice balance.

"Until now, all of this was an act! A sharade! We could have sold anything to the Mother, and she would have accepted the tiniest crumb!" Bax continued yelling, "but, no! You just had to run off to help the opposition, and make me look like an absolute schmuck!"

"I'm sorry..." Charlie quietly muttered.

"Are you?" he hissed, "because, as far as I can tell, you consider yourself some type of hero. Your sister's holier-than-thou act might work on those people, but don't you believe for one second that they wouldn't sell you out in a heartbeat, if that meant they could get to me!"

This time around, Charlie found himself sneering defensively. "You don't know that. They're Bell's friends, and they were nice."

"They're not NICE!" Bax thundered, "they're a bunch of martyrs! A bunch of self-important crazy people that think themselves Gods! I didn't raise a martyr with a god-complex, did I? Did I do that?!"

"No, brother," Charlie dutifully mumbled.

Bax growled with frustration and threw his hands up in defeat. He walked a couple of steps away, towards the decorative electric fireplace nearby, both arms tightly wrapped around himself.

"Fire, is there anything you would like to add?" he impatiently cued her, once he seemed to be done with yelling.

"It was dumb," Fire shrugged. "If the Mother finds out, whatever consequences might come from this; they'll be on your hands, Charlie."

When that about summed up the entire conversation, everyone went quiet for a moment.

"Look, I realize that it was stupid of me to run off like that," Charlie attempted to defend himself, "but I can't just sit around and watch people get murdered, that's against my code as a doctor."

"You're not a doctor, yet," Bax cuttingly reminded him.

"What does it matter?" he challenged, "it's who I want to be. Should I act differently until I have some official title?"

Bax gave him a facetious smile. It was one of those full of spite that didn't really look like a smile at all. It always made Charlie's blood boil. "You think you've got it all figured out, don't you, little genius."

"I'm not Bell!" Charlie snapped and watched his brother falter and glower. "And you're not our father! So, stop telling us how to live our lives!"

He whirled around and ran off to his room. Charlie felt like a child again, as he slammed the door shut and threw himself onto his bed.

However, the moment Charlie had buried his face inside his pillow, he felt like taking back what he'd just said. He was still mad at Bax, for a whole variety of different reasons, but he had to admit that his accusation hadn't been exactly fair. If Charlie was being honest with himself, he had just said that to bother Bax. He had wanted to be petty and say something he knew would hurt.

And not only had it been inaccurate and hurtful, it made him feel even more guilty for running away earlier. Deep down, Charlie knew, there was probably nothing worse he could have done to his big brother.

Charlie kicked his legs and growled into his pillow and tried to vent out some of his frustration. When he felt calmer he stood up, fixed his hair, and walked straight back in order to apologize like a grown-up.

However, after leaving his room, walking down the stairs and through the hallway that ended in the reception room, Charlie paused.

As he peaked around the corner, he spotted Bax standing with his back to him, his arms tensely crossed, staring at the electric fireplace. This type of fireplace didn't give off much of any heat, but he often seemed to be mesmerized by the dancing flames inside their glassen casket.

This wasn't exactly an unusual sight. What had changed was that Fire had moved from her vantage point in the corner. She was standing beside him, lifting up a hand to carefully rest it on his shoulder.

"Bax..." Fire said. She spoke with that gentle tone of voice she used when she was pretending to be empathetic. This performance was almost convincing enough, but the tad of indifference she always carried tended to make it sound somewhat scolding. "Don't you think this is a bit pointless?"

Before either of them could notice him, Charlie ducked behind the wall. He stood with his back flush against it and silently listened in. Once in a while, he dared a sneak peek around the corner to watch the interaction unfold.

"I can think of many pointless things going on at the moment, so you'll have to be more specific," Bax's voice replied, calmly but with a hint of snark.

Fire bemusedly sniffed. "He's not a kid anymore, babe. He's almost old enough to move out. You can't keep him locked up in his lab forever; he needs to find his own way."

Charlie glanced around the wall and at Bax, just in time to see him glower. "Why, because that worked out so well the last time?"

Fire softly sighed and shot him an understanding smile. "She'll come back to you."

"You can't know that. I have given her zero reason to."

At this broach of topic, Charlie felt his throat close up and his frustration reinvigorate. Yet, he made sure to swallow it quietly and remain hidden behind the wall.

"Well, I do know that, because I know you two bickering idiots," Fire teasingly said, and then returned to her previous point; "besides, Charlie is right. This isn't about Yamabella, it's about him. If he wants to be involved he'll get involved somehow. You might as well help."

Bax bitterly and humorlessly laughed. "You want me to send him out in the field? Okay, look... Charlie may be very many things, but a combat expert isn't one of them."

Charlie found himself glowering at that particular comment, but he let it go in order to hear the rest of the conversation. Most of all, he was silently cheering Fire on in his head to stick the landing.

She snorted. "That's not what I mean. I mean, if you want him to be safe, then give him something to work with. He wants to be a healer, not a warrior. Give him the men and the resources to start something of his own, under your supervision."

Bax sighed sharply.

"He just wants you to trust him," Fire concluded.

Bax was quiet for a moment, then he sighed again. "You're right," he then decided.

Charlie victoriously smirked to himself.

"Of course I'm right," Fire replied, both cheekily and adoringly, "I only ever think with this:"

Charlie peeked around the corner to see what she was pointing at. He wasn't surprised to find Fire indicating her finger at her own head.

From there, she gently placed her hand on Bax's chest. "You only ever think with, this."

Bax rolled his eyes, but a little smile was beginning to play around his lips as he finally met her gaze beside him. "I guess that's just what makes us perfect together."

Fire happily chuckled and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Then she walked away, directly towards where Charlie was hiding.

Charlie felt a pang of shock as he realized, he had missed his chance. He wouldn't be able to sneak away in time. Thus, he pointlessly pushed his back against the wall and apprehensively waited to be caught red-handed.

Fire turned the corner. She clearly saw Charlie standing right there, but her expression showed not a hint of surprise or anger. She didn't even slow down. Instead, she simply winked at Charlie as she moved past him.

He meaningfully mouthed in response; 'thank you!' Fire smiled and disappeared down the hallway. He tipped his head back into his neck and quietly sighed with relief.

"You can come out now," Bax suddenly said.

Charlie cringed at himself. He hesitated, and then carefully walked around the corner.

In the reception room, Bax was still standing by the fireplace with his arms crossed. Though he was turned in Charlie's general direction and was watching him awkwardly approach with a growing smirk.

"Sorry..." Charlie meakly murmured, in respects to many things.

Bax didn't respond to that and merely mustered him up-and-down, like he was analyzing him for the very first time. "So, you want the training wheels off, huh? You think you're ready to face what's out there?"

Charlie hesitated. "Umm... Well, to be honest, I don't know if anyone is ever ready for what's out there...? But I think you've taught me enough for me to, at least, give it an honest shot?" He shrugged cluelessly at his own response.

To his surprise, his big brother proudly smirked. "That's the correct answer."

He surprisedly blinked, "oh, umm, super."

"Here's what will happen. I will give you three of my best guards and all of our nurses..."

Charlie's eyes widened further in surprise, and he opened his mouth to thank him, but Bax interrupted him with a sharp hand gesture. Charlie immediately shut his mouth again.

"They work for you, but they answer to me. They'll be watching your every step, and they will report every detail to me. Don't think that this is a free pass to do whatever you want with family funds. Is that understood?"

Charlie dutifully nodded, eyes ever wide with wonder. "Uh-huh, yup, understood."

"I'm also giving you early access to your third of the inheritance."

The same thing happened, where Charlie wanted to say something to express his appreciation, but Bax cut him off to add more stipulations.

"Anything you withdraw is a business investment. I want to see financial plans and end-of-month reports. Use it wisely, or you'll be cut off again until you're nineteen. Then you'll have to work on my dime, and I don't think you'll enjoy that very much."

He decided to say something his brother actually wanted to hear. "Yes, I know how it works."

"Good," Bax nodded. Then he sternly added, "and don't you ever scare me like that again, you hear me?"

Charlie apologetically pulled up his shoulders to his ears. "Sorry..." he mumbled once again.

Bax looked like he was about to say something else, but this time around, he was the one being interrupted.

The door bell rang.

He seemed to change his mind and demandingly gestured in the general direction of the front door. "Now go make yourself useful."

Charlie beamed. "Yes, Sir," he said - somewhat as a joke and somewhat with conviction - and walked off to open the door.

The conclusion to the recent conversation had brought quite a pep to his step, and he reached the large marble entrance hall before he even noticed. Though, the moment Charlie energetically opened the big front door, he froze in shock.

Standing there on the doorstep, full travel bags in hand, was his big sister.

Yamabella gifted him one of her bright beautiful smiles. "Sup, bro?" she said.

Suddenly, all the emotions of the past day came pouring over him. Charlie made a weird sound between a surprised gasp and a teary whine of excitement, and darted forward to hug her.

Bell let her bags drop to the ground beside her, so that she could receive him. She laughed and almost fell over at the impact and subsequent force of his embrace. They tightly held on, and she softly rocked him side-to-side, while Charlie tried to soak up the hug as much as possible.

"Hi, baby," Bell happily giggled after a good while of this. She held him back by his shoulders. "Look at you!" she chimed adoringly as she got a second take of him, "you're starting to look like a man!"

Charlie awkwardly chuckled, "yeah, well, about time, huh?"

"And is that the beginning of a beard?!" She teasingly tickled the fluffy patch of premature black hair beneath his nose.

He snorted and playfully shoved her hand away. "I wish, but I don't think my Korean genes exactly lend themselves to luscious facial hair..."

Bell laughed at that, and she looked like she had another teasing comment locked and loaded. But then she faltered, and the smile abruptly dropped off her face.

Charlie turned and saw their brother standing in the middle of the entrance hall, staring at them. Bax had an odd, brand-new look on his face, like he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

Bell looked at Charlie again. Her bright smile instantly returned to her face. "I'm not talking to him!" she cheerfully declared.

He shrugged nonchalantly. "Okay."

"Let's go to my room and catch up?" she suggested and let herself into the house.

Bell grabbed one of her travel bags, and Charlie grabbed the other. They hooked in their free elbows and walked through the white marble foyer together.

As they came past Bax, Bell didn't even glance in his direction. She kept her eyes directed straight ahead in defiance of her big brother, but her face still showed the pride and excitement of being reunited with her little brother.

Charlie cluelessly shrugged at him. Bax continued standing there, frozen, mouth hanging open slightly. Only his head turned slowly, as he watched Yamabella pass him by in awe.

No one said anything, and they left him behind. Soon after, they disappeared in Bell's childhood bedroom for a chat, and for whichever sweets or chocolates she was likely hiding in her luggage.