Gift from the Heavens

Chapter 3

There were several loud cracking sounds as every head snapped towards the source of the voice. Lomadia stood there, a slightly surprised, but mostly hurt look on her face.

Sips stood there, sipping his drink with a small smirk on his face as though he was watching a particularly interesting soap opera. Sjin had his drink halfway to his lips and looked both interested and slightly scared. He knew from experience exactly how loud Lomadia got when she was angry. Even Honeydew and Lalna were withdrawing from Xephos, giving him looks as though they clearly knew they were throwing him under the bus.

“What’s this about a daughter?” Lomadia raised an eyebrow as she marched in. Her tone suggested that she wasn’t sure exactly how she was going to feel right at this moment. She could be angry and hurt, or she could be sympathetic. “Why haven’t I heard anything about a daughter?”

Xephos’s mouth opened up and down like a goldfish as he tried to decide what to say. “I-I-I um…”

“Have I been dating a married man?” Lomadia bit the inside of her cheek as it seemed she decided what approach to take. The angry and hurt one.

Xephos just let his head hang. He was too emotionally exhausted to explain what exactly was going on.

“Lom, you know that Xephos had amnesia…” Honeydew piped up, immediately quieting down when he earned a piercing glare.

“I don’t care. No matter what happened with his memories. Something that important wouldn’t be something you forget completely,” She breathed as calmly as possible. She was just so angry and even she wasn’t sure exactly why. She was just furious, and sad. “So it was that easy to get over your wife and come after me the second you crash landed here? Just crash land on an alien planet and have an affair with one of the locals?”

Lalna coughed, successfully bringing all the attention to himself. He looked around nervously before stepping forward and saying, “His wife died.”

“What? When?”  Lomadia asked. She was running out of reasons to be mad, and she honestly couldn’t even pin point why she felt so much like punching Xephos.

“About twelve years ago.” Xephos muttered, still looking at the floor. “The day my daughter was born.”

“Um… here.” Honeydew shuffled forward to hand Lomadia the pictures. She pulled them out of his hand. She felt a pang of guilt smack her hard in the stomach. In the picture, the young looking Xephos stood next to a blond woman. It was like looking in a mirror. This woman who Xephos had married on his own planet looked almost exactly like her. There was a moment where this made it so much worse, like Xephos was only with her because she was so much like his late wife, but then she realized why she was angry. Not because Xephos had a wife, but because she was not her.

“I’m sorry, I just… Ugh, it’s just a lot to take in right now… I’m not angry, I just, you know,” Lomadia mumbled, losing all energy all of a sudden. She just sort of slumped down, leaning on a wall. She just wanted to cry. She felt so awful about yelling.

“Well, me and Sips need to get going now…” Sjin cleared his throat and laughed nervously.

“But-” Sips began before receiving a hard pinch on his arm. “Ow! Alright, yeah, we need to go. See ya!”

“Me and Honeydew need to finish a thing, away from here, bye,” Lalna grabbed the dwarf’s arm and pulled him out.

Xephos and Lomadia were alone in the room now.

Lomadia felt a hand on her shoulders. Xephos had come over to where she slumped on the wall. He pulled them both to sit on the floor. He patted her shoulder as she cried.

“I should be comforting you,” She remarked, leaning her head into his chest, “You’re the one who has been separated from their daughter for a year.”

“But you just received a huge shock.”

“You did too.”

Neither spoke for a while. They both just sort of sat there, occasionally crying or comforting the other. Only one could remain strong at a time. No one came back into the room, but there were hushed voices in one of the lower levels of the building at some point, but the disembodied voices faded quickly away. Lomadia supposed that she must have dozed off at some point, because the light sky was all too quickly dark, and she felt she had to speak.

“Xeph?”

“Hm?” Xephos sounded like he had just slept too.

“Are you going back for her?” Lomadia questioned, turning to look at him.

“I have to,” He mumbled expressionlessly.

Lomadia had to stop herself from raising her voice. The emotionless way Xephos seemed to only use when he was feeling too much emotion always annoyed her. “Are you going to come back?”

There was no answer.

“Xeph? I need to know. Are you coming back?” She asked desperately.

“I-I don’t know.”

“Then I’m coming with you,” Lomadia said.

“You can’t, it’s too dangero-”

“Either you swear to me you will come back, or I’m coming with you.” She crossed her arms stubbornly over her chest and glared at him with a burning blue fire in her eyes.

“Fine, I promise th-” He began, only to be interrupted a second time.

“Promise me in your own language.” It wasn’t a request, it was an order.

“But Lom! Why-” Third interruption.

“Xephos,” She warned.

“Alright, fine!” He huffed exasperatedly.  Then he spoke in words that sounded like song.

“I promise I will come back. I will always come back for you.”

“Was that alright?” Xephos inquired, “Or-”

He was interrupted the fourth time by her lips on his.

“Yes, that was perfect.”