Daughter of King

Chapter 5

Lily looked down at the game pad in her hands, her fingers moving automatically even though she wasn't looking at the screen. She snuck a glance at her father where he sat beside her, his intense gaze honed on the cartoony combat of the game they were playing. If she didn't know better, she would think he was staring down an enemy. The glare on his face was so fierce, it was amazing the screen hadn't spontaneously combusted. Just sitting next to him had goosebumps rising on Lily's skin and she could only wonder if this was how his opponent felt, or if it was worse when he actually wanted to hurt someone.

Could...could she radiate rage like that? Was this part of the energy manipulation Miss Fubuki was talking about? They had already started one on one training, but with little luck. Whenever she tried to follow her leader's advice and access the power that was supposedly within her, she ended up with indigestion. It was disheartening, to say the least, but she kept at it. Miss Fubuki insisted she ask her father about it, and she knew she should, but it was so hard. He never wanted to talk about Heroics when they were together. She understood that. He was a Hero all the time, but when she was with him he was just her dad. Keeping home and work life separate was something even ordinary salarymen had to learn to do. She couldn't imagine the kind of life he'd lived before she tracked him down. He was always so happy when she visited, so eager to play with her. She had her mother waiting for her at home, but he had no one...

"What's wrong, Lily?"

She looked up in surprise. There was a victory animation playing on the screen, her father's character dancing while hers sobbed in a corner. She swallowed thickly and smiled guiltily up at her father.

"Oops," she said nervously. "Sorry."

The corners of his narrow mouth were drawn down in a stern frown as he regarded her and she barely resisted the urge to shrink in on herself. Her father was a kind, gentle hearted man, but his face was terrifying when he frowned like that. Even though she knew he would never hurt her, she was still a little afraid of his disapproval. So, then she opened her mouth to dispel the silence that was growing between them, it wasn't to ask the question that she knew would upset him.

"Did you want to meet my mother?"

Nor was it to ask that! What the heck? Where had that come from?

Her own panic was reflected on her father's face, his blue eyes wide and the terrifying aura he was exuding disappeared as his mouth fell open in a comical gape. Lily immediately started scrambling for some way to salvage the situation.

"She's nice! A-and she's super fun, and she's been really supportive of my Hero career, even though it scares her. And—," she cut herself off, the pained look on her father's face bringing her back to reality. She turned away, ashamed. Why had she brought up her mother? If King wanted to meet her, he would have brought it up, himself, right? She wanted to avoid upsetting him with questions about her powers, but it looked like she had, anyway.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly, carefully looking at anything but him. "I shouldn't have said anything."

Her heart sank even further into her gut when he didn't respond right away. Was he very angry? Had she ruined the relationship they'd worked to build over the last couple months?

She jumped when a large hand came to rest heavily on her head, crushing the lily flower she wore against her dark hair. The sudden affection cleared her mind of all rational thought. Though she came over to his apartment and played games for hours at least once a week, when she could manage it—less, now that she was training with Miss Fubuki—they weren't exactly the most affection parent-child pair. In fact, they rarely touched each other, at all, and when they did it was almost always by accident. She hadn't really thought about it, given how long they'd spent completely unaware of each other's existence. The startling warmth of her father's awkward touch filled her eyes with tears. She didn't know she wanted this.