The day went on. After a standard lecture of no more than five minutes about not hitting his classmates, Erick was allowed to go home.

“Remember what I said. And next time I will call your fa…” Alcea did not quite remember who was responsible for the boy and his situation, but she had been warned not to mention his parents “mo… gran…”.

“Just leave it as tutor.”

The teacher nodded and they set off.

As he made his way home, reaching the end of the large school, which spanned three times the length of an average sidewalk, Erick heard a familiar voice.

Aubrey was leaning against the wall, anguish on her face, while the boy with the earrings who had been behind the girls who gave them trouble at lunch spoke to her angrily. Erick was quick to confront him.

“Wasn’t it enough that you ruined his lunch?!”.

“Oh, no…” Aubrey stood between them with a smile “he’s actually my friend. He just-”.

“THAT’S EVEN WORSE! What kind of friend lets things like that happen?”

Erick walked towards the boy with the earrings until he was a step away.

“GET LOST”

The boy with the earrings answered firmly, his hard expression contrasting with his relaxed posture, with his head held high, staring him straight into the eyes. His attitude increased Erick's anger.

“This has nothing to do with you, you don't even know her, what do you care?!”.

“I don't know... I think I do know her”.

Realizing what he said, Erick's head spun, with a pain similar to that caused by his nightmares. But it was only momentary.

Seeing the expressions of the other children, he came back to himself; the boy with the earrings combined his annoyed expression with deep confusion, Aubrey on the other hand seemed to be excited and happy about such words.

“I mean...” he forced a smile to divert the discomfort of their reactions “I'm the one who decides what has or doesn't have to do with me”.

“Okay, listen,” Bry relaxed her expression “I'm glad you care about me and all, but these things have been happening for a long time and they won't stop”.

Bry turned her gaze to the boy with the earrings, he avoided eye contact, one could even assume he was embarrassed by what she would say.

“What would be the point in dragging Leroy with me if it won't fix anything?”.

“SO YOU'RE JUST GOING TO LET YOURSELF BE TRAMPLED LIKE A DOORMAT?! GETTING AWAY FROM EVERYONE AS NOT TO ANNOY YOUR ‘FRIEND’?!”

The sudden raise of his voice surprised both children, making them even take a step back, while Erick's nerves increased, he had a hard time expressing himself without being so extreme, which usually made others move away from him and he was perfectly aware of it. Still, he decided not to take back his words.

“Well…” Bry shrugged.

“Well, I don't care what you or that coward over there think”.

He pointed at them with his index finger, then proceeded to point at himself with his thumb as he continued.

“From now on I will get involved whenever I see someone bothering you”.

“But-”

“IT’S DECIDED”.

Remembering the homework to do and his responsibilities at home he realized how little time he had if he wanted to be able to rest in the afternoon before preparing dinner for himself and his cousin.

“Or… rather starting tomorrow, I have to go. See you”.

“WAIT! Are you sure? They will-”.

“Don’t worry about it” he started his way home again “I’m in a hurry so, bye.”.

“Oh… ok… Bye!”.

The other two children remained silent, processing the erratic interaction for several seconds. Leroy was the first to speak, looking at Aubrey with uneasiness and, again, annoyance.

“I don’t like him”.

“At least I have a new friend”.

Bry answered cheerfully. With a sigh Leroy finally relaxed his expression, looked at her with a slight sadness, patted her head and spoke to her in a tired voice.

“We should go too, before someone else sees us together”.

That same day at dusk.

Jake opened the front door of the house as he loosened his tie. His jacket on his left arm, his face covered in bruises, a scratch across the width of the bridge of his nose and the right side of his lower lip split open.

“I’m home!”.

“And I’m in the kitchen making dinner”.

Jake followed the sweet aroma that permeated the air, finding Erick flipping his preparation, lifting the pan in the air with great skill.

“Are those pancakes?”.

“Yes-”.

The boy’s voice stopped suddenly the moment he saw the injuries of his cousin, now standing behind him looking intently at the food.

“What happened to your face?!”

“Oh, that…” Jake threw his body back, looking diagonally at the ceiling “let’s just say that not everyone was happy with my promotion.”

“So another cop did that to you?!”

Jake responded by nodding with an exaggerated sad face, a cartoonish gesture, acknowledging the badness of the situation, but still trying not to make it seem like something to worry about, just a bad day.

Erick, distracted by worry, left the pancake he had flipped in the fire, burning.

“You should report it to your boss or something!”.

“I would if I knew who they were” he took a glass from a cabinet.

“What?”.

Flames began to rise from the pancake, Jake calmly filled a glass with water, looking up as he remembered what had happened.

“So… I was in the parking lot ready to leave when someone put a plastic bag over my head, two other people hit me, and as they left I saw a badge. But I couldn’t see anyone’s face. I really don’t know who to blame”.

He spoke as he carefully sprinkled the water from the glass into the pan, extinguishing the flames and preventing the boiling water or butter from jumping towards his cousin.

“Besides, it’s not like I have much evidence, nor do I want to be examined to get it. I threw up a little at the time, some bones cracked, but as you can see, all of that has healed”.

Jake stepped back and turned around completely, arms raised to his shoulders to show Erick the lack of wounds, his self-healing abilities had almost completely healed his injuries, only a few scratches and bruises remained.

Erick watched him worried and disturbed, seeing Jake hurt, even a little, caused him terrible discomfort and great anxiety, at least he wasn't bleeding because if he was, he might vomit or faint from the intensity of his emotions. There were even times when he would have panic attacks when he saw his cousin cut himself while cooking, because of that it had become his task.

“I guess this kind of thing comes with the job” Jake laughed nervously as he drained the black water into the sink “So we should forget about it and have a nice meal” he threw the burnt pancake in the trash.

Taking the cutlery, the maple syrup along with other additives and the already prepared pancakes, both went to the table. They arranged everything and sat down to eat.

Erick tried to suppress his words, he knew that Jake was right, since he was pretending to be a complete human it would not be pertinent for him to risk his abilities being discovered, the hybrid entities resulting of human, like his father, with the entities of such high rank, like his mother, were classified among the most dangerous, so rare and feared that they had their own exclusive category, Apocalyptic (A).

Surely both, humans and the beings he descended from, would try to eliminate him if anyone found out.

In the end, Erick's growing anxiety did not allow him to remain silent for long.

“WHY DIDN'T YOU DEFEND YOURSELF?! You could have defeated them in one blow”.

“You know I don't like unnecessary violence”.

“Unnecessary?! They were attacking you!”.

“Besides, I need to keep a low profile for now, it's better this way.”.

They sat across from each other at their small table for four. Jake ate with a cheerful expression, making light conversation to calm the boy who was stuffing his mouth while looking at him angrily.

“How was your first day at school?”.

With a loud thud, Erick dropped without thinking on his plate, covering his hair and face with maple syrup, his fist, tightly closed on his fork, giving a second blow almost simultaneously with the one on his head, making the table rumble.

He felt a tremendous shame for his actions and words throughout the day, not only the intense moments of confrontation were painfully replayed in his memories but also the multiple moments in class where his group teacher would call on him to answer a question or read aloud and he couldn’t help but do so aggressively.

The strong aversion to the question surprised Jake, but he quickly understood the boy’s emotions.

“We won’t talk about it then, okay?”.

He wiped his face gently and with great care. They continued eating their dinner, talking now about more mundane things like a certain show they were both watching, and the animals they had encountered in their day, such as stray cats and chubby squirrels.

They also talked about some of the memories they shared from before Jake became one of Erick's legal guardians a couple of years ago.

After finishing their meal they washed the day's dishes and the kitchen together. They continued watching their show until it was time to get ready for bed. Jake had been successful in distracting his beloved cousin's negative thoughts.

Already having prepared for bed, he accompanied Erick to his room to say goodbye until the next day.

“Well, good night”.

“ABefore I forget, I had something to tell you about Klaus”.

“Sure dad…”

The boy fell asleep instantly, his energy drained by the strong emotions of that day.

Jake looked at his cousin, moved, he couldn't force himself to remind him not to call him that way, since he wanted to preserve the memory of his real father as much as possible or at least respect him, although Erick didn't remember him, he thought it was the least he could do given the way he and his mother lost their lives.

Besides that, Jake didn't feel deserving of such a title, his standards for what a father should be were quite high thanks to his own, Erick's blood uncle, also deceased.

Every time Erick called him in such a way, beautiful memories of his childhood before the tragedy that took their lives arose like a great wave of melancholy.

The young man went to his own room with his mind in the clouds, immersed in memories of him and his father playing, whom used to spin him around while carrying him, holding him tightly in a hug, with a grip that made him feel safe and loved.

He also remembered the moments when, already being an orphan, Erick had lost his ability to speak, even so, they were able to communicate using one of his special abilities, reading the emotions in his soul.

Sometimes Erick would return to that state of involuntary muteness when the negative emotions he was experiencing were too much for his developing brain. The few times it had happened had been truly terrifying for both of them.

The most recent times when that had happened, Klaus had been the one who managed to bring him back, faster than Jake even. Now he was even more afraid that Erick would have a crisis while Klaus was not home, luckily he would return the next day in the afternoon, until then he could be calm.

“It seems that he really had a rough day” he said to himself as he opened the door to his room.

Jake was about to turn off the lights when he noticed an eerily familiar black-furred cat asleep on his bed, purring in acknowledgement of his presence.

“Lady?”