Birds-and-the-Bees

Ariel's excitement was contagious.

Even Alex had a smile on his face as Ariel continued babbling excitedly, her face shining as she told them what she thought they would be doing.

This was a stark contrast to how she had been last year when their parents had gone on their honeymoon and they stayed with their grandparents. Though she didn't cry and even talked well with her parents that would video-call them, she did not talk much and kept to herself.

That was also the time when Ariel started to cling onto Alex a bit more, and Alex's sense of protectiveness over his little sister became even stronger.

Ariel was the youngest, after all.

It was his duty to take care of his sister.

Though, now he had this little sister and a clingy pet back in school. He had first thought of Isaura as a puppy but realized that she was more like a kitten.

Puppies, at least, could be trained.

Isaura seemed to forget her 'training' quite often – like, not rushing to hug him every morning.

Alex's random thoughts got broken upon Ariel jumping onto his lap, flinging her arms around him as she clung onto him like a koala.

"Brother Alex!!" she screamed onto his face, smiling happily and seemingly unaware of how Alex nearly fell back upon her 'attack'.

"Yes, Rie?" Alex replied seriously, his face not changing expressions as he looked at her grinning face.

"We're going to have lots of fun, aren't we?" she asked, nodding her head, as if she was answering her own question.

Alex gave a small smile and nodded, "Yes, yes we are, Rie."

"Good," Ariel responded, then jumped up from Alex's lap and was about to jump onto Aurora instead when Alex quickly grabbed her by the waist.

"Be careful, Rie," Alex said, "Rory is a girl and can't take your sudden glomping."

Ariel had her lips out in an open 'O' and then nodded, "Okay, Brother Alex."

"Sister Rory!!" she screamed out loud, scrambling on her knees to rush over to Rory who held her arms out wide open.

Hugging Ariel tightly, Aurora made Ariel lie down and then patted her head, "Go to sleep, Rie."

"Oh," Ariel replied, blinking innocently as she looked at her elder sister.

"Yes, Rie," Alex agreed as he lay down behind her and started patting her on the leg, "Go to sleep."

"Oh," Ariel repeated, though her 'oh' this time was softer and her eyelids were starting to feel heavy.

Aurora tilted her head a bit to look at Alex, wriggling her eyebrows as she jerked her head a bit towards their sleepy sibling. Alex understood and didn't stop his patting.

He did this by cupping his hand and patted Ariels' thigh gently and slowly, making the patting as rhythmic as possible and close to the same rate as a heartbeat. Aurora then started singing a little lullabye, her gentle and sweet voice being in tune with the patting, soothing Aurora.

Soon, her eyes closed and she fell into a deep sleep.

This was what the twins came up with after seeing how their parents had put Ariel to sleep when she was a baby.

They had seen how they'd pat either Ariel's back, or thigh, and Ariel the baby would sleep easily.

Upon doing some research, Alex found out that it was because the patting was similar to the beating of the heartbeat; something the baby listened to whilst being in the womb for nine months.

While Alex regained consciousness and awareness while still in the womb, it was only at the point of trauma i.e. when his mother had fallen down the stairs. Thus, he didn't really remember much about the experience of being in the womb, but he certainly remembered the panic he had then.

The safe haven wasn't safe anymore.

It wasn't as comfortable as it was before, and there was this unnatural sound which made him feel uncomfortable.

Alex didn't' know the reason it wasn't comfortable was due to the fact that the amniotic sac that the twins were in, broke, resulting in the amniotic fluid being released aka 'water broke'. Thus, the twins no longer had that 'cushion' and buoyancy of their 'home', and it was cramped.

As for the unnatural sound? It was the heartbeat of their mother, slowing down as she fell into a coma.

Though Alex may not have known the reason, he also felt the gentle patting sounds were rather soothing and he, too, could fall asleep if he listened to it and allowed himself to be immersed in it.

Their mother would also hum while doing the patting, so Aurora simply imitated that and started singing nursery rhymes.

With the dual combo, Ariel was completely at their mercy.

Even as she grew older, the Alex-Rory 'putting Ariel to sleep' method worked every time.

No matter how excited she was, or how much she wanted to stay awake, she couldn't.

Seeing the steady breathing of their sister, Alex and Aurora breathed a sigh of relief.

Finally, the room was quiet.

With that, Aurora also closed her eyes and prepared to sleep.

Alex, on the other hand, turned onto his back and looked at the ceiling.

The conversation he had with his father after dinner filled his mind.

He had been extremely angry at that stupid woman who had made Ariel cry, and was very satisfied with the way his father hand dealt with her.

Alex looked at his hands and wondered when he would be good enough to be able to do what his father did. A simple flick of the wrist, the action so small and unassuming, yet, caused so much damage.

Not only did it cause a woman to lose her ability to speak, her emotions were also stimulated. Causing the medical personnel to give her tranqualizers which was actually laced with more stimulants. So that the moment she woke up, she went crazy again.

Alex knew he didn't have that sophistry.

First, he preferred the more brutal 'punch-in-the-face' method. Second, he was not patient enough to just sit back and have them continue yapping their mouth while planning the retaliation.

Alex sighed, knowing why his father had been candid with him about the whole event.

He knew, because his father told him the reason.

Alex closed his eyes, remembering that discussion.

✿ Author posts on WN and neovel ✿

Alex looked at his father who was standing there, looking at him seriously. They were outside, using the excuse of exercising Max to have this 'heart-to-heart' talk.

They weren't really doing any exercising. Max was happily running about outside with Iori, chasing a mechanical rabbit that was smart – and fast enough – to never be caught.

"Alex," Kyle continued after telling him all about Maybell and her fate, "The reason why I have told you all of this is because you're old enough now."

Alex tilted his head, frowning.

Old enough? Old enough for what?

"As Cinder, you've seen some of the shadier parts of society," Kyle said, "But that is just the tip of the ice-berg. You already know that there are a lot of people out there, who look decent and act decent, but are far from it."

Kyle sighed, looking up at the stars, "But I never did show you what sort of things people can really get up to. I've only shown you 'black-and-white' things, so to speak."

"Murder. Drugs. Robbery," Kyle said softly, "Those are straight-forward ones. Easy. But out of all the crimes in the world, the one that gets to me the most, is anything involving children."

Kyle looked at him, "Especially child prostitution, slavery, and the likes. Children who are stolen from the comforts of their homes and sold to people who use them, abuse them, and treat them like toys."

"There is a black market for pedophiles, for perverts who hide behind the façade of gentle society," Kyle said through gritted teeth, "People who feed those disgusting needs."

Alex looked at his father, clearing feeling his intense anger.

Alex, too, felt angry when he thinks of how children would be kidnapped, then abused. If something like that happened to Ariel, or Aurora, he didn't know how he'd react other than wanting to burn everything down to look for them.

One thing he didn't understand, though, was … what was it that his father said? Looking at his father, he then asked, "Father, what is child prostitution? What sort of things can a child do for an adult?"

He knew what was 'prostitution' was. His father had explained it that one bought the services of another to do things. Prostitution was allowed in Country Tz, so long as it was voluntary.

For Alex, if the child was willing and he was being paid for it, why should child prostitution not be allowed?

Kyle sighed and rubbed the back of his neck.

He then turned towards Alex and said solemnly, "Alex, it's time for the birds-and-the-bees talk."

"Huh?"