Incandescence

Fuel The Fire

Both twins were at the door, suitcases were already in the car and they were hugging their parent's goodbye, the mother hold them tighter than ever and begged them to be careful. It was undoubtedly hard for her to set her boys free and let them adventure themselves in this dangerous quest; but at the end of the day, this was what she prepared them for all those years, this was the moment of their lives, the babies she once held in her arms and nursed to sleep countless nights were now all grown up and ready to save the world, and she could not be prouder.

Emilio went to the car, knowing that her mother would want to have a one on one talk to her youngest child, they looked into each other's eyes and Marisol nuzzled the boy's cheek tenderly, trying to hold back onto her tears.

"Mamma..." He said and the woman shook her head "Take care of your brother and find her" she pleaded, he nodded and enclosed her small body around his arms, closing his eyes to absorb her perfume, that would be something he would try to hold to for the longest time, he kissed the top of her head and rubbed her back, giving her comfort "I love you mamma" the mother smiled not trusting the strength in her voice as she let go of him and the boy had to leave to join his brother and their mother could only watch them go. As they hit the road Emilio looked at his brother over the corner of his eye.

"Tell me the truth. How bad could this be?"

"You're gonna be fine Emilio" Ivan said, not taking his eyes off the road, or his hands of the steering wheel and what was worse was that Emilio couldn't perceive even a bit of emotion in that sentence which made him nervous

"That's not what I asked" he said, letting his anxiety show

"I know"

During the whole road, Emilio could never put his anxiety aside, even as they checked into the nice, retired hotel that was definitely not five stars but it was good enough to sleep and get showered in and it was twenty minutes away from the military quarters, Ivan told his brother he was gonna get a quick shower before going off to sleep. Emilio was sitting on the bed, staring at his phone carefully placed on the nightstand, his brother had explicitly warned him to not contact Athena now, it would be risky, but he thought at least reading her messages wouldn't hurt. He slid his thumb up in the screen, unlocking it she sent a simple text wondering if he was alright; they weren't doing anything wrong, it was normal for your girlfriend to ask you how you were, so he decided to reply, short but certain.

"I'm good babe" that reply ruined the whole plan, even if he didn't know it yet.

For better context, let's dive ourselves back into time, to this afternoon, to be precise, Athena was doing laundry at home and she decided to put her sheets as well, taking into consideration the late events the previous night she was not in for her parents finding something that would lead to the "safe sex" talk. To her eyes it was unnecessary, because on one side this was not the first time for them as a couple, they had sex before and the only thing that could potentially mean a red flag was the absence of a condom but she was on the pill regularly, so she didn't see any alerts so it was better to keep it on the low, specially in regards to her father

"What are you doing Athena?" She heard her father's voice speak, taken by surprise she jumped, looking over and realizing it was her father calmed her nerves as she put her hands over her chest and sighed relieved as she smiled.

"Oh shoot! You scared me a little there" she giggled "I'm just doing laundry"

"You're not seeing Emilio?"

"He's on a family trip" she said simply, and too quickly as if she had been rehearsing a line and she was so nervous she just spilled it out at the smallest chance, he arched a brow, but tried his best to seem unbothered by the odd tone in her response; Metiah, his lovely wife and the only one that could keep a balance between him and his daughter, but her not being home due to her duties at work allowed him to unravel all the secrets his daughter kept from him. It was obvious Metiah overprotected Athena from him, she was undoubtedly, the girl's blind confident and while he admired their closeness, he could not allow himself to have secrets within his household.