Chapter 13: Dinner
[Third person POV]
She was this close to falling on her butt. Thanks to Reynolds she was spared from the suffering of pain.
Rey arched his eyebrows seeing the almost teary ball of cuteness. The red nose told him that she was still clearly hurt.
Giving her a gentle smile to reassure her, he kneeled in front of her. His height now was low enough that he had to look up to meet her brown eyes.
Surprised by what the stranger was doing, she stared at him in wonder, slightly tilting her head.
Now that he had her attention, Rey spoke up," Hello there, miss. Where were you to in such a hurry?"
Rey asked in the gentlest voice possible, not to make the child scared...
"I... uh... um....?" She fumbled with her hands, not really knowing how to answer the stranger's question. But, by now the earlier incident was totally out of her mind.
Witnessing the cuteness that was happening in front of him right now was rather addicting. Suppressing the urge to pinch the chubby cheeks of the toddler in front of him, he forced out a cough.
"*cough* you can call me....." " Ellie! what did I tell you about running in the corridor?" Before he could finish the introduction, a melodious voice came drifting into his ear. Looking further, he could see a gorgeous woman, in her late twenties or early thirties, hurrying towards them with a slight bit of concern on her face.
"Mama!" The girl, now known as Ellie, not that he didn't know, skipped towards her mother with hands stretched outwards.
Taking her daughter into her arms, the woman glanced towards Reynolds with curious eyes. By then, the other four were already on the scene.
" Oh! Alice! I see you have already met our little Reynolds here?" Tabitha greeted Alice.
"Reynold? what about him?" Alice tilted her head, confused by why her husband's name was being mentioned here.
"Oh.. not him! I am talking about this little Reynolds here" Tabitha clarified, pointing a finger towards Reynolds.
"..... Hello." not knowing what to do, Rey just did a normal greeting.
"Ah! you must be one of the guests! Hello, young man! Sorry, I was just confused. My husband has the same name, you see." Things clicked in Alice's mind and she finally understood what was going on. She was rather surprised that someone with the same name as her husband was going to live in the house.
'Looking closely, his cuteness may not be inferior to Art's...' She studied the kid in front of her with soft eyes. Soon, a warmness that only a mother to possess, began to swim in there as well. Looking at the kid in front of him, reminded her of her son, who was now far away, training..... and curing his illness.
'I wonder what he is doing now... when will he come back ' Amidst the soft warmness that roamed her eyes, grew a painful agony.
Noticing that, Reynolds couldn't help but give a sad smile. He knew how much the Leywin couple had suffered from the loss of their son. And when they finally got to know their son was alive and well and promised to return home, he couldn't even begin to comprehend how impatient they must be feeling right now.
' Don't worry aunt Alice, your wait will soon be rewarded ' He cheered them on in his mind.
"Now I understand why Tabitha said there are now two Reynolds in the house. She was talking about your husband... Oh! where are my manners! I am Darlene Hamsworth. It's a pleasure to meet you Mrs Leywin" Darlene started with a sweet smile but that turned into an apologetic one after realising her mistake.
" Oh it's nothing to worry about, and you can call me Alice like everybody else and I will do the same" Alice replied with a friendly nature.
"Please do, I will appreciate that"
'Why do I feel like dad was completely ignored in that conversation?' Reynolds thought with a sweatdrop. Turning towards Raymond, he thought he saw a comical teardrop coming out of his eyes. ' Hang in there.... ' That's the only words of consolation he could utter for his dad in his mind.
............
[Reynolds POV]
After greeting each other, we were taken to the dining room.
After being seated, we were introduced to rows and rows of amazing delicacies befitting of an urban lifestyle. The food looked good, smelled good and I sure as hell knew it would taste absolutely fantastic.
Unable to endure my salivating palette any longer, I ended up asking " What are we waiting for?"
"Shuush Rey! that's rude!" Mom rebuked me for displaying my impatience in such a way and I knew it was rude of me to ask like that but could anyone really endure when they were tempted by food such as this!?
"It's okay Darlene, and Rey we are waiting for the other Ray to arrive." aunt Alice replied to me with a friendly smile.
Looking around the table, I saw that uncle Reynolds was really not present.
' Aaah... I should have looked before asking.'
.....................
After waiting about 5 or 10 minutes, uncle finally arrived.
" I am home~!" Uncle shouted as soon he entered through the front door.
" Papa!"..." Welcome home, Honey!" Ellie and aunty welcomed him together. ' Such a happy family...'
" Waahhh! how has my cute daughter been the entire day! did you miss daddy! You missed daddy, didn't you?!" Uncle seemed like one of those love-deprived fathers that constantly craved their daughter's love and affection and got only seething contempt and disgust in return. But, fortunately, Ellie was a loving daughter and plenty loved her father.
" Wahhaha! papa! your beard pricks! hehehe~!" Ellie squealed in delight.
"come on! Rey! we've got people here, mind your manners!" Aunt Alice chided him, exasperated by the grown man's behaviour.
Nevertheless, we all got a good laugh out of their comedy skit.
And the dinner began with good harmony and a positive spirit.
...............
It was quite late at night, almost time to go to sleep.
Getting to know each other, the adults had very quickly become friends. Mom, aunt Alice and aunt Tabitha especially grew very close in a very short amount of time. Whereas, Dad, uncle Reynolds and uncle Vincent were engaged in their own shenanigans and did what they did best, messing around.
In the time we were here, I had also acquainted myself with Lilia. To be honest, she didn't do much in the canon, or at least up to the point I had read, but she is a pretty fun person to be around. I could see myself being a good friend for her, and she for me, in the future.
I was walking down the corridor leading to my room after having a light, after-dinner workout. It seems things went good enough that mom and dad decided to stay over for the night and bring whatever little possession we had from the Inn the next morning. Uncle and Aunt happily agreed with the suggestion. In fact, it seemed like they would've been the one to suggest if it were not for mom and dad doing it first.
As I was casually walking, I saw a little ball of cuteness peeking into a room that had its door slightly open. I could hear all the adults were in the room, happily chatting away.
I smiled a little and crept up on the little kid.
"Whatcha doin'?" I suddenly asked with a cheeky voice.
Immediately after hearing my voice, the little kid tensed up before robotically turning towards me. Each of her movements seemed to emit metallic, scrunching sounds.
She looked like a kid who was caught doing something she shouldn't be doing.
I give her an awkward smile before asking," What are you doing here, Ellie. You should be asleep right now, shouldn't you?"
"U...um... I was asweep.... but when I woke up, mama and papa were not there..." She replied with an embarrassed face but there was a tinge of sadness in there.
"You were afraid when you didn't see mama and papa beside you after waking up?"
" No!... no, I was not afwaid... I just wanted to see them" I smiled a little after seeing her trying to put up a bold face but ultimately failing.
"Say, Ellie, what if I accompany you until you fall asleep, and when you wake up, mama and papa will be there beside you." I tried to coerce her into falling asleep.
"You will bring mama and papa back?" She asked with twinkling eyes.
" Sure, why not" I helplessly smile after seeing her make that face.
"Yay!"
We were in the Leywin's room. Ellie was laying on the bed which was big enough to house three people. I was by the side, sitting on a chair listening to her talk.
'She seems to be the type of child that talks a whole lot before falling asleep...' I thought to myself as I listened to her story.
" Mama said his name is Arthur. He is super stwong! and can beat a lot of bad people by himself alone! " She was talking about her brother and used her hand to make me visualize how many people he could beat. It was really heartwarming seeing her talk like that about her brother with such admiration and enthusiasm.
" Your brother seems to be very strong, Ellie"
" Of couse he ish! He is my bwother after all! "She replied with peak enthusiasm. But her later words were not nearly as bright.
"But, I have never met him. Mama said he was injwed when saving me and mama when I was inside her. Mwybe he is angry with us for that..... and decided to not come back again..." She said the last part as her eyes were tearing up.
"Don't say that Ellie. your brother loves all of you and I know it. He will come back for sure and surprise all of you!" I tried to console her but didn't raise my voice. She was clearly feeling sleepy right now.
" Are you telling..... the twuth?..... you are not lying.... wight?" Her speech was now fragmented and sluggish.
" Yes, I am sure of it. You just have to wait and see. He will return back to his family... very soon....." I reassure her.
"That's good.....then....." that was her last word before she drifted off to dreamland.
Confirming she was asleep at last, I tuck her into bed, under a warm comfy blanket and went off to get my beauty sleep too.
.....................................................................................
I am really getting sleepy. It's midnight here and I had to write a section that contained a sleeping. I seriously can not even keep my eyes open for long....
Anyways, let me know if there are my issues with the chapter and if you enjoyed it. Until then, c ya nxr time!
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Trinath_Mukherjee
Trinath_Mukherjee Uugh! so tired..........
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone