"I couldn't have fought beside more honorable n if I picked them out myself. Go see your families. Sleep in. You have all more than earned your rest."
"When should we report back here, princess?"
Kanami shook her head. "We've been gone at least a year, haven't we? Worry about that, Midas. We're soldiers, but we do not live solely to fight."
Kanami's n bowed deeply and one by one, they all began disappearing from the Euphrates base in Tehom.
All except for one of them, that is.
Monica removed her helt and began unbuckling her bracers.
"Well… it wasn't the end to the mission that I expected, but the fact that we all made it ho safely is more than enough for ."
Kanami growled again and her eyes seed to grow imnsely irritated.
"The nerve of that overgrown dunderhead… Who does he think he is showing up to one of my missions and pulling rank on like that..?!"
"The Emperor?" Monica unfastened her cape from around her shoulders.
Kanami shot her a fierce look. "Who's side are you on, firebrand?"
Monica's permanently glowing eyes twinkled with amusent.
"Father-in-law did sothing to upset you, that's true. But have you stopped to consider that he also did sothing that was completely unlike him?
I an, when have you ever known him to recall you from a mission early or fret over your wellbeing? Maybe instead of being mad at him for doing sothing we should find out why he did it first."
Kanami stared at her niece suspiciously. "What a roundabout way to say that you are taking his side."
Monica laughed for the first ti in several months. The sound was as good for the soul as heavy rain after a drought.
Monica closed the distance between the two and rested her forehead on Kanami's.
"Thank you for getting us all ho safe. You know we couldn't have done it without your leadership."
Kanami was a prickly thing, but she was no better at resisting affection than anyone else.
She hugged Monica back and made sure that she couldn't see her smiling back.
"...Yes you all could've."
"I know, I was just trying to make you feel better."
Kanami went from hugging Monica to locking her in a dire headlock.
As Monica tried half-heartedly to break free, the door to the hall was kicked open.
Both girls looked up, but only Kanami seed to go completely pale.
Nevi'im don't really get physically exhausted, but Hakon was out of breath as if he had literally run straight here from their ho.
Kanami and his eyes t in mid-air, and an unspeakably tense air passed between the two of them.
Monica looked back and forth between the two and smiled like a Cheshire Cat.
"Oh, boy... I should really get-"
"Yea, why are you still here...?" Kanami robotically shoved Monica away as she continued to lock eyes with her only husband.
Monica started to be offended, but then she realized that she was no doubt about to be the sa way in around five minutes or so.
Even after she had left the hall, Hakon and Kananmi still had yet to voice anything at all.
Kanami was petrified.
She knew she was a good warrior, a great teacher, and a better leader.
But she wasn't a good spouse. That gene seed to have been hogged up by her older siblings before she was born.
There was a lot she didn't know when it ca to intimate relationships, but she knew that good wives don't exactly leave their husbands for a year to go off monster slaying.
"...You stopped calling." Hakon finally said.
Kanami winced and dropped her gaze. It was true that she hadn't called her husband in around eight months.
"It got too hard for .." Kanami's voice was small and completely unlike her usual personality.
"Speaking to ..?"
"Y-Yes. If I stopped to hear your voice one more ti then I would have walked away from it all. I would have forsaken the mission, my oath, all of it, and I just..."
"You wouldn't do that." Hakon argued.
"I would have though! You should know by now that I am notoriously selfish! I always end up eating off your plate whenever we go to dinner!"
"I do not care."
"That's not the point, Hakon..." Kanami shrank back.
Hakon took two steps forward every ti that she took one back. "What is the point then?"
"It's..." Kanami was running out of places to run, and she was growing ever more aware of the fact that her husband was getting closer.
"T-The point is that I needed you more than I thought when I left ho. And you have no idea how much I..."
"What?"
"...I can't say it."
"Why?"
"It's embarrassing."
"Kanami."
"I'm being serious here!"
"As am I!"
"I missed you, okay!?" The way Kanami yelled out her declaration was neither cute, nor romantic.
But Hakon smiled as if it were the most reassuring part of his day.
He rushed to hug Kanami, and she beca even more flustered as she tried to worm her way out of his grip.
"W-Wait, not here! I need a bath or sothing first!"
"No. I believe I'd like to take my ti like this." Hakon only hugged her tighter.
Kanami was too mortified to enjoy the hug.
She beca even more fearful when she heard him inhale her.
"NOOOO!! DON'T SLL !!" Kanami word around like a dying worm.
Hakon held her even more firmly, no matter how hard she kicked.
He considered this payback for all of the ti he spent going without a single phone call.
-
Abaddon arrived inside of his ho with his children and mbers of the order in tow.
A protective bubble had been ford around the humans so that they didn't die violently upon their first couple of seconds inside.
Fiona was reeling from the events in the cavern leading up to his, but now she was in even greater awe.
"This place is a god damn museum..!"
Shin flicked his daughter on the back of the head. "Please, act like you've been sowhere nice before... But yes, it is in fact like a god damn museum."
Abaddon could only roll his eyes.
"Son?"
Looking to his right, Abaddon saw the welco sight of his mothers walking down the hall hand in hand.
His father was a bit further behind, admiring the sight of their behinds as they swayed in their dresses.
"You're back already..? And what is with.."
When Imani and Yara's eyes settled on Gulban, they lost all of their cool.
"Is that Valerie's father??"
"What happened to him!?"
Gulban waived his hand dismissively. "I don't need all the theatrics, lady dragons. I feel better than I look, honestly."
Abaddon's parents looked him up and down a single ti.
They no longer believed that could be possible.
"Could you help him get into a bed?" Abaddon asked his parents. "I'll fill you all in later, I promise."
Asmodeus and his wives didn't even bother to ask about the small parade of humans that he brought ho.
They just hoisted Gulban up on their shoulders and carried him back down the hall.
"Can sobody get a drink-"
"""NO!"""
"Bloody damn..."
Passing through the hallway at the sa ti was a larger group of housemates.
Specifically, Lusamine, Karliah, Camazotz, and Helios.
But Abaddon was only focused on the little creature strapped to Helios' chest.
Odessa beca noticeably more animated when she saw her father, and even held her arms out to et him.
Abaddon's mood lifted slightly, and he freed his youngest daughter form the confines of her carrier.
"I thought we had a deal... You weren't supposed to get bigger while I was away." He smiled sadly.
Odessa only drooled in response.
"What's with the weaklings?" Karliah prodded.
"Can Camazotz eat them??" Camazotz asked.
Just like that, Abaddon's few seconds of bliss were returned to nothing. "The weaklings are our guests and no, you may not eat them. Or harm them."
Karliah and Camazotz both lowered their heads to the ground. Clearly disappointed.
Rolling his eyes, Abaddon turned toward Lusamine who, remarkably, was the only one here who had yet to say anything to piss him off.
"Auntie. Will you show them to so temporary rooms, please? Don't feed them."
The order pretended that they were not offended by Abaddon's continued insistence that they not be fed.
"Sure thing, sweet face." Lusamine patted him on the cheek affectionately.
Lusamine stepped into view of the order mbers displaying a false personality full of grace that she didn't have.
"If you all will please follow ~" She smiled.
Abaddon prepared to dismiss it when he suddenly felt a certain pinprick in the back of his mind.
His face aghast, he turned around and stared directly at Shin.
The cyborg looked back and forth between Abaddon and Lusamine and raised his hands to defend himself.
"N-Now wait a minute, I was just-"
"Disgusting."
"I said wait, damn it!"
Abaddon however would not wait as he began walking down the hall with his children and grandfather.
"Wasn't expecting you to return so soon." Helios patted him on the shoulder.
"Circumstances demanded it for the ti being." Abaddon sighed.
He expanded his senses a bit and when he didn't find who he was looking for, he frowned.
"My Eris is not here?"
Helios shook his head. "From what I understand, she and Sei went to go visit the tree a short while ago. They've yet to return."
Abaddon's brow furrowed further. "Do you know why she ca back here in such a hurry-"
Suddenly, two people ca down the staircase.
One was Nyx, who appeared to have been looting Abaddon's closet for one of his hoodies again.
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The other.. was soone Abaddon didn't recognize at first.
But as she blinked at him, he rembered those cold black eyes and deathly pale complexion.
"Izanami...?"
The death goddess tucked her hair behind her ear. "Oh... Didn't know you were back already. Welco ho."
Abaddon felt like he was about to get whiplash. Even the way she spoke was different.
Helios leaned over and covered his mouth as he whispered in Abaddon's ear:
"That's why."
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