The Earth After Rebirth

It was already dark out and of course Loki wasn't home yet. His curfew was 7pm, he still had an hour to get home. But knowing him, his parents expected he'd be late. They didn't know what to do with him anymore.

Alora clung to her father like she was afraid he'd disappear like Kiro did. She waited for him, for a week before she gave up.

Sekani greeted his wife and put away everything he bought, she started on cooking and he helped her chop up some vegetables.

"Guess who I ran into?"

"Oh, no wonder you smell of beer." She teased.

"I had one darlin, Philip isn't doing so good though."

"That poor child, he's still alive?" She was cleaning the fish.

"Homeless." He attempted to take a bite of the carrot.

"Why didn't you invite him here then?" She paused what she was doing, looking a bit furious.

"Freya, will you ever stop being impulsive? We are both out of jobs, we have kids, one is keeping us afloat." He sighed thinking about that bit, it was embarrassing, "though I did give him 50 creds."

She laughed, pleased. She knew Philip, not all that well. They worked for one company after all at one point, but since he was under Sekani, they weren't all that close. She lead her own unit, had no time to get to know other people who weren't part of hers.

But she was aware of the relationship between the two. So by extension, she cared for Philip.

"You know honey, I was thinking, why don't you finish the Kiro Project?"

Sekani made a thinking face. It took a while for him to remember what it was exactly. He remembered that when Kiro was born he started a project, he'd hoped would turn into a company that would feed his family.

Unfortunately, he asked the wrong man to invest on his hard work. As he stole it and made it his own, and because he was rich and high up, nothing was really done.

Sekani knew going to court wouldn't do anything, so he accepted the job offer they gave him with his wife. Though it wasn't much it was enough to save up for Kiro and send him to school. Obviously they hadn't known they'd have more than 1 kid then.

Blakeson Tech took his project, even though he still had wanted to improve on it they didn't allow it thinking he'd sabotage it instead, they took out of his hands and gave it to their trusted engineers, who did nothing to improve on it.

They didn't even change the name he gave it, it was widely known as the head gear. There was no way of knowing how big it would get, but now almost every youth wanted one. It bothered him at first, but he grew to accept the world as it was.

This is a story he never told his children, he didn't want them to give up on life before they even tried.

"But darlin, that's as good as a dead engine." He smiled bitterly.

"Come on, put that big brain of yours to good use. You can do something better than they took. Yours was still unfinished back then, you could finish and improve it."

He thought about it seriously, "I don't know, it requires money to build the hardware."

"Then don't build the hardware—"

"What?" He asked dumbfounded.

"Work on the software for now, while you save all this money Kiro sends us. We surely can survive with 500 a month including rent."

"That'd be cutting it close," he said, checking her belly out.

Alora was sitting obediently listening to the conversation, she kept looking from one to the other. But they were speaking a language she did not understand.

"We will be alright honey, we raised 3 kids after all and think about when it's successful."

"Alright, alright, I'll start my work after this." He said, giving up on arguing any further.

"Now." She gave him a cheeky smile, "shout if you need any help."

She looked at her daughter, "now then Freckles, help mommy with cooking."

Alora got up and ran after her father, "I'll help daddy." She shouted.

She sighed. Nobody liked cooking but her in this house, though there was no way she'd raise kids that didn't have a basic survival skill. Kiro went through the training, so did Loki, Alora was next.

The door to the house opened wide, Loki came in. He was a whole 30 minutes early, this shocked Freya.

"Sweetheart, come help me cook."

"Yes Ma'am." He suddenly became the most obedient boy in the world.

His mother wasn't scary, but in the kitchen, so help you gods. She became a demon, that felt like it could whip you at the slightest mistake.

He rarely washed his hands without being hassled, but he did it this time. The teachings were ingrained at the top of his head. He put on an apron and started helping.

"Why are you back early anyway, fought with your friends?"

"You're always on my as—" He realised his mistake immediately, the look his mother gave him didn't help either, he quickly amended, "my case, case, about this, shouldn't you be happy?"

"Don't be such a smart mouth, I heard that you know."

He attempted to smile sheepishly, giving her an apologetic look.

"In any case, I don't want you to be like your brother, he didn't have any friends. The time for you to start school is nearing too."

Loki rolled his eyes, as if to say 'don't remind me.' Of course he did so when his mother wasn't looking.

"Are you having a competition with me, letting your hair be that long? When are you going to let me cut it."

"I'll have it cut when you guys can afford to send me to a barber." He said with the biggest smirk.

Freya shook her head. His sons always thought they were so smart, but with the money Kiro will be sending them, they could squeeze Loki in for a haircut no problem.

The depressive mood around their home the past couple of days was undeniable. They hadn't noticed much, but Loki would come back early because of this.

Today, he saw the smiles and hopeful conversations from his parents he thought were gone. He breathed heavily, his heart came out light as a feather. He was happy.