A little self-promo before the chapter.
If you are going to give power stones to this story, please give them to my new story, DxD: Symbiotic Devil, instead. It's new and would really benefit from the traction.
…
Research Earth. Brooklyn, New York.
The elevator opened inside Alex's penthouse apartment as he walked to the living room with a young twenty-something-year-old woman walking behind him. "Nat? We're home."
"Alex?" She responded from one of the rooms and immediately opened the door with a gentle smile on her face, leaving Alex stunned for a moment.
[God, your expressions make you look more and more like a milf these days, Nat.]
She gave Alex a brief look before turning to the young woman behind him.
"How does it feel now that you are about to graduate, Xia?"
[You've been saying that more and more recently, Alex~ Are you sure you don't want to make that a fact?]
His expression wavered when he heard Nat's voice in his head.
"You're talking telepathically again!" Xialing suddenly accused them, narrowing her eyes and crossing her arms.
Without responding to her, Nat pulled the young woman into her arms.
"We should celebrate, our little girl has grown up to be so big now, graduating from university…" Alex said. "It feels almost like last week, when we kidnapped you from your father and brought you to meet your aunt in Ta Lo."
"Maybe because it was last week?" Xialing said, looking at Alex flatly with a hint of curiosity in her eyes.
"No, it was fifteen days ago," he said.
"All right, no more of that stuff. Let's have dinner. I was waiting for you both," Natasha said, pulling Xialing by her hand to the dining area as Alex followed.
"What are we eating?" Xialing asked Alex.
"Steak," he said. "I recently learned about cooking it in a sous vide first and then searing it. I'm curious to see how it tastes after."
Xialing didn't seem to have heard anything beyond steak and licked her lip with an excited glint in her eyes. "You're the best, daddy," she said, quickly grabbing his arm and kissing his cheek.
Natasha glanced at her from the corner of her eye and shook her head with a sigh.
"Hey, Mom," Xialing scampered over to Natasha again and pulled her arm.
"Hm?" Natasha raised her brow.
"I know this might not be the best time to bring this up, but… I think I'm ready to go home now," she said.
Natasha frowned and turned to the girl, ready to appease and refuse her, but her eyes had a look of resolution that made the Black Widow swallow her refusal. Instead, she asked, "Why? Aren't you happy here?"
"I'm more than happy here, Mom," she said. "But ignoring my past…my heritage…I'm already twenty-two. How long can I keep running away from reality?"
"Would you really not prefer to have a normal life? Consider a career as a counselor, or pursue a Master's degree. You don't need to go into that life. Because if you do…" She gave a brief glance at Alex and turned back. "The stakes that you have to deal with will be worse than what you can imagine. This choice will become infinitely harder then."
"Mom, do you know why I chose to major in Philosophy?"
"All right, ladies," Alex wrapped his arms around both Natasha and Xialing, giving the older woman a look and messing up the younger one's hair. "Let's have this discussion after dinner. We'll have plenty of time to talk after it."
"Ahh," Xialing scowled, swatting Alex's hand away and fixing her hair before asking, "Do you need any help?"
"No, my dear daughter," Alex sighed with a look of lament in his eyes. "Whoever you marry will be a lucky man."
"Humph, like you'll let me marry anyone," she crossed her arms and puffed her cheeks, looking away. "Do you have any idea how difficult it is for a guy to impress you?"
"I just want what's best for my daughter."
"And that's why I've been single for the last two years, with my longest relationship lasting a fricking month back when I was in the ninth grade," she complained. "Both of you can be so meddlesome."
"We just don't want to see you cry, Xialing," Natasha comforted her. "Come now, let's eat. You have a big day tomorrow, don't you?"
"On one hand, I have my classmates who are having a pre-graduation party tonight, planning to get hammered, and on the other, I'm eating dinner with my parents every night like a good girl. You both should appreciate me more. What are you going to do if I decide to become rebellious? I could get racy tattoos and piercings and start doing hard drugs."
"Sure," Alex shrugged. "Just let me know which of those things you want to try, and I'll take care of it. I'll make sure the piercings and tattoos are completely painless. As for the drug thing, I'll get you the best of the best stuff if you are that curious. Don't try any of the cheap things that your friends get you, it's both bad quality and can have deadly consequences if there are any problematic adulterations."
Xialing looked at him for a moment before turning to Natasha, who seemed unbothered by Alex's words. She couldn't help but sigh as her shoulders slouched. "What's the point of rebellion if it's not actually rebellion?"
"The thrill of it," Alex offered.
"Where's the thrill if my parents are still supporting me and protecting me like I'm their precious little girl?"
"Why didn't you tell us that there was a party, honey?" Natasha asked, changing the topic. "You know we wouldn't refuse. And don't slouch on the dining table, it doesn't look polite."
"Yeah, yeah…" She signed again, straightening up. "I didn't go because those guys are boring. No one does anything actually exciting. I don't think I'm going to try and be in touch with any of them after tomorrow."
"You said and did the same thing when you graduated from High School…" Alex said. "My daughter is a complete loner, with us being her only friends. I feel like I failed as a parent."
"We should have kidnapped Shang-Chi as well," Natasha commented. "At least then, they both could have kept each other company."
"Shang-Chi, huh…" Xialing mumbled thoughtfully. "I wonder how he's going to react now that I'm the big sister. I'll beat that little brat up for leaving me all alone back then."
"You have my full support, Xialing," Alex said, patting her shoulder and standing up. "Food's ready, let me bring everything from the kitchen."
While it had been his clone who was cooking, Alex and Natasha had both decided to keep the presence of his clones on the down low to keep things from getting unreal and weird.
With Alex gone, Natasha turned to Xialing, "Hey…" She grabbed the girl's hand.
"Hm?" Xialing looked at Natasha's expression. "What's wrong, Mom?"
"Do you really not want to have a normal life for a few more years?" She asked. "You know your biological age has been permanently fixed at twenty-one, right? Why don't you go through a normal life for a few decades before going back? You will have the experience of a lifetime before you get embroiled in things far greater than you understand. The experience will benefit you far more than you realize right now."
Xialing had a helpless look in her eyes and smiled weakly. "It's not like I haven't tried, Mom," she said. "I've been clamouring to go back since High School, but you and Dad convinced me to try University as well. I really did try to get along with people my age, but they can't even begin to understand me. This isn't my path…it never was. And if I continue forcing myself, I'll start becoming resentful of myself. It's time to go home, Mom. For both of us."
"I blame your father," Natasha said helplessly.
"You know it's not his fault. He also wants what's best for me."
"If he didn't—"
"What did I tell you both about this conversation? We can do it after dinner," Alex said, appearing with two large trays in his hands and interrupting Natasha.
Both of them quieted down as Alex served the steak and side dishes.
"How's work been, Mom?" Xialing asked. "Food's amazing, Dad. As always."
"Thanks," Alex said, giving her a small smile.
"Oh, the usual," Natasha said. "My viewers have been steadily growing since I completed Dark Souls last week and started the sequel. Apparently, people can't believe that a woman could finish these games."
"I still can't believe my Mother is a streamer."
"It's a nice way to pass the time," she said. "Let me know if you want to try. You could guest-star in my streams before you start your own thing. You'd have a nice head start with a solid viewer base."
"I'm good," Xialing said with an amused smile. "Nice try though."
"Nat…Xialing…" Alex trailed off with a warning look in his eyes.
"I know, I know," she rolled her eyes, stabbing her fork into the piece of meat on her plate and slicing it.
The rest of the dinner went by without any incident as the three of them occasionally made some small talk. For once, after finishing her food, Xialing didn't disappear into her room and instead waited until Natasha cleared the table and came back.
"Can we talk about it now, Daddy?" Xialing asked with a cute, pleading expression in her eyes.
"Naturally. I won't interrupt you two anymore. For thirty minutes. After that, I expect both of you in the gym for tonight's training. Got it?"
"Yeah," Xialing nodded.
"Nat?" Alex asked.
"I'll keep things short," she said helplessly.
***
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