The Aura is With Us

Chapter 34: We Need Reason

Delia tried very hard not to over spice the stew she was making for dinner. While she could handle heat in her food, Ash was never really a fan, and she certainly didn't want to upset her guests. It had been a long time since her house was full, not since Ash was very little and the Ketchums were still alive, did it feel full.

If only she could enjoy it, because it was very clear she had abused children under her roof.

Riley may be in his twenties, but Delia couldn't see him as a grown man when he was curled up on her sofa fast asleep, his face green with bruises. He looked too much like Ash when her boy was little and had taken a bad tumble in the Professor's pastures. Bruises and scrapes on his skin with grass stains and dirt in his clothing. Delia was sure that the imprisonment would forever affect Riley, even if it didn't seem like it right away. No one lives through something like that without some kind of trauma sticking to them. However, it was his reaction to how Delia wanted to take care of him that made her really worry.

"It's fine." "You don't need to do that." "I don't want to be a bother."

Delia bit her lip and started to cut vegetables with a swift blade, the repetition of the task soothing. Bother. She shook her head. The boy was her nephew in simplistic terms! He could never be a bother! Especially, after everything he went through. He needs to be a bother! Family took care of one another...It was almost like Riley wasn't taught that.

It was even worse when Delia met Amanda. Granted, the middle-aged woman was probably a little to forward when they met, she really should've asked before she hugged. However, her niece's reaction to the contact was very telling. The young woman stiffed and refused to meet her gaze afterward. Almost as if she was scared of Delia, and didn't want do anything that might cross the older woman. When Delia apologized, Amanda those two dreaded words her brother kept repeating.

"It's fine."

It almost made Delia mad. Clearly contact was not fine for Amanda, yet she still said it was. Boundaries were understandable, healthy even. Delia might've accepted the short response if it weren't for the almost fearful look in Amanda's eyes. This wasn't just some case of, "oh I'm not a tactile person", this was something else.

Come to think of it. Riley wasn't used to embraces from family either. He flinched when Delia checked him for fever...

Hummm...

"Is everything alright?"

Delia abruptly stopped her chopping at the question. Her brown eyes flicked back, finding knight that she had roped into helping her prepare dinner by peeling the potatoes, watching her with curious eyes.

"Of course, why wouldn't they be?" Delia answered.

"Well, your soul is projecting waves or righteous fury," Sir Aaron said carefully.

"Reading a soul without permission? Isn't that rather invasive Sir knight?" Delia teased, feeling her rage mellow slightly at the concern.

Sir Aaron chuckled, "My apologies, Lady Ketchum, it just seems to be bothering you."

Delia rolled her eyes playfully, before her face saddened, she sighed, "She never hugged them."

Sir Aaron paused his potato peeling, "Pardon?"

"Their mother, Amanda and Riley, she never hugged them."

"How can you be certain?" There was genuine confusion in his voice.

"Don't tell me that you, a man who can literally read the emotions off of someone, haven't picked up on how stiff they are around me?" Delia turned to look at him with a raised brow.