Fletcher sat on the small couch in his father’s new apartment. It was a lot nicer than the one Sebastian had back in Alcett, even if it did lack windows. But that was just part of being inside a giant underground bunker. It had a large open living/dining area with a decent kitchen squeezed in one corner. Paintings and other artwork decorated the walls, and it came with a separate bathroom and bedroom, all perks of Sebastian’s high rank.

  Since there was only one bedroom, Fletcher had been relegated to the couch for the single night he’d been out of solitary. Not that it mattered since he wasn’t actually sleeping all that much. The nightmare still had him too shaken for anything like that.

  As embarrassing as it was that he was living with his dad again, even after gaining his citizenship, more than anything he was relieved to be close to his father for so much of the night so that if something did happen to Sebastian, Fletcher would be there for him.

  No one had commented on his awkward living situation, but his dad had mentioned that when he was ready, he could get assigned his own quarters, though nothing as nice as Sebastian’s. At best, he’d be lucky to get a bedroom with an attached private bathroom.

  He didn’t care about that. He just didn’t think he could handle having all that time to himself after the almost two weeks spent in a cell already.

  Eventually he’d probably change his mind. Fletcher hoped he would someday move past this. And that psychiatrist he met with earlier also seemed to believe it. She’d been kind as he spoke of the nightmare, the first time he’d ever uttered the memory aloud, and she helped him see that it was just a vivid dream spurred by extreme stress and shock after the past year of his life bringing about so many large changes to his beliefs about himself and his place in the world.

  They had another appointment scheduled. Fletcher felt weak for needing to see a therapist for something as stupid as a nightmare, but he couldn’t deny that it felt good to have someone compassionate on his side who wasn’t involved in the family drama.

  The door opened, and his father walked in. It was odd to see him in the pressed military uniform, but at the same time, Sebastian seemed more comfortable in it than he ever had in his usual work attire back in the colonies.

  “Hey, Fletcher. How was your appointment?” His dad smiled as he bent down to untie his shoes.

  “Good,” he said. “How was work?”

  “A lot of paperwork.” Sebastian walked over and sat next to him on the couch. “Feeling any better?”

  “I’m fine, Dad.”

  “You don’t have to lie, Fletcher. It’s okay to need a little time to get over this. Solitary confinement is brutal punishment.” His father grabbed his shoulder.

  “I don’t want to keep talking about it.” He’d already spent an hour discussing everything again and again with the psychiatrist, and as relieving as that had been, he was very tired of remembering the traumatic experience.

  “Let’s go out tonight then. Get your mind off things. The base is equipped to be comfortable for civilian families, complete with grocery stores, restaurants, clothing stores, the works.”

  Fletcher shrugged. “I don’t really want to, but if you want to, I’ll go with.”

  Sebastian’s smile faltered for a moment. “I think it would be good for you to get out, Fletcher. Hiding in this apartment isn’t going to make things better.”

  “I said I’d go if you wanted.”

  “Okay. Let’s go then. It’ll be fun. We can invite Nora or Addy and Jeric or all three of them…”

  “Whatever you want, Dad,” Fletcher said.

  “I’m asking what you want, Fletcher.”

  He shook his head. “I don’t care. It’s not like it matters anyway.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” his dad asked.

  Fletcher rolled his eyes. “Come on, Dad. Don’t play dumb. It’s pretty obvious you and Mom have a whole life plan for me, whether I like it or not. I’ve learned my lesson about trying to resist. I’ll do whatever you want.”

  Once upon a time, Fletcher did care about having a say in his life, but after solitary and the nightmare, holding his ground proved too exhausting. The best he could do was deal with whatever life threw at him this time around. He’d been happy as a Human citizen, and then he’d managed to be happy as an Unhuman citizen.

  Surely he’d figure out some way to stop being miserable while a Mixed citizen, but that one might take a little more time than the others given he was going to have to give five years of his life away to playing war and killing people for politicians' gains. That was a little harder to accept than moving to a new city for a forced job.

  He didn’t aspire to be happy. If that ever came, it was a long way off. The best he could hope for was mild contentment.

  Sebastian sighed. “It’s not like that, Fletcher. I understand that nightmare got to you pretty hard, but brooding like an angsty teenager is still unacceptable, okay? You’re twenty-six. Start acting like it.”

  “Okay. Sorry.” Fletcher stood up. “When do you want to go?”

  “I’m not done talking about this,” his father said.

  “Okay.”

  His dad stood up and faced him, but before he could speak, the ringing of the doorbell interrupted them. Sebastian answered it, and Nora walked in.

  “Hi, Dad. Hi, Fletch,” she said with a grin.

  “How are you, Nora?” Sebastian regained his earlier smile.

  “Good, good. Just living the dream with my baby brother home at last,” she said sarcastically. “Speaking of, I was hoping to get a little time with him. What do you say, Fletcher? In the mood for a brother-sister outing?”

  Fletcher wanted to say no, but he glanced at his father first, looking for a little guidance as to best handle this. He didn’t want to offend Nora beyond what he’d managed to do upon first meeting her, and he really didn’t want to get lectured by his dad about this later on either.

  “Oh, sorry. I forgot that you can’t take a piss without Dad’s permission.” Nora looked at Sebastian. “Father, would you so kindly allow Fletcher to come out and play with me for a short time? I understand the two of you are nearly joined at the hip, but surely a few minutes of separation wouldn’t kill you…”

  “What was that thing you were saying about acting more mature, Dad?” Fletcher said. He walked over to his sister. “Okay. Let’s go on this spectacular ‘outing’ you have planned.”

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “Are you sure? I didn’t hear Dad give his express permission.” Nora kept an overly serious expression on her face.

  He crouched down to pull his shoes on. “You’re not funny.”

  “I know at least a dozen people who would disagree with you,” she said.

  As he stood up, Nora swatted his back. “I’ll have him back in time for dinner, Daddio. Don’t you fret.”

  Sebastian chuckled as he sat back down on the couch and waved them off. “Don’t have too much fun.”

  “You don’t have to worry about that,” Fletcher muttered under his breath as he followed his sister out into the hall.

  Her brown hair was pulled into a high ponytail, and she was wearing what looked like workout attire in place of a uniform. She gave him a fake smile and threw an arm around his neck, pulling him in close.

  “And how’s my favorite brother today?”

  “I’m your only brother last I checked,” Fletcher said. He pushed her arm off. “Can you stop acting like this? Would it kill you to just be normal for once?”

  “Aw. What would you know about what my ‘normal’ actions are, Fletcher? You’ve known me less than a month.” Nora reached up and ruffled his hair.

  He shoved her away as they walked down the hall. “Knock it off, Nora. What do you want?”

  “Mom and Dad think we need to spend time together so here I am. We’re going to go workout so I can claim I hung out with you without actually having to interact with you. That way everyone’s happy,” Nora said.

  “Fine.” Fletcher supposed that getting some exercise in would be good for him, and it sure beat trying to hang around his dad who was acting extra odd this evening.

  “Wow. Not even one complaint? We should have thrown you in solitary the moment you got here. It would have saved everyone tons of time.” Nora grinned at him, a hint of maliciousness in those hazel eyes.

  “You’ll have to introduce me to them sometime.”

  “Who?” Nora’s face became one of confusion.

  Fletcher smiled. “Those dozen people who lied to you and told you were funny.”

  His sister laughed. “That wasn’t half-bad. You might have a future in this.”

  “Being funnier than you? Yeah, that’s not even hard.”

  Nora shoved him down the hallway. “Don’t push your luck, kiddo.”

  A few minutes later, they arrived at the gym which had a good amount of attendees already. Nora went to the treadmills, and Fletcher followed. He stretched out and then started it up at a light jogging pace to warm up. Nora smirked at him as she started hers up and pushed it to a faster speed.

  Fletcher smiled and upped his speed to pass hers.

  “Don’t push yourself too hard, Fletcher. I’d hate for you to pull a muscle and miss the upcoming mission,” she said.

  “Mission? What are you talking about?” He looked over at her, his stomach dropping at the thought.

  “If you want to know, you’ll have to beat me.” Nora then did as before, going just above him in speed, and after a minute or so, Fletcher repeated the action.

  They continued in this little game until they were both sprinting, and then it turned into a test of endurance, seeing who could run this fast for the longest amount of time.

  Fletcher’s leg muscles ached after several weeks of not getting out to run, but he pushed on, refusing to lose to his sister in this. If there were two things he could almost always count on being the best at, they were running and math. Since he didn’t think he’d ever convince Nora to sit down and face him on a set of mathematics tests, this was the only chance he’d have against her.

  Running did wonders for erasing his worries about missions and nightmares, especially when it was a competition. All he thought about was managing his breathing to keep a stitch from forming in his side and making sure he outlasted Nora. Half the battle of long distance running was the mental game.

  Others took notice of the competition, and it seemed Nora might actually have those dozen friends she’d claimed as several people came over to them and began cheering her on.

  “Go on, Anders. Kick the kid’s butt,” a woman with the oversized ears of [Goblin] shouted.

  “Yeah, show him who’s boss, Nora,” a man with bits of rocky flesh added in.

  Nora grinned as she threw Fletcher a side glance and upped her speed yet again.

  Returning the smile, Fletcher matched her, unbothered by the attention. He learned long ago how to tune out the sounds of opposing crowds while at track meets. He knew he had the physical capacity to outdo her, it was just a matter of keeping a clear head, free of worries. The cheering for his sister wouldn’t mess with him as long as he kept his thoughts straight.

  All that thinking about thoughts did have an unintended consequence in which his mind briefly recalled the incident at his birthday dinner where he unintentionally triggered his [Skill]. As long as that didn’t happen again, he would be—

  [Activating: Read Thoughts]

  “No. Wait,” Fletcher murmured between breaths, but it was too late. A myriad of other people’s voices were already in his brain, making it impossible to focus on anything.

  He lasted a second or so more on the treadmill before it became too much and he stepped off, his head in his hands as he fell to his knees. People were talking, maybe to him or maybe in his head, it was impossible to tell for sure.

  A hand was on his back, and a distinctly audible voice spoke to him.

  “You’re causing a scene, Fletcher. Turn it off, knucklehead,” Nora whispered in his ear.

  He groaned as the pressure in his skull increased, but eventually he mustered enough effort to send the shut off signal, and he was rewarded with a much happier notification.

  [Deactivating: Read Thoughts]

  His mind became silent as he struggled to catch his breath, an irksome ache still in his brain from the intrusion of so many other people.

  Nora stood up and addressed the onlookers. “He’ll be okay. He just has this crippling migraine condition that pops up very occasionally. Nothing to worry about.”

  “Some brother you’ve got, Nora,” one of her friends said.

  She ruffled Fletcher’s hair. “Someone had to take all the wimp genes in the Anders line. I’m just happy it wasn’t me.” She pulled him to his feet. “Come on. You need to get somewhere to rest. I’ll point you in the right direction.”

  They walked back out into the hallway where Nora leaned close to him and spoke in another furious whisper. “Get yourself under control, Fletch. Mom’s serious about keeping this [Demanlic] secret which means you can’t go around screwing up in such an obvious manner.”

  “I’m sorry,” he whispered back as he rubbed his forehead. “I am a little new to this so you could cut me some slack.”

  “No. Do better.” She pointed down the hallway. “First left, then the second right. You should be able to figure out the rest.”

  Fletcher grabbed her as she turned to go back to the gym. “Wait. What about that mission you mentioned?”

  Nora smirked. “You lost, buddy.”

  “Come on, Nora. We know how much you love to be the one to spoil secrets anyway. Just tell me,” he said.

  She rolled her eyes. “Fine. Only so you stop pestering me. Jeric and I are part of a team going off to the western coast for a conversion facility raid to try to rescue some of the Hexed that got dumped there. Mom’s decided you need to come along as an observer.”

  His eyes widened in surprise. “That sounds like a pretty dangerous situation to take an observer.” Maybe Hazel just wanted him to die because he couldn’t see why else she’d force him into that situation when he had zero military training.

  “It’s not like we’re taking you in as a bodyshield when we raid it. You’ll watch the cameras at the base camp with the support team.”

  “Why? What’s the point in having me go watch?”

  “Take that up with the General. I just follow her orders, something you’ll understand in a few months' time.” Nora smacked his shoulder. “Now get going. I want to finish my workout.”

  “Thanks I guess,” he said as she walked away.

  Nora waved her hand in response and then disappeared back into the gym.

  Fletcher wanted to be angry with his mother for deciding to send him out on some dangerous mission for the fun of it, but his head hurt too much for him to muster the proper emotions. Besides, as tired as he was of getting pushed around by her, he was a lot more tired of trying to resist. If she wanted him to go, he’d go. If something bad happened, oh well. His miserable existence might end earlier than he expected, and that wasn’t such a bad thought.