A Dog Father Cannot Beget a Dragon Son

World 54: Part 2

Triton Lannister approached the two of them once the ceremony ended, cradling Juniper's small body in his arms. He affected a frown when he saw Julian sleeping while pressed against Fei Chuan's side, and Fei Chuan only stared at his baggage with as much judgement a blank look could carry.

Rather than judging this kid's behavior, how about you look first at the sleeping beauty in your arms?

To prevent the system from being forced to OOC him, Fei Chuan made it seem like an idle comment: "She resembles Blast Lady a lot." Though it might have been uncharacteristic for Shiko to start the conversation, [Their] regulatory agent seemed quite happy that Fei Chuan was drawing this parallel and so left him be.

His attention drawn to the little princess in his arms, Lannister's eyes softened. "It must have been a long day for her." That softness carried over to the boy still dozing away. "For both of them, I suspect."

Fei Chuan didn't bother agreeing with the obvious.

"Ms. Shiko..." Lannister began, face looking particularly heroic and well-meaning. "I understand that it must be jarring to suddenly be responsible for a young child. If you ever feel overwhelmed by these new responsibilities, please know that you can always reach out to me."

Because you have that much more experience? Fei Chuan reckoned that all the seconds he spent playing nanny to one iteration of the [Villain] or another would tally up to be greater than the number of seconds this man had been alive. Shiko would hardly say those words though, so he could only remain silent.

It seemed like his inner conversation was a lot more active now that he couldn't express his thoughts externally. Fei Chuan idly hoped that this wasn't indicative of his future.

When it seemed like Lannister was waiting for an acknowledgement for his generous offer, Fei Chuan rushed out a quiet "Oh, thank you" before falling silent again. People were steadily filing out of the funeral home, some of whom were casting discreet glances back at the two of them. The photographers took some cursory photos, but since neither Fei Chuan nor Lannister were about to move, they lost interest and left.

It stood to reason nothing exciting would come from this interaction. Neither Trident nor Earth Lass were the type of people to cause scenes; one was the ideal hero and the other had anxiety.

They stood in silence for a few more minutes, watching the room empty little by little. If Lannister's arms were getting tired from the weight, he didn't show it. Likewise, Fei Chuan also didn't make any moves that would disturb Julian from his impromptu nap.

Fei Chuan rather thought they had an amiable silence, but Triton seemed to disagree and coughed awkwardly. "If that is all then, I should be putting Juniper into a bed," the number one hero said. "I wish you well, Ms. Shiko."

Fei Chuan lowered his head until his eyes were covered by his hair.

There was a question he really wanted to ask this guy. Why bother calling yourself Trident if your name was already Triton? Wasn't the reference already there? What more did you want from your parents?

*****

The [Villain] didn't wake until an hour later, when the janitors were making their way down the aisles. He blinked slowly, then sat up to yawn. Fei Chuan discreetly shook out his arm in order to get some feeling back, and was rewarded with the sensation of pins and needles.

"The funeral is over already?" Julian observed. His brows furrowed and he turned to look at Fei Chuan accusingly. "Why didn't anyone wake me? Why didn't you?"

Fei Chuan scrambled for an explanation that didn't trigger an OOC flag. Any semblance of a solid explanation was immediately discarded on the account of social ineptness. Shiko, you live a very sad and strange life. Fei Chuan's heart went out to everyone suffering from social anxiety. "....you seemed very tired."