The Earth After Rebirth

She puffed her chest, proud that she was left in charge of protecting their household. That made her look so cute, Kiro couldn\'t help but hug her.

Hiro walked up to their house, he was being followed by Saanvi, Isla and his siblings. His siblings wanted to come over and play with their respective friends. Yuri with LJ and Loki, Isao with Alora.

"I hope you don\'t mind, when I mentioned where I\'d be going today, Saanvi wanted to come."

Kiro simply shrugged, giving him a naughty smile.

"Don\'t even..." Hiro wanted to wipe the smile off his face.

"I didn\'t say anything." He laughed.

Raul offered to drive them. They took a bigger car that could fit 4 people at the back. Snow still plagued the ground but the sun was out, so much that they weren\'t wearing much layers. Jeans and sweaters, all of them.

"Thank you Raul, I know how much you wanted to stay in today." Kiro would never stop treating him decently, even though this was his job.

"That\'s alright M-Sir Kiro." He corrected himself when Kiro gave him a stern look.

Raul prayed to whichever god that would listen, he wanted today to be very uneventful, he still had guilt from the other night.

Alora came running, "Isla!" They had met at Kiro\'s birthday party, and she took a liking to her. She\'d never seen a pretty girl like her before she claimed.

"Little Princess!" Isla took her off the ground, giving her an embraced.

"Ki doesn\'t want me to go with you." She pouted.

Isla put on a pretend thinking face, "we are going far, how about this, when we come back I\'ll take you out?" She understood the fear of not wanting his younger siblings to be out of the estate at the moment.

She wrapped her arms around her neck, giving her another embrace. "Deal!" She gave a toothy grin.

They were already in the car, it was speeding towards the headquarters. Raul even closed off himself so he didn\'t see or hear whatever they were doing at the back. He smiled like an idiot thinking about it.

\'A double date huh? Go Master Kiro!\' He rooted for him silently.

Kiro realised then he hadn\'t told Isla about the Sanctum, but that wasn\'t something that should be discussed there. He was sure though, that her father was a part of it.

He promised himself to protect her from him if needed. He only hoped, Isla would choose the good side. But from the time they\'d spent with each other, he was sure she would.

They were seated on the same row, deciding to put a film while they travelled. TVs in cars were installed on the seats, the entire seat became a virtual screen. The windows were tinted, so no sunlight got in, they could watch perfectly.

Isla was cosily lying on his chest, making him breathe unevenly because he wasn\'t used to things like that. She had chosen the film they were watching but she dozed off.

As soon as the game was playable again, she went back in and gamed some more, so she didn\'t have enough of sleep when Saanvi woke her up in the morning.

Before they knew it, they had arrived but Isla hadn\'t woken up. Kiro told them they could walk around and check the place out, he\'d wait until she woke up. He could tell she was tired.

He felt like a creep watching her sleep so he drowned in his own thoughts. About everything that was happening and how he could hopefully put an end to it.

Then it hit him, the memory the game made him remember, when his grandfather gave him the necklace, it never had a padlock.

He wrecked his brains trying to remember where he had gotten it and why he decided to put it there and nothing came to him. So he called his father on a whim.

He tried his best to hide the girl sleeping on his chest but Sekani could see a piece of hair that was barely visible.

"Dad, where did I get this?" He asked holding out his necklace.

"Your grandfather of course." He answered confused why his son asked him the most obvious thing.

"I mean the padlock dad, please I don\'t remember how it got here. I remember grandpa giving me this, but I don\'t remember the padlock being a part of it." He said as silently as he could, it was a wonder Sekani heard him at all.

"About a month before he disappeared, he came over to see us and said it was originally part of the necklace, he just had been fixing it up. Why is it important?"

"I don\'t know. Thanks..." Before he ended the call, Isla started snoring.

"Ki, are you—" He dropped the call before he could even ask.

He didn\'t know why, but he was just embarrassed. His parents weren\'t all that strict, but he still didn\'t want them to see him do such things.

He held out the padlock, examining it but he couldn\'t find anything about it that was particular. He still prodded it, believing maybe it was some kind of clue but nothing happened. That\'s when he felt something wet on his chest.

"She drools and snores? Isla Silva isn\'t perfect after all." He chuckled, it was strange but that made him feel closer to her.

That woke her up. She quickly wiped it away, staring at Kiro intently. "If you tell anyone about this I\'ll kill you Kiro Waynworth."

"About what? The drooling or the snoring?" He said laughing.

She looked at him smiling in defeat. She\'s been told she snored, but she always fought that claim with all her might, but she couldn\'t find the words now.

"It\'ll be our little secret." Kiro smirked.

That earned him a kiss on the cheek. "So will this." Which made him blush.

They got out of the car, joining their friends to take a good look at the newly built headquarters, it was as tall as the other buildings. It had a blue colour about it, windows and all.

The inside was even better, it was already ready for people to move in and work. The lobby, computers, furniture, everything was already installed.

"They sure work fast." He commented, pulling out his phone to show his dad his dream that had become a reality.