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“-And that kids is why you never annoy your aunt Tasha, as the only time little Beru tried-“ Tasha was telling the kids, barely hiding her giggles as she was reminiscing over a photo book from Alberu’s childhood. The kittens and baby dragon laying on the rugs giggling at the photos and cooing at how the young prince was, before the burdens that came with his title.
Pictures of the quarter elf with strawberry jam on his face, braided hair that slapped his forehead as he was on the swing, a birthday, a flower crown that accounted for his pointy ears, pictures of him hugging his late mother, staring at a bandage on his knee and gasping as it magically glowed in the dark, his first spell, sword training as butterfly landed on his nose, and even Alberu after realising his mother was sick fretting cutely over her.
Alberu barged without disguise with Cale and Choi Han, both men slightly wet, dragging them both by the ears as he sighed loudly and dramatically to make his disappointment known, despite the glimmer of amusement in his brown eyes, sighing once again after seeing the picture book his aunt had on the edge of her plush loveseat.
“Kids, your uncle Han and father are idiots” Alberu sighed pointedly ignoring his aunt, who stared with obvious mirth in her eyes. “They were trying to start a water balloon fight, and they hit the Marquiss Stan in their crossfire, hitting him 7 times in a row on ‘accident’. Long story short your dad being a charismatic idiot, somehow got the man to not report him to the king by some measure of a miracle, but your dumb uncle tripped him and they tried running for their lives before I caught them.”
Both men did not look ashamed at all, instead everyone was dying of laughter, Cale’s ears slightly pink as he shoved the man he considered his brother petulantly, Tasha laughed herself off her loveseat, Choi Han laughing so hard he chocked on his own spit only to stop when Ohn headbutted him before looking up at the three men with puppy-dog eyes, Hong and Raon following suit of their eldest sister, ready to play along with her plan purely on instinct, with slight trepidation of what she was going to do.
“Uncle Beru? You wouldn’t happen to have more of those water balloons would you…?” she drawled off, her baby brothers perking up behind her as they quickly grinned mischievously.
“…oh. Oh no. no Ohn-“ Alberu started only for his brother in all but blood, Cale, to smirk and cut him off.
“More than enough to give say a minimum of two-hundred balloons to everyone in this room, with most already filled, and enchanted slightly as your auntie Rosalyn owed me a favour, so they can shrink and won’t hurt if thrown too hard.” Cale had a gleam in his eyes, and all anyone could say was that it was like father like daughter.
With 6 pleading looks from everyone in the room, his aunt included, Alberu never stood a chance.
*splash*
Under the hot sun Cale dodged most of the pelted water balloons, the kids had bribed Tasha into being the referee and soon it was kids vs adults, with the rules being as follows;
- Have fun.
- No ancient powers.
- No shifting.
- No high flight.
- No extreme violence.
Which would be reasonable had the kid’s bribing not worked, as it stood Tasha had not said anything about fog, or invisibility, and would look the other way when Raon dive bombed them.
Safe to say the adults were soaked to the bone, well two can play that game.
Choi Han had lifted and put Cale on his shoulders, as if riding a noble stead Cale used him to ride through the battlefield as Alberu snuck behind the distracted kids as to scale a nearby wall, grabbing a bucket from a nearby balcony that was being used to gather water from a barely leaky roof, and filling said bucket with water balloons and the flowers he picked along the way, purely for added flair.
A single petal falling was all the kids got as a warning, before balloons pelted Raon back to the ground, sprawling him over Hong, much wetter than before, as they booked it, Raon in his arms.
Ohn… was no where to be seen, curses were muttered under his breath as he searched frantically, only to hear dramatic groans from Choi Han, his extremely bad acting for once serving to make him laugh, as he climbed down to check what happened and headed to the north near the small lake near the castle before he got pelted by Choi Han in the face.
“TRAITOR!” he could see the malicious smirk on the black-haired fool’s face as he carried Ohn on his back.
The sloshing of water from behind Choi Han revealed Cale, soaked to the bone, pouting at being betrayed and dropped in the lake, his long fiery red hair framed slightly around his face, looking kind of pale.
“Time out! Yall, we’ve been playing for an hour or so and I think we should get in and dry off, we don’t want anyone getting sick!” he yelled with a slight glance at Cale, before grinning mischievously to princess carry him as Choi Han carried the kids, the boys dangling on each arm of his, Ohn shifted around his neck.
“Alberu you d-“ Cale struggled before he was shushed and his hair was ruffled as if he were a petulant child.
“Don’t swear shorty, there are kids here.” Alberu smirked, ignoring Cale’s comments about how ‘he was not short, everyone around him was just freakishly tall-‘.
After baths and everything everyone sat around the fireplace with hot cocoa, Alberu having been dragged away from his work he was supposed to do and forced to stay put, with Raon on his lap for extra assurance.
The lull of quite words spoken and giggling, the crackle of the fire, the scratch of colour pencil being used, the smell of flames, and lavender, and chocolate that also coated his tounge, whipping cream on the tip of his nose as he drank, it all lead to the tension leaving his shoulders easily, he was with family after all.
“Uncle beru?” mumbled Hong. Shoving a picture in front of Alberu and he shook slightly, a small hitched gasp as he observed the picture.
It was their makeshift family, everyone who was not at home currently on one half, a crude drawing of Cale and Choi Han, and a slightly more detailed him in dark elf form, his aunt Tasha carrying a chibi him, one that looked like it came from his childhood picturebook, the kids posing around everyone’s legs.
“it’s perfect.” He smiled.
Since then, whenever the future king had a bad day, he’d stare at the drawing, framed alongside many others on his wall, the slight smell of cocoa that had dropped on the edges of the page due to carelessness filled the room far more than is should have for how old it was, but he would not have it any other way, not for anything in the world.
They were his family afterall.