✪18✪

“Mom,” I flopped down back into the covers. “What are you doing here?”

“You asked for me.”

“Oh. Right.”

“How’s it going, sweetie?”

“How’s what going?”

“Life.”

“Bad.”

“Can I help?”

“Please.”

“Ask what you want to know.”

I sat up straighter and stared at her. “Do you love me?”

“Yes.”

“You weren’t involved in the Great Drowning of Joan?”

“No. Never.”

“Ask me how life is now.”

“How is life now, honey?”

“The same.”

She laughed, her eyes twinkling. “Sweetie, I’m sorry, really. I didn’t want to face you and I gave you away. I shouldn’t have done that.”

“No, you shouldn’t have. I hope you didn’t expect me to forgive you the moment you showed up.”

“I didn’t," she replied softly, gently brushing her fingers through my hair.

“Good,” I muttered gruffly. “Then hug me old woman, and let me try to drown my sorrows. Wait, pun unintended.”

She laughed. “Come here baby.”

I snuggled in her neck. “Thank you for being here, Mom.”

“I want to be there for you.”

We stayed like that for a long time and then I finally turned to her. “Did you hear about Matt?”

“What?” she asked confused.

“You don’t know?”

“Don’t know what, baby? If it was anything important, he would have written to me about it in one of his letters.”

My mouth dried. “He’s writing to you?”

“Yes, I got a letter this morning itself. What are you talking about Joan?”

“Mom, Matt is dead.”

She just stared at me. “If this is a joke, it isn’t funny.”

“Why would I tell you something like that if it wasn’t true?”

“But- but he’s been writing to me! I still have his first ever letter with me because I was so happy that he was finally speaking to me so I carry it around everywhere.” She dug around in her large handbag and removed an old and tattered page.

"Dear Mom," I read aloud. “It is time for one of my letters. Yay! I miss you, Mom. Things are going okay. Actually, more than okay! I got into Harvard on Scholarship and I’m so excited. I know you will be proud of me. I am going to Joan's place because I have holidays for a month. Her abilities have evolved beautifully. So has her Asian friend’s. Can you give me some tricks on how to help them tame their powers? I wouldn’t want the Government to catch and kill them. Those idiots!
Anyways, mom, I love you, really I do.
Love,
Matt.”

“Mom that’s not even Matt’s handwriting,” I said finally, marvelling internally at how the writer of the letter managed to sound more stupid than a drunk Jin on an early Monday morning. “And Asian friend? He knew Seokjin like the back of his hand.”

“Maybe it changed!”

"I hope you're referring to the handwriting because Seokjin has been the same atrocious idiot for the last eight years."

"What did I do to you?" Jin demanded, shaking my upper arm vigorously. "Why are you attacking me? Did I forget to feed you? No. Did I forget to give you a house to stay in? No. Did I forget to pay for your highly expensive education because you refused to settle for a free home schooling in which I tutored you? No. Did I-"

“Okay, I get it!" I rolled my eyes. "I owe half my life-"

"-your entire life, you little piece of goat fart-"

"-to you and you have done so much for me. Are you happy now?"

"Not really, no."

"Great," I ignored his words. "Okay, mom, back to you, we can pretend this broad-shouldered bubble of filth does not exist. Tell me this; What is the general feeling that you get from the letter? The mood of the person writing it?”

“It was written by Matthew, not some 'person'!" she exaclaimed in a shrill voice. "And I think it's evident that my boy is happy and healthy and definitely not dead.”

“Yeah, here’s the thing mom. Matt had depression. There’s no way in hell he wrote such a sunshine-filled letter!”

"Bleugh, even I can tell that it's made up!" Yoongi yelled enthusiastically from the kitchen.

Mother closed her eyes as if praying for patience (which was an essential requisite for dealing with a bunch of noisy boys and a hungry girl). "Why are you so sure that he’s dead?”

“Because I saw them kill him Mom. They burnt him alive last year in one of those camps. I was there. Jin was there.”

“No,” she muttered weakly, but she was sounding less and less sure with each passing minute.

“I’m sorry, Mom. Matt died last year and there’s no way this letter was from him.”

***

“Just add it to the list of things we don’t know,” I shrugged, staring at the slightly damp (courtesy of Sarah who burst a water balloon on it instead of throwing it on Taehyung's face because her aim was terrible) peach coloured ceiling.

“And you are sure that you’re okay?”

“I’m blooming, Hoseok. Just blooming. Flourishing. Thriving.”

“Yeah got it,” he muttered. “So what now?”

“Well we pretend that the conversation with my mom never happened.”

“It did happen.”

“And it was nice. At first. Then it was not. So I will pretend that it didn’t happen,” I repeated sullenly while massaging my stomach.

“And what now? For us?”

“Tell me Hobi,” I placed my fingers on my chin. “Have you heard of the term, ‘safety in numbers’?”

“Yes. For pack animals! Do any of us look like cows?”

“I don’t know,” I rubbed my chin thoughtfully. “I think Yoongi comes pretty close-”

“Not the point!”

“I found another Ingenium,” A tight voice declared, preventing me from telling Hobi that Yoongi looking like a cow was kind of the point of any conversation. Yoongi equals cow. Cow equals Yoongi. Yoongi. Cow. Cow. Yoongi. Coongi- sorry- Yoongi, cow. Yow- cow- Doongi. Wait what? Yoongi- “And we need to attend some kind of dumb Halloween party to find him.”

Party?

What was the term that Doong- oops- Yoongi used? Blagh?

Blegh?

Blugh?

Party? Blugh.

Hold up.

I had an eidetic memory. Right? Right?

I should have known what Yoongi said-

Okay who was I kidding? It was too hot to think!

Bleugh!

Wait, that was correct! Bleugh! Huzzah!

"Joan?"

“Jin,” I replied politely and stood up to poke his forehead and then changed my mind. “Another boy?” I threw my hands up in despair. “Haven’t we enough of those already?”

Jin grinned widely. “Well, the seventh boy is powerful so we’re definitely getting him.”

I sighed and started groping around Jin’s pockets. “What are you doing?” he shrieked.

“Where’s my chocolate?” I demanded, sticking out my palm and tapping my foot impatiently.

“You could have just asked!” he squealed, clutching his chest.

“Like I’d miss the chance to feel you up. Now quit it, drama queen and give me my chocolate.” He sorrowfully handed me a huge bar.

“Should have known you wouldn’t thank me,” he grumbled. “And I raised you! I raised her Hobi, and this is how she treats me.” He shook his head, his ears flapping wildly. “Children these days, so ill-mannered.”

I sucked on my chocolate and looked up innocently. “Are you talking about me?”

“No, I’m talking about Rick Riordan.”

“Okay,” I patted his head. “Carry on. I’ll go voice my aches and pains about Doongi darling to Sarah.”

I waved happily to Hobi and skipped out of the room.

***

“I refuse to go in a bunny costume,” Jungkook said loudly.

“Come on,” I waved the dirty purple fur under his nose and he edged away from me. “It is thick and will provide a shield from bullets! At least a little. I think.”

“So you want me to go as a rabbit because it is slightly bulletproof?"

I nodded enthusiastically. “Besides you’d look adorable as a bunny!”

He shook his head. “I’m not putting that on.”

I rolled my eyes. “Jimin, come here. You’re going as a capsicum.”

The blonde haired boy obediently jumped forward and tripped over Jin’s legs. “Ow.” He pouted and rubbed his nose.

“What about us?” Sarah asked, trying to help Jimin to his feet (but failing and landing smack dab on her nose).

“I don’t know,” I sighed. “All the cheap shops have some weird Wonder Woman Costumes and I don’t want to walk around in a shiny red bra or something.”

“Who keeps a Halloween party a month before the actual day?” Yoongi muttered, eyeing Sarah out of the corner of his eye and I had a weird thought that he, for one, wouldn't mind seeing her in a 'shiny red bra'.

“Does it matter? The kid is powerful and he’s going to be there, so we are too,” Jin said.

“And you know this how?”

“Reading minds is a very useful ability. Like right now, I can hear you drool over Sar-"

“Okay, stop! It is really helpful, now shut up,” Yoongi pleaded.

Jin laughed wickedly. Oh boy.

I handed Hoseok his sunflower suit and grinned at his happy heart shaped smile. Why couldn't the others be as considerate?

“So Jungkook is going as a bunny; Yoongi-,” Jin started.

“I’m not going anywhere as a violet rabbit!”

“- is going as a ghost; Hoseok will be a sunflower; Taehyung is Frankenstein; Jimin is going to be a capsicum; I am going as a cowboy (without a horse) and the girls are undecided.”

“Jungkook is undecided too!” Jungkook squeaked.

“Come on! Stop being so blo.ody impossible and-” An object soared through the hair and landed smack dab on Jin’s face. He plucked it off his cheek where it had fused itself and glared.

“Which one of you thought it would be funny to throw an apple at me?”

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A/N_

AH OMG THANKY FOR THE 800 READSSS AAAH
YOU GUYS NICE ✓ KEEP GOING

LET'S MAKE IT 1K BEFORE MY BIRTHDAY (it's on 17tj September but let's pretend it's next month because I want money)

TO CELEBRATE (yeah right lmaoo *laughs wickedly* it's cuz I'm terribly free (and bored)) I WILL BE DoUbLe UpDaTiNg haha ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

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Bye lil piggies♡