Colin's posts

"A pretty big one." Ash replied.

"Monday shouldn't be too much of an issue." he told her.

"You guys go and pack." he said.

"I'll phone it in." he continued.

"By the time you're done and back out here, I'll have made the reservations." he assured them with a smile.

"Awesome." Andrew replied.

"Let's go pack our things for a mini-vacation, then." he said.

"You've raised a good boy." Ash told her.

"He just needs to learn it's okay to make mistakes." he said.

"To be fair, this was a pretty quality mistake..." Andrew commented, as Luke peered out from around the corner at the group.

"True." Ash agreed.

"But nobody got really hurt, and the damage is being repaired." he said.

"Regardless, not my place to step in on family affairs." he went on.

"I'll set you up at the Heaven's Meadows Hotel. I can call in a favour there with the owner." he told them.

"...well. I'm not going to complain if you're going to set us up with THAT level of style." Andrew chuckled.

Andrew just sighed.

"And Luke?" he asked.

"He's insisted he sleep on the floor in the basement." Ash replied.

"Lily and I tried to get him to sleep on some cushions up here, but he insisted that he needed to punish himself so that you two wouldn't do anything really REALLY bad to him." he said.

"Well... we ARE strict disciplinarians..." Andrew admitted. "But do we take it too far...?" he wondered aloud.

"Nah." Ash responded. "Just a kid's imagination running wild." he said.

"And don't worry, Lily. You'll have your exact bed back by tomorrow." he then told Lily.

"And if you guys like, I can set you up in a hotel for the night." he offered.

"...Anna certainly WOULD like that, given that conference was tedious and patience-trying..." Andrew admitted, scratching his chin.

Luke just babbled some incoherent blubbering nonsense, and scrambled to follow his mother.

Though she DID make out words like 'no' and 'hungry' and 'sorry' and other such things.

Meanwhile, Lily had made her way to her father, and he had given her a hug when she showed up.

"So the place should be done tomorrow?" Andrew asked Ash.

"Yep." Ash replied.

"I paid for expedited service and such. The best contractors money can buy." he said.

Luke sniffled again, and nodded.

"O-Okay..." he said.

"And... and I've been eating..." he told her.

"Lily brings me snacks sometimes." he said further.

His stomach then promptly growled. Loudly.

Luke shrieked when he heard that.

"NO!" he exclaimed.

"Please! No!" he said, racing towards her and throwing himself at her feet.

"I'm sorry, Mom! I didn't mean to do bad things!" he blubbered.

Luke nodded again.

"Okay." he said.

He was then silent, and looked around for a moment.

"You're not gonna make me go away, right?" he asked.

"Or lock away my mana?" he asked further.

Luke just nodded quietly.

"Okay." he said.

"And okay again." he agreed.

"I'm sorry." he apologized again.

"I didn't mean to do it..." he said to her.

"I was just trying to help you grow something..." he added quietly.

Luke was silent as he watched Lily leave, before looking at his mother.

He was a very frightened child right now, scared as to what his mother would do to him as punishment for what he did.

He shied away a little, but he knew it was pointless.

She would find him if he ran.

There was no escape here.

"...sorry..." was all he quietly said.

"You might as well get it over with." Andrew told her.

"Odds are he's been expecting you." he said.

"He's been fearing it." Ash told them.

"His imagination has concocted some... interesting punishments." he told them.

"Oh?" Andrew asked.

"Apparently he had a nightmare where you and Anna punished him by overloading his mana and turning him into a tree that was set to be cut down and turned into toothpicks." Ash told them.

"I think she's downstairs." Ash replied.

"And Luke?" Andrew asked.

"....downstairs as well." Ash said.

"Actually, Luke's pretty much grounded himself down there." he then told them.

"Lily's been going down there often to stop him from having panic induced emotional breakdowns." he explained.

Andrew crossed his arms over his chest.

"Indeed." he said.

"And it seems Lily takes after you, Anna." he told her.

"You'll need to make sure SHE knows what she's dealing with, lest issues come up." he said.

It was clear that Andrew was not impressed, either.

"Oh, and don't worry about the bill." Ash chimed in.

"Anything that your insurance won't cover, I asked them to bill me." he told them.

"What? Why?" Andrew asked.

"It's less of a hit to my savings than it is to yours, and I feel like being nice." Ash responded with a shrug.

Ash just shook his head.

"Well, here." he said, handing her a slip of paper.

"That covers what needed to be replaced, what was damaged, and all that." he told her.

"As for what happened... well... Luke happened." he said.

"Specifics, please?" Andrew asked.

"He caused a Giant Snapper Maw to grow downstairs." Ash explained.

"....excuse me?" Andrew muttered.

"I meant what I said." Ash responded, before giving a more complete explanation, including what he had seen Lily doing to the plant to try and stop it.

"Yeah..." Luke muttered.

---

When Anna and Andrew returned home, they saw Ash standing at the front of the place, watching as the contractors did their work, repairing the windows that had been broken.

He then looked over towards the couple, and waved, before heading towards them.

"Yo." he greeted them.

"I'd hoped that this could be done before you got back, but there was a contractor delay." he lamented.