The Earth After Rebirth

"Of course."

"Not a problem."

Both of them decided to stay, he may have received good news but they could tell that he was still not okay.

"I\'ll get us something to eat." Philip said walking out, Hiro went with him.

"You know, it\'s okay to show that you\'re hurt or sad, when you are?" Isla could tell that he was ashamed to have showed them a vulnerable side of him.

"Of course I know that." He said annoyed with himself, "I just, don\'t like showing it. I\'ll work on that."

"Saanvi couldn\'t come, she sends her concerns though. You two are always at odds but I think that\'s just weird, friendly banter."

"Yeah." He smiled for the first time.

He didn\'t like her at first, but she grew on him. They occasionally took jabs at each other but he\'d be lying if he said he didn\'t care for her one bit.

"Hate to bring this up now, but the thing of meeting my father, you don\'t have to, really." She\'d calm down since then and realised she was putting too much pressure on Kiro.

"No, I want to. You can\'t back out now Bel. Invite me for dinner some time. Though I have to say, I\'m a bit scared of your sister."

"T? She\'s harmless." She gigged, remembering the time at his birthday party when she messed with him.

She was harmless for the most part, she just loved teasing people. She\'d pretended she didn\'t see anything, but she noticed how excited Kiro became, that he even needed to take a shower.

She wasn\'t jealous, not one bit. That only meant Kiro was a healthy young man.

Kiro looked at her sceptically, "I wouldn\'t be so sure."

She smiled and shrugged. Tiana wasn\'t into younger men, so she didn\'t care that much but it would still be uncomfortable witnessing her doing it a second time. So she planned to invite him over when she wasn\'t available.

The two returned with more food than they could eat. They started eating and playing card games, they yet again had to teach Isla the rules. These kind of inexpensive games were great for passing time in the lower district. But they were games the upper didn\'t bother with.

The mood in the waiting room improved greatly. Laughter could even be heard coming from inside. They played until midday, when the doctor came in to announce the birth of Kiro\'s siblings. The mood was even better now.

Kiro and Philip were allowed to go see her and the children. They walked up to the room, his mother was now stable, and out of the pod. She was in bed, her husband by her side holding on to two infants. She was holding two more.

"Wait, I thought there were only 3?" Kiro said in surprise. He didn\'t mean for that to be the first thing to say, but it just came out before he could stop it.

"Can the medi pods even get that wrong?" Philip was shocked too.

"Apparently, one was hiding, well enough they weren\'t detected."

To Kiro, this made no sense. Unless the medi pods weren\'t as capable as they paint them to be. How hard could locating four heart beats be? It was strange but he didn\'t dwell on it.

"Two boys and two girls. I think, this should be enough for our little family, shouldn\'t it Freya?" Sekani asked, holding his two children with immense love and joy.

"Why does it feel like you want more?" Freya gave him a knowing look.

"I wouldn\'t dare." He gave a hearty laugh.

"Mum, are you okay?" Kiro broke the conversation between them, it seemed they even forgot there were other people in the room.

"I\'m okay baby, come here." She gave him the biggest kiss.

Kiro wanted her to stop calling him baby, but he didn\'t think this was the right time to bring it up. He wondered if there will ever be a right time to bring that up.

"What\'s their names anyway?" Kiro asked, looking at his siblings. They all seemed to be resembling their father and him.

But he didn\'t think that would last long, kids tended to change appearances as they got older. Their tiny hairs seemed to be curly though.

"The girls are Liyana and Gaia, the boys are Caspien and Rian." Freya answered lovingly.

"What, no second names?" Kiro enquired.

"We ran out."

They all bursted out laughing. It was a good moment, it made them all feel light considering Freya almost died a couple of hours ago.

Kiro realised just how easy it was to lose someone he loved. He didn\'t know if it were possible, but he wanted to remain as anonymous as possible when it came to uncovering the secrets that lay hidden in their society.

He didn\'t know how he\'d do it yet, but his first priority was to protect those close to him. Cleaning up their society was second, if he could do that anonymously, that would ensure their safety.

He held one from those his mother held, Philip held another. They were so small, he\'d never held a child as small before, they even had their eyes shut. He wanted to see whether they shared his eye colour or not. He was overwhelmed with a sense to protect them, with every fibre in his body.

He never had them in his past life, they weren\'t supposed to be alive as per how things went in his previous life, he didn\'t know how they\'d turn out to be. He wanted to protect them nonetheless.

Seeing them so tiny and fragile only served to strengthen his resolve. He wanted them to know a world where the Sanctum existed no longer.

"Hello there Rian, I\'m your big brother Ki, say hi to your big brother."

Of course the kid didn\'t say anything back but he cooed and Kiro took that as him greeting his older brother. A broad smile could be seen on his face.