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Stepping foward out into the day
Shrugging off the dust and memory
1. Full House
The Villa isn’t always full. Plenty of their family have other duties to fulfill. Rosalyn and the Magic Tower, Alberu and the Roan kingdom, the Molans and their duties in the Eastern Continent, Mary and her family in the Underground City.
And that’s just of the main members of their group.
Cale enjoys when the house is quiet, when it’s just him, the children, Choi Han, and Eruhaben. It’s peaceful in a way that just isn’t possible when the house is full. He’s free to slack off as much as he wants, as long as he pays enough attention to the children averaging nine years old.
When the house is full, there is far too much chaos. The sound of explosions from Eruhaben, Rosalyn, and Raon’s experiments rings out far too often. Alberu complains and threatens him with work. Ron brings lemonade with a vicious smile and Beacrox controls the kitchen in a frightening manner. Mary has a habit of unintentionally encouraging bad behavior in everyone.
Still… There’s something enjoyable about having everyone home. Cale has never experienced a full house before this.
2. Food
Rosalyn knows that she’s brilliant. She has little trouble understanding the hardest concepts magic has to offer, she is one of the few that Cale trusts to handle sensitive affairs, and although she dislikes politicking, she’s skilled at it.
Despite that, she can’t help but be confused by habits she’s noticed some of her family have regarding food.
Although Cale rarely eats everything on his plate, too distracted by whatever obstacle has recently gotten his attention, he never fails to stick some of the food in his spatial storage bag.
Hong, On, and Raon always eat everything they're given, but they also have the habit of taking food from the table and hiding it for later consumption.
Choi Han tends to eat his meals quickly, as though it might be the last meal he gets.
Alberu tends to eat carefully, as though testing to make sure every bite tastes as it should.
She was raised a princess, one who has never had to fear when her next meal would be, or that her own flesh and blood would poison her to get her out of the way.
She doesn’t know that plenty of her family haven’t had that luxury.
3. Nightmares
All of his family, Cale supposes, have nightmares. Even though none of them had been permanently injured, even though Cale did his best to keep casualties to a minimum, war was never pretty. Not only that, but plenty of them had experienced terrible things even before the war.
This is certainly true of the three children.
All of them, Cale included, have mastered the art of waking up from nightmares silently, too used to potentially being harmed for making noise. Those same fears make them very light sleepers who will wake up even from the slightest disturbance, so even without noise, a nightmare generally wakes all of them. Sometimes it’s one of the children trembling in their sleep, sometimes it is Cale’s lax body stiffening in terror and fury. The change in atmosphere automatically brings them to attentiveness.
Cale holds the children when this happens. Hong and Raon like to talk about their nightmares, but On usually stays silent, simply soaking up the warmth given to her by her brothers and guardian. When it is Cale who wakes from a nightmare, the children cuddle closer to him. Sometimes they talk about inconsequential things to distract him, but Cale knows he would never talk about what he sees in his dreams.
These are children who have already seen too much, after all. They don’t need to know about his own past.
4. Travel
It is quite lucky that Cale had made allies in so many different places, since the children love traveling. Although he could have easily paid for any travel expenses, leaders from all over would insist on paying whenever he travels to a country, and Cale is nothing if not an opportunist.
Choi Han often comes along on their adventures, and sometimes others will as well. Mary is just as eager as the children to experience new things.
It’s nice, Cale thinks, to be able to go so many different places without the fear of war on their heels.
5. Stars
There is a balcony near the top of the Black Castle that Raon and Mary use to stargaze together. As children who spent their formative years underground, with only torchlight to guide them, the stars are something magical.
“What do you think the stars are made of?” Mary asks.
“My human said that they’re big balls of flaming gas,” Raon answers cheerfully.
She isn’t sure what exactly that meant, but if Master Cale said it, then it must be true. He’s rather knowledgeable about everything except himself. Perhaps she would ask him later.
6. Homesickness
Cale loves this place.
He loves his position, he loves his family, he loves that there are no monsters too hard to fight.
But there are times he misses Korea.
It’s not the people he misses, because all the people he loved are dead and those who were alive he wasn’t close with. Any worries he had about his colleagues were dismissed upon knowing that the original Cale Henituse, now Kim Rok Soo, had taken over his body and his job.
It’s little things, like junk food, and music, and basic scientific knowledge.
“How am I supposed to explain to Mary why I know stars are made out of gas?” he asks Choi Han.
Choi Han, the traitor, bursts out laughing.
7. Smile
Choi Han can think of very few instances where Cale truly smiles. Even in his memories of Kim Rok Soo, he was stoic.
Sure, he smirks when he is confident, he simpers when he is sucking up to someone, he has that grin that the children call his “scammer smile”, but an expression of true, unadulterated happiness? That’s rare.
It only happens when Cale thinks no one is looking, and it’s frustrating that, even with the people he loves, Cale is still guarded. It makes sense, knowing his past, but it’s still upsetting.
But he, Cale, and Raon will live a long time, most likely longer than the rest of their family. Choi Han has time to make sure that Cale is comfortable enough to smile more often, more openly.
He will definitely make sure that is the case.
8. Presents
Alberu knows that Cale loves giving presents to people. When he goes shopping with anyone, if they even give a passing mention of being interested in something, Cale would immediately buy it for them or, occasionally, present it to them later. He would play it off as something inconsequential, but he clearly enjoys being the benefactor of his friends.
Alberu just wishes that Cale would stop scamming him out of golden plaques so he can buy expensive things for people. It was passable when he was using them to help them get an upper hand in politics and win wars, but Alberu really can’t afford to finance all of Cale’s whims now. He’s running a kingdom, dammit!
9. Ball
When his human first rescued him, Raon would sometimes curl up in a ball and not move. The world was beautiful, and he was so happy to have escaped, but the world was also bright and loud. He had spent much of his life in dark silence except for the voices of the humans who tortured him and the torches they used to light the cave he was kept in.
His family understood. When he wasn’t busy, his human would sit next to him and read silently, not touching because although he loved his human and would destroy the world if he got hurt, sometimes Raon reacted to touch like he was still in the cave. His noona and hyung would curl up on Cale, conversing quietly, a soft white noise to break the silence.
It happened less and less often as time went on, but it still happens sometimes. He usually prefers to spend that time with his human, but his mommy has also become a good person to be around. When she isn’t fighting, she’s very gentle. He feels safe around her.
He had spent four years never feeling safe, but now that he is a grand total of six years old, he knows that he is strong enough to keep himself and his family safe from all dangers.
But sometimes that knowledge isn’t enough, and becoming a ball, hiding his most vulnerable parts from attack, made everything better.
10. Cost
It first hit Cale that he is going to live much longer than most of his family when the first of them pass away. It happens ten years after the war and he realizes he has aged about as much as Choi Han, which is to say, very little.
He had known, intellectually, that he had extended his lifespan quite a bit by using the branch of the World Tree to kill the White Star permanently, but he had compartmentalized it as something to deal with later. He has always been good at compartmentalizing.
“How long am I going to live?” he asks the Ancient Powers, alone in his room.
I…I don’t know, the Super Rock answers.
If this is the cost of killing the White Star, of keeping his family safe, then Cale will take it on, as he will take anything for his family, but he hopes he doesn’t live too long.
God of Death, please, don’t make me the last one alive. Not again.
11. Growth
“You’re getting heavier,” Cale grunts, hefting Raon into his arms while On and Hong perch on his shoulders. “I don’t know how long I’ll be able to pick you up like this.”
Raon looks at him in shock and horror. “Human, no! You have to be able to pick me up!”
“You’re all growing up,” Cale responds, carrying Raon to the bedroom to get ready to sleep. “Soon you’ll be too big to fit in our room in your dragon form.”
On and Hong begin to look worried as well. “But we’ll still be small enough to fit, right? Our cat forms won’t grow too big, nya,” Hong worries.
“I’ll stop growing,” Raon declares. “I won’t hit my second growth phase. You said it is okay if I am weak, right, Human?”
“Of course it is,” Cale says. “But you can’t stop growing. That’s not possible. You all have to grow to be big, strong adults.”
“I am great and mighty! I can stop myself from growing!”
“Our youngest has to keep sleeping with us, nya!” On says, tears in her eyes as Hong nods furiously. “It won’t be the same without him!”
“Eventually, you’ll start sleeping on your own,” Cale reasons. “You’re getting older. Soon you’ll leave to-” his throat starts to tighten, despite himself, “to live your lives. You can’t stay here forever.”
“Yes, we can!” the three children chorus furiously.
“You saved me, Human, you have to take responsibility!”
“We’re going to stay here forever, nya!”
“My dongsaengs are right, nya!”
“Alright, if you say so.” Cale won’t argue with them on this. They’ll eventually change their minds, he’s sure. All three of them are too adventurous and energetic to be satisfied with staying in place like Cale wants to.
As long as they come back to visit, he’ll be happy.
…
He doesn’t want that time to come too fast, though.
12. Royalty
Cale isn’t stupid. He’s far from it, if he does say so himself. He knows that his hyung being royalty, that the society that he benefits from runs on a system of a hereditary monarchy, isn’t exactly a good thing. Alberu will be a good king, sure, but will his descendants be?
He tends to ignore that fact, though. It’s not like he can do something about it.
Commanding an army? Easy. Scamming bad guys out of money? Piece of cake.
But reforming a government system?
He only got a high school education as Kim Rok Soo, and any education after that was focused on learning about monsters, about making sure his team survived anything that was thrown at them. He knew little to nothing about politics.
The only thing he could really do was try to influence Alberu into making laws that benefited the common people.
He was trash, but he could at least do that much.
13. Hair
On learns that she really likes to play with hair, and she’s surrounded by so many people with long, gorgeous hair!
Grandpa Eruhaben’s hair is long and silky and looks so pretty with flowers weaved into it. He doesn’t often let her do it, but sometimes he’ll sit with a put-upon sigh and bemoan the fact that he’s doing such ridiculous things as he ages, and On knows that he’s weak to her and her dongsaengs.
Rosalyn’s hair is almost the same shade as Cale’s and is curly. She’s always busy and she’s not always in the Villa, but when she has time, she’s eager to let On experiment. She’s also happy to play with On’s hair. Sometimes they’ll put bows in each other’s hair and they’ll match! There’s something so pleasurable with matching with someone in her family. It makes her feel like she belongs.
Her favorite hair to play with, of course, belongs to Cale. He never does anything with his hair except tie it back, and he’s willing to sit for hours and let her do whatever she wants. She braids his hair, she puts it in ponytails, she puts it in buns, she decorates it with pins, and Cale is happy to let her do it as long as she’s quiet. Sometimes her dongsaengs will join in if it’s Cale, too, but she likes when it’s just the two of them the best.
Everyone loves Cale, even if he doesn’t see it, and she rarely gets time alone with him.
14. Romance
Cale’s parents have brought up marriage several times, and he always deflects to a different subject. He’s not exactly sure how accepting this society is of people who have no interest in romance, and Cale is one of those people.
As Kim Rok Soo with Choi Jung Soo and Lee Soo Hyuk, or as Cale Henituse with Choi Han, Alberu, and Rosalyn, he’s never felt anything for them except familial love.
Keeping up a relationship, let alone a marriage, seems like far too much work. He’d much rather stay friends.
15. Dad
On, Hong and Raon have talked about it, and they’re still not sure what to call Cale.
Cale calls himself their guardian and he says they’re his kids, but would he want to be called… Dad?
He’s the closest thing to a father that any of them have ever had. Raon may have a mother now, but On and Hong have no living relatives that don’t want them dead. (Although the number of those alive are steadily decreasing, to everyone’s vindictive pleasure.)
The longer they all live together, the more walls come down between them, and the more that the children feel that the title “Dad” fits Cale. He takes care of them and he wipes their faces when they eat; he lets them sleep in his bed and he holds them through their nightmares. What is a dad if not that?
“The human is basically our dad, right?”
“He is, nya. But what if he doesn’t want to be?” All three of the children knew that Cale took care of people without realizing it and didn’t like to be thanked for it.
“He won’t be angry if he doesn’t want to be. He’s not that kind of person, nya.” On was sure of that, and Hong and Raon knew she was the oldest and therefore the most knowledgeable.
“What are you three whispering about?” a voice the three know very well asks.
The three children jump and look at Cale guiltily, before turning to look at each other.
…
“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.” Cale doesn’t want to pressure them. The three children averaging 10 years old are at the age where children start keeping secrets. He supposes it would be strange if they didn’t.
“It’s noth-” On begins to speak before Hong blurts out, “Willyouletuscallyoudad?”
Cale blinks. He’s not sure if he heard that correctly. “Could you say that a bit slower?”
“Human, will you let us call you Dad?” Raon asks. The three children look both anxious and eager and Cale’s heart jumps in his chest.
He supposes that this makes sense. He’s been taking care of them for three years at this point. They sleep in the same bed. He’s definitely their guardian.
He’s not sure why he didn’t expect this.
“Yes, you can call me Dad.” He hears the words distantly, and he worries for a split second that it’s the wrong answer, that the children don’t actually want to call him that, but then their faces light up and they leap at him, knocking him down.
These vicious children, he thinks, but he’s smiling.
Cale Henituse is happy.