“I don’t like the idea of you being so far away,” Julia said from her spot on the sofa next to her husband. “What if there’s a problem getting back?”

“It’ll be fine,” Tess assured, sitting with Ayden across from her parents. “We just come back the way you got here. We’ll only be a click away.”

Her mother sighed, then looked at her nails and asked, “So, it’s just you two going then, huh?”

Falcon chuckled. “Don’t you even think about it.”

“It’s not like I’d stay,” she told him.

“Uh huh.” He smiled. “You’d remember just how much you like Earth and I’d never see you again.”

“As if I’d leave you for modern conveniences,” she said, rolling her eyes. “But you could come with me. Wouldn’t it be fun to just… visit?” she asked. Her voice filled with longing, even after being away for twenty years. “Fast food and microwaves.” She sighed at the idea. “Come on, you have to at least be tempted.”

“And movies and the internet?” He mimicked her tone for a moment, then chuckled again and shook his head. “No, not in the least.”

She frowned. “Course not.” She sat back, crossing her arms and pouting slightly.

“Actually Fate said no one else could come anyway,” Tess told her. “Sorry.”

Julia sighed and Falcon’s smile faltered, feeling a little of that old guilt. Unlike him, she had never wanted to stay in this world. She had only done it for him, because he loved it here and fit in this world. But he also knew that she was happy now, especially with her work at the orphanage. He pulled her against his side and kissed her temple.

“So do you have any clue who this thief is?” he asked.

Ayden gave him Fate’s description. “Oh, and he had a shirt that said: I was young and needed the experience points.”

“Yeah, what’s that mean?” Tess asked.

“It’s a Dungeons and Dragons reference,” Falcon answered. “And it sounds like my friend, Gabe. He was the one thing on Earth that I actually regretted leaving behind.” He smiled fondly. “He should be easy enough to find, his number’s in the drawer under the phone.” He laughed at their clueless expressions.

“I think they’re going to need a crash course on Earth,” Julia put in.

“Easy,” Falcon said. “Ayden, I kept manuals to almost everything in a drawer in the kitchen. You’ll figure it out,” he said confidently.

Ayden nodded.

“Just stay away from the car.”

“Oh gods,” Julia said with a touch of panic in her voice.

Falcon gave her a squeeze. “They’ll be fine. They battle monsters, I think they can handle a day or two on Earth.”

“What’s the worst that can happen?” Tess asked.

“Oh I’m sure you’ll find trouble easily enough,” her mother told her.

Falcon nodded. “Ayden, make sure she’s good, please.”

“I’ll do my best,” Ayden said, smiling while Tess stuck her tongue out at her father.

“Just stay inside as much as possible,” Julia told them. “Oh, and bring me back a Pop Tart.”

Falcon laughed. “You’d get seriously sick eating that after being here so long.”

“We actually can’t bring anything there or back, aside from what we’re wearing. Not even weapons,” Tess said with a sigh.

Suddenly there was a loud bang upstairs and the sound of Gavin yelping, probably having fallen off his dresser again. A few seconds later, he yelled from his bedroom. “Mom, I’m bleeding!”

Julia shook her head as she stood up. “One thing I do like better about this world is magic,” she said, then headed upstairs to heal her son.

Falcon waited until she was gone. “Did Fate really say that?”

“Yes,” Tess answered.

He sighed. “No bringing back, huh?”

“No. Why? What would you want?”

“Gabe,” he said simply. “He'd love it here. I hoped for a long time that he’d somehow be able to come here. I don’t understand why he didn’t, he would have clicked play.”

Tess frowned seeing the sadness in his eyes. She had heard a lot about Gabe and knew how much her father missed his friend. “Sorry. I don’t know,” she mumbled.

“Yeah, well, guess it’s just not in Fate’s plan.” He shook his head. “Anyway… oh!” he said, having a sudden thought. “You got some paper handy, Ayden?”

Ayden nodded and pulled some items out of his bag next to him. “Here.” He handed over his notebook and a pen.

“Thanks,” Falcon said and started writing some numbers on a blank page. After a minute, he said, to no one in particular, “Only eight months have gone by there. Hmm.” He glanced over at them. “I paid all the bills by automatic debit and there was enough money in the bank, so you’ll be okay for electricity and all.”

Once again, they gave him a blank look.

He waved his hand dismissively, then handed Ayden’s things back. “Don’t worry about it.”

“There’s probably some money in my purse if you need it,” Julia said as she returned. “I set it next to his desk. Also my debit card is in there. Don’t think I had much, but the pin is two three six five.”

Falcon gaped at her. “You remember your pin number after twenty years?”

She shrugged as if it was no big deal.

“And yet you can’t remember to stop by the store on your way home.” He shook his head at her. She shoved him as she sat down beside him and he chuckled. He turned back to the others. “Don’t worry about her card, mine’s in my wallet on the desk and there’s plenty of money in my account, I’d been saving up for years. Much good it did me, but I wasn’t planning on having a family here instead of there. I don’t remember the pin, but Gabe knows it.”

“He knows your pin number?” Julia asked. “Were you dating him?”

Falcon laughed. “Might as well have been with how much I spent on him. He was a bit of a bum.” He smiled, remembering. “No job or anything, so he’d take my card sometimes while I was at work and buy food for the house or stuff we needed when we were going on a trip.”

“He did your grocery shopping?” Julia asked, chuckling and shaking her head.

He shrugged. “Sometimes. He ate there enough, so it was for him too.”

“Did he do your laundry as well?” she teased.

“A few times, yeah.” He laughed at her expression. “Why is that weird?”

“Just is,” she said. “Anyway, maybe he spent the rest of your money if he was like that.”

“Not unless he bought a car or something,” he told her lightly. “But he wouldn’t spend much, if any, not without permission.

“What’s a debit card and a pin number?” Ayden asked.

“Well…”

“Why don’t you take notes,” Julia suggested.

Ayden nodded and took his notebook back out.

“We can’t bring anything,” Tess reminded him.

“I know, but writing stuff down helps me remember it,” he told her. “And I can go over it a few times before we leave.”

They spent the next hour talking about various things that would be useful to know about Earth. Ayden listened intently and wrote everything down, while Tess looked utterly bored and completely lost.

“I should see my dad before we go,” Ayden mumbled out of the blue while Tess was sitting on the floor in their bedroom, sharpening her daggers.

She looked up at him. He was sitting on the bed picking at the quilt. He peeked at her through his eyelashes, waiting for her usual response. “Why?” she grumbled. “He’s horrible. Why do you even go over there?”

“He’s my dad, Tess.”

“He’s a drunk, abusive bastard who’s never treated you right,” she said for at least the hundredth time. She had hated his father since she they were kids. And she was very vocal about it, so much so that Ayden’s father had said she wasn’t able to come into their house ever again.

“It’s been a month since I’ve seen him,” Ayden pointed out. “And we could be gone for up to a year, I should at least tell him.”

“Fine,” Tess said. “I’m coming with you.”

“No.”

“Ayd, last time you saw him you came back with a black eye,” she reminded him heatedly. “I don’t want you getting hurt.”

“I’ll be fine,” he muttered. “I’ll use my shield this time.”

“First of all, you still haven’t told him you’re a mage, and second, you shouldn’t have to use a shield with your own dad!” she said furiously.

Ayden sighed. “He just has a temper. He… doesn’t think. And it doesn’t help that I look like my mom, telling him that I use magic… it’d just remind him more of her.”

“Oh, well that’s okay then,” Tess said sarcastically. “Matt’s got a temper problem too, why doesn’t he just beat Sera?”

Ayden flinched at the mental image and her tone. He chewed on the inside of his cheek and stared at the quilt. He hated arguing with her. They only ever had one argument, a reoccurring one, this one. He sighed again. “I’m gonna go in the morning, he won’t be drunk if I go early,” he mumbled. “And I’m going alone.”

“No,” she said stubbornly. “I can’t take it anymore, Ayd. I’m going with you.” She sighed. “Look, I’ll be nice, okay? I’ll keep my mouth shut. But I’m not letting that bastard hurt you again.”

His shoulders sagged a little in defeat. “Okay.” It was silent for a long moment. He glanced up at her as she went back to sharpening her dagger, her hard strokes showing that she was still upset. “Can you not be mad at me now?”

She immediately stopped what she was doing and rolled her eyes at him. She set down the dagger and whetstone, then got up and sat on the bed in front of him. “I’m not mad at you, goober,” she told him, softer now. “You should know that. He just pisses me off. I can’t see how anyone could treat you like that.” She ran her fingers through his short curls. “I love you. I just want everyone to love you.” She smiled at him. “Everyone should see how awesome you are.”

He blushed and grinned.

“And no one should be able to touch you unless it’s in a nice way,” she added.

“Yeah?” he asked, looking up now, his grin suddenly becoming impish. “What kind of nice touching are we talking about?”

“Depends,” she answered, the fire in her eyes easily changing from anger to lust. She kissed his cheek. “On whether it’s me touching you or someone else.” She kissed his earlobe.

“You.”

“Hmmm.” She leaned back for a moment and dramatically scrunched up her face in contemplation. Finally, she shook her head. “There’s just too many ways to name all of them,” she decided. “I’m not even sure how to describe a few.”

“Oh,” he said, feigning disappointment. “Well, maybe you can show me. You know, just to illustrate your point. I mean, I wouldn’t want to misunderstand you.”

“I could,” she said. “But unfortunately that could take all night.”

“Well I guess it’s lucky that I happen to be free for the rest of the night."

She grinned. “Not anymore.” She kissed him deeply, fervently and grabbed the bottom of his shirt, about to take it off.

“Ayden.” Gavin opened the bedroom door without knocking and walked in.

She groaned loudly. “Creepy, one of these days you are gonna walk in here and see something you really don’t wanna see.”

“Like what?” he wondered.

She rolled her eyes. “Go ask Mom and Dad,” she said meaningfully.

He frowned at her for a second. “Oh,” he said, suddenly understanding, at least the general idea. “Ew!”

Tess laughed while Ayden blushed and hid his face behind her shoulder. “Now what do you want?”

“Um… well… Dad had to go to the guild cuz of… stuff. So I was wanting Ayden to read me a story before I have to go to bed.”

“Not tonight,” she told him. “Ayd’s very busy tonight. Go ask Mom.”

He rolled his eyes and sighed dramatically. “Fine,” he huffed and stalked out of the room, making a point of walking heavily down the stairs.

Tess shook her head as she got up to close the door after him. “Brothers,” she grumbled. “We need a lock.”

Ayden chuckled. “Use the chair.”

She shrugged. “He won’t be coming back,” she told him confidently. “Now… where was I?”

He bit his lip as she walked back to him. She crawled onto the bed, over him, pushing him back. “Nice touching,” he reminded her.

She kissed his jaw and throat. “Lots of nice touching,” she murmured.