Guardian

act 2: vi. new skills

He grins. Austin was happy at least one of his kids shared his love for archery. "We can come back tomorrow after my resource run and practice again, if you want."

"Yeah!"

The two of them make it back to the castle and Austin ushers Aurora upset to wash her hands before she ate. The little girl obeys as she rushes up the stairs, him following so he can shower. He stunk too bad for washing his hands to do him justice.

Austin takes a nice, hot shower and he's changing into his pajamas before his pregnant wife enters the room.

"You're not eating dinner?" Ally asks with a frown as she comes over to him while he's slipping on a t-shirt.

Austin nods while he shakes his hair into a towel. "Yeah, but Aurora and I came in late, so I just had to shower first."

"Oh, what were you guys doing?" Ally asks, moving behind him as her arms snake around his waist.

"I was teaching her archery," Austin grins to himself. "I mean, we only worked on her bow pulling, but it's nice to have one of the girls interested in my stuff, you know?"

Ally giggles and nods, happy for him. She leans up to kiss the back of his neck. "How did that happen? I thought you guys were just going to train elsewhere."

"Well, she got upset that she doesn't have the same abilities as Amelia and Aria, so I asked if she wanted to learn."

Ally breathes in his scent as she holds him. "You're a good dad."

Austin chuckles, craning his neck to look back at her. "You're a good mom."

"It's in my spirit," she hums, placing another soft kiss on his neck. "Can we have sex tonight?"

He snickers. Ally might've become self-aware, but she was still as blunt as ever. She had no shame in her game at all.

"Let me go eat dinner first and we'll see."

//

Morning comes and Ally's morning sickness hits her in waves. Austin gags as he holds her hair back for the fourth time that hour.

"I'm gonna go get my mother, Als," Austin says, rubbing her back as she continued throwing up the contents of her empty stomach. "Just stay put."

"'K," is all she can muster out.

His mother stayed on the floor below them, but he decided to wake his daughters up so they could can wash up before breakfast.

He yawns as he goes to knock on Amelia and Aurora's door. He hears laughing and excitement inside. Austin irks his eyebrow in amusement as he twists the knob to peak his head inside.

To his surprise, all three of his daughters were inside. Aurora stands on top of Amelia's bed, excitedly telling a story.

"And dad was all like, 'Aurora, shoot the arrow!', so of course I shot it! I hit a bullseye right in the middle of the tree!"

"But how did that scare away the bad guys?" Aria curiously asks, bouncing in her spot next to Amelia.

"Because it was an exploding arrow!" She emphasizes with her hands, making her two sister's gape in amazement. "It went Boom! and it was so big, dad and I had to get cover, so we ran back home! That's why we came back so late!"

"Wow!" "That's so cool!"

Austin realizes his daughter is stretching the truth about their archery practice yesterday, but he's not going to burst her bubble. She found something that made her feel cool. Still, he chuckles and that brings all the attention to him.

Aurora eyes widen at her father's presence and her face immediately turns red from embarrassment. Amelia bounces towards her dad in excitement. "Can you teach me how to do archery, too! It's so cool!"

Austin grins at his oldest and ruffles her head. "When you advance in your powers, you can move on to archery. I'm teaching Aurora because she feels left out by the rest of you, but we have our adventures, right Aurora?"

Aurora realizes he not going to rat her out and grins. She nods excitedly as she bounces in her sister's bed. "Yup!"

Amelia frowns. "Awww. That's no fair."

"Yeah, yeah. You girls go brush your teeth and wash your face. Your mom is puking, so I'm in charge of making sure you brats get prepared."

They all listen and Austin smiles at the sight of Amelia grabbing Aria's hand to help her to the bathroom. He was glad his girls got along well.

He goes to the floor below them to reach his mother. He knocks on her door and the woman opens it immediately, her eyes wide. Austin looks his mother in surprise as he hadn't even had time to put his fist down. "Uh, morning..."

"Did... you come down here to say Ally is feeling sick?" His mother asks and Austin raises his eyebrows.

"Uh... yeah..." Austin says in even more surprise and confusion. He comes to realize what was happening and his face turns red. "Wait... can you hear the upper level from down here? The girls can't even hear us; how the hell do you—"

"What? No!" His mother exclaims, coming out of her room and closing her door behind her. "Austin... I can... like... tell the future."

Austin stares at his mother like she has three heads. He scrunches up his face before shaking his head and turning to walk away. "Mom, you need to have sex."

"Austin, I'm serious!"

"Yeah, okay, whatever you say, mom. Go have some sex..." "Yeah, okay, whatever you say mom. Go have some some sex."

Austin's eyebrow furrows so hard that he thinks it might fall off. She knew what he was going to say. "You are not serious right now." "You are not serious right now"

Austin opens his mouth to speak but his mother beats him to it, "You're going to say: mom, what the hell. I'm in the same boat! What the hell!"

He looks at his mother in complete shock and she gives him the same look.

"What the hell." "What the hell."