Dinner happened like a dream nobody trusted.
A long table. Warm food. Too many eyes.
Blade sat where his mother told him to sit. His father watched him eat like he was memorizing proof. Iris kept sneaking glances like she was afraid he'd vanish if she blinked too long. Alice barely touched her plate, pretending she wasn't listening while listening the hardest.
Ryu ate like the world was ending.
Halfway through, he leaned close to Blade and whispered, loud enough for everyone anyway, "So do you have superpowers?"
Jack choked on his drink.
Blade didn't look up. "No."
Ryu frowned. "Then why are you so scary?"
Blade finally glanced at him. "I'm not."
Ryu nodded like he'd been corrected. "Okay. You're not scary. You're intimidating."
Alice snorted into her cup.
Iris giggled, then clapped a hand over her mouth like laughter was illegal.
Blade's mother smiled through wet eyes. It wasn't full happiness. Just relief leaking out.
Jack didn't laugh.
He watched Blade the whole time, jaw tight.
When dinner finally ended and plates were cleared away, Blade stood without a word and moved toward the hallway.
Jack followed immediately.
"Where are you going?" Jack asked.
Blade didn't stop. "Outside."
Jack's voice sharpened. "I'm coming."
Blade paused at the back door and looked at him. "Good."
His father started to rise from his chair.
Jack shot him a look. "Not you."
It wasn't disrespect.
It was boundary.
His father sat back down, face hard, letting it happen.
Blade stepped outside into the backyard.
Snow lay undisturbed across trimmed hedges. The air was colder here, quieter. No family warmth to soften the edges.
Jack shut the door behind them and leaned against the wall for a second like he'd been holding his breath all evening.
Then he spoke.
"You told them a version," Jack said.
Blade's gaze stayed on the snow. "Yes."
Jack's eyes narrowed. "Tell me the real one."
Blade didn't answer immediately.
Jack pushed off the wall and stepped closer.
"You can lie to Dad. You can lie to Mom because you don't want her to break," Jack said, voice low. "But don't lie to me."
Blade finally looked at him.
"You won't like it," Blade said.
Jack scoffed. "Try me."
Blade exhaled once.
Then he gave Jack more.
Not everything.
But enough that Jack could stop imagining clean explanations.
"I ended up in Iron City," Blade said. "A gang found me. They raised me."
Jack's mouth tightened. "Raised you how?"
Blade's voice stayed flat. "Weapons. Streets. Rules that don't belong in a child's head."
Jack stared at him. "So you're saying you—"
Blade didn't answer.
That silence was the answer.
Jack's breath caught. "You killed."
Blade's eyes didn't move. "I survived."
Jack's jaw clenched, anger flashing fast. Not at Blade. At the world.
"And then they got wiped," Jack said, voice rough.
Blade nodded once. "Yes."
Jack looked away, swallowing hard. "And you ran north."
"Winterland," Blade said.
Jack turned back. "Were you hunted?"
Blade paused. Then shook his head. "Not like that."
Jack frowned. "Then why were you hiding for thirteen years?"
Blade's gaze drifted to the snow for a second. The backyard was clean and quiet. Winterland was clean and quiet too.
But his mind hadn't been.
"After they died," Blade said, "I kept expecting it to follow me. For a year in Winterland I slept light. Watched doors. Checked windows. Not because someone was there."
He looked back at Jack.
"Because I couldn't believe it was over."
Jack's voice went quieter. "So you were hunted by your head."
Blade didn't deny it. "By my past."
Jack stared at him for a long moment, then exhaled hard like the truth finally had a shape.
They stood there in the cold for a moment, two brothers trying to figure out how to fit into the same timeline again.
Then Jack's expression shifted.
Something more familiar.
More Jack.
"So," he said, voice rough, "you still remember my friends."
Blade's eyes flicked. "Yes."
Jack's mouth twitched. "They're outside. In the car. They wouldn't leave. They said they had to 'confirm the legendary missing heir.'"
Blade didn't react. "Of course."
Jack hesitated, then asked the real question he'd been circling.
"Are you… dangerous?" he said, voice low. "To us."
Blade met his gaze directly.
"No," Blade said. "I would die before I hurt you."
Jack's throat tightened. He looked away quickly like that sentence hit too deep.
The back door opened.
Ryu's head popped out.
He whispered like a spy, except he wasn't quiet at all. "Jack! Mom says stop interrogating the missing brother!"
Jack hissed, "Go inside!"
Ryu didn't.
He stepped out, holding a scarf that was definitely too expensive for a child to touch.
He walked up to Blade and wrapped it around Blade's neck with dramatic care.
"Because you're like… emotionally cold," Ryu said seriously.
Jack froze.
Blade's eyes dropped to the scarf.
Then to Ryu.
Alice's voice called from the doorway, half laughter, half threat. "Ryu! That's Dad's scarf!"
Ryu yelled back, "He needs it more!"
Iris was behind Alice, hiding a smile.
Even Blade's mother stood there, one hand covering her mouth, shoulders shaking with a quiet laugh she couldn't stop.
Blade stared at Ryu for a long second.
Then, slowly, he adjusted the scarf.
"Thanks," Blade said.
Ryu nodded, proud. "Welcome."
Jack looked between them, then let out a short laugh through his nose, shaking his head like he couldn't believe any of this was real.
"Come inside," Jack muttered. "Before Dad sees you stole his scarf and decides to start World War Three."
Blade glanced once at the cold yard.
Then followed his brother back into the warmth.
And for the first time in thirteen years, Blade didn't feel like a visitor.
Not yet.
But closer