The Earth After Rebirth

"Loki will be starting school soon, I haven\'t called to arrange things for him. Unlike yours, the schools around here require students to live in the dorms."

"Uh, so?" Kiro didn\'t understand where she was getting at.

"As you know, or may not have known, LJ turns 13 too next year. Wouldn\'t it be awkward if she was home schooled while Loki went to a proper school?"

"Oh, I understand. But mum, is this really something you even needed to get permission for?" Kiro\'s mind had travelled to thinking something was wrong with the pregnancy or something. He sighed in relief.

"The tuition isn\'t exactly cheap..."

"Well, that much is obvious. Wilfred is a crucial asset for our family, as much as I hate saying it like that, he\'s almost like family with everything he\'s done so far for us. Sending his granddaughter to a good school will make him happy." He shrugged.

"What has he done?" Nothing ever got past Freya.

"Huh? Took care of things and everything." He said trying to be evasive.

His father told him what transpired at the plant, but told him not to breathe a word about it to his wife. She didn\'t need the stress.

"What are you hiding?"

\'So damn intuitive, I only said one thing, why\'s she picking it apart!\'

"Dad had to travel here two times now, who do you think took care of everything back at the plant? By the way, you should call the school soon, it won\'t be easy securing two spots." He finished, stirring the conversation to what it originally was.

Freya didn\'t waste any time and called the school to enquire about a lot of things. Once she was satisfied that the school was indeed a good one, she enrolled the both of them and paid tuition for their first quarter.

She delegated having their uniforms bought to Kiro. He had to once again travel to the mall with both of them to get their sizes just right. LJ fought tooth and nail when she heard she\'d have to be in a skirt.

Of course Freya had a feeling that this would happen, she already asked the school if girls were allowed to wear a boy\'s uniform, she was informed that as long as it was neat there wouldn\'t be a problem. She just forgot to relay that message to Kiro.

So Kiro was in distress trying to convince LJ to wear a damn skirt!

"It\'s not gonna bite, come on."

He gave up after 10 minutes, calling his mother who explained everything to him. She apologised profusely for leaving that tiny important detail out.

"What\'s your deal anyway, why don\'t you like dresses?" Kiro asked her.

"You don\'t like them either, so what\'s the problem?" She shot back.

"Well, I\'m a boy, a man really. I can\'t wear dresses." He shrugged.

"Says who? The society that\'s treating more than half of its population worse than animals?"

Kiro pinched his nose. She was somewhat right, they shouldn\'t be taking moral standards from such a society. But there was no way in hell he\'d wear a dress, but this also made him understand LJ a little bit more.

"You win. You win." He threw his hands in the air.

They didn\'t only shop for uniforms, but also some things they\'d need at school, plus some things they really just bought to show off. Kiro let them, he could afford to waste money once in a while after all.

LJ was very reserved at first to take anything she didn\'t need, Kiro however managed to convinced her that it was okay.

"Okay, time to go home." Kiro shouted before they could dig deeper into his pockets.

Christmas day was nearing. The household was busy preparing for it. Decorations around the estate were already installed, Freya much preferred these ones than the artificial ones that one could turn on with a single click.

They all wanted to make the holiday special, usually his parents had to work even on that day. They never had much days to just themselves, so this was one opportunity they wanted to hang on to.

"Since you bought Freckles everything she wanted, what the hell are we going to buy her for presents?" Freya reprimanded.

Kiro didn\'t think it through. He thought he was just spoiling his sister for the first time in her entire life, he couldn\'t say no when he could afford to.

"I\'m sure she has forgotten some of the things, should I take them and wrap them up?" He asked innocently.

"That\'s actually not a bad idea, get on with it."

Kiro did as he was supposed to. Wrapping the presents in his room, his mind circled back to the mysterious padlock. No matter what he did, he couldn\'t understand what it did, but he had a feeling his grandfather didn\'t just give it to him for nothing.

"Open sesame." He said trying his luck, sure enough, nothing happened.

He sat on his bed, the presents were already wrapped. So he decided to tinker with the padlock instead.

He tried getting it opened but it never let up. He said all sort of words like, \'prestigious\' or \'Waynworth\' none of them were able to do anything.

"Grandpa, what were you trying to tell me by giving me this?" He mumbled to himself.

He tossed it on the bed, and looked for places to hide the presents, he found just the perfect spot in his closet.

He looked up to the roof, "Eldric Waynworth, your family needs your guidance right now." He said a little prayer to his grandfather. He wanted to believe that, like Hubris\' father, his grandfather was out there training to be an angel or something.

Then something amazing happened. His bed started glowing with a blue hue. He walked closer with caution. The source of the light was none other than the padlock.

The blue light then condensed forming a human shaped miniature of his grandfather. He blinked, looking at it unbelievably.

"Grandpa?"