"Please take care of yourself, get some rest. Call me when you wake up and we can reschedule our date."

Nick was surprised, to say the least, that Leo was still willing to take him out after everything he'd seen and heard. The amount of trust Leo must have had in him…to learn the person you had a crush on wasn't even human and then still want to take them out to dinner?

Leo was kind of weird, Nick decided. Not in a bad way- this just opened up a world of possibilities to explain why Leo was so okay with this. Was it the slim chance of Nick not actually being a signa? Did Leo know someone else in the same situation? How did he, as an officer of Nightingale, view the organization if he wasn't willing to tell them about Nick?

Still, Nick couldn't help but worry if Leo was on his side at all- there was no reason the officer shouldn't report him to Nightingale and have him taken into custody. 

Somehow, he still couldn't see that happening, and the thought didn't live long in his mind. Nick hadn't realized that he was still standing in the foyer of his family home until his mother stood in front of him- her expression changing from one of joy from seeing her son, to one of worry and distress, immediately embracing his face the same way Meg had done to him.

Her name was Anna- standing no higher than 5'2", her hair the same luscious shade of red as her son's, with the same whippy curls. Her eyes were instead blue- the both of them- the beauty mark Nick adorned under the left side of his mouth also present in the same spot on Anna's face. The only other difference between them was where their hair parted- Nick's on his left side, while Anna's hair parted on her right.

"Baia, what happened?!" She sounded close to tears and Nick winced- he hated making others worry about him like this. "Was it another attack?"

He nodded in reply, taking his mother's hands into his own to free his face. "I'm fine- the shop looks worse. Leo was there to help, everything worked out."

She sighed, a hand placed on her chest. "Thank Daianha for that sweet man. He's been so helpful and protective of you- and he's so strong! How have you two not gone out yet, Nia?" She smacked his bicep lightly- the babying didn't last long before her motherly instincts to interrogate him about his love life returned. "He's perfect for you!"

Nick rolled his eyes as he kicked off his shoes. "We might be moving back to Drand soon, Mathir- why would I start a new relationship?" He decided not to tell her just yet. "Besides, he's a Nightingale- we both know how dad feels about them. There's no way he'd let me and Leo date."

Jonathan, his father, hated Nightingale straight to the organization's core- did Nick know why? No, because his father was never privy to share the reason, leaving Nick- and his siblings- in the dark. Whether it was out of pure spite of the company or out of fear, it was anyone's guess.

"Oh, ignore him, Nia." Anna smiled at him, following him towards the kitchen. "He loves you, he'd let you do whatever you want." That may be true- Nick was a spoiled child growing up. He'd always been close with his father, but recently their relationship was strained as Nick had more and more questions that Jon wasn’t willing to answer.

Nick chose to shrug instead as he grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge.

"You are on the complete opposite side of this subject than dad." He leaned against the counter, unscrewing the cap. "Dad hates him, you love him."

Anna shrugged, sitting in one of the stools next to the island. "He's just so sweet to you- and you know Dain-Lah, he's always hoping the man you're going to bring home is a big, tough, strong one. Leo's perfect!"

Nick's grandfather always had the final say in who the kids would bring into the family. When Anna was Nick's age, Jonathan was not Dian-Lahs first choice in a partner for his daughter, but she could be persuasive. Twenty-three odd years later, Dain-Lah would still make passive comments about her husband, but they were in jest. Mostly.

"I mean," Nick shrugged, "he let you marry dad."

Anna chuckled and touched a hand to her face, always happy to gush about her love. "Well, he's a Cerian man, and your grandfather would have much preferred someone from Drand… he also wasn't the strongest man at the time, nor the most out-spoken…or the tallest."

"Not my fault everyone in Drand is a giant." His father chose then to make his entrance, coffee cup in hand. He marched directly to the coffee maker, frowning at the empty pot. "Your father's standards have always been high- not that I blame him. I take pride in being allowed the chance to marry you, thank you very much."

Anna blushed, her hands squishing her cheeks in a weak attempt to hide her face. "Aw, honey! That's so sweet!"

Nick rolled his eyes, taking another drink of his water. Jon got the coffee going and spun around to lean on the counter, looking his son up and down. "The hell happened to you?"

Nick made a flippant gesture as he tilted his head back to chug the rest of his water, using it as a scape-goat to avoid answering the question.

"Another signa attack." Anna replied, her cheesy smile turning upside down. "That's the third one just this month- we're not even halfway through June. What are we going to do?"

Jonathan sighed, crossing his arms and letting his head roll in an attempt to crack his neck. "What can we do? Can't lock him inside."

The look on his mother's face told Nick that she was considering it and his mouth dropped open, giving her an exasperated look. "No, no! Mom, c'mon. It's fine! It's nothing I can't deal with!" 

Anna's shoulders slumped as she continued to pout at her oldest son. "Look at your arms, Nia- and that was with Leo there!"

Jon’s head peaked up- he'd been staring at the floor, lost in thought while waiting for his coffee to brew. "Leo? That Nightingale? You're still hanging out with him?"

Nick crossed his arms and shrugged, looking away. “I mean- yeah. He’s really sweet, and he’s been a good friend since, y’know, all the stuff happened. I’m not gonna throw away our friendship just because he works for Nightingale.”

Jon audibly sighed, obviously frustrated with his oldest son. “Nikilah-” Oh, there was the full name. “Just because someone is friendly to you doesn’t mean you let them into your life like that-”

“It’s not like I’ve told him anything!” Nick interrupted. “He doesn’t know a thing about Drand besides that we might be moving back in December. He doesn’t know a thing about us- I don’t know why you can’t trust me to make good decisions when that’s literally going to be the main part of my job back home.” He’d heard the lecture from his father many times- whenever he made a new friend, there were very limited things he was allowed to tell them. 

His Dranduin name was off limits- as far as anyone in Ceros was concerned, his name was Nicholas Jay Morello. He also wasn’t allowed to speak about his family’s standing in Drand- the name alone would give them away, but Jon and Anna were extra adamant on that one. He and his siblings were rarely allowed to have friends over, only until recently did his father raise the restrictions on that rule. All of these rules without a single explanation as to why. Their hasty move to Drand when Nick was just eight years old was suspect enough, even for a child at his age, but to pretend that side of them never exists? 

Between that and his father’s distrust in Nightingale, it was obvious the organization was the reason. Nick could only imagine his father has pissed someone off he shouldn’t have…but who? As far as Nick knew it had nothing to do with Leo- and based on Leo’s response to his confession about the core, he also seemed to have a distrust in Nightingale. As far as Nick was concerned, Leo could be fully trusted.

He had no reason to believe an organization created to help those in need and conquer the signa that plagued their world would have any ill intentions. If someone within the organization did have ill intentions against his family, shouldn’t he have the right to know? Nick wasn’t able to voice these concerns before his father retorted. “Arms length. Do not let him in any closer than you already have. We’re moving back in December- we just need to make it a few more months.”

Nick stared him down, arms still crossed tightly around himself. “Are you ever going to tell me why things are like this?”

Jonathon matched his glare, challenging his son in an intense staring contest that was quickly interrupted by his daughter, Ashley. She bounced into the kitchen towards the fridge, pulling out a bottle of water and noticing the atmosphere in the kitchen. She closed the door lightly, her hand hanging off the handle. 

“Uhmm, y’all good?” She asked, looking at the three of them. “What did I walk into?”

“Nothing.” Nick and Jon replied in unison, Jon spinning around to get his coffee and Nick leaving the room. Ashley hesitated before staring at her mother, who shrugged. No one was used to seeing them argue yet- Nick of course had his rebellious teen phase, but the arguments weren’t nearly as serious as the ones they’d battled over recently. As Nick grew older and started to question his father more and more, the more defensive Jon would get.

Ashley accepted the shrug as an answer and disappeared, heading back upstairs. Anna sighed and jumped off of the stool, approaching Jon and wrapping her arms around his waist. She placed her head on his back and she could feel the sigh of contentment from him, his body relaxing.

“We really should tell them.” Her voice was quiet, slightly muffled by her position. Jon’s body immediately tensed up again, then after a moment, another sigh released the tension. “If everything goes well in November, and we move back home…Nick will need to be informed about any possible threats to prepare as much as he possibly can.” 

Jon was still silent- he wasn’t sure at this point what else he could say. He rolled his head to the side, thinking. “I just…I've worked so hard to keep all of you safe all this time.”

“I don’t think Nick would make a decision that would hurt us.” Anna replied. “And I really think we can trust Leo- I wholly do. If he was going to be a problem, I think it would have happened by now.”

“Depends on what Nick has told him.” Jon gently removed himself from his wife’s grasp, spinning around to lean back against the counter. Anna returned to her spot leaned against him, feeling a hand resting on the back of her head and pulling her closer. “What if Leo is there specifically to watch over him? What if he knows about the core?”