“Kids!” A voice shouted up the stairs. “You better get a move on. Taron just sent me a message that he’s just flown into the system, which means that he’ll be landing at the spaceport in a little over an hour!”

“Okay Aunt Yurea!” Joseph yelled, as he shoved the last of his shirts into a bag and tried to zip it closed. “We’re almost ready!”

“Assuming we can drag Ryan away from your cousin.” Odin said quietly, a wide grin on his face.

“Tell me about it.” Joseph chuckled. “He’s started to get that same dopey look on his face that he gets whenever Thyllia’s around.”

“Come on guys, leave him alone.” Manto admonished, though she laughed as she did so. “He likes her, and from what I can tell, Rehva likes him just as much. Let them have their fun.”

“Oh come on.” Odin grinned. “What kind of friends would we be if we didn’t give him grief about stuff like this?”

“Good ones?” Manto teased. She watched her brother struggle with his suitcase. Neither of them had mentioned the early morning conversation they’d both had after the fight with Tezzo and his gang, but that didn’t mean it had been forgotten. She appreciated the way Joseph had stood up for, the way he had her back.

Not that she’d ever tell him that, of course.

“Time to go!” Yurea’s voice shouted from downstairs.

“All right!” Joseph yelled back, before rising to his feet and hefting his bag into his arms. “We’re coming.” He lowered a hand to Manto and carried her from the room, with Odin following after.

*.*.*.*

The ride into town and to the spaceport was pretty uneventful. Odin and Joseph, with Manto, rode in the back of Yurea’s beat up old shuttle; while Rehva sat in the front seat, with Ryan sitting astride her thigh. If Yurea found anything unusual about this arrangement, she decided not to mention it.

Soon enough, however, they were walking through the terminals of the spaceport, looking for the terminal that Taron would be landing the Elysium at to take them home to Avalon.

“Do you see him?” Yurea muttered to the teenagers around her, as she peered through the massive crowd.

“There!” Manto yelled from Joseph’s pocket, pointing into the densely packed crowd around them. Joseph pushed through the throng around them, making a path for the others to follow, and led the way to where his taller father was waiting for them.

“Hey kids!” Taron called, waving to them as they walked up to him. “Did you have a good trip?”

“Yeah, it was fun.” Joseph said.

“You all ready to go?” Taron asked, taking Joseph’s bag from him and throwing the strap over his own shoulder.

“Yeah, as soon as we say goodbye.” Joseph said, as his aunt pulled him into a tight hug.

“I’m glad you guys were able to visit us.” Yurea said to Manto and Joseph.

“We are too… especially me.” Manto said, as her aunt planted a kiss on top of her head. “Thanks for having us.”

“Any time you kids want to get away from that moon for a while, you just give me a call.” Yurea smiled and wiped a tear from her eye. “That goes for the two of you, too.” She added, before hugging a rather bemused Odin.

“I’m glad I got to meet you, Ryan.” Rehva said to the young boy she held in the palm of her hand. She brought him closer to her mouth and whispered. “And thanks for standing up to Tezzo.” After making sure that no one was watching, she gave him a quick peck.

Ryan swallowed nervously and tried not to grin like an idiot. “I um, I’m just glad you’re okay, Revha.”

Revha giggled. “Just don’t lose touch with me, okay? I want to hear about all your adventures on Avalon.”

“Sure.” Ryan agreed, even as she passed him to Odin.

Taron watched his niece and looked over at his sister, eyebrow raised quizzically. Yurea shrugged in response.

“All right then.” Taron said, filing the information away for later. “Let’s get going, your mothers are all terribly worried about you.”

“All three of them?” Joseph quipped, as they stepped out into the light of the midday and towards Pryvani’s shuttle.

“Yes, all three of them.” Taron responded. He walked up to the shuttle and keyed in the access code. “All right, all aboard. Hurry up or I leave you behind!”

*.*.*.*

“You want to hang out at my place?” Odin asked the human-sized woman on his shoulder as they walked through the halls of their home on Tayas Mons. “Mom and Dad are away on business, so it’s just Thyllia and the sibs.”

“You think your parents will be okay with that?” Manto asked in an amused tone.

Odin shrugged with his unoccupied shoulder. “We don’t have to, you know, do anything. We can watch a movie or something. It’ll be completely innocent.”

Manto rolled her eyes, exasperated yet amused. “Yeah okay. Sounds fun.”

“Great!” Odin grinned. “I just need to put you in my pocket for a second.”

“Why?” Manto sighed, even as she climbed into the palm of his raised hand.

“Because,” Odin explained as he tucked her gently into the loose pocket of his jacket. “My brother and sister are both home, and they are very nosey. You have plenty of younger siblings. You should know what I mean.”

“I do.” Manto muttered with a long-suffering sigh. “All too well.”

“Exactly. So just, you know, keep quiet until I get us safely into my room.”

“Fine.” Manto muttered sullenly; even as she ducked down to conceal herself in his pocket. “But you owe me. I don’t know what yet exactly, but… something.”

Odin tapped the entrance code into the door that led into the Tarsuss family’s private quarters. He took a deep breath before hitting the enter key. Casual. He just had to keep things casual until he passed through the living room.

“Hey Odin!”

It took all the self-control Odin possessed not to jump at the small voice that spoke out behind him. He slowly turned to see his little sister appear from the hallway that led to her bedroom. Before he could stop her, she dashed forward and threw her arms around him. As it was, Odin only had time to turn his body so Manto wouldn’t be crushed by his sister.

“Oh, uh, hey Khali.” Odin muttered, awkwardly patting his nine year old sister on the back.

“I missed you! How was your trip?” The little girl asked enthusiastically.

“Yeah Odin,” A new voice piped up. “How was your trip with your girlfriend?”

Odin rolled his eyes. His little brother, in the grand tradition of all little brothers, was very skilled at being an obnoxious twerp.

“Manto is not my girlfriend, Pelleas.” Odin sighed. His pocket twitched indignantly, but he ignored it for the moment.

“That’s not what Quentin says.” Pelleas taunted. “He says she’s got your picture by her bed.”

Odin blinked. “She does?” He pocket jerked even more insistently, and he felt a small jab in his side. “Uh, I mean, well so what? She’s friends with me, so… you know whatever.”

“I wouldn’t mind it if she was your girlfriend.” Odin’s little sister piped up excitedly. “I like Manto. She’s nice. She could be like my sister.”

Pelleas snorted. “You only like her because she lets you play with her like a little doll.”

“So?” Khali snapped back, stomping her foot. “She likes it, or she wouldn’t let me!”

“Okay.” Odin muttered pushing between his two siblings. “I’m going to my room. Go bug Thyllia or something.”

“Going to go talk to your girlfriend?!” Pelleas teased. “Odin and Manto sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-”

“Okay, that’s it.” Odin snapped. Before his brother could react, Odin had grabbed him by the front of his shirt and tossed him onto the large couch in the corner. Pelleas landed harmlessly on the thick cushions, but it was enough to shut the younger boy up …for the moment anyway.

“I’m going to kill Joseph for teaching you that rhyme.” Odin muttered darkly as he stepped past his sister and into his bedroom, shutting the door behind him.

Once he’d reached the safety of his room, Odin breathed a sigh of relief and lowered a hand into his pocket to fish Manto out.

“Well, that didn’t go nearly as bad as it could have.” The young man muttered, lowering the human sized girl down onto the top of his desk.

“You’re just lucky we didn’t run into Thyllia.” Manto sighed. “She wouldn’t have been distracted nearly as easily as those two were.”

“Yeah.” Odin chuckled.

“So what’s this nonsense about not being your girlfriend?” Manto piped up mockingly. “Do you got another girl I should know about?”

Odin rolled his eyes exasperatedly. “Of course not. And of course you’re my girlfriend. I just said all that stuff to shut Pell up.”

“Darn right.” Manto muttered, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Do you really have my picture next to your bed?” Odin asked, grinning.

“Maybe.” Manto sniffed. “Or maybe it’s a group shot of all of us.”

“Nah.” Odin shook his head and sat in his desk chair. “I don’t think so. I bet it’s just me. I bet you gaze longingly at it every night before you drift off to sleep. I bet you dream about me every night and-”

Odin’s door chimed and the intercom crackled to life. “Odin, get out here.”

“Shit.” Odin muttered. “It’s Thyllia.”

Before even realizing what he’d done, Odin snatched up a discarded water glass from the top of his desk and overturned it on top of Manto, effectively hiding her from view. And irritating her, but that was incidental.

“What’s up, Thyllia?” Odin asked as he opened the door to his young aunt. Odin could tell by Thyllia’s knowing smirk that she knew something was up, but he refused to give her even the slightest of clues as to what that was.

“Okay Odin, where is she?” Thyllia asked.

“Who? Khali? I don’t know, maybe in her room?” Odin shrugged and schooled his features into his most innocent expression.

“Very funny.” Thyllia sighed and then plunged her hands into Odin’s pockets before he could react.

“Hey!” The teen squawked indignantly.

“I know Manto is in here Odin.” Thyllia sighed, pushing past her nephew. “Her parents are wondering where she is.”

“Maybe she’s with one of them? She has five of them, after all. Who can keep track?”

Thyllia rolled her eyes and prowled around Odin’s room, keeping a wary eye out for any small movement. After several minutes of looking, Thyllia was about to give up, maybe Odin was telling the truth.

Then the cup on his desk sneezed.

Thyllia threw a triumphant look over her shoulder at Odin, which made him wince. She stalked over to his desk and whisked the cup into the air dramatically.

“Hi Manto.”

“THERE WAS STILL WATER IN THAT GLASS, ODIN!” Manto yelled, shaking the water from her dripping wet hair.

Thyllia bit her lip to keep from laughing. She lowered her hand for Manto to climb into. “Okay you two, if you’re going to do anything together, you’re going to have to be out in the living room where I can see you.”

“Fine…” Odin sighed. “But can you please keep the sibs out of our hair?”

“I’ll do my best.” Thyllia chuckled.

*.*.*.*

Rixie sat at the table and looked across the room at where her son was sitting in a human-sized couch, reading something off his data pad. The smile on his face was setting off warning bells in her brain, but she wasn’t quite sure why.

“So… Ryan…” Rixie spoke nonchalantly. “How was your trip to Archavia.”

“Great.” Her teenage son muttered distractedly.

“Did you have fun?” Rixie continued.

“Yup.”

“What did you do?”

“Oh nothing much, mostly just hung out with Joseph and Manto’s cousin.”

“Uh huh…” The lack of details was making Rixie edgy, but she didn’t want to press too much. “Well, good. I’m glad that your trip went well.”

“Me too mom.”

“And…” Rixie cleared her throat. “I’m… I’m glad you came home safe.”

Finally, Ryan looked up from his pad. His eyes met hers from across the room and he smiled, just a little. “Me too mom.”

Rixie nodded and turned to leave the room.

“Mom?”

Rixie stopped short and turned back to her son. “Yes, sweetheart?”

“Thanks…” Ryan said softly. “Thanks for letting me go.”