Their family meals sometimes ended with small quarrels between the children, mostly caused by Joié spreading her food all over her face and Aiden laughing at her because of it. 

Today, Joié put a lot of effort into this happening again even though her mother had already cut up her pancake into smaller bits. 

Choosing toppings had been easy for Joié, since she usually chose strawberries, creme and maple sirup. It was especially the sticky sirup which was already spread over most of her little face. 

Luckily, Aiden, who only had a little bit of sirup on his own face, was distracted for now, telling his mother about his dream. 

Vian watched his family in silence. 

He had leaned back in his chair after finishing breakfast and simply enjoyed spending some more time with them. He looked at his wife, watching her listening to their son, a beaming smile on her face. 

She could probably feel his eyes on herself since she turned her head to meet his eyes. The expression on her face got a little sadder as she looked at him. 

Vian knew just like her that it was time to tell the kids he had to leave on a longer deployment today. They never told the little ones exactly what he was doing or where he was going, not only because they were too little to understand completely but also because they did not want the kids to worry too much. 

Still, he knew that saying goodbye would be hard not only on Aiden and Joié but also on himself.

With a small smile on his face, Vian took his daughter from her high chair once she finished her pancake: “Jo, promise me something, hm? Something important.” 

He took a damp wash cloth from the table and gently wiped the sirup off her face. 

Aiden, who had finished his dream narrative, looked at him curiously and Vian gestured for him to come and sit on his lap as well. “You too, Aiden.” 

Once there was a child on each of his knees, he hugged them both gently. 

“Would you promise to be especially nice to mum over the next days? I need to go on a trip for work today and she really doesn’t like that. So you need to cheer her up a little bit, okay? Maybe you’ll persuade her to go on a little trip and visit Noah?” 

Joié instantly threw her arms in the air excitedly, thinking of visiting their god father who enjoyed fooling around with them most of the time. Her excitement was obviously outshining the fact that her dad had to leave. Maybe she did not yet realise the meaning of his words.

The little girl jumped off her father’s lap straight away and followed her mother, who had started tidying up, into the kitchen. 

Her childish excitement made Vian smile. Still, he had to admit he was a little hurt by her not being affected by his need to leave at all. He suspected that she would understand in the evening, when her mother would be reading her a bedtime story instead of him.

He followed his daughter with his eyes for a moment as she was running after her mum, instantly starting to pursuade her into visiting Noah. He could hear Yuriko's laugh and tried to remember the sound for the weeks ahead.

Aiden's reaction was completely different to that is his younger sister.

Without saying a word, he had also slipped from his father's knee and walked into the living room, where he sat down on the couch now, looking angry, arms crossed in front of his chest.

For a second, Vian hesitated before he stood up and followed his son. He sat on the couch next to Aiden, leaving a little room between them to give his son some space. He looked at Aiden for a moment and raised his hand to ruffle the boy's hair a little bit.

"Please don't be angry, Aiden. I'll be back in a few weeks. I bet, you'll have a fantastic time with mum and Jo until then. And you're going to go to kindergarten every day, so time will fly by quickly." 

He fell silent for a moment before asking: "You do like kindergarten, don't you?"

Watching his son, he didn't say anything but waited for a reply.

"Sure, I do. But... but daddy, it's just so unfair!"

When Aiden finally looked at him, Vian saw tears in his eyes. The little boy kept his arms crossed in fron of his body and did not even think about moving and closing the gap between himself and his father.

"Because you promised we'd build a tree house in the holidays and mum said it'll be the holidays very soon and I won't go to kindergarten. And now, you won't be here because of your stupid job. It's just so unfair because John, from my class, he already has a tree house and I told him we're going to build one too and now we won't and then —"

The disappointment in Aiden's voice was obvious and he talked so fast, he almost tripped over his words. He fell silent before it happened though. As if he wanted to underline his words, Aiden tried stomping his foot on the ground but his legs were too short so his heel simply hit the couch.

Vian decided it was time to move closer and took his son into his arm, pulling him into an embrace. Aiden snuggled closer now and even put his little arms around him as well.

"I promise, I'll be back as soon as possible to build your tree house, Aiden. But you know my job's very important, don't you?"

He loosened his embrace a little and looked down at Aiden who returned his serious look with his own eyes that were a mixture of Vian's blue and Yuriko's green ones.

"Is it more important than us?", the boy asked anxiously, maybe even a little hurt.

Vian shook his head and pulled him back into the embrace. 

"Nothing is more important than you, Aiden. You know that, right?"

He chose his words carefully as he tried to explain to his son why his work was so important. He did so without mentioning too many details that might scare Aiden but he still wanted to make him understand why he had to leave.

His son watched while Vian explained, frowning a little and biting the inside of his lower lip. Vian knew he was contemplating his words.

Aiden was quite intelligent. He asked his parents to explain all kinds of different things to him in detail and tended to contemplate a lot until he was sure he understood them thoroughly.

Of course, there were many times when he just wanted to play. Those were the times in which Aiden and his sister came up with the silliest ideas.

But once Aiden had decided he had to understand something thoroughly, there was nothing that could stop him from asking questions and taking his time until he was completely content with the answers.

In a way, this behaviour was sometimes quite demanding on Yuriko and Vian. They sometimes did not have the knowledge nor the time to answer all of Aiden's questions. Evey now and then, their son's curiosity took a toll on their patience.

Suddenly, Aiden nooded once, showing he understood his father's intentions or, at least his words. He looked back up at Vian, wiping his eyes with the sleeve of his pyjamas.

"And when will you be back? As soon as possible, right? Because you need to!"

Vian smiled while he stroked his son's hair affectionately.

"I'll be back as soon as I can, Aiden. You probably won't even notice that I'm gone once you pursuade mum to go and visit Noah."

Satisfied with his father's words, Aiden snuggled even closer and Vian hugged him a little tighter.

"Can you promise me something else, Aiden?"

The boy looked back at him once more, more serious this time.

"Can you promise me not to worry too much?"

Looking at Aiden, Vian waited for his short nod before he kissed the top of his son's head. "Thanks, Aiden."

* *

By now, Yuriko had finished cleaning the table and loading the dishwasher. Joié had helped her as best as she could and the two of them now approached the living room, where Vian and Aiden were snuggling on the couch. Chief, who had returned from his stroll through their garden a little earlier, was lying by Vian's feet.

Yuriko smiled when she saw them together. Still, when she looked at the clock on the wall, her smile faded slowly. With a sigh, she set Joié down and gently stroked the girl's honey brown curls.

Joié quickly approached the small kid's table in the corner next to the staircase. It was the kid's crafting area and had lots of crayons and pieces of paper laying on top. The little girl had asked her mother if she could draw a picture for her dad to take with him. Yuriko knew Vian would love the idea and nodded, smiling at her daughter.

She slowly walked over to the couch and raised her hand to gently stroke Aiden's hair as well. "Do you wanna go and help Jo to draw a picture for dad? He has to leave in a bit."

Yuriko could feel Vian's eyes on herself but kept her focus on Aiden, who nodded and slipped off the couch to join his sister at the crafting table. She watched the kids for a moment before she turned back to Vian.

He smiled apologetically but she just shook her head, telling him without words that there was no need to apologise. 

She took his hand into hers and the two of them walked past the drawing children. They knew Aiden and Joié would be content for now, so the two adults decided to go upstairs to finish packing Vian's bags and start saying their farewells in private.

* *

Vian put his bag into his car only a little later and turned around to walk back to the door and say goodbye to his family.

Joié had insisted on her mother to pick her up and seemed to start realising what was happening. She had gone exeptionally quiet and put her thumb back into her mouth while clinging onto her mother and her plushie otter at the same time. She usually only showed such a behaviour when she was tired or sad.

Aiden was also standing in the open door, next to his mother. He held onto her cardigan with one hand while the other was holding the picture they had just drawn. 

Without saying anything, the boy put out his hand so Vian could take the picture. The drawing showed their garden with the big oak tree in its middle. Aiden had drawn a house into the treetop and a few figures were standing close to the tree's trunk, tools in hands and smiling widely. Joié's colourful flowers were all around the oak tree, the yellow sun was shining happily in the middle of the blue sky.

The picture made Vian smile and he crouched down to hug his son tightly. "I won't forget, Aiden, I promise. We're going to build your tree house once I'm back."

He kissed Aiden on the forehead and hugged him before he was completely hidden in Yuriko's cardigan. Vian stood up straight and looked at his daughter, now.

Taking her into his arms, Vian hugged her gently. Joié did not cry but she was much calmer than usually. She returned his hug tightly and did not seem to want to let go of him anytime soon.

Vian ran his hand through her soft toddler hair and kissed the tip of her nose. "Hey, Jo. Promise me not to get on Mummy's nerves too much, hm? 'Cause then we'd have kind of a big problem, wouldn't we?"

He smiled at her mischievously and waited for her nod before putting her down on the floor to look at Yuriko once more.

Even though they had already said their goodbyes in their bedroom before, he pulled her close once more, huddling her body against his own, almost crushing her in his embrace. Just a moment later, he could feel her hands holding on to his neck and shoulders and her lips on his own.

While holding her, Vian could tell she was close to crying. He knew that he should not draw out their farewell any longer than necessary.

She broke away from his kiss. Still, he could feel her lips brushing against his own when she whispered: "Please be careful! I swear if you aren't, I'll come after you myself!" 

Feeling her hands on his tie, fingertips brushing against his chest, he felt her backing up and simultaneously pushing him away a little.

Vian nodded and leaned forward once more to kiss her forehead as well just after Yuriko had picked Joié back up and held her daughter in her arms.

"I'm going to miss you. I'll be back soon."

He looked at all of them again before turning around and walking to his car. He did not hesitate to get in and only looked at his wife and kids again in the review mirror. Yuriko was still fighting to keep back her tears and so he did not wait any longer but started the engine to get going.

Just for a moment, Vian could still see the three of them standing by the front door in the review mirror before turning the corner and losing sight of them.